The next day.
Jun Changxiao came to Qingyang City to purchase Hunger-Sating Grass.
What surprised him was that this medicinal herb was completely as common as cabbage sold on the streets—he could easily buy thousands of stalks by just entering a few medicine shops.
Hunger-Sating Grass wasn’t really any precious medicinal ingredient. It could be easily gathered from many forests and mountains.
When martial artists went out into the wilderness for training, if they encountered food shortages, they would often gather it on the spot to satisfy their hunger.
Hence, it was named Hunger-Sating Grass.
Later, people also discovered that livestock enjoyed eating this herb as well, so medicine shops all kept it in stock. It could be considered an inexpensive and quality feed.
After buying enough Hunger-Sating Grass, Jun Changxiao opened his Spirit Beast Pavilion and began mass-producing Elementary Beast Pills.
Elementary Beast Pills were faster to refine than First-Grade Healing Pills. In just a short while, he had refined several dozen pills.
Speaking of which.
Buying something like Hunger-Sating Grass—couldn’t he just leave it to his disciples? Why did he need to handle it personally?
In truth, Jun Changxiao came to Qingyang City not only to buy materials, but also had the intention of dropping by to catch up with City Lord Xie.
He was going to challenge the Holy Spring Sect, and since City Lord Xie would accompany him, he naturally needed to bring gifts along.
Not much though.
Giving a few Middle-Grade Healing Pills would be no problem.
“Alas.”
In the reception hall, after putting away the pills, Xie Guangkun let out a sigh.
Jun Changxiao asked, “Does City Lord Xie have troubles on his mind?”
“I just received news.”
Xie Guangkun said with a face full of worry, “The Sixth-Rank Zhenyang Commandery has already launched a war. Perhaps before long, it will affect our Qingyang Commandery.”
“Is that so.” Jun Changxiao said.
Although the Tiegu Sect had an intelligence agency, it only operated within a small scope, so they didn’t know that the southwestern Yangzhou was now engulfed in flames of war.
Many high-ranking commanderies had already joined the war, fighting quite fiercely.
The Ninth-Rank Qingyang Commandery couldn’t be compared to the major commanderies. Once the flames of war spread here, they would certainly be easily swallowed up.
“Alas.”
Xie Guangkun said, “When the world is not at peace, it’s the common people who suffer.”
Jun Changxiao said, “That City Lord Xie can maintain such an attitude truly commands deep respect.”
Among those in power who wished to achieve great achievements, all of them built their success on mountains of bones—those who truly cared about the common people were few and far between.
“As I said before.”
Jun Changxiao said, “My Tiegu Sect is in Qingyang City, so we are people of Qingyang City. Whoever dares to invade, we will certainly fight to defend our homeland!”
“With Sect Master Jun’s words, this Xie can rest assured.” City Lord Xie said.
“However.”
He added, “If we could request people from the Cangshan Sect to temporarily station themselves in Qingyang City, perhaps we could deter those forces with ill intentions.”
Jun Changxiao immediately understood.
City Lord Xie felt reassured precisely because the Tiegu Sect had an alliance with the Cangshan Sect.
“City Lord Xie.”
Jun Changxiao said, “If there really are forces with designs on our Qingyang City, even having the Cangshan Sect as our backing might not provide any protection.”
“…” Xie Guangkun fell silent.
Within the Zhenyang Commandery’s borders, there were four Fifth-Rate sects and even one Fourth-Rate sect. If they truly wanted to devour Qingyang Commandery, they would certainly deal with the Cangshan Sect first.
Alas.
His own thinking was too naive.
Jun Changxiao said, “When war is unavoidable, what we can do is rely on ourselves to defend our homeland.”
Xie Guangkun said bitterly, “Qingyang Commandery’s strength is too weak. How can we contend with those high-ranking commanderies?”
It was both a feeling of inferiority and helplessness.
After all, the disparity in strength couldn’t be made up just by talking about it.
Jun Changxiao said, “Even if we might not be able to contend with high-ranking commanderies, we still have to try. Otherwise, we’ll have even less hope.”
“That makes sense.”
