The yellow silk embargo notice nailed to the post across from the Hundred-Herb Clinic flapped loudly in the cold December wind.
Around the doorway, the fifty townsfolk who had been cheering seconds ago fell into an uneasy hush.
Everyone in Frost-Pine Town knew that the Four Wholesale Herb Guilds on North Market Street were controlled behind the scenes by Second Elder Gu Ba’s brothers-in-law. If all four wholesalers refused to sell so much. A stalk of dried blood-grass or winter licorice to Qin Wan’er, even a Rank 2 Alchemist wouldn’t be able to brew a single pot of medicine once her current drawers ran dry!
“You shameless dogs!” Blacksmith Zhao spat into the slush, glaring at Steward Gu Quan and Apothecary Wang. “When Doctor Qin’s late father was alive, he cured half of Frost-Pine Town during the winter fever for free!
Now that you couldn’t steal her Jade-Dew Pill Recipe with poison, you’re cutting off her herb supply?!”
“Watch your tongue, Blacksmith Zhao!” Steward Gu Quan sneered, folding his hands inside his fox-fur sleeves as eight Second Branch bailiffs formed a wall with their wooden staves. “Free commerce is the law of the land!
The four wholesale houses simply decided to reserve their winter stock for reputable pharmacies instead of a rundown alley shack.
Who says that’s illegal?”
Inside the clinic, Qin Wan’er’s knuckles tightened around her brass pestle.
She turned toward her wooden medicine cabinets along the eastern wall and pulled open three drawers in a row.
Because the Second Branch’s debt-collectors had smashed her front shelves half an hour ago and spilled jars of lamp oil and dirty water across her dried roots. Less than twenty catties of usable herbs remained in the entire shop.
“Only enough blood-fern and spirit-moss for thirty bottles of medicine,” Qin Wan’er murmured, her face paling slightly despite her recent breakthrough. “And the winter snow has already sealed the mountain passes until spring...”
Standing beside her, Gu Changsheng didn’t look worried in the slightest.
Instead, as he felt a familiar warm vibration against his chest, he casually slipped one hand into his coat and glanced down at the newly updated page of [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook]:.
[ DAD’S PLOT-SPOILER NOTEBOOK — FOREKNOWLEDGE DECAY ALERT! ]
* Plot Node : The Alchemist Guild License Inspection.
* Decay Shift : Accelerated by 2 Months! (Arriving Now!)
* Cause of Shift : Qin Wan’er broke through to Rank 2 Early instead.
of being poisoned by Lin Fan! Terrified of her new.
status, Second Elder Gu Ba spent 500 silver from.
his emergency chest to bribe Inspector Ma of the.
Prefecture Alchemist Guild (currently visiting.
Frost-Pine Town) to revoke her license today!
Five hundred silver to bribe a visiting guild inspector? Gu Changsheng raised an eyebrow and smiled faintly. *Old Gu Ba really doesn’t learn his lesson.
Yesterday he paid me five hundred silver for my gate, and today he’s begging to hand me his Central Street Pill Hall on a silver platter.*
Before Qin Wan’er could figure out how to gather herbs in the snow, the sound of trotting horse hooves and jingling bronze bells echoed from the end of Willow-West Street.
“Make way! Clear the street for Inspector Ma of the Azure-Cloud Prefecture Alchemist Guild!”
Ten burly guild guards in dark-green embroidered robes marched down the cobblestones in two neat rows, pushing the vegetable carts aside to clear a path for a four-horse sedan chair draped in scarlet velvet.
Right beside the sedan chair trotted Second Elder Gu Ba—with a thick cotton pad stuffed inside his swollen left cheek. Gu Changsheng had whipped out four of his molars yesterday—and a pale, hollow-eyed Lin Fan. Who had changed into a grey scholar’s coat after ruining his white silk robes in the alley snow.
The sedan chair stopped directly in front of the Hundred-Herb Clinic.
Out stepped a portly, forty-year-old man with a waxed mustache, wearing the silver-Badged green robe of a Prefecture Alchemist Guild Inspector and radiating the unmistakable aura of a Rank 2 Early Martial cultivator.
It was Inspector Ma!
