“How much is everything?”

“T-That will be 500,000 raw spirit stones, sir.”

“Will 500 refined stones do?”

“O-Of course, sir! You can pay with the refined stones!”

After Cao Mao had left the Ma Clan’s resident, he went straight to the local market and bought all the cheap plants, leaves, flowers, and everything that he could use as pill ingredients. He also ordered spiritual food, which could be potentially brewed into spirit whiskey or modern liquor with spiritual power, such as Yang Barley, Sun Grapes, and Blood Sugarcanes.

Predicting that Ma Moxi would start a business soon, Cao Mao snatched all cheap ingredients, sabotaging the protagonist’s future.

Currently, Cao Mao was at the largest herb market in the central business district of Xuan City. As this place was one of the Qiang Clan’s main businesses, this shop contained a wide variety of medicinal herbs, rare plants, and exotic food ingredients.

Aside from this store, other herb shops had already closed down as the Qiang Clan either destroyed them or took over their businesses. This place was one of the two places that could legally distribute medicinal herbs.

Yet, a hundred giant crates of basic herbs were gathered at the center of the market to deliver to the biggest customer today. A total of 50 tons of various herbs and rare ingredients belonged to Cao Mao now.

“Do you have a spatial ring for sale? My rings are full at the moment.”

“W-We don’t have one, but we can provide spatial rings for you for free.”

“Ah, that’s very nice of you.”

“Hehe, you’re welcome, great sir!”

After taking everything, Cao Mao left the Qiang Clan’s store. However, as he had left a good impression with the clansmen of the Qiang Clan. The store clerks immediately reported to their bosses. Soon, Qiang Han learned what had happened.

While Cao Mao was walking on the street, one of the shop clerks rushed to him and bowed, “S-Sir. Our city lord wishes to invite you to discuss businesses.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m quite busy at the moment. I need to buy some more stuff.”

Since meeting with a major antagonist while carrying a lot of money and goodies wasn’t a good idea, Cao Mao declined the invitation. Instead of meeting the city lord, he asked the clerk.

“Say, is there an auction house nearby?”

“Y-Yes. There is one. It’s run by the Tang Merchant Guild, though.”

“Oh, a merchant guild?”

Cao Mao might have a friendly smile on his face, but his heart sank to his feet. The existence of a merchant association or a guild might give Ma Moxi a way to make money, which would make the Ma Clan stronger.

Such a merchant guild should not exist. Even if it existed, Cao Mao couldn’t afford to let them be Ma Moxi’s ally.

Because of the guild’s potential threat, Cao Mao now had a reason to meet this city lord.

“I change my mind. Can you take me to your lord?”

“O-Of course! Right away, sir!”

For the sake of ruining Ma Moxi, Cao Mao returned to the city hall to meet with Qiang Han again.

.

“Welcome back, young master Mao. I’ve heard about your recent business deals. I must say, thank you for your patronage.”

At the throne room in the city hall, Cao Mao faced Qiang Han and the elders of the Qiang Clan again.

This time, Cao Mao didn’t have to kneel and show his utmost respect since Qiang Han prepared a seat for him. He got to sit at the center of the throne room, having a staring contest with the city lord, who was sitting on the throne.

“No, I must thank you instead. With so many herbs, my master will be pleased. He can concoct more pills, and we can have more products to sell and raise our war fund.”

“Ah, so your master can make pills. Would you mind telling us what kind of pills is your master planning to make?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not well-versed in alchemy. I’m only an errand boy.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

Cao Mao referred to a master alchemist to intimidate Qiang Han not to take silly actions against him. As an antagonist might betray Cao Mao at any moment when they got too greedy, he took an initiative to bluff this villain lord, stopping him from doing something stupid.

Unbeknownst to Cao Mao, Qiang Han had never planned to rob Cao Mao. The former was sincerely trying to get to know Cao Mao so that he could get more business deals. Instead of robbing him and making more enemies, he would rather make friends and get a business partner. There was no way that a city lord would harm a potential business partner, who could import expensive aphrodisiac pills to their city.

“Well, you seem to collect a lot of herbs and various food supplies. Do you need any specific herb, food ingredient, spirit plants, spirit vegetable, or other supplies? I’m just asking since you seem to buy a lot. It will be easier if you ask me directly, so I can prepare it for you, and you can get it cheaper than the market.”

Qiang Han was good at businesses. He came up with this upsell scheme when he heard that Cao Mao had a deep pocket.

“Oh, sure. Are you planning to import herbs and other items from other cities?”

“Of course. If we lack something, we can get it from other cities.”

