Chapter 402: Fight After Eating

"Xiaoyue."

"Hmm?" Right at the height of her excitement, Jiang Xiaoyue suddenly heard a voice calling her name.

"What is it, Sister Xue'er?" Jiang Xiaoyue looked at Nalan Mingxue with a touch of curiosity.

Nalan Mingxue merely leaned in and whispered a few words into her ear.

...

After the tempest of countless flying swords swept past, the ground surrounding Zhen Yan had been transformed into a dense, bristling forest of blade-tips!

Only a single patch of earth directly behind him remained unscathed, leaving a blank space shaped roughly like a human silhouette.

Zhen Yan stood frozen in the middle of the long street, cold sweat dripping to the ground drop by drop. At this moment, even lifting a single finger felt like an monumental, exhausting struggle.

"Just who on earth are you?!" Jiang Xuan's face darkened slightly, his gaze toward Fang Qi resembling that of someone looking at a monster.

This was a Great Martial Grandmaster?!

Even if he himself were at the realm of a Great Martial Grandmaster, he probably could never deploy such a terrifying technique!

Zhen Yan was in even greater shock; suddenly, he found himself entirely unable to comprehend this crowd of people.

If they were all like this...

Then what about a Martial King?

And what kind of strength would a Martial Emperor possess?!

"It is impossible!" he comforted himself silently. For such a person to appear, a single one was already astonishing enough. How could there be multiple?

But just now, he had distinctly heard them mention something about... Senior Wuming?

And what was that "Orochinagi"? It seemed as though every single one of them understood the inner workings of it completely.

Right at that moment, he suddenly noticed among the onlookers:

Song Qingfeng raised his right hand, flames coalescing in his palm. "How is the boss handsomer than me? Watch my Orochinagi!"

Lin Shao's face was filled with disdain. "What does the Orochinagi amount to? Watch my Myriad Sword Technique!"

With those words, dozens of flying swords already soared up behind him!

The hearts of the newcomers shook violently.

Nearby, Liang Stone was offering his critique. "The boss's Heavenly Sword intent combined with the Myriad Sword Technique and the Return of the Myriad Swords to their Ancestor really does carry quite a bit of Senior Wuming's flavor..."

"It bears much of Senior Wuming's grand style indeed!"

"Still, Old Master Nalan's Sword Twenty-Three from that day was the most formidable—it suppressed space itself...! The people of an entire Four Symbols Great Town couldn't move, couldn't flee, and even a cultivator of the Divine Court Realm nearly perished within it! It already has about fifty or sixty percent of the old Sword Saint's power..."

Hearing the surrounding crowd discuss matters to this point, the faces of the newcomers turned a shade of green.

"Even that can't compare to the boss's Black Particle and the Light of the Sun from that day..."

"I wonder if the boss knows Dante's time control too..."

"They say the boss has already obtained the Time Blue Flame, so maybe he really does?"

Jiang Xuan: "..."

Zhen Yan: "..."

The other green-faced guard, Xue Ming: "..."

They were on the verge of being frightened out of their wits.

How did each one sound more formidable than the last?!

The previous feats were bad enough, but now there was suppressing space?! Controlling time?!

Had the people of the Desolate Sea Realm really developed to such a terrifying extent?!

He had originally harbored the thought of taking Jiang Xiaoyue away by force, but now, looking at the eyes of the crowd around them, if they tried to use brute strength, there was absolutely no possibility of success.

Under normal circumstances, based on his knowledge of the Desolate Sea Realm, he could easily slaughter his way in and out seven times through these surrounding Divine Sea Realm cultivators, Martial Kings, and Martial Emperors without any issue.

But now...

Jiang Xuan had prepared for the worst, staring coldly at Fang Qi.

Perhaps... the Desolate Sea Realm, which he had originally thought to be nothing more than a tiny fish pond, had now transformed into a hidden dragon's lair.

And yet...

With a reach of his hand, a heavy halberd etched with black patterns instantly appeared in his grasp.

