"Big Brother, aside from a few special Immortal Herbs like Octagonal Ice Grass and Blazing Apricot, once someone takes one, they can never take another Immortal Herb for the rest of their life. Sorry."
Qian Xunji's eyes dimmed, and he let out a long sigh.
Returning to his seat, he swept his gaze around and spotted Ning Fengzhi standing empty-handed. His eyes shifted as he asked:
"Little Sister, why didn't you prepare an Immortal Herb for Young Sect Master Ning as well?"
Qian Xunqian replied loudly:
"Big Brother, although Young Sect Master Ning is engaged to Her Highness the Holy Maiden, he still isn't one of our Spirit Hall's people. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect hasn't clearly said it will join Spirit Hall either. I was thinking of Spirit Hall's interests, so I didn't pick one."
"Outrageous! Young Sect Master Ning is an honored guest of Spirit Hall. How is this any way to treat a guest? Besides, his engagement to Dong'er is already set in stone. He's practically one of our own! If you act this way, won't you chill the hearts of all the friends across the land who favor Spirit Hall?"
Qian Xunji thundered angrily as he reprimanded her.
Qian Xunqian answered meekly:
"Big Brother is right to reprimand me. I was narrow-minded. I'll go back to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well right away and pick an Immortal Herb suited to Young Sect Master Ning!"
Qian Xunji thought that this younger cousin really knew how to play along, handing him the chance to earn someone's gratitude.
On one hand, Qian Xunqian was indeed doing her elder cousin a favor. On the other, she also wasn't particularly keen on giving Ning Fengzhi an Immortal Herb.
The reason was simple: Ning Fengzhi was far too determined to keep the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect independent.
In the original story, he was the one who kept preaching that the Upper Three Sects were bound together, became Xue Qinghe's teacher, and tied himself to the Heaven Dou Empire. He was undoubtedly the greatest political strategist on the Douluo Continent.
By maintaining ties with all sides, he kept Spirit Hall from daring to move against the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for a long time, allowing his sect to remain independent for years.
It could be said that before Ning Fengzhi came into contact with Tang San, he deserved to be called the wisest man on the Douluo Continent.
After he met Tang San, though, his intelligence instantly dropped to Er Ming's level. He was even bestowed with the surname "Tang."
And after all these years of contact, Ning Fengzhi had always kept Bibi Dong—and the Spirit Hall behind her—at arm's length.
You might think he was loyal to Spirit Hall, but every now and then he'd secretly adopt orphans and send them back to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
You might say he wanted independence, but he'd also spoken with Pope Qian Xunji many times, making it clear that once he became sect master, he intended to lead the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect into Spirit Hall.
Qian Xunqian didn't believe that giving him an Aromatic Silk Beauty to help evolve his Martial Soul would make him truly lead the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect into Spirit Hall.
Ning Fengzhi was an ambitious politician, even though he lacked the strength to support his ambitions.
Still, Qian Xunqian just found the idea of giving Ning Fengzhi an Immortal Herb rather grating. It didn't sit well with her. In her eyes, a mere Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda wasn't worth her attention!
If he became a complete enemy, it would only be a little more trouble later: she'd capture him, lock him in a secret chamber, and use him as a breeding stud for the Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda Martial Soul.
After packing up and moving to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, Qian Xunqian plucked the Aromatic Silk Beauty. She left Chrysanthemum Douluo behind, then took Dugu Bo, who had yet to receive his title, to Spirit Hall to be officially titled.
As expected, just like in the original story, Dugu Bo was titled Poison Douluo. The difference was that he had now become an elder of Spirit Hall. Who knew how Tang San would survive if he ever crossed over...
And at last, the future sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had finally appeared in a Douluo fanfic that let him evolve into the Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda!
Ning Fengzhi couldn't stop grinning these days. He showed off his Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda to everyone he met.
His delight rivaled Tang San's after Xiao Wu was revived.
Speaking of Xiao Wu, that brings us to Qian Xunqian's recent experiments on Soul Beasts.
Originally, she had planned to remove the Soul Beasts' cerebral cortex. It was the higher nerve center of their brains, and once removed, a Soul Beast would never gain intelligence. It would only eat, shit, and grow fat on instinct.
But the procedure demanded too much precision. Remove too much, and a Soft Bone Rabbit would drop dead on the spot. Remove too little, and once it reached the ten-thousand-year level, it might develop intelligence and attack humans.
So she thought of using poison instead, applying neurotoxins to shrink the brains of young Soul Beasts and keep their intelligence at the ten-year level. For male Soul Beasts, she'd also have to castrate them, just like modern pig farming, to make them docile enough.
After cutting to death 126 Soft Bone Rabbits, poisoning 578, and rendering 237 stupid, Qian Xunqian successfully formulated the ideal concentration of a neurotoxic solution for ten-year Soft Bone Rabbits.
The ingredient she chose was a plant called Dementia Mushroom. She ground it up, dissolved it in clean water, and prepared neurotoxic solutions of varying concentrations.
Soul Beasts like Soft Bone Rabbits were just too useless. At best, she could raise them for food.
If she wanted to breed Soul Beasts with high-quality Soul Rings, she'd need to capture some rare species with greater strength.
"Sigh, the efforts of one or two people are ultimately too weak. A project like Soul Beast breeding can only get off the ground through large-scale socialized production."
"We need more agricultural talent! People to grow the raw ingredients for Soul Beast feed; factories to produce the feed and workers to staff them; people to grow ingredients for the Soul Beasts' neurotoxic solutions; people to raise and breed the Soul Beasts. And that's not all—we'll need people to transport the Soul Beasts we raise to wherever Soul Rings are needed!"
In an instant, Qian Xunqian's infrastructure-building instincts from her previous life awakened!
"The first step to changing the Douluo Continent is to establish its first Agricultural Academy!"
Qian Xunqian rallied her spirits, only for them to collapse again two minutes later.
"I'm a scientist. My head's full of Soul Beast breeding techniques, and those were developed in a laboratory. I have no experience with how to actually do this on a farm!"
"Looks like I'll have to go to the countryside and take a look at the fields!"
At daybreak, Qian Xunqian slipped into Saintess Palace and dragged out Bibi Dong, who was still dreaming of becoming a Limit Douluo with a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
Later histories recorded: Xunqian, too excited to sleep all night, went to Saintess Palace to look for Bibi Dong. Sister Bi had not yet gone to sleep either, so the two set off together for Title Village.
One had to admit, the Douluo Continent had quite a few strange quirks. The buildings looked like those of medieval Western Europe, suggesting a feudal age, but somehow it had electricity. Believe it or not!
But the gap between countryside and city was like night and day. Cities blazed with lights and bustle, while villages were still at the stage of burning firewood for light.
Title Village—true to its name, it had once been titled... no, it had produced a Titled Douluo. In recent years, it had also managed to produce three or four Soul Masters consistently, making it much better than Holy Soul Village.
Qian Xunqian believed that once the Innate Spirit Power Cultivation Device was officially made available to everyone, living conditions here would improve greatly!
The village lay near Star Dou Forest, and a quarter of its residents were hunters. Aside from a few blacksmiths, carpenters, and the like, most made their living by farming.