Hearing Lupe's final request, Yuan Chen didn't rush to answer. He fell silent for a moment, then nodded.
"Aren't you worried I'll drag your family back into the abyss?"
"I am, but I'm getting old... I trust my instincts," Lupe said calmly.
"Besides, you're Milio's teacher. With that connection, no matter what, outsiders will see my family as representing part of your will. Better to be straightforward about it."
"Because I'm a prophet?"
"No. Because you're a half-baked prophet... Hmm, that's what you called yourself, wasn't it?"
Lupe chuckled. "I've read the Prophet's Notebook. It describes a realm beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
"Someone might save a person one moment, then kill them the next. In that book, the author put it this way:
"The endless future—knowledge is like a curse."
"And hearing you call yourself a half-baked prophet... honestly, it was a relief. At least you're still someone ordinary people can understand, not someone cursed by knowledge and the future."
Hearing Lupe's words, Yuan Chen nodded, then said, "Then we have a deal. Since you had a point, eating this should help you live a little longer."
As he spoke, Yuan Chen took out a Dragon Blood Secret Medicine Pill and tossed it to Lupe.
Lupe caught it deftly and looked down at the dark, bitter, slightly bloody-smelling pill in her hand. She gave it a quick check with her magic, and surprise flickered in her eyes.
Lupe was experienced enough to recognize the pill's substantial ingredients.
For one thing, the powerful magic unique to dragon flesh and blood was something ordinary materials simply couldn't possess.
Now, after being simmered with a large quantity of ingredients, the already extraordinary pill had gained an even deeper energy.
"What is this...?" Lupe asked, looking at Yuan Chen in confusion.
"Dragon Blood Secret Medicine," Yuan Chen explained casually.
"Dragon flesh and blood, Essence Spirit, plants unique to the Miasma Jungle, poisonous substances, medicinal herbs, and your grandson Milio's Healing Fire, all combined and harmonized using Ionia's methods of making medicine, then rolled into a pill."
"Consider yourself lucky. This stuff is priceless, and the recipe is exclusive. It can quickly replenish your blood and vitality..."
He paused, shrugged, and said indifferently, "But you've lost too much of your vitality. A full recovery is unlikely... At least, I can't do it. Still, it should extend your life by more than a year."
At that, excitement flashed in Lupe's eyes—
A year was enough time for her to return to Yishuaoken, settle things between her family, the old nobility, and the Yuentar Element Masters, and witness Milio's rise with her own eyes!
"What if I keep taking it...?"
"Don't get carried away. This is a healing potion, not a health tonic. You can't use it to live forever."
Hearing Yuan Chen's answer, disappointment surfaced in Lupe's eyes, but she quickly rallied—
Living another year was already more than enough for her.
Seeing the excitement rising in Lupe's eyes, Yuan Chen teased, "What? Regretting it a little? Should've asked for more when you made your request?"
"Not at all. I'm just even more grateful," Lupe said, relaxing.
"Friendships without self-interest are often more lasting. Helping someone in their hour of need is far more precious than adding to their glory. Every deal eventually ends, but friendship doesn't."
Lupe saw things clearly.
More than any deal, the bond between Milio and Yuan Chen as teacher and student was the most precious connection.
After all, when her younger sister had rebelled, not one of her former noble "friends" had offered a hand. They had even cut ties of their own accord, afraid she might cling to them and drag them into the turmoil of the rebellion.
Self-interest could bind one family to another, but it couldn't bring people closer.
Yuan Chen only chuckled a couple of times. He didn't delve into a discussion with Lupe, a former Element Master who had become a political creature. He simply nodded and turned to leave.
It wasn't that he disliked or hated her. He simply didn't want their conversation to become entangled with the sort of self-interest that made people feel irritated.
Back at the village entrance square, Yuan Chen kept working until late into the night.
Milio was busy too. His Healing Fire could combine the medicinal properties with the characteristics of Dragon Blood more gently, while also directly strengthening the medicine to a certain extent and making its effects more pronounced.
By dawn the next morning, when the sky was just beginning to lighten, the dozen or so pots of Dragon Blood had finally been purified.
