"I discovered yesterday that a mysterious energy is hidden within my body. This energy can help me refine medicinal pills into pure energy without any drug resistance."
Gu Feng slowly explained.
"What? No drug resistance?"
Elder Gu exclaimed in disbelief.
"How is that possible? Are you certain?"
"I experimented all last night, it is 100 percent true!"
Gu Feng nodded with certainty.
"Hahaha... Heaven is helping the Gu Family, Heaven is helping the Gu Family!!!"
After confirming it repeatedly, Elder Gu could no longer suppress the joy in his heart, clapping his hands and laughing heartily.
"It's just that this mysterious energy refines the medicinal potency quite slowly, taking one hour to refine a single pill."
"Even if I refine Blood-Changing Pills unceasingly, I can only refine twelve at most in a single day."
Afraid that Elder Gu would misunderstand and think he could refine an unlimited amount, Gu Feng quickly added.
"One pill an hour is already astonishingly fast, far surpassing ordinary people by too much."
Elder Gu said with a smile and a sigh of emotion.
Suddenly, Elder Gu seemed to think of something, and his smile gradually faded.
Seeing the smile slowly disappearing from Elder Gu's face, Gu Feng knew that he had finally realized the severity of the problem.
"Grandfather, this is the main reason why I came to find you today. Following this method of cultivation, just buying Blood-Changing Pills over the course of a year will cost forty to fifty thousand gold coins..."
Gu Feng's face flushed slightly, and he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, his voice growing softer and softer.
Elder Gu frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and said softly:
"It doesn't matter. If you needed High-Grade Blood-Changing Pills, I would indeed find it rather troublesome."
At this point, Elder Gu suddenly waved his hand imperiously and said:
"But if it's merely some Low-Grade Blood-Changing Pills, things that can be bought with a modest amount of gold coins, you can rest assured and go back to wait for my good news."
"Really?"
Doubt appeared on Gu Feng's face as he half-believed him.
Instead of answering Gu Feng's words, Elder Gu turned around, took several more bottles out of a secret compartment in the bookshelf, and said:
"I originally planned to wait until you finished refining that bottle of Mid-Grade Blood-Changing Pill, and if you still hadn't managed to buy more Mid-Grade Blood-Changing Pills, I would give these Low-Grade Blood-Changing Pills to you."
"I didn't expect you to refine pills so quickly, so I can only give these Low-Grade pills to you first."
"You just go ahead and refine the pills with all your might; I will buy more pills from the Lin Family as soon as possible."
Gu Feng took the medicine bottles and wanted to say something, but Elder Gu shook his head to signal him to speak no more.
In the end, Gu Feng had no choice but to take his leave and depart.
Watching Gu Feng's retreating figure, Elder Gu fell into deep thought, his brows tightly knitted as if wondering about something.
Judging by his expression, this matter was probably far from being as simple and easy as he had made it sound.
A few years ago, in order to break through to the Ninth-Rank and thoroughly consolidate the family's position, Elder Gu had used almost all of the family's savings to purchase pills that assisted in making the breakthrough.
Although he successfully broke through to the Ninth-Rank in the end, he also completely depleted the family's already meager foundation.
Now, only a few years had passed since Elder Gu's breakthrough—how many gold coins could he possibly have saved?
As soon as Gu Feng walked out of the study, the smile on his face vanished without a trace.
He was not some ignorant youngster; how could he fail to see through Elder Gu's kindly "lie"?
To outsiders, the Gu Family naturally appeared glorious beyond compare, rising from absolute nothingness in a mere thirty years to become the premier great family of Anshuang County.
Yet precisely because the Gu Family rose so rapidly, its foundation remained shallow.
Let alone comparing themselves to other prestigious families backed by Ninth-Rank Experts, even when compared to the other three major families of Anshuang County, they fell somewhat short.
The other three major families of Anshuang County were the Wu Family, the Chen Family, and the Lin Family.
The head of the Wu Family currently served as the magistrate of Anshuang County, and the Wu Family had branched out and passed down its legacy in Anshuang County for hundreds of years.
If you grabbed anyone at random on the streets of Anshuang County, that person would likely bear the surname Wu.
From this, one could see how extensive the Wu Family's clan connections were in Anshuang County.
Although the Chen Family did not possess as long a history in Anshuang County as the Wu Family, its legacy had likewise endured for one or two hundred years.
Furthermore, the Chen Family excelled in weapon crafting, and this generation even boasted a Yellow-tier Weapon Crafter overseeing them.
Almost all businesses related to weapon crafting in Anshuang County were established by the Chen Family, ranging from high-grade weapons down to all sorts of farming tools.
Finally, the Lin Family was quite similar to the Gu Family, being a great family that had risen in recent decades.
Yet the Lin Family excelled in alchemy; although they lacked a Yellow-tier Alchemist, they were still capable of brewing Blood-Changing Pills, items needed even by Grade 6 Martial Artists.
The head of the Lin Family was merely one step away from advancing from a senior alchemy apprentice to a true alchemist.
The Gu Family occupied a rather awkward position.
Although their martial might was the strongest among the four major families, making money in business could not rely purely on force.
A lack of connections and the absence of a standout specialty made the Gu Family appear somewhat weak in the commercial arena.
Even now, many of the Gu Family's businesses were yielded to them as gestures of goodwill from the other families.
These businesses were indeed sufficient to feed the entire Gu Family and support their cultivation.
However, with the addition of Gu Feng, this gold-devouring monster, it now seemed rather inadequate.
As for why the Gu Family did not rely on force to directly eliminate the other three major families and seize their wealth—
The Gu Family were not demonic evil cultivators; would they slaughter an entire family and plunder their wealth simply because those people had money?
The Gu Family disdained and refused to do such things.
Even on this continent governed by the law of the jungle, wiping out an entire family for no reason would still be regarded as demonic cultivation.
They would be rejected by all under heaven, and everyone would have the right to slay them.
After all, no one could guarantee that their own family's power was the absolute strongest, nor could anyone accept the prospect of their family being casually wiped out by a passing powerhouse.
Naturally, strength remained supreme in the end; if your strength were the number one under heaven, you naturally wouldn't need to care about others' opinions of you.
Unfortunately, the Gu Family's strength was still far from reaching such a willful and unrestrained level.
Another important reason was that the Taicang nation was a state possessing a complete set of laws.
The royal family did not wish for the families under its rule to slaughter one another at will, as this would undoubtedly plunge the national system into chaos and weaken its strength.
Therefore, the Taicang royal family specially established an oversight organization known as the Dark Guards.
The Dark Guards were scattered all across the country, and one of their primary functions was to monitor whether various family factions were plotting any unusual movements.
At the same time, should any family suddenly be exterminated, they would likewise be responsible for investigating the truth.
It would be one thing if there were a legitimate and righteous cause, but if people acted recklessly and arbitrarily, the kingdom would severely punish them without exception.
This was not to say that Taicang did not permit struggles among the various families—needless to say, the various families would never agree to that, nor would even the royal family itself.
After all, without struggles, how could a stagnant pool of water ever nurture an invincible Grandmaster?
Everything simply had to be controlled within a certain limit, preventing people from going too far.
Otherwise, once a reckoning came due, it would mean rolling heads and the destruction of one's family and household.
Moreover, this applied not only to the various great families, but ordinary commoners as well.
It was just that matters at the level of commoners did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Dark Guards.
As for whether ordinary law enforcement agencies would dare to offend a great family for the sake of a few commoners—that was a question for another day.