Little Huo's BBQ

Huo Yuqing curiously sized up the youth standing in the little river.

She had been traveling for six days. Along the way, she had tried to avoid crowded places, cultivating as she traveled. Aside from hurrying onward, she meditated in silence, following the main road the entire way. When thirsty, she slipped into the woods to find spring water; when hungry, she nibbled on the dry rations she had brought with her.

After a bumpy journey, she had finally reached the vicinity of the Star Dou Forest.

As long as she obtained a ten-year soul ring, she could become a Soul Master!

The thought filled the girl with motivation.

When she heard the sound of water, she had been urgently searching for a water source to refill her flattened waterskin. If she could catch some fish and improve her meals, that would be even better.

She simply had not expected someone to already be by the river.

The red-haired youth looked about her age. Though his features were delicate and gentle, he possessed a pair of dazzling golden eyes. When he raised his head to look at her, there was an indifferent, inhuman air about him.

Yet Huo Yuqing did not feel afraid. Instead, she vaguely felt a sense of closeness. In some unseen way, something about the red-haired youth seemed to be drawing her in.

That made the girl secretly wary.

Looking again at the youth's rather luxurious clothes, along with the fact that he had no bags or luggage beside him, he likely possessed a legendary Storage Soul Tool. His background was probably either wealthy or noble.

But why would a young master from a rich family appear alone near the Star Dou Forest?

Huo Yuqing knew full well of the Star Dou Forest's notorious danger. According to the guards at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, the Star Dou Great Forest was practically the most terrifying forbidden land for humans.

One guard often bragged that he had once accompanied the White Tiger Duke into the Star Dou Great Forest to seek his seventh soul ring. They had encountered a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and had nearly failed to return alive.

Because Star Dou was so dangerous, the imperial family had specifically funded the enclosure of a vast forest near Star Luo City for raising soul beasts.

As long as one paid enough Gold Soul Coins, one could enter the Soul Hunting Forest designated by the empire and search for a suitable soul ring.

Although most of the soul beasts raised by the empire had one congenital deficiency or another, their Soul Skills were the same. Most children from wealthy families went to that forest to hunt their first and second soul rings—it was far safer than venturing into the peril-filled Star Dou Great Forest.

Huo Yuqing's two half-brothers had both obtained their first and second soul rings in Star Luo's Soul Hunting Forest.

But the cost of entering the Soul Hunting Forest was exorbitant. Even if Huo Yuqing sold herself, she could never save enough.

But that red-haired youth should be able to afford the cost of hunting soul beasts, so why had he come to Star Dou alone?

Just then, she faintly caught the smell of burning meat. Only then did she speak up, breaking the awkward silence as the two sized each other up.

Wang Rui hurriedly leaped out of the river and rescued his roasted rabbit.

He crushed the rock-hard shell of charcoal around the rabbit. Hmm, the meat inside had not been completely carbonized yet. It still looked edible...

"Uh, you aren't actually planning to eat that, are you?" Huo Yuqing could barely stand to watch. Meat being burned so evenly was truly a rare sight in this world. "I've heard that burnt food is poisonous. You'd better not eat it."

"Um, are you... unable to grill meat?" the girl asked after hesitating. Watching the red-haired youth clumsily hold that charred thing, he did not look like someone used to cooking. "How about I help you? I'm actually pretty good at grilling meat."

She herself was startled by how abrupt and somewhat impolite her request had been.

At those words, Wang Rui immediately raised his head and stared at her with bright eyes.

The legendary Little Huo's BBQ, popular across Douluo for ten thousand years, had just delivered itself to his doorstep?

Huo Hang had used legendary golden grilled fish to attract Tang Ya and Beibei. I used failed cooking to attract Huo Hang. This was perfectly logical!

"That's wonderful, thank you!" Wang Rui immediately stuffed the rabbit he had cleaned into her hands. "Tell me how much you want to eat, and I'll catch more."

"Hmm, I think I can eat five fish." Huo Yuqing accepted the rabbit with a smile, not standing on ceremony with him.

For some reason, she simply could not bring herself to feel the slightest bit guarded around this red-haired youth.

"Hmm, my name is Huo Yuhao. What's yours?" Huo Yuqing gave the name she used while pretending to be a boy.

"Wang Rui. Rui as in auspicious."

"Right, this is rabbit meat, isn't it? Did you add salt?" Huo Yuqing asked before placing the rabbit over the fire.

"...Uh, no."

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion had completely forgotten about adding salt.

