Longzang

Chapter 657 Conscience Cannot Speak
Wei Yuan bowed to the hermit of alchemy and said, "I have not failed in my mission!"

After a moment of silence, Zhi Dan Sanren said to Xu Henshui, "You give your comments."

"Me??" Xu Henshui's mind was a complete mess. How was he supposed to comment on this? How was he supposed to comment on whether Wei Yuan's final gesture of spreading his luck was good or not?
He composed himself and said seriously, "The way you use the human destiny and chaotic energy in your hands is truly admirable. What's rare about this batch of pills is their stable quality, with each pill being the same, and the number of pills produced is also high. I think it's slightly better than my batch."

"Uncle Xu has one more two-line mark, so Uncle Xu is clearly in the better position!" Wei Yuan quickly said modestly.

The old Taoist priest Zhi Dan concluded: "The two are evenly matched, but in terms of innovation, Wei Yuan wins."

When the hermit of alchemy spoke, no one objected. Although Xu Henshui had changed the formula, Wei Yuan's method was clearly more shocking, practically heretical.

Xu Henshui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. This time, it was a draw, and thankfully, he hadn't lost face...

But he immediately realized something was wrong. Wei Yuan hadn't touched him at all, except for that last move! Didn't that mean Wei Yuan could just throw out some puppets to refine pills and still fight him to a draw?!

Although I lost the first two times, I lost to Wei Yuan himself.

Xu Henshui grew increasingly uneasy, his face turning pale and then flushed. Wei Yuan, however, paid no attention to him, eagerly watching the Hermit of the Pill Refining Realm, awaiting his reward.

The hermit of the elixir readily agreed, saying, "Your performance this time was beyond expectations, so you deserve a reward. What do you want?"

Without hesitation, Wei Yuan said, "Give me another fifty sets of materials for the Great Sun Morning Glory Pill?"

Zhi Dan Sanren was taken aback and said, "There aren't many Huiyang Grass left. Where would we get fifty sets? The temple only has twenty sets right now, and the next replenishment won't be until fifty years from now, so we can't give them to you. You can choose some ancient prescriptions and medicinal materials."

Wei Yuan pondered for a moment and asked, "Do you have the ingredients for various Body Forging Pills, such as Qi Cultivation Pills and Blood Essence Pills?"

"This is sufficient."

Wei Yuan was overjoyed: "Then could you please give me a thousand catties of each?"

The disciples of the Creation Temple nearly fainted. A thousand catties of various medicinal herbs—enough to refine 100,000 Qi-Nourishing Pills and 10,000 Blood Essence Pills—what was Wei Yuan planning?
Zhi Dan Sanren said, "A thousand catties is impossible, but a hundred catties each is no problem, which can be given to you as a reward. If you want more, you will have to exchange it for merit points."

Wei Yuan was worried about not being able to spend his merit points, so he immediately exchanged them for 1,000 catties of various medicinal herbs, totaling nearly 30,000 catties, which only cost him 30,000 merit points. Wei Yuan decided to take it slow and test the waters with these medicinal herbs to see if his idea was feasible before making a final decision.

Seeing that the hermit of the elixir had nothing else to do and didn't mention giving him a celestial plant or anything, Wei Yuan, who was busy lately, didn't linger and took his leave.

After he left, Daoist Zhidan remained seated in the main hall, and the other disciples dared not move.

There were two plates of pills in front of the old Taoist priest, one plate containing twelve pills belonging to Xu Henshui, and the other containing eighteen pills belonging to Wei Yuan.

"Tell me, what did you all notice?"

The disciples of the Creation Temple looked at each other, and finally the oldest disciple said, "Wei Yuan's mastery of Qi-based alchemy is unparalleled; we disciples are indeed far inferior. However, we don't know where he gets his chaotic Qi from, and it seems a bit of a waste to use it to refine the Great Sun Morning Radiance Pill."

