Wu Lin's Cash Cow

{A/N: I changed the previous chapter's name. This is the longest chapter so far as well.}

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After Shen Xiu's lecture ended in a catastrophe, Wu Lin knew he would get bored of the coming lectures and so he decided to skip them. But before sneaking out of the institute, he wrote a letter of absence and placed it on the teacher's desk.

Not long after sneaking out, he found himself standing right in front of the receptionist desk. He took out the token Nie Li gave him and showed it to the receptionist, he said, "I was told I can meet either Director Yang Xin or President Gu Yan using this."

"A token? That's a first," the receptionist, Xiao Lan said as she bent down to take a closer inspection of the token. It looked authentic unlike the counterfeits that she's seen so far, and as she was about to ask to see the other side of the coin, a familiar face butted it.

A familiar face that's familiar to both Xiao Lan and Wu Lin.

"What's the point of inspecting his token? It's just going to be another counterfeit," Chu Ning sneered at Wu Lin.

"Prove it then," Wu Lin challenged while smirking as he spotted a white robed old man from afar.

"Prove it? There's no need to do that," Chu Ning scowled as he stomped right over and snatched the  token from Xiao Lan's hands.

"Hey! Give it back, arsehole!" Xiao Lan shouted in anger, attracting the attention of the very few people in that area.

{A/N: I don't why, but I prefer 'arse' than 'ass' when I type words. It's probably because 'ass' has no class, and reminds me of the abbreviated for 'assignment', which is one of the things I dislike.}

"No! Enough is enough! We shouldn't tolerate things like this!" Chu Ning shouted, pretending to be heroic. But of course, his true intention of showing-off was obvious to Wu Lin and those watching. He pointed at Wu Lin. "I, Chu Ning of the-"

"Quiet, fool."

"Who said that?!" Chu Ning bellowed in anger, scowling as turned to the source of the voice.

"I did," one the Primary Alchemy Masters of the Alchemy Association, Huyan Ming, said.

Seeing who it was, Chu Ning instantly paled and kowtowed. "Master Huyan Ming, please forgive me. I was just making an example of-"

"Your false heroics aren't good enough to fool me, Chu Ning. I'm old, not senile," Huyan Ming scoffed at the trembling young man. "Now give me that token. I'll be the judge of whether it's a counterfeit or not."

Ye–yes," Chu Ning said and handed the token to him. He glanced at Wu Lin with the thought of getting revenge on him after his offense had been resolved.

Inspecting the token, Huyan Ming was surprised  to find that it was the token that Director Yang Xin had shown him earlier this morning. He wasn't sure who it was for, but since he was given a direct order from President Gu Yan to bring whoever has it to his office, he assumed that it's an important guest.

Looking at the unflinching and indifferent Wu Lin, Huyan Ming smiled and said, "I apologize for the trouble that one of our members have caused. Please follow me, we've expecting you."

"Sure." Wu Lin took back the interspatial ring and followed the elder back to wherever he's taking him.

Seeing the higher-ranked alchemist treat Wu Lin with respect, Chu Ning's legs weakened and he fell to the ground on his butt, fear washed over him as he thought of his earlier actions. Xiao Lan, on the other hand, returned to her work without the slightest concern about her future as an alchemist.

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Knock! Knock! Knock!

Huyang Ming knocked on the president's office's door.

"Who is it?" a voice from inside asked.

"It's Huyang Ming. President Gu Yan, the owner of the token is here," Huyan Ming said.

"He's here?" Gu Yan asked in a louder voice.

"Yes," Wu Lin said, confirming it himself.

Then, to the two's surprise, the door opened and a fragrant scent wafted out of the room. Gu Yan set his sight on Wu Lin, he smiled as he greeted him.

"I'm Gu Yan, the President of the Alchemy Association. It's an honor to meet one of the disciples of Spirit Master Lao Tzu," Gu Yan said as he shook Wu Lin's hand in vigor.

