Jiang Yang nodded.
It counted as a response.
This wasn't the first time he'd done something like this.
While the three women were still puzzled and astonished, he had already dragged the five-thousand-year-old Red-Tailed Fire Boar back to their temporary camp.
He casually took a set of tools for butchering beast meat from his Soul Tool and laid them out across the ground like an opened conveyor belt.
"Holy crap!"
"Jiang Yang, you—you're so professional!"
Ling Luochеn looked as if she'd discovered a whole new world.
Even Zhang Lexuan and Ma Xiaotao gazed at Jiang Yang with admiration.
"I'm used to it by now."
"If you often come to places like this, I imagine you wouldn't want to live on dry rations, either."
Being able to come across such delicious food put Jiang Yang in a good mood, so he added a couple more words.
"Junior, you're making your senior feel a little embarrassed with that comment."
"I've been at the Academy all these years, and this isn't my first mission, but I still can't manage something like this."
"I can't help it. I just don't have the knack."
Zhang Lexuan smiled and shrugged.
"Yeah, yeah. I just wonder if what Junior makes will taste good."
Ling Luochеn stopped calling him "Jiang Yang" over and over and followed Zhang Lexuan's lead, switching to a more affectionate form of address.
Though she asked that way,
in her heart, she was already certain Jiang Yang could definitely make something delicious.
After all, how could someone who came prepared with so many tools to butcher a Soul Beast possibly neglect his own stomach?
As for just how delicious it would be, that remained to be seen.
"Anyway, it's definitely going to taste better than what Xiaotao makes. I still remember the last time she grilled a fish until it looked like a piece of charcoal. Hee hee hee..."
"Yeah, yeah. That taste... tsk, tsk... all I can say is, I still remember it vividly. That fish died for nothing! Hee hee hee..."
"Ah! Big Sister!"
As soon as Zhang Lexuan, the eldest senior sister, spoke, Ling Luochеn chimed in.
Ma Xiaotao's pretty face, which had only just managed to calm down, flushed red again.
How could she not see that Big Sister was deliberately steering the conversation toward her, just to make Jiang Yang look her way a few more times?
But when she turned toward Jiang Yang, he wasn't distracted in the slightest. He was focused entirely on the Red-Tailed Fire Boar, and an inexplicable pang of hurt welled up inside her.
Still.
She couldn't say where that hurt came from.
Should she blame Jiang Yang?
Or her teacher?
Or maybe herself?
Ma Xiaotao couldn't make sense of it, so she gave up and rested her chin in her hands, gazing at the moon.
It was as if she hoped the fairy in the Moon Palace would show her a clear path.
"Wow, that smells amazing!"
As time passed,
Ma Xiaotao had no idea how long she'd been lost in thought.
By the time she came back to herself, she'd already heard Ling Luochеn shriek.
She immediately turned to look.
Only then did she catch the incredible aroma.
It was like going several days without meat, then suddenly catching the smell of barbecue skewers roasting downstairs.
Her mouth began to water at once.
"My goodness, Junior! You've really shown your senior what you can do!"
"Can I try some now?"
"Mm, careful, it's hot."
As Zhang Lexuan came closer, the view down the neckline of her low-cut shirt presented itself rather generously to Jiang Yang.
At last, Jiang Yang understood what it meant to see a peerless beauty with just a single glance upward.
Before long,
Ling Luochеn came over too, bringing a faint, sweet fragrance that mingled with the smell of roast meat and made it even more tempting.
For a moment, he didn't know which one to feast his eyes on.
One wore black, the other pink. Both had breasts that swayed like peach blossoms on a mountainside, just waiting for him to pluck.
"I want some too!"
Ma Xiaotao hurried over as well.
Her red dress, lit by the bonfire, made her look like a dancing flame spirit, swaying dazzlingly.
Even Jiang Yang didn't know where to look for a moment.
"This is so good!"
"This is the best roast meat I've ever eaten in my life!"
Ling Luochеn's eyes lit up the moment she took a bite.
As soon as she finished speaking, she couldn't help taking a few more bites, showing not the slightest trace of a noble young lady's restraint.
"Mmph, mmph—right!"
Zhang Lexuan was eating so much she didn't want to say another word.
She understood better than anyone what it was like to be on a mission.
Whenever she went out as a member of the Inspection Team to eliminate Evil Soul Masters, she had to sleep under the open sky and eat whatever she could find.
Though they sometimes stopped in towns to eat, the food was only a little better than dry rations.
It couldn't compare to Jiang Yang's charcoal-grilled artistry.
"Hey, Ling Luochеn, leave some for me!"
"Ma Xiaotao! There are hundreds of pounds of meat! Could you even eat it all by yourself? And you're guarding it like treasure?"
"Big Sister, look at her!"
"Mmph, mmph... You two settle it yourselves... mmph, mmph..."
"Hmph! There's only the neck bones and spine left! Leave some for me!"
"..."
Seeing Ma Xiaotao and Ling Luochеn fighting over the food while Zhang Lexuan only cared about eating, Jiang Yang smiled faintly.
It had been a long time since he'd seen such an amusing sight.
This was what life was all about.
"Sizzle, sizzle—"
However,
just then, Jiang Yang suddenly heard a rustling in the distance, unlike the sound of the wind through the grass.
His instincts told him something was wrong.
So,
he moved the skewer of roast meat he'd been about to put in his mouth aside, then turned and leaped onto a tree branch.
As he ate casually, he focused his Soul Power into his eyes and looked into the distance.
Before long,
a group of people dressed much like Evil Soul Masters were heading this way.
And judging by their movements, it was easy to tell they were in a hurry.
"Could I have run into the Evil Soul Masters of the so-called Hand of Death faction ahead of time?"
Jiang Yang wondered to himself.
At that moment, the voice of the Emperor Armor's incarnation came from within his spiritual sea.
[Emperor Armor Incarnation: Xiaoyang, my strength has recovered a little over the past few days. I can help you awaken that Third Martial Soul now. The power carried by those Evil Soul Masters happens to be able to serve as a buffer, and it'll also save me some energy.] [Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion: Third Martial Soul? Could it be that the way your Third Martial Soul is cultivated is similar to that of Evil Soul Masters?]
Ice Empress exclaimed when she heard this.
Though she was a Soul Beast and didn't have much hostility toward Evil Soul Masters, she was staking her hopes on Jiang Yang and wanted him to become a god.
So Jiang Yang couldn't become an Evil Soul Master. Otherwise, he might not even live to become a Titled Douluo.
How could he become a god then?
She had never heard of an Evil Soul Master becoming a god anywhere on Douluo Continent.
[Jiang Yang: Teacher, thank you for your hard work.] [Emperor Armor Incarnation: Heh, it's time for that divine artifact to make its appearance. With its help, repairing the armor should come much more easily to you in the future.]
Before you continue