Another disciple said, "As a realm lord, Wei Yuan has been fighting for years, so it is very easy for him to gather the Qi of Humanity. We, on the other hand, cannot obtain the Qi of Humanity in this way. I think Wei Yuan's way of manipulating Qi is extraordinary. I'm afraid even the great masters of the Heavenly Mystery Hall are no more than this. It is beyond our reach."

Once someone started, all the disciples shared their opinions, expressing their utter admiration for Wei Yuan's final Qi-based alchemy technique and feeling ashamed of their own inferiority.

Some have questioned the origin of the Chaos Qi. Although this Qi is close to the grade of immortal materials, it is not rare, but it is not easy to preserve and is mostly used on the spot.

Zhi Dan Sanren remained silent until all his disciples had finished speaking, then slowly said, "You only saw the Qi Luck Pill? Have you considered what would have happened if Wei Yuan hadn't performed the Qi Luck Pill?"

The disciples were all somewhat bewildered, and Xu Henshui and another young disciple suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

The old Daoist Zhi Dan slowly said, "Not bad, at least there are two people who understand. Let me be frank with you. If Wei Yuan hadn't used his Qi to refine the pills, there wouldn't have been a single Spirit Pill in the furnace. The total number of pills would have been sixteen."

The disciples suddenly realized what was happening and gasped in shock.

Each Great Sun Morning Glory Pill costs 50,000 Immortal Silver, and the raw materials for a batch of pills are worth approximately 60,000 to 80,000. The materials provided by the Creation Temple are naturally of the highest quality, and the total value is 80,000 or more.

Wei Yuan's batch yielded sixteen pills, totaling 800,000 taels of immortal silver. The cost of the pills was ten times the cost of the materials. According to the standards of the Creation Temple, five times the cost is the passing threshold for disciples, while ten times the cost would secure a solid upper-middle tier, placing them firmly in the top 20%.

The problem is, if we don't count the Qi Luck Pill, Wei Yuan didn't even make a move!
Moreover, Wei Yuan's Foundation Establishment warriors were puppets, not real cultivators, and their spirituality couldn't compare to that of real cultivators. In other words, Wei Yuan could wipe out 80% of the disciples of the Creation Temple simply by using a few dozen low-spirited puppets to refine pills?

There were more than a dozen disciples of the Creation Temple present, but only three dared to say they could suppress those dozens of amateur puppets.

If even puppets can refine pills, and do it better than them, then what's the point of having alchemists?
Besides, who knows how many puppets Wei Yuan has? What if he has hundreds? The Creation Temple only needs to refine a limited number of pills each year. If he already has puppets, what's the point of having these alchemists?

Seeing the expressions on the disciples' faces, the Hermit of the Pill Refining Sect said, "It seems you've finally come to your senses. Go back and think carefully about your future paths. What use are you if you can't consistently refine a one-pattern spirit pill?" The Hermit of the Pill Refining Sect turned and left. The disciples stood there blankly for a while before dispersing.

The most talented young disciple, who was traveling with Xu Henshui, asked in a low voice, "Senior Brother Xu, are our good days coming to an end?"

Xu Henshui's face was also very ugly. He sighed and said, "I'm afraid it's not just that; it might mean the end of an entire era."

The young disciple forced a smile and said, "Fortunately, we still have some room to survive."

"Just hanging on for a breath."

……

Wei Yuan was in a good mood at the moment, and the atmosphere in the human world was also bustling with activity, with people summarizing and optimizing.

More strategists were already envisioning a future where the alchemy industry would be swept away, all alchemists would be wiped out, and the entire world would be forced to rely on Qingming's medicine. Then Qingming could sell even medicine for headaches and fevers for a hundred taels of silver, enough to bankrupt you.

Wei Yuan examined these reports and surprisingly found them feasible, causing him to break out in a cold sweat. If he were to actually do this, not only would the cultivators object, but even immortals might come knocking on his door. Therefore…

One must still possess strong martial virtue.

