Chapter 8: Chapter 7: My Cousin is a Glutton (Part 2)
"DING DONG! You have a new order. Please check for details."
The owner of a certain restaurant had just taken a short break. He hadn’t even finished his cup of tea before it was time to get busy again.
’Business is good today.’
He muttered to himself and picked up his phone to check the message.
"?!"
He stared at the words [Steak x50] and fell into deep thought.
’Wasn’t the last order for twenty pork knuckles?’
"Are all young people these days such big eaters? Good thing I don’t run a buffet, or I’d go broke if I ran into gluttons like these!"
After the restaurant owner finished preparing all the steaks, he summoned the legendary delivery guy.
"?!"
The delivery guy, dressed in his yellow jacket, stared at the huge bag of steaks in the owner’s hands and was suddenly struck by a sense of familiarity.
"The Supreme, Most Venerable, Naturally Present, Subtly Existing, Utterly True Jade Emperor God of the Boundless Heavens’ Golden Palace?"
The restaurant owner: "..."
What?
’What in the world are you talking about!’
"Guess not."
In his many years as a delivery guy, that last order had left a particularly deep impression on him.
Not only was the name crazy long, but it had also forced him to play the part of Sherlock Holmes.
Meanwhile, He Xiaotian, who was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a glucose IV, had no idea he had just broken a certain delivery guy.
[Experience Points: 450
Functions: Scan
Martial Arts: "Fire-refined Golden Body" - 0/100+ (Entry)]
He focused his mind and tapped the "+" sign.
The 100/100 instantly blurred. The pinky-sized wisp of Inner Strength within He Xiaotian’s Dantian began to grow hot and frenzied.
It roamed unpredictably along his meridians.
He lifted his arm and saw the skin gradually turn from pale white to crimson.
He looked like a steamed prawn, inspiring an uncontrollable appetite.
"???"
He Xiaotian had no idea why the word "appetite" had even crossed his mind.
With each full circulation of Inner Strength through his body, a wave of weakness washed over him.
Even the hanging bag of glucose solution was depleting at a visible rate.
This was his body’s innate talent kicking in. When He Xiaotian’s nutrients were insufficient...
...the external glucose infusion became the best source of nourishment.
His Inner Strength surged.
It transformed from the thickness of a pinky to the thickness of a thumb.
’One hundred Experience Points. Totally worth it!’
And then, He Xiaotian was in hell.
Because an endless, gnawing hunger washed over him once again.
When the crimson color faded, his skin was revealed, now even paler than it had been at noon.
"Hello, who here is ’The Little Girlfriend of the Monk Who Came From the Great Tang of the East to Seek Scriptures in the West’?" The delivery guy rattled off the long name in one breath, and then he saw He Xiaotian, who was now as skinny as a skeleton.
"!!!"
The sight gave the delivery guy a huge fright. ’I just said Tang Monk’s name, you don’t have to pop out like Bai Gujing to scare me, do you?’
’Seriously?’
"I... I... I’m..."
His voice was weak and breathless.
He Xiaotian had to admit he had miscalculated.
He thought that with the twenty pork knuckles from earlier to line his stomach, this upgrade wouldn’t cause any problems.
Besides, he had the glucose drip!
As it turned out, leveling up just once caused the consumption of bodily essence to increase by many fold.
’I can’t be so reckless in the future. I have to wait until there’s a huge pile of food in front of me before using Experience Points to level up.’
But whenever he thought about how he’d have to eat enough food to satisfy a dozen burly men every time he leveled up his "Fire-refined Golden Body,"...
...the term "glutton" came to mind.
"Wait a minute, aren’t you ’The Supreme, Most Venerable, Naturally Present, Subtly Existing, Utterly True Jade Emperor God of the Boundless Heavens’ Golden Palace’? How did you suddenly become ’The Little Girlfriend of the Monk Who Came From the Great Tang of the East to Seek Scriptures in the West’?"
The delivery guy looked at He Xiaotian and realized this was the same weirdo who had ordered twenty pork knuckles!
"The-the... these days... who... who doesn’t... have... an alt..."
’Can we stop with the nonsense and just give me the steaks already?’
’Were you a stand-up comedian before you started delivering food?’
’How can you rattle off such a long name in one breath without getting tired?’
"Pfft!"
A knife straight to the heart. Critical hit: -99999.
"You’re... not wrong."
After a long pause, the delivery guy could only squeeze out three words.
He put down the steaks, turned around, and fled.
