CHAPTER 87: CHAPTER 86: DID YOU GET STUNG? (FOURTH UPDATE)

Seventy-first Cave, inside the underground pharmaceutical factory.

Ever since returning from the Thirty-Third Cave half a month ago, the production line inside the underground pharmaceutical factory has not stopped.

Originally worn-out production lines underwent a complete transformation with Shaq’s financial support.

On the unmanned assembly lines, the sound of machinery roared non-stop, and vials of potion were encapsulated after Spiritual Stone powder was mixed in, and neatly sent to the warehouse.

Quentin would then be responsible for transporting the daily-produced Nine Dragon Power potions out of the warehouse, passing them to Shaq’s hands via transfer in another cave.

The majority of the tens of thousands of Nine Dragon Power potions produced daily would be absorbed by the various major powers of the Lower City District, with the remainder entering the market.

At Lu Yan’s insistence, each Nine Dragon Power potion entering the market was priced at one thousand credit points.

Since the Nine Dragon Power Potion began to sell, Lu Yan was destined to never be short of credit points. For him, too many credit points held no value; rather, the low price was more suitable to foster Spiritual Ability Users in the Lower City District.

This price was far below the true value of the Nine Dragon Power potion. Once listed, it faced a frenzy in the entire Lower City District, with the black market price for the potion even reaching five thousand credit points.

The Nine Dragon Power potions that entered the market provided those whose physical fitness and Spiritual Energy reserves were near the threshold of becoming Spiritual Ability Users a chance to become one.

These individuals had sufficient talent and did not lack industrial-grade Spiritual Energy. What truly troubled them was how to enhance their physical strength to suppress the rampant industrial-grade Spiritual Energy.

Before this, they only had two options.

Either continue injecting inferior Spiritual Energy potions, relying entirely on luck for natural metamorphosis, or spend a fortune on a Spiritual Transformation surgery and pay a hefty Spiritual Energy tax.

The former was a gamble with life, and the latter required an astronomical amount of credit points. Either choice seemed like a dead end.

But the emergence of the Nine Dragon Power potion gave everyone hope.

This precious potion that enhanced physical strength and smoothed out rampant industrial-grade Spiritual Energy was merely sold for one thousand credit points per vial.

In just half a month, over a hundred thousand Nine Dragon Power potions flowed into the Lower City District, fostering thousands of Spiritual Ability Users and injecting fresh life into the previously lifeless Lower City District.

These Spiritual Ability Users all used industrial-grade Spiritual Energy from inferior potions, making it impossible to screen them based on Spiritual Energy usage.

Combined with the chaotic order and complex cave environments in the Lower City District, the City Tax Bureau had a hard time pinpointing these Spiritual Ability Users.

The vast majority of newly-advanced Spiritual Ability Users, as long as they did not attract attention, were not even noticed by the City Tax Bureau, giving rise to numerous tax evaders.

If in the past, the City Tax Bureau knew of a thousand Spiritual Ability Users evading tax, they would turn the Lower City District upside down to find and send them to the Heaven Computation Center.

But as news of the Upper City District’s mass cleansing spread, unrest erupted in the many bustling areas of the Lower City District, and tensions mounted.

Even the City Tax Bureau focused most of its efforts on quelling the unrest, seizing populations and sending them to the Heaven Computation Center.

Before the real mass cleansing arrived, the City Tax Bureau had no time to deal with these tax evaders.

With a rising channel available, and temporarily evading the pressure of the Spiritual Energy tax, the entire Lower City District was temporarily plunged into a realm of flourishing vitality and competition among all things.

In the past, most people would exchange their lives for credit points in pursuit of advancement, not even exchanging a word upon meeting each other.

But now, walking in the streets, people in the Lower City District would ask one another, regardless of whether they knew each other or not.

"Have you injected?"

This could be considered the highest form of greeting in the Lower City District.

