Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

The entire staff of the Precious Medicine Pavilion was mobilized to help investigate and find the murderer who killed Zhou Guang.

That night.

Gu Chen was then summoned to Dezhou for questioning.

"Brother Gu, I heard that you had a grudge against Zhou Guang's younger brother, Zhou Hong, and that you even crippled him?" Xiang Dezhou looked at Gu Chen.

"Yes." Gu Chen did not deny it; it was true, and a simple search in Texas would confirm it.

"Back in the Treasure Medicine Pavilion in Cangshan County, I once refused to give money to Zhou Hongxiao, so he blamed me for the accidental death of a servant disciple, trying to use this as an excuse to cripple me and expel me from the Treasure Medicine Pavilion. That's why I crippled him in our duel, giving him a taste of his own medicine," Gu Chen explained.

He made no attempt to conceal his feud with Zhou Hong.

"You crippled Zhou Guang's younger brother. When you came to the Treasure Medicine Pavilion in Chiyang City, did he make things difficult for you?" Xiang Dezhou asked.

"No." Gu Chen shook his head: "Perhaps Zhou Guang, the retainer, is of upright character and knows his brother's character. He feels that it was his own fault that I crippled him, so he didn't cause me any trouble."

"Brother Xiang, do you perhaps suspect that I killed Zhou Guang, the retainer?" Gu Chen looked at Xiang Dezhou.

"No, I was just asking." Xiang Dezhou shook his head.

The one who killed Zhou Guang must have been at least a master of the second level of the Innate Realm. With Gu Chen's strength, he shouldn't have been able to do it.

Perhaps he's just overthinking it.

"Yes, I also regret the death of Zhou Guang," Gu Chen sighed. "When I first arrived in Chiyang City, he even attended my promotion banquet. I never expected him to be killed like this."

"We must find the murderer who killed him and avenge him," Gu Chen said angrily.

"Okay, you can go now." He waved to Dezhou.

Gu Chen left.

Continue the investigation in other directions, towards Texas.

The time that follows.

Most of the staff at Baoyao Pavilion devoted their energy to tracking down the murderer who killed Zhou Guang.

Seven more days passed.

The time arrived when Gu Chen and Cheng Mengling agreed to sell the next batch of pills to her.

The previously agreed-upon quantity of pills to be sold was three hundred Qi and Blood Pills.

However, Gu Chen has been working overtime these days, sometimes refining three batches of pills a day, turning all the remaining forty portions of Qi and Blood Pill ingredients into pills.

Therefore, he now has a total of five hundred Qi and Blood Pills.

Cheng Mengling brought a manager from the Chen family to pick up the goods.

"These are the Qi and Blood Pills for this batch." Gu Chen handed all the Qi and Blood Pills he had refined over this period of time to Cheng Mengling.

She probably wouldn't mind if I gave her two hundred more.

Cheng Mengling took it to the Cheng family manager for inventory.

"Miss, there are five hundred in total," said the head of the Cheng family.

"The output was a bit higher than expected," Gu Chen explained.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Mengling didn't say anything. She directly took out four thousand five hundred taels of silver notes and handed them to Gu Chen, then said, "Brother Gu, these five hundred Qi and Blood Pills are the maximum amount that my Cheng family can consume in the next six months."

"If there are more, my Cheng family can't take them all. If you can sell the pills you provide later at 85% of the original price, I can help you sell them all at 90% of the original price. My Cheng family will only charge 0.05% of the service fee," Cheng Mengling said.

The Cheng family's size is indeed limited.

In the short term, taking so many Qi and Blood Pills is already the limit.

The Cheng family also considered reselling the Qi and Blood Pills they obtained from Gu Chen at a 5% discount, but the quantity they could sell was very small.

After all, with a 5% discount, any family or power that buys large quantities of medicine from Baoyao Pavilion can get this benefit, so they are not at an advantage at all.

Unless the price is reduced to 10% off.

But this would mean no profit for the Cheng family. They wouldn't waste their family's manpower and resources on doing something that would be a waste of their time and effort.

"15% off." Gu Chen pondered for a moment. The Cheng family's size was indeed limited, and they couldn't take too much.

To profit in the long term, he needed to use the Cheng family as a channel to help him sell his pills to other aristocratic families.

Only in this way can there be long-term benefits.

Naturally, the Cheng family has to make a profit; otherwise, who would do something for you if there's no benefit?

"Okay." Gu Chen agreed: "Then from now on, the pills will be sold at 15% of the original price. You can take them, and I won't pay you any distribution fees. You just need to pay me the silver, and then you can sell them at whatever price you want."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Mengling's eyes lit up. In that case, the Cheng family could divide the pills into two parts.

Some of them were shipped to other places for retail at a 5% discount.

