Douluo: Peerles Moon God [ 22 ]

"These things are good for playing with when you're tired every day—balancing work and rest is important—but don't get too addicted and let it delay your cultivation."

Xu Xiaoyun carefully examined all the items Xu Tianxi had handed over, confirming there was nothing wrong with them. Then he quietly spoke to the two juniors.

Xu Tianxi and Xu Sanshi both nodded in agreement, pledging to firmly separate themselves from those lazy, hedonistic soul cultivators and to diligently train hard to become worthy successors of the Xuanming Sect.

"All right, it's just about mealtime. Let's go eat together, and after that, you two brothers can practice your martial arts."

"Huh? Mealtime already? Great! This time, nobody can stop me—I'm going to eat until I'm stuffed!"

Xu Sanshi, who had been worried about Xu Tianxi's arrival just moments ago, suddenly jumped up and, moving at a speed even faster than Xu Tianxi, started rushing forward like a soul cultivator empowered by a speed-boosting skill from the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda.

"That kid acts like no one wants him to eat his fill. Looks like the food prepared at home is definitely better than what he's been eating at Shrek's outer academy."

Watching Xu Sanshi's eager look, Xu Xiaoyun couldn't help but laugh heartily, catching up alongside the glowing-eyed Xu Tianxi.

Of course—though Shrek had abundant resources, how much could truly be dedicated to a single core disciple? How could it compare to the focused support from Xuanming Sect?

Thinking back on the meals shared with Xu Xiaoyun over the past two days, Xu Tianxi smiled slightly. The sect, a major supplier of pills, was indeed generous when it came to medicinal meals, and their stock of ingredients was astonishingly large.

The Xuan Shui Pill, for example, required more than a dozen kinds of blood essence from water-attribute spirit beasts and dozens of water-attribute plants as raw materials. Among these were many items over a hundred years old—any small selection from them would be considered top-grade ingredients.

The higher-grade Xuanwu Divine Pill used some materials that were thousands of years old.

Given Xu Xiaoyun's status, eating meals of any grade was normal for him, and Xu Tianxi and Xu Sanshi naturally enjoyed the richer fare as well.

When Xu Xiaoyun brought Xu Tianxi to the special dining hall, they saw Xu Sanshi already devouring a basin-sized serving of rice, one hand holding chopsticks and the other a spoon, happily feasting in front of four dishes and one soup, eating in a wildly enthusiastic manner.

The four dishes were: braised century-old Earth Dragon tendon, thousand-year-old sea urchin sashimi, century-old octopus meatballs, and thousand-year-old tuna sashimi. The soup was century-old hawksbill turtle soup. Each dish was extremely nourishing and mostly made from water-attribute spirit beasts, which also benefited the Xuanming Turtle Shell Shield Martial Soul.

Next to the plates was a dish of dried thousand-year-old sea grapes as a snack to cleanse the palate. Each grape was crystal-clear and dripping with freshness, giving off a faint, refreshing fragrance that made one's mouth water.

Just this one meal already contained the essences of many soul beasts over a hundred years old inside Xu Sanshi's stomach.

If one used the same reasoning Mu En used when beating the Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng—"absorbing soul beast blood to cultivate"—then Xu Sanshi was definitely a budding dark soul cultivator.

What? You say he's a core disciple of Shrek's outer academy? Then it's all good.

While eating, Xu Sanshi even hummed a little tune contentedly, with an expression of extreme satisfaction. Seeing Xu Tianxi arrive, he quickly beckoned him to sit down.

"Come, Tianxi! Us brothers have the backing of the ancestor, I tell you, these things are way better than what I ate at Shrek's outer academy. It's not even on the same level—this is pure enjoyment."

Xu Tianxi took a similarly sized portion of food, sat opposite Xu Sanshi, sipped the soup, and smiled: "How so?"

"At Shrek's outer academy, the cafeteria doesn't even have tables or chairs. I don't even know where the academy spends all its funds—it's just a bunch of greedy merchants!"

Cursing angrily that the Shrek outer academy cafeteria didn't treat people right, Xu Sanshi lay flat on the pear blossom chair, smiling broadly as he pointed at the food and said:

"I'm a core disciple of the Martial Soul department at Shrek's outer academy. They do have soul beast medicinal dishes in their meals, but those are only ten-year-old grade, barely better than nothing. How can that compare to eating this comfortably?"

"I've also heard about the treatment for core disciples in the Soul Guidance department. Their food is even worse than ours in Martial Soul, and nothing compared to what we get here."

"Sigh, after these days being spoiled by the ancestor's meals, I'm even afraid to think about what I'll do if I can't get this kind of good food after returning to Shrek City."

Xu Sanshi popped a few sea grapes into his mouth, his expression full of melancholy.

