Chen Ping had no idea what Wang Yan was thinking at that moment.
Plopping down on the soft, clean little bed, Chen Ping leaned back contentedly and sprawled across it, his limbs spread wide.
The next instant, every bone in his lower back seemed to crackle and pop, and he felt as though his entire body were sinking into the bed.
He pulled the bedding over himself. Though the cover was nothing fancy, a fresh, dry scent greeted his nose, and there was a pillow bundled inside as well.
These were all new bedding that he and Wang Yan had bought on the way, carrying a hint of that distinctive roasted-bug smell left by a good airing in the sun.
Clean bedding, a cozy room-these utterly ordinary things brought Chen Ping into a peculiar state of tranquility.
Now, he no longer had to worry about falling out of a tree in his sleep or getting bitten by snakes or insects.
Nor did he have to worry about oversleeping, missing checkout the next day, and having an unexpected calamity befall his wallet.
Much less did he have to worry about an Evil Soul Master spawning out of nowhere while he slept outdoors and snatching up a child like him to use as cultivation material.
"Damn you, Tang San. What the fuck did you blow up Slaughter City for?"
Chen Ping muttered drowsily, then once again went straight to sleep instead of cultivating.
This was the second time Chen Ping had fallen asleep lately. After wandering for so long, this was the first time he had found anything resembling the feeling of coming home.
When he opened his eyes again, the sun was already overhead. He had slept soundly for more than ten hours.
"Shit, shit! Slack off on cultivation today, become brothers in a soul banner tomorrow."
Seeing the sun high outside his window and the bustling crowds below, Chen Ping practically rolled straight out of bed and hurriedly put on his clothes and shoes.
He was not just saying that. With his cultivation speed declining each day compared to the day before, a little over two months was hardly a generous amount of time.
After rank ten, each rank already took considerably longer to cultivate than the ranks before it.
By the time he went from rank fourteen to fifteen, the meditation time required would probably have been enough to gain two ranks below rank ten.
If his rank fell short, he would not get into Shrek Academy.
With cultivation talent like his, who knew when an Evil Soul Master might capture him and toss him into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner? He would have no power to resist whatsoever.
Besides, he still had to think about making money.
He wanted to save up the ten Gold Soul Coins for tuition, along with his food expenses for the coming semester, relying on Wang Yan's help as little as possible.
His appetite was nothing a Control System Soul Master like Huo Gua could compare with. He was far harder to feed than Huo Yuhao.
Even Bei Bei had eaten somewhat less than him at dinner yesterday.
Battle Soul Masters his age were each more ravenous than the last.
Taking out a few cold steamed buns, he broke them up, softened them with hot water in Wang Yan's living room, and wolfed them down. Then Chen Ping picked up the spare key Wang Yan had left on the table early that morning and headed out.
Today, he had to find himself a money-making venture.
To be honest, Chen Ping had already considered making money by selling barbecue last night.
But once he settled down and thought it over a little, he realized the idea might not be nearly as viable as he had imagined.
The reason was simple: the dinner Wang Yan had treated him, Bei Bei, and Tang Ya to last night had been pretty fucking good!
If food like that only counted as average in Shrek, then Chen Ping's own barbecue skills would never reach Huo Gua's level, where diners practically swallowed their tongues along with the food.
Still, Chen Ping clung to a little hope and made several rounds of Food Street in Shrek City.
He even spent quite a bit of money buying and tasting some of the better-selling foods, finally reaching a conclusion.
Making his first pot of gold by copying Huo Yuhao's grilled fish would be hard!
The grilled fish Huo Yuhao made definitely had a touch of fucking fantasy magic to it.
Huo Yuhao genuinely had the talent of a God of Food. Otherwise, that fellow Rong Nianbing would never have taken an interest in him.
The food an ordinary mortal like Chen Ping could make would, at best, be on par with the cook at Hongyue Tower last night.
His barbecue was only at the level of an ordinary cook's dishes. It really was not anything exceptional.
And after wandering around Shrek City for several hours, he had made another rather depressing discovery.
The Douluo Continent seemingly had no cumin at all. At least, nobody was selling it as a spice.
No wonder Huo Gua only used salt and perilla when grilling fish. He had thought it was because Huo Gua could not afford anything else, but apparently cumin simply did not exist here!
Chen Ping's brows knitted even tighter.
Without cumin, what the hell was the point of selling barbecue?
Besides, even if business went well, he did not have Huo Yuhao's miraculous grilling technique.
People would dissect and reproduce his barbecue skills in less than three days.
Put plainly, who the fuck could not barbecue?
It was the most primitive cooking technique there was.
As long as Chen Ping's barbecue stall made money, someone would follow right on his heels.
The people of the Douluo Continent were not idiots, much less saints.
They could not possibly watch Chen Ping rake in money and remain unmoved.
Even if Chen Ping sold barbecue at cost and earned his Gold Soul Coins from drinks, the real source of profit...
Could he guarantee that the suppliers he struck deals with today would not cut him off tomorrow after a word from some local powerful figure?
Of course, if Chen Ping buckled down, having his barbecue techniques copied would not mean he could no longer make money.
If everyone sold barbecue at roughly the same level, at worst, none of them would be able to crush the others.
But that clearly was not the kind of money Chen Ping wanted to make. He wanted quick money-monopoly money.
He had not actually come here to be a cook at a roadside food stall!
He had to make delicious food that nobody else could produce. Only then could he charge a premium and quickly gather enough funds to support his own development.
Take Huo Yuhao's grilled fish, for instance. At one silver coin apiece, Jiang Nannan thought it was expensive and wanted to haggle.
But as long as Huo Yuhao refused, Jiang Nannan could only accept that price.
Why? Because grilled fish elsewhere might be cheaper, but it would never taste this good!
Forget one silver coin-even at one gold coin per fish, Shrek Academy had plenty of people willing to pay that much to satisfy their appetites.
If Huo Yuhao could appear in Shrek right now, Chen Ping would not be so troubled.
Because his Academic Genius Training System really could let him learn Huo Yuhao's secret grilled-fish technique.
The problem was that Huo Yuhao was not in Shrek City right now. Judging by the timeline, he was still at the White Tiger Duke's Mansion!
Where was Chen Ping supposed to go to steal that secret technique?
How could he make money? Just how was he supposed to make money?
Chen Ping strolled through Shrek's streets, his expression thoughtful.
Suddenly, as though something had occurred to him, his eyes lit up.
He had remembered a classic story.
That story seemed to hold the possibility of giving an ordinary person like him, who lacked Huo Gua's God of Food talent, the ability to create unique, delicious food that nobody could reproduce.
Whether he could truly make a fortune, leave others watching his earnings with envious eyes, and quickly gather enough money to cultivate in peace all depended on how much truth there was to that story!
Before you continue