“So many! Let’s… urgh! Let’s gather them… urgh! Gather them first!” Xia Yunzhao had barely approached when the stench of rotting corpses nearly knocked him over.
Right. The Myriad Spirits Pharmacopoeia had mentioned that Corpse-Fragrance Heart-Rot Orchids smelled terrible. A single plant was manageable, but such a huge patch together smelled little different from a mass grave.
Xia Yunzhao had been caught off guard just now. He hurriedly sealed his mouth and nose with spiritual energy, then worked with Shang Shuangze to harvest the entire patch as quickly as possible.
Perhaps it was a gift the Great Ox God had left for later generations, because this enormous patch contained more than a hundred Corpse-Fragrance Heart-Rot Orchids! That was enough to save all of Puppet City!
After putting away the spirit herbs, Xia Yunzhao looked back. Without the enormous skeleton, White-Bone Mound seemed even more open, lonely, and desolate. Even the ghostly wailing had grown quieter.
Who knew when this place might once again become the plain of green grass and herds of cattle and sheep it had been in the distant past.
“Let’s go.” He smiled faintly at Shang Shuangze. Their fingers interlaced, and they retraced their path.
When they emerged from the Hundred-Refinement Landscape Scroll again, the two returned to the ship. Cloudwater Ferry had not sat idle while its owners were gone. It had already flown near Puppet City, and the black mist barrier was visible ahead.
Xia Yunzhao looked down, and his eyes immediately lit up. “They’re already here!”
Shang Shuangze followed his gaze. Sure enough, Zhong Yundu, Xiang Moyue, and the others were below.
Everyone saw Cloudwater Ferry as well and waved toward the two of them.
Xia Yunzhao simply grabbed Shang Shuangze and jumped down. Behind them, Cloudwater Ferry rapidly shrank, caught up, and slipped into his Hundred-Compartment Pouch. “Well? Did you find all the spirit herbs?”
Du Yan smiled and pointed behind him. “Not only did we gather all the ingredients, we even prepared a place for you to refine the pills.”
Xia Yunzhao looked over. Sure enough, a grass shelter had already been built there. The brothers Su Ying and Su Meng had even brewed tea. When they saw him looking, they came running over with cups and handed one each to him and Shang Shuangze.
Xia Yunzhao stared resentfully at the steaming spirit tea. “The two of us spent the whole day digging through graves, while you people have been living pretty comfortably.”
Zhong Yundu said lazily, “That’s what you get for being City Lord.”
Xia Yunzhao muttered, “You’re an elder too… How about I give you the City Lord position for a couple of days?”
Zhong Yundu looked up at the sky and pretended not to hear him, firmly refusing the thankless job.
After finishing a cup of tea, Xia Yunzhao’s mood settled and he prepared to refine the pills.
The bronze pill furnace grew until it stood as tall as a person, then landed on the ground with a clang. Everyone present was one of their own and knew Xiao Qing well, so the moment they saw the furnace, they were surprised. Its color seemed different. Much of the verdigris had faded, and golden light shone through underneath. At the same time, it faintly radiated an aura unique to a top-tier magical treasure.
Zhong Yundu and Du Yan exchanged a glance, then both looked toward Xiang Moyue.
Xiang Moyue fanned himself and smiled faintly at them. The smile was frivolous and utterly insincere, giving away nothing about what he was thinking.
Spiritual flame rose, and Xia Yunzhao began refining.
One spirit herb after another went into the furnace. His hand seals changed rapidly while crackling sounds came from within.
Everyone looked relaxed. This was hardly the first time they had watched Xia Yunzhao refine pills. The man might as well have been born with a Heaven-grade pill spirit root. No matter what level of pill he attempted, their City Lord never seemed to fail.
So what if an entire city needed saving? If the solution involved pill refining, it simply was not something that could stump him.
All they had to do was wait a little while. It would not take long, at most about an hour, before a faint pill fragrance began to drift out… fragrance… fragrance…
The furnace lid began rattling, and the smell inside started escaping.
Everyone fell silent.
Su Meng opened his mouth, gagged, and said with tears in his eyes, “Why does it smell so awful? Did someone from Yunjiangguan die nearby and start rotting?”
Su Ying immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, looking as though he wished he could shake some sense into him. “Say less!”
Du Yan coughed lightly. “There are countless kinds of pills in the world. Some smell unpleasant. There is no need to make much of it.”
