Chapter 275 The Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces (5)
The most delicious portion of the steamed Hundred Dragons Steamed Dish had already been sent to the viewing platform outside Guangyang Palace. The Lord of the Sun sat high there, and the already quiet sounds from the Cloud Platform reached Him as if they were whispering in the night.
He looked down at the gods and monks below, all bowing their hands in his direction, and felt extremely satisfied.
Just as the Hundred Dragons Steamed Bun was served, the monkey servants brought over a basket of various rare fruits and herbs.
The Nine-Turned Vermilion Fruit and the finest Sunflower Mushroom lay among the pile of rare fruits in the basket like ordinary objects, appearing utterly unremarkable.
Seeing such a sumptuous feast, Ji Rong thought to herself, "No wonder even the wealthy Senior Sister Qing Baizi would have considered stealing it in the past."
Ji Rong recalled the adorable way her senior sister Qing Baizi waved her forty-foot sword and admonished her. She immediately shook her head to dispel those unnecessary thoughts, then opened her beak and began to eat again.
Ji Rong deliberately chose to eat some foods she had never tried before. As she ate, she thought to herself: Of all things, eating is the most important.
Thank you for the gift from Guangyang Palace! All these delicacies and exotic fruits, please come quickly into my food bag!
While the cultivators were eating the spiritual fruits, the round platform in the middle had been replaced by a cage of colorful chicken cultivators, each with bright plumage and their beaks sealed shut.
At this moment, Tu Li thrust his knife into the ice and walked down.
He followed a monkey servant to a table in a remote part of the Cloud Terrace, sat down, and became a guest.
Meanwhile, a bird cultivator sitting on the table next to him stood up, bowed to Tu Li, and went straight to the front of the table, stretched out its wings and claws, and began to dissect the bird.
As soon as the bird-slaying master stood still on the round platform, a group of gray-skinned wolf servants marched in orderly steps to the foot of the platform and squatted upright.
This bird had excellent claw strength. While humming a clear song, it pulled the colorful chicken cultivator out of the cage. Its movements were fluid, and it bled and plucked the feathers in one go, showing a bit of the charm of the Shang Nu.
He put all the feathers in a basket.
The colorful chicken pieces were then impaled on iron rods by the wolf servants who were already waiting nearby, and roasted one by one in the fire on the large pillar.
Before long, the entire Cloud Platform was filled with the rich aroma of meat. The cultivators were intoxicated by the tempting fragrance, and the sounds of chewing and swallowing could be heard throughout the Cloud Platform.
Qing Guanzi stared at the bird cultivator on the stage and explained to Ji Rong, "Junior sister, the one on the stage is the butcher Zhao San, who is as famous as Shang Nu. He is a wild cultivator who has become an emperor. He does not practice blood magic, but he is extremely bloodthirsty. So, the hosts of banquets often ask him to be their butcher, and he has gradually become famous."
Ji Rong nodded absentmindedly. Her mind had been elsewhere ever since the large cage of colorful chickens was placed on the table. She turned her head and asked, "Senior Brother Qing Guanzi, are all the dishes at Guangyang Palace freshly killed and served?"
Qing Guanzi nodded approvingly and said, "That's right."
Looking at the colorful roasted chicken, which was freshly grilled over a fire and imbued with spiritual energy, Ji Rong used her wings and claws to grab a leg and tasted it carefully.
"It smells so good!" Ji Rong thought to herself, "No wonder everyone likes to eat it."
After the roasted chicken was served, a Black Tiger cultivator from the Guangyang Mountains who had attained sainthood went up to the round platform to give a sermon.
As soon as the black tiger cultivator who had attained sainthood began to speak, a dozen or so unruly cultivators below, who had cultivated to the Emperor realm through their own exploration, became excited. They looked at the tiger cultivator on the stage with envy and listened to his sermon.
Ji Rong listened and felt lucky, because the tiger's explanation was not as good as Qing Pingzi's.
Below the stage, on Zhu Xiu's table, there was a small cup of light golden liquid. Ji Rong stretched out her beak to taste it and found it had the flavor of the Source Stream.
"How stingy!" Ji Rong thought to herself, "It would be better if it were purer."