Xu Tianxi lightly picked up a piece of braised flower ball shrimp and took a bite, his taste buds bursting with flavor, then smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll make sure to experience the ancestor's delicious food for you."

"If you're not too bothered, I can write you a letter every month, telling you how it is. How about that? So you can feel a bit involved."

"Ah, come on, Tianxi, you're starting to sound like Beibei, always so talkative."

"Oh, right. I read in a book that Shrek Academy has very strict standards for identifying evil soul cultivators—like not allowing anyone to absorb soul beast essence for cultivation or anything like that. You're eating so happily, won't you be considered an evil soul cultivator when you go back?"

Xu Sanshi waved his hand carefreely, "Relax, relax, Shrek even says you can't kill soul beasts indiscriminately."

"But I heard from that Beibei fellow that every year some senior students from the inner academy go on missions to the Star斗 Great Forest to capture soul beasts; my homeroom teacher and others also secretly use some kind of secret soul bones."

"Oh right, you probably haven't heard of secret soul bones—that's a very cruel way of obtaining soul bones."

"You have to kill a hundred soul beasts of the same kind within half an hour, use secret techniques to trigger soul ring fusion, and even then there's only a 10% chance to get the soul bone. Plus, the quality is usually quite poor, but of course, it's better than nothing…"

"Hearing you say this, why is Shrek so shady? Is Shrek the nest of evil soul cultivators?" Xu Tianxi asked sincerely.

Xu Sanshi's expression instantly turned serious. He put a finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture. "Even if this looks like the truth, you can't say it out loud."

Xu Tianxi nodded somewhat understandingly and asked back, "I get what you mean, but why did you say 'like'?"

"Because, in a certain sense, it's almost the same as the evil soul cultivators' nest. You have no idea how unlucky I was at Shrek. Not long after showing my talent, I caught the attention of a sixth-year senior…"

Xu Sanshi recalled painfully and continued, "That senior's Martial Soul was the Evil Fire Phoenix. She was a descendant of Ma Hongjun, one of Shrek's original Seven Oddities, named Ma Xiaotao."

"I don't know what was up with her Martial Soul. It wasn't as pure as my divine beast bloodline, but her evil fire hadn't been fully eliminated yet. She needed someone to suppress it for her, or it would affect her cultivation."

"Another senior in the same grade with an Ice Martial Soul didn't want to help her because she was annoyed. So Ma Xiaotao set her sights on me. No idea which bastard told her my Martial Soul was strong with water attributes. That process of suppressing the evil fire was pure torture, like pleasure and pain at the same time!"

Xu Tianxi twitched at the corner of his mouth, not expecting Xu Sanshi's torment to have started so early.

"To be honest, that process was uncomfortable, but it had some benefits for me. However, that senior was too rough. She just grabbed me without warning. The first time I saw her, I really thought I was being attacked by an evil soul cultivator. After it was over, I was completely exhausted…"

Thinking back on those sad memories, Xu Sanshi turned his frustration into appetite, burying himself in three big bowls of high-quality Crystal Spirit rice, as if trying to make up for all his losses at Shrek.

"Tianxi, you're not at the academy, so you don't know how hard it was for me. When Ma Xiaotao found me, she was already at the Fourth Ring and the top expert in the outer academy. I was only at the Second Ring, didn't even have the right to resist her, and even my teacher didn't help me… Brother really had it rough…"

"Sigh..."

Xu Tianxi sighed for Xu Sanshi's miserable experience. Ma Xiaotao was Yan Shaozhe's direct disciple; your homeroom teacher probably neither dared nor was able to help you.

Whoosh—

With a serious expression, Xu Xiaoyun appeared beside Xu Sanshi and checked his pulse for a moment. Then his face relaxed. "Luckily, his origin wasn't harmed. It's just heavy consumption. He can recover by eating good things."

The so-called "suppressing the evil fire," Xu Xiaoyun knew a little about it. It seemed to be a relatively normal use of soul power for suppression. If the origin had been injured, or if Xu Sanshi had accidentally lost his purity, the loss would have been much greater.

Thinking it over, Xu Xiaoyun felt it wasn't completely safe. He flipped his right wrist, and in his palm appeared an object that emitted a bright, wave-like white light.

Xu Sanshi and Xu Tianxi looked closely and saw it was a miniature version of a human right leg bone, completely transparent like crystal, resembling the most precious artwork. On the surface were fine golden patterns, flowing with a noble iridescence that was mesmerizing.

The bright white soul power light radiated from its surface, tracing a faint, ghostly image of a fierce beast in midair—like a giant shark roaring over a stormy sea.

"This is a soul bone?" Xu Sanshi and Xu Tianxi said in unison.