Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Chapter 292 – Accepting the Commission

In the pill business, what mattered most was word of mouth, trust, and reputation. Throughout the years, although the inn’s pills were sold at expensive prices, they could still rely on their high quality to grab a great deal of the market share and grow their pill medicine income.

If they pushed up Qin Yu only for him to immediately fail, it would likely greatly damage their reputation. At that time, all of their competitors like Philosophy Watch would engage in endless propaganda, and that would lead to unbelievable consequences.

Aunty Hong clenched her teeth. She stood up and soared straight to the southeast section of the rear court.

The front courtyards were full of women. Even though many of them were willing to serve in bed, there were always some inconveniences. In addition to the fact that Qin Yu needed quiet to refine pills, his residence was placed here.

Knock knock.

Qin Yu soon came out. He looked around, “Aunty Hong, what is it?”

Aunty Hong nodded. “Let’s speak inside.”

The air was filled with a medicinal fragrance. The two took a seat across from each other. “Qin Yu, I’ll be honest. Some time ago, I used a method to establish your status as quickly as possible.” Then, she proceeded to explain the recent events without concealing anything at all.

“An alchemy grandmaster is naturally different from an ordinary alchemist. As long as those on the outside recognize this, then the inn will obtain more income and Mister Qin will also receive a rich harvest.”

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed. “I understand what Aunty Hong is saying and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. Has some accident occurred?”

Aunty Hong forced a smile. “That’s right. Our inn has rapidly developed these past years, so it's inevitable that we intrude into the profits of others; Philosophy Watch is one of them. Now, they started to secretly direct cultivators to move against me…no, to be more accurate, it’s you. They have submitted a commission request for a pill. The contents of the request are here. Once you look through it you’ll understand.”

Qin Yu received the jade slip. He scanned it with his divine sense and his eyebrows lifted up.

Divine Blood Pill. Using the blood of a spiritual god as the basis, it was refined into a pill. After swallowing it, one could summon the phantom of the spiritual god to descend and fuse into the body. For a period of time, one would possess some powers of the spiritual god.

Of course, the god described here wasn’t an omnipotent and omniscient god that ruled everything within the heavens and earth. Rather, it was a formidable life form that practiced a different style of cultivation and possessed all sorts of inconceivable strengths.

The rewards for refining a Divine Blood Pill were extraordinarily rich. There was a long list of treasures that would be offered as compensation. But, compared to the punishment that one would receive after failing, none of that seemed important at all.

The blood of god was incomparably precious. If the refinement failed, then they would have to compensate and equivalent amount. And, the one who failed to refine the pill would never be able to work as an alchemist again.

Looking at how high the rewards were, to compensate an equal amount was reasonable. But, it was the second condition that was the true killing blow, one that killed without drawing a single drop of blood.

If he couldn’t work as an alchemist…then that meant, in the future he could never help anyone refine pills again!

Qin Yu’s eyes flashed with a cold chill. This Philosophy Watch, their methods were more than cruel and ruthless!

“Do you understand now? Philosophy Watch is coming at you with nothing but ill intent.” Aunty Hong thought over it and then said, “If Philosophy Watch were to choose any other pill, then no matter how precious it is my inn would be willing to suffer any loss to gather enough materials so that Mister Qin could eventually refine it no matter what. But the Divine Blood Pill…every portion of god blood contains a unique supernatural power. It is impossible for a similar one to exist. So, once the refinement process fails, there will be no way to recover from it. Because of this, my opinion is that Mister Qin refuses this commission!”

Qin Yu’s heart warmed a bit. He calmly said, “But if I refuse, I fear the reputation of the inn will suffer.”

Aunty Hong lightly said, “The difficulty of refining the Divine Blood Pill is much higher than the Nine Mystic Heavens Pill. If Mister Qin doesn’t have full confidence in success, then refusing is also within reason.” Although her expression was calm, one could sense the trace of helplessness in her voice.

