Commissions

Within two days of taking on the alchemy commissions, Wen Wen arrived at her cave dwelling with spiritual plants.

Alchemists were rare creatures to begin with. In the vast main city, only a few hundred were registered on record, most of whom were Tier-1 alchemists, with barely twenty Tier-2 alchemists among them.

Among those twenty or so, even fewer knew how to refine the Body-Defending Pill and Instant-Power Pill. Even if they did, their success rate was low. Under such circumstances, accepting a commission might force them to pay out of pocket with their own spiritual plants and spirit stones, making it a thankless chore.

Thus, few had the confidence or willingness to accept such commissions; it was far safer and simpler to refine common, familiar items like the Vitality-Restoring Pill or Qi-Restoring Pill.

“The person who posted the commission is the Grand Elder of the prominent Xiao Clan. He wants thirty Body-Defending Pills and thirty Instant-Power Pills,” Wen Wen explained as she took several boxes of spiritual plants from her storage bag. “These spiritual plants are enough to yield at least sixty pills.”

Shi Yu glanced over them. The Dragon Bone Grass, Heart-Nourishing Flower, Purple Ganoderma, and other ingredients required for the two pills were neatly arranged in separate wooden boxes.

The quantities had been prepared in advance. If every furnace succeeded, yielding sixty pills would be more than enough. Success rate was no issue for her; after delivering the required amount for both types of pills, plenty of extra spiritual plants would surely remain.

The spiritual plants needed for Body-Defending Pills and Instant-Power Pills were difficult to purchase, especially in such large quantities, so having someone deliver them right to her door worked out perfectly.

Moreover, the quality of these spiritual plants was quite good, with no inferior materials thrown in to pad the numbers.

Shi Yu accepted the wooden boxes and smiled. “When does Grand Elder Xiao need them by?”

Wen Wen replied, “They are urgent pills for the Xiao Clan's younger disciples who are going out to train. He asked if they could be delivered within half a month.”

Half a month was somewhat tight. Wen Wen studied Shi Yu's expression, fearful that she might find it too demanding.

“I understand,” Shi Yu nodded. “Sister Wen, once the pills are refined, I'll have Qingzhou send them to the association.”

“That's wonderful.” Seeing no strain on her face, Wen Wen felt relieved and stood up to take her leave. “Once the pills are delivered, a payment in spirit stones will be provided based on their quality.”

She added, “Then I won't disturb you any longer. Things are busy at the association, so I should head back as soon as possible.”

Shi Yu nodded with a smile and escorted her out of the cave dwelling.

“Accepting commissions is indeed a fine way to accumulate spiritual plants,” she murmured to herself as she walked toward the alchemy room.

Those spiritual plants that were extremely hard to find or monopolized by prominent families were difficult to gather in a short time, making this approach a viable alternative. Once she refined the requested number of pills, all remaining spiritual plants belonged to her, saving her the trouble of gathering them herself.

Of course, this method was only feasible for someone like Shi Yu, who possessed an extraordinarily high success rate.

For ordinary alchemists, while the leftover plants officially belonged to them, quite a few ended up burning through every bit of material sent to barely meet the quota, earning little more than the spirit stone fee.

That being said, although she had told Wen Wen she could refine Body-Defending Pills and Instant-Power Pills, this was her first time actually making them in this world.

Stepping into the alchemy room, Shi Yu composed her mind, ignited the fire to warm the furnace, and began placing the spiritual plants inside in proper order to refine them.

At first, her movements were slightly rusty, but soon enough, her actions became as skilled as if she had repeated them tens of thousands of times.

Her spiritual sense wove through the firelight as medicinal liquids of various colors hovered inside the furnace chamber. Guided by her spiritual sense, they drew close to one another, their medicinal properties intertwining like thread passing through a needle, gradually fusing together...

The subsequent division into individual pills and infusion of spiritual energy followed naturally. The medicinal liquid, perfectly fused, split evenly into several portions, slowly condensing into rough, pitted pill embryos. With the infusion of spiritual energy, each embryo transformed into a pleasantly smooth and round pill.

When the refining was complete and the furnace lid lifted, five Body-Defending Pills lay within, exuding a rich aroma and glowing with a lustrous pill halo.

Shi Yu stored them in a jade bottle and tapped the container gently with her finger. Listening to the crisp sound, she murmured, “Not bad.”

