Who Said It Was Only One Meal?

By the time they returned to the inn, quite a few people were already standing outside.

The moment Sun Cheng saw Xu Sheng, he hurried over to welcome him in. They had barely exchanged a couple of words when several of the medicinal herb gatherers they had rescued earlier crowded around.

Some offered hot water, while others insisted on helping with his bundle. The old herb gatherer they had pulled out from beneath the broken bridge even seized Xu Sheng's hand and refused to let go.

"If it weren't for you, today I would have..."

The old man's tears fell before he could finish.

Xu Sheng could never handle this sort of thing. He hurriedly helped the man sit down.

"Take a moment to recover. We can sit and talk."

The old man sat down, but still wouldn't release his hand. He kept asking Xu Sheng's name and where he could find him in the future.

Xu Sheng had no choice but to tell him his name and about the Red Pine Courtyard.

Afraid he might remember it wrong, the old man asked someone nearby to remember it for him too. Only after repeating it twice did he finally feel reassured.

Xu Sheng had originally just wanted to handle the assignment well and earn himself a chance to make things easier in the future.

But now, with the old man gripping his hand, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Those hands were still cold, their knuckles covered in bloody cuts from scraping against the planks.

They weren't a line of words he could use to report the job done.

Xu Sheng looked at them for a moment, then placed a bowl of hot water in the old man's hands and took the chance to pull his own hand free.

"All right. Next time we meet, remember to treat me to a good meal."

The old man nodded at once.

"I will! I definitely will!"

At last, he stopped crying.

Xu Sheng breathed a sigh of relief and turned to go inside, only to find his bundle of braised meat already on the table.

Xu Lizhi sat beside it with half a flatbread in front of him, staring eagerly at the door.

Xu Sheng walked over and lifted the cloth wrapping for a look.

There was still plenty of meat left.

"Why haven't you eaten?"

"I was waiting for you all to come back so we could eat together."

After Xu Lizhi spoke, he saw the flatbread in Xu Sheng's hand, and his eyes brightened a little more.

"Is the meat still warm?"

"Yes."

"I warmed it by the stove for a while. I was afraid it would go cold while Brother Meng was taking it over."

Holding the half-eaten flatbread, Xu Sheng suddenly couldn't bring himself to smile.

The little fatty had gone hungry himself, yet he hadn't eaten any of the meat he had put in Xu Sheng's bread.

He pushed the meat on the table over, then turned and called Cen Zhao.

"Come split it. Half for you, half for Lizhi."

Cen Zhao shuffled over, looked at the two men's bowls, and reached out to take a small piece from the edge.

"I'll have something hot in a bit."

He had barely finished speaking when Sun Cheng came in carrying a basin of meat soup.

Cen Zhao's hand immediately sped up.

Xu Sheng watched in amusement. The emotion that had just welled up in him dispersed with the warmth filling the room, melting into the aroma of the meal.

They took their time over the meal.

At first, the group focused only on shoveling food into their mouths. Once they had something in their stomachs, they gradually began to talk more.

Pei Chuan held his bowl and gestured as he described how well-timed his charge had been. Cen Zhao immediately cut in, saying that if not for his chain, Pei Chuan might not have kept his footing after that collision.

Each argued his own case. In the end, they both looked to Ji Juechen, hoping he would give a fair judgment.

Ji Juechen looked up.

"Both helped."

Both felt they had been praised and contentedly continued eating.

Watching from the side, Xu Sheng felt like laughing.

The guy could do more than fight now. He could even save himself a couple of sentences in a situation like this.

Outside, several players who had come to stay later were asking what had happened that day.

They had heard that two field teams had arrived and initially assumed they were on an ordinary patrol. Only when they saw the injured being brought back did they learn what had happened at Bluestone Gorge.

One of them glanced into the room several times, then quietly asked Chen Che, "The one with the white wings—is that Xu Sheng?"

Chen Che nodded.

"I heard a while back that there's a swordsman with him who's very powerful. Is that him?"

The man pointed at Ji Juechen.

Chen Che followed his gesture and smiled.

