I'm seventy years old this year, and you want me to have many children and much happiness?

Gu Yun Pharmacy.

Xu Jing is now in charge of Jinyuan City, overseeing all matters related to Guyun Pharmacy in Jinyuan City and some of its subordinate counties.

But even though I got a seat.

However, in reality, things didn't go as smoothly as expected.

Furthermore, with someone secretly stirring things up, a series of incidents occurred in the shops under Xu Jing's management.

A shop owner absconded with the money, causing the shop to suffer huge losses and forcing an emergency measure to cover them.

There were also problems with the medicinal herbs; the shop assistant dispensed the wrong medicine, and someone died after taking it. People came specifically to cause trouble and vandalize the shop; clearly, these people were all pre-arranged—just two troublemakers—and it damaged the shop's reputation.

Even so, the main store of Jinyuan City had to step in and pay a large sum of money in order to calm things down.

And recently it's gotten even more outrageous.

The matter has now directly involved Jinyuan City.

A pharmacy that has been supplying Jinyuancheng Pharmacy for a long time.

These past two days, the area has been seized by a group of bandits who are demanding three times the original price before they will sell the medicinal herbs.

Unfortunately, this batch of medicinal herbs was related to the delivery of a second-class martial arts sect in Xiping County.

Martial arts sects also have different levels.

For example, the Qinghe Sword Sect and the Tianyuan Sword Sect both have their sphere of influence within the main city area, such as Jinyuan City. They are subject to the jurisdiction and supervision of the main city to a certain extent, and are therefore called third-class martial arts sects.

If it is within the county town area, or has reached a certain scale and stands out from the crowd, it is a second-class martial arts sect!

Going further up, a tradition that has continued for over a hundred years in this manner can be called a first-class martial arts sect.

Above the first-class martial arts sects is the Divine Sect.

Forces like Huangsha City fall into the category of second-tier martial arts sects.

In addition to the time of inheritance, there is also the way the territory is divided.

To put it simply...

Third-class martial arts sects usually have one or two experts at the initial stage of the fourth rank overseeing things.

For a second-class martial arts sect, there need to be about ten experts at the initial stage of the fourth rank or above. The strongest of them even need to reach the edge of the fifth rank to gain recognition.

A first-class martial arts sect must have a fifth-rank expert in charge.

As for how many there are, that's unclear.

But at the level of the Divine Sect.

Fifth-rank experts are just the norm now, and everyone is speculating whether there are any sixth-rank experts within this divine sect-level power.

When you do not possess the strength of a sixth-rank official.

Don't even think about challenging a divine sect.

The power that Xu Jing is facing now.

It's a task assigned by the pharmacy in Xiping County; a certain amount of Golden Thread Grass needs to be handed in by the deadline.

Although this golden thread grass is only of the first grade, it is more difficult to cultivate than the second grade.

It generally takes about two years for a batch to mature.

There is a batch of golden thread grass that should have been delivered, but because the entire medicine shop was forcibly occupied by a group of people.

They used this to blackmail Xu Jing, saying that if she didn't pay three times the price, they would destroy all the golden thread grass in the medicine shop.

This batch of medicinal herbs is also the share that Jinyuan City is responsible for, and it needs to be submitted to the county.

Then it was handed over from the county to Jin Guang Gate.

The Golden Light Sect is a second-class martial arts sect within Xiping County.

If this batch of medicinal herbs cannot be delivered, not only will the county blame us and we will be unable to complete our mission, but the Golden Light Sect may also punish us!

Although Gu Yun Pharmacy has a large business, its actual strength is only equivalent to that of a second-tier martial arts sect, and it is slightly weaker in combat power.

The Golden Light Sect may choose not to seek out the Xu family of the Ancient Cloud Pharmacy, but using that as a pretext to deal with a mere Jin Yuan City official would be a piece of cake.

And when they come knocking on your door, you won't have anything to say.

Inside the Ancient Cloud Pharmacy in Jinyuan City.

Xu Jing, Wang Maocai, and others were also in a meeting.

The people gathered now are mostly from Xu Jing's own team, and their abilities and loyalty are beyond question.

"What are your thoughts on the matter concerning Zhang Family Pharmacy this time?"

Xu Jing raised a question at the meeting.

A single Golden Thread Grass normally costs six taels of silver.

Their Guyun Pharmacy buys it for four taels of silver.

