I Shall Personally Ascend Mount Xuchen!

The Yangyuan Pill was exceptionally effective! Unlike the Jade Marrow Pill, which suffered from inherent defects and meager potency—requiring superior quality just to rival the Qi-Nourishing Pill from the Spirit Herb Pavilion—a Yangyuan Pill needed only to be of inferior grade for its potency to fall just slightly shy of a Qi-Nourishing Pill. It was precisely by relying on this pill that the Danyuan Sect had managed to sustain the cultivation of two Foundation Establishment True Cultivators in succession. Of course! With such potent effects naturally came a cost. Namely, an exorbitant production cost. The high cost stemmed entirely from one of its primary ingredients. "You mean the Yuanmu Grass?" Qi Yi nodded repeatedly. "Indeed. The cost of the Yangyuan Pill is high precisely because of the Yuanmu Grass. It is the most vital primary ingredient and cannot be replaced." "This herb is exceedingly niche, and its cultivation requirements are extraordinarily harsh. In the entire Tianlan Immortal City, only the Qinhua Li family grows it." "As such, the price has never come down. The raw ingredients for a single batch cost twenty spirit stones!" Hearing this material cost, Qu Lingjun and Mi Li, standing nearby, could not help but be stunned. For the Jade Marrow Pills and Myriad Wonders Pills they refined, the cost per batch was merely five low-grade spirit stones. To think the Yangyuan Pill was so expensive to produce! No wonder the Danyuan Sect had been utterly incapable of lowering their prices under the joint onslaught of the Luotian Association and the Zheng family. And no wonder that in the vast Danyuan Sect, there had only been three alchemists including Dan Yuanzi himself. The cost of training an alchemist must have been terrifyingly steep! As for Luo Chen, he now understood why Dan Yuanzi had been willing to act with total treachery, stopping at nothing to seize the Li family's foundation by force after Li Jinhuang's death. With medicinal costs so high, if he could have secured those Yuanmu Grass medicine fields for himself, wouldn't he have made obscene profits given the market value of the Yangyuan Pill? Unfortunately for him, once Luo Chen chose to stand with the Li family, everything changed! Facing Qi Yi's worries, Luo Chen asked with a smile, "Do you not know whose protection the Qinhua Li family now falls under?" Qi Yi was taken aback. Beside him, Xu Jie clapped his hands. "Aiya, Senior Brother, have you forgotten? The Association Master is the Li family's savior!" Luo Chen chuckled and shook his head. "There is no need to speak of benefactors; business is business. In the future, feel free to refine Yangyuan Pills as much as you like. As for the Yuanmu Grass, the Li family will supply it at cost." At cost! Qi Yi swallowed hard. Wouldn't that bring the cost per batch down to roughly fifteen spirit stones? If refined on a grand scale, how much expense would that save? How many more spirit stones would the Luotian Association rake in? He hardly dared to let his imagination run wild. Luo Chen gave a hearty laugh and turned to leave. ... Leaving the Pill Hall, Luo Chen strolled at a leisurely pace across Danxia Peak. In this recent battle, their Luotian Association had suffered virtually no losses. Only that batch of rogue cultivators recently recruited into the outer sect, who had been slow to obey orders, had lost twenty percent of their numbers while storming the mountain gates. Luo Chen felt no heartache over those losses. They had not even been properly integrated yet! In contrast, their spoils were monumental. And among all those gains, the greatest harvest for him was these two veteran Tier 1 alchemists, Qi Yi and Xu Jie! These were disciples whom Dan Yuanzi had spent decades nurturing! Their names were well chosen—one meant loyalty, the other integrity. A pity they had both defected to the Luotian Association. Given the chance to live, who would willingly choose death? Besides, Dan Yuanzi had never treated them exceptionally well in the past. Naturally, there was no deep-seated loyalty to speak of. Luo Chen made a rough estimate. With these two joining their ranks, once material costs were reduced and apprentice herbalists and stokers were assigned to assist