Chapter 74

Late night, Li Mansion.

A dim candle, a silhouette.

Inside the room.

The wooden table in front of Li Rui was packed with items, almost unable to hold them all.

"Dragon Saliva Grass, Mysterious Spiritual Branch, Silver Dragon Iron."

Spiritual herbs and spiritual iron are basic materials, mostly naturally occurring, found by herb gatherers or mountain folk and brought to the black market to sell.

These people don't know how to distinguish them.

The goods are a mix of good and bad, relying entirely on discernment.

Li Rui has been wandering the black market every day for the past few days, rarely making a move, but when he does, it's a big haul.

These spiritual herbs are worth at least two hundred gold, which is two thousand taels of silver; even ordinary wealthy families in Qinghe City might not necessarily have so much money.

Poor flippers, after being swept by Li Rui like this, won't be able to get any big hauls for a while, only able to pick up scraps to get by.

Looking at the table full of spiritual herbs, Li Rui's heart pounded.

"Never been this wealthy in my life."

Relying on the Spiritual Eye, he was able to earn so much silver in just a few days.

Li Rui touched his chin.

"All spiritual herbs, just one piece of spiritual iron the size of a fist was a stroke of luck."

Salt and iron are government-managed.

Most spiritual mines are occupied by the imperial court and major forces; ordinary people have no chance to come into contact with them.

This piece of Silver Dragon Iron was wrapped in stone skin; from the outside, it looked like an unremarkable stone, picked up by the stall owner to use as a cloth-pressing stone.

That was how Li Rui managed to pick it up.

Spiritual herbs are relatively more common and are also the main target for flippers in the black market.

Li Rui put away the Silver Dragon Iron.

He had just upgraded his weapon and made soft armor; the Silver Dragon Iron wasn't needed for now, so he would store it first and wait until he got more spiritual iron before making plans.

As for the spiritual herbs...

Two paths.

Either sell them directly for silver, or find an alchemist to refine them into pills.

After weighing the pros and cons, Li Rui decided to find an alchemist, provide the materials himself, and have them refine the spiritual herbs into pills.

He was now at the Iron Bone stage; the next step was Golden Bone.

The number of pills needed to refine Golden Bone was more than ten times that of Iron Bone, not to mention the higher-level Jade Bone.

Finding a reliable alchemist, paying some labor fees, and skipping the intermediate steps...

Going directly to the person doing the work avoids middlemen earning the price difference.

And he had a unique advantage—there was an alchemist in the Tiandi Alliance.

Medicine Hall, backyard.

The fragrance of pills permeated the air, gray-white smoke curled, looking like the legendary fairyland.

"Li Tangzhu, why did you need Deputy Helmsman Zhang to personally send word for such a small matter? Couldn't you have just come to me directly?"

A shrewd middle-aged man said with a smile as he walked.

Li Rui glanced at this newly appointed Hall Master, Xu Xiang.

Thinking to himself: "Heh."

If he hadn't asked Zhang Yang to send word in advance, he might not have even found Xu Xiang's door, let alone the grand scene of Xu Xiang personally leading the way.

Who didn't know Xu Xiang's nature of judging people by their status, only taking things seriously when they were assigned by superiors.

"Li Tangzhu, you are a favorite in front of Deputy Helmsman Zhang; you must put in a good word for your brother in the future."

Xu Xiang's words carried a hint of flattery.

"Easily done."

Li Rui responded faintly.

Actually, logically speaking, Xu Xiang, a Medicine Hall Master, had nothing to do with Zhang Yang, the Deputy Helmsman in charge of introductions and Hun Tian Yi.

But all this had to start with the death of Zhao Wei.

After Zhao Wei died.

One of the three halls he was in charge of was given to Ge Hong, and the other two were given to Zhou Rui.

A turn of events.

Deputy Helmsman Zhou had originally become an idle person, but wealth fell from the sky; inexplicably, he regained the status of Deputy Helmsman and even took charge of the Medicine Hall and the Discipline Hall, his authority even greater than before.

