Pharmaceutical Sales Rep

"No, wait, this technique... You're telling me this talisman paper was handed down fifteen thousand years ago? This method is ancient! What was your ancestor's cultivation level, a true immortal? Could they live fifteen thousand years? I bow before the descendant of a true immortal."

The female cultivator named Yu Xia stared at the two sheets of talisman paper in anguish, looking as though she had just watched a pig trample two perfectly good cabbages. "Three-hundred-year-old Spirit Bamboo! This was good enough for Second-Tier Talismans. Ugh!"

Yu Xia sighed. Her heart felt as though it were bleeding.

The paper wasn't even hers yet, but Yu Xia was already taking the loss personally.

What a waste of a treasure!

Chen Zhuo remained composed. "Do you want the Talisman Paper?"

"I've sent you the payment."

Despite her anguish, Yu Xia named her price without hesitation. "I'll take both sheets. If you have any more, I'll buy those too... An heirloom stash of Spirit Bamboo would be even better."

With that, Yu Xia hurried away without lingering a moment.

Clearly, she hadn't believed a word of Chen Zhuo's nonsense. Handed down through the family? Since when, ten thousand years ago? Give her a break!

The workmanship was terrible, and the handmade Talisman Paper looked freshly produced within the last few years. Someone had probably made it out in the countryside. Still, it was rich in Spiritual Qi and better than ordinary wholesale Talisman Paper.

Chen Zhuo glanced at his Spirit Message Jade Slip.

[You received a transfer of 50 Spirit Coins from "Yu Xia." Current balance: 64.3 Spirit Coins.]

Looking at those Spirit Coins, Chen Zhuo was filled with emotion.

Looks like I have startup capital!

The chicken lays an egg, and the egg hatches a chicken!

Keep that cycle going, and I might become the richest man in the Immortal Estate!

Now I just need to keep carrying goods back and forth to make money!

He couldn't pretend he wasn't thrilled. Even so, Chen Zhuo knew that his safety came first. He would rather earn less than chase profits blindly and let his secret slip.

"Maybe I should find an upperclassman in the Alchemy Department and become a pharmaceutical sales rep..."

Chen Zhuo had to admit he had a bright future in that line of work.

The pills deemed Waste Pills and sold privately in the Immortal Estate would qualify as Low-Grade Pills at the very least in the Ancient Immortal Realm. Some might even rank as Middle-Grade Pills.

There, a single pill fetched thirty or forty Spirit Stones. In the Immortal Estate, it sold for only seventy or eighty Spirit Coins.

Buy and sell a few times, and he could make a killing—enough to keep getting injections without end!

That would greatly improve his Immortal Dao Potential. At the very least, he could keep pace with those Innate Spiritual Root Cultivators!

A person he hadn't contacted in ages immediately came to mind.

Senior Sijing!

She was a bad woman through and through, but she clearly needed Immortal Dao Potential. She was also an Alchemy Department student, so she probably produced plenty of Waste Pills. On top of that, she served as a pharmaceutical sales rep for a more advanced cultivator and could sell enhancement injections. He had bought two Needles from her!

With that in mind, Chen Zhuo made up his mind and headed toward his Cave Abode.

He planned to contact his senior first and sound her out.

But before Chen Zhuo had taken more than a few steps, he spotted a familiar figure at the entrance to the square.

They came face-to-face, so Chen Zhuo couldn't pretend he hadn't seen him. He raised a hand in greeting. "Meng Yan!"

"Brother Zhuo?"

Meng Yan seemed startled to see Chen Zhuo, as though he hadn't expected to run into someone he knew here.

"Have you written your Waste Pill Appraisal? How did it go?" Chen Zhuo asked casually.

"Mm-hmm, it was all right..."

Meng Yan avoided his gaze. "Can't talk now, Brother Zhuo. I've got something to do. See you."

With that, Meng Yan hurried toward the far side of the square.

"Hm?"

Chen Zhuo watched him rush off, shook his head, then continued toward his Cave Abode. He planned to hail a flying sword and enjoy the ride.

Now that he had money, he wanted to try flying through the air.

Otherwise, he might embarrass himself later.

