The cooperation plan went into effect immediately.
So far, Jiang Chen knew very little about the Medicine Hall. The only person he trusted was Qiao Baishi. By comparison, Qiao Baishi was both shrewd and honest.
Therefore, when it came to the core operations, Jiang Chen was willing to have only Qiao Baishi involved — none of the Medicine Hall's other alchemists.
Qiao Baishi was only too happy to agree.
This was a golden opportunity. Even if Jiang Chen hadn't insisted, Qiao Baishi would never have passed it on to anyone else. True, Jiang Chen wouldn't let him in on every last piece of the core knowledge. But so long as Qiao Baishi was personally involved, within the Medicine Hall, he would effectively hold the reins of authority.
This would be an enormous boost to his future control over the Hall.
As long as he maintained this cooperative relationship with Jiang Chen, who in the Medicine Hall could ever challenge his position as successor?
With that in place, the Grand Hall Master's plan to cultivate him and pass the mantle on would become all the more legitimate.
After all, opposing Qiao Baishi would mean cutting off the Medicine Hall's core competitive edge.
Qiao Baishi was deeply grateful. He felt that he had made an incredibly wise decision that day. If he hadn't overruled everyone and sold that Dragon Bone Yang Grass to Jiang Chen, the situation in the Royal Capital would look entirely different by now.
And he, Qiao Baishi, would probably still be keeping his head down, grinding away in obscurity at the Medicine Hall.
But now, if he could handle everything well and crush their rival, the Pill King's Garden, in one fell swoop — then his strength, his prestige, and his leadership would all soar in a single bound.
That would make his position within the Medicine Hall unassailable. He would win countless supporters.
After all, a Hall Master who could bring the Medicine Hall both wealth and glory was exactly what everyone wanted to see.
Suppressing the Pill King's Garden — that was a stunning achievement that even the Grand Hall Master,
Three days later, the Divine Show Creation Pill was successfully born. One furnace yielded eight pills — three superior grade, four middle grade, and one inferior grade.
When Qiao Baishi felt the rich medicinal potency of the "Divine Show Creation Pill," its perfectly natural form, and the way simply breathing in its aroma made his blood surge with vitality, the corners of his eyes reddened.
He finally believed it — the Divine Show Creation Pill was real.
Over the past several days, he had shouldered tremendous pressure. As the days passed with no sign of the Divine Show Creation Pill, questions and doubts had begun to surface within the Medicine Hall. People wondered whether the Hall had been played by Jiang Chen.
Now, at last, the intoxicating Divine Show Creation Pill sat right before his eyes. How could Qiao Baishi not be moved to tears?
For an alchemist, the moment the fire was extinguished and the pill was complete — that was absolutely the most satisfying and exhilarating moment of all.
Qiao Baishi was no exception. This Divine Show Creation Pill carried far too much meaning and weight!
In an instant, it was as though the crushing burden on his shoulders had been lifted entirely.
Two days later, the pill for restoring vitality and gathering qi also came out of the furnace. When Qiao Baishi asked for its name, Jiang Chen withheld the original title and christened it the "Blue Sea Pill."
In the final two days, Jiang Chen refined the formula for clearing the mind and dispelling heat, and gave it the name "One Buddha Powder."
This One Buddha Powder required no actual pill-pressing. It only needed a handful of Spiritual Medicines to be ground and lightly processed into a finished product.
Without the pill-pressing stage, there was no loss from the process, and the high-consumption step of alchemy was eliminated altogether.
This naturally brought the cost down to a tenth of what a typical pill would run.
After all, in pill-pressing, nine times out of ten, losses were inevitable. Out of a hundred portions of pill materials, the yield was typically only ten to twenty pills.
A highly skilled alchemist might manage twenty or thirty — but couldn't guarantee that result every single time.
Over those six days, Qiao Baishi had practically not slept day or night, yet his energy remained remarkably high. Vital as a dragon, fierce as a tiger — one could easily believe he could keep going for another two months without complaining of fatigue.
Indeed, Qiao Baishi's professional passion had fully merged with this endeavor.
In those six days, the shocks Jiang Chen had delivered were simply too great. Although Qiao Baishi was the one wielding the furnace, the core formulations were still in Jiang Chen's hands.
Qiao Baishi harbored no complaints. This was stipulated in their contract. It would be unrealistic to expect Jiang Chen to hand over every last detail of the core formulations.
Those dreamlike six days came to an end, brimming with abundant results.
Looking at the pile of pill bottles before him, Qiao Baishi still felt as if he were in a dream. In those six days, the sense of accomplishment and happiness he had gained in his craft surpassed anything he had experienced in the better part of his entire life.
And all of it was thanks to the young man standing before him.
In that moment, Qiao Baishi's admiration for Jiang Chen grew into something akin to gazing up at a towering peak.
"Third Hall Master, I've done my part. What comes next depends on how the Medicine Hall plays its cards. If you can't bring down the Pill King's Garden, I'll be very disappointed."