Jiang Chen found it interesting that a shy girl was doing business with him, since usually shyness didnât go with business. That was why he was joking around.
But as a result, Wen Meng thought him to be a frivolous guy.
âApprentice brother, have you brought the panaceas?â Wen Meng said.
âSure.â
Jiang Chen pointed at the table with his right hand. The mustardseed ring on his index finger sparkled. Then three long wooden boxes appeared out of nowhere.
A mustardseed ring?!
This was a sign of nobler people than those who came by airships.
Wen Meng immediately regretted her reaction. It would have been great if she had been able to respond to his joke warmly.
âApprentice brother, could you introduce these panaceas to me?â Wen Meng said.
Jiang Chen nodded. Meng Hao opened the three wooden boxes, each with more than a hundred panaceas inside. In different colors and sizes, the panaceas were obviously not the same kind.
âThese are Black Yuan ElixirsâŠâ
Jiang Chen, after presenting the different features of the three kinds of panaceas one by one, said, âTell your boss the same and then bring an alchemist here.â
âOkay.â
Even though Wen Meng wasnât an alchemist, she could tell these panaceas werenât average, so she ran out of the room.
âI am surprised to see such a lovely girl in the Natural Law School,â Meng Hao smiled.
Soon, Wen Meng came back with a steward. They brought Jiang Chen and Meng Hao to a bigger room.
âPlease wait a moment, apprentice brother. Weâve sent for an elder,â Wen Meng said.
âDonât you have your own alchemist in the chamber of commerce?â Jiang Chen asked curiously.
âYes, we have. But since weâve never heard of your panaceas, we have no experiences to evaluate them. We need an experienced elder to price them,â the steward said.
Jiang Chen thought if he had known that, he would have gone to the chamber of commerce run by the school directly to avoid so many troubles.
âMy client, this is the best cloud net tea,â the steward saw through him, so he poured a cup of tea for Jiang Chen warmly.
âCloud net tea?!â
Meng Hao shouted in surprise. He had heard of this tea. It was super expensive. A gram of it cost tens of thousands of rose gold coins.
But the tea was indeed excellent. Your mouth would be filled with the aroma of the tea just by one sip, and it benefited oneâs state as well.
Jiang Chen took the teapot and also poured a cup for Meng Hao, then asked Meng Hao to sit down.
Meng Hao was touched. People only regarded him as Jiang Chenâs attendant. He had never had complaints about it, but this warm gesture of Jiang Chenâs touched him a lot.
Soon, they heard footsteps coming.
âIt must be the elder.â
The steward opened the door excitedly, but the smile froze on his face, because he saw a pretty girl standing there, obviously not an elder of the Natural Law School.
âMy master is on his way. Iâll take a look first.â
The girl walked in directly without minding the stewardâs reaction. She looked around and gave a puzzled expression when she saw Jiang Chen and Meng Hao.
âWhere is the master?â
The girl asked after she made sure the guy she was looking for wasnât there in the room.
The steward was confused. He frowned and asked with uncertainty, âMiss Xiao Xiao, do you mean the owner of the panaceas?â
âOf course. Didnât you tell us someone had brought three kinds of panaceas that youâd never seen before?â
The girl thought a guy who could make these kinds of panaceas must be like her master, more than fifty years old with gray hair.
âItâs him.â The steward feared the girl and didnât want to offend her.
Xiao Xiao looked in the direction the steward was pointing and set her eyes on Jiang Chen.
Her good-looking face suddenly was filled with confusion.
âDid you refine those panaceas?â she asked Jiang Chen.
âYes.â
Xiao Xiao was bewildered. Then she made an angry expression, but she didnât lose her temper.
âDid you send for my master because of this guy?â
The steward was shocked as well when he heard it was Jiang Chen who had refined the panaceas. The reason was simple. Jiang Chen looked too young to have refined them.
He thought the panaceas were above average after hearing Wen Mengâs description, but he had never doubted their authenticity.
âDidnât you ask who had refined those panaceas?â the steward shouted at Wen Meng.
Wen Meng was trembling. She lowered her head and didnât dare say a word.
âLooks like we shouldnât drink the tea.â
Jiang Chen shook his head helplessly and put the tea cup back onto the table.
âWhy are you behaving like this? Your master hasnât arrived yet. Itâs not yet time to draw conclusions,â Meng Hao stood up discontentedly, trying to protest.
Xiao Xiao sized him up and said disdainfully, âWho are you? You are not even a disciple of the Natural Law School. How dare you speak to me?â
âWho are you? Youâre in the same state as I am!â Meng Hao turned red. He had lost his patience with a girl that he knew nothing about.
âState? Listen to me. Iâm a genius alchemist. My master is the Medicine Elder of the Natural Law School. My state isnât high at the moment, but Iâm already a senior disciple.â Xiao Xiao didnât get angry. Instead, she told of her identity proudly.
âThe Medicine Elder?â
Meng Hao was greatly surprised. He was a grand supreme elder in charge of the panaceas of the Natural Law School with supreme authority. No wonder the steward feared the girl so much.
âAre you afraid now? Youâd better leave here before my masterâs arrival,â Xiao Xiao sneered.
Jiang Chen had kept silent by then and finally started to speak. What he said calmed Xiao Xiao down. âTo sum it up, you donât trust my panaceas. Since you claim your master is the Medicine Elder, you should have a good eye for panaceas.â
She laid her eyes on the wooden boxes on the table with some disdain, and opened the box in the middle. An aroma of medicine greeted her.
âSome frauds cheat inexperienced people with special synthetic perfume.â
Xiao Xiao curled up her lips and picked up one panacea. She observed it carefully and sniffed at it.
Then, without Jiang Chenâs permission, she broke off a small part of it and chewed it.
Then she spit it out and asked Jiang Chen, âThese are recovery panaceas?â
âExactly. Itâs called Revival Elixir.â Jiang Chen looked at her with approval.
âWhatâs the percentage you can recover with one panacea? How long does it take to work?â Xiao Xiao asked again.
The percentage meant the percentage of one-tenth of oneâs strength.
No matter how wonderful a recovery panacea is, it was impossible for people to become full of vim and vigour again with only one pill. They had to take a great amount to achieve that.
Therefore, a recovery panaceaâs quality could be decided by what percentage of strength one pill could recover.
Average recovery panaceas could recover less than ten percent of one-tenth of oneâs strength.
Better ones could recover more than ten percent.
If a recovery panacea could recover twenty percent, it would be a holy class.
Of course, this standard only applied to people in the beginning of the middle stage of the Gathering Yuan State. After all, people in different states had different strengths.
âBetween forty and fifty percent,â Jiang Chen said.
âPardon?â
Xiao Xiao frowned. She thought she might have misheard.
âBetween forty and fifty percent,â Jiang Chen said again.
This time Xiao Xiao heard it perfectly. She looked at Jiang Chen for a few seconds and asked, âYou mean, youâve refined recovery panaceas that are able to recover forty or fifty percent?â
âExactly,â Jiang Chen nodded.
âHa!â Xiao Xiao had a good belly laugh until tears ran down her cheeks.