Chapter 99: Pharmacy Troubles

The two arrived at a pub.

Bai Ya expressed that he wasn’t drinking.

“Then your senior will be impolite, bring over five cups of beer!”

Xu Ma didn’t order the expensive Pine Wind beer, instead he made up for it in quantity.

After drinking the five cups, he drummed his belly with contentment.

After chatting for a bit, Bai Yai stated that he wanted to return to the ship.

But Xu Ma pulled his hand, “Where are we now?”

“Boy, haven’t you come to buy equipment? Then follow me.”

“First, you need a good pair of boots.”

Xu Ma dragged Bai Ya to a small roadside stall.

Bai Ya saw Xu Ma’s “good boots”.

The boots were in terrible condition, the left boot’s front was open, exposing the wearer’s toes. Both boots were so worn down the leather was peeling, and they emitted a foul foot order. 

It assaulted the nose.

Bai Ya couldn’t help but guess: how long had these boots been left unwashed?

“Not bad. This is an alchemy item, with magic script on it. Look here, it can steady your gait.” Xu Ma understood a bit about magic script.

It wasn’t strange upon thinking about it, given that he was a thief.

After all, if one didn’t have discerning eyes, one couldn’t determine the true value of good things.

Upon seeing Bai Ya’s weird expression, Xu Ma explained, “You are a hunter, who spent all of their time on dry land, your time at sea has been too brief. With them on, you can maintain your balance during surging gales or during naval battles. It’ll be unlikely you’ll fall into the ocean.”

“Every year, large amounts of sailors and pirates die by falling overboard.”

“Although they are ugly and smell, they are good to wear. It is also cheap, if you find a cobbler in the future, perhaps they can sew up the seams for you.” Xu Ma’s recommended it enthusiastically.

Bai Ya couldn’t endure his persuasion and bought the boots, and so Xu Ma brought him to another residential area.

This was a cave for ordinary people and was very squalid. Despite Two Eyes Island having flourishing trade, it had no shortage of poor people and beggars.

“Boy, you still got the stuff?” Xu Ma hit a door.

It was a small shack.

Soon after, a dirty head popped out from inside it.

It was a small boy.

The boy’s wary gaze looked at Xu Ma, then replied, “Of course I still have the goods, have you returned to actually buy them?”

Xu Ma shook his head, “To be precise, I am not buying it.”

He pointed his thumb at Bai Ya behind him, “He is the actual buyer.”

The small boy looked at Bai Ya, his expression skeptical, “Can you spare 5 silver coins?”

Bai Ya was startled, and he thought to himself: what thing was so expensive?

Bai Ya unconsciously looked at Xu Ma.

Xu Ma nodded to him, then said impatiently to the small boy, “Bring it over so we can take a look at it now. With great difficulty, I brought over a customer. We don’t have much patience.”

The small boy groaned, “I won’t sell it for anything less than 5 silver coins!”

After saying that, he squeezed back into the shack, and when he reemerged, he had a small flower pot in his hand.

The flower pot had a green branch in it, and when Bai Ya peered into it, he thought it was a thick grass.

“This is it.” Xu Ma’s eyes glinted.

After confirming it, he pulled Bai Ya in and urged him, “Take out the money.”

“Oh ho.” Xu Ma naturally reacted when Bai Ya unconsciously took out his purse and fished out 4 silver coins and 100 copper coins.

Both sides transferred money and goods.

“There is only 4 silvers here, 1 silver is missing.” The small boy shouted.

Xu Ma squeezed out a silver coin into his hand and coldly snorted, “Give me a break! I went through trials and tribulations to get you a customer, the transaction is completed, I have succeeded!”

“Also, I advise you to not kick up a racket.” Xu Ma lowered his voice and looked down at the small boy, doing his best to oppress the latter.

“You don’t want others knowing you suddenly have money do you?”

