Totem

The mood of the members of Sun City’s Welcoming Committee could be described in one phrase: ashamed!

A royal member of the Beastman race was Yulianne’s carriage driver, and not even the prestige of Kajeer’s ident.i.ty as Crown Prince of a nation could make Yulianne step out of the carriage!

Even Mister Qian, a mysterious expert who was close to being on par with Marshal Iron Eye, could only receive a greeting from Yulianne while she was atop the carriage….

Good heavens!

What face do we country b.u.mpkins have to speak with Yulianne, huh?!

However….

The chance to view the Tortoisesh.e.l.l of Destiny could not be abandoned!

“Esteemed royal member of the Great Plains….”

Madame Suzanne thickened her skin and stepped out. She did not dare to speak directly to Yulianne, so she simply spoke softly to the Golden Lion to explain her ident.i.ty. She then implored: “We have already prepared a welcoming feast. It is just in the city square, so if *you would take a look….”

The Beastman nodded, “My family’s Miss will arrive soon. For now, please move out of the way. You are also aware of my family’s Miss’ rules!”

This was Yulianne’s rule: as the continent’s number one knife work chef, every time she traveled to a new place, she made it a priority to visit the location’s marketplace and check the place’s culinary achievements.

Madame Suzanne hastily instructed everybody to open up a path, then intended to take her group to follow behind Yulianne.

However, at this moment, the Beastman suddenly shot a cold glare in Suzanne’s direction.

Clearly, Yulianne favored peace and quiet, so she did not wish for a large team of people and horses following behind her.

Frightened by this glare, Suzanne hastily announced, “Aiyah, since Miss Yulianne likes peace and quiet…. Everybody, listen! All of you will go to the city’s public square and wait! n.o.body is allowed to disturb Miss Yulianne’s peace of mind!”

The unicorn-drawn carriage was slowly led into Sun City.

“This woman is pretty f***ing bit**y!”

Staring distantly at the figure of the unicorn-drawn carriage, Weylin viciously spat.

“That’s right. It seems that it will not be easy to receive Yulianne….” Out of everyone’s expectations, Madame Suzanne actually felt the same way as Weylin for the first time. The two women then blew up fiercely and shouted together: “What are you staring blankly there for? Immediately go to the city square! Those three hundred Ghost Totem lowlives are already congregated there, and the Knife Work Feast is soon to commence! Hmph, *I don’t believe that the Knife Work Feast which we took great pains to prepare would fail to acquire Yulianne’s favor!”

Sun City’s marketplace was a narrow, three hundred meter long road of business and trade. Like many other food marketplaces, the air was suffused with the thick and pungent smell of meat and fish, while the ground was covered in the remnant blood of slaughtered pigs and sheep along with mud. Additionally, there was a mess of rotten greens mixed with chicken and duck excrement that had been blended together by the mult.i.tudes of feet stepping through.

As it walked along this road, the snow white unicorn shook its head and huffed in frustration. In her heart, she was complaining: This d.a.m.ned place! It’s already dirtied my four hooves!

However, what was fortunate was that it was currently ten o’clock in the morning on New Year’s Day. For this reason, a portion of the peddlers and merchants had already gotten their busy morning work over with and had already returned home to pa.s.s the holiday. Another portion of these merchants and peddlers had gone to the stadium in advance to experience for themselves the tense atmosphere before the Professor and Sauron’s match.

As such, there was only a meager amount of merchants on the street marketplace, making the unicorn’s journey much smoother!

Crunch, crunch.

Following the crunching sounds of the carriage running over gravel, the Golden Lion knitted his eyebrows, “Miss, do we still need to keep looking? Just by looking at this marketplace, one can tell how inferior the culinary achievements here are!”

“Let’s just look some more….”

The person within the carriage sighed in disappointment.

The carriage continued to advance. Along the road, the merchants had already been talked to by Madame Suzanne, so none of them dared to come and disturb Yulianne. They all diligently crouched at their own booths,those who slaughtered, slaughtering, and those who butchered, butchering.

Gradually, the carriage had already arrived towards the end of the market. At this time, only a pig meat peddler was left doing his work at a storefront.