For the subsequent furnaces, she held back a bit of effort or divided the liquid into a few more portions during splitting, diluting their medicinal strength so that the resulting pills were medium-grade.

In short, she mixed medium-grade and high-grade pills together.

Thus, refining pills in her spare moments between cultivation, it took only seven or eight days to complete the required quantities for both types of pills, with more than half of the delivered spiritual plants remaining.

While Shi Yu was not extraordinarily smooth in social interactions, she was sharp and perceptive, and certainly not rigid in her dealings.

She added a few extra pills to each batch as a bonus rather than sticking rigidly to the requested count of thirty.

She instructed Qingzhou to deliver the pills to Wen Wen. The next day, Wen Wen arrived to find Shi Yu, pleasantly surprised and carrying the spirit stone payment along with a message.

“What remarkable skill, Miss!” Wen Wen said with a beaming smile, handing her a bulging bag of spirit stones. “Not only did you finish the commission so far ahead of schedule, but you even gave a few extra.”

“More importantly, every single pill is of impressive quality.”

The pills Shi Yu had Qingzhou deliver were an even mix of medium-grade and high-grade. In a world where ordinary people considered even medium-grade pills a rare find, this was more than enough to leave a deep impression.

“Yesterday afternoon, when Elder Xiao received the pills, he even muttered, ‘Refined so quickly?’ fearing that you had rushed the job carelessly,” Wen Wen giggled, covering her mouth as she described the scene to Shi Yu. “But guess what happened?”

Shi Yu played along, blinking as she asked, “What happened?”

“The moment he unstoppered the jade bottle, his eyes bulged wide! He was speechless for ages.” Having handled a commission that turned out so spectacularly gave Wen Wen plenty of pride, and her eyes crinkled with non-stop laughter. “He kept praising your extraordinary alchemy skills and your generous nature.”

Shi Yu smiled softly. “As long as Elder Xiao is satisfied.”

Judging from the spirit stone reward Wen Wen brought, the elder was indeed satisfied to the extreme. A sweep of Shi Yu's divine sense confirmed there were no fewer than a thousand spirit stones inside the bag.

Prominent families kept close ties with one another, so it would not take long for word of this to spread. When that happened, people coming to request alchemy services would likely arrive in an endless stream.

Wen Wen shook her head, her lips curling upward. “I'm afraid you will be quite busy from now on, Miss.”

Taking on commissions was essentially a costless business for Shi Yu, so naturally she had no reason to decline.

However, if there were too many commissions, it would inevitably disrupt her cultivation. Thus, she added, “I must trouble you to screen them carefully, Sister Wen. Accept at most one commission every half month, and the requested quantity should not be excessively large.”

“Rest assured,” Wen Wen replied understandingly. “Even if you were willing to exhaust yourself taking on so many, if the presidents found out, neither of us would hear the end of it.”

The presidents attached immense importance to Shi Yu's cultivation progress and alchemy studies.

Having reached an agreement, Wen Wen bade farewell and hurried back to the association.

Not long after she left, Qingzhou returned from his errands outside and reported to her on what he had accomplished over the past few days.

“The shop is all cleaned up and ready. I embedded the spirit stone lamps Sister gave me into the walls and draped them with radiant gold gauze. The light they emit keeps the entire shop bright, giving it a feeling of warm sunlight day and night. It looks wonderful.”

Shi Yu pictured the scene, her eyes curving into smile crescents. “Then I'll refine a few more spirit stone lamps for you. If the shop expands in the future, we can place one in every room.”

“Mm!” Qingzhou smiled softly and added, “The shelves have all been repaired, and I also added some spiritual flowers, calligraphy, and paintings for decoration.”

“Also, regarding the Xie Clan Auction House, I've finalized the arrangements for auctioning the Lesser Longevity Pill.”

Shi Yu asked, “How did it go? When is it scheduled?”

Qingzhou replied, “It will be put up for bid at the auction in a few days. The manager did advance promotion among the prominent families and the outer city sects, so barring any surprises, it should fetch a good price.”

He thought for a moment, his gaze softening further. “Also, the spiritual grain planted in the herb garden looks like it will mature in a day or two. I ordered a few pairs of spirit chickens and spirit ducks from Miaoyi Tower. In the future, we can raise them on the spiritual grain husks, so Sister will have fresh meat to eat.”

He recounted each detail with joy shining in his eyes, clearly taking delight in doing all these tasks.

Shi Yu couldn't help feeling that not having to worry about these trivial matters herself was truly wonderful.