Chapter 23: The Forbidden Recipe Scroll and the Flaming Noodle Trap

The bathhouse, which had once been a serene sanctuary for the Golden Wok Clan, now resembled a warzone. Smoke billowed from the roof like a dragon's breath, and the air was thick with the scent of burning noodles and singed eyebrows. Lin Feng, in his usual fashion, stood in the middle of it all, ladle in hand, with the casual nonchalance of someone who had just finished a leisurely stroll through a battlefield.

"Uh… Lin Feng?" Elder Bai's voice trembled as he looked at the wreckage. "You do realize that the bathhouse is—"

"On fire?" Lin Feng grinned. "Yeah, I noticed. Kinda hard to miss, isn't it?"

Elder Bai let out a deep sigh, rubbing his temples. "This... this isn't just fire, Lin Feng. This is lava. Boiling lava. You've somehow turned the bathhouse into an active volcano."

Lin Feng scratched his head. "Well, you know what they say: You can't make an omelette without setting the kitchen on fire."

The old man's eyes twitched. "Lin Feng, the only thing you've cooked today is disaster. You've turned a noodle dish into an actual lava beast, and now the entire clan smells like burnt ramen. This is a new level of absurdity."

As if on cue, a steaming noodle creature, no bigger than a common house cat, emerged from the wreckage of the bathhouse, looking confused, as if it, too, couldn't believe its own existence.

Lin Feng blinked. "Well, that's… new."

The noodle creature hissed, its fiery body wriggling in the air like an angry, sentient spaghetti strand. It took one look at Lin Feng and then tried to slither away, sizzling and popping like popcorn.

"Oh, no you don't!" Lin Feng shouted, his eyes narrowing in determination. "You're not getting away this time!"

He held up the Ladle of Flames, which was still glowing faintly in his hand. "Alright, let's see if you can handle the heat!" With a dramatic flourish, he swung the ladle forward like a knight wielding a sword.

The flames around the noodle creature flared up as Lin Feng focused his energy. To his surprise, the ladle responded. It crackled with fiery energy, glowing brighter, and the flames twisted and whirled in response to his thoughts.

"Okay, uh… easy does it..." Lin Feng mumbled, his mind racing. "I just need to… control it." His hands trembled slightly as he tried to keep his focus.

"Alright, let's cook this noodle up... literally!" Lin Feng shouted, thrusting the ladle forward.

The noodle beast, already on fire, suddenly twisted mid-air and started to contort like a spaghetti noodle on a stovetop, flames darting from its body in every direction.

Elder Bai watched in complete disbelief. "Lin Feng... What… what in the world are you doing?"

Lin Feng, now fully in his element, replied with the confidence of someone who had definitely not just been panicking five seconds ago. "I'm controlling the fire! I'm taming it! This is a properly balanced dish!"

The noodle beast flailed one last time, then collapsed into a heap of cooked, well-charred pasta.

Lin Feng stood victorious, ladle still raised in the air like a chef who had just won a battle of the gods. "Victory is mine!" he shouted triumphantly, his voice echoing through the kitchen.

There was a long pause.

Then, the noodle beast—now resembling a gloriously overcooked pasta dish—suddenly sat up. It gave Lin Feng a long, judgmental stare, before sizzling loudly and then popping out of existence, as if it had decided it had had enough of his nonsense.

Lin Feng blinked. "Well... that's new."

Elder Bai facepalmed so hard it looked like he might dislocate his shoulder. "Lin Feng, you've not only turned a bathhouse into an inferno, but you've also sentient-ified noodles... This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my decades of culinary practice."

"Really?" Lin Feng cocked an eyebrow. "Because I think it went pretty well. No bathhouse is destroyed. No one is dead. And hey, we've got a new noodle dish for the menu—Noodle Beast Surprise."

Elder Bai was on the verge of tears. "This is a disaster, Lin Feng. A walking, talking disaster with a ladle in his hand."

But before the two could continue their exchange, one of the disciples burst through the door, a look of panic on his face. "Elder Bai! Lin Feng! There's another problem!"

"Oh, for the love of—what now?" Elder Bai groaned, already certain that Lin Feng had somehow turned another part of the clan into a mess.

"The food storage... it's... it's been sealed off!" the disciple stammered.

Lin Feng's eyes narrowed. "Who sealed off the food storage?"

"The... the ducks, Master Quack and the others... they've sealed themselves inside!" the disciple explained frantically. "And they're demanding the Divine Pea Soup from last week!"

Lin Feng blinked. "Wait, they sealed themselves in there? The ducks are now holding the food storage hostage?!"

Elder Bai rubbed his temples again. "Lin Feng, I can't deal with this anymore. What do you even do to get a clan of ducks to go rogue?"

"Hey, don't blame me! It's probably because I cooked one of them! I mean, how was I supposed to know Master Quack would turn into an angry, deliciously crispy mess when I accidentally burned him in my duck soup? He's been giving me the cold shoulder ever since."

"Deliciously crispy?! Lin Feng!" Elder Bai yelled, pointing at the door. "Let's go before you accidentally create a duck uprising that sends us all to the soup pot!"

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