The small boy was suppressed, and couldn’t help but take a step back, his red eyes rigidly staring at Xu Ma.

But he didn’t make a sound.

Bai Ya sympathized somewhat with the small boy.

Xu Ma and Bai Ya departed the slums.

“Don’t sympathize with him, young man.”

“How could that stinky little demon have such a good thing?”

“He didn’t gather it, he stole it. Or perhaps he swindled it or snatched it.”

“Don’t underestimate poor people. They have no bottom line as they struggle to survive.

“Furthermore, we already paid enough!”

Bai Ya was inevitably curious, “What is this, why is it so expensive?”

“It was bought at market price; we didn’t pay a premium.” Xu Ma corrected, “It is known as Snake Grass. It can move, you see.”

As he said that, he pulled out the grass.

After being separated from the flower pot’s soil, the snake grass instantly changed; both ends stretched out and it became slender.

Then, the grass’ end tapered into a snake head and its roots turned into a snake tail.

The snake head opened its mouth, it wanted to bite, however, Xu Ma’s two fingers rigidly held it shut.

The snake grass could only whine and wind its snake body around its arm, squeezing it and wanting to snape Xu Ma’s bones.

Bai Ya jumped back in fear at this change.

“Snake grass is a plant, however, when it comes time to attack, it can briefly turn into a grass vine that strikingly resembles a snake. It can move and is aggressive.”

“This grass is cyan, a cyan snake grass. Apart from this, there is also white snake grass, gold snake grass, red snake grass, and so on.”

“It isn’t poisonous; however, its bite hurts dearly. Its strongest point is that it can take root. If it is thrown at someone, it can dig into the skin and flesh, and if not handled promptly, it can damage one’s heart, lungs, and other internal organs.”

Bai Ya turned pale when he heard this.

Then he saw that Xu Ma was emitting qi, it was obvious he had activated his battle qi.

The green snake grass was ordinary level, and when it was oppressed by a bronze life level’s might, it was subdued and no longer whined. 

Xu Ma stuck it back into the flower pot, and it gradually turned back into the grass it once looked like.

But unlike before, the grass looked wilted and withered, it looked dehydrated and frozen, causing it to look quite pitiful to Bai Ya.

Xu Ma continued, “You are not a cultivator, and cannot rely on your life aura to intimidate it. But that doesn’t matter, you can use your blood to feed it.”

“You will need to mix your blood into the soil. The snake grass will absorb the nutrients from the bloody soil. In a day, it and your bloodline will be connected. With this level of deep control, when you are in danger, it will feel your pain and snake away at its own accord to help you strike back.” 

“Also, with this level of control, even when in snake form, it won’t bite you and will regard you as a close friend.”

“If you can do that, during battle, you can toss it out.”

“It can threaten bronze levels!”

Xu Ma’s frank words caused Bai Ya to understand gradually.

“Senior Xu Ma, many things.” Bai Ya was moved upon realizing how sincerely Xu Ma had thought about him.

Xu Ma laughed loudly, “You were lucky to run into me!”

He was passively slacking and wasn’t willing to risk investigating the mysterious black gowned magician.

Cang Xu hadn’t explained to him that the magician was a suspected necromancer.

But Xu Ma had to provide some information to report back about the situation. 

Therefore, he strolled through the marketplace and constantly made discreet inquiries.

Information on the Dark Rainbow store had been brought back by him. Tripleblade and Lan Zao benefited as a result.

As a result, he could be considered the person most familiar with the old island’s marketplace in all of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.

“Someone died!”

“A dead person!”

“Where is your store manager? Come out for me!  Your healing option killed my man!”

“Get out here, you must give us an explanation!!”

Noisy insults circulated around.

Bai Ya and Xu Ma were attracted by them and rushed over.

“That’s Miss Zi Di’s store!” Bai Ya’s heart thudded when he saw the store’s doorway was surrounded by people.

A group of people was causing trouble, their leader was a bronze level cultivator who was angrily shouting.

