Refusing Treatment / Emerald Liushuang

Kajia spat at the retreating figure with dreadlocks. "That guy's rotten to the core! Every time, he takes customers to those crooked merchants' dens, where they fleece anyone they don't recognize. Last time, a customer with a bit of status got swindled badly and complained to the great chieftain. He ended up being punished by having to sweep the livestock sheds for a whole rainy season. The smell... tsk, tsk."

"If someone like him comes up and offers to take you shopping, keep a tight grip on your purse and don't trust a single copper's worth of what he says!"

Chen Mo had taken quite a liking to the straightforward young centaur, so he followed up with a sincere compliment. "Yeah, I could tell. You must be the best guide. Everyone likes you so much, so I can't be wrong."

At that, Kajia's tail immediately perked up with pride, and his hooves tapped out a crisp, happy rhythm on the ground. "Of course, of course! Kajia would never cheat anyone. Everyone I recommend is absolutely honest!"

Reality, however, soon gave the enthusiastic young centaur a resounding slap in the face.

After listening to Kajia's introduction to the camp, Chen Mo laid out his three needs.

Find a reliable doctor to treat his injuries; find a safe inn to spend the night; and buy a ticket on a floating ship that could take him far away from this godforsaken place, leaving him free to go wherever he wished.

But he had never expected the first step of the plan to take a solid blow at the "doctor" stage.

Chapter 13: Refusing Treatment

The doctor's hut stood in the southeastern corner of the Six-Leaf Woodland.

The camp's witch doctor was a chubby old man. Kajia thumped his chest and assured Chen Mo that the old man everyone respectfully called "Big Eye" had been living at the camp since Kajia was a little foal running all over the place. His medical skills were "weird," but effective, and he was a "master physician" who treated both people and animals.

Whenever the caravans and adventurers traveling north and south suffered anything from a headache or fever to a broken arm or leg, they would usually come to Witch Doctor Big Eye for a look.

"Uncle Big Eye is really skilled!" Kajia declared confidently. "As long as he says he can cure something, the medicine is guaranteed to clear it right up!"

Chen Mo asked casually, "Then... what about the ones he can't cure?"

Without a moment's thought, Kajia replied as if it were obvious, "The ones he can't cure? Of course they return to Earth Grandmother's embrace!"

Chen Mo: "..."

Following the young centaur through the wooden door, Chen Mo took quite a while to adjust to the dim light.

In the middle of the room stood a large table, covered in earthenware jars, ceramic bottles, wooden barrels, crystal bottles, tin cans... All shapes and sizes were piled together in a jumble, with all sorts of colorful "medicinal ingredients" soaking inside. Some looked like vines, some like fur, and others looked like the tissue of some kind of creature.

In a corner, a half-full cauldron bubbled sluggishly, glowing dark green in the lamplight. Several pieces of what looked like bat wings seemed to be caught in the mixture.

Deep in the room, a plump figure lay in an old wicker chair, seemingly asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly with his snores.

"Grandpa Big Eye! I brought someone to get his injuries treated! Wake up, wake up!"

Kajia banged his front hoof against the soft floorboards, and the old man slowly turned his head.

Seeing him in person, Chen Mo finally understood where the name "Big Eye" came from. The difference in size between the old man's eyes was striking. The larger eye was round and bright, just like a large peeled crystal grape; the smaller was narrowed to a slit, like a shriveled raisin, almost invisible unless one looked closely.

The old man had been smiling as he greeted Kajia, the folds on his plump face bunching up like a flower. But when his gaze fell on Chen Mo, especially when it swept over Little White quietly following behind him, the smile on his face froze as if it had been encased in ice.

His "big eye" looked Chen Mo carefully up and down, then lingered on Little White for a long time before he slowly asked in an odd tone, "From Black Raven Castle?"

Alarm bells rang in Chen Mo's mind, and he instinctively sensed trouble.

He nodded and quickly added, "Yes, but I've already left. I'm planning to go to the Southern Continent to stay with relatives now."

The young centaur Kajia apparently hadn't noticed the subtle change in the atmosphere. He cocked his head curiously, flicked his ears, and looked from Chen Mo to the witch doctor. "Huh? Grandpa Big Eye, how could you tell at a glance that he came from Black Raven Castle?"

"Hmph! I could smell that lingering stench of decay seeping out from between a necromancer's bones from eighty feet away!"

Chen Mo roughly understood that the man probably had some grudge against necromancers. But since he needed the man's help, he had no choice but to steel himself and clarify, "Mr. Witch Doctor, I'm an undead mage, not a necromancer."

He deliberately stressed the word "undead," trying to emphasize the huge difference between the two.

