Huang Mei didn't want to be famous nor cause trouble now, so the attitude of the monks at the sales point didn't make much difference to him. After looking at each counter carefully, Huang Mei was surprised that the price of the elixirs here was still in silver.
In other words, in the economic system of this world, the currency used by both ordinary mortals and monks who have embarked on the path of cultivation is the same.
After looking around, Huang Mei also determined that the most useful elixir here for him was the most basic Huiyuan Pill, which was sold for one hundred taels of silver. This price was unacceptable to most ordinary people, but for some official families, super large families, and martial arts families, one hundred taels was not worth mentioning at all.
However, this one hundred taels is still a considerable amount for Huang Mei. It's not that Huang Mei, who has been the Demon King for so many years, doesn't have any gold and silver, but there is no place for gold and silver in Lingshan's monetary system, so he has never prepared these things. The little gold in his personal storage bag was just for fun in the past and has not been touched for a long time.
"My fellow Taoist, may I ask what the recent exchange rate between gold and silver is?" Huang Mei said this as if he were an educated person.
The monk behind the counter paused for a moment, then quickly understood what Huang Mei meant. He raised his head and thought for a few seconds, "The latest is about one tael of gold to eleven taels of silver. You should go to the bank to ask for the exact amount."
Huang Mei swept his storage bag with his spiritual sense and found that the weight of the gold was about three or four hundred kilograms. This was a huge naturally formed gold nugget that his men discovered while patrolling the mountains when he was a mountain king during the Journey to the West period. However, the purity of this gold nugget was definitely not enough and needed further refining before it could be used for currency circulation.
"Fellow Daoist, how should I pay the deposit for Huiyuan Dan, and when will the pills be delivered?" Huang Mei asked after calculating the funds he had available.
The cultivator looked Huang Mei up and down with a hint of surprise in his eyes. He couldn't see through the background of the man in front of him, and he must be a person with profound internal strength and cultivation. He didn't expect that the environment outside Mount Shu has become so good.
"The rule of Danding Pavilion is that the deposit is the full payment, and it will be guaranteed by Shushan. As for the handover of the elixir, it depends on which Taoist fellow is short of money and wants to start making a furnace to make Huiyuan Dan." The monk patiently explained to Huang Mei.
"Fellow Daoist, you should also know that none of these alchemists who make pills and take medicine want to reproduce the glory of the ancient alchemy school. They are all practicing or trying high-level pills. It has been a long time since anyone has specialized in refining Huiyuan Pills. Generally, only when the furnace explodes or the materials are excessively consumed will an alchemist open the furnace to exchange for some silver."
Hearing this, Huang Mei was a little worried. High-level elixirs were of no use to him. No matter how strong the elixirs here were, could they be compared to those in Lingshan or Heaven? What he needed was only this kind of elixir that was primarily refined and made up of spiritual materials.
Looking at Huang Mei's face, the monk continued, "If you really need this kind of elixir urgently, I suggest you negotiate with those noble families or chain banks. They are the biggest customers of Hui Yuan Dan. All the elixirs in the past were bought by them, so maybe there will be some left."
"Thanks for the reminder." Huang Mei clasped his fists. This place gave him a good first impression. It was a normal cultivation world. He had been to an extremely weird world during his training. Killing people for treasures, competing for interests, and scheming were the theme songs there. To put it bluntly, that was also called cultivation? They were just a group of beasts who could not see their own hearts and followed the crowd.
"You're welcome, fellow Daoist, this is my business card. Let's get together sometime." The monk seemed to like Huang Mei and handed him a business card made of white jade.
The above mentioned, Xie Cangxing - a disciple of Shushan.
After Huang Mei put the white jade name card away, he bowed to the other party and said, "Sorry, I haven't made a name card yet. Budaimen - Huang Mei."
"Huang Mei, what a nice name, and it's vivid and easy to remember, hahaha." After Xie Cangxing laughed heartily a few times, he took the initiative to escort Huang Mei out of Danding Pavilion. If he was not now an external disciple of Shushan and could not leave here without permission, he would definitely have a good chat with Huang Mei. This man was not at all shy, nor was he very pedantic. In addition, his cultivation must be very high, which was very much to his liking.
After bidding farewell to Xie Cangxing, Huang Mei came to the largest money house in the town. There were not many people in this money house but the land was not small, and it seemed that it was indeed quite powerful.
After a brief chat with the receptionist, Huang Mei was taken to the reception room, and the receptionist went to find the owner of the money shop. He had never seen someone like this go to the money shop to buy back Yuandan, and he didn't know how to deal with it.
