New Member of the Precious Medicine Workshop

Ye Tong looked at Medicine Slave's tense expression and thought of the corpses strewn all over outside. He said calmly, "After the Precious Medicine Workshop is rebuilt, its scale will grow considerably, but it will be even less lively. In a few days, we'll set out for the prefectural city. Once we leave, we'll be gone for at least several months. We need someone to watch the house."

"Yes!"

Medicine Slave answered without a second thought.

Ye Tong was taken aback, then asked curiously, "Who?"

Medicine Slave said, "The Crippled Old Woman."

Ye Tong said in surprise, "That Crippled Old Woman at the mouth of the alley who lives by begging? She looks even older than you, doesn't she? She walks with a Black Carbon Cudgel, as though a gust of wind could blow her over. You want her to guard the house?"

Medicine Slave fell silent for a moment before saying, "The old master once said that in all of Cold Mountain City, anyone could be offended except her. I even suspect that she is connected to you."

Ye Tong's expression changed slightly as he asked, "What do you mean?"

Medicine Slave said, "Ten years ago, three months after the old master brought you here, she begged her way here. From then on, she never left. The shack at the mouth of the alley can only hold one person, yet she lived there for ten whole years. Whether beneath the blazing summer sun or amid icy snow and cold tides, she never once left."

Ye Tong said, "Even so, that doesn't prove she has anything to do with me, does it?"

Medicine Slave said, "I have watched her for so many years. Only when you gave her food did her gaze soften considerably. Whenever anyone else approached her, it stirred her vigilance. Outsiders might not notice it, but I could sense a trace of it."

Ye Tong asked, "Are you certain she can guard the place?"

"Yes!"

Medicine Slave answered with ironclad certainty.

Ye Tong said nothing more. He brushed past Medicine Slave and left the gates of the Precious Medicine Workshop. Following the small path paved with bluestone, he walked step by step toward the mouth of the alley. A short while later, he saw the Crippled Old Woman slumped against the wall before a tiny, dilapidated shack at the alley entrance. Her clothes were ragged, her hair disheveled, her face filthy, and she held a pitch-black Black Carbon Cudgel in her arms.

There were not many people in all of Cold Mountain City whom Ye Tong remembered, but the Crippled Old Woman was one of them.

Ye Tong's gaze swept over the Crippled Old Woman's right leg, which was missing half its lower portion. Then he met the gaze she cast his way and said, "In a few days, I will take Medicine Slave to the prefectural city. We will be unable to return for several months, and the Precious Medicine Workshop needs someone to watch the house. Are you interested?"

"I am."

The Crippled Old Woman answered without a second thought.

Ye Tong turned around and headed back the way he had come, leaving behind only a light, drifting sentence. "Follow me."

He did not ask.

Even if she was connected to the Ye Tong who had once existed independently, so long as she did not bring it up herself, there was no need for him to entangle himself in karmic ties. Being alive was a kind of happiness. What he could offer was simply a place for the Crippled Old Woman to settle down and make her living.

However.

After taking a dozen or so steps, he stopped again. As though he had recalled something, he turned back toward the slow-moving Crippled Old Woman. As he passed her, he said, "Come with me."

The two walked slowly. After leaving the medicinal herb market and passing through two streets, they stopped in front of a tailor shop. Ye Tong raised his head and stared at the signboard. Only after several seconds of silence did he step inside.

"Customer, would you like to have some clothes tailored?"

A clever young attendant came forward with a face full of enthusiasm. Even when he saw the Crippled Old Woman following behind Ye Tong, he did not reveal the slightest hint of disgust.

Ye Tong asked, "Can people wash up here?"

"Yes."

The young attendant nodded.

Ye Tong pointed at the Crippled Old Woman and said, "Have someone assist her in washing up, then bring her three sets of clothes that fit. Here are ten taels of blue silver. Is that enough?"

"More than enough."

The young attendant accepted the blue silver, the smile on his face growing broader.

Ye Tong looked at the Crippled Old Woman and said, "I'll wait for you at the Precious Medicine Workshop."

With that.

He walked out of the tailor shop. After standing in the street and thinking for a moment, he headed toward the slave market. He did not know the Crippled Old Woman's true capabilities, but such a large Precious Medicine Workshop would still be far too desolate with only one more Crippled Old Woman. At the very least, he could not keep making two elderly people with one foot in the grave wash clothes, cook, and clean the place.

The slave market.

It covered a broad area, yet the structures built there were exceptionally simple. Cold Mountain City had many slave merchants, and the number of slaves they sold was no less than that of some major cities. Here, no one cared what identity a slave had once held, and few cared whether slaves lived or died. In everyone's eyes, slaves occupied the lowest rung of society and could only be measured in gold and silver.

This place was bustling.

Whenever many adventurer teams entered the Golden Phoenix Mountain Range or the southern barbaric wilderness, they might lose members. Whenever they returned, they would almost always replenish their ranks here.

Besides.

People died in Cold Mountain City every day, and every trade needed new blood to fill the gaps. That was also why the slave market's business was booming.

After Ye Tong stepped into the slave market, he walked very slowly. His sharp eyes swept across the stone houses built one after another, and he could clearly see the slaves shackled with iron chains inside each one.

These slaves included men and women, old and young. They had been dressed up in splendid clothes only to fetch a better price, but their eyes were filled with despair, numbness, or confusion.

