Chapter 165: Chapter 162: Is Jiang Cheng an Illegitimate Child?
 

Half a month after Jiang Cheng enrolled at Lotus University, his first batch of Blood Orange Fruits was finally harvested successfully from the trees.

The first batch of Blood Orange Fruits not only signified that He’s Tongbao Pavilion was officially qualified to compete for the Qi Blood Pill orders, but also meant that Jiang Cheng’s Plant Autonomy Talisman had achieved complete success!

Because the difference between the effects of the original Autonomy Talisman and the Enhanced Version was so vast, basically, all the buyers who had previously placed pre-orders for the Autonomy Talisman were willing to pay an extra five hundred Spirit Stones for the Enhanced Version!

Just five hundred Spirit Stones more could teach the little fruit trees skills like martial arts, weeding, knife handling, self-defense, and more—it was incredibly good value for money!

At Ming’an by Jade Lake, Yue Linger sat on the sofa at Jiang Cheng’s house, holding a list in her hand.

“Yue, this is all the pre-order information,” Jiang Cheng said.

Yue Linger glanced quickly over the list of names; there were fifty-two in total, the vast majority from the Spiritual Planting Department.

“Is this, is this all the orders?” Yue Linger asked in surprise.

Jiang Cheng said with a tone of satisfaction, “Of course, our school’s Spiritual Planting Department doesn’t have many people to begin with, having fifty-two orders is already quite good.”

“But…”

Yue Linger frowned, she wanted to say, but that’s still far less than the Fishing Talisman, right?

As the chief technical director of the Fishing Talisman, Yue Linger knew even better than Jiang Cheng how many talismans were drawn.

That was because in the later stages, she had been in charge of overseeing the production of Fishing Talismans for Jiang Cheng, who didn’t manage anything else; his only task each day was to go to the Task Hall to collect money.

Yue Linger remembered clearly that, throughout its entire life cycle, about two thousand four hundred Fishing Talismans were made in total.

With an average price of two thousand five hundred per talisman, a total revenue of six million Low-grade Spirit Stones was generated. Half of that, three million Spirit Stones, went to the Wuyue Fish Care Foundation.

Of the remaining three million, sixty percent, a total of one million eight hundred thousand went to Jiang Cheng; twenty percent, a total of six hundred thousand went to her.

With the Fishing Talisman as a shining example, the current Plant Autonomy Talisman seemed pale in comparison, not only in terms of the quantity of orders but also because the price per talisman was just over half that of the Fishing Talisman.

Although compared to an ordinary first-level Talisman, the profit margin for the Plant Autonomy Talisman was already quite substantial.

But Yue Linger always felt that the Autonomy Talisman lacked a certain something—it shouldn’t have just this much potential.

“Yue, is there something you want to say?” Jiang Cheng noticed Yue Linger’s hesitation.

As his trustworthy partner, she had every right to share her doubts with him.

“Jiang Cheng, don’t you plan to sell the Plant Autonomy Talisman outside the school? I mean, not just in the campus, but in the Capital’s spiritual plant market.”

“Of course we’re going to sell it. I’ve already been in touch with He, as soon as she secures the Qi Blood Pill orders, we’ll immediately start supplying them to her. We’ll provide the talismans, and she’ll be responsible for producing the Blood Orange Fruits and making elixirs to fulfill the orders.”

Yue Linger asked with foresight, “Will the volume be large? Should I contact talisman masters in advance?”

Jiang Cheng estimated and said, “I reckon she might generate around twenty thousand Autonomy Talisman orders for us.”

Twenty thousand!?

The Fishing Talisman only had two thousand!

Yue Linger silently breathed a sigh of relief.

She was at fault for underestimating Jiang Cheng again; he was still the same Jiang Cheng she knew.

“However, Yue, we can’t get too excited yet. These estimates only count once He secures the Qi Blood Pill orders. I’ll go later with Liu Qing to deliver the first batch of trial-produced Blood Orange Fruits to He. The fifty-two orders on the list will depend on Yue’s hard work. We’ll stick to the usual rule of sixty-forty profit sharing.”

As a second-level Talisman Master, Yue Linger would be able to draw all fifty or so first-level talismans in at most three days.

She calculated the income for the next three days.

The Enhanced Version of the Plant Autonomy Talisman cost fifteen hundred per piece, and she had to draw fifty-two pieces; taking forty percent of the profits amounted to thirty-one thousand two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones.

Equivalent to a daily income of ten thousand.

Terrifying!

What was even more terrifying was that Yue Linger had lost the ability to be surprised by a “daily income of ten thousand.”

She sighed and looked at Jiang Cheng with a complex expression.

She had only known Jiang Cheng for just over two months.

In these two months, Jiang Cheng had continuously used various methods to stimulate her senses, causing her to gradually lose the cognitions that a person of her age and cultivation level should have.

For example, Cheng Bingxin would be happy for a week if she found a Medium-grade Spirit Stone, while Yue Linger wouldn’t even notice a Spirit Stone on the ground.

For example, Cheng Bingxin would take a second look at a handsome junior, whereas Yue Linger would only subconsciously compare that person to Jiang Cheng, resulting in judgments like “nothing special,” “nothing outstanding.”

Yue Linger felt that she had become deeply attached to Jiang Cheng.

Developed a strong addiction to him.

If Jiang Cheng left her for too long, she would probably experience withdrawal symptoms—unable to be interested in things around her, finding everyone else mundane, unable to gain positive emotions, and eventually becoming depressed.

Yue Linger looked at a figure on the balcony, feeling somewhat consoled.

After all, she wasn’t the only one addicted to Jiang Cheng, so there was nothing to be scared of.

At the Tongbao Pavilion store on Huayuan Road, as soon as Jiang Cheng entered, he was greeted with the highest honors by the entire store.

