Fields of Gold

In the early morning, the sounds of birds merrily singing woke up the deeply asleep Xiaocao. She popped out her arms from her sleeping bag and stretched lazily before rubbing her groggy eyes gently.

Suddenly, she felt the side of her cheek tickle. She used her hand to feel the area and discovered that the little divine stone had come back at an unknown time. Its butt was against her face and it was currently snoring peacefully. She rubbed its soft head and wriggled out of her sleeping bag.

After using the clean mountain water to brush her teeth and wash her face, she applied a layer of skin care. Only when she was done did she realize that her husband wasn't by her side.

"His Highness left early this morning and said that he wanted to find some wild fruits for you to eat. These past few days, we've only been eating roasted meats and he was afraid that you might end up with excessive heat in your body." Wutong had finished assisting her mistress in her morning ablutions and was currently packing away their luggage and sleeping bags. When Hou Xiaoliang came back, he would be in charge of transporting these items.

The first to come back was Su Ran, who was dressed entirely in white. In his hands were some banana leaves and nestled inside of them were some wax apples about the size of a person's fist. They were bright red and looked very appetizing. Wutong hurriedly took them from him and washed them clean in the spring water before presenting them to her mistress.

Xiaocao chose a wax apple and began eating it. The fresh and ripe wax apple was juicy and sweet. It tasted quite good! She divided up the remaining apples to Wutong and Chunhua. Recently, Chunhua had a bit of excessive heat build up in her body and a large canker sore had appeared in her mouth, so she needed to eat some foods with vitamins in it.

"Surnamed Su, you are very sly and tricky!!" Zhu Junyang, who was dressed entirely in black and had a similar dark expression on his face, came back with a bunch of wax apples. When he saw his wife gnawing happily on a wax apple, the displeasure on his face became very apparent. If it weren't for that fellow Su Ran tricking him, saying that there was a glade of wild lychee trees, then he would have definitely come back first. He was truly too loathsome!

Xiaocao had already gotten used to the two of them quarreling and bickering over mundane things. She took a wax apple from her husband's hands and began eating it with relish. Compliments flowed out of her mouth as she exclaimed that the apple was 'so sweet'. Only then did the dark look on her man's face finally recede a bit. Argh! Men were truly childish and silly creatures.

After getting some crucial information from the little divine stone, Xiaocao finished her breakfast before pointing in a direction and said, "How about we go over there to take a look today?"

The prince from Myanmar looked at the mountain that she was pointing at and he frowned, "The terrain over there is steep and arduous and there's a section of miasma and marshland too. If we're not careful, it'd be very easy to fall into danger. How about we go there another time after bringing on some suitable tour guides?'

"No need, I have a method to counteract the miasma. As for the marshland, all we need to do is go around it!" Yu Xiaocao had found out from the little divine stone that the spiritual energy there was very dense, so there must be a large vein of jadeite ore there. She needed to go there.

The young prince looked over at Imperial Prince Xu, hoping that he would make his wife back down. However, contrary to his expectations, the imperial prince didn't say anything and agreed. Argh! Everyone said that the Imperial Prince Xu doted on his wife to the heavens and now he had experienced to what degree the prince was willing to favor her!

With the little divine stone as a silent guide, the group managed to successfully go around the section of treacherous marshland and arrived at the area blanketed by poisonous miasma. In the gloomy forest, they could see a multi-colored fog gently permeating the area. It made it look as if they were within some heavenly clouds and it was quite a mesmerizing sight.

The expression on the Myanmar's prince's face became even more solemn as he said, "I never would have thought that the miasma here would be the dangerous peach blossom miasma. As soon as it touches you, your skin will start to rot and, following that, the flesh within. In the end, it'll penetrate a person's bones...Your Highnesses, are you sure you want to go there?"

The mountaintop that Princess Consort Xu had pointed at only had marshland or the highly toxic peach blossom miasma around it. It looked like they would need to return without getting to the top.

