The grand office of the Jade Spring Hall fell into a breathless silence as Mei Yilan slid open a polished drawer. She retrieved a slender, silver alchemical knife and carefully scraped a microscopic fraction of powder from the first pill.
She placed the shimmering dust onto her tongue and closed her eyes to analyze the medicinal properties. A moment later, she repeated the exact same process with the second pill.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. And then, her eyes snapped open, blazing with absolute, unadulterated shock.
"Heavens..." Mei Yilan gasped, her voice trembling as she stared at the two jade bottles as if they held mythical, heaven-defying artifacts. The moment the powder had dissolved, the spiritual energy hadn't just settled; it had surged into her meridians with a terrifying, flawless purity.
"These are a full twenty percent more effective than ordinary market pills!" she breathed, looking up at Shen Yu. "That places them ten percent higher than the Peng Clan's new proprietary masterworks! But... the spiritual residue... why do they smell and taste so similar to theirs?"
"I simply deduced their base formula and adjusted the flaws," Shen Yu replied. His voice was entirely casual, devoid of any arrogance or exertion. To a former Tier-4 demonic alchemist who had once refined the blood of ancient beasts, correcting a mortal-grade pill was as trivial as breathing.
But to Yilan and her sharp-eyed assistant, Xu Yi, this casual statement was nothing short of a miracle.
Just a month and a half ago, the young master sitting before them was a crippled mortal who couldn't even brew basic herbal teas without exhausting himself. Now, he was flawlessly reverse-engineering and optimizing heavily guarded, proprietary alchemical recipes just by glancing at them.
"H-how is that even possible?" Mei Yilan stammered, entirely forgetting her usual composed demeanor as she stared at her nephew in disbelief.
"You know of the ancient inheritance I got," Shen Yu said smoothly. He spoke openly, even with Xu Yi in the room, knowing the voluptuous assistant was fiercely loyal to his aunt. "I gained a vast, profound amount of alchemical knowledge from it. Fixing a crude, low-tier recipe was merely a matter of applying that knowledge."
Hearing this, the overwhelming shock in the room finally began to recede into a stunned awe.
Mei Yilan already knew the story of this mysterious "ancient inheritance", it was the very reason that his shattered meridians were miraculously repaired. To a cultivator, it made logical sense that such a profound, life-altering inheritance would also contain lost alchemical arts. Yilan had previously briefed Xu Yi on this exact narrative, naturally omitting any mention of the highly taboo dual cultivation that had actually fueled his rise.
Leaning forward, Shen Yu tapped his long, pale fingers against the folded parchments resting on the heavy wooden desk.
"I have transcribed the exact, perfected recipes right there," Shen Yu said, his golden eyes suddenly flashing with a cold, ruthless, and deeply predatory light. "Give these to our most trusted alchemists immediately. Have them lock down the refining halls and mass-produce these in absolute secrecy."
"When should we launch them?" Mei Yilan asked, her tone shifting seamlessly into that of a clan leader.
"Five days," Shen Yu replied calmly. "That should give the alchemists enough time to build a massive stockpile. We need at least a week's worth of inventory ready before we flood the market."
Mei Yilan calculated the logistics in her head, a confident, beautiful smile touching her lips. "If we push the refining halls to run double shifts, I can have that stockpile ready in three."
Shen Yu looked at her, his predatory gaze softening with genuine approval. "If you can execute it in three, Aunt, then all the better."
"Do not worry, your aunt will take care of it," Yilan assured him, her eyes shining with renewed vigor.
"Good. As for the pricing," Shen Yu added, his tone sharpening once more. "Keep it exactly at twenty gold coins per bottle for the Tier-0 pills, and hundred gold coins per bottle for the Tier-1 pills."
Each jade bottle contained ten pills. At those rates, it meant a single Tier-0 pill would cost a mere two gold coins, and a Tier-1 pill just ten.
"What? Don't you think that is far too cheap?"
This time, it was Xu Yi who spoke up, her sharp business instincts overriding her usual deference. She stepped forward, her dark eyes flashing with confusion. "Young Master, the Peng Clan's pills are only ten percent more efficient than standard, and they are currently selling them at those exact rates. Our pills will be twenty percent more efficient! The market would gladly pay thirty and a hundred and fifty gold coins per bottle for that kind of purity."
"No." Shen Yu's answer was flat, an absolute decree that left no room for negotiation.
He leaned back in his chair, gesturing to the papers. "Look at the raw material cost. To refine a single batch, which yields ten Tier-0 pills, requires less than one gold coin's worth of herbs. Even if we factor in a generous two or three gold coins as a labor fee for the alchemists, the Peng Clan is making at least fifteen gold coins in pure profit per bottle. It is already a massive, highly lucrative margin."
"If we price ours higher, our profits will simply mirror theirs," Xu Yi argued gently, trying to follow his logic.
"I am not interested in sharing the market, Xu Yi. I am interested in a massacre," Shen Yu said, his voice dropping to a chilling register. "By keeping our price exactly the same as theirs, we won't just compete, we will instantly siphon their entire customer base. No sensible cultivator will spend their hard-earned gold on an inferior pill when the same amount buys absolute perfection."
He paused, a dark, deeply sinister smile spreading across his handsome face. "Besides, we only need to hold this price for a week or two."
"Why only a week?" Mei Yilan asked, her brow furrowing as she sensed the lethal trap he had just laid.
"Because the Peng Clan's pills conceal a beautifully insidious flaw," Shen Yu revealed smoothly, his golden eyes glowing with dark amusement.
"Their crude refining method leaves behind a microscopic toxic residue. Right now, the consumers aren't truly noticing it; they simply experience mild headaches, easily dismissing the pain as standard cultivation fatigue. But as that unseen poison quietly accumulates in their meridians over the next few weeks, it will detonate into crippling, agonizing migraines. And for those desperate cultivators with already fragile foundations... it won't just cause pain. It might damage their dantian."
Mei Yilan's breath hitched in her throat. Her eyes widened, a mixture of sheer horror and dawning realization washing over her features as she grasped the terrifying, monumental scale of his trap. "Really?"
"Yes," Shen Yu confirmed softly, his golden eyes glowing with the dark, intoxicating anticipation of their impending ruin. "In fact, the Peng Clan's own alchemists are likely entirely blind to it. They don't even realize they are mass-producing poison."
He leaned back, smoothing the fabric of his robes with a casual, predatory elegance.
"But the moment the city's cultivators realize the Peng Clan has been secretly crippling their martial foundations for a quick profit, their ancient legacy will turn to ash overnight. The public will demand their blood. The Peng Patriarch will bleed his treasury dry trying to quell the furious mobs and pay reparations, but the damage will be irreversible. Their reputation will be completely, irrevocably destroyed."
Shen Yu looked at the two women, a chilling, sovereign's smile gracing his lips.
"And once they are finally erased from the board, we will hold an absolute, unchallenged monopoly... and we can raise our prices as high as we please."