Passing through a few courtyards, the vermilion palace walls turned into ashen gray brick walls.
Different from the luxurious inner courtyard, the Outer Academy of the Imperial Hospital resembled the servant quarters where Imperial Palace Maids and eunuchs resided.
Hundreds of low cottages stood in succession, with so palace maids and eunuchs delivering various dicinal Grass into the cottages, waiting to be sorted and washed.
"The Imperial Hospital is a place that operates by the book. With your shallow cultivation, you can’t perform Alchemy just yet. Today, the Outer Academy has just received so dicinal Grass seeds that haven’t been categorized. You need to sort them out. By early tomorrow morning, they must be delivered to the Spiritual Plant Garden for planting."
Ye Lingyue pondered darkly, an alchemist capable of refining fifth-grade elixir Pills was directly discredited as lacking in cultivation and not qualified for Alchemy as a newcor.
It seed that the Deputy Chief had set his sights on targeting her.
As he spoke, Vice Chief ng led Ye Lingyue to a pile of hemp sacks.
She picked up one of the sacks and pulled the drawstring, pouring out seeds from the sack, which appeared to weigh five to six hundred jin.
The seeds from the sack, yellow, black, red, and colorful, were a complex mix of various kinds.
There were no labels on the sacks, and the seeds varied in size—so as large as cobblestones, others as small as sesa seeds. It wasn’t just about sorting them and categorizing them, even glancing at them could be dizzying.
Yet Vice Chief ng still demanded that before the next day, all the mixed seeds from a hundred sacks be sorted out, which was almost an impossible task.
The eunuchs and palace maids who had transported the seeds whispered among themselves upon seeing this scenario. It seed that this new Alchemist who had just arrived must have failed to bribe Vice Chief ng and was now in for a hard ti.
"Vice Chief ng, what you an is, I have to sort out all the seeds from these hundred sacks within a day. Normally, this job should be done by miscellaneous servants, right?" Ye Lingyue asked indifferently.
"Are you the Chief or am I the Chief? Whoever I assign must do the work. You have to do it even if you don’t want to, otherwise, it’s insubordination, and you’ll be kicked out of the Imperial Hospital. Not even the Empress Dowager’s personal visit can save you. Everyone, leave now. The task of selecting seeds will be assigned to Alchemist Ye alone, no one is allowed to help."
Ye Lingyue’s questioning made Vice Chief ng even more irate, and at her command, all the palace maids and eunuchs who were watching the show dispersed.
In the vast Outer Academy, only Ye Lingyue and the hundred or so sacks of seeds remained.
Damn old witch.
Ye Lingyue frowned and glanced at the dicinal Grass seeds.
She had thoroughly studied the Hong ng Notebook, and could recognize all kinds of dicinal Grass seeds at a glance.
But these hundred plus sacks, nearly a thousand jin of seeds, if carefully selected, would take far more than a day.
Having offended both Chief Supervisors that morning, if she couldn’t complete the task on ti, they would undoubtedly make her life difficult together by tomorrow.
Ye Lingyue finally understood why Chief Chou handed her over to Vice Chief ng.
The pair of them, one conflicting with Master Long Yu and the other a narrow-minded, greedy villain—they were truly a despicable duo. Within the Imperial Hospital, one could only wonder how many Alchemists and doctors had suffered at their hands,
No, she must not let the sches of those two scoundrels succeed today, under any circumstances.
Ye Lingyue alone was too busy to handle it, and the Outer Academy remained silent, with no one daring to co in and assist her.
She simply released Little Zhiyo and Little Wuya from Hong ng Heaven.
Both the little ones knew how to communicate with Ye Lingyue and could understand with just a bit of instruction.
As soon as Little Zhiyo was out, it saw the colorful seeds on the ground and thought they were so new-fangled type of sunflower seeds. It dug out one with its claws and popped it into its mouth.
Crunch, it bit down decisively.
Little Zhiyo discovered the taste was unpalatable, screwed up its little face with distaste, and discarded the seed.
"Little Zhiyo can’t eat this, this is a fig seed, this is a thousand gold vine seed, this is Fu Mingzi..." Ye Lingyue patiently instructed the two little beasts.
Little Zhiyo was a lazy critter; it loved to eat but was too languid to think. After listening to just a few nas, it began to doze off, comfortably nestling on Ye Lingyue’s shoulder, falling asleep.
On the other hand, honest and obedient Little Wuya gazed at Ye Lingyue with its glossy black eyes, silently morizing over a dozen dicinal nas that Ye Lingyue taught.
After listening, Little Wuya flapped its small wings; it had already been able to fly at low altitudes recently.
With a flutter of its wings, it flew onto a sack, dutifully using its beak to pick out seeds.
Ye Lingyue also began, using Cauldron Breath to quickly sort the seeds.
After selecting for more than an hour, Ye Lingyue only managed to sort out a sack of seeds.
Nearby, Little Wuya tilted its small head, as if pondering sothing.
Suddenly, it made a joyful chirping sound, and with another flutter of wings, it landed on a nearby tree branch.
Little Wuya cleared its throat, emitting a series of flute-like, crisp chirps.
The Phoenix Clan’s voice is the closest to heavenly music among birds.
Though Little Wuya looked like a pitch-black crow, it was, after all, of Phoenix Bloodline.
Although its voice was still immature, it carried an indescribable and terrifying authority.
As the sound rang out, it echoed and circled above the entire Imperial Palace.
Inside Xia Palace, where a large number of exotic and spiritual birds were kept, these birds were startled into flight upon hearing Little Wuya’s chirping.
The exotic and spiritual birds all understood an unwritten rule: the king of birds is the Phoenix.
The Phoenix’s chirp acts as the king of birds’ command, and all other birds must go to pay homage.
Thus, an extraordinary scene unfolded above Xia Palace.
Nurous birds, big and small, colorful peacocks, articulate parrots, eagles gifted from beyond the borders, as well as the pigeons and snow chickens kept in the royal kitchens, all headed toward the Outer Academy of the Imperial Hospital, either soaring high or hurrying along.
Seeing the spiritual and exotic birds suddenly go into frenzy, it scared the eunuchs and palace maids half to death, making them think that these esteed birds had all fallen ill.
It was fortunate that Little Wuya was still young and its voice not very loud; had its voice been any louder, it might not just have been the entire Xia Palace, but possibly all the birds in Xia Capital that would be stirred, which would have been an even more spectacular sight.
Little Wuya’s chirping also drew Ye Lingyue’s sidelong glance, but she still didn’t understand the reason for Little Wuya’s actions.
However, after a short while, Ye Lingyue also noticed sothing odd.
The sky, which had been clear, suddenly beca overcast, as if nurous dark clouds had moved in.
Ye Lingyue looked up, her expression becoming stunned.
So many...birds.
~ Additional Chapter for reaching 440 monthly tickets ~
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