Chapter 17

"Looking at the current trend, the price of the Phoenix Tail Grass is finally stabilizing." Ding Qi returned from Qixia Town, feeling extremely emotional.

Ever since the news that Phoenix Tail Grass could offset military service spread in Qixia Town, the price of this rather obscure herb began to soar. It could be said that the price changed every day.

All the herbal shops also started to vigorously purchase Phoenix Tail Grass. The Phoenix Tail Grass collected by the mountain people would be snatched up by the herbal shops in an instant.

The price of the herb, which was initially three times higher than the original price, gradually increased to four times, five times, and even at one point, it was more than twice the original price. It was only recently that the price dropped to about six to seven times the original price and stabilized at this level, with no significant changes for a long time.

Many herbal shop owners, including Mr. Wang, believed that the final price of Phoenix Tail Grass would stabilize at this level.

When the news about Phoenix Tail Grass first spread, Mr. Wang and other herbal shop owners did not think this way. They were mostly optimistic, believing that due to the government's policy, the price of Phoenix Tail Grass would be twice or even three times the original price.

From the current results, after the news spread, the price of Phoenix Tail Grass indeed continued to rise. However, it was clearly not as high as Mr. Wang and others had expected.

In recent days, from Mr. Wang, Ding Qi learned that the herbal shop owners finally understood why the price of Phoenix Tail Grass did not reach the expected high price.

In the end, there were very few families who could afford to pay the military service with Phoenix Tail Grass.

For ordinary families, buying enough Phoenix Tail Grass to offset the military service was an impossible task. Even at the original price of Phoenix Tail Grass, the cost of a thousand plants was more than a decade's worth of expenses for an ordinary family. At the current price of Phoenix Tail Grass, it was even more impossible for an ordinary family to raise enough money to buy the herb within two years. Only those with some assets could consider using this method to offset the military service.

For ordinary mountain people, the only impact of the official notice was that they could sell the Phoenix Tail Grass they collected from the mountains at a high price. In the end, they still had to wait helplessly for the military service to come.

In a situation where most people did not have the ability to buy Phoenix Tail Grass, it was clearly impossible to push the price of the herb any higher.

The fact that Phoenix Tail Grass did not reach the expected high price disappointed the herbal shop owners who had some of this herb in stock. However, they did not have much of it to begin with. The batch of Phoenix Tail Grass they originally had was already bought out by large merchants from Liangcheng who got the news earlier.

The Phoenix Tail Grass they now had was mostly newly acquired from the mountain people after the news spread. Therefore, overall, there was not much loss; they just missed out on a significant profit, which no one really cared about.

The only one who was somewhat different was Mr. Wang.

After the price of Phoenix Tail Grass stabilized, Ding Qi noticed that the number of Phoenix Tail Grass sold in Qixia Town had mysteriously increased. Perhaps others did not understand the reason, but Ding Qi, who had been paying attention to Mr. Wang's herbal shop, knew exactly what was happening.

Mr. Wang had finally started selling the Phoenix Tail Grass he had stockpiled.

Recalling Mr. Wang's gloomy demeanor over the past two days, Ding Qi felt that human nature was indeed complex and hard to fathom.

"Mr. Wang is really too greedy!"

With the stockpiled Phoenix Tail Grass, Mr. Wang could naturally make a substantial profit, and he should have been extremely happy.

However, the reality was not like that.

Because the herb did not reach the expected high price, Mr. Wang, who had hoped to make a huge profit from this opportunity, felt as if he had suffered a great loss, and his mood was somewhat gloomy, making him sullen for several days.

This made Ding Qi, who knew the reason for Mr. Wang's gloom, sigh at the complexity and unpredictability of human nature, giving the young him a vague sense of insight and caution about human nature.

"Unfortunately, Phoenix Tail Grass cannot be cultivated or transplanted by ordinary methods; it can only be harvested from the mountains. Otherwise, planting a batch in the herb garden and selling it would be a good idea." Thinking about this, Ding Qi felt a bit regretful.

When he read the notes on herb cultivation in the past, he saw that many herbs could only grow naturally in the mountains and forests and could not be artificially transplanted or cultivated. Phoenix Tail Grass, as an important product of Qixia Mountain, had been attempted to be cultivated artificially by many people, but all attempts ended in failure.

Thinking about this, another idea came to his mind: "Maybe..."

As the idea kept turning in his mind, Ding Qi first felt excited, then became hesitant.

"The high price of Phoenix Tail Grass will not last long, at most one or two years. Once the government's military service period ends, the price of the herb will return to its original level. This rare opportunity would be a great pity to miss." Ding Qi thought to himself.

He was different from others; he had the advantage of being able to easily find and harvest Phoenix Tail Grass. If he could take advantage of the high price to harvest and sell the herb, he could definitely earn some unexpected wealth to buy the herbs needed for his cultivation.

The only problem was that harvesting Phoenix Tail Grass on the mountain was a time-consuming task. He had the responsibility to take care of the herb garden, and spending time on the mountain to collect herbs while not staying in the garden seemed somewhat irresponsible, which made him hesitant about whether to do it.

In the end, he made a decision.

"The work in the herb garden is very light. As long as I plan ahead, I can manage it without any problems."

Every day in the herb garden, he spent most of his time cultivating the innate skill. Even if he went to the mountain to collect herbs, he still had plenty of time. As long as he took care of the garden when necessary, there would be no issues.

After thinking this through, Ding Qi decided to go to the mountain to collect herbs and sell them to prepare for buying the herbs needed for his cultivation of the innate skill.

Thinking about the herbs needed for the cultivation, Ding Qi couldn't help but take out the silk scroll recording the innate skill from his chest.

At the back of the innate skill, there were several formulas for the pills used in cultivation. He took out the silk scroll now to check that part.

Looking at the pill formulas recorded on the back of the silk scroll, Ding Qi didn't know whether to be happy or worried.

Having specialized pills to accompany the cultivation skill was naturally a good thing. However, every time he saw the various precious herbs required to make the pills, he became very anxious.

Each of these herbs required a great deal of effort to obtain. Some were so precious that they were virtually unobtainable. It was extremely difficult to find them in ordinary herbal shops.

Even if he managed to earn some unexpected wealth by taking advantage of the high price of Phoenix Tail Grass this time, he could probably only gather enough herbs for a few uses, which would not last long for his cultivation.

"However, having the herbs to assist is much better than having none." Thinking about the troubling aspects, Ding Qi could only console himself.

After making the decision, he began to plan his trip to the mountain to collect herbs. Ding Qi did not intend to go to the mountain every day; he still needed time to cultivate the innate skill and handle other daily affairs.

After much consideration, he decided to split his time equally between cultivating the innate skill and collecting herbs on the mountain. This meant that he would cultivate the innate skill one day and go to the mountain to collect herbs the next day, and so on.

"The herb garden doesn't need much attention these next two days, so I can go to the mountain with peace of mind. I'll start from tomorrow." After making up his mind, Ding Qi sat cross-legged on the bed, calmed his mind, and closed his eyes slightly.

Soon, he became motionless, as if he were asleep, and his breathing became almost imperceptible, entering the state of cultivating the innate skill.

With the plan to go to the mountain to collect herbs, his time for cultivating the innate skill was halved. This made him even more determined to make the most of every moment to cultivate.