280 Possible Cures

"There it is." Remian said, as he and Little Yan approached the old herb garden he'd learned about in the Alchemist Guild Hall. "Pod, land in the middle of that garden."

[Confirmed.]

"Little Yan, hand me the crossbow." Remian said, squinting. "There's a Blue Fang Ferocious Wolf hanging out around the edges. I don't want it chomping us down for dinner."

Little Yan carefully picked up the black assassin's crossbow that cost them their entire earnings from their first foray together and handed it to Remian. Even with heavy bargaining, the best Remian could do was lower the selling price from 120,000 to 100,000 Black. They not only emptied out everything they earned from selling the cores to Elder Yun, they had to fork out more money to buy Tier 4 ammunition for the crossbow. After all the spending, Remian was pretty close to broke.

But looking at that wolf now, he felt it was worth it. That was a Tier 4 wolf, and Remian didn't want to engage in a long, extended fight. Using Gale Slash to fight it could take some time, and draw a whole lot of attention from its pack. Remian did NOT want attention; these mountains were the territory of Beasts, and he did not have any Red Mists cover advantage.

One shot, one kill. That was the way to go. Remian suddenly felt like he'd turned into an assassin as he prepared his shot.

"Help me turn this." Remian said, winding up the crank-turning system.

Once it was prepared, Remian took careful aim while keeping a watch on the wolf's mind. It was hungry, eagerly waiting for some prey supposedly coming down the mountainside later…

TWANG! The shot hit the creature in the back of the head. The Blue Fang Ferocious Wolf didn't even know it died, much less how.

"We should load up the wolf carcass. It could be worth a lot." Remian told Little Yan. "Although… we might have to cut it up a bit first."

A Tier 4 wolf was easily ten times the size of Little Yan. That was something comparable in size to Carrie, somewhere between the size of a cow and an elephant. For the likes of Remian and Carrie to haul that into the Pod was just asking too much.

Actually, could they even fit that thing into the Pod? If they did that, there'd be so little space, Little Yan would have to sit on Remian's lap on the pilot's seat.

"On second thoughts, forget it." Remian sighed. "Just take the claws and the teeth. Do you know how to skin a beast?"

Little Yan shook her head helplessly. "We could try anyway. We could also try cooking some of the meat and see how it tastes."

They did exactly that.

***

Over the course of the following few days, Remian and Little Yan tried all sorts of wolf-meat dishes while experimenting with the Food Processor. They tried it roasted, boiled, stir-fried, deep-fried, steamed, braised, stewed, smoked, mud-baked, flour-baked, microwaved, thermal-cooked, electro-seared, plasma-baked, ion-charged, photonic-threaded, nano-fried, particle-acceleration roasted, quantum-excited, even psiorin-effused. That last one seemed to require Red Mists, of which the Pod had a startlingly full store.

"I like wood-roasted." Little Yan concluded in the end.

"Not barbecued?" Remian blinked.

"The wood-fire roast tasted better than emulated charcoal."

"They both come from wood, you know."

"I know. I'm the one who put it in!"

During that time, they were of course harvesting the entire herb garden. It had entire plots of Tier 3 herbs. There were even more plots of Tier 2's and Tier 1's to be cleared. All of them were chock full of weeds, and if Remian hadn't gained the memories of so many herbalists and alchemists, he would have had a very hard time differentiating what was what.

But in the end, they came back with a very bountiful harvest.

"92 Tier 3 herbs, 211 Tier 2, 399 Tier 1…" Elder Yun counted when they finally met him after their week of labor. "Total payment is 1,809,500 Black. It looks like I have to promote you to a Tier 5 Affiliate after only one week at Tier 4!"

"Wait, we also killed a Blue Fang Ferocious Wolf…" Remian took out the last sack. "We took back the head, some claws, meat and bones…"

"We normally wouldn't take any of those here, but since it's you guys, and you've already reached Tier 5, I can handle the arrangements with the Hunter's Guild…" Elder Yun said generously. "If you leave them with me, I will have the proceeds ready by next week."

"Next week…" Remian frowned. "I'm not sure if we'll still be around next week."

"You're leaving?" Elder Yun looked somewhat disappointed.

