Chapter 194

“Third Brother, as an elder of the tribe, I consider that you have fulfilled your duties adequately. As for the negotiations, I will handle them myself. As the top contender for the tribal leader position, I assume you have no objections if I take over, correct?”

The middle-aged man sneered, his demeanor threatening and pressuring his younger brother significantly. He did not particularly like this brother, as his own position as tribal leader was jeopardized by him. Given this situation, how could he let the other continue with such an important task? If he succeeded, wouldn’t everyone in the tribe revere him and potentially elevate him to the leader position?

Given that everyone was ill and faced possible death, if he were the one to succeed in procuring medicine for everyone, how much more prestige would he gain! He believed his clever third brother understood this well. Therefore, he quickly volunteered to negotiate. Hmph! Did he think he would allow the other to gain all the glory alone?

“Elder Brother, this is not about who is the top contender for the tribal leader position, nor is it about seizing power. This is a matter of a dire threat that everyone is facing. If we make even one misstep...”

“Oh, so you’re saying that if I go, the negotiations will fail unless you handle this major task alone?”

The middle-aged man refused to yield. Keos could only sigh in frustration. He didn’t know how to handle this, but he couldn’t let his reckless elder brother negotiate alone.

“Actually, in this matter... both the top contender for the leader position and the third contender can go together. Assisting each other to ensure success is not wrong. It’s better if you both help each other think and act.”

One of the elderly men suggested to defuse the situation. Although he agreed with Master Keos that the top contender was not suitable for the negotiations, having Keos go along should ensure a way to handle the situation. If  he was not allowed to go along, something even worse might happen.

If the other party was dissatisfied with not being assigned this task and feared that others would gain the glory, and if he went to deal with the people of the Red Earth City’s governor, causing a dispute that hindered successful negotiations... that would indeed be a true disaster.

“That’s a good idea. In that case, let’s have the top contender for the tribal leader position take charge, along with the second contender as well.”

Another elder quickly nodded. Naturally, everyone agreed with this suggestion. The more it increased the chances of successful negotiations, the more they wanted to support it.

In the end, the journey included the entourage of all three contenders for the tribal leader position. Although this situation was quite troubling for Keos, he had no choice but to join the group with the three of them.

Meanwhile, in Red Earth City, they had successfully cultivated the herbs, even managing to get them to bloom. Although the care required was quite troublesome, involving appropriate fertilizers and treatments, the loss of three plots of cultivated land did not dishearten them. The success of the two plots was already a good outcome, and they had obtained many seeds for the next round of cultivation.

Yueqian instructed the Agricultural Research Institute to accelerate the cultivation of both types to compare their efficiency. Because after checking with two small plots, there was no obvious difference. Moreover, the expenses were also similar.

She herself returned to experimenting with medicine preparation. To assess the cultivation’s effectiveness, it was not just about faster growth and higher yields; the quality of the medicine produced should also be good.

Thus, the beauty was completely absorbed in her laboratory at the governor’s manor. She had promised that once the cultivation succeeded and generated substantial profits, she would use the money to establish a medicine research institute. At least then, she wouldn’t have to conduct her studies in the governor’s manor.

The medicine research institute was quite necessary. Before sending formulas to the hospital for mass production, they needed to have people to test and improve the medicine’s efficacy. Therefore, it wasn’t a loss. In the future, they might even have talented individuals could refine medicines to create new formulas.

While she was engrossed in testing various medicines’ effectiveness, a loud call came from outside the governor’s manor where she lived. Fortunately, Mu Heng was at the manor today, as he needed to respond to a letter from the royal palace regarding the petition he had submitted.

Even though his petition was submitted from a small, insignificant city, it wasn’t sent in vain. The petition that reached the Wang put enough pressure on the emperor to read it himself. It was said that this matter spread widely among the commoners and officials in the capital.

Such rumors spread quickly by word of mouth, but they needed to be addressed. When the emperor received the petition, he ordered Mu Heng and his wife to come to the capital. There was also an imperial decree for the governor of Small Mountain City, summoning him urgently. Soldiers were sent to escort him, and it was heard that the governor of the Small Mountain City was extremely alarmed. He had never expected the governor of Red Earth City to dare to file such a complaint against him.

Due to this incident, people talked a lot about it. The influence of the governor of Red Earth City made people fearful. Initially, it was believed that he had been sent from the capital and was one of the Wang’s people. Everyone thought he had been abandoned because it was inconceivable that the Wang would send his trusted person to such a remote place.