The tea had just been served and Huang Mei hadn't even had a sip when the shopkeeper came over. He was very humble and took the initiative to greet him. "My fellow Taoist, I am the shopkeeper here. My last name is Qian. May I ask what your last name is?"
"No need to mention your surname is Huang." Huang Mei accompanied the shopkeeper through the process.
"Mr. Huang, this is the case. I would like to ask first, why did you come here to buy Yuandan?" asked Shopkeeper Qian.
Huang Mei was a little hesitant. He realized that he had forgotten to ask Xie Cangxing whether his recommendation method was against the rules, and whether it would have any impact on him if he told him directly. After all, he didn't know what the money shop owner wanted to do by asking this.
When the shopkeeper saw Huang Mei's hesitation, he knew that he was overthinking. "Don't get me wrong, it's just a routine question. If you don't want to say it, you don't have to."
Huang Mei took advantage of the situation and said, "That's great. Shopkeeper Qian, can you sell me some of this Hui Yuan Dan?"
Shopkeeper Qian was embarrassed. "You must have learned about Huiyuan Pills before you came here. The alchemist is unwilling to make this kind of simple pill, and we can't make it. We did buy a lot of Huiyuan Pills in the past, but you also know that this pill is meant to be used, and there are not many left now..."
Huang Mei had also thought of this situation. Danding Pavilion had no stock, and previous customers might not have extra elixirs. So he had to go to Shushan. However, from the name of the Demon Locking Tower and Huang Puying's words, it could be seen that the mainstream attitude of the immortal cultivation sects here was still unfavorable to the demon clan. If it was exposed, there might be a conflict.
Seeing that Huang Mei didn't say anything, Manager Qian didn't know what to say. This guy was not easy to get rid of, and it would not be appropriate to start a fight later.
"Well, if you really need it, I'll make the decision and sell you ten at the original price, how about that?" The ten coins that Manager Qian was talking about were his own share. Anyway, his martial arts skills were just so-so, and his family also had their own quota. He was willing to use this to send Huang Mei away. After all, those guards all thought that Huang Mei was at least a master.
"You misunderstood. I am not here to take advantage of you. I want to ask you something. Why is there no one making Hui Yuan Dan? Even if the alchemist doesn't want to practice, what about those alchemy apprentices?" Huang Mei asked in confusion. Taishang Laojun even has boys who practice alchemy, and he doesn't believe that these alchemists don't need assistants.
"That's right. Huiyuan Pills are for internal use after all. According to the rules of alchemy, internal pills for sale cannot be made by apprentices because no one knows if there will be any problems. Besides, Huiyuan Pills are simple for alchemists to make but quite difficult for apprentices. In terms of success rate and conversion rate, apprentices usually practice with simple pills such as Qingcang Pills and Jinchuang Medicine." Shopkeeper Qian gave Huang Mei some basic knowledge.
Huang Mei was overjoyed. He didn't buy the Yuandan for internal use, so it didn't matter if the apprentice made a mistake. He just hoped that someone could refine some materials so that the amount of spiritual energy converted per unit would be higher.
"Shopkeeper, may I ask if you know any alchemy apprentices? Could you introduce one or two?" Huang Mei said very seriously.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the level of alchemy apprentice was the most suitable for him. Not only was it cheap, but he might be able to use other means to exchange for silver, saving him the trouble of running around in the mountains looking for gold mines.
“This…” Shopkeeper Qian really didn’t expect Huang Mei to be so persistent. Taking elixirs internally that are substandard could lead to death!
"Don't worry, I need Huiyuan Dan not to eat. Besides, I am willing to pay one hundred taels of gold as an agency fee." Huang Mei swore quickly.
"Well, I can act as a middleman and help make the connection, but I'm not sure if the other party is willing to do so. After all, this is an illegal operation." Shopkeeper Qian said after a moment's hesitation. A hundred taels of gold is equivalent to thousands of taels of silver, and he would have to work for a whole year to get it.
"Thank you so much. Also, it would be even better if the alchemy apprentice you are looking for is willing to use my magic to offset the silver." Huang Mei said immediately.
Shopkeeper Qian, who was about to help Huang Mei contact the person, was stunned when he heard this. He turned around with a look of surprise and confusion on his face, "You plan to use magic to offset the silver?"
"Yes, a simple escape technique." Huang Mei nodded and replied. He and Maitreya Buddha also collected some simple spells when they were still weasels.
