NOVEL NEXT Ch. 15
Chapter 15: Production Line Upgrade, Department Establishment!
The next day, before dawn broke, the Chores Courtyard was already in complete uproar.
Hundreds of members of the “Ascension Group,” divided into teams of three or groups of five, carried hoes and shouldered sacks as they charged toward the back mountain of Qingyun Sect like a swarm of worker ants injected with chicken blood.
The inner disciples on their early morning patrol were dumbfounded by the sight.
“This… this group of errand disciples has gone mad? They’re going to open up wasteland together this early in the morning?”
“Who knows? I heard they formed some kind of ‘Mutual Aid Association.’ Sounds suspicious.”
To these lofty inner disciples, the fervor of the low-level errand disciples was beyond comprehension.
Meanwhile, the mastermind behind all this—Chu Feng—was sitting leisurely in his “headquarters,” sipping coarse tea.
He was not worried at all.
He knew very well that danger was always relative.
The outer perimeter of the back mountain of Qingyun Sect had already been cleared countless times by the sect.
At most, there would be a few insignificant small beasts.
For these low-cultivation but large-numbered cultivators, as long as they didn’t recklessly charge into the inner area, safety was basically guaranteed.
Right now, he was waiting for his “suppliers” to bring back the first batch of “angel investments.”
The wait didn’t last long.
By noon, the first group came back carrying large bundles, beaming with excitement.
“President! We’re back!”
“Look! We gathered so much!”
In an instant, all kinds of plants—strange and misshapen—were piled in the courtyard until they formed a small hill.
Among them were some real medicinal herbs, but far more were useless weeds, poisonous plants, and even a few tree roots someone had dug up because they looked “refined.”
Chu Feng looked at the pile of “trash” and broke into a wide grin.
“Good! Very good!”
He loudly praised, “The first batch of triumphant warriors! Your contributions will be recorded by the Group!”
Then he turned to Leng Yanran, who had been waiting by his side.
“Cold CPO, it’s your turn. Our ‘Quality Control and Procurement Department’ should begin work now.”
Leng Yanran looked at the “grass mountain” that reeked of soil and mixed greens, her beautiful brows furrowing tightly.
Quality Control and Procurement Department?
Just the three of us?
She glanced at Zhang San, Li Si, and Wang Wu, who were all equally dumbstruck, and felt her head swell.
“There’s… so much of it. How can we possibly sort all this?”
Li Si muttered under his breath.
“Yeah, even if we sort it, cleaning and processing it would take until the Year of the Monkey.”
Zhang San fretted.
“Shut up! Execute the order!”
Leng Yanran snapped coldly, forcing herself to perk up.
With gritted teeth, she walked to the grass mountain and began what would become the most down-to-earth—and exasperating—work of her CPO career: garbage sorting.
“This—three-leaf clover, low-grade spirit herb, worth 0.1 points.”
“This—snake saliva fruit, slightly poisonous, but usable after treatment, worth 0.2 points.”
“This one… this is dogtail grass! Who picked this? Minus 0.01 points!”
“And this—heartbreak grass! Highly toxic! Who are you trying to poison? Deduct 1 point!”
As Leng Yanran identified each specimen, Li Si stood beside her, diligently recording in a small notebook.
Throughout the entire afternoon, the Chores Courtyard echoed with her cool yet faintly desperate voice.
Meanwhile, Chu Feng watched with great interest.
He knew this was the necessary path for Leng Yanran to evolve from a “technical genius” into a “manager.”
When problems piled up like mountains and individual effort could no longer solve them, she would naturally start thinking about how to build a system to handle them.
As expected, by evening, when the last team returned and three “grass mountains” now stood in the courtyard, Leng Yanran finally couldn’t hold on.
Dragging her exhausted body, she walked up to Chu Feng, who was meditating with his eyes closed, and croaked hoarsely, “No, this won’t do. We’re severely short on manpower.”
“Oh? How so?”
Chu Feng asked knowingly.
“Sorting, cleaning, grinding, proportioning… every step is short of people! With just the four of us, even if we worked day and night, we couldn’t process one-tenth of what was gathered today!”
She added, “And the pill production line has stopped because we don’t have enough manpower.”
“Hm, that’s indeed a problem.”
Chu Feng nodded slightly, finally opening his eyes. “So, as CPO, what do you think we should do?”
Leng Yanran froze for a moment—he was testing her?
She took a deep breath.
Drawing from what she had observed in the past few days and the concepts Chu Feng had instilled in her, she began to think seriously.
A moment later, she spoke clearly and methodically:
“I think we should conduct departmental restructuring and recruitment expansion.”
“First, establish a Procurement and Appraisal Department—responsible for identifying and purchasing the herbs gathered by members, as well as handling the point settlement. This department needs people with basic knowledge of pharmacology.”
“Second, set up a Primary Processing Department—in charge of cleaning, drying, and slicing the purchased herbs.”
“Third, create a Refinement Department—that’s our current pill production line, responsible for grinding, proportioning, and refining. Zhang San and his team can continue here, but we need to hire more people for assembly-line operations.”
“Fourth, I need a Warehouse Management Department—to classify, store, and record the processed herbs and refined pills.”
When she finished speaking, Leng Yanran herself was startled.
She realized she had unconsciously begun to think like a manager, planning out an entire production workflow.
Chu Feng listened and smiled with satisfaction.
A teachable one indeed!
“Excellent proposal!”
He praised without reservation. “Worthy of our CPO! Clear logic, tight structure! I approve!”
“Then… where do we get the people?”
Leng Yanran asked the key question.
“Isn’t that our greatest advantage as the Ascension Group?”
Chu Feng laughed heartily, stood up, and walked to the center of the courtyard.
Facing the members who were still excitedly showing off their “treasures,” he announced loudly:
“Family members! I have great news! Due to the Group’s business expansion, the Headquarters is now officially recruiting!”
“Procurement and Appraisal Department, Primary Processing Department, Refinement Department, Warehouse Management Department—four major core departments, dozens of positions—officially established!”
“As long as you understand herbs, as long as you work fast, as long as you want to earn more points and gain promotion opportunities—sign up now!”
“Remember! Here, we don’t rank by seniority! The capable rise, the average yield, the mediocre fall! Your future lies in your own hands!”
The moment his voice fell, the courtyard erupted once again.
“Me! I want to sign up! I used to be an apprentice at a medicine shop—I know herbs!”
“Me too! I’m fast with my hands—let me join the Primary Processing Department!”
“President, I want to join the Refinement Department! I want to learn alchemy!”
Watching the fiery “recruitment fair” before her eyes, Leng Yanran was utterly convinced.
She finally understood—what Chu Feng had built was never just a simple mutual aid group.
It was the embryonic form of a commercial empire with terrifying self-evolution and expansion capabilities.
And she was standing right at the center of this storm.