"Cut the nonsense! Are you going to eat or not?" Gu Yuena slapped the table and shouted.
"Fine, fine, I'll eat, all right?" Long Yuan gave in and picked up his chopsticks.
He took a mouthful and tossed it into his mouth, then drank some soup.
Of course, he wasn't stupid. Relying on his divine sense's complete control over his body, he simply cut off his sense of taste.
If I can't taste it, I won't think it's awful.
"Why aren't you eating?" Long Yuan asked as he wolfed down the food.
Gu Yuena propped her head up with one hand and looked at Long Yuan with a bright smile. "You eat first. I put my heart into this, so of course I want you to have plenty."
Yet even after Long Yuan had finished every dish on the table, Gu Yuena's chopsticks still lay untouched beside her bowl.
"Hm? How did you finish everything?" Gu Yuena rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
But the table was still just as it had been. The empty plates were still there, and Long Yuan had even polished off the plate of charred food.
"Burp—"
Long Yuan let out a satisfied burp and leaned back in his chair. "Mmm—thanks for the meal. As expected of my Na'er. Even your cooking is full of wisdom."
"Wait!" Gu Yuena pushed herself upright with both hands. "You rascal, Long Yuan! You clearly shut off your sense of taste, didn't you?"
Gu Yuena had caught on. As the Silver Dragon King, once renowned for her spiritual power, how could she not know that spiritual power could be used that way?
"Heh heh, you figured it out. That's right, I shut off my sense of taste." Long Yuan tilted his chin up slightly and said it as though it were only natural.
"Aaah! I'll fight you!" Gu Yuena felt that Long Yuan had completely spurned all her "hard work," and charged at him in a fit of anger.
Long Yuan swept her into his arms. After tumbling through the air a few times, the two of them landed squarely on the sofa.
"Hm? Did I hear that right? You want to fight me?" Long Yuan grabbed both of Gu Yuena's wrists in one hand and pinned her to the sofa.
"Hmph! That's because you..." Gu Yuena pouted.
"Hold it!" Long Yuan said irritably. "You clearly made it taste this awful on purpose. You might not be very bright, but you can't possibly be incapable of cooking. Otherwise, what was the point of going to the cafeteria?"
With Gu Yuena's spiritual power, if she'd wanted to learn, just those few trips to the cafeteria would have been enough to "pick up" every cooking technique the cafeteria chefs used.
Of course, she definitely wouldn't have learned the cafeteria ladies' secret art of shaking their hands.
"Hmph! That's what you get for making fun of my great wisdom!" Gu Yuena muttered, but she didn't struggle any further.
She'd only meant to teach Long Yuan a lesson, but who could have guessed he'd so casually shut off his sense of taste without even trying a bite?
"Hm? What's wrong?" Gu Yuena had already closed her eyes, ready to accept her punishment. But when nothing happened to her bottom, she cautiously opened one eye and saw that Long Yuan seemed to have suddenly frozen.
"Hmph! You've got some nerve!" A sharp gleam entered Long Yuan's eyes, and an intimidating Golden Light shone from them.
The next moment, a tremendous explosion sounded in the distance. It had come from the direction of the Blacksmith Association.
An hour earlier.
In the villa, Cao Chun pulled a human-skin mask over his face and straightened his clothes.
From any angle, he looked like an ordinary resident now, not a wanted Evil Soul Master.
"Stick to the plan. Whoever gets away first, we'll wait half a day in Linghai City, then head straight to the rendezvous point the lord chose."
"Yes, boss. Don't worry, I'll be careful," Pei Wen replied.
Cao Chun nodded. The two of them had been on the run together for so many years, and he knew that even if Pei Wen's cultivation was inferior to his, his knack for making a getaway was every bit as good.
He opened the window, and the rain immediately poured inside, soaking the expensive carpet and seeping into the mottled bloodstains on it.
But this wasn't his villa, so naturally he didn't feel the slightest pang of regret.
Cao Chun climbed through the window and dropped into the alley outside the wall.
Through the window, Pei Wen watched his boss's back disappear into the curtain of rain.
As agreed, he would leave one minute later, heading in the opposite direction. One of them would go northwest, the other northeast.
Pei Wen sighed and crouched down, closing the eyes of the man at his feet. He was the villa's owner, but Cao Chun had forcibly sucked out his soul, leaving him dead with his eyes wide open.
There was a streak of blood on the coffee table, and a clotted scab on the man's crown. His uncontrolled body had crashed into the table's corner, causing it.
Rain struck Pei Wen's face. He was soaked through, but the cold seeping into him was nothing compared to the sorrow in his heart.
"Boss, when did you become like this?"
He thought back to what Cao Chun had been like before. Back then, he'd been an optimist, while Pei Wen himself had been withdrawn and timid, often needing Cao Chun to comfort him.
Cao Chun back then had been the person Pei Wen dreamed of becoming: capable, talkative, cheerful. But after that, everything changed...
"What difference is there between you and us?" Pei Wen looked at the man, as if speaking to him, or perhaps just talking to himself.
"We're all just ants. Any passing wave could drown us. Boss said joining the Holy Spirit Cult would change our lot, but so what? Soul Douluos are certainly powerful, but above them are Titled Douluos; above Titled Douluos are Super Douluos, and above them are Limit Douluos..."
Pei Wen didn't continue. The minute was up, and it was time to leave.
Without the slightest hesitation, he leaped into the rain and ran in the opposite direction.
Rain was a wondrous thing. In the rain, one could feel the vastness of heaven and earth. But Pei Wen could barely breathe, as if the shadows all around him were pressing in.
The patter of rain echoed in his ears, yet it beat against his heart. His heartbeat quickened, and four Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple—appeared beside him. A pair of black wings tore through the back of his clothes, then were drenched by the rain.
The next instant, he beat his wings and shot through the downpour into the sky. Flying in the rain was exhausting, but he had no choice.
"Your Excellency Heavenly Phoenix! The two of them have left the target villa!"
"Good. What are their directions?" Leng Yaozhu took a sip of tea and asked calmly.
Before her stood several specially made soul guidance screens, displaying the area around the villa.
"One headed northeast, and the other went northwest."
Leng Yaozhu glanced over. "Oh? They're bold enough to fly that high?"
"Should we close the net now?"
"Not yet. Keep monitoring them. I'll follow them in secret. We might be able to hook a bigger fish."
How could Cao Chun and Pei Wen have known that the hiding place they thought was perfect had actually been under the Spirit Pagoda's surveillance all along?
If Leng Yaozhu hadn't wanted to see what else she could lure out, they would have been caught long ago.
Just as Pei Wen had said, he and Cao Chun were only ants. Leng Yaozhu had only to breathe out, and a giant wave could swallow them whole.
The only reason they were still alive was that Leng Yaozhu still had patience.
That was all.