Purchasing Medicinal Herbs

Purchasing Medicinal Herbs

With the money from the pawnshop in hand, Lin Le took it to a shop specializing in medicinal pills.

"What do you need, customer?" A female attendant approached. Her palace-style robes drifted gracefully around her, and paired with her lovely face, she had something of an immortal maiden's air.

"I'm buying medicinal herbs. Do you have any ninth-grade herbs?" Lin Le asked.

"Yes." The attendant nodded. "What do you need, customer?"

"Centennial Blood Ginseng. The more, the better. The age doesn't matter, as long as it has entered a grade," Lin Le said.

As one of the most widely cultivated medicinal herbs, Blood Ginseng was also among the cheapest. For Lin Le now, cost-effectiveness came first.

After entering the Qi Refining Realm and wiping out Xiang Family's Medicine Manor, Lin Le had deliberately consumed the ingredients for one Essence Pill, along with an Essence Pill itself.

The Blood Essence Treasure Liquid ultimately produced had an effect five times greater than the essence liquid condensed from a single Essence Pill, but one set of Essence Pill ingredients could yield up to five Essence Pills.

One against six. This told Lin Le that, at least in the Qi Refining Realm, Blood Essence Treasure Liquid was more effective than pill liquid.

After hearing this, the attendant's smile became even more sincere. "What is your budget?"

"Sixty thousand—hm, fifty thousand taels." Lin Le changed his words midway. He remembered that he still needed to eat and had to keep some silver on hand.

Fifty thousand taels! After hearing that, the attendant's eyes practically turned watery as she intentionally—or perhaps unintentionally—leaned closer to Lin Le. "My lord, please come with me. I'll arrange a fine private room for you to rest in first."

"Mm." Lin Le nodded and followed the attendant to a private room.

The attendant left, then quickly returned with a tea set. "I've already had someone select the medicinal herbs. Please wait a moment, my lord. Have a cup of tea first."

As she spoke, she smoothly warmed the pot, added the tea leaves, and poured the water in a high stream. At last, she presented Lin Le with a fragrant cup of tea in both hands.

Lin Le took a sip, and his eyes lit up slightly. "What kind of tea is this?"

"Spirit Nourishing Tea. Although it hasn't entered a grade, it is still quite valuable. One tael of tea leaves costs one tael of gold," the attendant said. "If you like it, customer, I can make the decision to give you a box."

One tael is a hundred taels of silver?

Lin Le thought to himself. Since gold could be refined into refined gold, an extremely versatile ninth-grade spirit material in artifact forging, gold mines had become the private property of major powers. As a result, gold was extraordinarily valuable on the market—one tael of gold was equal to one hundred taels of silver.

"Do you have any that have entered a grade?" Lin Le asked.

"We do. We also have ninth-grade Spirit Nourishing Tea, but one tael costs one thousand taels of silver." The attendant suppressed her excitement and tried her best to appear calm.

"Give me five thousand taels' worth." Lin Le took out five banknotes and placed them on the table.

"Certainly." The attendant accepted the money, rose, and bowed again. "Please wait a moment. I'll go transfer the goods for you."

"Go on." Lin Le held his teacup.

Before long, the attendant returned, accompanied by three men. Each of them held at least ten medicine boxes in both hands.

"This is the Spirit Nourishing Tea you requested." The attendant handed Lin Le a gift box.

Lin Le opened it for a glance and sniffed it. When he felt a faint lightness rise within his soul, he put it away.

Seeing Lin Le put away the tea leaves, the attendant gestured toward the three men. "These are the centennial Blood Ginseng you requested. Following your instruction that more was better, we brought you forty-three roots in total. The price comes to fifty-one thousand six hundred taels. I can make the decision to waive the extra one thousand six hundred, so you need only pay fifty thousand taels."

Lin Le took out a stack of banknotes. "Count it."

The attendant took the money and counted it briefly. "It's counted. It is indeed fifty thousand taels. As for these medicinal herbs, would you like to take them yourself, or shall we deliver them for you?"

"Put the money on the table. I'll inspect the goods first." Without even lifting his eyelids, Lin Le said, "For every root I inspect, you take one note. If they're all fine, then take the rest."

