Chapter 4014 — Han Jingyi's Contribution
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
An hour later, the first batch of pills was successfully produced. The result was exactly as Wei Zhao had anticipated: as a test, he had loaded five portions of ingredients at once, and this time three finished pills emerged while the remaining two were duds.
A sixty percent success rate on the very first trial was already astonishing by any refiner's standards—and it was the Divine Farmer Cauldron's subsequent performance that truly revealed its legendary power.
With the same pills, the second batch's success rate approached eighty percent, and from the third batch onward it held steady above ninety percent—at times nearing perfection.
With every refinement, the Divine Farmer Cauldron automatically corrected the refining curve, step by step elevating an already astonishing success rate to an unparalleled height. The first two batches still produced duds, but after that, duds all but vanished—this was the true marvel of the Divine Farmer Cauldron!
For two full days, Wei Zhao did not set foot outside, devoting himself wholly to refining. Hong Zhong had no idea how things were progressing within, but even if Wei Zhao could not produce enough top-grade pills, his gratitude toward the young man would not diminish in the slightest.
The only two crates of auction goods had been lost en route, and the island branch houses were simultaneously short on supplies. The sudden four-island auction exposition had instantly thrust Hong Zhong into the eye of the storm.
At this rate, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild was certain to suffer a humiliating downfall. Never mind whatever more dangerous and deadly moves those people might make later—for Hong Zhong himself, his career as a manager holding sole authority over a region was as good as over.
To overawe the rank and file and to give an accounting to everyone high and low, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild would certainly push him out as the scapegoat this time, laying the blame for the whole debacle at his feet. This was only logical, and no one could change it.
And so, driven by circumstance, Hong Zhong—once a man with influence in every quarter—had been left, thanks to his rivals' concerted scheming, with only one last straw to clutch at: Wei Zhao.
If Wei Zhao succeeded, he might yet escape disaster; if not, there was nothing he could do but leave it to fate.
And so it was: during the two days Wei Zhao spent refining at full stretch, Hong Zhong's potential adversaries were hardly idle. They gathered together and went to see Steward Song.
"Tomorrow is the auction. By my reckoning, if Hong Zhong had any way of bringing in supplies from elsewhere, they should arrive today. The odds are slim, but we can't afford not to guard against it." The first to speak among them was Manager Hao, once a close acquaintance of Hong Zhong's.
"Manager Hao, aren't you being a bit too cautious? Under the Anti-Hong Alliance's maneuvering, the Hong Clan Merchant Guild's Mid-Island headquarters and the branch reserves on all four islands are completely depleted. And with the tricks we played on the way here, even his last two crates of goods have gone into the sea to feed the fish. And you think Hong Zhong still has a way out? You take him for some kind of immortal, ha ha ha!" A short-haired young man with somewhat yellowish hair threw back his head in wild, arrogant laughter.