I've already reached the Nascent Soul stage, and you're saying I didn't time travel?

Chapter 106 This is an order, not a negotiation!

"Martial arts are the pivot of the Dao. The human body is a microcosm, containing the transformations of Yin and Yang and the variations of the Five Elements. The key to cultivation lies not in strong muscles and bones, but in gathering Qi into the bones and illuminating the vast emptiness with the spirit; not in complicated and unpredictable moves, but in the mind moving with the form and the power emanating from the origin..."

……

"The highest level of skill lies in the mutual generation and endless cycle of Yin and Yang. Inhaling is accumulating Yin, exhaling is releasing Yang; guarding is still Yin, attacking is moving Yang. The practitioner should be like Tai Chi coiling silk, with strength containing softness, and softness concealing sharpness. Like a river, the surface is calm, but the current is surging under the cover of darkness - this is called soft in form but strong in power, relaxed on the outside but unified on the inside."

……

"Externally train muscles, bones, skin, and hair; internally cultivate essence, qi, and spirit. At the beginning of cultivation, one should take stance training as the foundation. Feet firmly planted on the ground, like pine trees taking root; head suspended, like a jade pillar supporting the sky. Breathe gently, like a silkworm spinning silk, guiding pure qi to cleanse impurities; muscles and bones stretched, like the ebb and flow of the tide, opening joints and connecting meridians..."

……

After a series of comparative translations, the complete content of the exercise was gradually revealed to everyone.

When the last word was translated and the entire content was read, everyone present, including Xue Cheng, Zhang Meng, and the experts, showed expressions of amazement.

Looking at this general outline of martial arts alone, it is profound and of a very high level. When it comes to the specific training stage, the wording is precise and the links are closely connected. The details and precautions are extremely complete, just like a master teacher teaching you step by step, afraid that the disciple will not be able to learn it. It is not as difficult and profound as everyone expected.

It can be said that even if one has only completed nine years of compulsory education, one can easily understand this practice and begin to cultivate it.

Of course, understanding is one thing, but practicing is another.

Even with math problems that have a definite answer, many people still make mistakes, let alone with purely textual understanding; it's perfectly normal for various deviations to occur.

In practical application, this method still requires instruction from a master, further detailed breakdown, and continuous summarization of experience during practice; otherwise, it is not hard to imagine that one might accidentally go astray.

Besides these, there are other issues...

"Do you think all the different levels of realm mentioned here really exist?"

One expert couldn't help but ask.

Another expert, who had a deep understanding of martial arts techniques, immediately replied:
"To be honest, the descriptions of the strength of each realm in this book are indeed a bit exaggerated, especially the abilities of the later realms, such as the unity of heaven and man, divine illumination of external objects, soaring through the void, and true qi protecting the body. They all sound mysterious and profound."

However, putting aside the later stages, those minor realms in the early stages do indeed have corresponding references in reality.

The ability to produce sounds like cracking bones and muscles in Ming Jin (manifested strength) and to generate a small amount of An Jin (hidden strength) – all achievable by seasoned martial artists in reality – is sufficient proof that it is possible to realize.

"Even if the descriptions of the later Grandmaster and Great Grandmaster realms are so exaggerated, I think it's not impossible."

Simply put, just refer to Qi Xuan's example.

His abilities have long surpassed those of ordinary people, which is why countless people are eager to learn martial arts. Now, through this technique, we should be able to see that he has already come a considerable distance in the path of martial arts, making him an extremely successful pioneer. This further confirms the authenticity of the subsequent realms and the feasibility of cultivation.

"What stage do you think Qi Xuan is at now? Grandmaster? Great Grandmaster? Or Supreme Great Grandmaster? He can't be the final terrestrial immortal, can he?"

"It's unlikely that he's a terrestrial immortal. A terrestrial immortal's abilities are far more exaggerated than his. Even a short-distance flight is beyond his capabilities."

"I think he should be a Grandmaster. In terms of speed and strength alone, he is no different from a Grandmaster, and may even be a little stronger."

"No, he emphasizes short bursts of power when fighting, which proves that his strength is not enough to last long. He should be at the Grandmaster level."

"Damn it, which grandmaster have you ever seen kill a golden-eyed pterosaur with a single arrow?"

"You're talking like there are many grandmasters in real life. Nobody has ever seen one, so why do you think he's not a grandmaster?"

"You little brat, you're asking for a beating, aren't you? Come on, let's have a spar and see if your Bajiquan has improved at all over the years?"

"You old fool, do you think I'm afraid of you?!"

……

The experts argued heatedly over Qi Xuan's martial arts ranking, almost coming to blows on the spot.

Finally, it took a lot of persuasion from the people around them to convince them to stop.

"So now we can be fairly certain that this technique should be cultivable, right?"

