Fields of Gold

Seeing that Su Ran’s expression was about to break, Zhu Junyang hastily interjected for fear that he would get angry after being ‘offended’ by his little lass, “Didn’t you say that the kitten discovered something? If it’s another ginseng or reishi mushroom that’s over a century old, then we have quite a good harvest today ah!”

‘More than a century old ginseng? Humph! Humph! Hold onto your jaw lest you’re so shocked later that it drops on your feet.’ Yu Xiaocao wrinkled her nose and had a ‘just wait and see’ expression on her face. 

The little divine stone jumped out of Xiaocao’s arms and quickly shuttled through the knee-deep grass. Su Ran was obviously interested in its abilities, but after being interrupted by Little Black, his desire to explore had extinguished quite a lot. He quickly followed behind the golden kitten to see what kind of new surprise it would bring them. 

The small golden kitten ran very fast, but with Zhu Junyang and Su Ran’s skills, they were still more than capable of keeping up with it. It was apparent that it had slowed down to accommodate these ‘weak humans’. As for Yu Xiaocao, who was an even weaker human in its eyes, she was held by Zhu Junyang, experiencing the feeling of flying without touching the grass. 

After a few turns in the mountain forest, they suddenly saw light in front of them. The dense forest disappeared, and a steep cliff appeared in front of them. The golden kitten stopped in its tracks and sniffed its nose. Then it turned towards a direction and galloped down the cliff towards the rocky valley. 

Yu Xiaocao, who was being held in a strong arm like a light cloth-bag, didn’t feel good at all. She only felt a surge in her stomach, and the feeling of motion sickness that she hadn’t felt in a long time came back to her. ‘Why haven’t we arrived yet? If this goes on, I’m about to vomit!’ 

Zhu Junyang sensed Xiaocao’s discomfort, so he quickly changed his posture to carry her princess-style, letting her head gently rest on his strong chest. Yu Xiaocao subconsciously hugged his neck and smiled pitifully at Zhu Junyang, who had lowered his head to look at her.   

The lass was so light that she was barely heavier than a bag of rice. When Zhu Junyang looked at the lass’s nearly transparent, pale face and the weak smile on her face, he felt a pain in his heart. When they returned to the capital, he had to find two capable assistants for the lass to help her with the matters of her business and breeding. 

As a young girl who had just reached the age of fifteen, the noble maidens in the capital would only stay in the inner courtyard to embroider, raise flora, recite poems, and play the qin. They were still at an age of acting spoiled in front of their parents. His lass, on the other hand, had too many burdens on her shoulders! 

It was so irresponsible of the emperor to put the burden of solving the problem of the people’s livelihood on a young girl! The lass must be so stressed ah. She was so skinny that she barely had any meat on her body, and her waist was so thin that he could almost hug her fully with just one arm. 

When the matter of horse breeding at the stable was solved, he must present a memorial to the emperor to request him to not put so much pressure on his little lass! Right now, they were familiar with the cultivation method of winter wheat and corn. The little lass was also freed from the laborious field work and able to do what she liked to do! 

Zhu Junyang was multitasking. He was thinking about how to help shoulder his lass’s burden, while holding the delicate young girl and jumping on the rocks in the valley. 

In the silent valley, the fist-sized golden kitten leaped nimbly through the rocks. It was followed by two handsome men in black and white. In the arms of the man dressed in black was a clever-looking young maiden in a light-yellow dress. As for Xiaoliang and the two maidservants, Chunhua and Qiushi, they had long lost track of them. 

Suddenly, the golden kitten stopped in front of a steep cliff. It seemed to have sensed something when it slowly arched its body and quietly approached the disorderly gravel and grass. It looked like it would attack at any time. 

Zhu Junyang and Su Ran also noticed that something was off, so they stopped a short distance away. Zhu Junyang put Xiaocao down and softly told her to stay behind him and never be more than three steps away from him. Su Ran moved forward slowly with silent footsteps and an expression full of vigilance.   

A sudden groan came from the dense grass in front of the golden kitten. The little divine stone stopped briefly, and then continued to slowly approach the injured human who was two steps away. Zhu Junyang and Su Ran looked at each other when they heard the sound. They didn’t slow down and gradually got closer to the messy grass area. 

As they got closer, the scene in the grass appeared in front of them: an old man with gray hair and disheveled beard was lying in the rubble, as if he had just awoken from a coma, with a painful expression on his face. His face and arms were covered with wounds, the corner of his mouth was stained with blood, and one of his legs was bent in an unnatural angle. In conclusion, the injury was quite serious ah! 

“Ah! This old gentleman must have fallen from the cliff!” Yu Xiaocao looked around and saw a broken medicine box lying not too far from the injured old man. ‘Uh! He’s also of the same profession ah!’ 

[The thousand year old ginseng is on top of this mountain wall.] The little divine stone wasn’t interested in the wounded, and weak humans couldn’t arouse the slightest sympathy from it. Besides people and things related to its master, what did other things have to do with it? It jumped several times and climbed onto the protruding rocks and small tree leaning out on the side. When it got on top of the cliff, it stopped beside the thousand year old ginseng. 

