"With my Seventh Layer of the Mortal Realm pill-refining skills, if I were also refining Mortal Rank, Low Grade Healing Pills..."
"Even with a full allocation of medicinal ingredients in the furnace, an eighty-percent pill yield would count as an exceptional performance!"
"Not only did he achieve a full yield, he even did it using mere ordinary fire?!"
At that thought, Song Hechuan felt he could barely find a hole to hide in before this youth, who had remained as calm as a gentle breeze and drifting clouds from beginning to end...
Just then, Bu Wuchen stretched his slightly sore joints and elbows.
Exhaling softly, he murmured to himself, "I thought it would be pretty difficult, but once I actually tried it, it turned out to be pretty simple~"
"Well, they were only Mortal Rank, Low Grade pills, after all."
At those words, Song Hechuan felt himself turn to stone with a crack!
He had already felt thoroughly ashamed of himself;
Now, a single casual mutter from Bu Wuchen had dealt him another hundred thousand points of critical damage!
He looked at Bu Wuchen with a dejected expression, thinking, Damn it, did you have to crush me like that?
Beside him, Xia Nuoyi was equally dumbstruck.
Bu Wuchen lightly brushed the dust off his legs and asked, "Were my pill-refining skills all right?"
"They were more than all right~"
Xia Nuoyi actually grabbed Bu Wuchen's head and pressed it into her bosom!
That sudden, enormous hug was so springy, so bouncy, so soft and plush-simply wonderful beyond words!
I can't take it, I can't take it. I'm going to faint from happiness.
Huh? Wait...
I think I'm about to pass out because my nose and mouth are blocked and I can't breathe!
Only then did Bu Wuchen struggle to "escape."
Xia Nuoyi stuck out her little tongue. "Heeheehee, sorry. I was so happy I lost control for a moment."
Her own face had gone bright red;
She was also startled by her own rather uncharacteristic behavior.
She thought, Oh dear, how did I fail to hold myself back? I'm not that sort of person~
The girl with crimson cheeks soon found herself a plausible "excuse"-
It must be because I realized he really did refine a full furnace of mystic pills, which proves his "soul power" must be sufficiently resilient;
And the stronger his soul power, the greater his chances of awakening the power hidden within the "Blood Dragon Birthmark"!
That would make the favor I want to ask of him much easier to accomplish.
I got excited, and that was why...
Hmph, you really got a bargain!
While countless thoughts whirled through Xia Nuoyi's mind;
Song Hechuan had already taken Bu Wuchen's hand with wholehearted enthusiasm, his face brimming with excitement. "You truly are a pill Dao genius who hides his talents deep!"
"I failed to recognize Mount Tai before my very eyes. If I showed you any discourtesy, I hope you will forgive me!"
"Master, would you be willing to become a 'pill master Attendant' at my Song Clan Pill Workshop?"
"We will provide all pill-refining ingredients, and any materials you need personally will be twenty percent off!"
"Once the pills you refine are sold, you will also receive sixty percent of the net profits..."
"No, seventy percent!"
"We'll give you seventy percent of the total proceeds! What do you think?"
As Song Hechuan saw it, anyone who could turn a full allocation of ingredients into a full yield of pills must possess pill-refining attainments far beyond his own!
Although the other party was very young, in this world where the strong reigned supreme, he naturally deserved to be addressed as "Master."
As for a share as high as seventy percent, that was utterly unprecedented!
Before this, pill masters who worked with the workshop could receive no more than fifty percent.
After all, the workshop supplied all the pill-refining ingredients, which meant it bore almost all the costs;
And pill masters had a success rate when refining mystic pills.
Success naturally left everyone happy, but if they failed too often, the workshop would lose every last bit of its investment!
"Uh..."
While Song Hechuan's sudden enthusiasm left Bu Wuchen utterly bewildered;
Xia Nuoyi spoke up from beside them. "Hey, hey, hey! I'm the one who brought him here."
She planted her delicate hands on her hips, her beauty fierce. "Look at you, poaching him right in front of me without even asking?!"
Song Hechuan coughed twice and said solemnly, "My lady, although your status is noble and your standing exalted, you aren't in the pill workshop business, are you?"
"In that case, how can my extending an invitation to this master count as 'poaching'?"
He turned to Bu Wuchen and asked, "May I have the honor of knowing your name, Master?"
The other man's overflowing reverence and enthusiasm gave Bu Wuchen goosebumps. After he simply gave his name, Song Hechuan continued, "Master Bu, would you please consider my request?"
"I wouldn't presume to speak for anywhere else;"
"But here in Blood Dragon City, our Song Clan Pill Workshop is absolutely the largest producer and seller of mystic pills. Whether in the breadth and depth of our customer base or our track record and reputation for paying our pill master Attendants, I guarantee we won't disappoint you, Master Chen!"
Thinking back to when he had first arrived, Bu Wuchen had been nothing more than an ignored "extra";
Yet now, he had become someone whom even the owner of Blood Dragon City's foremost pill workshop had to respectfully address as "Master Bu"!
Feeling thoroughly pleased, Bu Wuchen nodded. "We can work together, but on one condition: you must never interfere with my freedom!"
Bu Wuchen had intended to use his pill-refining skills to rake in more resources for cultivation anyway.
Working with the Song Clan Pill Workshop would undoubtedly save him far more trouble than handling every little detail on his own.
"Of course!"
Song Hechuan nodded vigorously. "Whenever your fingers itch to practice your craft, Master Bu, just come to my humble shop and refine a few furnaces of pills."
"As for fixed monthly quotas and such, I absolutely won't impose any!"
What a joke-this was a young genius Blood Dragon City might not see once in a hundred years.
Whatever the cost, he had to win him over to his side!
Besides, in Song Hechuan's view, Bu Wuchen's astonishing accomplishments in the pill Dao at such a young age surely meant he had a master of profound attainments behind him.
At the thought that he might someday get to know such a pill Dao big shot through Bu Wuchen, Song Hechuan could barely contain his excitement!
"Song, you're going too far!"
Xia Nuoyi demanded fiercely.
With her celestial beauty, even when angry, she was still breathtakingly beautiful.
Normally, Song Hechuan would have backed down long ago;
But as the saying went, riches and honor were sought amid danger!
Earlier, to secure the trump card that was Bu Wuchen, Song Hechuan had cast all other concerns aside and simply bombarded him with benefits.
Now that he had achieved his goal, however, he finally spared the attention to say he would offer a token of appreciation to Xia Nuoyi, the valued patron who had "threaded the line and built the bridge."
Only then did the girl in green silk cool down. "Hmph, that's more like it."
"By the way, you said you're the largest producer and seller of mystic pills in Blood Dragon City. Then... how do you compare to Blood Dragon City Academy?"
Bu Wuchen suddenly asked.
He asked because he wanted to find out just how capable Lin Taoshu, the academy's specially appointed "chief pill hall master," really was.