112 — Assembling the Team

I walked across the plains, taking in the rushing wind. Chi flowed through my feet, my steps barely touching the ground as I stepped throughout the whole way. The sensation was akin to being flung off and at the edge of falling, as the world seemed to warp around me, yet I never hit the ground. There was something oddly relaxing about speeding through grassy plains, following no particular path in general as the world stretched on endlessly.

The scroll I’d grabbed for Labby sat in my pouch, alongside the other little tidbits I’d picked up. If allowed to, I would’ve emptied the entire place, but for now, I only took the bare minimum of things. There will be time later to utilise the Lord’s generosity, but for now, we had a new drug industry to start.

As I closed in towards Taizhou, I slowed my steps down, returning to a more regular run, before transitioning into a light job. It was still early morning and the village was bustling with people going about their day. I walked down the hill that led towards the entrance path of the village, walking past the little stream that flowed past close to it, when I began to sense a small crowd gathered around the village head’s place.

Watching the people walk past, I could see an odd tension in their body language. Has something happened?

Speeding up my approach, I walked closer, when a familiar face stopped me. Chen, the blacksmith and carpenter of the village found me, a worried expression on his face.

“We’d been looking for you Lu Jie. There’s a visitor in the village. A cultivator,” the man said, walking beside me. I frowned, glancing towards the Village head’s home. Sure enough, I could sense a first realm cultivator. At a brief glance, I’d dismissed it as either one of the spirits or Su Lin. But being closer now, I could tell this wasn’t any of them.

“What are they here for?” I asked, speeding up on my way over. The cultivator was only at the peak of the first realm, so I wasn’t terribly concerned about any trouble. But better safe than sorry.

“That’s the thing, it’s a young girl. About Yin’s age from the looks of it. A buddy of mine found her unconscious close to the woods near the Qi vein.”

I glanced at Chen with a frown. An injured cultivator near the Qi vein? A disciple from the sect on a task again? I put my thoughts aside, deciding the fastest way to find out would be simply visiting the village head’s home.

The people gathered near the entrance stepped aside, watching me appear. I quickly stepped inside the village chief’s place, glancing around. Zhang was standing nearby, Silverlight riding on his shoulders.

“What’s going on?” I asked Zhang.

“Some cultivator girl was found nearby, injured and unconscious. They think a spirit serpent attacked her. Granny Lang is looking after her right now,” Zhang said.

“Aren’t those serpents really calm creatures?” I asked in surprise, walking further in with Zhang. The boy nodded. “That’s what we’re wondering. Though an attack does happen when a serpent is too agitated. They are wild creatures, at the end.”

Any further talks stopped when I reached into the inner chamber. Walking in, I saw a young girl lying on the bed. Her skin was a near sickly pale white, and she wore simple robes that I did not recognise. Not from the Cloudy Peaks sect then.

Granny Lang sat on a chair next to the girl, her hand on the girl’s abdomen. I stood behind, watching Granny do her work. Yin stood behind the granny, a basket of spirit herbs in her hand, as she watched over the girl with a worried expression.

“What’s the problem?” I asked the granny, who looked back at me with narrowed eyes, to stop disturbing her.

“She’s eaten some weird poison. I can’t tell you what it is, but it doesn’t seem lethal. Seems to be clouding her dantian but a few hours of meditation should clean it. Otherwise, she’s just injured,” the old woman replied, picking out a herb from Yin’s basket, before rolling it up and putting it in the unconscious girl’s mouth.

“Any idea who she is?” I asked, watching the girl’s eyes flutter with a frown.

“I can’t talk to sleeping people boy,” the granny said, scoffing. “They found a dead serpent close to where they found her, so it looks like she got attacked. There’s nothing wrong with her, she should be waking up anytime now.”

“In that case, can I borrow you for a while? There is news that I wanted to discuss,” I told the granny, before glancing at Zhang. “You too,” I told the boy.

The old woman got up from her chair, glancing at Yin. “Keep an eye on her, and tell me if she awakens.”

The village head’s daughter nodded, walking aside to let the old granny through. With Zhang and Granny Lan in tow, I made my way towards my home.

“Labby?”  I asked with my bond.

“Yes master?” she asked.

“Can you come back home for a while? Bring Yan Yun, Su Lin and Cao Chen with you too,” I sent to Labby.

“Squeak!” I heard the reply back, and laughed in surprise. It seemed like that little habit hadn’t gone away.

“What is this about, boy?” the granny asked on the way back. “You seem awfully concerned.”

