Yi Yun's Suspicions

For the past two days, Yi Yun had been engrossed in practicing martial arts. Sometimes, when his hands were injured, he would wrap them in bandages.

Yi Yun often snuck out in the middle of the night. Once or twice was nothing, but after a while, Jiang Xiaorou naturally discovered it.

"Yun'er, what have you been doing these past few days? And what happened to your hands?"

Ever since Yi Yun's mother passed away, Jiang Xiaorou had taken on the responsibility of being Yi Yun's mother, taking care of him meticulously.

If Yi Yun made any mistakes, Jiang Xiaorou wouldn't scold him. She would just look at him with her dark, bright eyes until Yi Yun confessed his wrongdoing.

Today was no different.

Yi Yun had initially intended to say his injuries were from picking herbs, but when he met Jiang Xiaorou's earnest gaze, he found himself unable to speak. After a moment of hesitation, Yi Yun told the truth: "Sister Xiaorou, I went out at night to practice martial arts, and my hand injuries are also from practicing."

Jiang Xiaorou was taken aback. Practicing martial arts?

"Yun'er, who did you learn martial arts from?"

"I learned it secretly," Yi Yun said frankly.

Jiang Xiaorou's expression changed. Stealing the tribe's martial arts would get him killed if caught. Besides, learning martial arts wasn't that easy. Even if he couldn't afford good medicine and meat regularly, he at least needed to eat enough. How could Yi Yun, who ate thin porridge and wild vegetables every day, have the strength to practice?

This could be fatal.

"Sister Xiaorou, do you believe me?"

Yi Yun grabbed Jiang Xiaorou's hand and looked into her eyes earnestly.

Jiang Xiaorou was stunned and instinctively nodded.

"Yes, if you believe me, don't ask. Sister Xiaorou, I will give you a good life in the future!"

Yi Yun said seriously. Jiang Xiaorou was the first person he met after arriving in this world, and the only one who had truly cared about him with all her heart.

He always remembered this kindness. He not only wanted to change his own destiny but also Jiang Xiaorou's.

Jiang Xiaorou stared blankly at Yi Yun. She suddenly had a feeling – her little brother had grown up.

He was no longer the child he used to be. She could no longer dismiss his words as childish prattle. He truly had this as his goal and was working hard for it...

Yi Yun gradually got used to the simple meals of coarse grains and vegetables; in fact, he had no choice but to get used to it.

The coarse grain porridge tasted terrible, and after Yi Yun's appetite grew, the thin porridge was digested as soon as it hit his stomach. If it weren't for the herbs from Lian Clan Medicine Mountain, Yi Yun wouldn't have been able to break through to the Long Breath realm, let alone survive without starving.

However, while medicinal herbs could supplement the body's nutrition and energy, they couldn't truly be eaten as food. The taste of the herbs, if actually put in the mouth, was worse than the coarse grain porridge.

Day after day, for a foodie like Yi Yun, his mouth felt utterly bland. It was a true torment.

The only thing that somewhat improved his life was the preserved vegetables Jiang Xiaorou made.

It was a sad thought. Yi Yun hadn't been wealthy on Earth, but at least he had had vegetables and meat. Now, in this otherworld, he hadn't tasted a single shred of meat, and even preserved vegetables were considered a delicacy.

However, it had to be said that Jiang Xiaorou's preserved vegetables were indeed delicious. For Jiang Xiaorou's family, preserved vegetables were a luxury. Since there was no salt mine in the village, the salt they consumed was also bought from a larger tribe.

Most of the salt was supplied to the Warrior Reserve Camp for curing meat. Only a small amount was distributed to ordinary households, usually used for boiling wild vegetable soup. Pickling vegetables was naturally a luxurious way to use it.

Several more days passed, and the herbs on Lian Clan Medicine Mountain were almost completely depleted. Even Yi Yun, with the Purple Crystal guiding him, couldn't find any decent medicinal herbs. To meet their quota, the villagers had even dug up medicinal plant seedlings.

"With the Medicine Mountain being exploited like this, without any consideration for future sustainable harvesting, it seems the Lian Clan is planning a desperate gamble, possibly even abandoning their ancestral home. All their hope is now placed on Lian Chengyu. But even if Lian Chengyu passes the Tai'a Divine Kingdom's warrior selection, only a few people, including members of the Warrior Reserve Camp, will benefit. These common people might be abandoned..."

