GDK 714: Pharmaceutical Conference
Han Shuo had leisure time for months after that sale. Andrina had been spending all her time eating crystal coins one piece at a time on the third floor as though eating biscuits. She appeared much healthier and it was obvious that most of her injuries had healed.
Han Shuo did not leave the city to collect medicinal ingredients nor did he continue to refine medicines. Instead, he simply meditated on the second floor.
He understood that inside the City of Shadows, those who would purchase his medicines regardless of the exorbitant prices were members of large family clans. His customer base made up only a small percentage of the population. If he were to produce too many medicines at once, his medicines might appear less rare and precious to his customers.
Therefore, instead of continuing to produce medicines, Han Shuo told the world that he lacked medicinal ingredients and needed to rest, therefore unable to supply them with more medicines.
Three months pa.s.sed noiselessly. Han Shuo’s avatar of death that had been persistently cultivating inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon finally made a breakthrough and advanced to early-stage midG.o.d realm. It was familiarizing itself with its new realm and was focused on mastering several new techniques.
Meanwhile, Han Shuo’s avatar of destruction had become more and more skilled in the use of Orb of Destruction. It could manipulate an orb to move in any direction and anywhere he liked at just the thought of it.
Meanwhile, after being destroyed and reconstructed yet again, Han Shuo’s demonic body became even stronger. His body could now sustain a portion of the demon general’s energy contained inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon. In other words, Han Shuo could borrow Cauldron Spirit’s power to boost his own strength temporarily.
However, doing so was very risky as he was pus.h.i.+ng his body beyond its limits. If his body was injured in the process, recovering from the injuries wouldn’t be as simple. This was because Han Shuo needed to utilize his demon infant to boost his strength using Cauldron Spirit’s energy. Injuries sustained by the demon infant would need far longer to heal compared to injuries to his body.
Therefore Han Shuo could only boost his strength using Cauldron Spirit’s energy for a very short period of time. If he were to exceed that time limit, both his body and demonic infant would pay the price.
Han Shuo was very happy to learn about this from Cauldron Spirit. Being able to boost his strength, even for a very short period of time, could come in very handy during emergencies, such as if Avery attacked him again.
Donna never came to visit Han Shuo again. Although she did not say it out loud, Han Shuo knew that Donna suspected him. He also knew that there was no way that they could again interact as friendly as in the past. Although Han Shuo was unwilling to see their relations.h.i.+p turn into what it had become, there wasn’t anything that he could do about it. From the moment that Avery took him as his enemy, he knew that there would come a day that he and Donna would part ways.
During the period of time, Andre came to visit Han Shuo once again. Peculiarly, he came to ask if Han Shuo had any information about Carmelita as she still hadn’t returned to the City of Shadows and had stopped transmitting news to the House of Sainte for a month. This left Andre rather worried about Carmelita’s safety.
Han Shuo, naturally, wasn’t able to provide Andre with any kind of a.s.sistance and could only admit that he knew nothing. He too was getting somewhat worried about Carmelita’s safety.
Avery of the Fifth Corps seemed to be busy with some foreign affairs and hadn’t been in the City of Shadows for more than two months. During the days he was away from the City of Shadows, Han Shuo felt relaxed as he didn’t need to be constantly on the alert for any surprise attack from Avery.
One day, while meditating on the second floor, Han Shuo received an invitation card.
This invitation came from the G.o.dswamp Pharmacy of the City of Shadows, saying that the G.o.dswamp Pharmacy was holding a conference for pharmacists and Han Shuo was among those invited. Han Shuo originally wanted to decline the invitation but after reading that the pharmacy also intended to discuss cooperation between the two businesses, he hesitated for a bit and decided to go take a look.
Two days later, at nightfall.
“Where are you going?” Andrina asked from the third floor as soon as Han Shuo stepped to the exit.
“There’s a pharmaceutical conference, I’m going there to have a look. You can stay here,” Han Shuo casually replied as he started leaving.
“I will go with you!” Andrina replied in her lovable voice and gently floated down from the third floor. She lightly stepped on Han Shuo’s shoulders with her small feet, giggled, and hopped down.
