77: order

When Chen Yan and Mu Jin finished their battle and stepped down from the arena, they saw a group of spirit beasts engrossed in eating, and Xu Yan and the other two chatting casually.

Seeing the two walking towards them, Xu Yan subconsciously took out spirit food corresponding to them from his storage device and asked,

Looking at the spirit food, clearly meant for spirit beasts, handed to him, although humans could consume small amounts of spirit food, it was ultimately intended for feeding spirit beasts and not suitable for excessive consumption. Could it be that Xu Yan's Spirit Beast Butler hadn't graduated and couldn't distinguish between its own food and human food?

In response, the Black Cat Attendant and the Third Academy's Spirit Beast Butler Academy expressed strong protest.

A moment later, the two, who were about to refuse Xu Yan's offer, quickly retracted their impending refusals, and five more spirit beasts appeared in the training ground, devouring their food.

Looking at the spirit beasts around them, engrossed in their eating, Zhu Yan and Xiong Nian, who had been called out by Xu Yan to join the fun, showed expressions of disdain and pity.

What's with these beasts, acting like hungry ghosts reincarnated? Don't their masters usually feed them? How did they get so starved?

The three looked at Xiong Nian's expression, which practically wrote her thoughts on her face (spiders don't have facial expressions), and couldn't help but feel a little awkward. Their spirit beasts did seem a bit unworldly in their behavior.

As for why there were only three of them, it was naturally because Lin Heng had long witnessed the power of the spirit food made by Xu Yan. He had grown accustomed to the Void-Fleeing Rat's wails every day during this period.

After exchanging spirit food with Xu Yan for shadow stone, the Void-Fleeing Rat was well-behaved for a long time. Even its usual inseparable phone and computer games no longer held the same allure as before. Its attention was entirely focused on the pile of spirit food, which finally gave Lin Heng some peace and quiet.

He didn't have to constantly find ways to control the Void-Fleeing Rat's game time, nor was he occasionally dragged along to top up its account or make up numbers to play with it.

However, the consequence of the Void-Fleeing Rat focusing its attention on the spirit food and being able to retrieve items directly from Lin Heng's storage device without his permission was that the spirit food, originally intended as an extra nutritional supplement, was directly treated as a staple and daily snack by the Void-Fleeing Rat. During that time, except during battles, the Void-Fleeing Rat was practically always holding a piece of spirit food.

And the effect of the spirit food made by Xu Yan was indeed excellent. After only a month of consumption, the Void-Fleeing Rat showed significant improvements in its physique, fur, and strength, far surpassing the ordinary spirit food Lin Heng had purchased before.

When they left the Morin City secret realm to explore other secret realms, the spirit food held by the Void-Fleeing Rat even attracted attacks from many spirit beasts and exotic beasts, but in the end, they were all turned into materials by the Void-Fleeing Rat.

The final result of this was that the spirit food, originally enough for two years, was squandered by the Void-Fleeing Rat in two months, leaving less than two months' worth.

Fortunately, spirit food is not like potions that cannot be used excessively; consuming a large amount in a short time merely reduces absorption efficiency, without much other effect.

Lin Heng still remembered that one day, on a whim, he was checking his storage and, seeing the meager amount of spirit food left, he helplessly questioned the Void-Fleeing Rat as to why the two years' worth of spirit food he had exchanged for was reduced to so little in just two months.

The Void-Fleeing Rat didn't even have time to defend itself, frantically rummaging through Lin Heng's storage device. When it confirmed that less than two months' worth of spirit food remained, its cries and wails were filled with sorrow.

He was clearly the one questioning it, yet it was the one wailing so miserably and sadly, as if it had suffered an immense grievance.

After that, Lin Heng canceled the connection between the storage device and the Void-Fleeing Rat, preventing it from taking things from his storage device anymore. Lin Heng also began to feed it spirit food at fixed times and in fixed quantities each day.

Accustomed to eating and drinking lavishly, the Void-Fleeing Rat naturally found the sudden change to a meager daily portion extremely difficult. During this period, the Void-Fleeing Rat was either wailing for Lin Heng to give it more food or urging Lin Heng to quickly curry favor with Xu Yan.

Looking at the Void-Fleeing Rat, who was eating with a satisfied expression, Lin Heng secretly decided that after this was over, he must go to Xu Yan to buy more spirit food. While it wouldn't allow the Void-Fleeing Rat to return to its previous state of binge eating, feeding it a few extra meals a day would be acceptable.

The scene shifts back.

Looking at Xiong Nian's expression, Jing Xing and the other two were initially a bit awkward, but glancing at the three others with them and realizing they had company to share the embarrassment, they suddenly felt less awkward.

At the same time, except for Chen Yan, who had some understanding of Lin Heng and the Void-Fleeing Rat's situation, the other two expressed admiration for Lin Heng's unperturbed demeanor.

After eating their fill, the group no longer confined themselves to the arena. The five individuals, plus a group of spirit beasts, began interacting directly in the training ground.

Xiong Nian and the Earth-Shaking Bear, Zhu Yan and the Flame Spirit Queen Bee, the Frost Whisper Ice Fox and the Illusionary Scene Thought Butterfly... spirit beasts with similar attributes and combat styles began to communicate with each other, various skills flashing across the training ground.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan and the others were not idle either, exchanging their respective cultivation and combat experiences, communicating and verifying with each other.

As time passed, the spirit food the spirit beasts had eaten earlier gradually began to be absorbed and take effect. Although the effect was not obvious, the spirit beasts could feel that, in addition to tasting better, the spirit food made by Xu Yan was also more effective than what they had eaten before.

After learning of the spirit beasts' feelings through their contracts, Jing Xing was the first to ask Xu Yan if he was willing to sell spirit food. Hearing Jing Xing propose this idea first, the other three also chimed in.

After receiving Xu Yan's affirmative answer, the four decisively pre-ordered a batch of spirit food from Xu Yan.

Because it was their first time consuming it and the long-term effects were still uncertain, the four only ordered a two-month supply to try it out. If the effects were good later, they would place additional orders.

Of course, this did not include Lin Heng.

Compared to the others, the sole reason Lin Heng only ordered a two-month supply was simply because he was poor. Since the price of Space Element raw materials was five times that of other materials, the price of the batch of spirit food Lin Heng ordered was also five times that of the other three.

And this was still because Xu Yan, considering them his first batch of customers at the Third Academy, didn't overcharge, only asking for five times the price of the raw materials.