Ao walked in a circle. This was the first round of meat.
But this time, not all of the tribes present ate without any worry or contemplation in their minds.
The bigger their tribe, the more they contemplated. As for those whose eyes were completely affixed on the food, they snapped out from their state of shock right away, then grabbed pieces of oily meat and took huge bites out of them. Some who ate too fast choked and immediately served themselves another bowl of soup and gulped it down. When they finished the soup, they continued to eat again.
So this was the entire picture: some people were eating but their minds were absent. No one knew what was on their minds, they were stabbing at the meat served to them with their stone forks. Another group of people had already returned to their eating mode. They were completely focused on the task of eating. Eating was the main reason they came here and it was also a major desire in life.
Compared to normal wild beast meat, fearsome beast meat had a more chewy texture, but to those who had not awakened their totem power, it was too difficult to chew. As for the stronger totemic warriors, it was the perfect texture. They even felt that normal wild beast meat was too soft to eat and didn’t feel as chewy.
Of course, the reason why everyone loved fearsome beast meat was that it could provide them with more energy and it could replenish their drained energy faster. It helped them recover faster and their bodies could regulate itself to its peak performance sooner. To the tribes who have never even tried fierce beast meat for the past thousands or hundreds of years, this was undoubtedly a delicacy!
The first round of meat obviously could not fill these people up. All who were present were true totemic warriors and they ate a lot more than normal people.
After Ao walked back to his seat cheerfully, Zheng Luo stood up.
Moving his arms and rotating his neck, he lifted his arm and gestured at the people who were already waiting on the side. “It’s time for the second round of meat!”
Zheng Luo’s words made the people who were hesitating about whether they should begin to eat suddenly lose their appetite.
Again?!
A team of Flaming Horn warriors carried plates of meat into the arena, but these were unlike the ones from before. These were cut up nicely and not at all similar to the ones Ao had cut. The fierce beasts that were served before were not even considered large. If they were too big they could not be cooked in a pot, and if they were cut before cooking it wouldn’t be convenient for Ao to show off his skills, so the beasts were selected according to size before they were cooked.
And now, the second round of meat was roasted meat. This was the most common preparation method every tribe used to prepare their meat. Because these beasts were larger in size, they were cut up before roasting.
Coarse salt was sprinkled on the meat before roasting. After the surface of the meat was cooked, and the salt had dissolved and seeped through the layers, the person who was in charge of the roasting process would pat away the excessive salt particles on the surface of the meat and put it aside to be used later. The finished product would then be served immediately in the banquet hall.
They didn’t use any spices or other seasonings at all. All they used was salt. The roasted meat appeared fresh and rough. Infused with the flavours of the ancient forest trees, its pure aroma brought out its most original taste. Meat was usually prepared this way in the Flaming Horn tribe.
Because it came fresh from the fire rack, it was still sizzling when it was brought into the hall.
The fragrance of roasted meat drifted in the hall. Many people couldn’t help but take in deep breaths. Smells so good!
Zheng Luo took out a giant blade, and in front of all the people, he washed it with water, wiped it clean, and washed it again. Next, he disinfected it on fire for a while. He was trying to prove to everyone that they washed the blade and disinfected it with fire before using it to cut up the meat.
With the giant blade in his hand, Zheng Luo led a team of people who were holding stone skewers used to hold the pieces of meat together and walked to the left side of the Flaming Horn seating area. He stopped in front of the Longboat tribe, who were sitting in the first row, and gave them a “friendly” smile.
All the members of the Longboat tribe thought, “Why do they always do it in front of us?!”
The banquet had just begun, they were not sure how many more rounds of meat they were going to serve.
The chief of the Longboat tribe turned his head and looked toward the chief of the Mang tribe who was sitting on the row behind them, “Should we switch places?”
The chief of the Mang tribe looked up at the sky and thought to himself. The moon seems pretty nice today.
Mu Fa looked once again to the opposite side of the room, to the Hui tribe who was sitting on the right of the Flaming Horn seating area.
The people of the Hui tribe lowered their heads and served the meat to each other.
They looked fully focused on their task and did not look at Mu Fa at all.
How unlucky!
What kind of bad luck is this!
They initially were happy about being able to sit in the first row, but they never anticipated such a situation. The people of the Longboat tribe were all unhappy.
Two warriors carrying giant skewers with pieces of meat in between followed tightly behind Zheng Luo.
Seeing the skewers with meat and another person with a blade, the people of the Longboat tribe somewhat understood what was about to happen.
“Wait...” Mu Fa was just about to speak, but Zheng Luo had already begun.
A green light reflected off the blade as it sliced through the air. Its momentum suddenly changed and the blade transformed into a number of phantom shadows. It was like a pack of wolves hunting after a prey. The blade’s fierce pressuring force attacked the meat on the skewers from all directions.
The seemingly powerful force of the sword stopped in time when it cut through the meat. They did not hear the sound of the blade coming into contact with the skewer or the bones.
And as the swift phantoms of the blade sliced across the meat, individual slices of meat flew onto the stone plate in front of the Longboat tribe and piled up neatly.
The same stone plate that held the meat that Ao had cut up was now empty. The meat from the first round had already been distributed and the plate was ready to receive a second round of meat.
The perfectly sized slices of meat with their natural marble patterns lined up tightly on the plate.
The green blade in Zheng Luo’s hand even drew out patterns on the meat! If they did not agree on being humble before this all began, Duo Kang who was sitting on the side would have already stood up to cheer and applauded with his followers.
The details about when to cut straight, when to cut at an angle, and when to cut in a horizontal fashion, where to cut, where to slice, and where to chop the meat off, Zheng Luo clearly thought everything through. Although he was not better than Ao at cutting the meat off cleanly from the bones, back in the days when they were still on the other side of the sea, if he said he was second in slicing meat, no one would have dared to claim the first place.
Before Zheng Luo was even a chief, he was already in charge of distributing the meat in the hunting team. With a wave of his broad knife, slices of meat continuously piled onto the plates. HIs evenly sized slices of shredded meat seemed exactly the same in both thickness and length. The neatly arranged slices of meat on the stone plates even looked aesthetic.
The wind currents created by the swinging of the blade rushed in all directions, causing the hairs of the Longboat tribespeople who were seated closest to fly up.
They had braids on the sides of their head! Braids! They were not even individual strands of hair! But even braids were flying up so high!
The air current even brought along the chills of the sharp blade, causing the tiny hairs on their faces to stand up on ends. They couldn’t even help but imagine what would happen if the blade was to cut on their bodies instead.
Just the thought made them shiver.
They wanted to shout out at Zheng Luo: “You don’t have to do this! Just let us cut the meat ourselves!”
But they had to save face, so they held their tongues! In these times, if they spoke first, then the Flaming Horn tribe would have gotten what they wanted and they would become the laughingstock of the other tribes.
I’ll hold my tongue!
Zheng Luo, who was still brandishing his giant blade, had no intention to stop at all. Excitement burned within him.
Didn’t you all have a hard time remembering us? Didn’t you all miss the meat? Sure! I’ll give you your meat, and at the same time, I’ll make sure you never forget about us!
I’ll make sure you remember who cut your meat, how it was cut, and what the entire situation was like!
The people who were there couldn’t help but think to themselves, ‘To eat the Flaming Horn tribe’s meat, you really have to pay a price first.’