"Doesn't the alchemist from Penguin Medicine Pavilion work for free?"
The president of the Heavenly Elixir Merchant Association couldn't help but curse.
It was known that among their merchant associations, the alchemists who refined each elixir would always take a twenty percent profit.
It was precisely because of this twenty percent profit, coupled with various other expenses, that the actual profit earned from selling each elixir was not as much as imagined.
And that Penguin Merchant Association?
According to the information they had, their wholesale price was ninety percent of the retail price.
Approximately ten percent pure profit.
It was precisely for this reason that the president of the Heavenly Elixir Merchant Association was so furious.
Directly giving up ten percent of their pure profit essentially meant that many of the elixirs they sold were breaking even.
Breaking even was no different from not selling at all.
Yet, the Penguin Medicine Pavilion was still selling.
What they didn't know was that the alchemists in the Penguin Medicine Pavilion truly did not charge, and when necessary, they would even risk their lives.
And this was merely the discount price they knew.
What they also didn't know was that at the very top of the pyramid, the first-tier distributors who could frequently meet the two natal spirit puppets actually received a full twenty percent discount on elixirs from the Penguin Medicine Pavilion.
Fortunately, they didn't know.
Otherwise, the merchant association presidents present would likely have thought that the Penguin Medicine Pavilion was losing money just to gain popularity.
"Impossible, impossible. Where in this world do alchemists not charge? These are alchemists trained by our own merchant associations, which is why we uniformly charge only twenty percent profit. If we were to hire outside guest alchemists, they would likely demand even more," said Tian Zhi Shang, the president of the Tian Qin Merchant Association, in disbelief.
After all, even alchemists trained from a young age in these merchant associations would be willing to take less out of past goodwill.
However, if they consistently took less, goodwill would eventually run out.
Therefore, most of the time, these merchant associations followed the rules, giving those alchemists a twenty percent share of each elixir.
"We cannot allow the retailers of elixirs under the Penguin Medicine Pavilion to continue their rampant behavior. Otherwise, all our businesses will be snatched away," one merchant association president said angrily, slamming the table and standing up.
"In just a hundred years, those fellows have almost covered half of Qingrao Domain. If we give them more time, won't they take over the entire Qingrao Domain?"
To radiate their influence throughout the entire Qingrao Domain within two to three hundred years was terrifying and unimaginable.
Back when they, these shops, first established themselves, who hadn't experienced thousands of years of bloodshed? Many merchant associations that were once comparable in strength to them had collapsed and disappeared into the dust of time.
Only a very small number had truly survived.
Yet, their foundation, which took thousands of years of bloody struggle to solidify, was being replicated by the Penguin Merchant Association using these methods in just two to three hundred years.
What was even more infuriating was that they couldn't even imitate it.
Because of the cost, their costs were not as low as the Penguin Medicine Pavilion's. The alchemists in their merchant associations charged money.
Moreover, even if they were willing to lose money just to gain popularity, and tried to copy the Penguin Medicine Pavilion's method to cover the entire Qingrao Domain, they would probably not be able to do it even if they sold their entire merchant association.
"Then what should we do? Should we just kill all the cultivators who sell elixirs from the Penguin Medicine Pavilion?"
As he said this, killing intent flickered in the eyes of one of the merchant association presidents.
It was clear that anyone who could come up with such a method was likely suffering from a clouded mind due to the loss of profits.
As expected, the next moment, someone else directly replied,
"Are you an idiot? Killing all those retail cultivators? How could you say that? If you want to die, I don't want to accompany you."
Among those who retailed elixirs, there were not a few who were at the peak of the Tribulation Stage or the ninth heaven of the Tribulation Stage.
Under such immense profit, even they were willing to get involved.
If they were to act and solve this with violence as just suggested, they might end up burning themselves.
After all, if it were one or two peak Tribulation Stage or ninth heaven Tribulation Stage cultivators, they wouldn't be afraid.
But with such an unimaginably large number of cultivators, if the experts among them were to join forces against them, even if all eight of their merchant associations teamed up, they might not be able to withstand it, unless they summoned the half-step Mahayana cultivators from their respective merchant associations.
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
Upon hearing this, the scene fell into a brief silence.
After a long while, the voice of Mo Qiong, the president of the Mo Dao Merchant Association, finally broke the silence. He sighed, clearly worn out by this matter.
"Everyone, the way the Penguin Medicine Pavilion sells elixirs is indeed difficult to handle. It's not like other merchant associations where we can just destroy their branches."
"So everyone... this time... let's not hold back. Let's send people to strike directly at the headquarters of the Penguin Medicine Pavilion."
This was originally something they should not have done, because they still hadn't figured out the power behind the Penguin Medicine Pavilion.
But now... there was no other way.
...
Meanwhile, Li Qi, having dealt with the matter of the Earth Void Realm, was also preparing to leave.
With the first natal spirit puppet guarding his home, in such a remote and small place, a cultivator with combat power reaching the ninth heaven of the Tribulation Stage was basically invincible.
After all, it was unlikely that truly powerful cultivators would pass through their remote little place.
Therefore, there shouldn't be any major issues in the Earth Void Realm. Next, they just needed to wait for the will of the Heaven Dao of the Earth Void Realm to send him a message about his impending breakthrough.
"It's time to leave."
Li Qi stretched.
While stretching in the Heaven Dao space, his eyes deepened.
Soon, Li Qi's vision was no longer filled with the dead silence and dense spiritual energy.
Birds chirped, flowers bloomed, and the sun shone brightly.
At this moment, Li Qi cast his gaze upon the internal environment of the Earth Void Realm.
Memories surfaced in his mind.
Li Qi recalled the past, when the land was barren and spiritual stones were spent grain by grain.
Compared to that time, although the internal environment of the Earth Void Realm did not possess the same dense spiritual energy as the Heaven Dao space, it was still like a paradise in comparison.
Immediately, nostalgia welled up in Li Qi's eyes.
"If that kid back then had such dense spiritual energy, perhaps even if the circle hadn't dissipated, he could have forcefully broken through."
"What a shame."
Immediately, Li Qi shook his head in disappointment, his emotions momentarily low.
The "kid" Li Qi spoke of was naturally his junior brother Wang Cheng, who had accompanied him for so long.
After all, besides Wang Cheng, there seemed to be no one else Li Qi could truly speak to.
It was just unfortunate that Wang Cheng had reached the end of his lifespan before the circle had dissipated.
It could only be said that looking back, the prosperity was even greater than before, but those old friends with whom he could chat had already passed away one after another.
Even among the small number of old friends who were still alive, after such a long period of not seeing each other, there was likely already a sense of estrangement between them.
Whether to meet or not had little meaning.