Fields of Gold

“Thank you, Your Royal Highness! If we hadn’t encountered your group, I, Wang Dazhu, would be dead in the mountains now!” Wang Dazhu drank a few sips of water and felt a bit better. He gratefully expressed his thanks to the noble maiden who resembled a little immortal girl. Her Highness, the royal princess, didn’t have any of the arrogance of her rank and was cordial and kind to all of them. She truly had a heart of gold. When he got back, he needed to erect a long life plaque to her to make sure his descendents would remember her great kindness to them!

Yu Xiaocao waved a hand at him in dismissal and stated, “When you get back, take good care of yourself ah! Here are two bottles of medicine. One is to be applied externally, while the other you need to take. Your wounds will very quickly heal if you take them consistently. It’s not a big deal to be missing an arm. There is no difficulty that can’t be surmounted by people, so treasure your life!”

Wang Dazhu was so moved by her words that tears streamed down his face. Miss Yu absolutely had to be an immortal who had come down to earth. Not only did she give him precious medicine but she also tried to comfort him. It was hard to find such a kind and sweet maiden in this world!

“Master, you’re finally back!” Hou Xiaoliang had heard the ruckus and came out of the Jin Family's residence. He was so moved that he resembled a lost young kid who had finally been reunited with his mother. He rushed over and unexpectedly gave his master a giant bear hug. Zhu Junyang pushed him away in disdain.

Hou Xiaoliang took the dead white tiger from his master’s shoulders and was so astonished that his mouth was wide open for a long time, “Master, you’re truly too awesome. You actually encountered a legendary white tiger! Just this fur pelt alone is enough to make other people endlessly envious of you. Go wash up and rest first, this servant will help you prepare this white tiger.”

Zhu Junyang was afraid that this guy might end spoiling the tiger pelt and warned him, “Be careful ah, this is this prince’s betrothal gift. If you ruin it, I will never forgive you!”

“Master, don’t worry. This servant will be extremely careful and I will absolutely not delay your process to get a wife!!” Hou Xiaoliang glanced in the direction of Yu Xiaocao and had an ambiguous smile on his face as he hauled the dead tiger into the inner courtyard.

Although Qiushi was only a step behind him, she also came forward to take the medicine box from her young miss. She softly said, “Young Miss, the stove has hot water on it. This servant will help you take a bath and change your clothes.”

All in all, their journey into and out of the mountains took around a dozen days in total. Although her body and skin had been subtly altered after long-term usage of the mystic-stone water, such that her sweat didn’t have a lot of impurities in it, Xiaocao still felt that she was about to stink to the high heavens. She had never been so eager to take a bath as she was today.

In her room, she scrubbed herself furiously in the tub. After she came out, she discovered that the entire Jin Family had already prepared a sumptuous evening feast for their whole group. Jin Tiankui had told the story of what had happened to Old Man Jin as soon as he got back. The whole Jin Family was immensely grateful towards Zhu Junyang and the others for their kind deeds and almost started treating them like living Buddhas.

Xiaohu’s mother’s illness had gotten better after taking two days worth of medicine. She had a good hand at cooking. In addition, the hunters in the family had brought back quite a bit of game, so they ended up with a dozen dishes on the table. As a sumptuous feast, it was quite fitting to serve to Xiaocao and their other benefactors.

“That uh...can you take out a pill of your Healing Panacea for me to look at?” During the meal, another youthful and pleasant looking man suddenly appeared next to Xiaocao. He had a simpering and flattering smile on his face as he shamelessly asked her about her medications.

Zhu Junyang was quite displeased that this young fellow was getting so close to his little lass, “Hou Xiaoliang! Why is this guy still here?”  “Why can’t I still be here? It’s not like this is your own home!” Was a royal prince that special? As the young master of Medicine King Valley, he wasn’t afraid of anyone!

Yu Xiaocao turned her head around and saw a round face shaped like a steamed bun. It was paired with large round eyes and a small delicate mouth. From the looks of his face alone, it’d be very easy for someone to mistaken him as a little boy. However, he had a large and sturdy body, broad shoulders, and a deep voice, which contrasted sharply with his childish face. With such a baby face, it’d be hard for anyone to not doubt his abilities at medicine. It was no wonder he would paste on a mask on his face to alter his appearance.

Such an adorable steamed bun face was right in front of her eyes. Xiaocao suddenly had an itching urge to pinch his cheeks. However, there was a jealous little vinegar jar right next to her, so she needed to control herself…

“Didn’t I tell you earlier ah? I only have three Healing Panacea that have been passed down by my family. I still regret being hot headed at the time and taking one out to save you! These are truly life-saving pills. You’re neither related to me nor a friend of mine, so how could you have the nerve to ask for one from me?” Yu Xiaocao knew that her special pills had mystic-stone water added to them. The special water had the ability to improve the effects of medications, which was why the effects of her pills were at least double of the effects of ordinary ones.

This was the first encounter Yu Xiaocao had with someone from the jianghu. The famous leader of the Medicine King Valley sounded quite mysterious and talented, so she didn’t know if she took out her pills whether the other person would sense something fishy. Hence, she needed to be more cautious.

Xu Ziyi tried to move her emotionally and persisted, “Young Maiden, the reason why I am able to become the direct successor of Medicine King Valley is not only because I am the grandson of the current head but also because, compared to my peers, I am extremely talented and gifted.”

“What do your talents have to do with us?” Zhu Junyang picked up the stool that was under Xiaocao’s butt and brought both person and chair closer to his side. What was this damned man trying to do by getting so close to his lass? If he needed to talk, he could just talk like a normal person. Although the youth’s face looked quite youthful and tender, it was still quite good-looking, which made it likely that his lass, who loved handsome appearances, had no defenses against it. 

