Chapter 50: Noodles and Geniuses

Soon, a nice fragrance streamed into our nostrils.

"Ah, there it is," Zhangkong pointed, with a glee in his eyes. Everyone reserved their comments, smiling widely as we strolled into a large restaurant that was big enough to roof fifty people.

On the outside of the restaurant was a plaque carrying the following words: "Fu Family's Noodle Restaurant."

Zhangkong swerved through to the front desk where there was a man strolling leisurely and giving orders to the workers, casually.

"Uncle Fu!"

The old man turned his bulky body to reveal a slightly surprised expression, followed by a very pleased declaration.

"Ah, so it's Young Master Zhangkong!"

The two embraced one another, leaving everyone in a daze.

'Young Master Zhangkong? Just what was the family background of this lad?'

It was obvious everyone shared the same questions, but decided against asking anything.

With a face full of smiles, Zhangkong remarked, "Hale and hearty, fit as a fiddle! Ha! I still wonder how you keep on moving vigorously with so many hairs turning gray on your head!"

The man laughed. "Hehe... it runs in the blood."

Looking at the group of people behind Zhangkong, this Uncle Fu added, "I see you have company! Haha... friends from your new school huhn?"

Looking at Uncle Fu speak to this line, one couldn't miss the pride and joy in his eyes.

Zhangkong nodded. "These are my classmates."

We all flashed warm smiles at the old man and gave off warm auras, even from the likes of Xueyi and Lingxi who were naturally cold.

The man seemed to observe our true essence fluctuation for a moment before nodding in admiration and contention.

"Not bad, not bad. I'll serve the usual noodle flavours you prefer." The man immediately gave an order and two large tables were prepared for all fifteen of us at a rather comfortable area which did not attract too many eyes.

"Thank you, Uncle Fu."

The man waved Zhangkong's words as if they were nothing, with smiles in his face, as he stated, "It's on the house. Eat till you're full."

Before Zhangkong could even mutter a single word, the old man had swiftly retracted from our tables to some inner room behind the counter.

He could not help but to shake his head with a bitter smile, saying aloud, "This man would kill me with goodwill one day. How am I supposed to return the favour in the future?"

Fifteen plates of noodles were dropped before us and, without wasting time on formalities, we begun pouncing on it.

'Haa! What yummy food! This was just the best amongst the best! It was just unbelievable!'

There and then, we finally understood why the red-haired lass, Ruby, was huge and bulky...

"Boss, one more plate, please," she called out, after already savouring three large plates of noodles, and everyone else were still struggling on one.

Tang couldn't help but ask, "Do you keep an abyss in that stomach of yours?"

"Hehehe... you should see my mother."

Tang's eyes enlarged as he thought of a larger sized Ruby pouncing on mountains of ceramics. He shuddered just thinking about the concept of Ruby's mother being a better eater.

She raised the newly served plate of noodles and drowned it down her throat, regardless of how hot it was.

Everyone burst into a round of laughter as we watched the dialogue unfold.

"Guys, you were all so cool back in the virtual world!" I chirped in.

They all seemed to pause halfway through eating before staring at me. All of them. I felt the creeps run down my spine. I slowly added, to alleviate the pressure, "You're welcome."

They burst into embarrassed grins.

"Big sis, you were even more cooler!" Lingxi said with a very beautiful smile on.

She then began ranting on the tales of my taking down the Scarlet Ape all "alone" and how I'd defeated several other beasts with raw strength. My lips couldn't help but twitch as I began regretting even starting the line of conversation in first place.

"... and remember when she'd dashed into the sky just to land on that Blazing Overlord Lion and turn it into paste..."

"Cut it off!" I fumed in. If this was to continue, then I'd be drawing unnecessary attention to myself, which necessary wouldn't be good.

"We also had Mingming who'd saved my life with her cool speed Gift. Then there was you, Lingxi... and Xueyi, Jessica, Xuan'er..."

I mentioned all the good qualities of the battle. With my retentive memory, I could easily replay to mind the exact actions every one of them had taken to support the team. I even added some pinch of exaggerations to their actions, causing the elevation of their pride as they say behind the two tables, listening in delight. At this time, everyone was already done with eating. We'd spent just thirty minutes for the meal, surprisingly. At most, two plates were the limits of everyone, save for the abyss stomached Ruby.

We used the next one hour to talk about our teamwork in the battle against the Blazing Overlord Lions, and get to know one another better. The eldest amongst us was only 17, while the youngest, 15. I, myself, was only 16 years old and five months, at the moment. It was certainly a good thing that our age range wasn't too large a difference.

Chang explained that his father had told him that the acceptable age range to even write the academy's exam is 15 to 19. Not more, not less. That was to say that, at the moment, there wasn't any student aged 20 and above within the walls of the academy of the new students batch, this year.

For a moment, I couldn't help but shake my head as I thought about my 19 year old cousin, Dorothy.

I quickly put it to the back of my mind.

"So tell me, I'm quite curious as well after hearing the performance of my classmates," Zhangkong began, after wiping his mouth clean, "just what were your results in the academy's Profession Exam entrance examination? Introduce yourself with your result, that's also a good way to get to know ourselves."

'Ge-deng!'

My heart thumped. 'What's with this kid? I'm trying to keep a low profile here!'

Jessica's eyes lit up. For an unknown reason, I seemed to have felt an aura of pride exuding from her, and then from the others.

'Just what's with these bunch of buffoons?'

"My position was 1st place, thaumaturgy exam. I'm Jessica."

Everyone looked at Jessica, slightly surprised and, suddenly, facing their own thoughts.

When Lingxi heard Jessica's result, she was stunned, and rushed to speak.

"Lingxi; 2nd place, thaumaturgy exam."

Someone else chirped in. "Chang; 3rd place, thaumaturgy exam."

"Mingming; 1st place, music exam."

"Xuan'er; 1st place, painting exam."

"Xueyi; 1st place, poison exam."

"Jaded; 2nd place, poison exam."

"Tang; 1st place, formation exam."

"Ruby; 2nd place, formation exam."

"Toby; 3rd place, formation exam."

"Zhaohu; 1st place, apothecary exam."

"Xianxian; 1st place, physician exam."

"Blackie; 2nd place, blacksmith exam."

"Umm... Stephanie; 1st place, beast tamer exam."

Everyone paused for a second, before Ruby hollaed, "Jeez... you're that lass who got a perfect result! To think you'd actually be my classmate! Rumours spread like wildfire, and I got the gist a day after the examination."

Zhangkong chuckled.

"Zhangkong; 1st place, blacksmith exam."

Blackie's head quickly turned and his eyes shot at Zhangkong.

"No wonder you got the first place, you're actually the wielder of the Innate Divine Strength. Wait... about that... Isn't that bloodline only carried by the..."

Blackie could not finish his words as he felt the hot gaze of Zhangkong. He realised he was about talking to much and quickly made a "cough cough" before wiping his entire face with his handkerchief.

With this alone, my hypothesis of Zhangkong's family background had been cemented as a fact. This lad must most like be a noble elite!

"This thing about our scorings..." Blackie began, only to end up stopping halfway. It was not because he wanted to leave a suspense. Rather, it was because of the sudden group of people who had just stepped into the Fu Family's Noodle Restaurant!

"Everybody, get down!"

My brain almost seemed to knock out as two words trembled upon my lips.

"Armed robbers!"