Free Web NovelChapter 385: Chapter 385: Tengguang Pill
Luo Min had made this decision after an extremely intense internal struggle.
In fact, during Ye Xuan’s absence, he had convened a serious, hours-long meeting with the family elders.
Although the meeting was filled with fierce debate, in the end, all the Luo family elders agreed to Luo Min’s proposal. freewёbnoνel.com
What shocked them most was the incident with Commander Jia and Director Wu that morning.
Without Ye Xuan’s help, the Luo family would have suffered a great loss yesterday. Having lost the Murong family’s protection, they would have been unable to fend off even a mere enforcement squad from the City Construction Department or a patrol from the Celestial Dragon Guard.
But when Ye Xuan intervened, things became completely different.
Commander Jia of the Celestial Dragon Guard and Director Wu of the City Construction Department personally came to their door to apologize with sincere attitudes. The scene had left them utterly shaken.
The Luo family had been in the Imperial Capital for several hundred years, but this was the first time they had ever witnessed such a scene. They had never received such treatment, not even when they were affiliated with the Murong family.
Moreover, while the Luo family appeared stable on the surface, they were actually in a precarious position.
The moment Ye Xuan left, the Luo family would inevitably be plunged into a crisis.
Therefore, after their discussion, Luo Min and the others had all decided to align themselves with Ye Xuan from now on.
A flicker of interest stirred in Ye Xuan’s heart.
The Luo family had managed to become a major house in the Sky Empire; they definitely had a deep foundation.
In terms of wealth, the Luo family might not compare to the three great families of Black Stone City that he had subjugated. But in terms of heritage, the Luo family was on a level those three families couldn’t hope to match.
To stand against the Profound Mystery Sect, building a powerful force was imperative.
Thinking of this, Ye Xuan finally spoke. "It’s not impossible for you to align with me, but I have one condition."
Luo Min had been waiting for Ye Xuan to speak. He immediately asked with excitement, "And what condition might that be, Young Master Ye?"
Ye Xuan glanced at him. "If you align with me, you can have no ties to any other powers. You must be loyal only to me, Xuan Ye. Can you do this?"
Luo Min, who had been nervous, not knowing what Ye Xuan was going to say, couldn’t help but let out a breath of relief upon hearing this. His eyes then firmed with resolve as he said, "Please rest assured, Young Master Ye. That goes without saying. The Luo family may not be a great house, but we are by no means a disloyal one."
Ye Xuan nodded. "Since that’s the case, take me to see your Luo family’s shops."
"That’s it?" Luo Min found it a bit incredible. "Young Master Ye, don’t we need to sign some sort of agreement?"
"If agreements were useful, the Murong family wouldn’t have abandoned you so easily," Ye Xuan said faintly.
Luo Min’s expression immediately became very awkward.
Indeed. If agreements were effective, the Murong family wouldn’t have abandoned the Luo family just like that. In the eyes of the powerful, a so-called agreement was nothing more than a piece of paper.
"Young Master Ye, come, I’ll take you for a look."
Luo Cheng, on the other hand, was very excited.
It was as if being able to align with Ye Xuan was a matter of great honor for him.
And so, Luo Min began to show Ye Xuan around the Luo family’s many shops in the Imperial Capital.
Ye Xuan listened carefully, his mind already pondering ways to help the Luo family.
After all, the Luo family and the three great families of Black Stone City were two different types of allies.
The three great families of Black Stone City had completely submitted to him as their master. Everything they did could be said to be in service of Ye Xuan.
The Luo family, however, was merely aligning with Ye Xuan. The difference was significant.
But Ye Xuan didn’t force the issue. Given the Luo family’s status and position, it would have been impossible to make them truly submit to a young man like him. A mutually beneficial relationship was actually the best outcome.
"Young Master Ye, this is our Luo family’s ancestral Tengguang Pill."
Arriving at their most central market shop, Luo Min took out a grayish-brown Pill and handed it to Ye Xuan.
"This Tengguang Pill is a Pill unique to our Luo family. Its refining method and ingredients are top secret. Its main effect is to allow any Martial Artist at or below the Tier Four Celestial Martial Artist level, regardless of their attribute, to rapidly recover thirty percent of their Profound Power and remove most negative statuses. It’s a bestseller in the Imperial Capital’s market."
After introducing the Tengguang Pill, Luo Min took out another, a pale yellow Pill.
"Young Master Ye, this is the Obstacle Clearing Pill, also unique to our Luo family. It was passed down from one of our ancestors. Its main function is to neutralize most poisons. Basically, there is no poison below Tier Four that the Obstacle Clearing Pill cannot cure. It even has a certain suppressive effect on poisons above Tier Four. It’s an essential medicine for countless Martial Artists on their wilderness adventures and also sells extremely well on the market."
Luo Min held the two types of Pills, his face filled with pride as he spoke.
These two Pills were the foundation upon which the Luo family stood. They were also the main reason the Luo family had been able to rise above numerous smaller families to become a major house of the empire.
Ye Xuan took the Pills and sniffed them lightly. He immediately nodded. The pharmacology of the Tengguang Pill was quite insightful, and the resulting Pill was very potent, far surpassing most Pills on the market.