"I'm Wu Lin. It's an honor to meet President Gu Yan as well," Wu Lin said, smiling and wondering what Nie Li did to leave this kind of impact to Gu Yan.

Huyan Ming watched this exchange in bewilderment and curiosity.

Who is Spirit Master Lao Tzu, and what has he done to receive the president's respect?

Ending their handshake, Gu Yan turned to Huyan Ming and said, "Inform Director Yang Xin to pause whatever she's doing and come here."

"Yes, President Gu Yan." Huyan Ming bowed before heading towards the director's office.

As soon as he was gone from sight, Gu Yan invited Wu Lin into his office. It was spacious, with shelves of books and ingredients placed here and there, and at the center was a furnace.

"Wu Lin, right? I've heard of you before, but I didn't expect you to be a disciple of Spirit Master Lao Tzu as well," Gu Yan started the conversation as he poured him a cup of tea and gave it to him.

"It's normal to think of that. The Old Master chooses his disciples through divining fate, which in his words is the best method to find disciples. His teaching method is even stranger," Wu Lin said with an expression of reminiscence.

That's right. He decided to provide lore for his and Nie Li's so-called master as it might help in future situations.

Hearing this, Gu Yan was intrigued as aside from Spirit Master Lao Tzu's name, power, and some background information, neither him nor Yang Xin knew anything else about him. So, to hear how he chooses his disciples surprised him.

Divining fate to choose disciples? That's such an absurd method, but he didn't think that it was unrealistic as he had experienced a fraction of Spirit Master Lao Tzu's power.

Thinking of that, Gu Yan couldn't help but shiver. Before he could continue the conversation, the doors opened and Yang Xin entered with Huyan Ming following behind her.

Setting her sight on the Wu Lin, Yang Xin smiled as she sauntered towards him. When she was a third of a meter close to him, she said, "I'm Yang Xin, the Director of the Alchemy Association. It's an honor to meet one of Spirit Master Lao Tzu's disciples. I didn't expect for both of his disciples to be the most well-known people of Holy Orchid Institute's recent batch of students."

"I'm Wu Lin. It's an honor to meet Director Yang Xin as well," Wu Lin said as he reached his hand out for a handshake.

Yang Xing reached his hand out and shook his hand.

"I'll be leaving first," Huyan Ming said, he bowed again and then left the room. 

Ending their handshake, Wu Lin questioned the two, "So, what has Nie Li or the Old Master done so far?"

"Spirit Master Lao Tzu has taken us as his half-disciples and has bestowed us with greater knowledge about alchemy and the world in general," Yang Xin explained with delight.

"It was shocking to know how vast our world is, but at the same time how miniscule it is in front of the Spirit Master Lao Tzu's power and even higher," Gu Yan said in a tone filled with wonder.

"I see." Wu Lin took a long sip of his tea.

Nie Li, that time traveling gremlin, had indoctrinated Gu Yan and Yang Xin to a cult.

Furthermore, Wu Lin doubted that it was just them that Nie Li had indoctrinated.

However, it's not a bad idea that Nie Li exposed them to the vast and mysterious trichiliocosm. It was a good method to ensure that neither of them becomes idiotic.

"So, what about Nie Li?" Wu Lin inquired.

"Brother Nie Li has given us a large number of lost pill recipes, information of where to find materials to forge such pills, and instructions and schedules. Oh, and he mentioned that he's going to distribute lost inscription patterns, and lost forging designs and methods to the other associations. He didn't tell us when though," Gu Yan said.

With his smile turning into a grin, Wu Lin said, "Now I understand his intentions."

The two looked at each other and then to him with confused expressions.

Seeing this, he wasn't surprised as it hadn't even been an hour when he left the institute. Thus, he proceeded to explain what transpired earlier in the classroom.

The two were shocked at Nie Li's actions and were livid at Shen Xiu's.

