Ice Empress

Lu Ran hadn't never considered calling it Mouse Milk Tea Shop, Snow King Ice City, Cha Bai Dao, or Gu Ming...

He'd also thought about Snow King Frozen City, Tea Thousand Ways, and Today's Tea...

After thinking it over carefully,

he felt none of them were suitable,

so he simply gave up.

He didn't want the shop he poured his heart into running to have a knockoff name, much less use someone else's name.

Besides, the name Milk Tea Shop might sound casual, but it really wasn't.

To put it plainly, even if there were as many Pikachus as, well, things by the roadside, Ash would still call Pikachu Pikachu.

To put it poetically, there were millions of roses in the world, but the one that belonged to you was the most special.

And this shop was Lu Ran's rose.

After another half hour of getting everything in order,

three Cloud Cluster Ground Rats stood on the counter,

trying to shake milk tea according to the recipes Lu Ran had given them.

It was all very simple.

They cut up apples, tangerines, oranges, watermelons, passion fruit, and the like.

In just a few minutes,

ten cups of milk tea were lined up on the counter, much to Yan Shaozhe's amazement.

"Dean Yan,"

Lu Ran gestured invitingly. "Would you like to try some?"

Yan Shaozhe looked astonished.

He'd never imagined that Soul Beasts could be hired to run a shop. It was simply unheard of!

Wait...

Hired?

"Xiao Ran, how did you convince them to work?"

Lu Ran answered as though it were obvious:

"Pay,"

"Offer them pay, and of course they'll be willing to work."

"I promised them one Blue Silver Green Wood Vine a day and forty jin of Delicious Nut a month. If they do especially well, they'll get an extra jin of Sweet Honey."

Blue Silver Green Wood Vine couldn't be eaten casually, but it could be offered as payment.

And they already had quite a stockpile of Sweet Honey.

"With so many benefits, why wouldn't they be willing?"

This was treatment they could never get in the Star Dou Great Forest or the Small World.

Of course,

the main reason was Lu Ran's Soul Beast Affinity. Without that, it would've taken a lot more effort.

Yan Shaozhe's gaze flickered as he looked at the three Ground Rats on the counter, watching him expectantly.

He felt something stir in his heart.

So Soul Beasts had such rich emotions?

He picked up a cup of orange juice.

Clear, ice-blue cubes floated on top, without a single bubble, giving off an invisible chill.

He gave the cup a gentle shake.

The ice cubes tapped against the sides with faint, crackling clicks.

When he brought it to his lips, he caught the fresh scent of orange peel.

Yan Shaozhe took a sip.

Freshly squeezed orange juice and pulp filled his mouth.

The juice was slightly tart, refreshing and invigorating. When he swallowed, a faint sweetness lingered in his throat, while the fruit pulp burst with a bright, tangy juiciness between his teeth.

He nodded from the bottom of his heart.

"It's pretty good..."

"Eek! Eek! Eek!"

The Cloud Cluster Ground Rats squeaked happily, celebrating their customer's approval.

But Yan Shaozhe pressed his lips together slightly.

The freshly squeezed orange juice really was pretty good,

but that was all it was: pretty good.

Drinks made from freshly squeezed fruit had been around for thousands of years.

There was nothing difficult about making them.

Still, having Soul Beasts make them could certainly draw in plenty of customers. That was pretty good too.

Lu Ran could tell what Yan Shaozhe was thinking.

Of course he knew freshly squeezed orange juice wouldn't be all that impressive. It wasn't some glowing dish that made people hallucinate when they ate it.

He pointed to a cup beside it,

and smiled faintly.

"Please try this one too, Dean Yan."

Seeing how confident Lu Ran looked,

Yan Shaozhe turned to the cup he'd indicated. It was also freshly squeezed orange juice, but its color was more reddish. The Cloud Cluster Ground Rats had added something rather strange to it.

Something he'd never seen before.

Yan Shaozhe picked it up and took a sip.

The sweet-and-sour orange flavor entered his mouth, followed by the mellow notes of tea and milk, all blending together on his tongue.

His eyes lit up.

