Xia Wanjin's Order: Win Over Liu Yuan at Any Cost!

At this moment, Xuan Su was truly shocked beyond measure.

Her beautiful eyes, renowned for their seductive charm, were now staring so wide they had gone slightly blank.

She stared fixedly at Liu Yuan before her, as though she were looking at an incomprehensible monster.

After all, a person's energy was limited.

For a young genius like Liu Yuan to possess Form Creation Realm cultivation at such an early age was already outrageous enough.

Yet now, he was telling her that he also knew alchemy?

Wasn't that a little too excessive?

"This truly is impossible to understand..."

Xuan Su muttered to herself, feeling her throat grow somewhat dry.

However, since Liu Yuan had already put it that way, she naturally could not refuse him again.

"In that case, I'll leave everything to you, little brother Liu Yuan."

Xuan Su took a deep breath and tried her best to calm her racing heart. A smile returned to her face as she said, "Write down whatever herbs you need. Your sister will get them for you right away."

Liu Yuan did not stand on ceremony. He immediately picked up his brush and wrote out a new list of medicinal herbs.

Though these herbs also required a certain age, they were far more common than the exceedingly rare Fiend Ghost Yin Soul Grass. So long as one had money, they could basically be purchased from the major pharmacies in Flame City.

After taking the list and giving it a quick look, Xuan Su immediately bade farewell once she confirmed that there was nothing too difficult to find.

She moved quickly.

In merely half a day, Xuan Su returned to Secluded Bamboo Garden and delivered several large chests packed full of medicinal herbs to Liu Yuan.

Watching Xuan Su's departing figure, Liu Yuan smiled faintly. He then ordered the Secluded Bamboo Garden sealed off and began preparing to refine pills.

Myriad Gold Merchant Association, top-floor Council Hall.

A faint scent of sandalwood filled the air, yet it could not conceal the solemn atmosphere within the hall.

Xia Wanjin, dressed in a brocade robe and round-bellied, sat upright in the seat of honor. He idly rolled two smooth Iron Balls in his hand, producing crisp clacking sounds.

Below him, Xuan Su, dressed in a red gown, was reporting something with a serious expression.

"What did you say?!"

Suddenly, Xia Wanjin's movements halted. The two Iron Balls collided, producing a sharp, piercing crack.

He abruptly raised his head. His small eyes, usually narrowed into slits, were now wide open as he stared at Xuan Su in utter disbelief. "You're saying... Liu Yuan's aura was stronger than even the Stone City Lord's?!"

"Not only that, he's also an alchemist?!"

The sheer amount of information was too overwhelming, leaving even the president of the Myriad Gold Merchant Association, a man accustomed to great storms and waves, with his head buzzing.

"It is absolutely true."

Xuan Su nodded, her expression exceedingly solemn. "I was there at the time and witnessed the power of his punch firsthand. That level of control over Heaven and Earth Origin Power, that suffocating pressure... it was absolutely not something someone in the Origin Core Realm could possess."

"As for his alchemy... although I have yet to see the finished pills, since he dared to offer them as a return gift and even refused the favor of forty thousand Sun Primal Pills, he must be completely confident."

After hearing Xuan Su's report, Xia Wanjin fell silent.

He leaned back against the Chair Back again, and the Iron Balls in his hand began to turn once more. This time, however, they moved noticeably faster, revealing the turmoil in his heart.

A cultivation level stronger than the Stone City Lord's...

Knowledge of alchemy...

Either one of those, taken alone, would have been enough to cause a sensation in Flame City.

But when both appeared in a youth not yet twenty years old...

It was no longer merely a sensation.

It was the birth of a monster!

"It seems... our previous investment was not only not a loss, but a tremendous profit."

After a long while, Xia Wanjin exhaled a long breath of turbid qi, a shrewd gleam flashing in his eyes. "Steward Su, you did very well."

Xia Wanjin gave Xuan Su an approving look before solemnly instructing, "From now on, anything involving Liu Yuan, no matter how minor, must be reported to me immediately."

"All of his needs within the merchant association must be met without condition! And you must spare no expense to win him over."

"Still, I am truly curious what kind of pills he will refine. Given his ability, if they are meant as a gift of thanks, they surely will not be ordinary. That is something worth looking forward to."

Within Secluded Bamboo Garden, pill fire surged.

Liu Yuan sat cross-legged in the center of the quiet room, his eyes lightly closed. Waves of incomparably pure Spiritual Power, like invisible tendrils, precisely controlled the temperature of the flames within the pill furnace.

Time quietly flowed away amid the dancing flames.

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

Over those three days, though the Myriad Gold Merchant Association appeared calm on the surface, the thoughts of both Xuan Su and Xia Wanjin remained faintly fixed on that residence in the southern part of the city.

Finally.

At noon on the third day, the tightly shut gates of Secluded Bamboo Garden slowly opened.

Liu Yuan emerged in a blue robe, looking refreshed and full of vigor.

Inside his Universe Bag lay several dozen exquisite jade bottles.

The contents of these jade bottles were the fruits of his labor over the past three days—Body Tempering Pills and Earth Origin Pills.

The pill recipes for both types of pills had naturally come from the system.

As for their effects—

As its name implied, the Body Tempering Pill was a pill specially intended for Martial Artists in the Body Tempering Realm.

Its medicinal effect was gentler yet more potent, capable of increasing a Martial Artist's body-tempering efficiency severalfold with almost no side effects.

As for the Earth Origin Pill, it was even more extraordinary.

It could allow a Martial Artist at the Body Tempering Realm Ninth Peak to condense an Origin Power Seed directly through its medicinal power and advance to the Earth Origin Realm without encountering any bottleneck!

"Though these pills are precious, using them as a gift of thanks does feel like I'm taking a loss..."

"But Liu is no stingy man. Since the people of the Wanjin Auction have been working so diligently for me, giving them a little reward is not out of the question."

Liu Yuan's lips curved slightly upward. After straightening his clothes, he headed toward the Myriad Gold Merchant Association.

Myriad Gold Merchant Association.

When the guards at the entrance saw that familiar figure appear, someone immediately ran inside to report it.

Only a moment later.

A burst of hurried footsteps came from within the merchant association.

The usually lofty President Xia Wanjin actually came out in person, accompanied by the alluring Xuan Su, to greet him!

This sight left countless guests and attendants in the hall utterly dumbfounded.

Liu Yuan, however, paid little attention to the gazes of outsiders.

Before long, guided by Xuan Su and Xia Wanjin, he arrived at the highest-class Reception Hall within the Wanjin Auction.

Xuan Su directly dismissed the other servants, had Liu Yuan and Xia Wanjin take their seats, then personally brewed tea for them.

Only after finishing a cup of tea did Liu Yuan take out a pill bottle and remove its stopper.

At once, the fragrance of pills filled the air!