Holding a gilded ivory clipboard in one hand and a fat jade snuff bottle in the other, Inspector Ma didn’t even look at the broken porcelain jars on the clinic porch. He marched straight up the steps, pointed his ivory clipboard at Qin Wan’er’s nose, and spoke in a loud, pompous voice:.
“Are you Qin Wan’er, current proprietor of the Hundred-Herb Clinic?”
Even though Qin Wan’er had just broken through to Rank 2 Early herself, she still followed proper alchemist etiquette and cupped her hands respectfully.
“Junior Alchemist Qin Wan’er greets Inspector Ma,” she said clearly. “The annual guild license inspection isn’t scheduled until the second month of spring. Why has Inspector Ma come to my humble clinic in the middle of December?”
“Hmph! Because the Guild received an urgent report of severe stock negligence!”
Inspector Ma flicked his sleeve and strode behind her counter without permission, pulling open the empty, smashed drawers that the Second Branch thugs had ruined less than an hour ago.
“Just as reported! Look at these empty cabinets and broken jars!” Inspector Ma tapped his ivory clipboard loudly with a fingernail.
“By Azure-Cloud Prefecture Alchemist Guild Law Nine, any registered pharmacy that fails an emergency readiness audit—specifically, any clinic that cannot present five hundred sealed bottles of Grade-One Blood-Healing Medicine.
Noon tomorrow—shall have its pharmacy license revoked immediately. Its premises auctioned to the nearest qualified Pill Hall to prevent a town medicine shortage!”
Outside the doorway, Second Elder Gu Ba let out a muffled, toothless laugh through his swollen cheek, while Lin Fan stared at Gu Changsheng and Qin Wan’er with venomous triumph in his bloodshot eyes.
Break through to Rank 2 all you want, Qin Wan’er! Lin Fan sneered inwardly. *With every herb wholesaler in town blocking you and less than thirty bottles of herbs left in your drawers.
Not even a Golden Core Pill Sovereign could conjure five hundred bottles of Grade-One medicine out of thin air by tomorrow noon!*
Inside the clinic, Qin Wan’er’s face turned crimson with anger.
“Inspector Ma! Those shelves were smashed less than an hour ago by Second Elder Gu Ba’s own bailiffs. He just nailed a town-wide herb embargo to the post outside!”
Qin Wan’er protested sharply, pointing at the yellow silk notice across the street.
“Demanding five hundred bottles of Grade-One medicine in twenty-four hours while blocking all raw herbs in town is blatant entrapment!”
“Entrapment? Watch your mouth, girl!” Inspector Ma slammed his ivory clipboard onto the walnut counter, releasing a wave of Rank 2 Early martial pressure to intimidate the crowd.
“The Alchemist Guild only looks at finished medicine, not street gossip!
Either you place five hundred doses of Grade-One Blood-Healing Medicine on this counter at noon tomorrow for my personal testing. Or my guards will tear down your father’s sign and transfer this building to Second Elder Gu Ba’s Pill Hall!”
Outside the window, Blacksmith Zhao and the neighbors clenched their fists in fury. Everyone could see that Inspector Ma’s pockets were bulging with Second Elder Gu Ba’s silver. Against an official from the Prefecture Guild backed by ten Rank 1 Peak guards, ordinary townsfolk didn’t dare raise a hand.
Qin Wan’er bit her lip so hard her knuckles trembled.
She had just cured her three-year lung injury and reached Rank 2, only to watch her late father’s clinic get cornered by a corrupt bureaucrat’s impossible deadline!
Just as Inspector Ma dipped a brush in red ink and shoved the official inspection notice toward Qin Wan’er’s trembling hand. However, a broad, warm palm reached across the walnut counter and took the brush right out of Inspector Ma’s fingers.
“Only five hundred doses of Grade-One Blood-Healing Medicine by tomorrow noon?”
Gu Changsheng looked at the parchment with an easy, neighborly smile, as if Inspector Ma had just asked for five bowls of hot noodle soup.
“Brother Gu, don’t sign that!” Qin Wan’er whispered urgently, grabbing Gu Changsheng’s sleeve. “Every herb shop in Frost-Pine Town is locked down by their embargo!
Even if my furnace burned nonstop until tomorrow noon, you can’t make Grade-One medicine without raw herbs!”
