Chapter 29: I've Already Seen Through You

The main meal was something special.

Beef brisket with tomatoes.

Shrimp and pork heart soup.

Steamed white rice.

Cabbage.

A proper feast.

A perfect harmony of color, aroma, and flavor…

Just the smell alone was enough to lift one's spirits.

Su Ning and the Nine Great Saints shared the meal with great delight, eating until their lips glistened with savory richness.

The sight of it was simply irresistible.

Su Ning still paid no attention to the three fallen creatures.

These three were seasoned powerhouses with iron-willed composure — it wouldn't be so easy to make them submit.

And yet the expressions on the three fallen creatures' faces grew increasingly wretched.

Not because Su Ning and the others were provoking them — but because they were simply starving.

Back in the lower realm, eating had been irrelevant to them. They had long since reached the Bigu state, and who knew how many years it had been since they last ate anything.

But here in the Immortal Realm, the consumption was immense.

Even just breathing drained them significantly.

They needed to eat.

This was something none of them had anticipated.

Their bodies were already small to begin with, their stored energy limited, and they had gone more than a full day without food. Even a full-grown person couldn't endure that — let alone three demonic beasts no bigger than a fist.

To put it plainly:

They were starving…

Miserably so!

All they could do was lie limply at the edge of the barrier, watching Su Ning and the others eat to their hearts' content.

The bitterness in their hearts was indescribable.

And what made it even more insufferable was…

Fine, these ten people were eating — that was one thing.

But did they have to go on and on about how delicious it was, how wonderful the texture was? What was the meaning of that?!

It only made the three fallen creatures even hungrier.

"This is incredible…"

"This beef — it must be from some terrifying creature of the Immortal Realm. Just one bite and my blood and qi are surging. I'm nearly at a Breakthrough!"

"This is a supreme tonic!"

"You'd never find anything like this in the lower realm!"

"It's so good — miraculous elixir-tier quality!"

"To eat something this extraordinary is a blessing across three lifetimes!"

The aroma wafted over irresistibly.

It set every craving in their stomachs ablaze.

Those words were obviously said on purpose, for the three fallen creatures to hear.

Deep down, the three fallen creatures thought:

We want to eat too. We want to submit too.

But the giant said what he said earlier — he completely cut off any path to surrender for us. We just can't bring ourselves to do it. It's too embarrassing.

Sigh… what do we do.

How was Su Ning supposed to know any of that?

Looking at the three fallen creatures lying there with such proud, unmoved expressions… as if they couldn't be bothered to even glance his way.

Too lofty to even lift their eyes.

Utterly contemptuous.

If that wasn't stubbornness, what was?

Sigh… as expected, fallen creatures were fallen creatures — their resolve was unbreakable!

Su Ning thought to himself: these fallen creatures probably… weren't going to submit.

So he didn't bother trying to persuade them further.

Look at them… so cold and aloof.

Defiant to the last.

Look at them… what extraordinary character.

Worthy of being called fallen creatures!

Hmm… in truth, the fallen creatures were simply too starved to even lift their heads.

After the meal, Su Ning tidied up the dishes.

The leftovers, naturally, were taken along.

Under the longing gazes of the three fallen creatures, he carried everything away.

They desperately wanted to call out and beg for a little food.

They truly couldn't hold on much longer.

But in the end… the words never came out.

Too embarrassing.

Too awkward.

Only after Su Ning had disappeared from sight did they finally feel the full weight of their regret…

"What is pride even worth?"

"Can pride fill your stomach?"

"I regret it so much… if I had one more chance, I would definitely, definitely… definitely ask for a little food."

"Sigh…"

The three fallen creatures were consumed with remorse.

"There might still be a chance… when the giant comes back, we'll make our intentions clear right away."

"He has to come back to check on things after putting away the dishes, right?"

They waited with hope…

This time, no more hesitation, no more wavering.

Except Su Ning, after putting away the dishes, really didn't come back.

He didn't even take his afternoon nap — he went straight into cultivation.

After discovering the benefits of clearing away the inert matter, he hadn't rushed into cultivating. Instead, he used his qi to continuously strip away the inert matter lodged within his body.

