Chapter 404: New business plan

Even for a master alchemist, being sure of producing a True Essence pill was impossible, except if he was refining a very low level pill. Thus Qinghe Ming immediately thought Guai Mo didn't want his name attached because the pills would be 1 or 2-star Earth pills. However, his opinion changed when Cao Yun took out a pill from his spatial ring. Just by looking at it, he recognized a Torrent Gathering pill, a 2-star Human pill. But it was way more vibrant than any pill he had ever seen before. Indeed, it truly was a True Essence pill. Of course, Qinghe Ming would need to have alchemists analyze it to be absolutely sure, but it seemed like the real deal.

"I will have a variety of Human pills, all True Essence pills. As long as you appraise them, this should quickly convince people to bid a lot on each one. But I can't just flood the market with True Essence pills. In fact, I'd like people not to notice that the same alchemist refined those pills. And your Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall will be essential for that. Besides, you have the know-how when it comes to raising the bids during an auction. I want to profit as much as possible for those pills."

Even Qinghe Ming did not believe it. Unless Guai Mo was a Heaven alchemist, he couldn't be sure that he would refine True Essence Human pills. In fact, even a 1 or 2-star Heaven alchemist could not be certain of that. Of course, Cao Yun had the ability to perfectly guess and imagine the process within the cauldron inside his sea of consciousness. And coupled with his powerful senses and control over both Qi and fire, it wasn't difficult at all to be sure to have one True Essence pill in every batch he refined. Still, he wasn't able to make sure that every single pill was a True Essence one.

"How many True Essence pills are we talking about?"

"I can guarantee you one True Essence pill per week for the next four months."

In fact, he could guarantee more than that but this amount was already hard to believe so he didn't want to sound too ridiculous. In Qinghe Ming's eyes, he could see that he sincerely wasn't believing him. But at the same time, he didn't think that Cao Yun was lying either. As such, he began to think that he was a bit delusional. Or maybe he already had a stock of True Essence pills but that wouldn't last too long either.

"Hall Master Fang vouched for you. Otherwise, I wouldn't even talk to you about this. I hope I can count on both your cooperation and your discretion."

Indeed, Hall Master Fang had told Cao Yun that Qinghe Ming, as a former hunter, was a man of his word. Besides, Fang Shaolong had helped him get to where he was today. Just by using his name, Cao Yun had convinced the Hall Master to help him. Despite his modest past, Qinghe Ming was still a high member of the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall. As such, he would try and negotiate about the money.

"Fine, our standard cut for such operations is fifteen percent of the auction. But we'll also need to pay for the appraisal. Since you don't want to attach your name to those pills, we'll have to choose very famous appraisers, probably renown alchemists at that. All things considered, twenty percent of the sell seems like a good deal."

"Ten percent!"

"Esteemed guest..."

"A single True Essence pill will make more than some of the auctions you hold in Qingyun City. Besides, you have nothing to lose in this endeavor. But I can understand your reluctance. I will bring you the first batch of pills in five days. Then you'll tell me whether you accept my deal or not."

Qinghe Ming pondered over this offer. To tell the truth, if what Guai Mo was saying was true, Qinghe Ming could barely imagine how much they could win. After all, True Essence pills were not something that could usually be bought by money. It was a happenstance. Even a famous alchemist could never promise to make such a pill. But although Guai Mo had produced one such pill, he might fail at any moment. As such, the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall could not advertise it too much or they would risk hurting their reputation. However, if he was able to produce one each week with a few already in stock, it was another story. Even ten percent of the profits, if it were true, would be way more than what Qinghe Ming could imagine. After all, their Major Hall wasn't earning too much in the Subei Province.

Cao Yun had many ideas on how to optimize the profit but he had no time to work on this. He was certain that the Major Hall would know how to handle it. But he had a clear plan as to which pills he would refine so that people would go crazy about them. In order to keep the interest alive, he had to make sure that the True Essence pills stayed scarce. As such, he would produce different pills each time. This would also force the rich families to always pay attention to those auctions or they would risk missing out on some essential pill for them. Just like in the Wubei Sect, Cao Yun was not displeased by the idea of running a business. But as much entertainment as it could be for him, it was secondary.

Then, Cao Yun asked Qinghe Ming to send a letter to Fang Shaolong. He might be able to help him find his ingredients faster. Cao Yun was in need of many other materials, but only those two ingredients were truly rare. Everything else, he knew he could buy in a reasonable time frame. But he still gave Qinghe Ming a list of new ingredients. They were what he needed for the future pills as well as other things. It was always a good idea to have many pills on him. With the entire list, Qinghe Ming would be unable to discern which pill Cao Yun wanted to refine and it was better for him.

In the following days, instead of visiting the man he had in mind, Cao Yun decided to refine in secret for his True Essence pills. Securing his funds was essential for everything else. Even the array formations he had in mind were terribly expensive. In the five days he had asked of Qinghe Ming, he had already refined ten True Essence pills. But he had to admit that it was exhausting even for him. A few batches ended up devoid of True Essence pills so he had to refine new ones. But in the end, he always succeeded in producing at least one such pill out of fifty for the most difficult ones. With those, he would make a killing.

As Cao Yun was working in a secluded room beneath the Major Hall, his 'servant' Yong Ke was otherwise busy. Considering that her clothes were concealing most of her presence, Cao Yun had asked her to monitor the city and gather as much information as she could.

Yong Ke got as close as she could to the Governor's residence, the Xue family estate and even the mansion of the Yun family. Those were the three major players of Qingyun City and the Subei Province as a whole. Unfortunately, she didn't uncover anything new. However, she was able to confirm many things. And she was able to draw perfect maps for Cao Yun. From them, he would be able to draw Bamboo Maps to align his array formations with those places. Sadly, unlike Cao Yun, she couldn't sense Evil Qi at all. He would need to personally get there in order to try and find traces of Gu Song.