City Lord Xie said, “This Xie is preparing to reinforce the city walls and recruit martial cultivators to form military regiments, hoping that when the flames of war spread here, we’ll have the strength to defend Qingyang City.”
“That works.” Jun Changxiao said.
Regarding war, he had no brilliant insights and couldn’t offer any strategies.
The two chatted for a while longer before he bid farewell and left.
During this conversation, the mention of the Cangshan Sect made Jun Changxiao consider: “It’s about time to visit the Fifth-Rate and Sixth-Rate sects.”
Elder Ma had visited before. Since they had an alliance, reciprocating the visit was only proper.
Moreover.
A Fifth-Rate sect would certainly have more comprehensive systems. As a sect master, he naturally needed to go inspect and learn.
Returning to the Tiegu Sect, he finished refining all the Elementary Beast Pills.
To test their effectiveness, Jun Changxiao summoned the gluttonous Little Dragon and made it swallow one pill.
And wouldn’t you know it.
The effect was excellent!
The normally voracious Little Dragon didn’t go to the dining hall the next day and wandered around the sect at leisure, looking quite spirited.
Jun Changxiao said speechlessly, “If I’d known the Spirit Beast Pavilion had this kind of pill earlier, why would I have gone through all that trouble to find food in the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range?”
…
“Aoowu!”
“Aoowu!”
From the forest on Tiegu Mountain came waves of wolf howls, and then Su Xiaomo and Li Fei could be seen galloping by, each riding a Hurricane Wolf.
The two were speed-type martial cultivators, and having wind-element beasts as mounts naturally delighted them immensely.
Jun Changxiao placed the refined Elementary Beast Pills in the wolf den, saying, “This should be enough for them to eat for three to five months.”
Walking out of the wolf den and seeing Su Xiaomo and Li Fei darting about in the forest, a sudden inspiration struck him: “Why not create a Wolf Cavalry Regiment?”
War had already broken out in southwestern Yangzhou, and it might well affect Qingyang Commandery.
If he could cultivate a troop of soldiers riding wolves as beasts of war, it should prove quite useful.
Once he thought of it, he acted on it.
Sect Master Jun returned to the sect and gathered the disciples, selecting a hundred disciples with decent cultivation levels.
These people were not only equipped with Hurricane Wolves but also with Overlord Spears, Solid Iron Shields, and Soft Silk Armor—truly fully armed!
Of course.
Sect Master Jun wasn’t simply preparing for the war that might come. He also thought, why not establish a Wolf Cavalry Hall from this?
Living in the martial world, who could avoid getting cut?
In the future, if disciples went out and got into conflicts with disciples from other sects that escalated to fights, disciples riding wolf cavalry could undoubtedly arrive much faster!
From this sudden burst of inspiration, the Tiegu Sect gained another hall called the “Wolf Cavalry Hall,” with Li Luoqiu temporarily serving as hall master.
“Alas.”
Hall Master Li said gloomily, “You’re assigning me to be another Wolf Cavalry Hall master. Does the Sect Master think I’m not idle enough already?”
“The capable should do more work.” Jun Changxiao said.
“…” Luoqiu was speechless.
Jun Changxiao said, “Starting today, you’re responsible for their training. Strive to help them master controlling the Hurricane Wolves in the shortest time possible.”
“The Sect Master suddenly formed a Wolf Cavalry Regiment and established a Wolf Cavalry Hall—could it be you’re thinking of developing an army to compete for supremacy over the world and expand territory?” Li Luoqiu asked.
Jun Changxiao said, “This Seat has no intention of competing for supremacy over the world, but this world is not at peace. We must make some preparations at the very least, so we have the strength to protect ourselves when danger arrives.”
“Correct.”
Li Luoqiu expressed deep agreement.
Living in turbulent times, one should be cautious. Cultivating a group of well-equipped disciples was absolutely necessary!
And so, from then on, our Hall Master Li not only had to train the members of the Drizzle Hall but also train the Wolf Cavalry Hall—truly putting the capable to work with multiple responsibilities.
As for Jun Changxiao, he went to Huyang City, first buying quite a lot of Hunger-Sating Grass, then visiting Family Head Ai. Upon returning, he put the plan to visit the Cangshan Sect on his agenda.