Cloud White Medicine

After emptying every apothecary in Diagon Alley of dittany, Murphy had spent most of his gold coins. He then bought large quantities of raw materials for various medical potions, including Skele-Gro, blood-replenishing potions, and wound-cleaning solutions, for future research, finally spending every last Galleon he had just gotten his hands on.

More than six thousand Galleons, gone before they had even warmed in his pocket.

But Murphy did not feel the least bit distressed.

Money was meant to be spent, after all.

After that, Murphy bought large quantities of Muggle dittany, pseudo-ginseng, and other herbs from Muggle herbal shops.

In fact, Murphy had discovered long ago that although many medicinal ingredients in the magical world had the same scientific names as those in the Muggle world, such as dittany and aconite, they were not the same as their Muggle counterparts.

For example, dittany looked very similar in form to the Muggle world's dittany, but the latter could not produce the healing effect of magical dittany no matter what. The essence extracted using the same method had no effect whatsoever.

As for this, Murphy could only guess that wizards in the past had cultivated magical dittany through magic or some other means, turning it into a different plant.

After returning to Darkholm Manor, Murphy used magic to grind both kinds of dittany into powder, mixed them together, then added Muggle pseudo-ginseng, kudzu powder, and various other Muggle herbal powders, blending them into a medicinal powder whose raw materials no one could possibly reverse-engineer or analyze.

The method for making Essence of Dittany was far too simple. If he wanted to keep its formula secret, he could only start with the raw materials.

Murphy had already made up his mind that the raw materials used to produce Essence of Dittany in the future would all appear before others in the form of this mixed powder.

Murphy then divided the powder into several large bags and stuffed them all into an Undetectable Extension bag.

Then he went out to register a company.

Two days later, Murphy Apparated to Patrick's house. Led by Mrs. Duncan, he walked into Patrick's study. Patrick was on the phone, and when he saw him arrive, he merely nodded first, signaling for Murphy to wait a moment.

Murphy did not stand on ceremony either. He found a sofa and sat down, casually flipping through a few Muggle books on the shelves.

Most of Patrick's collection was about the pharmaceutical and biological industries, and he had subscribed to quite a few academic journals as well. It was clear that he had truly invested enormous effort and dedication into this field.

With that spirit of constant learning, it was no wonder he could become one of London's foremost pharmaceutical salesmen.

Before long, Patrick finished his call. He looked at Murphy and smiled. "One piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Murphy smiled. "The good one first."

"I looked into five pharmaceutical factories. The one I'm most optimistic about, Isis Pharmaceuticals, made a bad investment last year. According to inside information, they're preparing to restructure. I estimate we can buy it for around nine hundred thousand pounds, which would save us a large sum compared to our original estimate."

"That really is good news. What about the bad news?"

"The drug approval process is a bit troublesome. The review committee chairman, Douglas, is a friend of mine, but he's just been transferred elsewhere. The newly appointed fellow is a shareholder of Blue Mountain. He's demanding that we provide the formula to ensure the drug's safety."

Murphy frowned.

Patrick had already submitted his resignation to Blue Mountain Pharmaceuticals, so it was understandable that Blue Mountain's shareholders did not want to make things easy for him.

"What do you think?" Murphy asked.

To Murphy, this matter was not a problem. At worst, he could hit that fellow with a set of Imperius and Memory Charms.

Murphy did not have many psychological barriers when it came to using Unforgivable Curses to achieve his goals, as long as he did not make it so widely known that it became impossible to clean up.

"The formula absolutely cannot be provided," Patrick said. "His demand is already against the rules for herbal medicines. I'll join forces with several companies to put pressure on him. Getting a temporary production license won't be a problem."

"But we need to produce the product and put it on the market as soon as possible. As long as the market response is good enough, he won't be able to stop us."

"I don't understand this part. You handle it," Murphy said.

"There's one more thing," Patrick said. "The production method you told me before was laboratory preparation, which is different from industrial production. We'll need to find someone to design the industrial production process. For that, I need you to tell me the complete experimental steps."

After Patrick finished speaking, he watched Murphy.

The laboratory preparation procedures for some drugs could potentially reveal part of the formula, but Patrick did not explain further. He hoped his employer would trust him enough.

Murphy did not ask much either. He took a notebook from the small bag behind him, tore out a page directly, and handed it to Patrick.

"It's all on there."

Patrick breathed a sigh of relief and solemnly took the note. He read through it carefully, then nodded. "The production process is very simple. I can find a few graduate students to design the industrial production. What about the raw materials?"

"They're already prepared."

"Judging from these steps, the raw materials really are the key to the white medicine. You must think of a way to keep the materials confidential," Patrick reminded him.

"Don't worry."

As Murphy spoke, he handed a seal to Patrick. "I've already registered the company. This is the financial seal. The registered capital is one million pounds, and the funds have already arrived in the account. It should be enough to buy the factory you mentioned."

Patrick took the seal and saw the words written on the bottom: "Umbrella Industries Financial Use Only."

"Umbrella?" Patrick nodded. "It fits the positioning of dittany very well. Not a bad name."

Murphy's face reddened. When he had gone to register the company, his habit of blurting out nonsense had acted up again.

Fortunately, at this time the Resident Evil series had not yet been released, so Umbrella was still a perfectly normal name. Moreover, the word carried meanings like rain umbrella, protective umbrella, and shelter, which did indeed suit a pharmaceutical company very well.

"So the official name of the white medicine will just be White Medicine?"

"Call it Cloud... cough, Cloud White Medicine."

Memories of his previous life made him unable to resist blurting things out again.

"Cloud, umbrella..." Patrick nodded appreciatively. "There's consistency. Very good."

Good my ass!

Ever since seeing Essence of Dittany, the guy seemed to have started letting his imagination run wild.

"I'll go get in touch with Isis Pharmaceuticals tomorrow," Patrick said, full of drive. "Boss, on your end, I'll have someone arrange a few graduate students to help you design the industrial process. With that, we can decide what kind of production line we need."

After leaving Patrick's house, Murphy could not help feeling a little emotional. Sure enough, it was better to leave professional matters to professionals.

If he had had to build a pharmaceutical company from scratch by himself, he would have been completely in the dark. There was no way things would be progressing this quickly now, with every day seeming to bring a mountain of endless work.

It also served as a reminder to him.

Even if his goal was omniscience and omnipotence, he was still far from reaching that level. With his current abilities and knowledge, he was still a complete novice in many fields.

He absolutely could not aim too high or act stubbornly on his own!

In his previous life, he had only been an undergraduate computer science major. The experiment to produce Essence of Dittany without magic had already exhausted all the biochemistry knowledge he had from his past life.

As a result, he was not capable of doing things like further refining Essence of Dittany or determining its active substances.

That was why he needed the Muggle world.

He needed talent.

A great deal of talent!

There were too many things that needed doing, and his energy and ability were not enough to cover every aspect.

So he needed to borrow strength. He needed to gather a large number of professionals like Patrick and use their power in order to achieve his own goals.

Muggles, work yourselves to the bone for my great cause of immortality!

Mm. He would have to give Patrick a bit of equity later.

Just as he had said, a good boss had to learn how to paint a rosy picture.