Medicinal properties

Once the lightning mouse had eaten its fill, it vanished as silently as it had arrived.

After waiting on the little one, Dongfang Minghui still had to wait on the big one.

Fortunately, a joyous occasion was approaching, so the heroine did not give her any dirty looks.

Dongfang Minghui still dutifully roasted a meal of rabbit meat as an extra dish for the wedding feast.

"If you're about to get married, you have to wear a bright red wedding gown. The surroundings here may be crude, but a bride still needs her red dress. As luck would have it, my seventh sister has one." Dongfang Minghui tossed the bundle to the heroine and gestured for her to look through it.

The original owner of her body had loved bright red clothes, so before leaving the estate, she had packed a woman's outfit along with several sets of men's clothes.

Mu Qing blushed with embarrassment. "Miss, you saved Brother Fei's life. How could I possibly take your clothes as well?"

Dongfang Wanyu rummaged through the bundle and took out a bright red gauze dress. It certainly looked festive.

"It's no trouble. I haven't brought any wedding gifts for you two. If you don't mind, consider this red dress my wedding gift."

Dongfang Minghui rolled her eyes. The heroine was borrowing someone else's flowers to offer to Buddha-giving away her clothes-and somehow made it sound so noble.

Dongfang Wanyu caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and smiled. "No more refusals. Hurry and put it on so we can see how beautiful the bride is."

Mu Qing nodded and followed Dongfang Wanyu into the inner cave to change.

Meanwhile, dressed in men's clothes, Dongfang Minghui naturally went to help with Wang Fei. His life had been saved, but he was still extremely weak. Even his clothes had been changed for him by Zhao Sanqi.

There was little in the cave, so they moved a few large rocks over to serve as stools. Naturally, there were no parents present to preside over the wedding.

Once Mu Qing and Wang Fei were ready, Dongfang Minghui acted as the officiant, smiling as she called out from beside them, "First, bow to heaven and earth!"

"Second, bow to your elders!"

Both were orphans without parents, and Zhao Sanqi was the person closest to them. Naturally, this bow went to him.

"Husband and wife, bow to each other!"

A smile shone in Mu Qing's eyes, and Wang Fei's face was equally radiant. They gazed deeply at each other. At that moment, they saw only each other, with no room for anyone else.

With the ceremony complete, the final step was, of course, to enter the bridal chamber.

Dongfang Minghui and the other two left the cave to the young couple and sat in a circle around the campfire outside. "This rabbit meat is delicious. Here, have a piece."

It was a joyous day, after all. They ought to be happy.

"Seventh sister, this big rabbit leg is for you. I roasted it especially for you." Dongfang Minghui did not forget to fawn over the heroine.

Watching her bustle about, Zhao Sanqi could not help praising her. "Seventh miss, your ninth brother really does care about you."

Dongfang Wanyu took a bite of rabbit meat without replying. She had already experienced just how "good" her ninth brother could be to her.

Dongfang Minghui gave an awkward chuckle. "Brother Zhao, we're leaving tomorrow. What are your plans?"

No feast under heaven lasted forever. Once the subject of parting ways arose, the festive atmosphere vanished without a trace.

Gazing at the campfire, Zhao Sanqi suddenly asked, "Where are you planning to go, seventh miss, ninth young master?"

Dongfang Minghui glanced at the heroine.

"I intend to take my ninth brother farther into the Purple Demon Mountains and train for a while longer," Dongfang Wanyu said, finishing the rabbit meat in her hand.

"Training, huh." Zhao Sanqi sighed deeply. "Once my fifth brother's injuries heal, I'll take them back to the Moonwhite Empire."

Dongfang Minghui looked at him with sympathy.

Perhaps the atmosphere was too sorrowful. In the end, everyone fell silent and went about their own business.

Early the next morning, Dongfang Minghui and Dongfang Wanyu left.

"Let's go."

Before leaving, Dongfang Minghui glanced at Zhao Sanqi, who was still leaning against a large tree with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep.

"Seventh sister, where are we going this time?"

"Farther in. We might encounter magic beasts above level four."

Dongfang Minghui's face immediately puckered like a bitter melon. She could not even handle a level-one beast, let alone magic beasts so many levels above her.

"Seventh sister, you're mighty!"

As the saying went, flattery could slip through where a thousand other things could not. Dongfang Minghui decided to praise her first and worry about the rest later.

Dongfang Wanyu gave her a meaningful glance, already forming a plan.

They found a towering peak and searched out a cave nearby. A particularly strong, rank stench filled the cave, and it was so pitch-black that they could see nothing.

"Seventh sister, be careful."

Dongfang Minghui followed her step for step, afraid something might suddenly leap out.

Dongfang Wanyu lit a torch, illuminating everything inside. There were scraps of rotting meat, which were the source of the rank stench, and a pile of white bones on the ground that looked like animal remains.

"No one is using this cave at the moment. Let's clean it up." Dongfang Wanyu wedged the torch between the rocks, put down her bundle, and got to work.

With no other choice, Dongfang Minghui suppressed her nausea and threw all the rotten meat and bones out of the cave.

Only after a quick cleanup did they truly make the cave their temporary home.