Wei Yuan thought about it more deeply and realized that if the swords and blades weren't working, he was essentially just saving money for others. Expecting those powerful immortal cultivators to reason with you? Wei Yuan thought that was pure naiveté. Even if he became an immortal himself, he would never reason with anyone.

After much deliberation, Wei Yuan devised over a dozen plans, finally settling on a feasible one. His initial target was the Peiyuan Pill, which he had consumed countless times and which he had once given to Bao Yun as a precious gift.

Wei Yuan still clearly remembers the scene when he visited the door with the Peiyuan Pill in his heart, feeling very sincere, and then saw a thousand-year-old Tianxing Longkui tree as an ornamental tree.

Thinking about this made Wei Yuan feel awkward all over. Although many years had passed, he still wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

He realized with a start that something was wrong with his Dao heart, but things were different now; Wei Yuan already had a solution. So, in a flash, he appeared in Bao Yun's room.

Bao Yun was meditating when she saw Wei Yuan enter. A smile involuntarily appeared on her face, but before she could ask anything, Wei Yuan pulled her into his arms and gave her two hard slaps on the bottom before disappearing.

Bao Yun was baffled, wondering what had suddenly gotten into Wei Yuan. But... as long as this guy was willing to come looking for her, that was good.

Bao Yun wasn't in a hurry. Her net was still in motion, and the prey was currently just hopping around on the edge. Sooner or later, she would wait until it went to the center of the net and courted its death.

At this moment, Wei Yuan finally understood the situation and knew he absolutely could not tell Bao Yun the reason behind it.

Until one day in the future, when Wei Yuan ascends to the celestial throne, these things can be brought up and people will only think that even immortals have such down-to-earth moments.

Therefore, things are inherently uncertain, depending only on where the person is sitting at that moment.

After the commotion, Wei Yuan continued to devise a plan for the Peiyuan Pill.

The Primordial Essence Pill of the Primordial Palace is extremely potent and can only be taken by those with exceptional physical attributes. Those like Qingming, who have only achieved the Body Forging stage, have mediocre physical attributes, and would definitely explode and die if they took one.

Wei Yuan calculated the medicinal properties and felt that diluting it to one percent and then having ordinary people like Qing Ming take one pill a month should be fine, and it would also save them a month of arduous cultivation.

This could double the initial progress of the Body Forging stage (Muscle and Muscle Realm), and also allow some people who were originally unable to forge to enter the ranks of Body Forging. And the number of such people would increase significantly.

Taking Qingming as an example, under normal circumstances, out of ten thousand people, more than three thousand can forge their bodies, only a dozen or so can establish a Dao foundation, and not a single one can achieve the Dharma Aspect stage. It would take one out of hundreds of thousands of people to produce such a person. In other words, if Qingming develops steadily for several decades, perhaps four or five Dharma Aspect cultivators might naturally appear.

However, if there are enough Qi-Nourishing Pills, then more than 2,000 out of 10,000 people will be able to enter the Body Forging Gate and see the scenery of the cultivation world.

Upon reaching the most basic level of the Muscle Realm, even an ordinary person could gain hundreds of pounds of strength out of thin air, enabling them to lift hundreds of pounds of weight with ease and pull trucks weighing thousands of pounds. If there were enough Body Forging cultivators, there would be no need for livestock in the fields.

Wei Yuan immediately decided to optimize the refining process of the Peiyuan Pill, reducing the potency of a single pill to one percent of the original. The Peiyuan Pill is priced at one hundred and twenty taels in the Taichu Palace, so Wei Yuan's version should be priced at one tael, since it is made by Qingming and should be discounted.

Wei Yuan naturally couldn't actually sell it for just one or two taels; the cultivators of Qingming were all incredibly poor. So Wei Yuan was torn. The price couldn't be too high, but he also had to leave room for future growth, and he couldn't allow other forces' caravans too much room for arbitrage.

This is a complicated problem. Wei Yuan thought about it seriously for a long time, but he still didn't know how many times he should earn.

Conscience wanted to speak, but it found that it did not belong to Wei Yuan.

(End of this chapter)