Chapter 20

After speaking, Qin Zheng handed over a list of elixirs to Chu Ning.

“This is the list of elixirs currently owned or purchased by the military department, with high-level intellectual property rights. If my wife needs any, you can select the corresponding elixirs in advance, and I’ll have the military department prepare the contract and send the herbs over.”

Chu Ning quickly signed the contract and sent it back.

She then opened the list of elixirs Qin Zheng had sent.

Upon seeing numerous recipes for first to fifth-grade elixirs, her eyes brightened.

“Good.”

“I’ll refine the elixirs from this contract first, and once I master them, I’ll switch to the other recipes!”

This was great. With these elixirs, her foundation-building would be much more solid than in her past life.

Finally, the two arrived at the alchemy room.

Chu Ning chose a recipe and arranged for Qin Zheng to fetch six sets of materials. Together, they began preparing the materials.

Now that her strength had reached the foundation-building stage, her spiritual power was stronger than before. Even though she wasn’t familiar with the recipe, she felt confident that refining a first-grade elixir would be easy.

As expected, the situation was just as Chu Ning had imagined.

Out of the six sets of materials, she only used three, but managed to refine twenty-four top-grade pills from a single batch, and every one of them was of high quality.

The extra materials were also organized, and Chu Ning didn’t waste them. She refined the remaining herbs as well.

Qin Zheng, while organizing the materials he needed, watched in admiration as his wife refined the pills. The more he watched, the more he appreciated her.

Not only did she have high spiritual potential, but she was also so hardworking. Sooner or later, she would become the top alchemist.

After finishing all six sets of materials, Chu Ning finally felt a bit hungry.

The two went to the dining room to eat.

After their meal, they returned to the alchemy room to continue refining.

Next, Chu Ning went on to refine four types of pills, six furnaces of each type.

Afterward, she split the pills with Qin Zheng, keeping some for herself, and placed the rest in her online store. She also kept ten pills of each type, storing them on the shelves of her Sumeru ring.

Her past life’s experience told her that, even with her extraordinary abilities, there was always the risk of being struck back to square one. Low-grade pills could potentially save her life at a critical moment.

While listing the pills, Chu Ning was pleasantly surprised to find that she had a customer.

A beastman with the ID “Big Bear” left her a message.

“Hello, I’d like to ask if there’s a discount for purchasing more than ten pills at once? And is free shipping available?”

Chu Ning realized that she hadn’t set up free shipping for her store yet.

Thinking about it, Chu Ning updated her store settings, changing the pricing to per bottle, with ten pills in each bottle, priced slightly lower than the market rate, and with free shipping.

Once she made the changes, she replied to the customer.

“Hello, I’ve updated the product settings in my store. From now on, the elixirs will be sold by the bottle, and each bottle will include free shipping. Feel free to place an order!”

After sending the message, Chu Ning suddenly remembered the small card she had received when buying medicine from the Honest Pharmacy, which offered rewards for positive reviews.

If she had orders coming in, maybe she could include a small card with her shipments, asking for reviews, to help her new store attract customers.

However, after thinking for a moment, Chu Ning decided to abandon the idea.

She was so busy refining pills, and she didn’t have the time to handle those things. Besides, the military department also bought pills from her, so if her online store didn’t sell, she could always sell them to the military.

With that, Chu Ning didn’t bother with the online store anymore and went to wash up and sleep.

Meanwhile, at the Chu family home.

Chu Xin was distressed because the military had temporarily refused to supply some of the rare herbs the Chu family needed.

She had been working overtime at the company and hadn’t planned on returning home, but she learned that Chu Yan had caused trouble.

Suppressing her anger, Chu Xin arranged everything and returned home, instructing the servants to call Chu Yan in and immediately slapped her.

“Didn’t I warn you to stay home and not associate with those three beastmen? Was my warning just a breeze to you?!”

The Chu family was already in a difficult situation, and this incident was all caused by this ungrateful girl.

She couldn’t believe that after all the effort she had put into raising her daughter, she was so foolish.

Chu Yan covered her face, her eyes filled with tears, as she looked at Chu Xin.

“Mom, sob… I didn’t go looking for Zhou Ting, it was him who came looking for me.”

“Sob, I went to the Alchemist Association to take the exam because I wanted to surprise you by becoming an alchemist quickly. But who would’ve thought… sob, who would’ve thought I ran into Sister.”

“The incident earlier… sob, it was my fault. I sincerely apologized to her, but she reported me for disrupting her exam. Zhou Ting was angry and tried to reason with her. But she played the video in public.”

At that moment, the beastman was imposing, and she could only take Zhou Ting and leave for a while.

In her haste, she forgot to have someone handle the scene.

Who would’ve known that the onlookers would be so mischievous and post the video online?

The media, knowing she was from the Chu family, didn’t care and let the news spread, even making the situation worse by reposting it, causing the incident to trend on the hot search.

What made her even angrier was that Chu Ning, the so-called “useless” one, wasn’t even in the video, and only she and Zhou Ting made fools of themselves.

Chu Yan thought that hearing this, Chu Xin would sympathize with her and help her resolve the situation.

But unexpectedly, Chu Xin was even angrier.

She raised her hand and slapped Chu Yan again.

“Fool! Didn’t you tell Zhou Ting you were going to the Alchemist Association? Why would he go looking for you there?!”

“Also, don’t think I don’t know how you’ve treated Chu Ning! I used to have high hopes for you, training you to be the heir of the Chu family. I turned a blind eye when you bullied Chu Ning, gave you face, and overlooked it.”

“But now, Chu Ning has left the Chu family, and she has connections with the military’s important figures.”

“The last time, the birthday banquet hot search, and now the Alchemist Association’s hot search, all arranged by the military.”

“Not even the whole Chu family can compare to one military figure!”

“The Chu family’s reputation is already in ruins. I didn’t want the media to withdraw the news, but it can’t be helped!”

“Now, Chu Shi is also facing issues because of you. The military has already announced they will cut off some of the rare herbs supply to the Chu family.”

“If this situation isn’t resolved, the Chu family will suffer a huge financial loss. Those alchemists who signed contracts with Chu Shi will be able to leave at any time if we can’t supply them with the herbs they need. In the long run, forget about returning to being a top family, we’ll be lucky if we can even stay as a second-rate family!”

Chu Xin angrily glared at Chu Yan.

“You’re useless! You can’t help the Chu family rise again!”

An A-grade alchemist would have been enough. The Chu family had signed contracts with some before. As long as the conditions were good enough, most would be willing to join the Chu family.

If she had known that Chu Yan was so useless, she might as well have kept Chu Ning.

Chu Ning had connections with the military and had brought significant support to the Chu family.

Moreover, Chu Ning had inherited her and Lan Yu’s good looks. With some training, she would have been much better looking than Chu Yan.

Even though her spiritual power was low, it didn’t stop her from arranging a good marriage for her.