On the raised platform, two young pharmacy assistants worked beside the furnace, carrying medicinal ingredients and tending the fire. An old man in gray stood before it, opened a medicine chest beside him, and dropped ingredients into the cauldron.
Below the platform, two squads of armed soldiers stood in a ring around its pillars.
A crowd had gathered farther out. Everyone craned their necks toward the platform, pointing and murmuring, longing plain in their eyes.
Zhang Yan had caught the medicinal fragrance too. He stretched his neck for a look and lowered his voice. "Master, why does that smell like a Martial Origin Pill?"
Li Dashan smiled. "It doesn't just smell like one. They're refining Martial Origin Pills."
Zhang Yan started. "Martial Origin Pills? Why refine something so precious out in the open? Everyone passing by can see it, and the scent carries so far. It's almost as if they're afraid people won't know."
Li Dashan turned to Deng Qing with a smile. "What do you think?"
Deng Qing said, "I'd say they've hung a carrot in front of the donkey turning the millstone.
"Let everyone catch the scent and know something good is right before their eyes. Then they'll put their backs into the work."
Li Dashan pointed at him and laughed. "Trust you to put it that way. But that is the idea. The higher-ups have to raise morale somehow.
"Still, they really will give out that carrot. Earn the merit, and the Martial Origin Pill you're owed will reach your hands."
Deng Qing nodded and looked back at the platform. Longing welled up inside him, impossible to suppress.
He knew he was only one Martial Origin Pill away from the Bone-Forging First Layer.
Of course, even if he got one, he had no intention of taking it