Martial Arts: My talent multiplier increased

"I'm going out for a bit. Take care of your hand injury first, and wait for news at home."

Fang Ping nodded, got up, and walked out. He turned back at the door, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping himself.

Fang Yuan remained seated at the table, raising his chin slightly.

Fang Ping closed the door.

Fang Yuan sat alone for a while.

He took out three pre-prepared sample pills from the drawer, divided them into three small bamboo tubes, and sealed them with wax. The characters "甲乙丙" were engraved on the outside of the bamboo tubes.

Grade A, with the best quality and highest purity, costs three qian of silver and is priced at two liang.

Grade B, medium quality, cost 1.5 qian, price 1.2 liang.

Grade C, the basic version, which is the standard version of the previously sold "power pills". The cost is less than one qian (a unit of weight), but the price is one liang (another unit of weight).

These three specifications weren't prepared today. He had been thinking about tiered sales for half a month, but hadn't found the right time to roll them out.

The Li family found one for him.

The news that all three channels have been blocked will spread throughout the low-end medicine market of Liangshui City tomorrow. Those low-level rogue cultivators and small family martial artists who rely on powerful pills to prolong their lives will panic, wait and see, and be angry.

But eventually, they will find a new way.

Because no one can truly monopolize the businesses of the poor.

Poor people never look at the signs when buying things; they only look at the prices.

Fang Yuan tucked the three bamboo tubes into his pocket, changed into an inconspicuous gray cloth shirt, and took off the core token and locked it in a drawer.

Before leaving, he glanced at himself in the bronze mirror.

His face, though sixteen, already showed sharp angles, with a strong jawline and deep, clear eyes. Dressed in a gray cloth shirt, he looked like an ordinary servant or apprentice.

Fang Yuan left the Grade A courtyard, bypassed the main gate of the inner courtyard, and walked out of the side gate of the Fang family mansion onto the main street of Liangshui City.

Baicaotang is located at the entrance of the third alley in the east of the city. The storefront is neither too big nor too small, a two-story wooden building. The signboard has the three characters "Baicaotang" written in regular script. The paint is peeling, indicating that it has been around for quite some time.

Fang Yuan pushed open the door and went in.

The aroma of herbs wafted through the air.

Behind the counter sat a round-faced man in his early fifties, of medium build, wearing a slightly worn blue cloth robe, holding a copper abacus in his hand, his eyelids drooping as if he were dozing off.

Manager Qian.

Fang Yuan had investigated this person's background in the "Records of Merchants in Liangshui City". Baicaotang had been open for twenty-three years, changing owners four times, but Manager Qian had stayed from beginning to end, and no matter how many owners changed, he could not be replaced. A pharmacy manager who could survive for twenty-three years among the Li family and various forces in the city was a living advertisement in himself.

Fang Yuan walked to the counter and tapped on the surface.

Manager Qian raised his eyelids slightly and glanced at him.

That glance was brief, but Fang Yuan noticed that Manager Qian's pupils contracted slightly; he recognized him.

Fang Yuan's face was not unfamiliar, as his first-place ranking in the assessment a month ago had become the talk of the town.

But Manager Qian reacted quickly. His eyelids drooped again, and his voice was languid.

"What would you like, sir?"

"Buy medicinal herbs. Three qian of astragalus and two qian of red ginseng."

Fang Yuan submitted a very ordinary order.

Manager Qian did not immediately take the medicine. He put down the copper abacus in his hand and tapped his fingers twice on the counter.

"Astragalus has gone up in price, now it's five mace to one ounce. Red ginseng has also gone up in price, now it's eight mace."

Fang Yuan remained silent.

When he came to buy it last month, the price of astragalus was 3.1 qian and red ginseng was 5 qian. The price has almost doubled in one month.

It's not that the market price has gone up, it's that the price has gone up because of selling it to him.

Manager Qian had been doing business between the Li and Fang families for over twenty years, and he knew exactly what was going on between them. The news that the Li family had targeted Fang Yuan's sales outlets spread like wildfire. Manager Qian didn't dare offend the Li family, but he also didn't want to openly refuse Fang Yuan, so he chose the most tactful approach: raising prices.

Buy it or not is up to you; I didn't say I wouldn't sell it.

Fang Yuan glanced at the shelves.

He already had a clear idea of ​​the layout of Baicaotang. The three rows of shelves on the left were for common medicinal herbs, the two rows in the middle were for processed finished products, and the glass cabinet against the wall on the right contained several rare items, which were locked.

The customer flow wasn't large, but those who came were all repeat customers. They didn't ask the price upon entering; they just gave their names and got their medicine. This shows that Manager Qian's reputation was still strong in the lower-level market of Liangshui City.

"Okay, five coins it is."

Fang Yuan took out some silver and placed it on the table.

Manager Qian was efficient this time, quickly weighing and packing the medicinal herbs, and pushing them in front of Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan took the medicine packet but did not leave immediately.

He put another item on the counter.

A black pill.

Manager Qian's hand hovered in mid-air, his movement of reaching for the abacus frozen in mid-air.

He stared at the pill for a couple of breaths, then slowly raised his head and looked at Fang Yuan.

This time, he didn't pretend to be asleep.

Fang Yuan's voice was flat: "You recognize this thing, right?"

