Immortal Cultivation: Starting from a Pharmacy Apprentice

Chapter 216: Chapter 216: Finding a Clue

He hadn’t slept all night.

By the time dawn arrived, the heat of the rising sun had caused most of the Pill Bai Mo had broken down to spoil and turn sour.

Bai Mo yawned, staring thoughtfully at the soft, inelastic lump of powder in his hand.

After a moment of contemplation, Bai Mo pushed open the door to the quiet room. Not far away, Qin Wen was just bidding farewell to the two members of the Xue family and walking past.

Noticing the puffiness under Bai Mo’s eyes, Qin Wen quickly glanced inside the quiet room.

"Shopkeeper, are you alright?"

Bai Mo, looking drained, merely nodded before giving an order:

"Clean up the waste inside and bury it somewhere deserted outside the city."

"You go yourself."

Qin Wen was taken aback for a moment.

"Yes."

Bai Mo didn’t trust anyone else with this task. Only Qin Wen, who was used to cleaning up his messes, could be counted on not to cause any trouble.

It was the first time Qin Wen had ever seen such foul Pill residue.

It wasn’t that it was visually disgusting; rather, the smell alone was enough to make one gag and feel an instinctual revulsion.

Wearing deerskin gloves, he carefully dumped all the powdered dregs and wastewater into a fish-skin bag and headed for the city gate.

When he returned, the deerskin gloves he had been wearing were gone.

Only after thoroughly washing his hands did he come to the shop’s counter.

"Where’s the Shopkeeper?"

Wei An was clicking away on his abacus.

"He had a bowl of congee and went to rest."

Qin Wen nodded slowly.

"He really didn’t look well. I haven’t seen him so haggard in a long time."

"It seems he’s truly run into a difficult problem."

"But I just ran into some of Lanshan’s men in the city. They were gathering quite a few Cultivators from the Demon Hunting Teams."

"From the sound of it, they’re probably coming to look for the Shopkeeper."

Just as he’d said, Lanshan arrived when the sun was high at noon, though he came alone.

After several hours of rest, Bai Mo was feeling much better and came out to greet him.

"Brother Lanshan, what brings you here?"

Lanshan said with a serious expression, "I’ve already prepared the men for the Azure Dragon River."

"It’s best we take over sooner rather than later. Right now, a few gangs at the docks are fighting over scraps, making a complete mess of things."

With the three great Pill Masters gone and things quiet for so long, the gangs at the docks have started to catch on, and they’re making moves again.

I hear there’s already been bloodshed, and people have died.

Many of the people there have worked as ’water ghosts’ before. They fight dirty, so it’s not hard to understand why.

Seeing the situation, Lanshan was quite anxious.

"Cleaning up the atmosphere at the docks won’t be easy. The sooner, the better."

Bai Mo nodded.

"We’ll do as you say, Brother Lanshan. But you have to give me the rundown—what are the backgrounds of the men at the docks?"

Lanshan’s expression turned solemn.

"They’re all brothers whose passion has cooled, who no longer want to risk their lives in the mountains."

"Some are injured or sick Cultivators with no other choice, but they’re still skilled and can handle anything."

Bai Mo trusted Lanshan’s judgment and didn’t press for more details.

The process of taking control would inevitably involve conflict, and it might not be pretty.

It wasn’t appropriate for Bai Mo to show his face in matters like these.

’The docks are right there. I can just go check on them in a couple of days.’

Bai Mo thought for a moment, then said in a low voice:

"In half a month, the first batch of Pills will be shipped by water. When that time comes, Brother Lanshan, you must ensure the river is calm."

Lanshan grinned, thumping his chest with a loud THUD THUD.

"Don’t worry. Once we control the distribution of goods and lower the levy by ten percent, the people’s loyalty will be ours."

"Then we’ll register all incoming and outgoing boats and rafts. Using both soft and hard tactics, we’ll definitely stabilize the docks and focus on clearing out the troublemakers on the river..."

Among the men he’d recruited was a skilled hand who used to knock around the docks for a while. He was forced into Celestial Barrier Mountain to make a living after offending someone powerful.

