After much thought, Ye Bufan felt that the matter of encircling and controlling demonic beasts must have attracted the attention of the people of Cherry Blossom Island.
However, it was also possible that there were other reasons. After all, the people of Cherry Blossom Island had suffered heavy losses before, and they would not let it go just like that.
After dealing with the assassin from Cherry Blossom Island, Ye Bufan continued to finish the unfinished meal with Chu Mengyao and Wang Xinyan.
During this time, Ye Bufan decided to focus his energy on refining artifacts and elixirs, as well as formations, while he was in Jinhe. The dangers ahead would only increase, and what Ye Bufan needed to do was to create some life-saving items for those around him.
As for Chu Mengyao and Wang Xinyan, besides handling their family's businesses, they were also cultivating on Fragrant Mountain.
"Wait, did I hear that right? Wang Xinyan... handling her family's business matters?" Ye Bufan could hardly believe his ears when he heard Chu Mengyao's words.
"What? What? Who are you looking down on? I can't manage my family's business, right? Just because your Chu Chu can, right?" Wang Xinyan retorted with an eye roll.
Ye Bufan quickly waved his hand and said, "No, I was just a little surprised. I didn't expect you to start taking over your family's business."
Wang Xinyan glanced at Chu Mengyao and said, "This is all your Chu Chu's fault. It was her who united the families in Jinhe with whom we have good relations and proposed to form a Jinhe Commercial Alliance."
Ye Bufan turned to look at Chu Mengyao, who gave a mysterious smile. Ye Bufan knew that this commercial alliance was probably extraordinary.
"I've asked Sister Ye Qingcheng, and in the coming days, especially after the shackles disappear, we will face foreign invasions. But for cultivators, the most important things are the Qi Nurturing Pills during the Qi Refining stage and the Foundation Establishment Pills to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. These will have unexpected benefits for cultivation," Chu Mengyao said. "Therefore, we are looking for a way to mass-produce Qi Nurturing Pills."
According to Chu Mengyao, with Ye Qingcheng's introduction, the Scarlet Sword Sect, the Tyrant Saber Sect, and the Underground City of the Capital were all involved in this commercial alliance.
"So, you are preparing to mass-produce and industrialize Qi Nurturing Pills?" Ye Bufan took a deep breath, as refining pills was no easy task.
"We originally planned to tell you after we succeeded," Chu Mengyao said. "Now that it's brought up, there's no point in hiding it."
To Ye Bufan's surprise, Zhu Zizhen played a crucial role in the mass production of Qi Nurturing Pills.
With the help of a team that refined artifacts and based on Zhu Zizhen's research on elixir refining, a model was created. It was now capable of simple mass production, and the efficacy of the produced pills was about eighty percent of that refined by Zhu Zizhen.
"Technology changes life," Ye Bufan exclaimed, giving a thumbs up to what Chu Mengyao was doing.
"So, what is the production capacity of one machine per day now?" Ye Bufan asked.
Chu Mengyao pondered for a moment and said, "Doctor Zhu can refine ten pills at a time, and the machine can also refine ten pills at a time, although the efficacy will be slightly less. Fifty machines have been built so far. Conservatively estimated, one thousand Qi Nurturing Pills can be refined per day."
Ye Bufan nodded. With such efficiency, it would be easy to cultivate a large number of Qi Refining stage cultivators.
In the following days, Ye Bufan, inside the Taiyi Ring, selected a pair of protective magical artifacts for Chu Mengyao and Wang Xinyan and modified the formation runes on the artifacts using spirit stones.
Finally, a profound-grade protective magical artifact was modified by Ye Bufan, with its quality now infinitely close to an earth-grade protective magical artifact.
In addition, Ye Bufan obtained a large number of jade stones, inscribed them with defensive runes, and stored his energy within them. These were placed in several of Chu Mengyao's usual locations to ensure her safety.
Meanwhile, Song Mingqin and others had been investigating the matter of Cherry Blossom Island. Cultivators from Cherry Blossom Island had also begun to appear in large numbers in the Nine Provinces.
"Ye Bufan, those cultivators from Cherry Blossom Island have been gathering near Yan City. It looks like they are here for the Demonic Beast Mountain Range," Song Mingqin said.
"Thank you for your diligence, Senior. I feel something is not quite right about this matter," Ye Bufan said with a deep breath. His intuition kept telling him that this matter was not that simple, especially at this juncture. There was no need for the people of Cherry Blossom Island to waste their efforts organizing the sects in the Nine Provinces to establish a training ground.
After Ye Bufan finished his current tasks, he secretly called Chu Mengyao to find out the locations of the factories where several sects were collaborating on refining elixirs.
Following the location provided by Chu Mengyao, Ye Bufan silently arrived outside the factory.
Along the way, Ye Bufan discovered that there were sentries arranged by the sects watching from the outside. In addition, Ye Bufan also found a third party monitoring the situation.
"People from Cherry Blossom Island?" Ye Bufan narrowed his eyes and spread his spiritual sense. People within a few kilometers were all under their surveillance.
"Hmm?"
Ye Bufan took a deep breath. To his surprise, in addition to the people from Cherry Blossom Island, he also found cultivators from Yin Fan and even people from the Demonic Sect lurking around.
"No! It's still not right." According to Chu Mengyao, this matter was confidential, and only people within a few sects knew about it. Yet, so many forces were secretly watching now?
Ye Bufan sent a message to Song Mingqin, informing him of his findings here.
Song Mingqin felt a headache coming on. The concentration of cultivators from Cherry Blossom Island in the Nine Provinces was already troublesome, and now there were cultivators from Yin Fan and people from the Demonic Sect as well.
"I have a situation here too," Song Mingqin said. "In the past few days, some of our disciples have mysteriously disappeared, and others have died bizarrely. There were even mysterious bite marks on their necks."
"Are they from the Yin Corpse Sect?" Ye Bufan asked.
The people of the Yin Corpse Sect had methods to control Corpse Fiends. After being bitten by a Corpse Fiend, one would be infected with corpse poison and also turn into a Corpse Fiend. The bodies of those who died from bites must be cremated as soon as possible, otherwise, they would undergo a transformation and become Corpse Fiends.
Song Mingqin was also very troubled. He said to Ye Bufan, "I have a bad feeling that something is about to happen. My right eyelid has been twitching."
"I also feel uneasy," Ye Bufan replied to Song Mingqin.