Don't ask. Cats shouldn't eat too much salt.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion forcibly salvages her dignity.jpg

This guy was probably truly a young master who had never set foot in a kitchen. Half amused and half exasperated, Huo Yuqing took out her own salt and rubbed it over the meat, then stuffed some perilla leaves into the rabbit's abdominal cavity.

After grilling for a while, she noticed something was off. "Your fire... is it much hotter than ordinary flames?"

The meat was charring far too quickly!

"I'm a fire-attributed Soul Master. I lit this fire directly with Soul Power, so it probably, maybe... is a little hotter than normal fire." Wang Rui answered somewhat guiltily.

What normal person used Ultimate Fire to grill meat?!

"Can you lower the temperature a little? It's too hot, and the meat will burn easily." Huo Yuqing asked nervously. Golden light flowed through her deep blue eyes. To control the heat properly, she had already activated her martial soul.

"Okay, right away." Wang Rui hurriedly lowered the temperature of the flames.

The distinctive fragrance of meat gradually spread through the air. The rabbit was quite plump, and fat dripped down into the flames with crackling pops. Combined with the unique scent of perilla, the tempting aroma was a hundred times more bewitching than a little demon.

"Yuhao, how much longer until it's done?"

Grilling meat was incomplete without someone beside you, gazing longingly at it and constantly urging you to hurry up.

"Yuhao?"

Only then did Huo Yuqing, still unaccustomed to her false name, react. "A little longer. It'll be ready soon."

But Wang Rui suddenly raised his head and looked toward the woods behind them.

"What is it?" Huo Yuqing was startled by his reaction.

"Someone's coming," he said indifferently.

The Eye of Destiny hidden beneath his forehead guard quietly opened. Two humans whose luck was slightly weaker than Huo Yuqing's were moving this way.

Tsk, this definitely wasn't where Huo Hang had grilled fish in the original story. How had Beibei and Tang Ya still found their way here like persistent ghosts?

"It smells so good!" Sure enough, Tang Ya's exclamation soon drifted over.

The girl walked lightly out of the forest, with a blue-haired young man following behind her.

Yet through the Eye of Destiny, Wang Rui could see an illusory rift stretching across the sky. A blue-gold thread of light extended from that rift and connected to Tang Ya's back.

It was the karmic connection between the current Tang Clan master and the first-generation master of the Tang Clan.

He just did not know whether Tang San had a way to influence Tang Ya through that thread of karma... After all, in the original story, Tang Ya inviting Huo Hang to join the Tang Clan had been far too... deliberate.

Then Wang Rui shook his head and laughed at himself for overthinking it. Although Tang San had arranged people behind the scenes in the original story, he clearly did not possess such abilities... Otherwise, he might as well sit in the seat of the God of Destiny.

Still, Tang Ya did indeed seem like a puppet on strings... and her entire life had been that way.

She had muddleheadedly wanted to avenge her parents, only to be controlled by her martial soul's nature into committing slaughter. After being taken away by the Holy Spirit Cult, she became the Blue Silver Saintess and was controlled into killing countless people.

Her entire life had been like a puppet pulled by strings.

She was rather pitiful.

But that did not stop Wang Rui from poaching the hope of the Tang Clan's revival.

"Hey, little friends, are you selling that grilled meat?" Tang Ya had already crouched beside Huo Yuqing, staring straight at the roasted rabbit as she asked. She looked as though she was about to drool.

Huo Yuqing looked to Wang Rui for help. If she had been eating alone, she could have simply given away grilled fish or something. But the ingredients were not hers. Wang Rui provided the food while she provided the cooking, and since they were sharing a meal, she could not make the decision herself.

"Not selling," Wang Rui said lazily. "But you two can prepare your own ingredients and have him cook them. The processing fee is two copper coins per portion. Just pay him directly."

Free grilled fish? No more!

Things like a little extra scene:

Many years later, Wang Rui asked Huo Yuqing why she had fallen for him back then.

Huo Yuqing: You looked so much like an idiot while grilling meat that I couldn't help feeling a little pity for you. I was afraid that if no one cooked for you, you'd poison yourself to death...

Wang Rui: ?

(Not true.)

Tang Ya inviting Huo Yuhao into the Tang Clan was actually pretty deliberate. If she had cared, the Tang Clan would not have been in that state by then. If she had not cared, why had she insisted on recruiting Huo Hang...

Saying she was kindhearted on a whim could explain it, but she also did not seem to work very hard to revitalize the Tang Clan...

It was rather contradictory.

Someone asked before, so I made a group. If you want to hang out with me, feel free to join!