The Dark Medicine Trade

"Senior Sister, my loan hasn't been approved yet, so these Spirit Coins..."

Chen Zhuo had no intention of paying with Spirit Stones.

Spirit Stones were expensive!

He still needed those ninety-odd Spirit Stones to buy stock in the Ancient Immortal Realm. How could he spend them on medicine and injections here?

Chen Zhuo had made up his mind: from now on, he would use Spirit Coins on the Immortal Estate side.

Unless it was an emergency, he wouldn't move his funds around lightly.

Before, he'd been strapped for cash. He'd had no choice.

Now that his Spirit Coin loan was about to come through, his life was clearly getting on track. There was no need to waste Spirit Stones.

At most, he'd sell a little to friends he knew well and build some goodwill.

At that, Dong Xuejiao raised an eyebrow.

That was risky.

In our Immortal Estate, there's no such thing as buying on credit!

But...

Dong Xuejiao glanced at the other One Heart Society members watching her expectantly and nodded. "I understand Junior Brother Chen is short on cash right now. I felt a connection with him the moment we met, so I'll make an exception this time."

She had no choice.

In public, Dong Xuejiao had to keep up her image as a "noble undergraduate."

That mattered!

After all, she'd borrowed a whole pile of Magical Artifacts for this trip precisely to open up the market at her alma mater... No, at the place where she'd once suffered hardship.

Alma mater?

She'd forgotten it long ago. You couldn't forget your roots, but you could forget your vocational college.

Right. Open up the market.

Taiqing City Alchemy Vocational and Technical College had tens of thousands of students. Taiqing City Talisman-Making Vocational and Technical College, Taiqing City Formation Vocational and Technical College, Taiqing City Artifact Refining Vocational and Technical College, and Taiqing City Alchemy Vocational and Technical College were branches of the same tree. They got along splendidly and shared resources. Opening up the market here meant opening up the market of the Four Great Colleges.

And Taiqing City University Town had quite a few other colleges nearby!

At least seven or eight hundred thousand cultivators were studying in the area.

She couldn't capture the whole market, but even one percent would mean seven or eight thousand customers!

And that wasn't counting their families...

Good grief, the size of that market!

Wouldn't business take off?

So she'd treat this as buying horse bones with a thousand pieces of gold.

With that in mind, Dong Xuejiao drew Chen Zhuo forward and introduced him loudly to the cultivators present. "Everyone, this is Junior Brother Chen Zhuo, the pride of our Junior College. If you ever make more medicine than you can sell, look for him. He has connections!"

Dong Xuejiao's words sent a shockwave through the room!

"Even Adept Dong treats him like a brother. He must be the descendant of some senior cultivator who got into trouble!"

"What an honor to study at the same school as a senior cultivator's descendant!"

"Remember the name Chen Zhuo. We should get in touch with him later..."

"..."

The One Heart Society members whispered among themselves.

Dong Xuejiao was very pleased. "Sijing, remember to add Junior Brother Chen to our One Heart Society's official group chat soon, so everyone can get to know him."

"Okay."

Sijing was as obedient as could be.

Dong Xuejiao grew even more pleased.

Sijing promptly led Chen Zhuo away, no longer lingering by Dong Xuejiao's side.

Chen Zhuo asked quietly, "Senior Sister Sijing, when will I get my medicine?"

"After the meeting."

Sijing said, "Senior Sister Dong is about to give a speech. You'll get it afterward. Our One Heart Society has plenty of resources; a little medicine is nothing to us."

With that, Sijing worked her Spirit Message Jade Slip and added Chen Zhuo to a group chat called "Vocational College United Mutual Aid Society (Group 3)."

Chen Zhuo: ?

So that's what the "One Heart" meant.

I'd misunderstood.

Chen Zhuo relaxed. As long as he got his medicine, that was what mattered.

Chen Zhuo had chosen the injectable Azure Dragon mainly because the Qiwu Sword Sect in the Ancient Immortal Realm would open its gates to recruit disciples in three months.