Artifact Flight demanded a great deal of Spiritual Qi and was extremely difficult to control. Most cultivators could only perform it after reaching the Qi Refining Seventh Layer—in other words, Late Qi Refinement.

Before Late Qi Refinement, cultivators generally couldn't fly. Those in Middle Qi Refinement could barely glide a short distance, and not very quickly at that.

In ancient times, Middle Qi Refinement cultivators often rode horses into battle and fled on horseback when defeated.

That meant Qi Refining Sixth Layer cultivators sometimes failed to catch Qi Refining First or Second Layer cultivators riding Demon Horses. Furious, they would shout, "Cultivator up ahead, do you dare dismount and fight?"

All in all, it hardly looked impressive.

But even after reaching Late Qi Refinement and gaining the ability to fly, one couldn't just take off anywhere in Taiqing City.

A Flight License was required. Anyone caught flying without one faced five days' detention in the Spirit-Severing Prison and a fine of 500 Spirit Coins!

But when Chen Zhuo opened his Spirit Message Jade Slip and saw that flying swords averaged more than ten Spirit Coins a ride, he abandoned the idea. He chose the bus instead and turned his thoughts to Meng Yan.

Something's definitely going on with Meng Yan!

Though they had only met briefly, Chen Zhuo had sensed that Meng Yan had reached the Qi Refining Second Layer!

His aura was stable and robust, as though he had broken through Xu long ago, without the slightest hint of instability.

It even suggested he was nearing the Qi Refining Third Layer.

That wasn't normal.

After all, Meng Yan had still been at the Qi Refining First Layer the day before yesterday.

Today, he was already a seasoned Qi Refining Second Layer cultivator.

Waste pills couldn't do that much.

Chen Zhuo shook his head and set the whole mess aside. Focusing on his own affairs, he sent Senior Sijing his first message.

"Senior Sijing, are you there? I want to be your pharmaceutical sales rep. Give me a chance!"

Simple, blunt, and straight to the point.

Not long after Chen Zhuo sent the message, his Spirit Communicator Jade Slip vibrated.

"Since you're serious about it, I'll give you a chance. But let me be clear: my pills are genuine, and they aren't cheap. How many you sell depends entirely on you."

"I'll give you my prices for pills commonly used in Qi Refinement."

"Qi Gathering Powder is 45 Spirit Coins, and I have six doses. Qi Condensation Pills are 70 Spirit Coins, and I have three. An Essence-Nourishing Pill is 150 Spirit Coins, and I only have one."

"These are among the pills most commonly used in Qi Refinement. I don't care what you sell them for. I just want the amounts I quoted."

Chen Zhuo looked over Senior Sijing's prices and quickly calculated the margins.

Those pills were worth a fortune in the Ancient Immortal Realm!

Qi Gathering Powder cost ten Spirit Stones, Qi Condensation Pills cost twenty-five, and Essence-Nourishing Pills, which were used for cultivation in Late Qi Refinement, cost at least fifty!

The profits really were enormous!

But...

A problem suddenly occurred to Chen Zhuo.

He immediately sent another message. "Senior, can I take the goods first? Some of my customers need to see samples, but I don't have enough Spirit Coins on hand right now."

After the message went out, Sijing was silent for quite a while.

She seemed to be wrestling with whether to give Chen Zhuo the goods up front.

Is this brat trying to scam me out of pills to eat?

In her dorm room, Sijing mulled it over.

Si Jing had worked as a pharmaceutical sales rep for years. She had started in her first year, selling pills to other students.

Now she was studying hard for the Junior College-to-University Transfer exams, hoping to make a push for Foundation Establishment in her fifteenth year at the vocational college.

Under those circumstances, Sijing would never ruin her future by taking pills with a high Pill Toxin content.

Once Pill Toxin built up, even a Detoxification Needle couldn't reverse the damage to her meridians, and that damage could jeopardize her future.

So she really did need someone to sell the Waste Pills she had botched.

After thinking it over for a long time, she remembered how readily Chen Zhuo had taken out such a large loan in Spirit Coins. She took a deep breath and replied, "I'll give you three doses of Qi Gathering Powder and one Qi Condensation Pill at most. Forget the Essence-Nourishing Pill!"

"You have three months. If you can't sell them by then, our partnership is over."