Making and Selling Medicine

It seemed he would have to come up with a sure way to sell the medicinal herbs while avoiding revealing his identity as much as possible.

With that thought, Ye Qin drew back the foot he had been about to step out with and turned to Old Shopkeeper Zhao. "I'm sorry for the trouble. May I ask what advice you have for me, Old Shopkeeper Zhao? I'd be happy to hear it."

Old Shopkeeper Zhao laughed heartily.

"That's more like it. I imagine this isn't the first time you've done this, young Ye. Let's talk it over. When you get right down to it, we're in the same line of work. I'm the incense master of the Eight Harmony Gang in Zhuqi County, Ping Province. My main business is dealing in jade. But top-grade medicinal herbs and medicines from the Herb Gathering Hall are also essential for people in our line of work, and my Eight Harmony Gang is willing to pay a handsome price for them.

"I don't just do business with you, young Ye. Quite a few disciples from the Herb Gathering Hall have secretly sold me medicine. Of course, I can't reveal their names to you; that would cause a lot of trouble.

"If you sell me some of your top-grade herbs, young Ye, you'll make a lot more than you would by turning them in to your Herb Gathering Hall. And if you can get your hands on top-grade medicines, I'd be more than happy to buy them. I'll offer a fair price, too: fifty percent of what they go for at the county's trade market. How does that sound?"

Hearing Old Shopkeeper Zhao's offer, Ye Qin was a little taken aback.

Herb-gathering apprentices who turned in herbs to the Herb Gathering Hall received only five to ten percent of the herbs' value as a reward. Herb Gathering Artisans got a better deal, at around ten to twenty percent. Herb Gathering Masters got roughly thirty to fifty percent.

If he secretly sold to Old Shopkeeper Zhao, he could get fifty percent of the price—ten times what an apprentice earned, and on par with a Herb Gathering Master.

However, the risks were just as great. If he was found out, he was dead.

Old Shopkeeper Zhao also secretly did business with many Herb Gathering Hall disciples in Zhuqi County. If even one of them got caught, and the trail led to the Spring Jade Shop, Ye Qin could easily be dragged into it.

Old Shopkeeper Zhao claimed he was with the Eight Harmony Gang of Ping Province.

Ye Qin scoffed inwardly.

What kind of third-rate little gang was this? He'd never even heard of it. A gang this small wouldn't even register on the radar of the Medicine King Gang, the fifth-largest gang in Ping Province. If the Medicine King Gang found out that the Eight Harmony Gang was encouraging its disciples to secretly sell herbs, it might wipe them out in a fit of rage. The disciples who had secretly dealt with the Eight Harmony Gang would probably be caught up in the sweep as well. Doing secret business with the Eight Harmony Gang was far too risky.

Knowing Old Shopkeeper Zhao's true colors, Ye Qin quietly made up his mind to cut all ties with the Spring Jade Shop, as much as possible, before trouble came knocking. As for the shop's treasured White Jade Embryo, it was expensive, and Old Shopkeeper Zhao probably wouldn't be able to sell it anytime soon. He would first find a way to get some money, then later come up with a foolproof plan to get his hands on it safely.

"Old Shopkeeper Zhao, there's no need to bring this up again. I don't have any money. You can sell this White Jade Embryo to whoever you like; I can't afford it." With that, Ye Qin gave Old Shopkeeper Zhao no chance to persuade him further. He left the back room and quickly walked out of the Spring Jade Shop.

Old Shopkeeper Zhao rose with a smile to see him off, pipe in hand, puffing smoke as he watched Ye Qin's retreating figure with an amused look. He chuckled coldly. Kid, you're still putting on an act. If you want to buy my jade, sooner or later you'll have to sell herbs. What difference does it make whether you sell them to me or someone else? If you sell to someone else, even more people will find out.

By the time Ye Qin left the Spring Jade Shop, night had fallen. Lanterns hung along the county's main streets, illuminating the bustling night market.

He had no desire to keep browsing the other jade shops, so he headed straight back to the Herb Gathering Hall. His mind was filled with thoughts of how to get enough money to buy the White Jade Embryo and improve his cultivation speed.

He had originally planned to sell the Dew Grass he had on hand to people in the county's underworld, trade it for some Gold Leaves, then use the money to buy spirit-infused jade at a jade shop. But now, the plan seemed too risky.

He thought the Dew Grass was valuable, worth at least one Gold Leaf.

But most people in the underworld might not even know what Dew Grass was, so it would be hard to get a good price. Anyone who could recognize it was probably an expert in medicine, and likely had deep ties to the Medicine King Gang.

If he went around asking people one by one at the trade market whether they wanted Dew Grass, the Herb Gathering Hall would soon realize he was secretly selling herbs.

Ye Qin thought it over carefully for a while, then took the Illustrated Guide to Rare Herbs from his robes and flipped through it. His gaze settled on "Dew Grass" in the last few pages. It listed a formula for refining Dew Grass into a breathing-regulation medicine.

The safest approach now seemed to be to first turn the Dew Grass into Clear Heart Pills, then sell them. This peerless breathing-regulation medicine was something everyone in the underworld scrambled to get. Many people knew about it, so it would be easy to sell, and it would fetch a higher price than the Dew Grass alone.

Even so, he still had to avoid revealing his identity as much as possible.

Over the next two days, Ye Qin spent dozens of Silver Leaves at the county's trade market on a mortar, wax, and other items, as well as some of the auxiliary herbs needed to make Clear Heart Pills.

Then he went alone to a remote, rarely visited patch of woods ten li outside Zhuqi County and secretly made the medicine.

As a disciple of the Herb Gathering Hall, Ye Qin had mainly learned how to gather and identify herbs; he wasn't particularly skilled at making medicine. He only knew how to make a few common medicines for treating injuries and poisoning, such as Hemostasis Powder, Clear Poison Powder, and Insect Repellent Incense.

Fortunately, he had the complete formula for Clear Heart Pills, and the Herb Gathering Hall's Library Pavilion placed few restrictions on its disciples' access to books about gathering herbs and making medicine. Learning basic medicine-making skills wasn't difficult.

He dried the main ingredient, Dew Grass, along with more than a dozen auxiliary ingredients—Licorice, Dried Pearl, Musk, Bezoar, Lianzi, and others—then ground them into powder. He put the powder into a mortar in the proper proportions and heated it over a low flame for half an hour, until the medicinal properties had fully blended and the moisture had evaporated. Then he kneaded the mixture into pills and sealed them with wax. The four steps—refining the medicine, mixing it, forming the pills, and sealing them—produced a Clear Heart Pill, which he placed in a pill bottle.

When he first tried making Clear Heart Pills, he hadn't mastered the heat and failed twice, producing two useless pills.

After several more attempts, he gradually got the hang of it and successfully made a pale green pill. It smelled medicinal, with a refreshing fragrance that seemed to seep into his lungs and clear his head.

Ye Qin was delighted. Its color and scent were exactly as described in the medicine book. He had made a peerless breathing-regulation pill that could help someone recover from deviated cultivation.

He discovered that one stalk of Dew Grass could make one Clear Heart Pill. With more than a dozen additional herbs, the cost of making them wasn't high. As for how much Clear Heart Pills would sell for, he couldn't say. It had been years since such a peerless breathing-regulation medicine appeared in the underworld.

Ye Qin went on to make four or five more pills, planning to find a buyer and see how much they would fetch. If the price was good, he would make more until he had thirty Gold Leaves, then find a way to buy the White Jade Embryo from the Spring Jade Shop.