Wangyuan City

After entering the city, Li Qing immediately had Qi Kang change his clothes, trying to make him look less like a refugee.

Before the curfew, the two booked two excellent rooms at an inn in the city. Perhaps due to the war, the two rooms didn't cost much.

Having brought back a large amount of gold, silver, and valuables from the Eternal Night World, Li Qing was now a truly wealthy man. This wealth was enough to support his martial arts training for a long time.

If he ever ran out of money, Li Qing could always go back to the Eternal Night World to scavenge. After all, in that world where food was extremely scarce, things like gold and silver treasures were no longer valuable.

Early the next morning, Li Qing had Qi Kang go out to gather some news in the city.

He himself, however, took his money to a pharmacy in the city.

"Shopkeeper, do you have these medicinal ingredients?" Li Qing asked, handing over a slip of paper with the ingredients for two wine recipes.

The shopkeeper took the slip of paper without looking up. After a quick glance, he was stunned and slowly raised his head to look at Li Qing.

"Oh, esteemed customer, you're making things difficult for me. My Hundred Herbs Hall has been in Wangyuan City for so many years, and I only have a few of the ingredients you're asking for," the shopkeeper said with an awkward smile.

Li Qing hadn't expected to find all the ingredients at once, so he said without surprise, "Then bring me the few you have in your shop. I'll take them all."

Before long, the shopkeeper nimbly brought out the few medicinal ingredients he had in stock.

"Esteemed customer, my Polygonatum is a fifty-year-old specimen, so the price will be a bit higher. What do you think?"

The shopkeeper showed him the Polygonatum he had brought.

The piece of Polygonatum was a bit dry and shaped like ginger, but it had many root hairs on its surface.

Slap!

Li Qing placed a Gold Leaf on the table and said in a deep voice, "Hurry up and pack them all for me."

"Certainly!" Seeing the gleaming Gold Leaf, the shopkeeper's eyes lit up, and he readily agreed.

As he was busily packing, Li Qing casually asked, "Shopkeeper, do you know where I can usually buy the ingredients I'm looking for?"

The shopkeeper, still working, replied without thinking, "Fengzhou, Quanshan City. It's all deep mountains and old forests there. More than half of the medicinal herbs in the entire Feng Kingdom are dug up from there."

"Besides Quanshan City, there's also our Feng Kingdom's Imperial Capital Shengtian. It's called the foremost land of virtue for a reason."

Quanshan City, Imperial Capital Shengtian.

Li Qing silently noted these two locations in his mind. To collect the ingredients for the two wine recipes, a trip to these places would be unavoidable.

Fengzhou's Quanshan City was very far from Wangyuan City, located to the southwest of the Feng Kingdom. It would take at least crossing several provinces and a very long time.

The Imperial Capital Shengtian, although also far from Wangyuan City, was located in the heart of the Feng Kingdom, so it would be a bit closer.

Thus, Li Qing set his next destination as Shengtian.

In a short while, the shopkeeper carefully wrapped the medicinal ingredients Li Qing wanted in kraft paper.

As he handed them to Li Qing, he reminded him, "Esteemed customer, I don't know what you need these ingredients for, but I must warn you that two of the ingredients you listed are highly poisonous. Be careful."

The highly poisonous items were naturally the two needed for the Five Poisons Blood Activating Wine. He calmly replied, "I know what I'm doing, so you don't need to worry, shopkeeper."

With that, Li Qing left the Gold Leaf on the table and took the medicinal ingredients.

He repeated this process, visiting the remaining pharmacies in the city.

Unfortunately, the supply of these pharmacies seemed to come from the same place, overlapping with the types of medicinal ingredients offered by the Hundred Herbs Hall.

After visiting several more shops, he only managed to collect one more item, Old Camphor Root. He found nothing else.

Seeing how poor the variety of medicinal herbs was at the border, Li Qing made up his mind to go to the Imperial Capital Shengtian as soon as possible.

When he returned to the inn, Qi Kang had already returned from gathering information.

Having bathed and changed into new clothes, Qi Kang no longer looked like a refugee. Instead, he appeared refreshed. Apart from being a bit thin and pale, he had no obvious flaws.

Qi Kang honestly reported to Li Qing, "Young Master, I've been to several taverns to gather information. The current garrison in the city is the Wu Li Army. They fought with people from the Liang Kingdom the day before yesterday. Due to harassment from bandits, the battle ended in a draw."

Upon hearing the words "Wu Li Army," Li Qing showed no outward reaction, his expression remaining calm. He had expected this.

Before he had traveled to the Eternal Night World to escape the war, he knew that the Wu Li Army had been sent to the border to provide support. Their current engagement with the Liang Kingdom's forces didn't surprise him at all.

Li Qing nodded, signaling Qi Kang to continue.

"Besides that, the city's residents can freely leave through the west city gate. Not many residents have evacuated recently; the numbers are similar to usual, and merchant caravans even arrive from time to time! Everyone has great confidence in the Wu Li Army."

As he said this, Qi Kang cautiously observed Li Qing's expression, seemingly trying to gauge his reaction.

However, Li Qing remained completely calm, showing little surprise.

After all, the Wu Li Army was one of the Feng Kingdom's "Sea-Calming Needles." Most of them were martial artists, and those at the Centurion and higher ranks had even cultivated Outer Strength and Internal Energy.

If such fighting power couldn't even defend Wangyuan City, then the Feng Kingdom could declare its defeat in advance.

"Hmm, it's good that people can leave the city. Let's rest well today and leave Wangyuan City tomorrow," Li Qing said.

Hearing this, Qi Kang's jaw dropped. He asked, "Young Master, don't you need to collect any other information about Wangyuan City? Won't that make it difficult to report back?"

Li Qing was taken aback. "Report back to whom? I came to Wangyuan City merely to resupply and then pass through to the Imperial Capital to live out my remaining years."

"Ah?" Qi Kang was dumbfounded. He said sheepishly, "I... I thought you were a spy sent by the Liang Kingdom."

He lowered his voice significantly when he said the last sentence, as if afraid of being overheard.

Li Qing couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time upon hearing this.

"How did I ever make you think I was a spy?"

"Didn't you say yesterday that you wanted to sneak into Wangyuan City? And today you asked me to go scout for information inside the city." Qi Kang, realizing he had made a mistake, felt too embarrassed to continue.

For a moment, Li Qing chuckled in amusement.

"Alright, don't overthink it. Tomorrow, we'll buy two horses in the city and then leave. There's no real need to stay in Wangyuan City any longer."