Chapter 18 Set Off on the Journey

Under Xin Yun's highly enticing encouragement, A-Da accepted Xin Yun's suggestion, and in order to enhance his strength as quickly as possible, he ended up loading thirty sacks of sorghum. Despite being tired, the urgency of improving Pig Dragon's strength meant he couldn't worry about much else.

The thirty sacks of sorghum cost a total of three silver coins. After loading the sorghum, A-Da set off with Xin Yun and Yi Luo Xiang towards Giantwood Town.

Just as Xin Yun had predicted, every four hours of flight, Pig Dragon's energy would be depleted, requiring a two-hour rest for every four hours of flying.

To reach Giantwood Town as quickly as possible, they would quickly eat and rest during recovery periods, and as soon as the energy returned, they would immediately set off again. Despite the sheer exhaustion and overwhelming tiredness, this strategy did not slow them down. In fact, their speed nearly doubled! The journey to Giantwood Town, which would normally take a week, now took less than four days to complete.

In the past, A-Da used to travel during the day and rest at night, usually flying for about eight hours. But now, with this new method, he had to rest four times a day, yet traveled for sixteen hours. If it wasn't for the heavy cargo slowing down their speed, they could have been even quicker.

However, despite the extreme fatigue, despite being so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open, the excitement in A-Da's heart was beyond what ordinary people could imagine. In just four days, Pig Dragon had significantly grown.

When they first set off, carrying thirty sacks of sorghum, Pig Dragon's flight was very unstable, trembling and wobbly, barely able to fly high or fast. But by the last day, Pig Dragon could take off steadily, reaching a height of two hundred meters and flying smoothly, having fully adapted to the weight.

Seeing A-Da's excited demeanor, Xin Yun couldn't help but secretly laugh. It was always like this; no matter what one practiced, improvements were quick at the beginning, but not necessarily so in the later stages.

For someone who has never trained for the hundred meter dash and takes twenty seconds to complete it, with just a bit of training, even just four days, they could improve their time to eighteen seconds. But... once you advance to under ten seconds for the hundred meters, it's not that simple anymore. Forget improving by two seconds in four or five days; even improving by 0.1 second in four or five months is difficult.

After arriving at Giantwood Town, A-Da, with an excited grin, hired a few flatbed carts and rushed to Giantwood Market with the sorghum, attempting to sell along the street. However, Xin Yun stopped him.

Looking at A-Da's puzzled face, Xin Yun smiled and said, "Have you inquired how much these sacks of sorghum can sell for here? Do you know how much is appropriate to sell them for?"

After glancing at Xin Yun, A-Da proudly said, "Don't underestimate me. When I bought the sorghum, it was one copper per jin. Here, selling it for two coppers is possible. Any more than that won't work; that's the going rate here, I've got it all figured out."

Yes, yes... nodding repeatedly, Xin Yun knew that in this world, 1 gold = 10 silver, and 1 silver = 1000 coppers. They had transported 3000 jin of sorghum, which meant... they could earn 3000 coppers, averaging about 800 coppers a day, equivalent to the income of a big truck driver on Earth.

Smiling at A-Da, Xin Yun nodded and said, "If you're just acting as a transporter, then congratulations, you have a good grasp of commodity pricing. You're doing well and could graduate to running transportation full-time."

Saying this, Xin Yun suddenly became serious and continued, "However, if you want to be a merchant, if you want to make more money, then I'm sorry to say, you don't pass!"

"Ah!" Looking at Xin Yun in astonishment, A-Da foolishly said, "What? Isn't this how it's done? Everyone else seems to do it like this! Could it be that..."

Shaking his head with a smile, Xin Yun continued, "Speaking of commodity pricing, let me test you. You should know that Giantwood Town's speciality is dried pine mushrooms. Now tell me, how much does one tael of dried pine mushrooms cost here?"

Faced with Xin Yun's question, A-Da proudly puffed out his chest and said, "I know this. Here, one tael of dried pine mushrooms is three coppers, and one jin is thirty coppers, that's absolutely right."

