Plan Activation

"Three hundred sets?"

Lu Cheng looked at the room full of packages, feeling quite surprised:

"You collected three hundred sets from Yunshan County alone?"

Old Pi shook his head:

"Not just Yunshan County, this is what I collected from the Zhang Family in Yunshan alone!"

"The Zhang Family of Yunshan County is one of the top medicinal herb cultivation families in the surrounding counties."

"Their scale is much larger than the Chen, Xu, and Huang families combined."

"Many alchemists and factions without their own herb fields in the surrounding area go to the Zhang Family to purchase supplies."

Cultivating medicinal herbs is no easy task; it requires a massive amount of manpower, and outsiders are often unreliable.

Therefore, only families and large sects have the capability to cultivate on a large scale.

While families like the Xu and Huang families in Yang City also have herb fields, they cannot even grow all the varieties needed for Blood-Activating Powder.

It wasn't that Lu Cheng doubted they could collect so much.

On the contrary, collecting so much at once was far too eye-catching.

"Old Pi, isn't the risk a bit high doing it this way?"

Old Pi nodded:

"Under normal circumstances, buying this much at once would indeed be inappropriate."

"But the situation is different this time; it seems our luck is just that good, heh heh heh heh."

Speaking of this, Old Pi couldn't help but chuckle:

"Originally, I only intended to collect thirty or fifty sets."

"But when I arrived at Yunshan County, I happened to catch the Zhang Family in a state of utter chaos."

"It turns out the Zhang Family had a large batch of herbs, but the buyer who had agreed to the deal backed out."

Lu Cheng frowned: "Trying to drive the price down?"

"Buying on credit!" Old Pi spread his hands, "I don't know the reason, but even though the buyer had already paid the deposit, when the delivery date arrived, they couldn't come up with the money."

"The Zhang Family flew into a rage, beat the person up, and didn't even return the deposit."

"Medicinal herbs for martial arts are different from other goods; if not stored properly, their potency dissipates extremely quickly."

"But the herbs for Blood-Activating Powder aren't that valuable themselves, so they aren't worth spending much to preserve."

"Watching the potency drop day by day, the Zhang Family was spinning in circles with anxiety."

"Before I even opened my mouth, they were the ones begging me to buy more."

"To that end, they even lowered the price by half a percent, charging only four mace and five candareens of silver per set!"

Hearing Old Pi say this, Lu Cheng suddenly asked:

"Then... what was the initial quantity of this batch of herbs from the Zhang Family?"

Old Pi replied without a second thought:

"One thousand sets. Before I got there, they had already sold..."

Halfway through, the two of them locked eyes.

One thousand sets of herbs, the price totaling exactly five hundred taels.

Setting aside whether these one thousand sets of herbs were ordered by Zhang Rensheng.

And setting aside whether those five hundred taels were for buying herbs.

In any case, the arrival of these three hundred sets of herbs allowed Lu Cheng to take a giant leap forward right at the start of his plan.

"Is this going to work?"

Inside Lu Cheng's stone house, Fatty, wearing a monkey mask, asked in a muffled voice.

Sitting nearby were Liu Chang'an, Liu Wan'er, and the three Hu brothers, all wearing different animal masks.

"Of course it will work."

Lu Cheng picked up a contract issued by the Black Market, "With the Black Market's contract as proof, our credibility won't be an issue."

Seeing this, the others nodded one after another; with the contract, things would be easy to handle.

The Black Market's contract was somewhat like the security deposits from Lu Cheng's past life.

The difference was that this item was issued one per transaction.

The contract currently in Lu Cheng's hand was one he and Old Pi had just obtained from the Black Market.

On the contract, the buyer offered one tael and six mace to purchase one set of Blood-Activating Powder five days later.

Of this, eight mace of silver went to Lu Cheng, and eight mace were held by the Black Market as a security deposit.

Five days later, both parties would exchange the Blood-Activating Powder for the contract.

