Just as seeing the tide come in tells you the water is rising, yet leaves you clueless on how to stop it, Ryeon’s situation was exactly like that.
She had also figured out the identity of the guard, Jeong Yeong, who was protecting her quarters. He was slated to take one of the spots in the Meteor Eighteen Constellations, the future elite force of the clan. But due to a shortage of manpower, he was somehow filling in for the vacancy here…
“Money? Is it money?”
Ryeon admitted that she had been thinking too complacently.
She considered herself a living Elixir, and since Danmok Bi possessed the talent to become the best in the world, she had assumed reviving the clan’s fortunes wouldn’t be that difficult.
The Danmok Clan’s decline was due to the Supreme Patriarch Danmok Cheongi’s unhealing injury and the death of the Young Patriarch, Danmok Hyeonseong. This seemed like a problem that would naturally resolve itself once Danmok Bi made a name for himself in the Murim.
It would be difficult for a clan or sect possessing a sturdy, young, living candidate for the ‘Best Under the Heavens’ not to prosper.
However, looking at the state of the clan now, it didn’t seem like they could hold out until Danmok Bi fully grew up.
Danmok Bi had tried his best to take care of his sickly sister and never showed how difficult the tasks inside and outside the house were, but looking back now…
Ryeon tried to squeeze her hazy memories, then slumped, letting the strength drain from her body. Arguing about a future that had already passed was useless now.
Ryeon jumped up from her seat.
“Money… I have to earn money.”
There was a reason other clans were ranked higher than the current Danmok Clan, even without having a master who had reached the same realm as Danmok Cheongi.
Even if they weren’t experts on Danmok Cheongi’s level, they had perfectly healthy experts of a decent standard with no ailments, and money!
Because they had money!
In other words, what the Danmok Clan needed right now was also money.
Didn’t one need money to accept disciples, raise those disciples, and expand the clan’s influence?
Ryeon let out a sigh with a gloomy expression. She felt helpless wondering how she could possibly make money with this small body.
*
Any Murim clan is bound to set up and operate its own medicine hall.
Since it is a group that undergoes grueling training and sparring every day, the demand for medicine is naturally high.
Therefore, items like Golden Wound Salve made by Murim clans or sects are considered the best, rather than those from famous medical houses or pavilions. After all, wouldn’t a remedy verified through tens of millions of clinical trials be superior?
The Danmok Clan also had a Medicine Hall. It was a Medicine Hall that had been separated from the Medical Pavilion decades ago when the clan’s fortunes began to decline.
Even though the Medicine Hall was currently floundering because its head, Danmok Hyeonu, had abandoned everything until recently to enter closed-door training.
“Why are you dressed so thinly!”
Danmok Hyeonu had been inspecting the herb room and checking on the Medicine Hall before sunrise out of guilt for not taking proper care of it all this time.
Then, hearing that a guest had arrived outside the herb room, he went out only to find his young niece waiting for him, wearing nothing but a single fur vest over her thin underclothes. Her nose was red from the cold wind.
Seeing the helpless expression on the escorting warrior’s face, the vest seemed to belong to him.
Startled, Danmok Hyeonu quickly took off his cloak, wrapped Ryeon up in it, and lifted her into his arms.
“What if you catch a cold walking around dressed so thinly at this hour of dawn! No, if I hadn’t been here…”
“Achoo!”
Before he could add anything else, Ryeon sneezed. Danmok Hyeonu stopped talking and hurriedly went inside.
Since it was a place for storing medicinal herbs, it wasn’t exactly warm, but it was better than outside.
“What brings you all the way here? Is something wrong? You didn’t have a nightmare, did you?”
Danmok Hyeonu asked, his voice laced with anxiety. Ryeon shook her head and answered.
“The sneeze was just because of the fur on the vest. I came because I memorized the entire . You said you’d give me a prize if I memorized all the characters, Uncle.”
“What? Even so, couldn’t you have come during our lesson in the afternoon?”
“I was worried Bi or Ryuna might feel upset if I was the only one getting a prize…”
At Ryeon’s words, Danmok Hyeonu blinked for a moment, then nodded as if he understood. He carefully wrapped the cloak around her again so it covered her forehead, then headed toward his quarters.
Danmok Hyeonu ordered a servant to bring charcoal to stoke the stove fire. He looked around anxiously, closed all the open windows, and even placed a (hand warmer), which a quick-witted servant had brought, into Ryeon’s arms before sitting across from her.
