Giving Lian Chengyu Some Soup

"Collecting herbs! Collecting herbs!"

After night fell, Zhao Tiezhu stood at the village entrance, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Five members of the Warrior Reserve Camp set up a long table, with five large, round bamboo winnowing baskets placed on it.

The baskets were all woven from bamboo strips and were usually used for drying dates, herbs, and the like.

At that moment, three of the five large baskets were already full.

The clansmen who had gathered herbs lined up to hand them in. An old man with a goatee identified each herb's age and rarity, then weighed it on a small scale before recording it in the accounts.

When it was Yi Yun and Jiang Xiaorou's turn, Yi Yun slowly handed over his harvest.

The goateed old man glanced at it, and his eyes immediately lit up. "Pill Fruit! Black Lingzhi! Five Spirit Grass! Wild Ginseng! What fine herbs!"

When the old man saw these precious medicinal materials, it was as though he had spotted treasures. He took them in his hands and kept stroking them.

Yi Yun watched from the side and secretly relaxed. The old man was clearly knowledgeable about herbs, yet he could not tell that the medicinal power in these materials had long since been drained by the Purple Crystal.

That was only natural. Herbs absorbed by the Purple Crystal looked no different on the surface from herbs that had been freshly picked and remained intact.

"Heh heh, kid, count yourself lucky. You've secured today's food!"

Zhao Tiezhu was very satisfied when he saw the medicinal materials.

When they gathered herbs, they could receive Young Master Lian's reward if the quality was high!

Once Lian Chengyu rose to prominence, these lackeys could bask in his reflected glory and follow him to make a living in some major city. Perhaps they might even land themselves a job!

"I'd say you're quite suited to becoming a medicinal apprentice. You were born to gather herbs. Sending you out to collect them was proof of my sharp eye for talent and my ability to make the best use of everything!"

"I didn't kill you when you fell last time, and instead it made you better and better at gathering herbs. I say you should follow this standard—tomorrow, hand in another ounce more!"

As Zhao Tiezhu spoke, he dug at his ear, looking utterly casual.

"What!?"

Jiang Xiaorou was furious. Sixteen ounces of herbs had already been asking the impossible of them, yet Zhao Tiezhu actually wanted to increase it again!

Although Jiang Xiaorou knew that Yi Yun gathered herbs quickly and could complete the task even if it were increased a little, Zhao Tiezhu would probably keep pushing his luck. He would increase it again and again, and sooner or later something would go wrong!

"Military Master Zhao, you must be joking. These medicinal materials are already the limit of what I could gather after working hard all day."

Yi Yun's voice was especially slow. As he spoke, the corner of his eye glanced toward the three large, full baskets.

A layer of specks of light had slowly begun to rise from the surfaces of the three baskets.

Those specks of light had naturally been drawn out by the Purple Crystal. They were like fireflies in the night, slowly drifting toward Yi Yun.

A faint, imperceptible smile appeared at the corners of Yi Yun's lips. The Purple Crystal needed some time to absorb the medicinal power from the herbs, so Zhao Tiezhu's rambling at this moment suited him perfectly.

"Damn it! You think I'm discussing this with you!?" Zhao Tiezhu suddenly slammed the table, startling even the goateed old man.

"You lowly commoner who scratches food out of the dirt! It's rare for us to find a way to put you to use, yet you still dare to make excuses and refuse! The Lian Clan doesn't support freeloaders. Everyone here is either a warrior or works honestly for me! Hand in another ounce of herbs tomorrow, then get lost!"

After being cursed out by Zhao Tiezhu from head to toe, Yi Yun seemed to turn extremely pale. His body stiffened as he stood there, unable to move.

Everyone thought Yi Yun had been humiliated. A child of eleven or twelve had been publicly berated with such vicious words; it was easy to imagine how badly it had struck him.

Zhao Tiezhu watched Yi Yun's face shift from green to white, a trace of mockery flashing through his eyes.

Jiang Xiaorou could not bear to watch and tugged at Yi Yun, but he remained utterly motionless, as though roots had grown beneath his feet. He looked as if Zhao Tiezhu's abuse had stunned him senseless.

I've absorbed almost enough... If I keep absorbing it, Lian Chengyu will become suspicious.

Yi Yun had not taken Zhao Tiezhu seriously at all. He treated him as nothing more than a mad dog barking while he considered how much medicinal power he should absorb to make it most appropriate.

Absorbing seventy or eighty percent should be enough, right? He had to leave Lian Chengyu some soup to drink. Otherwise, if several large baskets of fine herbs turned into withered weeds, even an idiot would see that something was wrong.