"I'll handle the hunting. You'll prepare the food." With a single sentence, Dongfang Wanyu clearly divided their duties.

Dongfang Minghui let out a wail. Now she had been thoroughly reduced to a cook.

From that day on, Dongfang Wanyu went out during the day and always returned at night with an enormous, thoroughly dead magic beast. The heroine also came back bearing different injuries.

Dongfang Minghui guessed these were magic beasts the heroine had killed. The first time she saw one, it gave her quite a fright.

Sometimes, the heroine would sit down to cultivate without even tending to her wounds. That desperate determination kept Dongfang Minghui from daring to take a single step closer.

Every day, Dongfang Minghui worked out how to butcher the magic beasts, using their bones to make soup with wild vegetables and boiling their meat until it was tender enough to make do with. Over time, she actually honed her cooking skills and gained some understanding of magic beast anatomy.

That day, after the heroine went out, Dongfang Minghui quietly slipped out as well. She wanted to see whether any of the surrounding trees bore fruit.

Eating magic beast meat every day would give her indigestion.

After searching all around, she found no fruit, but she did spot several medicinal herbs. Worried she might have mistaken them, she even went over to ask.

"I'm going to help you move, all right?"

Using her meager spiritual power, Dongfang Minghui chatted with the medicinal herbs before transplanting them outside the cave.

"Don't worry. I'll water and fertilize you every day, so you'll grow big and strong."

Hearing her promise, the herbs bobbed their heads in agreement and settled down contentedly outside the cave.

As promised, she watered the herbs regularly and loosened their soil. Sometimes, she chatted with them as well, passing her days in easy, carefree contentment.

However, every time she went out, she brought back more herbs to transplant. Over time, the medicinal herbs gradually took over the area outside the cave.

One day, Dongfang Wanyu returned covered in injuries and saw Dongfang Minghui watering the herbs in the sunset, occasionally promising, "All right, I know. If it rains tomorrow, I'll cover you with something."

"Who are you talking to?"

Dongfang Minghui turned and discovered the heroine behind her, startling her. "Seventh sister, you're back."

"What are you doing?"

Dongfang Minghui pointed to the large patch of medicinal herbs outside the cave. "I'm watering them. It might rain tomorrow, so I'm going to make a tent in a bit."

The tent was simple. She used ropes braided from dried grass to tie pieces of beast hide together, then set up two relatively straight tree trunks outside.

Dongfang Wanyu looked at the night sky. The stars glittered, and the moon shone bright and clear; one glance told her tomorrow would be a fine, sunny day. She could not be bothered to entertain Dongfang Minghui's nonsense.

"Seventh sister, take off your clothes in a bit. I'll apply some medicine for you."

After finishing the beast-hide tent, Dongfang Minghui set it aside and picked up a stone pestle to pound the leaves she had plucked from the herbs. She kept pounding until juice seeped out, then collected some in a porcelain bottle meant for medicinal pills.

"What is this?" Dongfang Wanyu frowned.

Using scraps of cloth as swabs, Dongfang Minghui dabbed up some juice and gently applied it to the wounds on Dongfang Wanyu's arm. "This is living stargrass. It can stop bleeding and clear bruises. You have so many wounds. It won't look nice if they leave scars."

What young woman would want scars all over her body?

As for the heroine's training in the Purple Demon Mountains, it probably had something to do with the elemental spiritual power that had awakened within her. Dongfang Minghui did not dare ask too much, for fear of arousing her suspicion.

Dongfang Wanyu looked at Dongfang Minghui mockingly. "Didn't you always wish I would die? Now you're actually worried about whether my wounds will leave scars."

Bringing up the past again-was this a reckoning after the harvest?

Without a change in expression, Dongfang Minghui continued cleaning her wounds little by little, saying with utmost patience, "Seventh sister, please don't be angry with me anymore. Fourth sister used me before, and I often did brainless things. Now I truly know I was wrong. If you still can't let go of your anger, why don't you do everything I did to you back to me?"

If that would wipe the slate clean, Dongfang Minghui would gladly have the heroine do it to her right away.

Dongfang Wanyu merely smiled without replying.

"Seventh sister, do your wounds feel cool and hurt less now?" Dongfang Minghui asked tentatively.

Now that she mentioned it, Dongfang Wanyu really did feel that her wounds were much better. She did not know whether she was imagining it, but some areas even seemed to itch.

"They do hurt less, but this spot feels a little itchy." Dongfang Wanyu pointed to the place on her back where a magic beast's sharp claws had torn her skin.

Dongfang Minghui looked and found that the wound seemed to have reddened. She immediately applied another layer of medicinal juice. "This spot may be healing faster. Don't scratch it yet. Wait overnight, and I'll check it again tomorrow."

Once she finished, Dongfang Minghui squatted off to one side and recorded all the medicinal properties of living stargrass. Without paper or a brush, she simply used a stone to carve them into the wall.

She had studied medicine before, but after arriving here, she found that many of the medicinal herbs looked different.

They knew her, but she did not know them.

Fortunately, her half-useless spiritual power actually allowed her to interact with plants. In bits and pieces, she could communicate with some lower-level plants. This was practically a heaven-sent cheat! If she did not put it to good use, she would be doing herself a terrible disservice.