Chapter 1 Potion Market

The competition in the apothecary industry was fierce, with everyone undercutting each other and seizing market share, resulting in significantly reduced profits. Even Xingkong Pharmacy (Starry Sky Pharmacy) had to attract customers with low prices. Among apothecaries' clientele, the large guilds were the biggest consumers. They had money, and to save on guild expenses, they often purchased potions in bulk. Because of the huge quantities, they would desperately try to drive down prices. Ordinary pharmacies, in order to land big orders, were willing to accept even very low prices and meager profits from these guild clients, relying on volume to win. Some pharmacies even took losses on orders at the beginning to attract long-term customers, showing just how intense the competition was.

Small workshop-style pharmacies couldn't compare to Xingkong Pharmacy in scale or variety of potions, but they still survived by offering lower prices. However, their apothecaries were more miserable, often working more than ten hours a day with unsatisfactory wages.

Major guilds also had their own exclusive apothecary teams, of considerable size. However, the potions produced by their apothecaries were generally only supplied to the guild, and often fell short of demand. It was extremely rare for a guild's apothecary operations to reach the scale of Xingkong Pharmacy in Niuren Tribe (Amazing Ox Tribe). Apothecaries in guilds like Angel Domination, Zhushen's Sword (Sword of Slaying Gods), and the Empire of Light and Darkness could supply 30% of their own guild's needs, which was considered a high standard. They certainly didn't have any surplus potions to sell; they mainly relied on large-scale purchases from outside pharmacies.

Niuren Tribe had a total of nearly one hundred fifty to sixty thousand apothecaries, all of elite level, and all receiving high salaries. There were millions of apothecaries outside, with varying skill levels. Only about one hundred thousand of them could meet Xingkong Pharmacy's hiring standards. Nie Yan's target was mid- to high-level apothecaries. As for low-end apothecaries, although he would absorb some, it was simply impossible to absorb millions of them.

Therefore, he focused on the mid- to high-level apothecary market. There were too many low-level potions, sold everywhere by street vendors. Even controlling this market wouldn't be of much value. A bottle of mid- to high-level potion could cost five or six gold coins cheaply, or even hundreds of gold coins for the expensive ones, while a bottle of low-level potion cost one or two silver coins, or even tens of copper coins for the cheap ones. The added value was small, and it would be difficult to industrialize. As long as the mid- to high-level apothecaries were controlled, the market would be controlled. As for those low-level apothecaries, when they leveled up to mid- or high-level, Xingkong Pharmacy would offer high salaries, and he didn't believe those guys wouldn't be tempted.

Considering all these factors, this market had great potential.

Under the guidance of Nie Yan and Guo Huai, the Niuren Tribe players began buying up mid- to high-level herbs in the major auction houses. Generally, low-level herbs wouldn't be put up for auction because the auction fees would eat up any profit.

Nie Yan estimated that to buy up about 50% of the mid- to high-level herbs produced in the market each day, he would need about five to six million gold coins. Players consumed a lot of potions every day. As he bought up the herbs, the quantity of herbs on the market would decrease, and the existing potions would slowly be consumed. Continuous buying for five or six days would be enough to move the price of herbs.

The more funds invested, the greater the impact on the price of herbs.

Since Nie Yan started raising funds, Niuren Tribe, as well as Holy Roman Empire, Galan Temple, Ares Tribe, Holy Light Flame, and Berserker Alliance, all began raising funds. The fundraising effort went well throughout the day. Nie Yan tallied it up: Holy Roman Empire raised 2.2 million gold coins, Galan Temple raised 2 million gold coins, Ares Tribe raised 2.8 million gold coins, Holy Light Flame raised 2 million gold coins, Berserker Alliance raised 1.9 million gold coins, Niuren Tribe's various branches raised 3.6 million gold coins, and Niuren Tribe itself raised 6.5 million gold coins. That added up to more than twenty million, and the amount was still increasing.

In addition to this money, Nie Yan modified the guild warehouse system. For every gold coin donated to the guild, players would receive nearly 50% more guild contribution points than usual. This greatly increased the speed at which players donated gold coins. In just one day, the guild warehouse raised 1.2 million gold coins, but the number of equipment in the guild warehouse also decreased by nearly 10%.

Niuren Tribe's big move quickly attracted the attention of the Monet Consortium.

Zhushen's Sword headquarters.

Qin Han was still anxiously awaiting news from the necromancer Bordman. His skeleton army was standing still, only occasionally harassing Niuren Tribe's fortress. He would wait for the necromancer Bordman to return before daring to send out troops again.

