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The bird was nearly cooked. It was time to make the dipping sauce.

Xie Juanhan had set aside the bird fat and was rendering it in the other golden pot.

The fat was golden yellow and had a peculiar, savory fragrance, with no gamey smell at all.

The fat slowly shrank in the golden pot, releasing clear oil and turning into large cracklings.

Xie Juanhan took a wooden spoon and kept ladling the hot oil over the cracklings.

When the fat was nearly rendered, he added chopped aromatics and continued cooking them.

The hot oil extracted the pungent compounds from the aromatics, producing another alluring, spicy, savory fragrance.

Xie Juanhan waited patiently for the chopped aromatics to turn dark green in the pot, then slightly golden brown.

He ladled in a spoonful of bird broth.

With a sizzle, the broth and aromatic oil blended together, and the fragrance mellowed.

The little ones' damp noses began twitching again as they sniffed vigorously beside him.

Xie Juanhan glanced at them, unable to keep the amusement from his eyes.

The bird broth, aromatic oil, and browned bits at the bottom slowly cooked down into a sauce, smelling more fragrant by the moment.

He turned his attention back to the pot, sprinkled in a little salt, then added the remaining portion of raw chopped aromatics.

As soon as the fresh aromatics went in, a fresh fragrance rose from the pot.

Xie Juanhan lifted the dipping sauce and sniffed it.

The mellow sauce smelled savory and fresh, with a distinctive spicy aroma.

It tasted nothing like the sand ginger dipping sauce he usually ate, though the style was somewhat similar.

He narrowed his eyes.

He had made plenty of dipping sauce.

Once it had cooled a little, Xie Juanhan divided it among several simple bowls folded from leaves.

The little ones kept sniffing hard at the smell of the sauce in the air, their damp noses twitching.

Xie Juanhan stretched out a long leg to block them from touching the sauce.

The poached bird was cooked, but it wasn't ready to eat yet. There was one last step.

Xie Juanhan washed the small soup pot, filled it with clean stream water, and brought it to a boil again. Then he added salt to make boiling salt water.

After that, he tapped lightly in the air above the pot.

A current of extreme cold slipped into the boiling water, turning it to ice water in an instant.

Small pieces of ice appeared in it, clinking together when he shook the pot.

The little ones' eyes widened in surprise, and they wanted to poke at it with their paws again.

"Wait, it's almost ready."

Xie Juanhan soothed the little ones as he poked the white bird's leg with wooden chopsticks.

When he saw that no bloody juices came out, he took the whole white bird out and immersed it in the ice-cold salt water to cool it quickly.

After cooling it once, he lifted the bird out and felt the temperature inside its cavity.

The temperature was just right, neither hot nor cold.

Xie Juanhan nodded in satisfaction and prepared to chop it into pieces.

There was no chopping block out in the wild, so Xie Juanhan cut the white bird on a tree stump.

He only had a washed dagger, which wasn't very convenient for cutting.

Fortunately, his strength and skill made up for it.

The whole white bird was cut into neat pieces.

Xie Juanhan put half on a large leaf and pushed it toward the little ones. He also pushed the large leaf holding the dipping sauce beside them, indicating that they could dip the meat in it.

"Chirp, chirp!"

The little ones excitedly scurried around beside him.

As soon as Xie Juanhan set the large leaf of bird meat beside them, they scrambled to grab pieces.

The moment the meat entered their mouths, the little ones' expressions visibly changed.

Several of their pupils dilated, and their eyes grew very bright as they turned to look at Xie Juanhan.

"Good, isn't it?" Xie Juanhan smiled. "It's thanks to the big soup pot you brought."

"Chirp, chirp!" The little ones buried their heads in the food, crunching through the bird bones.

Xie Juanhan gestured for them to try it with the sauce. "Dip it in some sauce. It has a different flavor."

The little ones tilted their heads, trying to work out what Xie Juanhan meant.

Xie Juanhan pushed the sauce closer to their paws.

One of the smarter little ones immediately tried dipping a piece of bird meat in the sauce.

The others saw what their companion was doing and rushed to dip theirs too.

The moment the sauce-coated meat entered their mouths, their pupils dilated again.

When they looked up at Xie Juanhan again, their gazes were full of admiration.

A sense of accomplishment welled up in Xie Juanhan, and he tried the bird meat himself.

Like the little ones, he first tasted it without the sauce.

While cleaning the bird, he had noticed that its meat was exceptionally tender and had a faint fragrance.

Now that he tasted it, the white bird's skin was crisp, its meat tender, and the layer beneath the skin slightly gelatinous, with a texture a little like jelly. It was deliciously savory.

When he bit into it, the juices locked inside the meat burst out and filled his mouth.

The bird skin, the gelatinous layer, and the meat had three entirely different textures that complemented one another, building layer upon layer.