“A promise is a promise, so let’s see if you’ve memorized all thousand characters.”
He then quietly moved his brush, wrote down a few random passages from the , and presented them to Ryeon. Ryeon calmly read what he held out.
” (果珍李柰 菜重芥薑). Among fruits, the delicious ones are plums and crabapples; among vegetables, the important ones are mustard and ginger. (知過必改 得能莫忘). If you have a fault, you must correct it; what you have learned, you must not forget. (罔談彼短 靡恃己長). Do not speak of others’ shortcomings, and do not rely on your own strengths.”
“…”
Danmok Hyeonu looked back and forth between Ryeon and the characters he had written, his face full of shock. Since he had written them randomly, it seemed true that she had memorized the entire .
Just in case, he wrote a few more phrases, but his niece recited them clearly and without hesitation this time as well.
“Ah… Already, amaz… amazing. That is wonderful. Very admirable. Yes, what is your wish? I will grant you anything.”
What wish could he possibly deny a niece who hadn’t even been awake for a year? Furthermore, his niece’s brilliance was also a great joy to him.
Ryeon looked up at him and smiled brightly.
“I want to try making something small in the Medicine Hall.”
“What? In the Medicine Hall?”
“Yes!”
She had used the excuse that the other kids might feel left out, but Ryeon didn’t believe her own words.
Danmok Bi, who was crazy about his sister, would obviously be happier than anyone that she had memorized the text and received praise from their uncle. And Hwaryun…
What on earth was wrong with that kid?
Ryeon groaned inwardly before shaking it off. So, the reason she had run to Danmok Hyeonu in the dawn wind claiming to have memorized the was to inspect the Medicine Hall’s ingredients at a time when no one else would be there.
Danmok Hyeonu, standing behind her, looked bewildered and puzzled, finding the situation strange, but he granted Ryeon’s wish.
How could she make money?
The simplest way was to make something here and sell it. The market was secured.
This was Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Wasn’t there an old saying, (上有天堂 下有蘇杭)? Above is Heaven, below are Suzhou and Hangzhou.
A beautiful and splendid city has many people. There were so many wealthy people in the city that there was a maxim not to boast about money in Hangzhou.
The fact that there were many rich people meant there were many people who would buy good products when they appeared.
Then what should she sell?
Ryeon thought until her head felt like it was cramping. First, something small would be good. Because it’s easy to distribute.
It should also be easy to make. Since easy production would mean lower labor costs.
The raw materials should also be easy to supply. While having excellent performance or efficacy…
Then, what flashed through her mind was her own power.
The medicine didn’t need to be something a Great Immortal would marvel at. It just needed to be slightly more effective than what was currently on the market.
It would be better if it were something commonly used among the people rather than actual medicine. So, Ryeon first thought of bellflower root concentrate.
Bellflower is also called (White Medicine), so how about selling it under the name (White Medicine Syrup)?
Although she had absolutely no talent for cooking, who would complain about medicine tasting bad?
Also, since everyone in the Danmok Clan enjoyed wearing white clothes, didn’t the name fit perfectly?
However, Ryeon, who had followed Danmok Hyeonu into the herb room of the Medicine Hall, had to fold on her idea.
“Ah…”
When she deliberately used her Mind’s Eye to scan the herb warehouse, information popped up cheerfully among the organized medicinal herbs.
The name and freshness appeared together. Among them, those with a clear blue light were very rare, most were below average, and things like bellflower roots appeared with a red light. Displaying ‘Low Grade (下級)’…
“Uncle, where do we… buy the herbs here?”
“We receive a share of herbs from the Hoseon Medical Pavilion. We decided to do so when the Medical Pavilion was separated from the clan.”
Regardless, making something with these withered bellflowers would be worse than not making anything at all. When a shadow cast over Ryeon’s face, Danmok Hyeonu didn’t know what to do.
“N-next time, would you like to go visit the herbalist shop outside?”
“Can I do that?”
Just as Ryeon was thinking this inwardly, a shelf with small, sealed jars caught her eye.
“Oh? That is…”
“You mean the essential oils (精油)? Do you want to see? Shall I show you?”
When Danmok Hyeonu realized Ryeon was interested in something other than the withered bellflowers, he quickly brought out one of the jars.
