Purchasing Medicinal Materials

Chen Mo stepped forward, first moving together the jade pieces Zhang Liwei had cut open, then began auctioning them off one by one in a loud voice. There were many buyers from jewelry companies in the courtyard, including quite a few general managers and chairwomen.

The jade pieces were sold off one after another at high prices, leaving only the Ice Jade Red Emerald.

"I'll take this Red Emerald. I'll pay 45 million!" Before Chen Mo could even pick it up and call for bids, a pleasant yet icy voice rang out beside him.

Chen Mo turned his head and saw that it was Nangong Xue who had spoken. He had not expected her to chime in, and her voice was truly lovely. But why was it so cold? Did he owe her money or something? It was freezing!

Chen Mo nodded at Nangong Xue and said, "This one's not bad. I can sell it to you."

Forty-five million was certainly a good price. Although he did not know much about jade market prices, he felt that 45 million was an excellent offer. Loss or profit, whatever—it was all wealth that had fallen from the sky, so it was more than enough for him. Besides, after Nangong Xue named her price, all the men around them fell silent. Even if Chen Mo wanted to call out and ask whether anyone would offer more, letting the highest bidder win, there was no one! Nangong Xue was his only choice.

He handed the Red Emerald directly to Nangong Xue, then heard a string of beeps. They were text message transfer notifications from the jade sales. The total amount from all the jade he had sold came to 62.45 million yuan. Chen Mo had only one thought: Damn, I'm rich!

Although he was a cultivator at Qi Refining Layer One, he had not yet shed the mindset of a poor loser. With so much money, his heart was filled with emotion. A loser was a loser! After being poor for so many years, how could he possibly change the way he thought overnight? He could only slowly adjust that poor loser mentality. Otherwise, he would be disgracing cultivators.

Once all the paperwork was settled, he gave the stone-cutting master a red envelope containing 16,666 yuan. He then asked the shop owner to find a small box truck, loaded up the stone worth 5.5 million yuan, and headed straight for the outskirts.

After reaching a sparsely populated stretch of Provincial Highway on the outskirts, he casually came up with an excuse to have the driver stop, then unloaded the stone.

The small box truck had a Manual Hoist inside, making unloading convenient. The roughly half-ton stone was dropped by the roadside. Chen Mo tossed the driver five hundred yuan as payment for his trouble and sent him away. As for the driver's doubts, he suppressed them the moment he received the money. So long as he was paid, whatever Chen Mo intended to do was his own business. The driver only needed to deliver the item where Chen Mo requested; where that place was was none of his concern.

After waiting for a while and confirming that no people or vehicles were passing nearby, Chen Mo stored the stone Inside Universe Bead. Then he waited a little longer until a shuttle bus heading back to the city appeared, boarded it, and returned downtown. He got off where there were taxis, hailed one, and had it take him directly to the city's Medicinal Material Market.

The information Universe Bead had given Chen Mo stated that it was originally meant for cultivating Medicinal Materials. Many of the medicinal ingredients in his Pill Formulas existed on Blue Sea Star, and several Pill Formulas could be prepared as long as he had the ingredients. Therefore, he wanted to grow some Medicinal Materials Inside Universe Bead. That was the best use of it. As for vegetables, he could grow them by soaking the seeds in Stream Water. Not only would that generate benefits, it would also avoid the risk of exposing Universe Bead.

He first wanted to buy Ginseng Seeds and Saffron Seeds. Ginseng Seeds were generally from artificially cultivated ginseng now, but he wanted seeds from wild ginseng or Understory Ginseng. Saffron, meanwhile, was grown from corms, so he did not know whether the Medicinal Shop had any. He would have to ask.

The medicine market was full of counterfeits. Chen Mo made two rounds through it and sensed with his Spiritual Sense that many of the Medicinal Materials were fake. Some were even made from flour. He truly did not understand how anyone dared put such things out for sale.

Only after searching for quite some time did he reach a medicinal materials store called Hundred Herbs Hall, where he finally felt a little better. The medicinal ingredients in this shop were fairly decent, at least with no fakes.

"Boss, do you have Ginseng Seeds here?" After entering the shop, Chen Mo noticed an old man sorting medicine at the medicine counter and asked directly.

"Oh? Young man, you want to buy Ginseng Seeds? I don't specialize in selling seeds here. You'd be better off looking in other shops." The old man glanced at Chen Mo and replied with a degree of refusal.

"Boss, if there were good seeds elsewhere in the market, would I need to come to you? I want wild ginseng seeds or Understory Ginseng seeds," Chen Mo explained.