As he chewed, an intensely rich flavor was released, filling his mouth with a fragrant, smooth taste and a hint of sweetness.

Best of all, the surface of the bird had cooled, but the inside was still warm. The ice-cold salt water hadn't diluted its flavor at all; instead, it made the savoriness seem even more concentrated.

Xie Juanhan narrowed his eyes slightly.

No wonder the little ones had gone to such lengths to take him hunting for white birds.

It really was delicious.

After tasting it on its own, Xie Juanhan picked up another piece, dipped it in the sauce, and tried it.

The instant the sauce touched his mouth, he understood why the little ones had been so insistent on taking him to gather ingredients for it.

The dipping sauce went perfectly with the bird.

The fragrant, spicy sauce brought the bird's savory flavor bursting to life.

Eaten together, they had a distinctive savory fragrance.

Xie Juanhan looked down at the leaf bowl holding the sauce.

He had decided that from now on, whenever he ate this kind of bird, he would always pair it with this sauce!

The bird was delicious, and the dipping sauce was fragrant.

Xie Juanhan had eaten his most satisfying meal since coming to this world.

It grew dark again.

The little ones were full and already getting sleepy where they stood.

The wind ruffled their long fur as they curled their tails around themselves and dozed with their eyes closed.

Xie Juanhan washed the two golden pots, then sat in the clearing and gently tapped the dented bottoms with a pebble.

He patiently repaired the pots while the little ones kept him company.

After finally restoring the pots to roughly their original shape, Xie Juanhan put the bird meat he had wrapped in large leaves into one of them, along with a packed bowl of dipping sauce.

He handed the golden pot to the little ones. "You should go home now. Come play again tomorrow. Remember to take this bird meat and sauce to Telingewei and thank him for the pots."

Telingewei's scent was so obvious on the little ones, and the golden pots were so distinctive, that Xie Juanhan didn't have to guess who their owner was.

He hoped Telingewei wouldn't be angry at the little ones for secretly taking his pots out, for the bird meat's sake.

Perhaps when he had time, he should pay Telingewei a formal visit and explain.

The little ones lazily got to their feet and chirped twice. Then, in groups of two or three, they picked up the golden pots and slowly walked away, their bottoms swaying.

Xie Juanhan watched their round little backs, unable to keep another smile from spreading across his face.

Now that he had come to this unfamiliar world, it was nice to have a group of little ones like them for company.

Xie Juanhan was in a cheerful mood, but Telingewei's mood was less pleasant.

He stayed in the cave, waiting for his companion beasts to return.

Only when it was completely dark did the companion beasts come back, dragging the golden pots with a clatter.

Telingewei looked out of the cave expressionlessly.

His companion beasts had even taken his pots out!

"Chirp, chirp!"

The little ones looked at the dragon, not flustered in the least.

On the contrary, they puffed out their fluffy chests and chirped twice in triumph.

"You brought prey back?" Telingewei returned to human form. "What prey?"

Without waiting for the companion beasts to answer, he casually picked one up and pressed it to his forehead to read its memories.

"Chirp!" The companion beast pushed Telingewei's face with its paws and bared its teeth at him angrily.

"You went to see him again?" Telingewei put the companion beast down. "Delicious bird meat?"

"Chirp, chirp!" The companion beasts grew even more pleased with themselves and dragged the two golden pots to Telingewei's feet one after the other.

Fortunately, Xie Juanhan knew the little ones' ways and had wrapped the bird meat and dipping sauce especially securely.

Although several layers of the large leaves had torn, neither the bird meat nor the sauce had spilled.

Telingewei took a look, then went into the cave and rummaged through his pile of glittering gold for a golden plate and golden knife and fork.

"Whoosh-"

A small puff of dragon flame made the long-stored golden plate, knife, and fork glow red-gold.

Once they had cooled, he wiped them down, and the golden tableware gleamed, clean once more.

Telingewei took the bird meat and dipping sauce out of the golden pot, unwrapped the large leaves, and poured them onto the plate.

Xie Juanhan had left him roughly a quarter of a white bird.

Telingewei first took out half, then spooned out half the sauce and poured it over the meat.

The bird meat smelled delicious, and his companion beast's memories also showed that it tasted good.

But Telingewei didn't pay it much mind.

He ate as he usually did.

The moment he took the first bite, however, his pupils dilated, and his expression was just like the fluffy little ones' when they had first tasted the bird that afternoon.

It was actually this delicious!

Telingewei suddenly began eating faster.

After finishing the plate of bird meat, he elegantly and swiftly transferred the other half onto his plate and poured out all the remaining sauce.

Piece by piece, Telingewei ate all the bird meat.

He even used the meat to wipe up the last bit of sauce left on the large leaf and put it in his mouth.