Inside the Grand Flagship Hot-Pot Palace of System #70, the air smelled so good that even the iron pillars seemed to sweat spicy red oil.
Down in the central stove pit, a hundred-mile-wide copper cauldron bubbled and rolled with fifty million gallons of spicy beef-tallow broth. Clamped right underneath that giant pot was Third Young Master Jin Wuji of the Golden-Crow Sun Clan, still in his giant three-legged fire-bird form.
“Turn the heat up on the northeast corner, Bird-Boy!” Hong Ling yelled, banging her heavy kitchen cleaver against the brass railing above the pit. “Table #4,088 ordered ten plates of thinly sliced beef tongue! It needs a fast, rolling boil for seven seconds! If the meat gets tough because your fire went soft, I’m docking half a bowl of shrimp paste from your midnight supper!”
Down in the stove pit, the giant flaming bird puffed out his chest and flapped his wings.
“Who says my fire went soft?!” Jin Wuji squawked indignantly, blasting a fresh pillar of golden-red solar flame straight against the copper bottom of the cauldron. He turned his beak toward the twelve featherless, soap-scrubbed Golden-Crow Envoys who were manning the smaller side-burners nearby. “Did you idiots hear that? Keep the secondary vents steady! My Undying Golden-Crow True Fire gives this broth a smoky marrow flavor that my second brother could never match in ten thousand years! Watch how fast those beef tongues curl up!”