This time, after the Zhang family's medicine shop was taken over by that bandit gang, the price they offered was fifteen taels of silver per plant!

If it's just a little bit, then it doesn't matter. Losing money is a way to avoid disaster. We can withstand this little bit of trouble and turmoil.

However, the quantity of the golden thread grass was enormous, with a total of 200,000 plants purchased!

Originally, 800,000 taels of silver would have been enough.

But now it costs a full three million taels of silver!

For Guyun Pharmacy, coming up with this sum of money was not a difficult task.

The problem is that if this money is actually taken out, similar incidents will only continue to occur.

They'll all be able to get involved then.

They could even coordinate an inside operation to legitimately acquire a large sum of money!

They've completely turned the entire Guyun Pharmacy into a money exchange.

No, to be precise, they treated his Guyun Pharmacy in Jinyuan City as a money exchange!

"This matter is definitely not simple. The asking price alone is more than two million taels of silver more than before. We've been busy these past few days, and even in our accounts, we don't have much silver available."

"We can afford the two million taels, but if we set this precedent, others will use the same methods to manipulate us!"

Wang Maocai said in a deep voice.

This kind of thing is obviously not allowed to get worse and spread. Otherwise, if each of the cooperating pharmacies did this every now and then, Gu Yun Pharmacy might as well not do business and just give away their money.

The other deacons present all nodded in agreement.

"However, the most urgent task is to solve the problem of the Golden Thread Grass. If this problem is not solved, the county and the Golden Light Sect will blame us, which will be a very serious matter for us."

Wang Maocai said.

"My suggestion is to slow down the transactions at Zhang Family Pharmacy, and we should also source Golden Thread Grass from other channels, even if it's more expensive, we can get as much as we can."

"Also, find an intermediary to talk to the people from Zhang's Pharmacy and see if there's any room for negotiation."

Upon hearing Wang Maocai's suggestion, many deacons nodded in agreement.

"This method is safe."

Xu Jing's expression didn't change much after listening; this method was indeed the safest approach at present.

But a young woman shook her head slightly.

"it's useless."

"They were clearly targeting us."

"The matter of Zhang Family Pharmacy must be resolved. If we can't get medicinal herbs here, we won't be able to get them anywhere else either."

"We can only accept medicinal herbs from the Zhang family, and not only that, the price must be the same as before!"

"If we back down this time, then the entire Jinyuan City, and all the pharmacies in its subordinate counties, will find it extremely difficult to collect medicinal herbs in the future!"

"Therefore, this time, our Gu Yun Pharmacy must adopt a sufficiently firm stance!"

Sitting at the very back of the council chamber was a young woman with a cool and aloof appearance, wearing a ponytail and dressed in an extremely neat and tidy manner.

The young woman was recommended by a county town.

Her name is Wen Lan.

He is a decisive and efficient person with unique insights into many things.

Xu Jing had already heard about her and had secretly investigated her.

Indeed, just as rumored, Wen Lan exudes a decisive and efficient aura, and her unique perspective on certain matters is truly admirable.

Therefore, Xu Jing made an exception and promoted Wen Lan to a steward in Jinyuan City.

Wen Lan herself was also an alchemist, and she could have shone brightly in her county. However, she did not expect that she would be envied by the county officials and be sidelined, which caused her to never make a name for herself.

After learning about this, Xu Jing not only promoted Wen Lan beyond the usual ranks.

They even dismissed the county magistrate from his post.

When Wen Lan expressed her opinion.

Wang Maocai also frowned.

Although he has now been demoted to deputy director, the affairs of Jinyuan City were previously under his jurisdiction, and he knows all too well what happened this time.

This is clearly the people above trying to trip us up.

However, if you were to confront them head-on at this point, you would undoubtedly be playing right into their hands, as they would have ways to deal with you.

For Jinyuan City, the losses will only be greater.

From his position, from his perspective.

The first thing to do is to calm things down; we can deal with what happens next later.

You have to get through each hurdle one by one.

Of course, Wen Lan's words also make a lot of sense.

If we don't take strong action this time, similar incidents will only increase in the future.

Wen Lan's idea was also agreed upon by many of the younger members present.

"I also think that Steward Wen's words make sense."

"These days, a lot of things have been going on, causing us to lose a lot of money in our accounts. If this continues, we will lose all of the profits from the first half of the year in less than a month, and the other party will only become more and more rampant."

The deacon in charge of checking the accounts nodded and said.

Some things can be settled with money, but some things must be settled with force.

