Lu Cheng's first step took only three days.
The Blood-Activating Powder contracts proved far more effective than they had expected.
Not a single money house refused to accept them.
Some had even offered to buy them outright at a higher price.
A packet of Blood-Activating Powder now sold for three taels on the market.
Even the Black Market had it for just one tael and eight qian.
The difference in price was far greater than the small amount of interest they would earn.
As for the risk, it was nothing for a pawnshop to take on a little.
Lu Cheng refused to agree.
An outright sale meant that Blood-Activating Powder might enter the market in the future, or that the pawnshops might manipulate the contracts' value.
Lu Cheng absolutely could not accept either possibility.
So even though the others were rather disappointed, Lu Cheng insisted that they follow his plan.
They didn't spend all six thousand-plus taels on more contracts.
Instead, they spent only three thousand five hundred taels, bringing the number of contracts they held to five thousand.
That left Lu Cheng with five thousand contracts and three thousand taels of silver.
Five days later, a hundred packets of Blood-Activating Powder were redeemed.
Word spread to even more people, who began coming to Old Pi to buy contracts.
But they all came up empty-handed.
Old Pi's pill shop was already closed, with a sign on the door saying they were out of stock.
Old Pi himself had long since left Yang City to buy up medicinal herbs in bulk.
At Lu Cheng's request, Old Pi had taken the three thousand taels and set out to sweep up the medicinal herbs in Yang City and the surrounding counties.
In truth, "sweep up" wasn't quite the right word.
Even if they spent all three thousand taels, they could buy only six thousand packets.
Six thousand packets of Blood-Activating Powder would cover just over two months of consumption in Yang City.
And that didn't even take into account the success rates of other alchemists.
They would need three or four times as many herbs.
So Lu Cheng wasn't asking them to buy a great deal.
Old Pi had only one purpose on this trip.
He was to visit several counties around Yang City.
He had to make sure the nearby herb dealers and patent medicine merchants knew that someone was buying medicinal herbs in bulk.
And that the bulk purchases would continue.
This would steadily drive up herb prices and make the herb dealers reluctant to sell.
The process wouldn't need to last long.
Once everyone in Yangcheng County—even the martial artists—had heard the news,
it would be time to begin the next step of the plan.
Five more days passed, and the second batch of Blood-Activating Powder came due.
All one hundred packets were redeemed in the blink of an eye.
The ample supply boosted confidence in the contracts even further.
Quite a few people planned to buy more contracts, but then noticed that the terms on the wooden sign had changed.
The five-day and ten-day delivery options had been crossed out.
The final option, "one month," had become "three months."
The price had also risen from one tael and four qian to two taels.
The drastic changes left everyone stunned.
Outside Old Pi's shop, a dense crowd had gathered, including those who had just received their Blood-Activating Powder. The entrance was packed tight.
"What's going on? Why did the price go up when the wait got longer?"
"Where's the owner? Get him out here!"
"What gives you the right to raise the price?"
Old Pi, who had returned not long ago, had already received Lu Cheng's instructions.
Only after seeing that even people with no intention of buying pills had come to gawk did he slowly stroll outside.
Looking at the noisy crowd, Old Pi stood on the steps, smiled, and pressed both hands down.
Once the crowd had quieted, he smiled and began:
"Everyone, I, Pi—no, I know you're all anxious to get your medicine."
"I also know it isn't right for me to change the delivery time and raise the price without warning."
"But I can't help it. Even a bowl of noodles costs money to make, doesn't it?"
"Noodles cost three wen today, so the shopkeeper sells a bowl for five. If noodles cost six wen tomorrow, can he still sell them for five?"
"That just wouldn't make sense."
As Old Pi spoke, the people around him understood.
"You mean the herbs have gotten more expensive?"
Old Pi nodded.
"Exactly. I've been through four or five nearby counties over the past few days, but medicinal herbs are getting harder to find, and the prices keep going up."
"And Yang City is even worse. The prices change every single day."
"I hear someone's been stockpiling Blood-Activating Powder for a while now."
"Don't believe me? Go check the medicine shops tomorrow. Blood-Activating Powder is sure to cost more!"
Halfway through Old Pi's explanation, he noticed that quite a few people had already slipped away.
Once the crowd dispersed, they returned inside. Lu Cheng, Fatty, and the others were sitting there.
As soon as Old Pi came in, he said excitedly,
"Everyone's gone. I saw quite a few people slipping away quietly, too. Let's get started."
Lu Cheng nodded.
"There are four pill shops selling Blood-Activating Powder in Yang City, all in West City and North City. We'll each take a hundred and fifty taels and buy three to five packets at a time."
Old Pi had spent less than a thousand taels buying herbs and had already made the rounds of Yang City and several neighboring counties.
He hadn't bought up all the herbs, but he'd made the herb dealers suspicious enough that they'd begun restricting sales across the board.
And tonight was the time to make a move on the Blood-Activating Powder.
Quite a few people had slipped away just now.
No need to ask—they'd gone to check the situation at the various pill shops.
With the supply of herbs for Blood-Activating Powder dwindling in the city, the first thing the pill shops would do, before they knew what was going on, was cut back on sales.
Those who'd heard the rumors couldn't help but grow suspicious.
Even if only one person in ten went out to buy some, that would be enough to drain the stock of pills across Yang City.
Lu Cheng and the others only had to speed up the process.
The rumors spread quietly.
The price of Blood-Activating Powder began to creep up.
At first, only a dozen or so people from the Black Market went to the pill shops to check on things.
But somehow, in less than an hour, every pill shop in Yang City began limiting sales.
First, each person could buy only three packets.
Before dawn, sales were being limited to a set daily amount.
Even so, the city's entire supply of Blood-Activating Powder sold out in a short time.
The inevitable shortage had arrived.
Before the third day was out, the price of Blood-Activating Powder began climbing by leaps and bounds.
It shot up from the original three taels to four.
After that, the price changed every hour.
By the next day, it had reached four and a half taels.
Meanwhile, Old Pi kept buying medicinal herbs here and there.
But as the price of Blood-Activating Powder rose, every shop began working at full capacity to brew it into pills.
They were the only ones who knew that this price spike had come out of nowhere and couldn't last long.
Maybe it would last only a few days, or maybe a month or two.
So the important thing was to sell as much medicine as possible while they had the chance.
But that wasn't the end of it.
No one knew which shop it was, but suddenly someone put up a sign offering to buy Blood-Activating Powder contracts.
The contracts, which had originally been worth only one tael and four qian, were now being offered for three taels and five qian.
Those who thought Blood-Activating Powder had risen only temporarily and would drop again in a few days immediately sold the contracts they held.
But by the time Blood-Activating Powder reached six taels, they realized the market was still undersupplied.
It had been less than three days since Lu Cheng and the others had bought up the Blood-Activating Powder.
On the fourth day, another batch of Blood-Activating Powder appeared on the shelves of the major medicine shops.
In the span of three days, the Chen Family, Lin Martial Arts Hall, and all four Pill Workshops had brewed large quantities of Blood-Activating Powder.
Most importantly, people from the outlying counties had caught the scent of profit and poured into the Yang City market.
Just when everyone thought the price of Blood-Activating Powder was finally about to fall, a major piece of news was released.
Before you continue