Chapter 17: The Witch

More than an hour later, the convoy passed Lake Tianehu.

Once he confirmed the distance was sufficient, Gervas halted the group.

While ordering his subordinates to rest, he took Lei Meng alone upstream toward the stream feeding Lake Tianehu.

The headwaters of Lake Tianehu were not far—just over ten minutes’ walk brought them to the source.

Here stood a rocky hill thirty meters high, the stern end of the Death Mountains, though no longer dangerous.

Gervas searched the cliff face for a moment, then feigned curiosity as he asked Zhui Yue, “Zhui Yue, why did you bring us here?”

Simultaneously, he directed his thoughts toward the direction Zhui Yue had indicated.

Zhui Yue let out a long neigh and walked purposefully toward a patch of brush beneath the cliff.

As they drew closer, Lei Meng immediately spotted a dark opening behind the vines and creepers.

“My lord, there’s a cave here!”

“So there really is something! Zhui Yue, well done!” Gervas praised at once.

Zhui Yue: “...”

“My lord, this cave has been occupied before—there are clear signs of excavation.”

“Then let’s go inside!”

Immediately, master and servant retrieved torches from their horses, lit them, and entered the cave—Lei Meng ahead, Gervas behind.

The cave was shallow; after advancing ten meters, they encountered a rotting wooden barrier. Passing through its gate, the interior opened suddenly.

Inside was a hidden cavern—four to five hundred square meters in size.

“My lord, there’s a stone house over there!”

The cavern’s interior was now well-lit, sunlight streaming from above, no darker than the outside.

At the center of the cavern stood a stone house.

The two approached it at once.

With a creak, the stone door opened, releasing a cloud of dust. After waiting a long while, they stepped inside the room thick with grime.

The stone house had two rooms. The outer chamber was sparsely furnished—only a bed, a table, and chairs.

But in the inner room, Gervas saw a long table laden with clay bowls, cooking pots, and transparent test tubes made of crystal.

Also scattered about were animal bones, hides, and other remnants.

Finally, Gervas’s gaze settled on five vials and a leather-bound journal beside the table.

He carefully picked up the journal and found its leather supple and intact, untouched by time’s decay.

“Dino’s Body-Refining Elixir?!”

Opening the journal, Gervas was immediately drawn to its text.

It was a record of the formula and preparation process for a concoction called “Dino’s Body-Refining Elixir.”

The text described how the sorcerer named Dino, over three years and multiple refinements, finally achieved the optimal ratio for the body-refining elixir.

It maximized the elixir’s efficacy while ensuring safety and eliminating side effects.

Of course, that was not the journal’s true value.

Body-refining elixirs for Grand Knights or Title Knights were not rare in this world—anyone with coin could buy them in any city’s marketplace.

But unlike those elixirs designed for Title Knights, Dino the sorcerer had researched one specifically for commoners.

Commoners, their bodies untrained and chronically malnourished.

Give them a bowl of ginseng broth, and they might benefit greatly.

But give them a hundred bowls, and they’d die from it.

So, in this world too, the weak cannot absorb excessive nourishment.

This sorcerer, through precise herb combinations, made the elixir mild—its effects gradual, not explosive.

The reason he sought to give it to commoners was simple: it was meant for nobles.

More precisely, for great nobles.

In a world where might is right, great nobles wishing to protect their wealth and status must continually strengthen their military power.

And while elite warriors—Guardian Knights and Armed Knights—form the core of that power,

acquiring knights requires drawing from common soldiers and knightly retainers.

Thus, if one could accelerate the strengthening of common soldiers and retainers, a great noble’s strength could surge rapidly, ascending to a new tier.

After all, the foundation of great nobles is beyond the imagination of lesser ones.

Their status no longer lacked gold—it lacked speed in cultivating knights.

Therefore, this body-refining elixir for commoners was far more valuable to great nobles than those meant only for Grand Knights.

Gervas turned to a corner of the table, where two vials of crimson elixir, sealed in crystal tubes, matched the final formula described in the journal.

According to the journal’s own account, Dino the sorcerer had brewed ten vials in total.

Five he left behind in the stone house as a reserve; the other five he took with him to the Shishan Hou Jue’s domain.

He had previously collaborated multiple times with the Shishan Hou Jue family, conducting human trials within their territory. After this final refinement, he intended to sell the elixir to the Shishan family.

“Shishan Hou Jue’s domain? Could this be the present-day Shishan Gong Jue family? Only this makes sense—I recall no memory of a Shishan Hou Jue, unless he wasn’t a noble of the Lion Eagle Kingdom!”

Yet as a modern man, Gervas saw the journal end abruptly.

Clearly, the sorcerer had met with misfortune on his journey and never returned, leaving the elixir and journal behind.

Thus, whether or not this was the Shishan family he knew, he must hide both journal and elixir.

After all, such a great family could crush the Storm Domain as easily as crushing an ant.

Taking the two vials and the journal, confirming no other discoveries remained in the stone house, Gervas exited without disturbing anything, then led Lei Meng away.

Even outside the cave, he re-covered the entrance with fresh concealment.

When Gervas and his retinue returned to Maidian Town, it was already noon.

Along the way, grasslands still swarmed with locusts, but on the farmland, they were nearly gone.

All that remained was to expand the duck patrols—then the locust plague would be eradicated.

“Good heavens, look at what’s on that carriage!”

“Looks like a crocodile—but why is it bright red?”

“That’s no crocodile—it’s a beast lizard! I heard of one before—Iron-Scale Lizard—its scales are exactly this fiery red!”

“A beast? But how can a beast be so small?”

“Need you ask? It’s a juvenile beast—far more valuable than an adult. Adults are only good for meat, but juveniles can be tamed as war beasts or mounts—rumor says they’re worth at least a hundred gold coins!”

“Good heavens—a hundred gold coins? How many is that? I couldn’t count them on both hands...”

Amid the rising chorus of exclamations, the convoy deliberately slowed, to highlight Lord Gervas’s heroic image.