The so-called Legion Hot Pot was, of course, one of the most all-encompassing kinds of hot pot.
You had to understand: the cosmos was vast, the galaxy brilliant. There was always a flavor worth savoring, a flavor that brought together everyone walking this difficult and perilous road of revolution.
This was the legendary "Legion Hot Pot."
Its history was short, of course—less than a year. It looked simple, but there was much more to it than met the eye.
Plain tomato broth and animal bones couldn't produce a soup base that nearly all carbon-based life could enjoy. The secret lay in a small pinch of "Six-Phase Salt" quietly dissolved into the broth.
It was a purple crystal left behind on an ancient battlefield in the Fermo Star Region—a gift from nature, and an even greater discovery of intelligence. It silently bridged the dietary gulf that had evolved between carbon-based lifeforms over billions of years. Like a skilled mediator, it allowed flavors that had nothing in common to coexist harmoniously in a single pot.
The compressed vegetables and dried meat brought by humans unfurled in the boiling broth, reviving the fresh fragrance of the wilderness. The Lumina people's favorite cardamom fruit and enormous insect eggs released a rich, nutty flavor; the seaweed dumplings cherished by the Losha people soaked up the broth, becoming exceptionally smooth and tender.
Of course, all carbon-based intelligent species loved synthetic protein blocks. After a long simmer, they somehow took on the delicate softness of tofu.
The wonder of Six-Phase Salt lay not in changing ingredients, but in bringing them into harmony. It respected the original flavor of each ingredient while making them bring out the best in one another, blending them into a complex, savory taste unlike any other—one that belonged to this collective alone.
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