Chapter 38: Secret Art Watersource

The moment Cai Wei blurted out those words, Yan Lingqing couldn’t help but to turn and glare at her. “What sort of solution can this buffoon have? He’s barely spent any time on resonance artificering!” she spat out furiously. She did not continue her tirade because Li Luo had not even spent a month on this. It would be a fantastical story if he was able to reverse the dreadful situation they were in. 

Li Luo smiled and did not speak. Instead, he beckoned for the two of them to enter Yan Lingqing’s refining workshop, closing the door after them. Only then did he continue speaking. “I understand that the Suncreek Villa is responsible for half of House Luolan’s Tianshu Province profits, roughly 150,000 pieces of skygold. Within the Suncreek Villa, the first-grade refining workshop contributes 30,000 pieces of skygold, the second-grade workshop 40,000 pieces, and the third-grade 80,000 pieces.”

“If you understood the situation, then why did you go and shoot your mouth off? There’s clearly a huge gap! How can we possibly catch up?” Yan Lingqing angrily thundered.

As she was managing two of the refining workshops, she was extremely clear of the facts. The third-grade workshop significantly exceeded the first-grade and second-grade workshops in value and also had the best performance each year. This was like the difference between heaven and earth, something extremely hard to bridge.

“More importantly, the Suncreek Villa’s Azure Jade Spirit Liquid has been suppressed by the Pine Nut Villa’s Wondrous Sunshine Light. This has directly reduced our sales of spirit liquids, and in this situation, forget turning things around, our performance will only get worse!”

Li Luo smiled again. “And so this is our top priority to fix! We need to first stabilize the Suncreek Villa’s first-grade sales and improve its reputation in the market.” 

Yan Lingqing snorted. “As I previously explained, there are three aspects that affect the spirit liquids and purifying lights’ tempering strength. Materials, the resonance artificer, and the watersource or lightsource. The Azure Jade Spirit Liquid has a perfected recipe, and with our current abilities, we cannot make further inroads in terms of improving it, unless we can hire an expert resonance artificer. However, this requires a lot of time and capital, neither of which we have!”

“A slow remedy cannot address our current situation. I’m sure the Song family has prepared for quite a while for this, waiting for the perfect time to strike. As House Luolan is now struggling internally, they took advantage of the opportunity to deal this vicious blow!” Cai Wei mused.

“Our only response is to improve our resonance artificers’ skills and experience. However, with such a small period of time, it’s impossible to suddenly expect everyone to explode in potential and for the standard to rise just like that. This isn’t a fantasy story! Its unrealistic!” Yan Lingqing quipped.

Cai Wei continued to stare intensely at Li Luo, smiling. “Didn’t the Young Lord produce an Azure Jade Spirit Liquid with 60% tempering strength?” 

Yan Lingqing rolled her eyes at Cai Wei. “How many spirit liquids do you think a single person can produce? Even if we turn him into a cash cow, he can barely squeeze out any milk!” 

Li Luo’s handsome face turned a shade of black. Although he didn’t mind refining first-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights, he was still a respectable individual! Why did they have to demean him like that? And a cow of all things!

“Well then, the only solution is to improve the watersource or lightsource,” Li Luo continued, not willing to bicker with the two. 

Yan Lingqing unhappily replied, “This is dependent on the resonance artificers’ resonance grades and affinities. Could it be that you’re willing to improve the resonances of all the resonance artificers in the Suncreek Villa? If we had a secret art watersource or lightsource, it could allow us to improve the tempering strength of our spirit liquids and purifying lights. However, this is a closely guarded secret for even major powers! Our Suncreek Villa simply does not possess this.”

Li Luo lightly chuckled upon hearing this. “That might not be the case.” 

The duo stared at him with a trace of bewilderment.

Under their careful scrutiny, Li Luo removed a crystal bottle from his robe. The bottle was half-filled with a deep-blue liquid. 

“Do you want to give this a try?” he asked.

Yan Lingqing’s eyebrows rose in suspicion. “As I told you before, you simply can’t just use someone else’s watersource. Only a secret art watersource…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Li Luo uncorked the bottle and a steady stream of pure energy wafted outwards. This was what caused Yan Lingqing to pause in her tracks, staring in astonishment at the crystal bottle. 

As though possessed, she immediately snatched the crystal bottle out of Li Luo’s hand and gently poured a droplet onto her finger. Carefully inspecting it, the shock on her face only grew more intense.

“There is no attribute or characteristic mixed into this. Could this be a secret art watersource?  This sort of purity is even higher than what someone with a seventh-grade water resonance can produce. How could you have obtained such a high grade secret art watersource?” Yan Lingqing asked as she grasped Li Luo’s hand crazily. It seemed as though she had lost all sense of rationality at this sight. 

Secret art watersources were differentiated by grade. The one Li Luo had taken out had already reached the purity of a seventh-grade one. Such a pure watersource could definitely increase the success rate and tempering strength of spirit liquids when utilized, something truly rare.

Li Luo could feel a piercing pain due to how tightly Yan Lingqing was squeezing his hand. Seeing how agitated she was, he slowed down his words in an attempt to calm her down. “Elder Sister Lingqing, don’t be too flustered. Can we use this watersource for refining spirit liquids and purifying lights?”

“Of course we can! A secret art watersource of this purity would definitely allow the Azure Jade Spirit Liquid to reach 60% tempering strength, at the least when used in the refinement process. This would be more than enough to beat the Wondrous Sunshine Light at its own game! The only problem is that the amount is too little. If we were to use it for refinement, it would only be enough for around 30 spirit liquids.” Her beautiful pupils were firmly affixed on Li Luo, completely different from her usual, indifferent, and icy gaze. It seemed almost incompatible with the personality Li Luo knew her for.

