to die, don't drag us down with you.""Don't you play around at all""Don't play!!""That's such a pity!!""……"By this time, no one would feel sorry for Xiao Yang anymore. Instead, everyone...Chapter 384 Cultivating Demonic Beasts 1

Although he doesn't know the specifics, he trusts that it's a good thing; otherwise, they wouldn’t speak in such a manner.

Never mind this. He still needs to continue his work and find ways to concoct some medicinal pills for them. Who knew these women were so terrifying Initially, he thought they’d be satisfied with reaching the Holy Realm, but now it seems that even the Holy Realm is just the beginning.

Fortunately, during this period, he mainly focused on studying alchemy; otherwise, he might not have been able to keep up with their cultivation progress. He’s also glad he prepared so many medicinal pills beforehand—both for ordinary and high-grade ones—otherwise, they would've run out of supplies long ago.

However, based on the resources available in their sect, there is still a little surplus that could be obtained, but even those are insufficient. Regardless of quantity or quality, he feels they’re lacking somewhat; ultimately, he has to rely on himself to gather more.

If others were to find out about this thought of Xuan Yao’s, they would spit him out for thinking highly-grade medicinal pills are as common as cabbage leaves and complaining that the quantity is insufficient and quality poor.

Regarding this point, all Xuan Yao can say is that it truly is a bit scarce in number and lacking in quality!

The herbs on this land are far more abundant than those of Divine Martial Continent because the primordial energy is richer here. This leads to an abundance of high-grade medicinal plants, whereas some rare herbs missing from Divine Martial Continent aren't so scarce here.

That’s why there are also many high-grade pills here, though it isn’t a lot since alchemy skills remain roughly the same and still require intricate processes. However, with the richer primordial energy here, success rates in pill-making are significantly higher under identical methods—a likely result of different environmental factors.

But such success rates aren't enough for Xuan Yao; he doesn’t know if other alchemists surpass him but at least the Wu family’s alchemists have lower success rates than his.

This is why Xuan Yao secretly started collecting herbs. When he helps with pill-making, sometimes one pot of pills can match two from others, allowing him to privately pocket a pot’s worth of herbs, which he hides in the medicinal room.

Currently, without Chichi around, he cannot leave with these herbs, and even if he tried smuggling them out, their scent might be detected. The best solution is hiding them within the medicinal room.

The Wu family’s medicinal rooms are large enough to hide them in plenty of places, plus everyone manages their own tasks. As long as the pills coming out match up, no one will look into the herbs used.

Gradually, Xuan Yao collected all materials needed for making certain pills and began secretly concocting them. When there are many people, it’s easier to slip in unnoticed!

In fact, these high-grade pills were also made here, but he wasn’t allowed to participate, even if he could help, someone would watch over him the whole time—making such private pilferage impossible.

But Xuan Yao managed it without being detected and secretly sent some pills to the girls. This went on continuously, which is why he most often visited the medicinal room.

Xuan Yao barely spent much time in the demonic beast pens; instead, he spent more time in the medicinal rooms. For any leftover time, he mixed among various positions, got familiar faces at each place and studied books of different professions.

He has no choice but to do this because originally, Xuan Yao wanted to enter that inner academy’s library but lacked the means; thus, he had to settle for learning from the professional documents room.

Xuan Yao spent his time alternating between work and study. Occasionally, he would stroll around town, becoming very familiar with Qinglong City over these half a year.

Today, he prepared to do something specific, bringing along necessary items, Xuan Yao left the Wu family mansion heading for one street filled with various shops. He entered one shop and looked at its signboard before stepping inside.

"Boss, I want to publish a book!"

...

This is a bookstore that sells books and accepts manuscripts for publication but has never encountered someone dressed like a servant wanting to publish a book.

However, the boss dares not laugh at Xuan Yao since he’s wearing Wu family attire. Even if he's a servant, he's a Wu family servant—making this situation somewhat different.

"Excuse me, could you repeat what you just said"

"I want to publish a book; no, wrong, it's actually my young master who wants to publish a book. But since my young master doesn’t like being upfront about it, he asked me to handle this." Xuan Yao replied with a smile.

“Oh, so that’s the case, where is your manuscript Can I take a look”

The boss understood now. It must be the young master’s wish. Rich young masters often do such things to appear cultured and refined; it's merely for their reputation. As long as they are willing to pay, he will publish.

That's correct; this money is for them instead of a writer fee given by the bookshop.

