Fierce Business Competition

However, Security Hall was an enterprise of the Pan family in the Inner City. With their formidable strength, the Pan family was already the leading force in the Inner City's pharmaceutical industry.

Now that they had extended their reach into the Outer City and driven prices down so low, it was clear they intended to leave no path for survival for the smaller pharmacies.

I might not be able to fight the Pan family alone, but what if I united all the pharmacies in the Outer City that are being squeezed out by them?

A thought surged within Lin Qing.

Unite all the forces that could be united.

Perhaps only then, in this world surrounded by tigers and wolves, could one carve out a glimmer of survival.

By dusk, Benevolent World Hall had just lit its oil lamps.

Old Fan's son, Fan Kui, came knocking timidly, clutching his bruised and swollen cheek.

"Brother Qing, please, I beg you to let me have some Bruise Powder on credit for my father..."

Fan Kui's voice was choked with sobs.

Lin Qing felt a pang of sorrow in his heart and nodded.

"Alright, let me go check on your father's injuries first."

Lin Qing followed Fan Kui to his home, intending to examine Old Fan's condition.

Seeing Lin Qing arrive, Old Fan struggled to sit up.

"Ah Qing, you've come."

"I'm here to take a look, Uncle Fan. Don't move yet."

Lin Qing stepped forward to examine Old Fan's injuries.

Old Fan's head was bloodied, and his body was covered in bruises, especially his thigh, which was severely swollen. If not treated promptly, he would likely suffer from internal injuries.

"Ah Qing, I know my own condition; it's nothing serious."

"Don't bother prescribing me any medicine."

Old Fan pulled a pale smile onto his lips.

"Master of the house, stop talking." Old Fan's wife spoke up.

"If it weren't for that leg of yours not being treated back then, leaving behind a chronic ailment, we wouldn't have to suffer such treatment from those goddamn bastards!"

"Hush!"

Old Fan tried to cover his wife's mouth, but the movement aggravated his wounds, causing him to wince in pain.

Lin Qing scanned the chaotic mess of the Fan household; all their belongings had been smashed, and the rice jar was completely empty.

"Uncle Fan, it's fine. This medicine is cheap; I'll put it on your tab for now."

Lin Qing sighed and returned to the shop.

He wrapped up three doses of Hemostatic Powder and two doses of Bruise Powder.

The cost price of these items alone was nearly two hundred wen.

But if Uncle Fan didn't receive treatment soon, his life might be in danger.

He handed the medicine packets to Fan Kui: "Take these first. It's two hundred wen; we can talk about payment when you're better off."

"Thank you, Brother Qing, thank you so much."

Fan Kui left, offering a thousand thanks.

That night, his sister Lin Wan sighed while doing needlework.

"The Fan family is so pitiful. Back when Father first opened Benevolent World Hall, many of the medicine cabinets and tables were crafted by Uncle Fan himself, and he didn't even ask for extra wages..."

"Now that the Fan family can barely put food on the table, we are..."

Lin Qing listened in silence for a long time before saying, "Sister, in this world, with so many tigers and wolves watching from the outside, we can barely protect ourselves."

Lin Wan looked up at Lin Qing in surprise, as if seeing this younger brother for the first time.

The brother who used to idle away his time had truly grown up after his serious illness.

"Brother, you're right."

Lin Wan's eyes were filled with worry, but she could only return to the inner room, take out some clothes, and continue her needlework by the light of the oil lamp.

Even so, as Lin Qing looked at the dim oil lamp on the table and thought of the desolation of the Fan family, he ultimately couldn't harden his heart.

He stood up, silently measured out three jin of brown rice, and packed it into a cloth bag.

"Sister, I'm going over there."

"Mm, be careful."

Lin Wan nodded, her eyes filled with relief.

In the dead of night, Lin Qing knocked on the door of the Fan household.

Fan Kui opened the door, and upon seeing the rice bag in Lin Qing's hands, he froze.

"Take it. Boil some porridge; it'll help you get through these next two days."

Lin Qing stuffed the bag into his hands and spoke in a low voice.

Looking at the bag of coarse rice, Fan Kui's eyes instantly turned red.

