"Uncle, I can't eat this much."
Rokudo Rinko eyed the dishes covering the table and patted her stomach. She was not even that hungry.
"Huh? Oh. Niece, don't misunderstand. These are for me, not for you."
Shiratori Riku glanced at her, then at the spread, realizing the confusion.
"For yourself?"
"Uncle, wasting food is a bad habit."
She looked from the heaped plates to Riku's build. He was sturdy, sure, but could anyone eat that much?
"Relax. I hate wasting food most of all, so I will finish every last bite."
"Heh, kid, let me show you my new technique for boosting appetite. It's pretty impressive."
Riku dug in. As he ate, his body vibrated at a minuscule frequency.
Everything that entered his mouth was shaken into the finest particles. In his stomach it was digested at high speed.
INHALE, EXHALE! INHALE, EXHALE!
His breathing quickened, each breath drawing in a great volume. As oxygen flooded in, his heart thumped faster, blood shuttling energy along until it reached every cell.
The leftovers his body could not absorb were compacted and compressed by vibration.
In twenty minutes, he had put away twenty portions. It still was not enough.
"Ten more bowls."
He ordered ten more and polished them off in fifteen minutes. At last he leaned back, rubbing a stomach that looked unchanged, face content.
"Uncle, are you... are you all right?"
Rinko had watched him swallow food for thirty people. She worried he might burst.
"I'm fine. Did you learn the Kunpeng Heaven-Devouring Art I just demonstrated?"
He had named his newly developed eating technique the Kunpeng Heaven-Devouring Art. The effect was not that extreme, but the name sounded cool.
"No. Uncle, you were just eating."
"And, Uncle, is our temple going out of business?"
She had only seen him eat, nothing else. Still, the move name sounded awesome.
"Hm? The temple is going out of business? That's news to me."
Riku frowned. Baiyun Temple was doing fine. How did closing down enter the picture? Was it because he ate a few extra bowls?
"If not that, then why eat so much? Isn't it because we won't be able to afford meals later?"
"Uncle, if the temple ever closes, come live with me. I'll make sure you eat your fill."
As the Lu family's young lady, Rinko declared it grandly.
"You scared me for a second. I thought we really were shutting down."
Riku lightly tapped her on the head. "I ate this much for cultivation, not because the temple is broke."
"I told you before. That nine-to-five style of training is silly."
"Real cultivation is done in sitting, standing, and daily life. That is true practice."
He had created the Kunpeng Heaven-Devouring Art after being inspired by Six Vaults Immortal Thief, one of the Eight Miraculous Skills.
But pure digestive enhancement would unbalance the body. Then he remembered Life Return from the world of pirates.
By freely controlling one's body, digestion and energy absorption could be accelerated.
Back in Impel Down, Luffy's poisoned body was wrecked, yet after gorging and absorbing in an instant, he recovered immediately.
Riku realized that compared to the side-effect-ridden Six Vaults Immortal Thief, Life Return was more fundamental and complete.
By studying Life Return, he developed the Kunpeng Heaven-Devouring Art. Now one meal could yield ten days of energy.
But eating more was not the end. The point was to refine that surplus energy and temper life and fate.
In other words, a single day spent absorbing and grinding that energy equaled ten days of someone else's results.
His cultivation speed was ten times that of others.
"Come to think of it, I've never seen Uncle go outside to temper his body."
Rinko suddenly recalled that in her first year on the mountain, she had sometimes seen Riku train, but in the second year no more.
Yet even without practice in her eyes, his life-force cultivation was overwhelming. Among the peers who had joined then, who had not been thrashed? Even she had gotten a lump.
"Right, Uncle, why won't Grandmaster Uncle let you attend the Luo Tian Da Jiao at Longhu Mountain?"
She asked, full of curiosity. She did not know how strong he was now, but he had to be formidable. Maybe he could take first place.