Yu Xiaocao lightly frowned and took out a very strong and potent detoxifying pill. The little divine stone had said that this pill would have no issues in counteracting the peach blossom miasma. However, if this mountain truly had a large jadeite vein, they needed to find a way to get rid of the peach blossom miasma in the forest. Otherwise, it'd be too difficult to open up the mine and take out the ore!

Zhu Junyang watched as she took out a bottle from her medicine box and poured out a pill. He snatched over the pill from his wife's hands and stuffed it into his mouth as he said, "You all wait here for a bit. This prince will go first to investigate…"

Hou Xiaoliang was so alarmed by this that sweat poured off of him. He blocked his master's way as he said, "Your Highness, this subordinate should go instead…"

"What if there are some other dangers lurking in the forest? With your poor skills, will you be able to fight against them?" Zhu Junyang stopped Hou Xiaoliang's movement with a glance, "Keep the princess consort safe. This prince will look around and come back."

As he spoke, he leapt into the multicolored fog and disappeared quickly. Su Ran saw the worried look on Xiaocao's face and also took a strong detoxifying pill before he said, "I'll follow him and take a look. With two people in there, there should be no issues."

With two experts inside, Xiaocao felt her worries go down by half. However, if her husband was right, the forest might have many dangers looking around. Although the peach blossom miasma couldn't harm them, she didn't know if there were other perils just waiting for them.

Fortunately, the two men didn't make the rest of them wait for too long. After an hour, a black and white figure, who both looked quite similar, appeared back in their eyes.

When the Myanmar prince saw that Imperial Prince Xu and Chief Steward Su came back without a single hair on their heads harmed, his eyes almost fell out of his head. The tyrannically poisonous peach blossom miasma had absolutely no effect on them. The young prince looked over at the medicine box in Xiaocao's hands and became incredibly excited.

One had to know that Myanmar had many mountainous jungles and there were a lot of areas hiding poisonous miasmas. It was very easy for someone to fall into danger if they weren't careful. The prince's eldest brother, who was very skilled and had been the most likely candidate for the throne, had been trapped by their third brother and had stumbled into a glade with poisonous miasma. He was bedridden for more than a year before he finally passed away. If he had a detoxifying pill on hand, that was equivalent to having another chance at life. The young prince wondered just what could he bring out to make Princess Consort Xu willing to exchange a bottle of detoxifying pills for him.

"How is it?" Yu Xiaocao sprayed a medicinal solution on the two of them, which dissolved any remnants of poison from their clothing, and hurriedly asked.

"There are no living creatures within the glade. The peach blossom miasma must be too strong and most animals would dissolve into dust after encountering it. Fortunately, the glade isn't too big and the mountain you have your eye on has a lot of good things in there." Zhu Junyang revealed a reishi mushroom the size of a person's face and gave it to his wife. Perhaps the mountain's marshlands and poisonous miasma acted as a natural barrier. There were a lot of rare and precious medicinal ingredients inside. His wife would definitely like it!

As expected, Yu Xiaocao revealed an expression full of pleasant surprise, "Wow! That's too amazing ah! However, with this reishi mushroom on hand, I can start refining some 'long life medicine'."

"There are a lot of precious medicinal ingredients inside. After all, no people have dared to venture in for many years. However, this prince doesn't know enough about medicinal ingredients. When this prince buys this mountain, even if there are no jadeite ores to be found, we can just use this as a farm for your precious life extending medications!" Zhu Junyang lightly stroked his wife's hair as he gently spoke to her.

Xiaocao closed her eyes in pleasure and acted like a little fox who had just stolen a chicken to eat. Pink bubbles seemed to have appeared in the air around them...the Myanmar prince didn't realize that he was acting as an eyesore when he suddenly asked, "This prince will give this mountain to you all! However...can you sell some detoxifying pills?"

"Hmph! Does this prince require you to give the mountain that my princess consort wants?" Zhu Junyang coldly snorted in displeasure and glared daggers at the Myanmar prince.