The Obstacle Clearing Pill also demonstrated an ultimate mastery in the use of its ingredients. It was clearly no ordinary creation.
It seemed a truly, brilliantly talented Alchemist had once existed among the Luo family’s ancestors.
Seeing Ye Xuan examining the family’s two Pills so carefully and nodding from time to time, Luo Min was a little stunned. ’Could Young Master Ye be an Alchemist as well?’
He pushed the thought aside and said proudly, "Young Master Ye, these two Pills contribute the vast majority of our Luo family’s profits. It can be said that as long as we have the Tengguang Pill and the Obstacle Clearing Pill, the Luo family will not fall."
He then turned to the family manager standing nearby. "Quick, report to Young Master Ye. What was the revenue for the Tengguang Pill and Obstacle Clearing Pill today?"
A strange look appeared on the manager’s face. He opened the ledger and checked it carefully for a long moment before saying cautiously, "Patriarch, the revenue for these two Pills today is seven hundred thousand."
"What?" Luo Min’s expression froze. "Luo Xin, did you misspeak, or did I mishear? Seven hundred thousand? I recall a single Tengguang Pill is priced at seven hundred thousand Profound Coins, and an Obstacle Clearing Pill is six hundred thousand."
Luo Xin gave a bitter smile. "Patriarch, you didn’t mishear. Our shop only sold one Tengguang Pill today!"
Luo Min’s brow furrowed immediately. "That can’t be right. The demand for the Tengguang Pill has always been high. This is the season when many Martial Artists go on adventures. Daily sales should be between five and ten Pills."
Luo Min asked, somewhat puzzled, "What about yesterday’s sales?"
Luo Xin flipped through the ledger, his expression a little strange. "Patriarch, because of the incident with the City Construction Department yesterday, not a single one of either Pill was sold."
"Impossible." Luo Min shook his head in disbelief. "The City Construction Department did come to cause trouble yesterday, but that was in the afternoon. We were open for business as usual in the morning. Not a single Pill was sold the entire morning?"
"Patriarch, if you don’t believe me, look at the ledger yourself."
Luo Xin handed over the ledger, and Luo Min looked at it carefully.
Sure enough, while there were some sales for other Pills, not a single Tengguang Pill or Obstacle Clearing Pill had been sold.
’What on earth is going on?’
Luo Min immediately felt that something was wrong.
But no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out the reason. After all, flipping back through the ledger, past sales had always been normal.
"Young Master Ye, I’ve made a fool of myself. Perhaps there just haven’t been any Martial Artists who needed these two Pills these past couple of days."
Luo Min gave Ye Xuan an embarrassed smile.
He had intended to show off his family’s strength to Ye Xuan, but instead, he had lost a great deal of face.
"From the looks of it, your Luo family’s annual net income is about two hundred million Profound Coins," Ye Xuan suddenly said.
"How did you know?" A look of utter shock appeared on Luo Min’s face.
The figure Ye Xuan stated was almost identical to his family’s income.
But the family’s income was entirely under his control as the Clan Leader. Even the family elders didn’t know the exact details, yet Ye Xuan had stated the true figure in a single breath.
’Could Young Master Ye’s guess really be that accurate?’
"It’s actually quite simple," Ye Xuan said with a smile. "I looked at the ingredients and Pills in your shop. A large portion of them aren’t very competitive, so their profit margins are usually suppressed to extremely low levels, barely enough to cover operating costs and the family’s general expenses."
"The majority of your family’s income must come from the Tengguang Pill and the Obstacle Clearing Pill. From what I’ve seen, the refinement level of these Pills is only average. The Alchemist who makes them is likely a Fourth Grade Alchemist. For an Alchemist of this level, the costs are significant. After accounting for the loss of Spirit Medicine, failed refinements, shop costs, and so on, the net profit on a single Tengguang Pill is about twenty percent."
"And based on what you said earlier, daily sales during the peak season are between five and ten Pills, and it would certainly be less during the off-season. So, by my overall calculation, the Luo family’s net profit from Pills is around two hundred million Profound Coins. The margin of error wouldn’t be too large."
With every sentence of Ye Xuan’s analysis, Luo Min’s mouth opened a little wider. By the time he finished, Luo Min was so stunned his jaw was hanging open. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
He originally thought Ye Xuan’s figure of two hundred million was just a random guess, but he never expected that Ye Xuan had arrived at it through meticulous analysis.
The crucial part was, Ye Xuan’s analysis was also completely correct.
"But, Young Master Ye, how did you know the net profit on the Tengguang Pill was twenty percent?"
Luo Min asked in disbelief.
Everyone knew about the cost of ingredients, but the profit margin on a Pill was difficult to determine.
For the same type of Pill, the production cost for different Alchemists could vary drastically. Some Alchemists could earn several times the profit, while others might only make a profit of a few dozen percent. Some Alchemists even operated at a loss.
It all depended on the Alchemist’s skill and success rate in Alchemy.
And the net profit for the Luo family’s Alchemist when refining the Tengguang Pill was, in fact, truly twenty percent.
This was a figure Luo Min had only been able to calculate by analyzing annual expenditures and revenue. But how did Ye Xuan know?
