Chapter 52: Chapter 52

“What is that little green-skinned monster?”

“…”

Mu Ying was wondering the same thing. It looked much smarter than a zombie.

When she’d run over, she’d seen it fiercely smashing at the wall. But as soon as she got close, it quickly retreated.

When the others arrived, it backed off even further, its red eyes full of wariness.

Suddenly, a shrill screech rang out from somewhere, and its large, pointed ears twitched. It darted into a distant bush and quickly disappeared from sight.

Mu Ying frowned, finding it odd. It almost seemed like it had been called away.

After thinking for a moment, she looked up at the family of sparrows perched in the treetops and chirped, “Chirp chirp!”

The sparrows, hearing the “code,” immediately and cooperatively flew down to her.

After working together for so long, Mu Ying and the sparrows had developed a good rapport.

Before the rains came, the two adult sparrows had moved their whole family to nest in the tree by her house. Over the past few days, Mu Ying had often fed them, and the baby sparrows had grown noticeably plumper.

At her summons, the little sparrows all scrambled to find a place to land on her. One particularly mischievous, chubby sparrow landed on the back of Mu Ying’s outstretched hand, taking over the mother sparrow’s spot—only to be pecked off by the father sparrow, who’d landed on her wrist.

The mother sparrow was much smarter than the babies and was Mu Ying’s main partner for communication.

Mu Ying used her Animal Communication skill, asking the mother sparrow to go scout out where that unusually short, green-skinned biped had gone.

The mother sparrow chirped at her chicks for a while, then led the way, flying out of the territory. The protective barrier didn’t affect harmless little animals like them.

“Mu Ying, what did you say to the sparrows?”

Someone asked curiously. After spending so long in the camp, it wasn’t the first time they’d seen Mu Ying with her flock of sparrows. They’d heard a fair bit about druid abilities and could tell she’d used Animal Communication, though they couldn’t hear the mental exchange themselves.

“I asked them to see where that little green-skinned monster went,” Mu Ying replied, turning to head toward the main gate.

Today was a rare sunny day, so quite a few people had gone out to hunt zombies in the morning.

Inside the camp, the trees and the territory’s barrier blocked the view, so most people hadn’t noticed anything unusual yet. But those outside the territory should have seen it clearly.

Sure enough, after waiting at the main gate for a short while, she saw people running back in a panic.

“Priest! Priest! Help the captain!”

Hearing the cries for help, Mu Ying calmly pressed her hand to her storage pouch, transferring a small packet of medicinal powder into her pocket.

As soon as the group entered the territory, Mu Ying went up to ask what had happened.

“We ran into a group of goblins. The captain’s leg is hurt—he’s bleeding badly!” Lu You quickly explained, stepping aside so Mu Ying could take a look. After all, even the mountaineering team’s priest had admitted that Mu Ying’s healing spells were more effective than hers.

Lying on a makeshift stretcher, Huo Shaobai’s face was deathly pale, sweat beading on his forehead. His left leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, crudely bandaged with cloth that was now soaked through with blood.

Mu Ying didn’t have time to ask what a goblin was. She frowned at the wound. Healing Word could treat injuries, but it couldn’t set bones. “He’s got a fracture. We need to set the bone first, then heal it!”

“Old Seven can do that, but we’ll need you to stop the bleeding—the wound’s pretty bad!”

Mu Ying nodded. Though she wasn’t in great shape herself and only had enough mana left for one more Healing Word, she still had some powdered ophiopogon root for stopping bleeding, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

They set the stretcher down, and Old Seven, Guo Xiao, stepped forward to remove the bloody bandages. Once he’d set the bone, Mu Ying immediately placed her hand on the injury and cast Healing Word.

Now that she’d leveled up, her Healing Word was more effective, but one spell was only enough to mostly fix the bone—the flesh still needed more healing.

“The bleeding hasn’t stopped—why did you stop?” Old Five asked anxiously.

Mu Ying took out the small paper packet she’d just put in her pocket. “I was practicing spells before you came back, so I’m out of mana. This is a hemostatic powder I made myself. I’ve tested it—it works pretty well. Want to give it a try?”

