Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
If Lu Qingxuan was skeptical of Chu Yunfan’s abilities in the beginning, she no longer had any doubts about him now.
Thus, they began discussing his price so that he could start working.
“I researched the price at the black market earlier, and Body Refining Pill costs around 100,000 coins. You want a hundred, so I’ll do the math for you. How about one million coins?” Chu Yunfan asked.
The price was half that of what it would cost to get a regular alchemist to refine the pills.
That was the price offered at the black market. Those who looked for an alchemist at the black market were either like Lu Qingxuan, who had no other options, or they were looking to refine some rather unique medicinal pills. They basically wanted a lower price.
The black market would not be so enticing if it was expensive. After all, legal alchemists were more reliable as they had the Alchemist Association supporting them.
Most of the alchemists who looked for business at the talent black market had no license. Apart from making money, they wanted to practice.
Even if one was talented, it was impossible that they would master the medicinal pill refinement techniques without experience.
In turn, alchemy training cost a lot of money. Unless one joined a big group or faction and got them to pay for their training, they would need to find ways to pay for it themselves.
Although the Body Refining Pill was not considered an advanced medicinal pill, the herbs would cost tens of thousands of coins. One would need to invest at least several million to be able to master refining it.
If one wanted to take the test to become an official alchemist, then they would need to master more than just the Body Refining Pill. The investment was terrifying when one thought about it.
That was the real reason why so many alchemists would go to the talent black market.
The beginning stage for an alchemist was purely consumption of materials, but improved as they became more adept.
When one became an alchemy trainee, they could handle the exhaustive process, and they could even sell the medicinal pills they refined.
Although the opportunities to make money increased significantly when one became an alchemy trainee, they would need to buy more herbs to practice refining other medicinal pills if they wanted to improve further. That would be another huge sum of money.
When an alchemy trainee became an official alchemist, that was when things truly turned profitable.
It was a piece of cake for the official alchemists to have a net worth of tens of millions of coins. Although their expenses for regular alchemy were huge, they could still make a profit out of their profession.
Because of this, Chu Yunfan was not worried about his sister Chu Qingxuan’s illness. For a person with a normal job, it was an impossible mission to pay the ten million coins it could cost to treat congenital gene defects.
However, with the Alchemy Emperor’s memories, it was not a difficult goal for Chu Yunfan.
As soon as he managed to seal this deal, he would have the money to refine the Qi Nourishment Pills.
However, Lu Qingxuan’s expression looked rather embarrassed as soon as Chu Yunfan was done speaking.
“M-Master, I’m sure you can tell that my company isn’t doing well. We used all of the company’s capital to purchase this batch of herbs. The deadline is tomorrow. To be honest, if I didn’t meet you today, I might have been bankrupt by then!” Lu Qingxuan could no longer be subtle as she talked about this.
In reality, all of the company’s funds were invested in this.
Indeed, Chu Yunfan had a feeling that he was being tricked. He considered just leaving right away, but after thinking about it for a moment, he chose not to in the end. If he did not make a deal with Lu Qingxuan, whether anyone would give him a chance aside, such a big sale would rarely come his way again.
It could be worth up to a million coins to him.
“It’s fine if you can’t pay me cash now, but we’ll need a contract!” Chu Yunfan declared.
If they were doing business at the black market, they would usually not sign a contract, as they would deal with cash instead.
However, if one could not pay cash right away, they would definitely need to come up with a contract.
“Sure, no problem. Thank you so much, master!”
Lu Qingxuan felt as if she was on an emotional rollercoaster. She was at the bottom and then was catapulted right to the peak.
If Chu Yunfan disagreed, she would really have to file for bankruptcy. There was nothing else that she could do.
One could say that the success or failure of the company her father founded would depend on Chu Yunfan’s decision.
“We’ll need to send the Body Refining Pills out tomorrow. According to the contract, the company that ordered the pills would transfer three million coins tomorrow. At that point, paying you a million coins won’t be a problem for me!” Lu Qingxuan said immediately.
At that moment, Chu Yunfan was her only hope, so she wanted to give him all the details.
“Sure, let’s sign the contract now. When you can, just transfer the money to my account!” Chu Yunfan said, “However, I’ll be spending most of the money on herbs and pill refinement. Could I purchase the materials to refine five Qi Nourishment Pills from you? Also, can I use your company’s alchemy lab?”
