The modest inauguration ceremony began, and so did the banquet.
Zhang Suannai's inauguration ceremony was rather interesting. The banquet was the main event, almost like a company's annual dinner, and they ate first, then gave speeches.
The banquet was held in the Sword Sect's dining hall.
Unlike the Spirit Sect, where every mountain had its own cafeteria, the Sword Sect had just one vast dining hall. From outside, it looked like an enormous palace. Inside, huge Golden-Thread Nanmu pillars, extravagant by any measure, supported the building. Traditional tables and chairs filled the hall, all made from expensive wood too.
So calling the Sword Sect rich did not seem right, but calling it poor did not fit either.
Perhaps this was what it truly meant to have no interest in money.
A Spirit Power Stove sat in the middle of every table, topped with a large Iron Basin Pot brimming with Chicken with Taro in red chili oil. Rehydrated dried bamboo shoots and pork intestines had been added, and plenty of vegetables and meats for blanching sat alongside it.
There were five in Chen Shu's family. With Brother Jiang, Brother Meng, and Brother Nameless, they filled an eight-person table, eating while keeping an eye on Zhang Suannai as she moved around the hall.
The Sword Sect's cooks were undeniably skilled.
Their Braised Chicken had been superb.
Chen Shu had posted the key techniques for Chicken with Taro only a week earlier, yet the cooks had already mastered them. Their version tasted a little different from his—it was clearly made by someone else—but it was still delicious.
And they used the Sword Sect's free-range chickens.
Chickens raised on Blackstone Mountain really were something else. Nothing grew there; it was high, cold, and thin-aired. A chicken needed some mettle just to survive. In