Wealth, companions, techniques, and land were indispensable
"The military? How did the military get involved?"
Jiang Lihua frowned deeply. He had not expected a pharmaceutical factory to have ties to the military.
Li Xiaorou, who stood nearby, was not particularly surprised to hear that.
Xingfeng Mining was already a military-industrial enterprise, so Chen Feng naturally counted as one of the military's people too.
Everyone turned to look at Li Xiaorou.
Li Xiaorou explained with a smile:
"Leaders, our boss actually founded not only Xingfeng Pharmaceuticals but also Xingfeng Mining. Xingfeng Mining became a military-industrial enterprise not long ago. As for the details, I can't tell you because I signed a confidentiality agreement."
Li Xiaorou had signed a confidentiality agreement at the time as well.
Essentially, every employee at Xingfeng Mining had signed one.
They were not allowed to disclose what work they did at Xingfeng Mining.
Li Xiaorou's words took Jiang Lihua and the others by surprise.
They were naturally familiar with military-industrial enterprises, but those whose employees had to sign confidentiality agreements were no ordinary ones. Only those with significant technology required such agreements.
What they found most baffling was that Chen Feng was clearly in the mining business.
Yet a man in mining had ventured into the pharmaceutical industry and even developed a wonder drug like Wound Healing No. 1.
"I'm going to make a call!"
Jiang Lihua walked off by himself. With the military involved, he had to tread carefully.
He had to make a call and get to the bottom of it.
In the Western Military Region of Dragon Country.
Liu Mu was at a testing ground in the military region, with Li Busheng of the Metal Research Institute standing beside him.
They were conducting performance tests on the first batch of tanks made from Blazing Sun Iron.
Seven or eight tanks were racing across the training ground.
Liu Mu was watching through binoculars.
"Not bad. They're faster than others of the same model." Liu Mu looked pleased.
Blazing Sun Iron was not only lightweight but also hard enough to be used specifically in the production of lightweight tanks.
On a battlefield, for example, if tanks needed to be airdropped, those made of Blazing Sun Iron would be the first choice.
Li Busheng nodded as well.
"I heard Lin Wei has already improved the Blazing Sun Iron, increasing its hardness by around ten percent."
The corner of Liu Mu's mouth twitched at the mention of Lin Wei.
"I've always been a little uneasy about her going to Xingfeng Mining. She was responsible for several research accidents."
Liu Mu knew Lin Wei. The woman was exceptionally gifted in scientific research.
But she was always fond of conducting research that people found frightening. For that very reason, many people at the Dragon Academy of Sciences disliked her.
Li Busheng smiled. "She's actually very capable. She just couldn't find a good platform. I warned her not to do anything reckless, so don't worry."
Liu Mu nodded helplessly. Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
He answered and listened for a while, a peculiar expression appearing on his face.
"All right, I understand. I'll get back to the Ministry of Health." With that, Liu Mu hung up.
"What is it?" Li Busheng asked.
"The Ministry of Health wants to look into Chen Feng's background. Apparently, an emerging pharmaceutical company has developed a wonder drug, and the boss behind the company is Chen Feng."
Li Busheng was startled. "Chen Feng?"
"That's right, Chen Feng. Surprised? A man who works with metals has actually started working on pharmaceuticals, and he's already made such a big splash."
"It seems he has many more secrets we don't know about."
Liu Mu's expression grew serious.
He was no fool. There had already been plenty of suspicious points when Chen Feng developed Blazing Sun Iron.
Now he had developed a heaven-defying drug as well.
And just like Blazing Sun Iron, it had been developed independently. There was definitely something wrong here.
"Does the Ministry of Health only want to check his personal information?" Li Busheng asked.
"Of course not," Liu Mu replied. "They want to know how the drug was developed."
Liu Mu thought for a moment, then said, "We can't let the people from the Ministry of Health interrogate Chen Feng. I'm going to see the commander."
With that, Liu Mu hurried away.
Seeing Liu Mu react like this, Li Busheng immediately understood what he was thinking.
Liu Mu was preparing to protect Chen Feng.
At Xingfeng Pharmaceuticals.
Jiang Lihua and the others were already seated in the reception room. Li Xiaorou was no longer there.
She had gone to find Chen Feng. With so many leaders visiting, Li Xiaorou was clearly having trouble handling them.
"I'm curious what kind of background this Chen Feng has. Not only does he have connections to the Dragon Academy of Sciences, but he's also involved with the military."
The director of the Drug Administration broke the silence.
Gao Deming asked the director:
"I remember Wound Healing No. 1 got to jump the queue when it was sent in for testing. They pulled strings, didn't they? You didn't know about that?"
The director of the Drug Administration immediately lost his composure.
"Old Gao, what are you talking about? What strings? Professor Lin Wei from the Dragon Academy of Sciences just gave me a call. I was only doing her a favor."
"Lin Wei?" Jiang Lihua pondered. She seemed to have heard that name before.
Gao Deming said with a smile:
"I know her. She's a genius in theoretical research at the Dragon Academy of Sciences. I didn't expect her to have anything to do with this drug too."
"Oh, it's her." Jiang Lihua remembered her as well.
Lin Wei had a certain degree of influence in various fields.
However, she was a theoretical researcher.
It was called theoretical because she only had ideas and did not have many research results.
Just then, Jiang Lihua's phone rang, and he answered it. A moment later, he demanded into the phone:
"I'm the vice minister of health! Don't I have the authority to investigate this Chen Feng?"
After a while, Jiang Lihua hung up.
"Sir, what happened? The military won't let us investigate Chen Feng?" Gao Deming immediately asked.
Jiang Lihua nodded and said:
"The order came from the commander of the Western Theater Command. Chen Feng's Xingfeng Pharmaceuticals, Xingfeng Mining, and Chen Feng himself are all military secrets."
Everyone was stunned to hear that.
No one had expected the military to refuse even Jiang Lihua.
It was only one person's information, and all they wanted was to take a look at the technology used to develop Wound Healing No. 1. Was there any need to go this far? They had even alerted the commander of the Western Theater Command.
Jiang Lihua said helplessly:
"Let's go. Leave this matter to me. We won't be seeing Chen Feng today."
The military was an independent institution. Although he was a vice minister, he worked in administration and could not interfere with the military.
He could only return to Great Capital and ask his superiors.
Inside the Painting Scroll World.
Chen Feng was cultivating in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Ever since stepping across the threshold of immortal cultivation, he had cultivated for at least six hours every day.
But after reaching the Second Layer of Qi Refining, Chen Feng found that his cultivation speed had dropped considerably.
This was because the surrounding Spiritual Qi had grown scarce. Even if the hyperbaric oxygen chamber allowed him to absorb Spiritual Qi quickly, it could not solve the problem of there being less of it.
Chen Feng opened his eyes and murmured to himself:
"At this rate, I'm afraid it'll take me several months to reach the Third Layer of Qi Refining. Cultivation will only get harder after that."
Chen Feng thought that perhaps the Spiritual Qi on Hengduan Mountain had never been abundant and that it was no cultivation treasure ground.
Cultivators generally needed to cultivate somewhere with a Spirit Vein to get twice the result with half the effort, and they also needed pills to assist their cultivation.
Wealth, companions, techniques, and land were indispensable to cultivators.
If he kept burying his head in cultivation like this, reaching the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining would take him decades.