“Grandmaster Chen.”
When Chen Fan came to Yu Qin, she was accompanied by another elderly man. This old man looked to be in his eighties, but his eyes were sharp and glittered with wisdom. He wore a spiffy uniform with two stars on his shoulder badge.
“This is the Director of the Biology Research Institution, Mr. Ding Shanxue. A research fellow of the national research council.”
“You don’t seem to be surprised by my visit.” Chen Fan remarked.
“Grandmaster Chen dismissed the lab and other recent measures meant that you are about ready to negotiate with us.” Yu Qin said matter-of-fact-ly
She was wearing a tight-fitted uniform and a beret that brought out her exceptional curves. She batted her eyes as she locked her gaze on Chen Fan.
“That’s right, the Vitality Serum has been under development for a while. It is time for it to be introduced to the public now.”
To Chen Fan, the Vitality Serum was just a tool for growing Spirit Medicine, however, it meant a great deal more to the mortals and could boost the mortal world right into an Immortal Cultivation civilization. Whether that would happen or not still remains to be seen.
Even if that would happen one day, hundreds of years would have passed by, by then Chen Fan should have already left Earth.
“What did you do to those dismissed researchers?” Chen Fan asked curiously.
Starting a few months ago, when the stock solution was created, Chen Fan had sensed the presence of elite guards around the perimeter of the lab. Their military men had been disguised as school security guards. However, their overbearing demeanor and deadly intent in their eyes betrayed their identity. They were the elites of the elites and were very likely from special law enforcement units.
“We knew that Master Chen must have measures to prevent the secrets from being stolen, so we didn’t intervene. However, we couldn’t simply let them come and go as they please.” Yu Qin cracked a smirk and said,”We will detain those spies from America and Japan, not to harm them, but to use them to exchange for some of our men. Meanwhile, Aid International would have to pay a large ransom to get their researchers released. That being said, we also aware that we can’t stop new spies from coming in to steal your recipe, sooner or later they would get what they want.”
“Then they will realize that the recipe was entirely useless.” Chen Fan said with a shrug.
Yu Qin and Xue Jiao both smiled knowingly.
“That’s what confused us at first. We had repeated the same procedure countless times and failed to reproduce the same result!” Ding Shanxue suddenly put in.
“Is that because we had the wrong recipe or we had missed one or two steps?”
“Neither.” Chen Fan shook his head and asked: “Mr.Ding, what do you think is it that made Vitality Serum so extraordinary?”
“What made it extraordinary?” Ding Shanxue paused and then pondered a second, then he said: “It seems to contain mysterious energy that was intrinsically linked to the evolutionary force of the human body. It can improve physique, delay aging and boost the immune system. However, no modern testing methods could pinpoint what exactly had given the serum such effect. It was just a solution infused with yeast on the paper.”
“Indeed! The mysterious energy you mentioned; we call it Spirit Qi or Essence Qi.”
Chen Fan rose to his feet and padded back and forth in the room with his hands linked behind his back
“Essence Qi? Spirit Qi?” Everyone was perplexed by the names
“Spirit Qi is everywhere and nowhere. It existed in every molecule in the air, but no equipment would detect it. It might as well does not exist.”
Chen Fan closed his eyes and took a heavy breath. “However, a cultivator like me can feel the ebb and flow of this vast and powerful energy. The main goal of a cultivator is to learn to control this energy. ”
Even as Chen Fan spoke, two wispy tendrils of white mist came out from his nose. They twisted and twirled in the air like two mischievous willow o the-wisp. After a while, the two strands of mist retreated back into Chen Fan’s nose, stunning everyone who saw it.
Ding Shanxue nodded as if he had finally made some sense of Chen Fan’s explanation.
“The Biology Research Institution used to work alongside the military and conducted a slew of tests on Internal Force users. The test results suggested that there was an unknown type of energy within these martial artists breath and it was that energy that had given them superhuman strength. However, no matter how hard we tried, we can’t locate the source of the energy.”
“That is because your level of technology is too primitive. Only a society that has reached Galactic Civilization could have sensed the presence of Essence Qi.”
Chen Fan thought to himself.
Based on the inter-galactic traveling experience, he suspected that it would take the mortals on earth another two hundred years to detect the Essence Qi and another five hundred years for them to make use of the Essence Qi. However, even with the Super Soldiers they created using the Essence Qi, they were no match against other Immortal Cultivation civilizations that possessed countless Exalted Immortals within the nine Immortal Cultivation sects.
Chen Fan remained quiet and kept his thoughts unspoken.
The Vitality Serum was the most powerful thing he could use on earth with little to no consequences. Anything more powerful might have an adverse effect that was beyond Chen Fan’s control.
