The Inner Courtyard Cafeteria, Ye Tian's Past

After awakening his martial soul, Bai Ran went to Shrek Academy.

With his current age and soul power level, there was no way for him to enter Shrek Academy.

According to Shrek Academy's admission requirements, only those who reached rank twenty before the age of twelve were eligible to take Shrek Academy's entrance exam.

That said, Bai Ran had not come to Shrek to study.

After all, even Dragon God Douluo Mu En had only successfully enrolled in Shrek after reaching rank twenty at the age of eight.

Bai Ran's current rank was not high enough. Even if he wanted to enter, no teacher would be willing to take him in.

Moreover, even the academy's new students were a group of eleven- or twelve-year-old boys and girls. If Bai Ran, a child who had only just awakened his martial soul, mixed in among them, he would be no different from a tiny little radish. That was not even mentioning the fact that soul masters developed faster than ordinary people to begin with; by twelve or thirteen, they already looked no different from ordinary sixteen- or seventeen-year-olds.

The main reason Bai Ran had come to Shrek Academy now was to tell his uncle Ye Tian, who worked in the academy cafeteria, the good news that he had awakened a food-type martial soul and had innate soul power close to rank ten.

In truth, even if Ye Tian had not been part of Shrek Academy's staff, the fact that Bai Ran's parents had both once been members of Shrek Academy, coupled with the quite impressive talent he had displayed, meant that once the timing was right, he would naturally be able to enter Shrek Academy to study.

Speaking of which, this was Bai Ran's second time coming to Shrek Academy.

When he was four, he had come to the academy to look for his uncle, only to get lost and be surrounded by a group of older upperclass girls. Later, he had even been taken back to an office by an academy teacher, and it was not until school ended that his uncle came to pick him up.

Since then, Bai Ran had never come to the academy again.

There was no other reason. He was simply scared of those older female students. He did not know whether it was because cultivating for too long had left them repressed, but they had no sense of restraint when they got their hands on him. If not for the snacks used to coax him, plus the fact that an adult soul lived inside his young body, Bai Ran really would have wanted to cry on the spot.

Now that he was here for the second time, Bai Ran was no longer charging around recklessly. In any case, he just had to go straight to the academy cafeteria to find someone.

Shrek Academy's inner courtyard cafeteria.

"Master Ye's cooking is still as good as ever."

"Indeed. This dish of ten-thousand-year earth dragon meat not only tastes rich, even its effects have barely been lost at all."

"Master Ye is excellent in every way, except he personally cooks less and less often. These days, even ordinary Title Douluo elders can hardly get him to move."

At the dining table, two old men each held a bowl of earth dragon meat soup, chatting idly on and off.

"I heard Master Ye has a nephew by blood, and this year he's reached the age to awaken his martial soul too. I wonder how it went."

"Have you forgotten? Master Ye also had an older sister."

"Girl Ye?"

"Professors, how is the meal?"

Just as the two old men were chatting enthusiastically, Ye Tian walked out from the back kitchen.

The inner courtyard cafeteria was different from the outer courtyard cafeteria.

The inner courtyard cafeteria only served inner courtyard disciples and the teachers within the inner courtyard.

And not only did the inner courtyard cafeteria possess more precious ingredients, even the chefs working here were food-type soul masters, with the lowest cultivation among them being above Soul Elder.

After all, the people they served were inner courtyard disciples whose soul power levels were at least above rank fifty. Aside from ensuring the food tasted good, what mattered even more was preserving the energy within those precious ingredients.

The "dietary supplements" provided by the inner courtyard cafeteria could also be considered an important resource. Those who were not inner courtyard disciples, even core disciples of the outer courtyard, would find it very difficult to enjoy them.

"Xiao Tian, your culinary skill has improved again. Are you close to breaking through?"

Five years ago, Ye Tian had already broken through to Soul Douluo, becoming one of the very few—one could even say the only—high-level food-type soul masters currently in Shrek Academy.

"No. Breaking through to Title Douluo isn't that easy. Besides, I'm a food-type soul master."

Ye Tian shook his head somewhat helplessly.

"Just now, were the two of you mentioning my sister?"

"Xiao Tian, the two of us old men have had a bit too much to drink, you..."

"It's all right, professors. I've already let it go."

When the two professors heard this, they both expressed that only a ghost would believe him.

If you had really let it go, why was the mission you posted in the inner courtyard to wipe out evil soul masters still there?

As a member of Shrek Academy's staff, Ye Tian was able to post missions on the academy's work list. And as a high-level food-type soul master, the rewards he offered were extremely generous as well.

It could be said that over the years, those inner courtyard disciples had often brought evil soul masters' heads to Ye Tian to claim extra "dietary supplements."

It was said that the eldest senior sister of the inner courtyard loved the dishes cooked by this Master Ye the most.

In order to make Master Ye bring out his treasured finest dishes, after one mission, she had brought back a full three heads belonging to Soul Douluo-level evil soul masters.

Ye Tian: Who said a big greedy girl was bad? This big greedy girl was simply amazing.

"By the way, Xiao Tian, your nephew is awakening his martial soul today. Aren't you going to watch in person?"

One of the two professors suddenly asked, taking advantage of the alcohol in him.

"Don't I still have to cook for you two elders? For this earth dragon soup, I went an entire night without resting."

The two old professors exchanged a glance, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment.

Uh, well. Look what they had gone and done.

"Hey, it's really no big deal. With the soul master specially arranged by the academy there, nothing unexpected could possibly happen."

Ye Tian's tone held a hint of guilt.

All right, Ye Tian simply didn't dare to go.

He was a little afraid of seeing what martial soul his nephew awakened. According to martial soul inheritance theory, a child's martial soul would be inherited from either one of their parents.

Whether that child inherited his sister's martial soul or his brother-in-law's, Ye Tian was afraid that once he saw it, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from remembering his sister and brother-in-law, who had died horribly at the hands of evil soul masters. He also hated himself for being a food-system soul master—he had watched helplessly as his sister desperately held off the evil soul masters, while all he could do was run for his life, unable to do anything at all.

In that mission, he had been the only one in the entire squad to survive. Because his sister and brother-in-law had left behind a child not yet a year old, Ye Tian took on the responsibility of raising the little guy.

In the blink of an eye, his little nephew had awakened his martial soul. Time really passed so quickly.

What happened back then had still affected Ye Tian's state of mind, leaving him stuck at the bottleneck of rank seventy-nine for quite some time.

But when he looked at the child who opened his mouth and called him "Dad"—there was no helping it; at the time, this guy was the only man who had appeared repeatedly in Bai Ran's field of view, though it was corrected later—

Hope for life reappeared in Ye Tian's heart. The feeling of having family again gave Ye Tian the motivation to cultivate once more.

In less than a year, he broke through to Soul Douluo. Now, he was even a rank eighty-seven Soul Douluo, making him the highest-ranked food-system soul master in all of Shrek Academy.