Xiang Moyue rubbed his nose. “Quite right. Besides, City Lord Xia is refining something meant to disperse this poisonous miasma. The formula probably cannot be altered casually.”
Zhong Yundu opened his mouth, only for Du Yan to step on his foot. He promptly shut it again.
Shang Shuangze was the only one present who knew what was happening, and also the only one who had sealed his nose and mouth in advance, leaving him unaffected by the stench.
Fortunately, although the pills smelled terrible, the efficiency of the refinement did not suffer. About an hour later, Xia Yunzhao formed a hand seal and pointed toward the furnace. “Open!”
The pill furnace burst open. Blood-red mist surged out, and the thick smell wrapped tightly around everyone.
Su Meng’s mouth was still covered by his brother’s hand, so he could only breathe through his nose. For an instant, he felt as though he had glimpsed his great-grandmother…
Xia Yunzhao had no time to worry about them. He summoned Cloudwater Ferry with one hand and flew into the sky with the freshly refined pills.
The white treasure ship flew over Puppet City. City Lord Xia raised a hand and scattered a handful of red pills downward.
The pills had an extremely strange texture. They were not hard, but gelatinous. The moment they struck the ground, they burst with a pop, splattering dark-red liquid everywhere like blood.
At the same time, every patch of black mist touched by that liquid was immediately purified.
It worked!
Not only Xia Yunzhao but everyone else became excited, forgetting even the stench assaulting them. “It works, it works! City Lord, throw down more!”
Xia Yunzhao laughed loudly. He lifted the enormous bronze pill furnace with both hands, looking strong enough to shoulder a great cauldron, and began pouring its contents down below.
Dark-red pills cascaded out. The red liquid from the exploding pills coated the ground, while the black fog rapidly withdrew, revealing civilians lying unconscious in every direction. It looked almost as though the city had been massacred…
Amid the cheers, Su Ying suddenly cried out, “Ah! So this was the scene I saw!” No wonder. He had known someone as kind as the City Lord could never have slaughtered a city!
Su Meng desperately smacked his brother’s hand and finally struggled free. “Brother, you nearly smothered me… What scene?”
Su Ying quietly explained. Su Meng’s eyes widened. “Right! I completely forgot about that! Back then we thought the City Lord was a bad person and wanted to drive Qingxi City’s civilians away!”
Thinking back now, it was fortunate they had failed.
Then again, looking at the seniors nearby and the treasure ship overhead… they probably could not have succeeded anyway, right?
Xia Yunzhao flew a circle around Puppet City, decorating the entire place with a convincing imitation of “corpses everywhere.” At last, the black mist barrier vanished completely.
Shang Shuangze grabbed two slaughter beasts and tested the area with them. Once he confirmed the city was no longer dangerous, everyone hurried inside to rescue people.
The ordinary civilians were in relatively good condition. Once the mist barrier disappeared, their poisoning cleared with it. They were merely weak after going several days without food or water.
The people near the city gate had been among those who directly confronted the refugees, so their conditions were more complicated.
Xia Yunzhao examined them one by one. Whenever he found someone with lingering poison, he pushed a Detoxification Pill into their mouth.
He happened to reach Elder Lu next. The old man had a sturdy constitution, and the moment the Detoxification Pill went down, he woke up. Squinting his old eyes at Xia Yunzhao for a long while, he immediately started babbling. “Aiyo… Have I already reached the underworld? So the underworld smells like this… City Lord, you personally came to receive me? How could I possibly deserve the trouble…”
Something about that sounded wrong to Xia Yunzhao. “Hold on, old sir. From the way you’re talking, in your mind I died before you did?”
Elder Lu said, “I figured Puppet City got attacked, so of course you’d avenge us…”
Xia Yunzhao was speechless. So the old man had assumed he failed to avenge them and everyone would meet neatly in the afterlife together? “Get up already. Once you recover, there’s work to do. Puppet City is still a mess. You think you get to lie around underground? Not happening.”
The old man gradually cleared his head. One look around told him he had been rescued. He was not the only one. Everyone nearby had awakened, including the Foundation Establishment squad leader who had become trapped inside the city while trying to save the civilians.
The woman beside him was already holding her head and discussing what to do next with the people around her.
Her surname was Zhang, and she was in charge of another district. When she saw Elder Lu wake up, she immediately called him over. “Old Master Lu, come help us discuss this.”