The young prince didn't know why Imperial Prince Xu was suddenly throwing a tantrum. He scratched the back of his head and said, "I'm not giving it to you, I'm using it as a trade for the pills! Trading!"

"Trading is also not okay! This prince has decided to buy this mountain to give to my wife, so give me a price ah!" Zhu Junyang thought that his wife would definitely like a mountain full of medicinal ingredients. He didn't even wait for the jadeite experts to look around before arrogantly making a decision.

The Myanmar prince thought that they weren't willing to trade their pills to him and felt very despondent about this. After thinking about it, it made sense to him. These pills had to be very expensive and hard to make. It was likely that a lot of valuable herbs went into these pills. There was no guarantee that the mountain had any jadeite ore so it was unlikely they were willing to trade for it!

The young prince gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, how about I trade an open jadeite mine for some of the princess consort's pills? Is that okay?"

Zhu Junyang looked at his wife for the answer. The pills were hers so he needed to get her opinion. This was something that needed to be respected between a married couple.

Yu Xiaocao thought for a moment and then pointed at a nearby mountain, "I'll pass on the jadeite mine. How about you use that mountain to trade for it instead?"

The Myanmar prince was a bit perplexed by this and said, "We haven't looked at the mountain over there and are not sure as to whether there are any jadeite veins there. Furthermore, that mountain doesn't have any natural defenses, so the nearby villagers go in and out of it all the time. I'm sure any medicinal ingredients have long been harvested from there. Your Highness, you need to make sure you're okay with this decision!"

Yu Xiaocao casually nodded her head, "I've thought about it and I want that one! Your Highness, how many detoxifying pills do you want in return?"

Apparently, these pills were called detoxifying pills. Didn't that mean that they could treat other poisons too? The young prince asked the questions that had surfaced up in his heart. After the princess consort affirmed his thoughts, he was even more excited. After thinking about it, he tentatively gave out a figure, "Would it be okay to give me ten pills in exchange?"

Yu Xiaocao agreed immediately and took out a bottle of detoxifying pills. The two of them then signed a contract. Following that, Xiaocao picked another two mountains that the little divine stone had pointed out and they signed the purchase agreement. As for the mountain surrounded by poisonous miasma, the young prince sold it to them at a very low price.

The next year, this particular mountain revealed a giant pure gold mine. The young Myanmar prince regretted his decision completely. If he wasn't afraid of Imperial Prince Xu's might, he would have ripped up that contract and snatched the gold mine back.

As for the other mountains that Xiaocao pointed out, they also found jadeite veins in them. The one that they traded for using detoxifying pills not only had a very rich vein of raw jadeite ore but the jadeite mined from it were also of top-notch quality. It was only better and not worse than the other jadeite mines that the prince currently had.

The young prince from Myanmar was quite puzzled by all of this. When they had agreed on the purchasing contract for the two mountains, the other side hadn't even investigated them but valuable jadeite mines appeared. Wasn't their luck too good to be true? Were they truly people who were blessed by the Heavens?

If they were blessed by the Heavens, wouldn't going against them mean going against the Heavens? The young prince's inner beliefs told him that he needed to follow the heavenly mandate and obey the Heavens. He could only cooperate well with those who were blessed by the Heavens and not work against him. Perhaps by doing that he would be able to get some luck off of Imperial Prince Xu and would end up helping him in the future! Thus, he always did his best to protect and cooperate with the people who worked on these new mines.

Many years later, the young prince became triumphant over his many older brothers in the fight for the throne and became the King of Myanmar. He was even more certain that he had been imbued with a hint of the heavenly blessings that Imperial Prince Xu had. Otherwise, how could he have been able to gain a victory over his legitimate older brothers? From then on, as the king, he was very obedient and respectful towards the Great Ming Empire. The southwest border didn't have any battles or skirmishes appear for decades. This was all later though.