High School Student with Immortal Race System

"Patriarch, does this mean our own pharmacy isn’t too far off? We could start training some assistants ahead of time."

"They’re not called assistants. Call them employees... or apprentices at most."

Yang Shen thought for a moment and shook his head. "Let’s not have it inside the Yang Residence; it’ll get too chaotic. I’ll have Yuan Rui look for a suitable place nearby. There are plenty of empty buildings across from Cangwu Garden. We can rent one and hire some people."

"The company really does need some full-time staff. Yuan Rui and the others are capable, but they still have school and Cultivation to attend to. These new recruits don’t need to come to the Yang Residence. We can just assign them their work, and they’ll be integrated into the pharmacy later on."

Lin Yuebai pumped her little fist, energized. "Thank you, Patriarch!"

She hadn’t forgotten her long-term goal. She even wrote it down in her little notebook every night!

In reality, her salary had already jumped from a fixed 3,000 a month to a take-home pay of 30,000 a month. As his "employee number zero"—who knew the tech, had connections, juggled multiple roles, and even landed several orders—Yang Shen felt she was worth at least that much.

And it was set to increase again soon.

Although he already considered Lin Yuebai a peripheral member of his clan and the Lin Family a future vassal, she still needed to be well-fed.

Otherwise, he couldn’t guarantee her loyalty.

But Lin Yuebai was saving every last penny! She hoarded her money like a hamster. Unless she could bum a free meal, she was still living on mixed noodles and a braised egg.

She was waiting for the pharmacy to get started so she could invest and become a minority shareholder!

With permission granted, a delighted Lin Yuebai headed out to scout locations. Yang Shen, however, remained in her herb-scented room, flipping through the notebook.

Making money wasn’t an issue for the foreseeable future. He still had a bestselling book and video courses bringing in revenue.

He was contemplating another matter.

The matter of spending it.

As Patriarch of the Yang Family, he was thrilled to be raking in money. But for a member of the future Immortal Race, the accumulation of wealth was merely a means, not an end.

In fact, this was true for all Martial Arts Clans in Yanhua.

Aside from setting aside capital to expand the Spirit Plant business, he had to find ways to spend money to enhance the clan’s overall strength.

’Everything... it all has to start with people...’

’Developing talent is the foundation of everything, and that includes myself...’

’The Yang Family is about to gain a rudimentary ability to produce medicine. Not Alchemy, and not modern pharmaceuticals, but traditional herbal medicine...’

’With a brainiac like Lin Yuebai on board, obtaining formulas for common remedies won’t be difficult.’

’And Vomiting Valley Qi, being a Qi Daoist Technique, is different from immortal Cultivation and can be taught to ordinary members... ’

’They’d be provided with Supplements, rewarded with Cultivation Techniques, and have concrete work to do instead of just being freeloaders...’

’And the Jianghuai Yang Family concept has already gained some recognition and renown... ’

After a moment of thought, Yang Shen pulled out a pen and, right there in Lin Yuebai’s notebook, turned to a clean page.

He wrote down a series of names...

Yang Luofan, Yang Cheng, Yang Xiuqi, Yang Chengjun...

Ning Xiao, Xia Xing, Jiang Manqi...

Unfamiliar names, one after another. Yang Shen didn’t even know what they looked like.

These were all distant relatives of the Yang Family, young individuals with Spiritual Roots and decent Hidden Talents, whom he had "unboxed" a few days prior using the Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record.

Some had the surname Yang; others were from the maternal line and had different surnames.

Yang Shen had always been hesitant about this. He knew perfectly well that in this day and age, a distant blood tie meant nothing. They were, for all intents and purposes, strangers.

There were a lot of them. If he meticulously went through the "unboxing" process, he could probably find over a hundred.

Character, disposition, ambition, loyalty...

There were no guarantees at all.

Compared to complete strangers, their only advantage was that the Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record could find them and confirm they had talent.

But for now, that was enough.

At this point, since he now had a platform, he finally decided to try screening them.

He would bring them in purely as Changshen Biotech Staff for an initial observation period, with no access to any secrets or core operations.

These people weren’t being brought in as "relatives" but as "talent."

Whether their tenuous blood connection would foster a stronger sense of loyalty or simply breed ulterior motives was something that would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

If they proved useless, unable to even pass the Heart-Inquiry Stone Mirror’s test, Yang Shen wouldn’t hesitate to cut them loose and send them packing.

In terms of status, these "blood relatives" ranked below his eight disciples, whose loyalty was beyond question. They were the most dependable people the Yang Family had right now.

The Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record wouldn’t provide a phone number, only a location. But in modern society, with a general location and a name, a professional headhunter was more than enough to contact the person.

The first batch of candidates were all under twenty-four years old. At that age, unless they came from a wealthy family, their jobs and careers were likely still unstable, so it wouldn’t be hard to persuade them with a stable job in Jianghuai.

He could leave this task to Yuan Rui. There was no need to recruit them all at once. The positions could be filled gradually, based on the company’s needs.

Yang Shen let out a sigh.

’A clan... they say it’s bound by blood, but in my eyes, it’s really bound by emotion.’

’Blood ties without emotional bonds are meaningless. That’s true even between parents and children. This world has plenty of deadbeat dads, let alone people who merely share the same surname.’

Yang Shen tore the pages he had just written on from the notebook.

Combined with the development of Yang’s Disciples within Jiangti, these two efforts together could form a talent selection mechanism.

’This is an experiment. If it doesn’t pan out, I’ll fall back on the old master-disciple system to strengthen the clan’s core. With more money on hand, I can provide more support to Yang’s Disciples. That includes my eight current disciples—from now on, the Yang Family will provide them with Supplements in addition to what they get at school.’

Tian Zihan was probably the only one who didn’t need them, but as part of the system, he couldn’t make exceptions.

As for the core members already on the path of immortal Cultivation, it wasn’t necessary. Their problem was figuring out how to absorb their Qi and Blood Value, not how to perform Source Supplement.

That would have to wait for Yang Shen’s experiments with Cultivation Technique fusion.

’Walking on three legs is the only way to walk steady and go far. In this new phase, the Yang Family’s foundation and power will grow even faster than before.’

Maybe then the Heart-Inquiry Stone Mirror really could become a "high-pressure water gun"!

Someone was still salty about the renovation mishap.

Leaving the herb-scented room, Yang Shen was about to go find Yuan Rui and inform him of his decisions.

When he suddenly heard a knock on the gate to the Outer Courtyard.

His disciples usually answered the gate, but since he happened to be close by, Yang Shen went over and curiously pushed it open.

Outside the vermilion-red gate stood an unfamiliar woman with short hair. She wore a military uniform, and her skin was lightly tanned from the sun, but her smile was warm and approachable.

"Yang Shen... correct?"

"That’s me," Yang Shen said, curious. "And you are?"

The short-haired woman smiled. "My name is Shen Juanzhou. I’m a colleague of Senior Huo Jun."

"This residence is so huge, I thought I had the wrong address."