Ma Linya

At noon, the army, surging like a black tide, finally reached Sand City without incident.

Despite its name, Sand City was surrounded by an unusual moat. Its bridge was broad and sturdy, its gates thirty feet high and twenty feet wide, and its walls roughly a meter thick. It was a military capital as solid and secure as a fortress.

It took a full two minutes for the force of over two thousand to enter the city. Some knights transferred from other cities and towns were clearly seeing Sand City's architecture for the first time.

The buildings here were unlike those of ordinary capitals. There were no flat-roofed houses or tall buildings, only individual dwellings, broad at the base and pointed at the top like cones, almost identical to bamboo shoots. Packed closely together, they resembled pointed tents turned to stone, giving the city the feel of a military encampment in the wilderness.

This style and arrangement were well suited to war. Each pointed stone house contained ten beds, meaning each housed a knight in charge. Lines marked on the ground organized the houses into groups of a hundred under a White-Pattern Knight Commander. Everything was as orderly as an anthill, a testament to the Holy Temple's strict military administration.

"William, inspect the supplies in the city. Aijimu, check the city's defenses. Xibizete, organize the latest intelligence we have on the enemy." As soon as they entered, Yetos issued orders to the three Silver-Pattern Knight Commanders behind him.

"Yes, sir." The three answered and hurried off in different directions without even stopping to rest.

Watching the knights return to their quarters one after another, Kanni, who had insisted on carrying Zeng Mu on his back, anxiously asked the young woman beside him, "Miss Lingya, how are his injuries? When will he wake up?"

The fair-skinned woman was about twenty, dressed in gray beneath a cloak. She had a slender figure, long, shapely legs, and neck-length curls of reddish gold. Her bearing was graceful, and a plain gray bag marked with a red cross hung at her waist. She was Ma Linya, a young Elemental Healer recruited by the military from the countryside.

Ma Linya looked at Zeng Mu's tightly closed eyes and gave a relaxed, sweet smile. "Don't worry. I stabilized his injuries with Elemental Medicine last night. His life is no longer in danger. With another two days of rest under my care, his wounds should be mostly healed. As for when he'll wake up, that's harder to say. It depends on how strong his own consciousness is."

Healers recruited by the military were clearly no ordinary village practitioners. They were among the gifted few who could work with Elemental Medicine, perhaps only half a step away from becoming Elementalists. Unfortunately, they still could not take that final step. Becoming Elemental Healers was, in a sense, the window God had opened for them.

Without question, the basic ingredients of Elemental Medicine came from Elemental Beasts. Its effects were many times stronger than medicines made from herbs and ordinary animals and birds. Medicine held that injuries to muscles and bones took a hundred days to heal, but with treatment and care using Elemental Medicine, a full recovery could take only a few days.

Kanni breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew, I see. Then I'll leave him in your care for the next two days."

"Of course. Saving lives and tending the wounded is my job."

Yetos laid a hand on Kanni's shoulder, his usually stern voice softening considerably. "All right, you can rest easy with Ma Linya's medicine tending to him. With my Wood Element power assisting, the nameless one's bone injuries will heal faster. In two days, you'll see him full of life again."

"Yes. I hope he wakes up soon."

"You two, take them to the best house." Yetos beckoned, and two nearby knights came over to lead Kanni and Ma Linya to an impressive stone house in the center of Sand City.

The room was spacious, with a stove and a birch-bark bed. Pine needles and dry leaves covered the floor, dry and comfortable and giving off a fresh fragrance. It was an ideal place for peaceful recuperation.

They carefully laid Zeng Mu on the birch-bark bed. Its width was just right, perfectly accommodating one person.

"Miss Lingya, sorry for the trouble of looking after him these next two days. If you need anything, just tell me. I'll be waiting in the house next door for the nameless one to walk out on his own." Kanni knew that someone so badly injured should not be disturbed, so he could only wait outside for the next two days, lest any noise he made affect either the patient or his healer.

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of him," Ma Linya said softly.

After Kanni and the two knights left, even the atmosphere in the room seemed to grow quieter.

Ma Linya carefully examined the puncture wound beneath the bandages again. It was much better than it had been that morning. The blood on its surface had fully scabbed over, a sign that bone and flesh were rapidly rebuilding.

However, he had lost too much blood when he was injured, so he needed ample nourishment to wake as soon as possible.

There was no clinic in Sand City. The army's medical supplies consisted only of basic items such as bandages and blood-clotting agents, with none of the Elemental Beast Chunks she needed.

Fortunately, the Fulin Taiyou People were there. They traded in everything, and their shops stocked all manner of goods. Precious, scarce Elemental Beast Chunks, Elemental Medicine, treasure maps, and even enemy intelligence and Elemental Artifacts could all be bought, provided one could afford the corresponding price. Unfortunately, those prices were exorbitant for ordinary people. Otherwise, why would they be called the most business-savvy people in the world?

Ma Linya was no wealthy heiress. On the contrary, her life had been difficult, she had been born into poverty, and she had little Livre to her name.

Fortunately, she did not need to pay the even higher price for Elemental Medicine. She only needed to buy some herbs and Elemental Beast Chunks to prepare the appropriate medicine herself.

Nor did the money need to come out of her own pocket. As an Elemental Healer recruited by the army, she received financial support. All she had to do was give the Knight Commander a list of ingredients and wait for them to be delivered.

