Mu Jiu arrived first. He waited for a while in Diemeng's territory, and soon he heard footsteps coming from outside.
Lin Qinghen suddenly brought Yin Jiuxiao along, and the two of them held hands as if no one was around.
After coming in, Lin Qinghen didn't look at him immediately. He had been talking to Yin Jiuxiao, as if they had been talking for a while.
The two of them spoke too quietly for Mu Jiu to hear clearly, but he didn't care. Sometimes he couldn't understand what they were saying even if he listened. They were a young couple that was recognized to be mysterious and a little crazy, and no one else could understand them.
Mu Jiu has been in a good mood recently. The first batch of spiritual plants is about to be harvested, and good things are coming to the Alchemist Association, so he is naturally excited.
The growth cycle of Amaranthus, the raw material of the Five-Star Spirit Pill, is three months. This is the first batch, and the people are planting it for the first time. In order to test the waters, a large part of them chose to plant Amaranthus, which has the shortest growth cycle.
The seven-star kind takes a little longer, about four months, which is recently. The raw materials for Peiyuan Dan and Healing Pills have to wait five or six months.
As for the Swift Wind Powder and the two-color dogwood that Lin Qinghen had just made this time, he did not share them. It was said that a large area of them was planted in the territory of the Wolf Clan.
Lin Qinghen is very smart and keeps all the good things firmly in his hands.
However, these four materials alone are enough to make a profit, and their growth time happens to progress in sequence, which also gives alchemists time to do it bit by bit without rushing.
Diemeng had already laid a solid foundation for them, and the two kinds of soul pills were selling like hot cakes.
Although the price at the Diemeng storefront has not changed, the second-hand resale price outside has skyrocketed, and everyone who sees it is jealous.
The previous hemostatic powder had already gained some fame outside. The Alchemist Association got the seeds, and sold some of them during this period, and also stockpiled a lot. They were just waiting for this opportunity to make a big batch, bundle them up and sell them outside.
The plans of all the major pharmacies in the city have been arranged. Lin Qinghen knew that today was the day to talk to Mu Jiu about this matter.
His face did not show happiness, but rather a trace of solemnity, which made Mu Jiu, who had said a few words happily, feel that something was wrong and asked: "Why did the young master call me here today?"
Lin Qinghen didn't say it directly. He lay on the windowsill and looked down.
Downstairs was Diemeng's expanded shop, with people coming and going, much more lively than a few months ago. Then he asked Mu Jiu: "President Mu, do you feel that there are many new faces in the city?"
"Isn't that what we should do?" Mu Jiu didn't think it was strange and joked, "Aren't we all here for you?"
Then Lin Qinghen turned around and glanced at him, his expression still not looking good, it didn't look like he was joking.
Mu Jiu's mood calmed down after that look. He looked downstairs carefully. After a long while, he finally saw some clues. Then he broke out in a cold sweat and lowered his voice: "Is it... someone from the Haihun City Chamber of Commerce?"
Lin Qinghen made the appointment early, and Diemeng's shop downstairs had just opened, and many people came in to grab medicine.
In the crowd, Mu Jiu watched for a long time and found that two of them bought a bottle each, then opened the lid and poured out a few pills to look at carefully, then stood at the door and talked, muttering to themselves, and kept looking around, looking quite vigilant.
The attire of these two people looks no different from that of the people from Tear City, but if you look closely you can see that they have some small items on them that cannot be concealed.
The styles of their belts, shoes and some subtle features were all of the same standard. The two did not stay at the door of Diemeng for too long and left soon after. Judging from the lightness of their steps, they were definitely spiritual masters of a high level.
"Not all the people attracted to Tear City are good people," he said, and raised his chin again, "There are also these people."
Blessings and misfortunes go hand in hand. Lin Qinghen knew that once the news got out, it would attract a lot of covetousness.
Therefore, he had already cleared the way for the wolf clan to get outside, and had never opened it. But even if there was only one way, he couldn't stop people from coming here.
People always run after profit. It's not easy to get some wool in the City of Tears. Who wouldn't want to take advantage of it
Compared to Mu Jiulai, Lin Qinghen was not surprised. After dealing with the wolf clan, he went to understand the situation around Tear City.
There are large and small mercenary groups and teams scattered outside the city. These are not a threat. Instead, they are the main targets for selling elixirs and can be turned into partners. Now, there are even many cooperation intentions formed.
The only cities that could pose a threat to the City of Tears are other nearby cities.
The closest city to Tear City is called Lingguan, which is located in front of the right side of Tear City. When Tear City was prosperous, it was an iron threshold to enter Tear City. After Tear City failed, it also declined.
The one in charge in Lingguan City is actually the Equipment Refiners Association, which is lacking in Lei City. This is mainly because there are mineral veins nearby, and Lingguan has been doing better than Lei City before Lin Qinghen came. The two sides did not interfere with each other and lived in peace for a long time. They also had frequent exchanges, sharing what they had.
A little further to the left and front of Tear City is Haihun City. In the chaotic Northern Province, Haihun is the best developed city and ranks among the top three in the Northern Province.
This is a real threat.
The most famous force in Haihun is the Haihun City Chamber of Commerce. Although it is called a "Chamber of Commerce", it seems to be a group of merchants who are powerless, but in fact, this Chamber of Commerce is much more complicated than the most famous business house in the world, Bailu Zongheng.
That is a shell created by several powerful mercenary groups in this area. Its main function is to collect money and materials. If we really compare it with others, its functions cover all the functions of the One Alliance and Three Mountains in the outside world. It really has the final say in this area.
The Haihun City Chamber of Commerce is really strong. Roughly speaking, there are more than twenty Heavenly Rank people, five of which are above Heavenly Rank five stars, and the oldest is a Heavenly Rank six star of the combat department. You can't beat them in a real fight. The gap is quite large.
