The shopkeeper lowered his voice, looking earnest.
“However, I’ve heard there are several Jade Green Pythons at the tenth level of Qi Refining deep in the forest outside the city. If Miss Ye can invite a few of the Ye family’s Supreme Elders to hunt them, and if there are extra inner cores, please be sure to sell them to us—I’ll take responsibility and pay sixty percent more! I won’t shortchange you!”
Ye Qingyi nodded, her expression calm.
“Easy enough.”
The shopkeeper rubbed his hands together, his smile even warmer.
“As for the other three medicinal herbs, do you want to take them now, or should I have someone deliver them directly to the Ye Mansion?”
Ye Qingyi looked up at him.
“What about the price?”
The shopkeeper extended his hand, spreading five fingers, then turned it over, and said with a grin, “Considering you’re a regular customer, I’ll give you a discount—one thousand spirit stones, take it all.”
Ye Qingyi sucked in a breath, almost choking on her own saliva.
She forced her expression to remain calm, trying to make her voice sound steady.
“Then… are there any with lower years?”
The shopkeeper sighed, spreading his hands with a helpless look.
“Younger herbs aren’t as rare as century-old ones, and they’re cheaper, but the demand is huge—people come asking every day, supply can’t keep up. And recently, this batch has all been ordered by the Yue family. Right now, I only have a single ten-year Blackheart Grass left in the shop. If you want it, it’ll be eight spirit stones.”
There were actually still some lower-year herbs, but even though that lord hadn’t given orders about them, the shopkeeper didn’t dare sell them to Ye Qingyi.
So he took the opportunity to shift the blame onto the recent Yue family matter.
Ye Qingyi bit her lip, calculating quickly in her mind.
Eight spirit stones… she had exactly eight on her.
Ten-year it is then. Better than nothing.
Just as she was about to speak, Ye Chu’s voice suddenly rang out in her mind.
“A ten-year Blackheart Grass is useful, but not by much. If you really want to spend those eight spirit stones, I suggest you buy that puppet over there.”
Ye Qingyi was startled.
Following Ye Chu’s hint, she turned her head and fixed her gaze on a shelf in the corner of the pharmacy.
It was a wooden puppet, about the height of an adult’s arm, carved from fine sandalwood with a smooth surface.
It was densely covered with drawings of the human body’s meridians and acupoints—red dots and black lines, clearly labeled.
This kind of small puppet could be found in almost any pharmacy, used to help apprentices identify acupoints.
It wasn’t anything rare.
She stared at the puppet for a long while, unable to figure out what use it could be.
But since Ye Chu had spoken, she gritted her teeth, turned to the shopkeeper, and said, “Shopkeeper, that… that puppet, how much is it?”
The shopkeeper followed her gaze, stunned.
She wasn’t buying herbs but this?
What trick was this girl playing?
But it didn’t matter—as long as she wasn’t buying medicine, it had nothing to do with him.
“That? Eight spirit stones.”
Ye Qingyi’s mouth twitched.
Eight spirit stones for a piece of scrap wood?
That was way too expensive!
But Ye Chu added in her mind, “Buy it.”
She took a deep breath, pulled out her last eight spirit stones from her storage pouch, and slapped them onto the counter, saying each word deliberately: “I’ll. Buy. This.”
The shopkeeper accepted the spirit stones with a beaming smile, personally took down the puppet, wrapped it in cloth, and handed it to her.
Ye Qingyi took it and added, “Keep those three herbs for me. I’ll come back to buy them once I’ve gathered enough money.”
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly.
“Alright, alright. I’ll wait for you.”
Ye Qingyi turned and left, hugging the puppet, her footsteps heavier than when she came.
After she was far away, the shopkeeper’s smile slowly faded.
He beckoned to the waiter beside him and lowered his voice to give orders: “Go find that lord. Tell him the patient came today, and I’ve passed on the message as he instructed.”
The waiter nodded and slipped out the back door without a sound.
Outside the Green Jade Pavilion, Ye Qingyi walked down the street holding the puppet.
Ye Chu’s unhurried voice reached her ears.
“I thought you would disguise yourself to inquire about herbs, but you just showed up with your own face.”
Ye Qingyi was startled.
She stopped walking, turned her head, and asked the air in confusion: “Huh? What’s wrong with that?”
Ye Chu sighed, his tone like that of someone teaching a clueless child.
“Given that you were poisoned, it’s reasonable to assume the poisoner knows what the antidote is. Now, you’ve searched the entire city, and you’re only missing one ingredient. And that ingredient happens to be in a dangerous place outside the city.”
He paused.
This girl really hadn’t considered that angle.
“Do you think that when you leave the city, the poisoner might quietly follow you? Or more directly—could the poisoner have already set an ambush there, waiting for you?”
Ye Qingyi froze on the spot, her mouth slightly open, unable to speak for a long time.
That’s right… How had she not thought of that… Then her earlier actions were basically going straight to the poisoner and telling them she knew about the antidote!
Oh no, oh no, oh no….
Ye Chu added, “I have to say, you’re a bit of a naive sweetie.”
Ye Qingyi’s face flushed bright red, a mix of embarrassment and anger.
She stamped her foot.
“Then… what should I do?”
‘Ye Chu definitely has a plan, right? If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have said that. He would have stopped me long ago!’
Sure enough, Ye Chu spoke.
“Go back first. It’s not a big problem.”
His tone was as casual as if he were chatting about daily life.
“Otherwise, I would have warned you in advance. They’ve already set up a pocket trap, just waiting for you to walk into it. Unless some expert comes along to take the inner core and wipes out all the assassins and traps hidden there, hiding your identity won’t mean much—they’ll get to you eventually.”
This really wasn’t a big problem.
Compared to the ambushes and pursuits Ye Chu had faced back in his day, this was just child’s play.
He paused, his tone turning serious.
“I just wanted to use this incident to tell you: be more careful in the future. Otherwise, in the cultivation world, you won’t live long.”
Ye Qingyi fell silent.
She lowered her hands, standing still, her eyelashes drooping and lips pressed together.
‘Ye Chu is right.’
‘I really was too reckless. Back when my cultivation was high, I could swagger through Qingyun City without anyone daring to say a word. But now, things aren’t like before.’
‘I’m still living the same way as before. Isn’t that just asking for death?’
Ye Qingyi gave a soft, serious “oh” in her heart.
Then she added, “Thanks for the reminder.”
Her voice was soft, but sincere.
Ye Chu didn’t say anything more.
He knew Ye Qingyi had taken it to heart, and that was enough.
….
Back in the small courtyard, Ye Qingyi placed the wooden puppet on the table, plopped down onto a chair, propped her cheeks on her hands, and sighed with a worried expression.
“A thousand spirit stones… Where am I supposed to get that…”
“Can’t you ask your father for help?”
Ye Chu’s voice sounded in her mind.