Making Plans 1

Hall Manager Zheng Zhanqi agreed to the terms set earlier at once, as though afraid that the stranger in the green robe would simply change his mind and leave. And Luo Junyuan was the one who was sent to go and gather the items that they had agreed upon.

It also gave him the opportunity to head down to the second floor, where he could take a quick look at the Medicine Hall's group of Protectors, and to make some quick decisions with regards to the treatment of their injuries.

Fortunately, the Royal Prince and his people weren't too hard on that lot. And their wounds would heal in about a moon or so. So he simply put them out of his head, and hurried off to get his hands on the Crystal Ice Swallow Nests and the Purple Blood Ginger.

Those were both rather rare ingredients, of course.

But how could they compare to the Eight-leaf Savoury Burdock Root and the Thousand Year Old Lingzhi? Those two were infinitely rarer, there in the Southlands. And if the Medicine Hall were to transport them to the East, to the Capital City ...

Luo Junyuan allowed himself a grin. This trade itself was going to attract the attention of the Elders in the Fu Lai Medicine Group, and that was certainly going to do wonders for his future career! To think that he had almost gotten himself suspended, the last time that he dealt with that green-robed fellow!

Assistant Hall Manager Luo Junyuan sighed, and remembered what he had to go through, when he was questioned by the representatives from the Main Store. They were certainly going to regret their attitude back then, when they got the news of what happened here in the near future. And he certainly had plenty of eye-witnesses to support his story now.

Especially that bit about the stranger's remarkable level of cultivation and inner strength. He beat two of the Royal Prince's Protectors! What the hell was that? To think that the ones questioning him almost a moon back had made those remarks about his being unable to tell real gold from dross!

Well, he would have no problem now, with Hall Manager Zheng Zhanqi to support his story. And the reactions of the two Protectors accompanying the Royal Prince should be evidence enough to satisfy all those idiot Elders hiding at the Main Store!

Let's see if they dare to question the Prince himself, if they have any questions about the cultivation level of that stranger!

Then he reminded himself that he still had a job to do, and that same stranger was waiting for him upstairs. So he hurried to gather the two items, mark their movement carefully in the storage room records, and scurry back up the stairs to the meeting room. With all the notations done according to specifications, there would be no loopholes this time, for the Main Store to pick at him!

By the time he got back to where the others were, there were smiles on all three of their faces. And Hall Manager Zheng was quick to give him instructions regarding a few lesser known herbs that they were still holding in their store. Apparently, he had made a deal with the fellow for the Silver-threaded Red Osmanthus Flower and the Long Jade-hued Laughing Buddha Leaf.

And the smile on the Hall Manager's face was enough to tell him that he had done far better than Zheng Zhanqi had expected of him, with regards to the deal. Which had him skipping happily back down the stairs to get the other ingredients prepared.

It looked like this unusual meeting was going to make his name for him at last!

*

Back on the third floor, Hall Manager Zheng Zhanqi was considering the deals that he had made, and the medicines that he had managed to secure. But he was not thinking about their prices or what sort of reaction they would arouse, when they were sent to the Capital or the other major Cities that where they would be in greater demand.

Nor was he too concerned about the reaction of the King, or the Royal Court regarding what had happened to the Royal Prince. After all, the King had plenty of sons, and the Prince of the Stormy Seas was hardly one of the more important heirs that were running things in the Kingdom.

Instead, he was considering the fellow in the faded green robe, and what sort of power was lurking behind him. Zheng Zhanqi had been practicing internal martial arts for almost six decades, and he thought he knew about most of the Sects and Martial Arts Schools in the region. How was it then, that he had never heard of a person with this sort of power?

Could it be that he was a stranger from some other region, simply wandering? Or was he a sign that the Southern Reaches was going to see trouble in the near future?

Given his reaction to the Royal Prince, this green-robed man was clearly not someone that the Royal Court could provoke. And there weren't that many Sects and Martial Arts Schools that dared to tell a Royal to p*ss off the way that he did.

Which was probably why Hall Manager Zheng had gone through so much trouble, to make sure that this fellow continued to view Fu Lai Medicine Hall with a modicum of friendliness. And hopefully, continue to come in with more treasures like what he had offered today.

After all, the more business that they did with each other, the more likely that they would get more comfortable with each other.

That, in turn, might allow Zheng Zhanqi to find out more about this stranger's antecedents.

And in the martial world, in Jianghu, this sort of information was easily worth ten times its weight in gold! So long as he could lay his hands on it, it should see him rising up through the ranks quickly, to become a full-fledged Elder in the Main Store!

Which was enough to motivate him to put in even more effort, to make this stranger more comfortable, and more inclined to come back to Fu Lai Medicine Hall in the future!

* * *