Longzang

Chapter 662 Times have changed
Not long after Wei Yuan returned to Qingming, a celestial ship from the main mountain of Taichu Palace arrived.

The immortal boat was laden with tens of thousands of kilograms of medicinal herbs, as well as seedlings of dozens of kinds of herbs. Although none of them were particularly rare or precious, these auxiliary materials were required in many basic Body Forging Pills. Adding several hundred kilograms of the main ingredients, it was just enough to refine 30,000 Qi Cultivation Pills.

Zhi Dan Sanren naturally saw through Wei Yuan's thoughts, so he gave him extra seedlings and seeds for all the medicinal herbs, and in large quantities.

Upon receiving the medicinal herbs, Wei Yuan was overjoyed and immediately summoned the old Taoist Chuhe and Xu Henshui. While receiving the herbs, they discussed Qingming's future alchemy endeavors.

The matter of medicinal herbs is relatively easy to handle; the main business of Jianmu Hall is actually cultivating medicinal herbs.

Most of the medicinal gardens in Taichu Palace are controlled by Jianmu Hall. The cultivators of Taichu Palace can only consume medicines from Zaohua Temple, and if Zaohua Temple wants to sell medicines, it can only buy medicinal materials from Jianmu Hall.

Thus, through thousands of years of back-and-forth, the price difference between elixirs and medicinal herbs reached a balance, with the Zaohua Temple taking the larger portions and the Jianmu Temple taking the smaller ones.

These common medicinal herbs used for body forging don't have high environmental requirements; they can basically be grown in any piece of spiritual land. The old Daoist Chuhe took stock and found that Qingming could currently cultivate another 5,000 mu of spiritual land.

Under the power of the Jianmu tree in Qingming, ordinary spiritual fields can grow at eight times the speed of the outside world, and these medicinal herbs can mature in just one year.

Humanity has now completed the optimization of the Peiyuan Dan formula, as well as the redesign of the refining process and the planning of the pharmacy.

Preliminary estimates suggest that once all 5,000 mu of medicinal fields are planted, the newly added medicinal herbs can be used to refine 600,000 Qingming version of Peiyuan Pills annually, enough for 50,000 Muscle Refinement stage cultivators for a year.

The medicinal materials sent by Taichu Palace are enough to refine 300,000 Qingming version Peiyuan Pills.

The Qingming version of the Peiyuan Pill was only one-tenth as potent as the original, so even Wei Yuan was embarrassed to call it a Peiyuan Pill. Xu Henshui suggested calling it the Lesser Peiyuan Pill, but Wei Yuan still felt a little guilty. In the end, imitating the style of the Dao Foundation Flying Sword, he renamed it the Lesser Peiyuan Pill.

This is the internal name of Qingming; externally, it is still generally referred to as Peiyuan Dan.

Wei Yuan also plans to set up a pharmacy to specialize in selling Qingming pills.

After much discussion, the old Taoist priest, Chuhe, finally said, "In my opinion, it would be better to call it Yiwen Pharmacy."

"What does this mean? Does it mean we'll only sell one-pattern spirit pills from now on?" Xu Henshui was somewhat surprised; even the Creation Temple wouldn't dare to make such a boastful statement.

"Of course not, we sell all kinds of pills. Hehe, you don't know, people outside are used to calling the pharmacy and the pill together, like Jishixing Angong Pill or something. That way, when people mention our pills, they're saying Yiwen Peiyuan Pill!"

Xu Henshui was shocked: "This, isn't this a lie?"

"What lie? We really are called Yiwen Pharmacy! The name is just a gimmick to attract people first," Old Daoist Chuhe explained with a smile.

Wei Yuan also thought it made sense. Once people come, they can't run away. He immediately said, "This name is good! It's settled then."

Wei Yuan acted swiftly and decisively, and the project was put into action as soon as everyone dispersed. The first alchemy workshop of Yiwen Medicine Shop was built not far from Xu Henshui's alchemy temple, a place rich in spiritual energy, where Xu Henshui could also come over to provide guidance from time to time.

The alchemy workshop was planned to be quite large, covering an area of ​​several dozen acres. After the boundaries were drawn, Yu Zhizhuo led over a thousand Dao Foundation cultivators to the site and worked with great enthusiasm, building four alchemy halls that were fifty feet long and five feet high in one go.

Subsequently, hundreds of cultivators, along with thousands of body-forging laborers, brought over countless strange and unusual devices, which Yu Zhizhu personally supervised as they were placed in designated locations.

At first, only Xu Henshui looked at it, but soon the alchemists at his alchemy temple realized that the imported equipment was something they had never seen before, let alone heard of. Moreover, each piece of equipment was incredibly complex, completely incomprehensible to them. What need was there for alchemy?
The alchemists were all curious, and every day after finishing their routine alchemy work, they would gather at the construction site to watch the excitement.

Xu Henshui simply watched quietly, often standing there for hours on end, his smile gradually fading away.

With a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators working together, the construction of the alchemy workshop progressed rapidly. In just half a month, a brand-new alchemy workshop had risen from the ground.

Once the framework of the alchemy workshop was completed, seeing the four long, enormous alchemy halls and the square medicinal herb processing hall in front, Xu Henshui felt that his alchemy workshop looked like a rural farmhouse.

