Get Rewards by Fulfilling Others' Wishes

Chapter 43: Chapter 42: Steamed? Unconvinced?

At the entrance to the Imperial Palace.

The carriages of the Tenth Prince’s Mansion and the Ninth Prince’s Mansion hadn’t left yet.

Likewise, the carriages of the Feng and Zhu families also remained.

They had been waiting for Zhao Yong, who was just now coming out.

”Your Highness!”

Zhu He and Feng Buyi both hurried forward to greet him.

Zhao Yong was already annoyed that Zhao Ci had been held back for a private audience. Seeing these two still waiting for him made his head throb.

”Why are you two still waiting?”

”How could we not? Your Highness, what did His Majesty just say to you?”

The two exchanged a look, both feeling a knot in their stomachs.

They were both in their early thirties. As the leaders of their respective clans’ younger generations, they had been taking a beating for a long time now.

In past Gongdan Conferences, the Emperor had always summoned their fathers. And though there had been arguments over the price of Qi Cultivation Pills, they usually ended with things being smoothed over and left unresolved.

But this time, the Emperor hadn’t summoned their fathers. Instead, he had hauled the two of them over.

This also happened to coincide with Zhao Yong establishing his own mansion, a time when the Feng and Zhu families were preparing to support him with all their might. And yet, the Emperor was using the Fourth Prince to suppress them and sending Zhao Ci to muddy the waters.

It was a flurry of moves that they were struggling to parry.

After leaving the palace, they had no desire to return home.

They just waited by Zhao Yong’s carriage for him to emerge.

”Well...”

Zhao Yong’s gaze flickered discreetly toward Zhu Li, who was standing to the side. An idea suddenly struck him, and he raised his voice a few notches. ”It was nothing much, really. He just asked if Lao Shi and I were confident we could bring down the price of Qi Cultivation Pills. I thought it would be incredibly difficult, so I didn’t dare promise too much.”

”But then Lao Shi got all fired up, insisting that we were just too weak and that he would definitely be able to break the current situation where the common people can’t afford Qi Cultivation Pills.”

’Honestly!’

”He’s known how to curry favor with Father Emperor since he was a child. I never thought he’d still be the same after establishing his own mansion, making wild claims like a toddler.”

The two men looked at each other and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

But before they could fully exhale...

Zhu Li couldn’t take it anymore. ”Nonsense! Just because you can’t do something doesn’t mean others can’t. Just you wait! We’ll show you at the Gongdan Conference!”

In front of the Emperor just now, she hadn’t dared to be so brazen. After all, no matter how ostracized she was at home, to outsiders, she was still a member of the Zhu Family.

She was the daughter of the Zhu Family’s Patriarch. She couldn’t do anything to damage the family’s reputation, or those villains would use it to attack her father.

But now that they were out of the palace, things were different. She had no intention of being pleasant to these people who shared her surname.

Zhu He shot her an indifferent glance. ”What? Is Sister Li planning to use her unparalleled alchemy skills to help the Xiang’s Pill Workshop solve Great Yu’s pill price crisis?”

”Pfft!”

Hearing this, the two Shopkeepers from the Zhu Family’s Pill Workshops standing behind him couldn’t help but snicker.

The Zhu Family had made its fortune through pills. Within the clan, one’s attainments in alchemy often had a greater impact on one’s status than their actual cultivation level.

Typically, only those who couldn’t become skilled Alchemists would go down the path of a brute-force fighter, becoming a mere combat unit.

Zhu Li...

...was a prime oddball in the Zhu Family. When it came to alchemy, they had never seen anyone so hopeless.

Their laughter made Zhu Li even more furious, but all she could manage to retort was, ”So what? You got a problem with that?”

She was trying to talk tough, but she felt herself shrink as soon as the words left her mouth.

’So weak!’

’That was such a pathetic comeback!’

But there was nothing she could do. Zhao Ci had instructed her that she could be arrogant outside, but she absolutely could not reveal the secret of their alchemy.

’But how am I supposed to be arrogant if I can’t reveal the secret?’

’I’m so pissed my boobs ache!’

’This is all Zhao Ci’s fault!’

Seeing Zhu Li huffing and puffing with rage, Zhao Yong didn’t tease her further. Instead, he made an inviting gesture to Feng Buyi and Zhu He, and the three of them boarded the Ninth Prince’s Mansion’s carriage together.

Once the door and window curtains were drawn, he lowered his voice and asked, ”Gentlemen! I, for one, don’t believe Zhao Ci has the ability to slash the price of Qi Cultivation Pills. But have you considered one thing?”

”Please speak freely, Your Highness!”

Zhu He said grimly.

Zhao Yong took a deep breath. ”Don’t forget, behind Zhao Ci stands Princess Consort Jing. She has Father Emperor’s deep trust and is fully capable of selling pills at cost, or even at a loss.”

”Besides, we already knew that Princess Consort Jing’s goal is simply to seize the pill market. And now, Father Emperor has offered up the ’National Pill’ title as a prize.”

”If she really manages to snatch it, she could use the ’National Pill’ title to build her brand and might actually attract a group of top-tier Alchemists.”

”At that point, no matter how much money she loses, it might not be a loss at all!”

They drew in a sharp breath.

Feng Buyi and Zhu He exchanged a look, each seeing the gravity in the other’s eyes.

