The heavy iron wheels of one thousand mobile field cauldrons rattled across the stone flagstones of the northern ramparts.
Leading the convoy was Grandma Chen herself, wearing an immaculate white apron stitched from nine-cloud immortal silk. Behind her marched five hundred canteen aunties, their round, friendly faces beaming with cheerful energy. Each auntie wore a matching chef’s hat and held an oversized wooden ladle carved from sacred peach wood.
Clatter! Clang! Clatter!
The aunties moved with the practiced efficiency of a veteran army brigade.
Every ten paces along the twenty-mile battlements, two aunties parked a massive bronze cauldron cast with ancient nine-dragon motifs. Beneath each pot, a bed of low-temperature dragon-fire coals flared into bright golden flames.
The ingredients inside those cauldrons were nothing short of legendary.
Grandma Chen had personally selected five thousand pounds of prime spirit-ox brisket from the pastures of the newly docked Shennong Floating Continent. The meat had been simmered slowly for forty-eight hours with thirty-six rare wild herbs, crushed ginger, and mountain garlic.
Thick, creamy marrow had been scooped directly from the thighbones of ancient spirit-beasts, blending into the stock until it looked like liquid gold.
