At a glance, it was densely packed with countless, transparent square frames. There was a medicinal herb stalk or some other variety of medicinal ingredient quietly floating in each frame.
The square frames covered all four walls of the first floor. In front of each wall, there were a dozen or so Myriad Medicine Tower attendants, who were prepared to greet arriving customers at any time.
The square frames were all sealed up. The medicinal fragrance didn’t actually seep out from the square frames, but it still penetrated deeply into one’s heart. It let a person immerse themselves in the world of medicinal ingredients the moment they entered, like falling into a dream.
Gu Zuo carefully examined those square frames.
It’s said that these square frames weren’t made of glass… He didn’t know what material it was made out of, but it clearly wasn’t cheap.
En, the Myriad Medicine Tower indeed had a lot of style.
However, Gu Zuo didn’t come to the Myriad Medicine Tower to research the material of those square frames. Rather, it was to purchase medicinal ingredients. Thus, in accordance with the Myriad Medicine Tower’s rules, he began to calmly look at the first wall. At the same time, he silently noted the medicinal ingredients he wanted to buy as well as the amounts for each ingredient.
It was a so-called purchasing spree. The length of time he would spend here would be rather long.
One couldn’t help noting that when it came to the medicinal ingredients in the Myriad Medicine Tower, the product grades were all very good and the variety was also really comprehensive.
It didn’t take long for Gu Zuo to see an unorthodox medicinal herb on the first floor. Merely, the numeral written in front of that square frame was “28”. This meant that the final stock only had twenty-eight herbs… In a instant, he gave up on his plan of choosing all of his ingredients first and then paying for them.
If he browsed too slowly and these medicinal ingredients were all bought up by other people, what was he to do? It also wasn’t known if he could find them quickly afterwards!
Making his decision, Gu Zuo promptly waved his hand to summon an attendant.
Of course, in order to obtain first-rate service, he directly flashed his gold slip.
— Yes, every person who possessed a gold slip could get an attendant’s personal service. Originally, Gu Zuo wanted to keep a low-profile, but now, he decided it was better to make use of his authority.
Sometimes, acting low-profile was just looking for trouble!
That attendant was a charming young man. After seeing the gold slip, he immediately and politely walked over: “This one is Bing Jin. May I ask what commands this noble customer has?”
Gu Zuo said: “Come with me. There are medicinal herbs here whose qualities are in short supply. I need to order them in advance.”
Attendant Bing Jin hastily said: “No problem, no problem. This one will certainly manage the needs of this noble customer.”
Gu Zuo nodded his head: “Then, mark this down first. Starlight Grass, twenty-eight stalks. I want all of it.”
Bing Jin swept a glance at the serial number of the Starlight Grass, and promptly called out to another attendant on the side. That attendant recorded Bing Jin’s hand signal and made the report. All of the Starlight Grass was ordered. Afterwards, even if there was another noble customer with a gold slip, they wouldn’t be able to fight over it with Gu Zuo.
Medicinal ingredients were sparse. The faster hand would always be full, and the slower hand would always be empty. There was no reason to negotiate.
After snatching the Starlight Grass, Gu Zuo was in high spirits, and he continued to walk forward.
He carefully looked over every medicinal ingredient. Whenever he saw a type that was rare or low in stock, no matter if he had use for them right now, so long as it was a medicinal ingredient that some pill prescription in his mind required, he would promptly purchase it.
Behind Gu Zuo, Bing Jin, who’d been ordering for him the entire time, felt his scalp going a little numb.
As an attendant of the Myriad Medicine Tower, he definitely had a certain degree of mastery in distinguishing medicinal ingredients. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to satisfy the requests and inquiries of the customers. Even though he had quite an understanding of some pill prescriptions, he couldn’t become a pharmacist without medicinal beads. Also, he’d never seen such a pharmacist like Gu Zuo — Anything that was unorthodox, he wanted it. Anything that was in short supply, he wanted it. Moreover, he practically couldn’t find any pill prescriptions that could be adjusted to use those medicinal ingredients. This was simply incomprehensible! But the customer was the customer, after all. He could only work accordingly…
All kinds of medicinal ingredients were ordered. After Gu Zuo revealed a little bit of his financial resources, Bing Jin also didn’t have any hesitations. The one with the money was the boss. In any case, it was all about selling medicinal ingredients, and it didn’t matter who it was being sold to.