"What is this?!"

It was the most delicious drink he'd ever tasted in his life!

Lu Ran smiled confidently.

"A special house blend."

"Plain freshly squeezed juice definitely wouldn't be enough to attract customers. This is one of my core competitive advantages."

Actually, he'd made the tea base from memory,

mixing things like milk, honey, rock sugar, and black tea.

The taste might not be exactly the same, but it was pretty close.

After all, it was called a milk tea shop.

If a milk tea shop didn't have milk tea, could it still be called a milk tea shop?

"One of them?"

Yan Shaozhe narrowed his eyes slightly,

sharply catching that phrase.

His gaze shifted to the third cup,

and he understood at once.

The third cup had the same ingredients as the second,

but there was one difference.

It was giving off an extremely faint trace of Soul Power.

That was right. This was Lu Ran's second core competitive advantage:

the ingredients he used could contain Soul Power.

Yan Shaozhe suddenly understood.

So the Small World could be used like this?!

At ten in the morning,

the Milk Tea Shop officially opened.

"Wow, what is that?!"

A long-haired young woman in her early twenties, dressed in red, jumped behind her male companion in fright,

clutching his clothes.

Her companion was startled too, and so were all the people passing along the street,

because

a huge yellow Soul Beast had suddenly appeared not far ahead.

It stood over four meters tall, with a powerful build. Its amber-like scales gleamed in the sunlight, and its sharp brown claws looked capable of tearing anything to pieces.

"Aw~ aw~"

It suddenly let out two very quiet cries,

making the people nearby curious.

"Is its voice really that delicate?"

"How did a Soul Beast get here?!"

"A dragon-shaped Soul Beast?! It looks so powerful!"

Then everyone watched in amazement

as a huge green bird walked out of the shop, just as tall as the dragon-shaped Soul Beast.

Its sharp, long beak glinted with a metallic sheen that sent a chill down their spines.

"Holy crap, what kind of Soul Beast is that?!"

"What a huge bird!"

"What on earth is that?!"

Then,

everyone saw something that made their eyes nearly pop out:

The two Soul Beasts brought out two signs. The lettering was thick and clearly handwritten.

The yellow, dragon-shaped Soul Beast held a sign that read:

"Grand Opening!"

The sign in front of the green bird Soul Beast read:

"Come on in and try it!"

"Aw, aw~"

"Caw, caw~"

Naturally,

the crowd, their jaws hanging open, all looked up together. The signboard read: Milk Tea Shop.

Milk Tea Shop?

"A milk tea shop?"

"What's a milk tea shop?"

The people on the street exchanged baffled looks.

Then the two Soul Beasts went back inside, leaving behind the rattan chairs outside, the small round wooden tables, and the decorative greenery dotted with little white flowers.

"Why did they go back in?"

"Why don't we go inside and take a look?"

"But we don't even know what a milk tea shop is..."

"Forget it. Let's go in and see..."

Word of the strange spectacle spread quickly,

and the crowd gradually poured into the shop.

Just inside the entrance, to the right, was the order counter. Two adorable little mice stood on top of it, cute enough to make people's hearts melt.

Their fur looked so soft and fluffy.

It had to feel wonderful!

"Wow..."

"So cute..."

Standing behind the counter, Lu Ran smiled and said, "Welcome."

Oh, so there was a person here too...

Only then did the people coming in notice Lu Ran.

Once they came to their senses, they looked around.

The first floor had a very simple layout: tall stools, small round tables, and potted plants. That was it.

They couldn't see the two Soul Beasts that had come inside.

"These are the drinks we offer,"

Lu Ran reminded them.

Everyone looked up. On the glowing Soul Guidance Light Board, they saw:

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice: one Gold Soul Coin

Ten-Year Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice: two Gold Soul Coins

Double Passion Fruit: two Gold Soul Coins

Ten-Year Double-Mix Passion Fruit: two Gold Soul Coins

Strawberry Milk Tea: three Gold Soul Coins

"..."

"Why is it so expensive?!"

"What is strawberry milk tea?"

"...Wait, Ten-Year Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice?!"