158: Chapter 158 Spiritual Food Worth Tens of Thousands of Divine Power Points?

The current Lin Xiao could be considered to have gained quite a reputation in Anping County. Although in the eyes of some rogue gods, he was still not as formidable as the established wealthy clans.

But in the upper circles of Anping County, everyone had already tacitly accepted that he was qualified to sit at the table, and this was even without them knowing that the Fang Family and the county magistrate had already submitted to him.

The owner of this restaurant was not a local of Anping County, nor was he personally present here. The reason he opened this high-end restaurant...

...was entirely due to a momentary impulse, believing that opening a high-end restaurant on a remote planet would definitely be a blue ocean project.

As a result, only after opening it did he realize: ideals are beautiful, but reality is harsh.

Although he did indeed earn some divine power points, it was completely different from his dream of a booming business making money hand over fist.

It was only during certain events and banquets that the wealthy clans would come here to spend money. On normal days, the restaurant's business could be described as deserted.

This situation was like a bucket of cold water waking up the restaurant owner, but since the divine power points had already been spent and no one was willing to take over...

...he could only find a rogue god to help manage it. As an outsider without a strong backing...

...he was very sensitive to the shifts in power within the county. As the manager, he had to know exactly who in the county he could occasionally provoke, and who he absolutely could not cross.

And Lin Xiao's temple was already on the manager's list of absolute 'do-not-provoke' entities. Upon receiving the news of Pavilion Master Yan Yao's private room reservation, he immediately ordered his subordinates to keep their eyes peeled.

Furthermore, he went to welcome them the moment they arrived, keeping his posture exceptionally humble.

After arriving at the Heaven-grade private room, the restaurant manager, with Pavilion Master Yan Yao's consent, immediately began to conjure up the carefully prepared spiritual meals one by one.

Aside from a small portion provided by the restaurant itself, most of the ingredients for these spiritual meals had been brought over by Pavilion Master Yan Yao in advance for the restaurant to prepare.

In principle, the restaurant would not agree to such a thing. After all, they opened a business to make money from food and lodging, but unfortunately, Pavilion Master Yan Yao silenced them with a single sentence.

'If your restaurant has these Nascent Soul Realm ingredients, then we won't bring our own.'

In a place like Anping County, even the heads of the wealthy clans would be reluctant to casually use Nascent Soul Realm ingredients for banquets.

It could be said that there was simply no market for this in Anping County, and since there was no market, the restaurant naturally would not stock up on them.

If there were customers with such special needs, they would give advance notice long beforehand and pay a deposit so the restaurant could purchase them online.

Although online trading was highly developed, the more high-end the Materials, the harder they were to purchase. For instance, Golden Core Realm spiritual Materials and Yao Beast flesh with special effects...

...were actually very difficult to buy online. One either needed a stable supply channel, or any loose stock would be quickly snatched up.

It wasn't that the supply was genuinely insufficient, but rather that each Star Domain deliberately controlled the star systems under its jurisdiction.

There were strict requirements on how much volume could be released each month.

If it exceeded this amount, they could only sell it to the Domain Lord at the original price. The reason for doing this, on one hand, was a tacit agreement to avoid taxes.

After all, a ten percent online tax was simply too painful. For the Domain Lords, retaining this portion of resources to do anything was better than giving it away for nothing, right?

Therefore, they deliberately restricted the quotas from above. Once the monthly quota requirement was met, they would no longer supply them online to the public.

Taxation was one aspect, but the primary reason was their own development. The super-first-tier Star Domains could be said to be self-contained systems with incredibly abundant resources.

Their external appeal went without saying; how many gods spent their entire lives just to carve out a foothold in these places?

Among them, there was no lack of Intermediate Gods, while those numerous second-tier or even the star-like countless third-tier Star Domains...

...also needed to develop, but their external visibility and recognition were clearly a problem.

Many gods might not even hear the names of these Star Domains in their entire lives. Who among those who could become the lord of a domain lacked ambition?

The Domain Lords racked their brains every day, trying to find ways to attract more people to their Star Domains.

As long as people came, which of eating, drinking, playing, or entertaining didn't cost money? Once these people spent their divine power points, the tax revenue in the Domain Lord's hands would naturally increase.

Therefore, for resources of the Nascent Soul Realm Rank, aside from the monthly quota supply, if you wanted to buy them, you had to personally board a starship and travel to the relevant Star Domain to purchase them in person.

It was precisely for this reason that the restaurant had no choice but to tacitly accept Pavilion Master Yan Yao bringing his own ingredients. After all, they really couldn't get their hands on Nascent Soul Realm resources at short notice.

Every time the manager served a spiritual meal, he would announce its name, ingredients, and consumption effects. When the classmates heard that aside from a small amount of Golden Core Realm spiritual meals...

...the vast majority of the rest were Nascent Soul Realm spiritual meals, they couldn't help but gasp in unison.

"Old Yan, isn't this a bit too... extravagant? So many of them are actually Nascent Soul Realm ingredients. How many divine power points must this single meal cost?"

None of them had ever eaten a Nascent Soul Realm spiritual meal in their lives. Let alone the Nascent Soul Realm, they hadn't even eaten many Golden Core Realm spiritual meals.

After all, once they consumed them, only a portion would be absorbed by themselves, while the rest would be converted into Spiritual Qi and enter their Divine Kingdoms.

To everyone, this was clearly a shameful waste. Just to satisfy their taste buds, they would lose a small portion of Spiritual Qi for nothing.

Unless they ate them constantly over years and months, consuming a small amount of these ingredients' Spiritual Qi would not effectively improve their bodies at all.

Some who had a good relationship with Pavilion Master Yan Yao even quietly sent him voice transmissions to persuade him.

"Xiao Yao, with our relationship, why bother with these superficial gestures? Isn't it a waste for us to eat these spiritual meals? I saw that restaurant owner was quite polite to you earlier.

See if you can negotiate with him to refund this meal for us? This meal must cost tens of thousands of divine power points. There's no need to extravagantly waste so many resources on eating..."

When they were in the first-tier Star Domains, although they had never eaten these high-tier spiritual meals, they were all too familiar with their market prices.

A table like this in a first-tier Star Domain would probably cost at least one or two hundred thousand divine power points.

Considering this was a remote planet without such expensive land prices and labor costs, and stripping away those inflated markups...

...even just the ingredients themselves would be close to a hundred thousand divine power points.

Nearly a hundred thousand! Just thinking that so many divine power points were going to be consumed by them in a single meal made their hearts bleed.

Some classmates even thought: 'How about we summon our core Believers and let them share the food?'

To them, only this would be the option with the least waste.

Meanwhile, a very small number of classmates, after their shock, had a strange thought rise in their hearts: 'It seems Old Yan and the others have truly struck it rich this time.'

To be able to entertain them with nearly a hundred thousand divine power points—if this wasn't a trap, then Old Yan and his group had truly made it big.

At the thought of their purpose for coming, the gazes of these people toward Pavilion Master Yan Yao and the others couldn't help but grow burning hot.

Hearing the well-meaning advice of their classmates, Pavilion Master Yan Yao, Jiang Ling, and the others only kept urging everyone to eat more.

"Don't just stand there, everyone. These ingredients are at their most delicious when they're hot. If they get cold, the taste will be much worse.

Reheating them would cause some of the ingredients' own Spiritual Qi to be lost. Don't let it go to waste, everyone, dig in!"

Listening to Pavilion Master Yan Yao and the others speak so confidently, a wave of strangeness washed over the classmates. At the same time, a thought surfaced in their minds: 'Old Yan seems so experienced...'