A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

Before dawn, the courtyard of Jishetang was already bustling with activity.

The day has come for us to go to the border with the army.

Lu Yan checked Yang Hu's medicine box again, neatly arranging the wound medicine, hemostatic and tissue-regenerating medicine, and pain-relieving and calming prescriptions. In recent days, she had been learning to identify and process medicines from Yang Hu, and she had already prepared enough of the most useful items in the army.

Su Qing helped prepare dry food and changes of clothes, her eyes red-rimmed, but she didn't say a word. Coming from a pharmacy background, she knew that the future of Jishetang's medical services would fall on their shoulders, along with Lu Yan's.

The women were busy with their own things, and none of them said much, but the reluctance and concern that filled the courtyard were all contained in each stitch, each package.

"Don't worry about things at home." Lu Rou stood in front of Yang Hu, trying her best to straighten her back. The little maid who used to be so observant of others was now capable of handling things on her own. "I'm in charge of the herb garden, the medicine workshop, and the accounts. I'll keep this business in the city safe and sound for you, and I won't let anyone take advantage of it."

Yang Hu nodded. With the henchmen of that hand watching over the city, his biggest worry was the safety of the family business and several women he was leaving behind.

With Lu Rou in charge, Su Qing as the chief physician, the support of the neighbors, and the influence of the Zhou family's life-saving intervention, this corner of the city in the east could be held. Before leaving, he gave her a series of detailed instructions: be careful when trucks come and go, be wary of unfamiliar faces, hide the evidence box securely, prioritize safety above all else, and never act recklessly. Lu Yan noted them down one by one, responding softly, but the reluctance in her eyes could not be hidden.

Liu Ye, dressed in a neat short-sleeved outfit, carrying a hunting bow on her back and a short dagger at her waist, stood smartly at the door: "Young master, I'll go ahead. I know the barbarian bandits' methods and the mountain passes outside that camp. With me watching the road, nothing will go wrong."

She had made a living in the mountains with old hunters since she was a child, and was a natural expert at climbing cliffs, traversing streams, and finding paths. Later, she risked her life with the barbarian bandits, and knew their usual secret passages and ambushes by heart. With her paving the way, Yang Hu felt much more at ease.

Only Qin Ying, disguised as a medicine boy, stood in the corner with her face covered in ash, shoulders hunched, and head bowed, looking exactly like an inconspicuous servant. Only her hands, hidden in her wide sleeves and having handled knives and spears, and the sharp glint in her eyes when she occasionally looked up, revealed a bit of her true nature.

After the group finished packing, they left the city gate in the early morning light.

The further north you go, the more desolate it becomes.

Nine out of ten villages along the official road were deserted, fields lay barren, and amidst the ruins, groups of three or five refugees could be seen fleeing south, helping the old and carrying the young. They were ragged, emaciated, and carrying wailing babies in their arms, their eyes filled with endless bewilderment.

A woman holding a child slumped by the roadside; the baby's face was flushed red with fever, and the child seemed on the verge of death. Yang Hu stopped, got out of his car, and examined the child. He diagnosed it as a case of lung heat caused by a cold. He left her some medicine packets, instructed her on how to prepare them, and also gave her some dry rations. The woman was extremely grateful, kowtowing repeatedly.

Watching from the side, Qin Ying felt a deeper stirring in his heart. Even on the way to the dangerous border, he couldn't bear to see a child waiting to die before his eyes.

"The barbarians have breached the northern fortresses again," an old man passing by sighed to Yang Hu. "They're burning, killing, and looting, leaving no one alive, not even chickens or dogs. The eastern front is about to collapse. I heard that the western camp has lost several fortresses, with countless dead and wounded. If this continues, they might even reach the city walls."

After saying that, the old man, leaning on his cane, shakily merged into the flow of people fleeing south, his back hunched over.

Looking at the desolate landscape along the way, Yang Hu felt a heavy weight in his heart.

He knew better than anyone that the root of this human tragedy lay not in natural disasters, but in human error.

The borderlands have always been a bottomless pit filled with the lives of the living. So many brave young men have left their homes for this harsh land, only to be buried in the yellow sands, their bodies left not even intact. And the horrific state of that camp, hollowed out by a dark hand, lacking medicine and medical supplies, and piled high with wounded soldiers, is only the beginning. The reason the barbarians are so rampant is because of the military rations and weapons leaked by that hand, feeding the knife held to Da Cheng's neck beyond the border. Every fleeing face, every wisp of charred smoke seen along the way, is blood flowing from that bloodsucking underground channel.

The group traveled day and night, and the further north they went, the stronger the desolate atmosphere of the frontier became. A faint, lingering smell of burning often drifted through the air—the smell of villages burned by barbarians.

After traveling for most of the day, as dusk approached, a majestic pass finally appeared on the vast northern horizon.

The gray-blue city walls soared into the clouds, and at their base, piles of white bones could be vaguely seen. Banners fluttered atop the walls, yet an indescribable sense of desolation permeated the air.

That is the formidable pass where the Western Camp is located.

This pass is the gateway to the northern frontier of Dacheng, blocking the fierce armies from beyond. Once breached, the fertile fields and countless people within would be trampled under the iron hooves of barbarians. Its safety is tied to the survival of half the country.

Yet this strategically vital pass is now being hollowed out little by little by a hidden hand.

Qin Ying gazed at the city where she had once commanded troops and defended passes, her eyes filled with complex and unfathomable emotions. It was the place where she had gone from being the granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion to being a "dead person" on the register; now, she was to step back in as a cloaked medicine boy, to grab the hand that had caused her family's ruin.

Yang Hu also gazed at the majestic pass and slowly clenched his fist.

He made his way through the city steadily and surely. He established himself, made a name for himself, built his reputation, won over the medical community, and withstood the backlash. The lights in that corner of the city's east side are now the most stable and brightest in this border town.

But that was always just the beginning.

The gate to that military camp, that blood-sucking culvert, and that hand hidden deep within, which he would eventually uproot, were all behind this wall.

"We've arrived," he whispered. "We're finally going to wade into this pool."

The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the mottled city walls of the majestic pass, gilding the desolate scene with a tragic golden hue.

As dusk fell, the group walked step by step toward the camp that had claimed countless lives.

Qin Ying wiped the dust off her face, took a deep breath, and suppressed the myriad thoughts churning in her heart. From now on, she would be the inconspicuous mute medicine boy beside Doctor Yang, no longer the granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion or the female general patrolling the border.

This journey was fraught with peril, a den of tigers and dragons. But she had waited far too long for this day.

Liu Ye pressed the short dagger at her waist, scanning her surroundings warily. Yang Hu, on the other hand, slung the medicine box over his shoulder again.

Lu Yan had repacked the medicine box overnight. Wound medicine, hemostatic and tissue-regenerating medicine, and pain-relieving and calming prescriptions were all placed in order of need, with the top layer left empty for herbs gathered along the way. Yang Hu closed the lid of the box, suddenly remembering her hesitant expression as she left, but ultimately did not turn back.

Liu Ye disassembled the bow and wrapped it in her bedding roll; Qin Ying, as usual, carried the medicine pouch, eyes downcast, shoulders hunched, following at the very end of the group. No one could tell that there was someone in this group who should have died at the border.

What's meant to happen will happen. What needs to be investigated will be investigated. This grand drama, which involves the nation and its people, and connects loyalty and treachery, truly began the moment we stepped through the gates of this camp.