With a heavy "thud," he knelt on the ground, choking out, "Brother Qing... thank you, thank you!"

"Your great kindness and virtue—I, Fan Kui, will be your beast of burden for the rest of my life..."

Lin Qing quickly helped him up and patted his shoulder. "Get up, get up. We're neighbors; don't talk like that."

"Take care of yourself. Life will slowly get better."

"Yes, I'll go find the foreman tomorrow and ask for an advance on my wages."

Fan Kui wiped away his tears.

"That will work."

Having said this, Lin Qing did not linger, turning to merge into the night.

Walking along the cold, desolate street, Lin Qing looked up at the moon half-hidden by dark clouds, his heart feeling heavy.

The world was heartless.

Without a background or strength, one was like fish on a chopping block, left to be slaughtered by others.

The wild fire within his heart burned ever more fiercely in his chest.

Before the morning mist had fully dissipated, the Yam Market outside the west gate of Qingping County was already bustling with noise.

This was not an official market, but one formed spontaneously, mostly by mountain folk from the surrounding areas bringing harvested medicinal herbs to trade with the pharmacies and merchants from the city.

The air was thick with the unique, mingled scents of various herbs.

Lin Qing, carrying an empty bamboo basket, wove through the crowded flow of people.

He had come today to procure herbs for the Iron Thread Fist Martial Hall and to replenish the stock at Benevolent World Hall.

He took a glance at the Heavenly Dao Record.

[Pharmacology (Entering the Chamber)]

[Experience Points: 1256/2000]

Thanks to the Heavenly Dao Record, his Pharmacology had reached the "Entering the Chamber" realm, and his ability to identify medicinal herbs had grown once again.

Lin Qing's gaze swept over the herbs on the stalls, still damp with dew and soil; their color, texture, and even the subtle differences in the scents they emitted allowed him to form judgments in his mind instantly.

He stopped at one stall and picked up a bundle of sun-dried Blood Vine.

The stall owner, a lean, middle-aged mountain man, quickly put on a smile. "Good eye, young man! This is top-quality Blood Vine, most effective for invigorating and replenishing blood!"

Lin Qing rubbed the vine between his fingers, brought it close to his nose for a light sniff, and shook his head. "The age is insufficient, and it caught dampness while drying. There are already signs of mold inside; its medicinal potency is greatly diminished."

He set the Blood Vine down and, ignoring the stall owner's stiffened expression, turned to a basket of Panax notoginseng nearby.

He picked up a piece, felt its texture with his fingertips, and observed the color of the cross-section, understanding clearly in his heart: "This piece of notoginseng had its main root damaged during excavation. Due to improper storage, nearly half of its active ingredients have been lost. It can only be considered a second-rate product."

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged stall owner cursed his bad luck for running into an expert.

"Go, go, I'm not selling," the stall owner waved him away.

"I'll take these few pieces. Will you sell them or not?"

Lin Qing precisely picked out a few herbs that had been processed to the right degree and began to haggle with the owner.

"Fine, take them and get out quickly. Don't ruin my business."

The middle-aged man waved his hand.

Lin Qing left a few copper coins and departed with the herbs.

Throughout his journey, he was always able to pick out the best quality and most potent herbs from a pile that looked identical to the untrained eye.

He carefully observed the integrity of the roots to judge the harvesting technique.

He sniffed the scents to distinguish whether the herbs had been contaminated by other substances.

He even touched them to feel the moisture levels, ensuring the quality of the herbs.

In his eyes, these herbs seemed to speak.

This near-clairvoyant ability to identify medicine allowed him to always purchase the highest-value herbs at a relatively reasonable price.

It drew frequent, envious glances from the managers of other pharmacies who had also come to procure supplies.

However, the atmosphere in the market was not entirely one of fair trade.

At the other end of the market, Manager Pan An of Security Hall was leading four or five assistants, aggressively making large-scale purchases.

"Listen up! Security Hall requires these herbs today. We are buying everything at ten percent above market price—we'll take as much as you have!"

Pan An stood on a makeshift wooden crate, shouting loudly, his voice dripping with the arrogance of the wealthy.

Immediately, many mountain folk swarmed toward the direction of Pan An.