Yi Yun sighed with emotion. This was the law of survival in the Great Wilderness: limited resources, the strong occupy more, the weak are eliminated.

As the Medicine Mountain's utility decreased, the higher-ups of the Lian Clan no longer paid attention to it. All their energy was focused on refining Savage Bones.

These Savage Bones were the most crucial matter. For these Savage Bones, the Lian Clan had gone all in, pinning all their hopes on them.

Lian Chengyu was also risking his life. His ambition, his aspirations, his everything, were all riding on this!

Refining Savage Bones required at least sixty days!

And on the tenth day of refining, some problems arose.

Some villagers responsible for refining the Savage Bones fell ill. They started with a cough and fever, then quickly began vomiting and having diarrhea, developing a rash, and becoming listless. Their condition looked like typhoid fever.

In these small tribes of the Great Wilderness, warriors were generally fine due to their strong physique and immunity. But for the poor, any illness was serious.

Because they were weak and had poor immunity, and the tribe only had one doctor who served the higher-ups, the medical conditions for the poor were abysmal. Even minor illnesses like the common cold could be fatal.

When Yi Yun heard the news, he found it strange.

Typhoid fever sounded like a common cold, but it was actually a bacterial infectious disease. Yi Yun didn't know if the typhoid fever in this world was the same as on Earth, but with so many people falling ill at once, it was certainly an infectious disease.

However, what Yi Yun couldn't understand was that infectious diseases were usually spread through water or air. These villagers refining the Savage Bones were constantly around the large cauldron, where the temperature was very high!

Continuous high temperatures and extreme dryness made it difficult for most bacteria to survive. If there were an epidemic in the village, it should have spread to others first. Why were only these few people refining the Savage Bones falling ill?

Could it be a pathogen that was easily transmitted in dry conditions?

Thinking of this, Yi Yun's expression darkened slightly. Perhaps these villagers weren't just sick!

With four or five people falling ill suddenly, the members of the Lian Clan, especially those also responsible for refining the Savage Bones, became somewhat panicked.

They were here, and they might contract this strange illness at any time.

Life was painful, but no one wanted to die.

Fortunately, the higher-ups of the Lian Clan didn't ignore the situation this time. The Tribe Leader stepped forward to appease the people and gave each sick villager a bright red pill.

The pill was the size of a longan fruit, blood-red. According to the Tribe Leader, it was refined from extremely precious medicinal ingredients, with each pill being worth a considerable sum.

The Tribe Leader instructed the patients to take it with warm water, after which their ailments would be cured. As a result, the tribesmen who were previously on the brink of death began to show improvement on the first day. After a night's sleep, they were full of vigor. By the evening of the second day, they were indistinguishable from healthy individuals.

By the third day, these patients were brimming with life, even more so than when they were healthy.

Not only that, but the Tribe Leader also distributed a palm-sized piece of cured meat to each sick tribesman. This was actual meat, a tremendous blessing for villagers who hadn't tasted meat in months.

The poor people cherished this piece of cured meat greatly, eating only a small portion per meal, sometimes giving it to their children or wives.

News of the Lian Clan distributing pills and cured meat to their sick tribesmen quickly spread.

The suffering people were grateful to the tribe and worked even harder at refining their Savage Bones. Some even wished they could fall ill themselves, so they too could receive the pill that revitalized them and a piece of cured meat.

When this news reached Yi Yun, he frowned slightly.

A pill that cured all ailments and made one radiant?

Although Yi Yun didn't know much about medicine, he understood that some drugs that produced astonishingly good effects and stimulated the spirit often had severe side effects.

Examples included stimulants, drugs, and various banned substances that enhanced human potential.

Especially since the Lian Clan's upper echelons were promoting how precious the medicinal herbs used to make their pills were, Yi Yun didn't believe a word of it.

When had the Lian Clan become so generous? Moreover, even if they wanted to be generous, they would need such precious medicinal herbs. In Yi Yun's opinion, the Lian Clan's leadership was also poor; they were just slightly better off than the poor of the Lian Clan. Furthermore, all their limited resources were directed towards Lian Chengyu. How could they possibly distribute medicinal herbs to the common people?

Another day passed, and the Lian Clan distributed some medicinal dregs. These dregs were the leftovers from Lian Chengyu's body-purifying bath, meant for those refining Savage Bones to boil and use for their baths. They claimed it would strengthen their physique, and those who received the dregs were naturally filled with gratitude.