With the help of the spirit stones, it took a while, but everyone eventually recovered, after which they rose to their feet.
Soon, cries of, “I’m starving!” began to rise up, and eventually, all eyes came to rest on the corpses of the spirit beasts.
With Pan Tao and Zheng Rui taking the lead, the group set up a bonfire. After cutting the meat off the bones, they made skewers with tree branches and then began to grill the meat above the fire.
Before long, the meat had been roasted into a deep brown color, and emanated an enticing aroma.
The hungry trial takers could no longer resist the temptation and started gulping down large chunks of spirit beast meat.
They sat around the bonfire, devouring the chunks of meat, fat dripping down their chins, and their faces filled with satisfaction.
“This is so delicious!”
“This is much fresher, more tender, and more delicious than the food back at home!”
“It’s not easy to have a meal of spirit beast meat. We’re blessed to have such a feast!”
At this moment, only An Ying and Nie Tian were still in deep, recuperative sleep, and thus could not enjoy the delicious food.
As Pan Tao ripped huge bites off of a greasy beast leg, he said, “We have more than enough dead spirit beasts. Roast some meat for An Ying and Nie Tian, so that they can wake up to a good meal.”
“Sure,” people responded.
Zheng Rui was cutting meat into small pieces with a knife, and eating in a graceful manner. “Brother Tao, what’s going on with you? Why are you looking after that punk all the time? Have you forgotten that we almost got into a fight with him?”
The rest of them were also confused about why Pan Tao had been looking after Nie Tian. Therefore, upon hearing Zheng Rui’s words, they all cast their glances towards the two.
“Things changed,” Pan Tao said with a upright expression. “When the Lurker Lizard sneaked up on Jiang Miao, he was the first one to notice it, and he saved Jiang Miao’s life. From that moment on, he had already truly become one of us.”
“No matter who he is outside of the Green Illusion dimension, in here, I want you all to treat him as our teammate.”
“It’s possible that we may come across even greater dangers in the future. If we all have different thoughts and don’t trust each other, I’m afraid we won’t be able to get out of here alive.” There was a sense of righteousness in his words.
At that moment, An Ying opened her eyes, took over, and said, “Pan Tao is right.” Eyes full of admiration, she looked at Pan Tao, and then started to rebuke Zheng Rui, “You ought to learn from Pan Tao and stop focusing on the petty things. This journey to the Green Illusion dimension has opened my eyes to the fact that Pan Tao can be trusted with important missions. He has far exceeded my expectations.”
Pan Tao gently lowered his head, looking a bit guilty as he said, “Don’t say that. I just believe that the most important thing is for us to unite.”
After being lectured, Zheng Rui grumbled to himself in irritation, “Wasn’t it you who hinted for us to give Nie Tian a hard time in the Green Illusion dimension?”
Around this time, the baby-faced Jiang Miao noticed that Nie Tian had also opened his eyes. “He’s awake.”
“Go give him something to eat,” ordered An Ying.
Then, she reached out her small, jade-like hands, snatched a huge piece of meat from Zheng Rui’s hand, and shoved it into her mouth in an unconstrained manner. She bit out a chunk and started munching, while simultaneously mumbling, “Zheng Rui, why are you eating like a sissy? This is the Green Illusion dimension, not the Spiritual Treasure sect. Do you really have to eat so gracefully and use a knife and a fork?”
Upon hearing An Ying’s comment, Zheng Rui immediately felt embarrassed, and gave up on his graceful usage of the short knife.
Meanwhile, Jiang Miao grabbed a piece of Frost Armor Rhino meat and walked over to Nie Tian’s side.
Jiang Miao handed it over to Nie Tian timidly. “This is for you.”
Nie Tian had just awoken and was still a little dizzy.
“Oh, thanks,” he said, grabbing the meat and immediately wolfing it down.
That piece of meat weighed at least 2.5 kilograms, but Nie Tian inhaled it down in the blink of an eye, not leaving a single scrap behind.
After witnessing this, Jiang Miao stood there aghast.
However, Nie Tian didn’t feel satiated in the least bit, and was still incomparably famished.
He looked at Jiang Miao. “Do we have more?”
Jiang Miao nodded and quickly replied, “Yeah! There’s still plenty left!”
With these words, she rushed to where An Ying and the others were sitting, and took an even bigger piece of meat, this one over four kilograms.
Nie Tian didn’t hold anything back. He grabbed the meat and wolfed it down as fast as lightning.