These pill halls have a dull and lifeless appearance, but they are large and long, unlike Xu Henshui's two-story buildings.

Ten days later, all the equipment was installed and tested for three more days. Everything was working perfectly, so Wei Yuan arrived and started refining pills.

As is customary, Wei Yuan would say a few words before the furnace was opened for such an important event. Several thousand cultivators sat in a dense row below, quietly listening to the Realm Lord speak. Facing such a large audience of high-ranking people, Wei Yuan was greatly encouraged. He even tossed aside his prepared speech and began to speak extemporaneously, starting from his humble beginnings in a small farmhouse, recounting how he endured hunger and oppression as a child, and how he finally seized a sliver of opportunity to enter the Primordial Palace.

Now in Qingming, as long as you work hard, regardless of your background or status, everyone has the opportunity to stand out!
Wei Yuan spoke with such emotion that he almost blurted out "Dare to change the world," but thankfully he pulled back from the brink.

After he finished speaking, someone in the audience shouted: "Dinner's ready!"

With a whoosh, thousands of cultivators vanished from their spot.

Wei Yuan on the stage was somewhat flustered; he hadn't yet said his 'last two sentences'.

Yu Zhizhuo said apologetically, "Nephew, I'm sorry! The project is progressing faster than expected and the quality is good, so I've prepared a special meal for everyone. Today's food is quite good."

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "It's alright, Uncle-Master, you can go ahead and do your work."

Meanwhile, work had already begun in the main hall of medicinal herbs, and was in full swing. Hundreds of Body Forging cultivators were scattered across hundreds of work areas, processing medicinal herbs. Each work area had a sign indicating which medicinal herb was being processed and what the procedures were.

In most work areas, there are no more than three steps, and most only one step: slicing or shredding, or soaking in alcohol and drying. The Body Forging cultivators work mechanically like puppets; they are not required to do anything else, nor are they required to think.

Xu Henshui stood in a large alchemy hall, watching quietly.

The main hall didn't look like a pill-making room at all, and the pill furnace was even stranger. It was no longer an elegant and simple round or square shape, but a long strip with many compartments inside, looking just like... a trough for cattle and horses.

Xu Henshui didn't know why this thought had come to him.

At this moment, a large number of Foundation Establishment cultivators entered the alchemy workshop. They were all expressionless, ignoring Xu Henshui. Xu Henshui knew that these were Wei Yuan's Foundation Establishment warriors, so he remained silent and watched quietly.

Then a bell rang, and the alchemy began.

Several cultivators carried in pre-processed medicinal herbs. These herbs had already been divided and packed into small boxes, each box just big enough to fit into one compartment of the alchemy furnace.

In the blink of an eye, all the dozens of compartments were filled with medicinal herbs. Dozens of Dao Foundation warriors beside the alchemy furnace began to light the fire, using Dao fire to refine the herbs. Each Dao Foundation warrior was responsible for one compartment. There were also ten other Dao Foundation warriors, each possessing different Dao power of the five elements. They moved around, replenishing the fire in any compartment that was unbalanced.

The five Dao Foundation Warriors patrolled back and forth, checking the furnace temperature and fire every half incense stick's time, and immediately correcting any imbalances.

Wei Yuan arrived in a hurry, glanced around the main hall, checked the state of the elixir in the furnace with his divine sense, and was very satisfied. He then greeted Xu Henshui and left.

The refining of the Qi-Nourishing Pill is not complicated and can be done in about half a day. Wei Yuan's alchemy method takes longer, but still only a day.

Xu Henshui watched quietly for the entire day.

Finally, the furnace was ready to be filled with pills. Just as Xu Henshui was about to remind them to collect the pills, ten cultivators hurriedly entered. Then the furnace was opened, and countless pills floated in the air and were collected by the cultivators. The whole process was very smooth.

Xu Henshui reached out and picked up a few Qi-Nourishing Pills, examining them closely. The three pills were plump, of uniform quality, and mild in nature. Most remarkably, they were almost identical, so much so that even Xu Henshui could hardly distinguish them.

Each compartment produced dozens of pills, and this one hall produced over eight hundred Qi-Nourishing Small Pills in one furnace. The other three halls should be about the same; Xu Henshui even suspected that the number of pills produced by each hall might be exactly the same.

If calculated this way, this one medicine workshop alone produces over three thousand Qi-Nourishing Pills daily, totaling one hundred thousand pills monthly, enough to supply one hundred thousand cultivators. The medicinal herbs sent by Taichu Palace this time are not even enough for this workshop for four months.

But Xu Henshui knew that Peiyuan Pills were not needed in large quantities under normal circumstances. These medicinal herbs had basically emptied the Taichu Palace's medicine storehouse.

At this moment, the cultivators began cleaning the alchemy furnace, removing the waste and filling it with a new batch of medicinal herbs. Their movements were mechanical yet incredibly skilled; they needed no rest, required no payment in immortal silver, and never made a mistake.

Looking at the orderly hall, Xu Henshui suddenly had a feeling that the hall was coming straight at him and would smash him to pieces.

Then he realized that times had truly changed.

(End of this chapter)