“Miss, you’re here!”
The shop manager, around thirty years old, wearing an ink-green long dress and her hair pinned up with a hairpin, with a dignified and beautiful face, stepped forward to greet her.
“Sister Hua, is there still no improvement today?”
Shangguan Xue’er asked impatiently.
Sister Hua shook her head helplessly and said.
“Miss, although you implemented a series of measures the day before yesterday, the effect is still very minimal.”
“Yesterday, although customer traffic increased, due to the continued drop in prices, our total revenue actually decreased by a quarter.”
“If this continues, our shop will not be able to sustain itself in less than a month.”
“The only solution now is for us to recruit a few skilled alchemists to alleviate this predicament,”
Sister Hua suggested.
“Sister Hua, it’s not that easy to recruit high-level alchemists, is it?”
“After all, our shop is too small, and we cannot provide high-grade medicinal ingredients for them to refine pills.”
Shangguan Xue’er also wore a worried expression, truly at a loss for how to break the deadlock.
“Two beautiful ladies, may I say a few words?”
After listening to their conversation, Ye Fei directly asked.
“Who are you?”
Sister Hua finally shifted her attention and, seeing Ye Fei following behind Shangguan Xue’er, assumed he was her bodyguard.
But upon closer inspection, she realized Ye Fei’s cultivation was only at the peak of the second level of Qi Condensation, which seemed quite inadequate.
“Sister Hua, this is a relative of mine, Ye Fei.”
“He’s just curious and followed me.”
Shangguan Xue’er naturally did not want anyone to know that Ye Fei was her fiancé, so she chose to conceal it.
“I see.”
Sister Hua nodded and then greeted Ye Fei.
“Ye Fei, don’t cause trouble!”
Seeing Ye Fei speak up, Shangguan Xue’er assumed it was out of mere curiosity.
“Don’t you regret it!”
“Let me tell you, I have a way to bring your shop back from the brink of death!”
Ye Fei snorted and made a move to leave.
“Young brother, wait, don’t go!”
Although Sister Hua didn’t quite believe Ye Fei’s words, she was unwilling to let go of any sliver of opportunity.
She then stepped forward and blocked Ye Fei.
“Young brother, don’t be angry, tell Sister Hua what method you have?”
Ye Fei looked up at her a few times, but instead of revealing his method directly, he spoke indirectly.
“First, take me to see your alchemy room.”
“Then I’ll tell you the method.”
Sister Hua hesitated for a moment, then looked directly at Shangguan Xue’er. Seeing her nod, she agreed and replied.
“Alright, please come in!”
“The alchemy room is right inside!”
Sister Hua made an inviting gesture and led Ye Fei into the alchemy room behind the shop.
As for Shangguan Xue’er, she also followed closely into the alchemy room.
She wanted to see what tricks Ye Fei could come up with.
“This is the place.”
As soon as Ye Fei arrived in the backyard, he discovered it was quite a unique place.
The backyard occupied a vast area, with dozens of alchemy rooms in total.
However, more than half of them were now abandoned.
Only a few alchemy rooms were still in use.
“First, take me to where the medicinal ingredients are stored.”
Ye Fei said again.
With Shangguan Xue’er’s permission, Sister Hua led Ye Fei to a room on the far right.
Upon opening the door, a sparse collection of medicinal ingredients was placed on shelves, categorized by type.
Ye Fei scanned them briefly and found that most of the ingredients were very common.
They could only be used to refine some simple pills.
Ye Fei quickly made up his mind.
He then directly stated.
“I’ve observed just now that the medicinal ingredients in your inventory are very common, likely only suitable for refining simple healing or detoxification pills.”
“As for the solution I mentioned, it’s not far away, it’s right in front of you!”
Sister Hua and Shangguan Xue’er looked at Ye Fei blankly, not understanding what he meant.
“Let me be clear!”
“The solution I’m talking about is for me to refine pills for you!”
“Do you understand?”
Ye Fei mumbled.
“What?”
“You’ll refine pills for us?”
“This is simply a huge joke!”
Sister Hua, having waited for so long and wasted so much time, was met with such a result.
The anger within her flared up instantly.
“Ye Fei, you’ve truly disappointed me!”
“Is it fun to play games with us like this?”
“I’ll count to three, and you’d better disappear from our sight!”
Shangguan Xue’er was also furious and pointed towards the door.
“My dear lady, I’m really not lying to you!”
“Why don’t you believe me!”
“How about this, I’ll give you a live demonstration!”
“I’ll go to the alchemy room right now and refine a batch of pills for you!”
“If you’re worried I’ll cheat, you can supervise from the side, how about that?”
Ye Fei proposed.
Seeing the two women still hesitant, Ye Fei raised his voice again and said.
“What, are you afraid that I’ll steal your thunder and embarrass you?”
“So you dare not accept?”
Shangguan Xue’er was the first to agree. Seeing Ye Fei’s arrogant expression, she directly accepted.
“Hmph, I originally wanted to save you some face, but since you’re ungrateful, I have no reason to be considerate anymore!”
“Let’s go, we’ll go now!”
“Sister Hua, you come with me!”
Shangguan Xue’er directly pulled Sister Hua with her to the first alchemy room.
As for Ye Fei, he rummaged through the medicinal ingredient storage and gathered all the herbs needed to refine the Clear Heart Pill, and then entered the alchemy room.
At this moment, the two women were already standing on either side of the alchemy furnace.
“Watch closely, I’ll show you what a top-grade pill is!”
After Ye Fei arranged the required herbs neatly, he turned around and said.
“Enough nonsense, get started quickly!”
Shangguan Xue’er pouted, still disbelieving Ye Fei.
“Alright, alright, I’ll start now!”
As Ye Fei’s voice fell, his expression instantly changed.
Ye Fei shifted his hands, the alchemy furnace was suspended in mid-air, and he channeled his essence energy to his fingertips. With a bang, flames erupted from the furnace, soaring into the sky.
First time awkward, second time familiar. Once the alchemy furnace reached the desired temperature, Ye Fei directly tossed all the herbs into it.
With a wave of his right hand, the lid of the alchemy furnace was sealed shut.
Ye Fei controlled the furnace fire with his essence energy, increasing the intensity. The original two streams of fire instantly became four.
Boom, boom, boom.
Half an hour later, the temperature in the alchemy room began to rise sharply.
Ye Fei’s clothes were already soaked.
Even Sister Hua and Shangguan Xue’er, who were supervising from either side, were sweating profusely.
Watching Ye Fei’s skilled movements, the two women began to believe that Ye Fei could indeed refine pills.
However, as for his skill level, they needed to continue observing.