Chapter 384: Chapter 384

Never mind, he still had to continue working. First, he needed to find a way to refine some pills for them. He hadn't expected these women to be so formidable. Originally, he thought it would be good enough if they cultivated to Saint Level, but now it seemed Saint Level was merely the beginning.

Fortunately, during this period he had mainly been studying alchemy, otherwise he might not have been able to keep up with their cultivation progress. He was also thankful that he had prepared so many pills back then, even preparing quite a few for Saint Level, otherwise they would have run out of supplies long ago.

However, judging from their sect resources, they could still obtain a little extra, but Xiaoyao felt that still wasn't enough. Whether in quantity or quality, he felt it was slightly lacking. In the end, he still had to do it himself.

If anyone knew of Xiaoyao's thoughts, they would definitely spit at him to death. Did he think high-level pills were like cabbages? Being given any was already good enough, yet he still complained about insufficient quantity and poor quality.

To this, Xiaoyao could only say: indeed, the quantity was a bit too little, and the quality was a bit too poor!

The medicinal materials on this land were much more abundant than on the Divine Martial Continent, because the elemental energy between heaven and earth was much richer. This led to the abundant production of high-level medicinal materials. Materials that were absent on the Divine Martial Continent weren't very scarce here.

Because of this, high-level pills here weren't few either. However, they still weren't very numerous, because alchemy techniques were actually similar—the methods still required such complexity. But things were slightly better here; with the same techniques, the pill success rate was much higher. This might also be due to the different elemental energy between heaven and earth.

However, this success rate was still a bit low for Xiaoyao. He didn't know if other alchemists could achieve higher rates than him, but at least those at the Xuanwu Family weren't as high as his.

Because of this, Xiaoyao began secretly collecting medicinal materials. When he helped with refining, sometimes one furnace of pills could equal others' two furnaces. In between, he could privately pocket one furnace worth of materials, hiding them in the pharmacy.

Xiaoyao didn't have Chi Chi by his side now, so he couldn't take these materials away. Even if he tried to smuggle them out, people might smell the medicinal scent. The best method was to hide them in the pharmacy.

Anyway, the Xuanwu Family's pharmacy was very large with plenty of places to hide things. Plus, everyone managed their own work. As long as the output pills matched up, no one would check these materials.

Gradually, Xiaoyao collected the medicinal materials he wanted to refine pills with and began secretly refining those pills. Having many people around made it easy to fish in troubled waters!

Originally, these pills were also refined here, but for refining such high-level pills, they wouldn't let Xiaoyao participate. Even if he could help, someone would watch the entire process. That way, Xiaoyao would have no way to privately skim some off.

However, Xiaoyao could still handle this situation. Without being discovered by anyone, he sent the pills in his hands to the girls. This kind of thing continued constantly. Because of this, he frequented the pharmacy the most.

For the monster beast pens, he basically used very little time to complete his work. He actually spent less time there than at the pharmacy. With his remaining time, he went to mix with various positions, getting familiar faces, then studying books for various professions.

This was also unavoidable. Xiaoyao originally wanted to enter the library in that inner courtyard, but he had no means to do so. He could only settle for second best and first study things in the various professional reference rooms.

Xiaoyao's time passed in such work and study. For work, he would sometimes wander around the city. After more than half a year, he had become very familiar with this Azure Dragon City.

Today, he was prepared to do something. Taking the things he had already prepared, Xiaoyao left the Xuanwu Family and headed to a street. The street had various shops. Xiaoyao came to the entrance of one shop, looked at the plaque, then walked inside.

"Boss, I want to publish a book!"

This was a book merchant's shop that sold books and also accepted manuscripts for publication. But they had never seen a person dressed as a servant actually come here to publish a book.

However, the boss didn't dare mock Xiaoyao, because he was currently wearing the Xuanwu Family's uniform. Even if he was just a servant, he was still a servant of the Xuanwu Family. That made a difference.

"Excuse me, what did you just say?"

"I want to publish a book. No, that's wrong—my young master wants to publish a book, but he doesn't like to show his face, so he left it to me to handle." Xiaoyao said with a smile.

"Oh, so that's how it is. Where's the manuscript? Can you let me take a look?"

So it was for a young master—that was different. These wealthy young masters often did such things to appear cultured. It was just for reputation. As long as they could pay the price, they would publish it.

