"Everyone seems to be impatient, so I won't delay the results. Mei Hua's pill retained 85% of the medicinal essence."
All the people present, including Zhuge Si and Cao Yun were surprised. It was a good result in theory, but for Mei Hua, it was terrible. Even after her sister's wounds, she had been able to create a 87% Frozen Heart pill. Cao Yun realized to what extent she had been distressed by this duel. After that, he really needed to tell her everything in detail.
Zhuge Si had known from the start that it was going to be a problem. If only he knew beforehand that they had a close relationship, he would have chosen someone else. By trying to ensure the victory, he had endangered it. Nevertheless, Cao Yun's result could still be lower, nothing was lost.
"Chen Guo's pill retained 86% of the medicinal essence."
There was a long silence, followed by powerful cheers. Cao Yun was the black horse in the competition. And these last few days, he had forced the Dragon's Fire Faction to lower their price. So even though their respective faction leaders had asked them to make things mildly difficult for him and despite the good reputation of Mei Hua, many people were rooting for him.
Zhuge Si could not accept this ruling. "Instructor Meng, the gap is so small between the two, are you sure about theses results?"
Everyone froze. Zhuge Si was implicitly accusing an instructor of cheating.
"What are you getting at, Junior?! Do you think my senses are bad?!"
"No, Instructor, I wouldn't dare. But you seem really tired, so maybe you misjudged by a very small margin."
Meng Jia finally opened his eyes in full and stood up with much energy. Everyone around him felt as if they were only ants in a gigantic jungle and a huge tree just shook above them. Zhuge Si almost fell to his knees. Meng Jia was a 7th-grade Mortal Warrior, ready to cross over to Spirit Warrior anytime soon. His mere presence was enough to intimidate even the inner disciples here.
"If you doubt me, would you also doubt Guest Elder Xiao, Miss Mei's own master?"
"Instructor, I'm sorry if my words have offended you. But I don't think it would be proper to waste Guest Elder Xiao's time for such a matter..."
Before Zhuge Si could finish his sentence, a beautiful voice alleviated the pressure from Meng Jia. All the disciples affected were feeling refreshed and protected from this violent jungle. Zhuge Si was the only one in turmoil. As he looked up, he saw Xiao Xuefeng descending from the sky.
"Is a junior like you allowed to choose what's a waste of my time?"
"No, Guest Elder Xiao. I misspoke!" Zhue Si literally fell to his knees and kowtowed to her.
All the disciples cupped their fists and bowed. "This junior pays his respect to Guest Elder Xiao." Not only was she a guest elder, she was one of the best alchemists in the entire Hongchen Kingdom.
"You doubted my junior's eyes, but do you dare doubt mine?!"
"No, Guest Elder Xiao, never!"
The two pills flew into her hands. "My disciple is indeed extraordinary, but today some bad news plagued her mind and she only achieved such a mediocre level of 85%. On the other hand, Chen Guo is only a novice and yet he was able to achieve 86% for this difficult pill. This is Chen Guo's win!"
Now that Xiao Xuefeng had spoken, no one would even dare to doubt it.
"Master, I'm sorry, this disciple has been unfilial." Mei Hua had thrown away the face of her master by failing today, but she couldn't bring herself to compete with Cao Yun.
As she was crumbling before her master, she heard both her voice and her telepathic message at the same time.
"Mei Hua, it's not a shame to lose your focus from time to time. You're still young and inexperienced. No alchemist under the Human rank can best your alchemy. You just need to focus a little more on your mind and this Frozen Heart pill will be perfect for that."
But in her mind, what she heard was different. "I know that you suspected something nefarious against your friend. Stay assured that as long as I'm within this sect, I won't let anything bad happen to you and those you are close with. I don't think you shamed me today. The Dragon's Fire Faction shamed me, not you."
Mei Hua controlled herself because she was almost crying in front of the crowd. "Thank you, Master."
Xiao Xuefeng then walked toward Cao Yun.
"Chen Guo, congratulations! I see that I wasn't wrong in appointing Meng Jia to guide you. I'm really looking forward to seeing you progress even more. It's really such a shame that you don't focus entirely on alchemy. But every cultivator must follow their own heart."
