A true brother!

On the way back to Shrek Academy, Mu En naturally tested Zhang Lexuan's talent for cultivation.

To Mu En's surprise, her talent was remarkably good. Even at Shrek Academy, she would qualify as a top genius.

Not yet twelve years old, she had already reached rank twenty-eight, and there was still a full half year before next year's admissions at Shrek. With her talent, she would certainly break through to Soul Elder with ease before admissions began.

Just because Huo Yuhao's incoming class had three Soul Elders, that didn't mean twelve-year-old Soul Elders were a dime a dozen.

Go back ten thousand years, and even Tang San had only been rank twenty-nine at twelve.

Even on the Douluo Continent, where the cultivation system had been perfected and pills like the Mystic Water Pill could raise innate soul power, greatly accelerating cultivation, Soul Masters weren't necessarily all that fast at cultivating in their early stages.

Take this little example:

The daughter of a God King, with one yellow soul ring and one purple, who had eaten heavenly treasures until she was sick of them since childhood-and she was only rank twenty-one at twelve.

With that comparison, didn't Zhang Lexuan instantly become a peerless prodigy?

Besides, Soul Elders among the incoming students weren't something every class could boast. Huo Yuhao's class, with three new Soul Elders in a single year, was the most extraordinary coincidence of all.

Mu En hadn't expected the little girl he had saved out of simple pity to possess such outstanding martial soul talent.

Compared with her talent, it was Zhang Lexuan's martial soul that left him uncertain.

"A moon martial soul..."

Martial souls came in all manner of strange forms. On the Douluo Continent, practically anything could awaken as one, from the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens, to the birds and beasts on the ground, down to tools humans had devised themselves, such as hoes and sickles.

Moon martial souls weren't entirely unheard of in the Douluo Continent's ten thousand years of history.

But after the Sun Moon Continent collided with the Douluo Continent four thousand years ago, the sun and moon martial souls had essentially become branded with the mark of the Sun Moon Imperial Family, hereditary martial souls belonging to the royal bloodline of the Sun Moon Empire.

As the Sea God Pavilion Master and a Limit Douluo himself, Mu En's knowledge of martial souls was naturally extremely profound.

It would be perfectly fair to call him a veteran martial soul scholar.

With only a brief test, he had recognized the depth of Zhang Lexuan's martial soul origin. Even identical martial souls would differ in innate soul power and martial soul origin when awakened in different Soul Masters. Zhang Lexuan's moon martial soul was exceptionally powerful, and she also had innate full soul power.

Could she really belong to a branch of the Sun Moon Imperial Family's bloodline that spread into the Heaven Dou Empire? Mu En felt a little puzzled, but soon put those questions out of his mind.

It didn't matter.

Whether the Zhang family's bloodline came from the Sun Moon Empire's royal family or not, as long as they were now people of the Heaven Dou Empire, had the blood of the Douluo Three Kingdoms flowing through their veins, and considered themselves people of the Douluo Three Kingdoms, that was enough.

Mu En didn't care where Zhang Lexuan's martial soul had originated.

Wherever she had once belonged, from this day onward, she would be a member of Shrek.

Mu En's round trip to Tianyue City hadn't even taken a day. He had landed, crushed Demon Wolf to death, and brought Zhang Lexuan back, barely stopping at all. With a Limit Douluo's speed, he had set off that morning and returned to Shrek Academy that afternoon.

"Is that Shrek Academy?" Up in the sky, Zhang Lexuan's little hand rested in Mu En's as she blinked her large eyes and gazed curiously at the clusters of buildings nearby.

Sea God Lake in particular, its waters sparkling beneath the setting sun, held the little girl's gaze firmly captive.

"Yes, this is Shrek Academy, and your home from now on!" Mu En chuckled. With his eyesight, he easily spotted Ye Qing and Bei Bei grilling fish beside Sea God Lake. "Come, Lexuan. I'll take you to meet the rest of your family."

The rest of my family?

Hearing Mu En say that, Zhang Lexuan couldn't help feeling nervous, but a little anticipation mingled with that nervousness.

For her, now alone in the world without a single loved one or attachment, family was what she longed for most.

Mu En noticed the little girl's timid hesitation too, and thoughtfully slowed his flight, giving her plenty of time to prepare herself.

Meanwhile, the muttering of the two little troublemakers below reached Mu En's ears.

"Aw, Brother Ye, you burned this fish!" Bei Bei took a bite of the fish Ye Qing had grilled, and his little face immediately scrunched up.

Fishing alone certainly wasn't enough. Ye Qing could sit still, but Bei Bei couldn't. If he hadn't lacked patience, he wouldn't have come away empty-handed so often.

Ye Qing had thought it over. These fish would either go home for that old geezer Ye Feng to cook or get tossed back into Sea God Lake anyway, so why not try making tasty grilled fish himself? He was always reading people in the original novel rave about how delicious Huo Gua's succubus-level grilled fish was. Hadn't Huo Gua learned by cooking it himself since childhood too?

I can do it too!

And so, the scene before them had come to pass.

More than half of the grilled fish in Bei Bei's hand had been charred black. Only the other half was properly cooked and edible, and Bei Bei's bite happened to leave him with a mouthful of charcoal ash.

The fish in Ye Qing's hand was precisely the opposite. Half was cooked and edible, while the flesh on the other half still had a pinkish hue.

Undercooked...

Having also bitten into his grilled fish, Ye Qing wore a mask of agony as he spat out that biological weapon. Wiping his mouth, he rolled his eyes. "You should be glad it's edible at all. You're the first person to eat something I cooked with my own hands, so count your blessings."

Holy crap, why is grilling fish so hard!

Even Ye Qing felt rather helpless.

It had looked pretty simple, but only after trying it himself did he discover how much it left him scrambling.

Fish flesh was very tender to begin with. Grill it too briefly or use too little heat, and it wouldn't cook through at all. But if the heat accidentally got too high and the flesh dried out while he wasn't paying attention, both skin and flesh would soon burn together.

Looks like cooking takes skill too, Ye Qing sighed helplessly to himself.

Casually tossing the ruined grilled fish into the fire, Ye Qing gave up on cooking for himself.

Maybe later.jpg

He was giving up and slacking off.

Bei Bei had originally wanted to throw his grilled fish away too, but after a moment's hesitation, he actually dutifully ate the entire edible half before discarding the half he couldn't eat.

"You're right, Brother Ye. This is your first time cooking. I can't let it go to waste," Bei Bei said earnestly.

Ye Qing's eyes immediately brimmed with moved tears.

"You're a true brother!"

You ate something even I couldn't stomach without a word of complaint. You've earned your place as my brother!