If the guy wanted to be rich and willful, then just let him! Seeing as how such a young pharmacist possessed a gold slip, perhaps he, Bing Jin, was the one who was ignorant and unable to recognize true greatness?
With clear thinking, Bing Jin happily followed suit no matter what Gu Zuo wanted to order in advance. In passing, he also silently calculated his own percentage cut, and felt that he could make a lot of money with such a big customer!
Of course, in actuality, Gu Zuo hadn’t spent that much of his money.
Everyone knew that regardless of how many successful pills an ordinary pharmacist refined in a cauldron batch, even if there was only a single pill, it would all be sold for huge profits. It could be seen that in the aspect of manufacturing costs, the price of medicinal ingredients was far cheaper than that of medicinal pills.
Just mentioning the most commonly seen Qi Generating Pill, the price of a low grade pill was one gold. As such, there were quite a few types of medicinal herbs for refining a cauldron of Qi Generating Pills, and the price for all of these was less than one gold.
In that way, for the costs apportioned to medicinal ingredients, each batch would be calculated using silver coins or the even cheaper copper coins. One gold was equal to ten silver, and one silver was equal to a thousand copper. Only by purchasing large quantities of medicinal ingredients could it be said that it wasn’t a small amount.
Normally, main ingredients were a bit more expensive, and most auxiliary ingredients were cheap.
On the first floor, unless it was the rare stalks of medicinal herbs which could be valued in gold, the majority were actually valued in copper — Even the ones that were calculated in silver were already considered relatively costly.
After making a round for a little more than two hours, Gu Zuo had given a cursory scan of these couple of walls. He had also cleaned out many of the comparatively rare medicinal ingredients.
But for the specific expenditures… The total was actually just seven to eight hundred gold. As for the medicinal ingredients, there was no less than several hundred types!
After that, Gu Zuo started his second go-around.
During the second round, he conducted bulk purchases, and started to select some herbs that were needed in large quantities, but were a little troublesome to collect.
First was the few medicinal herbs required for the Meridian Replenishing Pill and the Bone Replenishing Pill. Afterwards, there were some herbs necessary for the Anti-Aging Pill. Then came some auxiliary herbs needed for the Xiantian Pill. As for the Xiantian Pill’s main ingredients, it seemed that there were none on the first floor &#k2014; This should’ve had something to do with a pharmacist’s rank. Although the Xiantian Pill was a medicinal pill used by peak Houtian martial artists, when it came to refining, it was handled by pharmacists who were mid-level or higher. Otherwise, it would most likely be an outright waste of medicinal ingredients.
Following this, there were also the ones required for the Snowy Ginseng Pill, the Houtian Realm’s Meridian Purification Pill, and even the Five Essence Pill — The medicinal ingredients needed for these types of pills were very cumbersome, so he could save a lot of trouble here.
In addition to these, there were many medicinal pills that Gu Zuo felt his dear big brother would need in order to establish a team in the future. So he bought the required medicinal ingredients for those prescriptions in large quantities.
Black Frost Flowers, Golden Mound Grass, Fermented Fish Eyes, Arhat Mushrooms, White Leather Ginseng, Tiger Claw Roots… In any case, it was scattered and fragmentary. There were at least several hundred to a thousand types, and each type was purchased in innumerably high quantities.
In the rear, Bing Jin’s eyes widened.
This big customer…truly was the real deal! He never thought twice about buying anything!
Just before, those purchases didn’t reach a thousand gold. But the current purchases had already exceeded a hundred thousand gold!
No matter what it was, many little drops would make an ocean! No matter how cheaply-priced the medicinal ingredients, if they were all purchased, it definitely wouldn’t be cheap!
Previously, this kind of big spending only appeared with the collective purchases of several comparatively large powers. Could it be that this young pharmacist was also the purchasing agent of some organization?
If not, then this was too outrageous…
Gu Zuo didn’t think about any of this. After he announced his orders, he directly slapped down more than ten sheets of ten-thousand denomination golden banknotes.
The Myriad Medicine Tower also wasn’t negligent. In a short period of time, the medicinal ingredients were ordered together, and packaged using an inter-spatial tool.
Gu Zuo took the offered ring-shaped inter-spatial tool. After examining it, he put it in his sleeve. Soon after, his thoughts moved, and all the ingredients inside the inter-spatial tool entered a region of his storage space which was especially for medicinal ingredients. Following that, he returned the inter-spatial tool to the Myriad Medicine Tower’s staff member who handed over the ingredients.
