Chapter 3198 — Market Competition

What he needed to do was copy the source files of the program from the microcontroller, take them back for analysis and adaptation, and write them into an existing, commercially available microcontroller to serve as a substitute for the original, effectively creating a simulation.

Kang Jingming swiftly powered up the computer and entered the system. Since this was a secret room, Liu Jinghan had not set a boot password—after all, she had never imagined anyone could get inside. And even if she had set one, a PE system booted from a USB drive could bypass the original system and copy the data within.

Quickly, Kang Jingming located a folder on the D drive of Liu Jinghan's computer labeled "Yaoding Source Programs." He opened it and found the source files for the "Single Version," "Ten-in-One," and "Five-in-One." He plugged a USB drive into the computer and copied the source programs out.

This machine, by the look of it, was used for writing programs; apart from the programmer's driver software, there was nothing else on it. Kang Jingming copied the driver as well. Though he could not replicate the microcontroller inside the Yaoding, the driver would allow him to analyze its approximate specifications and find a substitute microcontroller chip.

With the copying finished in short order, Kang Jingming shut down the computer, pulled out the USB drive, and said to Liu Tianli, "Mr. Liu, let's go."

"Oh? You're done already?" Liu Tianli had no idea what Kang Jingming had copied, but he no longer had the presence of mind to wonder. His head was filled entirely with those forty cartons of cigarettes.

After locking the office door, Kang Jingming led Liu Tianli back the way they had come.

True to his word, Kang Jingming did not cheat Liu Tianli. Once he had escorted the man back, he handed over the forty cartons of cigarettes, then quietly slipped out of Yanjing City and returned to the Xuandan Sect...

With these programs in hand, Dr. Benjamin II found that making some modifications and locating a substitute microcontroller was not exactly easy, but far from difficult. After several days of relentless effort, he finally found a microcontroller that could substitute for the original and simulate its functions!

As for the Yaoding itself, although Kang Jingming had obtained the production process data from Foreman Su, the titanium alloy raw material used in the Yaoding was not smelted at that factory—it was imported directly from a place abroad called X Island. Kang Jingming did not know the smelting process.

But this did not stump Dr. Benjamin II either. Using an ordinary first-grade Yaoding together with the assembly process provided by Foreman Su, he actually managed to convert it into a first-grade automatic Yaoding built from an ordinary first-grade Yaoding!

This modified product had the same functions as the first-grade automatic Yaoding. Because it used a genuine ordinary first-grade Yaoding, the cost was somewhat higher, but compared with the retail price of such a Yaoding, the cost remained negligible.

When Ancestor Xuanchen and Kang Jingming learned this good news, their faces lit up with delight!

"Father-in-law, it looks like we can strike at Wei Zhao again this time. The moment our Yaoding hits the market, it will break Wei Zhao's monopoly. We'll sell at a slightly lower price, and everyone will come to buy ours," Kang Jingming said.

"Yes. Not only are we cheaper, but the Xuandan Sect is a long-established alchemy sect. When the time comes to choose, those alchemists will know in their hearts who to pick," Ancestor Xuanchen said, full of confidence in the product about to launch.

"Good. Begin mass production of the finished product as quickly as possible, and we'll put it on the market!" Ancestor Xuanchen declared, striking the final blow of the hammer.

"But... Father-in-law, we have no funds left. All the money went into refining first-grade pills, and the warehouse is still stuffed with them..." Kang Jingming said, somewhat awkwardly.

"Doesn't the Cultivators' Commerce Association offer loans? Go borrow a portion from them. In any case, we'll earn it all back soon enough," Ancestor Xuanchen said after a moment's thought.

"That works. I'll go right away." Kang Jingming was confident in the first-grade automatic Yaoding as well—after all, he had seen Liu Jinghan's sales figures with his own eyes. If they could carve out even a third of the market, they would rake in enormous profits and recoup their earlier losses.

On this day, a major event shook the cultivation world: the first-grade smart Yaoding produced by the Xuandan Sect had hit the market! The so-called first-grade smart Yaoding was in fact the same thing as the first-grade automatic Yaoding—the two were kindred in design, differing only in name!

Kang Jingming was clever. He did not produce the single-version or five-in-one Yaodings, but went straight to manufacturing the ten-in-one limited-edition premium Yaoding! He knew that to seize market share, only rare products of this kind could take business away from Wei Zhao.

In any case, this thing had not been developed by Kang Jingming himself. He cared about immediate profit, not long-term gain! In his view, this imitation business would not last. Once the two sides entered a sales war, the price of Yaodings would inevitably fall, and profits would shrink accordingly. Better, then, to sell as many as possible right from the start!

The ten-in-one Yaoding typically sold at the Cultivators' Commerce Association for around 1.5 billion, and the moment Kang Jingming's ten-in-one Yaoding launched, it went straight to a discounted price of 999.99 million!

That was more than 500 million cheaper at a stroke. These great families and sects were no fools—when there was a bargain, they naturally chose the bargain. Besides, bidding at the Cultivators' Commerce Association did not guarantee you would win the item, whereas the Xuandan Sect sold around the clock, twenty-four hours a day. The superiority of one over the other was plain at a glance!

So on the very first day the Xuandan Sect's ten-in-one first-grade smart Yaoding went on sale, three units were sold, bringing in nearly three billion. Subtract manufacturing costs, and there was still a net profit of two billion—a business of enormous returns for tiny outlay!

The Xuandan Sect's Yaoding launch left the people of the Cultivators' Commerce Association dumbfounded, and the Liu family equally stunned. They had never expected their rival to release a Yaoding with the same functions! Although the Xuandan Sect publicly claimed it was their own exclusive new development, any discerning eye could see at once that it was a complete imitation of Wei Zhao's first-grade automatic Yaoding!

Because those ten kinds of pills were exactly the same as those of Wei Zhao's Yaoding! There were more than twenty kinds of first-grade pills in all; had the Xuandan Sect wished, it could easily have made several different ones (Yuren's official [WeChat] account, yuren22, where Yuren will share news about the School Beauty comic and the latest developments on the School Beauty finale! Everyone can chat with Yuren directly there!)! RS