"Siiip~"

"Mmm, smells so good!"

As the smell of meat drifted over, the sound of "guuuluu~" stomachs rumbling rose and fell one after another, echoing in the depths of the Demon Forest.

Staring at the roast on the spit—meat aroma overflowing, fat sizzling with a constant "zizi~" glisten—someone gulped while speaking with some trepidation:

"You think this smell will attract the nearby demons over here?"

The person next to him let out a cold laugh when he heard that:

"Don’t forget this is the Fear Demon’s turf."

"The Fear Demon might be dead, but its aura is still here."

"In the short term, there definitely won’t be any demons daring to provoke the Fear Demon’s majesty and come here."

When he said this, he hesitated for a moment before continuing:

"But if too much time passes, that’s hard to say."

Speaking, he glanced toward that distant figure:

"Maybe that’s exactly why the Jialan King chose to rest here."

Someone sighed:

"Thinking back now,"

"How ridiculous our original idea of going against the Jialan King was."

Just as a few people were talking away, a voice suddenly rang out:

"Done!"

Lin Yi directly tore off a temptingly browned drumstick and handed it to Ling Yuwei beside him:

"Have some."

"Replenish a bit of Physical Strength so we can deal with what’s coming."

Ling Yuwei had still been a little reserved at first.

But upon hearing Lin Yi’s words, she finally realized her current situation.

She knew this was definitely not the time to be shy.

Only by keeping up her Physical Strength could she avoid becoming a burden to Lin Yi later.

So she only hesitated for a moment before reaching out and taking the roast meat from Lin Yi’s hand. Seeing this, Lin Yi chuckled:

"That’s more like it."

"I tried this meat already. It’s missing a lot of seasonings, but it wins on freshness. Just make do with it."

Ling Yuwei didn’t really care about that.

Once the roast was in her hand, she didn’t bother about whether it was hot or washed clean or not, and just took a bite.

Ling Yuwei had expected it to be hard to swallow.

Who knew that as soon as she tore off a small bite and chewed, the meat turned out surprisingly delicious—tender and juicy.

Maybe it wasn’t as unique as what you’d get at restaurants in the city, but being able to eat something like this in the wilderness was absolutely a rare treat.

Not to mention she’d been hungry all afternoon.

Very soon Ling Yuwei stopped caring about her image and started wolfing it down.

Although at this point, she had no "image" left to speak of anyway.

Orana and Jun Moqian didn’t even wait for Lin Yi to say anything; they just started eating on their own.

Lin Yi tore off a piece of meat and handed it to Carolina, who was still a bit shy off to the side:

"Eat."

Carolina blinked her big round eyes at Lin Yi.

Compared to Ling Yuwei and the other two women, at this moment she had none of the heroic air she’d shown during the vow earlier; she looked timidly at Lin Yi.

Lin Yi directly grabbed a clean leaf from beside him, wrapped the meat in it, and then "roughly" shoved it into Carolina’s hand:

"If I tell you to take it, then take it."

Then Lin Yi tore off a big chunk of meat for himself, and the Behemoth lifted him up. Lin Yi used the momentum to jump onto a big tree nearby.

He climbed to a relatively high spot and sat down.

By now the bright moon was slowly rising at the edge of the sky, stars hanging overhead one by one, twinkling non-stop.

The slightly cool wind brushed against his face. Lin Yi gazed out into the distance at the forest covered in a layer of silvery moonlight.

As he ate the roast meat, Lin Yi mulled over what the meaning of this so‑called Divine Son selection really was.

From the first time he heard the rules of this selection, he had faintly sensed something wrong.

But for a while he couldn’t pinpoint why he had that feeling.

Yet after the experiences of this half day, Lin Yi suddenly realized.

With rules that led straight to a dead end like these, how was this still a Divine Son selection?

This was basically like raising Gu, weeding out the weak.

Lose, and you die.

Lin Yi simply didn’t believe that with these people’s strength, many of them could actually survive until the end of the first round.

And as the "organizer," the Church couldn’t possibly be unaware of this.

Since they knew and still insisted on doing it this way, Lin Yi couldn’t help but suspect what the Church’s real motive was.

Unfortunately, after thinking for a while he was still at a loss. A sudden gust of cold wind assaulted him, and Lin Yi frowned.

He looked off into the distance. Though he still couldn’t see anything,

Lin Yi could clearly sense that in that direction, many demons with powerful auras were gathering at this very moment:

"So they’re coming this fast?"

But maybe because they were wary of something, those demons showed no sign of approaching.

Even so, Lin Yi didn’t think they would stay put forever.

He quickly finished the meat in his hand, then leapt down from the tree as nimbly as a Spiritual Monkey.

When Lin Yi landed, he saw a group of people gathered around the spit, staring at the still half‑remaining roast meat and gulping madly.

Ling Yuwei and the other girls, on the other hand, had the satisfied look of people who’d eaten and drunk their fill, sitting off to the side and resting.

If not for the Illusion Realm around them, Lin Yi would have thought they were at home.

Wen Xu walked over somewhat awkwardly and said to Lin Yi:

"Your Highness the Jialan King, do you think maybe we could..."

"You want to eat?"

Wen Xu glanced at the meat on the spit, then braced himself and said:

"Or I can pay in Gold Coins, I have money."

Lin Yi immediately stopped Wen Xu from taking out his money:

"No need to go to all that trouble."

Hearing that, Wen Xu was instantly moved to tears:

"Thank you for your generosity, Your Highness."

"Thank you, thank you!"

As he spoke he was about to go eat.

The others, seeing this, also prepared to rush for that limited amount of meat.

But Lin Yi blocked Wen Xu with a strange expression, and under everyone’s puzzled gazes, said to Wen Xu:

"I haven’t finished speaking."

Wen Xu froze mid‑step and looked at Lin Yi in confusion.

Lin Yi pointed at the somewhat crude‑looking Storage Ring on his hand and said:

"You can eat."

"Trade me the Storage Ring in your hand."

At those words, everyone was dumbfounded.

Wen Xu had been planning to spend a bit of money at first, but he hadn’t expected Lin Yi to be eyeing his entire fortune.

Wen Xu instinctively covered his finger, but he quickly moved his hand away again.

He stared blankly at the Storage Ring in his hand and suddenly thought:

’If I lose my life here, what use is keeping this?’

Don’t be fooled by how Lin Yi had only said to trade all his worldly goods for food—wasn’t this also a test for them?

To see whether the things they’d said before were true or not.

If they could pass this test, it would mean they had gained his acknowledgment.

Using these external possessions to buy themselves a life.

With that thought, Wen Xu decisively took off the priceless Storage Ring on his hand and handed it to Lin Yi:

"Here."

Lin Yi accepted it without the slightest politeness.

This was actually his first time handling one of their Storage Rings.

The moment the thing fell into Lin Yi’s hand, a small "backpack" with less than twenty slots automatically formed.

The contents were clear at a glance.

Apart from some Gold Notes, it was just a few pieces of Magic Equipment that looked downright "trash" in Lin Yi’s eyes, and nothing else.

But Lin Yi hadn’t expected there to be anything in there that could really amaze him anyway.

He was doing this for no other reason than to make sure they understood that with him, there was no such thing as a free lunch.

If you want to gain something, you have to pay first.

Then Lin Yi looked at the others and, like some local landlord, said loudly:

"What about you?"

"Anyone else who wants to eat, be self‑aware."