SailorStar9: Well, I've uploaded Chapter 38, and here's Chapter 39. So, read and review. Come on guys and girls, is it so hard for you to leave a review other than put this on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: Me no own, you no sue.

Chapter 39: Shun An is Buried In The Sea

"Shou An, what did you do?" Ya Xue demanded.

"I engaged the self-destruct mechanism." Shou An snorted. "This ship will soon sink. All lifeboats have been destroyed. No one will survive. Everything will perish in the ocean depths!" reaching up, he let a lever lift him up to the roof.

"I am out of here!" Shan took the opportunity to flee via a hole in the floor.

"Leon!" Mei Li exclaimed, the seafood expert preparing to take off after Shan.

"Get to higher ground!" Leon barked. "This place is filling up with water!"

"Mei Li, he knows what he's doing." Shell stated. "He'll be fine."

Mei Li, let's believe in Leon." Sanche agreed.

"Mao-nii, seems like we can get out through here." Shilou called, seeing the gaping hole on the wall behind the stage. "I'll check ahead! There's a door. We can get out through here." he crawled through. "What's happening?" he stammered, before running back when the corridor exploded.

"Shilou, what did you see?" Ya Xue asked, pulling th younger boy from the water.

"There was a door and some stairs before the explosion." Shilou muttered. "Dunno about now."

"Let's go anyway." Mao remarked. "There's no other way out."

"Hey Shilou!" Shell called as the group continued upwards. "Can we pass through?"

"There's some fires ahead, but we have a clear route." Shilou shouted back. "Mao-nii, hurry up!" he urged. "Shell-aniki, the exit's just beyond this wall." he informed Shell after smelling smoke. "I'm sure of it!"

"Take that, wall!" Shell burst a hole through the wall with his steel stick.

"So high..." Shilou gaped, Shell having saved him from falling over. "I guess we climbed up a bit too much."

"Shan!" Shell spotted the boat Shan was in. "Damn you!"

"The judges who failed to properly evaluate the Underworld's power will perish in the East China Sea together with the losers!" Shan laughed.

"Damn that bitch." Shell hissed. "She's beautiful on the outside, but is really ugly inside!"

"The code and the map!" Ya Xue exclaimed, seeing both parchments in Shan's hands. "You're late, Leon!" she scolded, the said seafood master having climbed onto the boat and held Shan hostage.

"Hey?!" Shilou shouted, looking to a ship in the horizon. "It's a ship!"

"Mao, Ya Xue!" Shou An shouted from above, after just about everyone had boarded Captain Tsai's ship. "I want one last contest. You two, get over here!"

"Mao-sama." Ya Xue looked at her young master. "I understand." she nodded, seeing his determined look.

"Whatever I do is ignored completely by the gods." Shou An declared as the pair faced him. "I can't even accomplish by final duty as an Underworld chef."

"Shou An, it's not too late." Mao pleaded. "Come back to our world. With your skills, you can make many people happy!"

"Shut up, Mao!" Shou An snapped. "You two are not boarding that ship no matter what. I'm taking you two with me to hell! The two of you can't run away now." he grinned, Ya Xue blocking off his crazed knife swipes with her saber. "This is the end of our long-running feud! If only I never met you, my life would have been very different!"

"Stop it, Shou An!" Mao tried to stop the older chef when an explosion threw Shou An off balance.

"Over there!" Mei Li shouted, as the smoke clear to reveal Shou An hanging on the edge of the half-broken ship, both Mao and Ya Xue having stopped him from falling.

"You... why are you doing this?" Shou An was stunned. "Let go of me! Let me go, Mao! Why won't you let me go?"

"I... I can't do that!" Mao protested. "Because... I... I... I can't just let you die. Because you cooked my Mom's secret dish!"

"What nonsense." Shou An scoffed. "Your mother Pai died because of me! Have you forgotten your grudge?"

"Pai-sama never thought ill of you!" Ya Xue snapped. "Her last will before she died was 'Shou An will surely return.' Do you still not understand Pai-sama's real intentions?"

"Her dream was for me, my sister, and you to work together." Mao shouted. "And make Kikkaro the best restaurant in China!Cook to make other people happy. If I let you die here, I won't be able to fulfill my Mom's dream, Shou An!"

"Master Pai..." Shou An muttered, resigned to his fate and let his knife drop into the blazing fire. "Take this, Mao!" he tossed the other half of Pai's dairy to Mao. "It will surely help you someday. I don't want to return to the countryside of Szuchuan. I will bury myself in the ocean that I've dreamed of. Remember me, Mao!" he let his hand slip from the pair's grasp. "Remember your brother disciple who trained with you for ten years!"

"Jump for it, Ya Xue!" Leon shouted, rowing the boat over. "Hurry, before the vortex swallows us!"

"Mao-sama, please hold on tight." Ya Xue warned and jumped right before the ship was rocked with more explosions before it started sinking.

"This is weird." Shilou frowned, after the trio boarded the ship. "How do we read this?"

"Upside down or backwards, it makes no sense."Mei Li sighed.

"We'll never decipher the location of the Legendary cookware at this rate." Shilou complained. "Huh, what?" he blinked when he saw everyone look at him.

"Let me see that, Shilou." Mao took both pieces of paper and slid one over the other while having the setting sun shine through the thin papers.

"What's this?" Shilou whined when the group arrived at their destination. "It's just an regular guardian deity."

"No, wait." Shell shone his lamp closer. "Look carefully, this is the god of the hearth."

"The Kitchen God?" Mei Li echoed. "That means the Legendary cookware's here!"

"So, it's guarded the cookware for a thousand years." Sanche mused.

"And unlike Canton's Forever-Spirit Knife, it was hidden here for a millennium without a caretaker." ya Xue added. "Sanche, what do the instructions say?"

"Let's see." Sanche looked at the map. "'Turning, motion, old, sky, father.' Turn the god around?"

"Like this?" Shilou asked, turning the stone statue.

"The altar..." Leon gasped when the altar turned.

"Finally, the Legendary cookware is unsealed." Mao breathed.

"Is that it?" Shell blinked, seeing the earthen pot.

"This is the Legendary cookware?" Mao was confused.

"It's just a dirty piece of junk!" Shilou snorted.

"It may have been petrified after the 1,000 years in storage." Leon guessed.

"Mao-sama, looks like you'll have to undergo the Inheritance Ritual again." Ya Xue stated.

"Right." Mao nodded and took the pot from Shilou. The moment his hands touched the pot, the golden dragon emerged and the shell cracked to reveal its true form.

"One of Shuri's secrets, the Coiled Dragon Pot!" Leon was stunned.

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.