Thank you to reader PiaoPiao for the 100,000 spirit stones tipping, ascending to the rank of Alliance Leader. PiaoPiao is a real beauty — that face, that figure, those magnificent... tsk tsk tsk. Little Mo can offer nothing in return except to offer himself, so let's just happily settle on that.
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Understanding this, Yang Kai's resistance diminished considerably. After a moment's thought, he sat down beside Lin Yun'er as well, listening to the bubbling sounds from inside the iron pot while breathing in the rich aroma.
Sitting and waiting for the meal!
A short while later...
"Delicious, delicious!" Lin Yun'er held a large bone in her hands, gnawing at it while praising endlessly.
"Slow down!" Yang Kai reached out and wiped a grease stain from her face. "Nobody's fighting you for it!"
That said, his own pace wasn't slow either. A pile of bones had accumulated on the ground beside him, but Lin Yun'er's pile was even larger — it was nearly a small mountain.
As expected of a Sacred Spirit descendant. The flesh was brimming with extremely potent energy essence. A single bite, and his mouth watered; a warm heat bloomed in his lower abdomen.
Despite having no seasonings whatsoever, this was absolutely the most delicious food Yang Kai had ever eaten. That iron pot seemed to possess some miraculous power to transform the mundane into the extraordinary — just tossing things in and boiling them produced a flavor that could make one swallow their own tongue.
After a few bites of meat, Yang Kai lifted a large bowl and took a sip of broth. He glanced at Li Jiao, who stood off to the side, and said, "Brother Li, want to try some?"
"I... shouldn't," Li Jiao declined politely.
"Then why are you swallowing your saliva? Stop pretending."
Li Jiao laughed awkwardly. "Then I won't be polite."
Though he still harbored some resistance — after all, they were all Sacred Spirit descendants, and the idea of one suddenly being boiled in a pot, however good it smelled, would naturally cause some psychological barrier — he couldn't very well refuse Yang Kai's invitation. Besides, he genuinely wanted to try a bite and find out what it tasted like.
Walking up to the pot, Li Jiao reached in and fished out a rack of ribs. He murmured an apology, took a small bite, then his eyes went wide. His pace quickened dramatically as he devoured it in a blur of motion.
"Good, isn't it?" Yang Kai asked with a smile.
Li Jiao nodded repeatedly. "Not bad at all, truly not bad. Following Palace Master Yang certainly has its culinary perks."
Over on the other side, little Yun'er ate in silent, ravenous fashion, and while Yang Kai and Li Jiao had been talking, she'd been stuffing her face for quite a while. A few more bones appeared beside her.
The little black dog wasn't about to be outdone either. It sprawled by the edge of the pot, clamped its jaws around a huge chunk of meat, and gobbled it down with relish.
An hour later, little Yun'er lay on the ground, rubbing her belly.
An entire Sacred Spirit descendant — devoured completely clean by the three of them, with not even a drop of broth left behind.
Lin Yun'er wore an expression of pure satisfaction. Finally she'd eaten to her heart's content. Ever since she'd snuck away from home, not a single day had gone by where she'd eaten her fill. Back when she'd been with her master, food and drink were never a worry — her master took care of everything. Only after leaving her master did she realize how hard life could be, that even getting a decent meal was a struggle.
Thinking about it this way, she found herself missing her master a little.
"Little Yun'er, if you had such a powerful trump card, why didn't you use it sooner?" Yang Kai had somehow acquired a piece of grass root and was using it to pick his teeth as he spoke.
That iron pot Guiyi — no one knew what its origin was. If little Yun'er had brought it out from the very beginning, that ridiculous Sword Formation would have been broken long ago, and all the subsequent trouble wouldn't have happened.
Lin Yun'er squinted and said, "Master said a trump card must never be used unless absolutely necessary."
Master again. The little girl really treated her master's words as iron law.
"Another day I'll take you somewhere with even better food," Yang Kai said offhandedly.
Lin Yun'er's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Mm. There's a Primordial Ancient Land in the Eastern Region with plenty of good things to eat."
So he was even eyeing the Primordial Ancient Land. Li Jiao broke out in a cold sweat at the mere hearing of it. There were Sacred Spirits stationed in there, weren't there? Palace Master Yang's nerve was something else entirely.
"Thank you, Uncle Yang!" Little Yun'er was overjoyed.
After lying around for a while longer, Yang Kai finally asked, "Where do you plan to go next?"
Feng Yun Pavilion was essentially destroyed, and the little girl had achieved her goal — her revenge was served.
"I don't know." Lin Yun'er shook her head. She'd run away simply because she'd been feeling stifled. There was no plan or direction to speak of. Running into Yang Kai had been pure coincidence.
"Is that so..." Yang Kai thought for a moment. "How about coming with me to the Northern Region? I've established a place there called the Ling Xiao Palace."
"Ling Xiao Palace?" Lin Yun'er perked up at once. After all, she'd spent some time at the Ling Xiao Sect on the Dark Star in years past, and the name immediately struck a familiar chord. She nodded eagerly. "Sure, sure!"
"Alright, then we head back tomorrow." Yang Kai made the decision on the spot.
The commotion around Feng Yun Pavilion had gotten too big — a top-tier Sect, obliterated just like that. If he and Lin Yun'er were native Western Region cultivators, it might have been fine to stick around, but neither of them was. Lingering any longer risked drawing the attention of an Emperor Realm power.
Shadow Emperor and the Shadow Kill Hall were not forces to be trifled with.
Li Jiao perked up at the news as well. It hadn't been easy — after all this time running around with Yang Kai, he could finally see the prospect of going home.
The night passed without incident.
The next morning, Yang Kai began setting up a spatial transmission array.