"Haha, all right! I do have some Understory Ginseng seeds here. Each bag has one hundred seeds and costs five hundred yuan. As for wild ginseng seeds, I have around ten left over from before. If you want them, give me one thousand yuan and take them." Hearing Chen Mo's words, the old man sounded somewhat pleased. He had not expected a youngster nowadays to understand these finer points. It was quite surprising.

"Fine. Give me two bags of Understory Ginseng seeds, and I'll take the wild ginseng seeds too. Also, do you have saffron corms or seeds for planting other Medicinal Materials?" Chen Mo asked.

"I have saffron corms too, though not many. As for other Medicinal Materials... I also have some Polygonatum seeds and live dendrobium. If you want them, I'll give them all to you," the old man said.

Chen Mo was immediately overjoyed. This Medicinal Shop was fairly reliable after all. These were all things he wanted to grow. Great, he wanted them all.

The old man's surname was Huang. He was the owner of Hundred Herbs Hall and had been in the chinese medicine business for decades. While the employee went to pick up goods, the two exchanged names and became acquainted. Seeing that Chen Mo had ordered so many medicinal seeds, Old Huang asked, "young man, are you buying these to grow them?"

"Yes," Chen Mo replied.

"Hehe! Young man, I'd still advise you to proceed cautiously, because some of these Medicinal Materials cannot be cultivated locally." Old Huang meant well. He only said this because Chen Mo appeared calm and steady.

"Haha, don't worry. Old Huang, I'm only researching Plant Cultivation methods. Everything I'm buying is for experiments, so I won't consider the climate, soil, and such for now." Chen Mo could not possibly say that he had Universe Bead, so he could only claim that it was experimental.

"Old Huang, I have a list here. Take a look and see whether you can collect the seeds or Live Plant specimens for these Medicinal Materials." Chen Mo took out the list of medicinal ingredients he had prepared beforehand and handed it to Old Huang. He had written down nearly all the medicinal ingredients from his Pill Formulas that existed on Blue Sea Star, so that the formulas themselves would not be leaked.

Old Huang took it and was startled. There were nearly a thousand types of Medicinal Materials listed, leaving him momentarily stunned. However, the seeds or Live Plant specimens for many of them were easy to find. He frowned, then slowly relaxed.

"There are too many items on this list. Collecting them may take some time. Most of them are manageable, but some cannot be collected as living body specimens at all. It'll be quite troublesome, and there may be unexpected complications!" Old Huang said, pointing at several names.

Chen Mo looked over them and saw that they were the Animal Medicinal Materials he had categorized, so he smiled and said to Old Huang, "Old Huang, collecting seeds and Live Plant specimens is only for plants. For Animal Medicinal Materials, dried forms would be better. Please prepare as much as you can for me. I want ten jin of every animal-derived medicinal material."

"With quantities like that, the price will be rather high." Old Huang looked over the names of the Animal Medicinal Materials and told Chen Mo.

"Old Huang, how about this? Keep this list. Whether you have the items or not, collect them all for me, then calculate the total. I'll pay part of it as a deposit first. What do you think?" Chen Mo's appearance of not lacking money left Old Huang speechless. Although there were many medicinal ingredients on the list, most required seeds or Live Plant specimens and would not cost much. Gathering them would simply be troublesome. As for the Animal Medicinal Materials, they were easier to handle. At worst, he could ask some Old Suppliers whether they had any stock left.

Old Huang looked it over and roughly estimated the price. "How about this? I can't give you an exact price for these things yet. Pay a deposit of 200,000 yuan first, and I'll collect them according to this list. Once I have enough, I'll deliver them to you. After you settle the payment, I'll start looking for the next batch."

Old Huang's proposal was workable. For Chen Mo, who had just received more than 60 million yuan, 200,000 was just small money! There was nothing more to say—he simply transferred the money, then left his home address and phone number. Once everything was collected, they would contact him by phone.

When the employee brought over all the items, the total came to a little over 3,000 yuan. It was not much money, so Chen Mo paid the bill.

Old Huang also found and packed up some of the seeds and Animal Medicinal Materials already available from the list, weighed them, and handed them to Chen Mo. The total came to around a hundred thousand yuan, which Chen Mo transferred directly!

Once everything had been handled, Chen Mo turned to leave, then pulled back the foot he had stepped out with and asked, "Old Huang, do you buy Medicinal Materials here?"

"We do! But our requirements for the medicinal properties are fairly high. We don't accept ordinary materials or those containing excessive pesticides," Old Huang said.

"Mm. Old Huang, thank you for your trouble today. I'll bid farewell," Chen Mo said.

"Take care, then!" the old man said with a smile.