Risking His Life Just to Eat

After making do with a quick meal beside Greenfish Creek near the Venomous Insect Woodland, the three set off toward Shrek City.

They were currently in the western outskirts of the Star Dou Forest, while Shrek City lay near its northwestern edge.

The three were not reckless in how they traveled. They did not choose to cut straight through the great forest just because their strength had increased, not even through its outer reaches.

This was a mandatory exam topic that every teacher at every soul master academy would emphasize repeatedly, and a lesson that had to be remembered.

Unless absolutely necessary, never cut through a soul beast forest.

Chen Ping might not have had a teacher drilling that lesson into his ears, but he knew to treasure his own little life.

Without needing to discuss it, the three first left the outer reaches, then followed the main road around toward Shrek City.

By the time evening approached, the trees on either side had grown increasingly sparse, giving way to broad plains.

Were they almost there?

Following the main road out of a stretch of woodland, they saw towering city walls extending left and right across the distant plain.

The immense wall inspired awe not only through its sheer size, but also through the majesty and solemnity it radiated.

Looking into the distance, they could already see Shrek Academy-no, Shrek City.

After all, Shrek Academy had been built on the Lima Plain and occupied an immense area. It was a city in its own right, with over two million people living within it.

Shrek Academy itself was not located in the center of Shrek City, but in its eastern district, facing the Star Dou Great Forest.

The reason was simple. Shrek had replaced Spirit Hall in its former position on the Douluo Continent, so naturally, it had to shoulder the responsibilities Spirit Hall had once borne.

Just as every Great Enshrined of Spirit Hall had borne the responsibility of suppressing any beast tide that might arise, ready at any moment to perish together with the soul beast emperor in the Star Dou Forest.

Shrek Academy's relocation from the former grounds of Blue Tyrant Academy in Heaven Dou City to the ruins of Spirit City had also forced it to shoulder everything Spirit Hall had once borne.

Shrek City had major roads leading east, south, west, and north. Its transport routes reached in every direction.

It was not only the home of Shrek Academy, but also the most important commercial city at the junction of the Three Great Empires native to the Douluo Continent.

Shrek City's southern, western, and northern gates were open to everyone, while only the eastern gate was reserved exclusively for Shrek Academy.

It was evening now, and Shrek's little beasts had been let out of their cages. Having finished a hard day of studying, they roamed the streets in search of food.

"Right, Shrek doesn't seem to have evening study sessions. Getting out of class around now makes sense..."

Walking through the gate and seeing students in variously colored uniforms representing different grades enjoying delicious food along the streets, Chen Ping nodded and muttered to himself.

"Evening study sessions?"

Tang Ya whipped her head around. It was as though she had heard a phrase of utter evil. She had never imagined words could even be put together that way.

"No, nothing..."

Chen Ping found it rather amusing. These Shrek students clearly faced much less academic pressure than the students on Blue Star, though that was a good thing.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Ping felt that even the air of Shrek City carried a savory fragrance-it turned out he was standing too close to a grilled squid stall.

Still, the grilled squid in this other world sure were big!

Watching the vendor beside him grill enormous, face-sized squid on an iron griddle, Chen Ping instinctively swallowed.

But when he looked at the stall's price sign, "Ten-Year Dense-Fog Squid, three Gold Soul Coins each," he hurriedly shook his head.

Who was he to eat something that expensive?

Then again, no wonder Huo Yuhao dared to charge one silver coin for a grilled fish. Compared with the vendors selling soul beast meat dishes in Shrek City, one silver coin for a grilled greenfish really was cheap.

These goddamn prices...

Chen Ping shook his head. If he remembered correctly, Shrek Academy had precisely one redeeming quality.

Ten thousand years ago, Flender's cafeteria had served millet porridge, steamed buns, and pickles.

Ten thousand years later, the cafeteria at the continent's number-one academy still sold millet porridge, steamed buns, and pickles.

At least that would ensure he did not starve to death at Shrek.

But that was all it could ensure. If he wanted sufficiently nutritious food, there were only two ways to get it at Shrek.

The first was to spend money.

Ordinary, inexpensive foods like millet porridge, steamed buns, and pickles were all sold at the first serving window in Shrek's cafeteria.

Even if he wanted some cheap protein, such as eggs or chicken giblets, those were only available at the second window.

Of the eight serving windows at Shrek Academy, the last one even served dishes made entirely from soul beast ingredients.

They were truly expensive, but their nourishing effects on the body were far beyond anything steamed buns, pickles, and millet porridge could offer.

For Chen Ping, who was still growing, that was extremely important.

To take just one example, the Armored Demon Crocodile stew Huo Gua had eaten during the freshman tournament could improve his constitution and strengthen the resilience of his meridians.

If Chen Ping could eat a few meals like that, he would no longer have to worry about the rapidly circulating soul power turbulence during Movement Meditation battering his meridians too hard.

There was also that poultry soup made from some unknown flying soul beast, which could stabilize the vital energy of the internal organs.

After eating enough meals like that, even if someone landed a surprise punch in his stomach, he could immediately punch back and knock them flat, rather than spend ages struggling to catch his breath.

The problem was that he did not have that much money.

If Chen Ping remembered correctly, that one meal cost over sixty Gold Soul Coins.

Mind you, that was the price of a single meal.

Never mind Chen Ping being unable to afford it-even among Shrek's teachers and students, those who could eat like that at every meal were the rarest of the rare.

Food alone would cost at least five thousand Gold Soul Coins a month. How many organizations were wealthy enough to withstand that sort of spending?

Two months' worth of that money would be enough to buy a Mystic Water Pill on the market.

So Chen Ping could only consider the second method.

That was to secure a place as a Core Disciple.

Chen Ping could disregard all the other benefits Core Disciples enjoyed.

But that food allowance worth at least five thousand Gold Soul Coins a month was genuinely enough to make Chen Ping risk his life to fight for it.

Even if he retained his Core Disciple status for only a year, eating at window eight every day would be equivalent to eating a high-quality hundred-year Soul Bone.

No wonder everyone said big cities offered more opportunities. It had been true on Blue Star, and he had never expected the same principle to hold even after changing worlds.

Chen Ping came back to his senses, pulled his gaze away from the football-sized grilled squid, and followed Bei Bei and Tang Ya farther inside.

Although Shrek generally did not allow outsiders into the academy, every rule had its loopholes. Tang Ya and Bei Bei had put their heads together and come up with a way to get Chen Ping in.

At the moment, Chen Ping's official identity was Bei Bei's younger paternal cousin.

Shrek allowed students' relatives to enter and look around. A younger paternal cousin might be a somewhat distant relation, but could anyone claim a cousin was not family?

"Come on. We'll take you into the academy for a look around first, then head to the Library to catch Teacher Wang Yan."

Bei Bei gave Chen Ping a reassuring look, then continued walking ahead.