A good example of such powerful things were the basic art of Immortal Cultivation. If Chen Fan made it public, all nations would fight to the death to obtain it, risking another world war and encourage all kinds of unsavory acts such as assassinations and kidnapping. By then, Chen Fan was not sure if he could protect even himself, much less his loved ones.
“Let’s stay on the topic, what is your offer for the serum?” Chen Fan knocked on the table with his knuckle and asked.
“Depends on what is it you want?” Yu Qin pulled herself together and entered the negotiation mode. “My boss has given me the authority to make any deal with you, as long as it benefits both of us.”
Chen Fan gave Yu Qin a surprised look.
He realized that he had underestimated this attractive strategist.
She could not only overrule the decision of Hong Kong’s governor, and now she was given full authority to negotiate with him. Chen Fan wagered that the girl had many secrets that she had hidden from him. However, Chen Fan was pleased to negotiate with someone he already knew, it would save them a lot of time and back and forth.
“Let me be honest here, the vitality serum has many variants.” Chen Fan crossed his arms and said: “The one I showed you is the most basic version, also the most diluted. It can be further concentrated to create the Essence Version.”
“What will be the differences between the normal version and this Essence Version?” Yu Qin and Ding Shanxue asked as interest glittered in their eyes.
“The Essence Version is concentrated extracts of the normal one. It has three different kinds of basic variants: Double strength, triple strength, and Quintuple Strength.” Chen Fan said confidently. “There is only so much Vitality Serum one can use in a day but with the Essence Version, one can take in a few times more Essence Qi of Life.”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” Ding Shanxue nodded in agreement. “The amount of volume of serum one could use might be finite, but with a higher concentration of Essense Qi, one would get much more benefit. It was like the difference of eating a large bland bun and eating a slice of nutritious meat.”
“General Chen, can the Essence Version also be mass-produced?” Yu Qin hurried to ask.
“Of course.” Chen Fan nodded and said: “Based on my preliminary estimate, we should be able to meet the global market’s demand with the normal version, and double strength version can be sold in China only. The Triple strength and Quintuple Strength would only have enough for the military consumption.”
“What are the difference between the double strength and the Quintuple Strength?” Yu Qin asked curiously.
Chen Fan cracked a smile and didn’t reply to her right away. Instead, he turned around and looked to Ding Shanxue. “Mr. Ding had worked at the Research Institution, so I wager he has seen the Extraordinary Ones.”
“Ah, I think you meant the Super Humans.” Ding Shanxue nodded and said. “They called themselves the Extraordinary Ones but also prefer to be called Super Humans or Supernaturals”
“It’s the same.” Chen Fan said calmly. “Let it be Super Humans or Extraordinary Ones, their power was awoken after they were born. That awakening requires some kind of catalyst, such as the Vitality Serum. Quintuple Strength Vitality Serum would greatly increase the chance of awakening.”
“Really?”
Yu Qin shouted out her amazement.
Ding Shanxue, on the other hand, started to breathe heavily.
Only an academic authority in the Military’s Research Institute such as him would fully understand the weight of Chen Fan’s words.
The awakening of the Extraordinary Ones had been an international research hot topic for many years. Even during the cold war era, countless soldiers from America and Soviet Russia were sent to Biology Research Institutions to be tested by researchers in searching for a viable method of inducing awakening. However, after decades of research, and countless failed trials, let it be psychological stimulation, gene enhancement or physical stimulation, the problem remained unsolved. Yet, there and then, Chen Fan claimed that his serum would kick start the awakening process.
If Chen Fan was right, the serum would open many new doors to human society.
The current world had only a very few Extraordinary Ones and they spread all over the world. However, if a nation had the technology to force awaken Extraordinary Ones, there would be an army made up of super-soldiers very soon.
“It’s not as straightforward as you think.”
Seeing the two’s elated expressions, Chen Fan shook his head and gave them a dose of reality.” Based on my research, the normal serum could increase the chance of awakening by one ten-thousandth of a percent. The double-strength doubles that chance and the Triple strength times it by three. Since the chance was very small, it required a very long term use of the serum to take effect.”
“What about Quintuple Strength ?” Yu Qin asked curiously.
“One in every ten thousand.” Chen Fan answered lightly.
“One in ten thousand? That’s enough!” Ding Shanxue clapped his hands and exclaimed: “There are 1.3 billion people in China, and that means we would have a super-soldier army of a hundred and thirty thousand strong. We could have at least three hundred extraordinary ones in our hands if we consider only the population of the military.”
Ding Shanxue gave Chen Fan a greedy look and then asked.
“General Chen, what do you want in exchange for the Serum then?”