Chapter 155: Within Grasp

After Hua Changxi toured Qihuang Pavilion No. 13, she prepared to leave. Without a wooden tablet, she had no way to crack the teaching content of Qihuang Pavilion No. 13.

Who knew that just as she exited the courtyard gate, she would run into the Seventh Prince.

"Manager Hua."

Hua Changxi looked at the Seventh Prince and smiled. "I am no longer a manager now. The Seventh Prince should not call me Manager Hua anymore."

The Seventh Prince immediately asked with a smile, his smile gentle and elegant: "Then how should I address you now?"

Hua Changxi: "My name is Hua Changxi."

Seeing that her expression was serious and she didn't deliberately try to get closer by just calling her Changxi, but instead very cooperatively called out the full three words 'Hua Changxi'.

"Uncle Prince asked me to manage Qihuang Pavilion No. 14. Now we are neighbors. Hua Changxi, please give me more guidance in the future."

After finishing, the Seventh Prince even smiled and bowed to Hua Changxi with his hands folded, his attitude quite humble and polite, without any of the royal family's high-and-mighty air.

Seeing him like this, Hua Changxi felt more vigilance in her heart. A person would not be good to another person for no reason. She smiled. "If we are talking about guidance, it should be the Seventh Prince giving me more guidance."

Hearing this, the Seventh Prince didn't pretend to be humble either, but smiled and said: "Then let's give each other guidance in the future."

Hua Changxi smiled and didn't speak.

Seeing this, the Seventh Prince didn't say much either, but quickly changed the subject. "By the way, there is one thing I must tell you. Each Qihuang Pavilion will be equipped with eight medicine boys. In these few days, the medicine boys will arrive at each Qihuang Pavilion one after another."

Hearing this, Hua Changxi frowned. "I don't need medicine boys."

The Seventh Prince smiled. "This is Uncle Prince's requirement; each Qihuang Pavilion must have them." He paused. "Although in principle the medicine boys are uniformly allocated by the Medicine Division, Uncle Prince handed this matter to me to manage. How about this, you decide the list of medicine boys yourself, as long as they are people from the Medicine Division."

A look of disgust flashed in Hua Changxi's eyes. It was either submitting thirty bottles of first-grade spirit pills every month or allocating medicine boys. Submitting spirit pills was treating them as alchemists; allocating medicine boys was sending people to monitor them. In this way, their every move was under the eyes of the royal family.

Letting them take over the Qihuang Pavilions was fake; letting them crack the secrets of the Qihuang Pavilions was the royal family's true purpose, right?

Hua Changxi didn't want to chat anymore, so she said: "Seventh Prince, I still have things to be busy with, so I will take my leave first."

The Seventh Prince smiled and nodded, watching Hua Changxi leave.

After she had walked far away, Xiao Li Zi behind the Seventh Prince spoke up: "Your Highness, Hua Changxi is indeed as aloof and unsociable as the investigation suggested."

The Seventh Prince didn't take it to heart and smiled. "Gold and stone can be opened by sincerity. I am sincerely making friends with her. Given time, I believe she will feel my sincerity."

After Hua Changxi came out from the Apprentice Hall side, she returned to the Servant Hall. Originally, she wanted to return to her own courtyard to refine pills, but after entering the Servant Hall, she discovered quite a few cultivators.

Associating it with the mortal servants she saw being dismissed earlier, Hua Changxi's heart was shocked. Replacing them with cultivators to do servant work, the number of cultivators controlled by the royal family exceeded her imagination.

Soon, Hua Changxi saw rows of queues in the central courtyard of the Servant Hall again. After getting closer, she realized that it was the new manager of the Servant Hall testing the spirit roots of all the servants.

Servants with spirit roots stayed; servants without spirit roots left.

There were thousands of people in the Servant Hall, and they were all strong and sturdy. The number of people who tested positive for spirit roots was not small. Hua Changxi stood by and watched for a while. In less than an hour, twenty or thirty people were tested to have spirit roots.

"No wonder the royal family has so many cultivators. With such large-scale spirit root testing, if it is conducted a few more times, the accumulated number will inevitably be considerable."

Hua Changxi didn't stay long. Thinking that there had been many personnel changes in the Servant Hall during this period, she walked around the Servant Hall. Except for the addition of some cultivator servants in various places, the warehouse was also piled with many spirit medicines, spirit plants, and spirit fruits.

"Does the royal family really treat the Alchemy Saint Hall as their own possession?"

With so many cultivators in the Servant Hall, Hua Changxi didn't dare to return to the courtyard where she lived to refine pills. She left the Medicine Division directly and returned to the Shennong Pharmacy in Feng'an Ward.

In the following days, while Mu Qingying and the others moved into the Qihuang Pavilions one after another, Hua Changxi focused on refining pills and practicing in the pharmacy.