"That being said, at this critical juncture, the biggest problem is that if we can't deliver those 30,000 Golden Thread Grasses, such a large shortfall is the most troublesome thing."

"If we can't deliver on our promises, who will take responsibility when the Golden Light Sect holds us accountable?"

"Putting everything else aside, the compensation alone for the Golden Light Sect is an extremely large sum!"

"And then there's the Zhang Family Herb Garden. Now it's in the hands of the Tianlong Gang. Although the Tianlong Gang isn't a second-class martial arts sect, it's said that their scale is no weaker than third-class martial arts sects like the Qinghe Sword Sect and the Tianyuan Sect."

"How do we fight? What do we use to fight?"

The group then began to argue in the council hall.

Of course, there is no right or wrong in this kind of thing. Everyone has a different perspective, so naturally they will see different things.

"alright."

Xu Jing's cold voice rang out.

The group, who had been arguing heatedly, all calmed down at this point.

He turned to look at Xu Jing.

Everyone present was convinced of Xu Jing's abilities, and many also knew that the reason so many things had happened recently was because Xu Jing had killed the second-in-command's son, crippled him, and directly took over the position.

That's equivalent to offending the second-in-command.

Many people thought that Xu Jing was probably finished.

But Xu Jing just wouldn't let it go!

She remained secure in her position, and despite the many things that had happened recently, Xu Jing had managed to suppress them all.

Therefore, everyone realized that this might be an internal struggle within the Xu family.

Xu Jing was simply pushed to the front.

However, this also means that Xu Jing has powerful backers.

Therefore, it's still uncertain who will win or lose in the current situation. If one can truly follow Xu Jing and fight their way out, then their future position will be secure.

Fortune favors the bold, and maintaining a firm stance at such times is crucial.

At the same time, many people wanted to see just how much of a storm Xu Jing could stir up in the Ancient Cloud Pharmacy.

"You're both right."

"So I decided to do them simultaneously."

"Old Wang, you're in charge of leading a group to the counties below and seeing which herbal medicine merchants have any Golden Thread Grass. Collect it first; we don't expect you to collect it all, but at least half!"

"As for the price, it should be kept below thirty taels."

Xu Jing made the decision directly.

A price of thirty taels is already outrageous.

However, this medicinal material is extremely scarce, and its quality must be excellent.

If inferior goods are passed off as superior ones, the consequences will only be more serious.

Hearing that Xu Jing had set such a generous price, Wang Maocai, who was standing to the side, also looked surprised.

It's clear that this was a huge decision made.

A generous reward will surely attract brave men. As long as your budget allows, finding these medicinal herbs is not a difficult task.

"No problem, I guarantee I'll complete the task."

Wang Maocai immediately said.

"Wen Lan, you're in charge of researching the Zhang family's medicine garden. Give me an assessment this afternoon. I need to know how much force we'll need to prepare if we're going to confront them head-on, and how much damage our medicine shop will suffer... I need to be specific."

Xu Jing said.

"Yes."

Wen Lan nodded slightly; she had already made her assessment of the matter.

I'm just waiting to report to Xu Jing after the event ends.

"Then everyone go ahead and get busy, everyone disperse."

Xu Jing tapped on the table.

After everyone left.

Wen Lan then approached Xu Jing with her assessment.

"Sir, I had already completed the assessment of the Zhang family's medicinal herb garden."

"According to my investigation, the one who seized Zhang's medicine garden this time was the brother-in-law of the Black Dragon Hall leader, one of the three major halls of the Tianlong Gang."

"Talking to him directly won't work; we need to find the leader of the Black Dragon Hall."

"This person is one of the three top experts of the Tianlong Gang, with a cultivation level of the middle stage of the fourth rank."

"I'm afraid only the city lord himself can handle this in the entire Jinyuan City..."

Wen Lan said.

Their gazes also turned to Xu Jing.

I had heard some rumors before that Xu Jing had made many connections in the City Lord's Mansion, so she had no trouble traveling through the city.

"The leader of the Black Dragon Gang...?"

Xu Jing's eyes narrowed slightly.

The city lord does indeed owe Elder Lu a favor, but there's no rush.

It would be a waste to waste the city lord's favor here.

Perhaps we could ask the Tianyuan Sect for help.

Just as Xu Jing was making plans in her mind.

Suddenly, one of Xu Jing's assistants came to report.

"Master, Master Lu has arrived."