49: Preparation of medicines

This time, the main purpose was to prepare Body Tempering Potions, which didn't require many medicinal ingredients—only five types, all commonly found on the market. The only difference was their age. Long Yuan was quite well-off at the moment, so he chose ten-year-old ingredients for all of them. Each set cost about one Medium Grade xuan stone. According to the requirements of the "Zhen Yue Sacred Elephant Fist" Cultivation Technique, he prepared a total of thirty sets!

Thirty sets meant a cost of approximately thirty Medium Grade xuan stones, which was a huge sum in the eyes of Mortals and even ordinary Xuan Practitioners. To avoid attracting attention, Long Yuan did not purchase everything at once. Instead, he bought the medicinal ingredients on different floors, buying only one-tenth of the total quantity each time. After receiving them into his space, he would continue buying. During this process, he even changed his robes, wore a mask, and so on. In short, he tirelessly tried to weaken his presence. After such a series of elaborate maneuvers, it took him a full two hours to finally gather all thirty sets of medicinal ingredients!

Additionally, he bought some jade boxes and wooden boxes for storing medicinal ingredients, a batch of tools for processing medicinal ingredients, and a large tub for medicinal baths.

This tub could withstand the impact generated when the potion was activated, which his ordinary bathtub at home could not compare to…

"Mission accomplished! As for Artifact Refining tools, that will have to wait until next time…" Long Yuan still walked out of the Luo Family Building empty-handed. He swept his Divine Sense around, found no suspicious people following him, so he wandered around the central area for a while before heading towards Hengbi Garden…

Sneaking back into his home using the shadows of the community's greenery, he found that the arrangements he had made to mislead his "protectors" before leaving were still effective. He couldn't help but smile smugly. Seeing that it was late, he simply turned off the lights in the main hall and entered another room. This room had been tidied up by him, specially designated for making Body Tempering Potions.

Body Tempering Potions were much simpler than Alchemy. They only needed to be mixed according to their components and proportions, properly Fused, and then left to crystallize before use. There was no need to go to the Alchemy room within his space.

Long Yuan took out the purchased medicinal ingredients and began processing them. These ingredients were all in their raw state; the Luo Family would not process them in advance unless the customer specifically requested it, otherwise, they wouldn't bother.

The step of processing medicinal ingredients, though seemingly simple, was actually quite particular. Whether the processing procedure was appropriate determined the final grade of the finished product, and sometimes even affected the medicinal properties.

For example, for some herbs, the medicinal properties of the stem and root were different. If they were used together without distinction, it would lead to a conflict in their medicinal properties, and the effect would be self-evident.

For some medicinal ingredients, those harvested in the morning differed in medicinal properties from those harvested in the afternoon, and those harvested during the day differed from those harvested at night. For such ingredients, even if they were of the same variety, they had to be distinguished when both buying and selling.

There were also some medicinal ingredients that could not be used immediately after harvesting. Instead, they had to be stored in a specific environment for a period of time to weaken the cutin on their surface, so that the internal medicinal properties could be stimulated!

Furthermore, one also had to consider the clashes or harmonies between medicinal properties, whether they weakened or enhanced each other, and how the medicinal properties transformed after combination, and so on…

From this, it can be seen that pharmaceutics and Alchemy are very particular. The medicinal properties of ingredients are ever-changing and extremely difficult to grasp. This is also the main reason why there are so few pharmacists and Alchemists. Many people lack talent or have not diligently studied, or do not have extensive practice and practical experience, and thus will never be able to get started, let alone reach an Advanced level.

Fortunately, Long Yuan already had a ready-made formula, and these medicinal ingredients were relatively simple, requiring minimal processing, so there was no difficulty in making them. It took him three hours in total to complete all thirty potions. The crystallized potions appeared a faint pink, looked quite appealing, and emitted an enticing aroma…

"Thirty Medium Grade xuan stones… My fortune has diminished quite a bit, but if I were to buy them, perhaps one set could sell for one superior xuan stone?" Long Yuan thought to himself.

In the Luo Family Building, he had also seen some Body Tempering Potions they sold. Just by looking at their appearance and smelling them, he knew they were far inferior to his own potions, yet their prices were not low. They were actually priced at one Medium Grade xuan stone, some even more, which showed how high the profit margin must be!

Another path to making money has opened up. With grain in hand, one's heart is not flustered!

"School is starting soon, I'll start using them tonight…"

Long Yuan quickly tidied up, and then used the time before school to check the information captured by the Heavenly Dao Eye. This had almost become a recent habit for him, but what he saw this morning instantly left him a bit dumbfounded!

"No way, no way, are Qi Huaiyi and Yu Xun actually going to investigate me to the very end?" Long Yuan sighed.

During this period, the Heavenly Dao Eye's ability had improved rapidly, and the scope of information capture began to expand significantly. Although it had not yet reached the area of the South Capital Yingtian Prefecture, because Long Yuan had added Qi Huaiyi to his list of key targets to track, the Heavenly Dao Eye would focus some of its power to track him, extending the distance of information gathering. This was essentially a method of sacrificing scope for increased distance.

Long Yuan saw that after Yu Xun talked to Qi Huaiyi, he not only didn't stop his investigation but instead gave him money and resources to continue. Furthermore, the two of them had even set their sights on Prince Fu. This was truly a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse. If things continued like this, wouldn't his identity secret be exposed very quickly?

However, the secret of his identity was indeed not difficult to uncover, because there was the huge flaw of Xuan Huang energy!

He couldn't always act alone, nor could he avoid people. Even living in seclusion in the city as he was now, he still needed to interact with all sorts of people every day. So, it couldn't be hidden forever; exposure was only a matter of time. Because as long as he went to an Advanced academy, or to a first or second-tier base city, or the Northern Capital or South Capital, or even just wandered around Fengyang County or hunted beasts outside the city and encountered someone above the Martial Ancestor realm, his identity could be inadvertently exposed!

"Now it depends on whether Qi Huaiyi can investigate Dragon Snow's information from the Prince Fus Mansion… This matter is not difficult, but it's not easy either. Firstly, such a matter needs to be hidden by the Prince Fus Mansion. Even if there are written records, they would be secretly stored and difficult for ordinary people to see. Plus, Prince Fu himself dislikes her so much that he subconsciously doesn't want to mention her, so how would his subordinates dare to bring her up casually? One must know that the people in the Prince's Residence are all shrewd individuals who act according to their master's mood. Unless Prince Fu himself remembers 'Old Ninth,' that useless son Zhu Deyuan, no one will mention her to him. Also, Qi Huaiyi probably wouldn't dare to directly ask Prince Fu about this. For a subject to investigate imperial family matters without permission is inherently extremely risky. He will definitely use some indirect methods to find people to help investigate. In that case, it will certainly take a lot of time to uncover, and this period is a precious time for me to improve my strength… I must seize it!"

Thinking this, Long Yuan secretly spurred himself on, then left for school…

……