Chapter 4117 — The Heavenly Pill Pavilion

"It is not yet too late in the day. Better today than some chosen date—why not go and have a look at the shop premises right now?" Cai Zhongxuan suggested.

"I was just about to say the same." Wei Zhao nodded gladly, then turned to instruct the others: "Xueli, Tianchan, you two stay here and keep each other company. We will be back before long."

"All right," Xueli and Tianchan answered in unison. Neither of them was suited to showing her face in public—Xueli especially, who had only recently been wanted on every street, was in no position to go out.

Wei Zhao and the others set off at once, led by Cai Zhongxuan to the shop he had picked out. It was just as he had said: this location, though somewhat inferior to that of the Five Elements Merchant Guild, was still a busy thoroughfare where people came and went—quite good indeed.

The only pity was that the shop was not very large. But Wei Zhao had only ever intended to run a small business with the two women; too big a premises would have been more trouble than it was worth to manage, and this one was already enough for them to gain a foothold.

After looking it over from top to bottom, Wei Zhao was on the whole thoroughly satisfied and settled on it then and there. Because Cai Zhongxuan had stepped in to smooth the way, the original owner did not demand too high a transfer price but offered a very low, friendly rate—yet even so, it came to a full ten thousand spirit jades.

Cai Zhongxuan had meant to pay for Wei Zhao along with his own share. Ten thousand spirit jades was an astronomical sum to an ordinary man, but as deputy steward of the Five Elements Merchant Guild, such an amount was nothing to him. What he had not expected was that Wei Zhao, without a word of demur, produced a spirit jade card and paid on the spot.

That scene left everyone stunned for a good while. They all knew by now that Wei Zhao was a disciple of the Threefold Pavilion of the North Island, but who could have imagined that a mere disciple of the Threefold Pavilion would have so many spirit jades in hand?

Only Di Xingdao clapped Wei Zhao on the shoulder and roared with laughter. "Brother Wei Zhao is no ordinary man—how could he be measured by common sense?"

With the premises settled, the next order of business was to find someone to renovate it afresh and remodel it in a style befitting a pill shop. Cai Zhongxuan took this task upon himself; as deputy steward of the Five Elements Merchant Guild, he was the only one among them with experience in such matters, and there was no one better suited to handle it.

The renovation would take at least three days, and that time could just as well be left to Wei Zhao to prepare pills. Cai Zhongxuan had offered to supply him at a low price, but that smacked of abusing his office for private gain, and Wei Zhao did not wish to compromise the other man's principles or reputation on his account.

Besides, with two alchemists, Wei Zhao and Tianchan, at hand, they had no need of ready-made pills—only ready-made spirit herbs and materials, and those Hou Guanqi could easily procure with a single word to the Pill Hall.

After the others dispersed, Wei Zhao returned to his room, where Tianchan and Xueli immediately came up to him and asked, "How did it go? Is the shop to your liking?"

"Very much so. I have already taken it," Wei Zhao said with a nod and a smile. "By the way, Tianchan, how is your pill refinement?"

"At my present level I can refine fourth-grade pills at most, and I can generally guarantee the success rate, though I dare not vouch for their quality. Anything third-grade or below, however, is no problem at all," Tianchan replied.

Wei Zhao fell silent for a moment at this. Cai Zhongxuan had told him earlier that on the Middle Island market these days, almost no one bought pills below the third grade; fourth- and fifth-grade pills were the hot sellers here, and sixth- and seventh-grade pills even turned up now and then. If the pill shop they opened was to be competitive, the pills it sold would have to be at least third-grade—that was the bare minimum.

"Then here is how we shall do it: from now on, Tianchan, you will concentrate on refining third- and fourth-grade pills, and I will handle fourth-grade and above. Over these three days, let us refine as many as we can," Wei Zhao decided on the spot.

To date, the highest grade of pill Wei Zhao had successfully refined was only the fourth. He would certainly attempt fifth-grade and even higher in future, but for now the pill shop would have to make fourth-grade pills its mainstay.

"All right, I will do as you say," Tianchan agreed readily.

"And what about me? What should I do?" Xueli asked from the side. Unlike Tianchan, she was no alchemist and could not help Wei Zhao with this, and so she felt a little superfluous and useless.

"For now, Xueli, you had best conserve your strength. Once we open, you will be the manageress at the front counter—you will have your hands full then," Wei Zhao teased with a smile.

"Very well, then." At the word "manageress," Xueli's pretty face flushed red, and she lowered her head and said no more.

Wei Zhao and Tianchan exchanged a knowing smile. Hou Guanqi had by then sent over the spirit herbs and materials, and the two at once brought out their pill furnaces, ready to begin refining.

Yet at the thought of Han Jingyi, of whom there was still no word, Wei Zhao and the two women could not help but sigh, and each secretly prayed that Han Jingyi would not, like the two of them, be subjected to every manner of bullying.

Three days is neither long nor short, and when Wei Zhao poured all his attention into pill refinement, aided by the Shennong Cauldron, his efficiency was nothing short of astonishing.

Just as before on the Far North Island, in a mere three days Wei Zhao once again refined a full one hundred and twenty fourth-grade pills, all from the formulae Hong Zhong had given him—a great variety, and what was more, every last one of them of the finest quality.

By comparison, Tianchan's output over those three days could only be called respectable: thirty fourth-grade pills of middling quality and thirty third-grade pills of superior quality. Many of these, of course, were stock she had refined earlier; she had no Shennong Cauldron and could not possibly refine so quickly.

Their combined efforts came to a full one hundred and eighty pills. Compared with a great merchant guild like the Five Elements Merchant Guild, the number was far from enough, but for a newly opened little pill shop, it was already enough to sustain it for a time.

With the pills prepared on this side and the renovation of the shop completed by the men Cai Zhongxuan had found on the other, Wei Zhao had no intention of choosing a special auspicious day. Better today than some chosen date—after a simple round of preparations, he decided to open at once.

The pill shop was named the Heavenly Pill Pavilion. Wei Zhao had chosen the name himself and had Di Xingdao, deputy island lord of the Middle Island, write out the inscription in his own hand. Though no master calligrapher, his strokes on the plaque flowed like dragons and serpents and carried a grandeur all their own, lending the shop an added air of distinction.

On opening day, Wei Zhao showed no inclination to hoard his wares. He put the full one hundred and eighty pills he and Tianchan had refined over those days on display, and to draw in customers he priced every pill more than ten percent below the other shops. R1152