The kitchen of Willow-Breeze Courtyard looked like a dragon’s forge made of cast iron and fragrant steam.
Ten massive Star-Iron cauldrons sat over roaring hearth-fire arrays. The chimney pipes chattered against the brick roof as clouds of white steam billowed into the afternoon sky. The aromas drifting from the pots were rich enough to make a passing immortal weep: caramelized rock sugar, aged mountain ginger, star anise, crispy roasted duck fat, and sweet steamed bamboo.
Gu Changsheng stood at the central butcher block with his sleeves rolled up to his shoulders. His golden spatula spun between his fingers like a dancer’s ribbon.
A seven-year-old girl born with an Abyssal Gluttony Stomach, Gu Changsheng thought as he checked the simmering glaze in the first cauldron. *Those hypocritical sect elders called her a fiend because her stomach could dissolve raw earth veins. They never understood the simplest truth under heaven: a starving child isn’t a monster.
She’s just a little girl waiting for her dad to bring dinner home.*
Beside him, Grandpa Yao worked with four emerald wooden arms extended from his Rank 4 Wood-Lotus Chef body.
The old culinary grandmaster was in his absolute element. Two wooden hands sliced tender Rank 4 Flood-Boar pork bellies into exact three-inch squares. A third hand basted sixty golden roast ducks hanging inside a brick fruitwood kiln.