Yi Yun still could not come into conflict with the upper echelons of the Lian Clan. He could kill Zhao Tiezhu, but compared with the old clan chief, Lian Chengyu, and the others, there was still a vast gap between them.

After the Purple Crystal absorbed the medicinal power, it soon entered his blood. Circulating through his body, it nourished him. Yi Yun felt a wave of heat filling his meridians and flowing through his limbs and bones, gradually warming his body. His complexion consequently grew rosy.

Yi Yun's body felt light and buoyant, entirely without weight, as though he were drifting among the clouds.

Yet in the eyes of many clansmen, Yi Yun's condition looked extremely miserable. His face was flushed and his neck was red, while his limbs had gone limp. Such a reaction was clearly the result of Zhao Tiezhu's abuse.

"What a poor child. He's so young, but just because he talked back to Zhao Tiezhu on the day the rations were distributed, he's been targeted like this."

"This child has had a hard life. Not long after coming to the Lian Clan, his mother died of illness. He's weak and sickly himself, without the strength to truss a chicken. How could he possibly fight back against Zhao Tiezhu?"

"When will the people from the Warrior Reserve Camp stop throwing their weight around in the countryside? Do you think Young Master Lian Chengyu can really take us all to the cities?"

"Shh, don't talk nonsense. Be careful the people from the Warrior Reserve Camp hear you, or you'll suffer too!"

"I'm telling you, those people will torment this child to death sooner or later..."

People would always fall to their deaths while gathering herbs in the mountains. The more precious the herbs, the more likely they were to grow on sheer cliffs. Yi Yun had handed in so many fine herbs—he had probably risked his life climbing those cliffs. If things continued like this, it would be strange if he did not fall to his death.

But in the Lian Clan, what did a dead person matter? Human life here was the cheapest thing of all.

Deep into the night, the moon hung in the sky like a curved silver hook.

In the pharmacy of the Lian Clan chief's compound, several men were working with roaring enthusiasm, pumping bellows and burning a large pot with heaps of firewood.

Several old men from the pharmacy carefully sorted the medicinal materials. Combining them with dozens of supplementary herbs, they began brewing a medicinal decoction.

The supplementary herbs and the heat control used in brewing the medicine were all secret techniques of the Lian Clan. They could not be revealed to ordinary commoners. Otherwise, if the commoners learned how to brew the medicine, they might secretly gather and consume the herbs.

In the eyes of the Lian Clan's upper echelons, using these fine herbs on ordinary commoners was no different from feeding good grain to pigs. It was completely useless.

Not to mention ordinary commoners—even the members of the Warrior Reserve Camp had little chance to use medicinal materials to temper their bodies.

These meticulously brewed medicinal decoctions were all prepared for Lian Chengyu.

"Good! Good! You did well this time. Quite a few of the herbs collected were rare treasures!"

The clan chief was extremely satisfied after looking over the list of medicinal materials.

"This is merely what I should do." Zhao Tiezhu nodded like a pecking chicken, his face beaming with an obsequious smile. "The clan chief gave the order, and it concerns Young Master Lian's future. How could I dare fail you? As soon as I came down from the training ground today, I went straight to the herb mountain to supervise those commoners gathering herbs. Those commoners are timid and didn't dare climb the cliffs. I was anxious, so I climbed up personally. As luck would have it, I happened to come across this Black Lingzhi and Pill Fruit."

Zhao Tiezhu directly claimed Yi Yun's achievements as his own.

"Not bad! You've put thought into this. Go to the storehouse and collect a pound of dried beast meat." The clan chief patted Zhao Tiezhu on the shoulder.

"Thank you, Clan Chief!" Zhao Tiezhu said, overjoyed.

"Mm. Keep working hard. Once Chengyu becomes a Divine Kingdom Warrior, there will be no shortage of errands and runner's work. Be clever. If you win Chengyu's favor and can stay by his side, then when Chengyu rises to prominence in the future, you'll have no shortage of benefits."

"Thank you for nurturing me, Clan Chief!" Zhao Tiezhu knelt and kowtowed, overwhelmed with excitement.

That boy called Yi Yun was truly his lucky star. Who would have thought that the little slave was so good at gathering herbs? In the future, he could give him a tiny bit of Medicinal Dregs, coarse grain, or other benefits. That poor boy would be grateful for anything he received. Then he would willingly become Zhao Tiezhu's vanguard!

Zhao Tiezhu seemed to see himself commanding power and influence in some great city in the future. He left with a spring in his step.