After further negotiation, the two parties finally reached a set of terms acceptable to both.
The Southern Edge Commerce Association would provide a large quantity of Spiritual Medicine to the Li family within three months, at least one hundred and twenty portions.
In return, the Li family must sell at least three Essence-Enhancing Pills six months later, and the price, provided that the cost of the Spiritual Medicine did not increase, would be set at four thousand and three hundred Spirit Stones each.
Over the next ten years, the Southern Edge Commerce Association would sell Spiritual Medicine to the Li family at the price of two thousand five hundred Spirit Stones per portion, and the Li family had to sell the Essence-Enhancing Pills of the twelfth grade to the Southern Edge Commerce Association every month.
If unavoidable circumstances arose, the quantity of Essence-Enhancing Pills could be reduced or delayed with the promise of making up the difference later, but the selling price would be lowered—the longer the delay, the lower the price.
Besides, there were other conditions such as the sale of Essence-Enhancing Pills being limited and delayed, with exclusive selling rights to the Southern Edge Commerce Association and the like.
All these terms were confirmed through oath swearing and contracts, and only then could the two families reach a cooperation.
When Li Shiqing brought the contract back to his family, Li Zhirui breathed a sigh of relief. The terms were much better than he had expected!
For instance, the time restriction was merely ten years.
To Golden Core Cultivators, who enjoyed a lifespan of five hundred years, ten years was nothing—it would pass with just two or three periods of secluded meditation.
In the following three months, Li Zhirui received a total of one hundred and twenty-five portions of Spiritual Medicine.
With sufficient practice, on the one hundred and seventeenth portion of Spiritual Medicine, he successfully crafted his first Essence-Enhancing Pill!
The moment he had it, Li Zhirui couldn’t wait to consume the Spirit Pill, and immediately, a pure and immense surge of Spiritual Energy arose and merged as Mana into his Golden Core.
After all the Spiritual Energy had been absorbed, his Golden Core imperceptibly grew a fraction larger!
Even though it was just a fraction, it was enough to delight Li Zhirui, for this single Essence-Enhancing Pill was equivalent to three to five days of cultivation!
Moreover, this was a lower-quality Essence-Enhancing Pill. Once he became proficient, the quality would surely improve, leading to even more significant enhancement effects.
It’s known that the reason for the slow cultivation speed of Golden Core Cultivators is because the amount of Mana needed to expand the Golden Core is just too immense!
Just the Mana required to advance from the early to the middle Golden Core Stage is more than that needed for the previous two realms.
Not to mention that the Mana needs time to be refined, and to further advance, the Golden Core must be tempered to prepare for Breaking the Pill into a Baby.
Therefore, even though Golden Core Cultivators may have five hundred years of lifespan, those who eventually break through to the Nascent Soul are extremely rare, one in ten thousand, or even less!
Li Zhirui had previously calculated that if he relied solely on absorbing Spiritual Energy, it would take at least fifty years to break through to the Middle Golden Core Stage.
And that’s not even accounting for any bottlenecks—if there were, it would be completely unpredictable.
Luckily, Li Zhirui had now successfully crafted the Essence-Enhancing Pill, which could greatly shorten this lengthy process. Moreover, with the presence of Da Qing and Xiaoqing, if they advanced to the third tier, that would reduce almost ten years of time for him!
Since the first Essence-Enhancing Pill had been refined by her, he started a new batch, and perhaps due to exceptional luck, he managed to craft three Essence-Enhancing Pills, then reported the good news to Li Shiqing and others.
"Very good, very good!" The group, including Li Shiqing, was overjoyed. Although the current success rate was very low, only ten to twenty percent, it was undoubtedly a good start.
After calming down, Li Shiqing said, "From now on, the hard work falls on you again. You must craft at least three bottles of Essence-Enhancing Pills to fulfill our first agreement with the Southern Edge Commerce Association."
