A Grand Drama

As soon as Xu Mu finished speaking, he saw text appear above the heads of the two people before him.

[Favorability -5]

[Favorability -10]

Tantai Quan lost five points, while this Tantai Piao lost even more.

Xu Mu had no idea where he had offended her; her starting favorability was already negative.

He wasn't even looking at her money, yet her favorability dropped more.

"How dare you!"

Tantai Piao slapped her hand on the sofa, starting to rise.

But she was stopped by Tantai Quan beside her, who pressed down on the back of her hand.

"Piaopiao, it's fine. These alchemists all have their own temperaments. Xu Mu means no harm."

Tantai Quan smiled from the side.

"Sister Quan, you should both leave. I won't take this job, alright? Go find someone else; there's definitely someone cheaper than me."

Xu Mu stood up from the sofa. "Please leave. Take your rare materials with you."

How could Tantai Quan possibly leave?

She specifically sought out Xu Mu to refine the pills because she wanted to use the sixth-grade Hongyuan Pills as if they were seventh-grade Qihai Pills.

Of all the alchemists she had met, only Xu Mu could achieve that level.

Of course, she could also seek out those top-tier alchemists, like eighth-grade or even ninth-grade ones.

But their fees were not something ordinary people could bear.

They charged a minimum of fifty percent, or even more.

"Little brother, are you really going to chase your sister away like this?"

Tantai Quan felt somewhat helpless inwardly. Before coming, she had specifically instructed Tantai Piao to try and get closer to Xu Mu.

She had wanted to use a honey trap to get Xu Mu to lower his price a bit.

She never expected Xu Mu to suddenly say something like that, making Tantai Piao angry.

"It's not me chasing you away. I'm chasing that person next to you away. She's irritating me."

Xu Mu pointed at Tantai Piao. "Please leave. I have matters to attend to outside."

"Then I'll make her leave. Let your sister chat with you."

Tantai Quan gave Tantai Piao a look.

Tantai Piao snorted coldly and left without looking back.

Now, only Xu Mu and Tantai Quan remained in the living room.

"Little brother."

Tantai Quan, holding her long pipe, proactively came to Xu Mu's side and pulled him down to sit on the sofa.

Xu Mu subtly sniffed and noticed Tantai Quan didn't smell of tobacco; instead, she had a faint herbal fragrance.

"I want fifty percent."

Xu Mu looked at Tantai Quan and said calmly.

"Why is it more again? You're bullying your sister!"

Tantai Quan placed her hands on her legs, puffing out her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

As her body trembled slightly, terrifying tremors rippled through her ample bosom twice.

Xu Mu frowned tightly. Good grief, just that slight movement seemed to surpass Dai Xingluo.

This woman really was unfathomable.

"When I refine pills for others, it's always fifty percent. It's only because I find you, sister, to be genuine that I gave a discount."

Xu Mu glanced at Tantai Quan inadvertently.

"Genuine? Where am I genuine?"

Tantai Quan leaned closer to Xu Mu.

"You know exactly what I mean."

Xu Mu said with a serious face.

Tantai Quan was inwardly surprised. She originally thought a young man like Xu Mu would prefer younger women.

She never expected he liked her type.

She thought carefully; among the people around her, perhaps only one or two had a figure like hers.

The key was their faces were quite ugly, so Xu Mu definitely wouldn't be interested.

Did this mean she would have to take matters into her own hands to charm him in the future?

"Your sister is afraid of you. Forty percent. This time, give me sixty of the pills you refine."

Tantai Quan said, looking at Xu Mu.

Judging from this person's behavior, perhaps they weren't very familiar yet.

Once they became closer, the price should be even cheaper.

Especially when refining high-grade pills, what she dreaded most was having to give away most of the hard-earned eighth or ninth-grade pill materials to someone else.

"Deal."

Xu Mu nodded.

"When can I pick up the goods?"

Tantai Quan asked with a smile.

"Refining this many will consume a large amount of my Qi. I'll send you a message once they're done. It shouldn't take more than a few days."

Xu Mu said to Tantai Quan.

"Alright, then your sister will take her leave first."

Tantai Quan stood up and walked towards the outside.

Xu Mu also stood up, watching her get into the car and leave.

Only after Tantai Quan had left did Xu Mu store all the rare materials from the courtyard into his storage space.

He had just been worrying about how to improve Feng Yue, and Tantai Quan delivered the materials right to his doorstep.

He would get at least forty pills as payment. In the future, not just Feng Yue, but everyone around him would benefit.

With nothing else to do, Xu Mu started refining.

This alchemy furnace was still too small. He planned to find a larger one when he had time, capable of refining multiple pills at once.

Xu Mu finally understood why alchemists held such high status.

Take the Alchemy Pavilion of Kunlun Mountain, for example. It probably supplied seventy or eighty percent, or even more, of Kunlun's resources.

No wonder top-tier sects had their own alchemists.

It was truly a lucrative business. He didn't need to search for rare materials at all; people brought them to him themselves.

...

Xu Mu spent a full two hours refining about thirty pills.

Although it was practically muscle memory for him by now, extracting the essence and activating the medicinal properties still required considerable mental effort.

He stored everything in his storage space and returned to the living room sofa, closing his eyes to rest.

After dozing off for a short while, he opened his perception to check if Feng Yue was awake.

Instead, he found Zhong Qianqian hurriedly returning home while on a phone call.

Xu Mu could clearly hear the conversation from here. It turned out Zhong Qianqian had already implanted a small virus into the computer.

She was rushing home precisely to steal data.

Back in her bedroom at home, Zhong Qianqian immediately changed out of her office attire, put on her loose dress, and sat down at the computer.

As usual, her first task wasn't to get busy, but to first check if her home was secure.

Xu Mu smiled. Zhong Qianqian's biggest mistake was moving next door to him.

She could indeed get close to him and more easily enter the company, but all her actions were under his surveillance.

Zhong Qianqian was cracking the company's computer. About twenty minutes later, she smiled and snapped her fingers. "Success!"

Her computer began copying all the files from the company computer.

After the copying finished, she started organizing and sorting through them, finally finding the fake prescription for the Yang Qi Pills.

"Strange, why is there only the prescription?"

Zhong Qianqian muttered. "With just the prescription, you can't produce the medicine."

She continued screening the data but found no manufacturing process.

Nevertheless, she still sent this information to Xiao Ran, saying she would see if she could steal the manufacturing process tomorrow.

After stealing the data, she immediately deleted the virus.

Xu Mu shook his head slightly. This Zhong Qianqian was still too impatient.

He took out his phone and reported Zhong Qianqian's situation to Xu Ningbing.

Not long after, Ye Tong and Ye Yu returned together.

Xu Mu didn't mention Feng Yue's ordeal, only telling them that Feng Yue had gone home again.

Hearing this, Ye Tong breathed a sigh of relief. Feng Yue was her primary candidate, after all.

...

Early the next morning.

Zhong Qianqian went to the company as usual.

Xu Mu also headed to the pharmaceutical company today. There would be a good show today, and he definitely needed to keep an eye on Zhong Qianqian, ready to apprehend her at any moment.