Chapter Thirty-Six: Hot Pot Dinner

The sun blazed high in the sky, its scorching rays baking the earth and radiating a heat that seemed intent on evaporating everything. At this moment, Jiathong Pass appeared no different from usual. Yet, if one pressed close to the inner wall and looked straight down, a line of dark figures could be seen creeping along the base of the wall, slowly making their way toward the gate.

Ordinarily, in such blinding daylight and oppressive heat, few would venture outside. But now, under the relentless sun, a group was advancing at a measured pace. There were more than two hundred people, over half of whom wore leather armor, swords and sabers at their waists, each with the strength of a fifth-rank officer. They pressed their hands to their weapons, faces grim, hugging the sides of the gate’s archway. Just three more steps and they would be discovered by the guards stationed within.

“What did you bring me here for?” In a tavern not far from the city gate, Luan Shuangyu wrinkled her delicate nose and asked. Through the crack in the private room’s window, she could clearly observe any activity at the gate.

“Right now, only the border cities of the entire dynasty remain relatively intact; the others have already become ruins,” Ye Han said, seated across from her. He hadn’t originally planned to come to Jiathong Pass, but after receiving a detailed report on the situation from Earth, he felt it best to witness things himself. As for the situation on Hanlan’s side, Earth had also provided some explanations.

To be honest, going to war with three civilizations at once, Ye Han’s anger far outweighed any surprise. To him, these three civilizations were merely like facing three exam competitors—nothing particularly troublesome. But the fact that his own people had acted behind his back was going too far. He distinctly remembered asking Yan Qiluo several times if there was anything else they were hiding, and she still hadn’t been honest with him. “After the exams, I must teach her a proper lesson!” Ye Han silently drew two circles around Yan Qiluo’s name in his mind. The talent he’d prepared to pass on to her—now, with a figurative rip, it was gone!

“What are you muttering about?” Luan Shuangyu glanced at him nonchalantly. After some time to recover, her mood had improved considerably.

“Ah? It’s nothing!” Ye Han shook his head, stood up, opened the private room’s door, and called downstairs, “Innkeeper, are you ready yet?”

After half a month’s development, under the direct guidance of Earth’s think tank, all kinds of advanced ideas had spread through Jiathong Pass like wildfire. From the emancipation of slaves to freedom and equality, a slew of new concepts was flowing and seeping into the city. Apart from the lack of support from the royal family and nobility, the rest of the Xiyuan people found them fairly easy to accept. Life under martial supremacy and power, without dignity, had long worn them down. They were no longer content to let those in power decide their fate on a whim. For the sake of their descendants, they chose to join the cause.

“Just a bit longer, young master! The hot pot base and ingredients are quite complex to prepare, but we’re doing our best!” came the innkeeper’s voice from downstairs. He was wielding his kitchen knife with care, slicing the iron-rhinoceros meat into thin, paper-like strips. Although the iron-rhinoceros was but a common first-rank beast, its hide as tough as iron, the flesh within was astonishingly tender. Sliced and dried, it made a fine snack. But this method of slicing it thin for boiling—this was the first time the innkeeper had seen such a thing. Only by eating beast meat raw could one absorb its spiritual energy; cooked, the energy would be lost. He truly couldn’t understand why this young master would insist on such wasteful extravagance.

“What exactly is this hot pot?” Luan Shuangyu withdrew her gaze from the window, turned, and looked at the strangely shaped bronze pot on the table. She prided herself on a broad and retentive memory, yet could not recall what the term “hot pot” meant. Was it perhaps a brazier that burned food on one side while roasting the other? As she pondered, she imagined a fire basin, but the divider running through the center of Ye Han’s bronze pot suggested otherwise.

“You’ll know soon enough when you taste it!” Ye Han replied with a mysterious smile. Borrowing the ability of a local water elementalist from Hanlan, he conjured a sphere of water and dropped it into the hot pot. Unable to handle spice, he intended to make a mushroom broth. He wondered what difference there might be between Xiyuan mushrooms and those from Earth. With anticipation, he placed a purple tiger bone into the pot, then switched abilities, igniting a fireball and tossing it beneath the table, which had already been hollowed out for this purpose.