“Don’t worry, Auntie Qin,” eight-year-old Gu Nian piped up from beside the counter, patting her hand reassuringly while his yellow bunny slippers squeaked on the tiles. “When Dad smiles like that, it means the bad guys are about to lose their pants again.”
Out on the doorstep, Second Elder Gu Ba and Lin Fan both flinched instinctively at the words lose their pants.
Inspector Ma, however, didn’t know Gu Changsheng’s reputation. Seeing a twenty-eight-year-old Third Branch head holding the brush, Inspector Ma curled his waxed mustache in disdain.
“And who are you to touch a Guild document?” Inspector Ma sneered.
“Gu Changsheng, senior partner and chief investor of the newly merged Gu Family Peace Pharmacy,” Gu Changsheng said smoothly, tapping the walnut counter. “Since Sister Wan’er and our Third Branch have pooled our family assets today, I have full authority to sign this readiness audit on behalf of the clinic.”
Gu Changsheng spun the bamboo brush between his fingers. Instead of signing the bottom line right away, he wrote three bold, clear lines of additional text across the center of the official guild contract:.
“However, Inspector Ma, an official guild audit ought to carry fair stakes on both sides,” Gu Changsheng said aloud, his voice carrying clearly to Blacksmith Zhao, Widow Zhang. The eighty townsfolk now gathered in the lane. “If our clinic fails to produce five hundred doses of Grade-One or higher Blood-Healing Medicine by tomorrow noon, we forfeit the Hundred-Herb Clinic without complaint.”
Gu Changsheng pointed the tip of the brush straight at Second Elder Gu Ba and Inspector Ma.
“Conversely, if our clinic presents five hundred doses of genuine. Flaw-free Grade-One Blood-Healing Medicine at noon tomorrow—and proves that the Second Branch filed a false malicious report—then Second Elder Gu Ba’s Central Street Pill Hall. Along with all its herb warehouses and three hundred silver in falsely accused audit damages from Inspector Ma, shall be transferred immediately to the Gu Family Peace Pharmacy!”
“What?!” Second Elder Gu Ba’s one remaining front molar nearly fell out of his mouth. “My Central Street Pill Hall is worth three thousand silver taels!”
Beside Gu Ba, however, Lin Fan grabbed his uncle’s sleeve and whispered frantically in his ear:.
“Sign it, Uncle! He’s bluffing to try to scare Inspector Ma into backing down! Think about it—we control all four herb wholesalers, the city gates are watched by our bailiffs, and the mountains are buried under six feet of snow!
Even if Gu Changsheng boiled his own boots, he can’t produce five hundred bottles of Grade-One Blood-Healing Medicine without raw herbs!”
Inspector Ma’s greedy little eyes also lit up. If he forced Gu Changsheng to sign this mutual wager, nobody at the Prefecture Guild could ever accuse him of bullying a Rank 2 Alchemist—because Gu Changsheng had volunteered the clinic himself!
“Haha! Fifty witnesses on Willow-West Street heard every word!” Inspector Ma snatched the contract back and slammed his official bronze Guild Seal onto the red ink before Gu Changsheng could change his mind.
“Second Elder Gu, press your thumbprint right here!
Tomorrow at noon, we’ll see how this loudmouth conjures five hundred doses of medicine out of empty drawers!”
Second Elder Gu Ba grinned wickedly and stamped his thumbprint onto the parchment, followed by Gu Changsheng’s clean, steady signature and Grandpa Fu’s witness mark.
[ DING! COUNTER-PLOT WAGER LOCKED IN! ]
* Wager Objective: Produce 500+ doses of Grade-1+ Blood-Healing.
Medicine before tomorrow 12:00 PM!
* Victory Spoils : Second Branch Central Street Pill Hall + Herb.
Warehouses + 300 Silver Audit Damages!
* Immediate DP : +100 DP Bold Dad Bonus (Balance: 760 DP)
* Daily Income : +750 DP/day -> +850 DP/day!
“Twenty-four hours, Gu Changsheng!” Lin Fan laughed coldly from the steps as Inspector Ma climbed back into his scarlet sedan chair. “Enjoy sweeping this clinic today—because tomorrow at noon, you and Qin Wan’er will be out in the snow!”