It was true that the top-tier Alchemists in Great Yu were mostly monopolized by the Feng, Zhu, and Yang families. But their clan legacies merely solidified the upper and lower limits of their members’ potential, ensuring a stable output of skilled Alchemists.

It didn’t mean that top-tier independent Alchemists didn’t exist.

Opening a Divine Treasure was a highly uncertain process. There was no telling who might get absurdly lucky and form a top-tier Divine Pattern upon opening their Fire-Wood Divine Treasure.

Aside from those recruited by the Imperial Family, such freelance top-tier Alchemists were mostly retained by second-rate factions.

While those factions found it hard to create a stable legacy, if Gu Xiangzhu managed the ”National Pill” brand well, she could very well attract a steady stream of independent Alchemists. Then the trouble would really begin.

”Hoo...”

Seeing their reaction, Zhao Yong breathed a quiet sigh of relief. ’It seems my argument worked.’

’It wasn’t even entirely a tactic, because he genuinely suspected this to be the case. He just lacked any hard evidence.’

He was almost certain.

’Zhao Ci was purely being used as a sacrifice to muddy the waters.’

’Father Emperor gets his cheaper pills.’

’Princess Consort Jing gets a foothold in the Pill Realm.’

’And Zhao Ci is the only one who ends up with negative merit.’

’How pitiful.’

’But the idiot is so good at stirring up trouble that it’s impossible to feel sorry for him.’

Zhao Yong asked in a low voice, ”What are your thoughts, gentlemen?”

Feng Buyi spread his hands. ”Your Highness! The Feng Family’s main industry is beast taming; our pill business is only on par with the Yang Family’s. If it comes to lowering prices, we can grit our teeth and cut them a bit. Our family’s Alchemists have already been assigned to you, so whether to lower the price or not is, of course, your decision.”

”However, you must consider this, Your Highness: while selling pills below the standard price can earn you some merit...”

”...in the future, the Mansion Officials under you can’t possibly survive on the stipends of low-level posts alone. If you lower the price too much...”

He left the sentence unfinished, but his meaning was self-evident.

After most Princes established their mansions, their first task was to start an enterprise. The official stipend was far too low; it was impossible to get anything done with just that little bit of money.

Zhao Huan’s efforts to lower pill prices were compensated with merit to offset the reduced profits, but the returns were minimal.

Zhao Yong gritted his teeth. ”But if I can’t even get the Court’s orders, where will my merit come from? Second Brother Feng, don’t you forget why the Feng and Zhu families sent their elite members to join my mansion in the first place.”

Feng Buyi fell silent. This was a major headache for him.

But Zhu He cleared his throat. ”Your Highness, we don’t necessarily have to be so conflicted.”

Zhao Yong’s brow furrowed slightly. ”I’m listening.”

Zhu He pulled a booklet from his robes and smiled. ”Perhaps Your Highness has forgotten. The Court is purchasing these pills for the army. The soldiers who risk their lives aren’t just fighting for Low-Grade Qi Cultivation Pills. Middle-Grade and High-Grade pills make up a significant portion of the order.”

”What kind of strength does the Xiang’s Pill Workshop have? They only have three or four people who can refine Middle-Grade Qi Cultivation Pills. Anyone else who can even produce Low-Grade pills is considered a somebody over there.”

”Therefore, it doesn’t matter if we lose a little money on the Low-Grade pills. There’s not much need to lower the prices of the Middle- and High-Grade ones.”

Zhao Yong’s expression softened. That did seem to make sense.

By lowering the price of Low-Grade Qi Cultivation Pills, he would have something to show Father Emperor, and it wouldn’t put the Zhu and Feng families in too bad a position.

He nodded. ”That’s very reasonable. In that case, let’s do this: for this Gongdan Conference, your two main families don’t need to lower prices at all. Our Yonghe Pill Workshop will lower the price of Low-Grade Qi Cultivation Pills, and we’ll see about the Middle- and High-Grade ones depending on the situation.”

”As for how far we’ll go, our three families will need to sit down and discuss it properly. This time, the title of ’National Pill’ must be mine...”

As he spoke, he signaled for the driver to get moving.

The carriage rumbled forward, and the atmosphere inside gradually relaxed.

It wasn’t surprising that the Emperor had overlooked this.

The main reason was the vast disparity in strength between the two sides.

The Xiang’s Pill Workshop could only muddle along in the Qi Cultivation Pill market. On average, their Qi Cultivation Pills were a full grade lower than those of the three great alchemy families.

Unless all the Alchemists under the Xiang’s Pill Workshop’s banner collectively ascended in skill overnight.

But was that even possible?

Even if it were, their production capacity couldn’t keep up. How many orders could they really steal?

’What a joke!’

...

”Zhao Ci! Zhao Ci!”

Zhu Li waited for a long time before she saw Zhao Ci come out. She went up to him indignantly.

Zhao Ci found her strange posture a bit odd.

’This girl was clearly hungry earlier.’

’But if you’re hungry...’

’Shouldn’t you be clutching your stomach?’

’What’s with the chest-rubbing?’

’Can you get so hungry your boobs swell up?’

He asked curiously, ”What’s wrong with you?”

Zhu Li said angrily, ”This is all your fault!”

Zhao Ci froze for a moment, instinctively putting his hands behind his back. ”I was asleep when you were poisoned! It wasn’t me!”

Zhu Li: ”???”