The iron pot over the fire bowl whistled with a low, steady hiss. It filled the cold confines of Cave 74 with the thick, rich aroma of simmering beast marrow.
Pei Jing sat on the bare slate slab, his spine erect as a land-mapper’s weighted drop-line.
Before him, the broth bubbled in sluggish, amber ripples. He had boiled four pounds of split marsh crocodile spine bones for five hours. He allowed the dense fats, calcium salts, and raw spiritual connective tissue locked within the deep bone cavities to melt into an unctuous, golden broth. On the surface of the soup floated three bruised slices of wild mountain ginger and a pinch of dried sea salt, their pungent aromatics cutting through the feral game stench of the reptile marrow.
Pei Jing lifted the pot using a pair of wooden tongs. He poured the steaming liquid into a wide clay bowl. He waited thirty seconds for the surface grease to cool into a semi-clear amber film.
He drank.
The scalding broth rolled down his throat-pipe like liquid animal fat, coating his stomach lining with dense, living heat.
Right away, the ninth-realm martial engine of his mortal body engaged.
His Viscera Refinement organs acted like a high-pressure refinery. The packed fats and proteins were broken down by his stomach enzymes at triple the speed of an ordinary man’s metabolism. Tiny nutrients were funneled into his hepatic portal veins, replenishing cellular stored energy and generating an intense, internal living burning.
