Making Money

Today, three joys had arrived at once. It was worth celebrating.

After a while.

Qingyang Town came into view.

Yang Heng entered a small tavern, ordered a pot of fine wine and several signature dishes, then sat on a wooden stool and waited.

It was not that Yang Heng lacked the money to dine at a restaurant, but this little tavern suited his current identity: an ordinary apprentice at Hundred Herbs Pharmacy.

Restaurants had too many people and too many watchful eyes. Most of those coming and going were people of some standing, and Qingyang Town's restaurants were all located in the central district, not far from the pharmacy.

The pharmacy's masters often went to restaurants for meals, and sometimes even Shopkeeper Chen would visit.

If he ran into them face-to-face, he would have no way to explain how an ordinary apprentice had the silver to dine at a restaurant.

Now that Yang Heng had achieved success in martial arts, why had he not set up on his own and made a living independently? Why did he insist on remaining a lowly apprentice at the pharmacy, constantly enduring the masters' scoldings and swallowing their nonsense?

There were many reasons for this.

First, the pharmacy had martial artists backing it. Within Qingyang Town, having the identity of a pharmacy apprentice would save him a great deal of trouble outside.

Second, Hundred Herbs Pharmacy in Qingyang Town was merely a branch. Its main establishment was in Qinghe City, under the control of the Medicine King Gang, one of the city's major gangs. Its backing ran deep, and ordinary martial artists would not dare provoke it.

Yang Heng understood that when one was out in the world, one had to talk about power and influence.

Especially in these chaotic times, when martial artists ran rampant, having a major force behind him to shield him from wind and rain would greatly reduce the risks.

He would no longer have to worry about some martial artist appearing out of nowhere and strangling him to death in one grip.

With this skin draped over him, people would often be wary and would not dare act recklessly.

That was also why Yang Heng remained at the pharmacy despite having achieved success in martial arts.

Once his cultivation advanced another step, he would head to Qinghe City. Qingyang Town was too remote and lacked martial resources, making it unsuitable for martial artists to cultivate.

Because resources were scarce, Qingyang Town found it difficult to nurture martial artists. Once someone became a martial artist, they would leave for places where martial artists gathered.

Martial cultivation depended first on talent and second on cultivation resources.

Resources included cultivation techniques, medicinal pills, masters, connections, and so on.

Qingyang Town lacked most of these things.

Yang Heng's current plan was to accumulate qi and blood and raise his cultivation while searching for a way to transfer into the Medicine King Gang.

Hundred Herbs Pharmacy was also under the Medicine King Gang's authority. Based on the contributions made to the gang, a varying number of slots were allocated each year. Whoever received a slot could join the Medicine King Gang and become one of its disciples.

Those slots were controlled by Shopkeeper Chen and another martial artist. Who received them depended entirely on what the two of them said.

Obtaining a slot would not be easy, and Yang Heng still had no clue how to go about it.

He had learned this information from the idle chatter of the pharmacy apprentices. There had previously been pharmacy members transferred into the Medicine King Gang.

While he was thinking, the dishes were quickly served.

Looking at the fine food and wine before him, Yang Heng dug in with great relish.

One hand clutched a pig trotter, while the other reached for an oily chicken leg on a plate.

He gnawed the pig trotter with his left hand and bit into the chicken leg with his right, his mouth slick with grease as he ate to his heart's content.

After a while, the plates on the table were picked clean. Not even a single leaf of vegetable remained.

"Burp."

Yang Heng let out a full belch and thought, This was how people were supposed to live.

From now on, he would eat according to this standard.

But when he thought of his purse, Yang Heng's face immediately turned bitter.

Last time, he had obtained fifteen taels of silver from Li Kui and the other two. He had spent eight taels on pork strips to fill the Marrow Cleansing Pearl, and this meal had cost one tael.

Now, he only had six taels of silver left.

In other words, he could only afford six meals at this standard.

