Chapter 66: Chapter 66 Tao Ji is on his way, the Calming Heart Pill becomes number 1
Due to the influx of refugees into Qingshi Town, their numbers were increasing daily.
As a result, Luo Yong’s second round of military expansion
was still ongoing.
It seemed that the plan was to increase the size of the army to 50,000 during this second round of expansion.
Among them, 30,000 would be regular troops and 20,000 would be reservists.
Of course, being assigned to the reservists did not mean that one would stay in that role forever.
As long as your performance met the standards, you could be promoted from the reservist to the regular troops.
And some of the original regular troops, if they failed to meet the standards, might also be demoted to reservists.
After all, competition in the military leads to improvement.
…
In the blink of an eye, another day had passed.
At this moment, the sun was high in the sky.
Even in the early days of winter, at midday when the sun was at its strongest,
people could still feel the waves of heat.
“General, how much longer will it take to reach the place called Qingshi Town that you’ve spoken of?”
On the outskirts of Qingshi Town, on a piece of land cracked and barren, scarcely populated,
a fully armored, rather disheveled troop
was presently struggling to advance steadily forward.
And there, General Tao Ji, clad in shining silver armor with a gem-encrusted sword hanging at his waist,
was riding atop a scrawny, jet-black horse.
His expression seemed quite unconcerned and relaxed.
“No rush, no rush…” Tao Ji glanced at his deputy next to him, and with a smile, stroked his not-too-long beard, whispering, “At best, we’ll arrive in three days. At worst, seven days, and then we’ll be at Qingshi Town.”
“And once we get there, we certainly won’t have to worry about food and drink!”
“But General…” hesitated the deputy, then added, “General, even with just one meal a day, we have less than three days’ worth of provisions left.”
“Along the way, people are rarely seen.”
“If this continues…”
“Sooner or later, we will starve to death on this journey.”
…
The deputy’s words were not without merit.
In fact, if all the food were gathered for his own consumption,
there would be plenty for Tao Ji alone.
However, even though Tao Ji was the leader of this army,
he dared not easily do so.
If everyone had nothing to eat, that would be one thing,
but if the leader hoarded food while his soldiers went hungry,
mutiny would surely arise within the army.
Tao Ji was well aware that if he wanted to continue living well and go to Qingshi Town or some other remote village to borrow food or supplies,
he had to keep a firm grip on his troops.
…
“What does the deputy think about those ‘lambs’ dying along the way?’
“Lambs? What lambs along the way?”
“Deputy, are you sure you didn’t see them, or are you pretending to be oblivious?”
“General, you… you mean?” Tao Ji’s deputy’s eyes widened in disbelief.
His face was filled with incredulity and utter refusal to accept.
“In desperate times, we have no choice but to do this.”
“After all, who would wish for such a thing if there were any other option?”
While saying this, Tao Ji sighed with a hint of reluctance.
After pondering deeply,
the deputy could only silently nod in agreement.
Compared to the threat of death, one’s own life was clearly more precious.
…
Outside Qingshi Town, with the ascension of the New Emperor, conflicts among the princes were unceasing.
The situation on this land had grown increasingly chaotic.
However, on the banks of Huai Water, Qingshi Town, with its abundant water resources and the presence of the Luo Family, had begun to stabilize.
After a period of expansion, the size of Qingshi Town had almost doubled compared to before.
The new city walls, although still under construction,
now seemed to be taking shape.
Especially with the separation between the inner and outer city, Qingshi Town now looked more akin to the bustling counties with populations of hundreds of thousands, or even close to a million.
…
In Qingshi Town, on the Luo Family Ancestral Land,
within a courtyard that exuded an ancient simplicity,
lay an open space.
Here, Luo Changfeng, the Ancestor of the Luo Family, was silently standing by a second-hand Furnace Cauldron that blazed with rampant flames at the bottom.
The elixir being refined in the cauldron was called the Calming Heart Pill.
The Calming Heart Pill was known for its effect in calming the mind and soothing the spirit.
This type of elixir was slightly more challenging to produce compared to the basic elixirs.
It was specially refined for that little guy, Luo Qingshan.
As for the Crimson Flame Elixir, a vigorous session had yielded around a hundred pills, filling a total of ten porcelain bottles.
Therefore, that little girl Luo Youwei was not in need for the time being.
“Should be about done, right?”
After Luo Changfeng waved his hand to use his Qi-Blood Force to extinguish the flames beneath the second-hand Alchemy Furnace.
He stepped forward and opened the lid that was currently bearing extremely high temperatures.
The Qi-Blood Force wrapped around his hands,
protecting him from the heat of the lid.
“Not bad, not bad, this fragrance of the pill…”
“It must certainly belong to the finest among the mundane!”
Luo Changfeng sniffed the fragrance of the pill that wafted towards him and examined the dozen or so dark-colored Calming Heart Pills, each about the size of a little finger, at the bottom of the second-hand cauldron.
He nodded in satisfaction.
“Following this method, just a few more batches of Calming Heart Pills should suffice.”
…
As time passed,
after Luo Changfeng had completed two more batches of Calming Heart Pills,
he stored all the pills in porcelain bottles.
These bottles were placed on a stone table beneath the Stone Pavilion.
He himself sat quietly under the Stone Pavilion,
picking up a book by the name of “Introduction to Talismans” from the stone table and started to flip through it again.
Having studied for some time, he found his understanding of the way of talismans had deepened.
Offensive, defensive, and supportive talismans.
Luo Changfeng had dabbled in all three categories.
Of these, he naturally delved deeper into offensive and defensive talismans.
As for the supportive talismans?
He didn’t really bother to study them much.
It wasn’t that he thought they were useless,
but rather some of the utilities of supportive talismans were quite bizarre and peculiar.
Take for instance the Rain Seeking Talisman…
Did his Qingshi Town, situated beside the Huai Water, need such a thing?
Could it be that the river would run dry one day?
Then there was the Plague Talisman…
It seemed to be designed to summon various plagues.
However, since it was excessively harmful to heaven and order,
it was considered one of the hundred forbidden talismans.
Naturally, Luo Changfeng was not keen on researching it.
There were others like the Locust Disaster Talisman, the Locust Removal Talisman, the Great Sun Talisman, the Cloud Seeking Talisman—a bunch of odd and strange ones.
So, the straightforward offensive and defensive talismans were what he found most practical.