The surrounding atmosphere grew deathly still and grim.

"Gurgle—!"

Just at this tense juncture, a strange sound rang out.

Everyone's eyes fell upon Zhen Yan's face.

"..." Zhen Yan looked utterly embarrassed; after such a long and arduous journey, they hadn't even managed to have a meal yet!

It hadn't been an issue before, but after being frightened like this... a whole layer of sweat had broken out, leaving him no room to maintain his physical dignity.

"Mmh..." His nose twitched. "How fragrant. This rich, sour aroma... what is it that smells so delicious?!"

Jiang Xiaoyue was seen holding a bowl of instant noodles, handing it over to Jiang Xuan.

As the instant noodle box was opened, an even richer sour fragrance assailed their nostrils. Looking at the golden noodles inside, adorned with pickled cabbage as translucent as jade...

This scent, this color... never mind the fact that their Demon Race inherently possessed massive appetites, even cultivators who were already capable of abstaining from food entirely would find it impossible to control their desire!

"Gurgle..." Jiang Xuan's face darkened.

"Here~ This is the most delicious instant noodles in our shop!" Jiang Xiaoyue's large eyes curved into crescent moons with her smile. "Not only is the flavor sour, fragrant, and delicious, but every bite of these noodles can promote the refining of spiritual energy within the body. And I brewed it with my very own hands."

Jiang Xuan stared wide-eyed at the instant noodles before him: "..."

"Fine!" Jiang Xuan finally seemed to find a way to save face. Holding the heavy halberd, he spoke with a grim expression, "I shall first taste the instant noodles my little sister brewed herself before making any further calculations. Hmph!"

With that, he glared fiercely at Boss Fang.

A single mouthful of noodles entered his mouth.

Then... his eyes widened suddenly: "Mmh! Delicious!"

"Slurp... slurp slurp..."

The two guards swallowed their saliva frantically.

"If you want to eat, the shop still has more!" Boss Fang spoke up. "Since you guests have come from afar, it's the boss's treat, though you'll have to brew it yourselves if you want to eat."

"..."

Very soon, the sound of three people frantically slurping down instant noodles was added to the sofas inside the shop.

"I couldn't tell, but you're quite a clever girl." If not for this bowl of instant noodles, it was highly obvious that the ensuing situation would have been rather difficult to clean up.

It had started as a contest, but afterward, it could very well have escalated into a major war.

The face of the Jiang Family was not something that could be easily discarded...

Boss Fang was not a person who liked to deliberate too much, and clearly, a young girl like Jiang Xiaoyue would think even less about any far-reaching consequences when she acted.

Nalan Mingxue reclined upon the sofa, cradling a freshly steeped cup of milk tea, savoring its rich aroma.

Turning her gaze, she caught Jiang Xiaoyue stealthily flashing a peace sign, her smile revealing a pair of dainty canine teeth.

...

Elsewhere.

"How can this be?!"

"Exquisite! A peerless treasure of the culinary world!" Zhen Yan cried out from the side. "To think that such a desolate wilderness could harbor a delicacy of this magnitude."

Jiang Xuan took a sip of the noodle broth, his expression turning solemn. "Remarkable. As I eat these noodles and drink this soup, the spiritual energy within my body is continuously being refined. This is no mere meal; this is clearly a profound form of cultivation!"

Before them, Jiang Xiaoyue proffered several bottles of cola.

Gulp after gulp...

Spicy strips...

Milk tea...

An hour passed...

"Shopkeeper! Bring out whatever else you have to eat and drink! Do not fret over whether we can pay!"

"Actually... my brother has quite the voracious appetite... Father said that when my brother went out as a child, he sneaked into a great sect's spiritual herb garden and ate every last plant, and then when he returned home..." Jiang Xiaoyue leaned in close to Shopkeeper Fang, whispering secrets into his ear.

As she spoke, she paid no mind to the fullness of her own round little belly.

Shopkeeper Fang shouted back, "That is all! If you want to eat, you must wait until tomorrow!"

"What!!??"