The Silver Clan aimed at the assets of the Bright Clan, especially the spirit herb garden, to profit together with the Sunflower Pavilion. The influence behind the pavilion hid well. It to be at least the same or higher ranked than the Brave Clan to move even the royal family. Only second rank influences moved against or behind their backs.
The Brave Clan was a third rank influence, while the royal family of the Soaring Country a second rank power, only below those massive powers from other empires. For the Forest Clan to disrupt their plans safely, they needed backing of at least the third-rank. If the clan brought out amazing pills, they would also become targets to the greed of others, they needed something that could befriend such an influence.
The Bright Clan and Sunflower Pavilion competed for the market with a human rank initial stage first-step Qi recovery pill. When the pavilion brought out middle stage first-step pills, they took away the Bright Clan’s market share with ease.
According to Lin Dong, ten years later the pill didn’t change. Even if the Sunflower Pavilion got their hands on better pills, they couldn’t produce many of them as the costs would also be sky-high. Lowering production costs and improving pill recipes could take hundreds of years.
The Dao of pills had complex steps, full of pitfalls. An alchemist able to produce an initial stage first-step pill would be a first rank alchemist, like Ming Ren’s mother Yu Ming and the chief alchemist.
A second rank alchemist produced middle stage first-step pills. The pavilion bringing out this pill confirmed they had one within their ranks. Once a late-stage first-step pill came into play, even second rank influences showed interest. A third rank alchemist produced pills with efficacy equivalent to the peak of the Body Tempering Realm, meaning the pill worked best at those layers and lost efficacy when used by higher cultivation bases.
An initial stage first-step pill covered the initial layers of the Body Tempering realm, middle stage first-step until the sixth layer, and late-stage to the ninth. A peak rank first step alchemist created medicine and pills at the peak of the Body Tempering Realm efficacy, and sometimes pills of rarity greater than human. Steps represented the realms. The higher the step, the greater the cultivation realm the pill worked on.
A master alchemist produced second-step pills of the Spirit Sea Realm, a grandmaster alchemists third-step pills of the spirit gate realm. All known grandmaster alchemists belonged to legendary first-rank influences.
Ming Ren gave the elder three different pill recipes for the first-step. Two human middle-stage, one late-stage earth rank recipe, middle-stage Qi recovery and injury recovery pills, and a Body Tempering Realm breakthrough pill. All his creations.
The youth didn’t bother naming them, and focused on common and abundant herbs, simplifying the concocting process to the minimum. The pill sacrificed rarity for simplicity. The Forest Clan didn’t need any heaven rank pills, only enough to steal the market share. None of those three were heaven-defying pills but would still cause a stir, especially the earth rarity breakthrough pill. The Qi recovery pill alone could fight head-on with the Sunflower Pavilion. It cost less to produce and lowered skill requirements from the alchemist, increasing the success rate. The other two added salt to the wound.
The breakthrough pill recipe would be a tremendous asset to any third or second-ranked influences. A pill capable of helping cultivators sense their true elements, rare energies, and form a complete spirit sea, which clan could resist increasing the chances of their cultivators? It even sped up the time needed for geniuses to break through without side effects. A marvelous recipe. In order not to draw too much attention, Ming Ren used rare herbs as material and disguised it as an ancient recipe.
The elder staggered. How could he not recognize the value of the recipes in his mind?
He suddenly felt himself becoming a walking treasure trove. Heaven rank cultivation laws, earth rank first-step pill recipe, heaven tier secret arts, his mind held more value than entire fourth-ranked clans. Before his dizziness ended, Ming Ren explained the ideal course of action.
First, the elder would meet with the patriarch and explain the situation, transcribing the late-stage recipe as an ancient scroll. Second, they would find a suitable influence, preferably second-ranked and outside the Soaring Country, and trade them the recipe for a part of the profits, protection, help with alchemy, and a few others low-ranked recipes.
It was important to say their clan found the ancient recipe by chance while exploring the Thousand Gates Secret Realm. The earth rarity recipe was too big to be kept and used by the clan.
After that step, the Forest Clan could circulate the other pills and strike at the market. It wouldn’t be strange since they got recipes from a higher-ranked power. Even if the Silver Clan and the Sunflower Pavilion counterattacked, with the proper backing, they wouldn’t dare be reckless. This made sure the Forest Clan grew with the resources brought in from the pills.
