XH 274 - Where is your toilet?

Morning arrived quickly and everyone knew that the Four Kingdoms were attacked by demons at the same time. Each Kingdom was visited by a group of five demons with green eyes, the characteristic of a Gu Dan clansman.

What damaged their morale was that the enemy only needed five people to deal that great amount of damage to their Kingdom that would require a great amount of high ranked cultivators to do it.

Doctor Bai had said that Xiao Hua brewing at Third Prince manor would be a waste of time. And he was right. It took too much time to find empty buckets as well as wasting the servants' energy transporting the heavy buckets back and forth when they could have done something more productive.

As there was a limited amount of servants, there would be limited amount of strength too, hence guards were asked to join in to do the heavy labour work, as time was precious.

Xiao Hua had not taken any break the moment she started brewing, and when news reached her ears about commoners being wounded by the black mist as well, she felt like fainting.

When one gets tired of their monotonous job, they will come out with bold and creative ideas to shorten the work time.

"Bring me to the Emperor's bathing place!"

The previously noisy place suddenly became as quiet as a library. There were some servants that were not cultivators so they did not have sharp hearing and missed what Xiao Hua said, and were confused by the sudden immobility of their fellow co-workers.

Those that were able to hear her were so shocked that they stopped doing their work to gape at her.

When no one moved, Xiao Hua amended her words. "Never mind. Bring me to the palace!"

This time, the quiet atmosphere allowed everyone to hear her words clearly. The silence could rival a morgue. When her next sentence was not much better than the previous one, the servants wondered if their madam had overworked herself.

Xiao Hua frowned when no one responded to her. "Prepare a carriage for me!"

Her tone was firm and tough, inviting no rebuke or protest that moved the servants to do as she commanded. After all, she was the Third Princess consort, their mistress, with right and authority to command them.

What happens after they arrive at the palace will not be up to them.

"I will have it prepared at once!" It was Er Yen, the Munzhu's citizen and also the steward's apprentice that spoke out in support and hurried to do as Xiao Hua bid.

Once one started moving, the others followed along. An Jing came over after someone came to get her and spoke about their worry over their madam's health.

"Sister An Jing, from now on, the tea in this place will only be given to the commoners," Xiao Hua told An Jing, ignoring quiet gasps in the background. "I will count on you and others to keep this place safe from trouble. Please do what you need to do to prevent chaos and maintain order."

An Jing bowed, giving Xiao Hua respect befitting her status. "This servant will do her best. Please rest assured."

Xiao Hua stopped herself from correcting An Jing from calling herself as a servant before her. This was not the right time to do so, and An Jing purposely did so for an intention that Xiao Hua was not in the right mind to cross-examine.

With Duan XiYing and the twins following, Xiao Hua rushed towards the palace, urging the horse to go as fast as it could.

After sending Xiao Hua off, An Jing's respectful gaze disappeared, replaced with an imposing one. "Everyone, listen carefully. I will say this only once, there is no time for repeating orders!"

An Jing's cold and stern tone immediately had everyone in the courtyard standing in attention. Only after everyone had their attention on her did she start speaking.

"We will form a group of three with two guards, and a helping hand in a group, to go around the safe zone! Each group will carry a bucket of medicine, and only those that are severely wounded or unable to move from the black mist's attack are eligible for the medicine! Those that could walk or to be carried here without dying will be treated here! Push away those that have injuries that are not caused by the black mist to the doctors. If there are those that insist on having the medicine from your group without fulfilling the criteria, send them here. If they use force, the guards in the group will be allowed to use force in return!"

The guards' expression brightens up for the first time after hearing that they had to go around to help the citizens. It was not that they refused to help, but it was the problem of facing stubborn people that would insist on getting their hands on the medicine that made their body ache! Thanks to Elder Sister Jing, their worries were dissolved!

Some of them even itched for a fight to happen...

According to etiquette, Xiao Hua will need to ride a sedan to travel around the large palace. But time was short so she refused and in an unsightly manner, hitched up her skirts and ran towards the court hall.

Unfortunately, no matter how much she raised her skirts, she had not accounted for the heavy layers that weighed down her legs and slowed down her speed. Da Bei turned into his wolf form and lowered his body before Xiao Hua, telling her to get on.

"Thank you!" Xiao Hua removed another layer of robe before climbing onto Da Bei.

The horrified Da An could not speak when he saw his brother being treated as a horse and could only chase after them without being left behind.

"Da Bei, stop! It's Duke Heng!" Xiao Hua called out when she saw a handsome man in royal purple robes, calling him by his old title habitually.

"Third Princess Consort," Prince Heng saluted, his arms filled with scrolls of important documents. He was rushing to the Minister of Works department to pass on the Emperor's orders and discuss further actions.

"Sorry for stopping you, but may I know where the Emperor is? I need to ask him for permission to use his bathing pool!"

As expected of the prime minister, he was able to twist his mind to Xiao Hua's brainwave. "His Majesty is in the meeting room. I will lead the way."

"Teacher-" Liu Bing, Prince Heng's student, looked anxious, but his words were cut off when his teacher dumped the scrolls onto him.

"You will go to the Minister of Works to represent me. I trust that you will be able to convey the information on my behalf?"

Without waiting for his student to reply, Prince Heng had gone far away, followed by Xiao Hua. He could have let his student show the way for Xiao Hua, but his instinct told him it would be interesting to find out why she wanted to speak to his nephew.

Liu Bing could only watch his teacher leave with an outstretched arm and tearful eyes. Teacher, I could have played the guide instead!

Heise stared down at reports from the other Kingdoms with a severe-looking frown.

Among the Four Kingdom, it was Guilin that first stabilized their situation. It was mostly thanks to Xiao Hua's tea and Doctor Bai's mastery in medicine that not many of the wounded died.

The second to stabilize was the Zhu Que Kingdom, as the Phoenix fire has purifying traits, which helped in stopping the corroding mist from spreading. However, they could not possibly use the fire to burn wounds on people with pain receptors, so they had to find another method to remove the mist from the wounds.

The Xuanwu Kingdom was the third to stabilize and control the damage. They have special pearls that could absorb the black mists to a certain amount, which was rather helpful when removing the mist from the wounded. Mingzhi Wugui offered the Zhu Que Kingdom their pearls, which was what they needed to suck out the black mist from the wounded, in exchange for phoenix fire.

It was good cooperation.

The last, and possibly the worst, was the Bai Hu Kingdom, who have no artifacts to absorb the black mist or the phoenix fire with purification elements to stop the corroding areas. But they successfully chased down all five demons that targeted their Kingdom and killed them.

Without the ability to handle the black mist, Qiang Laohu asked Long Zhu to help out!

That was why Qiang Laohu was now in the meeting room with Heise.

"It's no problem for Guilin to help out the Bai Hu Kingdom. But there is only one person that could brew this special medicine and our Kingdom needs it too."

Qiang Laohu understood that Long Ming meant that they had to prioritize their own people first before helping out others. He could not begrudge that decision.

"Hmm?" Heise turned his head to stare at the door, sensing Xiao Hua and his uncle coming.

Isn't she supposed to be brewing tea?

Thinking that it was an emergency, Heise quickly stood up and opened the door, only to be taken off guard by an unpredicted question.

"Where is your toilet?"

Heise's eyebrow started to twitch. "...If you want to use the toilet, your house got it! Why would you come to my house?!"