.
.
.
After reading the two books about the Yellow Leaf City's history, Tian Ye breathed out slightly then finally found that Zhao Meng and Li Hua were sitting upright at the opposite of his table with their attention on him.
He was completely immersed and didn't notice them and he also didn't notice the amount of wine on the side.
He stretched out his right hand and wrapped the wine jars with spiritual qi and absorbed them all into his spatial ring, filling it up without much space left.
He then summoned out from his spatial ring, a wine jar and drank a little sip directly on the wine jar, and with a slightly satisfied expression, he turned towards Zhao Meng and Li Hua, "Sorry about that, I was a little immersed, how long have you been waiting?"
Zhao Meng was not taking time so she thought in a trance but Li Hua hurriedly replied with a professional smile, "Exactly 30 minutes and 28 seconds, Lord Tian."
Tian Ye trembled and looked at Li Hua in fear, "Owner Li, you're scaring me."
Li Hua's lips twitched thinking when she thought about Tian Ye's feats from killing a man brutally in her restaurant then proceeding to massacre his entire clan, 'Who's the scary one here?!'
Zhao Meng just chuckled on the side without saying anything, getting used to Tian Ye's unpredictability yet casual attitude.
It's good right? As long as the animosity wasn't pointed at them or their clans, it'll be all good.
Li Hua coughed awkwardly then inquired, "Lord Tian, you called me here for…?"
"I called you here?" Tian Ye exclaimed but then nodded, "I did ask Zhao Meng to call you here."
He then looked at them with a thoughtful smile as he waved around the wine jar, circling the liquid inside and said, "Young Lady Zhao was the first person I met after coming out of the sect, guiding me throughout the Yellow Leaf City, and Owner Li is providing me with wine. And with my consumption of wine, I don't think what I gave Owner Li will last a month, I decided to take you two as my disciples as repayment instead and teach you how to cultivate, what do you think?"
Hearing Tian Ye's words, the two were dumbfounded.
Zhao Meng then thought, 'Did Lord Tian just say… he wants to take me as a disciple?'
Meanwhile, Li Hua, 'Am I dreaming?'
After the initial shock, what remained was extreme excitement. A cultivator, who could exterminate a clan just because of a whim, wanted to take them as disciples. What would they feel besides excitement?!
This was especially the case for Li Hua, she looked at Tian Ye who was casually swirling the wine jar and thought, 'As a mere mortal merchant who climbed the ranks from scratch, will I finally have the means to be on par with the 4 major families… Oh… 3 major families now.'
Tian Ye tilted his head and asked, "Why are you two silent? Do you despise the idea? If so, then forget it."
The two hurriedly stood up and panicked.
"No, no, no! I'm extremely delighted, Lord Tian! I'm just really surprised!"
"Yes, yes! We just didn't expect it at all, my lord!" Zhao Meng followed.
Tian Ye chuckled and said casually, "Is that so? Then what are you waiting for? Kowtow and recognize your master."
"Yes!" The two replied simultaneously and kowtowed on the ground, on the side.
"Disciple Li Hua, greets Master Tian Ye."
"Disciple Zhao Meng, greets Master Tian Ye."
After kowtowing once, they were ready to raise their heads but Tian Ye's words fell, "Remain like that for 24 hours. If you ever move in the slightest or fall asleep, the deal is off."
The two trembled momentarily in surprise then continued to kowtow.
Tian Ye just said casually with a smile as he took a sip of wine, "my two dear disciples, master wants to share to you two what he has learned about himself during the massacre."
As he stood up and went to get a book about geography, he continued to say towards the two kowtowing disciples, "Your master has learned that…"
Chuckling, he continued, "He has sadistic tendencies, so this condition of kneeling for 24 hours, is to satisfy this. My two disciples don't mind, right? Oh, you don't need to answer, if you do, I might be a little more sadistic and retract my offer back haha."
As he drank sips of wine little by little reading books about the geography of the Yellow Leaf City, nearby cities, and explored areas, time passed by quickly.
