Chapter 583: Strangers Yet Familiar Ancestors (2)

Baifeng pretended to know nothing and greeted them silently, then under Xuanyuan's introduction, he got to know everyone; afterwards, Baifeng took Xuanyuan to slowly begin touring Huaxia City, while Leizu was accompanied by Sui and Chinv.

Returning this time, Xuanyuan was more natural, as it was not his first time seeing it, and his own home had gradually shown improvement, so the gap with Huaxia was not as large, meaning he did not need to be overly surprised; furthermore, this time Baifeng did not hide anything, but answered almost every question asked.

Xuanyuan asked a question that had puzzled him for a long time: "What exactly is this paved on the road? It isn't stone, is it?"

Baifeng pointed at the road surface and the walls, saying: "This is called Cement. It is a building material I made that is like earth, but as long as it encounters water, once the water dries, it becomes as hard as stone. We in Huaxia use this stuff for paving roads and building houses; it is very sturdy."

Seeing Baifeng so frank, Xuanyuan continued to ask: "Since it can be used to pave roads, that means it isn't hard to make, and the output must be very large, right?"

Baifeng did not deny it: "Yes, the output is especially large, but the consumption is also great. In the case of only supplying our own home, we can disregard the cost, and in the manufacturing process, it produces a large amount of dust, which is harmful to the human body."

Xuanyuan caught the subtext in Baifeng's words: "You mean that if you use it yourselves, you don't have to worry about that much, but if it's for trade, the price won't be low, right?"

Baifeng nodded in reply: "Correct. You know about pottery, right? It is actually more troublesome to make than pottery, and such a stretch of road requires an unknown amount of Cement, so it is very expensive. However, I will give your Xuanyuan Tribe a few bags; after you go back, even if you use it to build a house or make a water-storage pool, it is fine. This Cement hardly leaks water at all."

Xuanyuan's mouth was blocked, and he could only say okay. Although he really wanted to trade for Cement—because it was called 'mud', the price shouldn't be high—judging by Baifeng's meaning, it would not be low. Even if there were no cost, how it was discussed during trade would still depend on Baifeng's intentions.

However, being able to get a few bags gifted by Baifeng for free was not bad; he could go and study how it was made himself. He hadn't expected that the always calculating Baifeng would be so generous now; what exactly was the reason?

Along the way, besides the roads and houses, Xuanyuan also noticed that there were plants deliberately planted on the sides of the roads in Huaxia City. He was somewhat puzzled and asked: "Why plant these things on the roadside? In the places where these things are planted, couldn't the road be built wider?"

Baifeng smiled and pointed to the Peony flowers that had already faded: "This flower is called Peony. I think it is the Peony King. You have also seen this kind of flower; the flowers are so big and so gorgeous, aren't they beautiful? It's a pity that you came a bit late; otherwise, you would have been able to see this whole row full of blooming Peonies."

Xuanyuan remained puzzled: "They can't be eaten, so what is the use of them being beautiful?"

Baifeng spread his hands: "Being beautiful is the use. If this place were bare, and there were only people in a city without a bit of other vitality, don't you think it would be too boring? It's like a cave where you can't see the sun. People are called people because, besides their stomachs, they also have a more powerful brain. When people are full and satisfied, they will consider the problem of reproduction, but besides reproduction, what else can you do? My answer is: the pursuit of beauty."

Of course, this is only one of the pursuits; for ordinary people, it is like this. For kings like us, opening up larger territories, feeding more people, and inventing more useful things are our pursuits. But we cannot only think of ourselves, right? Our people are already able to eat their fill and dress warmly, so I will consider their other feelings. Every day when you come back from a day of work, exhausted, seeing a patch of blooming flowers will always make you feel a bit more relaxed, right?"

Xuanyuan was lost in thought. He had never considered these problems because his constant pursuit was to let his tribesmen be able to eat their fill and not freeze to death in Winter.

"Do your tribesmen think so too... or is this just your own idea?"

Baifeng did not explain, but pointed his hand toward the outside of a courtyard at some blooming Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Lujiu))))) and said: "Those are the places of ordinary people's own homes; they can do whatever they want. That kind of flower is called Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Lujiu))))); it is very similar to the Peony. The shape of the flower and the scent are about the same, but it blooms after the Peony. I didn't let anyone plant them; those were all things they found in the mountains themselves. They thought they were beautiful, so they dug them back, and then others saw they were beautiful and would ask for Wax Seeds to plant in their own homes. During this time, I didn't intervene, though I do like to let everyone pay attention to bringing back flowers that look good to cultivate and decorate the whole city; that is also quite good."

The silent Qibo spoke up: "The two types of flowers here are both medicines, right? But I don't know what they should be called."

Baifeng nodded repeatedly: "That's right, they can both be used as medicine. The root of the Peony is a very good medicine; the layer of skin on the root is the commonly used medicine. The root of the Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Lujiu))))) is the same, and the effects of the white flower and the red flower are even different."

Qibo was somewhat shocked: "Oh? There is such a distinction? I thought there was no difference. The flower you call Peony, we call Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Peony (Lujiu))))). I only tasted its flower, leaves, roots, and seeds; I never thought that only the layer of skin on the outside of the root was needed."

Facing his own humbly inquiring ancestor, Baifeng was still somewhat excited, and likewise, he said without reservation: "The flower, leaves, and roots are only the basics. Some need further processing and preparation to remove toxicity or increase medicinal properties; it's not that they can be used directly."

The reason Baifeng was like this was that he was preparing to learn from others' strengths to offset his own weaknesses, uniting with the Xuanyuan Tribe to completely build the system of 'Medicine' in this era, because Huaxia alone had too few medicinal herbs. Furthermore, there was one point: Baifeng was not sure whether Qibo and the others knew the Guiding Technique.

If they didn't know the Guiding Technique, how were the Meridians discovered so quickly? Baifeng cared about the fact that in this era, many people were found to have sensitive constitutions for Meridians—the kind of people who, as soon as a needle was used, could immediately feel the circulation path of the Meridians, and might even have colors appear on their skin. Over time, they could definitely deduce the complete path, but what about the time of operation?

Baifeng was weak in this aspect, so he pinned his hopes on Qibo and Xuanyuan, hoping they were a bit stronger than himself, or rather, that they could make up for his own shortcomings.