The happy expression in Bing Jin’s eyes couldn’t be covered up.
By securing this huge list of items, he could earn a huge percentage cut! The amount that fell into his possession would be close to a thousand gold at that time. This was much higher than his monthly salary!
After this, Gu Zuo opened his mouth again: “I’m going to the second floor. Bing Jin, are you willing to go with me?”
Bing Jin quivered: “Willing! Of course I’m willing to serve this noble customer!”
Gu Zuo nodded his head, and continued leading the way up.
In any case, he felt that the movements of this attendant were very agile and compliant, which made things much easier for him. In order to have someone lending a hand, running errands, and giving introductions later on, he nevertheless let this person take responsibility for it…
Upon reaching the second floor, there were similarly four walls. However, each square frame was somewhat bigger than the ones on the first floor, and the total number of medicinal ingredients was also somewhat smaller.
In here, main ingredients made up the majority, and the auxiliary ingredients that could be placed here weren’t ordinary at all.
— The common varieties were all simply shelved on the first floor.
Gu Zuo still wandered around, and began looking at the first wall.
The medicinal ingredients on this floor were much more expensive than the ones on the first floor. One would understand after thinking about it. Many medicinal pills that were suitable for Xiantian martial artists were priced at several dozen gold to several hundred gold. Although there were reasons why refining was more difficult, the manufacturing cost of the medicinal ingredients was an issue that couldn’t be neglected.
Bing Jin stood next to Gu Zuo, ready to assist with introductions or recording at any time.
Gu Zuo was the same as before. When he made his choices, it was particularly…simple and crude.
First of all, just like the first floor, the remote and rare ones as well as the medicinal ingredients that appeared in his pill prescriptions were picked, packaged, and stored. Next, he searched for the main ingredients for commonly used Xiantian Realm medicinal pills based on their prescriptions — For example, the Jinyuan Pill and others like it. Those main ingredients were purchased in bulk. After buying enough main ingredients, then it was the auxiliary ingredients. In short, he bought bought bought them all! He spent money like there was no tomorrow!
Among the biggest harvests was naturally the main ingredient of the Xiantian Pill. A few batches of the main ingredient were very hard to come by. While one could make an exchange in Qingyun Sect, it wasn’t too easy in the end. That was unlike this place, where it could be settled as long as one had money!
Thus, without the slightest hesitation, Gu Zuo bought over a hundred batches of each ingredient — This was already enough for Gu Zuo refine over a thousand Xiantian Pills!
Gu Zuo bought and bought, and his mood was worry-free.
Right now, he started to understand why the girls in his previous world loved to shop. Even though he was a man, it wasn’t a hardship when he purchased the things he liked!
Most of all, when Gu Zuo’s consciousness occasionally wandered into the storage space within his Tianfu Acupoint and looked at all the various, densely-packed medicinal ingredients floating around, a feeling of peace and fullness spontaneously rose up in his heart!
Hoarding medicinal ingredients…
This was probably a pharmacist’s instinct, too.
The second floor’s expenses far exceeded the first floor’s. After a period of such unbridled spending, the variety of medicinal ingredients that Gu Zuo purchased wasn’t as numerous as when he was on the first floor, but the gold he spent was quite a few times higher.
In the blink of an eye, the Myriad Medicine Tower’s management staff handed him the goods. Then, Gu Zuo swung his hand and took out a stack of golden banknotes. More than four hundred thousand gold was spent.
As soon as the transaction was successful, a voice could be heard once more in his mind.
[Confirming that there are more than one hundred prescriptions. Mission accomplished.]
[Mission Reward <<Details of Ten Thousand Medicines>> has been granted. The host may examine it.]
Gu Zuo’s heart stirred. Sure enough, he “saw” a newly-obtained ancient text in another region of his storage space. He considered giving it a quick browse, but after thinking it over, he decided against it for now.
He wasn’t finished buying medicinal ingredients yet…
Although Bing Jin didn’t know why the noble customer he was leading was just staring blankly ahead, after silently calculating the percentage cut he would obtain this time around, he shivered thrillingly.
In just a handful of hours, the income he received was comparable to the percentage cuts for at least one to two years! Being an attendant was also very competitive! One wouldn’t encounter a customer with such a huge order every time!
