Chapter 561: Leaving Seclusion and Hearing of the Bounty Order

What is the cost of a single Snow Bud Pill? Setting aside the massive investment during the early research and development phase, it can be measured most intuitively in Blood-Drip Pearls.

Zhou You tried several batches in succession; after the yield rate stabilized, it took about 20 Blood-Drip Pearls to produce one Snow Bud Pill.

Due to the lack of a control group, he did not know if his technique was good or bad.

There were less than 200 Blood-Drip Pearls remaining, so if he performed steadily without mistakes, he could refine about 10 more.

Hmm, Zhou You planned to refine half and keep half; the days were still long, and there was no guarantee his technique wouldn't continue to improve. He would refine the rest later when the waste was lower and the utilization rate had increased.

After refining 5 Snow Bud Pills, Zhou You temporarily stepped away from the pharmaceutical engineering project, bringing it to a close.

According to scientific research procedures, new medicine must undergo clinical trials, especially in cases where the medicine is taken by oneself.

"Gu Lao, time for your medicine."

Zhou You summoned the puppet and first carefully inspected the condition of the Blood Qi Gu; hmm, there were no hidden dangers or abnormalities.

The body of Kunpengzi was in a living-dead state, its surface scorched and pitted, but it contained powerful Essence Energy within.

His situation was rare in a hundred years; he was killed after performing a realm transition, yet he didn't die completely, and was then controlled by the Blood Qi Gu as a puppet, maintaining the Strong Martial Level he had in life.

Under normal circumstances, one would usually drop a realm, but Zhou You had methods to make it sleep and reduce the loss.

And so, when the puppet stood before him, it still possessed the aura of the Qiangwu Yichongtian.

"Taste this!"

The puppet was very obedient and swallowed the Snow Bud Pill without a word; a moment later, the Strong Martial Essence Energy within its body began to circulate and strengthen, running spontaneously along the path of the meridians.

With a Great Medicine in its belly, this living-dead puppet was actually practicing on its own, not only stabilizing its realm but also increasing its strength.

Doesn't that mean that as long as there is enough Great Medicine, this puppet could theoretically improve infinitely?

However, Zhou You could not bear to; the number of Blood-Drip Pearls was limited, and the Snow Bud Pills refined from them were extremely precious—keeping them for his own use was not even enough.

As for the puppet, rewarding it with one to taste and verifying the medicinal power was enough.

After observation, five or six days later, the puppet had digested the medicinal power of this Great Medicine, and its Strong Martial Essence Energy had increased by twenty to thirty percent compared to before.

With this extra Essence Energy, the puppet was undoubtedly stabilized at the Qiangwu Yichongtian level, with no fear of exposing the details of its realm transition.

Seeing the effect of the Great Medicine with his own eyes, Zhou You finally understood the meaning of "a single pill worth a thousand gold"; when he was in Chongguang Cheng, he had once heard of an underground auction where a Great Medicine was sold for the sky-high price of 100,000 taels.

Thinking about it now, 100,000 taels was not expensive; looking at the cost of his own refining, if he didn't sell a Snow Bud Pill for 200,000 taels, he would be doing a disservice to his own labor and heart's blood.

"What a fine treasure; to sell it for money is simply a waste of heaven's gifts."

Zhou You toyed with the pill for a long time, becoming increasingly unable to put it down; it felt warm and smooth like jade, with a fragrant scent, and he could not find a single flaw.

He suddenly thought of a passage in the Medicine King Canon describing spirit pills: 'brilliant in its splendor, perfect and flawless'; now it seemed that the word 'flawless' referred not only to the appearance but also to the scent, color, and every other aspect, which were impeccable.

By comparison, the Snow Bud Pill still had a lot of room for improvement before it could be called a spirit pill! He must only continue to work hard! Following the records in the Medicine King Canon, Zhou You refined some medicinal jade to use as vessels for storing the Snow Bud Pills.

The medicinal jade looked similar to colored glass, but it was the best at isolating air and could prevent the loss of medicinal power to the greatest extent.

He placed the 4 Snow Bud Pills in the medicinal jade bottle and tucked it directly into his robes to carry with him.

He pushed open the door of the Yuanyuan Men and walked to the Inner Courtyard, looking at the Disciples and Apprentices who were admiring and observing the Gong Tripod, "Hello, everyone."

