Pulling the Tiger's Skin

Knock, knock.

The knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

"Come in."

The door was pushed open, and several attendants in matching uniforms filed in. They carried trays of varying sizes, each covered with gleaming silver lids, with faint wisps of fragrance drifting out through the gaps.

The attendants swiftly arranged the dishes on the table, then stepped back and bowed in unison.

"Please enjoy your meal, you two."

With that, they withdrew and closed the door behind them.

Only Zhong Shenxiu and Gu Yue remained in the room.

Along with a table full of dishes.

Gu Yue turned around, looking at the food on the table with the corners of her lips slightly raised.

Hundred-year Soul Beast meat, prepared steamed, braised, stir-fried, and stewed—four methods, four distinct flavors.

A rich broth made from hundred-year Soul Beast bones, milky white in color and thick with aroma.

Exquisite side dishes made from hundred-year Soul Beast organs, beautifully plated and obviously painstakingly prepared.

There were also several vegetable dishes, made with rare spiritual plants grown in the Soul Beast Forest, likewise rich in energy.

For an ordinary person, one meal from this table was equivalent to the Soul Power gained from a month of cultivation.

And the price...

Was enough to feed an ordinary family of three for a year.

Gu Yue looked at Zhong Shenxiu, preparing to say something.

Then she froze.

Zhong Shenxiu had already picked up his chopsticks.

He looked at her, his golden vertical pupils still utterly expressionless.

Yet his gaze clearly said:

Can I eat now?

Gu Yue suddenly laughed.

"Go ahead," she said. "I said there'd be enough. Eat as much as you want today."

Zhong Shenxiu nodded.

Then Gu Yue witnessed a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life.

Zhong Shenxiu's chopsticks descended.

He picked up a piece of braised Soul Beast meat.

He put it into his mouth.

He chewed.

He swallowed.

Then—

A second piece.

A third piece.

A fourth piece.

Gu Yue's eyes widened more and more.

She watched helplessly as that plate of braised Soul Beast meat vanished at a visible rate.

He was not eating.

He was pouring it down.

Pouring it straight into his mouth.

Zhong Shenxiu's chopsticks moved at an astonishing speed. Every time they fell, they precisely seized the largest piece of meat and delivered it into his mouth. He chewed so quickly that his mouth barely seemed to move before the meat was already swallowed.

One plate of braised Soul Beast meat, twelve pieces.

Thirty seconds.

Gone.

Then his chopsticks turned toward the steamed Soul Beast meat.

The steamed meat was even more tender, melting the instant it entered his mouth, so he ate it—even faster.

Twenty seconds.

One plate was gone.

Gu Yue's mouth fell open.

She had seen people who could eat.

Tang Wulin was a glutton, capable of eating five times as much as a normal person in a single meal. She had once thought that was the limit of humanity.

But now she understood what it meant to truly be able to eat.

Zhong Shenxiu's chopsticks did not stop.

Because the Myriad Dragon Source Art operated every moment without pause, Zhong Shenxiu cultivated quickly even in East Sea, where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was not abundant. However, he needed to consume more food to acquire energy, and Qingyun Restaurant was famed for its Soul Beast cuisine. The energy contained in every dish was far beyond anything the academy's meals could compare to.

Seeing that Zhong Shenxiu had absolutely no intention of stopping, Gu Yue hurriedly asked, "Um, Zhong Shenxiu, can I ask... do you really not have any family?"

The words had barely left her mouth when she felt they were too blunt, so she quickly added, "That's not what I mean. I mean, perhaps... you still have family somewhere in this world?"

After speaking, she fixed her eyes on Zhong Shenxiu's face, trying to read something from that eternally expressionless visage.

Zhong Shenxiu's chopsticks paused.

It was slight and fleeting, almost impossible to notice.

Then he continued picking up food, putting it into his mouth, chewing, and swallowing.

Gu Yue waited for a long time, yet received no answer.

She bit her lower lip, resisting the urge to point at his nose and demand an answer again.

Fine, she was not in a hurry.

She had plenty of patience.

Zhong Shenxiu continued eating.

Gu Yue continued watching.

A plate of stir-fried Soul Beast meat disappeared.

A plate of Soul Beast organ side dishes disappeared.

A bowl of Soul Beast bone broth was drained to the bottom.

Watching the broth in that bowl fall at a visible rate, Gu Yue's lips twitched again.

He drank soup as if he were drinking water, gulping it down one mouthful after another.

She suddenly became curious. Just how was Zhong Shenxiu's stomach built? He had eaten so much, so why was there not even the slightest sign of it bulging?

"You..." she could not help saying, "is your stomach bottomless?"

Zhong Shenxiu set down the bowl and glanced at her.

"No."

"Then why do you eat so much?"

"Need to."

Gu Yue froze for a moment.

Need to?

She suddenly remembered that dragon pressure.

That dragon pressure that had nearly made the bloodline within her submit.

It was dragon pressure.

The purest, oldest, most supreme dragon pressure.

Dragon pressure no weaker than the Dragon God's.

How could a human possibly emit such pressure?

Unless...

He was not human.

At the very least, in terms of bloodline, he was closer to dragonkind.

Gu Yue drew a deep breath.

She knew this question was sensitive, perhaps something Zhong Shenxiu did not wish to mention.

But she had to ask.

Because she had to determine just who Zhong Shenxiu was.

No, what kind of existence he was.

After Zhong Shenxiu finished all the dishes, he set down his chopsticks and pressed his lips together.

Naturally, he could not reveal his secret, especially not before the Silver Dragon King, who was pretending to be a nine-year-old human girl.

A Dragon God incarnation that had lived for hundreds of thousands of years, the Lord of Soul Beasts, a hidden existence plotting and manipulating the continent's circumstances from the shadows—if she learned that he had crossed over from another world, learned of those slaughter-filled dreams, those deaths, those bloody battles against evil dragons and Fallen Star Dragons, learned that his martial soul was fundamentally the Myriad Creation Dragon God that stood above dragonkind...

The consequences would be impossible to predict.

But...

That did not mean Zhong Shenxiu could not make a small arrangement.

Or rather, create the impression in advance that a force stood behind him.

After all...

Zhong Shenxiu was not exactly lying.

He was the last hope of the Dragon Fighting World.

He was the Lord of the Dragon Fighting Plane.

The Twelve Star Dragons awaiting his revival, the Four Great God King Dragons, and the surviving Doulongs—all of them, in a sense, shared an incomparably close relationship with him.

Though they could not truly appear in this world yet, though they still needed to wait until he had grown strong enough to summon them once more...

They existed.

They were his support.

They were his kin.

They were his...

Family.

Zhong Shenxiu lowered his eyes, figures who had fought beside him in his dreams flashing through his mind.

The righteous Twelve Star Dragons, safeguarding the order of the Dragon Fighting World.

The Four Great God King Dragons, controlling the primal powers between heaven and earth.

And the Doulongs who had survived the war against the Black Death Dragon. They had placed their hopes in him, waiting for the day when he could awaken them once more.

Those were not dreams.

They were another world that truly existed.

It was where he had come from.

And where he would return.

Zhong Shenxiu raised his head and looked at Gu Yue.

Her black eyes shimmered with barely concealed curiosity and anticipation.

She was waiting for his answer.

Zhong Shenxiu considered his words before slowly speaking.

"Perhaps I do."

Gu Yue's eyes immediately lit up.

There was hope!

She knew it!