Han Kang sat up abruptly, looking at the returning executives with a puzzled expression, a sliver of hope rekindled in his heart.
"What brings you gentlemen back, esteemed CEOs?"
"Haha..."
Manager Zhang, being more forthright, immediately spoke.
"Congratulations, President Han! You've weathered the storm without any real damage!"
Still bewildered, Han Kang looked on as another executive quickly explained.
"No sooner had we left than we all received calls from our sales departments. The Gou family has reinstated their original prices, so there's no need for us to rush to get a piece of their pie!"
"Really?"
Han Kang was surprised and delighted, but also somewhat confused.
"But... why would the Gou family announce the reinstatement of their original prices at such a critical juncture?"
The executives also expressed their bewilderment upon hearing this.
"We have no idea about that."
"Malicious competition is, after all, a double-edged sword that harms oneself as much as the enemy. Perhaps they simply couldn't hold on any longer."
"That's not necessarily true. I rather think it's highly probable that your Han family has found a benefactor!"
A benefactor?
The Han family had been running a pharmaceutical factory for many years, and they hadn't heard of any benefactors.
Could it really be...
As Han Kang was lost in thought, the executives urged him on.
"President Han, don't just stand there. Hurry up and sign the renewal contracts. We're all quite busy!"
Hearing this, Han Kang snapped back to reality. He quickly invited the executives to sit down and brought out the renewal contracts.
Soon, the cooperation was re-established. Han Kang shook hands with each of them to express his gratitude.
After seeing the executives off, Han Kang fell into deep contemplation once more.
If he was certain that the Han family had no benefactor, then the only person capable of achieving this would be Han Lang, who had made such confident promises before!
To verify his suspicion, Han Kang hurriedly took out his phone, found the number in his contacts saved as "Family Parasite," and dialed it.
"Hello, is something wrong? Han Kang."
Upon receiving Han Kang's call, Han Lang's first thought was whether the problem had worsened.
"No! I have good news for you. The Gou family has announced the reinstatement of their original prices, and our pharmaceutical factory's crisis has been averted. We just signed renewal contracts with several of our long-term clients."
"Mm, that's good! I don't understand these things, you handle it yourself!"
Hearing these words, Han Lang finally felt relieved. However, his casual tone made Han Kang even more suspicious, so he asked cautiously.
"Did you have something to do with the Gou family reinstating their original prices?"
Han Lang was silent for a moment, likely contemplating.
"Perhaps! At least Qingtian Hospital is struggling to hold on! Is there anything else? I'm quite busy here."
"No, that's all. You carry on!"
After hanging up, Han Kang's heart was in turmoil for a long time.
Han Lang had actually, through his own efforts, severed the Gou family's domestic sales channels within a month, forcing them to abandon their plan of malicious competition.
How much power did that require?
On the other side, Han Lang, upon hearing the news, immediately shared it with Luo Jiaying.
"That's wonderful, Brother Han Lang. We really did it!"
Luo Jiaying was so excited she jumped three feet high.
"Then should we celebrate today?"
"Of course! Still at Chuiyan Niaoniao?"
Han Lang couldn't hide his joy either.
"You bet!"
...
With the crisis averted, Han Lang's suspended heart finally settled.
The Gou family's malicious competition had put immense pressure on him for days, causing him to even neglect the matter of refining the top-grade Body Tempering Pill.
"There's no time like the present, let's do it today!"
Now that the issue was resolved, Han Lang planned to properly organize the matters related to refining the top-grade Body Tempering Pill.
More than twenty days ago, Han Lang had planted all the spiritual herbs required for the Body Tempering Pill and Spirit Gathering Pill on the third level of the three-story pagoda. By now, they had long since reached the standard of hundred-year-old rare spiritual herbs.
Therefore, for this refinement, not only did he not have to frantically search for medicinal ingredients, but he was actually well-supplied.
However, the problem was that if he continued to refine using natural gas as he did last time, then even with his supreme alchemy skills from his past life as a Medicine Venerable, he would not be able to refine high-grade pills.