Su Ning believed this would be enormously beneficial to his future progress.

During the midday meal, he had also asked the Nine Great Saints about the state of his body.

But the Nine Great Saints didn't seem to have encountered anything like it before.

And since Su Ning's constitution was unique, they couldn't offer a clear explanation either.

Still, they advised: if stripping away the inert matter was making his body better, then he should keep doing it.

Whether in cultivation or in managing one's emotions, only you know yourself best.

Do whatever benefits you most.

That, too, was a form of cultivation.

Su Ning was essentially feeling his way forward, one step at a time.

For the entire afternoon, Su Ning completed only a single Circulation Cycle.

The rest of his time was spent stripping away the inert matter within his body.

Unlike the morning, his speed of removal had become much faster, and his experience was growing steadily.

He could clear a small patch in about thirty minutes.

Given the countless nodes of inert tissue within his body, clearing one small patch every thirty minutes might seem like a drop in the ocean.

But Su Ning didn't see it that way.

Each piece cleared was permanently gone — it would never grow back.

Steady progress, one step at a time. Sooner or later, everything would be cleared.

At worst, it would take a few years to clean out all this refuse.

Or however long he had left to live — he'd spend it clearing.

Su Ning had nothing but time.

"The critical areas have three to four hundred nodes of inert matter. To clear them completely will probably take ten days to half a month. But once those key areas are cleared, my cultivation speed will increase dramatically — it'll be a virtuous cycle!" Su Ning thought to himself.

The inert matter along the pathways of his Cultivation Technique was the most urgent priority. The other less critical areas could be handled gradually, but these had to be dealt with quickly.

In one afternoon, he cleared fifteen nodes.

And his whole body felt lighter, his strength greater.

The speed at which he could run his Cultivation Technique had also increased significantly.

Now it only took about two hours to complete a single Circulation Cycle.

Indeed, finding the right approach was the greatest shortcut in cultivation.

"Let's see what happens once all the inert matter along the Cultivation Technique pathways is fully cleared," Su Ning thought with anticipation.

Dinnertime arrived.

Su Ning did what he always did — he cooked.

He was in a good mood today, so he stewed a whole chicken.

A whole chicken.

Not cut into pieces.

The chicken, the broth…

The chicken itself was for eating.

Into the broth he added all manner of tonics.

Ginseng, among other things.

When the dishes were brought to the Divine Demon Paradise, the three fallen creatures finally cracked completely.

They were genuinely on the verge of starving to death.

"Giant…"

"Immortal Senior…"

"We… we submit…"

"We are willing to pledge our allegiance… please give us something to eat. We're about to starve to death!"

"We truly submit…"

The eyes of all three fallen creatures had gone red.

The moment they saw Su Ning arrive, it was like three little puppies spotting their long-absent owner returning home — the instant the door opened, three little dogs came bounding toward him.

From the edge of the barrier, they came pitter-pattering at full speed toward Su Ning's feet.

No more playing hard to get, no more weighing pros and cons, no more battle of wits…

They just wanted one bite of food.

They no longer had the strength to fly.

They could only use the last reserves of their physical bodies to run along the ground.

Seeing the three fallen creatures in such a frantic state, Su Ning was completely dumbfounded.

His first instinct was disbelief.

"You three…"

"What is this about?"

Weren't the three fallen creatures supposed to have unbreakable resolve?

Weren't they supposed to be defiant to the last?

What was going on?!

I don't believe it… I absolutely don't believe it…

I don't believe they'd submit this quickly. I was originally planning to starve them for another day before even considering whether to take them in…

"Oh… I understand now. You're testing me, aren't you? You want to make a fool of me — once I believe you, you'll laugh at me for falling for your little trick. You'll say something like: 'You fell for such a simple scheme, what kind of person are you? How laughable.' That's it, isn't it?" Su Ning put on an expression that said: I've already seen through you completely.

"Stop it. Fallen creatures don't submit that easily."

The three fallen creatures: !!!!

No… that's not what we're thinking at all…

We are genuinely, sincerely submitting!