After 24 hours of reading, he had read and comprehended about 50 books, mainly about geography. There were lots of books about medicines but the contents were mostly the same but there were slight differences so he read them too.
He had also learned that the formal name in the mortal world for ten-year-old spiritual herbs was 'Qi Cultivation Herbs' and were rare and expensive.
With this knowledge, it looks like he has to learn about alchemy even if it doesn't exist in knowledge within this place.
Hundred-year-old spiritual herbs were rare, it only seemed not that rare because the sect leader who roamed the world gave him a lot. Most of them had even lost a lot of their efficacies because they were staying in his spatial ring, showing that it was collected a long time ago. That's how rare they were.
And as for how he knew that 24 hours had passed, it was because Li Hua stood up, clasped her hands, and bowed, calling out, "Master."
Zhao Meng followed, although she didn't know how much time had passed exactly, it had been more than 20 hours based on her own counting. "Master."
Li Hua, who could accurately tell time in seconds yesterday, Zhao Meng was confident that she was more accurate than herself.
Despite standing up and saluting towards Tian Ye, their feet, arms, and whole body were trembling from prolonged kowtowing. Their foreheads, and the skin of their limbs touching the ground were red.
Tian Ye closed the book he was reading in his hands with a bookmark, and nodded to them, "Good, now, go get two pieces of books with a clean paper and I'll write your cultivation techniques."
Tian Ye, who created a lot of cultivation techniques, could create them now casually but he didn't have any copies in hand because he didn't expect that his sect would be obliterated just like that so he had no choice but to write them freshly.
Despite being physically and mentally tired, Zhao Meng and Li Hua's eyes glowed from excitement, "Yes, Master!"
Zhao Meng took the lead since this was the Zhao clan's manor and Li Hua followed. Although it was a library, there weren't any blank books here so they could only go to one's house, and the nearest one was the Zhao clan leader's house.
With his status, there was bound to be a blank book that Tian Ye could use to write on.
Tian Ye looked at their excited backs in interest as they went out but then went back to reading the books about medicine.
He was researching pills after all, although he had reached the peak of Qi Refinement Realm, he hadn't yet reached the peak of the 9th Layer. It will require tremendous spiritual qi, especially that his spiritual qi was of the fire element.
He estimates 2-3 years to fill his dantian with neutral spiritual qi, 7-8 years to convert it. The only reason he was so fast in filling his dantian with spiritual qi previously was because he had a lot of hundred-year-old spiritual herbs that came from the sect leader.
Now, he was out of hundred-year-old spiritual herbs.
He had to find a way to make up for it. He already had the idea of alchemy from his previous life's geekiness about cultivation novels so all that he needs is trial and error and it was only a matter of time before he gets it right.
5 years, he will spend exactly one year trying to get alchemy right with ten-year-old spiritual herbs to have the ability to at least compare to hundred-year-old spiritual herbs. 5 years isn't too long considering he was at the 9th layer of Qi Refinement Realm and he has time and lifespan to spare. He'll also do side-jobs like giving ideas to make money to the 3 clans because it'll likely require a lot of money to do research... Mostly due to the cost of ten-year-old spiritual herbs. Although he could force them to give it, that's low in efficiency.
The mortals will complain, fear them, a lot of them will escape, lowering the economy causing lower in money circulation and lowering the wealth of the 3 great families.
The roads from and to other cities are also a little low in efficiency, bumpy roads according to the geographical books he had read. They have to make it easier for merchants to reach Yellow Leaf City.
The distance wasn't the problem but the bumpy roads and the safety that caused a lot of merchants to spend money on the road making their visit less profitable and even maybe losing money just to hire people and protect themselves from bandits.
Although it's a low-level map and a mortal city thinking that the spiritual qi is martial qi, it's still highly usable in gathering information with their sheer number. He won't stay forever, but he had to make it easy for himself to live here and shouldn't rely on force alone.
.
.
.