“En?”

After glancing at this final pig peddler, the Golden Lion let out a contemptuous snort!

This pig meat peddler was quite unique: other pig peddlers all bared their arms, wore large trousers, large boots, and wrapped an ap.r.o.n of greased cloth around their chests. However, this pig peddler was dressed in a black, tight-fitting gown, and even wore a silver mask on his face.

Furthermore, from the smooth skin on his two hands and neck, one could deduce that he was extremely young.

At this moment, the pig peddler was leading out a live pig from the storehouse and was just about to begin cutting it open.

Seeing this peddler’s dissection method, the Golden Lion stifled a laugh, which turned into an extremely vexed, extremely disbelieving, extremely ridiculous…. Strange laugh!

Good heavens, was this slaughtering a pig?

To slaughter a pig, one ought to begin cutting from the neck, then follow along the bone structure to continue the process. This sort of method was advantageous for speed, and enabled a person to dissect a live pig in several minutes. Even Yulianne was able to cut apart a live pig in twenty-seven seconds this way!

However….

Looking at this pig peddler’s method, he held two tapered, nondescript knives in his hands while staring blankly at the dead pig before him. This stare itself lasted around five to six seconds, and made him look like a calm and carefree fool. It could truly be said to be a look of dismay, like a tortoise staring at a mung bean*!
(*TL: Supposedly, a tortoise’s eyes is the same size as a mung bean, so to stare at it, it needs to fully open its eyes and then look at it, which is similar to staring off into s.p.a.ce or staring blankly.)

Soon after, the pig peddler yelled out an ‘Ah!’ in an exaggerated manner and leapt up like a frog. Following this jumping motion, his two hands stuck out and stabbed the two small knives into the dead pigs…. rear end?!

Correct, its rear end!

The Golden Lion began laughing so hard he could not close his mouth anymore.

However, this pig peddler’s performance had not yet concluded: he stirred the two small knives which were stuck into the dead pig’s rear end for a moment, then abruptly pulled them out and leapt up again.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Take that~~~~!”

While in the middle of the air, the pig peddler suddenly tossed up his two small knives. As he began falling towards to the ground, he twisted his hands and caught the two knives, then began slashing in a messy and disorderly manner as he stabbed randomly into the dead pig’s body.

Pu! Pu! Pu!

What was interesting, however, was that this disorderly and confusing knife method actually stabbed out in a rhythmic manner, and the Golden Lion involuntarily began counting, One, two, three….

This peddler’s knife work was not very quick, and it seemed that he stabbed out only three times within two seconds or so. When the Golden Lion had counted to twenty-seven, it had not been more than twenty seconds.

Phew….

The peddler exhaled loudly, then held the two knives at his back as if he was a supreme expert who had just finished working, and looked coldly in disdain at the dead pig!

The dead pig, on the other hand….

Was completely intact. The only thing was that its body had twenty-some additional holes from the knife stabs!

“Hah, haha!”

The Golden Lion finally could not take it anymore and began roaring with laughter. As he guffawed, he patted the unicorn, “Let’s go! It’s still better that we go attend that welcoming feast. Miss, it seems that the culinary knife work level in Sun City…. Ai, it’s more suited for a circus!”

“Wait a moment!”

The person within the carriage suddenly opened her mouth. Her tone of voice was very solemn and filled with disbelief! “Please have this man…. No, have this gentleman…. No, have this great master invited over!”

This sentence in which she changed her term of address three times left the Golden Lion astonished and dumbfounded! Yet, Yulianne even said, “This person’s knife work skill is rarely seen in this world! Such a great master cannot be neglected! Yulianne…. Will personally pay her respects!”

A graceful figure adorned with a silver mask stepped out of the carriage in a white gown. She came before the pig slaughtering booth and gave a sudden, deep bow, her two hands cupped together before her chest as she spoke in a light voice, “Great master, this young one, Yulianne, is fortunate to have seen Great Master’s knife work skill. I do not know if may have the fortune of having an audience with the Great Master and asking for guidance concerning my culinary knife skill?”