“You know just how formidable the chief is,” the middle-aged man said. “The previous chief said that he was the most talented person in the village for the past 150 years, yet he had to train for decades to get where he is today. Tell me, how powerful could that young man be?”

“Very powerful,” Zhao Yinghao simply replied. He did not bother with further explanations. He knew it would have been pointless. Only people who had witnessed and experienced it for themselves truly knew how frightening that young man was.

“Well, I’ll check things out,” the middle-aged man said. “You just stay here and wait. If anything happens, you just bail. I’ll cover you. Sound good?”

“Sure.” Zhao Yinghao nodded.

“Hold on. Someone’s here!”

“Tsk, it’s getting so late already. What’s a person doing out here in the mountains at this hour instead of staying at home? To enjoy the view and the breeze? Please…” Shortly after, someone emerged from behind a tree.

Jia Zizai left his cigarette dangling from his mouth as he checked the two men out.

“You two are from the Valley of Thousands of Medicines, I take it,” he said. “Man I can smell all those herbs on you guys.”

“Who are you?” The middle-aged man had started to make a move as he was asking the question. He shot a look at Zhao Yinghao, who shook his head, making it clear to the middle-aged man that the person before them was not Wang Yao.

Invisible curse bugs had already been released. They expected the man before them would quickly lose any resistance and wiggle in pain. He was bound to kneel before them for mercy and spill all the information they needed to know.

However, the middle-aged man found that he had miscalculated. The curse he had unleashed did not work at all. That man before them remained standing without any signs of discomfort.

“Hey, what’s that look supposed to mean?” Jia Zizai asked with a chuckle.

“Alright, enough chit-chat. I’m here for serious business.” After saying that, Jia Zizai was in front of the two men in a single step.

“He’s trained!” The men muttered to themselves.

Specks of silver glittered before them.

Flying needles were seen everywhere.

“Projectile weapons?”

Jia Zizai moved extremely quickly. He instantly moved to the side, evading the attack. The darts missed their target altogether.

A flash was suddenly seen.

Blood splashed as a bloody wound appeared on the middle-aged man. It was about a foot long. It was such a deep gash that the bone was visible. Blood kept being spilled.

“Retreat!” he yelled to Zhao Yinghao by his side.

Masters knew how capable another master was in a single move. They both knew that the man before them was a difficult opponent and that they were probably not a match for him. It was unthinkable to have both of them fall where they were.

Zhao Yinghao did not hesitate. He immediately retreated.

Jia Zizai did not bother chasing after Zhao Yinghao. He opted to tangle with the one left in the woods. One of them soon fell. Jia Zizai stood where he was. He was composed and feeling pleased with himself. The middle-aged man who fought against him, on the contrary, was all bloodied and had no strength left to resist.

“Let’s find a place where we can chat,” Jia Zizai said.

He took that man to the cottage in the mountain.

Meanwhile, Zhao Yinghao immediately reported what had happened where he was to people from his village.

“Another one was taken?” Miao Qingfeng was shocked to hear that.

The man who went with Zhao Yinghao was an elder. He was one of the best fighters in their village, yet he still fell in that northern village all the same.

“Is that man not Wang Yao?” Miao Qinfeng asked.

“Now, it was someone I have never met.”

“Stay where you are,” Miao Qinfeng said. “Wait for my orders. Don’t do anything rash.”

“Will do.” Zhao Yinghao quickly left the village. He went to Lianshan County’s town center and found a place to crash.

“Master, I caught another,” Jia Zizai said.

“Are you hurt?” Wang Yao asked.

“I’m fine. This is but an exercise for me. A warmup if you will.”

Back in the village, Jia Zizai told Wang Yao what had happened. The two of them went to the cottage on the mountain.

“Is it someone else from the Valley of Thousands of Medicines?” Wang Yao asked.

“Yeah, those assholes just don’t know when to give up,” Jia Zizai replied. “They know this place isn’t one to mess with, yet they keep showing up all the same. That courage of theirs sure is something. I’ll give them that much at least.”

The man on the floor was all messed up from all the torture he had suffered. From the surface, one would not have been able to tell what he had gone through. That was how good professionals like Jia Zizai were.

“His phone?”

“Destroyed.”

“Two came here?”

“Yeah, the other one bailed,” Jia Zizai said.

He wanted to take both of them down, but he had not brought his gun. Furthermore, the man who was lying on the floor was quite skilled. If it had been the Jia Zizai from the past, the tables might have been turned against him.

