"Master, I found the best whetstone."
A moment later, Ergouzi rushed into the slaughterhouse carrying a three-foot-long strip of black stone.
"Oh? This really is pretty good!"
The butcher nodded when he saw the long black stone. "Not bad. Hurry and bring it over. I need to sharpen my knife—we'll be slaughtering cattle soon!"
Ergouzi hurriedly set down the whetstone. The butcher picked up his butcher's knife and sharpened it against the stone with a continuous scrape, scrape.
A short while later, the knife had been sharpened. The butcher slaughtered three cows, cleaned and skinned them, rubbed them with spices, and sent them into the pass city.
Three Mountains Pass, Commandant's Residence.
A young man clad in golden armor and wearing a golden crown sat before a low table. Two long plumes extended from his crown, trembling lightly.
This man was naturally Kong Xuan, the commandant of Three Mountains Pass.
Before Kong Xuan stood three wooden racks, each hung with a whole cow coated in spices.
"Alas, after all these years, I still can't rid myself of this appetite for food."
Kong Xuan looked at the three whole cows, smiling as he shook his head. With a grab of his hand, one of the cows flew off its rack.
He grabbed its hind legs with both hands, raised it before himself, licked his lips, and took a huge bite.
"Oh? This flavor..."
After swallowing a chunk of beef, Kong Xuan suddenly shuddered. "This aura... Five Elements Qi? It even seems to carry a trace of the power of creation? What is going on?"
With another beckoning gesture, he drew over the other two cows from their racks. Opening his mouth and inhaling, his mouth expanded enormously, and he swallowed all three cows in a single gulp.
"Sure enough, all three