Bai Ning Bing and Fang Yuan continued to travel without any major issues.
However, after two weeks of wandering, Bai Ning Bing frowned. "Fang Yuan, this business model just isn't tenable."
She had noticed several flaws within it, which became apparent once they put the plan into action. The biggest issue was that although the villages were an underserved community when it came to medicine, there was a reason for that: these were places with very few resources, and the residents were incredibly poor.
Even the village they had saved from lead poisoning wasn't really able to give them anything in return other than their well-wishes and gratitude. Things that they couldn't cash out for primeval stones.
The villagers were rarely able to pay them in primeval stones for the herbs Fang Yuan collected. Oftentimes, they would ask to pay with an IOU to be cashed in sometime next harvest, which was useless given they only had three months total to build a fortune. Alternatively, they would pay with goods like crops. While they could theoretically trade those later for primeval stones down the line, there was a limit to how much their small cart could carry without getting weighed down.
Granted, their overhead was essentially zero since their living expenses were low, they camped outside, and they scavenged plants from the roadside. Most villages didn't even collect taxes or tolls from them because traveling apothecaries were desperately needed.
However, when subtracting the cost of renting out the horse, the cart, and the initial material provided by the old man's seed investment, Bai Ning Bing could see they had made very little. It was enough to sustain them, but hardly the kind of fortune needed to win the contest.
Fang Yuan, however, was not deterred by any of these drawbacks.
"You seem to have a plan," Bai Ning Bing noted, eyeing his calm expression.
"The truth of the matter, Bai Ning Bing, is that this medicine delivery business is simply a front. It is an excuse to wander around this area," Fang Yuan replied. "The core idea of any business is to find a problem and solve it. The issue is that with this continent in a state of relative peace, there are hardly any urgent problems to solve. We must either create a problem, or find an existing market arbitrage that the locals have missed."
Fang Yuan was putting his 500 years of experience to the test, looking for any unexploited resource. Because this was an isolated immortal aperture, it was highly possible a valuable resource was being ignored out of local ignorance.
Suddenly, Fang Yuan stopped and pointed to a set of tracks near their cart. "I think we finally found what we're looking for. Or at least, part of it."
A distance away, a group of monkeys was playing in the trees. Bai Ning Bing frowned. Whenever Fang Yuan went around monkeys, it never ended well - for the monkeys, that is.
"What are you planning?" Bai Ning Bing asked.
"Where there are monkeys, there is usually monkey wine," Fang Yuan explained. "Did you notice something interesting while we were within Tian Ji City? The supply of alcohol seems to be rather limited. They only have basic spirits and rice wine - hardly anything of quality. The people with lead poisoning developed that issue for a reason, to sweeten their own alcohol. That was likely why it was developed in the first place. So if we can find a unique blend, different kinds of spirits would sell for a large amount within the city."
Bai Ning Bing's eyes flashed. "You want to steal whatever recipe the monkeys have been making?"
"Indeed," Fang Yuan said. "If the monkeys have been brewing wine for some time, we can observe their secret."
"How are we going to get close to them without using gu worms?" she asked.
Fang Yuan chuckled. "What are you scared of? Remember the rules: we can use our gu worms in self-defense. If the monkeys attack us, we simply strike back. The land spirit cannot be angry at that, can it?"
"Are you sure about this?" Bai Ning Bing asked, skeptical but frustrated with their slow progress. "Anyway, let's just go ahead with it. I'm tired of living on this cart and getting nothing done."
Ultimately, they didn't even need to use their gu worms. The monkeys were easily threatened by their mundane weapons and scattered into the brush. Unfortunately, after looking through the clearing where the monkeys lived, they found nothing.
"It seems these monkeys do not brew wine at all," Bai Ning Bing said.
"Hmm," Fang Yuan muttered. Most monkey groups did, but clearly not this small troop. 'Could this be a consequence of my low luck?' he thought. This setback only made him more determined to fix his luck path deficiencies in the future. For now, they had to refocus.
They continued selling medicine while searching for something to exploit, but there was very little available. The best option would be finding a refinement material they could sell to Gu Masters for a premium, as primeval stones were concentrated in their hands.
The hidden gem finally presented itself a month later when they stopped by a coastal fishing village.
While treating a villager who was sick from eating contaminated seafood, Fang Yuan noticed the local fishermen bringing back a large catch of trout. Among the fish was one that the fishermen carelessly tossed back into the ocean.
It was a puffer fish.
"Why do you throw those away?" Fang Yuan asked a nearby deckhand.
"Because they're poisonous," the man answered, stating the obvious.
Fang Yuan questioned more people around the docks and discovered that the fish congregated in a small, easily accessible cove near the village. The fishermen stayed away from that area because even cooking could not safely remove the poison from the intestines and organs.
Fang Yuan smiled to himself and rented a small boat, taking Bai Ning Bing out to fish.
"Is this really the time to go fishing?" Bai Ning Bing asked, annoyed.
"Well, you know what they say," Fang Yuan replied. "'If you want to be happy for a day, go fishing.'"
By the afternoon, Fang Yuan had pulled up a massive haul of puffer fish.
"They look completely useless," Bai Ning Bing remarked. Then, her eyes widened. "Wait a minute... although their internal organs are deadly to mortals, they contain highly concentrated toxins. They can be used as a material for refining Poison Path gu worms!"
"Exactly," Fang Yuan said. "If we find the right refinement shop, we can sell these for a premium."
Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing spent the next few days extracting the livers and intestines of the puffer fish, preserving them carefully before heading back to Tian Ji City. Because this resource was located in a remote village and entirely ignored by the mortal locals, it was completely untapped by the refinement experts there.
When Fang Yuan approached the refinement shops in Tian Ji City, he was initially laughed out of the first two stores. Because they were hiding their identities as Gu Masters, the shopkeepers were highly skeptical of two ordinary mortals making grand claims of having found a rare refinement material. However, the third shopkeeper decided to take a closer look.
Upon inspection, the master refiner noticed the exceptionally pure Poison Path properties of the materials. The value of the puffer fish components soared immediately, and Fang Yuan sold the entire batch for a hefty sum.
With their newfound capital, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing wisely chose not to gamble it on risky short-term investments. Instead, they spent the remaining time harvesting high-value wilderness herbs that they now knew how to properly process and sell.
Finally, the day of judgment arrived. Three months were up, and now the totals had to be tallied.