Lin City Shaken (Part 2)

Lin City, Third Middle School.

The moment he entered the campus, Lu Chuan noticed something was off.

The gazes of the students and teachers around him were filled with respect and admiration.

Lu Chuan had seen such looks once before, when his Martial Arts Talent had been tested.

But that time, jealousy and envy had been the prevailing emotions, while admiration and reverence had been scarce.

This time, however, jealousy had vanished without a trace.

Looking at those gazes, Lu Chuan suddenly recalled something.

When the gap between two people became great enough, all the weak could feel toward the strong was reverence and worship.

Jealousy only appeared when the difference was slight.

"They found out about my Alchemist certification?" Lu Chuan wondered.

Other than that, he truly could not think of anything else that would make his classmates and teachers regard him with such reverence.

"Lin City is only the size of a palm. There are no secrets here at all."

"You got certified as an Alchemist one moment, and everyone knew about it the next," Liu Moling said with a smile.

Lu Chuan nodded and did not dwell on it.

For the next while, under those reverent gazes, Lu Chuan returned to his classroom and attended two cultural classes.

Honestly, those looks of reverence did feel pretty good.

But after seeing too many of them, he could not help feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Fortunately, just as the third class began, Song Qing called Lu Chuan away.

"Teacher, what is it?" The moment he entered the office, Lu Chuan got straight to the point.

"Ah!"

"Our Master Lu is here."

The instant Song Qing saw Lu Chuan, he hurriedly rose to his feet, his face immediately breaking into a broad smile.

It was as if Lu Chuan were not his student, but his teacher.

"It's nothing on my end. Mainly, the important figures of Lin City want to meet you."

"Important figures?" Lu Chuan frowned. He had no desire to get involved in the struggles between these factions.

Seeing Lu Chuan frown, Song Qing hurriedly explained, "Don't misunderstand. These major forces have no other intentions. They just want to do business with you."

"After all, once you finish refining potions, you'll definitely want to sell them, right?"

At the mention of business, Lu Chuan's brows relaxed, and he immediately smiled. "Teacher, where are they?"

"They're in the reception room. Come with me."

With that, Song Qing led Lu Chuan to Third Middle School's reception room.

By then, quite a few representatives from various forces had already arrived in the reception room.

Around them, several school officials were carefully smiling along.

When they saw Lu Chuan arrive, the representatives hurriedly stood up and scrambled to introduce themselves.

"Master Lu, I'm from the Lin City Chamber of Commerce. Could we discuss potion business?"

"Master Lu, I'm from Dawn Enterprise. I have a business deal I'd like to discuss with you in detail."

"Master Lu..."

The chaotic clamor gave Lu Chuan a headache.

"Everyone, everyone, quiet down first. We'll talk one at a time."

As soon as he said that, the representatives of the various major forces immediately shut their mouths and returned obediently to their seats.

Watching those representatives, the school officials were somewhat stunned.

Since when had these major forces become so easy to talk to?

But in the next instant, the officials understood.

That was right. Before a distinguished Alchemist, no one dared disregard the rules.

After casually finding a chair and sitting down, Lu Chuan stated his terms. "Let me make this clear first: I won't do business with only one force."

"Any of you who want exclusive rights to buy me out can leave now."

The moment he said that, representatives from several forces immediately looked troubled. After pondering for a moment, they each sighed and bade Lu Chuan farewell.

After those people left, Lu Chuan continued, "No one else wants to leave, right? Good. We'll talk one at a time. We'll start with you."

Over the next while, Lu Chuan negotiated the business arrangements with the various forces in detail.

After a round of bargaining, Lu Chuan ultimately signed contracts with three forces.

The contracts stipulated that Lu Chuan had to provide the three forces with at least three hundred Spirit Replenishing Potions every month, one hundred to each force.

Any amount exceeding three hundred could be traded with whichever force Lu Chuan chose.

Furthermore, if Lu Chuan learned any other potions, he had to trade with those three forces first. Only the remainder could be sold to other forces.

Naturally, in return, the three forces had to search for the spirit herbs Lu Chuan needed to refine potions, selling them to him at half the market price.

Additionally, Lu Chuan could buy on credit for the time being.

The contract term was one year.

After signing the contracts, Lu Chuan first had the three forces prepare three hundred sets of spirit herbs needed to refine Spirit Replenishing Potions.

He himself returned to class to continue his lessons.

As for refining potions, that could wait until they had gathered all the herbs.

A minor incident also occurred during class.

Liu Moling delivered the account and password for the Alchemist Service Platform.

After logging in with the account and password, Lu Chuan eagerly began browsing.

It had to be said, the software was indeed impressive.

The spirit herbs sold on it were dazzling in their variety. Lu Chuan even spotted several kinds of spirit herbs that could no longer be found outside.

After browsing briefly, Lu Chuan opened his personal interface.

The first thing he saw was a message.

Hello, Alchemist Lu Chuan. Your annual allowance has been issued. Please collect it.

After following the prompt to claim his allowance, Lu Chuan discovered that a First-grade Alchemist's allowance was a full one hundred Points.

On the Alchemist Service Platform, one Point could be exchanged for ten thousand yuan.

In other words, a First-grade Alchemist's yearly allowance alone amounted to one million yuan.

The Alchemist Association truly had deep pockets!

However, Lu Chuan did not exchange his Points for money.

Points had many uses. Unless he had no other choice, he had better not touch them.

After closing the Alchemist Service Platform, Lu Chuan waited patiently.

Before long, Song Qing came to find Lu Chuan again. "Lu Chuan, the three major forces have delivered the herbs you need."

Lu Chuan immediately requested leave and headed straight to Liu Moling's laboratory to begin refining potions.

Perfect-level proficiency allowed Lu Chuan to refine ten Spirit Replenishing Potions at once, saving him quite a bit of time.

Time passed bit by bit.

Before he knew it, Lu Chuan had already spent six hours in the laboratory.

Six uninterrupted hours of potion refining allowed Lu Chuan to produce one hundred Spirit Replenishing Potions in a single go.

At this rate, Lu Chuan would be able to fulfill the contract's minimum requirement within three days.

Of course, Lu Chuan had no intention of stopping there.

According to the contract, after deducting the money needed to buy spirit herbs, those three hundred potions would earn Lu Chuan only six hundred thousand yuan.

Six hundred thousand yuan was already a great deal of money to ordinary people.

But for Lu Chuan, that amount was clearly not enough to gather sufficient Simplification Points.

However, Lu Chuan had no plans to continue refining Spirit Replenishing Potions. Instead, he wanted to learn the Spirit Gathering Potion.

After all, compared to Spirit Replenishing Potions, Spirit Gathering Potions were where the real money lay.

A single Spirit Gathering Potion was enough to buy more than a dozen Spirit Replenishing Potions.