Daqian Night Emperor

Chapter 9: Refining Human Pills

"what is this?"

When Zhao Qian'an opened the wooden box, Chou Nu came over curiously and looked down to see that the box was filled with some white powder of varying sizes.

Zhao Qi'an replied, "There is an alchemy furnace in Yuzhen's bedroom these days, and this is the residue in the furnace."

“Medicine residue?”

The ugly slave was a little surprised, but when he thought about it, wasn't the princess's lover a female Taoist?
It makes sense that Taoists can make elixirs.

"What kind of elixir did you make? Why did you pay so much attention to it?"

As she spoke, she dipped her little finger into the rosewood box to get a little powder and put it into her mouth.

Just a light touch of the tongue, the ugly slave's face changed immediately, and he kept spitting and spitting, saying unhappily: "Human bones?! Ugh..."

She hurriedly went to the teapot on the table, without even having time to get a cup, and drank directly from the spout of the pot. After rinsing her mouth, she spit on the ground.

I repeated this several times, but I still couldn't stop retching.

Zhao Qi'an looked at her in surprise. He didn't expect that this guy had such a sensitive tongue that he could taste what the residue was.

The ugly slave stopped talking after a long while, with a dark face, and said disgustedly: "What kind of bullshit elixir are you refining? You have to use human bones to make the elixir?"

"It's not human bones." Zhao Qianan picked up a handful of powder residue from the box, watched it fall back into the box through his fingers, and corrected the ugly slave's statement, "It's a living person."

Using living people to make elixirs, using other people's methods to make up for one's own deficiencies...

This is the elixir for refining human body.

Yu Zhen couldn't possibly understand this kind of evil magic. It must have been brought by the little Taoist girl beside her.

But Baiyun Temple has been passed down in the capital for thousands of years and is very popular. Many dignitaries and even royal relatives would go to worship. There are also "real people" certified by the court in the temple. They hold official titles, so how could they possibly hide such evil practices?

The capital city is under the feet of the emperor, and there is the Astronomical Observatory. If Baiyun Temple is really an evil temple that harbors filth and corruption, how could it have been passed down for thousands of years without being discovered?

And Ling Yunzi...

Zhao Qi'an glanced at the little Taoist boy who was sipping porridge.

When this little Taoist boy was discovered by Chou Nu, he was wearing the Taoist robe of Baiyun Temple.

"It seems that we need to investigate this Baiyun Temple carefully."

……

"Master, you really don't need me to follow you?"

"No need, you stay at home and look after the child."

After breakfast, the deaf-mute old servant brought the carriage and waited for Zhao Qian'an at the back door.

Zhao Qi'an got on the carriage, opened the curtain after entering the carriage, and said to the ugly slave: "You don't have to save food for me at noon. I will eat outside at noon."

"Eh."

After the ugly slave responded, Zhao Qi'an lowered the curtain.

The deaf-mute old servant flicked the whip, and with a soft "snap" sound, the horse neighed and slowly stepped forward.

The place Zhao Qi'an was going to was the Zhao Trading Company in the capital.

The Zhao family made their fortune overseas and accumulated a base through trade with various overseas tribes. Now their business is growing bigger and bigger. They not only collect huge amounts of rare treasures from overseas and transport them to Daqian Kingdom, but also purchase various porcelain, tea, wine, silk and other items from Daqian Kingdom and sell them to overseas barbarians. Now there are shops of the Zhao Company in almost every city in Daqian Kingdom.

Kyoto was no exception, and the Zhao's Trading Company in Kyoto was the largest. It even bought an entire piece of land at the west dock of the city. It demolished all the mud houses that were originally home to a group of "poor people" who carried bags at the dock, and built a prosperous commercial market.

From grain and rice shops to jewelry stores, to restaurants, brothels, gambling houses... everything from eating, drinking and having fun is available, and the owners behind these shops are all Zhao's business. The original commercial center of Kyoto was in the East City District of the outer city. Since Zhao's business settled in Kyoto ten years ago, the commercial center has gradually moved towards the West City.

Today, the annual tax paid by the Zhao's Trading Company in West City alone is comparable to the annual tax of half a state in Daqian Kingdom, and the entire territory of Daqian Kingdom only consists of nine states.

It was such a den of vengeance that the huge amount of money earned every year did not pass through the Donghai Zhao family, but most of it went into Zhao Qi'an's own pocket.

People think that the eldest son of the Zhao family came to Kyoto to be a royal consort in order to appease the current emperor and to serve as a hostage.

But in fact, he came to Kyoto to take charge of the central government and preside over all the Zhao family's businesses, big and small, in Daqian.

The Duke of Donghai of the Zhao family went on an overseas expedition.

And he, Viscount Haiqing, is the only person in charge of the Zhao family in the inland of Daqian!

……

The carriage stopped outside Zhao’s business, and Zhao Qinan got off the carriage.

Horse-drawn carriages are not allowed to pass through the market town. This rule was set by Zhao Qi'an himself, and Zhao Qi'an had no intention of making an exception for himself.

As soon as he got off the carriage, someone came to greet him quickly at the gate of the market.

He was a young man dressed like a scholar. The school uniform he wore looked old and faded, but it was washed very clean.

"What do you want to buy? Do you need a queuing service?"

He smiled and bowed to Zhao Qi'an, then asked politely.

As soon as the scholar approached, the deaf-mute old servant in the carriage straightened up and looked at him with eyes like an eagle.

But soon, his face became numb again and he turned his gaze back.

Zhao Qi'an looked at the familiar scholar with doubt and asked, "Substitute?"

"Your Excellency has not been here for a long time, has it?" The scholar pointed to the direction of the interior of the business and explained, "This Zhao's Business is not what it used to be. It is now very famous, and there is an endless stream of people coming here every day to have fun. Some popular shops have long queues during the day, which can easily take an hour or two. Your Excellencies are all busy with their work, so how can they waste their time on this?"

"So if there is a store you want to go to and you have to queue up, and I happen to have a number plate in front of me, you can go straight into the store without waiting, saving you time, and I will also honor you by asking for a meal from you."

cattle?

Zhao Qi'an never thought that his market would be so prosperous that there would even be scalpers.

He asked, "What store has this license plate?"

The scholar smiled shyly, "Not all stores have them. I don't have many brothers under me, so I can't line up many stores at once, but most of them are the most popular stores. But you don't have to worry. Even if I don't have the number plate for the store you want to go to, I can get it from other 'number bosses', but... it costs extra money."

I thought they were colluding with the store to sell license plates, but I didn’t expect it was just a very primitive way of queuing for others?
Just as the two were talking, a man wearing an armband was standing next to Zhao Qi'an's carriage, pulling the reins.

The scholar looked over there and explained with a smile, "Don't worry, the people from the market are taking your carriage to the 'parking lot'... Oh, it's the place on the east side of the market that is specially designated for carriages to park. I don't know who gave it this name, but it's quite appropriate."

Zhao Qi'an said: "It was started by the owner behind this business."

"No wonder he can do such a big business, he has a good brain. The parking fee is fifty cents per hour."

There was admiration in the scholar's eyes.

Zhao Qi'an said, "I came to this shop just to browse around. I don't have any specific store to visit."

The scholar was not annoyed and asked enthusiastically, "Does the nobleman need a guide?"

Zhao Qi'an was about to refuse.

But when he saw the scholar's panel, he immediately changed his mind and said, "Okay, lead the way."

(End of this chapter)