Therefore, he had to learn to burn spiritual energy and condense the dan fire.
Condensing spiritual energy into dan fire was a technical skill on the Lichuan Continent, and typically one had to reach the Golden Core stage to achieve it.
However, Han Lang, possessing supreme alchemy skills, did not need to wait until that realm.
In the memories of the supreme alchemy master from his past life, supreme alchemy not only encompassed the refining methods of various pills, the control of heat, and the identification of spiritual herbs, but also detailed how low-level cultivators could condense spiritual energy into dan fire.
Therefore, even if he only had a trace of spiritual energy in his body, he could achieve it.
But then another problem arose.
The dan fire consumed spiritual energy at an extremely rapid rate. With Han Lang's meager spiritual energy at the third level of Qi Refining, he could at most sustain the dan fire for five minutes.
However, to refine the top-grade Body Tempering Pill, even with his ultimate fire control ability, it would take at least half an hour!
Where would he replenish the spiritual energy that would inevitably run out?
"No choice, I'll have to waste some materials and refine a batch of low-grade Spirit Gathering Pills first."
On the Lichuan Continent, there were two dimensions to distinguish the quality of pills.
Based on the effects of the pills, all pills could be divided into: Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade, Heaven-grade, Immortal-grade, and Divine-grade.
Among these, Immortal-grade and Divine-grade pills, even on the Lichuan Continent, only existed in legends.
The Low-grade to High-grade three tiers were the most common and widely used on the Lichuan Continent, and thus were further subdivided into tiers 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9. These tiers also corresponded to the quality of most spiritual herbs.
Furthermore, each tier of pills, depending on the refiner's ability, could be further classified into Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade, and Supreme-grade.
The low-grade Spirit Gathering Pills that Han Lang intended to refine now could be fully named as Tier 1 - Low-grade Spirit Gathering Pills.
On the Lichuan Continent, they were considered consumable pills, applicable only to cultivators before the Golden Core stage.
In low-level combat, when spiritual energy was insufficient, taking one immediately revitalized the user!
However, for cultivators after the Golden Core stage, this amount of spiritual energy was like a drop in the bucket.
Of course, this didn't mean that all consumable pills were low-grade.
The higher the cultivation level, the higher-grade consumable pills would be used. However, due to the rarity of materials and greater refining difficulty, they were also rarer and more precious. Thus, for many high-level cultivators, high-grade consumable pills were not only luxurious but also not as necessary.
However, for Han Lang, who was on Blue Star with its sparse spiritual energy, such pills became his necessity.
This was because, in addition to using them to cope with situations like the current lack of spiritual energy, his future cultivation advancements would also rely on absorbing the spiritual energy from these types of pills.
Fortunately, the refining requirements for Spirit Gathering Pills were low, the success rate was relatively high, and the yield was large. Even with Han Lang's current strength, being able to barely refine some low-grade Spirit Gathering Pills was not a problem at all.
"Since that's the case, let's get to it!"
With a thought, he entered the three-story pagoda, collected the spiritual herbs for Spirit Gathering Pills and Body Tempering Pills, and then continued planting them. After all, the demand for Spirit Gathering Pills was quite high before the Golden Core stage.
Afterward, he carefully moved these required spiritual herbs out of the three-story pagoda.
When he opened his eyes again, a row of round and plump spiritual herbs was laid out before him like cherished treasures.
"Alright, let's begin now!"
The refining steps were the same as when he had intended to show off to Luo Jiaying. He first sat cross-legged, then held his breath and calmed his mind, slowly picking up a spiritual herb and placing it in his palm, staring at it intently.
Then...
He channeled his energy to condense the dan fire!
"Bang!"
This time was different from the last. Last time, he had no spiritual energy in his body, so he couldn't condense dan fire.
But this time, he was already a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining. Therefore, as his spiritual energy condensed, a transparent, pale blue flame rose from his palm.