"Are the remaining Spiritual Medicines enough? If not, the family can go out and buy some more."
Li Zhirui replied with a smile, "Uncle, please rest assured, there are still over ten portions of Spiritual Medicine left, definitely enough."
"You’ve worked hard," Li Shiqing said seriously, "but make sure this does not delay your own cultivation." Enjoy exclusive chapters from freewebnovel
Li Zhirui nodded and replied, "I’m heading back to continue alchemy. You all go ahead with your work."
With that, he hurriedly left.
Now, he was in the throes of excitement from producing Spirit Pills and couldn’t wait to proceed.
——
Meanwhile, at the Southern Edge Commerce Association, Liu Yongqing asked his subordinates, "Has the Li family sent anyone to purchase Spiritual Medicine recently?"
"No."
Surprised by this answer, Liu Yongqing wondered, with the half-year arrangement nearly up, if the Li family hadn’t come to buy Spiritual Medicine because that Li Zhirui had successfully concocted the Essence-Enhancing Pills.
"It seems that this Daoist friend has quite the talent for alchemy," he mused.
Being from the Southern Edge Commerce Association, he was well-travelled and informed, naturally aware of the classifications of an alchemist’s talent.
If one could refine a Spirit Pill from the first or second order within thirty batches of Spiritual Medicine, then it indicated that the person had notable talent.
But the real test of an alchemist’s talent lies in refining third-order Spirit Pills!
Those who could produce a third-order Spirit Pill from within two hundred batches of Spiritual Medicine were considered to have good talent.
From this, one could see the significant gap between second and third-order Spirit Pills!
Indeed, once the half-year period arrived, Li Shiqing presented three bottles of Essence-Enhancing Pills to the Southern Edge Commerce Association for sale.
The Essence-Enhancing Pills offered for sale were of the poorest quality; the better ones were retained by Li Zhirui for the family and for himself to keep a few.
Of course, with his current success rate of less than thirty percent, he couldn’t keep but a few, and the quality was mediocre at best.
"Congratulations, Daoist friend. Your clan has given birth to a third-order alchemist!" Liu Yongqing congratulated him with a smile on his face.
If all went well, Li Zhirui had a good chance of becoming an Alchemy Master, and a rare one at that, a Water Method Alchemy Master. This status alone was enough to make him sincerely change his attitude!
After all, the network of contacts of an Alchemy Master was capable of annihilating some Golden Core factions of Lesser strength.
"Congratulations as well!" Li Shiqing replied with a smile and then said, "I plan to purchase thirty batches of Spiritual Medicine. Does your esteemed establishment have them in stock?"
Liu Yongqing’s eyes gleamed as he tried to calculate Li Zhirui’s current rate of pill production, and with a smile, he nodded, taking out the thirty batches of Spiritual Medicine already packed in Jade Boxes from his storage ring.
Li Shiqing counted them carefully, handed over the Spirit Stones, and said, "The family has other matters to attend to, so I will take my leave now!"
A few months later, the Southern Edge Commerce Association quietly stocked a few bottles of Water Refining Essence-Enhancing Pills.
Although the number was small, the news quickly reached the ears of Xuanfa Pavilion.
"Do you think these Essence-Enhancing Pills could have been refined by Li Zhirui?" they wondered doubtfully, suspecting the Li family right away!
Some voiced their skepticism, "The difficulty of cultivating a third-order alchemist is no small feat. Does the Li family have such deep foundations?"
"There’s no need to speculate wildly. Just send someone to keep watch," the Store Manager at the head of the table said after a moment of contemplation, "Isn’t there a Golden Core Sect near the Li family? A mountain cannot allow two tigers. Let them handle this matter."
"They would be more than willing to remove this threat," he assumed.
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The Store Manager’s expression turned serious and he spoke in a low voice, "Shen Leishan is our territory. We absolutely can’t allow the Southern Edge Commerce Association to stretch their hands in here!"