Smiling and nodding her head, Xin Yun silently praised how cheap it was. From this, it could be seen that business circulation was still very undeveloped. When Xin Yun had been reborn, a pound of dried pine mushrooms had already neared the one thousand coppers mark. Yet now, it could be bought for only thirty coppers.

Shaking her head, Xin Yun gestured for Ah Da to watch from the side, then walked over to the cart and, raising her voice, shouted, "Passing by, don't miss out... This year's fresh sorghum, exchange a tael of mushrooms for a pound! Hurry and exchange, limited quantity, first come first served, be late and it'll be gone!"

In an instant, Xin Yun's sharp and clear child's voice echoed through the market. Hearing this voice, everyone was initially stunned. Soon... the doors along the street were pushed open one after another, with women and men rushing over, bags of dried pine mushrooms in hand, eager to exchange with Xin Yun.

Although these mushrooms were precious, they could only be converted into money if there were merchants to buy them. Thus, prices in this world always fluctuated greatly, epitomizing the saying, "Jiang Taigong fishes, those who wish will be hooked."

Even though the pine mushrooms were more valuable than sorghum, to the town's residents they were merely something that could be picked in the wilderness at any time and weren't considered special. At most, it would just take more time to gather them, and they couldn't be eaten as a meal anyway.

In fact, these mushrooms weren't intentionally collected. As a small town within a primeval forest, these mushrooms were gathered by hunters during their spare time when hunting; stewed with a wild chicken, the taste was incredibly delicious. The yield wasn't high and, at least at this stage, it hadn't become a mainstream commodity.

For the people of the small town, meat was not scarce, as their main diet was meat-based. What they craved was fresh sorghum. Thus... even though the exchange ratio Xin Yun offered did not match the price at which the merchants bought, it seemed worthwhile to the townspeople. Exchanging a supplementary item for a necessity or even a luxury in life always seemed appropriate.

Soon, all three carts, totaling thirty bags of sorghum, were exchanged, turning three thousand pounds of sorghum into three hundred pounds of dried pine mushrooms. Watching as three carts of sorghum were exchanged for three carts of dried mushrooms, Ah Da was completely stupefied.

In this town, the total price of three carts of sorghum was six thousand coppers, while the total price of three carts of mushrooms was how much? That's right... nine thousand coppers!

Originally, after spending four days, the profit Ah Da made from this transport, deducting the cost, was only three thousand coppers. But Xin Yun just used her brain a bit, and in less than an hour, she earned another three thousand coppers. At this moment... Ah Da finally understood why Xin Yun said he didn't make the grade.

Looking at the dumbfounded Ah Da, Xin Yun smiled and shook her head, saying to Ah Da, "Alright, now that the grains have all been exchanged, come with me to the jewelry store. I have something to sell."

Hearing Xin Yun's words, Ah Da dumbly nodded his head, still unable to calm down from the shock. He had never known that money could be made like this, and so easily at that; it was merely a matter of speaking up.

For a moment... he had a strange feeling, as if Xin Yun had become his boss, and he had become Xin Yun's follower, and this feeling was very strong. By this point... he was starting to believe Xin Yun's words; perhaps... he really could increase his income tenfold!

Without another word, Xin Yun, holding Yi Luo Xiang's small hand, entered the jewelry store. Seeing two children and a burly man following them, the clerk thought they were a family of three and greeted them with a smile, saying to Ah Da, "Welcome, may I know what you are looking for?"

Hearing the clerk's words, Ah Da opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Even now, he didn't understand why Xin Yun had come here. How could he possibly respond?

In the midst of this awkwardness, Xin Yun's timely voice arose, "Sister, we're here to sell some stuff. Does your store buy Gold and Silver Jewelry?"

Upon hearing Xin Yun's words, Ah Da hurriedly nodded and said, "That's right, we're here to sell jewelry. You do buy it here, don't you?"

Even though the relationship among this trio seemed strange, the clerk quickly said, "Buy? Of course, we buy. May I know... what kind of jewelry are you looking to sell?"