Chapter 3371 — The Yu Family's Invitation

"Young Hero Lin, might you have the time? Could you come to the hidden Yu family estate? There is a matter I wish to discuss with you..." Yu Tianxing sighed inwardly. He had not wished to have any further dealings with Wei Zhao, yet what was to come could not be done without him—especially given Wei Zhao's current strength, which had all but reached the pinnacle of the cultivation world. Even among the ancient powers, scarcely a handful would dare to challenge Wei Zhao openly.

Even Yu Tianxing's own backers now took an ambiguous stance, leaving him no choice but to steel himself and face Wei Zhao directly. The move he was about to make could not possibly bypass Wei Zhao; if Wei Zhao refused, then everything would be for naught.

"Oh?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. He had not expected Yu Tianxing to invite him over to discuss something. But Wei Zhao was eager to get home, intending to give the energy stones to Wang Xinyan for use, so he hesitated a moment and said, "Is it very important? Urgent? If it can wait, how about I pay you a visit after some time?"

"It concerns Xiao Ning..." Yu Tianxing said.

"Xiao Ning?!" Wei Zhao drew a deep breath. Yu Tianxing's request left him no way to refuse. Wang Xinyan was in a coma, true, but her life was not in immediate danger; with Yu Ning, however, who knew what trouble might arise?

"Indeed. Besides Xiao Ning, there is another person connected to you—Shen Yushu." Yu Tianxing paused here. "I believe you have some inkling of the ties between our Yu family and her..."

"Very well. I will come the moment I reach home!" A vague sense of something stirred in Wei Zhao's heart. But what did this have to do with Yu Ning? He reckoned that Shen Yushu's departure for Fire Flame Mountain was drawing near, and that the Yu family's call must concern this matter.

But Yu Ning—could she also be entangled in this?

At that thought, Wei Zhao instructed Yu Dake to drive faster, for the car had already entered the boundaries of Donghai City, and within half an hour they would reach the villa district.

Wei Zhao's car pulled up dusty and travel-worn at the villa gate. Hearing the sound, Shen Yushu and Han Jingyi came out of the villa together.

"Jingjing? You are here too?" Wei Zhao was somewhat surprised; he had not expected Han Jingyi to be at the villa as well.

"Yes. There were some things I wished to talk over with Brother Wei Zhao. The company has been quiet lately, so I waited here for you," Han Jingyi said.

"Oh? What is it?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Kang Jingming has already launched a counterfeit of our second-grade automatic medicinal cauldron onto the market. Since our product has halted production and sales, Kang Jingming's version is enjoying decent sales," Han Jingyi said. "Of course, this is only the beginning; the sales certainly will not sustain. The number of second-grade alchemists is limited—according to the cultivators' guild's count, barely forty or fifty in the entire cultivation world. We have already sold thirty, which means Kang Jingming can sell at most thirty more before the market is saturated. And that is assuming some sects buy two to stockpile."

"Mm, let him be for now." Wei Zhao knew that having dealt Kang Jingming and Ancestor Xuanchen such a heavy blow this time, it was all but certain they would come up with some countermeasure.

"So what do we do next?" Han Jingyi asked.

"I have obtained the energy stones. We can release the new first- and second-grade automatic medicinal cauldrons," Wei Zhao said. "However, the cauldrons' energy will be replenished by replacement at service outlets; customers will not be permitted to open the cauldrons themselves to remove the energy stones. This will require an encryption measure: if a customer opens the cauldron without authorization and removes the energy stone, they forfeit all subsequent warranty and maintenance rights for the cauldron."

Wei Zhao's real purpose in doing this was to prevent the energy stones from being extracted and put to other uses—cultivation, for instance. This way, the moment an energy stone was forcibly removed, the cauldron's warranty and maintenance would be void; and it could only be done once. Recharging the cauldron would no longer be possible.

If one wanted more energy stones, the only path was to pay a high price for a brand-new cauldron. Otherwise, using a depleted energy stone for maintenance would be out of the question.

Naturally, the official price for replacing an energy stone would not be cheap either. Though Wei Zhao's jade pendant space could recharge them, Wei Zhao was no philanthropist; being able to make money this way was, in its own right, a development of the jade pendant space's functions.

"I understand what Brother Wei Zhao means. The energy stones may only serve to power the medicinal cauldrons, not to be used by cultivators for training. If that is discovered, the offender's subsequent warranty and maintenance rights are revoked." Han Jingyi nodded. "Actually, this is quite easy to implement. When the first- and second-grade automatic medicinal cauldrons refine pills, we can use server verification: each time, record the remaining energy of the energy stone on the server. If the energy stone's energy does not match the last recorded value, we shut down the cauldron's functions and revoke its maintenance rights."

"Mm, just see to it as you think best." Wei Zhao nodded. Then, in front of Shen Yushu, he suddenly drew forth a great quantity of energy stones from the jade pendant space. Yu Dake and Yu Xiaoke had already seen his ability, but Shen Yushu and Han Jingyi did not know of it, and Wei Zhao no longer wished to keep it from them.

Seeing so many energy stones appear out of thin air on the courtyard ground, Han Jingyi and Shen Yushu were startled.

"Chewing Gum Bro, where did these energy stones come from? Holy crap, did you conjure them up?" Shen Yushu stared wide-eyed at the energy stones on the ground.

Han Jingyi was equally astonished, gazing at Wei Zhao in bewilderment.

"I have a way of storing things. It is nothing much," Wei Zhao said. "Jingjing, these energy stones are all fully charged; the ones in my car are not. You can take these charged ones to study first, and put them on the market if you like. I have other matters to attend to and must go out; it may be several days before I can return."

Wei Zhao felt somewhat apologetic—after all, Han Jingyi had waited several days for him, and he was leaving the moment he arrived. But where Yu Ning and Shen Yushu were concerned, Wei Zhao dared not be negligent.

"Chewing Gum Bro, where are you going now?" Shen Yushu asked. "You still have not told little Shu what is so fun about that Hakunamata Desert!"

"When I return..." Wei Zhao sighed. RS