She chose her words carefully to make everyone here know that she had personally guided him toward Meng Jia. With this relationship, few people would dare try underhanded tactics against him. While she did so, she sent another telepathic message.
Zhuge Si was still kneeling on the ground. All of a sudden, he felt as if he was suffocating and he heard a sweet yet cruel voice. "If you hurt anyone from the Heavenly Swallow Faction ever again, the disciplinary pavilion won't even have time to get to you. And do not think that the absence of proof would stop me."
The Mortal Warrior was shaken to his core. He had not realized that Xiao Xuefeng cared for this boy as much as she did. He was lucky to be spared. A Spirit Warrior such as her could easily destroy him without leaving any trace. And even if she did, she was a proud genius of the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute, no one would dare offend her for some junior alchemist.
Zhuge Si who thought himself very smart got completely defeated. Unable to stand back up, the poor alchemist contemplated the ground. His only thoughts now were on how to coexist with his past enemies. But as low as he thought he was, even more bad news were coming his way.
"Zhuge Si. I won the competition, so remember your bet!"
He remembered! He had to publicly announce that they were now doing business with the Heavenly Swallow Faction. And anyone who would refuse to sell them anything would be shunned from any business with the Dragon's Fire Faction. Then, he had to put that on paper and have it ratified by the disciplinary pavilion.
He found enough strength to stand up and speak in front of the crowd. "My Dragon's Fire Faction admits its defeat. As per our agreement, this Praying Demon Pill is yours." He handed a small box over to Cao Yun and kept on talking. "And with everyone here as our witness, my faction officially declares that Heavenly Swallow is now an official business partner. If someone tries to disrespect this fine Wubei Merit Market by refusing to serve anyone from the Heavenly Swallow, it will be akin to slapping the Dragon's Fire Faction in the face!"
Now that he had lost, and with Xiao Xuefeng as deterrent, he only had one path. It was essential to turn an enemy into an ally. Cao Yun would keep on getting stronger and stronger, they had to have him by their side, even if he wasn't directly in their faction.
All this mess had started because they wanted to drive Cao Yun into a corner in order to coerce him into joining their faction. Now he had a deep grudge with them and the upper hand. However, even during the bet, he had given them an olive's branch as he had asked for a partnership. Cao Yun was not ready for an all-out war between them and Zhuge Si had understood his intentions.
"Junior Brother Chen, you really are a dragon among men. Our Dragon's Fire Faction is sincerely sad not to have you among us."
In the meantime, Mei Hua had asked the other members of the Heavenly Swallow what had lead to this duel. Learning what her own faction had done, she was enraged. Since the first day, she had joined this faction because it was focused on alchemy. But being the direct disciple of Xiao Xuefeng made this faction pretty useless to her. As a matter of fact, she gave them more benefits than she could receive.
"Senior Zhuge. This junior has dishonored the good name of the Dragon's Fire Faction. I no longer have the face to come back to the faction residence. Please, allow me to resign." Trying to sugarcoat her disgust of his actions, Mei Hua announced her decision loud enough so that everyone here could hear.
After losing all possibilities of having Cao Yun join them, they were now losing the best alchemist under the Mortal Warrior realm. Zhuge Si had brought many benefits to the faction over the years, but a bad judgment was really too costly.
"Sister Mei, please, think about it. As you did not dishonor your master, you did not dishonor our faction. Faction Leader Wen will not find you responsible of any fault. Moreover, remember. You need 400 points to leave our faction, this is not a small sum."
Mei Hua had used all her time to train under Xiao Xuefeng, thus she had won no point at all.
"Oh? 400 points?" Hearing Cao Yun's voice, Zhuge Si was expecting the worst. Was he going to gift all his points to her? No, as a fighter, he really needed these points to have access to all kinds of formations. "I happen to have an unfinished business right now."
Cao Yun turned toward the inner disciples who were his customers. "Dear customers, I did not forget about our agreement. Here are the three True Essence Low-Level Qi Gathering Pills I promised to you."
"Thank you, friend. I knew that you would not forget us. My friend is surely someone who keeps his word."
"But, I also have some news for you, dear customers. It seems that I was really lucky. As I was making a new batch of ten pills, half of them turned out to be True Essence."