“This guy carried concealed weapons and poisonous stuff. Hell, he even had two huge centipedes with him!”

Jia Zizai kicked the stuff he had taken from that man for a bit. A small cage had two huge red centipedes in it. Jia Zizai was startled when he opened it, but those centipedes seemed to have feared him as well. They curled in their cage and did not move once he got close to them.

He leaned over and asked the man, who was hardly able to speak, “Did you deliver the news?”

“Yeah.” The man nodded.

He had finally met the young man who Zhao Yinghao mentioned. The man was ridiculously young. However, by now, he believed most of what Zhao Yinghao had said. After all, the man who managed to overwhelm and torture him behaved respectfully toward that young man. That meant the young man was far more powerful than the one who caught him. It was just like how it was back in the village in the valley. Everyone behaved respectfully to the chief because he was the most formidable person in their place. At the very least, that was how things appeared.

One’s prowess was always the determining factor deciding one’s station in any society or situation.

“What else were you able to get out of him?” Wang Yao asked.

“Well, he pretty much gave me everything he should give me,” Jia Zizai replied.

“Alright, hand him over to the police,” Wang Yao said.

There was yet another suspect being hauled to the police station in the night.

“So, you were in that village, right?”

“Yeah, to steal medicine.”

“Heh, all these people from southern Yunnan traveling thousands of miles away just to steal meds. Man, you people are something else!”

“They sure are something. Are they all from the same place then

“I checked, and they are!”

“It must be organized crime. They are from one gang. What the hell is going on?”

Back in the Valley of Thousands of Medicine thousands of miles away…

“Did something happen to Qingnan?”

“Yes, he was caught,” Miao Qingfeng said.

Miao Xihe thought for a bit and said, “OK, tell Yinghao to come back.”

“What about that place?”

“I’ll head out there personally at some point,” Miao Xihe said.

“Acknowledged.” Miao Qingfeng was shocked to his core to hear that.

The chief hardly ventured outside of the village. Even if he did, he mostly went locations in southern Yunnan. Miao Qingfeng had never heard of him going into any other provinces, yet the chief planned to go all the way up north.

He left Miao Xihe’s place. Before he knew it, he had walked to the side of the glittering Burial of Gods Lake. He lit a cigarette.

Things outside had changed. A storm was obviously brewing.

The chief was still the chief he knew. However, despite being a formidable figure, he was still only someone who ruled in a corner of southern Yunnan. There were still storms that the chief was incapable of weathering on his own.

It was getting late.

Wang Yao was writing down a prescription at a wooden table in the cottage up in the southern mountain.

Polygonum Vine, Irony Plum Blossom, Changyang…

The names of herbs were seen on a piece of paper.

He was coming up with another medicine. It was to be used on Zhong Liuchuan, Jia Zizai, and Hu Mei.

The medicine he gave them before rendered them immune to all poisons. They were now naturally repellent to poisonous bugs and pests alike. The medicine he was coming up with now enhanced their bodies, giving them bones and muscles of steel. No common herbs were allowed to be in that medicine he was developing. Furthermore, the main ingredients had to be magic herbs.

As he pondered, he gradually filled the prescription on the paper up.

Before he knew it, the sky outside had grown dark. The mountain was very quiet.

The sun rose in the east of the village.

Early in the morning, Zheng Weijun arrived at the clinic with a beaming smile.

“It’s done, Master. It’s done.”

“Have both medicines passed all relevant procedures?” Wang Yao asked.

“Yes, it’s done,” Zheng Weijun said.

According to conventional logic, that kind of process usually took longer to finish. Zheng Weijun had thought of some ways and did his own thing to speed up the standardized production of those two medicines.

It was like having a hen in one’s hand and trying to make the hen lay eggs as soon as possible.

“Well, with the procedures settled, let’s make the first batch and see how they fare,” Wang Yao said.

“Will do. I’d get to it. As for the ingredients, rest assured. Absolute quality assurance.”

“Sure.”

The two men chatted in the clinic for a bit and drank some tea. Zheng Weijun left in a hurry. He headed to the factory in town to get on with his business.

With the addition of the two new medicines, they now had three types. It enabled the factory to produce three types of products in less than half a year. He believed in the effects of those two medicines. With the Primordial Spirit Soup being the first one to hit the market, its effects served as the best advertising for the upcoming products. It practically guaranteed the sales of those two new medicines. Furthermore, things were likely to go much smoother than before. One could have told that much from what Zheng Weijun said earlier.