Gu Zuo was only a teenager. His biggest wish was just to return to the modern era to watch over his dad. He didn't have any grand ambitions. However, now that he heard Tianheng's words, the waves in his heart were surging.
When the nest was upset, no egg would be left intact [1]. His borrowed ident.i.ty was a citizen of the Cangyun Empire. Although he didn't have any sense of belonging to the Cangyun Empire as his motherland, he also understood that he simply didn't know when he could go back to the modern era. The stronger the Cangyun Empire, the greater his advantages.
Since it was like this, then he would listen to Tianheng's words.
Merely…
Gu Zuo's face fell: “Big brother, the tons of Five Essence Pills needed for nurturing the martial artists will all have to be refined by me…”
It wouldn't be impossible, but the efficiencies weren't very high. Moreover, there were still many kinds of medicinal pills he needed to refine to help his big brother recuperate his health. It certainly wasn't worth it to spend all his time just to refine the Five Essence Pill.
Gongyi Tianheng couldn't help laughing: “How could that be possible?”
Gu Zuo blanked.
Tianheng appeased him: “This matter is very troublesome, and there are several other Clans who are eyeing this pill covetously. If it was only based on my strength at hand, I'm afraid that I won't be able to give you the protection you need. The Five Essence Pill is beneficial to the Cangyun Empire. Even though the profits aren't as enormous as the other medicinal pills, compared to the Gongyi Clan's pills of the past, the profits are still quite successful. I intend to present this prescription to the Gongyi Clan so that the Clan's pharmacists can try and refine it.
“Even thought the current pill refining methods of the Tianwu Continent can only produce low grade pills, there also isn't any harm in doing this. When the time comes that spears start stabbing the Clan in the back, you will be able to escape from within more easily.”
After he said this, he paused for a bit, “Merely, the prescription will be handed over to the Clan. Ah Zuo, are you willing to do this?”
Ah Zuo shook his head: “Of course I'm willing. I have tons of prescriptions. So long as big bother has made up his mind, then it's fine.”
On the contrary, he was thankful in his heart, “But if it's like this, won't it affect the Gongyi Clan?”
Tianheng said: “It's not important. The other Clans wouldn't dare take it by force. Also, father and mother definitely wouldn't speak out of turn. Although the Gongyi Clan is merely a single household, if the other Clans dared to make a big fuss, the royal family wouldn't simply sit around and do nothing. My Gongyi Clan has never formed an alliance with the other Clans, so the royal family still needs my Gongyi Clan to keep the other four Clans in check.”
Gu Zuo felt rea.s.sured.
Tianheng smiled again: “However, I wouldn't let Ah Zuo suffer any losses. Today that place has been selling only low grade Five Essence Pills. With this continent's standards, I'm afraid that they might not necessarily be able to refine mid grade pills. While we can still get a cut of the profits from the Clan, any of those Families that have greater needs can place their orders for mid grade pills with us. As a result, the quant.i.ties of mid grade pills won't be many, but it also won't leave Ah Zuo exhausted. The price levels can also be raised several times over.”
Gu Zuo gave Tianheng a thumbs up in his mind, and said: “Big brother's words are reasonable.”
Thus, the two cheerfully made their decision.
Once they said they'd do it, they did it. Tianheng quickly handed the prescription over to the Clan Head, his father Gongyi Yan. And although Gongyi Yan was the Clan Head, he didn't want to deprive what was part of his eldest son's benefits. After he cautiously asked him about it, Gongyi Tianheng talked with his father about the matter of the Hundred Countries Tournament. Beneath the surging emotions in his heart, Gongyi Yan still gave his consent.
Afterwards, this prescription set off huge waves in the Gongyi Clan.
The Gongyi Clan was well-informed about the matters concerning the precious medicinal pills in Medicine of Life. Each person of the main branch was quick to find out. Although they were incomparably envious, they understood that the prescription certainly belonged to Gongyi Tianheng alone. His own potential was limitless and it restrained people from acting out. They didn't dare take it by force.
