Food Shortage—Can Medicinal Herbs Fill Your Belly?

"Don't talk."

"Breathe gently. You won't die. You won't die!"

Gritting his teeth, Zhang Yuan tore open Young Master Tao's armor. The surrounding soldiers hurried over as well, helping bind the arrow wound that had pierced through Young Master Tao's chest with strips of clothing.

Young Master Tao's breathing was already faint, a dim light lingering in his eyes as he murmured, "Military Merit, Military Merit, Military Merit..."

Zhang Yuan took out the linen roll soaked through with blood and pressed it into Young Master Tao's hand.

"Yu Ping, Tao Yulin, accumulated merit rank eight, willing, willing..."

"Willing to wear a scholar's robe and blue shirt, carry a folding fan and wear a gauze cap, never again chase that dream of the martial world..."

Young Master Tao's voice gradually faded beyond hearing. Zhang Yuan knelt on the ground, then slowly slumped down as darkness swallowed everything before him.

Noisy voices sounded by his ear.

"The physician is here. Deputy Commander Zhao is here too."

"Quick, this little brother can't hold on either. He's a true hero—he can't die."

"Host vital signs detected to be declining. Chaos has autonomously initiated repairs, consuming two Vitality Beads. Estimated time required: two days."

Fengtian County's South City, a spacious courtyard had been requisitioned as a camp for wounded soldiers.

Seven or eight physicians wrapped in coarse linen outer robes moved among the simple wooden cots. The courtyard was thick with the smell of medicine and Bloody Scent, while low, pained groans rose from every corner.

"I, Tao Yulin, owe you my life, Kid."

Young Master Tao lay on a wooden cot, his face pale, bright red blood seeping through the bandages wrapped around him.

Though he looked miserable, his life had been saved.

Beside him, Zhang Yuan leaned sideways against another wooden cot, layers of bandages likewise wrapped around his shoulder and waist.

Hearing Young Master Tao speak, Zhang Yuan grinned. The movement tugged at his wounds, making the corner of his eye twitch.

This was what it felt like to be alive.

Three days earlier, Crimson Scale Army Deputy Commander Zhao Changming had acted, using Xiantian True Essence to protect Young Master Tao's Heart meridian. He had then brought out his own life-saving medicine, barely managing to save Young Master Tao.

Even so, Young Master Tao's Heart meridian had been damaged, and his Martial Way Cultivation was more or less ruined.

The good news was that he was still alive.

The bad news was that South City had already been sealed tight by the Yan Army. None of them knew how much longer they could survive.

Zhang Yuan's gaze fell on the long saber in its black sheath leaning against the edge of the bed.

Deputy Commander Zhao had given him that saber.

Deputy Commander Zhao had already ordered the physicians to focus on treating Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao.

More than half of Fengtian County had fallen. Only South City remained. During the retreat, Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao had not only Covered the rear, but supported one another and returned alive.

Zhang Yuan had carried Young Master Tao on his back and retreated alive to South City from beneath the hands of a Xiantian expert. That was a miracle.

Saving the two of them and holding them up as examples would help raise the morale of the remaining soldiers.

Leaning against the cot, Zhang Yuan slowly closed his eyes. The Chaos Screen rose in his mind.

Zhang Yuan

Identity: Ninth-rank Black Robe Guard of Luyang Prefecture, Great Qin; Crimson Scale Army Conscript

Cultivation: Mid Houtian Realm; requires fourteen Vitality Beads to upgrade

Martial Way Cultivation: Cape Saber Technique at Great Completion, Cannot Upgrade; Ironclad Fist at Great Completion, Cannot Upgrade

Battle Formation: Azure Wolf Formation, Lesser Completion

Chaos Space: Three Vitality Beads, ten Insight Beads

Chaos Auxiliary Battle: Not Activated

Zhang Yuan had originally possessed more than three Vitality Beads, but activating Chaos Auxiliary Battle and the later automatic healing by Chaos had both consumed them.

He did not know whether it counted as a blessing in disguise, but his cultivation, which had originally been restricted and unable to advance, had quietly improved along with the recovery of his body during his recuperation.

It bore the same marvelous resemblance to how one's cultivation rose rapidly after a great battle.

Zhang Yuan had two wounds. A Crossbow Bolt had pierced through his waist, though the Injuries were not serious.

