439 Chapter 439: The Way Forward (1/2)
Despite my apparently harsh words, I found something for both Adrian and Melina to do. Since my duties included summoning Corvus and sending them around for reconnaissance missions, I was left vulnerable while I monitored the landscape through their eyes and ears. That was where Adrian and Melina came in. They spotted for me in the immediate vicinity, warning me of incoming dangers while I was distracted with the job of looking through the multiple eyes of so many Corvus.
The Silver Wolves mercenaries continued to climb the mountain, the scouts forging ahead in search of any sign of Ling Dan or any other humans. I continued to maintain a visual from above, my flock of Corvus easily navigating the skies and avoiding direct contact with other monsters. Even airborne monsters such as the Demonic Drakes we encountered earlier didn't bother to harass my Corvus for no reason other than food.
Fortunately, they weren't hungry right now, and those few predators that sought to hunt my Corvus were easily evaded, my crows diving right into the canopy of the sparse forest that dotted the mountains' slopes and disappearing within their leaves, much to the winged monsters' confusion or frustration.
And so our journey continued for a couple more hours, where we managed to avoid a horde of monsters by staying close to the trees and keeping our physical profiles as low as possible. As hostile as the monsters were toward us, they couldn't attack what they didn't see or hear. We had to be wary of their animal senses – which were a lot sharper than us humans, but it was nothing a good distance couldn't take care of.
”You don't know where this legendary receptarier is?” Adrian asked, panting as he and Melina struggled to keep up. I didn't blame him. Even I found the trek very taxing, and I wiped the perspiration from my forehead before I answered.
”No. All we know is that he might be residing somewhere in the Yao Cai Mountains, and even that's just a rumor. I hope it's true, though, or this would have been a wasted journey.”
Adrian wisely didn't remark on that or on our extremely low chances. Instead, he just nodded thoughtfully.
”The Yao Cai Mountains are known for the medicinal herbs that grow on them, right?” He asked. ”And if I'm not mistaken, because they feed on these herbs, or because the herbivorous monsters that eat the herbs are in turn preyed upon by the predators here, the monsters inhabiting the Yao Cai Mountains also have certain medicinal properties, which are used by alchemists and receptariers to forge spirit pills.”
Why was this starting to sound suspiciously like some stupid cultivation story that involved concocting spirit pills and other medicine? Was I going to get some stupid alchemy urn or pot or furnace next and turn into a spirit alchemist?
Fuck, no. This was not an alchemist or receptarier story. Just look at the damned title. You see the word Summoner? That's all I'm going to do. Summon stuff. Not heal (or summon monsters that can heal). Not craft weapons like a blacksmith (go read Spirit Realm or The Great Conqueror or Doluo Dalu II: Jueshi Tangmen for that). Nor was I ever going to concoct spirit pills like the majority of cultivators or urban cultivators – go read Battle Through the Heavens or The Hunter or the millions of urban cultivator stories floating all over the Internet if you're looking for that. Stop asking me to come up with healing summons or summons that can produce alchemy or spirit pills or summons that can create weapons (what, my Constellation weapons aren't good enough for you?). Summoning magic wasn't a super-convenient magic that allowed you to simply summon whatever you want or whatever you need.
I was getting pissed off at the countless self-entitled readers who were used to overpowered Mary Sue protagonists going into god mode and literally shitting out spirit pills from their asses or being a super doctor in addition to their godlike martial arts. Jesus Christ, am I not allowed to be a relatively normal protagonist or something?
”Isn't your family well known for running a pharmaceutical company?” Melina asked Adrian, a curious expression on her face. Now that she mentioned it, I realized that she was right. The Stuart family did have a massive pharmaceutical company under their name. Particularly since wood mages had an affinity with identifying and preparing medicinal herbs and other plant ingredients, so many branch family members ended up becoming pharmacists.
Yeah, pharmacists. Not alchemists. Not receptariers. That was actually the proper name for people who manufactured medicine and other healing products. Which made this legendary Ling Dan even more dubious.
Then again, a lot of Chinese authors loved to exaggerate the so-called superiority of traditional Chinese medicine over Western medicine, and made up all these weird spirit pills and acupuncture techniques just to embarrass their medical counterparts who received a degree in medicine from Western universities, or Western-influenced universities, who were often portrayed as completely inept, corrupted (no doubt because of Western influence) and useless.
The more I thought about it, the more I dreaded about our chances of actually finding this guy. Reality wasn't so convenient to have a miracle TCM doctor show up with a cure-all. And come to think of it, if he really was that awesome, why the fuck would he hide in the mountains, away from all civilization? You would think that such a remarkable and lauded figure would go around healing people, and getting rich because of how in-demand his medicinal skills were.
”Did Teacher Cure deceive us?” I muttered. But why would she do that? She had no reason to lie to us and send us on a wild goose chase. Not unless the whole thing was a trap…but being a healer, if she wanted to kill or harm us, she had plenty of opportunities to do so in the infirmary, while we were injured or sick. She wouldn't deliberately send the whole lot of us into a trap like this.
What was going on here?
Scratching my head, I sighed. No use thinking too much about it. I wasn't going to find out by brooding over it in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't as if Teacher Cure was around for me to ask her. I had better things to do, such as focusing on finding the elusive Ling Dan. Even though I couldn't fully shrug off the feeling that we had just been duped, for now I decided to do my best to search. I would worry about what to do after we were unable to find him, but not before I even tried.
”Brother Richard? What's the matter?” Adrian had been bragging to Melina about the branch families of the Stuart clan, but he was astute to notice that I was fussing over something mentally. I let out a strained smile and shook my head.
”Nothing. Just a little worried that you might be right.”
”Huh? Right about what?”
”That this whole this is a wild goose chase, and no such miracle medicine conveniently exists.”
”Isn't it too late to begin doubting the veracity of the whole operation?” Adrian asked with a shrug. ”I mean, I know I was the one who raised that to begin with, but now that you've come all the way here, might as well look around, right?”
”Yeah, that's right,” I agreed as I pushed my mnd away from the lingering doubts and focused on seeing through my Corvus's eyes. ”Look with eyes unclouded and a mind unhindered by fear and doubts.”
”What's that?” Melina giggled. ”That sounds so cheesy.”
”Sorry. I was just butchering a quote from some Studio Ghibli movie.” Even this far into the future, children from all over the world – including the Empires outside the Global Federation – continued to watch Studio Ghibli movies. These animation films stood the test of time and remained as loved classics even after almost a thousand years.
”Mononoke Hime!” Adrian guessed correctly and I nodded with a grin.