They... could not see the future, nor could they see hope.

Ye Tong was not a savior. He was merely an outsider who had arrived in this world by a twist of fate. Nor did he possess enough wealth to restore every slave in the world to freedom. Still less was he a king, marquis, general, or minister, able to stop slavery from existing or prevent batches of pitiful people from ultimately being branded and turned into slaves.

"Little brother, looking to buy slaves?"

"A daughter of a wealthy family from a major city, offspring of nobles..."

"An expert at the Qi Refining Fourth Level, a strongman with boundless strength..."

"Barbaric wilderness Fox Clan bloodline, Stone Forest giants..."

The slave merchants' enthusiastic calls could not halt Ye Tong's footsteps. He was about to reach the end of the thousand-meter street, yet he still had not selected a slave who satisfied him.

A matter of affinity.

It was an important kind of fate.

Ye Tong understood physiognomy. By observing one's appearance and aura, he could judge a person's disposition and determine the course of their fate.

Suddenly.

Ye Tong's footsteps came to an abrupt halt, and his gaze landed on a delicate, beautiful face. That face was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Dingding?

She wasn't her. Their appearances were eighty percent alike, but this girl's gaze was numb, unlike Liu Dingding's crafty liveliness.

The willow-leaf-shaped red mark between her brows proved that she possessed Fox Clan blood and was even a cultivator whose bloodline had been awakened. Yet her complexion was dim, and from childhood until now, her fate had been rough, beset by many trials and hardships...

Ye Tong observed every detail. Only after examining the Fox Clan-blooded girl from head to toe did he look toward the lazy young man by the door, a blade of grass hanging from the corner of his mouth.

"Found one you like?"

The lazy young man asked carelessly.

Ye Tong pointed at the girl and asked, "How much?"

The lazy young man turned his head and glanced at her, then said unhurriedly, "You're not a regular customer, so there's no discount. Eight hundred taels of blue silver. I won't sell her for even half a tael less."

Ye Tong took out a banknote and handed it directly to the young man. "She's mine."

The lazy young man spat out the blade of grass, rummaged out a key, and led the girl out from among more than twenty slaves. "Whether to unlock her chains is up to you. Let me make this clear beforehand: if you unlock them and she takes the opportunity to run away, it will have nothing to do with me."

Ye Tong acted as though he had not heard him. Under the lazy young man's gaze, he unlocked the restraints, pulled off the chains, and tossed them onto the ground. Then he stared at the girl, who had not even raised her head, and asked, "Answer my question. What is your name?"

The girl shook her head.

Ye Tong said, "Since you have no name, then from now on, you will be called Dingding. You will take my surname: Ye Dingding."

At last, the girl slowly raised her head. A faint focus finally appeared in her numb eyes. She understood one thing: if a slave who was bought did not receive a bestowed name, then in the future, they would be worse off than pigs and dogs, with the rest of their life shrouded in darkness. But if they received a name from their master, their status would rise considerably. At the very least, they would not be casually killed.

"Mhm."

The sound squeezed from the girl's throat was almost inaudible.

Ye Tong turned around and headed back the way he had come. The girl silently followed behind him, with no thought of escaping and no hope for her future life. Like a puppet, she was dejected and numb.

The Precious Medicine Workshop.

After Ye Tong returned with the newly purchased slave girl, Ye Dingding, Medicine Slave came forward with a face full of bewilderment. Ye Tong said, "From now on, she is the maid of our Precious Medicine Workshop. Find a way to remove her slave brand. Even if it leaves a scar, it doesn't matter. From now on, she will handle the washing, cooking, and cleaning of the courtyard."

Medicine Slave asked blankly, "Then what should this old servant do from now on?"

Ye Tong answered without a second thought, "Cultivate. I need the protection of strong people."

Cultivate?

Medicine Slave's heart jolted, and an indescribable feeling surged within him. In the past, although he had been able to cultivate, the old master, Huo Lanqiu, had not cared how strong he became and would not give him much time to cultivate. He had only treated him like an ox or horse, squeezing every scrap of labor from him.

The young master...

As though recalling something, Ye Tong added, "After a while, the Crippled Old Woman will come too. In the Precious Medicine Workshop, she may do whatever she wishes. If she wants to cultivate, give her a few Silver Crystals."

Medicine Slave's eyes lit up, and he nodded without hesitation. "This old servant understands."

Ye Tong said, "What are you still standing around for? Take her to familiarize herself with the place first. At mealtimes, she'll eat with us. Later, give her some silver and have her buy several new sets of clothes."

"Yes!"

Medicine Slave answered respectfully.

Ye Tong returned to his room, found a sheet of white paper, and took out the charcoal pencil he had specially made in his spare time. With swift strokes, he began sketching. Gradually, the parts of a prosthetic leg took shape before his eyes.

Ye Tong pondered quietly, designing the mechanisms and assembling the components. It took a full half hour before he finally finished the drawing.

Through the memories he had fused with, he knew that prosthetic limbs did not exist in this era. Those who lost legs or arms could only remain that way, at most using crutches or leaving the sleeve of a severed arm hanging empty.

If she has cultivation, a prosthetic limb will be of great use to her. But if she has no cultivation, then at her age, it will be as useless as chicken ribs. Ye Tong thought thoughtfully.