Handling the Paperwork, Preparing to Reopen

At the dinner table, Bei Bei couldn't make sense of it no matter how much he thought about it, but in the end, he didn't ask.

After all, he had secrets of his own, and Tang Ya had secrets too. How could he casually pry into someone else's secrets?

He would wait for Little Su Mu to tell him personally someday, he thought.

He looked at Tang Ya, who was starving at the table, and Jiang Nannan, who took a bite only now and then.

Tang Ya ate quickly. She was the first to wipe her mouth clean, then took a sip of tea to wash everything down before stretching and saying, "I'm exhausted. I got up early this morning and haven't even eaten until now."

"Oh, right, Bei Bei. Today I'm going with the little boss to set up a stall on the Food Street over by the city. We need to sort out the paperwork and pay the Gold Soul Coins when we get there. Want to come take a look?"

"Besides, that Soul Master you arranged probably won't be coming today, right?" Tang Ya said.

After all, Bei Bei's influence was extraordinary. If he went along, he might very well settle this task with just a few words.

Watching the scene before him, Su Mu guessed that the Soul Master Bei Bei had mentioned might have been transferred over from Shrek Academy.

Given Bei Bei's network, aside from the Heaven Dragon Gate, which he had not contacted in years, Shrek Academy was the only connection he had left.

And if the person coming was a Soul Master with life energy, then they were most likely one of Shrek's senior elders: Elder Zhuang, owner of the Life Ancient Tree Martial Soul.

One of the few normal people in Shrek Academy.

Su Mu hadn't expected Bei Bei's consideration to be enough to invite someone like that to act. Was it because of the person Bei Bei had asked, or was it—

Did Elder Zhuang truly want to travel all the way from Shrek City to Heaven Dou City for the illness of a family member who wasn't even a Soul Master, all for a freshman who would only join Shrek Academy in the future?

Su Mu didn't dare think about it. It was too crazy. For now, he needed to hurry up and set up his stall.

Only earning Gold Soul Coins through the system was the proper way forward.

Bei Bei agreed to Tang Ya's request, while Su Mu remained at home.

Along the way, Bei Bei barely spoke and kept flipping through a book.

Tang Ya, on the other hand, chattered endlessly about which shop had delicious hand-rolled noodles, which shop's clay pot dishes had the most authentic flavor, and which shop's stinky tofu was the most genuine.

Before long, they arrived at the food plaza she had brought him to yesterday. It was around seven or eight in the morning.

It was still early overall, but several breakfast stalls nearby had already opened, with crowds weaving through them.

They exchanged the cold Silver Soul Coins in their hands for steaming-hot breakfast.

"I told you, ten Silver Soul Coins a day here really isn't expensive."

"Little Su Mu, just think about it. With your serving speed and your flavor, you'll definitely be able to hold your own in this area."

"I've already planned it out for you. Once your business gets booming, we'll lease a storefront in Heaven Dou City and open a shop. When the time comes, I'll give you the position of Tang Sect master. Then you can sincerely join the Tang Sect and become a proud part of it." Tang Ya said.

This time, her sights weren't only set on Su Mu's fried chicken, but on Su Mu himself. Innate Full Soul Power and a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul—wasn't that the template of their ancestor?

It was just a pity that everyone believed Tang San's success had not relied on that Blue Silver Grass.

Instead, they believed he had relied on his Titled Douluo father, his Super Douluo great-grandfather, and the Super Martial Soul Clear Sky Hammer they had left him.

Only those members of the Tang Sect who had later been forcefully brainwashed by Tang San into mindless, die-hard followers firmly believed that Tang San's success truly came from Blue Silver Grass.

Su Mu felt that Tang Ya's entire generation was rather pitiful. At such a young age, she had been selected from across the continent as the person with the strongest bloodline and inherited the position of Tang Sect master.

As the sect continued to decline, its disciples all possessed Blue Silver Grass Martial Souls without any combat ability. They had even resorted to inbreeding for the sake of so-called pure bloodlines.