As for whether the patriarch followed his advice, Ming Ren couldn’t care or control it. Those recipes were worth nothing to him. There was also a chance the high-rank influence would take the recipe and not fulfill its part, but few will lose face in such a way. To those top-ranked influences, face was worth too much, they couldn’t risk the other powerhouses banding together with an excuse to punish them.
This would bring tremendous financial pressure to their enemies and cause a lot of damage. The elder admired Ming Ren, not only he gave away those recipes as if they were nothing but also warned them to be careful and take proper precautions. He didn’t understand how he got those recipes, but it didn’t matter.
Ming Ren nodded the head in approval seeing as the elder understood everything, “Good!”
Time passed and the sun would soon rise again. Ming Ren didn’t rest properly, but it wouldn’t affect his condition as a fifth layer cultivator. He had no more reason to stay there and planned to go on his way, but remembered something, “There’s still one thing I’d like to warn you about.”
The elder clasped his hands and lowered the head in a deep sign of reverence, “Benefactor, please say!”
“That green-haired girl…” Ming Ren pointed to the sleeping lady.
“Qiang’er?” Her name was Lin Qiang.
“Treat her as your greatest hope and talent. Never force her to marry against her will, displease, or wrong her. Resources, arts, especially beast summoning and taming arts, teach her everything.” Ming Ren didn’t tell him about spiritual beast oracles or the jade spirit beast token, but they could still focus on her without that knowledge.
Her cultivation was lacking but as she broke through to the Spirit Sea Realm, finding true elements and rare energies, it would soar like a dragon.
The elder looked aghast but didn’t dare question Ming Ren’s judgment after everything, “It shall be as benefactor said!”
Ming Ren clasped his hands politely, “Take care, elder, may we meet again.”
Elder Lin Dong bowed again in utmost reverence. Ming Ren already occupied an unshakeable position in his heart. The youth wasted no more time and left. He didn’t need to talk to the others again and wasn’t fond of goodbyes. He rushed through the woods, avoiding spirit beasts and trying to get out without looking back.
After a while, his soul resonated with something further into the Vagrant Woods, as if a piece of his soul stood far away from his body. Full of curiosity, Ming Ren ventured deeper, always taking care not to run into any powerful spirit beasts. A part of the forest seemed disconnected to the world. His eyes shone, and he extended his spiritual sense.
“An advanced formation! This is… above Spirit Gate Realm!” Ming Ren crossed his arms, curiosity got the best of him as he prodded and tested the formation while activating Bright Eyes, “A concealment formation on the outer perimeter. Aura containing formation, multiple defensive arrays, and a powerful illusory array. The formation itself is high grade, full of defense mechanisms and systems, but it’s weakened…”
“This formation hides something, but it got damaged. From the inside, if I had to guess. It won’t last much longer.” While it was possible to fix it with his knowledge, he couldn’t try because of low cultivation base. However, he could force open a path through the damaged parts to go inside.
The formation covered a big area, and if it worked normally, nobody could go in. He felt no danger coming from it. As Ming Ren decided whether to look inside, his body shook vigorously.
His mind wandered to another place, another world, where the blood-red sky rejoiced lost blood. He wore a black and white armored robe, hair fluttering in the wind, bloody all over. Everywhere around was a battlefield.
What was he fighting? Humans? Spirit beasts? Demons? It was too blurry to tell. Several figures stood proudly and bloodied on every side. They protected his back, cut enemies to pieces. He could only see one of their faces. The green-haired beauty surpassed anyone he had ever seen by far. She looked like Lin Qiang, except at that moment she was a true fairy, a beauty capable of toppling not only kingdoms but entire worlds.
Dozens of legendary beasts took to the sky, roaring and following her every whim and command. She noticed Ming Ren’s gaze and smiled. He couldn’t tell if it was a smile of friendship or something else, yet he knew with certainty she was a companion that braved through hellish times with him. Someone very important, too much to describe in words.
Ming Ren’s body shook once again, and a strong sense of worry and danger overcame his entire being. His body flickered in the air. Flash Step exploded at maximum power, crossing great distances, wasting no time.
Somehow, he knew. Lin Qiang and the others would soon be in mortal danger.