Transition

Qian Ren Shuang understood this as well: Li Yusong had only been a gatekeeper before, and killing him would not have had much impact.

But Liu Erlong was different—she was the bona fide dean of Blue Tyrant Academy. If he really killed her, Qian Ren Shuang would have to face the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, all the teachers of Shrek Academy, and every expert in Heaven Dou City. That would be unwise.

(If Liu Erlong were killed now, the protagonist would be hunted by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, ultimately missing out on the immortal herbs; it would also disrupt the protagonist's original plan of waiting for Qian Renxue to find him and using her connections to search for people.)

Having thought it through, Qian Ren Shuang took the opportunity to back down and called out, "Fine, WarGrowlmon. Let's go eat. No more fighting."

WarGrowlmon snorted through both nostrils. "Hmph. I won't fight if she transforms back first."

Without another word, Liu Erlong dispelled her "Red Dragon Avatar."

As the light faded, she returned to human form and staggered before steadying herself. Her clothes were still mostly intact, but the body beneath them was covered in scrapes and bruises, and her movements were clearly stiff—several dragon scales had been shattered while she was in her Martial Soul Avatar state, and the backlash was no laughing matter.

"Master, you talk first," Tang San said to Yu Xiaogang. "We're going to eat."

With that, the large group left the gates of Blue Tyrant Academy in grand procession and headed toward the Imperial Delight Restaurant.

Though they had arrived in an unfamiliar city, the group did not get lost—Flender had been here before and remembered the way. Besides, Guilmon vividly remembered the restaurant's scent and followed it all the way there.

But halfway there, Xiao Wu, who had fallen to the back of the group, suddenly began stifling a "kekeke" laugh. Her shoulders trembled as she turned red from holding it in.

"Xiao Wu, what are you laughing at?" Tang San slowed down, came to her side, and asked curiously.

Xiao Wu said nothing. Still suppressing her laughter, she merely stretched out one finger and pointed ahead.

Tang San followed the direction of her finger—

Qian Ren Shuang was walking in the middle of the group, his pace casual, both hands tucked into his pockets. He looked no different from usual. But his butt... swayed from side to side as he walked, carrying an indescribable rhythm that stood in stark contrast to Qian Ren Shuang's usual image as an irritable man. It even gave off a hint of feminine grace.

Tang San's mouth twitched, but he could not hold it in—

"Pfft."

He quickly covered his mouth, but a laugh still slipped out.

Qian Ren Shuang remained completely unaware and continued striding ahead.

Bibi Dong's hips swayed when she walked, carrying the lazy composure and calm of someone in power.

Qian Ren Shuang had been born to Bibi Dong and Qian Xunji, so his body naturally shared many similarities with theirs

.

Furthermore, Bibi Dong had raised Qian Ren Shuang from the ages of six to nine. Even though the two deliberately kept their distance because of their strained relationship,

they saw each other every day, so Qian Ren Shuang had come to think that this walking posture was perfectly normal.

Before long, everyone except Qian Ren Shuang, Ning Rongrong, and Guilmon had begun the challenge of suppressing their laughter.

Xiao Wu covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking; Tang San turned his head aside and pretended to admire the scenery by the road; Ma Hongjun's face was red from holding it in, making him look like a boiled shrimp; Oscar buried his face directly in Dai Mubai's back; even Zhu Zhuqing, who always wore a cold expression, had the corner of her mouth twitch slightly. Dai Mubai was used to seeing women walk like that, but it was his first time seeing a man do so. He covered his face with both hands, looking utterly ashamed and unwilling to watch.

Qian Ren Shuang walked at the very front, completely oblivious to what was happening behind him, still looking around with great interest.

Ignoring this little interlude, the group soon entered the Imperial Delight Restaurant.

The moment they stepped inside, a beautiful waitress in professional attire approached them with a practiced smile. "Welcome. How many are in your party?"

"Miss, do you have a boyfriend?" They had clearly come to eat, yet Ma Hongjun could not control himself at all. His little eyes were glued to her face, and there was even a hint of drool at the corner of his mouth.

"Ten." Qian Ren Shuang raised a hand and smacked the back of Ma Hongjun's head.

"Ow!" Ma Hongjun clutched his head in pain and shrank his neck sheepishly.

While they were speaking with the waitress, Xiao Wu accidentally overheard a conversation that made her furious.

She turned her head and saw a mother and son at the neighboring table—the mother looked to be in her early thirties, elegantly dressed, with an air of nobility in every gesture; the son was around four or five years old, chubby and adorable, holding a knife and fork as he clumsily poked at the chunks of meat in his bowl.

"Mom, do you know the difference between ordinary beast meat and soul beast meat?" The little boy lifted his chin and smugly quizzed his mother.

"Mom doesn't know," the mother deliberately put on a puzzled expression, her eyes full of doting amusement. "What's the difference? Tell Mommy, Xiao Bao."

How could a mother who was a Soul Ancestor possibly not know the answer to such a question?

But so as not to dampen her child's enthusiasm, she knowingly played along with his performance.

"Hehe, I'll tell you—" The little boy puffed out his chest, wearing an expression that said, Listen carefully. "Because the soul ring that condenses after a soul beast dies absorbs the essence of the entire soul beast, the meat left behind after we hunt a soul beast is just ordinary beast meat."

The little fellow naturally did not understand the real details. Thinking his knowledge had surpassed his mother's, he was bursting with pride, his lips practically curling up to the sky.

"Wow—Xiao Bao knows so much!" The mother clapped as she continued guiding him. "Then why does the menu still have soul beast meat?"

"Of course, it's scraped off their bodies while they're still alive!" the little boy said matter-of-factly, without the slightest hesitation in his voice, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"If you scrape off everything that can be scraped off, would that reduce the essence and affect the soul ring that forms?" the mother asked further, as though testing what her son had learned.

"Of course!" The little boy poked at the soul beast meat in his bowl with his knife and fork and answered casually, "Its age would decrease a little, and how much it decreases depends on which piece of meat was cut off. So when we hunt them, we usually don't use a method like slow slicing."

As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who had taken human form, how could Xiao Wu possibly endure this any longer? Her pupils suddenly contracted. She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging into her palms.

The words "slow slicing," spoken so casually by that child, were, to her, the cries of her own kind that she could hear day and night.

She immediately wanted to rush over and teach that ignorant little brat a proper lesson.