Dugu Yan

Early the next morning, Zhou Liang began his day-after-day cultivation again. However, during his spare time, he had one more task than usual.

That was studying various insecticidal herbs and reading through that pile of books on herbal basics. At the same time, he used his unique physique to test poisons on himself and sense all the changes within them.

And so, a month passed. Looking at the three small pills before him, Zhou Liang saw the results of that month's work.

The three pills came in three colors. The black one on the left was for killing insects, the white one in the middle was for repelling insects, and the purple one on the far right was for removing weeds.

Each pill could dissolve into an entire barrel of medicinal solution, which only needed to be sprinkled over the soil to take effect.

Zhou Liang had already tested their effects on a patch of land within the academy, and the results had all been excellent.

It was just that the cost was still far from ideal.

"The cost of one Silver Soul Coin is still too high. Continue the experiments."

After saying that, Zhou Liang buried himself in experimentation again. Because he could devour medicine without harm and use his body to sense its effects, he could perceive the efficacy of the medicine even more precisely than Superman.

Soon, another month passed, and the cost reduction had reached its limit.

"A cost of two Copper Soul Coins is already the limit. After replacing over a hundred types of herbs, there are no cheaper herbs capable of producing this effect."

Zhou Liang looked somewhat tiredly at the three small pills before him, then smiled with quiet satisfaction.

Although he had not reached his goal of one Copper Soul Coin, Zhou Liang calculated the labor costs. With large-scale production, the cost of the medicine plus labor could be reduced to only three and a half Copper Soul Coins.

"If I make them myself, labor costs can be ignored. With prepared ingredients, I only need a little over an hour to complete one batch, and each batch can produce more than a hundred pills. Let's set the price at five Copper Soul Coins each!"

With a wave of his hand, Zhou Liang put away the pills. He walked over to the shelf beside him and stored all the densely packed medicine bottles in his Soul Guide Device storage space.

Then he pushed open the door and walked outside.

"I need to find a partner. Otherwise, while this can bring me some money, it will seriously affect my cultivation. Besides, I have no way to promote it on my own."

Thinking about this as he walked, Zhou Liang soon arrived at that street and found a good spot.

He took out a piece of cloth from his Soul Guide Device storage space, used two wooden sticks to make a frame, hung the cloth from it, and set it beside him.

The cloth described the three kinds of pills. Zhou Liang found several common pests in the nearby dirt, gathered them up, caught a small bird, prepared two buckets of water, and returned.

When he came back, he saw several people gathered in front of the cloth. However, most merely glanced at it, shook their heads, and left. It was obvious that no one believed it.

Just then, a short, fat man in a black suit and gentleman's hat stopped in front of the cloth.

When he turned around and saw Zhou Liang, he said in surprise.

"You're that child from the other day. You made this poison?" the fat merchant asked with a startled expression.

"Sir, the insecticide is right here. If you don't believe me, I can demonstrate it for you." Zhou Liang took out a black pill as he spoke.

"Fine, demonstrate it. If it's real, I'll buy five hundred pills." The fat merchant smiled as he looked at Zhou Liang.

Zhou Liang promptly took out a bowl, put the pests inside, dissolved the pill in a bucket of water, dipped his fingers into the medicinal liquid, and lightly sprinkled it over the insects.

As the droplets of medicinal liquid landed on the pests, all of them immediately curled up, turning directly into little balls.

"It really works! Kid, you're a genius."

The fat merchant looked at the pests in the bowl, already on the brink of death, and nodded in praise.

"No way, it works that fast?"

"Those bugs are almost dead already. It must be real."

The surrounding spectators whispered among themselves as they watched the scene and discussed it animatedly.

"One pill costs five Copper Soul Coins. Five hundred pills come to two thousand five hundred Copper Soul Coins." Zhou Liang looked at the fat merchant before him.

The fat merchant laughed heartily, took out twenty-five Gold Soul Coins, and handed them to Zhou Liang.

"I didn't expect it to be so cheap. Here are twenty-five Gold Soul Coins."

Zhou Liang nodded. Just as he reached out to accept the twenty-five Gold Soul Coins, he heard a disdainful snort from beside him.

"Hmph. A bunch of swindlers and cheats."

Hearing that voice, Zhou Liang frowned and turned to look. A purple-haired, green-eyed girl stood nearby.

When she saw Zhou Liang looking at her, she snorted coldly again.

"Purple hair and green eyes... In Douluo Mainland, the only one with that appearance seems to be Dugu Yan. Unless something unexpected happened, it should be her. She came right to me. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find her."

Zhou Liang narrowed his eyes at the distinctive girl before him. He adopted a lofty posture and looked at her indifferently.

"What are you looking at? Even if you look at me, I'll say the same thing. You're a bunch of swindlers and cheats." Dugu Yan snorted as she scolded him, looking at Zhou Liang with an unusual charm.

"Swindlers and cheats? Are you talking about me?" Zhou Liang asked Dugu Yan calmly.

"If you aren't swindling people, then what are you doing? I could easily poison and kill insects like these when I was three years old. Yet you actually have the nerve to sell this, claiming that these poisons are for killing pests. Then tell me, if poison residue remains on the grain, can that grain still be eaten?"

Dugu Yan loudly rebuked the little boy before her. She had originally been drawn in by his unusual charm and stood there watching in a daze, only to see such blatant fraud. This made her especially furious.

"Who is this little girl? She exposed their trick right away."

"You think they're scamming people too?"

"Everyone here has been making a living on this street for years. Isn't this kind of trick obvious at a glance?"

"Exactly. I was originally wondering which fool would get scammed. Then this little witch showed up."

"You know this girl? She's really beautiful. Once she grows up..."

Before he could finish, someone beside him hurriedly covered his mouth and said nervously, "Damn it, do you want to die? Don't drag me down with you!"

The man was still somewhat confused. Looking at his companion covering his mouth, he slapped the hand away and said, "What are you doing? I was just saying!"

"What am I doing? That little girl's grandfather is the Poison Douluo, whose title is Poison, in the Soul Master world!" his companion whispered nervously.

Upon hearing that, the man's face filled with fear, and his legs began to tremble. After glancing at the girl, he hurriedly pulled his companion away. Once they were out of sight of the crowd, they immediately ran off.