"Of course." The attendant set the money on the table, then said to the attendant carrying the medicine boxes, "Xiao Zhen, start showing the customer the goods for inspection."

"Okay." Xiao Zhen stepped forward, placed the medicine boxes on the table, and opened them one by one.

Lin Le directly picked up a Blood Ginseng root and, before everyone's eyes, took two or three bites and ate half of it.

This action instantly stunned the three attendants and the female attendant.

They had thought Lin Le would use some spell, or perhaps smell and feel the herbs to inspect them. They never expected him to be so crude—he simply ate them!

After swallowing half, Lin Le sensed the medicinal effect and said, "Take one note."

The attendant immediately took one banknote.

After eating the remaining half, Lin Le picked up another root and ate it as well. Once he confirmed there was no problem, he said again, "Take one note."

The attendant took another note.

Repeating this, Lin Le ate thirty-six roots in a row. The looks in the surrounding people's eyes gradually shifted from astonishment, to shock, to numbness.

However, when he reached the thirty-seventh root, Lin Le suddenly spat out a mouthful. With a pinch of his fingers, he actually caught a thread of blood.

Yet upon closer inspection, how was that a blood thread? It was a wriggling red worm.

The attendant's face immediately drained of color. She had never expected an inspection to actually uncover trouble.

Lin Le examined the long worm, then glanced at the attendant. "A bug was found in a customer's medicine. How are you going to compensate me?"

"Tenfold compensation," the attendant said with a bitter smile. Though the worm in the medicinal herb had nothing to do with her, she would probably still receive a vicious scolding from that old supervisor.

"Compensate me, then." Lin Le pinned down the bloodworm.

"Yes." The attendant bowed. "I'll invite the supervisor right away."

Before long, the supervisor arrived with the attendant. He was a white-haired old man, though his nose was somewhat red, giving him a rather festive appearance.

The supervisor looked at Lin Le, then at the bloodworm in Lin Le's hand and the bitten-open Blood Ginseng. He said, "This was our pharmacy's mistake. Esteemed customer, would you like ten one-patterned Blood Ginseng roots, or ten thousand taels of silver?"

For every hundred years of growth, centennial Blood Ginseng could develop one golden pattern. Thus, based on the number of golden patterns, it could be called one-patterned through nine-patterned Blood Ginseng.

"Exchange it for one jin of ninth-grade Spirit Nourishing Tea. I'm sick of eating so much Blood Ginseng." Lin Le sounded indifferent. It was unexpected wealth anyway, so he was not picky.

"Certainly. Please wait a moment. I'll fetch it for you right away." The supervisor left.

He soon returned with a gift box and handed it to Lin Le. "You have suffered a fright. Please do not spread word of today's matter."

"Understood." Lin Le put it away, then, right before the supervisor's stunned eyes, tossed the bloodworm directly into his mouth.

Crunch! Juice burst out.

After chewing and swallowing it, Lin Le could not help licking his lips. It was rather tasty, with a sweet-and-sour flavor.

"What kind of worm was that just now?" Lin Le asked the supervisor.

"A Demonic Bloodworm. It often appears in medicinal herbs that need to be watered with blood," the supervisor replied.

Lin Le sensed its effect. Not bad—it was worth one-tenth of a centennial Blood Ginseng root. "Do you sell them?"

"No. Usually, once medicine manors catch them, they kill them and feed them to the demonic beasts they raise." The supervisor shook his head.

"What a pity." Lin Le shook his head. That told him their production was low. They would likely be difficult to buy, and he had no connections for them anyway. For the time being, they could not replace medicinal herbs.

Afterward, right before the supervisor, Lin Le inspected the Blood Ginseng while eating it. He did not even waste the root that had been gnawed by the worm, swallowing it into his stomach as well.

In the end, when Lin Le left the shop, the supervisor personally saw him out.

After eating more than forty one-patterned Blood Ginseng roots in one go, even Twelve-Storied would probably have been stuffed to bursting—or simply burst to death.

Even if Lin Le possessed extraordinary talent, his strength had to be immensely formidable. Otherwise, he should have been stuffed to death too.

For such a powerful man, even if the supervisor had crooked thoughts, he did not dare act on them.