"It should be fine. What say you, senior brother?" Xing asked.
"Well, if Xing'er is fine with it, then okay," Xiao Huang said and took out a large, red-colored ship.
The design of the ship was similar to the one Alex had, but was larger and could probably house up to 6 people easily.
"Come, little brother. Sit next to me," Xiao Huang said as he sat towards the front.
Alex nodded and jumped onto the ship. He sat down next to Xiao Huang while Luo Xing sat behind them both.
They quickly said goodbye to the people from the caravan and started moving.
"We should reach Ruby road city around midnight. Don't worry, Xing'er" Xiao Huang said.
"I'm not really worried about father. I'm more worried about how Mei'er is holding up. After stepmother's death 10 years ago, she would get depressed whenever something bad happened to anyone."
"Hehe, there was this one time when mother got food poisoning a year before we left for our sects, and she spent the entire night with mother, crying that she too shouldn't die on her."
"I probably shouldn't be laughing, but it's quite a sweet memory actually," Luo Xing said as she thought about the past.
"Oh, how is she holding by the way?" she asked.
"Well, she was indeed a little depressed when we started the journey, but halfway through when we heard information about the beast attack, she stopped worrying about everything else."
"After that, we were separated as I took the task of luring the beasts away from the caravan so I don't know how she is holding up."
"However, since Meng Yun is with her, she should be fine," Alex said.
"Oh, Mengmeng is coming too? I probably should have brought Fei'er too. At least one pair of sisters would be happy to see each other in our household," Luo Xing said with sadness in her voice.
Alex was about to ask something when Xiao Huang asked him another question instead.
"Little brother, what do you mean by you took the task of luring the beasts?" he asked.
"Oh, since we thought the caravan couldn't handle the onslaught of the beasts, I took the task of luring the beasts away from them with this," Alex said as he brought out a pill.
"This is the same pill that the Royal Alchemist used to lure away the beasts from the capital. Using these, I could lure the beasts away."
"I also happened to have a flying artifact that I used to escape away from them," Alex said as he mixed truth and lies.
"Oh, I heard about that. How did you get your hands on the pills? Did the Royal Alchemists sell them?" Xiao Huang asked.
"Oh no, I made them. The recipe was handed to the participants of the new pill-making competition on the 4th day, and my friends gave it to me," Alex said.
"Oh, little brother, you're an alchemist?" Xiao Huang asked.
"Ah, yes. One of the reasons I was going with Sister to see her father was to possibly heal him if I can."
"Since most alchemists are not moving from their cities, I was hoping to at least diagnose him even if we have to roam the empire, looking for clues."
"After all, finding what is wrong is the first step to solving it," Alex said.
"Y-You… came here to find out what's wrong with father?" Xing asked with wide eyes.
"Yes, sister. At least, I hope to help a bit in these desperate times," Alex said.
"Haha! I like you, junior brother. Come, tell us more," Xiao Huang said and started asking questions.
Alex hid as much as he could but eventually let it be known that he was part of the Hong Wu Sect as well.
The two of them got a little surprised but said nothing about it.
Alex asked them a few questions too.
Xiao Huang and Luo Xing were direct disciples of the 2nd Elder of the Heaven's Barrier sect, a popular formation-focused sect of the east.
Luo Xing was one of the best formation makers amongst the students, while Xiao Huang was already an elder thanks to his age and cultivation base.
Luo Keng, the father of Luo Mei and Luo Xing was good friends with both Wen Cheng and the 2nd Elder of the Heaven's Barrier sect, so when it came time to send his daughters to study and enter a sect, he sent them both to two of his friends to grow separately.
Now that he was dying, they were both returning back from their sects as fast as they could.
It was soon nighttime, but the three of them didn't stop at all. It was then around midnight that Luo Xing spoke out.
"We're here," she said.
Alex looked ahead and could see a massive city, around the same size as Scarlet city.
Even though it was midnight, the city was full of light.
"They must be rebuilding after the beast attack," Xiao Huang said. He could see that people were rebuilding parts of the walls that had broken during the attack.
"It… doesn't look that bad, does it?" Luo Xing asked while surprised.
"They must have learned about the beasts attacking like I was let know," Alex said.
"Must be. I wonder how they learned this time? They must have left sentries in the forest or something," Xiao Huang said.
Once they got closer, a few people flew up to see who it was. However, one of the people, an elderly man with a white beard spoke out.
"Young Lady, you're back!" he said.
Xiao Huang stopped the boat and Luo Xing flew out. "Senior Jin, are you out here helping the walls?" Luo Xing asked.
"Ah, yes. Since the lord is unable to, I was tasked with helping them rebuild. We were hoping to finish early, but we don't have much manpower. Most people got hurt during the attack."
