It was obvious.
This was an array meant to bar entry.
In other words.
Feng Kucha didn't have the authority to enter.
He felt he'd lost some face. Rubbing his rear, he explained, "It's been too long since I last came to inspect this place. Hold on, let me ask!"
Then.
He took a deep breath and bellowed, "Someone get over here! Is everyone dead?"
A middle-aged Steward quickly ran over. He first bowed to Zhao Ci before leaning in close to Feng Kucha. "Young Master, what are your orders?"
Feng Kucha pointed at the iron gate. "Open this gate. I want to take His Highness inside for a look around."
The Steward looked pained. "Young Master! I'm afraid that won't be possible. The Chief Steward gave an order that from now on, only Alchemists can enter or leave the Alchemy Room."
"Huh?"
Feng Kucha's brows knitted. "When did my second uncle give that order?"
His father, the Patriarch, was at the main headquarters of the Yingchuan Feng Family. All of the Feng Family's enterprises in Lingge were under his second uncle's control.
The Steward explained in a low voice, "It's been a while!"
Feng Kucha was displeased. "My second uncle, really… How did his measures against outsiders end up hitting me too? Don't be so rigid. Just let me show my distinguished guest around first. I'll go explain it to my second uncle myself tomorrow."
The Steward looked pained. "I… I'm afraid that's not possible!"
[Current Wish of Feng Huai]: Your Highness, please stop making things difficult for me. The Chief Steward really won't allow you to leech achievements from the Feng Family. Wish Fulfillment Reward: Insight +1, Rubbing Talisman x1.
'Hmm?'
Zhao Ci's brow twitched. 'So this restriction was aimed at me.'
Thinking back, the current Crown Prince Consort was a daughter of the Feng Family's main lineage. The Feng Family were clearly part of the Crown Prince Faction, so they indeed had no reason to help him.
Having been publicly rebuffed, Feng Kucha grew even more displeased. "Why are you so inflexible? Are you saying you don't see me as the Young Master anymore? Let me tell you, my dad is the Patriarch of the Feng Family. My second uncle is… Zhao Ci, what are you pulling me for?"
Zhao Ci shot him a look, then turned to the Steward. "Since the Alchemy Room is a secret of your esteemed family, I won't impose. Thank you for your trouble."
"Huh?"
Feng Kucha was unhappy. "Zhao Ci, you…"
The Steward froze for a moment, then bowed repeatedly to Zhao Ci. "Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness! Thank you for your understanding!"
Seeing that Feng Kucha was still fuming and about to argue, Zhao Ci simply dragged him out of the rear courtyard. Since Feng Kucha's second uncle had issued a strict order, throwing a tantrum wasn't going to get them inside.
'There's no need to make things difficult for a steward. Besides, the Feng Family isn't the only one with an Alchemy Room. Arguing with a servant over this would just make me look like I'm throwing a powerless tantrum.'
[Prompt]: Wish fulfilled. Reward obtained: Insight +1, Rubbing Talisman x1.
[Rubbing Talisman]: Apply to self to double the effect of the "rubbing" action.
Zhao Ci: "???"
'This Talisman Paper is a little indecent. What a weird keyword for the system to latch onto!'
Outside the back door, Feng Kucha was disgruntled. "Zhao Ci, you're too impatient! You have to trust my authority in the Feng Family! If I'd scared that Steward a little more, he definitely would have let us in."
Zhao Ci curled his lip. "Fine, then! I'll wait right here. If you can't get me inside within the hour, you'll come work for my estate as a Mansion Official."
Feng Kucha: "…"
He hemmed and hawed for a while before muttering, "Well, if you're going to put it like that, I won't argue with you."
Zhao Ci chuckled in spite of himself. 'This guy is surprisingly self-aware,' he thought.
'Speaking of which, his situation in the Feng Family is a lot like my own in the Zhao Family. There are plenty of people willing to humor a dandy, but very few who actually respect one.'
'After all, the Great Yu Dynasty is just too competitive. Even if you're born into a great house, you'll be nothing but a marginal figure if you don't have any real skills.'
"Damn it!"
Feng Kucha was dejected. "Talking to you is a real fucking mood-killer! If you ask me, you should just close down your estate. You saw it yourself—they wouldn't even let us into the Alchemy Room. It'd be even harder to get you a job shoveling shit at the Beast Taming Arena.
