Feeling Brother Tianmeng take control of his digestive system, Xiao Qiang felt his rapidly expanding belly slowly shrink back down. He breathed a sigh of relief, silently affirming the correctness of his decision.
Xiao Qiang's current Soul Power was merely at level 32. Relying solely on standard cultivation, reaching level 40 in less than a year was practically impossible.
After all, even Tang Ya, who possessed a devouring ability, had spent a full year advancing from a Three-Ring to a Four-Ring. Under such circumstances, accelerating his Soul Power growth meant utilizing every available resource.
Therefore, Xiao Qiang had to figure out how to maximize both his own and Brother Tianmeng's potential to the fullest.
When he had read *Douluo Continent III: The Legend of the Dragon King* in his past life, Xiao Qiang had greatly envied Tang Wulin's ability to boost his physical fitness through massive consumption of food.
Thus, the moment his Martial Soul awakened and his memories of his past life returned, he began researching methods to enhance his physical fitness through heavy eating.
However, the old Xiao Qiang was ultimately just a Soul Master not even at level 30. Inventing a soul skill—let alone one that didn't particularly align with his own Martial Soul—sounded completely absurd the moment one thought about it.
After dozens of failed attempts, Xiao Qiang ultimately realized he possessed massive deficiencies in his control over his physical body, Soul Power, and Spiritual Power.
Consequently, even before acquiring Brother Tianmeng, Xiao Qiang had already formulated plans for actions to take afterward.
Whether it was extracting Soul Power from food or squeezing out elements to improve physical conditioning, the benefits to Xiao Qiang were absolute with no downsides. Therefore, the very first thing he did after obtaining Brother Tianmeng was to task him with researching this method of growing stronger through eating.
This would serve to slightly alleviate the difficulty of gaining eight levels of Soul Power in under a year.
Although Xiao Qiang wasn't certain by how much the difficulty would drop, any reduction was welcome. After all, without the aid of Immortal Herbs, jumping eight levels in less than a year—even with foreknowledge of the plot and under numerous restrictions—was by no means an easy task.
"Alright, although this is just a prototype, it's more or less functional now. I'll slowly tweak the rest as we go, bro."
"As expected of Brother Tianmeng, I knew you'd pull it off."
Xiao Qiang offered flattering remarks, giving Tianmeng an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and pride. Since they were putting on a show, they had to commit to the entire act. Besides, there would be many matters in the future that required Tianmeng's cooperation, so he couldn't let Tianmeng lose confidence.
While Tianmeng was using Xiao Qiang's body to gorge himself on meat and savor the delicacies of the human world, a person wearing a Shrek Academy uniform walked in. He raised a hand to summon the barbecue restaurant owner to his side, then whispered a few words into his ear.
The owner looked startled, glanced at the Shrek Academy uniform, and seemed to make up his mind.
Before long, the owner approached the Tianmeng-possessed Xiao Qiang and interrupted his feast.
"Pay up."
Tianmeng initially flared up in anger, but Xiao Qiang instantly seized back control of his body and placed a Soul Gold Coin onto the table.
Soul Gold Coins, Soul Silver Coins, and Soul Copper Coins had a value ratio of ten to one. A single Soul Gold Coin equaled 100 Soul Copper Coins, and a single copper coin was worth roughly twenty yuan—more than enough to cover the meal.
"Xiao Qiang! What are you doing?! This guy just interrupted my meal! I was having such a good time!" Tianmeng protested indignantly within the Spiritual Sea.
"Come on, Brother Tianmeng. A household that hoards ice doesn't raise cattle and sheep. As a Soul Master—especially someone like me who intends to challenge a Godposition in the future—I am already among the ruling elite of this world."
"As someone of higher status, there's no need to bicker with them over such things. Ordinary people already have a hard enough time staying alive, not to mention that we really did eat quite a lot this time. It's understandable that he's worried we might try to dine and dash."
Xiao Qiang explained to Tianmeng. Having once been at the very bottom himself, he understood the hardships of the underprivileged, which was why he didn't mind paying ahead of time.
"Is this enough?" Xiao Qiang pointed at the Gold Coin.
"Enough, enough, it's enough..." The owner subconsciously scooped up the Gold Coin, but halfway through his sentence, he glanced toward the Shrek Soul Master.
Realizing this was the only chance he would ever get in his lifetime to interact with a Shrek Soul Master, the smile that had just bloomed from receiving a Gold Coin vanished instantly, replaced by a face full of hostility and malice.
"Enough! Stop eating!"
The owner once again stopped the Tianmeng-controlled Xiao Qiang from eating. It infuriated Tianmeng so much that he wanted to throw punches, and Xiao Qiang furrowed his brow slightly.
"So far, we've ordered 11 portions of beef, 11 portions of mutton, and 11 portions of lettuce. This is all just ordinary beef and mutton, not Soul Beast meat, so each portion costs only two to three copper coins. Even counting the lettuce, the total value of what I've eaten is less than seven silver coins. Do you take me for a fool who doesn't know market prices, or is this place a rip-off joint?"
The owner was momentarily intimidated by Xiao Qiang's aura as a Soul Master, but recalling the task given to him by the Shrek Soul Master, and knowing this was his sole opportunity to forge ties with Shrek, he braced himself and pressed forward aggressively. "You used way too much dipping sauce!"
"Huh?" Xiao Qiang was momentarily baffled by the owner's remark.
"The ingredients we use for our Qianlixiang barbecue dipping sauce are extremely precious, and the costs are exceptionally high. Who told you to dip your food like that?!"
"Is the dipping sauce really that precious? No wonder it tastes so good," Tianmeng muttered within the Sea of Consciousness, leaving Xiao Qiang speechless.
He truly had never tasted anything good before; the moment he tasted something decent, he was already hooked beyond restraint.
Xiao Qiang produced another Soul Gold Coin and placed it on the table. "Is adding this enough?"
Ultimately, it was just a trivial amount of money, so Xiao Qiang had no intention of wasting too much energy on this dispute.
The owner swiftly pocketed the second Gold Coin. He took the money, but...
"Get out of here. You're not welcome."
The owner pointed at Xiao Qiang. Between two Gold Coins and building a connection with a Shrek Soul Master, he clearly knew which one carried more weight.
"You took the Gold Coin."
"I told you to get out!"
"You took the money, but I've only eaten half the food. You're telling me to get out?"
"I said scram! You're not welcome here."
"Then refund the Gold Coin."
"No refunds! Get lost right now!" the owner snapped, reaching out to shove Xiao Qiang toward the exit.
In a flash, Xiao Qiang's eyes shifted into double-tomoe Sharingan. His eyes clearly captured the owner's movement, casually swatting away the outstretched hand before grabbing an empty bowl from the table and slamming it directly into the owner's face, sending him flying five meters away.
Immediately afterward, three Soul Rings—two yellow and one purple—began to pulse around Xiao Qiang, displaying his cultivation as a Spirit Elder.
"I'm giving you some face and you think you can push it, huh?!"