6 Cooperating with Big Sister Yang

Following that Gu Yan personally questioned Shen Yue on alchemy knowledge that an Alchemist Master should have, and Shen Yue smoothly answered most of his questions, as some of them seemed to be outside of a Primary Alchemist Master's bounds and Gu Yan seemed to be probing him.

Gradually Gu Yan's glance toward Shen Yue became more and more excited. Is he really just a thirteen year old kid? Without several decades of studies it's totally impossible to become a Primary Alchemy Master!

In just a few more years, the Alchemist Association would start to gradually decline. Very few are still willing to join the path of alchemy.

Gu Yan understood that this is wrong. The aid of elixirs to cultivation is huge. If there is no one left to refine elixirs in the future, then the martial path would also gradually decline.

It's been a long time since the Alchemist Association had any new generations, but they never thought that the day would come when they would have such a genius like Zheng Wei joining them. Seeing Zheng Wei's plain face and broad knowledge, Gu Yan suddenly felt that in the future the Alchemist Association will rise to a new height by the hands of Zheng Wei!

Yang Xin's eyes were filled with surprise. Those sexy red lips slightly opened and closed, her perky chest rising up and down. Listening in, she understood that despite the difference in their age Zheng Wei's Alchemy knowledge and insight was superior to her own, and she herself was praised as a genius since young.

"Little brother, may I inquire as to who your master is?" Gu Yan asked. To reach his frightening level in alchemy as a teenager Shen Yue would naturally need to have a master, just high intelligence and hard work is not enough.

"President Gu Yan, my master is someone from outside of Glory City. She traveled through the whole Divine Continent for many years and her knowledge is vast. However, she's focused on her cultivation and studies, and does not want to show herself," Shen Yue said.

Gu Yan and Yang Xin both stared at Shen Yue, wanting to find something out from Shen Yue's expression, but failed. Although he is just thirteen-fourteen years old, his calm posture made others unable to see through his lies - and that's because the words that Shen Yue used were the truth - in his mind he saw Goddess Yu Yan as his imaginary master and as his backer. He didn't have Nie Li's hundreds of years of experience, so the best way to lie for him was to mix truth and lies, and to twist his words.

Gu Yan nodded his head and said, "Since your respected master doesn't wish to show herself then it's fine. A great teacher brings us a brilliant student. With your talent, it isn't a problem if we grant you the title of Senior Alchemy Master! I hope that there will come a time where we could pay a visit to your respected master."

It's normal for some experts to be a hermit. Doesn't matter what kind of person that expert is. As long as she remains in Glory City, then for Glory City, it's a great fortune! Gu Yan has to report this matter to Lord Ye Mo and the City Lord immediately. Such a huge figure, if they had good relationships with her, it would be extremely great!

As for awarding Shen Yue the title of Senior Alchemy Master, it is equivalent to giving a favor to the expert behind him. Furthermore, Shen Yue's knowledge was quite vast, bordering on being an Intermediate Alchemy Master.

"Director Yang, bring him the books of Senior Alchemy Master, medal and robe!" Gu Yan decisively said.

"Yes!"

Yang Xin turned around and went to arrange these matters. Her heart was filled with amazement. A thirteen-fourteen year old Alchemy Master, this is the first in the whole history of the Alchemist Association!

"Wait!" Shen Yue called out, causing Yang Xin to halt her steps and look at him. He said, "Please give me a set for a Primary Alchemy Apprentice as well. I hope to keep a low profile if possible."

Gu Yan and Yang Xin were a little surprised, but then they understood.

"Alright. Naturally, we will help you to keep your identity a secret for your safety," Gu Yan said. He turned to Yang Xin. "Bring a set for a Primary Alchemy Apprentice as well."

"I understand!" Yang Xin hurried off.

While Yang Xin was away, Shen Yue and Gu Yan then made some small talk. Gu Yan probed information about Shen Yue's imaginary master and Shen Yue revealed a little bit, but not too much.

Soon Yang Xin brought two sets of books, badges and robes over.

"The robes might be a little too big for you. Wait for the new robes to be ready, I will personally send them to you. I wonder, where do you live?" Yang Xin looked at Shen Yue and asked.

Shen Yue said, "No need to send them. I will come to collect them myself."

Hearing Shen Yue's words, Yang Xin was a little stunned. Zheng Wei was indeed really secretive and cautious.

"I understand. Then you can come for them to my office in a few days," Yang Xin nodded in understanding.

Shen Yue then requested to talk with Director Yang about a few small matters and was led into her office.

...

Inside the Director's office.

Shen Yue and Yang Xin both sat down at a low table, on a comfortable soft sofa and an armchair respectively.

