Chapter 53: The Drunken Star Manor Makes Its Move . . .
"Dean, the talent that this Ye Yuan displayed was truly astonishing. I feel that the academy should nurture him well. The Ten Nations Competition will be taking place in half a year's time. We had already lost for many years. If we are at the bottom three again this time, we would really have no place to put our old face in public."
Within the loft, in a deep part of the Dan Wu Academy, Huyan Yong was standing respectfully in front of a middle-aged man.
This man was the dean of the Dan Wu Academy, Jiang Yunhe. He was a figure that carried tremendous weight in the entire State of Qin!
His position in the State of Qin was not even beneath His Majesty!
But Jiang Yunhe was very low-profile as a person, and he rarely showed himself. He pretty much left it all to the associate deans to handle things and did not do anything.
During the few years which students spend in the Dan Wu Academy, they might not even get to see him once.
Even among many of the instructors, Jiang Yunhe was a highly mysterious figure.
Clearly, Huyan Yong was one of the few people in the academy who could meet with Jiang Yunhe.
It was evident that Huyan Yong specifically came to report to Jiang Yunhe about Ye Yuan's matter.
He recounted Ye Yuan's stunning performance to Jiang Yunhe. But Jiang Yunhe only listened quietly and did not comment anything.
"Oh Huyan, calm down. Victory and defeat are common for soldiers. There's no need to fuss over the details. Life is full of ups and downs. When it's time for us to rise up, other people cannot stop it," Jiang Yunhe said nonchalantly.
"But Dean! Ye Yuan, he . . ."
Huyan Yong wanted to say a few more words for Ye Yuan, but Jiang Yunhe gestured to stop him. "I already said calm down. Sigh. Huyan, you are always like this. What are you anxious about? We haven't even started competing yet. Furthermore, we also have quite a few outstanding students this time around such as Long Tang, Zuo Bugui; oh , and also Feng Zhirou that lass. They are all good seedlings. Well, this Ye Yuan that you mentioned isn't bad, but a genius that has not matured yet isn't a genius. Any genius who hasn't broken through and reached the Spirit Condensation Realm doesn't count as a genius, understood?"
After Jiang Yunhe said all that, Huyan Yong slowly calmed down. He seemed to have understood something faintly. "Dean, are you afraid that . . . Ye Yuan is going down the unorthodox path?"
Thinking about it now, Ye Yuan was just a First Level Essence Qi Realm little rookie a month ago. In a month's time, he already reached the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm with actual combat power surpassing top geniuses at the Eighth Level Essence Qi Realm. This sort of leap was a little too exaggerated.
Without mentioning about others, even a genius like Long Tang would probably require at least a year's time to train from the First Level Essence Qi Realm to the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm? But Ye Yuan did it in only a month.
Such astonishing growth was truly inconceivable. The most immediate idea was most likely that he had over exhausted his potential, right?
And the price for over exhausting one's potential was sacrificing future growth!
Jiang Yunhe smiled and said, "I didn't say that. But let's observe for a period of time first. You don't have to worry too much about resources and what not. Didn't Ye Yuan plunder several tens of thousands of Essence Qi Pills? It shouldn't be a problem to train to the Ninth Level Essence Qi Realm."
Huyan Yong sighed and took his leave.
After Huyan Yong left, Jiang Yunhe walked to the window with his hands behind his back and muttered to himself, " Oh Ye Yuan, I really hope that you are a peerless genius. Don't let me down!"
. . . . . .
The alchemist test would be taking place in the capital in four days' time. Ye Yuan figured that he might as well skip classes, and brought Lu-er back home to stay for a few days.
As he had just broken through not long ago, Ye Yuan planned to use these few days to properly consolidate his realm. The next step would be to directly assault the Sixth Level Essence Qi Realm.
Within a minor stage in the Essence Qi Realm, Ye Yuan could completely disregard the bottleneck between realms and directly cross them.
This was already after intentionally slowing down. If it was not out of fear that his foundation would become unstable, Ye Yuan could even break through several realms within a day.