"That one really is powerful."

He paused, then added another sentence.

"But the next time you run into Xu Sheng, don't just keep your eyes on the man behind him."

The man was puzzled and wanted to ask more, but Chen Che had already taken his bowl inside.

Before the match, he too had thought the sword was the thing to watch out for most on this team.

Only after fighting them had he realized that Xu Sheng himself did more than stand at the front and say a few nice-sounding words.

Then, when they went to rescue people today, he had seen another side of him.

Xu Sheng had been the first down to the water, and Xu Sheng had also kept track of where the whole team was going. The sword Soul Master had his uses, the food-type had his uses, and the one-ring archer and Cloud Mist Soul Master likewise hadn't simply been sent to the rear to watch.

Putting a group of people to use like that was much harder than simply finding an expert to keep at one's side.

Over the next two days, the group finished the rest of their patrol and sent word of the situation at Bluestone Gorge to the deacon responsible for the area.

The broken bridge was unusable for the time being, and people had been assigned to stand guard and clear the area around the poison web. Travelers were taking the main road instead, and the inn no longer had to rely on Sun Cheng alone to go around begging for help.

When they returned to Spirit City, Meng Xingzhou had been about to take his four companions and say goodbye.

But Xu Sheng called them back first.

"Let's eat together tonight."

"Haven't we been eating together these past couple of days?"

"How can that be the same? Uncle Qiao's cooking. Don't you want to try it?"

Before Meng Xingzhou could answer, Pei Chuan had already glanced in the direction of the courtyard.

Xu Sheng was delighted.

Now he wouldn't have to waste any more breath.

During the meal, he didn't bring up who would listen to whom if they won. He simply went over the times their next few duty rotations might overlap.

"You'll lead your own people, and the place is still yours. If a suitable assignment comes up, we can team up again."

Meng Xingzhou said, "I thought you wanted to keep all four of my people here too."

"I'd like to, but the Hall's allotment for me won't allow it."

Xu Sheng answered without the slightest trace of guilt.

"But whoever they're assigned to, it won't stop us from working together. You have people I can use, and I have things you lack, right?"

Meng Xingzhou glanced at Xu Lizhi, who was getting another helping of rice, then at Ji Juechen.

He really couldn't say Xu Sheng was wrong.

Xu Sheng struck while the iron was hot and put a spare key to the courtyard on the table.

"Next time you come looking for someone, don't stand at the gate like a fool. There are people here during the day, so just call out."

Meng Xingzhou looked down at the key and suddenly smiled. "You've already planned out my road ahead for me."

"Not at all. I'm just treating you to a few more meals."

"Who knows when those few meals of yours will end."

Despite saying that, Meng Xingzhou picked up the key.

Xu Sheng was immediately satisfied.

He hadn't put the five of them on his own roster, but when trouble really came, having a team he knew inside and out willing to help was far more useful than having a few extra people on the roster who only knew how to nod.

After the meal, Xu Sheng really did have Qiao Fu make up two temporary guest rooms for Meng Xingzhou and the others. They would stay just one night and leave tomorrow, so they wouldn't have to hurry off after eating a hot meal here.

Qiao Fu didn't mind the trouble. He carried bedding back and forth, muttering only that they ought to make another table.

When Xu Lizhi heard him, he immediately ran over to help carry the pillows.

Xu Sheng pressed him back onto his stool and took two sets of bedding himself.

"Rest today. Your work is already done."

The little fatty sat for a while, then quietly straightened a bowl Qiao Fu had set down crooked before settling down to look through the book he had just borrowed.

After putting away the bedding, Xu Sheng turned and saw this. He couldn't help taking a couple more looks.

The benefit of the Golden Recruitment Token was no longer just those three words on the panel.

It was there in all the people and things in this courtyard.

As he watched, pleased, someone outside the gate delivered a slip for collecting supplies.

Xu Sheng took it, first checking the signature, then the items listed on it.

When he reached the last line, his eyes lit up.

A Storage Soul Tool.

Elder Yue Guan really had remembered it for him!