An elderly leader, well past seventy, asked the experts present.

The experts thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement:
"Theoretically, there's no problem."

"The details of the practice are also highly practical."

"Based on some of the characteristics that Qi Xuan exhibited during the live broadcast, he must have practiced this technique."

"We can find someone to try it out first and observe the situation. If any problems arise, we should immediately stop."

……

The leader nodded, then waved to the guard next to him.

Soon, twenty strong and healthy soldiers with excellent qualities and unwavering loyalty to the country were brought to the site to begin preparations for the first phase of their training.

"The cultivation technique is fine for now, so the next step is the medicine."

"What are your thoughts on the medications listed here?"

Upon hearing this, the experts responded one after another:

"According to the method, in the early stages of cultivation, especially before the innate stage, one can nourish the body through regular diet."

However, once you reach the Innate Realm, if you want to increase your cultivation speed, you must take Yang Yang Pills and Yin Yang Pills during your cultivation.

Yang strengthens the body, Yin strengthens the spirit; lacking either will significantly slow down the pace of cultivation.

Therefore, if we are to vigorously promote martial arts training in the future, without better alternatives, we must produce large quantities of Yang-Extreme Pills and Yin-Extreme Pills to meet external demand and prevent the prices of these pills from being driven too high, controlled by a few, and causing social unrest.

“Yang Dan is relatively easy to obtain. Not to mention that various auxiliary materials are very common and there are many substitutes, as well as ginseng, the main material. my country happens to be a major producer of ginseng, accounting for 70% of the world's ginseng production.”

This is our unique advantage. We need to plan our industry in advance, purchase large quantities of ginseng for storage, and formulate corresponding policies to prevent a large-scale outflow of ginseng if Qi Xuan announces his cultivation method three days later. We must strictly control the source materials.

"As for Yin Yin Pill, its main ingredient is styrax, which is more troublesome."

Styrax is harvested from the styrax tree, which generally grows in Mediterranean climate regions with mild winters and cool summers, small annual temperature differences, and even rainfall. However, most parts of my country have a monsoon climate, which is not suitable for large-scale cultivation.

Currently, the styrax available on the market is entirely dependent on imports, which is our fatal weakness and we must find a way to solve it.

"I remember there were attempts to introduce and cultivate styrax in Guangxi and Yunnan, right?"

"The introduction of these species was on a small scale, which could not meet the cultivation needs of the vast majority of people."

"How about grafting propagation? Using the Chinese sweetgum tree, which is widely grown in my country and has a strong reproductive capacity, as the rootstock, and grafting the branches of styrax as scions, this method has been successfully tested by research institutions and can completely solve the problem that styrax is not adapted to my country's climate."

"Grafting does work, but the problem is that both styrax and sweetgum trees grow too slowly!"

From planting to the production of styrax, the process takes at least twenty or thirty years. Who can wait that long?

"Then we'll have to go out and buy it all at once, enough for the next thirty years!"

"I'm afraid we can't buy that many. Styrax is produced in very small quantities and is very expensive. If we're talking about authentic traditional styrax, it has been listed as an endangered species due to destructive harvesting, so it's very difficult to buy it."

As for the styrax that is currently popular on the market, also known as white styrax, it is considered a substitute for styrax and is originally from the North American sweetgum tree.

Moreover, even North American sweetgum trees are not currently cultivated on a large scale commercially; they are mostly wild or semi-wild resources in primary forests, with extremely limited yields—at most a few hundred tons a year. What are a few hundred tons to 1.4 billion people?

"You can't calculate it that way. Not everyone wants to practice martial arts, and not everyone is suitable for practicing martial arts. Although martial arts can bring great improvement to an individual, there are always many issues involved in the process of practicing."

Some lack the patience, some are inherently averse to violence, some believe that even the strongest cultivation cannot withstand a handgun… In the end, the number of cultivators who can truly persevere may be less than ten million, so a few hundred tons of styrax will barely be enough.”

"It still won't work. Even if only a few million people cultivate, a few hundred tons can barely meet the demand for one year. What about next year? What about the year after? Are we going to make the people buy styrax at sky-high prices? Or is it styrax that is monopolized and not sold to the public?"
"If they had experienced the effects of the Yin-Yang and Yang-Yang Pills beforehand, do you think they could go back? It would likely cause even greater social unrest, especially for those martial artists who have already practiced these techniques; the destructive power they would cause would be far greater than that of ordinary people."

"It's a real headache, a real headache. The problem is that the production of styrax is too low, and the release of the cultivation technique is just around the corner. We don't have much time to prepare, and long-term planning is out of the question. We can only try to acquire as much as possible."

"That's all we can do. We'll also try to assemble other pills with similar effects. We can accept that the effects might be slightly worse. The important thing is that we can't let foreign countries hold us by the throat."