’Too scary!’
He Xiaotian looked at the steaks before him and, with a sudden burst of strength from nowhere, lifted his arms, grabbed the bag, and began to swallow them.
That’s right, not eating, but swallowing!
He wolfed them down whole, without a single thought for whether he might choke.
"CREAK!"
As a police officer, Liu Junming was quite puzzled by the delivery guy he had just encountered.
This was the county hospital, not the White Bone Cave of Skeleton Mountain. Why did he look like he was running for his life?
’And I feel like I’ve seen that guy somewhere before...?’
Unfortunately, he was running too fast to get a clear look at his face.
Shaking his head, he dismissed the thought and continued on, carrying the fruit in his hand.
He couldn’t just pin a delivery guy to the ground and interrogate him just for acting suspicious, could he?
But when Liu Junming pushed open the door to the hospital room and saw a human who looked like Bai Gujing furiously devouring steaks, his heart skipped a beat.
’Holy shit! Bai Gujing?’
’Wait, this isn’t scientific.’
He backed out of the room and looked up at the door number.
"It’s the right one..."
Suddenly, a terrible feeling washed over him. The figure on the bed, who looked just like Lady White Bone, couldn’t be his cousin, could it?
"Cousin?" he called out tentatively, then immediately fell into a state of self-doubt.
"What’s up, Cousin? I’m starving. If it’s not important, wait till I’m done eating."
’Can you tell me where the twenty pork knuckles from before went?’
The empty food containers strewn across the floor clearly indicated that a good number had already been consumed before he’d even arrived.
’Are you some kind of demon?’
’No, my cousin’s just a glutton.’
Liu Junming now had the urge to call his aunt and have her come pick He Xiaotian up immediately.
As for why his cousin had turned into a skeleton in the short time he was gone...
...that wasn’t important!
He didn’t want to know.
Because his own monthly salary probably wouldn’t even cover his cousin’s food bill for a few days.
After he’d bought several martial arts manuals that were priced astronomically for a normal person, his mother had cut off his ’funding’.
According to his mom, "If you keep this up, I’m afraid you’ll start practicing the Sunflower Manual."
Liu Junming had never even heard of this manual.
But after he looked it up in an online store, he was stunned.
[To master this technique, you must first castrate yourself.]
’So Mom has been secretly watching me all this time and has browsed through all the manuals in the shop.’
’But why would you think I’d practice a self-mutilating technique like that?’
With fifty steaks down the hatch, He Xiaotian felt like he had come back to life again.
Why "again"?
Heh.
Liu Junming, standing at the doorway, was completely dumbfounded.
One moment his cousin was as skinny as a skeleton; how did you manage to inflate like a balloon and change back in the blink of an eye?
And did he look even more muscular than before?
The muscles stretching He Xiaotian’s T-shirt were particularly eye-catching.
This was not surprising. The "Fire-refined Golden Body" wasn’t just a form of Qi Gong; it was a Body Refining Technique that cultivated both the inside and the outside.
The manual described it in detail: at its highest level, the Fire-refined Golden Body had no weaknesses and was impervious to all weapons.
Right now, He Xiaotian had only gained some muscle; his technique was far from the highest level.
Otherwise, what Liu Junming would be seeing wouldn’t be a strong version of him, but a hulking mass of muscle!
It would be enough to make him question his own existence.
"Cousin..."
Liu Junming started to speak, but before he could voice the questions in his heart, He Xiaotian cut him off.
"Cousin, can you order me another fifty steaks? I want more."
"..."
His mouth hung open, the rest of his words stuck in his throat.
His mind was blank, with only the words "I want more" echoing inside.
"Co-co... cousin, let’s get you checked out first."
Twenty pork knuckles, fifty steaks.
My God!
Liu Junming was terrified that He Xiaotian would eat himself to death in the next second. Right now, his cousin’s life was clearly more important than his own questions.
"Nurse! Nurse!"
A short while later, the test results came back.
Holding the report, he really began to question reality.
Test results: Perfectly healthy!
In fact, it wasn’t just Liu Junming who was questioning his sanity; the doctor was a little baffled too.
He was the one who had written the examination report at noon.
Only a few hours had passed.
A patient with deathly pale skin who had been extremely weak.
After eating twenty pork knuckles and fifty steaks, he was now bursting with energy.
Could it be that the cure for malnutrition was just to eat like crazy?
That there was no need for IV drips and rest at all?
This was the first time in his entire career that he had doubted his own judgment.
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