usatvline Chapter 79: Open Robbery
Chapter 79: Open Robbery
Chapter Seventy-Nine: Open Robbery
Ma Jian'an, looking dejected, led the way, taking Zhuo Yang and Xin Mirou into their pill refining workshop.
We have no choice but to bring her. Xin Mirou is already a super expert in the Nascent Soul stage. Looking at the entire Southeast region, we've never heard of any expert in the Nascent Soul stage!
It can be said that, at least on the surface, the forces around Zhuo Yang are the most powerful.
"Mr. Zhuo, please, please look..."
Upon entering a basement, Ma Jian'an, his face dark, made way for them and then winked at the people working inside, signaling: Get out of the way, bandits are coming!
This was a well-equipped workshop, and the four people inside had long since stopped what they were doing and were nervously watching Zhuo Yang and Xin Mirou.
The powerful fluctuations of true energy just now frightened them. They wanted to escape, but unfortunately there was only one exit.
"Oh, nice equipment. You actually want to use technology to refine pills?" Zhuo Yang raised an eyebrow, wanting to laugh but feeling it would be too rude.
Technology and magic are fundamentally different things; otherwise, with countless technologically advanced planets throughout the universe, they would have mass-produced countless immortals long ago.
"Well... we only used our true essence to perform preliminary refining of the medicinal herbs, hoping to improve the efficiency of alchemy." Ma Jian'an gave a wry smile. "But the experiment wasn't very successful."
Zhuo Yang shook his head and smiled slightly at Ma Jian'an: "Chairman Ma, where are the good stuff you extracted? Why don't you show it to me?"
This is a robbery!
Ma Jian'an was so angry he wanted to curse, but he didn't dare to speak. He could only grit his teeth, walk to a safe by the wall, and start operating it.
"Brother, that's the treasure we finally extracted!" A man around thirty years old ran over to stop them.
Ma Jian'an helplessly shook off his hand, and said with a wry smile, "Jiangang, don't say anymore. Those two...they...sigh. You should have sensed the true essence fluctuations just now, right? They were the ones who caused it. They are experts in the Nascent Soul stage."
"Nascent Soul?" Ma Jiangang was stunned. He turned to look at Zhuo Yang and Xin Mirou, then quickly took a few steps back and crashed into the machine with a bang.
He is Ma Jian'an's younger brother and the youngest disciple in the Ma family. He was spoiled by his family since childhood and has a bad temper.
After regaining his senses, Ma Jiangang gritted his teeth and roared, "So what if you have high cultivation? Does that give you the right to steal other people's research results?"
"I didn't mean to rob you!" Zhuo Yang spread his hands, looking surprised.
Xin Mirou immediately lowered her head, blushing slightly.
"Then what are you doing here?" Ma Jiangang was a little confused and looked bewildered.
Zhuo Yang smiled and said, "I heard that Chairman Ma has some good stuff, so I came here specifically to take a look. If it's good enough, I'll buy it."
“We’re not selling!” Ma Jiangang waved his hand dismissively, as if shooing away flies.
A loud slap followed immediately; Ma Jian'an slapped him across the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"Brother, why did you hit me?" Ma Jiangang asked in astonishment.
Ma Jian'an winked at him, but Ma Jiangang, spoiled by his family, didn't notice and stood up to argue.
So Ma Jian'an slapped him again, knocking him unconscious.
The other members of the Ma family watched, their mouths watering.
What kind of person did Old Ma offend? He was so scared that he had to knock his underlings unconscious, for fear that Old Ma would say something that offended someone.
Looking at his younger brother, Ma Jian'an felt a pang of sympathy. He simply ignored him and turned to Zhuo Yang with a wry smile, saying, "I'm sorry to have made you laugh, Mr. Zhuo. My younger brother was born when my father was sixty years old. He's been spoiled by the whole family. Please don't take offense."
Zhuo Yang nodded and smiled, "No problem, Chairman Ma, please bring out your best items so we can take a look and then set a price."
