Chapter 132: The Crocodile and the Lizard

  There are fewer booths set up today than yesterday. After all, the ones that can be exhibited today are some relatively precious medicinal materials.

  Near the entrance, a stall had a huge lizard skin hanging from hooks in mid-air, over 20 square meters in size.

  There were many onlookers around, all of whom were pointing at the large lizard skin and discussing it heatedly. The dark red lizard skin was bumpy and resembled that of a legendary dinosaur.

  Under this lizard skin, there are also several small pieces of lizard skin laid out.

  The sellers were two burly men with sideburns, who also ignored the onlookers around them, and just lowered their heads to play with the netbooks in their hands.

  "Whoa, is this a dinosaur?"

  "Weren't dinosaurs all extinct? How did you get dinosaur skin?"

  "It's too unbelievable, but can dinosaur skin cure diseases?"

  People around were talking about it.

  Lü Feng snorted disdainfully and curled his lip.

  Song Jian walked over, first glancing at the huge lizard skin hanging there, then went to the side of the smaller lizard skin, flipped it over, and ran his fingers over one of the brownish-colored lizard skins without leaving any marks, a strong and tough feeling transmitted.

  "Boss, how much for the lizard skin?" Song Jian asked.

  "One hundred million in total," one of the men said, glancing at Song Jian.

  "Wow, one million! But if this is really dinosaur skin, one million isn't expensive at all," said one of the onlookers.

  "Yes, dinosaur skin, it should have similar effects as the legendary dragon skin," another person chimed in.

  At this time, Lü Feng surrounded him and said in a low voice: "Song Jian, you won't think highly of this lizard skin, will you? This is not dinosaur skin at all, but a kind of large lizard. It's called Komodo dragon, and there are many in Indonesia."

  Song Jian nodded and said, "I'm telling you two, let's talk about the price."

  One of them with a mustache stood up and stretched out his hand, saying: "Then let's talk about the price."

  There were too many onlookers, so the man with the sideburns chose to haggle using gestures.

  Song Jian understood that this gesture was very popular in ancient times. Merchants usually negotiated prices like this, but now, since prices are transparent, this rule is gone. It's only preserved in antiques and some special industries.

  The two parties negotiated, the other party asked for 10 million yuan, Song Jian immediately quoted 100,000 yuan, the other party disagreed, and at least wanted 800,000 yuan. Song Jian shook his head slightly, indicating that the highest price was 2 million yuan, otherwise it would be off the table.

  "I'm telling you, brother, this price is too steep. Indeed, you've recognized it. This isn't some dinosaur skin, but Komodo dragon lizard skin. But do you know how much effort it takes to hunt down this thing?" the man with the sideburns complained.

  Song Jian just smiled slightly and said, "Okay, if you tell me where these lizard skins come from, I agree to this price." As he spoke, Song Jian quoted a price of 3 million.

  Three hundred thousand is already a high number, after all, they are just lizards.

  He stroked his whiskers and sighed, saying: "Alright, you people who deal with Chinese medicine are all so cunning."

  The two men haggled over the price, then paid up. The man with the braided beard wrapped in a giant lizard skin said: "This Komodo dragon lizard was smuggled into Indonesia and secretly slaughtered by us. To be honest, it's not worth it. I thought it was just a publicity stunt, but no one cared."

  "What about these little lizards? Are they also hunted by you?"

  Luo Dui's whiskers twitched as he gave Song Jian a strange look, "Of course, these few were found near the Divine Farmer's Platform. At that time, we wanted to go hunt for Golden Money Leopards, but on the way, we encountered these lizards. One of them was particularly ferocious, so we took care of them along the way."

  Song Jian said "oh" and didn't ask any more questions. He let Liu Dachun take the lizard skins back and keep them properly.

  "What's the use of lizard skin?" Lü Feng looked at Song Jian with confusion.

  Song Jiandao said: "Gecko skin and python tendon as well as elephant skin have similar functions."

  "It's not necessary to spend 300,000 yuan on those things," Lü Feng said, seeing that Song Jian already looked like a prodigal son.

  Song Jian smiled and said: "There's a mystery to this, I don't want to tell you. Hmm? There's someone selling ginseng over there, let's go take a look."

  "Hey, you little brat, I'm paying your salary, so leave the good ginseng for me," Lü Feng hastily stepped forward and said.

  Song Jian nodded and said, "Don't worry."

  Ginseng is divided into artificially cultivated ginseng and wild ginseng. Although they are both ginseng, the price difference is enormous. Now, even the most ordinary wild ginseng costs over 10,000 yuan per plant. The quality of ginseng is also determined by its age. Ginseng that is over ten years old and over twenty years old can have a price difference of several times. Fifty-year-old ginseng or older costs at least hundreds of thousands of yuan per plant. As for hundred-year-old ginseng, it's priceless. Thousand-year-old ginseng has become a mythical creature, so there is no such thing as thousand-year-old ginseng.

  The stall was a glass cabinet, and under it were various types of ginseng, all at the same price: 500,000 yuan per stem, no bargaining.

  Song Jian was very familiar with the quality of ginseng and at a glance, he immediately pointed out to Lü Feng several branches of ginseng that were around 40 years old.

  It's not easy to accurately identify the age of wild ginseng, Song Jian pointed out that several branches of wild ginseng are over 40 years old, and the real price should be over 800,000 yuan per branch. However, Lv Feng bought them at a price of 500,000 yuan per branch because the seller couldn't tell either. These wild ginseng were purchased from other ginseng farmers or collectors, and it's hard to determine their exact age without cutting them open.

