Spaghetti

Lin Feng entered the shopping mall to see the seven cultivators standing grouped in front of the vending machines. Mei was patiently explaining what the vending machines were and how to use them. Though the cultivators seemed a bit incredulous, the concept seemed to be getting across.

"So, the food will just appear? Out of thin air?"

"That's right. Press the spirit crystal against the screen and then select the item you want from the shown options. Simple!"

Mei looked over the uncertain customers in front of her and could only feel that they were a bit pitiful.

"It'll make sense after you see it. Who wants to go first?"

The group of cultivators glanced uneasily between each other before Wang Mu stepped forward and volunteered.

"I'll do it."

This whole thing was seeming less and less credible by the second. If he had been told to do this by anyone but Lin Feng, he would have assumed it was a scam. The only reason he thought otherwise now is that Lin Feng had no reason to bother with scamming him. He could just take the spirit crystals if he wanted them. No one here could possibly stop him.

"Great! Look over the options and choose one that you want."

Wang Mu stood uncomfortably in front of the unfamiliar spiritual artifact trying to decide what he should get to eat from the listed options in front of him. Unfortunately, he didn't think anything would be worth a spirit crystal, and most of the dishes or drinks looked unfamiliar to him.

He eventually decided to get some kind of noodle dish as it was more familiar than many of the other things available.

"Oh, Spaghetti! That one's a good one!" Mei called out.

Spaghetti? Wang Mu really felt like someone was playing a giant practical joke on him.

Wang Mu pressed the spirit crystal up against the screen and it instantly vanished from his hand, surprising him. His heart ached a little as it disappeared. One spirit crystal was worth hundreds of taels of gold.

Wang Mu had heard that some of the more powerful cultivators in the bigger and more powerful neighboring empires would use them as currency, but Wang Mu wasn't even close to their level. For him, a spirit crystal was a valuable cultivation resource! At the top of the screen, the words "Credit: 1" appeared.

Wang Mu pressed his hand to the picture of the noodle dish, unsure if something was going to happen. To his surprise, something did happen. A noodle dish did appear in mid-air! Wang Mu stared at it in amazement.

Did the spiritual artifact create this out of nothing? Or did it just take it from somewhere else? Regardless of which one it was, this spiritual artifact had to have the ability to manipulate the nomological laws!

That wasn't even mentioning the fact that it was presenting the food by having it hover in the air. Normally, Wang Mu would think that something like that for normal food is very over the top and ostentatious, but it didn't seem that extreme when faced with the question of where the food even came from in the first place.

"Well, go on. Pick it up!" Mei spoke up after watching Wang Mu stare at the plate of food for quite a while.

Wang Mu was jolted out of his amazement and hurriedly grabbed the plate out of the air.

The noodles were warm and fragrant. The smell of tomato sauce, meat, and spices filled the air. The smell stimulated the appetite and the cultivators were all surprised to find themselves swallowing back their saliva.

After cultivating to a certain point, the body would no longer require food as often as a normal human would. Even so, they all found themselves inexplicably hungry at the smell and sight of the noodles.

"Go ahead and try it."

Wang Mu hesitatingly grasped the chopsticks that had come with the meal and took a bite.

It felt wrong to eat food that may or may not have been spontaneously created just moments before, but all reluctance vanished as soon as the first noodle entered his mouth.

Wang Mu had never tasted such delicious food. The unfamiliar flavors exploded in his mouth and overwhelmed him. He couldn't help but let out sounds of pleasure.

Before he knew it, the noodles were all gone and Wang Mu was staring regretfully down at an empty plate.

"Just throw the plate wherever, it'll disappear."

Wang Mu looked over at Mei and dropped the plate at his feet. He was no longer sure if he was surprised or not when the plate disappeared without a trace as soon as it touched the ground.

The more Wang Mu interacted with this shopping mall, the more he didn't understand.

"How do you feel?" Mei asked.

Wang Mu didn't know how to answer that question. Sad that he was too poor to buy more spaghetti? Confused as to why Lin Feng was selling food in the Demon Tooth Mountains?

"I don't feel any-," Wang Mu stopped in the middle of his sentence and gasped.

A coolness suddenly swept through his body. Originating from his stomach, he could feel it sweep over his internal organs before concentrating on his meridians.

His meridians, which had been swollen and straining to absorb the vast amounts of spiritual energy since he got here, suddenly felt incomparably comfortable. The energy in his body began to flow smoother and faster and his meridians strengthened, allowing them to better deal with the increased spiritual density.

Finally, as the coolness flowed along his meridians, it reached his dantian. The energy within his dantian spun around faster and faster, rapidly absorbing the dense spiritual energy to nourish his golden core. The outer layer of his core began to crack and chip under the pressure before completely falling away, revealing a gleaming golden surface underneath that was much smoother and more beautiful than it was before.

"I broke through!" Wang Mu exclaimed.

The other cultivators from Yashan city clamored in surprise.

"You'll never get such good effects again from eating the vending machine food, but, no matter what, the effect won't be bad," Mei said proudly.

"The food here can help you break through?!" Yang Wen couldn't contain his shock.

"It can comprehensively strengthen the body, which will often help one breakthrough."

The group looked at each other in astonishment. The price of one spirit crystal no longer seemed to be that big a deal. Some extremely rare and pricey medicinal foods might cost a similar amount and yet would have much less of an effect.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Hurry and buy something!" Mei reminded them all why they were here after seeing them all lost in thought.

The group of cultivators all rushed toward the vending machines.

Lin Feng didn't see any of this though. When Wang Mu had bought that first plate of spaghetti, Lin Feng finally got a notification he had been waiting months for.

[Mission completed: Sell to at least one customer! Congratulations! You have unlocked further customization options and new mall facilities!]