Thinking about how he’d just so happened to be standing near this young guy who possessed a gold slip and was coincidentally chosen to accompany him… Bing Jin couldn’t help feeling that his recent luck had been pretty good.
Perhaps he could consider going out of the city to adventure once in a while. Maybe he could pick up some precious treasures.
Gu Zuo finished staring ahead. He turned around and went to the third floor.
There were even fewer medicinal ingredients on this floor. The medicine squares on those four walls no longer dazzled the eyes, but the total amount was still quite high.
After all, there were many Immortal Realm martial artists on the Qingyun Continent. The amount of medicinal pills they needed was also large. At the same time, there were many high-level pharmacists.
When Gu Zuo selected medicinal ingredients this time around, he was much more prudent.
The improvement speed of the Tiandu Body couldn’t be compared to that of ordinary physiques. It probably wouldn’t take too long for his big brother, Gongyi Tianheng, to swiftly improve his strength and becoming an Immortal Realm martial artist.
Before that, he needed to be thoroughly prepared.
He needed to prepare all the medicinal pills required by Immortal Realm martial artists in advance… In addition to the high-quality and inexpensive pill prescriptions for making money, he needed to prepare as many medicinal ingredients inside as possible.
When reaching the Immortal Realm, the pill that was the most suitable for replenishing true qi was no longer the Qi Accumulating Pill.
What Gu Zuo needed to refine as much as possible were top grade Qi Infusing Pills. Merely, upon reaching the Immortal Realm, the physical body was valiant, and common treatment pills wouldn’t have the same miraculous effects of the Rejuvenation Pill and the Revitalization Pill. If one wanted to give an Immortal Realm martial artist treatment, each individual needed it to be tailor-made.
Within the pill prescriptions Gu Zuo knew about, there was a magic pill called the Metamorphosis Pill. It was a treatment pill that was very difficult to refine. Only, this type of pill belonged to the Hundred Transformation Pills. No matter what kind of martial artist, if one wanted to rely on this medicinal pill for treatment, a pharmacist needed to study their constitution. Compatible medicinal ingredients with the same attributes as the martial artist would then be added to the Metamorphosis Pill’s formulation. Otherwise, not only wouldn’t there be any treatment at that time, the patient’s condition would also worsen due to attribute repulsion.
Gongyi Tianheng had the Tiandu Body. If Gu Zuo wanted to treat him, it would be even harder… The five elements needed to be in equilibrium for it to work. One point more or one point less, even if it was just slightly partial towards any attribute, and it would be a failure.
What was even more depressing was that whenever a non-top grade medicinal pill was refined, there’d be a trace attribute imbalance to a certain extent. In other words, after reaching the Immortal Realm, that finicky Tiandu Body could only use top grade medicinal pills! If not, it would do more harm than good to him…
Gu Zuo remembered when he just learned about this matter. At the time, his heart had the urge to shout abuses in the streets. It was just that, as Tianheng treated him better and better, he also began to care more and more about his big brother. As a result, he always wanted to give the best things to his big brother, and he no longer harbored this kind of compelled feeling.
Now that he thought about it, his mentality back then was very interesting.
With such musings, Gu Zuo turned his head and said to Bing Jin: “The purified water of the Enlightened Lotus Dew, Manifold Spirit Stamens, Heavenly Poison Honey, the leaves and roots of the Shooting Star Flower… How much of each do you have in stock?”
Bing Jin was already having a hard time making the appropriate facial expressions. After turning his head and running off to inquire, he returned to give his report: “There’s still three jars of purified water from the Enlightened Lotus Dew, eight bottles of Heavenly Poison Honey, and there’s a lot in stock for the other medicinal ingredients. What are this noble customer’s wishes?”
Gu Zuo nodded his head: “In that case, I want all of it.”
Bing Jin: “…”
Originally, he thought he was already very desensitized. Now it seemed that he wasn’t desensitized enough.
Ah, these few medicinal ingredients were all very expensive!
After this, Bing Jin also nodded. He said with a wooden face: “Rest assured, noble customer. I’ll go make this report at once.”
Following this, the accounts were settled once more.
Gu Zuo spent eighty thousand gold.
Just these few medicinal ingredients already overtook the money that was wantonly raked in on the first floor!