"Little brother, what did you want to talk about?" Yang Xin said, looking at Shen Yue. She was a bit curious as to what Zhang Wei wanted to talk about with her, but didn't share it with President Gu Yan. But it was probably about some small management matters.

"Sister Yang, can you excuse your assistant? I want to talk with you in private," Shen Yue said, as he comfortably sat in his armchair, his eyes drifting to Yang Xin's assistance.

Yang Xin turned toward her assistant. "Yong Gang, leave us for awhile."

"Okay!" Yong Gang didn't argue and politely left the room.

When the assistant left the office, Shen Yue waved his hand over his face and his face melted, turning him from a plain ordinary youth into a handsome teenager.

Upon seeing the drastic change in Shen Yue's appearance Yang Xin's was stunned.

Shen Yue didn't want Yang Xin's first impression of him to be that of an ugly person.

"Your name is not Zheng Wei either?" Yang Xin asked.

"No. My real name is Shen Yue. I'm the youngest young master of the Sacred Family," Shen Yue said.

As for Shen Yue being so cautious - his own father Shen Hong is colluding with a terrorist organization to take control of the city or destroy it, and he's very fond of using slavery seals to ensure loyalty of anyone capable and talented inside the family. Is there a need to be secretive? Fuck yes. Luckily Shen Hong thought that Shen Yue was useless enough that he didn't tell him anything about the Dark Guild and didn't plant soul shackles on him yet. Shen Yue only worried that his hot aunt Shen Xiu might have them.

Furthermore, there's also Nie Li - Shen Yue wasn't able to figure out a better fake identity in this short amount of time, so he chose a random very common name. He had no background, his name was very common and his face easily lost in the crowd; good look finding information on him.

Looking straight into Yang Xin's eyes, Shen Yue then asked, "Sister Yang, would you like to be the richest and most powerful woman in Glory City?"

Hearing these words coming from a fourteen year old in front of her, Yang Xin felt like smiling in amusement. However, Shen Yue's serious and confident attitude left her a little dumbfounded.

"My master knows several elixir formulas. They are the Soul Nurturing Pills, Soul Concentrating Pills, Soul Tempering Pills and Scarlet Body Enhancing Pills. As well as Cold Resistance Pills and many others," Shen Yue said, looking at Yang Xin.

Yang Xin blinked her eyes a few times. "Your master really has these formulas?"

"Of course." Shen Yue nodded his head. He smiled, saying, "Sister Yang, I'll repeat my question - do you want to be the richest woman in Glory City?"

At Shen Yue's confident words, Yang Xin's eyes widened, as she processed them, her chest started heaving up and down. The impact of all of these elixir formulas on Glory City and the path of alchemy could be huge! As she collected herself, she wrinkled her brows and asked, "Little brother, what do you mean by that?"

Shen Yue lightly smiled and said, "Sister Yang, you are an orphan and commoner. You rose to your current position purely with your talent, hard work and management skills, sitting firmly on the seat of the Director of the Association that is eyed by many. My master has a very good opinion of you and trusts you, so we want to cooperate solely with you. We will provide you with various elixir formulas and we want you to grasp full control of the Alchemist Association, becoming its president and overseeing the production of these elixirs. Sister won't need to slave away as the Director of daily affairs anymore, but will be the President of an organization much more powerful than the current declining Alchemist Association, and in the future even more powerful than a Major family!"

Shen Yue looked straight at Yang Xin sitting in front of him, as he finished. He knew that Yang Xin disliked when people don't consider her abilities as the reason for her success, thinking that it's only thanks to her beautiful appearance, so he didn't forget to mention that.

Yang Xin, naturally, looked extremely excited hearing Shen Yue's offer. She asked, "What would our cooperation look like?"

"In exchange for providing the elixir formulas we want a large cut of the money gained from selling these elixirs and access to any pills we want within a reasonable limit," Shen Yue said. "Furthermore, in the future my master will provide you with a cultivation technique that will allow Sister to reach Legend rank."

"Legend rank? Little brother, you aren't playing a joke on me, are you?" There is only one Legend rank expert in Glory City and even the Sacred Family's patriarch isn't at Legend rank, so Yang Xin naturally had heavy doubts; a Legend rank expert is an existence of legends. However, Shen Yue's expression right now was too confident, leaving her puzzled.

"Not a joke. As long as our cooperation goes well, I guarantee that Sister Yang can reach Legend rank." Shen Yue nodded, looking at Yang Xin.

Shen Yue would like to impart a part of a powerful cultivation technique to Yang Xin right now to gain her trust and gain a powerful backer in the early game, but he simply couldn't - although Shen Yue knew how to differentiate soul realm attributes and soul shapes, he didn't have any knowledge on the cultivation techniques on the Store's list to pick the most suitable one, basically only being aware of their names.

