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There weren't many red badges like this. Usually, only people of exceptional strength could possess one; they were something like a mercenary group's hidden trump card.

Their status was extraordinary. Uncle Baz had never even considered stopping her.

Only now, seeing everyone's strange expressions, did Uncle Baz realize he might have gotten something wrong.

Jun Ruofeng had never been one to mince words. "What were you thinking? You can't just hand out an Honor Medal!"

Red Beard smiled as though he hadn't noticed how serious the matter was. "I think it's fine." Ye Chuqi was probably stronger than any of them imagined. He had a feeling about it. She had appeared alone deep in the Ashen Wasteland, rescued him from that environment, and pressed him back to the ground with ease. He had felt it then.

But he still worried about what needed worrying over. He hadn't forgotten what Xiya had said: though it didn't show on the surface, Ye Chuqi was likely gravely injured. Even Xiya was helpless against an injury like that and could only ease her pain as much as possible.

Something seemed to occur to Xiya. Her face went pale, and she started for the door, but Coke caught hold of her. "Don't worry too much. Yezi is a good kid. If she went out at a time like this, I can only think of one place."

"Where?"

"The bookshop from yesterday." Coke smiled helplessly. "I remember there were still quite a few books Yezi hadn't finished flipping through. I think she went back for them." Yes, flipping through them. Coke couldn't bring himself to call what Ye Chuqi did "reading." Flipping through books was more accurate.

Coke guided Xiya to a seat. "I'll go look. If she's there, I'll bring her back. It's time for lunch. If no one calls her, she'll finish flipping through every book before she comes back."

Before Coke had finished speaking, Ye Chuqi's voice came from the courtyard gate. "I'm back." Seeing everyone gathered in the little courtyard and turning toward her at the sound of her voice, Ye Chuqi froze for a moment. Were they worried about her?

Ye Chuqi pressed her lips together. She really had gone out without telling anyone. She was confident in her own strength, but these friends of hers didn't know what she was capable of.

"Sorry." Ye Chuqi nudged a pebble on the ground with her toe. "I'm back..."

Coke smiled at her guilty little face. "Finished flipping through all the books in the shop already? Why didn't you buy a few more to bring back?"

"I didn't finish..." Ye Chuqi pouted. "The owner chased me out." His reason was that he needed to eat lunch, and she should come back and eat lunch too.

"Will you go again this afternoon?"

"Go? Not go?" Ye Chuqi knew she had worried everyone by leaving without a word, but she hadn't expected the red badge to work so well. Nor had she expected everyone to care about her after only a few days together. It was quite a surprise.

To go or not to go—that was the question.

Red Beard rubbed Ye Chuqi's head. "Go if you want. It's no big deal. Do you still have enough money for books? If not, ask Jun Ruofeng for more."

Jun Ruofeng: ???

Jun Ruofeng didn't refuse. If he did, Red Beard would accuse him of thinking his life wasn't worth a few gold coins. Ye Chuqi had saved his life, after all. The debt Red Beard owed her went in a separate little ledger. What Jun Ruofeng gave her was the mercenary group's reward.

Now that Red Beard had also given Ye Chuqi an Honor Medal, Jun Ruofeng didn't believe for a moment that Red Beard had handed it over by mistake in the heat of the moment. When Xiya had wanted Ye Chuqi to join the Reserve Corps, Red Beard had been vague about it. Looking back, he must have planned to give her the Honor Medal all along.

The Red Wind Mercenary Group hadn't been established for long. In the past few years, it had given out only three Honor Medals. The one in Ye Chuqi's hand was the fourth.

Red Beard was willful and often did whatever he pleased, but he never treated the mercenary group as a joke. Jun Ruofeng couldn't help wondering whether he had underestimated Ye Chuqi.

Xiya took Ye Chuqi back inside, where Ye Chuqi finally learned just how special the red badge in her hand was. Besides representing her standing in the mercenary group, the badge was itself an alchemical product—or rather, an unfinished one. Like a base, it could be worked into any alchemical product its owner wanted.

"Could it be made into Spatial Equipment?" Ye Chuqi asked innocently.

She badly needed Spatial Equipment to conceal her own space. While they were out shopping, she had gone into a store to look. Nearly every piece of Spatial Equipment was kept as a shop's prized treasure, with an exorbitant asking price. Even the cheapest cost a hundred thousand gold coins.

What did a hundred thousand gold coins amount to?

Ye Chuqi counted on her fingers. Converted into low-level Beast Cores, it would probably fill that little pool in her space to the brim. As for something like the Red Sun Fruit, it hadn't appeared in so many years that no one knew what it would sell for now. But the Imperial Capital Auction House was preparing to set the starting bid at one million per fruit.

Two years earlier, a single God-tier Healing Potion had sold for three million, and that had been the lowest price in years.

She had only the hundred gold coins she had pried out of Jun Ruofeng. After spending freely on supplies these past few days, she had less than half left. Every day, San San rolled around in her head, clamoring for her to earn money to support the family.

Xiya hesitated for a moment. "It can be done, but as I said, the cost is too high. And the badge's material would limit it. Even if you made it into Spatial Equipment, both its stability and the size of its space would be poor. Yet the materials and labor would cost just as much. It wouldn't be worth it."

Ye Chuqi had studied how to make Basic Pills, but she hadn't had time to learn Artifact Forging. She had flipped through quite a few books on Alchemy here, though little of what she read had truly stuck. Making Spatial Equipment was advanced material, and she knew nothing about it.

But San San said in her ear, "It's not impossible. You have a material that can increase spatial stability."

Ye Chuqi: How did I not know that?

"Or rather, that big black fish has it."

Ye Chuqi: ???

"Where do you think the big black fish lived before? And how do you think it ended up at the Little Oasis?"