txolops Chapter 305 Two Kinds of Fine Wine and Two Kinds of Toxins
Chapter 305 Two Kinds of Fine Wine and Two Kinds of Toxins
Upon hearing Zhou Lingyan's telepathic message, Li Ping couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
Over the past year, under deliberate cultivation.
His relationship with this Core Formation female cultivator from the Hehuan Sect was already quite close, and the news of their relationship had even spread throughout Donghua Mountain.
When Song Yushu asked him to refine elixirs, he tried to dissuade him several times, but seeing that he ignored him, he stopped trying to stop him.
As for the other Core Formation cultivators, they were all waiting to see him make a fool of himself.
How deep are the demonesses of the Hehuan Sect?
This newcomer, a country bumpkin cultivator, has designs on you. Can you handle him?
They're likely to be financially ruined and burdened with a mountain of debts and favors.
What a pity for a third-tier alchemist.
It won't be long before we have to borrow spirit stones from all over the place.
……
Li Ping chuckled and led Zhou Lingyan into the courtyard. After they sat down, he asked curiously, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, what brings you here to see me?"
"Can't I come to see you if there's nothing wrong?" Zhou Lingyan rolled her eyes at him before slowly explaining what had happened.
Then, after her description, Li Ping finally understood.
It turned out that Zhou Lingyan came to find him because of a recent business deal of the Hehuan Sect.
The Hehuan Sect received a large batch of spiritual herbs offered by its affiliated sects. Originally, the Hehuan Sect intended to hand over all these spiritual herbs to its internal alchemists to refine into pills.
However, Zhou Lingyan, one of the elders, raised an objection, arguing that the alchemists in the sect had a very low success rate in making pills, often less than 50%, wasting the spiritual herbs they had worked so hard to obtain.
"Less than half a percent?" Li Ping exclaimed in surprise.
Zhou Lingyan nodded: "Yes! As for whether the success rate of pills is really that low, or whether someone is lining their own pockets, I can't say for sure. But my senior brother who is in charge of the sect's logistics always has a happy look on his face."
"Moreover, whenever we try to investigate, the sect's pill storehouse will catch fire in advance, burning everything to the ground." Zhou Lingyan said this with a sense of helplessness.
Li Ping understood from Zhou Lingyan's sour tone.
She suspected that the reason why the alchemists in the sect had such a low success rate was because the senior brother in charge of logistics was behind it all, and that he had taken the lion's share of the benefits.
She couldn't stand such a blatant act of enriching herself at the expense of the public, and this time she finally couldn't help but voice her opposition.
"Because I objected, my senior brother deliberately made things difficult for me." Zhou Lingyan looked somewhat aggrieved. "The task of refining pills ultimately fell to me, so I had no choice but to ask Fellow Daoist Li for help."
Li Ping nodded slightly: "I see. But according to what Fellow Daoist Zhou said, these spiritual herbs are all low-grade spiritual herbs of the first or second rank, right? Fairy, you can just find a few alchemists to refine them anywhere. Why bother coming to me, Li Ping?"
Zhou Lingyan said quietly, "The success rate of other alchemists is too high, and my senior brother has made it clear that no one dares to offend him."
"Too high?" Li Ping asked, puzzled.
After Zhou Lingyan's patient explanation, Li Ping finally understood.
Zhou Lingyan's original intention was to control the 'success rate' to within 10%, and to reasonably 'waste' the remaining spiritual herbs.
In this way, not only would her success rate surpass that of the sect's alchemists, leaving that senior brother speechless, but she herself wouldn't have worked for nothing.
However, other low-level alchemists dared not get involved in the conflict between the two big shots of the Hehuan Sect.
That's why Zhou Lingyan specifically came to ask him for help.
Li Ping smiled and nodded, then pondered for a moment and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, please rest assured, alchemy is not a problem, it's just that the success rate..."
Seeing that Li Ping had agreed, Zhou Lingyan smiled and rolled her eyes at him: "Fellow Daoist Li, don't worry, would I let you suffer a loss? My expected success rate is 50%, and anything exceeding that will be your reward, Fellow Daoist Li, how about it?"
"Then I shall accept your offer without hesitation," Li Ping agreed.
His success rate in refining pills is 100%. According to Zhou Lingyan's arrangement, 10% of this batch of spiritual herbs will go to the sect, she will take 40%, and the remaining 50% will go to Li Ping.
Of course, Zhou Lingyan was unaware that Li Ping had such a high success rate in alchemy; she thought that Li Ping's success rate was at most 20% or 30%.
After reaching an agreement, they watched Zhou Lingyan leave.
Li Ping shook his head inwardly. The great power of cultivators belongs to themselves, and sects are actually just tools for high-level cultivators to gather resources.
In fact, he didn't care about the spirit stones he earned by undermining the Hehuan Sect.
His main hope was to maintain his public image and a good relationship with Zhou Lingyan, so that she would lower her guard and obediently take the Soft Dragon Powder.
……
Zhou Lingyan flew towards her temporary cave dwelling, her eyes filled with thought.
In fact, she didn't care about those spiritual herbs at all. The Hehuan Sect was a demonic sect, not a righteous one. If she needed resources, she could just rob them directly from within the sect. Why go through all this trouble?
Only resources of the third rank or higher, which are controlled by cultivators of the same rank, must be acquired through trade.
She had two purposes in doing this.
Firstly, they wanted to test Li Jingyu's success rate in alchemy. Only if the success rate was high would it be worthwhile for them to risk keeping Li Jingyu alive and slowly raise him as an alchemy slave.