He was still uneasy about the so-called trial, unsure whether he could pass it.

In that case, he naturally had to raise his cultivation as quickly as possible and strengthen his competitive edge.

In the long run, the oral slow-release tablets would be better.

But while taking those tablets, he couldn't inject any other medicine.

That would seriously delay his cultivation, so Chen Zhuo certainly wasn't going to slow himself down just to save 200 Spirit Coins.

If he missed this chance, he'd have to wait another ten years!

In ten years, Chen Zhuo figured he'd be close to the Foundation Establishment Realm. He wouldn't be able to get into the sect then!

As Chen Zhuo's thoughts wandered, Dong Xuejiao began her speech. The room was noisy, and he couldn't make out much beyond a few scattered lines.

"This is your only chance as Junior College students to turn your lives around. Seize this opportunity to build wealth and improve your Immortal Dao Potential! Choosing the right path matters more than working hard. Only by joining the right platform can you achieve Spirit Coin freedom!"

"Some Junior College students betrayed our One Heart Society and even failed their Junior College-to-University Transfer, but our society was generous: we gave each of them a Little White Dragon. If even those who betray us get a Little White Dragon, what do you think our supporters get? If you understand, let's hear some applause!"

Dong Xuejiao shouted, "Our One Heart Society's former president has a vast business empire in Qingwu City and twenty-five Nascent Soul Cultivators! We're the number-one society in the Taiqing Domain! Let's celebrate our incredible former president, Senior Sister Yang Yang!"

At those words, the corner of Sijing's mouth twitched.

The more Chen Zhuo listened, the more something felt off.

Why did this feel...

...a bit like social-media direct selling?

Twenty-five Nascent Soul True Lords?

Why the hell not claim you've got twenty-five Spirit Transformation divine lords while you're at it?

A clueless young man nearby clearly hadn't caught on. He asked blankly, "Twenty-five Nascent Soul True Lords?! Great Purity City only has eleven Nascent Soul True Lords stationed here right now!"

Dong Xuejiao frowned and replied coldly, "I've confirmed it with Sister Yang Yang. She does have twenty-five Nascent Soul Cultivators. That's correct."

Okay.

That settled it.

This One Heart Society was a direct-selling outfit. They'd pulled him into the group chat to sell medicine, too.

The corner of Chen Zhuo's mouth twitched.

Of course, that didn't mean direct selling was bad.

Not everything sold that way was fake, but the risk of counterfeits and unlicensed products was high. What mattered was whether the seller was reliable; he couldn't paint them all with the same brush.

Still...

At his current stage, the medicine at official flagship stores was absurdly expensive.

The same basic Azure Dragon cost 700 Spirit Coins there and 600 here. The effects were about the same—a full 100 Spirit Coins' difference!

Even a blind man would know which seller to choose.

In the Immortal Estate world, joining the "dark medicine trade" was nothing to be ashamed of!

Everyone was doing it.

He'd heard that a Nascent Soul True Lord protected the industry from above. Without that protection, a routine Immortal Estate "crackdown on illicit business" could wipe out the entire dark medicine trade!

It was much the same as the "dark loan trade."

Without someone backing them from above, who would dare forge documents to take out a loan early?

As Dong Xuejiao's speech ended, orders poured in one after another.

Dong Xuejiao's smile grew brighter.

Before long, Sijing returned from amid the flurry of orders with a vial of blue-green medicine and solemnly handed it to Chen Zhuo.

"I managed to snag it for you. When you get back, look up some videos on how to inject it yourself. Don't inject it rashly!"

Senior Sister Sijing said, "The Azure Dragon isn't like the medicine you've injected before. Its effects are very different. If anything goes wrong, message me. I'll take you to Taiqing Medical College next door. I know someone who transferred there from a vocational college, so you can get treatment at a discount."

"Don't call the emergency cultivators. Their fees are outrageous!"

Then Senior Sister Sijing seemed to remember something and added, "Of course, if it's really serious, call them anyway. Your life matters more!"