Chapter 100: Partnership
"Dear father, we're here..." Zhou Mei awkwardly walked into the room with Qin Lan. Her face remained blushed even though nothing actually between them.
"You're Qin Lan, the young Qin patriarch people talked about in Xiyun City?" the man in his forties asked. His office is filled with various treasures belonging to the sword category. Based on this fact alone, it is understandable why he summoned both of them into his office.
"A man with a hobby of collecting arm-length sword is always known for their easy to talk to attitude. It would be best for me to be honest when talking to him." Qin Lan cupped his hands in response to Zhou Mei's father.
"This junior is indeed the Qin Lan senior mentioned. It is an honor for me to meet with pavilion manager Zhou today." Qin Lan said.
"Not bad, not bad..." Zhou Mei's father nodded as he measured Qin Lan's cultivation strength.
"What's bring you here today to our humble pavilion? Was it solely to take advantage of my unmarried daughter?" suddenly, Zhou Mei's father changed the topic as he asked for the reason behind Qin Lan's visit.
"Father!" Zhou Mei raised her voice at her father.
"Since senior is interested as well, then please allow this junior to bring up the matter about this business proposal. I hope that it would be one that worthy of senior's time and advice." Qin Lan cupped his fist together as he politely suggested.
"Based on my understanding about the land of our Yunshan Province, cultivating a spiritual herb farm is not a wise decision, correct?" Qin Lan started by throwing a question for the pair of father and daughter to ponder.
"Indeed, young nephew. Spiritual Herb is always an expensive commodity here in Yunshan Province because a piece of land rich with Spiritual Energy is hardly found."
"Even the Zhou Treasured Pavilion suffered a few losses in all our previous investments because it was difficult for us to cover the cost of operating the farm. Don't tell me that young nephew's plan is related to farm cultivation?" Zhou Mei's father asked.
As the current pavilion manager, it was unsurprising to recognize the lucrative benefit from a farm cultivation business. To a business establishment like the Zhou Treasured Pavilion, owning at least one to two spiritual herb farms is almost a must-do task on their list.
A part of the reason is that occupying a spiritual herb farm is equal to possessing half of the cultivating resources required to groom their own experts. Only when an establishment holds enough strength on its own can it move further.
Strength is a fundamental requirement for mankind to survive in this world. It can also be comprehended as resources, treasure, and knowledge.
Knowledge was the most difficult to obtain strength, where it requires both time and collective effort from people to make it appear. The effect brought by its existence is significant, but at the same time, pointless if it was not inherited.
Treasures, on the other hand, are a more popular kind of strength. Because of the production method, Treasures is believed to be eternal. They're inheritable from one to another unless it was damaged in a battle.
The only grey area in this is if they possess no knowledge regarding this, that means their number will reduce the further the era has passed.
And lastly, exhaustible resources, such as herbs, talismans, and pills. As there was a limited timespan on them, this type of strength is always in high demand. This is why the conversation associated with them caught the interest of Zhou Mei's father.
Being unable to firmly venture into this field is a regretful matter for Zhou Shen, Zhou Mei's father.
The seemingly profitable business of Zhou Treasured Pavilion is, in fact, suffers from this matter due to the lack of cultivating resources produced in-house. This is also an issue that has been dragging the pavilion's performance down in the past.
The Zhou Treasured Pavilion is only counted as a second-rated business establishment here in Fuyun City due to this reason. Compared to the Medicinal Manor, the latter is considered a first-rate establishment because it possesses two spiritual herb farms in the whole Yunshan Province.
"Answering to senior's question, junior's business proposal is indeed related to a spiritual herb farm. But before junior continue, please take a look at the content of this medicinal bottle and box." Qin Lan placed a set of what he prepared on the table for their inspection.
"I wonder... If senior have a clue about this?" Qin Lan smiled as he opened the medicinal box first.
The moment the cover is lifted, an aroma of sweet and refreshing grass came out and tried to strike their sense of smell. Inside the box were three stalks of Emerald Transformation Spirit Grass.
And without the need to guess, the medicinal bottle is expected to hold the Essence Transformation Pill inside.
"I've remembered this Spirit Herb. I've once read about its information inside the encyclopedia of extinct spiritual herbs. There are supposed to be three different types... Which one is this might be?" Zhou Mei's father asked as he gestured if he were allowed to take them into his hand for further inspection.
"Please, senior." Qin Lan placed his inner palm facing upwards as he invited Zhou Shen to do so.
"Hmm... If I'm not mistaken, the pills inside the medicinal bottle are supposed to be what came out after refining this spiritual grass?" Zhou Shen continued. Using his thumb to remove the wooden cork, he poured a pill out from the bottle.
"Refreshing... There's a hint of detoxified poison remains, which likely comes from the atmosphere used to cultivate this plant. Other than that, I can't guess it unless I've taken this pill and try to decipher its effectiveness."
"Can you let this senior know what kind of Spiritual Herb and pill this is?" Zhou Shen asked as he placed the pill in his hand on top of a pill holder.
"Senior Zhou is indeed an expert with considerable experience to be able to see through part of the cultivating technique used to grow these spiritual herbs."
"Your guess is correct about it being extinct. This variant is known as Emerald Transformation Spirit Grass. It was the main ingredient to concoct this pill, which is known as the Essence Transformation Pill." Qin Lan introduced the product to the father and daughter pair.
"Essence Transformation Pill? This is the pill those disciples of Cloud Plucking Sect talked about recently?" Zhou Shen's eyes sparkled as his hand reaches for the pill again.
Even Zhou Mei couldn't withstand the temptation as she reached the bottle and poured another pill onto her palm.
Perhaps it's because of a blinded trust towards Qin Lan, Zhou Mei swallowed the pill without questions. And instantly, the Spiritual Energy surrounding them started to flow into Zhou Mei's body as smooth as her breathing.
"How miraculous..." she said.
"Do young nephew's visit this time related to this?" Zhou Shen asked.
"No. It's because I have two other Spiritual Herbs in hand waiting to be introduced."
"Are the Zhou Treasured Pavilion interested in a partnership?" Qin Lan asked.