With the group's departure, the small mountain village returned to its usual tranquility. The local chieftain, though far from virtuous, maintained an unspoken truce with Su Min—neither interfering with the other.
Today, she ventured into the city for supplies. The Kuntai Sect members had proven to be shockingly wealthy, leaving her with over a hundred taels of silver. More than enough for her needs—and weight was no concern. Although the system hadn't granted her any special storage space, the quality of this ring she possessed was genuinely top-tier.
Its internal storage measured 100x100x100 units—equivalent to a thirty-story residential building. For Su Min, it was practically limitless. Even better, time within it stood still. An apple placed inside would remain fresh a century later.
So she could spend every last tael without worry. The goods wouldn't spoil, and the money itself meant little to her.
"I haven't been here in years, and the city has changed a lot," Su Min murmured. She now stood before Nanyao City, located in the southernmost region of the Great Wei Empire. Years ago, during her desperate flight south, she had passed through here.
Although she had stirred up quite a commotion in Great Wei, it seemed to have had almost no impact here. Even the arrest warrants and bounty posters hadn't reached this far. When she entered the city today, she made sure to check—there were still none.
Who knew whether the documents had been lost over the past two years—or if they were never delivered at all. Either way, Su Min didn't care. She dressed plainly, wearing slightly masculine clothes, and tied up her hair in a simple bun, making it difficult for others to distinguish her gender at a glance.
"Boss, give me three jin of roast meat and one jin of strong liquor," she said.
Although Nanyao City sat at the empire's southern edge and faced constant pressure from the mountain tribes and local chieftains, it wasn't a fortress city.
Instead, it had developed into a bustling commercial hub. After all, the more sparsely populated a place, the richer and purer its spiritual energy.
Naturally, the surrounding mountains produced an abundance of medicinal herbs. While local doctors couldn't refine them into pills like Su Min could—maximizing their effects—even raw materials of high quality could be boiled into effective medicinal stews. Some herbs alone could nourish the body, invigorate the blood, or boost vitality.
These herbs yielded considerable profits. Villagers from the mountains often came to the city to sell herbs and buy necessities. This trade fueled Nanyao's prosperity. But today...
"Why are there so many beggars?" Su Min muttered.
Sitting in the second-floor dining hall of a tavern, she had generously ordered a full spread. The food here was inexpensive—a single tael of silver was more than enough. But looking down at the crowded streets, she frowned.
"Oh, they're beggars from the north," explained the waiter while wiping down her table.
"I heard that two years ago, a massive wildfire ravaged the north, and karma hit hard. Afterwards, rats swarmed everywhere, eating up all the grain and crops. Then came floods and mudslides. After so many disasters, the entire north descended into chaos."
"Oh?" Su Min responded lightly, though she already suspected it wasn't just one disaster that had struck. That man surnamed Zhao probably hadn't understood the full extent either.
"These people have been fleeing south ever since, trying to find a way to survive. But there's hardly any surplus grain left, even in the imperial granaries. Only those hiding deep in the mountains have managed to barely survive. The northerners aren't used to the water and soil down here, so they don't dare venture too far into the wilds."
"The mountains aren't safe either," the waiter continued. "The local chieftains are greedy beyond measure. Their taxes have long since bled the common folk dry."
Su Min sneered at the mention of chieftains. One such chieftain had once demanded taxes from her—and even tried to claim her as his concubine. Naturally, she had taught him a lesson: tied him up, broke his legs, healed them, and broke them again, repeating the cycle until he spent an entire year either recovering from a broken leg or on his way to having another one broken.
~Edit and rewritten by Rikhi, Reiya_Alberich, ReiNyam~
No one dared stop her. Now they treated her like a ghost. Incidentally, her medical skills became famous precisely because of this—no one else could heal broken bones so quickly.
"Sigh." The waiter shook his head. His family-owned tavern survived only by avoiding exorbitant rents.
"Those beggars now survive by waiting for leftovers from restaurants like ours. Most of them are lazy, though. Some go into the mountains to gather firewood, wild vegetables, and mushrooms. If they're lucky, they might catch a wild rat or two for meat."
"But it's dangerous to leave the city nowadays—you wouldn't believe it..."
A patron at a nearby table cut in:
"Miss, you may not know this, but up north..." The man leaned in dramatically. "At night, the abandoned hills and graveyards glow with lights. Vendors selling food, sugar figures, and candied hawthorns suddenly appear out of nowhere. And if you dare look into their cooking pots..."
"What?" Su Min smiled, already guessing.
"Heads!" The man said eagerly. "They're steaming human heads in their buns! Those big soup pots—full of human thigh bones! And those candied hawthorn skewers? All eyeballs!"
"Enough!" The waiter snapped. "We're eating. One more word, and you're out."
The man clicked his tongue in disappointment, giving up with a resigned shrug. He had wanted to see this young woman scream and panic, but her reaction was unusually calm. Naturally so—Su Min was a modern person, after all. After years of watching gory films and surviving in this chaotic world, she was unfazed by a few ghost stories.
A few gruesome tales wouldn't scare her. Even if she were thrown into one of those so-called ghost markets, she might feel disgusted—but never afraid.
"It seems this world is about to fall into chaos," Su Min thought to herself, ignoring the disappointed gazes from around the tavern. She began planning her next steps internally.
"The world's unraveling. Once the treasure gourd ripens, I'll need to travel."
As for the leering stares from nearby tables—Su Min didn't bother to hide her appearance. Anyone with eyes could tell she was a woman. Some men tried to make advances, but unfortunately for them, that kind of trick had absolutely no effect on her.