"What?! Five more True Essence pills?" Everyone was shocked. Even Xiao Xuefeng was wondering how lucky this little guy was. Then she remembered that he was refining as though he could see the inside of his cauldron. Was it possible that he had spiritual senses as a Mortal? No, she focused all her senses on him and she felt nothing. Then, it meant that his mind was strong and focused enough that he was able to mimic such senses.
"If you were so nice as to buy them from me, I'm ready to sell all of them to you exclusively."
"Thank you, friend, thank you. Of course we buy!"
As he received all the papers, he had now 400 points in contract, for eight True Essence pills. Putting them in order, he walked to Zhuge Si and handed them to him.
"I think this will be enough."
"Brother Chen, I can't accept that you pay for me."
"Sister Mei, do not be like me and learn to accept a gift." She seemed to have the same bad habit of instinctively refusing any gift before accepting it in the end.
Zhuge Si was cornered. "Brother Chen, no need for such vulgarity. Miss Mei is not an object that can be bought. If she wants to leave our faction, this is our loss. Miss Mei is free to do so if she pleases. I was just trying to get her to reconsider as she is such a great alchemist." Fighting a lost battle was stupid, Zhuge Si could use this loss as an opportunity to show his good will. "Brother Chen, you earned these points through your talent, it's normal for you to keep it."
"Oh?! Then I will thank Senior Zhuge. Please tell Senior Wen that our Heavenly Swallow Faction will send someone to negotiate the fine prints of our contract later in the evening."
"Of course, Brother Chen, we'll gladly listen to your proposals."
Zhuge Si gladly took his leave. He was too embarrassed to stay here and too afraid to be in the presence of Xiao Xuefeng.
Meng Jia, who had been more active during a few seconds than for the entire decade, fell back in his usual position. "I got a bit too excited. I'll go back to sl... to work. I'll go back to work."
Finally, the crowd dispersed as Xiao Xuefeng flew away.
-
"Faction Leader, I know this will not compensate the danger I brought to your Heavenly Swallow, but please take theses 400 points for the faction."
"How many points do you have right now?"
"621."
"Then we'll do things this way. Keep enough to get to 800 points, our sect will take the rest. Since you established such a good deal with the Dragon's Fire Faction, we'll be able to sell our ingredients in the Wubei Merit Market. And I'm sure, you'll also give us a lot of benefits by selling pills, right?"
"Faction Leader, even though alchemy is not my main occupation, I will make some pills for the good of our faction."
"And I will too!"
"Sister Mei?"
"I have no more faction now. So I would like to join yours. Will Senior Zhi accept someone who so easily left her own faction?"
"Junior Sister, what are you talking about? It will be our honor to have such a distinguished alchemist among us. I only fear that our Heavenly Swallow Faction is too small for a phoenix like you."
On the side, Zhao Fei, Zhao Lin and Ling Hui were all speechless. Since the intervention of Meng Jia and then Xiao Xuefeng, they thought they were in a dream. Even Ling Hui who was so vocal against Cao Yun, looked at him as though he was from another world, in a good way now.
"Faction Leader, I also happen to have some Pure Low-Level Qi Gathering Pills. To redeem myself, I will gift them all to the faction. I hope Faction Leader can use them well."
This time he was not stingy with his pills and gave all eleven pills he had left.
This business was very lucrative. In a month, he had gone from 283 points to 800 points. Now he could go to the Howling Crane Gorges two hours a month, which meant he could go back once more before the end of the month.
He also got the Praying Demon Pill and had greatly improved his alchemy. So as to keep the price of his pills high, he would make only one batch by week. He could probably have between 5 to 10 True Essence pills each time. In a month, that would earn their faction an average of about 1100 points after subtracting the commission of the Dragon's Fire Faction who would sell them. Neither Cao Yun nor Mei Hua had any time to lose being merchants, neither any of the other members.
What Cao Yun did not consider was the cost of the ingredients. The Low-Level Qi Gathering Pill was the cheapest pill to make, and thus produced great profits. But some pills like the Frozen Heart pill were way more costly. Even the richest faction in the sect was always balancing income and expenditures. To gain money in this business, you really needed to spend a lot.