“Is this... making soup?” Luan Shuangyu gave Ye Han a curious look. With such a method, who knew how long it would take? “Not quite. The spirit energy in Xiyuan’s beasts cooks out quickly. With their bone quality, you can extract the spiritual essence in half an hour once it boils,” Ye Han assured her, checking his notes on Xiyuan ingredients. The essence would seep into the broth as the spirit energy left the bones. Here, especially with spiritual ingredients, things cooked very quickly.

Time ticked by. Luan Shuangyu sat quietly, lost in the sight of bubbling water, her thoughts elsewhere.

“Young master, everything is ready.” The innkeeper’s voice broke the silence at last. He personally brought in the trays of ingredients.

“Thank you,” Ye Han said, tossing him a high-grade spirit stone from his pack.

“Oh my, thank you, young master, thank you!” The innkeeper thanked him repeatedly, bowing low. The main ingredient was the iron-rhinoceros, the rest just common vegetables and mushrooms. Including labor, fifty mid-grade spirit stones would have sufficed, with the iron-rhinoceros being the bulk of the cost. Ye Han had handed him a high-grade stone outright—a tip worth fifty extra spirit stones, nearly a month’s profit. No wonder the innkeeper was elated.

“That’s all, you may go.” Ye Han waved him off carelessly; to him, spirit stones—spiritual energy condensed—were so easy to acquire at the faction shops that he barely bothered to carry them.

“Please enjoy, young master. If you need anything, just call.” The innkeeper left and closed the door behind him.

“What are you thinking about?” Ye Han, having added the base to the pot, saw Luan Shuangyu still lost in thought. He walked over, took her hand, and drew her to sit beside him. “Everything’s ready. You’re going to love this!”

“This is local to Xiyuan, isn’t it?” Luan Shuangyu discreetly shook off his hand, pointing to the red-and-white divided broth and the neatly sliced iron-rhinoceros meat. She hesitated, “The broth should be fine, but this meat...”

“Of course you dip it in the broth!” Ye Han laughed, picking up a pair of chopsticks and, in a familiar gesture, took her hand. “These are utensils from my homeland. You’ve never seen them, have you? I’ll show you how to use them!”

He swore on the hot pot that Luan Shuangyu had never used chopsticks before. In Xiyuan, people mostly used knives and forks, and in the Liyang Star Domain, it was all nutritional pastes and twist-off caps. She’d said she rarely ate meals, so she probably hadn’t used them.

As Ye Han earnestly demonstrated, Luan Shuangyu pursed her lips but did not pull away. “I know how to use these,” she said, though she made no move to resist.

“Oh?” Ye Han paused, curious. “When did you learn?”

“They exist here in Xiyuan,” she said, glancing at him, “and there’s an entry in the ‘Universal Encyclopedia’ in the Liyang Library.”

Her glare made Ye Han’s heart skip a beat. He’d never seen her look quite like that before—a different kind of charm.

“Well, just because you’ve heard of them doesn’t mean you know how to use them!” Ye Han insisted, giving her hand a quick demonstration before reluctantly letting go. “Come, try the taste!”

He picked up a slice of iron-rhinoceros meat, swished it in the boiling broth for a few moments, then rolled it in a dish of sauce before placing it on the plate before Luan Shuangyu.

“Is it ready so soon?” She examined the colorful, sauce-covered meat with her chopsticks, hesitating—almost as if to ask why Ye Han didn’t taste it himself.

Ye Han caught her hesitation, his face stiffening with mild annoyance. “I just wanted you to have the first taste, that’s all!” In a small fit of pique, he took the slice back, biting into it himself.

To his surprise, the data from Earth had been right. The spicy heat and the tender flavor of the iron-rhinoceros meat collided on his tongue, the fiery broth and red oil providing a delicious intensity. Despite the different ingredients, the hot pot’s essence was there.

The taste was just as it should be.