It’s already good enough that someone’s still willing to deliver here. Best not to be too picky, or eventually even the last brave soul won’t take the order.
On a row of villas, only one house had its lights on. The rest were pitch black. The food delivery guy, riding an electric scooter, looked a bit nervous—he had the throttle twisted all the way.
Seeing that one house lit up, with someone actually waiting under the light, there was no need to look for house numbers at all.
He sped over to the gate, asking with a hint of caution.
"Your delivery. Please leave a good review." The delivery guy quickly handed the food over to Wen Yan.
Wen Yan took the food, watching the delivery guy’s pale face as he maxed the throttle and sped off. Wen Yan raised his hand to remind him to be careful, but ended up saying nothing. No point scaring the poor guy any further.
He watched the delivery guy return to the lively courtyard out front, and once he made sure nothing was off, he finally went back inside.
Even getting takeout is this much trouble. If another delivery guy has a run-in with something here, am I going to have to cook for myself every day from now on?
He opened the takeout—familiar fast food box, a familiar little pouch with the soy sauce served separately.
He poured the soy sauce on the rice noodle rolls, took a bite—the taste was spot on.
"Old Xi, come eat some rice noodle rolls!"
Wen Yan called out, and saw the little zombie zip over at lightning speed, holding each of the booster seats for herself and Sparrow Cat in each hand, setting them beside the dining table, and then raising her hands up for Wen Yan to lift her onto the chair.
Wen Yan helped seat the little zombie and Sparrow Cat. Only then did Zhang Laoxi show up.
"Come eat some rice noodle rolls."
He routinely sent some yang energy to the little zombie, fed her a tomato blessed with yang energy, then gave Sparrow Cat a portion of the rice noodle rolls. The group began eating with great enjoyment.
Thank goodness, the old restaurant’s rice noodle rolls still tasted the same as ever.
Just as he was digging in happily, his private phone rang. He looked—local number—so he picked up.
"Hello, this is the rice noodle roll shop. So sorry, I just realized we gave you the wrong sauce. That sauce had some soy sauce mixed in."
"Huh?" Wen Yan was caught off guard.
"Well, how about this: I can have someone bring you a fresh sauce, or I can give you a refund." The owner sounded sincere—it’s an old shop with a good reputation, serving the neighborhood, and definitely wouldn’t try to shortchange anyone.
"No need, the flavor is great—trust me, this sauce right now tastes fantastic, absolutely perfect!" Wen Yan said earnestly, even a bit anxiously.
If he really had to eat plain white rice noodle rolls tomorrow, that would be a fate worse than death.
"You gotta trust me! Really! Try it for yourself, the taste as it is now is amazing!"
Wen Yan talked the owner down for quite a while before the owner, still doubtful, hung up and tasted a serving himself. Then he stood there, lost in thought for a long time, looking as if he’d suddenly seen the light.
Wen Yan hung up and now felt absolutely certain—he’d really fed the "soul" of the rice noodle rolls, aka the soy sauce, to the Soul Devouring Beast.
Thank goodness he hadn’t fed it the whole sauce, or then he really would’ve committed a crime.
Soy sauce is just part of the sauce—it’s like the soul’s foundation. You also need sugar, fish sauce, broth, and other flavorings to balance the taste, making the sauce gentle, savory, and light—not too greasy. Only then is it truly a proper sauce.
Each restaurant’s flavor difference comes down to this.
Sitting across from him, Zhang Laoxi looked at the rice noodle rolls on the table with a complicated expression. Lately, he’d been seeing Feng Yao often and hardly took any ritual gigs, letting his students go out and gain experience alongside fellow exorcists. Of course, he also knew what kind of soul the Soul Devouring Beast actually consumed.
He’d actually wanted to say just now that the flavor at this rice noodle roll shop had changed, but oddly enough, it tasted even better than before.
Now it all made sense.
"So, the ’soul’ of the rice noodle rolls got devoured?"
Wen Yan let out a sigh. The fact that he couldn’t be devoured for his "soul" had already been discovered by others long ago.
It’s just that everyone thinks he’s a soul-less guy, which is why he can enter the Old Ice Warehouse and now isn’t affected by the Soul Devouring Beast. Nobody thinks there’s anything off.
Though Wen Yan himself knows the causality is actually reversed—he was affected by the Soul Devouring Beast first, which is why he could enter the Old Ice Warehouse.
Now that there was a new discovery, he’d better tell Feng Yao and have her investigate just how wide-ranging the impact was.
He took out his Scorching Sun Department phone and called Feng Yao, telling her about the rice noodle roll situation.
Soon enough, in less than an hour, there was feedback.
Only the rice noodle rolls in Xing State, Wei State, and Duanzhou had their souls devoured—everywhere else was unaffected.
Even a village just a few li past the eastern border of Xing State wasn’t affected at all.
Well, that did it—his last thread of wishful thinking smashed. He really could feed the Soul Devouring Beast, and how much he fed even determined how big the effect was.
So this whole time, the reason the Soul Devouring Beast hadn’t eaten again—was it because of his influence? Or was it something else?
Wen Yan couldn’t be sure for now, but this time, sensing the Soul Devouring Beast gave him a weird sense of urgency. He had to track down the Soul Devouring Beast as soon as possible.
And maybe his understanding of his First Inherent Ability was way off, too.
Otherwise, how could he explain the fact that, by using this ability, he managed to destroy a domain and take out a weird entity, which barely bumped his progress by 1%—yet, after feeding the Soul Devouring Beast just once, his progress shot up 8%?
The difference here was just too huge.
This recent sensation was way too abnormal—the Soul Devouring Beast actually felt weak to him now, it could call out, feel hungry.
The chemical plant domain was almost certainly connected to the Soul Devouring Beast. The black water he sensed this time, at least visually, looked identical to the black water in the chemical plant domain.
He’d have to visit the chemical plant domain, even if the Scorching Sun Department or Fake Mo Zhicheng weren’t involved—he’d go anyway.
He was getting unreasonably irritable, anxious. If he didn’t find the Soul Devouring Beast soon, didn’t handle this fast, he was afraid something big was going to go down.
Ever since waking up today, the feeling had been especially intense.
He couldn’t calm himself, so he went out to the courtyard to practice his fist style. The Guiding Technique for the Scorching Sun Fist is a moving meditation, which has the benefit of not requiring stillness or deep concentration to practice.
Wen Yan practiced his fist technique for three hours straight before finally feeling a bit better.
By the time he stopped, Sparrow Cat and the little zombie had gone to watch TV in the living room, and Zhang Laoxi finally came over.
"Gotta tell you something: that little one called Fuyu Mountain and tattled—she said she was attacked by a zombie.
Grand Uncle Master took the case, probably will send someone to help, might even bring a couple of zombies along."
"Huh, bringing a few? Any haired zombies?"
"Should be, with Grand Uncle Master’s word, at least two haired zombies should show up. Eh? You’re not gonna ask who’s coming?"
"You Fuyu Mountain folks, under fifty years old, besides Qin Kun, got any real experts?"