Cave Refuge-Chapter 235 - 233 Drug Trade_1

When the outdoor temperature returned to normal, although the price of grain was much higher than before the disaster, it had significantly dropped compared to during the disaster period.

Regardless of the price of grain, there’s no doubt about its importance. Despite the expansion of the cave mansion, with areas suitable for farming, it doesn’t have a feature to accelerate plant growth, or carry out automatic seeding and harvesting.

For now, inside the cave mansion, Dong Tianyu only maintains a small nursery to keep the seeds from losing their viability, with no additional setup for extensive farming.

On the large vacant land, Dong Tianyu simply sowed grass seeds, allowing them to grow naturally, without any particular care for their cultivation.

Even though Dong Tianyu had reached the Foundation Building Stage, in a situation of farming activity alone, he still couldn’t compete with the efficiency of agricultural machinery.

On this note, Dong Tianyu felt a bit helpless. Pengcheng Heavy Industries, which produces industrial machinery such as forklifts, loaders, and tower cranes, did not venture into producing agricultural machinery.

Although there were certainly sellers of agricultural machinery in Pengcheng, Dong Tianyu did not know the locations of their stores and warehouses, so he hadn’t been able to acquire any agricultural machinery.

Though the Shadow Space had enough food to feed Dong Tianyu for hundreds of years, Dong Tianyu wasn’t willing to use it lightly for trading.

Aside from the importance of grain, this deal had a massive amount. If he were to execute the deal solely with grain, it would require a huge quantity.

Instead of depleting a large amount of grain, Dong Tianyu preferred trading rarities with a higher value and lesser quantity, such as antiques and art objects.

However, Dong Tianyu didn’t visit any museums during the disaster, hence, except for some smuggled antiques discovered in the Pengville Port containers, he did not possess any such items.

The owner of Peach Blossom Paradise seemed to have confidence in the post-disaster economic recovery, hence the procurement value of antiques, although significantly reduced, was not as low as it initially was.

Even though the purchasing power was higher back then, compared to now, it has just increased about a hundredfold at most.

Dong Tianyu, who lacks artistic bacteria, promptly moved the antiques from the Shadow Warehouse to the back carriage.

As there was a metal wall separating the front and back carriages, Dong Tianyu wasn’t worried about Mace discovering the secret of the Shadow Space.

Even though the value of the antiques had not been appraised, Dong Tianyu knew that solely using these antiques wouldn’t be enough. After mulling it over, he decided to take out various high-value medicines. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Due to the lack of pauses between consecutive disasters, even though Pengcheng is home to a renowned pharmaceutical company, it had not been able to resume production. Even in the official plans, no arrangements have been made for it yet.

It’s not that the officials are unaware of the importance of medicine, it’s just that fixing the manufacturing machines isn’t as simple as fixing car parts or geosource equipment – one cannot solely rely on manual labor, professional equipment is necessary.

A talented official might be capable of hand-making a nuclear bomb, but some components still require electronic equipment for their fabrication.

Simply put, if you sent a complex pure mechanical device back to ancient times, those craftsmen could copy it if they put in the effort, despite the enormous cost.

However, if you handed them a smartphone, the craftsmen, not understanding the principles behind it, could only replicate its appearance without being able to create a functioning copy.

This isn’t a matter of technology, but rather the accumulation of knowledge and the improvement of cognition.

It’s like the current situation with pharmaceutical factories; while some people know the entire operating process of the machine, and could manually manufacture the drugs, fixing the machine would require other electronic equipment. However, these devices also got damaged due to electromagnetic radiation and fixing them would need other devices, and so on.

It feels like a nesting doll situation, where everyone knows how to use and make a lathe machine, but to create one you’d have to create something else first.

If it had been the early days of the dynasty when all are thrive, the court would have spared no expense in manufacturing, but now, with uncertainties around the timing of the next disaster, people tend to hoard grain to assure survival.

Due to this, pharmaceutical prices remain staggeringly high. The more complex the manufacturing process of the general pharmaceutical, the higher the price. While those rare, specialty medications for uncommon illnesses, their prices aren’t as high.

As for why Dong Tianyu is willing to trade with drugs, being an immortal cultivator he is basically immune to common diseases. As for the people around him,

Whether it’s Walker Violet and Jasmine Anderson or the chosen few; Dong Tianyu has prepared for them Xuan Yin Body Forging Decisions, which are specialized for body cultivation. This will keep them far from severe illnesses even.

As for his parents, Dong Tianyu has also prepared them a simple method more suitable for the elderly, to maintain their health.

So medicines, which seem very important, to Dong Tianyu are practically pointless. Additionally, while pharmaceuticals have a long shelf life, they do have an expiration date.

If it were past the expiration date, then the price would further decrease. Moreover, unlike food, medicine can’t be sold without packaging. Therefore, dealing with it later would be rather troublesome.

Looking at the shelves, Dong Tianyu picked up the tablet once more. Even without using antiques, just thirty boxes of medicine could fulfill the price terms.

Mace was taken by surprise when he noticed that not only did Dong Tianyu not remove any pre-ordered items, he even added a few more.

Dong Tianyu purchased various flower seeds, also bought some transplantable bamboo shoots, and even acquired a nest of easy-to-raise earth bees.

Not only that, but he also increased the quantity of some livestock cubs, doing so until he had enough for the value of fifty boxes of medicine before stopping.

When he handed the tablet to Mace, he also neatly arranged medicine from the Shadow Space into the back carriage.

When Mace took the tablet from Dong Tianyu and saw that Dong Tianyu had chosen medicine as the trading item, he instantly understood why Dong Tianyu had added to his shopping list.

Mace guessed that Dong Tianyu probably planned to clear all the merchandise from his vehicle, which is why he added to his pre-order list.

However, at this moment, Mace looked troubled and hesitantly said to Dong Tianyu: "Brother Dong, the volume of this transaction is large, we need to inspect the goods first."