“My enemy isn’t inside the City of Shadows at the moment so you don’t have to follow me. I’ll be fine.” Han Shuo had inquired Cauldron Spirit and was rea.s.sured that even if he was suddenly attacked by a highG.o.d, by instantly borrowing Cauldron Spirit’s energy, he would at least have the chance to deploy Demonic Blood Disa.s.sembly to escape.
“That won’t do. I’m your bodyguard and so I must always be around you!” Andrina disagreed and shortly after, she let out a very soft laugh and said quietly, “Are you going to do something bad like… fornicating a woman? Hehe… even if you are, I must still follow you!”
“Suit yourself,” Han Shuo didn’t mind if Andrina was to follow behind him.
But suddenly, Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment as though he recalled something. He turned to Andrina and asked, “Now that your injuries are mostly healed, will it be a problem for you to get rid of an early-stage highG.o.d?”
Andrina did not immediately answer Han Shuo’s question. She carefully thought about it for a moment and replied, “I have not completely recovered. If that fella doesn’t run away and stay in the fight, I can definitely finish him. But if he immediately tries to escape after getting injured, then I cannot kill him.”
“In that case…” Han Shuo groped his chin before he put on a mischievous smile and asked, “Little Andrina, there’s a man who wants me dead. How about if we join forces and get rid of him together? If you are injured from the fight, I will provide crystal coins for you to heal free of charge. What say you?”
Rather than staying defensive, Han Shuo thought he might as well get on the offensive. After learning from Cauldron Spirit that he could boost his strength temporarily, a bold idea came to his mind, which was to sneak up on Avery and a.s.sa.s.sinate his greatest enemy of the hour with the help of Andrina.
Han Shuo had a rough idea of Andrina’s strength. He reckoned that by combining her strength with the instant boost Cauldron Spirit could provide him, they would have an eighty percent chance of successfully a.s.sa.s.sinating Avery.
“That won’t do. My job is only to protect you, not help you kill people!” Andrina declined straightforwardly. When Han Shuo’s expression turned sour, she giggled and said, “However, I can be there to cheer for you when you carry out the act yourself. If you then fail in the attempt, I can carry you away safely. How about that?”
Han Shuo rolled his eyes and did not say another word. He headed in the direction of the G.o.dswamp Pharmacy, completely ignoring Andrina. Han Shuo did not have the confidence of killing Avery even with his strength boosted by Cauldron Spirit. Without Andrina’s promise to help, Han Shuo definitely will not attempt such a dangerous act.
Andrina softly giggled after seeing that Han Shuo was annoyed. She did not take offense but vivaciously caught up to Han Shuo and continued to chatter and talk nonsense with Han Shuo.
Then, when they arrived at the front gate of the G.o.dswamp Pharmacy, the vitalized and lively Andrina became cold as ice all of a sudden. She stared at strangers uninvitingly. Her rosy little face no longer appeared adorable but would give people an uneasy feeling.
G.o.dswamp was the biggest pharmacy in the City of Shadows. Han Shuo had learned a little about the pharmacy before coming over. He found out that G.o.dswamp was renowned not just in the City of Shadows, but in the entire Dominion of Darkness. They had shops in every other large city in the dominion.
Han Shuo also heard that the overall power that G.o.dswamp Pharmacy possessed throughout the Darkness Dominion could give the family clans in the City of Shadows a run for their money, with the House of Sainte being an exception. Han Shuo was rather surprised by what he learned as he did not antic.i.p.ate that a small pharmacy business could have such a hold.
It was also thanks to this information that Han Shuo felt as though the G.o.dswamp Pharmacy had displayed an ideal to strive towards. He grew even more curious about the G.o.dswamp Pharmacy.
The pharmacy was huge and included multiple buildings. Each and every one of the structures was much taller, bigger, and wider than Han Shuo’s Celestial Pearl Pharmacy. The decorations were also much more magnificent.
Han Shuo handed his invitation card to the servant. The servant behaved very politely after learning that Han Shuo was a pharmacist from the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy. He even personally lead Han Shuo to a tall building at the back of the campus for receiving guests, all the way to the top floor.
It was a banquet hall around one thousand square meters in size. There were some aesthetically pleasing drawings hung on the wall, soft, colorless carpet on the floor, as well as all kinds of glazed containers. There were numerous pharmacists with grizzled hair cheerfully chatting with each other with wine in their hands.
