Elder Du was both surprised and infuriated by the audacity of this kid. It had been a long time since anyone talked to him in this manner.
Suddenly, he felt a chill run down his spine. He looked around and noticed, for some reason, all the disciples except Han Cai were deep asleep.
He heard Han Cai's voice, "Don't eat his soul. The sect might have measures to check if the elder is alive. Also, question him first so we don't miss anything."
It was then Elder Du realized there was an old man standing beside him. He had not noticed when the old man had actually arrived. Elder Du stared curiously at the old man.
Before he could comprehend what was happening, a black cat walked out from his other side. The cat sauntered to the wine pot, poured itself some wine using shadow Qi, and started licking the wine.
Han Cai frowned and spoke, "Blacky, you never take the initiative to drink my high-grade spirit coffee. But you like his cheap wine."
Hearing the mention of spirit coffee, Elder Du saw a shiver run down through the black cat and the old man standing to the side.
Han Cai spoke, "To hell with it, I want some wine too."
That was the last thing Elder Du heard before he was swallowed by a gray Qi.
When Shu Tao, Ma Jun, and the other disciples woke up, they found Elder Du and Han Cai casually sipping wine. They were shocked to see Elder Du allowing Han Cai such close proximity, even sharing his expensive wine.
Elder Du addressed them, "Turns out this young lad is the great-grandson of a distant relative. He's my great-grand-nephew. From now on, Han Cai will stay in my abode. Show him the same respect as you show me. He is my relative."
The disciples, initially confused, nodded in agreement, including Shu Tao.
Han Cai spoke up, "Grandpa, creating so many pills is too much work. Could you reduce it for us? We don't get time to cultivate, and the punishment of lashes is too cruel. Could you stop that too, please?"
Elder Du nodded, "Since you asked, from now on, each disciple will produce two thousand pills. Use the remaining time for your cultivation."
The disciples were stunned, including Shu Tao. They were amazed by Han Cai's luck to be assigned to an elder who was a relative of his great grandfather. Shu Tao frowned. When he joined three years ago, he had to endure tremendous hardship before Elder Du gave him the lead position. At first, he despised Elder Du, but with time, he had accepted that this was life. Now, suddenly, the elder had a change of heart due to his great-grandnephew.
Shu Tao felt a pang of resentment, yet he knew that what the elder had said before was true - the world was not fair. It was not his place to question the elder, so he simply nodded along with the other disciples.
Inwardly, they were all grateful to Han Cai for speaking up on their behalf.
As night fell, all the disciples left, while Han Cai decided to reside in Elder Du's abode henceforth.
The following day, when the disciples arrived, they found Elder Du and Han Cai already present. The elder made them sit and began going through the theory of alchemy with them. He also shared some new pill recipes. He explained that they would divide their time into three parts: pill making, learning new pill recipes, and cultivating to increase their own cultivation level.
This new schedule was easy for He Jun to accept, but for the others, it was difficult to comprehend how their lives could change so drastically. However, since it was a positive change, none of them complained. They just hoped that it was not temporary.
As the days passed, they came to realize that Elder Du had truly changed his mind.
Shu Tao was initially dissatisfied, but to alleviate his dissatisfaction, Elder Du began guiding his cultivation and also gave him a new recipe, which eventually won him over.
Sometimes, they would notice a black cat roaming about in Elder Du's courtyard. When they asked Han Cai about it, he told them it was Elder Du's pet.
All the disciples had grown fond of Han Cai. His presence had significantly eased their lives, and being the relative of Elder Du, they strived to establish a good rapport with him. Whenever they approached him for a conversation, Han Cai always responded warmly.
Shu Tao, who was still reserved, also made some efforts to foster a good relationship with Han Cai.
Han Cai would entertain the children from time to time. But after that, he would get himself busy in Elder Du's main alchemy room, which had become his personal alchemy room.
He resumed his daily routine of cultivation and refining his techniques. His main priorities were to master all three grandmaster-level techniques, then awaken his legendary, otherworldly techniques, and most crucially, to keep elevating his cultivation level. When he started concocting, since he had already concocted fasting pills many times, he could now concoct around a hundred to two hundred pills in a batch.
In general, alchemists used fewer materials and created the pills in batches of ten or twenty to maintain the purity of the pills. Large batches required a lot of precision and skill, not to mention very high effort. But Han Cai, with his ability, once he concocted a pill that became part of his innate ability, he could add as much material as he liked and concoct hundreds of pills in a batch without affecting any potency of the pill.
Han Cai planned to start learning and concocting new high-grade and complex pills to improve his ability.
But Han Cai faced a new challenge now. The resources for the pills. He could concoct hundreds of any pill in a single batch, but those pills needed materials and resources which needed to be bought with spirit stones. He could not use his savings account spirit stones in his system storage; he needed new sources for income and a steady flow of spirit stones.
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Gifts are always appreciated, but golden tickets and power stones matter a lot too.
If we reach 2000 power stones, I will release two supplementary chapters.
If we reach 1000 golden tickets, I will release five supplementary chapters.
Thank You