The thousand year old ginseng was definitely something that could only be found by accident and not by seeking. Of course, Xiaocao wouldn’t let it get away! She looked at the two men beside her, and then said to Su Ran, “Sir Su, would you please go up and get the medicinal herb?” 

Although she was merely an amateurish doctor, she couldn’t ignore a patient lying in front of her. As for Zhu Junyang, he was currently guarding her in a protective stance. There was absolutely no way that she could persuade him to leave her alone with a stranger. Even if that person was unconscious from an injury. Thus, she could only ask Chief Steward Su to help. 

“Alright! Leave it to me!” With a light jump, Su Ran had landed on top of a rock that was several dozens of meters high. After he observed the surroundings, he jumped a few more times and gradually got closer to the golden kitten. Xiaocao was stunned as she looked on from below. His white robe fluttered as he nimbly jumped, appearing like an immortal who descended to the human realm. Sir Su was seriously too handsome and he was even more ethereal than white tofu! 

The scene in front of Xiaocao’s, who was very amazed, eyes suddenly darkened. Her pair of sparkling eyes were covered by a hand. She shifted her gaze and saw Zhu Junyang’s jealous eyes. She secretly stuck out her tongue——her man’s vinegar jar was toppled over again ah! 

Yu Xiaocao lowered her head and pretended to be busy checking the pulse of the old man lying on the ground. Then, with the combination of the external wounds, she concluded, “He should have fallen off the cliff. There are multiple scratches on his body. His left leg is fractured, three ribs are broken on his right side, and there’s an internal injury in his lungs…” 

It was hard to say whether the old man was fortunate or not! It was indeed unlucky of him to fall down the mountains when collecting medicinal herbs alone. However, he was considered quite lucky because he had encountered a group of people. Otherwise, he would have likely died from the serious injuries by lying here. Even if he didn’t die of a serious injury, there was also the chance of him attracting a wild beast and being bitten to death! 

Yu Xiaocao took out a pill for internal injuries. She melted it with mystic-stone water, pinched the old man’s mouth, and poured it down. Then she had Zhu Junyang cut down a wooden stick nearby to help secure the old man’s injured leg. Fortunately, his ribs had just cracked, and weren’t broken and dislocated. Otherwise, with her measly skills as a doctor, she really didn’t know how to fix his bones.

After taking care of the more serious injuries, Xiaocao asked Zhu Junyang to help apply Wound Balm on the old man. By the time all of this was done, the medicine and mystic-stone water that the old man consumed had begun to work. His pale face and painful expression had got better. 

As for Su Ran who had easily climbed the mountain, he was so shocked that his eyes were about to pop out. This small golden kitten was really something. It was actually able to find a thousand year old ginseng! The ginseng that it had just dug out was as thick as two fingers, and it was shaped like a human with a head and four limbs. Facial features could actually be vaguely seen on its head, and it actually had ‘something’ between its ‘two legs’! Perhaps this fellow might become a sprite in a few years! 

The little divine stone waited on the side with a calm expression. Not to mention this ginseng that had just taken a human shape, it had seen quite a lot of ginseng babies that had cultivated into sprites. At that time, it was cultivating beside Goddess Nuwa and the Goddess of Spirits often sent elixir pills over, so it didn’t need to catch these mystical herb sprites to help with its cultivation. 

If there was a ginseng baby right now, it could help it recover decades of cultivation! It would definitely catch and eat it without hesitation! Unfortunately, the spiritual energy in this dimension was too sparse. To have the possibility of taking human form, it would have to be situated in an exceptional location and absorb the essences of the world for ten thousands of years. After all, the cultivation of plants was much more difficult than animals! 

While it was regretting that it didn’t catch and save up some ginseng babies in the past, it didn’t notice that it was being coveted by others. Su Ran’s eyes, which were as deep as a pool of water, stared fixedly at the arrogant-looking golden kitten in front of him as he calculated his chance of winning against this ‘evil creature’. It wasn’t that he wanted to take it as his own, but instead he wanted to subdue it with force to gain its approval and occasionally instruct it to work for him. 

As if it had sensed his intention, the golden kitten turned around and looked at him with obvious contempt. It seemed to be saying, ‘If you want to subdue this Divine Stone, you need to cultivate for five thousand years first!’ However, with the little spiritual energy in this world, it would be difficult for even the most talented cultivators to reach the next level of cultivation. Before the cultivator had even gotten a breakthrough, he would have already exhausted all his life force and gone to meet the King of Hell! 

Su Ran pondered for a moment and felt that he had a low chance of winning. He didn’t know about the other aspects, but he was taken by surprise with the golden kitten’s appalling speed. One with strength could take on ten people, but one with speed could defeat ten strong men. Therefore, it was indeed quite tricky!   

He wrapped the human-shaped ginseng with a silk handkerchief and held it carefully in his hands. He relaxed his body and used a few rocks as a point of leverage to gently drift down the towering cliff.