Cao Mao clenched his fist in delighted. If he could hoard all herbs and cheap pill ingredients from all nearby cities, Ma Moxi and the rumored merchant guild might suffer from the product shortage.

Thus, Cao Mao asked for a pen and a scroll to list the pill ingredients and potential modern liquor ingredients. Then, he passed it to Qiang Han.

“I’ll buy everything you have on the list.”

Qiang Han read the scroll with widened eyes. The herbs and items were easy to procure. Because of the shortage of alchemists in their territories, these low-level herbs were overstocked and no one wanted to buy them.

If Qiang Han could turn them into cash, he could profit a lot from this deal. However, he was concerned about Cao Mao’s fund.

“It depends on your investment fund. How many catties do you need?”

A catty was a measurement system in this world. One catty was equal to 500 grams.

“For a starter, I want 200,000 catties, each.”

200,000 catties were 100 tons in weight.

Qiang Han’s jaw dropped in shock. The elders in the hall also stared at Cao Mao with a dumbstruck expression.

‘Wow, he’s stupid. What is he going to do with those useless trashes?’

‘His master may be an alchemist, but he’s alone. Those ingredients will rot if it’s not used within a few months. Can one alchemist use them all?’

These elders had the same thought. Although they were happy that Cao Mao was buying a lot, they couldn’t understand why he wanted to overstock and risk spoiling the products.

“I don’t think we have that many, but I’ll try to meet up with your expectation. I’ll bill you when I know how many catties I can gather from all our affiliated cities.”

“Ah, if possible, could you buy everything in the list from other merchant guilds or other trade organizations? I need them, a lot of them.”

Qiang Han squinted his eyes. He doubted if Cao Mao really wanted to do a proper business since buying from a middle-man organization might increase the cost of ingredients.

“Are you sure? It can be more expensive than buying it from my store.”

“I’m sure,” Cao Mao laughed. “I want everything to disappear from the markets, including the black markets! I don’t want to see one of these ingredients anywhere for a year!”

“Oho. That’s interesting.”

Qiang Han misunderstood what Cao Mao was trying to do. He thought of an uncommon business scheme, which no sane merchant practiced.

Hoarding, monopolizing, and cornering the market!

By hoarding a certain product and decreasing its supply volume, the product price would skyrocket for a short period before more supplies could replenish the local market. This tactic usually ended in failure since other rival merchants or potential customers could simply ban the hoarding merchant, resulting in the products rotting in warehouses without a buyer.

Once Qiang Han predicted that Cao Mao would make a loss in this deal, he tried to take advantage of the situation, planning to gain some profits from this naïve businessman.

“I estimate that the herbs from our clan will cost you about 5,000 refined stones. However, if you wish for us to empty the stores of other organizations, the herbs will be a bit more expensive. We’ll charge you 100 refined stones per 20,000 catties since we have to include transportation fees and the handling fees. Is that alright?”

Cao Mao shrugged, “It saves me time. Please do.”

“Very well. I shall draft the contract,” Qiang Han grinned. He thought that he successfully tricked Cao Mao into wasting more money.

“Oh, by the way, is there an auction house or is there an auction event in this city or a nearby city?”

Cao Mao got to the main point, which was the purpose of him coming here – Gathering information about any potential auction event.

Even though Cao Mao could hoard most of the potential rare pills ingredients, he could not stop Ma Moxi from gathering natural herbs from the wild. In the end, the protagonist would get enough ingredients to make pills eventually.

The most important part of crippling Ma Moxi’s income was to sabotage the auction event. Cao Mao didn’t need to physically stop the auction, but he could decrease the wealth of auction participants by joining the seller’s side.

Good items came out late in auctions since they were the main attraction. Most protagonists who sold something in this event got to see their items showing up last.

This type of plotline had its flaws.

Cao Mao was thinking if he could drain the cash of most participants in the auction, Ma Moxi would get less money from his items. Thus, he wanted to sell as many items as possible, and he had more than enough time for the preparation.

“We do. Next month, the Tang Merchant Guild will hold an annual auction event. It’s a big event, though. Most major families join this event every year, and I think there might be some outsiders this year.”

“Oh? Why?”

Qiang Han puffed his chest and laughed, “My brother has a fortuitous encounter! He found an ancient mural piece that contains the secret of time and space! Well, we have already copied the content, so we’re planning to put it in the auction! I’m sure many greedy experts will pay an arm and a leg for this mural!”

Cao Mao’s heart almost stopped beating. His jaw dropped, and his eyes widened in shock.

‘Another piece!? Wait… SHIT, DO I HAVE TO AUCTION FOR IT!?’