Refining the Mountains and Rivers Chapter 291

Li Xiang pushed open the doors and stretched his waist. He took in a deep breath, clearly thinking how refreshing and crisp the air was. His face was full of praise. Everyone knew that the cost of the inn was high. The costs of a single day here were enough to pay his fill somewhere else for three days.

But there were valuable benefits in how expensive it was.

For instance, the skills of the ladies here. The courtesans of the inn were all skilled in the bedroom arts and all sorts of dual cultivation methods. Not only would they not damage a guest’s origin energy, but they could both revel in each other. Both sides would have harvests and would benefit in their cultivation.

The next was safety. The ladies here were undoubtedly all clean. Everyone that visited here were people who cared about face, and no one wanted to develop anything dirty upon leaving. Of course, this was only one aspect of safety. What was more important was that no matter how the inn had been investigated, no one’s secrets here had ever been investigated. From this alone, the inn could be called extremely awesome!

Li Xiang sighed inwardly. He met an old friend of his and greeted him. He slapped the amazingly bouncy butt of his friend’s escort and they both laughed. Just as he was thinking of leaving, he turned back around.

He was preparing to head out in two days. Although it wasn’t anything important, there were bound to be some dangers. So, before he embarked, he wanted to try and see if he could break through his current cultivation bottleneck.

A female cultivator behind the front counter smiled charmingly. “Dear guest, is there anything we can help you with?”

Li Xiang’s heart stirred but he didn’t dare to reveal anything. The inn had many ladies but some of them could not be touched by anyone, otherwise they would swiftly suffer bad luck. He coughed lightly and said, “I would like to purchase 20 Overwhelming Pills.”

“Please wait a moment.” The female cultivator lowered her head and tapped the screen below her. Soon after, a jade column rose up beside her. The transparent top opened to reveal a small jade bottle within.

The female cultivator turned to the jade column and took out the bottle of pills. “Dear guest, please examine them.”

Li Xiang smiled and shook his head. “No need. I trust in the name of the inn.” He took out his spirit stone card to pay. When he received a notification on his handphone and saw the remaining amount left, his heart shivered. But, he maintained a bright smile in front of this beautiful woman and spun around with great verve, leaving.

The inn was expensive and so were their pills. Compared with similar goods on the market, the selling price was around 20% higher. But, the reasoning behind this was similar to the services of the inn. The medicinal efficacy of the pills was guaranteed. They would never sell substandard products nor would they ever contain any defects.

Li Xiang returned to his room, his expression urgent. He thought that he needed to work properly on this outing, otherwise he would soon be bankrupt.

Calming himself, Li Xiang took out an Overwhelming Pill. After opening the tight packaging, he swallowed it down.

He had eaten this type of magic power enhancing pill numerous times before and had a rich experience with them. Thus, he soon realized how it was different. The medicinal efficacy was far more formidable and much livelier. It flowed quickly in his body, producing waves of warm heat.

As if he were soaking in a hot spring.

An hour later, Li Xiang opened his eyes, surprise flashing in his pupils.

The inn’s pills were recognized by everyone to be of high quality and to have good medicinal efficacy…but, the medicinal efficacy of these pills was simply too good. It was a bit exaggerated to say that one of these pills was as good as two others, but saying that one of these pills was one and a half times better wasn’t a problem.

Before he could think further, he took out a second Overwhelming Pill and swallowed it down. This time, it took a tad longer for him to digest it. An hour later, he opened his eyes, uncertainty filling his features.

An Overwhelming Pill took an hour to completely refine. This was a normal speed. But, the medicinal efficacy of this pill was slightly worse. Both pills were purchased from the inn and were of similar standards.

Then what was the problem with the first Overwhelming Pill? Li Xiang frowned. His eyes suddenly brightened and he looked to the side where he had tossed the packaging of the two Overwhelming Pills.

As he thought, the production time and batch number were different…his eyes brightened even further. Did the inn have one batch of pills with a particularly good effect? If true, then this was a tremendous advantage!

He quickly poured out the remaining 18 Overwhelming Pills. Li Xiang’s luck was good. There were two more pills that came from the same batch as the first.

Two hours later, Li Xiang’s face lit up with joy. It was true, it was really true! This batch of Overwhelming Pills was several dozen percent more effective, almost reaching the medicinal efficacy of a medium-grade pill. And, a low-grade pill was only 20% of a medium-grade pill’s price. This difference in profit was shocking!

Without hesitation, Li Xiang took out his handphone and dialed the inn’s customer service number. Sweet and catchy music played for a moment; it was the theme song of one of the current hottest drama series airing right now. Li Xiang did like the singer, but he didn’t have the mindset of thinking about these things right now. He only felt that every moment he waited was extremely slow and long.

For some unknown reason, the customer service line that usually connected instantly actually took a full minute before connecting. When a slightly anxious woman’s voice rose up from the other end, Li Xiang directly said, “I want to order a batch of pills that the inn packaged three days ago, batch number 2764.”

The woman’s voice paused and then responded apologetically. “My apologies dear guest, but the batch of pills you requested has sold out.”

Li Xiang was flustered. “That’s impossible. I just bought them several hours ago, and you haven’t even checked so how do you know if they are sold out?”

The woman respectfully said, “Dear guest, before you called in, there were already many people who phoned in to inquire. I have looked up the situation clearly, and batch number 2764 of the Overwhelming Pills has indeed completely sold out. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Li Xiang hung up the call. A bitter expression crossed his face. If he could discover something, then it was natural for other people also.

What a pity he had wasted this opportunity!

As Li Xiang was sighing, the matter of the inn’s Overwhelming Pills had caused small waves all around.