Truly natural, with no pollutants—
They didn't even need preservatives. The magic in the Dragon Blood and ingredients acted as a preservative on its own. At least until the magic ran out, there was no need to worry about it spoiling.
"How's the purification going?"
Mordas yawned as he came from the hunter camp to the village square.
Though he'd undergone Dragon Blood Enhancement, the fatigue on Mordas's face was plain to see.
To gather the ingredients needed for purifying the Dragon Blood, Mordas and the other Fleshfang Hunters who could still move, along with the village's own hunters, had spent day and night gathering them in the wilderness.
Dragon Blood Enhancement had given Mordas Natural Dragon Might, which kept ordinary beasts away. But ordinary people and the Fleshfang Hunters still had to make thorough preparations—
Dragon Blood wasn't an option, as the blood of a superior creature like a dragon might actually attract troublesome beasts.
"More or less." Yuan Chen nodded and pointed to the jars nearby. "Eighteen pots of dragon blood yielded three and a half jars of Pure Dragon Blood. Used wisely, each jar should be enough to make three warriors who've undergone Dragon Blood Enhancement."
Hearing Yuan Chen's answer, Mordas nodded. "As agreed, I'll take a jar first."
"Go ahead. That makes one jar each."
Yuan Chen nodded indifferently.
Of the three jars of Pure Dragon Blood, he'd get one, the Fleshfang Hunters one, Lupe's family one, and the villagers would share half a jar.
No one thought this was unfair. Yuan Chen had led the Dragon Hunt from start to finish, while the Fleshfang Hunters had provided the crucial precision bed crossbows and Hunting Poison, Azure Starfire.
Lupe, meanwhile, had personally overseen the carving of the Gravity Spell and the weapon enchantments, and had protected countless people in battle...
By comparison, the villagers had certainly taken part, but mostly in miscellaneous tasks like setting traps. If anyone deserved special credit, it was the blacksmiths.
Without the bed crossbows, winning the battle would have been no easy feat...
Every participant had mattered, but the distribution of supplies like this had been agreed upon before the operation, according to each person's contribution.
And for ordinary villagers, becoming proud residents of the county was much better than receiving a few drops of Pure Dragon Blood each—if they got any at all.
Of course, even a few drops would be enough.
Dragon Blood purified using this special method was an excellent magical material. Whether used for enchanting, forging, or quenching weapons, it could greatly improve the quality of the finished product.
Once they reached the county, they could trade it for goods and money to establish a home and build a stable life.
"What about those?"
Mordas looked toward the two large pots still bubbling over the fire—
Unlike the previous batches of Dragon Blood, these pots hadn't been heated by Element Apprentices using flame breath. They were being cooked over firewood, with chili peppers, star anise, cumin, fennel, and other medicinal ingredients and foodstuffs floating on top.
"The Element Apprentices got distracted while heating these two pots, so the purification failed. The medicinal properties didn't fuse together."
Yuan Chen shrugged. "Otherwise, we'd have gotten four jars of Pure Dragon Blood."
"Since we can't use it anyway, I just added some more ingredients and made Blood Curd."
Blood Curd, also known as Blood Tofu, was made by adding salt to animal blood and heating it until it set. Common varieties were made with duck, chicken, or pig's blood.
In Yuan Chen's previous life, people in the Bashu region loved Blood Curd, usually served with a fresh, fragrant, spicy, and numbing flavor. The tropical rainforest climate of Ixialia was somewhat similar to Bashu, and chili peppers could dispel dampness, so Yuan Chen decided to improvise a little.
Eating spicy food first thing in the morning wasn't great for the stomach or the backside, but hunters and warriors were so physically tough that digestion probably wouldn't be a problem.
Ixialia's tropical rainforest climate meant people didn't usually eat rice or wheat. Their daily staples were mostly fruit, dried meat, fish, and raw vegetables. Toast Bread had only been brought in by Noxus during its explorations abroad.
However, there was some Wheat Flour among the rations carried by the Fleshfang Hunters, much to Yuan Chen's delight.
He mixed it evenly with Water Element, then punched the dough through a set of military exercises. Before long, he'd made himself a bowl of noodles for breakfast.
