Chapter 179: Returning Home
Just as the lid of the crystalline jade box was opened, a refreshing fragrance immediately fluttered, assailing their nostrils and filling the entire hotel’s room. Tang Xiu, Miao Wentang, and Shao Mingzhen’s spirits immediately startled as they felt a comfortable feeling as the pores of their bodies opened.
Inside the jade box, two scarlet-colored concocted pills were lying there. The fluttering rich fragrance was emitting out from these two pills.
“What’s this?”
Miao Wentang looked at Tang Xiu at his side. In his mind, Tang Xiu was too mysterious. He even had an Immortal cultivation technique and sold them a Beast Subduing Secret Art conveniently. So he thought that Tang Xiu was also well-informed about this thing.
But this time, he was actually mistaken!
Tang Xiu himself frowned. He shook his head and said, “I’ve seen myriads of concocted pills. But I can’t identify what kind of pill this is and what effect it has.”
Miao Wentang said with hesitation, “Since we don’t know what kind of pill and its efficacy, how would we dare to take it?”
Shao Mingzhen also nodded and said, “That’s right! From the fragrance of these pills only, I know that it's extraordinary. But if we don’t know what effect it has and take it rashly, maybe there will be side effects. If it isn’t helpful and instead brings harm to us, what we get won’t be equal to the losses.”
“Give me a knife.” Tang Xiu said.
“Huh? What’s the knife for?” Miao Wentang asked with a puzzled expression.
“I’m going to taste this pill.” Tang Xiu replied.
Taste the medicine?
Miao Wentang stared blankly for a moment before he immediately took a sharp knife.
Tang Xiu’s control over his strength for doing any subtle motoric actions was extremely accurate. He used the tip of the knife to scratch a tiny piece of the pill and tasted it with his tongue. After that, he slowly closed his eyes and silently savored the composition of the ingredients in the concocted pills as well as figured out its efficacy.
“So? What effect does it have?”
Upon seeing that Tang Xiu opened his eyes again, Miao Wentang hurriedly asked.
Tang Xiu let out a forced smile and said, “I took this kind of pill once. It’s called Myriad Bestial Pill. This kind of pill is figuratively composed from ten thousand kinds of blood essence of spirit beasts, added with ten thousand kinds of medicinal herbs and with the time-consuming refinement of nearly a hundred years for it to become an elixir. It has the effect of improving one’s cultivation level and making their cultivation improve greatly. Even though the pills from this jade box are just like comparing the day and night with the Myriad Bestial Pill, but it should still have an excellent effect on your cultivation.”
Ten thousand kinds of spirit beasts’ blood essences?
Ten thousand kinds of medicinal herbs?
And nearly a hundred years of refinement?
Miao Wentang and Shao Mingzhen looked at Tang Xiu with a strange expression. They thought that Tang Xiu was overly supercilious. They had seen people boast, but not to such outrageous degree! They were also cultivators, and they also knew that along with the increase of a cultivators’ cultivation level, so too would their lifespan increase. But for a person who could do alchemy and refine a pill for an entire hundred years, was unheard of.
It was simply an Arabian Night's tale!
Then, Miao Wentang asked, “This really can increase our cultivation?”
“Yes!” Tang Xiu gave a matter-of-factly answer.
“No side effects at all?” Shao Mingzhen asked.
Tang Xiu hesitated for a moment before he replied slowly, “It maybe has a little side effect for you.”
Shao Mingzhen quickly asked, “What side effect?”
A smile and yet unlike one, was revealed on Tang Xiu’s face as he replied, “Well, with your cultivation level now, if you dare to take it directly, you’ll probably die with your body exploding due to your body being unable to contain the huge energy from this pill.”
"What?" The two were astounded.
At present, their cultivation level had reached a high level. But still, they would have their bodies exploded by merely taking this pill? What efficacy could this pill have to even have such a strong energy?
Miao Wentang swallowed his saliva and asked, “Brother Tang, so, when will it be appropriate for us to take this pill?”
“Wait until your cultivation level improves at least two levels more.” Tang Xiu said.
"This…"
The two men smiled wryly in secret. With their current cultivation realm, wanting to breakthrough to the next stage would be very difficult. It would probably take a few years or even decades. If they wanted to take this pill they had to improve their cultivation at least two levels more; then, wouldn’t they have to wait for only God knows when?
“Anyways, the two of you take one pill each! This pill doesn’t have any uses for me. But I will take the jade box since I can use this thing to store concocted pills later.” Tang Xiu said.
“Is that okay with you?”
Miao Wentang and Shao Mingzhen glanced at each other as a bit of hesitation revealed on their faces.
Tang Xiu said, “I’ll take the ancient sword. This is already a good harvest. Besides, even if I take the concocted pills, I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait to take it.”
The two men thought that Tang Xiu’s words were reasonable. If they had to promote their cultivation base two stages more to take this pill, then, with Tang Xiu’s current cultivation base, it would perhaps take decades for him.
However, this concocted pill was, after all, a treasure! Even if their bodies couldn’t support it and may explode if they took it now, but all in all, wasn’t it still considered as a very valuable medicine?
“This fellow is really neither selfish or greedy!”
Miao Wentang and Shao Mingzhen sighed secretly inside. Even if Tang Xiu was younger and around half of their age, but they truly respected him.
Shao Mingzhen carefully took the pill which Tang Xiu had scrapped a tiny piece from and said, “Brother Tang, since you’ve said so, we won’t hesitate and be hypocrites. But later on, if there’s anything you need, speak to us feely! You can say that I and Brother Miao owe you a favor!”
