Chapter 249 - 150: "Five Pieces, Not One Less.
"The reason is simple."
"Many elixirs are pretty similar. The ones we make might be slightly better than theirs, but only slightly. When we ship our elixirs to Jiangdong, we naturally have to factor in transportation costs."
"They definitely won’t be as cost-effective as the elixirs produced by the local alchemy influences."
"But—"
"What if we could drastically reduce those transportation costs?"
"Would people still buy elixirs from those other alchemy influences?"
"No."
"For the same price, they’d definitely buy elixirs from our Medicine King Valley, because our elixirs are just that little bit better than those made by other Alchemy Masters."
"If..."
"If the Mortal Realm’s ’High-speed Rail’ could run directly to the entrance of our Medicine King Valley, and then connect to other regions, our Medicine King Valley could take over the entire alchemy market of the Four Areas Jiangbei!"
"Father."
Standing to the side, Qi Feng looked out at the bustling crowds outside the inn, a dazed and helpless look on his face. "You might be forgetting Medicine King Valley’s production capacity. We only have so many Alchemy Masters. Even if we really did get that many orders, we couldn’t produce that many elixirs."
"This is alchemy."
"It’s not like growing cabbage..."
He was more aware than anyone of the Mortal Realm’s development.
He recalled the first time he met Chen Fan. Back then, the Mortal Realm had just slain the Ghost King, and all the factions went to Nameless Mountain to celebrate. There was no ’Mortal City’, no ’Silk Road’, and certainly no ’High-speed Rail’ back then.
Now...
It had them all.
It felt like a long time had passed, almost a year.
But in reality, it had only been a little over a month.
During this month, Medicine King Valley had also seen changes. They were among the first to join the Mortal Realm’s ’Silk Road’ and had earned a fair amount of Ghost Stones with those Skeleton Horses. But compared to the Mortal Realm, it was like a guppy next to a whale.
"What you said makes a lot of sense."
The Valley Master of Medicine King Valley’s face was flush with excitement as he wrapped an arm around Qi Feng’s shoulder. "The fact that you thought of that proves you’re really using your head."
"If..."
"our elixirs were cheaper than everyone else’s, and the quality was better,"
"do you think any other alchemy influence could sell even a single elixir?"
"They definitely couldn’t."
Qi Feng shook his head. "But what’s the point? We’d lose our shirts."
"We’ll take the loss."
The Valley Master of Medicine King Valley spoke with a serious expression, "We can use the ’High-speed Rail’ plus ’subsidies’ to quickly seize all the markets in the Four Areas Jiangbei, squeeze out all the other alchemy influences, and make it so that people in the Four Areas Jiangbei will only buy elixirs from Medicine King Valley from now on."
"Then, we absorb the Alchemy Masters from the other influences to make up for our lack of production capacity."
"Those alchemy influences will unite and attack us..."
"We’ll pay protection money to the Mortal Realm."
"This..."
"This move will cost us a lot of Ghost Stones in the early stages, but as long as we succeed, Medicine King Valley will become the largest alchemy influence in the Four Areas Jiangbei. This is a chance to bring glory to our ancestors, the greatest opportunity Medicine King Valley has seen in decades."
"Father."
Qi Feng looked at the old man before him, his temples graying, with a complicated expression. "I never realized you were so bold."
"It’s because we have a fallback plan."
The Valley Master of Medicine King Valley said a bit sheepishly, "If we fail, Medicine King Valley will just join the Mortal Realm wholesale. You have a pretty good relationship with Domain Lord Chen, and the Mortal Realm is short on Alchemy Masters, so they probably wouldn’t refuse us."
"Didn’t we earn some Ghost Stones from selling those Skeleton Horses recently?"
"Take out 150,000 Ghost Stones."
"Offer them to the Mortal Realm."
"Tell them we want to partner with them to build the High-speed Rail to Medicine King Valley, ensuring that the Valley is one of the nodes."
"And do it as soon as possible."
"If we can become the first node, Medicine King Valley’s reputation will spread throughout the Four Areas Jiangbei along with the High-speed Rail. This will give us a huge advantage when our elixirs compete for market share later on."
"I’m leaving this matter to you."
"Alright."
Qi Feng agreed, then looked at the old man before him and smiled. "Father, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you this energetic."
"People always get a little more energetic when they witness a miracle."
The Valley Master of Medicine King Valley laughed.
...
Soon, night fell.
That night, carried by countless Sound Transmission Talismans, the news of the Mortal Realm’s new creation, the ’High-speed Rail’, spread far and wide.
Countless factions were on edge.
The main problem was their uncertainty. They didn’t know how fast the Mortal Realm could lay the High-speed Rail tracks, nor how much it would cost. This clouded their judgment. If laying the line from Jiangbei City to Mortal City had already consumed a huge amount of the Mortal Realm’s resources...
...then they could ignore it for the time being.
But if the cost wasn’t great...
...then things were about to get serious.
Mortal Realm camp.
Chen Fan was sitting on the City Wall, a heavy coat draped over his shoulders, writing something on a piece of paper. The title was... ’Mortal Realm Communication’.
"Young Master."
Just then—
Lame Monkey climbed onto the City Wall, looked at Chen Fan who was focused on his writing, and glanced at the title, asking curiously, "’Mortal Realm Communication’? What does that mean?"
"This?"
Chen Fan leaned back in his chair and chuckled. "It’s a new plan I’m rolling out in the future. Sound Transmission Talismans have a limited range. For long-distance communication, you have to build multiple stations to relay the information."
"It’s time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive."
"This leads to many factions having to spend a huge amount of Ghost Stones every year just to maintain the operation of their communication stations, all to expand their influence."
"Ghost Stones shouldn’t be wasted like this."
"I’m thinking, could the Mortal Realm possibly unify ’communications’? We could have all the factions place their Sound Transmission Talismans in our stations. That way, they wouldn’t need to maintain their own stations anymore, and we could collect a hefty fee."
"That feels... unlikely..."
Lame Monkey hesitated. "After all, the messages sent through Sound Transmission Talismans are all secrets of the various factions. It’s unlikely they’d let them pass through the hands of our Mortal Realm. They wouldn’t trust us."