After spending a couple of minutes naming out nearly every dish on the menu, Yuan finally placed the menu down on the table and said, "That's all from me."
The waiter there had the urge to cry out loud, 'It's literally all from you!'
Fortunately, the waiter managed to suppress his thoughts and responded with a stiff smile on his face, "Thank you, esteemed guests. I will let the chief know…"
The waiter then walked away.
However, the waiter returned a few minutes later with a middle-aged man who didn't appear to work there with his luxurious appearance.
Once the two were standing by their table, the middle-aged man said with a friendly smile on his face, "Excuse me, esteemed guest. My name is Cen Wenben, and I am the manager of this restaurant. It appears that you have ordered a massive amount of food from us, and I would like to offer my gratitude for that. However, as there has been an increase of customers who dine and dash lately, we will have to require some payment up-front as a form of insurance. 50 percent of the total amount is enough."
"That makes sense…" Yuan nodded his head and asked, "How much is the entire bill?"
"5,400 gold coins, esteemed guests…" Cen Wenben quickly said.
"5,400 gold coins?!" Yuan's eyes widened with surprise. This restaurant is at least 10 times more expensive than the luxurious restaurant he went to previously that had cost him 500 gold coins! As expected of one of the wealthiest cities in this world, everything is incredibly expensive!
'I really need to start paying attention to the price of each item…' Yuan noted to himself as he retrieved 5,400 gold coins and handed them to the manager.
"I'll pay the full amount now."
"Thank you, esteemed guest! And I deeply apologize for this inconvenience!" The smile on Cen Wenben's face widened after he accepted the money, and he bowed to them before leaving them alone again.
"Spending thousands of gold on food… only someone like you would be able to spend so luxuriously, brother…" Yu Rou said to him afterward.
"Haha…" Yuan laughed awkwardly, as he was too excited and forgot to look at the prices before it was too late. Though, at least he wasn't as poor as before, where 500 gold coins were enough to make him completely broke.
About twenty minutes later, the food they ordered began coming in one at a time, and they immediately started eating the food, especially Yuan, who had essentially become a food monster and stuffed the food into his mouth as though they were nothing, allowing the waiters to continue putting dishes on the table without overfilling it.
"Brother…" Yu Rou was shocked by his seemingly borderless stomach. How can so much food fit inside his body? It also made her worry that she might not be feeding him enough in the real world since the amount of soup she feeds to him is literally nothing compared to the amount he's gobbling up now— almost like comparing a drop of water to an entire ocean.
"Brother Tian, should I increase the amount of soup I feed you? If it's not enough, you can just tell me, you know? I'm afraid that I might starve you to death after seeing how much you can eat right now…" Yu Rou said to him sometime later.
"Haha… Don't worry about it, Yu Rou. I only have this appetite whenever I am in this world. A single bowl of soup is more than enough to fill my stomach outside." Yuan said to her.
Hearing their conversation, Xiao Hua suddenly spoke, "Brother Yuan's appetite is probably caused by his unique physique. Furthermore, because Cultivators expend a lot more energy than normal people, we also need to eat a lot more. Of course, we usually substitute the difference with the spiritual energy we absorb with some Cultivator even changing their diet to spiritual energy only."
"So you're telling me that Cultivators can survive without food as long as they absorb the spiritual energy in the air?" Yu Rou asked.
"That's right. A Cultivator at Brother Yuan's level can last a month without food, but he'll need to drink water at least once a week. Once a Cultivator reaches the Spirit Grandmaster realm, they can stop eating or drinking entirely and survive only on spiritual energy." Xiao Hua said.
"I see…" Yu Rou nodded, and she returned to eating her food.
About an hour later, once the table had nothing but empty dishes left, Yuan said while patting his round stomach, "What should we do now, Yu Rou?"
"Can you even do anything besides sitting while in that state, brother?" Yu Rou responded with a smile on her face.
"I'll be fine," he nodded.
"Well, I am also full, so I don't feel like doing anything right now. However, I don't want to just sit around and do nothing, so let's explore this city until it's time for me to leave," Yu Rou suggested.
