At Da Ming Pavilion, however, the creatures being butchered were often not cattle, but Fierce Beasts. Many Fierce Beasts were delicious, but their scale armor, skin, bones, and tendons were extremely tough. An ordinary person would have to exert tremendous effort just to carve off a small piece. As for Martial Arts Masters, an old saying went: a gentleman keeps his distance from the kitchen. Masters would naturally not lower themselves to do such work. Even if they did, without an understanding of the textures and crevices of muscle and bone, their brute strength would only turn the meat into a chaotic mess of uneven pieces, making it impossible to create a refined delicacy.
Lin Ming's first exposure to Martial Arts was through Bone Dissolving. In his parents' restaurant, Bone Dissolving was his daily cultivation practice, and he had been doing it for several years.
This was an incredibly tiring job, no easier than practicing on a striking post! Lin Ming never believed he had any outstanding talent in Martial Arts; all he could rely on was his own diligence. He practiced again and again, forging his solid Martial Arts foundation one cut at a time.
Finding it impossible to drive Lin Ming away, the attendant had no choice but to lead him into the kitchen…
"Sister Lann, this young man wants to apply for the Bone Disassembler position."
"A Bone Disassembler?" In the kitchen of Da Ming Pavilion, a beautiful woman of about twenty-two or twenty-three, dressed in a vibrant cheongsam, looked Lin Ming up and down. Seeing his plain clothes and his refugee-like appearance with all his bags, the beauty's delicate eyebrows knitted slightly. She spoke to the attendant who had brought Lin Ming in, clearly displeased, "What are you doing, bringing just anyone into the kitchen? Xiaodong, give him some broken silver and send him on his way."
The beautiful woman clearly saw Lin Ming as nothing more than a child down on his luck. As for the scolded attendant, he wore a bitter expression. He had, in fact, tried to push Lin Ming out, only to find the boy's feet were rooted to the ground, impossible to move.
"Alright." A young man who was deboning a carcass was about to come over and chase Lin Ming away. But just then, he saw a blur, his hand felt light, and the Bone Knife he was holding had been snatched away by the boy.
Before the young man named Xiaodong could even process what had happened, Lin Ming said, "I'm not here to beg. Miss, it won't be too late to drive me away after you've seen my skills, will it?"
The beautiful woman was slightly startled. 'This kid really has some training.' She shot Xiaodong a look and said, "Truly useless. Can't even handle a child. Go to the storeroom and bring out a pig." Turning to Lin Ming, she said, "If you can finish it in half an hour, I'll let you stay at Da Ming Pavilion."
Xiaodong, knowing he had lost face, sheepishly turned to go get the pig. Just then, Lin Ming said, "No need. That one will do."
As Lin Ming spoke, he pointed to a Jiaojin Beast not far away.
The beautiful woman was taken aback. The Jiaojin Beast was a Second-Level Ferocious Beast, filled with tendons. These tendons were extremely tough, and difficult to cut even with swords or knives. However, if simmered over a low flame for three days and three nights with specific medicinal herbs, they would render down into a rich, delicious, and mellow broth.
Even a master Bone Disassembler would find this kind of Fierce Beast difficult to handle. 'This boy is truly arrogant.'
"Are you kidding me? This Jiaojin Beast is worth over a hundred taels of gold! Can you afford to pay for it if you ruin it?" Xiaodong said indignantly, still holding a grudge against Lin Ming for snatching his knife.
The beautiful woman shot Xiaodong a look and said irritably, "Could you ruin it even if I let you try?"
Xiaodong's voice caught in his throat, and he immediately fell silent. A Jiaojin Beast wasn't like a pig, cow, or sheep. An ordinary person couldn't even break through its scale armor with a knife. Trying to ruin one was not something a normal person could accomplish.
The woman turned to Lin Ming and said, "Cut it, then!"
Lin Ming nodded and selected the best Bone Knife in the kitchen. He had only butchered a Jiaojin Beast twice before, both times for the Life Banquets of powerful figures in the Lin Family. After all, this kind of Fierce Beast was not something ordinary people could afford.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Ming carefully ran his hands over the Jiaojin Beast's scale armor, feeling for the raised meridians beneath. This process lasted for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. In his mind, he formed a Meridian Map, cross-referencing this map with the Jiaojin Beast Meridian Map from his memory.
As they waited, some people grew impatient. "What's he doing? Isn't he going to cut?"
"Stop putting on a show and get on with it."
It was no wonder these people were impatient. A fifteen-year-old boy applying to be a Bone Disassembler, and his target was even a Second-Level Ferocious Beast. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a prank.
