Longzang

Chapter 427 Ancient Immortal Formula

As autumn approaches, it's almost time to plant mulberry trees. The time to plant the saplings is around the time of the first snowfall of autumn. Before the snow, we ask the monks to cast spells to seal away the life force, so that most of the mulberry saplings will survive when spring arrives and flowers bloom the following year.

At this moment, Master Chuhe was holding a lazy cat and sitting in the main seat. To his left and right were the heads of Yaoji and Xuji Jinhang, respectively, while the Mi family's representative was the head of the family, who was sitting in a seat on the outside.

Xu Ji Jin Hang could barely squeeze into the top five, but by clinging tightly to Chu He Zhenren, he has moved up to sit to his right.

The old Taoist priest had his own set of rules for this banquet: whoever received the most orders could sit closer to him, regardless of who had the largest business or wealth. That's why the Mi family only had eight or nine seats, and the head of the Mi family was so angry that he fell ill. But the Mi family couldn't refuse to come; even eight or nine seats represented an order for ten thousand bolts of silk brocade, so they had no choice but to attend.

The atmosphere at the banquet was lively, and the two family heads, Yao and Xu, were flushed with pride, practically clinging to the old Taoist priest.

Master Chuhe coughed, and the room fell silent. Then he said, "I have come here this time with a new order."

Everyone's eyes were burning with anticipation, waiting for what would happen next.

"I want to buy 50,000 bolts of brocade and... two million catties of silk in this batch!"

A hissing sound rang out, and all the family heads gasped. The brocade was one thing, but the sheer quantity of silk was terrifying; it was going to wipe out the entire inventory of several families!
While many were still calculating, the head of the Xu family loudly proclaimed, "I can accept five thousand bolts of brocade and three hundred thousand catties of silk!"

The heads of the families were all shocked. The quantity provided by the Xu family was practically emptying their entire stockpile. How could they possibly weave brocade? Some family heads immediately recalled the Xu family's actions. Their families had already converted tens of thousands of acres of their farmland into mulberry orchards! Although it was too late this year, they could start producing silk next year.

At that moment, a young master of a family shouted, "I am willing to take 50,000 catties of silk!"

The old Taoist priest, with a beaming smile, beckoned to him and said, "Come, come, sit closer!"

The young patriarch was both excited and somewhat uneasy, and he switched seats with the son of the Mi family patriarch. With one person taking the lead, many others followed suit, and after a short while, they finally gathered all the orders for this batch. Master Chuhe returned home satisfied.

After the Immortal Chuhe left, the price of silk in Shanyang County immediately skyrocketed, from one qian of silver to three qian. A bolt of Ningjin brocade sold for five taels of silver, requiring five jin of silk and about ten artisans working in shifts for three months to produce one bolt. The artisans' labor was worth two taels, in addition to another tael for housing, firewood, taxes, etc.

After the price of silk skyrocketed, brocade weaving immediately became unprofitable, and the price of brocade also rose. Although the influx of goods from other counties would gradually lower prices, everyone knew that with the sudden appearance of such a large buyer, prices would never return to their previous levels.

Meanwhile, the continuous flow of grain transported from Qingming has brought the grain price in Shanyang County back to the level of normal years.

This time, Chuhe Zhenren offered a large quantity of single-strand silk with very little brocade, which immediately made those who had stockpiled silk at home feel the benefits, while those who had more brocade than silk were not so happy.

Many people learned from this incident that you can make money as much as you can with silk, but it's different with brocade; how much you can earn depends on the silk.

Autumn is usually the harvest season, but with the influx of Qingming grain, countless farmers are filled with worry. Most of their fields are rented from aristocratic families, and the rent was set at the beginning of the year when grain prices were high. Now, grain prices are less than half of what they were at the beginning of the year, and even if they sell all their grain, it won't be enough to pay the land rent.

The saying that low grain prices hurt farmers has come true this autumn.

In contrast, the mulberry farmers of Shanyang County were all smiles, and every household was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations.

The Yao and Xu families were bustling with visitors, but the Mi family was rather deserted. Inside the main hall of the Mi family ancestral home, more than a dozen elders were gathered together, with the Mi family patriarch sitting in the center, still exuding an unquestionable air of authority.

“I still maintain that the 100,000 mu of farmland is the lifeblood of our clan, and we cannot touch it! Hmph, what if Qingming harvests silk this year but not next year? If Qingming doesn't sell grain then, won't we starve to death?”

