General Yves and his officers were startled. Soon, a group of guards rushed in and stood protectively in front of General Yves.
The tall, broad-shouldered man sat up straight from his grand chair, looking interested, no longer appearing lazy and relaxed.
He waved his hand, and the soldiers quickly spread out.
"Bring a few wooden buckets!" someone shouted.
Howell, one of General Yves's advisors, reacted quickly and gave the order to the soldiers.
No one knew where the food came from, but feeding their stomachs was the top priority.
Soon, two buckets of grain fell from the sky.
And wherever General Yves moved, the spot where the food fell also shifted to follow him, always staying at a certain distance.
When the food stopped falling, Howell's eyes lit up, and she immediately dropped to her knees.
"Heaven is blessing our leader!"
With a loud rustling sound, everyone around knelt down too.
General Yves's face remained calm. He stepped forward, looked around, and glanced up into the sky.
Just then, water suddenly poured down, soaking the kneeling soldiers and advisors in front of him.
No one was upset. They quickly brought over the wooden buckets to collect the water and whispered happily, "Heaven's rain! Heaven's rain! Our army will surely win the southern battle now!"
Everyone busied themselves collecting water.
Neither the Zhao Kingdom nor the Chu Kingdom had seen any rain for many days.
Three days ago, they had eaten their last meal using broken pots, and it wasn't even as tasty as the hot mixed grain porridge now steaming before them.
General Yves had someone taste the food first.
After confirming it wasn't poisoned, he ordered someone to bring bowls and chopsticks.
When they scooped out more than ten bowls of mixed grain porridge from the clean wooden buckets, the porridge was full of big pieces of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and some leafy vegetables. Everyone began to swallow hard, waiting for General Yves to take the first bite.
General Yves looked at the bowl of porridge the soldier brought to him. He felt a strange reluctance to eat it. But seeing all his men waiting for him to eat first, he reluctantly took a sip.
"Add water to the rest and boil it again. Give some to the guards outside," he said.
He only took one sip before giving the rest to his men.
He lifted his foot, ready to leave.
At that moment, two lumps fell right in front of him. Before anyone could react, General Yves had already kicked them away.
The loud squeals of piglets filled the hall.
"They're piglets!" a general shouted, his eyes glowing.
Even General Yves looked surprised.
…
Sophia pulled the hose over and filled the pig trough with water a few times. Each time, the water disappeared after five minutes.
The area around the trough stayed clean and dry, so it was clear the trough wasn't leaking.
After a few rounds of water rinsing, all the grime stuck to the trough was gone. Sophia took a brush and gave the trough a good scrub.
A strong, ancient smell came from it.
"This thing is worse than a gluttonous monster! Even a creature like that would have some sort of reaction after eating so much!"
Sophia grumbled as she held a bunch of wild fruits she had picked from the forest, originally meant to feed the pigs. Now, she tossed some into the trough again.
As for the few piglets in the pen, she had already moved them to another section. She had cooked up new food for them and used the old plastic trough she had bought earlier. No more food disappeared mysteriously, and the piglets were back to grunting and squealing as usual.
Seeing that this ancient-looking trough only swallowed things without giving anything back, Sophia dragged it into the kitchen. She figured she might as well throw any future garbage into it.
So, General Yves started receiving a bunch of food waste.
In a room with old and elegant style, a group of strong men stood around the bed. They were shaking their heads and sighing.
They had been discussing for a long time but still couldn't come up with a solution.
Behind them stood a man as strong as a bear. His face looked darker and darker. He shouted, "You useless doctors, do you have any way to save the General? If you can't cure him, then you'll all die with him!"
The army doctors looked at each other nervously. One of them said with a worried face, "General Ulric, we've already tried everything. But the General's fever just won't go down. If we can bring the fever down, then the rest of his injuries are not a big problem."
General Yves suddenly got a high fever in the middle of the night. He could barely drink some medicine, but it didn't work well. They already tried wiping his body with warm water and with alcohol, but nothing helped.
After the doctors finished talking, they were all sweating. The commanders standing behind them stared coldly.
One young army doctor, about twenty years old, suddenly had an idea. His eyes lit up. He said, "Maybe our General is blessed by heaven. If we pray, maybe the gods will give us a miracle medicine."
Just as he finished speaking, something fell right onto the blanket covering General Yves.
The young doctor, Qishan, was standing closest. When he heard the sound, he quickly turned around and rushed forward.
"Heaven really gave us a miracle medicine."
"Ibuprofen Extended-Release Capsules?"
He quickly picked up a red and white paper box. It felt smooth and had sharp corners.
There was a picture of someone running on the box.
Everyone rushed over at once.
"Is it really a miracle medicine?"
They all gathered around.
"It's used to reduce mild to moderate pain like headache and joint pain. It also helps with fever."
The lead doctor, Zhou Dian, read out the words clearly. Then he shouted, "The General can be saved."
The others got excited, but even after that, no one dared to touch it.
Earlier that day, General Yves had ordered them to keep the strange event quiet. So, only a few people knew. But everyone guessed maybe it really was a blessing from the gods, either for the country or just for General Yves himself.
Or maybe it was a secret trick from his enemies that hadn't been revealed yet.
No one was sure.
At that moment, General Ulric spoke. "Give the medicine to the General."
General Ulric was ranked just below General Yves. But General Yves was not just any official. He was a royal prince with real power in his hands.
General Ulric had always been trusted by General Yves. So once he gave the order, the others followed without question.
Soon, Qishan helped the General take the capsule, following the instructions on the box.
No one dared to leave. They all stood there watching General Yves closely.
The other commanders who couldn't help in any other way started giving random suggestions. "The gods helped our army, but we haven't given anything back."
One person spoke, and the others looked at each other. Then they started taking out anything valuable they had.
"We don't even know which god is helping us. We don't have an incense burner or altar. How do we give thanks?"
"When the gift appeared, didn't it fall within the General's reach?"
Very soon, in the same place where the medicine box had fallen, there was now a pile of gold, silver, jewels, and jade.
At that moment, sweat began to appear on General Yves's pale face.
In less than half an hour, his blanket was completely wet.
Everyone in the room fell to their knees and began to pray. They kept repeating, "May the heavens protect the Kingdom of Zhao. Thank you, great spirit, for your gift."
General Yves was the war god of the Kingdom of Zhao. Since the age of fifteen, when he first rose to power, the kingdom had gone from being bullied and nearly destroyed to strong enough to fight the great powers of the western lands. It was all because of General Yves.