The moment Elder Lu sat up, he understood why everyone else was holding their heads. He was dizzy too. Copying them, he propped up his head and asked the first question that came to mind. “Well? How many casualties?”
Madam Zhang said, “Thanks to our City Lord, so far there are injuries but no deaths. But after something like this, weaker residents are bound to fall ill, and without prompt treatment that could still become dangerous. The city is short on medicinal herbs and physicians.”
Another person in charge added, “And food. Some of the poorer families live hand to mouth. They’re weak now, and if they have nothing to eat they’ll fall sick as well.”
Elder Lu nodded. That was true. “For the food shortage, first ask the better-off households to pool some supplies. For medicinal herbs, send a group of strong young people into the mountains to gather what they can, then collect some silver and buy a batch from nearby cities… We won’t be able to gather enough, but it should cover the immediate need. As for physicians…” There was little they could do there. They could hardly demand doctors from neighboring cities, and those people might not be willing to come anyway.
A voice cut in. “I’ll transfer a batch from Qingxi City.”
The organizers turned around. Sure enough, it was their City Lord.
Xia Yunzhao did not stop working and continued treating an injured Guard as he spoke. “Bring food and medicinal herbs over from Qingxi City. Find physicians in the nearby cities. Yangshan Commandery and Nanlin Town aren’t far from here. If any doctors are willing to come save people, don’t short them on payment.”
Elder Lu and Madam Zhang froze. They had not expected the City Lord to join the conversation, just as they had never expected to ask the City Lord for rescue in the first place. Saving an entire city’s worth of people was already overwhelming mercy. Why was he still concerning himself with details like these?
When Xia Yunzhao received no answer, he looked back. “What’s with you people? You aren’t even willing to pay them?”
“No, no, no!” The organizers shook their heads quickly. “That isn’t it! We’re willing to pay… No, we’ll give generous gifts to every physician who comes to treat the civilians! We…”
These organizers were usually eloquent people. Otherwise, the civilians would never have chosen them. Yet now, in one of the rare moments of their lives, none of them knew what to say. How could a cultivator like this exist? He seemed to treat mortals no differently from cultivators. He had not merely saved their lives. He was worried they might still die afterward. In the City Lord’s eyes, were mortal lives truly this precious?
With nowhere for their overflowing gratitude to go, several pairs of eyes fixed emotionally on Xia Yunzhao, hoping their City Lord could somehow see straight through their gazes and feel the blazing gratitude in their hearts.
Their staring made Xia Yunzhao’s scalp prickle. He checked their pulses again. Aside from weakness, there was nothing wrong with them. Why were they acting as if the poison had not fully cleared?
“Right.” Xia Yunzhao released Elder Lu’s wrist and added, “You know cultivators don’t need this kind of grain or ordinary medicine, so everything Qingxi City sends over was saved up by Qingxi City’s civilians. You’ll have to pay it back.”
Elder Lu and Madam Zhang looked at each other, then both cupped their hands. “We will never forget the City Lord’s great kindness or the generosity of Qingxi City’s people. We are willing to issue written notes of debt and repay everything with thirty percent interest.”
Xia Yunzhao nodded in satisfaction. That was more like it. Qingxi City and Puppet City might belong to the same family now, but even real brothers kept clear accounts. Good people should not lose out for helping others. If something similar happened again in the future, far more cities would probably be willing to lend food.
Puppet City had been saved, and not a single civilian had died. It was nothing short of a miracle.
Xia Yunzhao himself did not think much of it, but he had no idea that word of what happened spread throughout Qingxi City’s territory at astonishing speed.
As Yunjiangguan fell, all the large and small settlements once under its control came under Qingxi City as well, and tales of Qingxi City’s City Lord spread farther and farther. Strangely, those stories traveled among mortals far faster than they did among cultivators.
Xia Yunzhao did not leave immediately. He remained in Puppet City for several more days. Order had not yet been restored, and he was afraid someone might take advantage of the chaos.
Really, Yunjiangguan’s decision to ambush Puppet City had been a terrible move. Before this, nobody had imagined a cultivation force would deliberately attack a city of mortals.
But after this incident, Xia Yunzhao became much more vigilant. A wicked enemy was one thing. A stupid enemy was worse. Who knew what idiotic people might do? Better to stay cautious.
That afternoon, Xia Yunzhao was still helping the physicians save people. He did not interfere casually. Anyone the physicians could treat was left in their care. Only patients they could not save were sent to him.
