Chapter 158: Chapter 137: Lu Wuqiang: Hand Over the Wind and Thunder Dual Swords, and I’ll Spare Your Life

For the next half a month, Xiao Chen took on all the Blood Piercing Pill alchemy tasks by himself.

Thanks to the Alchemy Technique, he had just enough time to complete two batches each day, working from afternoon into the evening.

By late in the second month, he had completed the order and collected his reward of one thousand Spirit Stones.

Everyone in the Alchemy Hall was dumbfounded. ’What kind of efficiency is this?’

Xiao Chen had taken fifty portions of Spirit Grass and turned in a full fifty bottles of Blood Piercing Pills.

This meant that in fifty consecutive attempts, he hadn’t failed a single time.

It was truly unbelievable!

As a result, whenever Xiao Chen came and went from the Alchemy Hall these days, countless eyes would follow him from all directions.

Some even repeatedly recounted the day’s events to the disciples who had happened to be absent.

Of course, no one knew that Xiao Chen actually had another fifty bottles of Blood Piercing Pills lying quietly in his Storage Bag.

’This is what will really make me a fortune.’

However, the number of Alchemists capable of creating Blood Piercing Pills was limited. Selling them directly would expose his identity too easily, so he needed to find a suitable, anonymous channel to offload them.

’I wonder if there will be a Black Market this year.’

Xiao Chen found himself reminiscing about the Niu Village Black Market from this time last year.

Last year, he had been too busy preparing for the Flame Pool Secret Realm to find time to attend the final one.

Then, it ended up getting completely busted.

’Wait, wasn’t I the one who turned in one of the Black Market Tokens? Oh well, never mind then.’

After dealing with the Blood Piercing Pills, he browsed through the other available tasks again.

Even if he took on other alchemy tasks, he could still use his ’buy one, get one free’ perk to mooch Spirit Grass from the sect.

But even with a one-hundred-percent profit margin, these basic elixirs wouldn’t earn him many Spirit Stones.

To that end, he made a special trip to see Chen Tianyuan. "Senior Martial Uncle, have there been any orders for other Tier Two Spirit Pills recently? Preferably a rarer type."

Chen Tianyuan shook his head. "Not at the moment."

"But don’t worry. By my estimation, it won’t be long before we get tasks for rare Spirit Pills."

"According to the latest news, the Four Seas Sect has confirmed they’ve sent a large number of disciples to Hezhou."

"The Lingyuan Sect has also recently increased its orders for Healing and Recovery Elixirs."

"Once more Foundation Establishment Cultivators start clashing, the demand for Tier Two Spirit Pills will naturally increase."

Hearing this, Xiao Chen felt it would be better if there were no such orders at all.

Most families wouldn’t be willing to part with the Treasures of Heaven and Earth in their vaults unless it was an absolute last resort.

If that happened, the war in Hezhou would likely intensify dramatically, and a victor would be decided soon after.

And if Hezhou were to fall, Li State would surely face widespread devastation.

Since there were no suitable orders, Xiao Chen went to the second floor of the Alchemy Hall and casually accepted a few tasks for common elixirs.

He switched to refining just one batch of elixirs per day, refocusing his main energy on his own cultivation.

A few more days passed like this.

On the third day of the third month, Xiao Chen was up early, meditating in his courtyard.

Suddenly, he heard a loud shout from outside. "Junior Martial Master Xiao, Happy Shangsi Festival! Do you want to go on a spring outing with me?"

"What festival?"

Xiao Chen opened the main gate, surprised, and was then even more taken aback.

There stood Su Wanqing with a dew-kissed wintersweet flower in her hair, looking as if it had just been picked. A flower basket was looped over her arm.

"Ta-da!"

Su Wanqing spun in a circle. "Junior Martial Master, do I look pretty?"

"Hold on, what’s with this look?"

Xiao Chen couldn’t quite make sense of her outfit.

Then he noticed that when she spun, the dew on the flower’s petals hadn’t moved at all. "Hey, is that flower on your head fake?"

Su Wanqing pointed to the wintersweet flower. "It’s a new hairpin I just bought yesterday! And this is a matching flower basket. Aren’t they lovely?"

...

Xiao Chen searched for the right words. "Uh, I’m not sure what to say."

"Hm?"

Su Wanqing looked surprised. "Xiao, you went to the Immortal Ascension Ceremony, right? Did you not see Master Yaohua?"

"This outfit is the absolute latest trend in Li State."

"I even had to pull some strings to get this new style ahead of everyone else."

Only then did Xiao Chen notice that she was also wearing what looked like an identical Rainbow Skirt.

The flower basket’s design was also quite similar, but it was so much smaller that he hadn’t recognized it at first.

Su Wanqing took two steps closer to show it off. "This is a high-end replica. See the embroidery here? It’s identical to the floral pattern on Master Yaohua’s."

Xiao Chen thought for a moment. "They are indeed the same. Both are quite large."

"Huh?"

Su Wanqing looked down at the string of embroidered peach blossoms on her chest. "Are these flowers that large?"

"Ahem, that’s not important."

Xiao Chen averted his gaze and changed the subject. "I’ll pass on the spring outing. Did you come here for something else?"

"I did!"

At that, Su Wanqing took a Storage Bag from her flower basket. "This is this year’s dividend. Great-Grandfather asked me to bring it to you."

Xiao Chen paused, stunned for a moment before remembering. ’That’s right, I’m a business owner now.’

He took the Storage Bag. Inside were 2,182 Spirit Stones and an account book.

To be honest, that was a significant amount of Spirit Stones.

Not counting Foundation Establishment Pills, the Su siblings together probably didn’t receive two thousand Spirit Stones in a year.

And they were from the Direct Lineage; ordinary family members received even less.

In other words, his dividend from the Su Family was already more than what ninety-nine percent of its own members received.

"Great-Grandfather said the account book in the Storage Bag is a copy, so you don’t need to return it."

Having delivered her message, Su Wanqing peered into the courtyard. "Xiao, what are you growing here?"

Xiao Chen glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, just a few pots of Celestial Net Star I planted for fun."