NOVEL NEXT Chapter 390: Testing the Medicine
“How about it? Is this piece of news worth 10 Destiny Plates?”
Seeing his expression, All-Knowing knew that his insider information had taken effect, and he looked over with a smile brimming across his face.
“Not worth it!”
Zhang Xuan shook his head: “I never planned on going bounty hunting; no matter how dangerous, it doesn’t really affect me.”
“You…”
Startled, All-Knowing frowned: “Then what kind of secret do you want to hear about?”
...I’ve seen stingy, but never this stingy! And you’re still a citizen… That status must have been a gift from someone else!
“Anything that earns Merit Points quickly, I want to hear about that!” said Zhang Xuan.
“Hmm…”
After hesitating, All-Knowing’s eyes flashed with a playful smile: “Are you sure?”Zhang Xuan nodded: “Of course!”
All-Knowing said: “Alright, I’m a kind soul, I can give you the most profitable piece of information for free, but whether or not you can earn from it depends on whether you dare to take the risk.”
Zhang Xuan: “Let’s hear it!”
All-Knowing pointed at a line of words on the tombstone, saying: “It’s about being a test subject for forge a grade-1 pill. Other projects require time to accumulate; this one doesn’t. If you have a strong stomach and luck on your side, just ingest ten doses of ingredients in one day to gain one Contribution Value point, and if you can handle a hundred doses, you can advance to Tier-4 Citizen…”
Not expecting his suggestion to be this, Zhang Xuan paused, then nodded: “Indeed, this is the fastest way to earn money!”
Whether it’s hunting bandits, hunting Primordial Beasts, or even refining Origin qi, all need time to accumulate; at the least a few days, at most several months. As for ingesting pills… as long as you don’t die, you can keep ingesting indefinitely. It sure is the simplest and easiest.
“You really want to give it a try?”
All-Knowing was shocked, his look turned weird.
“Of course, may I know where to try it? Could you take me there?” Zhang Xuan asked earnestly.
After a pause, All-Knowing warned: “Medicine has its three parts poison, newly concocted formulas lack any guarantees—are you sure you want to try?”
“If it earns Merit Points quickly, why not?”
Zhang Xuan smiled.
“Alright then! There is a small gate over there, walk to the end and turn right, there is a small room. Just say you’re there to test pills, and they’ll arrange everything for you!”
Seeing him make up his mind, All-Knowing couldn’t be bothered to dissuade further and casually pointed out the direction.
Zhang Xuan looked and sure enough saw a small gate standing there; he nodded in satisfaction and parted ways with the other party.
As soon as the two had walked away, a servant also approached, looking joyously: “These two seem like new folks, where did you recommend them to go?”
“Test pills!” All-Knowing waved his hand.
The servant was startled, full of disbelief: “Test pills? That’s one hundred percent a deadly job, why would you push him to go there?”
All-Knowing sneered: “Wanting to die on their own accord, right? Don’t worry about it. There are always some folks who think they’re stronger than others, believe their lives are tougher, only to die without knowing how.”
The servant nodded: “Indeed, it’s just a pity… to become a citizen only to end up dying here!”
After speaking, the two of them stopped paying attention and looked around for others they might hook into listening to their analysis.
…
“It’s just 10 Destiny Plates, not expensive, we could totally listen to what they have to say, why refuse?”
Empyrean Kong couldn’t help but look over.
Although the person in front of him wasn’t too wealthy, he was certainly not poor. Not to mention anything else, the 2,000 Destiny Plates Captain Su had snatched returned, didn’t they? Taking out 10 would still be easy, right?
“You pay for it…” Zhang Xuan was speechless.
He thought that finding Empyrean Kong would be finding a patron, yet he didn’t even have a penny, everything had to come out of his own pocket…
“Cough cough, I have no money! There are indeed many Heavenly Mandate Vitality in the Zhilan Valley, but it’s not enough for me to advance my cultivation…”
Empyrean Kong shook his head.
“If you have no money then stop talking!”
Zhang Xuan shook his head: “Besides, do you really think these people will do the job after taking money? They’ll describe all projects as extremely dangerous, and then recommend an activity that benefits them for you to take on! As for how dangerous it actually is, that remains unknown…”
He understood what these servants were really up to.
They take your money on the surface, but in reality, they could sell you off to backbreaking jobs in a flash, from which you can’t even escape, while they could make some more money off of it.
Since he had already seen through it, why pay?
“That makes sense…”
Hearing his explanation, Empyrean Kong paused for a moment and then nodded, then curiously looked over: “Are we really going to test pills? You’re sure it’s safe?”
“This is the most dangerous, near a hundred percent chance of death!” Zhang Xuan said.
“Hundred percent… chance of death?”
Empyrean Kong was startled.
This time he was truly confused.
He had heard of people deliberately choosing difficult tasks for the challenge, but he had never heard of anyone deliberately choosing certain death.
“Yes, with testing pills, whoever knows the toxicity of the medication best is the Alchemist. If they don’t want to award you points, they can just replace the last dose with Poison Hall’s products! Ingesting it means certain death, but you can only get the reward if you ingest, you could live if you don’t eat, but then they can blatantly skimp on you… It’s all about playing it out in the open.”
Zhang Xuan smiled.
Although he had never experienced it, he had seen all sorts of strange schemes and tricks on his journey from the Master Teacher Continent.
The so-called pill testing was in fact just a prime example of exploiting for free labor.
“That said, it’s not bad!” Empyrean Kong nodded.
Having experienced history fighting with the Otherworldly Demon, he knew all about these schemes and treacheries. He was just not thinking about it just then, but as soon as Zhang Xuan mentioned it, he immediately understood.
“The so-called medicine can poison others, but poisoning us isn’t that easy! In that case, why not come here to score some points?”
Zhang Xuan said.
“Hmm!” Empyrean Kong nodded.
As a Master of One Realm, the so-called poisons had no effect on them; if dissolved, they could even act as great supplements to allow for quick advancement in cultivation.
When looked at this way, pill testing for them was not only non-dangerous but also a huge opportunity to profit.
“Let’s go, the battle with Captain Su consumed quite a lot of resources, burning part of the mountains and rivers; I need to replenish with some medicinal materials anyway…”
Seeing he had understood, Zhang Xuan continued to walk ahead, smiling.
In a short while, the two arrived at the small gate and gently pushed it open to enter.
Inside were several tightly closed rooms, Zhang Xuan and Empyrean Kong walked to the end of the corridor where a vermillion door appeared in front of them; they knocked lightly a few times and slowly opened it.
It was a room occupying several hundred square meters, with a middle-aged man sitting in the middle, in front of him were a large number of medicine bottles, densely packed with hundreds.
Behind him, seven or eight people lay horizontally on the ground, motionless, foam continuously oozing from their mouths, already breathless.
The middle-aged man rubbed his eyebrows in trouble, and then noticing the two, his eyes lit up: “Are you here to test pills?”