them, the pair working together could generate nearly sixty to seventy thousand spirit stones in annual profit for the Luotian Association. And that was merely the direct, immediate profit. If they put their hearts into training Qiu Ying and Ma Shoupu, another several tens of thousands in profit could be added every year. It was precisely for this reason that Luo Chen had made it his first priority amid his busy schedule to hurry over to the Pill Hall and appease these two. "Speaking of which, the path I'm walking now actually resembles Mi Shuhua's quite a bit." Inexplicably, Luo Chen's thoughts drifted back to Mi Shuhua. Back then, how that man had alternated between inducements and coercion, wooing and controlling him, until Luo Chen had ultimately become his tool. With the passing of time and the shifting of circumstances, the way he conducted these matters now seemed no different from Mi Shuhua. Even their realms were nearly identical: both at the mid Foundation Establishment stage. "I must not repeat his mistakes!" Chuckling, Luo Chen offered himself a quiet word of caution before heading toward the rear mountain of Danxia Peak. ... In this campaign, the Luotian Association's harvest had been truly immense. Many of the gains could not be measured directly in a currency like spirit stones. Take the ink mulberries, for example! The shaded, sun-deprived side of Danxia Peak had always sat idle in the past. Now, it was finally being put to good use. When he arrived, Yuan Dongsheng was frantically busy, leading a large crew of workers. Seeing Luo Chen approach, Yuan Dongsheng hurried over. "Association Master, you're here." "Yes. Can ink mulberries be cultivated here?" Yuan Dongsheng said with excitement, "Of course!" "Ink mulberries differ from traditional mulberry trees; they thrive in shade and cannot tolerate harsh sun, flourishing best in moist, overcast terrain. The rear of Danxia Peak shares a topography remarkably similar to Yuzhen Temple's grounds. As long as we exercise care during transplantation, the survival rate will easily exceed eighty percent!" Eighty percent? Luo Chen felt a spark of quiet enthusiasm. The economic value of ink mulberries was simply enormous. It surpassed Tier 1 spiritual plants like Purple Mist bamboo and Zhanxing Grass several times over. Every part of the tree was a treasure: whether the mulberry leaves, the bark, or the fruit it bore, all commanded high prices on the market. The only factor limiting its cultivation was the geographical environment. To his knowledge, at least six or seven factions across Tianlan Immortal City grew ink mulberries. Even so, demand for ink mulberry produce consistently outstripped supply. And most importantly, the Luotian Association had obtained jade cattail silkworms from Yuzhen Temple! These exotic insects ranged from Tier 1 at their weakest to Tier 3 at their peak. The silk they spun was among the materials most favored by artifact forgers of all kinds. "Oh, Association Master! I need to request a team of cultivators to guard this mulberry grove year-round," Yuan Dongsheng suddenly chimed in. Luo Chen was puzzled. "Does the Medicine Hall lack sufficient manpower?" Yuan Dongsheng shook his head. "What I need are experts of at least the late Qi Refining stage!" Seeing Luo Chen's confusion, Yuan Dongsheng explained in detail. It turned out that ink mulberries bore fruit three times a year! The ink-blood mulberries they yielded gave off an intense fragrance that routinely attracted all manner of beasts and birds. Without vigilant protection, the losses would be staggering. Luo Chen considered this and realized it made complete sense. He promptly approved Yuan Dongsheng's request, intending to reassign a group from the War Hall upon his return to guard the mulberry groves permanently. In truth, Yuan Dongsheng had been run off his feet of late. It wasn't just the ink mulberries! From the Danyuan Sect, Wang Yuan had brought back numerous aged medicinal herbs that required careful transplantation. Furthermore, Tianying Peak and Yuzhen Temple held other spiritual plants that also demanded the expertise of a seasoned spiritual farmer like him. He was utterly overwhelmed with work, having already delegated some matters to Feng Xia. Yet this could not go