Chapter 174 - 158: Healing Spring
"If I need more people, I’ll be sure to come to you."
"Alright." Luo Gang stood up and they shook hands.
He took this matter very seriously, personally escorting Qin Ziwen downstairs.
Just as Qin Ziwen had guessed, this Master Wei was recruited via a Card.
Master Wei’s full name was Wei Yutang. He wasn’t tall and had a big, bushy beard. His voice boomed like a striking bell.
As they were heading upstairs, a girl from unit 202 happened to come out to throw away her trash. She immediately spotted Cao Biansheng and Wei Yutang following behind Qin Ziwen and looked surprised. "Cao Biansheng, Master Wei."
"Mm," Cao Biansheng mumbled, his eyes darting away.
Wei Yutang just nodded, his attention focused on the layout of the stairwell. ’It’s a bit narrow, not as spacious as the ones back home.’
"This is a fire escape. People usually take the elevator and only use this in rare cases," Qin Ziwen explained. "Academic buildings usually don’t have elevators, just stairs, so their staircases are built to be wider and brighter."
Wei Yutang was just making an observation. Soon, they arrived at unit 502.
Upon entering the space and seeing his surroundings, a look of astonishment finally appeared in Wei Yutang’s eyes. It wasn’t just him; Cao Biansheng was also very curious.
"Wait, what’s that?" Cao Biansheng pointed into the distance. On a sandy patch of ground, a Mongolian Horse was slowly walking over. A Beaked Eagle stood on its back.
Qin Ziwen was also a bit surprised by the scene. ’How long has it been? Just a moment ago, they were at each other’s throats. How did they get so friendly already?’
Watching the Mongolian Horse walk up to Qin Ziwen and nuzzle him with its head, Cao Biansheng was utterly shocked. "You actually keep a horse, too."
An image flashed through his mind: clad in Armor, holding a Long Spear, riding a warhorse. ’Isn’t that the great general I always dreamed of being as a kid?’ He couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy.
Qin Ziwen led Master Wei to the Blacksmith Shop.
What followed was a discussion between Li Tieshan and Wei Yutang. Qin Ziwen had already shown Li Tieshan the blueprints, so he didn’t need to worry about the rest; the two professional artisans could handle the communication.
"Chairman Qin, where will I be staying?" Cao Biansheng had been struggling with what to call Qin Ziwen, wavering between "Captain" and "Chairman."
After mulling it over, he reasoned that since he had joined the guild, there was nothing wrong with calling Qin Ziwen "Chairman."
"You’ll be staying upstairs. We have a meeting later, so rest here for now. Oh, right, there’s a Celestial Star Arrow Gallery over there. You should go practice your Arrow Skill when you have time. It would be a waste not to use that physique of yours." Qin Ziwen patted his shoulder.
Filled with curiosity, Cao Biansheng entered the Celestial Star Arrow Gallery, and Qin Ziwen didn’t see him again for the rest of the afternoon.
"Captain, I’ve finished collecting the venom." Wang Yun held up a sealed plastic bottle filled with a pale yellow, viscous liquid—the venom from the fat-tailed scorpions.
"How long will this keep?"
"If stored in a cool, dark place, it’ll last for a month. The longer it’s kept, the weaker the venom becomes. High temperatures or direct sunlight will speed up its degradation, and once it degrades, the venom becomes mostly ineffective."
"What about the fat-tailed scorpions?"
Wang Yun said, "I have them in an acrylic tank. I can bring them over in a bit."
Qin Ziwen waved his hand dismissively. "Don’t bother. You’re much more skilled at extracting the venom than I am, so just keep them with you. It’ll be a pain to move them back and forth."
「By evening」
The other members of the squad finished their respective tasks and gathered in a circle in the living room of unit 502.
Many of them looked at Cao Biansheng with curiosity. They had all seen him before, but they never expected that this honest-looking, "thick-eyebrowed, big-eyed" guy would end up "defecting" to their side.
Cao Biansheng squirmed uncomfortably under their gazes.
Qin Ziwen began. "We have a lot to cover today, so in the interest of getting you all home sooner, I’ll keep it brief."
"First, let’s all welcome Cao Biansheng to our guild. He’s one of us now."
The room erupted in thunderous applause.
"Second, Teacher Luo has a building called the Traveler’s Tea House..."
After hearing about the purpose of the Traveler’s Tea House, the group immediately broke into excited discussion.
"So, can we leave through this Traveler’s Tea House?"
Cao Biansheng said, "No, we’ve tried. You can think of the tea house as a rest stop on a highway. We’re the staff at the rest stop. Only the ’cars’ can travel on the highway; people can’t get on it."
Du Yu’s eyes flickered as he considered the broader implications.
’Back when I was with the Lord at the tavern... could the money we got from those customers be used to trade with these traveling merchants?’
But Du Yu kept these thoughts to himself.
"So," Qin Ziwen continued, "we should discuss what we’re going to trade with the traveling merchants when they next arrive."
"Let me think... Oh, Captain! What about the Single Claw Dragon pelts from the ones we killed?" Li Yue said excitedly. "A Single Claw Dragon’s hide might be thin, but the patterns are beautiful. And they definitely don’t have Single Claw Dragons over there, right? That means our pelts would be an extremely rare commodity!"
"And to convince them of the pelts’ value, I think we should keep one Single Claw Dragon carcass intact! We can show them that the hides come from this creature. With a whole carcass as proof, it’ll really drive home the value of the pelts!"
"It’s not just the Single Claw Dragon pelts. The hide of the Giant Hyena King must be incredibly rare, too."
The group burst into another round of lively discussion.
Qin Ziwen nodded.
Zhao Pu suddenly spoke up. "Right, Chairman, you just mentioned that weapons are strictly regulated in the Great Yong."
"They are," Du Yu confirmed. "Outside of the military, only Hunters and Military Households are permitted to own one or two Bows, plus a sword or two."