Tang Ya's branch had only recently taken over the position of sect master when the entire sect was slaughtered, leaving Tang Ya as the sole surviving descendant.

The truly tragic part was that if Tang Ya learned Tang San's success had not come from the Blue Silver Grass that Tang San and his teacher Yu Xiaogang had already ruined beyond repair, Su Mu wondered whether she would completely break down.

If anyone was truly good at screwing people over, it was Tang San—God-King Tang. He clearly knew that his Blue Silver Grass had already been ruined, that its fundamental vitality was gone and only its basic control and attack abilities had been strengthened. Yet he still passed this inherited set of skills down to later generations for them to keep researching and refining.

He had even made it a point of pride for Blue Silver Grass to absorb Poison Soul Rings and evolve continuously. In the end, the more they learned, the more useless they became; the more they practiced, the more ruined they became, until they had completely destroyed Blue Silver Grass's Life Attribute.

Perhaps the reason Tang Ya's branch could become sect masters, and why Tang Ya ultimately became the Tang Sect master as its last survivor,

was also because generations of Blue Silver Grass Martial Souls had absorbed Poison Soul Rings over such a long time, causing their Innate Soul Power to grow weaker and weaker until the sect finally declined.

Su Mu looked at the documents being passed out one by one from the window. He had thought things through during this time as well.

Although he could no longer use the fried chicken cart outside, he could still ask them to customize a mobile fried chicken stall and have someone deliver it inside.

After all, custom orders in the outer city were much cheaper than those in the inner city. He didn't dare imagine how much it would cost to build a proper fryer station and work counter in this extravagantly luxurious inner city. He had to save every Gold Soul Coin he could.

Su Mu took out twenty Gold Soul Coins before he could complete all the paperwork. Half of it was immediately stuffed into the Soul Tool of the civil servant responsible for collecting and recording information.

That was blatant corruption. Su Mu gritted his teeth. That flamboyant man had taken ten of his Gold Soul Coins without saying a word. How could he possibly tolerate that? He would have to find an opportunity to beat it back out of him.

Taking the stack of documents handed over to him, Su Mu put them away and followed Tang Ya and Bei Bei outside.

"With Bei Bei stepping in, things really go fast. Oh, right, Bei Bei, what did you say to him just now? Why did he process your paperwork so quickly?" Tang Ya asked curiously.

She had not been there during the most crucial stage of the application process, so she had no idea why the receptionist, who had been so arrogant and overbearing before,

had now gathered all the information and successfully completed the documents in less than one-fifth of the expected time.

"It was nothing. I just told him that there was a Titled Douluo in my family and that he should be careful walking at night.

"He could make money, but he should make sure he'd still be alive to spend it. Then he honestly processed my documents. He didn't make things difficult for me, and he didn't ask for extra Gold Soul Coins either," Bei Bei said.

Ten Gold Soul Coins were indeed not much to him, but to Su Mu, they were already an enormous sum.

Bei Bei usually spent at least a hundred Gold Soul Coins at a time. Aside from spending a little less when eating with Tang Ya, being charged only ten extra Gold Soul Coins for getting everything done seemed to him like the clerk was an exceptionally frugal and upright citizen who didn't dare take so much as a thread from the public.

But in Su Mu's ears, it sounded completely different. Rich bastards really were something else—ten Gold Soul Coins could actually be called a small amount of money.

"Oh, right, Su Mu. Since you're going to set up a stall here, what about your food cart? Do you need us to help you customize one?"

"That big guy from yesterday still remembers you vividly. He asked me to contact you and see whether you had time to go out for a meal with him."

"He said he felt a kind of mutual appreciation with you and wanted to become sworn brothers with you." Tang Ya said.

Yesterday's scene flashed through Su Mu's mind: a round face, a full beard, and a pink iron hammer. A wave of icy revulsion shot straight to the top of his head.

Su Mu shook his head and forcibly threw the thought out of his mind. "I'll have the old Modification Factory make one for me. Their prices are pretty fair, and they'll even throw in two extra trash cans."