A portion of the goods were supplied in bulk to some partners and prominent families in Chiyang City at a 10% discount, ensuring quick payment.

The Cheng family can earn more.

"Deal," Cheng Mengling agreed.

Then she asked, "Brother Gu, do you only have Qi and Blood Pills on you right now?"

"Do you have any higher-level pills like Qi and Blood Pills or Skin Tempering Pills? If so, we can sell some to you. Higher-level pills are more profitable."

"Not now, but it should be available in a while," Gu Chen said, even though he only knew how to refine Qi and Blood Pills.

That's because he hasn't mastered the formulas for other elixirs yet.

More than half a month has passed since he mastered the formula for the Qi and Blood Pill.

Go find Xu Kun now and show him the Qi and Blood Pills you've made. That should get him to teach you the formula for the Qi and Blood Pills.

The Qi and Blood Pill is five times more potent than the Qi and Blood Pill, but it requires some basic spiritual herbs to refine, making it more complex.

But the price is also higher, a full fifty taels of silver per piece.

He could earn 12.5 taels of silver per pill by refining them and selling them at 85% of the original price, which was ten times the profit from a Qi and Blood Pill.

Naturally, refining Qi and Blood Pills would be more profitable.

"Okay, I'll come back in seven days to pick up the goods," Cheng Mengling said.

"Okay," Gu Chen agreed.

After Cheng Mengling and the Cheng family manager left.

Gu Chen went directly to find Xu Kun.

"You've already mastered the art of refining Qi and Blood Pills?" Xu Kun asked after hearing Gu Chen's description.

I was once again amazed by Gu Chen's talent in alchemy.

It's only been a little over half a month, and he's already mastered the method of making Qi and Blood Pills.

This talent for alchemy is comparable to that of some formal disciples of the Pill Sect.

"Yes, Senior Brother Xu." Gu Chen nodded.

Then he demonstrated it directly in front of Xu Kun, refining a batch of Qi and Blood Pills, producing ten pills, which completely impressed him.

"Here's the formula for the Qi and Blood Pill. Take it." Xu Kun handed the formula to Gu Chen: "I want to see how long it will take you, with your terrifying talent, to learn it and refine the Qi and Blood Pill."

"Thank you, Senior Brother Xu." Gu Chen took the pill formula and said, "That boy will go down first. He should thoroughly understand it before trying to refine it."

Xu Kun waved his hand.

Gu Chen left.

He found Xiang Dezhou and directly purchased twenty-one portions of medicinal materials for refining Qi and Blood Pills.

The ingredients for one dose of Qi and Blood Pill cost 300 taels, so 21 doses would cost 6,300 taels, with a 5% discount.

That is five thousand nine hundred and eighty-five taels.

Gu Chen had a few hundred taels of silver left on him, plus the more than 1,300 taels he found in Zhou Guang's house last night after killing him, and the 4,500 taels that Cheng Mengling gave him today.

That's just enough to cover the cost of this batch of medicinal herbs.

He would still have more than a hundred taels left on him.

Sure enough, he still couldn't save any money on him.

No matter how much silver you acquire, it will be spent very quickly.

After paying with silver, Gu Chen bought more than twenty portions of wood needed for refining pills.

He packed it up with the medicinal herbs and took it back to his yard.

Gu Chen took out a copper bowl and put the formula for the Qi and Blood Pill into it.

The copper bowl shows:

[The recipe for the Qi and Blood Pill can be exchanged for alchemy insights for fifty taels of silver.]

Gu Chen put fifty taels of silver into it.

The silver disappeared in an instant, and Gu Chen gained insights into alchemy for the Qi and Blood Pill.

Gu Chen currently possesses twenty-one sets of medicinal materials for refining Qi and Blood Pills.

The date he and Cheng Mengling agreed on for the next delivery was seven days later.

Let's get started!

It takes two hours to refine one batch of pills, and you need to rest in between, because refining pills is very mentally taxing. If you don't rest, the success rate of refining pills next time will be lower.

He usually refines one batch in the morning, rests for two hours, and then refines another batch in the afternoon.

Two furnaces a day.

Now he's going to work hard, and after finishing the batch in the afternoon, he'll rest for two hours and then finish another batch in the evening.

Three furnaces a day.

In this way, after seven days, he will be able to refine all the medicinal herbs he has and sell them to the Cheng family to get his money back.

The silver he obtains should be enough to buy Bone Forging Pills and break through to the third realm of the Innate Realm.

Gu Chen began his elixir-refining spree.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the killer of Zhou Guang continues at the Baoyao Pavilion.

However, there are still no clues.

It was as if Zhou Guang had been killed by a mysterious, second-stage Innate Realm expert who appeared out of nowhere.

It's baffling.