C17:-DD2_Diary_System (Patreon)

17. The meeting.

│3rd Person POV │

[Douluo Continent, Heavenly Soul Empire, Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect…]

“This… this is unbelievable,” Sect Master Ning Hao muttered as he read through the document his younger brother, Ning Lingshu—better known throughout the sect as Master Ling—had handed him.

The Elders, Yu Yunfeng and Zhang Wei, reading their own copy of the document, were in complete agreement with the Sect Master’s sentiment.

A few minutes later, Ning Hao finished reading and slowly set the document aside. After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he turned to the one who invented the medicine and asked, “How did you even come up with something like this, Ye Chen?”

“Well, Sect Master, I would say most of the credit belongs to Master Ling,” Ye Chen began. “A few days ago, Master Ling gave me a book written by him that explained the properties of commonly found herbs and how they react to different factors—like temperature changes, other herbs, various refinement techniques, etc.

“I merely theorised a possible way to combine the properties of some herbs to produce a medicine. The only novel thing I discovered is the properties of the rare herb called Cloud Spring Dew. Even then, my interest in it was due to reading an interesting entry about it in one of the travel logs of the past members of the sect.

“More importantly,” he added calmly, “I only proposed a theoretical formula for the Spiritual Recovery Medicine. It was Master Ling who did the actual experiments, refined the ratios and adjusted the process to have a better chance of successfully producing it. Without him, the medicine may never have been completed. So… I don’t think anything I did was particularly extraordinary.”

Ye Chen meant most of what he said, as even with the knowledge granted by his Intermediate Medicine skill, he wouldn’t have succeeded in theorizing a medicine capable of aiding in Spiritual Power recovery without the book Master Ling gave him.

He only somewhat lied about the Cloud Spring Dew, as his skill already contained detailed information about the herb’s special properties long before he encountered it in any travel log.

 “Hahaha~!” Master Ling burst into laughter. He walked over and gave Ye Chen a firm pat on his back, saying, “No need to be modest, my boy. What you did couldn't just be done by reading a few books. That takes talent, and hard work. You have plenty of the former and I haven’t seen you shy away from the latter, ever. So take pride in your work without holding back.”

Too embarrassed to say anything, Ye Chen just nodded in agreement.

After a brief pause, Ning Hao asked his younger brother, “Are we capable of mass-producing this medicine?”

“For now, we can make enough for the needs of the geniuses and for Soul Masters between Rank 50 and Rank 79 in the sect.” Master Ling answered with a confident nod.

“If we’re talking about producing enough to distribute to everyone below Rank 50 in the sect… that would take time. Months, at least. We’d need to expand our medicinal gardens significantly and cultivate the necessary herbs ourselves. Most of the ingredients can be bought on the market, but Cloud Spring Dew is rare, and the current supply is far too limited. It is also one of the main ingredients of this medicine. If we want true large-scale production, we must grow it internally.”

“I see.” Ning Hao nodded, already thinking of what arrangements he should make so that the sect could make maximum potential use of this medicine.

At this moment, Ye Chen’s voice interrupted his thoughts, “Um… May I ask something?”

Ning Hao turned to him. “Go ahead.”

“I was wondering if it is possible for us to build a much larger medicinal garden—large enough to grow all the required herbs? Enough that we can meet the needs of all the people in the sect… and sell it to others too?”

Ning Hao raised an eyebrow in interest upon hearing this. He asked, “You think we should sell it to outsiders? And why do you suggest that?”

Ye Chen nodded. “Well, first of all, our Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect is, at its core, a merchant sect. This medicine is one of a kind, and we would be the only ones producing it. So, we can control both supply and pricing as we want.

“Secondly, selling it privately to other major factions, like the Body Sect, Shrek Academy, or even just powerful individuals like Jing Hongchen from the Sun Moon Empire, would allow us to make powerful connections with them.

“And while we already are most likely the wealthiest sect in the world, with extensive connections thanks to our existing businesses…” Ye Chen paused, choosing his words carefully. “I don’t think having more resources and stronger alliances would ever be harmful to us.”

The Sect Master and the Elders exchanged glances, impressed that a child was able to comprehend such complicated matters. Then again, Ye Chen was not just any child. He could be called a genius among geniuses.

“However, there’s another, more important reason we should be doing this.” Ye Chen added.

‘There’s more he has to say?’ All the adults in the room thought collectively upon hearing Ye Chen continue.

“We are always in search of talented Soul Masters from ordinary backgrounds to recruit into the Sect. However, even if we find someone worth recruiting, they are either already affiliated with other forces, like the nobles who awakened their Martial Soul in exchange for making them sign unfair contractual service, or they are simply reluctant to join any existing forces, preferring to go solo or establish their own organization or sect if they become strong enough.

“So, I thought, instead of recruiting these talented Soul Masters directly, why don’t we first invest some resources in them slightly? Resources that we can easily acquire through our wealth or business. After all, problems that can be solved through money aren’t problems at all.