“I think I got permission to have us set up a proper alchemy shop in Taizhou. Though it’s not quite that simple, I’ll explain more when everyone else is around,” I said.

I found Cao Chen working in the spirit herb field around my home, and I waved to the boy, asking him to come over. I noticed a little dirt path carved through the garden, which was now divided in four separate sections.

“When did we get all this done?” I asked, glancing at granny Lang.

“Wasn't me, boy. Chen and Zhang here wanted to work in the fields. People couldn’t visit your place so they made a path for the children to come get your spirits. Did it all while you were off to the city,” the granny said.

I looked towards Zhang in surprise, who looked down bashfully. I turned back towards Granny, curious about something she’d said. “Do the children visit often?”

“Boy, I know you’ve been busy working with the Lord but you really need to pay more attention. Why do you think your spirits have been so content to just let you wander? They’re the village’s darlings. Especially the turtle. The little flower spirit has been rising on his back and making crops grow faster. If it wasn’t for the fact that they already nearly worship you, then they would be certainly worshipping them.”

I chuckled at the image of Sheldon and Twilight being worshipped, but I supposed it was oddly fitting. I could picture Sheldon spraying the crops with water and creating rainbows as Twilight just chimed and giggled and the crops began to grow faster.

I stepped inside my home, granny Lang, Zhang and Cao Chen following behind. Walking into the centre area, I looked around, wondering how to go about conducting this meeting.

The lab area around my home was still not made, but there were plenty of chairs around that I’d made for practice. Grabbing them from the impromptu storage area of my lab, I set them in a circular pattern.

Labby walked into the chamber as I went about setting up the chairs, Yan Yun, and Su Lin with her.

“Master!” she shouted, running up to give me a hug. I hugged her back, smiling, before I looked up at Yan Yun, and Su Lin. “Take a seat, there’s quite a lot to discuss.”

Zhang took a seat next to me, Silverlight now sitting on Labby’s head as the two spirits settled along. Yan Yun sat on the opposite end, next to Cao Chen. I waited a few moments for everyone to settle down, before speaking up.

“The Lord has agreed to provide us with resources for setting up an alchemy shop. The goal will be to replace Silver Fang in the black market of Silver Peak city, with us,” I announced. Various reactions came to me from all across, yet none as surprised as I’d expected them to be.

“You guys don’t seem very surprised?” I asked.

They looked at each other for a moment at that, as if confused by the question. Su Lin looked at me, leaning over. “You’re the one who keeps laughing about a drug empire and what not. Figured it was about time you did something. Took you long enough.”

Nods from all around the table. I clutched my chest in fake hurt, smiling all along.

“I admit, I’ve been… distracted. The whole heavenly tribulation, and sect tournament, and all that really didn’t help either. But things will hopefully be different now. We have been provided an opportunity of a lifetime. There are resources here, a Qi vein for us to take advantage of. The village will not have to rely on the sect’s boons for their resources any longer. But all of it hinges on whether we can create enough pills and satisfy the lord enough to take the gamble for us or not.”

I looked around the table, watching everyone’s reaction. Granny turned towards me, raising an eyebrow. “How do you intend to compete with Silver Fang boy? He’s got many alchemists working with him. He won’t exactly sit around and wait for you to overthrow him either.”

“The goal is to make a mass production lab that can outcompete their multiple alchemists with consistent and stable production. The distribution will be helped by the Lord himself. The goal is to take over the network Silver Fang uses, and replace him as the head with us through simple business tactics,” I said, glancing around.

I received a couple of blank stares, alongside some confused nods. “What I mean to say is. I’m going to try and make thousands of pills a week. At a consistent sustainable rate. Then slowly ramp those numbers even higher as I get better equipment.”

“Who’ll sell that many pills though? The traders that buy only do so in small quantities. The Alchemy Halls will crack down on anything so big,” Su Lin said, frowning.

“Su Lin. We have an entire empire’s worth of people willing to buy these pills. The problem with alchemy pills is that they’re expensive. And why are they expensive?” I asked, glancing around.

“Because spirit herbs are difficult to grow, and for five herbs, you only get one pill. Even worse odds the more potent the pill is,” Yan Yun said.

I nodded. “Precisely. Pills fail. And they shouldn’t. What I’ll be doing is trying to get a nearly 100% rate of success for the production. That way, we obtain nearly 5-10 times as many pills for the same amount of herbs. The method to do that will be a precise controlled environment that can find out just exactly how each pill needs to be made,” I said, glancing sideways at Labby. “I’ll be needing your help for that, Labby.”

