After leaving Dominic Ding, Evan Lin headed to the place where Warren Wu was staying.
Unlike his discussion of sword manuals with Dominic Ding, Warren Wu was currently savoring a cup of pre‑Rain Dragon Well tea specially prepared for him by the Zheng family. He lounged with his legs crossed, looking completely at ease.
"Looks like you're in a pretty good mood."
Evan walked in, glanced at him, and spoke.
"Young Lord!"
Warren Wu jumped in surprise, spilling his teacup on the floor. He hurriedly stood up, looked at Evan, and put on a big smile: "It's all thanks to your blessings, Young Lord."
"If it weren't for you, Young Lord, I'd probably still be stuck in River City, just scraping by and playing the role of 'Doctor Wu the Miracle Healer.'"
Warren Wu gave a sheepish laugh.
He'd spent plenty of time around Evan, so he knew his personality well. Unless it was a matter of principle, Evan always kept a calm, low‑key demeanor and never really put on airs or acted cold toward anyone.
"I know you used to be Valley Master of Medicine King Valley, but what's this about you being acting sect master of the Miracle Hand Sect too?"
Evan sat down in a chair, curiosity in his voice.
Previously, Master Weiyao was killed by Evan, and inside the Miracle Hand Sect, Evan had assigned Celine Lin and Alex Fu to manage things. But today, when Warren Wu introduced himself as acting sect master, neither Celine nor Alex seemed to have any objections.
"Here's how it is: earlier, didn't you ask me to handle the resource integration for Miracle Hand Sect? We merged all the contacts and networks between Medicine King Valley and Miracle Hand, so from now on, Medicine King Valley will focus on sourcing and procuring herbs, while Miracle Hand specializes in pill‑refining."
"But then Celine and Alex came to me, hoping I'd take over Miracle Hand's affairs so they could focus more on pill‑refining."
At this, Warren Wu grinned: "Honestly, my talent is what it is—my pill‑refining skills are just so‑so, I don't have much aptitude, my cultivation is basically zero, and I'm already old. I can't fight, so I figured I might as well take over all the management stuff."
Hearing this, Evan nodded, finally understanding.
"I was actually planning to teach you some pill‑refining techniques myself, but since you put it that way, maybe it's better to let you focus on managing contacts and sourcing herbs."
Evan's words made Warren freeze, his face falling into a look of regret.
He instantly regretted saying so much—if Evan had casually given him a few pointers, who knew what kind of benefits he might have gotten?
"By the way, how much are the combined assets of Medicine King Valley and Miracle Hand Sect?"
Evan asked about this, turning to look at Warren Wu.
Actually, Evan had been thinking for a while about how to build his own team of pill refiners. As long as he could train enough alchemists and gather enough herbs, he could produce plenty of Nourishing Spirit Pills.
Right now, Evan's cultivation was stuck in an awkward bottleneck. Even with the Foundation of the Dao manual, which let him generate some spiritual qi on his own, it was barely a drop in the bucket for real cultivation.
Hearing Evan ask about business, Warren Wu straightened up and cleared his throat. "Based on my recent tally, Medicine King Valley and Miracle Hand Sect, not counting immovable assets, have about 11.35 million in liquid funds on the books."
"Only a little over eleven million?"
Evan was momentarily stunned—he'd expected giants like Medicine King Valley and Miracle Hand Sect to have much deeper reserves.
"Miracle Hand Sect's assets are actually pitifully small. The merchants under the Miracle Hand Pavilion aren't part of the sect, and the doctors all used to work independently—they'd make their money and keep it for themselves, rarely turning anything over to the sect."
Talking about this, Warren looked a bit embarrassed: "As for Medicine King Valley, its most valuable asset is really the valley itself. Other than that, the inventory is mostly herbs collected over the years, but actual cash is shockingly scarce."
"Whenever Medicine King Valley needs money, it's usually from selling pills or taking on a few wealthy patients. They make money, spend it, and in the end, there's hardly anything left over."
"Neither Medicine King Valley nor Miracle Hand Sect have any real industries elsewhere. Medicine King Valley is famously strict about controlling its pills, and its most valuable asset is probably its network of contacts."
Warren Wu scratched his head and looked nervously at Evan. "Is there anything you need, Young Lord?"
"I want you to send people out to find a hundred candidates with pill‑refining talent, bring them back, and train them. It'd be best to build a new herb garden too."
Thinking about the herb garden, Evan suddenly had a bold idea.
Back when he first returned to Minghai, Evan had found a stalk of Brownrock Grass on Thousand-Saints Mountain. It was still young and not very effective, but then Evan used the Left-Hand Dragon to channel spiritual qi from Zhong Shuiyu into it, nourishing the Brownrock Grass and dramatically speeding up its growth.
If this worked, Evan could use the Left-Hand Dragon to absorb spiritual qi from a large number of Nourishing Spirit Pills, then channel that qi into immature herbs. This way, he could solve the problem of lacking high‑year medicinal ingredients for rare pills.
Most importantly, Evan remembered that after the Left-Hand Dragon finished nourishing the Brownrock Grass, the spiritual qi it contained was far greater than the original qi he'd put in.
In other words, a single stream of qi, after cycling through the Left-Hand Dragon, could become two or even three streams of purer spiritual qi. Used for pill refining, the supply of qi would be endless!
This thought made Evan's heart race with excitement.
"Finding a hundred pill‑refining talents... that's going to be tough," Warren blurted out, startled. "And even if we do, they're all going to be rookies. Training them will burn through a ton of herbs, and herbs cost money."
"Sure, we could sell some pills, but honestly, most martial artists act all tough, but their wallets are emptier than their faces are clean."
"Besides, among Miracle Hand's pill refiners, except for Celine Lin and Alex Fu, the rest are pretty hopeless—their success rate is abysmal. Take the Golden Marrow Pill, for example: it costs hundreds of thousands to make just one, and it's a tough sell."
Warren Wu sighed, clearly troubled.
You can't cook without rice, as the saying goes.
"Who said you have to sell those pills? In this world, making money isn't hard at all."