Qin Yu smiled. “That might be true, but I’m actually interested in the rewards.”

What was the meaning of this?

Aunty Hong had a dignified look. She drew in a deep breath, “Mister Qin, you have already proved your strength in alchemy. There will be many more opportunities in the future, so there is no need to recklessly fight this battle.”

Qin Yu waved his hand. “I’m not being reckless; I really am interested in the rewards. As for this Divine Blood Pill, I do have some confidence.”

Aunty Hong trembled. “Mister Qin is being serious?”

“Of course.”

“Great! Then I will instantly begin arrangements. If Mister Qin has any need, feel free to ask!” She stood up and hurried away.

Qin Yu’s expression was calm. If this was before refining the Nine Mystic Heavens Pill, then he wouldn’t boast about his confidence. But after gaining that experience, he had some understanding into refining these kinds of high difficulty pills.

If he was careful, there shouldn’t be any problems.

Moreover, once he succeeded, the income would be mind-boggling. Not only would the inn thank him but after this confirmed his status, his earnings would rise substantially. Just the jade crystal lotus that Philosophy Watch was putting forth for revenge was worth it for him to attempt this.

Because that thing could increase his cultivation talent.

Even if that jade crystal lotus was only the lowest level existence amongst all the treasures within the Land of Divinity and Demons that could increase a person’s talent, it could still serve as a confirmation for Qin Yu. He wanted to know whether or not these kinds of treasures could really help change his talent.

The inn received the pill commission!

Ordinarily, this was only a minor matter. Even if the Divine Blood Pill was incomparably precious, it was completely irrelevant to most other cultivators. But now, driven by numerous dark forces, this sudden revelation drew in a great deal of attention.

There were even people that spouted out the full specific requirements: Divine Blood Pill.

Countless cultivators saw this news appear on their handphones. Their minds were shocked and they almost shattered the screen in their hands.

What nonsense, this was the Divine Blood Pill! It could summon the descent of a god’s phantom. It was a terrifying pill that allowed one to momentarily obtain a part of a god’s strength. Moreover, in the rumors, this pill’s greatest function wasn’t to power up a cultivator for a brief time, but to allow them to perceive the world’s rules by drawing upon the strength of the god!

To become a spiritual god was to become the favored of the heavens and earth. If one borrowed their strength to sense the rules of the world, it would naturally be much easier.

The Divine Blood Pill’s effects were incredibly potent. Correspondingly, the refinement difficulty was similarly high. It was rumored that only an alchemy grandmaster had a chance of refining one and even then their chances of success wouldn’t exceed 10%.

This was because the blood of god was a divine possession; it shouldn’t be something controlled by cultivators. To go against heaven’s pill and do so was beyond difficult!

If it was so difficult, why would the inn unexpectedly accept this commission? Why were they so confident in this mysterious Grandmaster 19?

News spread out further and further, and more and more eyes were drawn towards it. Countless cultivators were shocked. And at this time, more information was disclosed. This time….it involved specific parts of the commission request.

A portion of god blood would be produced from 10,000 year ancient blue wood. It would be combined with a mandala flower, a calamity awakening seed, Buddha finger grass, bitter sorrow lotus, and 17 other such materials to refine a Divine Blood Pill!

This news spread out like a hurricane, blowing into every influence, wildly disseminating through handphones.

Countless cultivators all gasped in surprise as they read this information. They all began to furiously type within their friends circles on their handphones.

“Where does the inn’s confidence come from?”

“This is just one portion of god blood. What are the chances of a Divine Blood Pill being successfully refined? Not even 5%!”

“I have studied alchemy all my life and profess that my field of vision isn’t too low. But, in my entire life, out of everyone that I know, there is no one who could successfully refine a Divine Blood Pill with just one portion of god blood.”

“I bet that the inn will certainly lose this time and their reputation will sweep the floor! Is there anyone that has a different opinion? Hurry up and comment so we can hear!”