【Realm: Nascent Soul Stage 999.99 million/1 billion; Divine Sense: 110,000+】

While practicing, Hua Changxi discovered that she had encountered a bottleneck. No matter what, her cultivation could not break through the 1 billion point mark. She tried many methods but couldn't solve it. In desperation, she could only spend her time refining pills and refining her body.

On the 22nd of the tenth month, after Hua Changxi finished lunch, she was hesitating whether to return to the Hua family early when Hua Dalang arrived.

"Eldest Brother."

Hua Dalang looked at Hua Changxi: "Tomorrow is the engagement banquet for me, your eldest brother. Do you really want to be like a guest and only come to the door tomorrow?"

"Hua Sangu, Second Aunt, and Fifth Aunt have all returned. Among the brothers and sisters in the family, except for Tenth Sister, you are the only one missing."

"Let's go, come home with me."

Hearing this, Hua Changxi didn't refuse and followed Hua Dalang back to the Hua family.

"Ninth Daughter is back!"

Hua Changxi followed Hua Dalang back to the Hua family courtyard. As soon as she entered the door, the people who were originally chatting and laughing suddenly fell silent.

Seeing everyone looking at her as if she were a rare guest, Hua Changxi felt quite uncomfortable.

At this time, Yao Shi, who was busy in the kitchen, came out and looked at Hua Changxi: "... It's good that you are back."

After Hua Changxi greeted everyone, Hua Dalang said: "Ninth Daughter, follow me to pay respects to Grandfather and Grandmother."

Hua Changxi was silent for a moment, but still followed Hua Dalang into the main hall.

In the main hall, Old Master Hua and Old Mistress Hua sat in the main seats. On the chairs on the left and right sides sat the three Hua Minghe brothers and the three sons-in-law: Uncle Shen, Second Brother-in-law Cao, and Master He San.

"Grandfather, Grandmother, I am back."

Hua Changxi stepped forward to pay her respects.

Old Mistress Hua immediately smiled: "It's good that you are back. Except for Tenth Sister who cannot come home, all the brothers and sisters of your generation are here. Everyone gathered together, we can get close to each other."

After finishing, she quickly gave Old Master Hua a look.

Seeing this, Old Master Hua gave a non-committal "Hmm." "It's good that you are back. Your mother is busy over there; go help her."

Hua Changxi: "Alright."

After greeting everyone else in the room, Hua Changxi left the main hall.

Seeing that the two were safe and sound, everyone in the main hall secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ninth Daughter."

Hua Changxi came out of the main hall, and Hua Liulang leaned over, looking like he had done something wrong: "Ninth Daughter, the Sheng family's status is much higher than ours. I was worried that the Sheng family's relatives and friends would look down on our family tomorrow, so I took the initiative to bring back a batch of spirit rice and spirit fruits grown around the spirit mine. Don't be angry with me."

Hua Changxi looked at him like this and frowned: "Sixth Brother, it's just some spirit rice and spirit fruits. In your eyes, am I that stingy?"

Hua Liulang shook his head: "I didn't think so. I just acted first and reported later."

Hua Changxi knew this was the aftermath of the big argument with the old master last time. She thought for a moment and said: "Sixth Brother, for the spirit mine in the Three-Fork Medicine Valley, except for spirit stones, you can discuss and handle other things with Old Man You and the others yourself, as long as you don't get fooled by Old Man You and the others."

Hearing this, Hua Liulang immediately grinned: "Okay, I know what to do in the future." Then, his expression became serious: "How could I be fooled? I'm not stupid."

Hua Changxi laughed: "The four of them, You Lao, are all old hands in the world, while you are just a greenhorn. You had better learn well."

Hua Liulang promised to learn well, and then he was going to the backyard to help tidy up the rooms.

Hua Changxi was puzzled: "Tidy up what rooms?"

Hua Liulang pursed his lips toward the main hall: "Third Uncle-in-law, Second Brother-in-law, and Master He San are all staying at our house tonight."

Hearing this, Hua Changxi quickly looked at Hua Wuniang, who was holding and teasing her child in the courtyard. Seeing her ruddy complexion and bright eyes, she could see that her life was indeed comfortable.

"The Young Master of the Marquis Prefecture is actually staying at our house..."

Hua Liulang also felt that Master He San staying over was a bit strange. If he were really Fifth Sister's husband, his staying over would be normal, but Fifth Sister was only his concubine.

"Ninth Daughter, Master He San is the son-in-law of the Fourth Branch. Let's not meddle in the First Branch's business."

Hua Changxi looked over: "Do I look like someone who meddles in other people's business?" She paused. "As long as he doesn't provoke me, he can do whatever he wants." ===== CHAPTER 156 =====