A warm current gradually began to build up in his abdomen. When Nie Tian focused his mind on it, his eyes suddenly shone with bright light.
Apparently that surge of warmth originated from the piece of meat that he had consumed, which came from a first grade spirit beast.
Unlike the meat he usually ate back in Black Cloud City, these spirit beasts had refined the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth and turned it into the nutrients for their robust beast bodies.
The meat clearly contained rich spiritual power.
Moreover, he was able to absorb the power and disperse it to his internal organs, thus strengthening his fleshly body.
He had never experienced anything like that before when he ate normal kinds of meat…
“Get me some more, please,” he said to Jiang Miao, his spirits high. “Bring over more this time. I’ve got a big appetite, and I can pack away more food than the five of those other kids combined. Look at me. We’re at the same age, but I’m taller and more robust than they are, aren’t I? That’s because I eat more than they do.”
“Your appetite is definitely astonishing,” Jiang Miao murmured, before she obediently returned to where An Ying was sitting to fetch more meat.
When Jiang Miao seized another sizable piece of meat that he had just cooked, Tong Hao looked at her, eyes wide, and couldn’t help but yell, “No way! You are giving him too much. Can he eat all that?”
Jiang Miao explained, “He already finished the pieces I gave him erlier.”
Upon hearing her words, everyone started to examine Nie Tian with a strange light in their eyes.
They hadn’t paid attention to Nie Tian before, and thus weren’t aware that he had already consumed enough meat servings to feed at least four people.
Their eyes widened as they watched Jiang Miao put 5 kilograms of roasted meat into Nie Tian’s hands.
Nie Tian, on the other hand, ignored their gazes, and rapidly tore the shockingly large piece of meat into shreds, gulping it down almost instantly.
“Does this guy know anything other than eating?” Zheng Rui said, sounding shocked.
An Ying and Pan Tao were also shocked by Nie Tian’s appetite, and their faces filled with disbelief.
Jiang Miao, somewhat intrigued, stared at Nie Tian, an expression of curiosity on her face. “So? Are you full? Do you want more?”
Nie Tian replied weakly, “How about… just a little more?”
Jiang Miao and An Ying exclaimed at the same time. “Ah?!”
The way the others looked at Nie Tian had also changed drastically, since now they thought of him as a monster in human shape.
“Is there more?” Nie Tian asked again in a low voice.
Under everyone’s scorching gaze, he began to feel slightly embarrassed, but he truly wasn’t full yet…
He didn’t know why, but after he had drained his psychic awareness, he became surprisingly hungry, and his appetite grew significantly larger than before.
More shocking than that was that after he consumed all of the spirit beast meat, he could clearly feel more strands of power building up in his abdomen, before it gradually dispersed to his muscles, blood, bones, and internal organs.
Merely after eating vigorously for a while, he had a strange yet wonderful feeling that his body was growing stronger.
He didn’t wish for that feeling to stop.
“Yes, there is!” It wasn’t Jiang Miao who replied to him, since she was already flabbergasted by his appetite. It was Pan Tao.
Pan Tao, who had already ate his fill, strode towards him with a huge piece of meat in his hand, and under everyone’s disbelieving gaze, he handed over to Nie Tian.
Nie Tian took it and started munching again. “Um, thanks.”
However this time, unlike before, he didn’t wolf down the whole piece of meat that was as large as the previous one.
Halfway through with it, he finally slowed down his pace.
Yet, the piece of meat, which was horrifyingly large in everyone else’s eyes, eventually disappeared little by little into his mouth…
Nie Tian forced out a dry smile, and avoided looking at everyone’s disbelieving face. “I’m pretty much full. And tired too. You guys do what you have to do, I’ll get some more sleep.”
Admiration stretched across Pan Tao’s face. “What an amazing appetite!”
Face filled with shock, An Ying whispered to herself, “Does his amazing appetite count as the strange thing that big sister talked about?”
Eyes shut, Nie Tian held his breath, and with rapt attention, he started to gradually adjust his breathing. Having totally ignored the others’ strange gazes, he began to thoroughly investigate the unusual experience he felt within himself.
It had become his habit that whenever he calmed down and meditated with rapt attention, he would always operate the Qi Refining Incantation to absorb the spiritual Qi around him.
“Yee?!”
The moment he started operating the Qi Refining Incantation, he discovered that the strands of warmth in his abdomen seemed to have been driven by the internal force that had been generated by the Qi Refining Incantation, converging wildly into his dantian’s spiritual sea.