Hearing Dao Xiong distributing it this way.

Naturally had its deep meaning.

Zhao Wei died, and the current Qinghe Branch required stability, so actions had to be as small as possible, and the people involved had to be as few as possible.

Once they safely passed the great examination next year, they could naturally redistribute.

So Zhou Rui became the best person to take over.

But letting Zhou Rui, the weakest Deputy Helmsman, take over three halls in one go would inevitably make people unconvinced.

So Dao Xiong gave the most important Civil and Martial Arts Hall to Ge Hong and the other two halls to Zhou Rui.

But anyone with a discerning eye could see.

Zhou Rui, the Deputy Helmsman in charge of the Medicine Hall, wouldn't sit there for long.

A year later, it would likely be replaced by Deputy Helmsman Zhang.

Xu Xiang had to plan ahead.

"Why do you think the previous Medicine Hall Master voluntarily asked to be sent out to guard the grounds?"

"Wasn't it because he offended too many people."

"Once the Deputy Helmsman changed, he was given a hard time every day, making it impossible to live."

So Xu Xiang had to take it as a warning; Li Rui being able to move Deputy Helmsman Zhang to personally send word clearly meant their relationship was deep, which was just the right opportunity to curry favor.

By next year, he would still be the Medicine Hall Master.

Thinking this.

The two arrived in front of a detached room that looked like a hall but wasn't.

"Li Tangzhu, Elder Jiang is in the alchemy room."

"Elder Jiang is obsessed with alchemy and has a strange temperament; if he offends Li Tangzhu with his words, please don't take offense."

Xu Xiang added another sentence.

Li Rui waved his hand: "No matter."

The Elder Jiang in Xu Xiang's mouth was the only alchemy master in the Qinghe Branch, capable of refining eighth-rank spiritual pills.

"A rare technical worker, it's normal to have a bit of a temper."

"It's good that Li Tangzhu thinks so."

Xu Xiang said, but muttered in his heart: "It would be best if you really thought so."

That Elder Jiang was arrogant and talented, holding a special status in the Medicine Hall, and even he, the Hall Master, didn't want to bother with him much.

Xu Xiang was often angered to the point of lung pain.

Even several Deputy Helmsmen had been choked by this Elder Jiang to the point of almost rolling up their sleeves to fight.

If it weren't for his superb alchemy skills, which the branch couldn't do without, he would have been sabotaged and thrown out of the branch long ago.

The two walked into the alchemy room.

A dozen medicine boys were busy in the room, and the crimson medicine furnace in the center of the room made the air scorching hot.

"Three units of Spirit Phoenix Grass, one unit of Lingzhi powder, one Yang Dingtian..."

A middle-aged man with a goat beard stared fixedly at the furnace, the names of various medicinal materials spilling out of his mouth.

The alchemy room was a scene of fiery activity.

Seeing this, Xu Xiang stopped his steps awkwardly: "Li Tangzhu, why don't we go drink some tea first? Elder Jiang cannot be disturbed while refining pills; this is an unwritten rule of the Medicine Hall."

Li Rui was very patient.

"It should be finished soon, let's wait a bit longer."

The two waited for about a quarter of an hour.

A few slight bangs sounded in the furnace.

"It's done!"

Elder Jiang's eyes lit up, and he trotted forward to lift the lid of the furnace with tongs, a strange fragrance hitting his nose.

"Eighth-rank spiritual pill?"

Li Rui possessed the Spiritual Eye and judged the grade of the pill at a glance through the spiritual substance contained within it.

Watching Elder Jiang take out more than ten spiritual pills.

Xu Xiang then spoke: "Elder Jiang, this is Li Tangzhu of Hun Tian Yi Hall, who wants to ask you to open the furnace and refine a batch of pills."

The smile on Jiang Cheng's face disappeared as if he had changed his face, looking coldly at Li Rui.

He didn't even ask for the reason, simply saying two words:

"Not refining."

(End of chapter)