I Can Control Resources

"But she understands more than you do. That’s a fact," Gao Neng said, pursing his lips.

"Understands what more? Wait... Gao Neng, don’t tell me you’re planning to defect to the West Alliance Yi Family and then just kick our Celestial King Group to the curb... Mmph mmph mmph..." Before Fang Tangtang could finish, Gao Neng clamped a hand over her mouth and forcibly dragged her behind Shen Ning’Er.

Shen Ning’Er watched this unfold, feeling rather speechless.

"Tangtang, don’t talk nonsense. We have things to do." After speaking, Shen Ning’Er’s gaze swept subtly around the venue.

"Ning’Er, have you found everyone I asked you to?" Gao Neng sidled up to Shen Ning’Er and released his hand from Fang Tangtang’s mouth.

"Find what people? Sister Ning’Er, what are we doing?" The moment her mouth was free, Fang Tangtang forgot about getting back at Gao Neng and immediately started asking questions again.

"Ning’Er, just take her away." Gao Neng obviously couldn’t explain things to Fang Tangtang at a time like this, so he could only ask Shen Ning’Er to lead her away first.

"Okay. Tangtang, let’s go. I’ll explain later."

"Alright!"

The two of them left.

Gao Neng let out a sigh of relief.

His plan was now officially underway.

In fact, his original plan really was to have Fang Tangtang do the price evaluations. After all, he couldn’t find anyone else he trusted who also knew about medicinal ingredients.

Yi Qinglian’s involvement was an unexpected development.

However, this surprise was a pleasant one. At the very least, as a genius from a sect and a prominent family, Yi Qinglian would garner far more trust than Fang Tangtang.

With Yi Qinglian on board, Gao Neng’s chances of successfully completing his plan increased significantly.

But Yi Qinglian alone was not enough.

Yi Qinglian could only help Gao Neng drive up the prices of the pills, allowing him to reap greater profits from this event.

But without the pill formulas, it still wasn’t enough.

After all, if you used the wrong raw ingredients, even with a 100% alchemy success rate, the pill you refined might not be the right one.

To put it simply, say Meng the Second challenged Gao Neng to refine a Fire-Resistant Pill. And the result? The pill Gao Neng produced was a Thunder Refining Pill. In that case, it would be really hard to determine a winner.

Therefore, Gao Neng directly proposed the most crucial condition.

The ingredients for refining the pill must be provided by the challenging alchemist!

The key point here wasn’t to save on ingredients, but to obtain two identical lists of materials.

To be blunt!

The list of ingredients was the embryonic form of a pill formula!

But just having the embryonic form was not enough.

The alchemists weren’t fools. They would definitely tamper with the lists—for example, by increasing the quantity of a certain ingredient, or by deliberately adding a few useless ingredients to ensure their high-tier pill formulas weren’t leaked.

Gao Neng had anticipated this. That was why, three days ago, he had asked Shen Ning’Er to prepare a batch of hidden "eyes" for him.

These "eyes" were scattered in every corner of the venue.

They had only one job.

To watch the alchemists’ refinement process and transmit the details via messages and video to Shen Ning’Er and the alchemists within the Celestial King Group.

Shen Ning’Er and the Celestial King Group’s alchemists would then organize and summarize this information before feeding it back to Gao Neng.

This was intelligence gathering.

To pull this off, they couldn’t be ordinary people.

So, Gao Neng went to Shen Ning’Er.

Because only the Military Department had the most professional reconnaissance and intelligence personnel.

Of course, there were three other key points.

First, transferring the reconnaissance personnel required an order from the Military Department’s high command. Second, intelligence personnel alone weren’t enough; surveillance equipment had to be installed in every corner of the exhibition hall beforehand. Finally, it required the cooperation of Yutian, the Underground City Governor.

All three points were indispensable.

But that was no longer Gao Neng’s problem to worry about.

Because with Shen Ning’Er there, she could perfectly resolve these three issues for him. As for what methods she used, Gao Neng didn’t even ask.

