The afternoon sacrifices dragged on for a very long time, not because the Azure Emperor had manifested his power, but mainly because Zhang White Ribbon had set himself against the sacrificial meat. He actually stood there with a little knife, painstakingly dividing up the pork.
The elderly received fattier cuts, the young leaner ones; lineages and gangs with more people received more, and those with fewer people received less.
Unsurprisingly, the six most powerful bosses received the best portions, all served on porcelain plates with trays beneath them... As for Boss Du of the Huai Prosperity Gang, who supposedly had some acquaintance with Zhang White Ribbon, and seven or eight leaders of smaller gangs with some standing, including the quick-witted Boss Sha of the Black Shark Gang, they had no trays, but they did receive porcelain plates.
This was naturally an excellent sign. It showed that Zhang White Ribbon had remained impartial to the end and acknowledged the arrangement dominated by the six largest gangs. As for the inclusion of Boss Du and Boss Sha, there was nothing to say about that either. Who did not distinguish between close friends and distant acquaintances? In fact, as the six biggest gang bosses picked up their chopsticks to eat, they were already making their final preparations for the last round of competition, bargaining, and alliances, to secure this sky-high business once and for all.
Men traveled a thousand miles for wealth alone, and the gangs of this world were themselves temporary structures assembled for economic gain, not things possessed of any inherent values.
And so, after all this fuss, even Zhang Xing thought the day's business was finished.
What he had not expected was that the greatest climax would come after the sacrifices-as soon as the meat eaters withdrew with their warrior