After all, the Essence Qi Realm was simply too easy for Ye Yuan who was once a Divine King.
"If Master and Madam know that Young Master became an Earth Rank student, they would be ecstatic." Lu-er was full of pride as if she was the one who became an Earth Rank student.
"It's just being a stupid Earth Rank student. Who cares?" Ye Yuan curled his lips in disdain.
"Of course it's impressive! You don't know what kind of expression they had outside. Each of them stared at the light screen as if they saw a ghost. Initially, I didn't know how amazing Earth Rank students are. But afterward, I heard that there had never been anyone in the Dan Wu Academy who advanced and became an Earth Rank when they were at the Fourth Level Essence Qi Realm. That's when I found out that Young Master is so incredible!" Lu-er said excitedly.
" Haha. There will be plenty more times for them to be shocked in the future. If you are this way each time, wouldn't it be exhausting?" Infected by Lu-er's mood, Ye Yuan also started laughing heartily.
"Why would that be tiring? If that were the case, I would be happy every day!" Lu-er replied seriously.
"Then I will make my Lu-er happy every day, okay?"
"Hehe. Young Master is still the best! Lu-er is already very happy right now! Yii? Why are there so few people in the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion? Normally in the past, the queue would be super long at this time."
The master and servant pair arrived at the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion without realizing it. But then Lu-er found that something was not quite right with the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion.
In the past, the entrance to the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion was always crowded with streams of people. But today, it looked a little deserted.
"Let's go in to check it out."
Ye Yuan entered the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion with Lu-er and discovered that there were really much fewer people. It was not even half of the norm in the past. What was going on?
"Young Master Ye, why are you back?"
The shopkeeper was clearly idling today. The moment Ye Yuan walked in, he noticed this and hurried over to greet the former.
"Shopkeeper Feng, why are there so few people in the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion today? What happened?"
The shopkeeper was surnamed Feng and was the third-born; so he was called Feng San 1 . He was an old employee of the Fragrant Medicine Pavilion and was completely loyal. Even Ye Hang was very respectful towards him.
Hearing Ye Yuan's question, he involuntarily let out a long sigh. "Sigh . . . Isn't it all thanks to that Drunken Star Manor. Who knows where they got the pill formula of something called Essence Gathering Pill. The medicinal effects are 50% stronger than even the effects of a high-grade Essence Qi Pill! These few days, they released the new medicinal pills, attracting everyone over. As a result, our Fragrant Medicine Pavilion's business fell drastically. Sigh. With this sort of medicinal pill, the Drunken Star Manor is now undefeatable. The owner has also been troubled by this these few days!"
"It's really Drunken Star Manor again! Essence Gathering Pill huh . . ." Ye Yuan started to muse.
"That's right. The price of this Essence Gathering Pill is about the same as a high-grade Essence Qi Pill, but the medicinal effects are 50% stronger. As long as one is a martial artist, who could possibly resist this kind of temptation? Sigh. It looks like hard times are ahead for our Fragrant Medicine Pavilion."
Feng San sighed and groaned. His face was full of worry. It was apparent that he spent the past few days distressed over it.
This move by the Drunken Star Manor came too suddenly without any signs at all. The Fragrant Medicine Pavilion was caught unaware. As a result, this led to the current situation.
"Don't worry too much, Shopkeeper Feng. It's just a tiny little Essence Gathering Pill. It can't cause any huge waves." Ye Yuan smiled as he consoled the shopkeeper.
Feng San looked at Ye Yuan and sighed as he said, "Young Master probably isn't aware of what this 50% medicinal effect means. This is something that can change the medicinal pills market in the State of Qin! With this, the Drunken Star Manor can become a monopoly power in the future!"
Ye Yuan knew that any explanation was futile, so he smiled and asked, "Shopkeeper Feng, is my father in the shop? I will go look for him."
"Yes. The owner has been in a closed-door seclusion in the pill refinement room these past few days."