And the result...

Feedback came quickly.

The moment Meng the Second finished his preparations, a full analysis of his every move was transmitted like data to the earpiece Gao Neng was wearing.

"Preparations: Five small cauldrons. The various attribute ingredients have been divided into five portions. Each portion contains nine types of ingredients. Among them, seven are identical across all portions. Analysis indicates two ingredients are misdirection: Southwest Flower and Qingqing Grassland..."

’Looks like everything is going smoothly!’ Gao Neng tilted his head back and glanced toward the private room on the second floor.

In that spot, he saw a familiar figure. And right now, that figure was glaring at him fiercely, his eyes seemingly burning with flames.

’Done with ghostly apparitions and moved on to flames, have we?’

A corner of Gao Neng’s mouth lifted. He then made an "OK" sign toward those eyes.

...

「Inside the private room.」

Li Tiannan froze for a moment.

Then, he exploded with anger.

"Still ’OK’?! OK my ass!" Li Tiannan was truly suppressing his rage. If he weren’t, he would have already rushed down and given Gao Neng a sound beating.

What kind of stupid-ass condition was this?

Twenty-to-one odds.

And the payout was entirely in high-tier attribute ingredients! Did he really not see attribute ingredients as resources? ’If you really have so many ingredients, spare me some!’

Li Tiannan was so angry his beard was about to turn white.

The only reason he was still up there was that he wanted to confirm one last time just how much of a spendthrift Gao Neng truly was.

"Elder Li, you have to trust Gao Neng. That kid isn’t stupid..." Sword Elder said, shaking his head as he watched Li Tiannan pace back and forth on the verge of erupting.

"Not stupid? You mean to say he can still win? Beat all these alchemists?" Li Tiannan’s anger flared up again. He then turned his gaze to Elder Qin. "Old Qin, be honest. If you were in this situation, what are the chances you could guarantee a win?"

"Me?" Elder Qin took a sip of tea, his eyes drifting to the scene below. "If I were the one setting the alchemy challenges, I’d naturally have a 90% chance of winning. But if the challenges were all set by the opponents... then even I would have a win rate of 30% at most, probably less."

"Did you hear that? Even Old Qin has less than a 30% chance!" Li Tiannan grew furious again upon hearing this. "Less than a 30% chance of winning, on top of twenty-to-one odds... isn’t he going to fucking lose his pants?!"

"..." Sword Elder was speechless.

He also knew that Gao Neng was definitely going to lose his pants. But the key point was, wasn’t this supposed to be an act of goodwill? The plan was to give away wealth from the start.

Of course, no one had imagined that Gao Neng would be *this* benevolent...

’Three thousand high-tier raw ingredients, all just given away like that?’

’So generous!’

Most importantly, the alchemists from these sects and families, nine times out of ten, probably wouldn’t even feel indebted to Gao Neng. They would just see him as a fool.

...

「On the main platform.」

Wu Qingjing and Yutian exchanged a glance.

In the exhibition hall, the various sects and families had already set up their alchemy tools at their respective stations and taken out their stored ingredients.

They were following the agreement with Gao Neng.

The alchemists each brought out two sets of ingredients.

Two sets of attribute ingredients. The cost didn’t seem high, but in reality, these were essentially high-end reserve stock from the sects and families.

After all, the rules were very clear.

The higher the tier of the refined pill, the greater the twenty-fold profit they could exchange it for.

In that case, the competition was simple: use the most expensive ingredients you have and refine the most difficult pill you can.

In short: don’t choose the right one, just choose the expensive one!

It was just like placing a bet.

The more you invested, the more you stood to gain.

Therefore, the sects and families had basically all brought out their most valuable reserves.

Soon, the preparations were nearing their end.

"Speaker Wu, Governor Yun, the preparations are almost complete. You can announce the start!" At this moment, the chairman of the Pill Association looked toward Wu Qingjing and Yutian.