No one expected Tianheng to offer the prescription for the benefit of the Clan. This in turn evoked feelings of admiration in many of the Clan members. They felt that in the days to come, although their younger generations wouldn't have the qualifications to compete for the position of Clan Head, they were still very willing. And under Gongyi Tianheng's lead, the Clan would certainly keep moving forward.
With these comparisons, the Five Essence Pill was even more precious than the Snowy Ginseng Pill. Since Tianheng handed over the Five Essence Pill, it was even less likely for someone to scheme over the Snowy Ginseng Pill.
As for the Snowy Ginseng Pill, one cauldron could produce a set of sixteen pills. When Gu Zuo used the large pill cauldron, he could refine three sets in five minutes. In barely an hour, he could refine twelve cauldrons, which was five hundred seventy six pills. He only needed one or two hours each day for refining, which was enough to supply Medicine of Life. On the contrary, he didn't need others to share the burden. Yet, when it came to the Snowy Ginseng Pill's benefits, it still was much more successful than the Five Essence Pill.
Between all these different kinds of medicinal pills, Gongyi Tianheng was already clear about his plans long ago.
Once Gu Zuo slowly came to understand, he felt even more at ease.
As expected, his big brother was still protecting him very well. His choice for this person to be his guardian couldn't have been more correct.
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After the Gongyi Clan began refining, they discovered that it wasn't easy to refine the Five Essence Pill. Although low level pharmacists claimed they were worthy of this medicinal pill's workmanship, their pill refining success rates were really too low and the production costs were too high. Afterwards, the Gongyi Clan simply hired mid level pharmacists to undertake the task. Suddenly, there were big improvements.
Not long after, the sales of the Five Essence Pill stepped onto the right track.
From all the gold and silver obtained from Five Essence Pills, twenty percent of the profits were allocated to Tianheng, who offered the prescription. As Tianheng didn't lack money, he waved his large hand and directly transferred the cut of the profits to Gu Zuo's personal account.
In addition, Gu Zuo had refined mid grade Five Essence Pills, which Tianheng saved up. He instructed Dragon One that if the pills were to be sold one day, the same twenty percent would be transferred to Gu Zuo's account.
Naturally, Gu Zuo still didn't know anything about these matters. As for Tianheng, he unexpectedly took delight in mischief and definitely wouldn't tell Gu Zuo about this. He thought about waiting till one day in the future. If his little pharmacist found out about it, just what kind of expression would he show? It would certainly be very interesting.
The matters here were completed. Gongyi Tianheng bid farewell to his parents and close relatives, and brought Gu Zuo back to the villa's interior.
It wasn't like the clan members of the ancestral residence didn't put all their effort in urging them to stay. After all, today wasn't like the days of the past. Tianheng's strength was obvious to one and all. It was only natural for them to hope that he could remain in the ancestral residence to provide guidance to future martial artists.
However, once Gongyi Yan privately divulged the secrets of the Hundred Countries Tournament to several high status elders, each person of the main branch finally gave in.
Contributing to the empire's strength was naturally more important. They couldn't keep him solely to themselves, so they left Tianheng alone.
Thus, Gongyi Tianheng and Gu Zuo resumed their lives at the villa.
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In the blink of an eye, several months pa.s.sed.
Gu Zuo opened his mouth to expel a cloud of turbid gas. The cloud engulfed a stone directly in front of him, creating a puffing sound.
His time these days weren't wasted. Now, he already condensed his Houtian realm's seventy two Earthly Fiend bone pearls. This caused the qi flow in his entire body to connect perfectly. His meridians were unimpeded, and his flesh from head to toe had become incomparably pure and clean.
If it was based on the ranks of martial artists, the current him was a Meridian Condensing stage three perfect-grade.
Gu Zuo sighed.