The wound on his shoulder had been made by an arrow that had punched straight through it from a Xiantian expert.

Fortunately, most of the arrow's killing force had already been borne by Young Master Tao. Otherwise, Zhang Yuan's heart and lungs would have been damaged, perhaps even his meridians shattered by the impact.

After Chaos's healing repairs, the two wounds On his body appeared not to have fully healed, but in truth, they no longer posed any problem.

Clenching his fist slightly, he could feel that his strength was infinitely close to Thousand Jin Strength.

A thousand jin of strength was no longer something an ordinary soldier could possess.

In the army, someone with a thousand jin of strength could serve as a squad leader or section commander.

Duan Hong, the Battalion commander of Zhang Yuan's unit, only had a little over a thousand jin's worth of vitality cultivation himself.

"Young Master Tao, Zhang Kid, recovering quite well, are you?" A soldier in his early forties approached carrying a clay pot. The fragrance of meat drifted over from far away, making the wounded soldiers lying on the cots open their eyes and raise their heads.

The soldier was named Chen Wuxiong. He had once been a yamen runner at the Fengtian County office, and had been conscripted into Zhang Yuan's battalion during the defense of the city.

Chen Wuxiong stopped between Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao's cots, set the stacked clay bowls In hand on the ground, and used a wooden ladle to scoop two bowls of soup with meat from the clay pot.

Steam rose from the meat soup, thick droplets of oil rippling across its surface. Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao, who had not seen animal fat in who knew how long, swallowed hard.

The scent of meat alone made the wounded soldiers on the other cots suck in deep breaths through their noses.

"The Commander slaughtered his warhorse and boiled two huge pots of hot soup. Our battalion got two jars. Old Duan told me to bring you half a jar."

Crimson Scale Army Commander Yu Lin had possessed a jujube-red warhorse, said to be a reward he had earned during the grand military competition in the imperial capital years ago. He had always treasured it as dearly as his own eyes, personally tending its feed and fodder. He would not even allow other soldiers to touch it.

Yet Commander Yu had killed that warhorse.

"We really got two jars of meat?" Young Master Tao looked at the meat soup in his bowl and spoke softly.

Chen Wuxiong chuckled twice and passed the bowls into their hands.

"Eat, eat. You haven't had any oil in ages. If you drink the soup cold, it'll give you the runs," Chen Wuxiong said with a grin. "Those Women who wash the bedding hate nothing more than people soiling their cots. They'll chatter your ears off with curses."

The words were meant as a joke, clearly intended to shift Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao's attention.

But Zhang Yuan and Young Master Tao both knew that only a dozen or so men remained in their battalion. It was impossible for them to have received two jars of meat soup.

That half jar had surely been scraped together from between Duan Hong and the others' teeth.

The two of them were ravenous as well. They gulped down an entire clay bowl each, meat and broth together, without even properly tasting it.

The two slurped noisily. Chen Wuxiong wiped his face and turned his head away.

The other wounded soldiers nearby wore envious looks. Even those who had been groaning seemed too weak to make a sound now.

"Not bad, right? Have another bowl."

Chen Wuxiong took the empty bowl Zhang Yuan held out, smiling as he ladled up more meat soup and passed it back.

Zhang Yuan looked around, then looked at the bowl In hand.

If he were to eat his fill, ten bowls or eight bowls would barely plug the gaps between his teeth.

Not to mention that he had not eaten meat in so long—what practitioner of the martial way did not have a huge appetite?

"The battalion is short on grain, isn't it?" Zhang Yuan lowered his voice and Looked towards Chen Wuxiong.

Chen Wuxiong froze for a moment, then nodded lightly.

"The retreat was too hurried. We didn't bring the provisions."

"Actually, there hasn't been any grain in the city for a long time..."

Fengtian City had been surrounded for Three months already. Where could any provisions still be found?

This time, they had truly run out of food. Otherwise, the Commander would never have been willing to slaughter his own warhorse.

Zhang Yuan would not originally have considered such matters.

But after that dreamlike experience, and after observing so many others' memories of cultivation, his mind had become far sharper than before.

Many things had suddenly become clear to him.

"Physician Hu, you said there were still quite a few medicinal herbs that couldn't be used, right?"

Holding his meat soup, Zhang Yuan looked at the physician some distance away, who was changing a wounded soldier's bandages.