Now that the original ecosystem of the docks has been shattered, not only are his old enemies gone, but even their backers have scattered to the four winds.

Just as the man was lamenting his past, Lanshan had shown up at his door.

Having settled things with Bai Mo, Lanshan drank a pot of hot tea, breaking into a heavy sweat, before striding out of the shop.

Now, the Azure Dragon River was another source of income for their Demon Hunting Team.

They could travel downstream, and even if the harvest in the mountains was poor, they would have some supplementary income.

The villages and towns along the way couldn’t consume much Demon Beast meat, but the markups were high, and some of the weirder, more exotic items were easier to sell there.

They might even be able to take on jobs protecting homes and hunting pests. All in all, the benefits were numerous, opening up many new avenues for survival.

He was already running short on men. He’d even had to pull out some of the old, weak, sick, and disabled. He might even have to set up an operation like the Beast Market himself.

This was a path Lanshan had never imagined taking.

’But I can use this momentum to expand and win people’s loyalty.’

’If I can really pull this off, I’ll control the price of Demon Beast meat and compete with the merchant guilds. I’ll be my own boss and won’t have to take crap from anyone.’

’With my brothers’ willingness to risk it all, how could the money not come rolling in?’

Lanshan left. After resting for a moment, Bai Mo also departed from the shop.

Before long, he arrived at the Beast Market.

The flow of people was still dense, and the smell wasn’t pleasant.

As Bai Mo entered, a bird-type beast happened to be taking off. The powerful gusts from its flapping wings battered the crowd, making people’s eyes sting.

Many people cursed out loud, but the disciples from Beast Taming Peak paid them no mind.

These bird-beasts were their masters, too; how could they possibly manage everything perfectly?

They couldn’t beat or scold their own Spirit Beasts, so they could only let the visiting customers suffer.

Bai Mo found Hou Mingsheng.

"Senior Brother, I’m here again."

Hou Mingsheng’s nostrils flared slightly, and the hand holding his brush paused.

"One moment."

He finished writing the letter in his hand, folded it, and set it aside.

"You’ve started working on that Pill?"

Bai Mo gave a noncommittal response.

"You can smell it, Senior Brother?"

"That thing stinks. You smell it once, you remember it for a lifetime."

Hou Mingsheng sighed.

"I just gave you the Pill yesterday, and you’re here today. I suppose you don’t have any good news."

The sect forbids bringing such Pills back. The few of them had a tacit understanding and found their own channels to secretly carry a single one with them.

They had hoped to find someone to analyze it, but it seemed hopeless now.

Bai Mo sat down and said softly,

"That Pill’s effects are tyrannical. The person who refined it has an Alchemy Skill no less profound than my own. A method to break it down will be difficult to find."

He felt a wave of emotion.

A talented person could still refine a Pill of this caliber, even in that kind of environment.

’Beyond their madness, who’s to say those Cultivators don’t have their own kind of dao heart?’

"I’ve identified one of the ingredients in this Pill. Perhaps you can start your investigation from there, Senior Brother."

Bai Mo lowered his voice.

"Senior Brother, on the battlefield, have you ever seen the corpse of someone who could still move freely despite being afflicted by a Blood Curse?"

Hou Mingsheng’s brow furrowed.

"People like that are high-ranking figures with extremely high status in the enemy camp. It’s rare for them to be intercepted and killed. Why do you ask?"

"Their corpses are one of the Pill’s ingredients."

Bai Mo said gravely.

"I’ve seen Demon Beast flesh that was heavily influenced by a Blood Curse’s corruption. The muscles and fascia were twisted and deformed."

"A Cultivator’s body would likely be the same..."

"A Pill refined from them would certainly contain a power that affects the mind, one that stirs up a person’s Heart Demon."

Hearing Bai Mo’s words, Hou Mingsheng fell silent.

"Cultivators like that are protected by others who would die for them whenever they enter or leave the battlefield. Even if one occasionally dies, their body is always snatched back."

"I always thought it was because of their extraordinary status... I never imagined this was the reason..."

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