The closer Yang Qing got to the White Baobab Kingdom, the wider his smile became.

It didn't take long before the full aroma of the kingdom came flooding toward him the closer he got to the kingdom. The effect resembled that of the Thousand Flavors restaurant, except the one from the kingdom was a hundred times more intense.

For a kingdom that was only formed in less than 500 years, its security was very lax, especially at its borders. There was barely any security at the border and those who were supposed to be in charge of it, acted more like a welcome party, more than anything else.

The design was made on purpose by the king because he wanted the Chefs to feel more at ease coming to his kingdom and he thought the rules of entry being lax, may help in that regard.

His plan seemed to have worked as the number of chefs who come flooding in every day, grew, but it also had an adverse effect. With the lax security, it created a window for nefarious characters to behave however they wanted.

Like right now, Yang Qing spotted a bandit in the foundation establishment realm who was attempting to mug a group whose highest member was only at the eighth level of the qi refinement realm.

They seemed to be newcomers and based on the attires of some of them, they looked like chefs. They had a couple of wagons filled with all sorts of ingredients and equipment. The foundation establishment bandit seemed to be targeting those things.

.....

"Looks like both parties are new to this place. The place is not an easy target as you think. The White Baobab Kingdom always looks after its own," Yang Qing muttered as he placed his chin on his palm searching for the best angle to enjoy the show.No sooner had he finished that statement than a blinding silver streak flashed from one of the buildings next to where the mugging was taking place.

That streak flew at an alarming speed in the direction of the foundation establishment bandit who was currently toying with the eighth stage qi refinement cultivator.

Just as the bandit raised his hand to swing the saber in his hand at the qi refinement cultivator, he saw the hand that was holding the weapon fly in the air.

It took him a few seconds to register that the hand he saw flying before him, was his.

His hand was sliced cleanly and smoothly at the wrist. When he was about to yell, he lost the entire arm, followed by his next hand, then the arm.

The dismemberment soon moved from the hands to his legs. It only stopped when the last leg was sliced cleanly off. Despite the gory nature of what had just transpired, the bloody scene that should have appeared from the event was completely absent.

The joints where the arms and legs were separated from, seemed like they had been cauterized, staunching the bleeding.

All members were shocked at what just happened, both the thief and his targets. Everything had happened too fast for them to register what just happened.

After the shock, soon came the pain for the foundation establishment bandit. He started screaming in pain as he begged forgiveness from the unknown party that had just sliced his limbs off. The only response he got was a swift bashing to the head that left him unconscious.

"Welcome to the White Baobab Kingdom, you are Chefs moving in right?" A crisp, warm lady's voice came from the building the silver streak had come from.

"Ye..es we are, " the eighth stage qi refinement cultivator was the one who replied once he was out of the stupor created by the sudden events. He was being toyed with to death just a few seconds ago, but now the perpetrator lay dismembered beneath his feet, with no idea how it even happened.

The flurry of emotions that came at him at the moment left him unable to think or communicate properly.

When he thought he would die, all he had was endless regret for choosing to leave his home and start over someplace, all because he heard the place was a haven for cooks. Ever since he was a kid, cooking was the one thing he could do properly. This left him mocked in his hometown, where alchemy was the mainstay. But despite that, he stuck to it and even manage to make a name for himself within that town.

He had thought he'd spend his entire life there, but that all changed when one of the customers he served, mentioned the White Baobab Kingdom in passing and how it was a place filled with Chefs as far as the eye could see.

At first, he didn't believe it since he thought it was the ramblings of a drunk. How could such a place exist when he, the son of the mayor of their town got endless ridicule and grief when he started out as a chef?

While he had managed to build to make a name for himself as a chef, even if the people around town no longer ridiculed him for his choice, there still existed a form of stigma against him, like what he did was no different than a fool's errand and he would not amount to much with that path. They enjoyed his food but never respected his path, so he found it hard to believe that there'd be a whole kingdom built exactly for what he had been ridiculed for, all his life.

Despite how preposterous he thought of it, he could not silence the voice in his head,

"What if that place really existed and it wasn't the rumblings of someone who had drunk too much 4,000-year-old yellow clam wine."

That place would be something beyond his wildest dreams. Hasn't he always been dreaming about finding just another person to have a cooking dao discussion with, just like how the alchemists in town would compare notes at times? Finding others, just like him who had a fervent passion for cooking, mentors to learn from, different paths to explore…A kingdom built for chefs was exactly that, an answer to his desires and more.

Once that thought took root in his heart, he couldn't erase it. He used whatever spirit stones he had saved over the years to find out if such a place really existed. After two months, he finally found the answer he wanted, that place really did exist and has been in existence for atleast 100 years.

The day he found out, he wept in euphoria and endless joy because at that moment he felt it, he wasn't alone and he wasn't wrong for pursuing cooking. There was a kingdom filled with thousands and thousands of people who shared the same belief as he did.

From that day he resolved himself to move there along with his wife and three children. The place was far and he was too weak to complete the journey alone, so he saved up for five years and finally had enough to hire a decent mercenary organization to escort him there.

The journey itself took almost one year but finally, he reached it, the object of his dreams, the White Baobab Kingdom, the land of chefs. Just like Yang Qing, he too got captivated by the aroma that was leaking out of the kingdom even when one was miles away.