Lin Ming turned a deaf ear to their doubts. The moment he picked up the knife, his gaze became extremely focused. For him, Bone Dissolving was the same as his Cultivation.
After confirming the Meridian Map, Lin Ming finally made his move. He didn't use an axe or a cleaver, only a Bone Knife that was difficult to apply force with.
And yet, this ordinary knife became exceptionally sharp in Lin Ming's hands. The instant the blade fell, the Jiaojin Beast's scale armor was split open by Lin Ming in a single slice!
Seeing this, the doubters immediately fell silent. To accomplish just this one feat required no less than three hundred pounds of force in the wrist. Normally, butchering a Jiaojin Beast required hacking with an axe or sawing with a saw.
The blade slid into the gaps between the muscle fibers, its speed impossibly fluid, as if cutting through paper. With a series of SWISH-SWISH-SWISH sounds, the white tendons within the Jiaojin Beast were revealed, one by one.
Watching Lin Ming handle the difficult task with such ease, the young man called Xiaodong rubbed his eyes hard. He suspected his eyes were playing tricks on him. 'Is this kid really cutting a Jiaojin Beast?'
Lin Ming's movements were like Flowing Clouds and Water. Occasionally, he would encounter a few Beast Tendons that couldn't be avoided, and he would use brute force to snap them. In this way, in a little under half an hour, Lin Ming had cut the Jiaojin Beast into chunks of meat. Next to the meat lay segments of white threads—the Jiaojin Beast's most valuable Beast Tendons. They were all of uniform length, with almost no loss.
The scene was simply stunning. Everything Lin Ming did looked easy, but everyone knew what a massive undertaking it was to butcher a Jiaojin Beast. It usually required four or five burly men working together for several hours. And yet, the boy's face was only slightly flushed. It looked as if butchering another one or two would be no problem for him!
By evening, Da Ming Pavilion wasn't so busy anymore. Many people from the kitchen were watching. The whole room was silent as they took in the scene. At that moment, Lin Ming put down his knife and said, "Can I stay here now? I can't work more than two hours a day, my monthly salary is five taels of gold, and I have one more condition: you must provide me with food and lodging."
The beautiful woman thought for a moment, then nodded. "Deal!"
'Lin Ming's conditions weren't low, but he was definitely worth it. At his speed, he could get a lot done in two hours. More importantly, he minimized the loss of crucial ingredients. That was vital.'
And so, Lin Ming began to work at Da Ming Pavilion. The two hours weren't a waste of time, because this was also a form of Cultivation. While training on a striking post developed brute force, Bone Dissolving trained finesse.
That evening, Lin Ming stayed in the storeroom and butchered three First-Level Ferocious Beasts in one go. By then, his forehead was covered in sweat and his arms were sore and numb. He prepared to cut one last beast before heading to his room to rest.
For his last one, he again chose a Second-Level Ferocious Beast—a Golden Backed Pangolin. This type of Fierce Beast could crush stones with its teeth and burrow through mountains as if they were tofu.
Having consumed too much True Essence, Lin Ming had to use a tremendous amount of effort just to cut through the scale armor on the Golden Backed Pangolin's abdomen. His original intention in choosing this Second-Level Ferocious Beast was precisely to push himself to his limits.
Once the scale armor was cut, things became much easier. The blade's edge danced along the gaps in the muscle and sinew of the Golden Backed Pangolin's abdomen. But just then, Lin Ming felt the knife stop, as if it had hit something hard.
'A bone? No, there shouldn't be any bones in the abdominal cavity.'
'A rock, then? That's not right either. Although Golden Backed Pangolins occasionally swallow rocks, they would have been crushed long ago. Even if they weren't, they would have been corroded by the powerful stomach acid. There's no way a piece this big would remain. Then, could it be…'
'An Inner Core?'
At this thought, Lin Ming's heart pounded with excitement. The Inner Core of a Second-Level Ferocious Beast was very valuable. And if he didn't sell it, consuming it would bring great benefits to his body.
Lin Ming put on a pair of gloves and carefully avoided the stomach acid as he retrieved the hard object. When he got a look at it, however, his hopes were dashed. It was a square object. It obviously couldn't be an Inner Core, as those were almost always round.
'It really does seem to be a rock, but there's something strange about it…'
It was a gray cube, its edges and corners a little too perfect, as if carved by a knife. Furthermore, all six faces of the cubic rock were engraved with strange, black inscriptions that emanated a mysterious aura.
'Is it metal?'
Lin Ming observed it carefully. It didn't look like Metal, but it didn't quite seem like stone either. 'Perhaps it's some kind of jade?'