Having resolved Elder Du's issue and helping the clan, Han Cai's life had become simpler. He stayed in Elder Du's abode, focusing on alchemy during the day and cultivating at night.
For more than half a year, everything ran smoothly and quietly. However, at the end of the seventh month, Han Cai had to make Shu Tao sign a forced subordinate contract with Yongnian. Essentially a slave contract, he used the term "forced subordinate contract" to soften its harsh reality of words.
When Han Cai decided to start a new life, he knew he would need loyal people, and only subordinate contracts could give him peace of mind. But he had only a few hundred subordinate contracts. He did not plan to waste the precious subordinate contract on Shu Tao. He had prepared some general contracts, such as forced subordinate contracts. He decided to make Shu Tao sign that. Subordinate contracts were respectful contracts, while forced contracts were like beast slave contracts. In the future, Han Cai planned to create specific talismans to get subordinates loyal to him, but since he was busy with alchemy, he had to use the contract he had brought from the past.
Han Cai had conscious he preferred if he did not have to take drastic actions, but at the same time, the most important thing for him was his own life. He was not going to become a guiding parent to the rebellious kid.
The situation unfolded when Elder Du encouraged Shu Tao to concoct pills. At first, Shu Tao accepted the elder's behavior, and for a few months, he worked diligently as he had before. However, when he noticed that the other five disciples were treated equally just the way he was treated, he grew dissatisfied.
The fact that they were earning as much as he was and not receiving any punishments irked him. He had endured a lot of chastisement at the beginning of his apprenticeship before being promoted by the elder. Despite his meager earnings in spirit stones, he felt superior because he wasn't doing menial tasks like the other disciples.
As all the disciples began to receive equal treatment, Shu Tao's discontent grew. Instead of expressing his grievances, he started secretly selling the pills Elder Du provided to earn some extra spirit stones. With time, he became bolder, selling sixty thousand pills and only returning eighteen thousand spirit stones to Elder Du. He claimed that the oversupply of pills from other alchemists on the market had forced him to reduce the prices while he pocketed the remaining two thousand spirit stones for himself.
When Elder Du informed Han Cai of Shu Tao's actions, Han Cai felt sorry for the boy. He didn't want to harm him, but he couldn't allow Shu Tao's unpredictable behavior to interfere with his plans. Han Cai suggested to Elder Du to test the boy a few more times and, if he continued stealing, give him a forced subordinate contract instead of taking his life. Han Cai understood that Shu Tao was probably just being a typical rebellious teenager. But in the world of cultivation, such luxury wasn't affordable. If it had been the old Elder Du, he might have killed the boy. Han Cai wasn't going to let anyone complicate his peaceful life.
Elder Du tested Shu Tao a few more times by sending him to sell pills, and Shu Tao stole again. Ultimately, Han Cai concluded that the best course of action was to make Shu Tao a forced subordinate. Shu Tao was useful with his connection to the outer sect he could take care of a lot chores for Han.
Han Cai had considered making Real Elder Du his subordinate too, but he ultimately decided against it, knowing that the experienced Elder Du was an elder of the Azure Dragon Sect. The sect likely had countermeasures in place for such situations. He didn't want to take unnecessary risks. However, with Shu Tao, a sixteen-year-old newcomer to the sect, felt confident that there would be no issues.
After Shu Tao became a forced subordinate of Yongnian, things returned to normal. By this point, the Yan Family had purchased significant properties in several major cities, including Sapphire Fang City. They received a letter from the family saying that everything was set up in Sapphire Fang City and a few other locations.
The following day, Elder Du sent Shu Tao to Sapphire Fang City with all the pills Han Cai had been concocting. Han Cai had been working tirelessly for a long time, producing nearly fifteen thousand medium-grade pills monthly and around a hundred high-grade pills per month. The shipment contained over a hundred thousand medium-grade pills, about seven hundred high-grade pills, and around a hundred thousand fasting pills. It was a massive quantity of pills, but they were to be distributed across many distant major cities, ensuring that the market would not be saturated.
Shu Tao took the pills and journeyed to Sapphire Fang City. The city was roughly the same distance away as Blue Scales City, so it took him about a day to arrive.
Yan Bo , who had been dispatched by Yan Rui, received the delivery.
Stunned by the enormous number of pills, Yan Bo returned Elder Du's earth-grade storage ring to Shu Tao while carefully stowing away the pills. After making the delivery, Shu Tao met with some other merchants and sold them some pills before returning to the sect. Han Cai had produced an enormous quantity of pills that he planned to distribute and build relationships with other merchants.
Yan Bo, holding the enormous quantity of pills, returned to Yan City. The clan then distributed the pills to their core elders, instructing them to send the pills to their respective households assigned with the task of managing the stores and businesses in the different cities.
With this, the Yan Family officially entered the business of alchemy in the major cities near the Verdant Area and some significant cities near the Azure Dragon Sect.
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If we reach 2000 power stones, I will release two supplementary chapters.
If we reach 1000 golden tickets, I will release five supplementary chapters.
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