Secondly, they hoped to lower Li Jingyu's guard through similar cooperation, so that he would trust them and obediently take the Soul-Silent Liquid.
It now appears that both objectives have been achieved.
Judging from how readily Li Jingyu agreed, his success rate in refining pills must be over 80%.
A penniless rogue cultivator who has just reached the Core Formation stage would surely be very grateful to me for the large sum of money I give him for refining pills, and would be looking forward to the next collaboration.
Thinking of this, a cold glint flashed in Zhou Lingyan's eyes. The next time they would cooperate would be when she fed Li Jingyu medicine.
……
The border region between the grasslands and the Yan state.
A flying boat, seemingly carved from ice, sped across the sky, breaking out of the grassland. After quickly determining its direction, it flew towards the location of Fenglan Immortal City!
On the airship, a man and a woman stood side by side, gazing into the distance, seemingly lost in thought.
……
Several months later, when Li Ping handed over 50% of the pills to Zhou Lingyan, he could clearly sense a hint of surprise in her eyes.
Although the quantity of the spiritual herbs from the Hehuan Sect was enormous, most of them were first- or second-tier spiritual herbs.
With Li Ping's expertise in alchemy, he could refine this grade of spiritual medicine without fail, even with his eyes closed. His alchemical fire could also purify the medicine at an astonishing speed, producing about ten batches per hour.
However, this was, after all, the harvest of a major sect plundering for ten years. After being refined into pills, even one tenth of it would be worth tens of thousands of spirit stones.
Zhou Lingyan received 40%, which is enough to exchange for a magic weapon. She should be in a very good mood right now.
Thinking of this, Li Ping smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhou..."
But just as he opened his mouth, he heard Zhou Lingyan's soft voice: "Fellow Daoist Li..."
The two spoke almost in unison.
"Pfft~"
Zhou Lingyan covered her mouth and chuckled, "What a coincidence! Fellow Daoist Li, what are you trying to say?"
After saying that, she looked at Li Ping expectantly, waiting for him to speak.
"Fellow Daoist Zhou," Li Ping smiled before continuing, "You've patronized me with such a large business deal this time; I should be thanking you. Since there's no time like the present, and I recently acquired a jar of Thousand-Year Azure Flame Wine, why don't we enjoy it together tonight?"
Jade Flame is a unique spirit wine that becomes more distinctive the longer it is aged.
The thousand-year-old Azure Flame Brew not only boasts an exceptional flavor, but also offers significant benefits to Core Formation cultivators. Its high price is comparable to that of a third-tier elixir.
This Azure Flame Brew was specially cultivated by Li Ping on Gray Island, which cost Gray Island a year of its resources.
Of course, this is not the point.
The key point is that Li Ping mixed half of the Soft Dragon Powder into the Azure Flame Brew, intending to feed it to Zhou Lingyan.
"A thousand-year-old Azure Flame Brew, Fellow Daoist Li, what a generous gesture." Zhou Lingyan glanced at Li Ping with some surprise.
She guessed that this was probably the other party trying to win her over by creating an ambiguous atmosphere through wine tasting.
There are only a few methods that male cultivators have used throughout history, and she knows them very well.
However, she had already prepared a plan for Li Jingyu, and Li Jingyu's invitation was exactly what she wanted.
She then readily agreed, saying, "Fellow Daoist Li, you're too kind. If it weren't for your righteous help this time, I wouldn't have earned a large sum of spirit stones, and I would probably have faced my senior brother's accusations. If anyone should be thanking someone, it should be me thanking you."
"Fellow Daoist Li has even brought out the Thousand-Year Azure Flame Brew, so I can't be stingy either." After saying that, she smiled and said, "It's quite a coincidence that I recently obtained a pot of Thunder Essence Jade Liquid at an exchange meeting. Although it is not as precious as the Thousand-Year Azure Flame Brew, it still has the miraculous effect of clearing the mind and marrow."
Originally, I planned to host a banquet for Fellow Daoist Li with this wine in a few days. Since Fellow Daoist Li mentioned it today, I might as well offer it as a bonus.
Upon hearing this, Li Ping was slightly surprised, but in the end he still smiled and said, "That's very good."
Under the moonlight.
A jar of emerald green spirit wine and a pot of purple fine wine were placed side by side on the table, while Li Ping and Zhou Lingyan sat facing each other.
Zhou Lingyan used her seductive arts, and every move she made was full of charm.
Seeing this, Li Jingyu felt a strong urge to try it himself, and couldn't wait to take out two glowing cups from his storage bag and place them in front of the two of them.
With a slight smile, Zhou Lingyan was about to pour Li Jingyu a cup of spirit wine when Li Jingyu stopped her: "Fellow Daoist Zhou, please wait. We have worked together seamlessly in alchemy this time, so naturally we shouldn't be so formal about drinking. It just so happens that I once learned a bartending skill in a foreign land, which allows me to mix different wines together to create a unique flavor."
"Oh? Then I'd like to see for myself." Zhou Lingyan glanced at him with feigned surprise, but in her heart she wondered if she had given herself away somewhere.
With Zhou Lingyan's consent, Li Ping immediately used his magic to make the Azure Flame Brew float up, poured half a cup into each of the two cups, and then used the Thunder Jade Liquid to fill both cups completely.
The two spirit wines were mixed in the luminous glass, creating an exceptionally beautiful sight.
"Fellow Daoist Zhou, please drink this cup to the brim." Li Ping picked up the luminous cup and looked at Zhou Lingyan expectantly.
Zhou Lingyan hesitated for a moment, then picked up her wine glass as well. She had the antidote, so being poisoned by the Soul-Silent Liquid wouldn't be a problem.