It failed!

Chen Yuanshan’s eight arms reached for Shen Zheqi from eight different directions.

At the same time, Shen Zheqi finally heard the muttering from his mouth: "Faster, a little faster!"

"I want to make ten thousand steamed dumplings, ten thousand fried dough sticks, faster, a little faster!"

As he spoke, the eight arms danced in the air, leaving afterimages, bam bam bam bam, continuously striking against Shen Zheqi’s Buddha beads defense.

As an Awakening Spirit Contract Master, Chen Yuanshan’s own cultivation realm wasn’t considered high, only Tier Four.

Even after mutation, the boost to his combat power was very limited, and Shen Zheqi could handle it with relative ease.

After hearing the repeated muttering from Chen Yuanshan, Shen Zheqi slightly raised an eyebrow.

Recalling earlier, that professional workaholic who first entered the breakfast shop seemed to exhibit similar behavior.

Salted fish, no overtime, workaholic.

Breakfast shop owner, eight arms, making breakfast.

Shen Zheqi seemed to vaguely grasp something, and suddenly understood: "It’s desire. The workaholic’s desire is to be a salted fish, not to work overtime; Chen Yuanshan’s desire is to have more arms to make more breakfast to sell as quickly as possible."

"This curse materializes people’s innermost desires?"

Following this train of thought, Shen Zheqi found it much clearer when looking at those mutated humans on the street.

The couple kissing on the street, the man turned into a yellow banana, the woman into golden copper coins, representing their innermost desires.

The little kid mutated into a string of candied haws, the desire is for candied haws, and the hawker’s desire is to earn more money.

"However, even understanding the cause of their mutations, it’s still impossible to completely solve the issue and restore them to normal."

"Is there really no other way?"

Thinking of this, Shen Zheqi set his gaze on his contracted spirit, that string of Buddha beads.

No, there’s still a way.

However, Shen Zheqi wasn’t certain if using that method would put himself in danger.

He glanced at the now eight-armed monstrous Chen Yuanshan, hearing seemingly endless murmurs of advice in his ear, and finally made up his mind.

Shen Zheqi took half a step back, gathering his hands in front of his chest, forming seals and casting a spell again.

This time, the dark patterns on each Buddha bead radiated a golden light, and as each dark pattern lit up, the entire breakfast shop was immediately illuminated in gold.

The Buddha bead string instantly expanded, and in the middle, a massive, semi-transparent "卍" symbol appeared.

This is one of the abilities of the Buddha beads contracted spirit—Telepathy!

Since the fundamental cause of the curse and mutation is desire, Shen Zheqi can enter the desire realm of others through telepathy and awaken them again!

With this thought, Shen Zheqi stepped forward, his whole body passing through the "卍" light gate.

The next second, his figure disappeared from the breakfast shop.

The eight-armed monster Chen Yuanshan, his eight arms spread out, his body leaned slightly backward, supporting himself on one foot in an extremely awkward posture, seemingly half-floating in the air.

Around him, those scattered pots, bowls, knives, spatulas, spoons, and chopsticks also floated in all directions.

The scene froze at this moment.

...

The golden light receded from Shen Zheqi’s eyes.

He found himself back at the entrance of the breakfast shop,

pushing the door open, Chen Yuanshan’s familiar figure appeared in front of him.

Looking at this scene, it seemed that the previous experiences were just a dream.

If it weren’t for Chen Yuanshan at this moment, efficiently stir-frying, deep-frying, and wrapping with eight arms.

This was the desire dream realm unique to Chen Yuanshan.

"Xiao Shen, you’re here?" Chen Yuanshan looked up at Shen Zheqi, a smile on his slightly aged face, wrinkles gathering at the corners of his eyes.

"Uncle Yuan Shan." Shen Zheqi’s expression was as usual, as if he didn’t notice Chen Yuanshan’s octopus-like eight arms, calmly sitting down.

Two fried dough sticks, a bowl of tofu pudding, and two buns.

This time, there was no wait, as the familiar breakfast appeared swiftly before him.

Shen Zheqi nodded slightly, nonchalantly picking up a fried dough stick, taking a bite, chewing casually a few times, while asking:

"Uncle Yuan Shan, why do you hope to make more breakfast to sell?" He paused, "Is it for the money?"

If it was just for money, according to Shen Zheqi’s observations, the desire representing money should be more concrete.

But Chen Yuanshan showed no related signs of mutation, which is why Shen Zheqi asked.

If not for money, then for what?

Chen Yuanshan seemed caught off guard by Shen Zheqi’s question and paused slightly.

But here, connected through the conduit of telepathy forming the desire dream realm, every thought displayed in its truest form, with honest exchanges, no lies.

So after a brief pause, Chen Yuanshan spoke:

"I want to make more breakfast for more customers."

This was an answer Shen Zheqi had never expected, and he couldn’t help but continue asking, "Why?"

"Because I want to see my son sooner," Chen Yuanshan replied honestly, "He is a Combat Spirit Contract Master, selected when he awakened at eighteen, and joined the Third War Zone."

The Third War Zone? Hearing this, Shen Zheqi’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.

If he remembered correctly, the Third War Zone was the one where everyone except Legion Commander Ye Qiu...

"I know what you’re thinking, but he was temporarily assigned to a special task and wasn’t in the war zone during the battle against the Old Covenant Apostle in the Third War Zone," Chen Yuanshan looked at Shen Zheqi’s uncertain expression and continued.

"So, that’s why you often ask me about task deployments, because you want to know your son’s whereabouts?" Shen Zheqi realized.

"Yes, not long ago, my son even sent me a letter, telling me he was continuing to carry out a special mission, and asked me to hone my culinary skills so that when my breakfast shop is well-known throughout Great Xia, it would be time for him to come home."

One of Chen Yuanshan’s eight arms took out a thick stack of letters.

Some letters were slightly yellowed but were well preserved.

Seeing this, Shen Zheqi fell silent.

To his knowledge, there was no such thing as a special task, and the Third War Zone being Ye Qiu’s Qiulin Guard, there was no possibility of being dispatched externally.

Normally, when a Combat Spirit Contract Master perishes, the family should be notified and comforted.

Unless there’s one possibility.

That is, on the eve of the final battle, Ye Qiu had each subordinate leave a last message, and Chen Yuanshan’s son’s message included not telling his father the truth.

Given Ye Qiu’s near-photographic memory and execution capability, there’s a high chance this is the truth.

With this realization, Shen Zheqi put down the half-eaten fried dough stick, looking up at the old man diligently working before him.

Observing the graying hair at his temples.

Shen Zheqi now faced a decision, whether to tell Chen Yuanshan the truth or not.