"Mmph!"
The instant the piece of meat Yang Ming held between his chopsticks blocked the Ice Empress's mouth, her eyes widened. She stared at the man before her in disbelief, never imagining she would be treated so rudely.
Seeing a flash of resentment in those crystal-yellow eyes, Yang Ming remained unfazed. Looking entirely confident, he said:
"Give it a try. It's delicious."
The Ice Empress looked deeply suspicious. Then, almost despite herself, she chewed.
In an instant, an unprecedented spicy fragrance swept across her taste buds. It was like basking in the sunshine on a May day, every cell in her body humming with pleasure.
Yang Ming quietly watched the shifting expressions on her face and asked with a smile:
"Well?"
The five-segmented scorpion tail behind the Ice Empress wagged from side to side like a puppy's, clearly betraying her enjoyment.
The Ice Empress smacked her lips, savoring the lingering flavor. In a barren place like the Far North, when had she ever tasted anything so delicious?
Any intelligent creature naturally yearned for a better life.
Before, when the Ice Empress had never tried it, ignorance had been bliss. But after encountering this novel way of preparing food called hot pot, she felt as though a door to a whole new world had opened. The Tian Meng Ice Cicada soul beasts she had once loved eating had seemed like a rare delicacy, but now they suddenly lost their appeal.
Even so, given her temperament, the Ice Empress could not quite stand Yang Ming's supremely confident expression. Turning her head aside, she said something she did not mean:
"It was so-so."
Yang Ming glanced at the tail stinger held high behind her and smiled without a word.
The Ice Empress evidently realized it too. A flustered blush crossed her face, and