Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 23 Old Pond
In the study of the Jiang residence, Jiang Yuan sat crookedly in front of an ancient-style desk, holding the brush in his hand in an awkward posture and drawing something on the paper.

Among them, only Jiang Yuan appears to be rather abrupt.

"Dong dong dong."

There was a knock on the door. Jiang Yuan sighed and put down the pen reluctantly.

"Master." Jiang Yuan opened the door. The housekeeper Li Qizhi was waiting at the door. When he saw Jiang Yuan open the door, he bowed to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan waved his hand and pulled Li Qizhi inside. "What a mess! You and I have been brothers for so many years. It's fine if you maintain these master-servant etiquette in front of the Madam, but you're acting like this in front of me. What? You don't recognize me as your brother anymore?"

Li Qizhi smiled and shook his head. "In Yingzhou City, the Xu and Xing families have many eyes and ears. It's okay if they just think I'm not doing my job properly. If they become suspicious and investigate thoroughly, it will be bad for me and the Jiang family."

After saying this, Li Qizhizi did not wait for Jiang Yuan's reply. The latter just looked at Li Qizhizi calmly.

"Oh, I'm not afraid that my sister-in-law will tell others. She has several personal maids around her."

Li Qizhi thought of something else: "Besides, my sister-in-law also knows about my affairs."

Jiang Yuan then turned around with satisfaction, sat down at the same quaint desk, and admired his half-finished masterpiece.

"Are you going to give the inner elixir of that second-level ferocious beast to Jiang Xian?" Li Qizhi asked.

"Yes. I've thought about it. It might be a good opportunity for Xian'er to practice..."

Jiang Yuan stopped talking halfway, looked up at Li Qizhi, and his eyes were full of doubt.

Li Qizhi seemed quite satisfied. He sat on a chair beside the desk and took a sip from the teapot. "Look, what did I say? Ears and eyes, ears and eyes."

After taking another sip, Li Qizhi put down the teapot, dusted himself off, and said, "That's what Old Tan said."

The old Tan that Li Qizhi mentioned was naturally the pharmacist of the Jiang family, and also one of the three most famous pharmacists in Yingzhou City, Pharmacist Tan.

Although Pharmacist Tan had the least experience in alchemy among the three and knew the fewest recipes, he was young and had a strong desire to study, and his alchemy skills were constantly improving. Given the same recipe, the pills he refined were often of higher quality.

However, although the Jiang family is one of the three major families of the Yingzhou Chamber of Commerce, it is firmly in the last place among the three families, and has fewer pill formulas than the other two.

In this way, the Jiang family has delayed Pharmacist Tan a little.

However, this pharmacist Tan lived a very comfortable life in the Jiang family. No matter how the other two families tried to poach him, he remained unmoved and sat firmly in the central military treasure tent of the Jiang family's alchemy room.

Most people outside the Jiang Mansion speculated that the Jiang Mansion had promised Pharmacist Tan greater benefits.

As the saying goes, you only know one side of the story and not the other. The Xu and Xing families are poaching people, and the Jiang family wants to keep Pharmacist Tan, so naturally they have to increase his salary. However, considering the pill formulas owned by the Xu and Xing families, it is probably unrealistic to want to keep Pharmacist Tan with just money.

The first is treatment, and the second is people.

This person is Jiang Xian, the second daughter of the Jiang family.

When Pharmacist Tan first entered the Jiang Mansion, Jiang Xian was still young. He just played and had fun on weekdays and had nothing to do with refining medicine.

Later, Jiang Xian fell ill with a strange disease, and the whole Jiang family was in a state of panic. They consulted doctors but to no avail. Later, Pharmacist Tan took a risk and gave Jiang Xian a pill meant for warriors, and miraculously, he recovered.

In order to repay Pharmacist Tan for saving his life, Jiang Yuan asked Jiang Xian to become Pharmacist Tan's disciple and learn how to make medicine.

It seemed as if all the coincidences came together, and Pharmacist Tan actually discovered Jiang Xian's excellent aptitude in alchemy.

"This old Tan is always outspoken when it comes to elixirs." Jiang Yuan said this, but there was not much anger on his face.

"If he stops talking about elixirs, he, Lao Tan, will no longer be Lao Tan." Li Qizhi said with a smile.

"That inner elixir cannot be given to Jiang Xian." After smiling, Li Qizhi said in a deep voice.

"Why? Xian'er has now successfully refined the Xiaoqingdan. You should know that practicing with this inner elixir at this time is far more valuable than exchanging it for something from the Xing family." Jiang Yuan expressed his doubts.

"That's true. But have you ever thought that once you give the inner elixir to Jiang Xian, regardless of whether you can refine a heavenly-grade elixir or not, when Xing Rufeng comes to trade again and finds that the inner elixir is gone, he will inevitably become suspicious." Li Qizhi said.

Jiang Yuan straightened himself and asked, "If Xian'er succeeds in refining the Heaven Grade Pill, how about we trade it with the Xing family?"

"That proves that either Lao Tan is extremely powerful, and his actual ability is much stronger than what the Xu and Xing families had previously estimated; or there is another pharmacist in the Jiang Mansion whose strength far exceeds that of Lao Tan. In either of these two situations, there is a possibility of breaking the current situation among the three families, thereby increasing the possibility of Xu and Xing families taking action." Li Qizhi's tone became increasingly low.

Jiang Yuan didn't say anything. He really was a little too eager to dote on his daughter this time.

All the successive city lords of Yingzhou have given a large part of the interests of Yingzhou City to the Chamber of Commerce, and have retreated to the second line to take charge of the affairs.

However, the current city lord is old, and no one can guarantee whether the next city lord will take back the interests of the Chamber of Commerce.

For the sake of their own interests, the three chambers of commerce had no choice but to use all their abilities in the shortest possible time to further consolidate their power in the chamber of commerce and even in the entire Yingzhou City. If possible, completely defeating the other two would be the most ideal plan in the minds of the three.

As the saying goes, pick the softest persimmons to squeeze.

Among the three major families of Yingzhou Chamber of Commerce, the Jiang family is naturally the softest persimmon now.

The Xu family has become big. The eldest son of the Xu family passed the selection last time and successfully entered the Yingzhou Martial Arts School. Although his progress has been slow since entering the martial arts school and he has just entered the intermediate level of the Heavenly Realm, he is already the best among the three families' children.

Of course, this "best" is when almost everyone in Yingzhou thinks that Jiang Xuan and Jiang Xian, the siblings of the Jiang family, are both useless.

Although the Xing family is not as powerful as the Xu family now, they have Xing Yue, who is known as the "No. 1 Genius of the Chamber of Commerce". Although Xing Yue has not yet reached the Heavenly Rank, he is much younger than the eldest son of the Xu family, and even a few months younger than Jiang Xuan.

It seems that Xing Yue's qualifications are much better than the eldest son of the Xu family.

Xing Yue is about to enter the heavenly realm, and the Xu family must have some ideas.

If the inner elixir was traded to the Xing family at this time, not only could some valuable exchange items be obtained, but it could also help Xing Yue make further progress, thereby pushing the Xing family into opposition with the Xu family. It was truly a win-win situation.

He stood up, picked up the pen, and added a few strokes to the unfinished painting.

Jiang Yuan pushed an exquisite wooden box on the table towards Li Qizhi and said, "Keep the inner elixir for now. We need to go to Lao Tan again."

(End of this chapter)