Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Black Market Alchemist

“Of course they do,” Lin Dao said with a slight nod. “Some people, for various reasons, cannot conveniently purchase pills through regular channels, so they can only come to the black market.”

“Oh, oh…” Rong Shu now understood why he had brought her here. “So senior brother brought me to the black market to make me a hired alchemist here?”

“Yes,” Lin Dao said. “You will not need to trouble yourself gathering herbs, you can refine nonstop to increase your proficiency, and you earn some Spirit Stones besides. No matter how you look at it, you are not losing out.”

He added one more reminder: “But keep one thing in mind. Do not be too ostentatious.”

“Understood, senior brother.”

After that, Lin Dao outlined the rules of the black market.

Fighting is forbidden within the market. If discovered, you will be expelled and barred for life. That said, it is only a surface restriction. The black market is a mixed bag. If your skill is inferior and someone eliminates you in the shadows, then it is your fate.

Also, once you leave the black market, whatever happens is not the market’s responsibility.

Lin Dao took Rong Shu into a shop and bought a palm-sized little mirror.

“This is the black market’s standard communicator, a Nine Palace Mirror. Take it. If anything happens, notify me at once.”

He had one as well. Once the two mirrors linked their auras, they could contact each other at any time.

“Senior brother, do you have business to attend to?” Rong Shu asked, slightly startled by his tone.

Lin Dao nodded: “I have some matters to handle in the black market. Stroll as you like. As long as you do not wander into secluded places, there will be no great danger.”

“Mm-hmm,” Rong Shu said.

Thinking of how Rong Shu’s cultivation was only at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, Lin Dao, though he knew he could not smother the young lady’s growth, still could not set his heart at ease. “I imprinted several strands of sword qi into the Nine Palace Mirror. If there is danger, just flash the mirror.”

“And this defensive formation, carry it on you at all times. It can automatically withstand the full-force strike of any cultivator below the Void Refinement Stage. It will be enough to give you time to notify me through the Nine Palace Mirror.”

“This is a bottle of Seventh Grade Swift Stride Pill. If anything feels wrong, use it to escape.”

Caught off guard, Rong Shu suddenly found both hands full, one clasping a Formation Disc and the other a bottle of pills.

Seeing that Lin Dao still looked uneasy, Rong Shu hurried to say: “Senior brother, this is enough. I’m here to refine pills, not to start feuds or fights.”

“All right then. Be cautious. If anything happens, notify me immediately.”

“Okay!”

Only after watching her tuck the Nine Palace Mirror, Formation Disc, and pills close to her body did Lin Dao finally leave.

Once he was gone, Rong Shu began her own exploration of the black market.

She did not rush to set up and refine immediately. She first investigated the general pill yields of hired alchemists in the market.

You never know until you ask. What she learned was startling.

More than half of the so-called alchemists were basically swindlers.

Whether the swindler escaped successfully or got caught later and beaten senseless by the employer was another matter.

Of the remaining half who truly refined pills, at least two or three in ten would quietly skim off a portion of the batch.

Overall, for hired alchemists in the black market, a single furnace usually produced four to six pills.

Then the employer still had to split the batch evenly with the alchemist. In the end, the pills that actually reached the employer’s hands might be only two or three.

Of course, that was only the overall average. A small number of alchemists achieved around eight pills per furnace.

Once she understood the landscape, Rong Shu had a plan. She herself could control yields between four and eight.

Publicly, she could not be too eye-catching nor smash her own signboard. Displaying a yield of six to eight pills should suffice.

If the yield exceeded that, she could only skim the extras.

Next, she rented a room in the black market dedicated to pill refinement, as well as a stall space for herself.

The total cost was three thousand Spirit Stones, the rent for half a month.

But that much in Spirit Stones could be earned back with just a few days of refining.

With everything in place, Rong Shu opened for her first day of business.

Before setting out her stall, she took a First Grade pill that could make her voice hoarse.

It was not as good as the Seventh Grade Voice Changing Pill her senior brother Lin Dao had given her before, which could change the voice to any register at will, but it was at least a passable disguise.

At the front of her stall, she set up a placard that read:

“Second Grade alchemist
Second Grade pill success rate: 40 percent
First Grade pill success rate: 80 percent
Pills per batch: 4 to 8
Pay in full upfront, delivery upon completion, no after-sales”

Alchemists in the black market were a brazen lot, but the cultivators here had never seen one this brazen. It was as if the word arrogance were carved across her forehead.

Even so, the black market was different from ordinary markets outside. The appearance of a new alchemist this audacious immediately drew attention.

After two hours, the first person willing to test the waters finally stepped forward.

Rong Shu gauged his build. It was a man.

He spoke directly: “I want to place an order.”

“All right,” Rong Shu said, handing him a wooden token engraved with the numeral 1. The reverse side bore the address and room number of her pill-refining room.

These tokens were little tools provided with the refining room rental.

“How many batches?” she asked.

“Four batches.”

Since four batches were not much, Rong Shu said: “Come by the refining room this afternoon to pay in full. Pick up tomorrow morning.”

With people coming and going, it was not suitable to have customers declare openly what pills they wanted. By the black market’s rules, customers go to the refining room to tell the alchemist which pills they need.

The man was familiar with the rules. He pocketed the token and left.

After the first came the second, then the third…

By the end of the morning, since it was her first day doing business in the black market and her credibility was still low, only seven customers placed orders.

Rong Shu was in no hurry. Once she refined pills for these seven and they could report good results, a steady stream of customers would follow.