William King showed a troubled expression to Henry Carter, then turned to the shopkeeper and said, “I... I need six taels to be enough, you...”

The shopkeeper snorted, “Not a single coin more.”

Henry Carter tugged at William King and said, “Let’s take this cold-year grass to the medicine hall and sell it.”

William King hesitated slightly.

The shopkeeper finally changed his expression a little and said, “I’ll give you four taels.”

Henry Carter pulled William King and walked out.

“Five taels!”

“Six taels!”

“I’ll give eight taels of silver!”

Behind them, the shopkeeper saw the two of them determined to leave, so he kept raising the price.

William King looked tempted and wanted to go back.

Henry Carter held him back and said, “This cold-year grass is a money tree. The leaves it produces every month, if you take it somewhere else and get a fair price, are enough for you to live on. Why do you want to sell it?”

William King lowered his head a little and said sheepishly, “I... I want to get married.”

Henry Carter stiffened slightly.

William King grinned foolishly and said, “My fiancée’s family... they want six taels of silver.”

Henry Carter pondered for a moment and said, “Just that is six taels? What about the rest? Like the betrothal gift, the banquet—don’t those cost money too?”

William King was startled, “That...”

“I’ll give you ten taels.” Henry Carter sighed softly, took out his money pouch, and, while no one was looking, stuffed it into William King’s hand, saying, “Don’t show your wealth. Keep it safe.”

William King was overjoyed, looked at Henry Carter with tears of gratitude, and could barely speak.

Henry Carter shook his head slightly and said, “Actually, this plant could sell for thirty taels of silver in a big city, but in this small town, ten taels is about the most you’ll get. No one will offer much more. To be honest, I’m still getting a bargain buying it from you for ten taels.”

“No worries, no worries.”

William King grinned widely and said, “As long as you think it’s worth it, I... I’m happy.”

Henry Carter couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Let’s go back.”

William King nodded quickly, stuffed the cold-year grass into Henry Carter’s arms, and ran home.

Holding the plant, Henry Carter for some reason suddenly remembered something.

“Probably just a rumor.”

It’s said that if you let cold-year grass grow for ten years without picking its leaves, it will accumulate ten years’ worth of potency. Such astonishing cold-year grass leaves are said to be worth several taels of silver each.

But cold-year grass is indeed hard to cultivate; usually, it only survives eight or nine years at most.

What’s more, you can get a small sum every seven days. For ordinary people, that’s quite considerable—who could resist the temptation and not touch it for ten years?

It’s said that if it’s less than ten years, the leaves are just like ordinary cold-light grass leaves. Even if it’s grown for nine years and eleven months, it doesn’t count. If anything goes wrong with the cold-light grass, all previous efforts are wasted, and even if the leaves are several years old, each is still worth only two coins.

Only after a full ten years does it become extraordinary.

Medical books do mention ten-year-old cold-year grass, and even briefly mention “century-old cold-year grass,” but only in passing.

“Thinking too much.”

Henry Carter thought for a moment, then chuckled and headed back toward the temple.

As he walked, his expression changed slightly.

Someone was following him.

Since taking the spiritual water from the jade pill, Henry Carter’s hearing and vision had become sharp, and his intuition was extremely keen. He sensed someone behind him, so he closed his eyes and listened carefully.

Sure enough, there were footsteps behind him. Although the person tried to muffle their steps, Henry Carter still heard them.

He tensed up a little. By now, he had left the city, and there weren’t many people on the main road.

So he hugged the cold-year grass and took a side path.

That path led to a small hill.

Usually, people cut grass and firewood from this hill to take home and burn.

Branches were scattered all over the hill.

Chapter 010: Swordsmanship

James Lincoln was a local thug, always hanging out with a gang of ruffians, causing trouble and committing all sorts of misdeeds. Not to mention knocking on widows’ doors at night or harassing young wives—just the extortion alone had been done many times. Any family with some money had been blackmailed by this group, with few exceptions.

This time, James Lincoln followed Henry Carter, aiming for those ten-plus taels of silver, and wanting to see if Henry Carter had any more money on him.

Ten taels of silver was no small sum.

James Lincoln was burning with greed and didn’t call his gang, lest he’d have to share the loot. He intended to take all the silver for himself. As for Henry Carter, this fair-skinned, delicate-looking kid, he figured one punch would settle it—nothing could go wrong.

He rubbed his hands together, grinning, which pulled at the scar by his eye.

That scar was from being beaten while extorting a pastry shop years ago. Later, he gathered a dozen men, smashed up the shop, and even dragged the shopkeeper’s young daughter to the riverside, where they abused her and then hanged her from a tree.

As for the constables, they’d become as familiar as brothers after a few rounds of drinks and some dirty money. The murder case was simply dropped.

Henry Carter walked ahead, holding the cold-year grass, up a dirt slope, and finally stopped.

He stopped only because there was a half-chopped tree on the slope, with a few branches underneath.