A few sales associates lined up at the door to welcome him, and the deputy manager, Tao Fang, personally accompanied him throughout, serving tea and being extremely attentive.

Even Bai Xiaohe couldn’t stand to watch.

She knew Jiang Cheng well and knew that he didn’t like special treatment.

“Stop it, everyone, go back to work,” she said.

No one obeyed.

Jiang Cheng said, “Alright now, that’s enough. Listen to your store manager and go back to work.”

Everyone returned to their workstations.

Bai Xiaohe: …

Bai Xiaohe felt like her days as the store manager had been for nothing.

But then she thought again, the lady of her Bai family might command the entire household in public, but when her father, the patriarch of the Bai family, came home from work, both the lady and all the servants had to listen to him.

Wasn’t this exactly the same as the situation in her store?

With this thought, Bai Xiaohe not only stopped feeling upset but actually started to feel happy.

Jiang Cheng took out a storage bag containing the first batch of Blood Orange Fruits from the Kung Fu Fruit Tree.

“He, the first batch of Blood Orange Fruits are all here.”

Bai Xiaohe carefully accepted the storage bag. This was the hope of the whole store, meant to be used to bid for elixir production; she couldn’t afford to be careless.

Jiang Cheng had completed his mission perfectly. Now, it all depended on the quality of the elixirs and the choice of the Weapon Department.

“Jiang Cheng, should we maybe…” Bai Xiaohe hesitated.

“Should we maybe what?” Jiang Cheng asked.

Bai Xiaohe nervously said, “You know, give the officials from the Weapon Department some sort of… gratuity.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Cheng’s expression quickly turned serious.

“He, according to the Great Liang code of law, bribery is illegal. Depending on the amount of the bribe, the punishment can be as minimal as one month of imprisonment or as severe as the death penalty with confiscation of all assets. I think you might simply be unaware of the law, which is why you suggested it. Now that I’ve told you, you must never entertain illegal thoughts again.”

“Oh, I understand now.”

“Good. Go home and copy the Great Liang code of law after work. I’ll inspect it in a while.”

“I’ll copy it right away.”

“During work hours, you’re to focus on store tasks, no copying allowed. Copy the code of law after work at home. For every half an hour of writing, take a ten-minute break to move around and relax your eyes.”

“I’ll listen to you on everything,” she said.

Tao Fang watched Manager Bai act like a little wife in front of Jiang Cheng and was even more determined in her goal to follow him.

Who is Bai Xiaohe? Totally unfamiliar.

There’s only one manager of the Tongbao Pavilion Huayuan Road Store—and that is the great Mr. Jiang Cheng.

Loyalty!

After leaving Tongbao Pavilion, Jiang Cheng didn’t rush home but took Liu Qing by taxi to the Tongtian Sect Talisman Master Association in the capital.

Wuyue City, being a small city under Tongtian Sect’s influence, had only one Talisman Master Association affiliated with Tongtian Sect.

But as the capital of Liang Kingdom and a foothold for various powers, the Capital housed Talisman Master Associations belonging to Taixu Sect, Linlan Sect, and Tongtian Sect.

As a new student of Lotus University intending to join Tongtian Sect, Jiang Cheng naturally maintained a distance from associations of other Immortal Sects, so he chose Tongtian Sect Talisman Master Association for the certification of his Plant Autonomy Talisman!

The capital’s association was naturally much more imposing than those in smaller cities.

The Tongtian Sect Talisman Master Association in the Capital occupied an entire building as its office premises.

Besides serving talisman masters’ basic functions, the association also needed to keep backups of a large number of talismans, hence the sizable space requirement.

After entering the association, Jiang Cheng and Liu Qing found the receptionist who was in charge of greeting visitors.

Jiang Cheng politely said, “Hello, I would like to meet the president.”

Receptionist Secretary: “Okay, do you have an appointment?”

Jiang Cheng: “No.”

“I’m sorry then, you can’t meet the president without an appointment.”

Jiang Cheng wondered, “When I was in Wuyue, I didn’t need an appointment to see the president.”

The secretary knew the association rules better than Jiang Cheng. In theory, you should have an appointment wherever you want to meet the president. But something in Jiang Cheng’s tone suggested he wasn’t bluffing.

“Excuse me, may I have your name? I will check for you.”

“Jiang Cheng, Jiang of rivers and Cheng of cities.”

“Please wait a moment.”

The receptionist secretary turned and sent a communication talisman to the Chief Secretary.

“Hello? Secretary Wu, do you know a talisman master named Jiang Cheng? He…”

Secretary Wu thought to herself: Jiang Cheng? It sounds familiar… Oh my! Isn’t that the Jiang Cheng who drew the Fishing Talisman!

The receptionist secretary, as an employee, wasn’t aware of the association’s secrets, but Secretary Wu, being a leader, had her fingers on the pulse of many matters.

Lu Wang, the president of the Wuyue Talisman Master Association, was dismissed for covering up for this young man. The main body of the Talisman Master Association had specially sent a communication talisman, rebuking the president of their Capital branch, President Gao.

President Gao had been gloomy for days, and no one in the entire association dared to even crack a smile.

All because of this talisman master named Jiang Cheng!

Although Jiang Cheng wasn’t even a first-rank talisman master, he was de facto nobility across all talisman master associations.

Second-rank, third-rank, fourth-rank talisman masters—if Jiang Cheng wanted to scold you, even The Almighty had to brace for it!

“Don’t lay a finger on him, I will personally take care of this,” Secretary Wu said.

The receptionist secretary looked at Jiang Cheng with shock on her face.

Personal attention from Secretary Wu?

Wasn’t that a bit too much?

Could this guy be the president’s illegitimate child?