“We should definitely include things like my Spiritual Recovery Pill, or Spiritual Aid Incense Stick. After giving them a small explanation about the importance of Spiritual Power in the later stages, and how all geniuses from clans and sects used it to grow stronger, they would almost certainly be tempted to accept our help. This will build a strong connection to our sect in their heart.

“Giving them some resources that they couldn’t get easily elsewhere, we could make a positive impression of our sect on them, increasing the chances of them joining our sect on their own.

“I know that not everyone we invest in will join our sect in the end, however, those who do, will definitely be loyal to us until the end… The only exception being someone who joins to spy on us for other factions, but well, there will always be someone like that, no matter what. It’s our job to find and either eliminate them or make use of them for our gain.”

The adults were stunned speechless upon hearing Ye Chen.

It was not because his ideas were novel. They were amazed that Ye Chen was capable of coming up with such good ideas at such a young age.

The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's usual modus operandi wasn’t much different from what Ye Chen suggested. That’s how the sect weathered through various tribulations in the past ten thousand years.

The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect didn’t produce or recruit a single Super Douluo in the last ten thousand years. There were even times when the sect didn’t have a single ordinary Title Douluo in the sect. The sect only survived through those times because of its vast connections and wealth.

Even now, the Sect only had two ordinary Title Douluos, and even they were old relics from Ning Hao’s father’s generation. They mostly cultivated in seclusion in the sect, to protect it and in hopes of advancing even one rank, even though their chances of reaching the Super Douluo Rank were almost zero.

Composing himself with a light cough, Ning Hao inquired further, “Your ideas are really wonderful, Ye Chen. Is there anything more you would like to add?”

As he asked the question, Ning Hao was hoping that Ye Chen had more to say on one hand. On the other hand, he was dreading it too. After all, geniuses, especially someone like Ye Chen, who was smart about the way the world works, were ambitious in nature. He was somewhat afraid of the future possibility of Ye Chen leaving the sect for his own ambitions.

Not privy to the Sect Master’s conflicted thoughts, Ye Chen nodded and continued, “Yes. As you all read, the Spiritual Recovery Pill had different effects depending on the cultivation of the Soul Master consuming it, right?”

Ning Hao and the others nodded instinctively, prompting Ye Chen to continue.

“Sect Master, Elder, and Master Ling, I know that with your experience, you all also came to the conclusion that the boost to Spiritual Power recovery by the pill was lower for those with higher Spiritual Power. I want to propose the idea of dividing Spiritual Power cultivation into proper stages too, not the vague ideas we have now.”

The Sect Master, the Elders, and Master Ling found this to be a pretty reasonable suggestion. However, before they could give the matter any deeper thought, they heard Ye Chen continue.

“From what I’ve read in the few books that explain about Spiritual Power, I think that  Spiritual Power can be divided into four stages based on a few things.

“Like, the first stage or realm could be called Spirit Origin Realm, because everyone’s origin point is the same.

“After that, maybe something like a Spirit Connection Realm, because according to what I’ve read and understood, this point is when usually Soul Masters start to form a connection with their Spiritual Sea or Sea of Consciousness, and they have some rudimentary control over their Spiritual Power. I think that Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor realm Soul Masters usually have Spiritual Power at this level.

“Then, at Rank 50, all talented Soul Masters have strong enough Spiritual Power to overcome the Soul Shock contained in 10,000-year-old Black Soul Rings. And in the book, it mentions that Soul Kings and above are capable of projecting their Spiritual Power outward, using it to keep an eye on their surroundings, put a kind of mental pressure on lower rank Soul Masters, etc. I have thought of naming this realm the Spirit Sea Realm, as one line in the books compares the vastness of one’s Spiritual Power to the sea in this realm.

“Finally, for the last realm, there’s not much detail in the books. The only thing I found is that to create a Soul Core, a Soul Master’s Spiritual Power needs to have reached a certain strength. It was hard to think of a name for this realm because of so little information, so I just chose the one that sounded right. Spirit Abyss Realm. How does that sound?”

When Ye Chen finally finished, he looked up—only to find every adult staring at him in stunned silence, including Master Ling. He realized that he may have just overwhelmed them a little too much today.

So, he smartly decided to run away, “Ah… I just remembered now. Mother asked me to run an errand for her. So, with your permission, I would like to take my leave, Sect Master.”

“Huh?” Ning Hao’s brain finally started working again. The next moment, he decided that for his own sanity, it was indeed a better decision to let Ye Chen leave, “Oh, yeah sure. You can go, Ye Chen.”

After saluting all the adults, Ye Chen quickly left the room.

Several minutes later, Elder Zhang spoke, finally breaking the silence, “Are we sure that this kid isn’t possessed by some old demon?”

The others let out soft chuckles at that.

“No matter what, I only know that once this kid matures, our Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect would be the number one Sect in the world. I won’t have to worry about our sect’s future for the next five hundred years, at least.” Ning Hao commented slowly, prompting the other to nod in agreement.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

A/N: Do you guys think this chapter is too conversation-heavy?? Please share your thoughts.

Good day. See ya guys later.