Besides, refining that many pills, Cao Yun was also working his alchemy a lot as well as his perception. From time to time, Dian Mo even gave him some advice. Although he had never practiced alchemy, he had read as much as he could on the subject. And after watching Cao Yun, he was beginning to get the hang of it. After all, some principles were common with array formations. Even Cao Yun was surprised because Dian Mo was a very quick learner. Although he wasn't directly taught, he had used every opportunity to get an education. Boredom could cause someone to turn to wrong decisions but it could also awake new interests.

During those five days, Cao Yun also focused on his Qi cultivation. In fact, besides alchemy and Qi cultivation, he did almost nothing.

"Aren't you going to work on your blood cultivation, or even your mind cultivation?"

"I already have ideas on how to progress my mind cultivation faster. Right now, only my Qi cultivation is lagging behind because of my period of doubts. Now that I can use the Hellish Dragon Fruit to temper my Five Prodigious Gates, I intend to progress as fast as I can without risking my stability. After all, this is the cultivation that will improve my strength the faster. The sooner I can become a Spirit Warrior the better it will be. Even with an incredible mind cultivation, if I can't expand my soul outward, I wouldn't be able to protect myself against spiritual senses.

"In addition to that, my blood cultivation is not giving me too many benefits as I'm just revisiting and improving what I already did with my blood. Of course, the last steps about working on my marrow will indeed be important to me. But I fear that this blood cultivation went a little too fast for my mind. The fact that I lot control of my temper is a proof of that. It won't take too long for me to get my Po of Jing and the Flying Poison of the Drop of Wrath under control. Once I do, I will be more at ease with developing my blood cultivation."

"Well, it's not completely absurd... I do believe that becoming a Golden Blood Child would be useful to you. But considering how you already tempered your blood and if you fully control the Drop of Wrath, it wouldn't take you more than all a year to get there, maybe even less. And I did see some worrisome signs in your Po of Jing. It could easily turn into an inner demon if you're not careful. Most likely, it's due to the bridge you created between your own Po and the Drop of Wrath. But your blood cultivation could indeed make things worse. After all, demons are known for their impetuous moods. Of course there are exceptions, but they have a harder time controlling their emotions and their feelings. That can be a good thing sometimes though..."

Using the Hellish Dragon Fruit, Cao Yun could easily create an environment rich in Fire Qi. His knowledge of alchemy allowed him to easily use it in combination with the Water Qi of his Lower Dantian and even the Fire element in his blood in order to temper his Five Prodigious Gates now flooded with Wood element thanks to the seed of the world tree. Now that he had gone over his trauma, using Fire Qi to temper his gates wasn't a big deal at all. And his Qi cultivation was progressing faster. He might not become a 4th-grade Mortal Warrior by the time he would have to perform his plans against Gu Song. But he was certain that he would be one before the Alchemy Conference.

By tempering his Five Prodigious Gates, he would improve his Qi Manifestation as he would be able to send more and more Qi outside. His sensitivity toward Qi would also improve as so would the density and strength of his Wei Qi. At the same time, by doing it the way he was doing it, he would also gain experience for the Lesser Tribulation. Indeed, it consisted in fusing Water Qi and Fire Qi between the Lower and Middle Dantian. And the grades before that seemed very easy to Cao Yun. They would take some time, but he was almost certain he could reach the door of the 7th-grade Mortal Warrior in less than two decades.

That would make him ten years younger than his father when he first attempted this Lesser Tribulation. A 30-year-old Spirit Warrior wasn't unheard of, but it was extremely young, especially during the Forsaken Dao Era.

-

Once Cao Yun brought his pills to Qinghe Ming, he simply couldn't believe his eyes. He had ten True Essence pills right in front of him. Those were not impossible to obtain but they were still very rare. Even for very basic pills, only one out of a hundred or two was a True Essence pill. This wasn't something easy to obtain. And some of the pills in front of him were 3-star Human pills. For an average alchemist, a True Essence pill would be produced only once in a thousand refinements. One could be lucky but not that lucky with so many different pills.

Qinghe Ming stopped himself from asking Cao Yun whether he had some secret technique to produce those. Of course, he would never answer. And just asking the question was rude in itself. Moreover, Cao Yun was about to make him absolutely rich. There was no way in hell he would start to antagonize him. Instead, he bowed as low as his standing in the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall allowed him so as to not humiliate its reputation.

"Venerable alchemist, I will be candid. I did not believe you. Please, excuse my incredulity. For such high-quality pills and as a form of apology, I'll go as low as eight percent for the first auction. Then, I will agree with the ten percent commission."

Seeing Cao Yun's pills, Qinghe Ming could easily understand why a young alchemist like him had obtained a 4-petal card. In fact, it might even be a little bit too low-tier for him. Perhaps had he never shown his true talent before. Otherwise, the Myriad Cherry Blossom Hall would have given him a 5-petal card at least, or even a 6-petal card. Maybe he should ask for one for him. But he didn't want to do anything without his agreement. Besides, he seemed to already be close with Hall Master Fang. For now, he would work on building good personal relationship with him.

Unfortunately, Qinghe Ming wasn't very good with nobles. As a former hunter, he was more at ease with other hunters. Of course, he was also forced to deal with nobles on a daily basis, but dealing with a family was a bit different than dealing with a single individual. Anyway, he would try to build a trusting relationship first. At the very least, he had to stay on friendly terms with Cao Yun. Although he had never hoped to climb higher in the organization, it didn't mean he would let go of such an opportunity for himself.*