H.N. Iverson

Some martial sects seek enlightenment atop misty peaks. The Kettle-Claw Alliance seeks dinner. Across the scorched plateaus of the outer realms, Gijsbert van der Meulen and his heavyweight grapplers wander with a six-ton bronze pot strapped to their oxen, convinced that martial perfection is achieved by suplexing apex beasts into broth. But when the immaculate Iron-Braid Empire begins capturing the legendary horned leviathans to breed a world-crushing war herd, cooking becomes rebellion. To protect the wild planes, Gijsbert, spear-wielding chef Femke, and an increasingly horrified captive aristocrat must wrestle the continent's fiercest monsters before the warlord can saddle them. In this sect, honor isn't given—it's braised slowly over cedar wood.

Drifting through the midnight mist of Lake Weiyang, the Golden Heron Pleasure Barge hosts the fragile armistice banquet between the Sun-Strike League and the Night-Heron Syndicate. Sect Marshal Song Jianan is bound by ancient martial chivalry to ensure not a single drop of blood stains the banquet floorboards. Opposite him sits Wen Qingshu, a veiled assassin who infiltrated the lower kitchens with three hidden throwing needles and an absolute vow to avenge her slaughtered master before midnight. But when an elder collapses with his meridians withered by an undetectable palm strike, panic threatens to plunge both factions into all-out slaughter. With the ship’s rudder sabotaged mid-lake, Song and Wen engage in a high-stakes duel of formal etiquette and covert parries to unmask the real instigator.