"The casualty was quite high this time. However, thanks to the warning we got, the fatalities were none," The old man named Jin said.
"Oh, I hope those men that got hurt are well. You should treat them fast and get them to help with the walls. We can't leave it destroyed like this," Luo Xing said.
"Sigh, I wish we could do that too. But due to the lack of proper healers, we are suffering a bit. We've used all the pills available here, but there are more wounded people here."
"We've sent a few people over to the next city to buy some pills, but… we don't see much hope. Those people must be suffering just like we are," Old man Jin said.
"Excuse me, senior," Alex suddenly spoke from the back.
"Yes, young man," old man Jin said.
"Um, what cultivation base do the wounded have? If they are not in the True realm, I can help a bit," Alex said.
"Umm… you are?" the old man asked curiously.
"He is Mei'er's junior brother in the sect and an Alchemist. If little brother wishes to help, take him with you. Certainly, he will be of much help," Luo Xing said.
"Oh," old man Jin's eyes opened wide. "You are Young lady Mei's junior brother? Welcome to the Rubyroad City, young lord," Old man jin said.
"If you truly wish to help, we can use some. Please come with me," old man Jin said.
"I will go to the house and go see the father. Little brother Ming is here to diagnose father's illness as well, so be sure to give him the utmost respect, senior Jin," Luo Xing said.
"Young Lord is here to check up on the lord? Oh my, please forgive me if I have been rude," Senior Jin said.
"Alright, I will leave now. Come to the house when you are done. Senior Jin will bring you there," Luo Xing said and left with Xiao Huang following behind her.
Alex nodded and followed behind senior Jin to a massive camp laid out outside the walls.
"Here are the injured. We have some people with some medical knowledge trying to keep them alive, but their knowledge isn't extensive enough to heal them," old man Jin said.
"I see… let me see," Alex said and opened the tent.
Suddenly, he was bombarded with a heavy smell of blood. Even when he was doused in the blood of the monsters he killed, the smell didn't seem so heavy.
"How many people are here?" Alex asked.
"Hmm… around 200 I would say," old man Jin said. "There were about 250 originally, but we managed to use what remaining pills we had after the last battle and saved the most injured ones.
"These less injured ones are the ones that suffer the most."
Alex looked around and asked, "I thought having knowledge of the attack would let you guys survive more, but even after that there were still 250 injured? How many were injured last time?"
"Last time should have been around 180 injured," senior Jin said.
"Huh? It was worse this time?" Alex asked.
"No, it was better this time, much better. While the injured may have been more this time, it's unlike last time when about a hundred different people died," Jin said.
'Ah right. I nearly had Survivorship bias,' Alex thought.
Alex walked to one of the injured people and looked through his wounds. He quickly thought of what was wrong with him.
'Shoulder Blade has been pierced through. Even the best common pill won't help with that. However, just healing the rest of the wounds and not moving the shoulder for a month should fully heal him,' Alex thought.
However, he didn't immediately bring out a pill to help him. Instead, he stood up and moved to another patient, and checked him.
Once he figured out what was wrong with that person, he moved to another one.
Senior Jin watched as Alex moved from one bed to the next and checked all the people one by one. Finally, after an hour, he was done with every single one of the 200 patients.
There were other people tending to the wounded that too looked at Alex weirdly. Alex closed his eyes to think for a moment as he sent out his spiritual sense into his bag to check for the pills.
'Shit! I only have 60,' he thought.
He quickly took out the pills and decided to give them to the ones that were most wounded amongst them all.
He went towards the most injured ones one by one and gave them the pills. Once they ate the pill, the people slowly stopped grunting in pain and had a calm face once more.
"Thank you, brother," they said with a sigh of relief. They were on the verge of death, and Alex had saved them.
Alex said nothing and went through everyone he could and saved all of the 60 people he could. They weren't fully healed, as common pills just didn't have that much ability, but they were good enough that they could use their own natural healing to heal themselves now.
Once he was done with them, Alex then took out a blank talisman and brought it to senior Jin.
"Senior, I have a list of ingredients here. If you can help me find a lot of these, I can help around a hundred of these people," Alex said.
"The rest of the 40 people are True Realm cultivators and I don't have the capability to help them currently," Alex said.
"You-You really can help them?" Senior Jin said in surprise. He didn't expect a single alchemist to reduce their problems by so much.
"Yes, you can ask those people that are going over to the next town over to only bring back True pills," Alex said.
"Yes, yes, I will get on it," senior Jin said and left. The people working inside the tent finally saw hope for the patients and smiled.
They and the ones that were healed thanked Alex once more.
"It's too early to thank me. I still have a lot to do."
