Chapter 70: Lin’s Pharmacy
Carrying the Jade Marrow Grass, Yang Shen wandered around the medicinal herb market for a long while longer. He tried a few different shops, and though the offers varied, none broke the 1,000-yuan mark.
He’d wised up and learned the girl’s sales pitch. To everyone he met, he repeated her lines about how Jade Marrow Grass grew quickly at first and then slowed down, how 18 centimeters was already long, and how his, at 20 centimeters, was the king of kings.
But it didn’t seem to do any good.
The shopkeepers would just use even more complex and flowery professional jargon to devalue his Jade Marrow Grass.
All sorts of nonsense, like "the roots are uneven," "the stem-to-leaf ratio is off," or "the color isn’t right."
Everyone in the market was cunning as a fox. Aside from regulars and major clients, it felt like they were all just looking to make a quick buck. They saw how young Yang Shen was and didn’t say a single honest thing to him.
It even made Yang Shen wonder if he’d been ripped off when he bought a stalk for 666 yuan...
But his trip wasn’t a total waste. Besides trying to sell the Jade Marrow Grass, he was also learning more about the Spirit Plants of Cyan Blue.
The Window Spirit Field was, after all, just an experiment. If he wanted it to become the foundation of a family business in the future, a few flowerpots wouldn’t cut it.
Today was less about making money and more about attending a class.
He checked his watch; it was already afternoon. Yang Shen picked up the Jade Marrow Grass and headed back. With the Ganlin Curse, he wasn’t worried about it dying if he replanted it, so there was no rush.
However, as he passed by Lin’s Pharmacy, he noticed the "grand send-off" was over, so he peeked inside out of curiosity.
The girl was behind the counter, tidying up, looking for all the world like the proprietor. ’Did she really take over a shop in such a short time?’ Yang Shen wondered.
’There must be some story behind this.’
Seeing Yang Shen lingering at the door, the girl waved. "You haven’t sold it yet? Come on in and let’s talk."
Dubiously, Yang Shen walked in and placed the flowerpot on the counter.
Lin Yuebai picked it up and studied it for a moment. "Jade Marrow Grass is a mainstream High Source medicinal herb, but it’s cultivated in massive quantities these days. The quality on the market is all over the place, so it’s genuinely hard to sell a single stalk like yours."
Hearing what sounded like another tactic to drive down the price, Yang Shen smiled. "That’s fine. I’m not desperate to sell."
"2,500. You selling?"
Yang Shen: ’But on the other hand...’
"Sold!"
Lin Yuebai flashed a very business-like smile.
"I can tell you don’t know much about medicinal herbs. The tips of this Jade Marrow Grass’s leaves are starting to turn white. That’s not a sign of poor quality—it means it’s reached its growth limit. This is at least a five-year-old plant. You can’t find details like this online; only an expert would know."
"For large-scale pharmaceutical companies, they just toss it into the hopper without a second thought for its grade. For them, quantity is everything. But for certain connoisseurs, a plant like this deserves special treatment. It can be used to make a truly fine medicine."
Yang Shen nodded, pulled out his phone, and displayed his QR code. "Thanks for the lesson. You can pay me now."
Lin Yuebai’s large eyes darted to the side. "I don’t have any money."
Yang Shen: ...
A vein throbbed in his temple. Yang Shen stared at Lin Yuebai’s pretty, porcelain-white face... and his fists clenched!
"Then what was... what was all that about?!"
Lin Yuebai looked a bit guilty. She had a feeling this young man could pack a punch, and she frantically waved her hands.
"Consignment! Ever heard of consignment? Leave the Jade Marrow Grass here. With the reputation of Lin’s Pharmacy, customers are sure to come."
"If it sells for 2,500 or more, I’ll take a 10% commission. If it sells for less than 2,500, I’ll make up the difference for you. What do you think...?"
Yang Shen said, "...Do you take me for a fool? If you can’t get 2,500 for it, you just won’t sell it! That just means my merchandise will be stuck here with you indefinitely."
’What Lin’s? I’ve never heard of it.’
Lin Yuebai held up one finger. "One week. If it doesn’t sell in one week, I’ll pay you 2,500 myself. That’s my own estimate of its value; you absolutely won’t be at a loss. I really do have regular clients!"
Having just taken over the shop, she knew it was filled with junk. There was even half a warehouse of expired aphrodisiacs—all industrial-grade foreign imports. She really needed something good to put on display.
But good merchandise costs money, which was why she’d come up with this compromise.
Seeing that Yang Shen was tempted, Lin Yuebai added, "Look, I just took over this shop. I’m not going to run off. If I really scammed you, wouldn’t you just come back for revenge and ruin my business? Do I look that stupid?"
’Whether she was that stupid was debatable.’
’But she was probably that poor.’
’Did all her money go to that ’grand send-off’?’
Yang Shen thought for a moment, speechless, then finally held out his hand. "Give me whatever money you have on you now as a deposit."
Looking troubled, Lin Yuebai pulled out her phone. "I only have two hundred and eight yuan on me. I need to eat, you know."
"How can you open a shop with so little money... never mind, that’s none of my business. Give me two hundred. The remaining eight yuan should be enough for you to eat."
Lin Yuebai gritted her teeth. "Fine!"
’That’s enough for two meals of fragrant mixed noodles!’