"Right here. Publish according to these instructions—the illustrations included and use this kind of image on the cover..." Xuan Yao presented a stack of papers, most filled with dense text while some had drawings and inscribed poems.

“If you want those illustrations, it might be somewhat troublesome, but if you’re willing to pay enough, we can do it.” The bookseller took Xuan Yao's documents in hand, smiling at him.

"What do you mean I should pay It's an honor for your store to have my young master's book published here. You should be paying me," Xianyao said irritably.

"This... " The bookstore owner's forced smile froze, and his actions stopped as well. He had anticipated such a situation; this would cause him losses since who would want to buy books by these young masters and mistresses

Wait, actually it doesn't matter. They will buy them for face later on. We can set the price higher then and squeeze every last penny out of them!

The bookstore owner suddenly burst into laughter again as he figured things out.

"Yes, yes, we should pay! But this depends on how well the book sells after publication. Right now, I'm afraid it might incur losses for you," the bookstore owner said with a smile, not willing to give money upfront in case Xianyao was a fraudster.

"Do whatever you want, but I have to tell you that what I've given you is already formatted. Don't make any changes or else my young master will demolish your store," Xianyao said viciously before turning around and leaving.

Was Xianyao really going to help some young master publish a book

In fact, no. He didn't know who the young master was at all; he'd only seen him a few times without any interactions. The young master wouldn’t choose him if he wanted to publish a book.

Xianyao wrote this book to find someone, specifically a woman who might be his mother’s lover. He couldn't search for her directly out of fear of causing unnecessary trouble, so he came up with this method to seek her indirectly.

He painted the woman's portrait and included it in the book. If the book became popular, people who had seen the woman might recognize her image and provide some clues that would lead him to her.

This approach required no effort on his part but spread widely, albeit slowly. He didn't know when someone he knew would spot it, but Xianyao could wait; years meant nothing after so long.

The most important thing was finding the person without being detected by others.

Xianyao had considered that this book might attract attention and lead to inquiries about the Black Tortoise Family. Since the Black Tortoise Family was already a dominant family here, few dared to provoke them. Even if the woman's family had great power, it could only compete with the Black Tortoise Family.

Xianyao didn't think it would be that coincidental for another powerful family like the Vermilion Bird or White Tiger Families to get involved; otherwise, things would become complicated as they wouldn’t fear the Black Tortoise Family and would continue investigating.

The other families would likely stop there.

However, even if they continued their investigations, it wouldn't matter much because this might just be a coincidence. Using a twenty-year-old portrait in an engaging story isn't embarrassing.

The only thing was that the book needed to become famous and cause a sensation for Xianyao's plan to work. Did he have such confidence

Definitely, Xianyao was 99% certain this book would be a huge hit because it was his masterpiece filled with captivating stories and beautiful prose.

In summary, this is an outstanding piece that wouldn't fail to become famous!

How much time did he spend on it Three days, working in his spare time while employed elsewhere.

"Hey, may I ask who the author is..." The bookstore owner looked over and noticed there was no name attached so asked immediately.

"Just call him... Smiling! Life isn't about laughing at others or letting them laugh at you!" Xianyao replied with a smile before walking away. The bookstore owner stood there, pondering the words left behind.

"What are you doing! Stop staring and get to work!!" When the bookstore owner snapped back to his senses and tried to continue running his business, ignoring Xianyao's influence, he noticed one of his employees still looking at the manuscript.

"Boss, this book is really good..." The employee replied.

"What is there to like Don't think about slacking off!" snapped back the bookstore owner irritably.

"But boss, it's truly good. Take a look yourself; we're going to be in business soon," the employee replied, which left the bookstore owner puzzled—could this book really be that good

When he picked up the manuscript and read through it, he immediately found himself captivated by the rhythm of its writing, as if listening to a heavenly melody that made him lose track of time.

"Immediately put everything else on hold and publish this book!!"

The bookstore owner came to his senses and instantly decided to halt all other operations in favor of publishing Xianyao's work. He knew the publication would bring immense wealth.

This book will definitely become famous across the entire Azure Dragon Empire, perhaps even throughout the world...

Xianyao didn't know what happened next and continued to several other places, selling a painting on the same theme to buy some things. This was unrelated to his previous purpose; he just needed money now. (To be continued)"Don’t ask why; just run. When they stop chasing you, it means you can escape!" Xianyao said. "You don't need to care about me; these people might want to kill me, but that’s impossible. Even if their...