"Let him do what he wants, he's one of the most capable people I know of. Just follow his schedule and  instructions, he must've thought of using the release of information, pills, etc, as a way to divert the Sacred Family and Glory City's attention away from him," Wu Lin stated, a glint flashed in his eyes. "The second the Sacred Family starts assaulting the Heavenly Mark Family, make sure to retaliate properly. Don't go overboard though, it should just be enough to put pressure on them. In regards to the Dark Guild, you have the entire Glory City's protection. However, when the Sacred Family buys in bulk, make sure to track down where they're sending those. I don't trust them one bit."

Hearing that, Yang Xin said, "You and Brother Nie Li both believe in those two colluding with each other, huh. Shen Xiu is just a pawn to get inside them, then?"

"If she changes, then I'll let her live and make her my second wife. If not, then I'll use her as a test subject. There is no in-between," Wu Lin said, much to their shock.

"You have a wife?" Gu Yan asked.

"I was adopted into an elite family by my father. Before his death, he told me that I'll only be accepted into the family if I marry one of his nieces, a cousin-by-name who's two to three years older than me. Now I don't really care about acceptance and stuff like that, but I would prefer to fulfill that promise, especially because it my father's wish and it isn't an overly complicated one either," Wu Lin explained.

Putting down the teacup on a table, he moved on to the reason he came here. He placed his hand on a larger table and then brought out his products and a stack of papers.

Gu Yan and Yang Xin looked at the different sized and shaped containers in interest, Nie Li didn't mention what products Wu Lin is going to show them, so it was quite exciting on what the other disciple of Spirit Master Lao Tzu has to offer.

"To be honest, these aren't that special. I created them on a whim after seeing how inefficient and unrefined the cleaning products and cosmetic and personal care products are in our Glory City," Wu Lin said as he opened a container of lotion. "However, I haven't tested most of the products, so please get them tested before selling them."

"Cleaning products? Cosmetic and personal care products?" Gu Yan and Yang Xin asked in sync, neither of them expected this.

"You must've heard of pseudo-alchemy right? I based these off of those books," Wu Lin said. He then pointed to the stack of papers. "Those are the recipes that I've formulated, some of those are the ones that I've created, and the rest are ideas that I've come up with. I doubt most of these work properly, so you can have most of the shares on those."

Most of the products he created are theoretical at best and he didn't expect much from them. He was more interested in the impact it would have on Glory City.

As alchemists and researchers themselves, Yang Xin and Gu Yan felt more attracted to the stack of research papers than the end results, so they started with the research papers.

The first few papers were introductions of the products, which are their names and purposes.

Then after the introductions were recipes of the products. The recipes ranged from "I can make this at home"-simple to "is this safe?"-complex, both were surprised at how much details were put in, considering that each product has at least two versions of itself.

'This really reminds me of alchemy!' Gu Yan and Yang Xin thought.

Then after that recipes were the ideas. Some were fine, some were questionable but fine, but the rest? Both of them couldn't believe what they were reading. However, due to how detailed and logical the research papers were, both were considering making them.

Half an hour later, the three have come to a  conclusion on the prices and shares of the products.

Wu Lin made sure that most of his products are affordable enough to the commoners of Glory City, who make up at least 85% of the  citizens, as that's how he's going to make his fortune from this.

The shares were easier to divide. He wanted 30% of the profits from the products that he considered as simpler to make,  20% for the more complicated products, 10% for most of the products in the 'idea' section of his research papers, and 1% royalties from the products that the Alchemy Association develops based from the products that he had created.

Gu Yan and Yang were against in giving him pitiful shares, but were reluctantly convinced to agree in the end.

Before Wu Lin left to return to the institute, he shared a drink with them, and was given a box containing alchemist robes and identifications for him and Nie Li as proof to being official alchemists.

Sneaking back into the Holy Orchid Institute, a thought came into his mind.

'I should soon have the chance to make Shen Xiu fall in love with me even harder. Good thinking, Nie Li.'

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