"The grafting in the laboratory must also be continued. It would be best to develop a tree species that can grow quickly. Even if it takes several years to harvest, at least it will give everyone something to look forward to. Twenty years is just too long."

……

Due to the urgency of the situation, after a series of intensive discussions, several strategic plans related to drug raw materials were quickly formulated on-site, and a series of orders were issued in succession. With the help of the vast national system, these orders quickly reached various places and were implemented.

……

Jilin.

As a major ginseng producing province, Jilin accounts for 60% of the national ginseng output and 40% of the world's output. The province has more than 140,000 mu of garden ginseng cultivation area and more than one million mu of forest ginseng cultivation area.

At this very moment, a conference related to the ginseng industry is being held in the conference hall of the provincial government.

Government officials, industry members, plantation owners, business representatives, scientific research experts, media reporters, and other relevant personnel filled the entire conference hall.

Faced with the bewildered attendees, government leaders immediately announced a series of industry-related policies.

Ginseng will be listed as a national strategic reserve medicinal material, a licensing system for ginseng cultivation under forest cover will be implemented, core production areas such as Changbai Mountain will be designated as protected areas, and unauthorized excavation will be prohibited.

Promote the forest-forest rotation model, add 50,000 mu of ginseng planting base, and require that the annual ginseng production increase by 50% by 2027.

Establish a national ginseng reserve mechanism, provide special subsidies to ginseng growers, and require them to supply 70% of their output to the state.

An annual ginseng circulation quota will be established to prioritize domestic market demand, while ginseng exports will require approval from provincial-level or higher TCM administration departments.

A whitelist system for ginseng products will be implemented on cross-border e-commerce platforms, allowing only certified companies to sell processed products.

The "Regulations on the Protection and Management of Wild Medicinal Resources" have been revised to include ginseng in the list of restricted exports, with smugglers facing a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

...As a series of related policies were announced by government leaders, everyone in the meeting room was shocked.

After the leader finished speaking, a buzzing sound erupted in the room, gradually turning from whispers into a heated discussion:

"Why are so many policies being released all of a sudden? There was no prior notice. They should at least be implemented one by one."

"That's right! We finally reached a ginseng cooperation agreement with South Korea, and we're about to export a thousand tons of ginseng. How much economic loss will this sudden policy cause us?!"

"There are already few overseas buyers of ginseng. We've gone to great lengths to sell ginseng abroad and expand the ginseng market. Now that we've finally achieved some success, you guys are here to sabotage us. Do you think you've done justice to everyone's hard work?!"

"You can't do things like this! A blanket ban will only destroy the entire ginseng market! What about government procurement? How much can the government actually buy? Who will eat all that? If they can't finish it, they'll dump it at low prices, harming all ginseng growers! Haven't we learned enough lessons from the past?!"

"How much can you subsidize growers? There's already a lot of ginseng on the market. If you add more ginseng planting bases, the extra ginseng will only further suppress prices. Don't you understand that low prices hurt farmers?"

"This is utter nonsense! I'm going to complain to the higher-ups! What you're doing is jeopardizing the entire domestic ginseng industry!"

……

Faced with a cacophony of opposition and rebuttal from the audience.

Due to information confidentiality restrictions, the solemn-looking leader only replied with eight words:
This is an order, not a negotiation.

……

After the conference concluded, relevant media reporters immediately published extensive reports on the conference content. Various online media, social media, and even traditional newspapers all reprinted and extensively reported on the conference.

Discussions about ginseng quickly made headlines across all media outlets, attracting not only the attention of the domestic public but also drawing the attention of countries around the world.

And at the same time.

Southwestern Türkiye.

Antalya.

As the main production area of ​​authentic storax, Turkey has banned the export of storax since 2011 due to the endangered resources caused by over-logging, and only allows cultural heritage protection mining. By 2023, the annual output had barely recovered to a few tons.

However, because there is styrax produced by the North American sweetgum tree as a substitute, the market demand for genuine styrax is not very large. Only a very small number of medicines and high-end fragrances need to be mixed with genuine styrax.

In the Antalya spice market, an elderly Chinese man smiled and said to a middle-aged man of medium height and dark skin behind him:

“Owz, my friend, let’s leave it here.”

"Now that the styrax has been loaded onto the truck, I need to rush it to the head office. You know, Western pharmaceutical companies always value these raw materials very much. Even a slight delay in transportation might affect how they evaluate me."

"Chen, is everything alright with customs? I have some connections; if you need it, I can help you get through, it's just a matter of cost..."

"Since I dare to buy it, there will definitely be no problems with the distribution channels, so there's no need to worry."

"Alright, have a safe trip. I'm looking forward to hearing good news about a long-term partnership."