Miao Wentang also nodded and said, “Yes! If it weren’t for you, we simply wouldn’t have been able to get this marvelous medicinal pill. We’ll take this favor into our tab.”
Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “No, we cooperated to get these. It’s just only a matter of harvest distribution, no more. However, you need to pay more attention for the money you’ll send me! As I’ll go back to Star City tomorrow, and I need that money to handle a lot of things.”
Upon hearing this, they simultaneously took their mobile.
With 1 billion from before, they added 1.5 billion now. The two of them gathered the funds quickly. After finishing the arrangements, they told Tang Xiu that the money would be in his account before tomorrow evening.
“Brother Tang, about these ores we snatched from the Sky Cavern, what kind of material these ores are? I have some knowledge about precious ores, but I’ve never seen this one. These ores are symmetrically cut, and neat. So this should be a good thing, right?” After he received the concocted pill, Shao Mingzhen shifted his vision toward the sky sandstones and inquired about it.
Tang Xiu said, “Two of you, do bear in mind what I tell you today. These ores are much more precious compared to these pills. If news got out about these sky sandstones and discovered by those powerful cultivators who know about the uses of this ore, I’m afraid that it would attract their jealousy and they would be highly likely to find you to rob this stuff.”
Shao Mingzhen exclaimed in alarm, “It’s even more precious than the pill? How could it be? It’s just only an ore! At most, it can only be refined into weapons and won’t be give much benefit to the people who get it, right?”
Tang Xiu lightly replied, “What if this ore falls into the hands of a supreme expert who can forge divine artifacts or tools?”
Shao Mingzhen’s pupils shrunk as Miao Wentang also couldn’t help but shudder.
Divine tools and artifacts?
Could this ore be refined and forged into divine tools and artifacts?
They knew the classification of weapons from the lowest ordinary weapons to artifact weapons that even could cut iron like it was tofu. Those weapons even had its own spiritual nature and were treasures that could be placed within one’s body. It was just like in the fable where celestial beings used their immortal tools or deities that used their divine armaments.
If they could get their hands on such treasures, perhaps, they would be able to laugh at their dreams as they awake. Let alone the divine armaments that were used by deities.
“Brother Tang, you seem to know a lot of things?”
After hesitating for a moment, Shao Mingzhen spoke tactfully.
Tang Xiu realized that he had revealed too many things to them, sparking their interest and curiosity toward his identity. However, his return from the Immortal world was his greatest secret. Aside from Gu Yan’er and Ji Chimei, he mustn’t let another soul on the entire Earth know about this matter.
“Like the proverb says, ‘In order to attain wisdom, it’s not enough to read only books, but you must be well-travelled as well’. Later on, you’ll still have much time to read the records of some ancient books, maybe it will benefit you in your cultivation later.”
It was a lie.
But lying sometimes was not used as a tool to fool others, but as a means of self-protection.
After having distributed the harvest, Tang Xiu returned to his room. He turned on the phone and saw that aside from dozens of text messages from Ouyang Lulu, there was no missed calls.
He felt somewhat disappointed as well as helpless!
He was waiting for Scarblade Qiang’s call, because he needed someone to help him in brewing wines. Along with the passing time, he would have to face bigger issues and would be in dire need of money, which he was seriously lacking. He lived in the mortal world now, and he could see that the wine market provided a huge opportunity for profits. If he could build a large winery, he was certain that he could make a lot of money out of it.
He firmly believed that just like fragrant wine fears no dark alley, quality goods need no advertising.
“Ah, I’m really in short of talented people!”
Tang Xiu rubbed his forehead. Since he was not yet sleepy, he came over to the window and looked at the outside toward the distance amidst the dimly illuminated dark night. With his good eyesight, such darkness didn’t hinder his vision. He clearly saw a few stray cats roaming on the street, wandering around the trash can nearby.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, he recalled about the name list Yuan Zhengxuan gave him, along with the information from the retired special forces soldiers.
“If I recall, there’s a man named Wang Ming who lives in Cangbei City.”
Tang Xiu’s eyes blinked and made a decision in a moment. He would see this Wang Ming, and if his character was good enough, he would take him for his uses.
The next morning.
The dawn had just come. Tang Xiu carried his carrier and walked to the hotel’s entrance. As he looked outside, he saw Shao Mingzhen and Miao Wentang and asked, “Are the two of you also leaving today?”
Miao Wentang seemed to be in low spirits as he nodded and said, “Yes. Our purpose in coming here has been achieved, so we’ll return back home. Although we did have got great harvests, we also got heavy losses. After we go back, we’ll have to take care of the families of those fallen men of ours.”
“Give them compensation. Also, take a really good care of them in the future!” Tang Xiu said.
Miao Wentang said, “Don’t worry. We’ll do that as we’re also well aware of it. Anyways, since you’ll also go to Cangbei City, we’ll ride you there.”
"Alright!"
Tang Xiu nodded. He looked at Miao Wentang’s men opening the SUV’s trunk, so he took his carrier and put it into the trunk.
"Wait!"
From a nearby corner, Scarblade Qiang’s voice came.
Tang Xiu looked at the voice’s direction. He saw Scarblade Qing pulling out his cigarette, throwing it to the ground and fiercely stamping on it. Then, he dashed toward him in big strides. There were dozens of cigarettes’ butts on the spot he was standing. Obviously, he had stayed there for a very long time.
“Have you thought about it?” Tang Xiu asked with a tranquil expression.
Scarblade Qiang said, “Yes, I’ve thought about it well. But I wanna know what my salary would be.”
Tang Xiu pondered for a moment and then slowly said, “You’ll have 10% shares plus an annual salary of one million yuan. But it is under the condition that not only you assume as the director of the winery, you’ll also responsible as a technician.”