"It's still the art of escape. Our bank can help you make the contact. You can pass this art to us, or you can choose a few people to teach it to." Shopkeeper Qian suddenly became enthusiastic.
Huang Mei understood instantly that he had been wrong. It seemed that this place was still in the initial stage of the world of cultivating immortals. The characteristic of this stage was conservatism. All kinds of methods were kept strictly hidden and would never be passed on to others except to fellow disciples.
This place is not like Lingshan. Anyone can go to Lingshan to hear the Buddha preach, and all kinds of methods can be consulted. The only thing is that the number of copies that can be consulted each month is limited to prevent people from learning too much. To put it bluntly, Lingshan is not afraid of you learning a lot, but only afraid that you will not be able to learn enough. After all, the speed at which various Buddhist teachings and techniques are growing has far exceeded the learning speed of ordinary people.
"I can tell you the secret book directly, or I can help you teach one or two students first. As for the reward, I think you know what I need." Huang Mei said directly.
"Of course, of course. But could you show me a few of these escape techniques first so that I can contact my boss directly." Shopkeeper Qian looked at Huang Mei with eager eyes and said, if he could bring an escape technique to his boss, he would probably get a promotion.
“Here?” Huang Mei asked. In his impression, another characteristic of the primary stage is that the territorial consciousness is extremely strong and the belief that force is king. Moreover, this is a town, so aren’t there any regulations on the use of magic
"Of course not. Please follow me."
Shopkeeper Qian brought Huang Mei to a testing site.
"The land here is artificially reinforced, and the points set up around it are all hand-made. There are no fluctuations from any spells, and it will never interfere with the performance of your escape technique." Shopkeeper Qian said to Huang Mei.
This made Huang Mei even more confused. Could it be that these people wanted to learn the art of escape just to hurry on their way? Otherwise, what was the point of learning an escape art that was completely immune to interference
Although he was confused, Huang Mei still demonstrated the earth escape technique he had learned long time ago. This simple escape technique was so easy to use now, just like a college student solving a second grade primary school problem.
Then, Shopkeeper Qian watched Huang Mei appear and disappear, appear and disappear on the test site, flashing dozens of times in a row.
"Is everything okay?" Huang Mei returned to Shopkeeper Qian and asked him with his mouth wide open.
"Okay, okay, please wait a moment. I'll contact them right away." Shopkeeper Qian's body was shaking with excitement. It was mainly because Huang Mei's demonstration was so good and he was willing to teach two students first. In this case, as long as the installment payment clause was added, he would not lose anything.
"Don't be in a hurry, just add the interference." Huang Mei continued.
"Are you sure?" Upon hearing this, Shopkeeper Qian calmed down and asked Huang Mei.
After Huang Mei nodded, several guards, at the signal of Shopkeeper Qian, cast various small spells on the test field. Huang Mei saw that these guards were not good enough. The spells they cast were too simple. For example, a simple mud pit spell only created a mud pit with an area of one or two square meters and a depth of more than ten centimeters. It was also drying up rapidly. Is this also called a mud pit? It's not even enough for Paige and the others to jump around.
This level of interference was no different from nothing, and Huang Mei easily completed his action again.
Shopkeeper Qian began to think about why he kept emphasizing no interference. It was because some sects, out of some considerations and needs, would specially develop some simple and immature spells specifically for martial artists or those who were new to cultivating immortals. Shopkeeper Qian initially thought that Huang Mei would use this kind of spells.
But now watching Huang Mei's demonstration, this is a mature escape technique that can be directly used in actual combat. This escape technique is a very crucial method in any sect. The pie that fell from the sky today is too big, and even Shopkeeper Qian is a little afraid to eat it. It's just that if he doesn't eat it... the pie is too fragrant.
After thinking for a while, Manager Qian bowed to Huang Mei and looked at him with his eyes, "May I ask what your sect is?"
"Bag door."
Manager Qian's eyes turned, he had never heard of this before, "May I ask why your sect is willing to use this escape technique to exchange for Yuan Dan?"
Huang Mei understood now. My goodness, this was a bit too much.
"There will be no problem with this escape technique. I can swear on my sect. Besides, I really need a huge amount of Huiyuan Pills right now. Not just one or two, even one or two thousand will not be enough." Huang Mei did not intend to lie. Besides, Shopkeeper Qian was just frightened for the moment. Even if he did not explain, Shopkeeper Qian would definitely not be able to resist this huge pie in the end.
(Thanks to Nuobona for the 200.asxs.coin reward, and thanks to wufanxiang for the 100.asxs.coin reward.)