In the northwest corner of Jiangnan Base City, amid the reclaimed and rebuilt area, stood a district utterly unlike its surroundings. Tables and chairs were densely packed across a stretch a kilometer wide, with Martial Artists from all over the world gathered there.
Platters of delicious food kept flying out of the restaurant at the center, landing precisely on the tables of the people who had ordered them. At the entrance, a toy's voice announcing deposits rang without pause: "35 billion yuan deposited into a Martial Artist account. 1,206 billion yuan deposited into a Martial Artist account..."
A fighter jet appeared silently in the clear sky. Three figures flew out, and as they looked down at the sea of people below, Luo Feng couldn't help but click his tongue. "Big brother, second brother, our fourth sister's business is booming more and more. I bet most of the Martial Artists on Earth have been here by now."
Hong sighed as well. "That's right. If there weren't so few Martial Artists at the lower levels, the War God Palace probably couldn't handle the load anymore. Xue Xi is a treasure to our Earth Human Race!"
Thor said nothing, but his eyes reflected the flourishing state of Earth's martial arts over the past two years.
Two years ago, Earth had 52 councilors, five speakers, and 3,561 War Gods. The number of lower-level Martial Artists was only around a million.
Now, aside from those whose talent was truly poor and who had yet to break through, the number of councilors on Earth had reached an astonishing 200, and the number of speaker seats had risen to ten. The biggest change was in the number of War Gods: 360,000!
That was right. The War God Palace's roster had now grown from 3,561 to 362,547. This was the answer Earth's people had given under Xue Xi's food-based cultivation. Nearly eighty percent of the lower-level Martial Artists had even reached War General Level. Injured fighters had returned to the wilderness after being healed by Highland Barley Wine, while the rest either had used gene serums that burned through their potential or had been hopeless cases to begin with.
With such an enormous force of Martial Artists, humanity, organized and led by the War God Palace, had begun its counterattack against the Monsters.
With the War Gods providing covering fire, the land had been fully reclaimed within half a month. As for the two Monster Emperors in the seas, the lightning-fast strike had caught them off guard. Once they came to their senses, they tried to rally the sea Monsters and launch a full-scale beast tide, intending to teach these overconfident ants the might of the herd.
Instead, the Monsters that came ashore were captured alive by a crowd of excited human Martial Artists and sent off to an unknown destination. As for the two Beast Emperors, the moment they showed themselves, Hong and Thor—who had both broken through to Stellar Rank—beat them into critical condition. The Thunder Dragon Emperor was captured alive by a long vine on the spot, while the Eight-Clawed Beast Emperor lost seven of its claws before escaping into the deep sea.
From then on, Earth returned to human rule. There were still plenty of Monsters in the seas, but the ones on land were raised in captivity by humans—not for research, but simply to supply the human rear with food.
The Martial Artists below spotted the trio standing in midair and couldn't help exclaiming, "Holy crap! The first, second, and third speakers are all here. Aren't they all Stellar Rank now? Does Cat Ear Restaurant's food still work for them?"
The companion beside the speaker smacked him on the head. "What nonsense. How can you question our Chef God Xue Xi's food? She says it speeds you up by a certain number of times, and that's exactly how much faster you get. The effects are the same whether you're Apprentice Rank or Planetary Realm. Hasn't that been proven already?"
The man rubbed his head and glanced at the restaurant, where platters kept flying out. He grinned. "I'm not questioning it. I'm just curious: if it works even for speakers as powerful as them, and they can still maintain a thousandfold training speed, how strong must they be now?"
More or less, everyone there shared that question. But the three in the sky didn't seem to have time for idle chatter. A sweep of their mental power revealed Xue Xi resting with her eyes closed beside the kitchen door. They hurried down and entered the restaurant.
Thor was the most impatient. He took a glowing green syringe from the World Ring he had obtained from an Ancient Civilization Ruins and came to Xue Xi's rocking chair. Ignoring the various cooking utensils she had been using, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her vigorously. "Wake up, fourth sister! I found this treatment serum in a new ruin. Hurry and try it!"
Xue Xi had noticed their arrival long ago. She opened her eyes with a wry smile and looked at Thor, who was visibly anxious. "Second brother, how many times have I told you? There's another reason I can't break through. It's really not because anything's wrong with my body!"
Hong and Luo Feng tried to persuade her from the side. "Fourth sister, just give it a try. You were already at the peak of Stellar Rank two years ago, and now the rest of us are almost there too. How could we not worry?"
Xue Xi helplessly tapped her forehead with a finger. Her body was tied to the Great Book. If she reached her goal, the Great Book would be the greatest help she could ask for and send her soaring. If she hadn't reached it, then even the rarest treasures would be useless—the Great Book might as well have been an ancient divine metal, blocking the bottleneck in her cultivation.
The frenzy sparked by Sweet Skin Duck two years ago had quickly brought her to her third goal, and her strength had reached the peak of Stellar Rank. With thirty dishes boosting them, Earth's people had evolved at a tremendous pace, and the number of people her intangible cultural heritage cuisine had reached had climbed to 930,000. But the remaining 70,000 had been inching upward by tiny amounts each day, like toothpaste squeezed from a tube. Progress had stalled for nearly two and a half years.
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