The Grill Master, Huo Yuhao!

Qian Renxue and Huo Yuhao were cultivating in the dormitory.

They were making the most of the Whale Rubber to strengthen their bodies.

Things were rather different on Qian Renchuan's side.

For the past few days, he had arrived in class on time every day. He no longer slept with his head on the desk, either.

But he had found a new way to make school interesting.

The moment class let out, Qian Renchuan took a few lackeys roaming around Spirit Academy's Back Mountain.

As for what he did there, the academy's higher-ups neither asked nor had much power to stop him.

As long as the Eldest Young Master did not lead any troublemaking,

and did not beat students from other classes black and blue, they were grateful enough.

But the arrangement

left Zhang Meng, the Second-Year Class's deputy monitor, with all the work.

With Qian Renchuan acting as a monitor in name only, every tedious task in the class naturally fell to Zhang Meng.

The boy seemed to enjoy it, though.

Whenever he saw Qian Renchuan, he grinned so broadly his face looked like a flower in bloom.

"Eldest Young Master" and "class monitor" rolled off his tongue with such warmth that Qian Renchuan quite liked hearing it.

So what exactly was Qian Renchuan doing on the Back Mountain?

Fishing, of course.

Fishing.

That was right.

Fishing in the most literal sense.

He had suddenly realized he was tired of Spirit Academy's cafeteria food.

It was a school cafeteria, after all. The dishes were always prepared the same few ways, and he had eaten them so often that everything tasted bland.

Qian Renchuan wanted something with flavor. Something caught in the wild.

So, two days earlier, he had taken a few lackeys to scout the Back Mountain.

They looked for pools, stretches of slow-moving river, and places where the fish were plumpest.

The lackeys chosen to run errands for the Eldest Young Master were thrilled.

This was a perfect chance to get closer to the future master of Spirit Hall!

They had no complaints.

Whatever he told them to do, they did it.

One day at noon,

the sun was shining, and a gentle breeze stirred the air.

Beside a clear stream on the Back Mountain,

Qian Renchuan sat on a large rock by the bank. He swept out a hand and ordered,

"Go catch your class monitor a few of the fattest fish!"

Zhao Mang and the other lackeys immediately took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their trouser legs, and jumped into the river with a series of splashes. They began grabbing for fish.

But the fish were cunning.

They darted this way and that,

too slippery to hold.

The boys splashed around until they were soaked, yet for a while, none of them caught a thing.

Li Yan wiped water from his face and grew impatient.

"Brothers, summon your Martial Souls and blast them with Soul Skills!"

The lackeys were about to channel their Soul Power

when Qian Renchuan, still sitting on the bank, raised an eyebrow and stopped them.

"What are you doing?"

"No Soul Skills!"

Li Yan froze and turned to him, puzzled.

"Class monitor, why? These fish are too hard to catch without them."

"Fish killed by a blast or an electric shock have ruined flesh. They won't taste good at all!"

"If you want a good meal, you have to catch them by hand. That keeps the meat fresh and firm. Got it?"

Li Yan and the others thought it sounded like a nuisance, but none of them dared disobey the class monitor.

So they bent down again and kept trying to catch fish with their bare hands.

After a long spell of splashing,

one of them finally caught a large grass carp. Gripping its gills with both hands, he lifted it out of the water and shouted excitedly,

"Class monitor! Eldest Young Master! I caught one!"

"It's huge!"

Only then did Qian Renchuan nod in satisfaction.

"Not bad. Bring it up here. Let's get a fire going and grill some fish!"

Before long, several plump fish lay on the grass by the bank.

Zhao Mang and the others hurried off to gather firewood and start a fire.

Then came the grilling.

But these boys, barely in their teens, were pampered young masters at home. They had never done work like this.

Not one of them knew how to grill a fish.

Some failed to scrape off all the scales. Others tossed the fish straight into the fire.

The result was predictable.

They made a complete mess of several perfectly good fish.

Some were charred black outside while bloody juices still seeped from the flesh within.

Others had fallen into the fire and come out covered in ash.

Looking at the skewers of unrecognizable black lumps before him, Qian Renchuan sighed helplessly.

"You useless lot can't even grill a fish. How are you going to make it on Douluo Continent?"

Li Yan and the others scratched their heads awkwardly, not daring to answer.

But the sight of those charcoal-black fish brought someone to Qian Renchuan's mind.

Huo Yuhao!

The others might not know how to grill fish, but surely that guy did.

His grilled fish was famous across Douluo Continent. With that one skill, he had won over countless stomachs.

"But that guy's obsessed with cultivating now. He holes up in the dormitory all day."

"How do I get him to grill fish for me just once?"

Qian Renchuan rubbed his chin and pondered.

A moment later,

his eyes lit up.

He immediately had his lackeys pick up all the fish from the ground and wrap them.

They were confused, but it was the Eldest Young Master's order. They quickly gathered up the charred fish from the fire, wrapped them, and stood there holding the packages, still wondering what he had in mind.

Qian Renchuan turned and waved them along.

"Let's go."

"All of you, come with me. You're taking the afternoon off."

"As class monitor, I approve."

They stared at him again.

He could just approve their leave like that?

Before long, Qian Renchuan strode back to the dormitory with his lackeys in tow.

He pushed open the door, and sure enough,

Huo Yuhao was still sitting cross-legged on his bed. Carving Knife in hand, he was engraving a Soul Tool's Core Magic Array into a piece of metal.

At the sound of the door opening,

Huo Yuhao merely glanced up.

Seeing Qian Renchuan and the others enter, he paid them no further attention and lowered his head to continue engraving.

After all, as far as he knew, Qian Renchuan was only six years old.

The boy had no idea what a Soul Tool was.

There was no need to hide his work. It was better to let them see it than to act secretive and arouse suspicion.

After entering the room, Qian Renchuan went over and sat on his bed.

He looked across at Huo Yuhao, deliberately arranging his young face into a troubled expression.

Behind him, Zhao Mang, Li Yan, and the other lackeys exchanged puzzled looks.

But with the Eldest Young Master saying nothing, they dared not ask. They could only stand quietly to one side.

After a long while,

Huo Yuhao, still engraving the Core Magic Array, finally noticed something was off with Qian Renchuan.

He had not intended to pry.

But remembering how readily Qian Renchuan had given him that top-grade Whale Rubber, he stopped carving.

He raised his head and asked, puzzled,

"Boss, what's wrong?"