"Has our Yi family started a mission yet?"
Lin Yao asked the question he was concerned about. He knew that the Yi family had been largely ignored in the past. Apart from a few members like Yi Fei who served as bodyguards for important figures, the rest of them were either holed up in Yanji or secretly developing their own economies across the country, struggling to keep the Yi family afloat.
"Yes, sir, it has already begun. Five members of the Sun family have accompanied them to Africa to compete for ownership of a gold mine," Yi Yang respectfully answered Lin Yao's question.
"Africa? Did they bring enough 'Baiyun Dan' and other life-saving medicines?" Lin Yao asked anxiously.
Africa is far from the reach of the central government. Without adequate preparation, there's no time to rush over and provide medical assistance if something goes wrong. Lin Yao has developed deep feelings for all the Yi family members, both those he knows and those he doesn't, and he doesn't want any of them to become disabled or even die because they don't receive timely medical treatment.
“Yes, sir.” Yi Yang looked at Lin Yao with gratitude, his heart filled with emotion. “Each disciple is equipped with ten ‘White Cloud Pills,’ five ‘Bigu Pills,’ two ‘Detoxification Pills,’ one ‘Life-Giving Pill,’ and one ‘Dragon-Tiger Pill.’ In addition, some quotas have been reserved for the Sun family. After all, the Sun family has always protected our Yi family. If it weren’t for them, the Yi family would not exist many years ago.”
"Go and get some jade bottles, and I'll give you some pills."
Lin Yao's face was grim. He spoke to Yi Yang in a commanding tone, "Why didn't you tell me these things sooner? Don't you know there's a lot of miasma in Africa? What good are two 'antidote pills' if we encounter the legendary sorcerer who is most skilled in poisoning?"
Yi Yang ignored the reprimand in Lin Yao's tone, quickly agreed, and turned to leave. Although he was only jogging, his speed far exceeded that of the world's 100-meter champion.
"That's great! The master has shown great mercy, and the family won't be so short of medicine anymore." Yi Yang thought to himself with secret joy as he ran, while also feeling very guilty for his negligence.
Two minutes later, Yi Yang came to Lin Yao with more than a dozen small jade bottles. "Sir, these are jade bottles."
"Why is there so little?! Go and get more!" Lin Yao glanced at Yi Yang and immediately started scolding, "So stingy! Where is the demeanor of a head of the household?!"
"Go and get more!"
"yes."
Yi Yang didn't waste a single word, and with an expression of ecstatic joy, he turned and ran. Even his peak Earth-level cultivation couldn't stop his heart from racing. He felt that he had been terribly wrong before, always treating Lin Yao as an outsider, and that was his fault first and foremost.
Lin Yao remained silent, lost in thought.
He used to think that the struggles between aristocratic families were all about the power and interests of their respective families, but he never expected that they would involve so many things.
Lin Yao disliked internal strife, and he was unwilling to participate in or understand it.
Lin Yao was truly moved when he learned that these aristocratic families were dedicated to maintaining national stability and ensuring that the people could live in peace and happiness.
This time, he no longer saw himself as a bystander, nor would he ever contact the Yi family for the sake of exchanging benefits. The feelings that had grown over time seemed pale in the face of such a national cause.
"Sir, you've arrived."
Yi Yang, who was at the peak of the Earth-level stage, was slightly out of breath, and his face had turned a little red. He carried a large cloth bag and placed it in front of Lin Yao with a clatter.
"Okay, you can go out first."
Lin Yao glanced at the bulging cloth bag and guessed that there were probably one or two hundred jade bottles inside.
"yes."
Yi Yang slowly left the room and gently closed the door.
"Little Grass, take some of your collected pills and put them in a bottle so that the Yi family can have some reserves. Their missions are too risky."
Lin Yao thought of the two werewolves and vampires he had seen at midnight the previous day. It was hard to judge the vampires' abilities, but just looking at the two werewolves, even a Yi family member at the early Earth level would have a hard time against them and would definitely suffer a loss if nothing unexpected happened. Only someone at the mid-Earth level could fight against werewolves.
