Skybreak City

Xiong Fei manifested his Golden Treasure Gourd and enlarged it into a vehicle capable of carrying four people.

The teacher and three students sat atop the enormous golden gourd, traveling through the transmission passage leading to Skybreak City.

With nothing to do, Shi Hao looked puzzled and struck up a conversation. "Why aren't prodigies like Shi Yi and the Fire Emperor's daughter, who are both Heaven-Mending Pavilion disciples, going to Hundred-Segment Mountain with us?"

Huo Yuhao explained, "They have powerful factions backing them, so naturally, their own elders will escort them."

Shi Hao immediately put what he had learned to use. "I have a powerful faction too—Stone Village. Elder Xiong Fei is the elder escorting me."

Tang Wulin smiled and chided him, "Since when did Elder Xiong Fei belong to Stone Village?"

Huo Yuhao could not help snickering. "You should either say that the Willow God is your protector, or that Heaven-Mending Pavilion is the powerful faction supporting you."

Shi Hao shook his head mischievously. "I hereby declare that Elder Xiong Fei has been recruited under Stone Village."

Xiong Fei tapped Shi Hao's forehead with a finger and scolded him with a smile. "You brat, you have more crooked ideas than anyone else every single day."

Shi Hao was not ashamed in the slightest and instead said smugly, "What can I do? I'm a heaven-blessed, peerlessly divine genius, invincible in this world... Ah—"

Before he could finish, Huo Yuhao and Tang Wulin heard Shi Hao cry out. No need to ask; Elder Xiong Fei had definitely given him a knuckle rap.

The moment he heard "heaven-blessed and peerlessly divine," Xiong Fei became furious. "I still haven't settled the score with you for scribbling all over the stone monument on the Second Battlefield."

Shi Hao scratched his head and gave an awkward laugh. "You're a magnanimous adult, so don't lower yourself to the level of a child like me. Besides, even the Pavilion Master said it was a trivial matter. There's no need to keep dwelling on it."

Xiong Fei snorted and decided not to pursue it further. "If not for the Pavilion Master's sake, I would have smacked your backside until it blossomed."

"Hey, look ahead! We're almost at our destination!"

Looking guilty, Shi Hao's eyes wandered until he spotted a strange point of light not far ahead in their direction of travel. It was clearly the end of the transmission passage. He immediately changed the subject to divert Xiong Fei's attention.

Xiong Fei promptly controlled the Golden Treasure Gourd, sending it hurtling toward the endpoint at top speed. Before long, the four of them passed through the transmission passage and arrived safely in Skybreak City.

The moment they entered Skybreak City, the sight of bizarre and varied ferocious beasts roaming through the streets and alleys came into view.

"Wow—there's so much delicious food here!" Shi Hao's eyes gleamed as he looked at the differently shaped ferocious beasts, unable to stop himself from exclaiming.

The several-meter-long Twin-Body Feiyi looked like an enormous caterpillar in Shi Hao's eyes. The Sky-Splitting Demon Butterfly, covered in strange demonic markings, was merely an ordinary butterfly barely enough to fill a gap between his teeth.

Xiong Fei helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead. "I think hunger has scrambled your brain."

Shi Hao rubbed his uncooperative stomach. "So what are we eating now? I'm starving so badly my chest is sticking to my back."

Pointing at a stall across the street, Xiong Fei suggested, "They sell sesame flatbread over there. How about we go eat some?"

Shi Hao curled his lip. "Sesame flatbread is so hard. It can't possibly taste good."

Xiong Fei remained unconvinced and stood by his opinion. "You'll know once you try it."

Just as Xiong Fei was about to cross the street to buy sesame flatbread, a tall, beast-faced humanoid ferocious beast passed through the middle of the road, temporarily blocking his way.

"That's... a Golden Beast! Legend says that only pure-blooded ferocious beasts from the Primordial Divine Mountain are qualified to call a Golden Beast their servant." Xiong Fei stood where he was, politely waiting for the Golden Beast to slowly pass before him.

A woman in a purple dress, her face veiled by thin gauze, sat on the Golden Beast's left shoulder. She gave Shi Hao a faint glance before finally leaving with composed elegance, as though nothing had happened.

"Primordial Divine Mountain... Father, Mother..." Shi Hao murmured.

"Elder Xiong Fei told you to go over and eat sesame flatbread. Hurry on over. Since we were worried you might not like sesame flatbread, Yuhao-ge and I are going to a street farther away to buy some soybean flour cakes."

Tang Wulin patted Shi Hao's shoulder, pulling the distracted Shi Hao out of his memories.

Soybean flour cakes, commonly known as donkey rolls, were soft, glutinous, sweet, and melted in the mouth. A beloved folk snack known in every household, they naturally appeared amid these bustling streets teeming with traffic and people.

"You two are really thoughtful. Having you around is my good fortune."

Of course Shi Hao had heard of donkey rolls' famous reputation, and his mouth was already watering. Still, to fill his presently ravenous stomach, he could only run across the street first and try accepting the hard-crusted sesame flatbread Elder Xiong Fei was buying for him.

Tang Wulin linked arms with Huo Yuhao and walked toward the distant street with eager interest.

By sheer coincidence, a sedan chair carried by four male servants was passing near the donkey roll stall. A White Tiger was sprawled atop the sedan chair, attended by two personal maids at its side.

From the sesame flatbread stall where the four had originally been, Shi Hao's current strength did not allow him to see the donkey roll stall's exact location with his naked eyes from so far away, much less notice the White Tiger passing around a corner near it.

As for why Huo Yuhao could see it, only Tang Wulin beside him knew the reason. This was the signature ability of Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes martial soul—Mental Detection. The extent of Huo Yuhao's spiritual power determined its detection radius and coverage.

Stepping upon spatial elements, Huo Yuhao flickered through different parts of the streets. In only a few breaths, he and Tang Wulin, who was still holding his arm, stepped through space and arrived before the donkey roll stall.

"Give me twenty portions of donkey rolls," Tang Wulin said to the stall owner.

"Boss, give me ten portions too. That makes thirty portions between us. This bag of Essence Jades is all yours. Keep the change." Huo Yuhao took out a bag of Essence Jades and handed it to the stall owner.

"Certainly—these two honored guests are truly generous. You bring such glory to my humble stall; it is like granting me a new life." Wearing a fawning expression, the stall owner quickly packed up thirty portions of donkey rolls.

What made the stall owner's jaw drop was that Tang Wulin devoured two hundred soybean flour cakes on the spot in a whirlwind, effortlessly finishing them in one go. That was right—an entire two hundred, the equivalent of twenty portions.

Tang Wulin chuckled. "Yuhao-ge, I still want more..."

"I was just out of stock and getting ready to close up. I'll give you these last five boxes."

Before Huo Yuhao could respond, the perceptive stall owner took out the final five boxes of soybean flour cakes from the stall and gave them to Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin accepted the boxes. After thanking the stall owner together with Huo Yuhao, he made short work of the five boxes of soybean flour cakes, leaving nothing behind.

Just after Tang Wulin finished those five boxes of soybean flour cakes and the stall owner had packed up and safely left, Shi Hao's shout came from not far away.

"Hey—stop right there! Give me back my sesame flatbread!"