I'm in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have one equipment slot!

Chapter 7: The Lin Family's Guest Retainer! Ruthlessly Embezzling Funds!

The atmosphere in the VIP room became somewhat tense for a moment.

Zhou Yuan's fingers tapped intermittently on the smooth wooden table, producing a dull "tap-tap" sound.

It must be said that the conditions offered by the Lin family were indeed very attractive.

At least, it was hard for Zhou Yuan to resist.

Being an inner disciple of Huangfeng Valley is like having a powerful protective shield, saving him from countless troubles he would have faced during his time as a rogue cultivator.

There's also the division of alchemy rewards, and a high-grade magic artifact.

It must be said that the other party showed great sincerity.

Zhou Yuan hesitated for a moment, then finally raised his head to meet the shopkeeper's expectant gaze.

"I can agree."

As soon as the three words left his mouth, the shopkeeper's face lit up with a smile that was as warm as a spring breeze.

"Master Zhou is indeed a wise man! My Lin family..."

"But I have a few conditions." Zhou Yuan interrupted his polite words directly, his words calm and firm.

The shopkeeper's smile froze for a moment, but he quickly recovered and made a "please speak" gesture.

"Master Zhou, please speak freely."

"First, I need to become a disciple of Yellow Maple Valley as soon as possible. The manager should understand what this identity means to me."

For a rogue cultivator, the status of a sect disciple is not only a form of protection, but also a guarantee for his future path of cultivation.

This is also the main reason why Zhou Yuan agreed to become a guest retainer of the Lin family.

The shopkeeper pondered for a moment, then nodded: "This matter requires some maneuvering, and the Lin family will get to it immediately. However, recruiting members for a sect is no trivial matter. It will take at least a few months, or at most... a year, to give Master Zhou a satisfactory answer."

One year.

Zhou Yuan quickly calculated in his mind.

He can afford to wait this long.

"Okay, one year."

He continued, "Secondly, I will not move to the Lin family. I am used to life in the market town and hope that your esteemed establishment can provide me with a quiet place to refine pills. I do not like to be disturbed."

Go to the Lin family?

That would be tantamount to placing himself completely under the other party's control. If the Lin family harbored malicious intentions and imprisoned him to use as a pill-refining machine, he would have nowhere to turn for help.

The world of cultivation is unpredictable, so he must leave himself a way out.

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper seemed unsurprised and readily agreed: "Of course! My Miaodan Pavilion has several superior alchemy rooms in the backyard, equipped not only with the best earth fire but also with spirit-gathering arrays, guaranteeing a hundred times quieter than your current courtyard, Master Zhou. You can move in anytime."

"The last condition."

Zhou Yuan stared at him. "I've accepted the task of making fifty batches of pills every year. But the time and place for refining the pills are my own arrangements. The Lin family must not interfere; they only need to provide the medicinal materials on time, and I will deliver the pills after they are completed."

He must take the initiative.

"No problem!" the shopkeeper agreed readily. "These are all minor matters. As long as Master Zhou can serve the Lin family with peace of mind, everything is negotiable."

Seeing that he agreed to everything, Zhou Yuan picked up the cup of spiritual tea on the table, which had already cooled down, and took a small sip.

"It's a pleasure working with you."

"It's a pleasure doing business with you!" The shopkeeper clapped his hands and laughed, feeling completely relaxed.

With the matter settled, Zhou Yuan did not linger at Miaodan Pavilion.

The next day, he decisively gave up the secluded courtyard and moved directly into the private alchemy room prepared for him in the backyard of Miaodan Pavilion.

The conditions here are indeed far superior to those in his little courtyard.

The alchemy room was spacious and bright, with a three-legged bronze furnace, about half a person's height, in the center, which was even better than his crimson gold furnace. The ground was engraved with mysterious array patterns, which activated the artificial fire veins underground. The furnace fire could be controlled at will, saving a lot of magic power.

The concentration of spiritual energy in the air is far greater than that in the outside world.

Not long after Zhou Yuangang settled down, the Lin family sent him a generous gift.

He was toying with a newly acquired magical artifact in his hand. It was a palm-sized, dark black shield that felt heavy in his hand and had a thick layer of spiritual light flowing across its surface.

A superior defensive magic weapon, the Xuan Turtle Shield.

Among all types of magical artifacts, defensive magical artifacts are far more valuable than offensive magical artifacts of the same tier due to their high crafting difficulty and the rarity of their materials.

The Lin family really went to great lengths to win him over, showing their utmost sincerity.

This shows that being an alchemist is extremely desirable in the cultivation world.

"The Xuan Turtle Shield has been detected. Equip it?"

The notification sound from the equipment bar rang in my mind.

Zhou Yuan ignored it for the time being.

He put the Xuan Turtle Shield into his storage bag, and then settled down in the alchemy room, beginning his days of "working" for the Lin family.

Miao Dan Pavilion would regularly deliver the medicinal materials for refining the Golden Source Pill, in ten portions each time.

Zhou Yuan's life returned to the monotonous and focused cycle of alchemy, oblivious to everything else.

Two months have passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the alchemy room, the rich aroma of elixirs almost solidified.

Zhou Yuan skillfully cast the pill-collecting incantation, and the furnace lid popped open, revealing several golden pills, each the size of a longan, lying quietly at the bottom of the furnace, radiating an alluring glow.

He carefully placed the pills into the jade bottle, a satisfied look on his face.

"The success rate of pill formation is getting higher and higher."

After two months of honing his skills, and with the terrifying support of the two major pieces of equipment, the [Dan Dao Insights] and the [Crimson Gold Furnace], his technique for refining Golden Source Pills has become increasingly refined.

Nowadays, the success rate of refining Golden Source Pills has steadily reached over 80%, and when conditions are good, it can even reach 90%, with almost no possibility of failure.

The success rate of pills he reported to the Myriad Pill Pavilion was only one number.

50%.

This number was enough to astound the manager of Miaodan Pavilion, who regarded it as a priceless treasure and naturally had no doubts.

After all, for ordinary alchemists, a success rate of 20% to 30% for a top-grade first-tier pill is already something to be proud of.

In their eyes, Wu Cheng was already a genius among geniuses in the art of alchemy.

This is why the Lin family values ​​Zhou Yuan so much.

This gives Zhou Yuan more room to maneuver.

After Zhou Yuan finished refining ten portions of materials each time, he would hand over the Lin family's portion to the Myriad Pill Pavilion according to the standard of a 50% success rate in producing pills.

As for the extra 40%...

Naturally, the money quietly flowed into his own pocket.

To line their own pockets.

Over the past two months, he has accumulated dozens of Golden Source Pills.

He did not sell a single one of these pills.

If Miaodan Pavilion were to discover that a batch of Golden Source Pills of the same or even better quality as theirs had suddenly appeared on the market, they would be in big trouble.

It's hard to explain.

He planned to keep all these pills as "ammunition" for his next round of secluded cultivation.

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