218: Chapter 218 The Frog in the Well

Su Mingyuan did not answer immediately.

A set of bio-detection radar was not considered a rare thing for Daxia; it was a mass-produced product with a low cost.

But for Cang City, this gadget could save lives.

Things that could save lives could not be given away for free.

"This… has to go through the proper procedures." Su Mingyuan wore a just-right expression of difficulty. "I'll report it up for you."

Liu Kun nodded and did not pursue the matter further.

Su Mingyuan looked at his watch. "It's still early, want to walk around a bit more?"

Liu Kun agreed.

As the two men walked outside, Zhao Hu leaned over and asked in a low voice, "City Lord Liu, where is Mr. Sun?"

Only then did Liu Kun realize that someone was missing from the group.

Sun Liang was gone.

The sentry who led them into the base said that after entering the gate, the old man carrying the medicine chest didn't follow the group; he sniffed a couple of times, took a turn, and went towards the west.

The west was the Research Zone.

By the time they searched and went over, Sun Liang had already been in the medical station for nearly an hour.

The old man squatted in front of a row of iron cabinets, the cabinet doors wide open, with a line of jars and bottles placed on the ground, and beside him stood a military doctor with a helpless expression from being pestered.

Sun Liang held a glass tube as thick as a little finger in his hand, filled with a light yellow liquid, and examined it back and forth against the light from the window.

"Does this thing stop hurting with just one injection?"

The military doctor said, "Depending on the dosage, one tube is generally enough for six to eight hours for external injuries."

"Six to eight hours?" Sun Liang brought the glass tube under his nose and sniffed it. "The medicinal power is sealed in such a small tube, without dispersing, deteriorating, or losing its flavor… How is this done?"

The military doctor opened his mouth, not knowing where to begin explaining.

Without waiting for his answer, Sun Liang had already opened the neighboring cabinet.

Hemostatic powder, suturing instruments, sterilized gauze, boxed antibiotics—

He had to take out every item to look at it, unscrew the lid to smell it, and some he even insisted on tasting, which the military doctor couldn't stop at all.

Liu Kun stood at the door and watched for a while without going in to disturb.

Sun Liang was notoriously stubborn in Cang City; once he immersed himself in medicine, he wouldn't listen to anyone's words.

For thirty years, it had always been like this.

After another half an hour or so, Sun Liang suddenly called out to Zhao Hu.

"Which of your subordinates has an old wound on his body? Pick open the scab."

Zhao Hu was stunned for a moment. "Mr. Sun, this—"

"If I tell you to pick it open, then pick it open."

A hunter rolled up his sleeves and pulled open a freshly scabbed cut on his forearm. Fresh blood gushed out, making him bare his teeth in pain.

Sun Liang took out a packet of hemostatic powder from his own medicine chest and divided it into two halves.

He sprinkled his hemostatic powder on the left half of the wound and Daxia's hemostatic powder on the right half.

"Start the timer."

Both sides were sprinkled simultaneously.

Daxia's medicinal powder coagulated the moment it touched blood, and the redness and swelling at the edges of the wound receded visibly to the naked eye.

Sun Liang's hemostatic powder was a full three minutes slower. The anti-inflammatory effect was far worse as well.

The medical station quieted down. The roaring sounds of the Engineering Mecha came over in waves from a distance.

Sun Liang stared at that wound for a very long time.

He put his packet of hemostatic powder back into the medicine chest, his fingers pausing on the paper packet for a moment. He had modified this formula for thirty years, from the earliest seven herbs to the current thirteen herbs, with the proportions accurate to the point where even a hair's breadth difference in any herb was unacceptable.

Placed in Cang City, this was good medicine that could save lives.

Placed here, it was not even as good as garbage.

"I truly am a frog at the bottom of a well." Sun Liang shook his head, as if laughing at himself. "These decades have basically been wasted in vain."

When he said this, his voice was very soft, but everyone present heard it.

The military doctor wanted to say a few polite words, but Sun Liang waved his hand, telling him there was no need.

The old man stood up, his knees making a crack sound.

He turned his head to look at the military doctor, his eyes frighteningly bright.

A man in his fifties, yet that drive of his was like a novice just entering the trade seeing good medicinal Materials for the first time.

"Do you sell these medicines of yours?"

The military doctor glanced at Su Mingyuan.

Su Mingyuan did not answer Sun Liang directly, instead looking at Liu Kun with a smile. "Mr. Sun is a straightforward man."

Liu Kun understood in his heart that the meaning behind this smile was—if you want to buy, you can, bring things to trade.

He didn't take up the conversation. Some things didn't need to be rushed to be discussed at this moment.

The tour basically ended here.

Su Mingyuan escorted them to the south gate of the base, shook hands, and said "Welcome back next time," being polite but not overly warm.

Liu Kun led his people back.

Stepping out of the base gate, stepping onto the hardened road wide enough for ten carriages to run, the sentry radar on the wall behind them was still slowly revolving.

After walking a distance, Zhao Hu leaned in. "City Lord Liu, how was it?"

Liu Kun did not look back, his pace did not stop.

"Don't speak, let me think carefully."

Zhao Hu sensibly shut his mouth.

...

Liu Kun returned to Cang City that very day.

City Lord en own was waiting for him in the study.

Liu Kun did not take a sip of tea first and speak slowly as he usually did; the moment he entered the door, he spoke up, pouring out everything he had seen in one breath.

Sixty iron giants, a city built overnight, iron pavilions that could kill Tier 2 Yao Beasts without human control, bombs that fell from the sky used to fight Tier 3 Red-bristled Bears, and that screen that could clearly illuminate Yao Beasts within a radius of fifty kilometers.

He talked about every single item, neither exaggerating nor deliberately playing it down.

Speaking to the end, he added his own judgment.

"These people don't seem to have malicious intentions, but they are not someone we can afford to provoke. I believe cooperation is ten thousand times more cost-effective than confrontation."

en own did not immediately express his stance after listening.

He held a teacup and sat for the duration of a cup of tea, and the tea went cold without him drinking it.

The study was very quiet, and the footsteps of the city-patrolling guards changing shifts faintly came from outside the window.

When en own put down the teacup, he asked a question.

"What do they want?"

Liu Kun thought for a moment. "They are very interested in Cultivation Technique and Pill Formula. When they gave us the tour, that young man surnamed Tao by Su Mingyuan's side would have his eyes light up whenever he heard about Cultivate."

"What else?"

"Materials, Yao Beast Materials, they want these as well." Liu Kun paused. "But I feel these are all minor things. What they truly want is to figure out what Spiritual Qi and Cultivate are all about."

en own did not speak, picked up the teacup and took a sip, found it cold, and put it down.

"How long do you think they will stay there?"

Liu Kun thought about it. "Looking at the way their city is built, it doesn't look like a temporary encampment."

en own nodded.

A neighbor who came and wouldn't leave meant they had to maintain a good relationship.

Moreover, this neighbor had things urgently needed by the eighty thousand people of Cang City—food, medicine, weapons, every single item was hard goods.

But Liu Kun also said that they knew almost nothing about Cultivate.

With each side lacking what the other had, this kind of business was the easiest to negotiate.

"Tell Zhao Hu to prepare things, and go talk with them tomorrow."