Chapter 1028: Floral Water

After Changle had thought it through, he immediately found Dahong and Changxian to explain the matter to them.

Dahong was still very cautious, or perhaps too careful in his actions; he said to Changle, "Changle Prince, how far away do you need to go on this expedition?"

Changle had already thought it through and said directly, "At least a distance of fifteen days or more. I have already been to all the places nearby, and your Soldiers have already been to the places slightly further away for me. But now is the time when all plants are bearing fruit and propagating; it is the most suitable time to go out and collect species. If we miss this year, we will have to wait until next year."

"Therefore, I must go far enough this time to take a look; this is also my main purpose for coming to the Xuanyuan Tribe."

Upon hearing of such a long distance, Dahong's expression immediately soured: "Changle Prince, isn't this distance a bit too far? You previously only went to places three or four days away. Going this far all at once, isn't that a bit too much? Why not shorten the itinerary and go to a place seven or eight days away? Our Soldiers have been to those places, and food is easy to carry; you won't have to worry about having no food on the return trip, and it will be safer."

"Dahong, since I am willing to do this work, it means I am not afraid of death at all. You can rest assured; if I die in the wilderness, as long as it is not for human reasons, my father will certainly not blame you. Besides, I have so many Soldiers protecting me, what is there to be afraid of?"

Dahong had no authority to stop Changle and could only offer some dissuasion. Perhaps Changle had not been so willing to go out before, so with a little persuasion, Changle would directly shorten the itinerary or even give it up entirely. But this time, no matter how one looked at it, Changle seemed very determined and was set on going.

"Changle Prince, why don't you shorten the distance a bit more? Ten days' distance, how about that? Ten days' distance is already far enough. Besides, you still have to look for different plants and collect those things, right? That also takes time; there is really no need to go that far."

Unexpectedly, Changle agreed directly: "Fine, then ten days' distance. What you said makes a lot of sense. But Dahong, I will be out for about thirty days round-trip this time, but it will not exceed thirty days. If I haven't returned after thirty days, you can send people to look for us. We will leave marks along the way."

Dahong was immediately stunned. Could it be that Changle's goal was not that far to begin with, and he was just haggling with him, fearing that if he said he was going too far at the start, he wouldn't agree? But now that it was already agreed upon, and he had said it himself, what other way was there?

Dahong said with a bitter face: "Fine, Changle, I agree to you this time. Our Tribal Chief is not here, so please don't torment this old Laozi. If something happens to you, I really won't be able to explain it to Huaxia."

"How about this: regardless of how many Huaxia Soldiers you bring yourself, I will send two hundred men from my side, okay? Two hundred people, fully armed, carrying everything you need, following to protect you, how about that?"

Changle beamed with joy: "Good, good, good. But Dahong, I actually don't need that many Soldiers. I only need you to provide fifty Soldiers, preferably those who have followed me before and are already quite familiar. We will still provide the Weapons from Huaxia, and there will be an outing subsidy."

"Also, give me about one hundred strong laborers to be responsible for carrying our food, Tents, and such. It's fine if there are even more people. This time out, I might also dig up some pretty flowers to bring back and plant in my courtyard; I need quite a lot of manpower."

"Good, good, good, Changle Prince. I will prepare everything you want for you. But really, you must promise me: ten days' distance at the furthest, then leave marks along the way, and return here within thirty days. Can you do that?"

Changle raised an eyebrow: "Of course that is no problem, Dahong. I can fully agree to this. For the sake of my own safety, I cannot go against you on this matter."

Dahong stood up immediately and stretched out his hand: "Changle Prince, let us strike palms as a pledge!"

"No problem, come!"

Slap!

Changle had already lost count of how many mosquitoes he had slapped to death today. He never expected that there would be so many mosquitoes in the place where he was now. This location was already nine days' travel from the Xuanyuan Tribe's Qingqiu City.

However, Changle had already been away from Qingqiu City for fourteen days by now. His main purpose for coming out was to find all kinds of different plants he would encounter along the way, rather than just walking around. However, the journey here was slow, so the return trip would be much faster.

Changle felt mosquito bites on his face, his feet, and everywhere else. He had even used Silk to make a face mask for himself, but facing this kind of overwhelming swarm of mosquitoes, they really had no way to deal with them; they could always find a place to bite you.

To avoid being drained by the mosquitoes, Changle immediately had everyone head toward higher ground. Their current location was a low-lying stagnant swamp, which was why there were so many mosquitoes. If Changle hadn't seen many kinds of aquatic and semi-aquatic Grass that he had never seen before, he wouldn't have thought about going to such a place.

Once they reached higher ground, the wind was a bit stronger and there were far fewer mosquitoes. They finally felt liberated. Changle, who had been bitten silly by the mosquitoes, immediately had someone take out the Floral Water, which was kept in a gourd.

This kind of Floral Water was made by Baifeng using mugwort, mint, and a large amount of Snake Gallbladder. Huaxia had enough Alcohol, so making Floral Water was not a difficult task.

And Snake Gallbladder was not a difficult thing to come by in this era. Huaxia could have the Pharmacy harvest two or three Snake Gallbladders every day, so it was not scarce. The most troublesome thing was the storage problem; in this era, it was impossible to make vessels with such good seals, so if the Floral Water was stored for too long, it would evaporate.

If it weren't for this mission, Changle wouldn't have brought the Floral Water along. He dabbed a little on his forehead and eyelids, which finally stopped the itching.

Looking at the still-swollen faces of the others, Changle felt bad and passed the gourd down: "You all pick the more severe spots and apply a little; it will feel better. But be careful not to drop it; we didn't bring too much."

The guard hurriedly refused: "Prince, this is yours. We must ensure your safety first. It doesn't matter for us; we've already been bitten anyway."

Changle said firmly: "Enough, hurry up and apply some. You have such big welts on your faces. I hope these mosquitoes aren't poisonous and won't kill anyone. Besides, medicine is for people to use; don't worry about whose it is. I am telling you to use it, so use it."