Beggar's Rabbit Leg

As the night deepened, the cries of the various soul beasts gradually faded, and the entire Star Dou Great Forest suddenly fell silent.

The Star Dou Great Forest was often more dangerous at night than during the day. Many predators prowled after dark, sending you unwittingly into death's embrace while you slept. Thus, once night fell, there were practically no traces of human activity.

Yet a young man in black defied that convention, strolling unhurriedly through the darkness as leisurely as if he were walking through his own courtyard. Suddenly, he stopped.

First, he took a black tent out of his soul tool and expertly pitched it. Next came a jade stone long table several meters long and a meter and a half high, along with jars and bottles filled with small granules.

The tent was clearly for resting, but what were the long table and all those jars and bottles for?

The answer soon became clear. What emerged from the soul tool was a lower leg covered in pink fur. The scarlet flesh faintly visible at the severed end revealed its firmness. The sheen of the fat, the luster of its surface, the timing of the slaughter, and the preservation methods were all nothing short of perfect!

Just having that whole piece of raw meat hanging there was enough to stir the appetite...

The young man's next steps were more commonplace: boiling water and scalding the skin.

Soon, after a series of procedures, the leg had been skinned and deboned, leaving only the fresh red meat.

However, the young man did not cook it straightaway. He spread the rabbit leg meat flat on the jade stone long table, cushioning it with a layer of nearly transparent soft cloth. Then he took out a heavy hammer, aimed it at the rabbit meat, and brought it crashing down!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The dull echoes reverberated through the night in the Star Dou Forest.

Any accomplished cook present would have understood that he was pounding the rabbit leg meat to break down its internal fibers, making the finished dish more tender and pleasant to eat.

After all, this was meat from a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, vastly different from ordinary meat. With ordinary meat, pounding it with the back of a knife or a rolling pin would accomplish this step. Clearly, meat from a hundred-thousand-year soul beast required more violent treatment.

"Mandarin orange leaves, Sichuan pepper, round cardamom..."

The white jade long table was covered with jars and bottles. Some held dried spices that had yet to be ground, while others held powdered ones. Having stopped pounding the meat, Qian Chongling picked up a small bottle and gave it a careful sniff, then nodded in satisfaction. "These spices from the check-in rewards are all excellent quality!"

Now he could rest easy.

He took a stove out of his soul tool, lit it, and set a pot filled with clean water on top. Then Qian Chongling took out a spice bottle, began blending the spices, and poured them in.

Within minutes, the water grew hot. Qian Chongling stirred the spiced water with chopsticks, and a rich, almost tangible fragrance wafted out.

Next, he took out a small basin and mixed the spiced water from the pot with yellow clay taken from his soul tool, stirring them together!

He first wrapped the rabbit meat in plastic wrap, then added a layer of lotus leaves, tied it tightly with string, and patted yellow clay over it.

Just one final step left, Qian Chongling thought.

Qian Chongling took out several bundles of fine fruitwood and stacked them into a pyramid. In the hollow center, he placed the rabbit meat wrapped in lotus leaves and coated in yellow clay.

Once everything was ready, Qian Chongling snapped his fingers. A small flame appeared on his fingertip, and he used it to ignite the wood.

Whoosh!

The wood quickly caught fire, and the flames shot toward the heavens like a fiery dragon, bathing Qian Chongling's face in a blazing red glow.

Before long, an hour had passed. The wood had nearly burned away, and much of it had become glowing red charcoal.

But the dish was not finished yet. Qian Chongling knew that perfectly well. God-level cooking was not that simple!

Crack!

At the sudden, faint sound, Qian Chongling pricked up his ears. "The outermost clay shell has begun flaking off..."

Fifteen minutes later, Qian Chongling smiled faintly and picked up a poker he had deliberately set aside. Taking a few steps forward, he stirred apart the charcoal that had not yet fully gone out and scraped out a ball whose clay coating was continually flaking away, then placed it on the table.

After spending so long preparing the dish, Qian Chongling could no longer be bothered with any sense of ceremony. He took a small hammer, aimed it at the clay ball on the table, and tapped it gently.

"Crack!"

With a faint sound like an eggshell breaking, cracks spread rapidly from the point of impact across the entire clay ball.

The second strike!

Snap.

This time, Qian Chongling used more force. With one blow, the already crack-riddled clay ball shattered instantly. The two outer layers of ordinary yellow clay fell away, exposing the darker clay within.

The aroma had already begun to emerge, making Qian Chongling swallow involuntarily.

"Third strike!"

Qian Chongling brought the hammer down in one swift motion, shattering the yellow clay shell. At the same time, he held a small knife in his left hand and swept it across the lotus leaves inside. The strings wound around them snapped together, and the leaves immediately spread open like a lotus in full bloom.

Now the fragrance seemed even more tangible. Even Qian Chongling was utterly intoxicated, as though he had inhaled some sort of substance.

Looking at the rabbit meat, its entire surface a vivid, fiery orange-gold, Qian Chongling reached out and grabbed it. He sank his teeth into it with a squelch, and his expression suddenly softened.

Smack, smack.

"Sure enough, beggar's rabbit leg made with fruitwood charcoal and spices tastes so good you just can't tear yourself away."

Before he knew it, Qian Chongling had eaten the entire rabbit leg clean. Still craving more, he licked his lips, took a bottle of Green Plum Wine out of his soul tool, and began sipping it leisurely.

He had come to the Star Dou Great Forest because of the requirements of his Chaos Second Trial: go to the second source of evil and cook and eat any part of its body.

When Qian Chongling first saw the divine trial's requirements, he had refused. He had never even considered eating a person!

He had not in the past, he would not now, and he certainly would not in the future!

But since this concerned his divine trial, Detective Qian Chongling went to work. Thanks to his earlier experience in Holy Soul Village, he knew that the so-called source of evil was Third Brother.

Then what was this second source of evil? The Sea God or Asura God, who had passed their divine positions to Tang Third Brother?

No, neither! Asura God had not told Third Brother to bring about the Abyss invasion. In other words, at most, Asura God and the Sea God had sold weapons to a murderer. They could not be called uninvolved, but they were not the source.

Then who had given Third Brother the confidence? What if he brought about the Abyss invasion and everything fell apart?

The answer was: five God Kings in the Tang family!

His son-in-law was the Emotion God King, his son inherited the position of Destruction God King, his daughter-in-law inherited the position of Life God King, and his grandson inherited the Dragon God's position!

And so, the answer emerged!

If you no longer had your son and daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, or grandson, would you still dare play such games? Qian Chongling guessed he would not. After all, that fellow was a complete coward when he lacked strength.

Thus, the actual requirement of the second trial of the Chaos Divine Trial was: eat some part of either one of the two rabbits!

After all, without the hundred-thousand-year Old Rabbit, you would have no descendants. Without the even older rabbit, there would be no hundred-thousand-year Old Rabbit.