Pharmacists do not need to be exceedingly powerful in their cultivation. In fact, most of them only considered cultivation as supplementary to their practice. Most of them cultivated in the elemental energy of fire and water as the energy of fire could better allow them to dissolve medicines while the energy of water could aid in extracting the compounds in medicines.
They could do nearly every procedure in refining medicines after reaching lowG.o.d realm. Therefore, nearly every pharmacist remained in that realm. They would spend all the time they had studying and researching about refining medicines.
After sweeping a glance across the pharmacist crowd in the hall, that servant who led Han Shuo over announced his name. The originally clamorous hall went silent all of a sudden. The pharmacists who were in the midst of their own chatter all simultaneously cast their gazes at Han Shuo. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and shock.
During the period of time, Han Shuo’s Celestial Pearl Pharmacy had been in the limelight of the City of Shadows. The name ‘Celestial Pearl Pharmacy’ had a frequent presence in conversations among practically every member of large family clans in various conventions. As fellow pharmacists, they could not avoid hearing Han Shuo’s name.
Therefore, when the young Han Shuo suddenly showed up and stood before these aged pharmacists, everyone gathered their gazes at him. They wanted to see the person behind the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy whose fame was so rapidly rising.
“This youngster is the owner of the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy?” an old woman with green hair and a paper-pale face, and dressed in brightly colored clothes cried out in surprise.
“Master Gu Li, he is precisely the owner of the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy – Bryan!” That servant who led Han Shuo to the hall then pointed at the old woman wearing quaint and colorful clothes and introduced her to Han Shuo, “This is the famous Master Gu Li of our City of Shadows. In the City of Shadows, Master Gu Li’s talent in refining medicines is second to none. Even large family clans wouldn’t get a bottle of her medicine if she wasn’t in the mood!”
Gu Li sized Han Shuo up with arrogant eyes. After a long while, she coldly groaned, “Mix Heavenly Flower with Green-Silver Fruit and cook it at five hundred degrees for three hours. What compound do you get?”
Han Shuo smiled and ignored Gu Li. He actually had no idea what the product of the reaction was because he wasn’t a pharmacist at all.
“Right, where is your owner? My invitation card says that he wants to talk business with me,” Han Shuo said unhurriedly to the servant.
“Hmph, just a pharmacist who is outdated and only knows how to take crystal coins. From the looks of it, he seems to have no solid foundation,” Gu Li sneered, “Who knows, perhaps he had merely stolen the medicine formulas from elsewhere.”
“Firecloud Gra.s.s, Frost Jade, and Boundless Aqua. Mixed at high speed and then frozen to negative one hundred and thirty degrees. What compound do you get?” Han Shuo shot a cold glance at Gu Li and asked her in a just as arrogant att.i.tude.
“Wha, what? I have never heard of those ingredients before! You are talking drivel, aren’t you?” Gu Li stared blankly for a moment before she sneered.
With a contemptuous face, Han Shuo said coldly, “Never even heard of these ingredients? How shameless you are to call yourself a pharmacist second to none in the City of Shadows. In fact, I think you have wasted your time living to this age. If I were you, I would be too ashamed to show my face at a pharmacist conference!” Han Shuo mocked her relentlessly. Then, completely ignoring Gu Li who was so fumed she nearly fainted, Han Shuo said to the servant, “Please take me to your business owner or I will leave this place right away. I feel that it is an insult to my dignity to be around such mediocre people.”
“Yes… Yes…” The servant hastily lead Han Shuo across the hall and towards a dwarf. “He is the owner of our G.o.dswamp Pharmacy – Steiss!” the servant introduced the dwarf to Han Shuo.
Han Shuo was stunned. He did not expect that the owner of the largest pharmacy in the City of Shadows would be this unprepossessing, and even a somewhat abnormally shaped person. Han Shuo cast away the doubt in his heart, smiled, and asked urbanely, “h.e.l.lo, Mister Steiss. Are you the one looking to discuss business with me?”
Steiss, with a warm smile on his face, nodded and replied, “That’s me. Glad to meet such a young pharmacist from the Celestial Pearl Pharmacy. If you don’t mind, let’s move to a quieter place for discussion!”
“Of course!” Han Shuo gladly agreed.
“This way please!” Steiss lead Han Shuo to a room behind the banquet hall.