Chapter 2184 — Kang Jingming's Opportunity
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"Oh? And what precondition would that be?" Elder You saw the grave expression on Tian Canbian's face and at once asked, every bit as solemn.
"Are there any more of these Marrow-Cleansing, Bone-Tempering Pills?" Tian Canbian asked. If more of them existed, and more than five at that, then there would be no need to seek out anyone else, nor to train any alchemists; even a single pill would do, so long as it was given to the people of the Xuandan Sect to take.
"I've heard of none," Elder You said, shaking his head. "This Marrow-Cleansing, Bone-Tempering Pill was originally called the Longevity and Detoxification Pill, and it circulated through auction houses in the mundane world. Very few were ever auctioned. The Kang family did manage to buy one, though—whether they still have it, I couldn't say..."
"Oh? The Kang family again. Then I must trouble you, Elder You, to contact them. If that Longevity and Detoxification Pill has not been taken, ask them to bring it as soon as possible, and I will pay ten times its price. If it has been taken, then have the one who took it come. If that person is over thirty years of age, then there is no need for them to come..." Tian Canbian said.
"Yes!" Elder You was puzzled as to why anyone over thirty would be disqualified, but he did not dare ask, and merely nodded and did as he was told.
As for why Tian Canbian required them to be under thirty, it was because only those under thirty had any hope of being trained into alchemists. Once a person was too old, they could scarcely manage even to cultivate, let alone refine pills.
At the Kang household, Elder Kang Lai Cai, Kang Guifeng, and Kang Cuipu were at that moment entertaining the two Xiao brothers at a banquet.
"Brother Xiao Ji, Brother Xiao Ben, the Kang family owes its escape from this crisis entirely to the Xiao family's righteous intervention—without it, we would truly have been finished!" Kang Guifeng raised his cup and spoke with profound gratitude.
Because of the new product launch fiasco at Guan Dafu Pharmaceuticals, the Kang family's sales and reputation alike had plummeted. Their products simply would not sell now, piling up in mountains in the warehouses. Worse still, they were under investigation day in and day out, until at last they had been forced to pay a colossal sum in compensation to consumers just to keep the company afloat.
Yet the Kang family, with not a penny to its name, could by no means have produced such a fortune. It was the Xiao family who had put up the money, and so the Kang family was deeply grateful to them for stepping forward in their hour of peril.
"Indeed, the two Brother Xiaos truly return good for evil!" Kang Cuipu chimed in. "When we broke off the engagement back then, you bore us no grudge, and you were willing to lend us a hand in our darkest hour—we are truly thankful!"
"The Xiao family is no longer the great house it once was—we are merely brothers in adversity now," Xiao Ben said with a sigh. "Only by joining forces and binding ourselves together can we preserve any of our former prestige. Though each of us has a hidden family at our back, that Wei Zhao is riding higher than ever now, and we are no match for him at all. Our only choice is to band together and eke out our survival..."
There was a note of helplessness in Xiao Ben's voice. He recalled how magnificent the Xiao family had been in its day as one of the great houses, and now look at them—fallen to a station barely a cut above an ordinary clan, and not by much at that.
"Indeed. When I think back on those years, our Kang family too was full of ambition—and then came that little bastard Wei Zhao!" At the mere mention of the name, Divine Doctor Kang ground his teeth in hatred. "One day, mark my words, this old man will do him in!"
Xiao Wangba and Xiao Wangdao, along with Kang Jinglong and Kang Jingming, were all merely guests at this banquet and had no real right to speak—but just then, Kang Jingming's phone began to ring...