Time to Take Your Medicine

Before Lin Xuan had finished rounding up the men, a dark mass of people appeared in the distance to the west and made its way toward Liang City.

They were too far away for most people to tell whether they were a group of refugees and defeated soldiers or a band of roaming bandits.

The long-distance vision granted by Sharp Eyes far surpassed that of ordinary people. At a glance, Lin Xuan could make out that they seemed to be refugees and defeated soldiers. Their ranks were disorderly, they carried a few weapons, and they did not seem to be wearing armor.

If that was the case, they were most likely refugees and defeated soldiers. But Lin Xuan couldn't be sure, and he didn't want to make contact with them. If they were roaming bandits in disguise, that would be bad.

So he led the able-bodied men he had conscripted all the way to the Liangcheng Thousand-Household Office.

Lin Xuan was pretty quick at rounding people up. In a single night, he had gathered all the able-bodied men he needed.

When he arrived at the garrison, he found that tents were being erected inside, while grain was being brought in from outside without pause. It was the grain from several Hundred-Household Offices. They couldn't hold out against the roaming bandits' army, so they were transferring all their grain and valuables here.

They weren't about to let anyone pocket their grain.

Chen Fang and Lin An were settled in the Qin Family's courtyard. The Qin Family had a residence at the Thousand-Household Office, too. Though it wasn't as large as the one at the Hundred-Household Office, it could still accommodate plenty of people.

They tidied up a few empty rooms and let the three of them live together.

As soon as Lin Xuan returned to the garrison, he went to find Thousand-Household Commander Su.

Thousand-Household Commander Su had already changed out of his official robes and into armor. He looked fully prepared to set out at a moment's notice.

"Thousand-Household Commander Su, the people you asked me to round up have all arrived. Is there anything else you need me to do? I'd like to take that decoction as soon as possible and build up my strength. That way, I'll have more strength to defend against the bandits."

Thousand-Household Commander Su saw the people Lin Xuan had brought and couldn't help but be taken aback. The kid had finished the task pretty quickly.

"All right, go ahead. There's nothing else you need to do today."

Lin Xuan nodded, took his leave, and headed for the Qin Family's place.

The Qin Family didn't restrict his comings and goings, so he soon reached the room where he was staying.

Chen Fang and Lin An were both weaving cloth. After all, now that they were here, they didn't have anything else to do.

"I'm going to start taking the Body-Strengthening Potion. Help me boil it: keep it over high heat for an hour, then take it off the heat and add these herbs. After that, simmer it over low heat for half an hour," Lin Xuan instructed Lin An.

Lin An nodded.

After all, she came from a family of physicians, so she was far more familiar with how long to boil medicine than Lin Xuan was.

Lin An opened the packets of herbs and couldn't help frowning. She thought to herself, They've guarded against this so carefully. The herbs have been ground so fine that it's almost impossible to tell what's in the medicine. Otherwise, I could have recreated the formula with medicinal herbs.

She felt it was a real shame. She was especially sensitive to medicinal ingredients; as long as they were packaged normally, she could usually work out their proportions. But these had been ground almost as fine as flour!

"What a pity. What a pity," Lin An couldn't help saying aloud.

"What's such a pity?" Hearing her words, Lin Xuan's curiosity was instantly piqued.

Lin An didn't hide anything. She replied openly, "The herbs are ground too fine. I can't tell what ingredients are in there. If someone wanted to poison it, it would be incredibly easy."

If I could figure out the recipe for this Body-Strengthening Decoction, Lin Xuan and I could make huge improvements in a short time. We might even be able to smuggle the decoction.

"You can do that, too?" Lin Xuan's face lit up with delight. It seemed he'd discovered something extraordinary.

"Yes. I come from a family of physicians, so I know a bit about herbs." Lin An's voice was full of pride.

"You call that knowing a bit?" Lin Xuan was speechless. She was far too modest. How could someone who could reverse-engineer the proportions of medicinal ingredients possibly know only a little?

Other people must have tried to reverse-engineer the ingredients in the court's Body-Strengthening Decoction, and succeeded. That must be why the court now grinds the herbs so fine: to keep the next genius from trying the same thing.

Since she has this talent, should I give her Eidetic Memory? Combined with her talent for identifying medicinal ingredients... no, the main problem with these herbs is that they've been ground up. Eidetic Memory wouldn't be much use. So what kind of talent could I get to strengthen hers?

Lin Xuan suddenly thought of the Book of Fate's talent-fusion ability. He had never used it since getting this cheat.

Could it combine two identical talents and turn them into a more advanced one?

He didn't know. Resources were too scarce, and he didn't have any spare talents to try fusing with Dao Rhyme.

It looked like he had to find more Dao Rhyme. He'd have to get closer to piles of corpses more often!

I really hope I can survive this time. I can't even imagine how bountiful the rewards will be if I do.

After that, Lin Xuan lay down on the bed to recover his strength.

He was exhausted from the whole day. Aside from the martial arts competition, he had also been rushing around rounding up men. Even with Endurance, he could barely keep going. He had to rest for a while.

An hour and a half later, Lin An finished boiling the medicine. She shook Lin Xuan, trying to wake him.

"Little brother, little brother, it's time to take your medicine!"

Lin Xuan woke up, gulped down all the medicine in one go, and then sat down on the bed to circulate his qi.

The next morning, after absorbing most of the medicine's effects, Lin Xuan felt his strength had increased quite a bit. He might be close to the strength of the Breath-Connecting Realm.

But he was still far from reaching that realm. After all, of the five hundred pounds of strength he'd had a few days ago, three tenths had come from the Super Strength talent.

Lin An was practicing martial arts and taking medicine, too. But she was drinking a fresh brew made from the dregs Lin Xuan had left over, so her improvement was limited.

Lin Xuan wanted her cultivation to catch up quickly, too, but reality wouldn't allow it. If he had been promoted to Flag Commander and there were no battles for the time being, he could have split that batch of decoction with her.

But the situation was different now. The roaming bandits were practically at their doorstep. If he didn't quickly strengthen himself, and instead split the eggs between two baskets, the eggs in both baskets would end up smashed.

It was already light outside. Lin Xuan stepped out of the house and saw that nearly everyone at the garrison was busy repairing the city walls. A large crowd had even gathered by the garrison entrance.

They wore no armor, but they carried weapons. They looked just like soldiers who had been beaten until they'd lost their helmets and armor, fleeing in disarray.

And that was exactly what they were. Thousand-Household Commander Su was reorganizing these remnants, bringing the deserters who could still fight into the garrison's defensive line.

But most of them were soldiers. He had already sent the fleeing commoners and the wealthy men who had run away with their family fortunes, afraid of dying, to the county seat. That was where they belonged.