At that thought, Yang Heng made up his mind. He had to make money. He absolutely had to make money.

As for where the money would come from, he already had an idea.

Since ancient times, whenever great heroes had no money for wine, the first people they thought of were wealthy merchants. They would go to those men's homes to "beg alms."

Most rich people were wealthy but heartless. Taking a little of their money to spend was not excessive in the slightest.

Otherwise, there would not have been so many tales throughout history of robbing the rich to aid the poor.

If great heroes could do it, why couldn't I?

That was what Yang Heng thought.

Of course, Yang Heng would not start by picking a hard persimmon to squeeze.

The wealthy merchants in town had money, and they hired skilled guards to watch over their homes. Some merchants even hired Blood Brave Disciples to guard their houses and protect their safety.

The landlords in the countryside, however, did not have such martial arrangements. Most relied on brothers helping one another, or tenant farmers working under them to carry out guard duties.

Yang Heng decided to begin his path to making money with the rural landlords.

Money was extremely important to those who practiced martial arts.

Buying weapons required money, and buying great tonics to increase cultivation speed also required money. Money was needed everywhere.

It could be said that a martial artist's powerful physique was piled up with money.

A single hair that fell from one might be worth several Copper Coins.

In this world, without money, one could not take a single step.

Take the meal Yang Heng had just eaten. It had not been cheap, but it had been worth every penny.

That single meal was equivalent to the energy Yang Heng normally gained from eating ten jin of pork strips.

Pork strips were nowhere near as delicious as these dishes, and eating too much of them would make one sick to the stomach.

After resting for a while, all the food in his stomach had been digested, and his qi and blood had grown somewhat stronger.

But the Marrow Cleansing Pearl had only accumulated 0.5% energy.

Before this, the nutrients contained in that meal could have provided the Marrow Cleansing Pearl with 5% energy.

Yang Heng guessed that either the Marrow Cleansing Pearl had grown larger, or the difficulty of storing energy had increased.

The requirements for accumulating energy had become harsher. Some ordinary meals might no longer be able to provide energy for the Marrow Cleansing Pearl.

He needed food of higher quality. Meat was merely the most basic requirement.

The best would be precious medicinal herbs, or even medicinal pills.

It was not as though Yang Heng had possessed such foresight.

He had kept the two aged Old Ginseng roots he obtained from Li Kui and had not used them.

Yang Heng had thought that martial cultivation consumed tremendous physical strength, so these two Old Ginseng roots could make up for that expenditure, accelerate his martial cultivation, and raise his cultivation faster.

By a twist of fate, they had come in handy today.

Yang Heng smiled, feeling that heaven's will truly existed in the unseen.

But these two Old Ginseng roots were only a cup of water against a cartload of firewood. To fill the Marrow Cleansing Pearl, he needed more great medicines and more tonics.

Of course, filling the Marrow Cleansing Pearl was a long-term undertaking and could not be accomplished in a short time.

The most important thing at present was making money!

Only with sufficient money could he maintain the basic nutrition required for his daily martial cultivation.

That way, his body would not be depleted, leaving endless future troubles.

Once he thought of it, he acted. Yang Heng was not someone who dragged his feet.

Once he made a decision, he would carry it out immediately, acting with thunderous speed and decisive force.

Yang Heng rose to his feet, placed one tael of silver on the table, and strode out of the tavern.

When delivering medicine in the past, he had visited most of the villages, large and small, within fifty li of Qingyang Town.

Yang Heng knew perfectly well which landlords oppressed the common people and were wealthy but heartless.

After running through them in his mind, Yang Heng immediately thought of one person—Wang Gui.

This man was a landlord of Green Willow Village. He threw his weight around and tyrannized the countryside, often molesting the village women. Sometimes, he even assaulted them on the spot before their husbands' eyes. His evil deeds were countless, and his crimes were beyond pardon.

A cold glint flashed in Yang Heng's eyes. He decided to start with him.