Chapter 77: Begging for Food

As for the Spirit Fruit Soup, lightning-type spirit fruits... In both her lives, Yu Yan had never heard of such a thing. The world within the instance was vast and boundless, so it probably existed somewhere. Yet, in the short three years of her previous life, the new humans hadn’t had enough time to explore and discover such an extremely rare spirit fruit. In the end, Yu Yan selected a dozen or so Wen Stem Fruits and simmered a pot of Wen Stem Fruit Soup! After all, aside from lightning-type spirit fruits, the others made little difference to Yun Duo’er.

Why not make a wind-type spirit fruit soup, then? That way, she could also further stabilize her fourth-rank wind ability.

With practiced ease, she washed and gutted the fish, cleaned out the innards, all in one go. While Yu Yan was preparing the fish, Yun Duo’er had already returned from nearby with a large bundle of dry branches and weeds. With a flick, the lighter sparked, and soon a campfire was roaring. Yu Yan placed the skewered fish over the flames.

The Wen Stem Fruits were rinsed off casually and thrown into an earthen pot, which she set on the scorching rocks at the fire’s edge to simmer slowly.

Soon, the rich aroma of roasting spirit fish filled the air. Yun Duo’er, who had only been pretending to be hungry, couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. Although she had some cooked food stashed away in her little spatial pocket, it was all leftovers from before she and Tang Yan parted ways.

The Mirage Lotus Space could preserve food freshness to some extent, but those intentionally cooled dishes by Yu Yan could never compare to the fresh flavor of food just made!

With the dozen or so spirit fish almost ready, Yu Yan sprinkled cumin powder over them, when suddenly her gaze sharpened—someone was coming, and it was more than one person. Yu Yan showed no sign of alarm and continued sprinkling chili powder.

“Mom, someone’s coming.”

As a fellow fourth-rank spirit vein enhancer, Yun Duo’er’s spiritual sense was also acute—she noticed just a few minutes after Yu Yan.

Yu Yan nodded. Yun Duo’er couldn’t handle spicy food.

So, out of all the skewers of grilled spirit fish, only five were made spicy. Handing an unspiced skewer to Yun Duo’er, Yu Yan said languidly, “They’re still some distance away. Let’s eat first and fill our bellies before dealing with them.”

As they drew nearer, Yu Yan’s spiritual sense gathered more details. The group numbered a dozen or so, the strongest among them a burly man at the lead, likely already a first-rank awakened enhancer. A faint spiritual glow—unique to those who had ascended to a rank—emanated from him.

Among the rest, there were two or three other awakened enhancers and five or six ordinary enhancers whose bodies had been tempered by spirit beast meat. In the early days of the instance world, such a team would be considered powerful by human standards.

But compared to Yu Yan and her daughter, there was simply no comparison. Not to mention Yu Yan and Yun Duo’er themselves, even the little Qing perched on Yu Yan’s shoulder, or the obedient Jinling coiled around Yun Duo’er’s wrist—any one of them could easily reduce this group to tears with a single move!

So Yu Yan paid them no mind at all.

She pressed the restless Xiao Qing back onto her shoulder. “Xiao Qing, spirit fish isn’t suitable for you.”

“Be good~ I’ll give you a piece of Qu Ru meat in a bit.”

For most spirit pets, absorbing any type of spirit meat or spirit matter would enhance their attributes, unless the properties directly conflicted and were utterly incompatible. However, the efficiency of refining and the amount of spirit energy gained per unit varied.

Take Xiao Qing, for example. As a Qu Ru, eating Qu Ru meat allowed her to instantly absorb its energy. The spirit energy conversion rate reached as high as ninety-nine percent!

With other types of spirit meat or matter, it would never reach such a high figure. Moreover, once a spirit matter or beast meat reached the Profound rank, it began to carry a trace of its own will, instinctively resisting absorption and refinement by other species.

Not so with Qu Ru meat—after all, they were kin. Death was already final; better to aid the strength of one’s own kind than be absorbed by outsiders.

Though only a second-rank now, Xiao Qing, as a descendant of the ninth-rank Qu Ru with exceptionally high intelligence, possessed inherited memories found only in spirit beasts of Earth rank or above. Naturally, she understood all this. At Yu Yan’s words, she shrank her neck, buried her bird head into Yu Yan’s thick, black hair, and refused to look at the tantalizing skewers of spirit fish. Only her long tail, dark with a hint of blue at the tip, stuck out, flicking up and down as if expressing endless inner conflict.

Yu Yan: “…”

How she wanted to tug that adorable tail!

It was just too cute. A smile bloomed in Yu Yan’s eyes.

To Yu Yan’s surprise, the approaching group arrived more than ten minutes later than she had anticipated. By the time they reached her, she and her daughter had finished the grilled spirit fish, and Xiao Qing and even the Jinling on Yun Duo’er’s wrist had eaten their fill.

The bloodthirsty vine Jinling, of course, drank high-grade spirit beast blood.

“Um… Auntie, could I have some soup?”

Kou Xiaojian stared fixedly at the aura-laden Wen Stem Fruit Soup. He wasn’t just any ignorant child—his father had once fed him a piece of spirit beast meat, and after eating it, his strength had soared. The meat had a flavor very similar to the soup Yu Yan and her daughter were drinking… No, that wasn’t it—theirs was clearly even better! The scent alone made his soul tremble, and it had grown stronger and stronger.

He’d been pushed forward by the team leader and his parents to beg for food, though he himself was eager to try as well! After all, if he succeeded, he’d get a share.

With the rich aroma wafting to his nose, Kou Xiaojian couldn’t help but swallow. His blackened hands twisted together, his expression pitiful, as if he hadn’t had a full meal in days.

Yu Yan said nothing, gently blowing on the steaming Wen Stem Fruit Soup.

She scooped up a spoonful and tasted it. The sweet, smooth flesh of the fruit, cooked to melt-in-your-mouth perfection, slid down with the broth into her belly. The warm spirit energy soothed every inch of her body—far more satisfying than eating Wen Stem Fruit raw.

Yun Duo’er followed suit, but she couldn’t wait to cool it and gulped down a small bowl in one go.

Getting scalded was impossible. As a fourth-rank spirit vein enhancer, if she was burned by a soup not even boiling, that would be laughable! The reason Yu Yan drank slowly was preference, not fear of heat.

With her hunger satisfied, Yun Duo’er finally took the time to savor the taste. Filling her bowl again, she mimicked Yu Yan, eating spoonful by spoonful.

Kou Xiaojian: “…”

His face turned green and white by turns. Were they really going to pretend he didn’t exist?

Not far away, the group watched anxiously, crowded together. A few coarse curses came from within the crowd—likely thinking they were far enough not to be heard. A skinny, dark man sidled up to the burly leader. “Boss, it’s just a woman and a little girl. Why are we afraid of her?”

“That soup is definitely something special—it’s a waste to let her have it all.”

“How about…”

“Shut up!”

Dou Bin glared at Blackie. “What do you know?”

The fact that a woman with a child could possess something so precious was precisely what made all this so unusual. And that woman was only carrying a military-green travel bag—not very large, yet had the leisure to bring along an earthen pot and cooking utensils, fine porcelain bowls and soup spoons, all while calmly sipping her soup, completely ignoring their arrival.

Either she was a fool, or she was supremely confident in her own strength.

Was Yu Yan a fool? Dou Bin thought if he dared believe that, he’d be the true idiot. Still, Blackie was right about one thing: that pot of soup was definitely extraordinary—more than extraordinary! Dou Bin even had a strange feeling…