Yuan Chen was very satisfied with the spicy, fragrant Blood Curd noodles. Though the Dragon Blood had failed as an excellent magical material, it was still a fine tonic after being adjusted.
Just as the wandering bards of the Valoran Continent sang that bathing in Dragon Blood made men invulnerable and unbeatable, they claimed that bathing in Dragon Blood kept women forever young and ageless.
Yuan Chen was very satisfied with his meal, but the Fleshfang Hunters nearby found it a little hard to eat.
It wasn't that the flavor was bad. Their tongues were simply more sensitive than humans', and everyone knew just how hot Blood Curd was straight out of the pot.
After breakfast, everyone spent a while cleaning up. As noon approached, Audan arrived at the village with the Road Protector.
Walking through the overgrown woodland, the Road Protector in a silk cloak kept pace beside Audan.
As mentioned before, thanks to powerful Elemental Magic and the towering, majestic mountains and mysterious, dangerous Miasma Jungle, Ixialia had no conventional army.
The Road Protectors took on some of the army's duties. They patrolled the routes between the towers without pause, keeping roads clear of encroaching vegetation. They also delivered the Yuan Chu Axiom from the front lines of Yishuaoken to every Axiom Tower and conveyed King Yuen's decrees. They were highly respected.
Even so, Road Protectors rarely came to this village.
They knew the exiles here included a political criminal with a history of rebellion.
Though the Yuentar Element Scholars believed that a noble Element Master shouldn't be executed for guilt by association, made to pay for another's foolishness, and argued their case with King Yuen, the outcome had been that the Lupe Family was exiled to a remote mountain borderland so desolate that even in sparsely populated Ixialia, it was still considered remote.
After Lupe and the others had been exiled there, the Road Protectors came even less often.
Now, after Audan had gone to the county to submit an application, the county's leader—
A venerable Yuenale—had immediately sent a Road Protector to return to the village with Audan and verify whether the story was true.
Kacang, the Road Protector tasked with confirming whether Audan's report was accurate, was one of the few who knew what news Audan's village had reported—and honestly, he didn't believe it.
He glanced at Audan from the corner of his eye. Seeing the dark-skinned boy's amazement at his elemental skills, Kacang grew more convinced that his trip would prove pointless.
It was no wonder Kacang thought that way. This was an Elemental Drake! Even with "drake" in its name, common knowledge said it was an invincible dragon, easily capable of razing a city!
A terrifying creature like that, if it went berserk, was more than a single village could withstand...
Even a city would have to pay a heavy price.
And according to Audan, they had killed a dragon using nothing but a group of outsiders from beyond their world, then planned to present it to King Yuen as a gift at the Elemental Festival...
It sounded utterly unbelievable—
Like someone telling you that Hawking had dribbled past a swarm of butterflies, then left James Curry Harden in the dust, leaped up, and dunked over O'Neal, only for Kobe to win a resurrection game and complete a reanimated corpse-style steal at the moment the ball went through the hoop.
Still, it'd be fun to watch.
In fact, halfway there, Kacang had already prepared to head straight back as soon as he arrived.
"We're almost there! I can see the village!" Audan said excitedly.
He knew everyone in the village was waiting for him. Once the Road Protector confirmed the news, they could all go to the county and live, work, and study in more comfortable surroundings.
On the road, Kacang looked ahead and saw that aside from the empty Fleshfang tents, the first thing in view was a wall covered in white Square Characters: "The bolder the people, the worse the drake's fate."
Seeing those words, Kacang could only think that they'd prepared them in advance to fool him.
By noon, as they drew closer, Kacang and Audan could smell the aroma wafting from the village.
Every household was preparing food, and it was a real feast, with plenty of meat and drink. Everyone knew they were about to leave this godforsaken place.
They'd take everything they could. Anything they couldn't take would be eaten on the spot, rather than left for the wild animals that would move into the village later.
"I'm back!" Audan rushed into the village, waving excitedly at everyone.
"Mr. Road Protector came too! Once he's confirmed everything, we can set off!"
The villagers cheered. Kacang, meanwhile, stared in disbelief at the things simmering in the large pots.
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