Chapter 149: Purging the Military Camp

Obviously, this was not the most vital stream. Within this frontier fortress, there were several watercourses, many of them artificially excavated, and some even channeled from mountain springs to serve as flowing water for daily use.

Leading a group of disciples from the Bai Alliance, Bai Feiyu walked for over a hundred meters until he finally reached the blocked section of the stream.

Near the military encampment, the situation was manageable, but further down, the accumulation of fallen leaves and branches from years past had choked the riverbed. Poking aside the rotting foliage disturbed lurking insects and bloated toads.

Some toads had already died within the stagnant debris, and having been blocked off for so long, the decaying branches and leaves emitted a foul, oppressive odor.

Witnessing this, Bai Feiyu drew his God-Slaying Spear, which then hovered steadily in the empty air.

Several other disciples stepped forward to assist.

Combining their weapons, the group lifted the mass of tangled branches and leaves together, heaving them onto the nearby hillside.

"The rest of you, clear out the remaining scattered debris and leaves from the riverbed," Qian Shuang instructed the other disciples from the side. "After all, these small accumulations add up, and they might become a trouble later on."

Working diligently, Bai Feiyu and his companions finally cleared away all the accumulated branches and leaves.

However, the stream bed still contained pockets of rotting silt and stinking mud. After a prolonged period of strenuous labor, the group managed to scrub and clear the entire area.

Tracing the stream back to its source, Bai Feiyu discovered that it originated from a flowing mountain spring.

At the current rate of the spring's flow, it wouldn't take even a full day for the foul water in the channel to be completely flushed away, restoring the stream to full use.

Bai Feiyu led his people back.

Upon returning to the encampment, the remaining disciples were busy tidying up the grounds. Thanks to everyone's hard work, the garbage had been swept away, and many areas had even been thoroughly scrubbed by the disciples.

The entire place now looked fresh and renewed.

Next, all the disciples began venturing into other sections of the camp to find tasks to perform, ensuring the place was clean enough for the wounded soldiers to recover in comfort.

Although there were some lower-cultivation personnel in the barracks responsible for sanitation, their numbers were simply too few.

They were completely overwhelmed.

It was only after the disciples of the Ruins Sect joined in that the encampment returned to a semblance of normality, albeit one that still looked somewhat weathered and dilapidated.

Bai Feiyu led his team toward the mess hall, intending to clean it thoroughly.

Experience from his two lifetimes told Bai Feiyu that the mess hall was invariably the dirtiest place of all, requiring substantial effort to render clean.

Upon arriving at the mess hall, the Ruins Sect disciples realized it was worlds apart from their own sect's dining facilities.

The floors were caked with thick layers of grime, and in some places, the floor tiles had even grown moldy.

Frowning, Bai Feiyu and his group set to work until the entire space was spotless. With nothing left to do for the moment, Bai Feiyu stood within the encampment and gazed up at the sky.

The sky remained overcast and gray, just like back at the Ruins Sect, and it looked as though a heavy downpour was imminent.

He wondered how the soldiers fighting bloody battles outside were faring.

Regrettably, this was not the time for them to join the fray in support, leaving Bai Feiyu and his group with no choice but to await further orders.

By evening, no one had yet come to assign them duties.

Members of the Ruins Sect specifically checked the mess hall, only to find the kitchen staff frantically busy, the evening meal appearing entirely inadequate.

After all, the kitchen personnel were limited in number, and priority had to be given to the wounded. Furthermore, many of the kitchen staff had been drafted away to the front lines, risking life and death to deliver meals to the fighting soldiers.

Bai Feiyu sighed softly before leading the Ruins Sect members back.

It seemed that due to the urgency of the situation, the kitchen had no time to prepare meals for them, and most of the disciples had never learned how to cook, rendering them entirely helpless.

Stepping outside, all the disciples looked toward Bai Feiyu with eager eyes, silently appealing to him for a decision.

Bai Feiyu glanced at the disciples, let out a sigh, and spoke in a low voice:

"Alright, alright. I'll take you to forage for some food. Today, we'll just have to rely on ourselves. With the border war pressing down on us, we'll simply have to make do for now."

With that, Bai Feiyu had a few individuals retrieve a large cauldron from the mess hall.

Next, Bai Feiyu led several Ruins Sect members up the mountain to search for any wild game.

Since they were on a mountain, spiritual beasts should theoretically be abundant.

Yet, upon reaching the mountainside, Bai Feiyu felt somewhat disappointed. Due to the ravages of war, the larger ferocious beasts had either been hunted down during shortages or had fled en masse, leaving behind only a few stray rabbits and field mice.

This gave Bai Feiyu a headache. What was to be done?

Countless disciples were waiting for him to provide a meal back at the camp. For the very first time, Bai Feiyu realized how difficult it was to be the head of a household.

Still, this was not enough to stump Bai Feiyu. He searched around; although the spiritual fruit on the trees had already been harvested, this world, much like his previous one, possessed wild vegetables!

Where there were wild vegetables, things became manageable.

Though wild game was scarce, it wasn't entirely nonexistent. Catching a few rabbits and field mice would at least provide a hint of savory flavor.

The rest could be made up for with wild vegetables. Besides, quite a few disciples likely carried some rations of their own.

If they threw everything together into a giant stew, wouldn't that solve the problem?

Promptly, Bai Feiyu assigned tasks to everyone: one group would forage for wild vegetables, another would capture stray wild game such as mountain chickens around the vicinity, bringing them down to the stream to be gutted and cleaned.

The remaining people were tasked with felling timber and gathering firewood.

Everything else proceeded smoothly, but the wild vegetables required Bai Feiyu's personal supervision.

Since most people in this world did not recognize wild herbs, eating them was no different from eating grass in their eyes.

Bai Feiyu had to teach them hand-in-hand how to identify the edible wild plants, distinguishing which ones were safe and which would cause stomach ailments. They harvested the vegetables and brought them down beside the military camp to begin simmering the stew.