  Song Jian looked again and found that most of the other ginseng were around twenty years old, with a price of 500,000 yuan per branch, which was expensive, and the seller didn't even bargain.

  "Let's go," Song Jian said, waving his hand at Lü Feng and walking towards other stalls.

  Lv Feng turned the Shanlian over and over in his hand, saying: "Heh heh, it seems I'm quite wise to have asked you to appraise it for me. Look at this, our first deal has already earned me over a million."

  Song Jian just smiled and then the two of them continued to buy other precious medicinal materials at the exhibition.

  Lü Feng only needed some medicinal herbs for health preservation, longevity and physical nourishment, while Song Jian wanted everything. As long as he saw something good, he would buy it immediately. After a round of shopping, Lü Feng spent over 10 million yuan, while Song Jian spent 20 million yuan.

  In the afternoon, after leaving the exhibition, Song Jian finally let out a big sigh of relief. This trip was really worth it. Apart from some very precious medicinal materials, all the other low-quality Chinese medicines were basically bought in full.

  In the "Shanggu True Man Book", the records of Dan medicine are divided into three grades, such as the twenty-year-old ginseng, eighty-year-old astragalus and top-grade sanqi, face-basin-sized snow lotus flower, etc. These are all lower-grade medicinal materials.

  Of course, like more common medicinal materials, such as commonly used Astragalus and Angelica, etc., they are not recorded in the "Shanggu True Person Book" and belong to non-mainstream medicinal materials.

  Medium-grade medicinal materials are human-shaped Polygonum multiflorum, hundred-year-old ginseng, and ice芝snow lotus, etc. These extremely rare medicinal materials belong to medium-grade quality. As for top-grade medicinal materials, Song Jian has never seen them until now. Even when he was the chief imperial physician in the palace of the Great Song Dynasty, Song Jian had not seen the top-grade medicinal materials described in the "Ancient True Man Book".

  Dan medicine is also divided into three grades: upper, middle and lower. Lower-grade dan medicine often belongs to therapeutic life-saving materials. For example, the Tianwang Xiu Xin Dan that Song Jian is about to refine can supplement the congenital deficiency of the heart pulse. This belongs to the lower-grade dan medicine. There is also the Bingzhi Xu Mai Dan that Song Jian is refining for himself, which originally belonged to the lower-grade dan medicine category, but because it requires 100-year-old ice ginseng as the main medicine, and 100-year-old ice ginseng is a middle-grade medicinal material, so accordingly, the quality of Bingzhi Xu Mai Dan is slightly higher than that of Tianwang Xiu Xin Dan.

  As for the Xiāo Mó Dān that Song Jian had taken, it was a truly middle-grade elixir. Washing the marrow and cutting the bones, shedding the old skin and replacing the bones, it could be said that even if someone's tendons were completely severed, after taking the Xiāo Mó Dān, they would immediately recover.

  Song Jian had taken Wan Xuan Dan before, and taking it again would greatly reduce its effectiveness, so he couldn't treat his own severe injuries.

  As for the Tempering Bone Pill, it falls between a low-grade and mid-grade pill. Although the Tempering Bone Pill has a strong effect and can immediately bring someone to the Dark Energy level, in reality, this pill also has significant side effects. If one carelessly takes the Tempering Bone Pill, it's equivalent to pulling up seedlings to help them grow - the person taking the pill may very likely be stuck at the Dark Energy level for their entire life and will be unable to further advance their cultivation.

  However, Song Jian, Xu Si and Xia Lin had all taken the Marrow Cleansing Pill before taking the Bone Tempering Pill, so the side effects of the latter were basically eliminated.

  Returning to his residence, Lü Feng grandly entertained Song Jian for a while and also invited Liu Dachun and Fei Maotui over.

  At the dinner table, Lü Feng asked: "Song Jian, you'd better tell me quickly, what was the reason for your first purchase of that pile of lizard skin? I can see that although those few pieces of lizard skin are rare, their medicinal value is absolutely not worth 300,000."

  Song Jian shook his head, "Lü old brother, you are even worse than me in medical skills. The effect of gecko skin on wound healing is very good. Do you know the famous wound-healing holy medicine 'Seven Li Powder'? The skin used in it is actually elephant skin, but in fact, using gecko skin has a better effect. What's more, it's the Komodo dragon, which doubles the effect."

  "Oh, I see, haha, come on, let's have a drink. Hey, shall we call a few princesses to join us for drinks?" Lü Feng laughed and said.

  "Alright, alright."

  Liu Dachun's face turned red, Song Jian just smiled and didn't refuse.

  Four hostesses arrived soon, each sitting next to one of them. After dinner and drinks, Song Jian found Liu Dachun and told him that they would set off tonight and leave Mozhou, sending those medicinal materials back to Suzhou City. That's a cargo worth over 20 million yuan, it's better to be safer.

  Liu Dachun said he understood that at night, he quietly got up and pulled his flying legs. The two of them drove away from Mo Zhou on the highway and returned to Gusu.

  Song Jian lay on the bed, but his mind was thinking about that brown lizard skin. He knew it wasn't an ordinary lizard skin, but the skin of a Jiao Chui recorded in the "Shanggu True Man Book". It's just that the Jiao Chui was obviously underage, so it would be easily hunted down. A grown-up Jiao Chui comes and goes like the wind, and can split lions and tigers, which is not something ordinary people can hunt.

  The skin of the gecko is listed as a medium-grade medicinal material in the "Shanggu True Man Book"!

  "If I can just get three more stalks of Ice Ginseng, my body will be fully restored," Song Jian thought to himself before drifting off to sleep.