Yi Yang had said that the scale of superpowered individuals in various countries was not very clear, and could only be roughly estimated to be similar to that of ancient martial arts practitioners in China. This information made Lin Yao feel even more threatened, a crisis that threatened the lives of the Yi family members.
The Yi family members excel at offense but not defense. If the enemy is prepared, they will inevitably suffer losses. It seems they should be properly tempered with witchcraft to increase their protection.
"Alright, Yaoyao." Xiaocao finished all the work in an instant. "A total of two thousand 'Bigu Pills,' one thousand 'Baiyun Pills,' one hundred 'Sheng Sheng Pills,' seven hundred 'Detox Pills,' three hundred 'Longhu Pills,' one thousand two hundred 'Mending Tian Pills,' and ten 'Xuepo Pills.'"
"My inventory is almost gone; you need to start mass-producing pills."
Although Xiaocao didn't understand why Lin Yao was being so generous this time, she clearly respected his opinion. Without needing to explain, she put most of the pills she had saved into the jade bottles and even categorized them into seven small piles.
"Yes, it's time to start refining pills in large quantities. We can't just refine pills for the sake of cultivation; these pills are too important to them," Lin Yao murmured.
In his spare time while working in Beijing, Lin Yao would meditate and cultivate himself at home in the evenings, and then practice alchemy.
Alchemy can gather more spiritual energy from heaven and earth and beneficial magical power, which is very helpful for Lin Yao to observe and comprehend spiritual energy and magical power.
At the same time, the meditative state required for alchemy was also very helpful for his mental cultivation. So when Lin Yao was in Beijing, he refined a lot of pills in his spare time. Now, what Xiao Cao is making are basically the results of his alchemy.
In fact, Lin Yao's alchemy capacity could be greatly improved, but since that was not his goal, he often used the most common medicinal herbs to form incantations in front of the alchemy furnace, merely gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for cultivation.
At that time, Lin Yao always thought that refining so many pills was meaningless; enough was enough, and there was no need to go to so much trouble.
Moreover, the cost of alchemy is very high. "Life-Giving Pill" costs more than 200,000 each, "Dragon-Tiger Pill" costs 15,000 each, and "Heavenly Fragrance Bone-Continuing Pill" costs more than 300,000 each. Not to mention the large amount of money spent, the coming and going of those medicinal materials is quite eye-catching. Therefore, Lin Yao did not refine many.
"Little Grass, give them a 'Yearly Pill' to save their lives. That's all for now."
Lin Yao sighed. He thought to himself that he should still give away one of the most precious "Year After Year Pills," as it might really save the life of a Yi family expert at a crucial moment.
"Okay, you didn't give any of the 'Yearly Pills' to your parents, but you're very generous to them."
Xiao Cao mumbled something, seemingly reluctantly pulling an empty jade bottle into Lin Yao's hand and stuffing a bright green pill into it. Just the moment the bottle cap wasn't properly closed, a refreshing fragrance filled the entire room.
Lin Yao smiled, thinking that Xiao Cao had started calling him "Dad" and "Mom" now, and was very self-conscious in treating him as her sister. "Dad and Mom don't need it now. Grandma and Grandpa have already taken one. There's no need to use such precious pills. Let's use them in a critical moment later. It would be a waste to use them on them now."
“Alright then,” Little Grass replied. “Yaoyao, is this national righteousness really that important?”
"Of course, just like the tribe that Shennong protected, it is the foundation of everyone's existence and deserves to be protected with all one's heart." Lin Yao's words were decisive and came out without any hesitation.
“Alright then, actually, the ‘Snow Soul Pill’ isn’t that important to me anymore. You shouldn’t have forced me to eat so many, otherwise we could have saved a lot for them.” Little Grass immediately spoke up for Lin Yao.
“That won’t do,” Lin Yao refused. “There are very few pills that will work for you now. The cost of the ‘Snow Soul Pill’ is only a little over 1,700. Besides, even the scraps can fetch a very high price. You don’t know how popular ‘Number One’ is right now. We’re not losing money.”
"Refine more in the future, and leave some for the Yi family."