"No, seriously, this craftsmanship… was this talisman paper passed down from fifteen thousand years ago? The technique is positively prehistoric! What realm of cultivation did your ancestor reach? A True Immortal? Could they live for fifteen thousand years? I bow before the descendant of a True Immortal!"
The female cultivator named Yu Xia was in sheer anguish as she looked at the two sheets of talisman paper. It felt like watching a prized cabbage being rooted up by pigs. "Three-hundred-year-old spirit bamboo! This would have been enough for second-rank talismans! Good grief!"
Yu Xia let out a heavy sigh, feeling as if her heart were bleeding.
Even though the paper was not hers yet, she had already taken the loss to heart as if it were her own.
What a reckless waste of heaven's gifts!
Chen Zhuo remained completely unfazed, asking calmly, "Do you want them or not?"
"I just transferred the payment."
Though Yu Xia was agonizing over the waste, she still spoke swiftly and set the price: "I'll take these two sheets. If you get more in the future, I'll buy them too… And if you happen to have any ancestral spirit bamboo, even better."
With that, Yu Xia left briskly without lingering for a single second.
She clearly had not bought Chen Zhuo's nonsense about ancestral heirlooms passed down from ten thousand years ago. What a joke!
The craftsmanship was awful, and the sheets were obviously handmade within the past few years, likely whipped up by someone out in the countryside. Still, they were rich in spiritual energy—definitely better than ordinary wholesale talisman paper.
Seeing her go, Chen Zhuo glanced at his spiritual communication jade slip.
[You have received a transfer of 50 spirit coins from 'Yu Xia.' Current balance: 64.3 spirit coins.]
Looking at the spirit coins, Chen Zhuo was filled with emotion.
It seemed he finally had some seed money!
Chickens laying eggs, eggs hatching chickens!
If this cycle kept going, he might just become the richest man in the Immortal Mansion!
Next, he needed to put in the work, hauling goods back and forth to rake in profits!
At the thought, it was impossible for Chen Zhuo not to feel excited and thrilled. But he also understood that even if he earned less, ensuring his safety came first; he couldn't make money blindly and risk leaking word of his secret.
*Maybe I should consider finding an upperclassman in the Alchemy Department and becoming a pharmaceutical representative…*
Truth be told, Chen Zhuo had a promising future in the pharmaceutical rep line of work.
Pills treated as toxic waste pills in the Immortal Mansion and peddled on the sly would easily pass as low-grade pills in the ancient cultivation world—perhaps even verging on mid-grade.
A single pill sold for thirty or forty spirit stones there, whereas here in the Immortal Mansion, it cost only seventy or eighty spirit coins.
Flipping them back and forth a few times would yield astronomical profits, letting him afford endless booster injections!
That would dramatically enhance his immortal path potential, at least allowing him to keep pace with cultivators who possessed innate spiritual roots!
In that moment, Chen Zhuo immediately thought of someone he hadn't contacted in quite a while.
Senior Sister Si Jing!
Although she was a downright toxic woman, she was clearly hurting for immortal path potential herself and was a student in the Alchemy Department. She was bound to produce plenty of failed pills in her regular alchemical practice. On top of that, she was already a rep for a higher-level cultivator, selling injectable booster solutions—Chen Zhuo had bought two shots from her himself!
With his mind made up, Chen Zhuo turned and walked toward his dwelling.
He planned to contact her first to sound her out.
Yet before Chen Zhuo had taken more than a couple of steps, a familiar figure appeared at the entrance of the plaza.
Coming face-to-face, Chen Zhuo couldn't pretend not to notice, so he raised a hand in greeting. "Meng Yan!"
"Brother Zhuo?"
When Meng Yan saw Chen Zhuo, he seemed startled, clearly not expecting to run into someone he knew here.
"Did you write your waste pill appraisal report? How did it go?" Chen Zhuo asked casually.
"Yeah, yeah, it went fine…"
Meng Yan's eyes darted around evasively. "I can't talk right now, Brother Zhuo. I've got something to take care of, so I'm heading out. Catch you later."
With that, Meng Yan hurried toward the opposite side of the plaza.
"Huh?"
Watching the young man scurry off, Chen Zhuo shook his head. He continued on toward his dwelling, intending to hail a Didi flying sword to pamper himself for once.
Now that he had money, he wanted to try soaring through the sky.
It would keep him from looking like a bumpkin later on.
