At that, Mu Guiyun calmly nodded, then went over to an empty seat. He picked up the menu, circled a few items, and waved his hand. "Everything except the ones I circled—bring me two of each!"
Good grief, what a rich guy!
The manager's eyes lit up at the sight of Mu Guiyun's carefree, money-is-no-object attitude. He quickly motioned for Tang Ya to step forward.
Tang Ya was just as shocked. She picked up the menu and, seeing the steep prices, kindly reminded him, "Classmate, this is going to cost quite a bit!"
"I know."
Mu Guiyun waved a hand dismissively. Then something suddenly occurred to him, and he added, "Oh, and bring me two premium Soul Beast steaks, smothered in thick sauce, with all the side dishes, and two chilled beers!"
"This... All right, please wait a moment."
Tang Ya glanced at the White Emperor Star ring on Mu Guiyun's hand, which was clearly worth a fortune. She silently picked up the menu and headed to the kitchen.
Before long, a table laden with an array of delicious dishes was set before Mu Guiyun.
"Enjoy your meal."
Tang Ya discreetly swallowed, then pulled her gaze away from the food and was about to turn around when Mu Guiyun's voice quietly reached her ears. "We're classmates. Sit down and eat with me."
A free meal?!
Tang Ya's face lit up with joy, but when she remembered she was working, her little face immediately fell. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm still on the clock..."
"Don't worry. I'm sure the boss will be understanding."
After saying that, Mu Guiyun gave the manager a friendly smile.
The manager hurried over to Mu Guiyun. Taking in the uniform that marked him as a Shrek student, he bowed respectfully. "Of course, Lord Soul Master."
With that, he tactfully left the two of them alone.
"See? Sit down and eat. No need to be polite."
Mu Guiyun smiled and picked up a steak, putting it in his mouth.
Mm, not bad, but still nowhere near as good as Cai Mei'er's cooking.
"Really? Then I won't hold back!"
Tang Ya's eyes sparkled. She grabbed the food on the table and stuffed it into her mouth, not caring in the slightest about her manners.
As if! The Tang Sect was gone. Why should I care about saving face? Can it fill my stomach?
"Delicious! So delicious! I haven't had a meal this good in ages!"
Tang Ya was nothing like the girl he'd seen in class. Here, she was much closer to the lively, spirited girl from the original story.
"I heard you came from the Tang Sect?"
Mu Guiyun took a sip of beer, curious to see if he could dig up any useful information.
It had once been the continent's greatest sect, after all. Surely it couldn't truly have been left with nothing?
Tang Ya had been wolfing down her food, but at his question, her hands stilled. The cheer faded from her face, replaced by despondency. She smiled bitterly. "The Tang Sect... is gone."
"But it still has you, doesn't it?"
Mu Guiyun looked surprised. In the original story, Tang Ya had been desperate to restore the Tang Sect to its former glory.
"Me? What good am I?"
Tang Ya gave a self-mocking laugh. "My Innate Soul Power is a mere level five. Even though Mom and Dad gave me the few resources they had left back then, I'm only level sixteen now."
Mu Guiyun didn't respond. He simply watched as Tang Ya turned her grief and anger into an appetite.
If you looked only at her talent, then even during the Unrivaled Tang Sect era, Tang Ya could barely be called a genius: she'd broken through to Soul Elder at fourteen.
But don't forget, her Martial Soul was ordinary Blue Silver Grass. The further she progressed, the harder cultivation would become.
Even the Trident God King, with his Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline, Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings, and a whole pile of cheats backing him up, had been beaten into despair at the tournament and even considered switching to the Clear Sky Hammer. Tang Ya had it worse.
There were no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters. Mu Guiyun could only say that was complete nonsense.
It was fine to use that line to fool other people, but don't actually go and fool yourself.
"Did the Tang Sect really leave behind nothing that could change your aptitude... Forget it, just eat."
Looking into Tang Ya's clear, guileless eyes, as innocent as a college student's, Mu Guiyun forcibly swallowed the rest of his sentence.
He drained his beer and looked out the window.
The Tang Sect had fallen so far through its own doing.
The sect leader had to be surnamed Tang, and had to possess the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. They'd followed that one rule for ten thousand years. Could you believe it?
Even the diehards of the old feudal order would have bowed down in respect.
Mu Guiyun could practically picture it: one day, a member of the Tang Sect tried to change things, only for some powerful old fossil to suddenly leap up, slap the table, and shout:
"That's against the rules!"
After the two of them had eaten and drunk their fill, Mu Guiyun paid and was about to leave when he noticed Tang Ya gazing at him hopefully, a faint blush on her pretty face.
"What is it?"
"Um, um... if you don't want these leftovers, could I pack them up?"
Tang Ya lightly tapped her two jade-like index fingers together in front of her chest, her voice barely audible. "You don't look like you're going to eat them, and there's enough delicious food here to last me ages. Besides, it'd be such a waste to leave it..."
"Do whatever you want."
Mu Guiyun waved a hand and left the restaurant without looking back, leaving Tang Ya alone at the table, happily packing up the remaining food.
"Poor kid."
As he walked along the bustling street, thinking about what Tang Ya had gone through in the original story, even Mu Guiyun couldn't help feeling a pang of sympathy.
She had it far worse than Lao Huo!
She could easily be called the most tragic supporting character in the original story.
Her parents had been brutally killed right before her eyes, her sect's former grounds had been seized, and she was left utterly alone. At long last, she met Bei Bei, who cherished her beyond measure—only for her to be lured into the Holy Spirit Cult a few years later...
Even the bike Bei Bei couldn't bear to kick had probably been ridden by a whole crowd standing up and pedaling in the Holy Spirit Cult...
Wait, now that he thought about it, maybe Tang Ya wasn't the most tragic one after all!
In a daze, a smiling little blue-haired figure appeared in Mu Guiyun's mind.
Since the afternoon had been set aside for free activity, Mu Guiyun decided to return to the inner courtyard.
He didn't have a dormitory in the outer courtyard, and he didn't want one.
Mu Guiyun had no desire to share a single toilet with more than four hundred people. Imagine needing to go in the middle of the night, only to sit down on a strawberry tower...
Just thinking about it made Mu Guiyun shudder.
Someone with a weak constitution might even turn into an Evil Soul Master on the spot...
He arrived at Sea God Island and was just about to head home to see whether Ma Xiaotao's peaches had grown a little when he spotted an elderly figure swaying toward him in the distance.
"Little Yun!"
Mu Guiyun: ...
That shameless old man's voice could belong to no one but Xuan Zi, the one people jokingly called the Holy Spirit Cult's Supreme Elder!
"Elder Xuan, how did you get drunk again?"
Smelling the booze in the air, Mu Guiyun complained, his face dark with exasperation.
"What the hell do you know? Liquor is the essence of grain—the more you drink, the younger you get!"
Xuan Zi approached Mu Guiyun, a chicken leg in one hand and a wine gourd in the other, belching as he came.
Looking at Xuan Zi, who was acting like a mischievous old child, Mu Guiyun gave him a dead-fish stare and said helplessly, "Then have you ever heard that liquor is poison that eats through your guts, and lust is a steel knife that scrapes your bones?"