Chapter 413: Chapter 413

No one sought to verify the matter with Dr. B, instead frantically questioning the few farm owners. Some astute individuals even dug up their full records of comings and goings, and many higher-ups turned red-eyed upon seeing the farmers walking away with double the supplies.

And when someone questioned whether the produce from this method was good or bad, Jing Shu’s high life force medicinal herbs always timely appeared before them. After a series of checks and verifications, they were amazed to discover that the Water of Life developed by Dr. B was so damn effective!

It was a great scientific advance that allowed a place like Austin, where medicinal herbs couldn’t originally be grown, to cultivate such high-yielding herbs with the help of the Water of Life!

In Huaxia, there would have been doubts for sure, but this was the United States, without so many complications. In the United States, what’s on the billboard is exactly what you get, whereas in Huaxia, promotional materials are often ’for reference only’.

The most important thing was that Dr. B didn’t widely publicize this research project. Many high-ups, thinking themselves ’wise’, unearthed the truth that Dr. B only needed a daily fee of 30% of the output for his deeper research. Moreover, due to the limited daily capacity, he didn’t make a big public announcement!

This ’truth’ was unearthed by many who fancied themselves clever. To these individuals, it was as if they had discovered some clowns secretly hauling gold from a mine; despite the clowns’ attempts to hide their activities, they had still been found out!

If someone were to shout out loud, "I found a gold mine, I can dig so much gold every day," many would be skeptical and even investigate thoroughly. But the more someone sneaks around, moving piles of things in one day and then secretly moving even more things out the next, the more it incites envy, doesn’t it?

Then, people began to supply Dr. B with all sorts of materials through various channels, even reaching a point where they only asked for 50% of the output, giving all the rest to Dr. B as his fee.

With only a thousand pounds of supply quota per day, it didn’t take long for a group to divide it up. The original farm owners were not happy; they hadn’t enjoyed the sweet deal for long before it was about to disappear.

And the newly empowered higher-ups weren’t satisfied with this figure either. A group of them finally had to devise new strategies.

Inside Dr. B’s laboratory, Ms. C was counting expenses with a look of chagrin, "Bit, we’ve already put in six thousand pounds of food and materials, and it won’t last more than a few days. This is nearly all we’ve managed to gather recently."

The floor was piled with various materials, and Monk and Monkey had been roped in to act as counterfeit movers. These items couldn’t simply be faked with the Water of Life; the farm owners who transported them back weren’t fools, so these losses had to be borne by Dr. B alone. This was, as they say, dangling a bigger bait to catch a bigger fish.

Dr. B continued to conduct various strange experiments with test tubes in hand. He shrugged, "What I truly admire is the beautiful Miss Mirror. The plan is going so smoothly, all thanks to you for bribing some high-ups and even managing to have the high life force herbs pass inspection... impressive indeed. As for C, listen, very soon, any minute now, people will come looking for us. They are no longer satisfied with this turtle’s pace of profit."

Ms. C nodded helplessly, "I hope so."

Jing Shu showed a politely restrained smile. Her herbs were genuinely cultivated from the Spiritual Spring. Honestly, her Spiritual Spring was of a much higher grade than Dr. B’s Water of Life. If the Water of Life, which merely increases production, was already so popular, one could only imagine how precious her Spiritual Spring truly was. What was even more precious was its ability to repair the body and extend life. The Ant Queen, whose life was nearing its end, drank from Spiritual Spring No. 3 for over half a month and had now recovered some life force, even losing her previously feeble, aged appearance. The Spiritual Spring once again proved its unparalleled efficacy.

"I hope everything goes smoothly," Jing Shu also sighed inwardly. At this moment, they were completely in the same boat as Dr. B, having invested many resources. Dr. B, on his part, had put in everything.

While those who had tasted the sweetness were scheming for an even bigger slice next time, little did they know that Dr. B was almost bankrupt. This leveraging of initially established trust, further consolidated to the point of being unbreakable, was all for the final step: to destroy everything.

True to Jing Shu’s expectations, within a couple of days, those in Austin Castle who had heard the rumors came calling. This included the previous farm owners and some very wealthy power-holders. Jing Shu even saw the Slave Master from the Underground black market!

All these people came knocking together. Some had disrupted market rules, causing prices to become chaotic, and ultimately, the capitalists decided they needed to monopolize. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩•𝗳𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝕟𝕖𝕥

During this period, they had all, to varying degrees, brought food or crops and received higher quality goods in return, thus verifying the effects of the Water of Life. Some wanted to purchase it or acquire its formula. However, Dr. B had already provided his explanation earlier. Consequently, due to a kind of reverse psychology, everyone came demanding to monopolize and increase production, rather than thinking of buying the Water of Life itself—this was an effect Dr. B had cultivated from the start.

This was a group that, after deliberating for two days, finally succeeded in uniting more than half of Austin Castle’s influential figures to pie. From then on, the production capacity and distribution of the Water of Life were to be decided by these people.

Jing Shu naturally blended in among them, as she too was one of those getting a slice of the cake.

"Dr. B, the current production capacity of the Water of Life is too low to meet the needs of the people in the castle," said the leader of this delegation, who was also one of the castle’s executives. He was panting and sprawled on the sofa, his obese body making him appear quite weak. "We have all discussed this and unanimously agree that the facility should be moved to the raw materials site. With that, there will be thousands of pounds of new materials every day. It would be a monumental honor for both Austin and for you, Doctor."

"Yes, with thousands of pounds of materials a day, you could also gain a larger fee and invest in other areas of research," another person added.

Dr. B seemed intrigued but hesitated. "That area is a fissure left by an earthquake, full of unknown creatures—it’s extremely dangerous. There’s also the constant threat of erupting magma. Furthermore, if we move there, I’d have to transport all the equipment from my lab.

"We would also require at least several dozen security personnel. Most importantly, as you all know, I am part of the castle’s team currently repairing the Concentrating Stone and cannot leave. The formula and application of the Water of Life also demand extremely precise data and special techniques; no one but me can produce it."

"Doctor, we can postpone the Concentrating Stone matter. I, as a castle executive, give you permission to undertake this mission. The Water of Life is more valuable, so increasing its production capacity should take priority. Supplies are scarce right now, and all of us hope to expand production!"