It could be seen that, the higher the rank of the pharmacist, the harder it was to afford the medicinal ingredients they used… Fortunately, pharmacists were good at making money. Moreover, a single individual basically wouldn’t make such outrageous purchases like Gu Zuo.
But this wasn’t the end.
Gu Zuo made a few more laps around the third floor. He made a scattered selection of quite a few medicinal ingredients, and they were purchased in large quantities. In the blink of an eye, two to three hundred thousand in golden banknotes were let loose.
Buy and buy some more. Buy and buy some more. Buy and…
Bing Jin mechanically followed behind Gu Zuo, and watched this young pharmacist squander… Ah, that was incorrect. He was distributing his wealth.
En, although their Myriad Medicine Tower quite grandly sold medicinal ingredients, they were still businessmen. And businessmen liked customers with big spending habits like this one the most…
Next, Gu Zuo headed to the fourth floor.
As an attendant, Bing Jin originally should’ve followed him upstairs, but how could he when his knowledge of the stock and his own rank were insufficient? At most, he could only receive customers on the first three floors. When customers went to the fourth floor, the appointed personnel’s service definitely had to be even more considerate and thoughtful.
Hence, Bing Jin reluctantly delivered Gu Zuo to the flight of stairs heading to the fourth floor, and personally handed him over to a beautiful, young girl: “Xixi, receive him properly.” He covertly raised a finger in front of him, and silently mouthed, “This sir has already spent this amount of money.”
How keen was Gu Zuo’s psychic power? How couldn’t he be aware of Bing Jin’s small movements? However, he didn’t care. When he thought back to when he worked as an apprentice in the modern era, such actions also couldn’t be avoided.
In addition, he truly didn’t lack money.
Today, when he purchased medicinal ingredients, he conscientiously experienced the feeling of “not lacking money”.
Because a long time had passed with basically nowhere to spend money, the golden banknotes in his personal stash exceeded an enormous two million. What’s more, before his departure, Tianheng had given him hundreds of thousands in golden banknotes as “pocket money”.
With some approximate calculations, the sum was nearly three million gold!
Only to use it to buy medicinal ingredients… Gu Zuo actually wanted to spend this money until there was nothing left!
As far as pharmacists were concerned, having medicinal ingredients meant having money and being able to protect one’s life… Money was far less important than medicinal ingredients.
On the fourth floor, the medicinal ingredients had become even more precious and rare, and their harvesting periods were even longer.
Their medicinal maturities were at least three thousand years or higher.
And for medicinal herbs with such ages, their medicinal properties were extremely astonishing!
Gu Zuo moved around those cabinets.
Yes, the medicinal ingredients on this floor weren’t mundanely placed in square frames. Rather, they were contained in small boxes where all kinds of materials were meticulously employed. Every box was then individually arranged inside each medicine cabinet.
The medicine cabinets were similarly transparent and had large volumes. This allowed all pharmacists coming to pick medicinal ingredients to examine each part from all sides and angles.
Such a considerate design and such an intense emphasis could only prove one issue.
That the medicinal ingredients here were all very expensive.
The medicinal pills that used them in refining were all pills mostly taken by Atomic Realm or even higher ranked martial artists.
Thus, on the fourth floor, a stalk of the cheapest medicinal herb with the lowest price was —
Ten thousand gold.
Gu Zuo looked on with stars in his eyes, and his heart didn’t have the least bit of pressure.
City Lord’s Mansion, in the dwelling for Qingyun Sect.
Xu Lingxiu sat cross-legged in front of a pill cauldron. Across from him was the high-level pharmacist Li Yunquan.
At this moment, Li Yunquan’s brows slightly furrowed. He said in a low voice: “The previous search resulted in nothing. Could it be that we’ve let Pill Heart Sect escape the blame?”
Xu Lingxiu sneered: “What are the rankings for Pill Heart Sect this time?”
Li Yunquan’s heart trembled. After carefully thinking it over, he said: “Apparently… In the mid-level pharmacist field, they’ve fallen out of the top ten?” He suddenly remembered this matter, “Don’t tell me—”
Xu Lingxiu said: “City Lord Xin really isn’t an idiot. When we explained things to him, his mind naturally had its suspicions, and nothing else needed to be said. During the pill battles, all it took was the rearrangement of Pill Heart Sect’s seating order for them to suffer enough!”
T/N: Thanks for the corrections, Charysa!
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