"Sounds good," Yuan said.
After sitting around for a few more minutes, Yuan and Yu Rou proceeded to walk around the city, almost like they were taking a stroll in the park.
Of course, there were a few young masters that wanted to disturb the sibling's peaceful time together when they saw the beautiful Yu Rou. However, before they could even approach them, like a guardian spirit, Xiao Hua pressured them with an invisible pressure, taking care of the trouble before it even began.
Although Xiao Hua saw Yu Rou as a rival for Yuan's attention, when she saw the joy on Yuan's face whenever he spoke with— or even looked at Yu Rou, she simply cannot allow anyone to disturb that happiness, as she feared that she might have to experience that cold aura coming from Yuan again whenever someone messes with Yu Rou in his presence, something that put chills in her body even now if she tried to remember his cold gaze.
After spending a few oddly peaceful hours within a city as large as the Phoenix City mostly due to Xiao Hua's protection, Yu Rou logged off the game to cook dinner for Yuan.
Yuan decided to stay in the game for a few more minutes to spend some time with Xiao Hua until it was time for dinner.
After logging off, Yu Rou began feeding him dinner.
However, after drinking his bowl of soup, Yuan spoke in a puzzled voice, "Yu Rou, did you make less soup today? My stomach isn't as full as it normally would be…"
It was an odd feeling to not be full after drinking a whole bowl of soup, as he would usually feel quite full afterward.
"Huh? That's not possible. I didn't change the amount," Yu Rou responded in a surprised voice.
"However, if you're still hungry, I can go ahead and make another bowl of soup for you…"
"No, it's fine. I'm not hungry, but I am also not full. It's that kind of feeling," Yuan said to her.
"Okay, then I will cook a little bit more tomorrow morning," Yu Rou nodded.
"By the way, your room is finally clean again, brother. However, since you're already here, let's sleep together for another night, as we don't usually do this."
"Okay," Yuan said.
"I'm going to make sure I am prepared for school tomorrow, you can go to sleep first." Yu Rou said to him before leaving the room.
Normally, Yuan would agree with her and go to sleep, but now that he has become a Cultivator in the real world too, he wanted to cultivate whenever he had the time. Although he wasn't sure that cultivating might help his condition, it wouldn't hurt to try.
'Maybe the reason the bowl of soup wasn't enough for me is because I am now a Cultivator, which will require me to consume more energy?' Yuan pondered to himself before he began reciting the cultivation technique inside his mind, slowly absorbing the spiritual energy around him.
'Xiao Hua was right, I can now sense the spiritual energy in this room now that I have become a Cultivator. This means I am not dreaming and that I have actually become a real Cultivator in this world too!' Yuan was filled with enthusiasm for the future.
Even if becoming a Cultivator won't help him move or see again, if he cultivated enough, maybe he'll also be able to use Divine Sense in this world, and that would be worth all of his effort.
And with that in mind, Yuan began to focus on cultivating.
Half an hour later, Yu Rou returned to the room, and she mistook Yuan's cultivation as sleeping since his breathing pattern was completely relaxed and seemingly rhythmic.
Since I was in the store at that time, I didn't see any announcements, but one should make the announcement if they made a Divine Beast their servant, right? Oh well, I'll see once I go online,' Yu Rou thought to herself as she began to surf the internet.
And as she'd expected, when she opened the forums, all she could see was 'Player Yuan' being mentioned in the titles, and his presence filled pretty much the entire page.
[Player Yuan makes the headlines again! And this time he's obtained a Divine Beast as a Servant!]
[Incredible! Player Yuan has obtained another Servant— a Divine Beast!]
[What grade could this Divine Beast possibly be?!]
[If you know Player Yuan, I am willing to pay 1 billion dollars if you can reveal his real identity to me!]
'One billion dollars, huh? That's quite the tempting offer, but alas, I wouldn't betray Brother Tian even if you offered me the world…' Yu Rou shook her head, and she began reading through all of the posts that mentioned Yuan.