Chapter 139: Chapter 133: Dawn Miles, Try This Medicine

The wooden token was deep red, perfectly square, and cool to the touch. The front was carved with the words “The Myriad Machina” in an ancient script, and the back bore the Myriad Machina Flower, the symbol of the Myriad Machina Sect.

From a distance, it resembled a three-dimensional blooming flower, but up close, one could see it was composed of a myriad of different floral species. The carving was meticulous, making the flowers seem to come to life.

“My master gave this to me. Since you are my disciple, I’m giving it to you now.”

Aurora Sinclair nodded and thanked him.

Jared Miles, who had been ignored until now, glanced at the wooden token. ’My junior sister really lucked out,’ he thought. ’That’s the Sect Leader Token of the Myriad Machina Sect.’

“Huh? Aren’t you The Master’s eldest boy?”

Only after handing over the token did Quentin Stone notice Jared Miles standing next to Aurora Sinclair.

Jared Miles smiled. “Long time no see, Master Stone.”

Quentin Stone clapped him on the shoulder and said in a gruff voice, “You brat, you haven’t been back in a long time. You’re having a few drinks with me later! Is this for me? Nice, you even remember my favorite brand…”

Jared Miles agreed with a wry smile.

Quentin Stone was a hopeless alcoholic, but he couldn’t hold his liquor, so he spent his days in a drunken stupor. He only worked to earn money for more booze, which made his life even more of a mess than his own master’s.

Because of this, Flora Guthrie had once declared that she would break the legs of anyone who dared to drink with Quentin Stone again.

***

By the time they returned from the back mountain, Leigh Miles had already sorted all the gifts. She was labeling them with a calligraphy brush, looking for all the world like a little housekeeper.

“Aurora, our village has twenty-eight households, and I’ve prepared a gift for each one. I wrote the family’s name on every gift, so we can just deliver them accordingly.”

Jared Miles looked at the red cloth tags now tied to each gift and beckoned with an amused smile. “Leigh Miles, let’s go pay our debt to Warner first.”

Leigh Miles walked toward the door across from them, her face a mask of agony as if she were personally footing the bill. Jared Miles knocked, and an impatient voice called from within, “You’ve been hopping the wall for years. Why pretend to be so civilized now?”

Leigh Miles blushed, took a few steps back for a running start, and scrambled over the wall with practiced ease.

In the courtyard, Flora Guthrie was painting by the medicinal garden, while Warner squatted beside it, posing as her model. “Don’t step on my medicinal sprouts—” he muttered.

“Ma’am Flora, we’re back…”

Flora Guthrie glanced up at her and said irritably, “The dogs have been barking forever. What took you so long to come over?”

Leigh Miles rubbed her nose and said sweetly, “We brought you a gift.”

“That’s more like it. Go open the door for them.”

Leigh Miles immediately hopped down from the wall and opened the door from the inside.

Flora Guthrie looked toward the entrance, and the moment she saw Jared Miles, she shot to her feet.

“Jared, what are you doing back?”

“Ma’am Flora…”

“You rotten brat, so you’re the reason for all this!” Flora Guthrie flung her calligraphy brush at him. Jared Miles deftly caught it and said with a laugh, “Ma’am Flora, your brush…”

Ronan Warner glanced at his clothes and snorted. “You must have been slacking on your training since leaving the mountain. Can’t even dodge a splash of ink.”

Jared Miles glanced down at his clothes and gave a wry smile. His perfectly fine suit jacket was now splattered with several drops of ink.

“Jared, take it off, quick! I’ll wash it for you…” Leigh Miles was heartbroken over the ruined jacket.

’Such nice fabric!’

Ronan Warner tossed Leigh Miles a small vial with a grunt.

Overjoyed, Leigh Miles quickly uncapped the vial and poured its contents onto Jared Miles’s jacket. A moment later, the ink stains disappeared.

“Thank you, Apothecary Warner…”

“Have you memorized the apothecary canons?” Ronan Warner asked.

The smile on Leigh Miles’s face froze. She rubbed her nose and chuckled sheepishly. ’I’m done for,’ she thought. ’I haven’t even glanced at the handwritten copies of the canons I took with me. I’ve probably forgotten most of the three volumes I’d already memorized.’

Ronan Warner was so furious he almost grabbed the nearest object to hurl at her. He had spent days painstakingly copying those apothecary canons for her, and she hadn’t even given them a single glance?