on indefinitely! Hearing his grievances, Luo Chen was momentarily at a loss. Ultimately, he recalled the system he had proposed earlier. The Luotian Association truly needed to establish its succession and inheritance system. Otherwise, too many tasks would remain bottlenecked, dependent solely on specific individuals. Cultivation was not merely about fighting and killing! Farming, development, and steady growth were the true royal road. All the fighting and killing were merely meant to serve these ends. Combat always incurred consumption and loss, whereas quiet cultivation and husbandry built step-by-step upward, always yielding a harvest. While Luo Chen was pondering these matters, an elderly cultivator of the ninth level of Qi Refining arrived outside the Danxia Peak mountain gates, his heart fraught with anxiety. "Halt! Who goes there?" "I am Wei Ping'an, Second Elder of Mount Xuchen. By order of my Clan Head, I have come to pay my respects to your esteemed Association Master!" Beneath the gatekeepers' astonished gazes, Wei Ping'an spoke those words with trembling dread. Mount Xuchen! That was the family backing the mid Foundation Establishment cultivator who had tried to take advantage of the chaos on the Qinhua River to strike against their Association Master! To think they had actually taken the initiative to pay a visit. ... Inside the Luotian Grand Hall. Luo Chen finished reading the letter brought by Wei Ping'an in silence. "You come begging for mercy?" The blunt words caused the old man's body to tremble. Shakily, he replied, "We come seeking reconciliation." Luo Chen shook his head. "Begging for mercy should look like begging for mercy. As for the terms listed here, they hardly catch my eye." Wei Ping'an's mouth fell open in disbelief. A one-time indemnity of a hundred thousand spirit stones, plus five superior-grade artifacts—and that didn't catch his eye? His Wei family was already humbling itself to the dust! Luo Chen set down the letter and said indifferently, "How about this: beyond the terms in this letter, agree to three more demands, and I shall let bygones be bygones." Wei Ping'an gritted his teeth. "Please state them plainly, Association Master Luo!" "First, your Wei family's Grand Elder was slain by my hand; henceforth, no one from the Wei family may seek vengeance against me or any cultivator of the Luotian Association!" "Second, Wei Tuo attacked me. Though I took no harm, his murderous intent was clear for all to see. That he was killed in return was down to his own lack of ability. Yet for that strike, a price must still be paid; after all, I wasted a great deal of spiritual energy." Looking at Wei Ping'an, Luo Chen said, "Therefore, Wei Bofan must take action on my behalf once in the future, as recompense for Wei Tuo's offense." Wei Ping'an parted his lips, but did not dare voice an objection. Seeing how sensible and tactful he was being, the corners of Luo Chen's mouth curved slightly. "Third, from now on, all Tier 1 cultivation pills required by the Wei family must be purchased from my Luotian Association!" The first two were conditions. The last was sheer business. Wei Ping'an was momentarily dumbfounded. Yet, being mature and prudent, he ultimately suppressed the turmoil in his heart. "I have understood Association Master Luo's intentions. However, these matters are beyond my authority to decide; I must report back to the Clan Head and let him make the decision." Luo Chen nodded. "Naturally!" "However, I give you only three days to deliberate." "Three days from now, if there is no satisfactory answer, I shall personally ascend Mount Xuchen!" At this point, a faint, ambiguous smile appeared on his face. "I wonder, have you ever heard the words Wei Tuo uttered before he died?" Wei Ping'an, whose heart was already quaking with dread at Luo Chen's threat to ascend Mount Xuchen in person, was caught completely off guard by this abrupt question. "What... what words?" "He said that Mount Xuchen contains the character 'Chen', which happens to match the 'Chen' in my name—a fateful coincidence, wouldn't you say?" A colossal pressure crashed down from above the Luotian Grand Hall. Wei Ping'an fell to his knees as an instinctual reaction. His soul shook, and his mind plunged into utter chaos!