"Boss, Niuren Tribe has been raising funds recently, and has already raised at least nearly twenty million gold coins." Shenjian Wushuang (Peerless Divine Sword) said, and he was shocked when he received this news. A guild's ability to raise funds was directly proportional to its credibility. Ordinary guilds spent money quickly, and had to pay their players a lot of money every day to maintain normal operations, but it was as difficult as climbing to the sky to get money from them. Taking Zhushen's Sword as an example, it would be very good if Zhushen's Sword could raise one million gold coins from below. Niuren Tribe was actually able to raise more than twenty million gold coins. This was too scary.

Qin Han frowned and asked, "What does Niuren Tribe want to do with so much money?"

"I don't know. We haven't found any movement of the funds." Shenjian Wushuang said.

The daily trading volume in the auction houses was so large that even if there were some anomalies, it would be difficult to detect them, especially since Nie Yan had spread out so much, buying herbs in so many cities at the same time, it was impossible to cause any fluctuations in the market. In this situation, it was impossible for Shenjian Wushuang to find out where Nie Yan's funds were going.

"Pay close attention!" Qin Han said in a deep voice. Nie Yan raising so much money must mean he was planning something big.

"Yes!" Shenjian Wushuang replied, and he sent people to search for the flow of Nie Yan's funds.

In the Lei Huo (Thunderfire) City auction house, a player wearing an ordinary production job robe, looking unremarkable, entered the auction house.

He opened the herb section in the auction house and began buying in large quantities. He bid on everything that was within a reasonable price range.

Soon, more than 80,000 gold coins were used up, and after doing all this, he quietly disappeared into the crowd.

Several players in the auction house who had just sold a large number of herbs and pocketed the gold coins smiled happily.

"The herbs sold really well today. All three of my sets of herbs were sold, earning me twenty gold coins."

"Mine too."

"Tomorrow, I'll take out all the remaining herbs and sell them."

As for the apothecaries in the other corner, they had originally wanted to buy some herbs at a low price to make potions, but they found that there were no herbs at a suitable price, so they left one after another. Anyway, their pharmacies still had some potions in stock, which could be sold for a few more days.

Almost every city's auction house encountered similar situations, but because the movements were relatively small, they did not attract the attention of the players.

The same situation continued on the second, third, fourth, and fifth days. Although it attracted the attention of some players in the first few days, they did not pay enough attention to it. By the fifth day, the shortage of herbs began to slowly manifest. Those players who sold herbs began to consciously increase the price of herbs, while the apothecaries, because the price of herbs was too expensive, worried that no one would want the potions they made, so they were in a wait-and-see state, wanting to wait for the price of herbs to drop before buying in. Some people helplessly bought the high-priced herbs, because some of the potions in their pharmacies had already been sold out. If they did not make new potions for sale, the pharmacies would run out of stock.

Many people thought that the price of herbs would come down sooner or later, because the market demand was not that great. However, the era of low-priced herbs was gone forever. The price of herbs soared day by day. The price of each mid- to high-level herb had increased by at least 50%, and some of the scarcer herbs had even soared by two or three times.

Nie Yan returned to Xingkong Pharmacy. In order to store the herbs, Xingkong Pharmacy specially customized a large warehouse, which only Nie Yan could open.

The herbs here were Nie Yan's lifeblood. If something went wrong, Niuren Tribe would be finished, so he had to be cautious.

Nie Yan walked to the warehouse, opened it, and immediately, many warehouse spaces appeared. Each page had five thousand slots. The herbs here were placed in categories, and each page had a large number of herbs of the same type. Some herbs had as many as tens of thousands of sets, while others had five or six thousand sets, with twenty plants in each set.

Nie Yan looked at the number of pages, a full five or six hundred pages.

Currently, he had bought up nearly 60% of the herbs in the herb market!

All of Niuren Tribe's apothecaries were gathered together. They received a large number of herbs and began to work hard, producing potions on a large scale. A large number of potions were transported to the various branches of Xingkong Pharmacy every day.

The prices of potions in the various branches of Xingkong Pharmacy had basically increased by more than 50%, and some of the more outrageous ones had soared several times. However, these prices were only just on par with the price of raw materials for herbs on the market.

"Guo Huai, how much money do we have left?" Nie Yan asked.

"Only five or six million left." Guo Huai said. He had really been spending money like water recently. More than thirty million gold coins had been used up in a few days. No one spent money like that!

"It doesn't matter, the price of herbs has entered an upward channel. Even if we don't buy it, the price will continue to rise." Nie Yan smiled and said.

Guo Huai thought for a moment and understood. Buying herbs was the same as speculating in futures on the market. A tenth of the buying volume could move the price of futures, let alone Nie Yan buying so much. The scarcity of herbs was destined to push up prices.