Chu Yunfan could feel how inconvenient it was to not have his own alchemy lab. It was very troublesome. If he did not borrow her lab, then he would have to go to the Alchemist Association again.
“Sure! Please help yourself, master!” Lu Qingxuan said immediately. At that moment, she was eager to butter up this master before her. It did not matter how young he looked.
Given that her company was in the medicinal pills and herbs business, they were eager to flatter alchemists.
With their skills, even if they fell out with a company, there would be other companies willing to take them in. Conversely, if her company was to fall out with alchemists, the consequences would be severe.
Now that Chu Yunfan had shown his value, the price was merely lending him their alchemy lab. It was nothing at all. She might need his help again in the future.
Although Lu Qingxuan had guessed that Chu Yunfan was young, she was still shocked when they showed their IDs during the contract signing.
“Master, you’re genuinely a high schooler!” Lu Qingxuan could not help but exclaim in shock.
However, she did not look down on Chu Yunfan despite him still being in high school. On the contrary, she looked up to him more. For a high schooler to be able to refine the Body Refining Pill was a miracle.
She had seen many talented people. She found those with a gift for alchemy to be attractive too, not just those skilled in Martial Dao. Since she was in this industry, she would definitely pay attention to people like him. She had never heard of anyone called Chu Yunfan, let alone someone who could easily refine the Body Refining Pill when he was so young.
Clearly, he did not refine by mistake or luck and was truly capable.
He was obviously a talented young alchemist.
One could only say that there were just too many hidden talents in the world. Not only those in the limelight were gifted.
“Do you have any questions about this?” Chu Yunfan asked as he read the words in the digital contract.
After confirming everything was fine, a copy of the contract would be uploaded to the virtual network as a copy.
If it was a more important contract, the contract would even be printed out to be signed on paper. However, it was not the regular paper used in the Common Era, but a special paper that would not rot even hundreds of years later if one was to preserve it properly.
It was the advantage of the explosion in technological advancement after the disaster.
“No, no!” Lu Qingxuan said immediately while shaking her head, worried that Chu Yunfan would backout.
After both of them signed the contract, Chu Yunfan began to refine the medicinal pills.
Refining a hundred medicinal pills was undoubtedly a big project. It was huge even with the Alchemy Emperor’s memories.
He had to guarantee that he would not make any mistakes each time. If he made a mistake, he would waste one to two hours of his time and effort.
The biggest reason modern medicinal pills were expensive was that they could not be mass-produced. A regular intermediate-level alchemy trainee could only refine one Body Refining Pill at most each time.
Even if they had a perfect rate of success, it would require a couple of days to refine a hundred of them.
Including time for rest, failures, and other factors, even two intermediate-level alchemy trainees would need at least a month to refine a hundred Body Refining Pills.
As it was, Chu Yunfan impressed Lu Qingxuan with what he did next. She was surprised because a regular intermediate-level alchemy trainee could only refine one Body Refining Pill at the same time.
On the other hand, Chu Yunfan could refine five simultaneously. When he did that in the beginning, she thought he was out of his mind, but she soon realized that she was wrong. Just because she thought it was impossible did not mean Chu Yunfan could not do it.
He was the opposite of what one expected, as if he existed just to turn her perceptions around completely.
The first time, Chu Yunfan was worried that he would fail if he refined multiple Body Refining Pills. He only limited himself because he was worried he would waste time and herbs. Otherwise, he could refine even more at the same time.
After all, he had the Alchemy Emperor’s memories. If the Alchemy Emperor was there himself, it was a piece of cake for him to refine 50 at once, leave alone five. There was still a huge disparity between them. Experience was not the only problem.
By the time Chu Yunfan had refined a hundred Body Refining Pills, it was already afternoon the next day.
In order to refine the hundred Body Refining Pills, he asked Liu Yushu for a day off. He also called home to explain himself before he began to focus on pill refinement.
It had taken 20 hours and he did not dare to rest the whole time and was exhausted in the end. He had completed the pill refinement, so he would let Lu Qingxuan do the rest. All he had to do now was to receive the money for the pill refinement.
He did not have to rest for too long. He merely meditated for a little while. When he recovered some of his strength, he headed to the Liu residence to give tips on Devilish Tiger Punch cultivation to Liu Yushu.
Meanwhile, it was the next morning when his bank reminded him that 700,000 coins had been transferred to his account.. Lu Qingxuan transferred him the money as promised.