The remnants of Betelgeuse's supernova stretched across the cosmos like glowing ribbons of ionized gas, wrapping around the gargantuan three-kilometer-wide cooking arena. Lin Feng stood before a white dwarf grill radiating at 7,500 Kelvin—hot enough to vaporize any carbon-based lifeform in seconds. His "Jiangcheng Pharmaceuticals" T-shirt was soaked through with sweat inside his heat-resistant suit.
"Candidate Lin Feng!" A mechanical penguin proctor flapped its chrome wings, its Antarctic-accented voice crackling with static. "First test: Grill Wagyu beef to medium-rare using a black hole's event horizon! Begin—"
Wiping his singed bangs, Lin Feng pulled out the bronze key from his quantum pouch. The ancient kuí-dragon patterns on its surface glowed blue under the heat. When he aimed it at the simulated black hole, the event horizon rippled. Twelve antimatter beams shot from the keyhole, weaving a golden lattice across the void.
"Now!" Lord Orange's tail swirled a can of quantum cumin, fluorescent particles spiraling through space. "Witness true culinary mastery!"
The moment the cumin collided with Hawking radiation, the entire arena erupted in a rainbow-colored Maillard reaction. The penguin's optical sensors overloaded, sparks flying as the holographic scoreboard glitched: "WARNING! CREATION-LEVEL COOKING ENERGY DETECTED! IS THE CANDIDATE—"
"Second test!" Lin Feng kicked aside the smoking judge's panel, spinning the bronze key like a throwing star. "Bake galactic macarons using supernova remnants!"
Lord Orange's tail split into eighteen glowing tendrils, precisely regulating six different stellar-core temperatures. Just as it used the Crab Nebula's pulsar waves to whip egg whites, the arena's force field shattered under violet plasma.
"Ungrateful child!" Su Wan's mech-tentacles stabbed forward with antimatter skewers. Behind her, 300 clones raised laser thermometers—all readings at planet-cracking levels.
Lin Feng backflipped onto a neutron star griddle, the bronze key searing his palm. "Mom! You'd even steal French pastries?!" He flung his quantum apron like a net, its nano-knives slicing 3,000 spatial rifts through her mech limbs.
Suddenly, the supernova's core flared white-hot. Lin Jianguo stepped from the light, his Hawaiian shirt shimmering with Higgs boson particles. "These macarons lack the final ingredient." He shattered the dome with a snap—galactic starlight rained down like powdered sugar.
"Dad?" Lin Feng watched as the man molded stellar plasma into liquid gold. "But you were in black-hole prison—"
"That was just my square-dancing hologram decoy." Lin Jianguo poured the molten gold onto the grill, making the entire supernova remnant implode. "True cuisine demands sacrificing star systems!"
Lord Orange's pupils narrowed to quantum slits. "Insolence!" It leaped into its litter-box starship, the sand restructured into a planet-cracker configuration. "Activate THICC ORANGE SUPREMACY mode!"
A barrage of rainbow litter-missiles launched, each carrying an ancient Meow Star virus. Struck clones began reciting "Ode to the Goose" in 28 alien dialects. Su Wan's mechanical skull smoked: "CRITICAL ERROR! CULTURAL CONTAMINATION DETECTED!"
Lin Feng plunged the bronze key into the grill's core. The kuí patterns writhed alive, transforming supernova energy into amber sauce. "Darling, this dish is called 'Longing Across 30,000 Light-Years'." As he ladled nebula bisque, the dark matter of the Milky Way hummed in resonance.
Lin Jianguo's mech-arm suddenly mutated, nanotech tendrils crushing the grill. "You know nothing of true cooking!" His left eye projected a hologram recipe—"100 Dishes to Conquer the Universe (Grey Sparrow Edition)".
When their culinary energies collided, Betelgeuse exploded again. Lin Feng's suit carbonized, but his grip on the key tightened. "Cooking should bring joy—not conquest!"
Lord Orange's ship quantum-jumped, ejecting illogical particles that defied physics. In that impossible light, the bronze key revealed its true form—the First Cat God's Scepter of Culinary Authority!
"By the will of all feline overlords!" Lord Orange's tail resonated with the scepter. "We decree this dish... PASSED!" The scepter's cat's eye gem unleashed creation-level aroma, pacifying the warring fleets instantly.
The Galactic Court's hologram materialized, presided over by a judge in a powdered wig—a calico cat. "Per Intergalactic Gourmet Convention Article 233, Lin Feng is granted Ultimate Cat-Petting Rights!" Its paw stamped the verdict, transferring all Grey Sparrow assets to Meow Star's accounts.
Lin Jianguo laughed madly in the energy vortex. "You think this is over? The true Grillmaster is coming—" A black hole swallowed him mid-sentence, leaving only half a Hawaiian shirt flapping in the quantum storm.
At the victory party on Mars Cat Café:
Wu Li polished a quantum espresso machine in her maid outfit. "Don't celebrate yet. Your dad left a 'surprise' at the cosmic core." Her mech-eye flashed encrypted data—smashed by Lord Orange's tail.
Lin Yu burst in waving court documents. "Bro! They're converting Grey Sparrow into a galactic cat-café chain!" She gagged. "Why's the blueprints drawn by that octopus?!"
Lin Feng rubbed the glowing bronze key, its starmap now pointing to: [COSMIC CORE - CATNIP FIELDS]. Lord Orange smirked from his shoulder. "Time to go, litter-bearer."
As they boarded their ship, square-dance music echoed from Betelgeuse. Lin Jianguo's hologram twerked across the nebula, a colossal grill looming behind him.
"Son!" His voice, warped by the black hole, turned demonic. "See you at the universe's heart—"
The kuí patterns on the key grew new grooves. Lord Orange's tail pointed to the galactic rim—where 12 stars now aligned like a kebab skewer.