“Labby will be happy to help!”

“That still doesn’t answer how yer gonna sell them,” Su Lin said.

“Right. By making them cheap. Our pills will sell for as low as a few coppers. Everyone who wishes to buy one, can get one,” I said, with a manic grin.

My enthusiasm wasn’t met by the people around me, who stared back as if I was insane.

“Wouldn’t that lose us a lot of money?” Yan Yun asked.

“Brother Jie, I think you’re really bright, but this… this does not make any sense,” Zhang said, hesitantly.

“No need to be so coy, he’s talking like a lunatic,” Su Lin said, patting Zhang’s shoulder.

“You guys are doubting me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“If you talk nonsense then yeah, I am,” Su Lin said, folding his arms.

“Alright, think about it this way. Let’s say there’s a hundred disciples looking to buy. Each has one silver coin to buy pills with every month. That gets them what? Two pills? Now what if each pill was ten copper? Or five? The amount goes up to twenty Qi refilling pills every month. The disciple will be able to practice his arts for much much longer, and will obviously grow faster because of it. Eventually, someone will find out what’s up and if they have even more money, they’ll buy even more. We’re making around five thousand of these pills every week for a start. So twenty thousand pills a month give or take. If each pill sells even at five copper that’s ten gold pieces a month.”

Silence awaited me, as everyone in the room began to wrap their heads around the number. I didn’t give them the time to do so, continuing further.

“Now, that is just for Qi gathering pills. We will be selling other pills too. Nearly a thousand a week at least. Adding the cost for that, our early dividends will be close to fifty gold a month,” I said, a toothy grin on my face.

Su Lin’s eyes seemed like they would bulge out in surprise, and Zhang sat deep in contemplation. I turned towards Yan Yun, who oddly, still did not look very impressed.

“Is there a problem?” I asked.

“Assuming I know the right things. Silver Fang will be making thousands of gold coins a week. A lot of it is bribes that go to the officials to overlook his workings, and other to his thugs, but making fifty a month is a drop in the ocean for the man,” Yan Yun said.

“That’s true,” I replied nodding. “Which is where the Lord comes in. For providing the raw materials, and a network of distribution, we can avoid the hassle of bribing officials. I will be offering him a 30% share of all profits made from the pills. 25% will go to Su Lin and Zhang, who will distribute it to the dealers who’ll be taking on the risk of selling. From the 45% that remains, I’ll keep 10% for my personal funds, and the rest will go towards a common pool to develop our business, and Taizhou,” I said, glancing around at everyone.

“But why not sell at a higher cost? You could be cheaper than Silver Fang, and still sell at a much higher cost,” Yan Yun said.

“I think I know why,” Granny Lang interrupted, glancing at me. “Think carefully before you say anything boy,” she warned.

I turned to face the rest of them, before digging into my pocket and taking out a glassy bead. “This is a pill. It is called celestial dew. For cultivators, it is just a really pure Qi gathering pill that can aid cultivation exceptionally well. But when used on mortals, it can make them into a cultivator, even if not a powerful one.”

Sharp intakes of breath and wide eyes turned towards my palm, at the little bead sitting on my hand.

“You wouldn’t…” Su Lin muttered. I merely grinned in response.

“I plan to spread this pill, turning mortals into cultivators. And when they are, I will sell them an abundance of cheap pills. There are perhaps ten thousand cultivators on the seventh peak,” I said, glancing around. “But there are close to a hundred thousand mortals.”

The air grew thick at my words, tensions rising.

“You’re insane,” Su Lin said, and I shrugged. “Are you insane enough to join me?” I asked, extending a hand.

The boy laughed. “Too late for that question. I will force my way in if I must,” the boy said, grasping my hand.

I looked around the area, receiving nods from everyone.

Labby nudged my side, leaning in to whisper. “Can Labby have some? Just a few.”

I laughed, handing the celestial dew to Labby, who rushed out with a loud squeaking squeal. I shook my head at the sight. I suppose some things never changed.

Before I could further conduct the meeting and sort the details of our plan, a knock at the door interrupted us. Getting up, I walked to open the door, but I already knew who was on the side.

The village head’s daughter stood outside, clutching her herb basket nervously as I opened the door. I realised I was focusing my attention on her too strongly, putting pressure from my Chi, and I relaxed.

Yin let out a breath, before stammering. “T-the girl is awake.”