With a flick of Shi Hou's wrist, the enormous Black Pot slammed onto the ground.
The gray Stone Knife blurred into afterimages, and slices of white tiger tenderloin fluttered down through the air. Each was evenly cut, gleaming a vivid red.
On his retina, the system BGM, "Good Days," beat out a cheerful rhythm. Shi Hou followed the beat and kicked a pot leg with one foot.
Boom!
Crimson rune flames leaped up.
The tiger-bone broth bubbled in the pot, milky-white bubbles rolling endlessly. Shi Hou grabbed the sliced tenderloin and swiftly blanched it in the boiling broth.
Three breaths later, the slices had turned white on the surface, sealing the blood qi within. With one fierce sweep of the ladle, he scooped them all out and spread them over the leeks in the stone basin.
Next, Shi Hou grabbed two handfuls of crushed thorny red fruit seeds and scattered them over the meat. With his left hand, he picked up the scorching-hot beast fat and poured it over them.
Sssizzle-!
The red oil roiled violently, and pungent heat exploded into the air with the wild aroma of meat.
That domineering fragrance charged in every direction, sweeping away every trace of the surrounding stench of blood.
Red oil pooled in the basin, the tiger meat pale, tender, and translucent, the leeks a lush, glistening green.
"All done."
Shi Hou clapped his hands, picked up the stone basin, and turned around.
He froze halfway through lifting it.
Three steps away, a row of hungry diners stood ready for battle.
Shi Hao squatted on the far left, cradling a pottery bowl larger than his head and gripping two chopsticks ground from beast bones in his right hand. He clacked them against the rim as drool dripped onto the ground.
In the middle