That's right, the money was given to the book merchants, not payment from the merchants to authors. Google seaʀᴄh novelFirｅ.net

"It's right here. Publish according to what's written above. Those illustrations are also needed, and the book cover should use this design..." Xiaoyao took out a stack of papers. Most had dense text, while the rest were drawings, some with poems inscribed within.

"These illustrations will be a bit troublesome, but as long as you can afford the price, we can do it." The book merchant received what Xiaoyao handed over, showing a smiling face.

"What do you mean 'I can afford it'? It's an honor for you to publish my young master's book here. You should be paying me money." Xiaoyao said unhappily.

"This..." The book merchant's smile froze, and his hands stopped moving. He had expected this situation—this would make him lose money. Who would be willing to buy books by these young masters and misses?

Wait, actually this didn't matter. They would buy them for face later. He could set a high price then and fleece them!!

The book merchant suddenly smiled broadly again. He had figured it out, so naturally he smiled.

"Yes, yes, we should pay! But this also depends on the effect after publication. Right now I'm afraid of shortchanging you." The book merchant said with a smile. He wouldn't pay now—what if Xiaoyao was a fraud?

"That's up to you, but I want to tell you—what I've given you is already typeset. Don't you dare modify anything, or my young master will smash your shop." Xiaoyao said fiercely, then turned to leave.

Was Xiaoyao really helping some young master publish a book?

Actually no. He didn't know any young master at all. At most he had seen some a few times, but had no interaction with them. If a young master wanted to publish a book, he wouldn't look for him.

This book was for finding someone—finding that woman who might be his mother. But he couldn't search for her directly, fearing unnecessary trouble. So he thought of this method to search indirectly.

He drew that woman's portrait and put it in this book. If this book became popular, people who had seen this woman might see it, and then some information might emerge, allowing him to find her.

This method could be said to require completely no effort, had wide circulation, but was relatively slow. He didn't know when someone who recognized her would see it, but Xiaoyao could wait. It had already been so many years—he didn't mind a few more years.

Most importantly, he could find the person without others noticing!

Xiaoyao thought that perhaps this book would attract others' attention, but investigations would ultimately trace back to the Xuanwu Family. The Xuanwu Family was already a super family here—not many people dared provoke them. Even if that woman's family was very powerful, at most they would be on par with the Xuanwu Family.

Xiaoyao felt it wouldn't be so coincidental that it would happen to be the Vermillion Bird Family or White Tiger Family. If such a situation occurred, that would be troublesome. Only they weren't afraid of the Xuanwu Family and would continue investigating.

Other families should stop at this point!

However, even if they continued investigating, there actually wasn't much to worry about, because this might just be a coincidence. Using a twenty-year-old portrait, and the story wasn't the kind that would embarrass people.

But for all this to succeed, this book had to become famous and sensational. Did Xiaoyao have this confidence?

This could be confirmed. Xiaoyao was ninety-nine percent certain this book would be very sensational, because this was his painstaking masterpiece—definitely an exciting story, touching to the heart, with gorgeous writing...

In summary, this was a masterpiece that would be hard not to become popular!!

How much time did it take him? Well, three days. And these three days were while he was working, completed entirely during his spare time over three days.

"Um, may I ask about the pen name..." The book merchant boss looked and found no signature, so he immediately asked.

"Just call it... Smile! Life is nothing more than laughing at others and letting others laugh at you!" Xiaoyao replied with a smile, then left, leaving the book merchant standing there in a daze, pondering those words.

"What are you doing! What are you looking at? Hurry up and get to work!!" When the book merchant came back to his senses and wanted to continue running his business, ignoring the factors Xiaoyao had caused, he found his subordinate was actually reading the manuscript Xiaoyao had given.

"Boss, this book is really good..." the subordinate replied.

"What's so good about it? Don't try to slack off!" the book merchant said unhappily.

"No, boss, it's really good. If you don't believe me, see for yourself. We're going to get rich." The subordinate replied. These words made the book merchant somewhat puzzled. Could this book really work?

When the book merchant picked up the manuscript to read, he found himself immediately drawn in, lost within it. This rhythmic feeling in the writing was like listening to heavenly music, making one forget everything else.

"Drop everything immediately and publish this book!!"

After the book merchant came back to his senses again, he immediately made a decision to stop all other work and prioritize publishing Xiaoyao's book, because he understood that once this book was published, it would bring him enormous wealth.

This book would definitely become popular throughout the entire Azure Dragon Empire, even the entire world...

Xiaoyao didn't know about these developments. He continued to several other places, sold a painting—using the same theme—and bought some things. This had nothing to do with the above purpose; it was just needed now.