Xiaoya, stop talking and order first!

By now, all the new students had enrolled, and the eastern gate of Shrek City had grown lively once again.

Vendors crowded both sides of the main road outside the eastern gate, selling a dazzling array of goods. Food vendors were the most numerous, their cries ringing out without pause.

Clearly, Huo Yuhao was not the only one who knew that Shrek Academy's students were rich kids who felt no sting spending their parents' money. These vendors had all gathered here to do business with the academy's students, and over time, the area had become a brightly lit food street.

Huo Yuhao slowly approached, pushing a handcart fitted with a barbecue stove and grill. Its countertop was covered with all sorts of seasonings and cooking utensils.

Then he opened the cabinet beneath the cart, took out several small tables and wooden stools, and set them up in a spot fairly close to the city gate.

He had ordered all these things in advance from several shops in Shrek City after lunch that afternoon.

As the saying went, a generous reward would always draw brave men. For the hefty sum of a hundred Gold Soul Coins, Huo Yuhao had gotten the craftsmen to toil tirelessly from his blueprints for an entire afternoon, actually completing a mobile barbecue cart with a distinctly modern design.

When he picked it up, Huo Yuhao arranged with Lao Mo to leave the barbecue cart in his shop's courtyard during the day. In the evening, Lao Mo would load it with the meat and vegetables Huo Yuhao needed and deliver it near Shrek City's eastern gate.

There were other barbecue stalls along the road, but Huo Yuhao's cart was undoubtedly the most eye-catching. After all, such a lightweight, streamlined design was still far ahead of its time on the Douluo Continent.

So even while Huo Yuhao was still arranging the tables and stools and setting out the cart's various seasonings, a large crowd of Shrek Academy students had already gathered around him. They pointed at his barbecue cart and discussed it among themselves.

"Whoa, this little junior really has some ingenious ideas. He actually made a mobile barbecue cart."

"It does make things more convenient, and that gleaming metal countertop looks very clean, too. Not a bad idea."

"There's something of a Soul Tool's design philosophy in this. Could this little junior be from the Soul Tool Department?"

Huo Yuhao did not join their conversation and simply continued working.

Two metal cabinets had been built beneath the barbecue cart. The left one held the folding tables and stools, while the right contained fish, meat, vegetables, and other ingredients for grilling.

Lao Mo had already cleaned all the fish, removing their scales and innards. Huo Yuhao tore up some perilla and agastache, mixed them with other seasonings, and stuffed them into the black carp's bellies before threading the fish onto bamboo skewers.

He also brushed a special sauce over the fish. This sauce of his own creation not only improved their flavor but also carried the aroma of grilled fish as far as possible to attract customers.

After lighting the charcoal in the stove, Huo Yuhao secretly circulated the Flame Mantra, controlling the charcoal's temperature and the area covered by the flames.

Using the Flame Mantra to grill fish-he was probably the first since heaven and earth had been sundered.

The stove was quite large, with room to spare even after Huo Yuhao laid five fish on it. He threaded some meat and vegetables onto bamboo skewers, brushed them with sauce, and placed them on the grill as well.

As a top assassin in his previous life, he had carried out missions that required him to pose as a chef to assassinate his targets. Such missions demanded superb culinary skills, so he had studied cooking systematically.

Combining the original Huo Yuhao's memories with his own extensive experience cooking dishes from across Blue Star, he produced barbecue that surpassed the original story's Huo Yuhao's by more than a little.

If Yao Lao could have manifested himself at that moment, his expression would surely have been caught between laughter and tears. Using his Flame God Eyes Martial Soul and the Flame Mantra to control the heat for more than a dozen different skewers at once was indeed a rare opportunity for Huo Yuhao to practice.

This sort of practice was also highly effective for alchemy, with no risk of wasting materials.

But why did the whole scene look so strange?

My disciple's first step in learning alchemy was actually opening a barbecue stall? If word of this reached the Dou Qi Continent where I came from, people would probably laugh their teeth out!

It had to be said that Huo Yuhao's culinary skills, honed over two lifetimes, had almost reached the level of a grandmaster. Before long, the rich aromas of his assorted grilled dishes had drifted out, proving more effective than any advertisement.

Not only the students leaving the academy, but even the nearby vendors brightened at the scent and turned their gazes toward him.

"Oh? Little Yuhao?"

A girl passed through the crowd and approached Huo Yuhao's barbecue stall. She looked fifteen or sixteen, with long black hair tied into a ponytail down her back. Her Shrek uniform outlined her budding figure, brimming with youthful vitality.

Behind her followed a boy with a tall, slender build. His short, dark-blue hair shone like a gemstone in the sunlight.

Though young, he gave off a refined air. A lazy, gentle smile rested on his handsome face, and with his hands clasped behind his head, he looked toward Huo Yuhao with interest. His attention, however, was on the person rather than the grilled fish.

Huo Yuhao certainly knew these two: Tang Ya, the Tang Sect's commander without an army, and Bei Bei, its eldest disciple, deputy sect master, current sole member, and backup treasury.

"Hello, Tang Ya, Bei Bei. Long time no see." Huo Yuhao smiled and greeted them while turning the fish on the grill.

"Yuhao, I never thought you'd actually enrolled at Shrek." Tang Ya looked at his Shrek Academy uniform in surprise. "But why haven't I seen you around the academy?"

The corner of Huo Yuhao's mouth twitched. Why hadn't she seen him? Because he had deliberately been avoiding these two walking plagues from the Tang Sect, of course. After all, any meeting with Tang Ya and Bei Bei would inevitably turn into a sales pitch for joining the Tang Sect.

And joining the Tang Sect was quite dangerous, especially for him.

The moment he became a member, Mu En and God King Tang would inevitably set their sights on him. If they then sent him to the Qiankun Asking Love Valley for a little advanced training, that was one unforgettable experience he wanted no part of.

A sharp gleam flashed in Bei Bei's eyes as he smiled at Tang Ya. "Xiaoya, you might not have heard, but Yuhao is quite the celebrity among the freshmen now. He dealt that cold-faced old woman Zhou Yi a crushing setback right after enrolling. And I heard that after transferring classes, he even became the class monitor of Freshman Class Nine."

As a descendant of Dragon God Douluo Mu En, Bei Bei had information channels leading straight to the Sea God Pavilion, so naturally, he knew about Huo Yuhao. He simply did not usually bring such matters up with Tang Ya on his own.

"Wow, little Yuhao, you're actually that impressive!" Tang Ya's eyes immediately lit up. "Little Yuhao, since you're so outstanding, why not join our sect? Our sect used to be number one on the continent, you know. You definitely won't lose out by joining."

Definitely won't lose out... won't lose out... lose out...

Losing my fucking body and dignity still doesn't count as losing out?!

Huo Yuhao offered no answer. He merely raised the grilled fish in his hand, its skin golden and crisp, its aroma wafting everywhere, and spoke with a cheerful smile.

"Xiaoya, stop talking and order first."