Pricing?
Ma Jian'an's lips twitched. You've come here to rob us!
The cultivation world operates on the law of the jungle, a fact well understood by all cultivators. Given the opportunity, no one would pass up the chance to rob another cultivator. However, if they themselves were robbed, they could only curse inwardly.
After opening the safe, Ma Jian'an took out several jade bottles with a bitter face and placed them on the table.
"Mr. Zhuo, this is the essence we extracted from the medicinal herbs, which consumed a lot of our vital energy." He emphasized this, his heart aching terribly.
Zhuo Yang stepped forward, picked up a jade bottle, opened the lid, sniffed it, and exclaimed in surprise, "Such pure primordial energy! What was it extracted from?"
The bottle was heavy, containing at least half a pound of concentrated essence, which surprised Zhuo Yang. The vital energy contained in these substances was so pure that it could be used directly to refine pills; with the addition of cold spring water, dozens of Cold Spring Pills could be extracted.
Ma Jian'an looked at Zhuo Yang holding the jade bottle, his heart felt like it was being squeezed, and after struggling for a long time, he finally gritted his teeth and said, "It used more than three thousand catties of Scrophularia ningpoensis, all of which are red-skinned!"
"More than three thousand catties of red bark, that must be worth tens of millions, right?" Zhuo Yang exclaimed, having never bought medicinal herbs before and having no idea of their prices.
Ma Jian'an's eyes were practically spitting fire as he looked at the jade bottle. "I spent over 60 million to purchase the Xuan Shen (mystic ginseng), and only managed to extract such a small bottle of essence!"
Money is a minor issue; the key problem is the true essence used to refine the medicinal herbs, which will take several years to recover, even with the current abundance of vital energy.
Zhuo Yang chuckled and stuffed the jade bottle directly into his Qiankun bag: "Chairman Ma, name your price."
Ma Jian'an's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, and he said with a twitching face, "One...one hundred million!"
"What? What did you say?" Zhuo Yang feigned shock. "You're asking me for a hundred million for a mere jade bottle?"
Ma Jian'an almost exploded on the spot, shouting in his heart: "Go ask somewhere else, which cultivator would sell you half a catty of pure Yuan Qi essence for one hundred million?"
With a dark expression and without speaking, he expressed his dissatisfaction through silence.
Zhuo Yang looked at him, nodded, and said in a deep voice, "Xiao Rou, Chairman Ma is making an outrageous demand. What do you think we should do?"
Xin Mirou wanted to cover her face. After cultivating for over seventy years, this was the first time she had run away to rob someone, and she felt utterly humiliated.
However, she still cooperated, stepping forward with a cold face and saying, "Chairman Ma, out of consideration for our past acquaintance, I'll give you face. Five...two million, will you sell?"
"Huh? What did you say?"
Ma Jian'an was so shocked that he shouted out what Zhuo Yang had just said. "That's too dark!"
"Two million is too little." Zhuo Yang's face darkened. "Xiao Rou, we are all cultivators, we can't go too far."
"How about this, Chairman Ma, I'll give you face, 100,000!"
Ma Jian'an coughed up blood on the spot and fell backward.
The other three were also heartbroken, secretly cursing Zhuo Yang for being so ruthless, calling it outright robbery.
After a while, Ma Jian'an caught his breath and sat on the ground with a wry smile, saying, "Mr. Zhuo, you're dissatisfied with the Alliance's trial of you today, so you deliberately came to set me up, aren't you?"
Zhuo Yang sneered: "You were right after all!"
Ma Jian'an sighed deeply and said in a muffled voice, "Since that's the case, don't give me the 100,000 yuan. I don't care about that little bit of money. The other three bottles contain the essence of other medicinal herbs, which contain extremely pure vital energy. You can take them all."
"I'll just say one thing: why are you only targeting me? Lei Xiang is the one who's targeting you!"
Zhuo Yang laughed and said, "It'll be his turn soon!"