Lu Cheng would then be able to take the contract to the Black Market to collect the remaining eight qian of silver.

If Lu Cheng failed to deliver the Blood-Activating Powder after five days, the Black Market would compensate Old Pi for the full one tael and six qian of silver.

Whatever followed would then be a matter between the Black Market and Lu Cheng.

Come to think of it, this was quite a miraculous arrangement.

Even though the Black Market could never operate in the light, the contracts they endorsed were trusted by everyone.

"But what is the point of this?"

Hu Er asked, puzzled:

"You could have sold it directly for one tael and eight qian, so why wait five days? It's not as if there's a shortage of medicinal herbs."

"Besides, you have to give the Black Market half a percent of the silver for nothing."

The Black Market's contract certainly didn't come for free; Lu Cheng had to pay eight fen of silver as a fee.

Lu Cheng clutched the contract and smiled:

"If it were just a matter of delaying the delivery of the pills by five days, it certainly wouldn't be worth drawing up a contract with the Black Market."

"But what if I used this contract to borrow another one tael and five qian of silver?"

"With this contract, one can come to me to collect Blood-Activating Powder worth three taels, or go to the Black Market to claim a refund of one tael and six qian."

"So, using this contract to borrow one tael and five qian from a pawnshop shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"With the borrowed one tael and five qian, I can buy three more sets of medicinal herbs, which can then be exchanged for three more contracts."

Fatty and the others were completely bewildered by this point.

Only Old Pi stood up abruptly:

"You clever brat, you really have a way with things!"

"With one set of herbs and five days, you've managed to turn eight qian into two taels and three qian."

"Two taels and three qian is more than enough for three sets of herbs; if we run into a situation like the Zhang Family, that's five sets of herbs!"

"One begets five, five begets twenty-five, twenty-five begets... begets..."

Lu Cheng smiled and finished the calculation for Old Pi:

"Twenty-five begets one hundred and twenty-five, and one hundred and twenty-five begets six hundred and twenty-five."

Hearing this, Old Pi's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets:

"One thousand sets of herbs, and you could exchange them for... exchange them for..."

Old Pi calculated for a long time before murmuring:

"Exchange them for nearly three hundred thousand taels of silver!"

"No wonder, no wonder you said you could earn enough money for ten lifetimes!"

"Three hundred thousand taels of silver—that's worth it even if the Black Market hunts you down!"

Lu Cheng looked at Old Pi with a strange expression.

Setting aside the fact that his wild calculations were completely wrong, he was truly speechless at the direction his thoughts had taken.

That's a one-way ticket to prison.

Lu Cheng smiled and interrupted Old Pi:

"Six hundred and twenty-five sets isn't enough; don't we still need to produce another 'five'?"

Old Pi was completely stunned:

"Produce... another five?"

Lu Cheng shook his head:

"First of all, there aren't enough people in Yang City to buy that much Blood-Activating Powder, and we couldn't possibly source that many herbs, so you should give up on that idea."

"Besides, I never intended to swindle anyone out of their silver."

"For every contract, I will eventually produce the Blood-Activating Powder."

"Ah?" Old Pi couldn't wrap his head around it and asked the same question as Hu Er:

"Then what is your goal here?"

Lu Cheng took a breath and said with a serious expression:

"First, our plan is absolutely not about swindling or deception; it is a legitimate way to earn money."

"In the end, we are targeting those who already harbor malice toward me."

"Secondly, as this matter progresses, it will involve significant interests and we will face considerable danger."

"I do not wish to become enemies with anyone here, nor do I want any of you to come to harm."

"If anyone wants to quit now, you may leave, and we will still be brothers in the future."

"But for those who stay, after tonight, you must follow my lead."

"The only thing I can guarantee is that once this is over, no one here will ever have to worry about the resources needed for their martial arts cultivation again!"

"..."

After a long silence, not a single person chose to leave.