On an utterly ordinary evening, a streak of fiery clouds stretched across the sky, sweeping over the mountains in layers. The golden-red sunset bathed the whole range in a dusky glow.
An Jing and the others had finished their training goals ahead of schedule and were gathered to play marbles.
An Jing, Gu Yeqi, Zhang Ying, Cang Linzu, Ye Xiuyuan, and Zhan Feng were the closest-knit group around An Jing. They were mostly his underlings, younger followers, and personal admirers, and got along well with each other. Whenever they had free time, they played together.
The marbles had come from rewards An Jing had earned from the instructors for his daily performance. He didn't play himself, but used them to teach his friends how to control their force and apply it accurately and deftly.
A line marked the boundary on the ground. The other five held short sticks and took turns using them to strike their marbles, sending them into the others' marbles.
Hitting one person's marble earned a point; hitting two earned three points; hitting three in a row earned six. Hitting all four was a grand slam worth twelve points, while knocking a marble out of bounds cost two.
The game looked easy, but in practice, players only gained points if they could reliably make their marble hit two others. They had to consider how much force to apply and how the collisions would chain together. And since they were striking with sticks, it was far harder than using their hands—a real test of steady aim and trajectory calculation.
Each player got one shot per round. The game ended after five rounds, and An Jing would guide the martial techniques of whoever scored highest. Anyone in the negatives would have to do extra training.
So far, Gu Yeqi had the highest score. Her control was remarkably deft; she could reliably hit two marbles each time, and occasionally managed to hit three.
Cang Linzu and Ye Xiuyuan came next. Their skills were no worse than Gu Yeqi's, but they tended to get greedy and hit too hard, sending their marbles out of bounds.
As for Zhang Ying and Zhan Feng, they were regulars at extra training. Zhang Ying couldn't get the angle right, while Zhan Feng had too much strength and struggled to control it.
"Yeah!"
It was Zhang Ying's turn to shoot. This time, she got the angle and force just right, and somehow hit three marbles in one go, bringing her score out of the negatives. She cheered excitedly.
But then she turned her head in confusion and sniffed around. "Hey, wait, Big Brother An."
"Do you smell that?"
"A little." An Jing was flicking a marble up and down with his thumb. It flew straight and steady, a method he used to train his finger dexterity and control.
He looked up and answered thoughtfully, "But I can't tell what it is."
"Huh?" Gu Yeqi had come in first again and earned An Jing's guidance. She was bringing him a bottle of water when she turned back and said, "Is it the smell of herbs?"
"It's Tienan Core... Oh, and there's more!"
Gu Yeqi had grown up in a manor steeped in the scents of countless medicinal herbs. She could even identify them by smell alone. Closing her eyes, she took a careful sniff, then opened them with confidence. "There's also the scent of Ice-Mang Flower seeds. They're calming!"
"You're wrong!"
Zhang Ying was just as sure. "It's meat. And a lot of it!"
"And..." The girl sniffed carefully, then declared with certainty, "It's more than one kind of animal meat!"
Zhang Ying's family had been hunters for generations. Before the Frost Calamity, hunters in the Northern Frontier were synonymous with danger and wealth. If a hunting party entered the mountains and made it back alive, they were sure to return laden with spoils. They could harvest not only the pelts and flesh of ferocious beasts, but also rare Spirit Plants and precious herbs.
Zhang Ying knew that smell well. It was the smell of many wild beasts after they'd been slaughtered, their blood flowing and their vigorous muscles releasing their scent. She couldn't possibly mistake it.
"It's meat!" "It's herbs!"
Before long, the two were arguing. Cang Linzu and Zhan Feng egged them on from the side. "Fight! Fight!"
Ye Xiuyuan and An Jing could only shake their heads helplessly.
"All right."
At last, An Jing raised a hand and stopped their argument. "There's more than those smells."
He turned to look at the pavilion on one side of the training grounds.
That was the Medicine Pavilion, where Vice Envoy Yao and the others lived and worked.
Xuanming Manor was like a sprawling boarding school, easily large enough to house a thousand people. Though it held a great many refugee children, the areas where they could actually go were limited. Places like the Medicine Pavilion, the rear hall, the back mountain, the central courtyard, and the secluded pool were all off-limits.
Xuanming Manor held too many secrets, but the children didn't care.
Except for the Medicine Pavilion.
Every five days, Vice Envoy Yao summoned the children to the Medicine Pavilion for checkups, medicine, and treatment, so everyone knew the place well.
But today, An Jing could smell something different coming from the Medicine Pavilion... It was an overwhelmingly sweet scent, mixed with a strange, fishy tang. It felt like braised pork cooked with mustard, brown sugar, and strawberry craft beer. Even a hint of it could make one's mind sway.
"It's about time for dinner anyway."
Hearing the bell, An Jing shook his head slightly, casting aside the strange image that had suddenly sprung to mind.
He called everyone together, then led them to the dining hall.
Today was indeed very different.
As all the children stared in astonishment, surrounded by an intensely rich aroma of meat, every one of them received a huge portion.
Two or three pounds? Or four or five? There was so much meat. Some pieces were ribs, others leg bones, all from beasts and roasted to perfection, filling the air with a rich fragrance.
The meat quivered on the plates, as if it might spill over the edges at any moment.
An Jing frowned slightly, unsure whether he felt surprise or delight, and stared at the meat before him.
It seemed to be from some kind of ferocious beast. The shape of its bones was extremely odd, unlike any creature he knew. The rich aroma of fat mingled with spices and sauce, making his stomach churn violently. His flesh trembled, yearning and urging him to devour the meat before him.
But perhaps because An Jing had been eating plenty of meat lately, he managed to suppress his body's instinct.
He swallowed the saliva his body had produced and looked around the dining hall.
Not everyone had the same meat.
Some, like An Jing, had meat from some kind of ferocious beast. Others had the huge wings or drumettes of birds, or entrails. Some had strange insects, even. There was seafood like fish and crabs, too. Each person had something different.
But there was no doubt that everyone loved the food before them. Not one of them seemed inclined to talk; they were all utterly focused on finishing the meat in front of them.
Meat.
The children's eyes held nothing but pure hunger and greed. Their surging desire sent a chill through An Jing, and an inexplicable terror crawled up his spine.
"An Jing."
An old voice sounded. An Jing quickly turned and saw that Manor Master Yao had appeared in front of him without a sound. "Don't you like it?"
The gaunt old man, like a wisp of a ghost, bent down to meet An Jing's gaze and asked softly, "Why aren't you eating?"
The boy looked into the old man's shadowy, fathomless eyes, grinned, and showed his white teeth. "Manor Master Yao, I'm afraid there won't be enough."
In truth, the portion of meat before An Jing was far larger than those on the plates of the other boys and girls, and its quality was better, too.
Perhaps that was a privilege of being the Senior Brother. As the strongest among them, he was treated on an entirely different level from the other boys and girls.
Which only made it more unsettling.
"Heh..."
Hearing his answer, Manor Master Yao straightened and gave an inscrutable laugh. "You're afraid there won't be enough, so before eating, you're checking how much meat everyone else has?"
"What a greedy boy... But don't worry."
Manor Master Yao said blandly, "One day, you'll truly eat your fill."
"Eat."
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