She’d made the powder from ophiopogon tubers. It wasn’t as instantly effective as a healing spell, but for stopping bleeding in an emergency, it was good enough.

Plus, the batch she had now had been soaked overnight in the Spring of Recovery, so its effect was even stronger.

“Go ahead and use it,” Huo Shaobai said. He was already feeling better—his leg could move, his HP had recovered a fair bit, and though he was still bleeding and losing HP, it was much slower than before.

Mu Ying carefully opened a corner of the powder packet. “This might sting a bit. Bear with it.”

Seeing him nod, she sprinkled a thin layer of powder on the wound. He was tough and didn’t flinch at all.

“This hemostatic powder is made from dried and ground ophiopogon tubers. The mutated ophiopogon roots can stop bleeding. There’s some in the camp, but you can’t dig up too much from each plant. There’s also a lot on the mountain at the entrance to the forest park. You can gather some for emergencies, or plant a few on your treehouse platforms.”

Once the bleeding stopped, Mu Ying had Guo Xiao re-bandage the wound and took the opportunity to mention the ophiopogon roots. After all, there was only one priest, Liu Luoluo, in the territory, and she often went out with the team, so she wasn’t always available.

Now that they had access to mutated plants, they could ask Xiao Mu to help identify their effects and uses. Mu Ying didn’t need to keep her plant knowledge secret anymore.

Not long after everyone had planted vegetables together, Mu Ying had quietly updated the territory rules to include all plants, not just trees.

Of course, the protection for non-tree plants wasn’t as strict. Harvesting plants was allowed, and accidentally damaging a few wasn’t a big deal—only large-scale destruction would count as breaking the rules.

“Those ophiopogon plants with the changed flowers?”

Guo Xiao had studied some traditional Chinese medicine and knew that ophiopogon didn’t normally stop bleeding, but the powder Mu Ying had produced was proof enough. He sighed—his old herbal knowledge was probably outdated now.

“It’s not just the flowers that have changed. The whole plant is useful now: the leaves are tough, the flowers glow at night, the fruit is edible, the tubers stop bleeding, and it’s super easy to grow.” Mu Ying was more and more fond of it—a plant that looked good and was so useful was a rare find.

After hearing this, everyone started looking at the ophiopogon in the territory differently. Digging up the tubers would damage the plants, and the rules meant they couldn’t take too much from those inside the territory, but there was plenty on the mountain outside.

And once the ophiopogon bore fruit, picking the fruit to eat wouldn’t count as damaging the plant."

"Seeing that the captain’s condition had stabilized, Lu You wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a deep sigh of relief. He quickly fished out a handful of copper coins from his pocket and tried to hand them to Mu Ying. “Thank you. This is for your healing—when your mana recovers, I’ll have to trouble you to heal him again.”

These days, hiring a priest to cast healing spells really did cost money. The going rate was 5 copper coins for a cantrip (0-level spell), and 10 copper coins for a 1st-level spell.

Lu You was actually offering a bit more than the market price.

Mu Ying smiled and gently refused. “I won’t take your money, but I’d like to hear more about what’s going on outside—especially about those goblins you mentioned earlier.”

“It just happens to be mealtime. Why don’t we treat you to dinner as thanks, and we can fill you in on everything you want to know?”

Huo Shaobai stopped Lu You from insisting on giving more money. He figured their team didn’t have a priest, so injuries were always a hassle. It was best to build a good relationship with Mu Ying—if they could recruit her, even better, and if not, it’d still be easier to ask for help in the future.

Mu Ying thought it over and agreed.

Since her leg wasn’t fully healed yet, they sent a few guys to Sela’s Eatery to order food and planned to bring everyone back to eat at home.

Their group had arrived at the camp late, so they were staying in one of the treehouses with a higher number, farther from the shops. The treehouses had clearly been expanded.

But the expansion was a bit rough—they’d just enlarged the interior space, without adding any room dividers. It was basically one big open area where they ate and slept.

Even though they were all young men, their military backgrounds showed in how tidy they kept things. Their bedding was neatly folded and stacked to one side.