His flesh was purer than the average martial artist. In addition, after every time he cultivated, he would still be able to expel turbid gases — One must know that an ordinary martial artist wasn't capable of doing this. It could be a.s.sumed that it was due to his frequent absorption of medicinal qi. Even the tiniest impurities were incapable of coexisting with the medicinal qi inside his body.
As for no longer having to expel the turbid gases and so on, it was only when his true qi realm reached Xiantian would he be capable of achieving this.
Merely, the improvements of his flesh was a trivial matter.
To Gu Zuo, besides making him clean inside and out, the promotion of his true qi realm would raise his body's inner qualities. This would allow his physical body to persist longer when pill refining.
What he genuinely cared about was increasing his martial strength and improving his psychic power.
Presently, he was very skilled in practicing his Spirit Piercing Needle's second step.
His current psychic power had doubled once more. He already could fire twenty silver drills or seven hundred twenty silver needles. At the same time, his strength had also doubled.
Under his psychic power's protection, his self-confidence was even greater. Although he still didn't have the decisiveness to strike someone down like this world's martial artists, his courage had gotten a little bigger.
At the minimum, even if he was surrounded by several Meridian Condensing martial artists, he didn't feel he would definitely die. At least he could use his psychic power to ruthlessly bombard them and give himself a little more time to escape, right?
If his luck was good, the willpower of those martial artists wouldn't be too resolute. They would instantly be turned into idiots in the explosions. At that time, he would have a higher chance of getting out of danger.
Once he carefully counted all his trump cards in his mind, Gu Zuo happily stood up and ended today's cultivation.
Nowadays, the requirement of thirty strands of medicinal qi every month wasn't difficult for Gu Zuo. And although the amounts of medicinal qi he needed had increased by ten times, the rate he refined medicine was also very high. His storage s.p.a.ce still contained innumerable floating strands of medicinal qi. Even if he stopped refining medicine for a while, he could still continue maintaining his cultivation.
Gu Zuo strived even harder.
He felt that being prepared was everything.
After making the best preparations, no matter what happened, he could respond in some way.
While he thought about this, Gu Zuo walked over to the study.
At that moment, Tianheng was working behind the desk — To be precise, Dragon One was on the side giving an accounting report, which allowed Tianheng to conduct a simple audit. He was in full control of the situation.
Once he saw Gu Zuo, Tianheng gently asked: “Has Ah Zuo made any progress?”
Gu Zuo was unable to restrain his happiness: “It's perfect [2]! Twenty silver drills!”
Tianheng heard this and his eyes reflected a smiling expression: “Very good. Ah Zuo's self-defense capabilities are now on another level.”
It was only natural that as Gu Zuo nodded his head, he noticed the pile of accounts. He was a bit curious: “Big brother, how are the sales of our Ageless Pill?”
Within the past few months, the medicinal herbs of the Ageless Pill had already been gathered up. After Gu Zuo made his attempts, he quickly began refining. Because the first ones weren't done skillfully, they were divided into four grades.
As before, Gu Zuo set aside the top grade pills… Indeed! This kind of top grade pill wouldn't be of use to his dear big brother. Perhaps it could still be useful to others?
Currently, the low grade Ageless Pill could preserve one's countenance for five years; the mid grade pill for ten years; the high grade pill for twenty years. This was already good enough.
After all, this was a consumable product.
Gongyi Tianheng smiled: “Sure enough, it's as you say. A woman's money makes the best profit. Currently, the money we've received is more than one hundred-fold.”
Based on what was seen on the accounts, the Ageless Pills were really being sold like crazy. It could be said that the moment they were put on the shelves, they would be swept clean!
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[1] 覆巢之下无完卵 - Fu chao zhi xia wu wan luan, when one falls in disgrace, the whole family is doomed.
[2] The characters used here 大圆满 are the same used for “perfect-grade.” I may have to change this term, but I haven't fully settled on a proper translation term.
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