The Mi family patriarch's words were resounding and decisive. In the past, this was considered the final word, and the matter would not be discussed further.

But this time, an elder said, "Qingming trades grain for silk. The more silk they sell, the more grain they can hoard! If they don't buy silk next year, they can simply turn that place back into farmland. The grain they hoard is enough to feed them for several years, so they won't go hungry." The head of the Mi family's face immediately darkened. In recent years, very few people have dared to contradict him to his face.

Another elder also said, "The grain fields are currently yielding less than 20% of the mulberry orchards. If we're not going to make that much money, we have to give the clansmen an explanation! You can't just suppress the clansmen with a few words."

The head of the Mi family was already ashen-faced, but looking at the clan elders with strange expressions, he suddenly realized that these people were not there to discuss matters, but to replace the clan leader.

……

Qingming, Wei Yuan took out a batch of blood necklaces of various grades and handed them to Xu Henshui. For some time now, Xu Henshui had been inspecting various medicinal herbs, a specialty of the Western Regions.

Xu Henshui examined it for a long time, then held up a sample of the highest quality, which could already be called a Soul Necklace, and said excitedly, "This is it! This can completely replace one of the main ingredients in the immortal formula!"

"A magic formula?"

“Oh, an ancient formula, which you don’t understand yet. Once your alchemy skills are sufficient, I will teach it to you,” Xu Henshui said.

Wei Yuan looked at the Soul Necklace with suspicion. This small piece, weighing just over a pound, was worth hundreds of thousands of immortal silver, yet its life-extending effect was only a dozen years longer than that of an ordinary Blood Necklace. An ordinary Blood Necklace of the same weight would only cost a little over a thousand taels of immortal silver.

Wei Yuan naturally knew what the elixir Xu Henshui mentioned was, and the true source of the inheritance was still with Wei Yuan. What Xu Henshui saw was merely a rubbing of the mortal mundane Dharma image.

Wei Yuan had handled several Soul Necklaces before, but he simply couldn't discern any connection between this item and any of the medicinal ingredients in the immortal formula. This clearly demonstrates the vast difference in alchemy skills between the two.

Xu Henshui explained to Wei Yuan in detail why the Soul Jewelry could replace such an ancient immortal material, but it was obvious that Wei Yuan didn't understand. However, adhering to his original intention of not giving up on any fool, Xu Henshui still explained for a full hour.

Everything he said was recorded by Wei Yuan and simultaneously presented in the mundane world. Thus, this knowledge was stored, compared and analyzed with existing knowledge, and then categorized and stored in the appropriate locations, making Wei Yuan's knowledge of alchemy richer and more clearly structured.

After the entire principle was explained, Wei Yuan finally understood why the Lesser Year Pill was priced like a normal longevity pill, while the Blood Necklace was priced several times or even hundreds of times higher.

In Xu Henshui's view, the alchemist who developed the Longevity Pill was mediocre, as the formula contained several key ingredients known for their life-extending properties. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the Longevity Pill would be significantly reduced after taking other longevity pills containing these same ingredients.

Similarly, if one has not taken other longevity pills before taking Xiaonian pills, the efficacy of other similar longevity pills will also decrease.

The Soul-Binding Jewelry is different. In the past, humans would take it raw, and very few people were qualified to use it. The life-extending effect of the Soul-Binding Jewelry diminishes very slowly with prolonged use, but the negative effects are unbearable.

The Soul-Shaped Jade Ring can replace one of the main ingredients in an elixir, marking a significant step forward in the research of ancient elixir formulas.

Over the next few days, Xu Henshui improved the formula for the Lesser Year Pill, adding low-grade Blood Necklace as the main ingredient, and developed a new formula. Based on this new formula, Xu Henshui and Wei Yuan shared a pill-making room and started their furnaces at the same time. In this way, Xu Henshui guided Wei Yuan in the art of alchemy and corrected some of the bad habits that beginners often made when refining pills.

Besides Wei Yuan and Xu Henshui, all the other disciples of the Creation Temple were present for this joint alchemy session, along with some individuals with talent in alchemy who were also observing. Xu Henshui, now a renowned alchemist, was more than capable of guiding them.

This was a rare opportunity, and Wei Yuan didn't want to miss it, so he selected hundreds of cultivators from the realm to learn alchemy on the spot.

The auspicious hour arrived, the bell rang, and Wei Yuan and Xu Henshui put the first batch of medicinal herbs into the alchemy furnace to begin refining the elixir.

(End of this chapter)