However, even if the Northern Province is in chaos, the forces will not start a large-scale war to grab resources because it would consume too much resources. However, there will always be some covert and tentative actions.
For example, there are these people from the Haihun City Chamber of Commerce who have recently appeared in the City of Tears.
Mu Jiu's face was solemn, and he asked: "When did the young master find out?"
"Half a month ago," Lin Qinghen said, "You reacted too slowly. Jiuxiao knew it almost as soon as I did."
Yin Jiuxiao took over the conversation at the right time: "The head of the Yin family's guard at the city gate discovered that there were several special vehicles entering the city. They were deliberately disguised and didn't make it public. He reported it to me along the way."
"A contractor who is familiar with Diemeng told me that some people are spending money to buy the secret potion we give out for free from the people. Some people have already paid for it. It should be that there is a small portion left over from the last use. So, I guess the soil ratio is probably not a secret anymore."
Yin Jiuxiao continued, "Recently, the patrol team discovered someone sneaking around the plantation, trying to dig up the ripe fruits from the fields."
"Someone in the Tear City black market has recently bought up a large number of medicines sold by Diemeng, especially the Spiritual Soul Pills."
Lin Qinghen has now sped up the production speed. Diemeng has a purchase limit but no quantity limit. One person cannot buy too much at a time. It is enough for ordinary customers. There must be a reason for the abnormality. Then he added: "There are also people asking questions at the front desk, asking around, which is very strange."
He and Yin Jiuxiao roughly guessed all this information after playing together as a pair.
The young couple chatted with each other and their tacit understanding improved significantly. After listening to them, Mu Jiu didn't know whether he should be impressed that in just a few months, Yin Jiuxiao, this blind man, had already exerted such a strong control over the Yin family's subordinates, or he should be impressed that he had been living in this stagnant pool of Tears City for too long. He had been so excited and busy recently that he didn't even notice this.
He knew that people would come from surrounding cities, and that Lingguan and Leicheng had always kept to themselves, and had even shown an intention to reach a cooperation agreement recently.
There had been people coming from Haihun City, but they were all small-time retail investors he had seen before, and they all came to discuss cooperation in a friendly manner. As for the two people he met at the gate of Diemeng today, the style of their badges alone spoke volumes.
These are definitely not retail investors, nor are they even marginal people in Haihun City. Tears City is being seriously targeted by them. This is not cooperation, they are here for competition.
The first harvest season hasn't even arrived yet, they're moving too fast!
Aren't they all yellow-grade elixirs? Haihun is a wealthy and powerful company, so why would they bother with Leicheng
"If you don't come to grab the good stuff, is this the first day that President Mu has lived in the spirit world? Do you think they are all philanthropists?" Lin Qinghen shook his head and said, "I guess they should have discovered that the key to the raw materials lies in the potion, and the potion cannot be copied and is only in Die Meng's hands, so they haven't acted rashly for the time being."
So Lin Qinghen was not in a panic. Such key technical things were not so easy to be stolen, and the other party also knew it.
He discovered that these people had recently appeared near Diemeng and had started to get close to some people from Tear City. He estimated that their current target was to seize the newly produced batch of raw materials, and then slowly move on to other things.
According to the oath, Die Meng and the Yin family must get 60% of the harvest. However, judging by the diligence of the people of Tear City, their output is much greater than Lin Qinghen expected.
After all, it is their own land, and the extra ones are theirs. On the surface, the common people occupy one-fourth, but in reality, what they have left is more than what the Yin family and Die Meng took away, and they can account for more than half of the harvest.
Lin Qinghen was certainly not panicking. His third-floor commission and the land on the Wolf Clan's side were there, so Die Meng would be fine no matter what. So Mu Jiu couldn't help but panic.
The pharmacies under the Alchemist Association cannot compare with their gains, and the main source of materials in his plan is also the people of Tear City. This is a foregone conclusion.
"Master Lin!" Mu Jiu immediately became anxious, "You can't just ignore this matter!"
Lin Qinghen glanced at him and smiled again: "President Mu now knows to come to me for help?"
When the oath of alliance was made, an important point for the Tear City Alchemist Association to get involved was that when purchasing materials at a unified price, they needed to provide the additional service of free alchemy to the people. This was Lin Qinghen's requirement.
In reality, this is an optional condition. The people are not forced to sell the grown materials to the Tear City Alchemist Association. They can choose to sell them to Die Meng or not. It is up to them to decide whether to enjoy this "benefit".
This was decided by Mu Jiu himself. After all, at that time, providing free alchemy services according to the purchase ratio was a great thing for the people, but not very beneficial to the Alchemist Association.
Alchemists are always arrogant, and Mu Jiu was worried that his own alchemists would be too burdened to handle the situation. At that time, the Tear City Alchemist Association did not have that many people, and he also had the output of the medicine store and medicine garden under his control. When he made this oath, he still had to deal with the wolf descendants, and the Tear City was not stable.
At that time, no one knew what would happen if Lin Qinghen did this. There were many things to worry about. However, everything went smoothly and the market grew bigger and bigger.
Among all the problems, he was least worried about the people not selling at that time.
After all, as raw materials for refining medicine, these things have no other meaning except selling them to the Alchemist Association, and the Association has an absolute advantage in this regard.
Mu Jiu's foxy nature even made him want to pass on the blame. There was even a clause in the agreement between him and Lin Qinghen, which meant that if the association couldn't collect the money, Die Meng would take the responsibility. Then the shrewd Lin Qinghen agreed very readily.
How could he have known that the situation would change so quickly
So he didn't understand Lin Qinghen's meaningful smile at that time, and now this boomerang has stabbed him.