On the Starry Continent, the distinction was indeed crucial. Undead mages communicated with the native undead creatures of the Underworld and were classified as neutral summoners, within the bounds of what mainstream nations could accept and tolerate.

Necromancers, on the other hand, directly reanimated corpses in the mortal world, manipulating the bodies of the dead as undead puppets with no control over themselves.

Without a doubt, the vast majority of living beings could not accept having their bodies driven around by others after death.

Women in particular, at the thought that they might be raised by a necromancer and become mindless walking corpses, with no telling what disgusting things might happen to them, would inevitably regard necromancers as irreconcilable enemies.

Thus, necromancers could be considered a notorious taboo on the continent, people whom anyone was entitled to kill.

To show how seriously they regarded necromancers, the vast majority of nations on the continent had laws requiring anyone who encountered one to grind their bones to dust and scatter their ashes, so thoroughly that even several more necromancers working together couldn't raise them again.

Chen Mo had no desire to have that label pinned on him.

"They're all the same!" The fat witch doctor impatiently waved his stubby fingers, then held his hand up toward Chen Mo, showing him one side and then the other. With a look of disgust, he said, "You want your injuries treated? Ten gold coins per visit, cash up front! Not a copper less, and no credit!"

"Ten gold coins?!"

Chen Mo repeated the price in disbelief. He looked at Big Eye and then at Kajia, unable to tell whether the old man truly hated necromancers and was taking it out on an undead mage, or had simply found an excuse to jack up the price.

What did ten gold coins mean?

On the Starry Continent, because of limitations in mining techniques and the scarcity of gold itself, its value was far higher than on the Blue Star Chen Mo remembered.

Take the Green Pine Kingdom, where he was currently staying: the kingdom minted a relatively limited amount of its own currency, while standard Firmament Coins from the Firmament Empire were more widely used among the people.

The currency conversion system was roughly based on hundreds: one hundred copper coins to one silver, and one hundred silver coins to one gold.

Based on basic market prices and Chen Mo's rough estimate, one copper could be treated as two yuan, one silver as two hundred, and one gold as twenty thousand.

Ten gold coins were therefore equivalent to two hundred thousand yuan.

Even a young master of the Zircon Family like Little Blondie had only carried one gold coin and a dozen or so silver coins in total.

And this fat old man had demanded ten gold coins right off the bat? That wasn't an exorbitant price; it was a refusal to treat him.

Chen Mo forcibly suppressed his emotions and cleared his throat. "In that case, sorry to have bothered you. I really can't afford that fee, so I'll take my leave."

Facing Witch Doctor Big Eye, Chen Mo kept one hand in his pocket and slowly backed out of the hut filled with its strange smells.

Just as he was leaving, the old man's big eye flickered, and he said in a subdued voice, "Kid, a word of advice: you'd best not have anything to do with that old necromancer at Black Raven Castle from now on..."

Chen Mo said nothing and quietly backed out the door. The young centaur followed him out, his ears and tail drooping listlessly.

Seeing the little fellow like that, Chen Mo felt some of the frustration in his heart dissipate. He forced a reassuring smile and patted Kajia's sturdy shoulder. "It's all right. I don't blame you."

How could reality always go the way one wanted? What had happened today had served as a reminder. Black Raven Castle had always remained apart from the surrounding nations and powers; it looked as though there might be something a little unsavory about it.

After hearing Chen Mo's reassurance, little Kajia felt even more ashamed. The young centaur anxiously pawed at the ground with his front hoof again and again, sending dust flying, as if he wanted to dig a pit outside the witch doctor's door and let the old fellow who had made the centaur tribe's future warrior lose face fall in and die.

Suddenly, the young centaur stamped hard and slammed his palm against his own furry head. Chen Mo even heard the dull thud of his skull shaking!

"I remember now!"

Kajia's eyes lit up. "A couple of days ago! I looked after a group of adventurers from the north! I think they had a healer in their party!"

"Come on! I'll take you to find them!"

Chapter 14: Emerald Liushuang

Travelers stopping at the Six-Leaf Woodland usually had three choices.

The first was the Hero's Inn, the place the young centaur Kajia had strongly recommended.

The building occupied the most prominent elevated spot on the central square. It stood high, with an open view and excellent lighting and ventilation. The building itself combined elegance with ruggedness, and its accommodations and dining were widely praised. It could be called the woodland's "five-star" hotel.

Apart from being expensive, it had no flaws whatsoever!

The second choice was the centaurs' own "livestock shed."

It was a roofed space with a half wall that let the wind through. On one side of the wall were tethered animals snorting and swishing their tails; on the other, travelers were crowded together, curled up on bedding spread over the ground. The smells and sounds of livestock filled the place, and unless one was exceptionally thick-skinned, it was almost impossible to sleep in such an environment.

