Chapter 590: Medicinal Herb Negotiations

Xuanyuan felt that doing so would make him seem ungenerous, so he added, "That won't be necessary; your people can come too. After all, we need to cooperate to find this kind of medicinal herb. This medicine is far too important for both of our tribes."

Since Xuanyuan had already said as much, Baifeng naturally had to follow up, so Baifeng said, "Xuanyuan, actually, this Betel Nut is just a small matter. I also intend to take this opportunity to discuss some major matters, things that I believe will be beneficial to both of our tribes."

The attention of everyone in the Xuanyuan Tribe was completely focused by Baifeng's words, and Zhishou also raised his head to watch Baifeng, waiting to see what he could say.

Baifeng said to Qibo, "Qibo, you are currently the person with the highest medical skill in the Xuanyuan Tribe, right?"

Qibo nodded, "That's right, it is me. Of course, our Tribal Chief and Zhishou also possess very high medical skills."

Baifeng then pointed at Yi and said, "He is called Yi, and he is the disciple I took in. Many years ago, when I had nothing, the entire tribe was just an empty plot of land, and he was still a savage. I taught him all of our medical skills, and I even gave him the name Yi. Now, he should be the person with the highest medical skill in our Huaxia."

Yi's face turned a bit red, mostly out of shyness, and he hurriedly explained, "No, no, the person with the highest medical skill in our Huaxia is still our King, my master; I am far inferior to him."

Qibo and Xuanyuan were certainly not there to watch Baifeng and his people flatter each other, so they said, "So, what is it that you want?"

Baifeng then said, "Let me first talk about our Huaxia. Our entire medical system has already been established. We have a large number of healers dedicated to saving our tribespeople, but it is still not enough. We have specialized places to teach them medical skills. As for me, I am most skilled at identifying and using various Grass and herbs, as well as Primary treatments for various falls, bites, and Knife wounds."

"However, I also know about this thing called Meridians. One only needs to use a needle, or a stone, to be able to treat people's illnesses. But I am not skilled in this aspect, and I don't know which of you few understands this better?"

Zhishou and Qibo were greatly shocked: "How do you know it is called Meridians?"

Baifeng said calmly, "Because it is called Meridians. I call it Meridians and you also call it Meridians; it originally had a name, and that name is these two characters, just as 'I do not know its name, so I forcibly name it the Great Knife'."

Zhishou was horrified; he stood up and stared fixedly at Baifeng, but did not speak for a long time. Afterward, he began to use his fingers to calculate on his own hand. This behavior also gave Baifeng a great shock—this kind of divination method already existed now?

However, Zhishou calculated several times in a row but could not calculate anything. He sat back down on his chair dejectedly. The people of the Xuanyuan Tribe hurriedly asked, "Zhishou, what is wrong?"

Zhishou caught his breath slightly: "I could not calculate it. However, he is harmless to the Great Knife, and his understanding of the Knife is deeper than mine. You all should be able to communicate with him more."

Afterward, Zhishou stopped speaking and began to close his eyes to rest.

Seeing this, Qibo could only continue to speak: "We all understand Meridians, and we have indeed discovered some things. I have already observed the laws of Essence Qi operating within the Meridians; it has a relationship with time." Afterward, he paused, then asked suspiciously: "You know what Essence Qi is, right?"

Baifeng nodded with a smile: "Mm, Essence Qi is the thing that maintains the operation of the human body after a person eats food and it is transformed by the spleen and stomach; it is called Essence Qi."

Qibo glanced at Zhishou, then felt relieved: "Correct, that is how it is. Your summary is quite good. You also know the Guiding Technique, right?"

At this, Baifeng shook his head: "I do not, so I know very little in this aspect."

This time, the response to Baifeng was an even stranger and more suspicious question: "You actually don't know it? If you don't know it, how do you know about Meridians and Essence Qi?"

Baifeng did not answer directly: "I don't know much, so I need your help. I can tell you everything I know about medicines and how to use them, as well as that little bit I know about Meridians, but I need you to teach our people the knowledge you have about Meridians. We will learn from each other and verify with each other to make our medical skills more perfect, so we can save more tribespeople. What do you think?"

Xuanyuan definitely had no problem with it, but Qibo said, "Just from this conversation, I can feel that you know far more than we do. But if we trade like this, you are the one suffering a loss. Why do you want to do this?"

Baifeng explained again: "Of course it won't be such a simple exchange, because I also want to conduct medicinal herb trade. Our Huaxia does not have as vast a territory as the Xuanyuan Tribe, and we have not developed our own territory enough. Currently, all the medicinal herbs we have here have been identified and are being applied. However, I know there are more medicinal herbs, very important medicinal herbs, that we do not have here, but you do. So, I help you identify medicinal herbs, and you trade the medicinal herbs with us; this is my condition."

Qibo was still puzzled: "In this way, you still don't gain much benefit. On the contrary, our Xuanyuan Tribe will even increase the things we trade to you because of the medicinal herbs you need that we find. What are you after?"

Only then did Baifeng lay out his entire plan: "Because I know which medicinal herbs are precious and which are ordinary. When trading medicinal herbs, the price will be decided by our discussion. Furthermore, as long as it is a medicinal herb I have identified, you can only charge a price slightly higher than the cost. You cannot use this to threaten our Huaxia, and you cannot say you won't trade if you don't want to. There must be a quota every year. The price can fluctuate up or down based on production and rarity, but it must be after both sides discuss it. And my say is greater than yours. How about that?"

Xuanyuan also spoke up at this time: "It is indeed very attractive, but if it is as you say, wouldn't the value of our medicinal herbs be entirely up to you? Moreover, how do we know if it is truly precious? If you trade precious good medicinal herbs for useless ones, what should we do?"

Baifeng stated his supplementary terms: "Whether it is precious or not, after I teach you all the knowledge of medicinal herbs, you will be able to distinguish it yourselves. And for this pricing power, I want twenty years. After twenty years, it can be changed. Furthermore, it is not just us who need your medicinal herbs; once you thoroughly understand how to use medicine and have more healers who know how to use medicine, you will naturally come to trade for our Huaxia's medicinal herbs as well. In this way, we can check and balance each other, and no one can raise prices at will."