“They can almost compare to medium-grade Overwhelming Pills. This is a bit strange.”

“Everyone knows that the inn will not do business where they are at a loss.”

“This is strange, but one can’t explain anything by just looking at these pills.”

“Let’s keep watching.”

Before these cultivators waited for long, a second wave arrived.

“Hurry to the inn and purchase Batch 2764 of the Essence Juncture Pills!”

“Low-grade pill price, medium-grade medicinal efficacy!”

“Heavens! It’s actually true! I want to buy 1000 of them!”

The inn’s customer service line welcomed another flood of chaos. All pills produced in Batch 2764 sold out in the shortest time possible.

This caused many people’s hearts to begin racing.

Then came the third set of pills that were produced in Batch 2764 – Blood Spirit Pills.

Despite the fact that the types of pills were different, the medicinal efficacy still left one as crazy as before. For a time, the number 2764 nearly became synonymous with the inn.

Within the minds of the people, they began to vaguely speculate on the actions of the inn. It seemed that the inn had recently acquired some extremely formidable alchemist. They were likely selling these high quality pills as a means to draw attention and drum up excitement before promoting the official launch of this alchemist.

And the facts proved that there were many intelligent people. All of the inn’s chain stores simultaneously announced news today:

All pills that were recently sold in Batch 2764 were refined by an alchemist grandmaster who recently allied with the inn. They ensured that the usage of materials was ordinary and there was nothing else added on. The low price sales had only been for feedback and as a way to give back to the customers that normally supported the inn…

There was a bunch of flowery language added on, but in short: the inn had welcomed an extremely fierce refiner recently, and from now on they would be accepting work!

Within a well-lit meeting room, someone slapped the table. “The inn is playing more and more tricks. If things continue like this, all of our business will be snatched up by them!”

Those that worked in the same trade were both peers and enemies. This was especially true in the alchemy pill business. In a profession that involved such a massive amount of profit, everyone looked at each other with envy.

Philosophy Watch was one of these competitors.

“For the last ten years, our profits have been dropping with every successive year. The sect is already dissatisfied with us!”

“It’s all because of this damned inn! 30% of our income has been stolen by them!”

“We can’t allow this to go any further otherwise we’ll just be slowly nibbled away at. All that awaits us is a dead end!

Within the meeting room, everyone gnashed their teeth. They all wished they could raze the inn to the ground. However, they had already attempted this before, and not only had they not obtained any advantages, but they had instead suffered heavy losses.

On the seat of honor, a purple-robed old man lightly said, “The inn’s arrogance has indeed become too rampant recently.”

Everyone brightened with joy. They looked over.

The purple-robed old man stood up and flung out his sleeves. “This Alchemist No.19 is in for a round of bad luck!” His eyes shined with light, full of confidence.

Soon, the inn received Qin Yu’s first large contract. The materials were incomparably precious and the rewards were amazing. But, what left one even more stunned was the compensation clause if the pill refining were to fail.

In short, if he succeeded in refining then he would receive great profits. But if he failed…his reputation and future job prospects would be finished!

Within Philosophy Watch, there was happy laughter and discussion.

“It’s Elder’s methods that are swift and fierce to decide upon moving against this Alchemist 19. As long as we can crush him, the inn’s reputation will be damaged!”

“Not just damaged. The alchemist they’re promoting with so much effort will be completely ruined because of this failure. From then one, no one else will dare to join the inn!”

“Hehe, Elder’s move is to remove the firewood from below the pot. I only fear that they won’t agree to the conditions.”

“How could they not accept it? They’ve been advertising this alchemy grandmaster so much. Even if the inn did refuse, then we would share this news as much as possible anyways. They would surely lose face!”

The purple-robed old man had a face full of smug satisfaction. No matter which path the inn took, they would suffer a great loss!

It was unknown where this news spread from, but the inn’s new alchemist started to be called Grandmaster 19.

Cough cough, concerning this name, it was just a rumor and no one knew exact information on this secretive grandmaster. But, when he produced pills he did so in Batch 2764, and when these four numbers were added up, they just happened to be 19. So, it was appropriate for everyone to call him Grandmaster 19.

Of course, these were nothing but minor details. What was more important was that Grandmaster 19 had received a commission. It was said that the refining difficulty was extremely high and the compensation clause on both ends was incredible. Rumors surged all around and all sorts of changes were made to these stories by various actors. It was said that Grandmaster 19 was not worthy of his name, and the inn was only using him to draw attention to themselves. It was said that they might be too afraid to receive this commission.

Within the Beast Hunting Battalion, Aunty Hong laid down a jade slip, her complexion dark. When Qin Yu refined the first batch of pills, she had personally examined them. When she discovered how incredible their medicinal efficacy was, she had been overjoyed.

By using ordinary materials and no other additional methods, he had actually been able to mass refine these pills at such a high quality; this alone was proof of Qin Yu’s strength.

After a short period of contemplation, Aunty Hong decided to use this batch of pills to ignite the reputation of Grandmaster Qin. This was why the Batch 2764 of pills had entered the market at such a low price. However, with Qin Yu’s mere Nascent Soul cultivation, it was impossible to not be worried for his safety. Thus, she purposefully concealed Qin Yu’s identity and tried to increase the mystery about him to avoid unnecessary worries.

Everything continued smoothly. The explosiveness of pill batch 2764 attracted numerous eyes. With that, her plan of promoting Qin Yu with high harvests and a low cost was successful.

But Philosophy Watch’s move had ruined all of this. Now, not only was Qin Yu pushed to the peak of the wave, but even the entire inn was facing a crisis.