Chapter 2600 — The Hidden Right Family's Doubt

"Yes. Study it first, and once you've got the hang of it, you may come down the mountain," the Heavenly Venerable Chunyang said with a nod.

"Yes, Master!" Zhong Yongliang said hurriedly.

The Hundred-Drunken Centipede had cost the Heavenly Venerable Chunyang no small effort to devise. He no longer dared give Zhong Yongliang anything too fine—the boy was too hopeless for that. A mid-grade Golden Cicada undergarment worn on his own body could be swapped out from under him; he was, truly, hopeless to the very top of the scale. So this time the Heavenly Venerable Chunyang gave him a treasure neither good nor bad, a thing that was little more than an awkward encumbrance even within the Tomorrow-after-Tomorrow Sect, of no real consequence—and so the Heavenly Venerable Chunyang did not grieve over it much.

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Back in his own quarters at the Red Conch's overseas headquarters, the Third Chief was in a foul mood, consumed with hatred for Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals. It was not that he meant to avenge the Strategist Zhuge—the man had been merely one of his subordinates, and whether he lived or died was of little consequence. The crux of the matter was that he had intended to use the Strategist Zhuge to hold on to that lucrative post and skim a little profit for himself, and before the plan could even be put into motion, Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals had wrecked it by killing the Strategist Zhuge. How could he simply let the matter rest?

Naturally he did not want to let Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals off so easily, but to move against them openly—that he did not dare. He could only strike from another direction.

The Third Chief was worthy of being the Strategist Zhuge's former patron; like the Strategist, he was a man of sinister and venomous cunning. He did not show himself, but instead telephoned a chieftain in the Fire Wolf Gang with whom he was on good terms—an elder of the Fire Wolf Gang's northern branch in the country. He wanted this elder to help him move against Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals, and then to split the profits with him, half and half.

The elder of the Fire Wolf Gang's northern branch pondered for a while, and concluded that this was a matter he ought to discuss with the current chief of the northern branch. After all, it was a serious affair; the Fire Wolf Gang and the Red Conch were one body, but to bypass the Red Conch's domestic branch and deal directly with the Red Conch headquarters was, at bottom, not quite proper. So it had to be settled whether there would be any problem first.

The Third Chief was in no great hurry. To make trouble for Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals at this moment would make it all too easy for people to guess that this was Red Conch's revenge; but after a while, taking up the matter by other means, no one should be able to connect it to him.

As for the elder of the northern branch, he was the very elder who had once saved An Liwen and An Jiande from Wei Zhao's hands. Only, his present strength was no longer worth Wei Zhao's notice; it was because Wei Zhao's own power had been insufficient at the time that he had been forced to grant the man "face" and let An Liwen go.

At this moment, the elder of the northern branch, the chief of the northern branch, and An Liwen were seated in a villa in Donghai City, discussing the matter arranged by the Red Conch headquarters' Third Chief.

As for going after Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals, An Liwen was all for it. This was Wei Zhao's company, after all—to be able to make trouble for Wei Zhao's company was the finest thing imaginable. And besides, he had lately been fretting over the lack of any new way to make money; the casino was profitable enough, but the speed of that profit was a world apart from the sort of ventures he had once run!

Divine Doctor Guan Pharmaceuticals, by contrast, was a treasure bowl, dripping with money. An Liwen had never had the chance—had he had one, he would long since have gone to carve himself a share of the spoils.

With An Liwen's vigorous support, the plan naturally became much easier, for An Liwen was the most capable executor of the task; there was no one better to entrust the affair to.

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The Hidden Right family.

At this moment the Right Patriarch, Right Zhentian, Right Laosan, and Right Panhu were all seated in the secret chamber, the Right Patriarch's face grave with concentration.

"Right Laosan, you've confirmed it all? Those pills that appeared at the auction really were supplied by that Ling Yi? And Ling Yi is the Wei Zhao you spoke of?" The Right Patriarch was stunned. He had never imagined that the great batch of high-quality pills appearing at the cultivators' market auction had actually been put up for sale by Wei Zhao!

Before this, after high-quality pills supplied by others had begun appearing in the cultivators' market, the Hidden Right family had been investigating all along; they could not simply let a competitor grow unchecked without even knowing who the competitor was. But the results of their covert inquiries had made their jaws drop—it was Wei Zhao who had supplied them!

"According to what our contacts in the cultivators' market told us, it was indeed that masked Ling Yi who supplied them—the mask's pattern and appearance both match. And that Ling Yi, I can confirm, is Wei Zhao! When I tried to seize the pure yellow jade, Wei Zhao revealed his identity!" Right Laosan said with certainty.

"Wei Zhao? It was actually Wei Zhao? How is that possible? Even if Wei Zhao is a second-grade alchemist, he couldn't possibly refine so many finished pills in such a short time—and of such top-grade quality besides?" The Right Patriarch was somewhat baffled. "Could it be that both he and Han Jingyi are alchemists? No, that doesn't fit either—the materials we gave them for second-grade pills were limited…"

"Materials—Wei Zhao could have bought them elsewhere. I heard that afterward Wei Zhao got in touch with people in the cultivators' market again, wanting to buy medicinal herbs from them. In other words, Wei Zhao very likely has other channels for buying herbs!" Right Laosan said. "After all, the materials for refining second-grade pills are mostly not especially rare; they can all be purchased."

"Mm, that's true!" The Right Patriarch nodded. "So then—these pills were refined by Wei Zhao and Han Jingyi together?"

"Impossible!" Right Panhu said. "Grandfather, I heard Wei Zhao say to Chief Bai with my own ears that he cannot refine pills. He can summon alchemical fire, yes, but it seems that because the attributes in his body are somehow wrong, he cannot change the size or temperature of the flame—he's just for show. So the one refining the pills must without question be Han Jingyi!"

"Oh? So you're saying these pills were refined by Han Jingyi in a mere handful of days?" The Right Patriarch's brow furrowed deeper. "Even if they could buy materials through other channels, how long has it been since we gave them that second-grade cauldron? Before that they had no cauldron at all—weren't they still buying junk at the antique market?"

"That much is true," Right Panhu agreed. "Judging by the quantity in this batch of pills, Han Jingyi's success rate in refining is simply terrifying! A second-grade alchemist can refine only one second-grade pill a day before his physical strength and true qi are spent; depending on individual constitution, the time needed to recover varies, and it takes until the second or third day before he can refine the next one. Even if Han Jingyi refined one pill a day, what a monstrous success rate it would take to produce all these—and every single pill of top-grade quality!"