She handed the diluted Yuanliu liquid to Qing Guanzi, who happily accepted it, drank it all in one gulp, and then smacked his lips and said, "It's a bit weak."
After Hu Xiu finished speaking, it was already sunset. With the last dish of spiritual vegetables served, the main banquet for the day came to an end.
The gods were led into Guangyang Palace by attendants, while the cultivators were arranged to rest in the palace rooms behind Guangyang Palace, waiting for the feast to begin at sunrise the next day.
The second day of the Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces was the Bear Feast, with roasted bear paw as the first dish. The Butcher was a black bear cultivator at the Emperor Realm who practiced blood magic and sat behind Tu Li.
The third day of the Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces is a poultry feast, with the first dish being steamed hundreds of birds, and the butcher still serving three claws.
The fourth day of the Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces is the Feast of Immortal Delicacies. The first course is top-grade fire spirit mushroom with fish slices. The butcher is Cui Gu, the three-eyed cat from the Guangyang Mountains.
The fifth day of the Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces was the Orangutan Feast, with the first dish being Drunken Orangutan Lips. The butcher was Tu Dajian, a famous butcher from the continent of Buzhou.
For five consecutive days, the dishes were served in the same style as on the first day: the ice dragon spewing mist, the butcher killing on the spot, and then the old saints of Guangyang Mountain Range taking the stage to preach. Ji Rong became numb as she watched.
She thought to herself that Senior Brother Qingguanzi's assessment was indeed accurate; the banquet at Guangyang Palace was quiet and boring, with only the food as a local specialty to enjoy.
By the fifth day, apart from the rare delicacies she hadn't eaten much of before, which gave Ji Rong the motivation to keep standing, there was nothing else.
Just as everyone was waiting for the food to be served, Yifan, a demon cultivator from the realm of demons, carrying a burlap sack and dragging her trembling legs, slipped into the clouds above the platform. She finally managed to crawl and roll her way to the round platform. Looking at the huge cage on the platform, she let out a low, mournful cry. Upon hearing this, one of the gorillas inside immediately squeezed to the edge of the cage and shook its head in the direction of the demon cultivator.
But it was too late. Golden light rose and flames raged. This mortal demon cultivator named Yuan Pan was exposed to the great gods and cultivators, clutching a rag.
Ji Rong felt a pang of sorrow upon seeing Yuan Pan, the ape cultivator, standing motionless beside the high platform with a look of death on his face.
Her eyes darted around, and she immediately pointed to the shiny jade table leg beside her feet, calling out to the ape-like cultivator, "Hey, you ape with the burlap sack, hurry up and clean this place up."
Ji Rong's voice was neither too loud nor too soft. Although it was abrupt, with Qing Pingzi sitting upright beside the jade table, no deity objected, and no cultivator laughed. They shifted their gaze and focused on Xue Jing on the platform once more.
Yuan Pan, trembling with fear, seized this gift of fate and walked toward Ji Rong.
Seeing her slowly walk to the table, her eyes filled with sorrow, Ji Rong pulled her over and whispered, "Don't be afraid, we won't eat you. Wipe off the grease on my body and then kneel behind us to serve us."
Today is a grand feast for the entire nation, a joyous occasion. You should wait until the banquet is over before you leave, lest you bump into some giant pillar and then you'll be truly stuck.
Yuan Pan nodded frantically, then lowered his head and vigorously wiped the table leg. Ji Rong watched as her tears fell drop by drop, only to be absorbed by the ape-like cultivator with his dirty, old spiritual linen cloth. He then continued wiping the jade table leg.
She kept wiping the jade table until it shone brightly before bowing and kneeling behind Ji Rong.
Meanwhile, Yuan Li, the ape-like cultivator in the round cage, watched from afar as Yuan Pan was summoned by Ji Rong and finally knelt behind the bird cultivator, revealing a happy smile on his face.
When it was his turn, Yuan Li did not cry out. When Tu Shi Tu Dajian tried to drag him out, he calmly shook his head at Tu Shi Tu Dajian and said, "I'll go by myself."
He placed his head on the side of the knife, and the butcher removed his lips and opened his skull. Just before his bloodshot brains were stirred up, he was thinking that since he gained his intelligence, although he had lived in fear, he was fortunate to have Yuan Pan by his side, which made him better off than many of his clansmen.
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