Eating Meat

On an unremarkable evening, a streak of fire-colored clouds swept across the mountain range, the golden-red sunset gilding the entire mountain in a dusky, amber glow.

An Jing and his group, having finished their training goals early, were gathered together playing marbles.

An Jing, Gu Yeqi, Zhang Ying, Cang Linzu, Ye Xiuyuan, and Zhan Feng—these six formed the core group that rallied around An Jing. They were essentially his younger followers and admirers, and since they got along well, they often played together during their leisure time.

The marbles were rewards An Jing had received from his instructor based on his daily performance, but he didn't play with them himself. Instead, he used the marbles to teach his friends how to master their internal force and exert it with precision and dexterity.

Lines were drawn on the ground to mark the boundaries. The other five held short sticks, using them to channel force and take turns pushing their marbles to strike those of the others.

Hitting one opponent's marble earned one point, hitting two earned three points, hitting three in a row earned six points, and hitting four was a grand slam worth twelve points, while knocking a marble out of bounds deducted two points.

The game looked easy, but in reality, one could only profit by consistently hitting two of the others' marbles. It required calculating the force applied to the marble and the chain reactions of the collisions, not to mention that they were using sticks to exert force, which was far more difficult than using their hands. It was a true test of stability, accuracy, and path calculation.

Each person hitting once counted as a round, and the game ended after five rounds. An Jing would provide martial arts guidance to the person with the highest score. As for those with negative scores, An Jing would make them do extra training.

As of now, Gu Yeqi had the most points—her control was remarkably nimble, allowing her to consistently hit two marbles each time, with occasional bursts of skill that let her hit three.

Cang Linzu and Ye Xiuyuan followed; their techniques were not low, nor were they inferior to Gu Yeqi's, but they were often too greedy, always using too much force and sending their marbles out of bounds.

As for Zhang Ying and Zhan Feng, they were the frequent candidates for extra training—Zhang Ying struggled with the angle of force, while Zhan Feng had too much strength and couldn't control the intensity.

"Yes!"

It was Zhang Ying's turn to shoot. This time, he nailed the angle and force, actually hitting three marbles at once and pulling his negative score back into the positive, leading him to cheer excitedly.

Immediately afterward, however, he turned his head in confusion and sniffed the air: "Hey, wait, Brother An."

"Do you guys smell that?"

"A little." An Jing was currently flicking a marble with his thumb, the marble moving straight up and down with absolute stability; this was his method for training finger flexibility and control.

He looked up and replied thoughtfully: "But I don't know what that smell is."

"Huh?" Gu Yeqi was in first place again and would receive An Jing's guidance. She brought over a bottle of water for him, turned back, and said: "Is it the smell of medicinal herbs?"

"It's the Tienan Core... hmm, and something else!"

Gu Yeqi had grown up in a manor steeped in the scent of countless herbs and could even identify them by smell alone. After closing her eyes and sniffing carefully, she opened them confidently and said: "There's also the scent of Ice-Mang Flower seeds, it's for calming the mind!"

"Wrong!"

Zhang Ying was equally confident: "It's meat. And a lot of it!"

"And..." the boy sniffed carefully, adding with certainty: "It's more than one kind of beast 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 could return alive from the deep mountains, they would be fully loaded, having harvested not only the hides and flesh of fierce beasts but also rare spiritual plants and precious medicines.

Zhang Ying was very familiar with this scent; it was the smell of many wild beasts being slaughtered, their blood flowing and their vibrant muscles releasing a raw aroma. He would never mistake it.

"It's meat!" "It's herbs!"

As they argued, Cang Linzu and Zhan Feng egged them on from the side: "Fight! Fight!"

Ye Xiuyuan and An Jing both shook their heads helplessly.

"Alright."

Finally, An Jing raised his hand to stop their bickering: "It's not just those scents."

He turned his head to look at the pavilion on the 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 that could easily accommodate a thousand people. Although the number of refugee children gathered there was large, their actual activity area was quite limited. Places like the Medicine Pavilion, the back hall, the back mountain, the central courtyard, and the dark pool were off-limits.

Xuanming Manor had too many secrets, but the children didn't care.

Except for the Medicine Pavilion.

Every five days, Vice Envoy Yao would summon the children to the Medicine Pavilion for physical checkups and medicinal treatments, so everyone was quite familiar with it.

But today, An Jing also smelled some different medicinal scents coming from the direction of the Medicine Pavilion... It was a scent that was sweet to the point of cloying, mixed with a hint of strange, raw fishiness. It felt like cooking braised pork with mustard, brown sugar, and strawberry-infused craft beer; just a whiff of it was enough to shake one's mind.

"It's about time to eat anyway."

Hearing the bell, An Jing shook his head slightly, casting off the strange analogy that had popped into his mind.

He called everyone to gather and led the team to the cafeteria.

Today was indeed very different.

Under the astonished gazes of all the children, amidst the incredibly rich aroma of meat, everyone received a large portion of meat.

Two or three pounds? Or four or five? There was so much meat—some were ribs, some were leg bones—and the carefully roasted beast meat carried a rich fragrance.

It trembled so gelatinously that it gave the illusion it might spill right off the plate.

An Jing frowned slightly, unsure if he was surprised or pleased, and stared intently at the meat in front of him.

This was likely the meat of some fierce beast, as the shape of the bones was very strange, unlike any creature he knew. The rich, oily aroma mixed with spices and sauces made his stomach churn violently, his entire body trembling with a craving that urged him to gorge on the flesh before him.

But perhaps because An Jing had been eating plenty of meat lately, he was able to forcefully suppress his body's instincts.

He swallowed the saliva pooling in his mouth and scanned the entire cafeteria.

Not everyone was eating the same meat.

Some people, like An Jing, were eating the meat of some fierce beast; some were eating the large wings or wing roots of avian creatures; some were eating internal organs; and others were eating strange insects? There were even seafood items like fish and crabs, and the variety was endless.

But there was no doubt that everyone loved the food before them immensely; no one had the slightest desire to speak, as they were all focused entirely on finishing the meat in front of them.

Eating meat.

There were no other thoughts in the children's eyes, only pure hunger and greed. This burgeoning desire made An Jing shudder, a nameless terror creeping up his spine.

"An Jing."

At this moment, an aged voice drifted over. An Jing turned his head quickly and discovered that Manor Master Yao had arrived before him without a sound: "Do you not like it?"

The gaunt old man, looking like a wisp of a ghost, leaned down to meet An Jing's gaze and asked softly: "Why aren't you eating?"

The youth stared into those deep, gloomy eyes, bared his teeth in a grin, and laughed: "Manor Master Yao, I'm afraid I won't have enough to eat."

In reality, the meat in front of An Jing was far more abundant than what was on the plates of the other boys and girls, and of a higher quality, too.

This was perhaps the privilege of being the 'Senior Brother'. As the strongest among them all at the moment, his treatment was on an entirely different level from the average boy or girl.

Which was precisely why it felt so unsettling.

"Hehe..."

Hearing this reply, Manor Master Yao straightened up and let out an ambiguous laugh: "Because you're afraid of not having enough, you look at the meat in others' bowls before eating your own?"

"What a greedy lad... but do not worry."

Manor Master Yao said indifferently: "One day, you will truly be full."

"Eat."