Flying on a Dharma artifact placed immense demands on one's spiritual energy and was exceedingly difficult to control; generally, it required reaching the seventh layer of Qi Refining—the late stage of Qi Refining—before one could pull it off.
Prior to the late stage of Qi Refining, cultivators basically couldn't fly at all. Those in the middle stage of Qi Refining could manage to glide for short distances, but their speed was truly nothing to write home about.
In ancient times, cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining often rode horses into battle, and when routed, fled on horseback as well.
As a result, sixth-layer cultivators were frequently outpaced by first- or second-layer novices mounted on demonic steeds, leaving the pursuers shouting in fury: "Cultivator ahead, do you dare dismount and fight like a man?!"
All in all, it was hardly an impressive sight.
Even after gaining the ability to fly through the air in the late stage of Qi Refining, one couldn't just take off at will in Taiqing City.
A flight license was mandatory. If caught flying without a license, one faced five days of detention in the Spiritless Prison and a fine of five hundred spirit coins!
However, the moment Chen Zhuo opened his spiritual communication jade slip and saw that flying sword rides averaged over ten spirit coins per trip, he abandoned the notion and opted for the bus instead, turning his thoughts back to Meng Yan.
Meng Yan definitely had something going on!
Although it had only been a brief encounter, Chen Zhuo had sensed that Meng Yan's aura had already reached the second layer of Qi Refining!
His aura was stable, carrying the solid, robust feel of someone who had broken through long ago, without the slightest hint of instability.
It even carried a faint indication that he was approaching the third layer of Qi Refining.
That wasn't normal.
After all, just the day before yesterday, Meng Yan had been a mere first-layer cultivator.
Today, he was already a seasoned second-layer practitioner.
A waste pill couldn't possibly possess such potent efficacy.
Chen Zhuo shook his head, pushing those messy matters aside to focus on his own affairs. He typed out his first message to Senior Sister Si Jing.
"Senior Sister Si Jing, are you there? I'd like to work as your pharmaceutical rep. Give me a shot!"
Crude, blunt, and straight to the point.
Not long after Chen Zhuo sent the message, the spiritual communication jade slip vibrated.
"Since you're sincere about it, I'll give you a chance. Let's make one thing clear: my goods are genuine and not cheap. How much you can sell depends entirely on your own abilities."
"I'll quote you the prices for standard Qi Refining stage pills."
"Qi Gathering Powder is forty-five spirit coins; I have six packets on hand. Qi Condensation Pills are seventy spirit coins; I have three left. Essence Nurturing Pills are a hundred and fifty spirit coins; I only have one."
"These are the most common pills for the Qi Refining stage. I don't care how much you sell them for—all I want is the exact amount I quoted."
Chen Zhuo quickly calculated the figures Senior Sister Si Jing had provided.
In the ancient cultivation world, these pills were worth a fortune!
Qi Gathering Powder went for ten spirit stones, Qi Condensation Pills for twenty-five, and an Essence Nurturing Pill—used for cultivation in the late stage of Qi Refining—commanded at least fifty spirit stones!
It truly was an exorbitant profit margin!
However…
Chen Zhuo suddenly thought of a problem.
He quickly messaged back: "Senior Sister, can I take the goods on credit first? Some of my clients need to see samples, but I don't have enough spirit coins on hand right now."
After he sent the message, Si Jing fell silent for quite a while.
She seemed torn over whether to advance Chen Zhuo the inventory.
*Is this kid trying to scam pills out of me to consume himself?*
Back in her dorm, Si Jing muttered suspiciously to herself.
She had been a pharmaceutical rep for years, having started out in her freshman year by peddling pills to fellow students.
Right now, Si Jing was pouring all her efforts into preparing for the junior-college-to-university upgrade exam, intending to make a breakthrough into Foundation Establishment during her fifteenth year of junior college.
Under such circumstances, she couldn't possibly ingest pills with high concentrations of pill toxins and ruin her own prospects.
After all, when pill toxins accumulated, the damage to one's meridians was irreversible even after receiving detoxification injections, which directly jeopardized her future.
Consequently, she truly needed someone to sell off her failed batches.
After pondering for a long time and recalling how readily Chen Zhuo had taken out such a large loan before, she took a deep breath and replied:
"At most, I can advance you three packets of Qi Gathering Powder and one Qi Condensation Pill. Don't even dream about the Essence Nurturing Pill!"
"You have three months. If you can't move them by then, our partnership is off."
Chapter 23