Blue light flashed and vanished, and the system panel displayed the corresponding goods as Gao Shang had requested.
[One jin of ten-year Mountain Dragon King meat. Price: 100 Gold Soul Coins] [One jin of ten-year Ice Dragon King meat. Price: 100 Gold Soul Coins]
Gao Shang had to admit that every time he searched for something new, he felt he learned quite a bit.
Take the goods listed near the top of the shop this time, for instance.
He knew something about the Nine Great Dragon Kings and Soul Beasts with golden bloodlines.
But some of these extremely rare Soul Beasts, including ones that had gone extinct in ancient times, were creatures he had never even heard of.
"No Golden Dragon King meat?"
Gao Shang raised his brows slightly, gaining a relatively concrete understanding of the Golden Dragon King's combat strength.
The system sold every tangible thing that had ever appeared in the Douluo Plane, past or present, and offered strengthened or weakened versions.
Since the system did not sell Golden Dragon King meat, there was only one possibility-the Golden Dragon King had never suffered a serious injury between his birth and his ascension to the Divine Realm.
At least, he had never suffered an injury serious enough to cost him any flesh or blood.
"Worthy of being the true common ruler of all Soul Beasts. That's downright ridiculous."
Shaking his head, Gao Shang thought no further about it.
As for the meat of the Nine Great Dragon Kings, he had no intention of buying that either.
Eating too much of that stuff would leave him carrying the Dragon Kings' scent. If he ran into a Ferocious Beast from the Star Dou Great Forest one day and it noticed, he could not explain himself even with ten thousand mouths.
Di Tian, or even the Silver Dragon King, would definitely capture him and lock him in a dark room.
In the end, Gao Shang chose a Soul Beast called the Polar Ice Phosphorus Shrimp.
This was a Soul Beast born with the Ultimate Ice attribute, living in the waters on the other side of the Far North.
In terms of combat strength, compared to the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan, whose entire clan likewise possessed Ultimate Ice, they belonged at the same table as Ice Silkworms.
But these Soul Beasts contained abundant vitality and blood energy, and tasted exceptionally delicious.
Most importantly, they tasted even better raw than cooked, making them the favorite food of other Soul Beasts in those frigid seas.
And so, quite naturally, they went extinct.
Gao Shang stared at the panel in silence for two seconds.
"Extinct because they tasted too good... does that count as the culinary world's highest praise?"
Each Polar Ice Phosphorus Shrimp weighed exactly one jin, and Gao Shang bought three jin outright.
But shrimp alone would not do when treating someone to a meal, so he picked out two vegetables as well.
Hundred-year stalactite cabbage and hundred-year fireheart greens-both were fine ingredients renowned for their flavor.
Putting the three ingredients into his Storage Soul Tool one after another, Gao Shang walked home at an unhurried pace.
It was worth mentioning that everything the system sold was fresh but dead, with no Soul Rings or Soul Bones to speak of, which left him somewhat disappointed.
Soon, the milk tea shop's storefront came into view.
But the scene outside made Gao Shang frown slightly.
A burly man two meters tall, dressed like a mercenary, had one arm around a heavily made-up woman and was pointing into the shop with his other hand, shouting.
The woman nestled against him, chiming in from time to time, making the burly man grow ever more overbearing.
Meanwhile, the shop assistant, Sun Meng, stood alone inside the doorway, somewhat at a loss.
Seeing this, Gao Shang hurriedly pushed through the crowd and headed forward.
Only when he drew closer could he make out what the two were saying.
"Let me make this clear! The stuff from your shop upset my wife's stomach and nearly got both of us killed in the Soul Hunting Forest! You're going to pay us proper compensation today!"
The burly man spoke with such confidence that the surrounding onlookers believed him for a moment.
"That's true. An upset stomach is one thing normally, but getting the runs at a dangerous moment really can get someone killed."
"Could they be picking a fight on purpose? I've had this shop's milk tea too. It tasted pretty good, and I haven't heard of anyone getting an upset stomach. Those two are clearly Soul Masters. Surely they aren't that fragile?"
"You never know. Maybe the shop switched to inferior ingredients to cut costs."
The more Sun Meng heard, the more flustered she became, but she still forced herself to argue back.
"I'm sorry, sir, but nothing like what you described has ever happened at our shop. Why don't you come inside and sit down so we can talk? Besides, our boss isn't here right now. Once he returns, we can ask the officials at Spirit Hall to settle this. How does that sound?"
Admitting that there was something wrong with the shop's products was out of the question.
Leaving aside the fact that she had cooked almost all the ingredients herself and knew even better than Gao Shang whether anything was wrong with them.
Her position alone meant she had no authority to decide on Gao Shang's behalf whether to pay compensation.
At the mention of "Spirit Hall," the burly man's expression visibly stiffened.
Seeing this, the woman beside him immediately pinched him and cut in:
"Hmph, we've only just arrived here. Who knows whether you're on good terms with the people at Spirit Hall? Either pay us five hundred Gold Soul Coins or hand over the shop and the recipes. Your choice."
"Absolutely not, I..."
Sun Meng still wanted to argue. She had figured it out now. What upset stomach? They had plainly set their sights on the shop and its recipes.
But the burly man had already recovered by then. Seemingly angered by his own earlier show of fear, he gave Sun Meng no chance to speak.
Two Soul Rings, one white and one yellow, rose from beneath his feet. A long-handled hammer as tall as a person appeared in his hand, and he glared, sending a fierce, oppressive presence straight at her.
"Heavens, two Soul Rings! He's a Soul Grandmaster!"
"More than that, the yellow one is a Hundred-Year Soul Ring. With that strength, he could probably rival one of Spirit Hall's deacons!"
Seeing the burly man release his Martial Soul, the crowd immediately lost the nerve to keep watching and scrambled to squeeze backward.
Although fighting at will was forbidden in the city, what if he really had a violent temper?
As a Soul Master, he would at most receive a fine and a few days in confinement.
But if they got caught up in it, they might lose an arm or a leg with nowhere to seek justice.
Seeing everyone's reaction, the burly man grew even more smug. He raised his hammer and glared down at Sun Meng.
"I don't have time to waste words with you. Either pay up, or I'll smash your shop right now!"
As he spoke, he lifted his hammer and brought it down toward the ground beside Sun Meng's feet.
"First Soul Skill, Tyrant's Power!"
At that critical moment, Gao Shang finally arrived.
Sun Meng was not merely an employee in his shop, but also the personal maid who had attended to his daily needs for three years. Even though the man clearly was not striking to kill, Gao Shang could not turn a blind eye.
So he did not hesitate at all. He activated his first Soul Skill, his muscles bulging as his speed suddenly increased.
Just as the hammer was about to fall, he seized its handle.
The hammer stopped dead in midair. No matter how the burly man strained until his face reddened and the veins in his neck bulged, he could not push it down another inch.
"Kid, I suggest you mind your own business! You're just a rank-one Soul... Soul..."
The burly man's vicious expression froze the instant he caught sight of Gao Shang's Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
His Adam's apple bobbed, but he could not force out the rest of his sentence.
A Thousand-Year Soul Ring was something only a Soul Elder or above could possess.
Both people on his side were Soul Grandmasters, and even together, they could not possibly match a Soul Elder.
The woman beside him also shut her mouth at once, even quietly shrinking behind the burly man.
The crowd fell silent for a moment too, then erupted into an uproar.
"Oh no, oh no. Well, now the big guy's done for."
"Who was saying the shop switched to inferior ingredients just now?"
"Wait, shouldn't a Soul Elder have three Soul Rings? Why does this lord only have one?"
Amid the chatter, the burly man's face flushed crimson.