Several Apprentices knelt down on the spot to pay their respects, "Hall Master, you have come out of seclusion?"

A moment later, Qi Qingdi brought everyone to pay respects to Zhou You, full of ambition.

Zhou You looked Qi Qingdi up and down; not bad, after promoting to a Primary Martial Master, his body had become much sturdier. "Qingdi, it is truly rare that you were able to break through your realm on your own."

Zhou You reached out to touch his sleeve; hmm, the short staff of the Hidden Charm Treasure he had crafted earlier had already been given to Qi Qingdi.

He should reward him with something else.

Zhou You casually pulled out a bottle of Secret Medicine; this was a practice piece he had made earlier, and although it was far inferior to the Snow Bud Pill, it was a rare, high-grade Secret Medicine for the Martial Master realm.

Qi Qingdi smelled a hint of the medicine and was pleasantly surprised, quickly bowing down, "Thank you for the reward, Master."

Behind him, the two Martial Masters, Zuo Lv and Lan Chengxiu, had eyes filled with undisguised envy; he was truly a favored disciple.

Just as they were feeling heartbroken, a black shadow flashed before them, and a Silver Tide Whale Swallowing Pill appeared in their palms.

Just by smelling a hint of the medicinal fragrance, the Blood Qi in their bodies churned and showed a tendency to surge.

These two had been stuck at the Primary Martial Master level for a long time; the astonishing medicinal power of the Silver Tide Whale Swallowing Pill was not originally suitable for this realm to consume, but for them, if they found the right timing, it might serve as a means to break through their realm.

"Many thanks, Master."

Zuo Lv and Lan Chengxiu thanked him loudly and willingly.

"You have all worked hard during this time; everyone has a reward."

Zhou You had accumulated quite a few 'leftovers' during this round of pill refining; they were of little use to him, but more than enough to reward the disciples of the martial arts hall.

For a time, the Daqian Martial Arts Hall was plunged into an ocean of joy, with everyone thanking the Hall Master for his generous reward.

The atmosphere was just getting heated when it was interrupted by Zuo Shier, who rushed in in a hurry.

"Hall Master, big trouble."

Zuo Shier spoke at a very fast pace, "The Thousand Faces Hall has added a new bounty today..."

"The target of the bounty is the Venerable of the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop, Du Taiyue."

What? As soon as Zhou You heard this, he knew it was bad; this was clearly a provocation, and just as things had calmed down, war was about to break out again.

What kind of status and position did Du Taiyue have? He occupied the Wanli Zhaohai, raised poisonous insects, and committed all kinds of evil, yet no one could stop him.

As a Strong Martial, he didn't have to give anyone face; last time during the great battle with the Wu people, other sects all contributed people and effort, but only the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop remained unmoved. If it weren't for the fact that the noble families hired him with heavy gold, plus his coveting of the Transformation of Ten Thousand Wonders Book, he wouldn't have even sent anyone.

This old poisonous insect was both cunning and cautious, entrenched in his old nest for years and rarely going out.

Even those who were also Strong Martial would not dare to rashly break into the Wanli Zhaohai he had managed for hundreds of years.

The so-called bounty on him was meaningless; the kind of goods the Thousand Faces Hall could recruit, let alone Du Taiyue, could be easily wiped out by one of his inner disciples.

Zhou You was just curious, with such a terrifying target, how much should the bounty be?

As the saying goes, wealth moves the heart; if the price offered was high enough, perhaps someone would risk their life to break into the territory of the Ten Thousand Poisons Secret Workshop? "The bounty amount is one copper coin; bring his head to the Fucheng to redeem it."

One copper coin, that's actually quite a lot... my ass.

Zhou You could be certain that this was definitely a provocation, a naked slap in the face.

This bounty was not a prank, but a meticulously laid trap with the goal of infuriating Du Taiyue and forcing him to leave his lair of his own accord.

A bounty of one copper coin was truly laughable; after all, the services of the Thousand Faces Hall were not cheap, with a starting service fee of 50 taels for every bounty, meaning the service fee was more expensive than the reward itself.

The purpose of such an act was self-evident: to disparage the reputation of Du Taiyue and thereby provoke this master of Poison Martial Arts.

(End of chapter)