“What if we were to use it on second-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights?” Li Luo asked after a moment of thought.

“It might be true that using such a treasure on first-grade spirit liquids would be almost wasteful. However, it’s as I said—the amount of watersource is simply too little. If we were to use it on second-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights, I’m afraid we would only be able to refine a few of them. It might be more efficient to use it to refine first-grade spirit liquids…” Yan Lingqing replied.

Li Luo felt a little awkward deep down. This “secret art watersource” was the watersource condensed by his waterlight resonance. Due to his blank palace, even the watersource he condensed possessed a trace of its void affinity. In essence, it was just like a secret art watersource, able to be used by anyone for resonance artificering. 

However, this half a bottle was something he had managed to produce only after three days. He was currently only at the Sixth Seal Stage, so his resonant power was not extremely dense nor plentiful. Thus, the amount of “secret art watersource” he could produce was also limited.

“I guess we can first use it on the first-grade Azure Jade Spirit Liquid for now then. If I’m able to pass a bottle like this to you every three days, would it allow the first-grade refining workshop to become the best performing workshop within the Suncreek Villa?” Li Luo asked. 

Cai Wei paused to consider. “The first-grade refining workshop sells about 150 bottles of Azure Jade Spirit Liquid a month. This roughly adds up to about 90,000 pieces of skygold a year. The third-grade refining workshop brings in 210,000 pieces of skygold. For the first-grade refining workshop to surpass the third-grade, we would need the sales to increase manifold. There will be some significant difficulty involved if we wish to purely rely on the first-grade refining workshop.”

“Well, if we have sufficient amounts of this secret art watersource, it would not be difficult to increase our sales by that much! With how pure this secret art watersource is, utilizing it on first-grade spirit liquids for refinement is akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Thus, the tempering strength would definitely increase significantly.” Yan Lingqing said confidently.   

Clapping his hands, Li Luo laughed. “Then it looks like our problem has been solved.”

Yan Lingqing was a little dazed at his response, spacing out for a moment. Had this arduous problem been resolved in such a simple manner?

How could it be so simple?

Yan Lingqing exhaled deeply. It truly wasn’t as easy as Li Luo had mentioned. It was only because Li Luo had managed to produce an item that surpassed everyone’s expectations. If anyone else knew that he was utilizing such a treasure to create first-grade spirit liquids, they would inevitably curse him angrily for being the fool and wastrel that he was!

The two ladies glanced at each other, tacitly agreeing to not ask Li Luo how this secret art watersource had come about. The way they saw it, it likely had to do with a secret passed down by the two House Lords.

“It looks like the Young Lord might be House Luolan’s harbinger of wealth!” Cai Wei laughed whilst coyly covering her mouth. Her beautiful face was absolutely bursting with joy. 

“Although the secret art watersource might be a little small in amount, it will definitely be more than sufficient to meet the Suncreek Villa’s needs in the interim.” Yan Lingqing’s small and square head lightly nodded. The Suncreek Villa currently only sold 150 bottles a month, and at the rate which Li Luo would provide it, this would definitely meet all their existing needs. 

“Alright, I won’t speak of this anymore. I have to go and make use of the time we have to produce the first batch of enhanced Azure Jade Spirit Liquids. We first need to build a reputation for our new product and improve public opinion…” Yan Lingqing tightly grasped the bottle of deep blue liquid as though it was her baby and immediately rushed off.

Li Luo and Cai Wei could only helplessly look on before they left the refining workshop together. Yet before Li Luo could say anything, Cai Wei immediately started to stride away quickly, and he had to quickly reach out and stop her.

“Elder Sister Cai Wei, are you trying to get rid of me?” Li Luo asked angrily.

Cai Wei innocently looked at him. “Young Lord, what are you trying to say? I have many tasks to settle!” 

“Elder Sister Cai Wei! I’ve just resolved the Suncreek Villa’s predicament! You can’t just ignore my outstanding service and contributions…” Following which, Li Luo furtively glanced around in every direction before lowering his voice. “I still need a batch of fifth-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights.”

A trace of bitterness could be seen in Cai Wei’s eyes as she looked at Li Luo. “Young Lord, it has barely been a month, yet you’ve gobbled up almost 800,000 pieces of skygold. This is two years of the Tianshu Province’s profits. At the rate you’re going, we just can’t afford to feed you any longer!” 

Li Luo seemed a little ashamed at this point. The speed at which he burned through skygold was indeed a little excessive. However, he had no choice! This acquired resonance was a skygold-devouring beast! He could only praise his parents for leaving behind an entire house as the foundation for him. Otherwise, reaching the Duke Stage within five years would be an impossible dream…  

“This will be the last batch of fifth-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights. I promise,” Li Luo swore.

Upon hearing those words, Cai Wei paused for a moment before lightly gritting her teeth. “Fine… then I will have to sell two more businesses.” 

Simply saying that caused Cai Wei to feel a little bit of sadness in her heart. With her abilities in management, she had never thought that she would have to sell the businesses under her to maintain the state of affairs. She had no choice in this matter… Li Luo was, after all, a bottomless pit. Still she was extremely dissatisfied.

Li Luo gave a dry cough and smiled as he nodded. He truly wasn’t lying. His waterlight resonance was about to reach the sixth-grade, so fifth-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights would no longer be required. 

At that point, he would only require sixth-grade ones…

Of course, this was something he hid in his heart and refused to speak of. At least for now… 

Otherwise, Cai Wei might simply just quit in frustration on the spot.