In the past, it was always the same. Each governor came here, grew old, and died with no way out. Even if they requested assistance, the resources they received remained the same. Eventually, everyone understood that the position of the governor of Red Earth City was an abandoned one.

Who would have thought that merely targeting the governor of Red Earth City, by attempting to eliminate his wife as an intimidation, would escalate into such a significant issue?!

Mu Heng instructed the deputy governor, who was in charge of ongoing tasks and plans to be carried out in their absence. They anticipated the trip to the capital to take one to two months, which was a considerable amount of time. However, the problems here were almost entirely resolved, so he could leave the work behind.

Additionally, his master would be protecting his younger siblings in Red Earth City, ensuring that no one would be able to do anything to the children. With his command over 500 soldiers, the strong fence they built, and the increasingly resilient townspeople, the remaining task was to create continuous work for them.

Mu Heng laid out the road plans for the deputy governor to supervise the workers in road construction and clearing forests. He had already purchased a significant amount of land. Furthermore, his wife planned to cultivate a large number of herbs, using the same methods as for other vegetables.

However, since these are valuable herbs, they couldn’t allow just anyone to run around in the fields. Therefore, an additional fence was built around the herb garden, with soldiers stationed to patrol constantly. They would name it the Herb Garden, which would surely have more herbs than just the Ming Fa Flower in the future.

As they were making plans for the long journey, the sound of a soldier running hurriedly toward him made Mu Heng pause his work. Even the deputy governor furrowed his brow in confusion.

“What has happened to make you so rushed?” The deputy governor asked. The soldier quickly knelt down, taking a moment to catch his breath before responding.

“There are many people from various tribes arriving, master.”

“What do you mean?”

“Th-there are representatives from the Kuya, Es, Mist, Dark, and Keta tribes requesting to see you, master.” As he finished speaking, the deputy governor’s face showed slight alarm.

The information about these tribes was well-known among the soldiers. These were high-ranking tribes with significant numbers and considerable strength. Previous governors had tried to maintain good relations with them, with some even visiting the tribes to seek cooperation. Those tribes had excellent horses, and people who were skilled in breeding, riding, and fighting. Gaining their cooperation would greatly enhance their strength.

However, these tribes were highly prideful. They did not want to cooperate or join the Bai Region. They were unwilling to exchange anything, believing themselves superior to Red Earth City. Needless to say, if they became part of the Bai Region’s tribe, they would no longer have the ability to make their own decisions, lose their unique identity, and become neglected minorities.

Furthermore, speaking of hatred, there was a significant amount of animosity towards the Bai Region. This stemmed from an earlier attempt by the Bai Region to seize their lands by force.

In fact, Red Earth City itself was originally one of the tribes around the Bai Region. Due to its valley location, it was somewhat isolated, but the Bai Region intervened, slaughtering the original tribes. Those who resisted were killed, and those who submitted were enslaved.

Seeing this, the other tribes harbored their hatred. They observed that when the Bai Region took over and turned the area into Red Earth City, they merely exploited the resources. If there were no expensive herbs to sell, they would let the people starve.

The more hardship the people of Red Earth City faced, the more the surrounding tribes saw their own fate mirrored.

“Why have they come? What is their purpose?” Mu Heng asked, closing all his documents. After all, the remaining work could be discussed later. However, the sudden visit from these guests intrigued him.

“They’ve come to negotiate for medicine, master.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Yueqian, who had just entered, asked with surprise, her expression showing a hint of shock.

“Respect to Governor’s Furen. This matter... From what I’ve gathered, it seems they are all infected with the epidemic. It’s possible their entire tribes are affected.” Hearing the soldier say this, Yueqian exchanged a glance with her husband.

A slight smile flickered on her lips but disappeared quickly, unnoticed by anyone except Mu Heng, who understood her thoughts.

“This is truly dangerous. This epidemic is spreading faster than we anticipated. We should go see them first,” Yueqian waved her hand, openly displaying her concern.

The soldier and the deputy governor nodded in agreement. They recognized the importance of this matter as well. If the tribes decided to unite and attack Red Earth City to seize the medicine, how long could they hold out?

However, Mu Heng and Yueqian were not afraid of this scenario. In fact, they had been aware of the epidemic beforehand. To be precise, they had allowed outsiders to contract and spread the disease intentionally. The goal was to ensure that everyone around them would become infected.Nevertheless, if they revealed this openly, it would only show them to be excessively cruel. Thus, they took great care of Yapo, as if they didn’t want him to bring the disease back to his village. This approach would earn them more respect than exposing their malicious plans, and they chose to act in this manner.