"Just last month, some guy approached me wanting a monopoly on our Feng Family's spirit beast manure. He wanted me to help him pass a gift to my second uncle. If the type of Demoness he offered wasn't so... off, I might have actually agreed."
Zhao Ci asked curiously, "What type?"
Feng Kucha rubbed his head. "A cockroach girl! To be fair, she was pretty hot, but the moment I thought about her being a cockroach, I just couldn't get it up."
Zhao Ci: "…"
'No wonder the demonesses in novels are always foxes or phoenixes. They're all so cliché.'
'After hearing Feng Kucha's story, I guess I can't really blame the authors.'
Feng Kucha scratched his head. "It's still early. Wanna go for a drink?"
"Better not."
Zhao Ci shook his head. "Drinking gets in the way of business. I'm going back to see if I can find another way."
Feng Kucha was gloomy. "It'd be so much happier just being a dandy with me. Why the hell do you have to open an estate?!"
As they spoke, the two walked out through the alley. Along the way, they encountered two or three furtive individuals digging through trash piles. The scavengers grew wary upon seeing them, only relaxing their guard and resuming their work once Zhao Ci and Feng Kucha had passed.
Zhao Ci asked, curious, "What are they doing?"
"Stealing medicinal dregs," Feng Kucha said nonchalantly.
"Stealing medicinal dregs? What for?"
"To steep in wine and drink, of course! Pills are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. Steeping the dregs in wine extracts some residual medicinal properties. Who wouldn't want something for free? But those with a little money just buy the raw ingredients to steep. The effect isn't great, but the ingredients aren't expensive, either."
"Oh…"
Zhao Ci became thoughtful.
After leaving the alley, the two parted ways. Feng Kucha, like a Hidden Dragon who had lost his Feng Chu, lamented all the way that life wasn't worth living.
Zhao Ci returned to his estate and immediately summoned several young servants. They were all at the age for cultivation but couldn't afford pills, and indeed had a habit of drinking wine steeped with raw ingredients.
After some questioning, he really did learn something useful.
Wine was indeed effective. They usually steeped Qi Nourishing Grass, which was the main ingredient for the lowest-grade Qi Cultivation Pill.
Qi Nourishing Grass was cheap, but the alchemical techniques required to concentrate its active ingredients, activate them with other herbs, and lock in their medicinal properties were not simple.
Thus, the Qi Cultivation Pill was still not something a common family could easily afford.
Simply boiling Qi Nourishing Grass was extremely inefficient; you could drink until you were bloated and still not reach a dose sufficient for cultivation.
So, those with a bit of money would choose to steep it in wine. The stronger the wine, the better the effect. A few large bowls could barely meet the standard for aiding cultivation, but its efficiency was still several tiers below that of a Qi Cultivation Pill.
'A pity.'
Zhao Ci sighed lightly. 'Just as Feng Kucha said, the reason pills are so potent is that Alchemists know how to perfectly blend the ingredients based on their synergistic roles, making the properties much easier for the body to absorb. It's not something you can replicate just by soaking herbs in wine.'
'Alchemists are the core competitive advantage.'
'Even if I managed to create high-concentration alcohol that could efficiently extract active ingredients, it would still be no match for a real pill…'
'Wait!'
Zhao Ci suddenly jolted. He quickly took out the notes he had summarized that afternoon from *Introduction to Alchemy*.
It was the complete process of Alchemy.
The most tedious step was "Quenching Medicine with fire"—the process of burning away all impurities to leave only the active ingredients.
'If I had high-concentration alcohol, it seems it could replace this tedious process.'
Zhao Ci suddenly grew excited.
'So, selling alcohol has great potential?'
'No! That's not right! My thinking is wrong!'
'If my goal is just to make more effective medicinal wine, then with high-concentration alcohol, I can only make money from selling the alcohol itself.'
'But if my goal is the entire pill production chain, high-concentration alcohol could help me save a massive amount of manpower and resources. Production capacity could increase severalfold, at least. I could even deal a devastating blow to other Pill Workshops!'
'But where would I get a complete pill production chain?'
Zhao Ci thought of someone. 'She definitely has it!'
'Holy shit!'
'A business opportunity!'