Xu Ziyi glared at him and then scooted forward again. He opened his doe-like eyes wide and looked expectantly at Xiaocao, as if he was trying to say, ‘Quickly ask me about my talents, quickly ask me…’

“Alright ah! Just what sort of talents do you have? Tell us now.” Yu Xiaocao casually asked as she continued to eat the corn porridge in front of her.

Xu Ziyi smiled and revealed his two dimples. He proudly stated, “For most ordinary medicines, all I need to do is just take a sniff and I will be able to identify the ingredients inside as well as the ratios used. For more complicated medicines, I just need to scrape a tiny bit off of the top and taste it to figure out the exact prescription. You said earlier that your family’s recipe for the Healing Panacea has already disappeared. Don’t you want to find the old recipe and benefit more people in the future?”

“You said so much, but aren’t you just coveting the little lass’s family’s secret recipe ah? What’s the point in trying to make your intentions sound so honorable and glorious?” Zhu Junyang sneered and then moved the little lass closer to him.

Xu Ziyi stared at him with wide eyes and slightly frowned a bit. Then, a smile blossomed on his face as he nodded, “Your Highness is right. This one is truly curious about the secret recipe to make this Healing Panacea. Similar to those who are obsessed about martial arts and books, I am truly a person who is obsessed about learning more about medicine. To tell you the truth, Miss Yu’s family’s panacea is even more effective than Medicine King Valley’s ‘Life-Returning Pill’. No one would believe me if I claimed I wasn’t curious about this. However, if this panacea can be researched by me, wouldn’t that be advantageous to both of us?”

Zhu Junyang had an expression full of disdain on his face and Yu Xiaocao gently patted his knee before she turned to address Xu Ziyi, “Young Master Xu is correct, if the prescription can be brought to light again, that would benefit many people in the future. Chunhua, bring out that purple glass bottle from my medicine box and cut the pill in half and give it to Young Master Xu.”

“Wait a second! This one only needs to scrape a bit of pill powder from the top!” This young maiden was truly too much of a spendthrift. Such a precious pill would be hidden carefully by any other person. She, on the other hand, easily took it out to save a complete stranger and even offered to cut it in half to give to someone. This was a living saving pill ah. If she did that, the healing properties of the pill would definitely degrade as time went on! Xu Ziyi couldn’t bear to let that happen and hurriedly stopped them.

Xu Ziyi carefully held the pill as he scraped off a tiny bit of pill powder before he impatiently used his tongue to lick it up. He concentrated on tasting the pill. Eh? How come the ingredients he was tasting seemed no different than the ingredients found in ordinary internal injury pills ah? 

That couldn’t be right...there had to be an ingredient in there that boosted the properties of the ingredients. However, even he, as an extremely experienced pill maker, didn’t know what might be boosting the potency of the ingredients.

There were many ingredients that had the ability to boost the potency and effects of others. However, if you directly added them into a pill recipe, it would end up destroying the effects of the pill itself. His father had researched this painstakingly for twenty to thirty years but ended up with nothing so far. This pill had unexpectedly perfectly paired these two contradictions in one entity.

If the Yu Family’s recipe hadn’t been lost in the sands of time, perhaps his father, that crazy pill fiend, would do everything he could to get that recipe off of their hands so that he could compare it to his decades of research. That way, he could find out just where he went wrong.

“How is it? Doesn’t taste too bad right?” Yu Xiaocao had finished eating the food in her bowl and delicately let out a burp. She noticed that the young master of Medicine King Valley was tasting the pill dust as if he was eating a delicacy, so she couldn’t help but ask him what he thought.

“Not too bad…” Xu Ziyu replied absentmindedly without thinking much. Suddenly, he came to a realization and looked at Xiaocao, “Did your ancestors leave anything else along with these pills? Such as any special ingredients?”

“Nope, they didn’t!” Yu Xiaocao naturally wouldn't tell him that there was mystic-stone water in these pills. Otherwise, he would interrogate her on the origin of the mystic-stone water, which would be a great bother.

Xu Ziyi looked at the pill paper in his hands that only contained the remaining pill powder and carefully folded it up. Suddenly, he raised his head and asked in a puzzled manner, “You said that these pills were passed down by your ancestors. How come the potency of the pills haven’t decreased even a bit? It tastes like they were just made. Do you guys have some sort of secret recipe to preserve pills ah?”

“Since it’s a secret recipe, how could I easily divulge it to you?” Yu Xiaocao seemed to regard him with a lazy expression. In actuality, she was feeling quite insecure at this moment. These pills had truly been made by her just before she arrived at the stud farm. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that the potency of these pills were still quite good.

Xu Ziyi acted as if he was possessed. He lowered his head, staying still as if he was a sculpture. Even the half-eaten bowl of food in front of him had been completely forgotten. He was currently concentrating exclusively on trying to figure out this pill’s properties. He needed to figure out just how it was possible to boost the efficacy of the ingredients while having them harmonize perfectly into a pill.

Originally, he believed that his father’s research direction was just a waste of time and was never going to succeed. However, once a perfect example appeared before his eyes, Xu Ziyi was now completely obsessed with this idea, even more infatuated than his father.

That evening, Zhu Junyang discovered that the fellow who knew how to act cute had actually left without saying goodbye. The uncomfortable feeling within him had also dissipated a little. Why did good-looking men always seem to appear in front of his little lass, catching her attention…