Ma Linya lit the stove. In the room fragrant with pine and wood, a charcoal pencil scratched softly across paper. Only after filling the entire sheet of wood paper did she put down her pencil, rise, and walk to the door to hand the list to one of the knights who had led them there.

"Please give this list of ingredients to Lord Yetos for his review. Sorry for the trouble."

The knight took the list, glanced at the neat handwriting, and replied, "The Knight Commander has already given instructions. None of your requests for medicinal ingredients require his review."

"Please wait a moment. The ingredients will be delivered shortly." The knight turned and ran toward the area where the Fulin Taiyou merchants conducted their business.

Soon, the other knight who had led them there brought Ma Linya's ingredients into the house. After checking them, she sat beside the stove and began carefully preparing the Elemental Medicine.

Time had no meaning. A second seemed as long as a year. Darkness filled everything around him, without a single glimmer of light. It was like falling into a bottomless abyss, terrifying and utterly helpless.

Yet in this state, Zeng Mu could faintly hear many sounds: the tiny cracks of burning firewood, the rustle of pine needles and leaves being pressed down, and a gentle, delicate woman's voice, constantly murmuring names of herbs and Elemental Beasts he did not understand.

He could also just barely smell various bitter and fishy odors, along with a very distinctive fragrance. It was more refreshing than pine needles, more intoxicating than birch bark and leaves, and much like the scent he loved of a spring breeze brushing over newly blossomed plum flowers.

After an unknown stretch of time in the endless darkness, he suddenly felt a sensation against his body. It was soft and smooth, as though a pair of delicate hands were massaging him.

The hands moved along his acupoints, gradually strengthening Zeng Mu's slumbering consciousness.

After a while, the touch vanished. Zeng Mu sensed his mouth being pried open, then a stream of warm liquid poured in, rolling down his throat into his stomach.

The warmth intensified in his belly, then traveled toward his limbs in rhythm with his breathing. It felt like a gentle fire spreading through his body. Soon, Zeng Mu was drenched in sweat, and wisps of white vapor accompanied his breaths.

Seeing the Elemental Medicine take effect, Ma Linya smiled with satisfaction and reached out to continue massaging his acupoints, helping him absorb the medicine faster.

She only stopped after a full hour of massage. Looking at his slightly flushed face, she sighed softly. "Whew, good. It looks like he'll wake up tonight."

Ma Linya carried the wooden bucket of remaining Elemental Medicine out of the stone house. After all, Zeng Mu was not the only wounded man. Many gravely injured, dying knights still needed her help.

Her departure returned the room's smells and sounds to normal. Even in his slumber, Zeng Mu recognized this important change, like someone realizing he was dreaming.

His slumbering consciousness began to strengthen. A glimmer of dawn gradually appeared within the deep, endless darkness, slowly growing as time passed...

Several hours went by. The dull afternoon passed in a blink, and night fell. The earth cooled like the silver disk in the night sky.

The glowing red charcoal crackled faintly in the stove, driving the chill from the floor. The clothes Ma Linya had removed from Zeng Mu and laid out on the ground nearby were almost dry.

Light burst forth, and the last trace of darkness in his mind finally receded. Zeng Mu slowly opened his eyes and gazed hazily at the stone ceiling. After staring blankly for a dozen seconds, he came to his senses and looked around the room.

"Where am I now? Don't tell me I've crossed into another world again?"

"Don't talk nonsense. You're perfectly fine, alive and well in this world."

Ma Linya walked in carrying a bowl of porridge. A hint of surprise passed through her golden eyes. He had awakened earlier than she had expected.

"You woke up at just the right time. I won't have to reheat the porridge." She came over and sat sideways on the wooden bed.

Firelight shone on the side of her face. Her golden eyes were like two glittering stars adorning her exquisite features, sweet yet commanding.

"Y-you, who are you?" As soon as he spoke, Zeng Mu discovered in astonishment that his armor and clothes were gone. He was wearing only a pair of shorts, and through their many tears, he could faintly see the darkness within.

"My name is Ma Linya. I'm an Elemental Healer. You're recuperating in a stone house in Sand City."

"Open your mouth." Ma Linya blew gently on the spoon and held it out to him.

A mouthful of warm rice porridge reached his stomach, and Zeng Mu immediately felt a little more clearheaded.

"Why is your face so red?" Ma Linya suddenly murmured. She pressed the back of her hand to his forehead to check his temperature, but it did not feel hot enough for a fever.

"This is the first time a girl has fed me porridge," he muttered quietly.

Ma Linya gave a cold snort, her expression unchanged. "Plenty of wounded and sick patients have said that to me."

She kept feeding him spoonful after spoonful, as though trying to keep his mouth occupied.

After he swallowed the last mouthful of hot porridge, Ma Linya set down the bowl, picked up his dried clothes, and began dressing him.

"I-I'd better do it myself." Zeng Mu had never imagined that one day his voice would be so quiet that even he could not hear it.

"You can't even stand right now. How are you going to do it yourself? You really do love putting on a brave front. Even in this state, you won't settle down." Ma Linya shook her head as she put his trousers on him.

"Oh, right. I heard you lost your memory and don't even know your own name. Is that true?"

"Uh, you could say that. Right now, I really am completely lost. It wouldn't even be wrong to call me an idiot about this world."

"All right, nameless one in need of treatment and rest. Over the days ahead, let me try to help you recover your memories, too."