From the novel Shen Yue knew that Yang Xin was very loyal and trustworthy, and she would even lay down her life to protect Glory City. Shen Yue also hoped to have her as his future lover, so he would certainly not be stingy toward her. One more point was that by giving such high-level cultivation technique to Yang Xin, in her eyes it would confirm the existence of Shen Yue's master and make her stand on his side rather than on Nie Li's.

However, it wasn't possible for now.

At this moment Yang Xin analyzed Shen Yue's expression and tone, but she didn't detect any lies, causing her to be stumped.

Shen Yue let his sight linger at Yang Xin's dark blue eyes for a moment, before he said, "Regarding our cooperation. The reason for why we want to cooperate with Sister in particular is to prevent the elixir formulas from falling into the hands of corrupt officials in the future. Even if President Gu Yan is trustworthy, the President of the Association can always change as the time passes. I'm a minor while my master doesn't want to show herself. As someone impartial not belonging to any Major family and with a righteous character, we want Sister Yang to register all of these formulas in the Saint Judgment Hall under your own name, not under the name of the Association."

From Shen Yue's memories he knew that Glory City had a strict justice system and copyright laws, even if it was a medieval city. The Saint Judgement Hall was a courthouse that enforces the Demon Spiritualist's code of conduct and various laws.

Although Shen Yue didn't know much about laws of the city, he knew that each Major family has their own Alchemy courtyard and their elixir formulas are all kept secret and copyrighted in the Saint Judgment Hall, preventing others from using them. Those who break the Demon Spiritualist Code of Conduct, caught producing copyrighted products or sharing copyrighted cultivation techniques without permission, are all severely punished by the authorities.

As long as Yang Xin registers these formulas, then the Alchemist Association and Nie Li won't be able to refine these elixirs and sell them without her permission, and they would, in fact, be called to court for doing so if caught.

But the main reason for Shen Yue meeting Yang Xin in private was not to lock up Nie Li in jail, but to not lose control of these elixir formulas by letting them fall into the Alchemist Association's hands. Forget about just getting a large cut of profits from selling these elixirs and getting an unlimited number of elixirs, Shen Yue was thinking bigger. If possible, he hoped to create his own alchemy guild in the future along with Yang Xin and hold a monopoly and full control over the entire alchemy business - control over the most important resource and money making business in the entire Tiny World!

Shen Yue got this entire idea mainly from reading one TDG fanfiction; he didn't have much time to scheme himself.

Demon spirit coins are useless in the Draconic Ruins Realm and the number of demon spirits in Glory City is very limited at this moment, but here, in Glory City demon spirit coins and elixirs are the authority! Normal people are unable to leave this world and it's completely safe from the outside and the Sage Emperor. While Nie Li forgets about the Tiny World as he flies into the higher plane, during his absence, Shen Yue wants an Empire to form here. The geniuses of Glory City would be nurtured as Shen Yue's loyal soldiers and subordinates to be later brought into the outside world.

With that in mind, Shen Yue secretly hoped that Yang Xin would fall for him like she did with Nie Li, believing that he was her Fated One. After all, with his knowledge of the novel and the system granted to him by his god Morgan Freeman, it would be Shen Yue who is kicking ass really soon if things go well.

If Yang Xin is how he imagined then Shen Yue would love to have her as his lover, with her helping him to manage his financial empire. Although it was a bit presumptuous of Shen Yue, if that really happened, then he might even have 90% of the profits from all elixirs produced, all of the wealth and power being theirs. It was the same Yang Xin that he knew from the novel after all, so it wasn't that strange to expect it.

For the time being, Shen Yue wanted Yang Xin to become the President of the Alchemist Association and use it to acquire a lot of money and elixirs for himself just like Nie Li did in the novel. At the same time Yang Xin and him would be building their own power that would allow them to create a new organization in the future and hold full monopoly and control over the elixirs.

But the first part was to have Yang Xin personally register these formulas instead of letting the Association do it.

Yang Xin thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I understand. It's all reasonable. I can register these formulas under my name. Little brother, state your terms."

Shen Yue nodded, saying, "Me and my master require a large amount of demon spirit coins and demon spirits for various projects, so we ask for 50% of the money acquired from the sold elixirs, plus access to any elixirs we need. 50% of the money will go to us, but with these formulas the profit margin will be extremely huge and the production cost low."

Yang Xin immediately said, "50% is not a problem."

Even if Shen Yue takes 50% away, the Association will still earn a lot of money and flourish once these pills enter the market. Furthermore, these elixirs would greatly strengthen Glory City. Yang Xin thought.

