Chapter 3144 — The Five Luminaries Sect's Plans

The Liu family of the secular world? Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals? Everyone present knew well enough who stood behind those two names—none other than Wei Zhao, the loose cultivator whose star was currently in the ascendant.

"Wei Zhao!" Kang Jingming spat the two words out through clenched teeth, venom in every syllable.

"So it's our enemy after all! It seems we've been unjust to the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce," said Patriarch Xuanchen. The moment he heard the name Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals, his thoughts leaped straight to Wei Zhao, and Wei Zhao's motive was plain enough: if you poach my pill market, then I'll make sure your pills can't be sold at all.

"Father-in-law, how do we deal with this?" Kang Jingming was grinding his teeth in fury. Wei Zhao again! He had never imagined that this venture with Patriarch Xuanchen would end with them losing their capital and more—hoist with their own petard. They had refined so many first-grade pills, and now who on earth were they supposed to sell them to?

"What else can we do? When the time comes, we'll buy a few of these first-grade automatic cauldrons and take them back to study. See if we can replicate them!" Patriarch Xuanchen said, unwilling to let it go.

"Or how about we raid the Liu family and Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals in the secular world? I'd wager this thing is manufactured by the secular Liu family and Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals. We go there and see if we can seize the production records!" Kang Jingming's mind worked quickly. Since the thing was tangled up with Wei Zhao, it had most likely been commissioned from the Liu family or Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals—after all, the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce had known nothing of it beforehand. The only explanation was that Wei Zhao had produced it first and then partnered with Ouyang Nong. So if they wanted the research data, going straight to the manufacturer was the easiest route.

Besides, Kang Jingming had made a specialty of bribery and industrial espionage in the past; he knew the ropes.

"No!" Patriarch Xuanchen shook his head and rejected the idea outright. "Since Ouyang Nong named the secular Liu family and Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals separately and said the cauldron was jointly launched with them, that tells us that both the Liu family and Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals are currently strategic partners of the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce. If we move against either of them, we make an enemy of the Chamber. That would be a most unwise move!"

"What? Father-in-law, are you saying the Five Luminaries Sect is afraid of the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce?" Kang Jingming asked, puzzled.

"Since you're my son-in-law, there are some things I won't keep from you. Our Five Luminaries Sect may be a leading power on the ancient plane, but the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce is a being that transcends the ancient plane!" Patriarch Xuanchen said in a low voice.

"Transcends the ancient plane? What does that mean?" Kang Jingming was slightly taken aback.

"The Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce spans the hidden plane and the ancient plane. But above these, there is also a Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce, and although I don't know whether the two are one organization, I fear there's an eighty percent chance they are one and the same." Patriarch Xuanchen's face was grave. "If the Chamber here is backed by the Chamber of that plane, then never mind us as we are—even if we stood on that plane ourselves, we could not make an enemy of the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce!"

"What's all this about this plane and that plane?" Kang Jingming was utterly lost, hearing only fog and mist.

"Never mind. All you need to know is that the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce seems to have an even mightier patron behind it. Don't provoke them lightly—and they, for their part, won't go out of their way to break the rules and trouble others, because the purpose of their organization is simply to make money." The reason Patriarch Xuanchen dared not be certain the two were one was also this: the Chamber here earned the money of the secular world, whereas transactions between that plane and this one were not conducted in banknotes but in a different medium altogether.

"Oh..." Kang Jingming didn't understand, but he did grasp that if even Patriarch Xuanchen dared not lightly provoke the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce, then he certainly had no business courting trouble. His timid, trouble-averse nature had never changed—whatever he couldn't beat, he simply avoided. But then his mind turned, and he hazarded a guess: "Father-in-law, do you think this thing might have been cooked up by that White Leader fellow?"

"White Leader, Han Jingyi, Wei Zhao—any of the three could have done it! Put those three together, and it's no wonder they'd come up with something this bizarre!" Patriarch Xuanchen had guessed as much long ago. "But what good does knowing do us? If the data is in White Leader's hands, we've swallowed a mute's bitter pill—even getting our hands on it would be no easy matter!"

"True enough. All we can do is buy a few and study them before deciding anything else," Kang Jingming said with a nod.

As for Tianchan, when she heard that the mastermind behind all this was none other than Wei Zhao, a flicker of excitement lit her beautiful eyes. This thing was manufactured by Wei Zhao's company? Over this period, Tiandie had been reporting back bits and pieces of intelligence on Wei Zhao, so Tianchan naturally knew that both the secular Liu family and Guan Daifu Pharmaceuticals were Wei Zhao's assets.

Patriarch Xuanzhen, by contrast, had no idea what was going through Tianchan's mind. Hearing Wei Zhao's name naturally brought White Leader to his thoughts. Could this thing really have been made by White Leader? Then... might White Leader know that little girl from back then?

All along, Patriarch Xuanzhen had wanted to find that little girl again and have her help modify a few more cauldrons, but they had never met again, which left him somewhat regretful. So he resolved that once he returned, he would give White Leader a call and ask.

"However, the first-grade automatic cauldrons sold by the secular Liu family are not the ten-in-one limited edition I hold in my hand, but five single versions and a five-in-one version. The five-in-one includes the five single versions, yet compared with the ten-in-one limited edition in my hand, it lacks the refining of five kinds of first-grade pills!" Ouyang Nong explained. "Those who can't wait may contact the secular Liu family to purchase the single versions and the five-in-one cauldron, but the ten-in-one limited edition must wait for the auction! Only that each auction offers a very small quantity—just three cauldrons. So please, everyone, be prepared!"

Single version? Five-in-one? Ten-in-one? Everyone present silently cursed the shrewdness of the Cultivator's Chamber of Commerce—clearly one and the same product, yet split up and sold in several different forms. Still, they could hardly complain; after all, if you could wait and were confident of securing that ten-in-one limited edition at auction, then you had no need to buy the single or five-in-one versions. (To be continued.)

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