223: Food Temptation

While the others and the "NPCs" in the Secret Realm were engaged in various battles, collaborations, schemes, and backstabbings to rapidly shrink the active area of the Secret Realm, our protagonist, Xu Yan, was currently... cooking.

Well, to put it more elegantly, he was preparing spirit food of the Spirit Chef School, surrounded by NPCs who had returned with "spoils of war" and were waiting to exchange them for food.

That's right. After initially stabilizing his "territory" and acquiring his first batch of employees, Xu Yan began to change the way he interacted with those "NPCs."

No longer using the crude and physically violent methods that couldn't guarantee "loyalty," he turned to using incentives instead.

From the sublimation of the Shadowlight Realm to the start of the training camp, only a day or two had passed in Blue Star time. However, in the Shadowlight Realm, even though the time flow wasn't set to the maximum due to consumption concerns, Xu Yan had still spent nearly two months inside.

During these nearly two months, Xu Yan had fully devoted himself to studying and practicing the Spirit Chef School to prepare spirit food.

With his foundation as a Monarch Rank Cultivator, the bonus to intuition and success rate from Heavens Mandate Guidance, the extremely detailed and rich theoretical knowledge from his mentor and the academy's database, plus the vast variety of precious ingredients in the Shadowlight Realm...

With these four factors overlapping, Xu Yan's learning speed in the field of Spirit Culinary was naturally incredibly fast. In just two months, he had raised it to the Monarch Rank.

Furthermore, due to the passive boost from his Myriad Affinity Innate Talent, the spirit food Xu Yan prepared not only had better effects but also tasted beyond the limits of what he and the Spirit Beasts could imagine.

At the very least, after tasting the spirit food Xu Yan made, the Spirit Beasts made a decisive choice. Even if the eating duration became significantly longer, as long as they weren't in a particular rush, their daily diet would primarily consist of spirit food from the Spirit Chef School, supplemented by some cube-type spirit food for nutrition.

If it had such an effect on the Spirit Beasts who were used to the taste and effect boosts from Xu Yan's Myriad Affinity Innate Talent, it was naturally an overwhelming dimensional strike against those "country bumpkins" who hadn't even eaten "enhanced" extraction cubes.

After successfully forming an alliance with the "NPCs," Xu Yan took out a thousand-meter-long fish from the Shadowlight Realm. With the help of the Spirit Beasts, he roasted it and held a collective feast. The allies, who were originally a bit disgruntled and rebellious due to his physical persuasion, instantly threw their previous unpleasantness to the back of their minds.

Some Sparring Partners who had a better relationship with Xu Yan even remarked, "Why didn't you mention you had this skill earlier? If you'd shown this sooner, we would've come to join you without you even asking. Now we've been beaten up for nothing; what a needless disaster."

Then, after a fierce scramble for food that left not even the bones of the thousand-meter fish, the "NPCs" learned from Xu Yan that they could exchange "new recruits" for spirit food.

Immediately, the "NPCs" went completely wild and quickly scattered. They attacked and hindered each other while searching for the "food exchange vouchers" scattered throughout the Secret Realm.

As for the new "NPCs" who were "recruited" through various means, once they ate the spirit food Xu Yan provided and learned the rules for obtaining it, they also decisively joined in and began searching for other "food exchange vouchers."

In this way, under the temptation of spirit food, the number of allies belonging to Xu Yan began to increase rapidly. Eventually, an uncontacted new "NPC" could even cause several entities to slander and fight each other.

By the time Xu Yan had collected most of the "NPCs" around his area, the only School Team members left in the Secret Realm, besides Xu Yan, were Lin Heng, Qian Ming, and Chen Ling.

Because the void had been shattered repeatedly, the vast majority of areas had mostly collapsed. Only the area where Xu Yan was located remained intact because Zhu Yan was suppressing it. Not only did it not collapse, but its spatial stability was even higher than that of a normal Secret Realm of the same level.

While remaining unaffected by the ripples caused by others shattering the void, those guys were also unable to enter his area through the displacement effects of spatial cracks, making it transcendent over the entire Secret Realm.

However, no matter how transcendent it was, after all other areas of the Secret Realm had collapsed, the remaining three and the other surviving "NPCs" were eventually driven into Xu Yan's area by the "poison circle."

As soon as they entered this area, everyone felt that the excessively stable space around them was in a completely different style compared to the areas they had previously experienced.

However, before they could express their amazement or explore their doubts, pairs of eyes that looked like they wanted to devour them fell straight upon them.

The final result was that these entities entering Xu Yan's area either decisively chickened out under the intense gazes of Xu Yan's allies and were escorted to Xu Yan's location, or after a bit of "friendly" (mobbish) communication, they were forcibly sent to Xu Yan's location.

Not only did the wild "NPCs" receive this treatment, but even Lin Heng's trio was no exception. Regardless of how strong they were, since they couldn't completely crush their opponents, they faced a mob whose individual strength was slightly weaker but whose numbers far exceeded theirs. Even if they resisted, the final outcome remained unchanged.

Whether by design or pure coincidence, the time the three of them were "invited" to arrive at Xu Yan's location was almost back-to-back.

Then, what greeted Lin Heng's trio were several enormous barbecue grills, skewered with all kinds of oversized seafood, meats, and vegetables. Below them, a group of fire-type Spirit Beasts, under the command of two Suanni, controlled the flames to roast the giant items on the grills.

As for Xu Yan, he was wearing a small mecha transformed from Wuxiang, flying up and down to cut and brush sauce onto those giant items.

Besides that, a circle of other Spirit Beasts of various elements surrounded them, drooling while waiting for Xu Yan's summons, ready to contribute their strength to this massive barbecue at any time to get a larger share later.

Before seeing Xu Yan, Lin Heng's trio, who had seen each other first, thought they had been played by the "NPCs" and felt a bit embarrassed. When they suddenly saw this scene, the three of them were completely stunned.

Wait, what's going on? Shouldn't the script be that we each fight our own battles, and in the end, because we were too reckless, the "NPCs" reap the rewards, and after we get out, we get mocked by the Coaching Team, then feel ashamed and work even harder in the following training?

Why is this different from what I imagined?