Along with Bai Ya and Xu Ma, other bystanders had come over to see what was going on.

Yan Yi came out and attempted to appeal to them, “It’s a misunderstanding, it must be a misunderstanding!”

“Consumption of our potions didn’t cause their deaths.”

Yan Yi constantly defended himself.

But the troublemakers didn’t relent, and instead grew haughtier and more aggressive.

“Your potions must have an issue!”

“You must compensate us!”

“Yea, in order to sell at so cheaply, you must have done a sloppy job?”

“This isn’t the Secret Medicine Merchant Alliance; their potions are safe.”

“To consume this small store’s potions is simply playing with your life!”

Not only were the troublemakers suspicious, but the bystanders were also beginning to grow skeptical too.

When Bai Ya heard this, he secretly grew anxious. 

He knew the mercenary corps only had money because of those two potions. Bai Ya sensed the strong odor of conspiracy when he saw what was happening.

“There must be a villain that wants to cut off our livelihood!” Bai Ya shouted to himself, “I have to think of something I can do.”

While he was restless with anxiety, Xu Ma was a crossed arm spectator, he was a lively viewer of this.

He didn’t know the Wisteria store and the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps were connected.

Yan Yi humbled himself and wanted to discuss things with the troublemakers alone, however, the troublemakers didn’t not agree, instead they cried out, “Do you want to bribe me? No way! You must pay what we deserve, everyone is watching.”

Yan Yi’s head filled with sweat.

“I must do something!” Bai Ya was anxious too.

He was outside the encirclement, and at that moment, he noticed some onlookers leaving the crowd and exchanging glances with each other frequently.

Bai Ya clearly remembered that those same bystanders had been the ones who had been belittling and doubting the potions.

“They are all shills!”

“Truly despicable!”

“Someone wants to make trouble for us.”

When Bai Ya discovered this, he was unable to hold back.

He whispered to Xu Ma, “Those people are all together!”

Xu Ma shrugged his shoulders, “It appears so. This group of people is particularly attentive, they even change the faces of the bystanders frequently.”

The longer one stayed in the crowd and shouted negative things, the bigger one’s flaws would be.

“We have to stop them, expose this conspiracy!” Bai Ya pinched his hands into fists.

“Why?” Xu Ma was flabbergasted, “You want to get benefits from the Wisteria Merchant Alliance? But if you do that, you will offend the troublemakers.”

“Don’t do that, we don’t need to meddle with this maelstrom. Alas, hold on!”

Bai Ya had already left the crowd and squeezed into an alley.

The spectators had been entering and exiting through that very alley.

There was no one in the alley.

As Bai Ya walked into it, Xu Ma grabbed him.

“Hey, justice boy, don’t be a meddler…” Suddenly, Xu Ma flexed his strength and yanked Bai Ya into a shadowy corner.

A group of people walked through the alley, and after passing where they were hiding, stood at the mouth of the alley.

A portion of them infiltrated the crowd and played the role of shill.

The remaining three people stood in place and gazed from afar.

“Leader, we haven’t drawn out the target person.”

The one called “leader” was a man with a lean stature.

He gazed for a moment, then commanded, “Continue creating a disturbance, then withdraw when the target person appears. I have a noble guest here.”

After giving his instructions, he turned around and left through the alley.

Not long after, the other left too.

The alley was once again devoid of people.

“Senior Xu Ma, I…” In the dark corner, Bai Ya opened his mouth and racked his brains in how to convince Xu Ma to get involved with this affair.

He heard Xu Ma fume with rage, “Investigate, I must investigate you!”

“Finally, I found you. The guy who took advantage of me!”

Xu Ma’s eyes sprayed the flames of hatred.

It was because the male leader had been the thin person who had stabbed him.

“You are an ordinary person, stay nearby and be my lookout. I’ll be back!” Xu Ma told Bai Ya before running down the alley.