However, Top and I have only eaten a small portion of the heart so far. The heart is already cooked through, so we can eat more tomorrow.

I wasn't full because I knew that the twenty-odd bamboo partridges that Dante shot had to be smoked and processed with crocodile meat before they could be eaten.

There's no other way to smoke crocodile meat when there's so much of it, but it would be such a waste to smoke these tender and juicy bamboo chickens into dry, crumbly chunks.

So I told Dante that when I got back I would make those bamboo partridges into a midnight snack and see what the chief said. After all, we were on their territory, and we had to follow the basic rules.

When Dante heard me say I wanted to make a midnight snack, he smiled and nodded casually. Even without asking the leader, he could agree to such a request based on my hunting results.

Having been in the tribe for so long, I've always eaten with everyone else, whatever was available. I haven't had my own special meal in a long time.

Now that I've finally found some good ingredients, my cravings are naturally starting to stir again.

For the past few days, the tribe's food has consisted entirely of barbecue: roasted potatoes, roasted wild vegetables, and roasted meat.

Having eaten them for so long, I can only say that I treat them as food to fill my stomach; as for whether they taste good, I can't really say so.

It's not that I'm too arrogant, but these locals, once they've tasted my food, they'll be begging me to cook for them every day, like they're on drugs.

Dante, of course, had never seen me cook before, and he specifically recommended a woman from his tribe who cooked the best food.

The potatoes weren't burnt at all, and the roasted meat was a clean, white color, unlike the pitch-black stuff we usually eat.

When Dante started talking about the legendary God of Cookery in his clan, he began to spit as he spoke.

As he spoke, drool began to drip from the corners of his mouth, and he praised the food made by the local woman as if it were heavenly delicacies.

Dante also said that he once had the privilege of witnessing a native woman sandwich meat between two stone slabs before putting it into the fire to roast.

The aroma was so enticing that even the wild animals in the neighboring mountains were drooling. That barbecue was absolutely delicious.

Dante said that the high priest hadn't licked the stone enough, so he secretly hid it and licked it slowly when he had time.

Later, everyone became extremely angry, so dozens of people in our tribe had to take turns licking the stone. Finally, they cleaned every crevice of the stone with their tongues before they let the stone go.

Upon hearing this, I couldn't help but burst into laughter. Dante is hilarious; he even made the wild animals on the neighboring mountain drool with envy.

Dozens of people took turns licking the leftover stones. If I used a pot to cook, wouldn't they lick off a layer of the gold on top of my food? Ridiculous!

I think Dante was just exaggerating. It seems we shouldn't have taught him to use adjectives so quickly; his imagination is just too boundless.

Soon the native who had returned with the crocodile meat, and Luo, returned to the place again.

The chieftain asked the native to sit down and eat some roasted meat, then mumbled a few words to Dante, who was almost finished eating.

Dante nodded, picked up my basket, and said to me, "Sir, I'll take your basket back for you first. I'll have the women in the tribe cook the chickens inside for you."

Hearing this, I felt really bad and quickly interrupted Dante.

"Dante, wait! I'll go back and make it myself. You're curious about how good my cooking is, aren't you?"

I looked at Dante with a somewhat humble and pleading expression. I was genuinely afraid that Dante would hand the bamboo partridge over to the women of the tribe, and that the women would ruin this precious thing.

When Dante saw my reaction, he assumed I was captivated by the "culinary god" of the tribe he had mentioned earlier. He then snapped out of his reverie, slapped his forehead, and said, "Look at my memory! You're so thoughtful, sir. Of course, such a fine dish should be made by xx."

Because Dante's name was so convoluted and he spoke so fast, I couldn't understand him even after he asked several times, so I was too embarrassed to keep asking.

This damn bird language!

I listened to it several times but still couldn't understand it, so I simply gave this native woman a name so we could communicate in the future.

Her name is pronounced so fast, like a bullet, so I simply called her "Swoosh" because her name sounds very similar to "Swoosh".

I shook my head seriously at Dante. "Even the 'whoosh' you mentioned won't work. I want to do it myself."

Seeing my surprisingly firm attitude, Dante was also a little curious. How could a grown man like me be so insistent on cooking?

In Dante's view, I am just like most men, and I am good at hunting.

As for cooking, it's just like the dark, unappetizing stuff we're eating now.

If you didn't know it was a piece of meat, you wouldn't be able to find it anywhere, no matter where you threw it.

However, Dante respected my decision and nodded to me. He indicated that he would definitely tell the good woman not to touch the bamboo chickens, and that I would prepare them myself when I got back.

Seeing this, I nodded gratefully to Dante in response.

Top's ears were twitching like crazy as he heard me say I was going back to get something to eat myself. He quickly tossed the small piece of crocodile meat he had just picked up into the fire.

Damn it, Tang Yi is finally going to take action himself after all this suffering. With good food coming soon, who the hell would still eat this stuff!

I gave Top a disapproving look; it seemed to realize at that moment that its behavior was somewhat inappropriate.

So I quickly disguised myself as a hooligan, covered my mouth and whistled happily, turning my head away and avoiding eye contact with me.

"puff!"

Upon seeing this, I burst out laughing. I have a love-hate relationship with this guy, and for a moment I was caught between laughter and tears.

Dante escorted a batch of meat back, and then another person took over the escort, with everyone taking turns to rest.

Even for such small matters, the indigenous chief arranged everything clearly, and everyone felt that they could enjoy the work.

Soon we only had this last batch of meat left.

Actually, this batch can no longer be considered meat; it mostly consists of skeletons that have been stripped of their flesh, with only a few bits of meat scattered on the skeletons.

I think these are probably used as food for Luo, because giant hyenas have very developed jaws and can easily crush these bones.

They also need to eat a lot of bones to supplement the calcium their bodies need.

We returned to the tribe with the remaining meat and immediately sensed that something was off about the atmosphere.

The women were all looking at me with strange eyes, as if they were seeing a handsome guy like me for the first time.

I soon learned the reason from Dante: they were upset that I had questioned their cooking skills.

At that moment, a woman from a tribe came out alone and spoke to me in a string of gibberish.

I looked at Dante, completely bewildered. Dante gave me an awkward smile and simply said something to me.

"She wants to have a cooking contest with you!"