About seventy or eighty porcelain bottles were picked over, ultimately yielding just over a dozen true Calming Pills.

    "Heartless."

    The rest of the items were mostly precious medicinal herbs and a small amount of unknown minerals.

    There was also a three-legged, two-eared lid cauldron with a dull black finish.

    The three-legged cauldron was overall flat and round, with a smooth and warm surface that looked like black pottery.

    Cloud patterns were carved around the brim of the lid while the midsection featured unknown exotic beasts, elegant in form and coherently sequenced, quite beautiful to look at.

    There was a spherical knob on the cover, which Chen Mu tried to lift by pinching it, yet he couldn''t open it.

    The black pottery cauldron was placed in the bottom drawer, next to it a thick arm primitive jade slip with dense golden characters etched into every strip of jade.

    "Mixed Element Five Qi Furnace?"

    "This is an alchemy furnace!" Chen Mu''s eyes lit up.

    "This is an education." He had never seen such a thing before.

    "Too bad my Pharmaceutical Technique level isn''t high enough," Chen Mu shook his head.

    Fifth Rank Pharmaceutical Technique was still only for refining mundane medicines.

    He couldn''t even analyze the composition and refine the technique of the simplest Fasting Pills.

    "Just keep it, I''ll definitely be able to use it later," Chen Mu thought cheerfully.

    ...

    Five days later, at Tongtian Square pier.

    Chen Mu followed Old Hao with a swollen nose and a bruised face and Shang Huan, who was equally battered, towards the Ling Boat.

    "What happened to you two?" Chen Mu asked knowingly, struggling to suppress his laughter.

    "We fell!" The two said in unison.

    Heh...

    "Look at that crowd!" Unable to withstand Chen Mu''s strange gaze, Old Hao quickly pointed to a group of people who had just disembarked and changed the subject.

    "Why do they all look so downhearted? What happened?" Chen Mu frowned slightly.

    "Pure heartache," Old Hao teased with a chuckle.

    "You also came back empty-handed the first time you went to the dojo. Your expression was even worse than theirs," Shang Huan likewise chuckled.

    "Don''t you laugh. When it''s your turn, watching a hundred White Jade Coins go down the drain, I''ll see if it pinches your heart," Old Hao said irritably.

    "Why should it? If I can earn the first hundred, I can earn the second," Shang Huan said nonchalantly.

    Old Hao suddenly fell silent.

    The chubby fellow wasn''t just boasting.

    Even a fake medicine formula had already made this fat man a fortune.

    Chen Mu gave Shang Huan a sidelong glance, this chubby guy, quite the show-off...

    "I heard a genius emerged this year, broke through to Perceptive in the dojo, cultivated Spiritual Light, and was directly admitted to the Upper Court," Shang Huan said enviously, "If only I could do the same."

    "That will never happen, not even in your dreams," Old Hao rolled his eyes, "Among the thousands of Lower Courtyard disciples, how many can be like Mo Wuzhou, Brother Mo?"

    "You know him?" Shang Huan asked, surprised.

    "You think I''ve been mingling around the Lower Courtyard for these decades for nothing?" Old Hao said proudly.

    "Mo Wuzhou?" Interest piqued, Chen Mu asked.

    The next day, after having dinner, Chen Mu, wearing a new face and a Beast Head Mask, arrived early at the Underground Market.

    However, after scouring the entire Underground Market, he didn''t find a single stall selling Nightshade Grass.

    "Has someone been bulk buying to hoard?" Chen Mu''s brows puckered slightly.

    He refrained from searching intentionally and bypassed the increasing number of stalls selling fake Calming Pills.

    Chen Mu started to purchase other materials for the Calming Pills.

    He noticed that although the increase wasn''t much, these materials were also rising in price.

    "Something doesn''t feel right."

    ...

    Three days later, Low Hill Courtyard.

    Chen Mu had prepared a large table with dishes early.

    Old Monk Hao and Shang Huan arrived as promised.

    "Brother Chen really has some impressive culinary skills!" Shang Huan exclaimed with surprise on his freshly de-swollen face: "The food in the Heavenly River Water Mansion''s Eight Delicacies Building couldn''t be better than this!"

    "Now you believe it, right." Old Hao said proudly.

    "I have a mere appetite for food, which is of no benefit to cultivation and not worth mentioning," Chen Mu said cheerfully.

    "That''s not necessarily true," Shang Huan shook his head.

    "It''s a pity you can''t leave the Lower Courtyard."

    "Otherwise, you could become a chef at the Eight Delicacies Building, which would pay better than growing Yellow Bud Rice."

    Chen Mu just smiled without saying a word.

    "Brother Chen, if you have any questions, just ask," Old Hao puffed and puffed on his pipe, with an expression that said he saw right through him.

    Chen Mu scratched his head: "It''s the rising price of Calming Pills."

    "So, you want to buy our Calming Pills?!" Shang Huan exclaimed with joy.

    Damn you!

    Your fake elixirs are the ones I gave you!

    "No, I bought some extra from the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, worried about potential issues, so I wanted to inquire about the reason," Chen Mu explained with a scratch of his head and a naive smile.

    Shang Huan''s face immediately fell with disappointment: "How much did you buy?"

    "Six bottles," Chen Mu replied with a grin.

    "Not bad at all," Old Hao chuckled: "But you''d best buy a few more."

    Chen Mu squinted, sensing that there was indeed something amiss.

    "Rumor has it that the Exotic Beasts are agitated, and some have breached the Lower Courtyard defenses."

    "The Bingchen District was mostly destroyed; all sorts of medicinal materials are in short supply."

    "Coupled with a pest infestation nearby, the price of imported medicinal herbs is sky-high."

    "So..." Old Hao shrugged, smiling.

    "I reckon the prices won''t go down for the whole year," Shang Huan said, looking at Old Hao with an excited face: "The higher the prices, the more we stand to make!"

    If I can''t produce Elixir Pills, you won''t make a damn penny!

    Chen Mu glanced at the fat man without saying a word.

    Exotic Beasts agitated? Attacking the Lower Courtyard''s Medicinal Fields?

    If the scarcity of medicinal materials continues for a year, the impact on him would be too great.