If both had injected, they took the opportunity to exchange insights on using the Nine Dragon Power potion, discussing how to quickly advance to Spiritual Ability Users.

If one side had not, they would beg for the other to share channels to purchase the Nine Dragon Power potion, rapidly closing the gap between them.

In addition, because the nature of the Nine Dragon Power potion was too mild, long-time residents of the Lower City District who had been enduring inferior Spiritual Energy potions were somewhat unaccustomed to it.

Many who had used the Nine Dragon Power potion gathered, attempting to discover hidden negative effects of the potion.

After several days of investigation, they indeed found some issues.

Some found that after injecting the Nine Dragon Power potion, their originally well-built physique became deformed, and they could only eat raw rice to compensate for the change in their body.

Others experienced a decline in intelligence to some extent, with their language abilities affected, speaking incoherently, especially frequently repeating the phrase, "So I ask you!"

Another issue, more common, was that long-term use of the Nine Dragon Power potion would cause users’ skulls to protrude and their heads to become pointed. Some Spiritual Ability Users considered this evidence of the Nine Dragon Power potion developing their brain region and called it a sign of distinctive cranial growth.

The negative effects of the Nine Dragon Power potion seemed severe at first glance, but to those who had been long-term injectors of inferior Spiritual Energy potions, this was a very safe potion.

As long as there was no life-threatening risk, these minor negative effects could be completely ignored.

As research progressed, the Nine Dragon Power potion was not affected by these negative effects. Instead, it gained even more acclaim, with demand for it in the market increasing by the day.

Especially among the various powers within the caves of the Lower City District.

They keenly realized that facing the mass cleansing head-on in the Upper City District was a fool’s dream.

Cultivating a large number of Spiritual Ability Users and using the complex cave environment to conduct small-scale guerrilla warfare was their only chance, which was only raising Shaq’s status as he rose with the help of the Nine Dragon Power potion.

Meanwhile, as the Lower City District was in a phase of flourishing growth, Lu Yan had dived headfirst into the Cultivation Room opened by the underground pharmaceutical factory.

Although his cultivation was close to the limit of the Qi Cultivation Stage, Lu Yan did not choose to continue practicing.

The experiences from half a month ago gave Lu Yan a preliminary understanding of the cyber version of technology and the power of lightweight firepower.

This made Lu Yan realize that unless he could single-handedly oppose an entire civilization system, simply breaking through the Foundation Establishment Realm would not be of much help to his current situation.

Additionally, Lu Yan was not willing to choose the Human Dao Foundation Establishment and aimed to pursue higher levels of Earth Dao Foundation Establishment or even Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, so he temporarily gave up the idea of breaking through the Foundation Establishment.

Instead, he turned his attention to another task, which was evolving Artificial Spiritual Veins!

In the Xianxia version, Ji Xingyao, to repay Lu Yan, especially prepared the Feng Shui technique for evolving Artificial Spiritual Veins for him. Lu Yan later assembled the necessary items.

Originally, Lu Yan intended to use it after returning to the city, but given the current need for Spiritual Qi to produce the Nine Dragon Power potion, and the difficulty of increasing production capacity with only the Spirit Stone in Lu Yan’s possession, he planned to evolve Artificial Spiritual Veins using the Spirit Marrow Ore.

He did not seek the highest quality Spirit Vein, as long as it could initially generate Spiritual Qi and integrate it into the Nine Dragon Power potion, it would be enough to solve the issue of insufficient productivity.

Since it was only an initial attempt, Lu Yan would not fully solidify the Spirit Marrow Ore in this location, as this item would have significant use in the city version later.

For the time being, he would assist in the production of the Nine Dragon Power potion, and retrieve it before the version update arrived.

Already half a month ago upon returning to the underground pharmaceutical factory, Lu Yan had planted the Spirit Marrow Ore and set up the corresponding array using the Feng Shui technique.

And today was the day this Artificial Spiritual Vein would take its initial form.