’That rotten girl, just as lazy and unmotivated as Daoist Miles!’

“Don’t even think about leaving the mountain until you’ve memorized those canons!”

Leigh Miles’s face fell. She obediently scurried over to a desk, picked up a yellowed apothecary tome, and pretended to read it with great concentration.

Jared Miles took a check from his pocket and handed it to Ronan Warner. “This is for the medicine Dawn Miles owes you. Fifty-three million in total.”

But Ronan Warner merely glanced at the check and replied nonchalantly, “No rush. Dawn Miles, come try this medicine…”

Ronan Warner brought a bowl of water out from The Apothecary’s Hut and dropped a small, black pill into it.

The pill dissolved the moment it touched the water, turning the clear liquid black and releasing a fishy stench.

“What is this stuff? It stinks! How do you expect Rory to drink that?” Flora Guthrie demanded, pinching her nose and glaring at him.

Ronan Warner pressed the bowl into Aurora Sinclair’s hands and explained patiently, “Flora, don’t be angry. It’s a new formula. One of the ingredients has a bit of a stench, but the medicine is highly effective—three to four times more potent than before. If Dawn Miles drinks this, she won’t need any more medicine for half a year…”

Before he could finish, there was a loud CLANG as the porcelain bowl hit the ground. Aurora Sinclair’s eyes shut, and she fell backward, stiff as a board. Luckily, Jared Miles was quick enough to catch her, or she would have cracked her head on the ground.

“Dawn Miles—”

“Aurora—”

“Rory! Warner, did you use Rory as a test subject again? I swear I’ll kill you!” Flora Guthrie cried, flying into a panic. She shoved Ronan Warner aside and rushed to Aurora Sinclair’s side to check her pulse.

Jared Miles’s face was grim as he pinched the pressure point under Aurora Sinclair’s nose, but she remained unconscious.

“Relax, she’s fine! The medicine is perfectly safe. It’s normal to sleep for a few hours the first time you take it.”

“You’re so unreliable! If that good-for-nothing Daoist were here, he’d beat you to a pulp!”

“He’d dare—”

Jared Miles carefully carried Aurora Sinclair into The Apothecary’s Hut and laid her on a bamboo mat.

Aurora Sinclair’s face was flushed, and her temperature was steadily rising. The “Power” inside her body flared up intermittently.

Ronan Warner checked Aurora Sinclair’s eyelids, then took her pulse again. After a moment of contemplation, he beckoned to Leigh Miles. “Come with me to the storeroom to get some herbs. We’re going to prepare a medicinal bath for her…”

“Is Aurora going to be okay? Why won’t she wake up?”

Ronan Warner tapped her on the head, seemingly annoyed by such a foolish question. “The medicine acts on the nervous system. It’s only natural that she’d fall into a deep sleep.”

Leigh Miles glanced back at Aurora Sinclair, her expression full of worry.

***

The medicinal bath consisted of a large wooden tub, half the height of a person, set up over a stove. They filled it with various herbs and mountain spring water, then placed a naked Aurora Sinclair inside. The water was heated slowly and kept at a steady temperature of around 40 degrees Celsius. Every hour, they added more spring water, continuing the process until the dark liquid began to lighten in color.

The bath lasted for five or six hours, but Aurora Sinclair remained in a deep slumber, showing no signs of waking.

Terrified, Flora Guthrie started pounding on Ronan Warner’s chest. “Warner! You said she’d wake up after five or six hours! Why isn’t she waking up?”

Ronan Warner checked her pulse again, then picked up a black notebook and flipped it open to a certain page.

“What is that?”

“The Young Family Notes!”

“The Young… the Young Family? You used the Young Family Notes to make her medicine? Ronan Warner, have you lost your mind?!”

Ronan Warner tried to placate her in a low voice. “This concoction is beneficial for her, not harmful.”

“She’s burning up, and you’re telling me she’s fine? Ronan Warner, if you dare follow the same disastrous path as the Young Family, I will cripple you myself on behalf of The Radiant Sect!” Flora Guthrie was so furious she grabbed him by the collar, her voice a loud threat.

Ronan Warner sounded helpless. “The Young Family may have been a bit radical, but they also created some excellent concoctions. These notes contain a few formulas that are perfect for Dawn Miles at her current stage.”

“What formulas? All they ever made were things that harmed people.”

Ronan Warner looked down at the notebook in his hands and sighed wistfully. “Flora, the original intention behind the plan back then… it was a good one.”

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