Shopkeeper Qian didn't reach out to touch the pill. He just looked at it, then at Fang Yuan, and then looked away, focusing his gaze on the doorway, as if to make sure no one else was there.

"Young Master Fang," Manager Qian finally changed his form of address, lowering his voice slightly, "I welcome you to buy medicinal herbs from me. But this thing..."

He pointed with his chin at the black balls on the counter.

"Excuse me for being blunt, but it's not convenient for me lately."

"Where is it inconvenient?"

Manager Qian gave a wry smile.

"Young Master Fang is a smart man, why make things difficult for someone who just runs a small shop?"

Fang Yuan didn't ask any further questions. He put the pills back into his sleeve, picked up the medicine packet, and turned to leave.

He didn't say a single unnecessary word from beginning to end.

Manager Qian watched his figure disappear behind the curtain, then started turning the beads on his abacus again. The beads clicked and clattered, but he hadn't calculated a single account after a long time.

He was thinking about Fang Yuan's final action of putting away the pills.

Don't be impatient or annoyed.

I didn't come to Baicaotang with any intention of accomplishing anything today; I just came to see Qian's attitude.

In his more than fifty years of life, Manager Qian had never encountered a sixteen-year-old boy like this before.

Fang Yuan left Baicaotang and walked for a while on the streets in the east of the city.

The calculations in my mind never stopped.

Manager Qian's reaction was expected. Bai Cao Tang is not a safe place at this stage; the Li family's spies are watching, and anyone who gets close to them becomes a target.

But Manager Qian didn't rule out the possibility of a definitive answer.

"It's not very convenient lately" means it might be convenient in the future.

Let's plant this seed first.

Fang Yuan turned into a narrow alley, made two turns, and arrived at the back alley of the general merchandise area in the east of the city. He took out a bamboo tube marked "A" from his pocket, peeled off the wax seal, and handed the three pills inside to a hunchbacked old man squatting at the entrance of the alley selling straw sandals.

"At the price we agreed on before, two taels each."

The hunchbacked old man was a new informant that Fang Ping had developed a few days ago. He wasn't on the original list of the three sales points, and the Li family didn't recognize him.

Fang Yuan personally delivered the five pills from the bamboo tube labeled "B" to the wine alley behind the mercenary guild in the south of the city. There was a retired mercenary named Sun in the alley who owed Fang Ping a favor and was willing to sell them on his behalf.

The ten pills in the bamboo tube labeled "C" were transported through the underground channels outside the South Gate. It wasn't the original stall, but rather the back door of a blacksmith's shop that repaired weapons.

Three new channels, three different price points, all operating without each other's knowledge.

What Fang Yuan wanted to see wasn't sales volume, but the Li family's reaction speed.

The channel that is blocked first indicates which region the Li family has the most informants in.

The channel that can last the longest will be his main channel for the next step.

This was an act of deliberately feeding them. They were fed to the Li family so they could bite.

By the time we returned to the Class A courtyard, it was already quite dark.

Fang Ying was already asleep. Fang Lin and Meng Wan were talking quietly in the main room. When they saw Fang Yuan return, Meng Wan quickly brought out a bowl of warm pork rib soup.

Fang Yuan sat at the table drinking soup, his mind racing with calculations.

Five hundred and forty-two taels.

The target is one thousand taels.

There is a shortfall of 458 taels.

At the original rate, a net income of four hundred taels per month would have been enough in just over a month. But with the Li family's actions today, all three of their main income streams have been rendered useless, and their income will be cut in at least half in the short term.

The three newly established underground production lines are just a trial, not a proper way to ship goods, so the volume won't be high.

In other words, simply defending won't last until you reach 1,000 taels.

He needs to find a place that the Li family can't reach and scale up the business.

Fang Yuan put down the soup bowl and went into the backyard.

The night breeze was cool. The leaves of the old locust tree swayed slightly in the moonlight, casting dappled shadows on the bluestone slabs.

He stood in the center of the courtyard, his legs slightly bent, and entered a stance training position.

With the added advantage of double the natural talent for stance training, every breath in this stance training refines every inch of the body's muscles and fascia. Qi and blood circulate smoothly and calmly along a fixed path.

They stood there for about half an incense stick's time.

Fang Yuan's shoulders suddenly tensed.

It wasn't because of the power exerted by the stance training, but because he sensed a wisp of energy fluctuation that didn't belong to this courtyard.

opposite.

To the east of the Grade A courtyard, across a wide alley, lies the rooftop of another row of courtyards. A faint, restrained fluctuation of qi and blood emanates from that direction, but it cannot escape the perception of a mid-stage Body Refinement Realm cultivator.

Late stage of the Flesh Refining Realm.

They were at the same level as the two gray-robed guards Fang Ping had described.

Fang Yuan did not look up.

His gaze remained fixed straight ahead, his stance unchanged. His breathing, heartbeat, and blood circulation continued as normal.

The other party is spying on us.

I wasn't just passing by; I was staking out the place.

Fang Yuan could sense that the fluctuation of qi and blood lingered on the roof ridge for a long time, at least several dozen breaths. This level of covert surveillance couldn't have been done by someone from the Fang family. He sensed the qi and blood of the Fang family's guards every day and knew them by heart.