As everyone was sent into an uproar, there was more information disclosed. This time, it involve the rewards and failure compensation terms.

Instantly, all those friends circles blew up once more.

A female cultivator called Xiao Ya took a picture of herself and uploaded it onto her phone, along with the words: If anyone can even put out half of the reward, this miss will immediately marry him! This post is proof of that!

It was unknown who copied this post to a well-known forum, but it instantly became a hot topic. It drew in the attention of countless cultivators and comments rolled in like a tide.

“With your appearance, do you think you can match up to half the rewards?”

“Although you are pretty, aren’t you overestimating your beauty?”

“For half the rewards, how about me and my two sisters marry someone together?” What was attached to this post was a picture of three sisters. It was actually triplets. All three were young and beautiful and similar in appearance. This post drew in a great deal of perverts, and soon the poster was inundated with private messages and friend requests.

Of course, there were those that were much more normal. For instance, the alchemy discussion forum. A renowned administrator wrote up a post with an extremely powerful title:

For the last ten years, this is the greatest reward for a commission that I have seen. What I have written is a detailed list of the rewards and a one by one assessment of them. Finally, the overall mind-boggling price. In conclusion, for such an astonishing reward, there naturally needs to be an equally astonishing compensation clause. There is nothing wrong with this commission request.

There were those that agreed and those that disagreed. There wasn’t much to say about those that agreed, but those that disagreed believed that cutting off an alchemy grandmaster’s future over a single defeat was far too penalizing.

But these opinions were almost immediately drowned out by a chorus of comments. The general opinion of most people was that in order to obtain such an incredible reward, and similar price must be paid. If someone was scared, they could refuse. After all, no one was forcing you. And now since this person had agreed, once they failed, they had to be punished accordingly.

From the start when the first bit of information was disclosed, more and more eyes were drawn towards this, maintaining the heat on the topic.

Finally, this matter was spread out so wide that it became almost public knowledge.

But there was still one step missing…

Within Philosophy Watch, the purple robed Elder had a calm expression. He snapped his fingers, a stern look of arrogance and pride in his eyes.

“Elder, what amazing methods! I cannot admire you enough!”

“With every step you have forced the inn to retreat and retreat until they had no choice but to accept this commission!”

“With so much attention on this, once the inn fails, they will surely cause a stir!”

“At that time, our Philosophy Watch won’t have to die anything at all. There will surely be more people pushing the boat forwards, discrediting the inn!”

The purple robed Elder’s heart was filled with joy, but he maintained an indifferent expression. He waved his hand, causing everyone to fall silent. “With me taking action, do you think there was any hope for the inn to escape? And, do you think this was everything?”

He took out a handphone and tapped open an app. On the walls of the meeting room, a giant crystal screen lit up. It started to broadcast an interview.

“Everyone, I hope you are doing well. I am Xiao Tan of today’s weather discussion. Our weather channel is responsible for the skies, thus everything that happens below the heavens is something that we are qualified to discuss. Our channel has spent a great deal of effort to find one of the related parties in the recent hot news issue of the inn’s pill commission, and we have asked him here today to explain to us in detail about the matter of the Divine Blood Pill…”

On the screen, as the camera pulled back, a calm middle-aged cultivator appeared. “Everyone, how are you. I am representing the client for the Divine Blood Pill commission…” action

An hour later, the interview program ended. The meeting room’s silence was broken in by the sound of someone drawing in a deep breath.

“Elder, what amazing methods! I feel nothing but admiration!”

“As long as we can place the Divine Blood Pill issue in the public eye, the inn cannot try to sweep it under the ground!”

“Moreover, this will draw in even more attention. Even if the inn finally acknowledges defeat, we can use this interview to give them one final blow!”

The purple robed Elder stroked his beard and smiled, as if trying to say that he didn’t use any effort at all and did all of this as a casual action.