After putting a safe distance between himself and the Star Dou Great Forest, Xiao Qiang calculated and confirmed that he did not need to worry about running into Huo Yuhao anytime soon, nor did he need to worry about Electrolux suddenly taking Tianmeng away. He walked into a barbecue restaurant and prepared to execute his next plan.
"One portion of beef, plus a portion of mutton and a portion of lettuce, please."
Xiao Qiang flashed three spirit rings—two yellow and one purple—displaying his status as a Spirit Elder to prevent the restaurant owner from short-changing him on the portions, then mixed some dipping sauces and started grilling.
When the mutton began to sizzle and release its oil, he picked up a piece, dipped it in some sauce, and wrapped it in a lettuce leaf. This served a dual purpose: cutting through the greasiness and preventing the freshly grilled mutton from being too hot.
"Not bad, this flavor is acceptable."
After confirming that the barbecue here tasted fine, Xiao Qiang continued grilling while plunging a portion of his consciousness into his Spiritual Sea to wake up the still-sleeping Tianmeng Ice Worm.
"Wake up, Brother Tianmeng."
"What is it! Can't you see I'm sleeping?!"
Although Tianmeng, suddenly awakened, was still in the form of a giant bug, Xiao Qiang could clearly see the impatience on his face. Xiao Qiang, however, did not mind this at all.
"It's like this, Brother Tianmeng. I heard you mention before that when you cultivated to a million years of age, you basically lived on Myriad-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow. I've never eaten that kind of thing, but judging by the name, it seems to be ice-based. I'm guessing it might not taste all that great."
"Thinking that you've only eaten that one kind of food for all these years, I feel like you're kind of pi—ah no, what I mean is, I want you to taste human food. It might just suit your palate."
Tianmeng was left dazed by Xiao Qiang's words. "So you woke me up just to let me taste human delicacies?"
"Yeah, it's pretty miserable to eat only one thing your whole life. Even if that stuff isn't flavorless like I imagined, and is actually delicious, you'd still get sick of it eventually. That's why I want you to try some things I think are delicious; you might like them too."
"Uh... Sorry, I misunderstood you just now." Tianmeng showed an apologetic expression. At first, he thought Xiao Qiang was just picking a fight for no reason.
"It's fine. Use my body to taste it; I'm sure you'll like this flavor."
Relying on his formidable Spiritual Power, Tianmeng instantly grasped how to use chopsticks. Following Xiao Qiang's method, he dipped the grilled meat in the sauce, wrapped it in lettuce, and put it in his mouth. In an instant, Tianmeng's eyes seemed to light up.
"This, this, this, this... This is too delicious! How can there be such delicious food in this world?!"
Tianmeng shouted in excitement. He felt as though his past million years had been lived in vain, having never eaten anything so delicious before.
"As long as you like it," Xiao Qiang said slowly from the depths of the Spiritual Sea.
Xiao Qiang had anticipated Tianmeng's reaction beforehand. Soul Beasts—one part soul, two parts beast.
And as long as something was a beast, it could not escape a single issue: their food almost entirely lacked salt.
In the natural world, a sheep might spend tens of thousands of years evolving the ability to walk casually across rock faces just for a bit of salt on the cliffside. Among carnivorous animals, only the most powerful predators enjoyed the internal organs of their prey.
Those foods, disliked by many in the human world due to their gamey odor and other reasons, became delicacies enjoyed only by apex predators in the animal kingdom, entirely because of their high fat and salt content.
The reason was that the salt within organs was extremely precious to animals and difficult to obtain easily. Therefore, a wolf and a dog were separated by nothing more than an egg yolk pie; give them a single serving of high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt food, and their former salt-free diet would become utterly unpalatable.
Once a wolf tasted food that could never exist in the wild, it would obediently transform into a dog. This was practically a biological instinct.
Thus, it was entirely normal for Tianmeng to fall in love with this flavor after tasting human food.
"Boss, bring me another five portions of the same meat! No! Ten portions! And lettuce too!"
Having quickly swept away the meat, Tianmeng Ice Worm chose to order seconds, still feeling unsatisfied. At that moment, however, Xiao Qiang stopped him.
"Um, Brother Tianmeng..."
"What is it?"
"Well, although I'd love to let you keep eating, Brother Tianmeng, my stomach capacity is limited. If you increase the amount tenfold before the next serving, my body simply won't be able to handle it."
"This is indeed my problem. If only I could create a spirit ability to enhance digestion, but unfortunately, I'm still just a Spirit Elder. There's really nothing I can do about wanting to self-create a digestion-enhancing spirit ability."
Inside the Spiritual Sea, Tianmeng fell into deep thought, his tiny hands supporting his giant head as he pondered. "A digestion-enhancing spirit ability? If I were to create one..."
"Hmm? You, Brother Tianmeng?" Inside the Spiritual Sea, Xiao Qiang watched as Tianmeng's expression instantly shifted to one of sudden realization.
"Right! How could I have forgotten that we have you, Brother Tianmeng! When it comes to self-creating spirit abilities, even if you asked someone else—even a Titled Douluo—they couldn't guarantee they could pull it off one hundred percent!"
"But who is Brother Tianmeng? The first million-year spirit beast in the history of the Douluo Continent! Unprecedented, and in all likelihood, there will never be anyone after you. Others might not be able to do it, but could Brother Tianmeng possibly fail?"
"You are the only million-year-level spirit beast on the entire Douluo Continent! What is self-creating a spirit ability to you? Those ordinary 100,000-year, 200,000-year, 300,000-year, or even 400,000-year spirit beasts might not be able to do it, but you are a million-year-level spirit beast!"
"Putting everything else aside, just on the matter of self-creating a spirit ability—once word gets out, which spirit beast would ever dare look down on you? Who could look down on you? Self-creating a spirit ability unrelated to your own innate abilities—which of them could ever do that?"
In the Spiritual Sea, Xiao Qiang spoke with vivid emotion and intense phrasing. The words of refusal that had been poised in Tianmeng Ice Worm's throat were forcefully choked back, unable to be spoken.
To let someone who believed in him so much down—Tianmeng felt like he'd want to slap himself twice the moment he fell asleep.
Moreover, there was another point: one of Xiao Qiang's remarks had struck right at his heart. Self-creating a spirit ability unrelated to his own innate abilities—once word got out, which spirit beast would dare look down on him? Who could look down on him?
He wanted to be respected by others too! Especially that one in the Extreme North; Tianmeng practically dreamed of earning her respect.
Thus, under this emotional momentum, and in order not to fail Xiao Qiang's expectations while winning the praise of the Ice Empress of the Extreme North, Tianmeng Ice Worm suddenly felt his blood surge, as if nothing in the world could stop him from creating that self-created spirit ability.
"Don't you worry, Xiao Qiang! Leave it entirely to your big brother! Big brother will definitely show you the true power of a million-year spirit beast!"
"I knew Brother Tianmeng could do it! As expected of my Brother Tianmeng!"
Plan successful.