"Maybe." Remian said slowly. "We'll have to discuss it. More importantly, I need a Green Jade Vitality Pill."

"Ah, yes. That's right. Your condition…" Elder Yun hesitated. "I would like to invite one of our top physicians to take a look at you. It could be costly, but the costs are nothing compared to what you've just earned, certainly nothing compared to your life."

"Please do." Remian agreed. "Also, if he could take a look at Little Yan…"

"I'll invite him right now." Elder Yun assured them.

***

It could be said that Physician Qing Lan had become something of an expert in battlefield medicine after many years practicing his craft in Scorched Earth City.

It wasn't his fault! Practically every day someone would be brought to him bleeding and more often than not, dying from wounds inflicted in battle. People around here just kept fighting each other, fighting fierce beasts, fighting queer traps both natural and man-made… they fought over treasures, over resources, over girls, over pride, over the most absurd reasons and pretenses! It was ridiculous! After fifty years of studying medicine, leaving his school and venturing into the field, roughly ninety percent of his extensive learning was practically irrelevant to his everyday work. It came to a point that when he was called to the Alchemist Guild for a VIP consultation this time, he hesitated on whether or not to bring along his full kit or just pack bandages, splints and his surgical kit.

"Whatever, since this is the Alchemist Guild, I should make a good showing. I'll just bring everything." Qing Lan sighed and had both his assistants haul along his traveling diagnostics case along with his surgical kit and the ever-popular bandages. "Let's go see which rich clan's young brat has gotten himself sliced this time."

The Alchemist Guild was really rather good to him. They had allotted a house for him inside their compound, offered a steady supply of herbs and medicines made by their people at discount prices (compared to their standard retail demands) and even had a carriage prepared for him to load his luggage and ride all the way to the Guild Hall (which would have been almost an hour away on foot).

Upon arrival, he was somewhat taken aback to find that he couldn't recognize the patients. "Who is this?"

"This is Sir Lem Yan, a Level 5 Affiliate." Elder Mu Yun introduced. "And his disciple. They are our suppliers."

Realizing that he was meeting the people who risked life and limb to collect precious herbs for the very medicines he used, Qing Tan suddenly felt a rush of friendliness towards these brave strangers. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm told we're crippled and can't cultivate, but that there might be a way to cure that." Remian told him flat out. "Is there anything you can tell me?"

Qing Lan paused. He'd heard these brave herb-gatherers often encountered great dangers on their forays, but he'd never seen anyone get crippled in the field and come back alive before. Straight away, he suspected poison…

But when he inspected them, checking pulse, breath and internal state, he was startled to find that they weren't poisoned at all. Rather, it looked like they had been cripped deliberately, as if someone practicing Death Qi martial arts had withered their meridians on purpose.

"This… these are old injuries. Very old." Qing Lan said grimly. "Had we treated such injuries immediately, it would have been much easier, but as it is… for Lem Yan, nothing short of a total rebuilding of the meridians is going to fix them. Xiao Yan's case is less severe, but not by much. She can still patch her meridians up with high Tier medicines, but her potential would be dismal even so. For her to reach even average potential in cultivation, she would need roughly the same treatments as Lem Yan."

"Can you list specific cures?" Remian asked directly.

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"Your best bet is the Tier 9 Meridian Rejuvenation Elixir. Short of that, you'd need Ancient-grade pills, the likes of which our alchemists today can no longer be refine, only found by the very lucky." Qing Lan shook his head. "Something like the Sunrise Rebirth Pill or the Phoenix Tear Life Consolidation Pill."

"Green Jade Vitality Pills are not good enough?" Remian sighed.

"Those can boost your vitality and keep you alive past the year, but not by much. A few more years, perhaps. But as you keep consuming them, they will lose their effect and eventually, they would no longer suffice."

"A few more years sounds great right now. I don't want to die this year, thank you." Remian grimaced.

And then a transmission from Pod almost made him fall over.

[Emergency Medical Diagnosis, comparing with others of similar species; internal insufficiencies, extensive organ disfunction, marrow deficiencies, blood vessel mutations, irregular heart constitution detected. Recommended: 57 specialized diagnostics, 42 interim sustaining patches, 19 purchaseable >80% proven solutions to specific problems now available on our online store and be always happy, because always happy means more sales.]