Seeing Cook God somehow change the position of the severed dragon leg in some bizarre way, Michael couldn't help but frown in thought.
Looking at this situation, his ability wasn't simply teleportation. The trigger condition was clapping. And with the advantage of having six arms, he could use the move continuously at insane speed.
Compared to teleportation, Michael now had a much more reasonable idea in his head. That ability was actually, after clapping, swapping the positions of two objects.
As for why Cook God didn't use that ability on the dragon from the start, Michael thought it was because this ability couldn't affect living creatures. The convincing proof was the dragon leg, after it died, could easily have its position changed.
If he weren't currently busy focusing on Cook God's movements, Michael would definitely clap to applaud his own extraordinary intelligence.
"Damn, what the hell just happened?"
Watching the dragon leg suddenly turn into large boneless chunks of meat falling to the ground, Michael's eyes went wide as if they were about to pop out.
This wasn't inside the magic lamp, and he didn't have any supportive tools, so with his ordinary eyes, he couldn't keep up with a god's movements.
He was sure Cook God had just chopped many times, and besides the cutting, there were also some other prep work moves. But he really couldn't see anything except the final result of the dragon leg being fully prepped.
"Stay quiet, boy. I just barely showed off and you're already gaping like that. I feel really embarrassed when you do that."
His mouth said "embarrassed", but the arrogance in his voice was probably sky-high. After all, it had been years since he'd seen someone else… Actually, it'd been a long time since he'd seen another god be stunned by his cooking skills.
As for calling Michael 'boy'… He was just acting cool. And in terms of age or current size, he was bigger, so he didn't see much of an issue saying it.
???
Of course, Michael did not feel the same way. He was completely shocked by Cook God's statement.
'Damn, back when I was human, the genie talking to me like that was kinda acceptable. Now I'm a genie and you dare talk to me like I'm a kid? Sure, age-wise I'm way behind you, but we're both gods. You're dead, so maybe in the future I'll even outlive you.'
Even though he was pissed, he only cursed these words in his head and didn't spit them out right at Cook God. After all, Cook God had done the 'paperwork' quickly for him to inherit the power, so he did have a bit of respect for that.
Besides, Michael also thought that if he kept running his mouth, what if he secretly messed with that power, causing it to be defective or adding some bad effect? Then Michael would be at a huge loss.
Suddenly at this moment, Cook God did an incredibly strange move. He used that arm covered in terrifying energy that could destroy a mountain to punch himself in the face.
???
Was he feeling guilty about what he just said, so he punched himself to apologize? But why did it still feel incredibly weird somehow?
Michael didn't know if this punch made Cook God's head dizzy, but right now Michael was dizzy from his brain not keeping up with Cook God's actions.
And why did he even have a brain? Right now he was in a soul state, so technically he shouldn't have a brain. Probably thinking with a soul could also give a 'headache' feeling.
"Hey, can a piece of a soul even have problems?"
With weird situations like this, Michael felt it was better to ask directly. There was no way he could understand this kind of stuff using his Earth thinking.
He didn't get an answer but saw Cook God's next action. From the nostril that had just been punched hard, a flame shot out—strong when it was strong and weak when it was weak.
This bizarre flame had its temperature limited to be suitable for roasting dragon meat, not for fighting.
But the flame's color wasn't quite right. It somewhat resembled Ignivar's hellfire but had some strangeness to it that was hard to explain.
Michael noticed when he stared at it, it felt like life and it had some strong mutual restraint.
"Could that fire burn life force? Or like, burn away lifespan?"
While he was muttering to himself, before he could finish anything, Cook God's voice sounded again.
"The first part's right, but the second part's not. Lifespan, that kind of thing on this continent, nobody messes with it because that's just the rule.
Even though you can't touch lifespan, this fire ignores defense. Once it gets on someone, it'll keep consuming the enemy's lifeforce until they die. Of course, it needs energy to sustain itself. It can't just burn forever."
Cook God was spitting fire from his nose, so obviously his mouth could still talk normally. Even without a mouth, in this special space, just his will was enough to talk.
???
You're saying you can't change lifespan. What do you mean? Isn't your technique supposed to directly bring it down to zero?
The corner of Michael's mouth twitched slightly when he heard Cook God's explanation. Although it sounded a bit strange, he roughly understood what he was trying to say.
"You mean the lifespan of each person or each creature on the continent can be calculated by a formula? Can't increase it, can't decrease it, but directly killing them doesn't break the rule?"
"That's not wrong. Mortals usually die before their lifespan runs out because they're too weak and don't have special abilities to support them. As for demigods, most of them live to the very last second of their lifespan.
Not just demigods, but all contractors above level ten never weaken with old age. If their strength is enough, they never get sick. The reason is the energy stored in their bodies isn't related to age; it's related to level."