Shen Yue also knew that asking for 50% was not much; in the novel NIe Li asked for 30% and Gu Yan readily offered him 50% which Nie Li rejected. Shen Yue could push his cut higher than 50%, but he had no need for more money at this time. He really wanted Yang Xin to register these formulas properly, furthermore - a little more money being left in the Alchemist Association could allow it to expand and recruit new alchemists - then the production rate of pills would increase; and then the new alchemist would later become Yang Xin's subordinates once she creates her own alchemy guild anyway.

One more thing was that the 50% of money earned from elixirs sold didn't include the manufacturing costs, but only the percentage of money gained from selling the elixirs, which meant that from now on Shen Yue would be getting slightly more than 50% of the Alchemist Association's income from these elixirs for himself without doing any work.

Looking at Yang Xin's face, Shen Yue said after a while, "Sister Yang, here are the elixir formulas."

Shen Yue passed Yang Xin a document. The list contained four of the most important elixir formulas that Shen Yue had written down, all available to be refined in Glory City; for now it only included the formulas for the three soul nourishing elixirs and the Scarlet Body Enhancing Pill.

Yang Xin took a look at the list of formulas from Shen Yue and was shocked upon reading the first line with the Soul Tempering Pills.

"Such common herbs?" Yang Xin immediately voiced out in surprise and then looked up at Shen Yue who only nodded. After a while Yang Xin couldn't help but laugh out loud. The cost of refining these high and top-grade elixirs was simply too low! The prospect of money that they would be able to earn was enormous. Ingredients for refining a Soul Tempering Pill at this moment should be even cheaper than for refining the garbage-grade Soul Assembling Pill.

'The richest and most powerful woman in Glory City, Shen Yue was not downplaying it at all…' Yang Xin thought to herself. With these formulas in her hand, taking over the Alchemist Association as a president would be a piece of cake for her.

"Of the most important elixirs, the Soul Nurturing Pill can be refined by an Intermediate Alchemy Apprentice. Soul Concentrating Pill can be refined by a Senior Alchemy Apprentice. As for the Soul Tempering Pill and the Scarlet Body Enhancing Pill, only Primary Alchemy Masters can refine it," Shen Yue recalled from the novel.

Shen Yue: "But that's just an estimate. It's easy to refine more difficult elixirs simply with experience. The ranks of alchemists in the Association rely on knowledge of hundreds of herbs and multiple books, but that's all useless in this case. The only thing needed to refine these pills is the skill to refine these pills. The Association will be able to recruit many new alchemist apprentices and as long as they gain enough expertise, they will be able to refine large quantities of these elixirs for cheap."

Yang Xin continued nodding excitedly and the two of them then chatted about some other details of their cooperation.

Obviously Yang Xin agreed to cooperate with Shen Yue, who wouldn't. Compared to being a President, being a Director was just like Shen Yue said - slaving away daily and managing small affairs. In the Alchemist Association the President only needs to set the general direction, having much higher authority, while the other executives like the Director oversee the management.

At this moment there is a council of six elders in the Association with similar power and even President Gu Yan struggles to hold power, but Yang Xin knew that she could easily take full control over the Alchemist Association just thanks to the formulas controlled by her, having all the elders bow down to her. She would then become one of the key figures of Glory City, not inferior to the Major family patriarchs!

Yang Xin had no qualms over a promotion, a raise and more authority, which was all that Shen Yue just offered her. Not to forget that the new formulas would greatly strengthen Glory City and the Alchemist Association, and she would be the one in control of all of this.

Shen Yue then quickly refined a batch of Soul Nurturing Pills in front of Yang Xin's eyes, making her fully convinced that the other formulas would all be correct as well.

Before Yang Xin registered her own paper-organization and acquired the copyrights of the formulas, Shen Yue asked her to immediately send out some people to buy out all of the necessary herbs. He said that it was for her safety, which it certainly was, as the alure of money from these elixirs was too big, but the main reason was to cause a ruckus across the entire Glory City with the aim to scare Nie Li off from going to the Alchemist Association.

And so after Shen Yue left the Association, Director Yang, responsible for the general affairs in the Alchemist Association, suddenly began mobilizing large amounts of the Association's finances and manpower to acquire various herbs. Some of these herbs didn't even have any uses when refining, therefore, people in the Alchemist Association could not understand why Director Yang would send people to acquire them.

Given the few peculiar herbs purchased, Nie Li should easily figure out which lost elixir formulas the Alchemist Association got their hands on.

Shen Yue assumed that without the ability to read the power level of the mysterious being that started working with the Alchemist Association and had ancient knowledge outside of the bounds of Glory City, Nie Li should be wary of revealing himself to the Alchemist Association.