"Don't worry, I will definitely recommend your family to the board of directors, for the sake of our friendship."

They embraced briefly, watched each other lead the convoy away, then Ouzi turned and went back into the house, his smile immediately turning mocking.
"Foolish fellow, actually paying three times the market price to buy this styrax. Even if it's purchased from abroad, this price is outrageous."

A servant standing nearby said worriedly:

"Is there going to be no problem?"

Owz scoffed:

"What's wrong? I don't know where they bought it or where they're going to ship it. It's that simple: they pay me and I deliver the goods. I don't know anything else. Fine, let's send someone to harvest another batch. Maybe some suckers will come knocking."

“But our quota has already been harvested for five years from now, if we start harvesting again…”

"Pay some money and we'll collect enough for seven years from now."

……

In the car.

The calm and well-trained driver asked:

"Sir, where do we go next?"

"First, we'll transport the goods to the designated location and hand them over, and then we'll head to Mura."

“You’ll be the one to handle this, but you can no longer use your position as the purchasing manager for the pharmaceutical company; we need to find someone else.”

"Although these distributors belong to different families, they are connected with each other. If a single pharmaceutical company buys too much, it will arouse their suspicion, and there may be changes along the way. The most urgent task is to get the styrax back to China. Everything else is secondary."

"clear."

……

Honduras.

Primeval forest.

North America is the main production area of ​​styrax.

A group of business people from Daqian are visiting a nearby styrax processing plant.

The factory owner, who was leading everyone inside, introduced the place with great enthusiasm:
"...The harvesting season for styrax is during the rainy season each year, from April to October. Use a sharp axe to cut a long, horizontal harvesting opening at the base of the tree, deep into the resin ducts inside the bark, so that the resin flows out and solidifies. Forty days later, scrape it out with a metal spoon."

Each tree is typically harvested three times a year, yielding approximately two kilograms of resin.

After the resin is harvested, it will be transported to the processing plant here for processing, because the resin usually contains 6% water, and the purpose of processing is to concentrate and remove impurities.

The quality evaluation of processed styrax was conducted using a combination of empirical identification and instrumental analysis.

Our factory has a quality testing laboratory, which mainly uses gas chromatography to determine the content of two components: moisture content not exceeding 1.5% and styrene content typically between 1.5% and 1.6%, and not lower than 0.8%.

Currently, our factory's styrax products have a market share of over 40% in the global styrax market. You've really made the right choice by selecting us..."

The business manager in charge then pretended to ask many detailed questions.

After smelling the sample strips and analyzing them with instruments, the accompanying testing personnel obtained the corresponding results and nodded to the other party.

Once it was confirmed that the styrax here met the requirements for raw materials used in external medicine, the business manager immediately changed his tone and stopped beating around the bush:
How much styrax does your factory currently have in stock?

"Different products have different inventory levels, so the specifics are as follows..."

"Add them all together."

"If you add them all up, it should weigh over fifty tons."

"We want them all!"

"What! You want them all?!" The factory owner's eyes widened in shock, momentarily questioning his existence.

The business manager smiled and said:

"But the deal must be done immediately, and a long-term supply agreement must be signed, with strict default clauses attached."

"No problem, no problem, we accept all terms!"

The factory owner assured him with great delight.

Soon, with the signing of the agreement, one truck after another loaded with styrax products drove out of the factory.

Around the world, companies and factories that produce styrax products have all welcomed a number of major clients.

Although Daqian had tried to keep its actions as small as possible and used various means to cover them up, such a large-scale procurement could not be kept secret from everyone.

Lighthouse country.

In Alabama, a deal involving five tons of styrax was abruptly halted as intelligence agents flooded in.

In Florida, a truck carrying three tons of styrax was stopped by several police cars.

……

Globally, countries including the United States have tried their best to stop it after receiving relevant intelligence, but more Suhexiang boarded planes and cargo ships early on and quickly arrived in Daqian.

Realizing they might have suffered huge losses, representatives from many countries, led by the representative of the United States, launched a scathing attack on Daqian at the United Nations meeting, demanding the return of Suhexiang.

The representative of Daqian stated righteously that this was a fair and just transaction, and there was no coercion involved. Any country that forcibly interrupted the transaction was violating existing free trade agreements.

Anyway, it's all just a matter of arguing, who's afraid of who?

However, talking for most of the day was quite tiring, and my voice was almost hoarse.

Watching Qi Xuan leisurely teaching ancient seal script on the live stream screen, the representative of Daqian couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.

Fortunately, the other side set a three-day deadline, which allowed the countries to remain patient. Otherwise, if the time dragged on, a coordinated attack would not be far off.

Perhaps he had foreseen this from the very beginning.

Three days is such a good amount of time.

Hopefully, China can achieve even more during this period.

(End of this chapter)