Everyone now knew their City Lord asked for nothing in return when saving people. If someone could be saved, he saved them. His habitual phrase was, “That’s a human life!”
Today’s patient was an infant not yet two years old. The child had been poisoned, had gone several days without milk, and had developed a high fever from fear and distress. His face had turned dark with lack of breath. The attending physician took one look and came scrambling over with the child in his arms.
Xia Yunzhao saved the child with a bowl of water infused with a spirit pill, then poked the soft little cheek. “Shang Shuangze, come look. His face is so soft!”
Shang Shuangze watched helplessly as he played with someone else’s child. “Careful. He might start crying.”
“He won’t. He has such a good temper.” Xia Yunzhao poked twice more. He had no idea where he touched, but the baby suddenly gave him an enormous smile.
Xia Yunzhao smiled too. “Babies are so fun.”
Shang Shuangze said, “Why not keep one yourself?”
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly shook his head. “How could I? His parents would cry…” Halfway through, something felt wrong. He looked up and, sure enough, Shang Shuangze was teasing him. Xia Yunzhao immediately grabbed the baby’s hand and used it to swat him. “The people who call you an ice-cold face should really come see this. Where exactly is the ice?”
Shang Shuangze caught the baby’s hand and gently squeezed it, looking perfectly innocent. “Those people aren’t my Dao companion.”
While they were fooling around, someone reported from outside. “City Lord, Senior Shang, the Guard members who remained at Yunjiangguan are on their way back. They’re passing through Puppet City, and when they heard you were still here, they asked whether you wanted to return together.”
“Huh? They’re heading back already?” Xia Yunzhao calculated. Fine. Five days had passed since the battle at Yunjiangguan, so it had not actually been that short. He handed the child to a Guard and told him to take the baby back to the physician, then pulled Shang Shuangze up. “Come on. Let’s go see what good things they brought back.”
The moment the two stepped outside, they found Puppet City bustling with activity.
Many residents had not yet recovered and normally rested at home. Over the past few days, there had barely been anyone on the streets. Today was different. The roads were crowded enough to feel almost prosperous again.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had barely walked two steps when voices rose all around them. “City Lord! Lord Shang!”
“The City Lord came outside! Are you out playing?”
“City Lord, City Lord! My mother says children can’t eat too much sugar or the Black-Smoke Ghost will come back. Is that true?”
“City Lord!”
Xia Yunzhao answered as he walked. “That’s right, I’m out playing. How are you all feeling?”
“Eating less sugar is right, but we already chased away the Black-Smoke Ghost, so it won’t come back. And listen to your mother!”
“Why are you shouting my name so loudly?”
Shang Shuangze walked beside him with smiling eyes and a relaxed expression, listening as Xia Yunzhao chatted endlessly with the civilians all the way down the street.
Only when they reached the city gate did they realize why so many people had come outside today. Everyone was here to watch the spectacle. The Guard from Yunjiangguan had hauled back an absurd amount of stuff!
Nobody knew where they had found more than ten puppet beasts, but each had been mounted on a cart, creating an enormously long convoy.
The first carts had already stopped at the city gate, while the end of the line was nowhere in sight!
Xia Yunzhao was dumbfounded. “Wait. Why did you come back like this? Where are the storage pouches? Didn’t I leave you dozens?”
The Guard at the front was young, baby-faced, and lively. He answered brightly, “They’re all full! Not only are the storage pouches full, we used storage boxes we found at Yunjiangguan too, and those are full as well!”
Xia Yunzhao remained baffled. “Yunjiangguan had this many spirit items? Then what’s on all these carts?”
The cheerful Guard replied, “The city wall and the topsoil! Lord Jing said that when you used to treasure-hunt on Liancui Mountain, City Lord, you wouldn’t even leave the topsoil behind! Sometimes you even picked up trash to feed the pill furnace! So we dug up Yunjiangguan’s walls and topsoil too! We even dismantled the buildings!”
The Guard had clearly spent a great deal of time absorbing his seniors’ stories. He looked innocently up at Xia Yunzhao, face full of loyalty. “City Lord, are you happy?”
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
He turned around. A ring of Puppet City civilians had gathered near the gate. Every face wore the same mixture of sudden understanding and emotion: Our City Lord is this stingy? And even though he’s this stingy, he still used spirit pills to treat us! Our City Lord is such a good person!
City Lord Xia ground his teeth. “I! Am! So! Happy!”