After collecting the two-hundred-yuan deposit, Yang Shen left the Jade Marrow Grass at the shop. Even though Lin Yuebai claimed to be an expert who wouldn’t let it die, Yang Shen secretly cast a Ganlin Curse on it just in case.
He also drew up a handwritten agreement and only left after watching her sign it and press her thumbprint on the paper.
On his way out, Yang Shen started doing the math in his head.
If Lin Yuebai wasn’t lying, then this Jade Marrow Grass was of a "five-year-old" grade.
When he’d bought it, it must have been less than a year old...
’Let’s just call that the "nascent" stage...’
In other words, half a month of Spirit Plant Cultivation, with daily care using a variety of Magic, was equivalent to four years of natural growth...
That was obviously an astonishing ratio.
’Immortal Techniques really are on another level!’
Perhaps this "five-year-old" status also depended on the plant’s variety and natural environment, but a rough calculation was still enough to get him excited about the future of his Spirit Plant Inheritance.
’No win is too small!’
There was another important takeaway: the Spirit Plant Inheritance, which came from a small-scale agrarian background, was indeed better suited for a boutique approach rather than mass cultivation.
Just as the girl had said, large corporations dumped tens of tons of raw materials into their hoppers. They didn’t care about the grade of any individual plant; they only extracted its medicinal value and won through sheer quantity.
Even if his cultivation level increased in the future and his Ganlin Curse and Withering and Flourishing Curse could cover a wider area, he could never compete with large biopharmaceutical conglomerates on scale. That would drain him completely dry.
In fact, the Spirit Plant Inheritance mentioned that tending to a Spirit Field was a standard "chore" on the Cultivation Side. It required expending Spiritual Power to nourish the plants and was typically the responsibility of low-level disciples with weak cultivation.
Unless a cultivator had no desire to advance their cultivation and became a "Medicine Slave," absorbing Spiritual Qi only to feed it all to the herbs, a single cultivator in the Qi Cultivation Stage... should not be responsible for a Spirit Field exceeding 30 mu.
And that was based on an *average* cultivator in the Qi Cultivation Stage. Yang Shen was definitely not at that level yet...
Still, even at his current level, if he could sell three to four stalks of Jade Marrow Grass of similar quality each week, that would be an income of nearly 10,000 yuan!
Woohoo! We have liftoff!
Yang Shen was giddy with delight, and his steps grew lighter. As long as he could iron out this process, he could basically cover the shortfall needed for his family to move to Jianghuai City and rent a place while he was in college.
Forty thousand a month for a family of six wouldn’t mean a life of luxury, but they could at least get by. Plus, he had his Martial Arts Student stipend, and his aunt could find a job too.
Just as he was basking in satisfaction, the sudden sound of beating gongs and drums erupted from the main entrance of the medicinal herb market.
DONG!
"Jinkang Pharmacy! Having acquired eight stalks of supreme-grade Sinking Dragon Incense! We respectfully invite the Medicine King to our hall!"
DONG!!!
A grand procession approached. Some people carried large bullhorns, others held microphones. Behind them was a long line of followers and a total of eight large palanquins.
On each palanquin, a thick, dark log was mounted upright. This had to be the so-called Sinking Dragon Incense. Each one was as thick as a person, and there were eight in total. They looked rather plain.
But as the procession passed by, Yang Shen’s nose twitched. He caught a rich, exquisite fragrance.
Everyone here was in the medicinal herb business, so after the procession passed, a few nearby shopkeepers began to chat.
"Holy cow, eight stalks of Sinking Dragon Incense that big all at once? That’s got to be worth over a hundred million, right?"
"A hundred million is if you sell it by weight. Who’s going to break up something this huge to weigh it? This is the kind of treasure that anchors a shop, something you can pass down for a hundred years! They’re just parading it through the streets to show off."
"You can’t find stuff like this in the country anymore. Must be from overseas, right? By the looks of it, was it originally one whole piece? Damn! Wouldn’t it be worth even more if they’d brought it back in one piece?"
"Probably salvaged from a shipwreck. Work out at sea is rough; maybe the situation didn’t allow for it. But the boss of Jinkang is a real powerhouse... no wonder he has the Lin Family completely under his thumb."
"Well, yeah! They have 36 stores across all of Jianghuai!"
Yang Shen searched his memory. It seemed Sinking Dragon Incense was formed from a "top-tier arboreal High Source plant" that had undergone a series of complex changes after its death... It had been a priceless treasure since ancient times.
When burned, its fragrance could help a Martial Artist with Body Forging and conditioning their bloodline.
’Over a hundred million... Tsk, tsk.’
’The world of the rich is just too ostentatious.’
’Compared to that, his own Spirit Plant business, pulling in ten thousand a week, seemed utterly pathetic.’
’He’d need to work for ten thousand weeks to make a hundred million. That’s about 192 years...’
But then he thought about that guy, Chen Beiwang. A single invention for suppressing Martial Arts Psychosis was worth two or three hundred million... Yang Shen suddenly felt a lot better.
’So what if it’s Jinkang Pharmacy? Their strength is just average!’
’They’re not even as impressive as my student!’
Yang Shen turned to leave but then suddenly whipped back around.
’Just now, for a split second...’
’...the grain on one of those dark logs had formed a human face... and it had glanced at him.’
A long while later, after the procession carrying the Sinking Dragon Incense had completely disappeared, Yang Shen finally shook his head and continued on his way.
’I must have imagined it... How could a piece of wood have a face...’
---
[Recommendation Tickets]
[Monthly Tickets]