Apart from being cheap, it had no advantages whatsoever.

The last option was camping in the wild. It certainly saved money, but the risks were yours to bear.

The Hero's Inn had tight security, and the livestock shed at least had centaur night patrols. But if you didn't pay a single copper, then sorry, the great centaur chieftain would not protect such reckless travelers.

If you woke up with even a pair of underpants left on you, it meant the camp's petty thieves hadn't mastered their trade.

Or your underpants were too dirty for them to bring themselves to take.

For Commandery Princess Liushuang of the Emerald Duchy, however, camping separately was the safest and most comfortable option.

Tents of various sizes surrounded the large central tent like stars around the moon. Guards from her family and the mercenaries serving as guides had set up temporary watch posts. Under the moonlight and lamplight, the cold glints reflected from the weapons at the patrolling guards' waists or in their hands were enough to drive away anyone harboring ill intentions.

Commandery Princess Liushuang of Cloudmist Territory reclined in a thickly cushioned chair, her long hair cascading down to her waist like a waterfall of clouds. Her pretty face was full of exhaustion, and she struggled to keep her eyelids from closing as she helplessly endured the "spiritual baptism" administered by her chief lady-in-waiting, Linda.

"Your honored Highness, you have not yet completed today's lessons. As the twenty-second in line to inherit Cloudmist Territory in the Emerald Duchy, only by maintaining sufficient self-discipline can you display your family's upbringing at any time and place and uphold the territory's honor."

"Yes, Lady Linda, I know!" Liushuang answered weakly, her lips pursed in a pronounced pout. Resigned to her fate, she picked up the brick-thick Noble Etiquette.

Though Linda was nominally only a maid, she had in fact been the personal lady-in-waiting of Liushuang's late mother, serving both mother and daughter for over twenty years. She was old-fashioned, stern, and meticulous, like a precision clock wound up to run.

Her mother had died early, and her father was busy with the territory's affairs while also dealing with more than a dozen wives and concubines and dozens of children. If Lady Linda had not devoted herself to looking after Liushuang, the young commandery princess might not have lived safely to this day.

So, however unwilling she was, Commandery Princess Liushuang had no choice but to force herself to stay alert and pick up the thick Noble Etiquette.

"Category twenty-one of audience etiquette." Lady Linda's voice was clear and firm, as though she were reciting scripture. "When addressing a lord or lady who is unrelated to one's family and whose rank is equal to or higher than the family's, the procedure follows the levels below in sequence. None may be omitted, and the order may not be altered."

"First level: proper attire and appearance."

"Clothing must strictly conform to the provisions of chapter three of the Kingdom Ceremonial Code: Foreign Affairs. The primary colors shall be based on the family's symbolic colors, cloudmist white and emerald green, supplemented with patterns appropriate to the season and occasion."

"The specifications, materials, and inlays of crowns, sashes, and family crest ornaments must reflect an equivalent degree of honor, neither overstepping nor showing disrespect. All adornments must be spotless and flawless. Any wrinkle or stain may be regarded as an affront to the host family."

"One's appearance must be solemn and dignified: hair must be tightly arranged and ornaments secured; the face must be clean, with tasteful, understated makeup appropriate to one's status permitted."

"..."

"Second level: presentation of credentials."

"At the beginning of the audience, the chief attendant or designated protocol officer must first present a formal calling card and proof of identity to the host family's master of ceremonies."

"The preferred credentials are a letter of introduction or a copy of the calling card bearing the family's heraldic seal and signed personally by the family head. The second choice is a document bearing the personal seal of a core family member, with the heraldic mark or seal clearly legible."

"The credentials must be presented on a ceremonial tray measuring three cun and three li, and received by the master of ceremonies in a velvet cloth bearing the family crest. They must never be passed directly from hand to hand."

"..."

The young commandery princess held the book in her hands, her eyes blurring as the words seemed to gather into clumps of black shadows before her.

It really must have been hard on Lady Linda. She didn't even have a book in her hands, yet she could recite whole passages of such utterly dull and tedious text without missing a single word.

It wasn't over yet. Lady Linda continued reciting, word by word.

"Third level: ceremonial procession and gait."

"The order of entry follows rank and status: the principal or their representative proceeds first, followed by attendants in order of their positions, three paces apart and walking in step."

"The gait must be steady and dignified, with strides of moderate length. From the main entrance to the audience position, one must use the 'respectful ceremonial step,' placing the heel down first and rolling forward onto the whole foot. The rhythm of the steps must match the master of ceremonies' announcement."

"At a point seven paces before the audience position, or at a mark designated by the host family, one must stop and quietly await the master of ceremonies' announcement of one's name and purpose."