Tales of Demons and Gods : The Legend of Xiao Ning'Er

Surprisingly, Yang Xin didn't make it difficult for Ning'Er to meet up with her. The Director of the Alchemist Association was an extremely astute and sharp-witted woman, which was why she had been even able to hold her position as the youngest Director in history for so long. And it wasn't because of her beauty, those who worked with her had come to admire and respect her ruthlessness and intelligence in ensuring that the Alchemist Association's position grew in Glory City step by step.

Yang Xin had an effective intelligence network, which kept her abreast of everything that was going on in the city. She had naturally heard about some of the exploits of this mysterious fourteen year old girl, who had demonstrated growth that far surpassed the legend and talent of Lord Ye Mo, the strongest expert of Glory City! Not only that, but those closely associated with her had demonstrated a similarly acceleration of progress and there were already a notable list of achievements this group had been linked to.

The Director had also heard about the level of influence the girl had in the Guild of Inscriptionists, where there were rumours that she was even an inscription genius! More recently, there had been unusual and worrying movements of some families in the city who were clearly building towards something big. Yang Xin's shrewd instincts told her that Ning'Er seemed to be integrally linked to all these happenings, and that it would be good to build a strong relationship with her before she grew too quickly and out of reach.

They sat opposite each other in a room, sipping on hot tea that a server had brought. Ning'Er felt slightly self-conscious when she saw Yang Xin's full, voluptuous body that a tight-fitting purple dress did little to hide. The plunging neckline revealed a deep valley in between two soft, bouncy globes that would have mesmerised any man in the room. A slit at the side of the dress went all the way up to the hip, revealing the milky, white skin of a slender leg.

Distracted by the formidable and seductive woman in front of her, Ning'Er squealed softly at the back of her throat as she accidentally drank too large a mouthful and burnt her tongue.

Yang Xin lifted her hand to her mouth and chuckled softly, "Are you OK, Xiao Ning'Er?"

Coughing slightly, Ning'Er replied, "I'm all right. Sorry, I'm not used to these formal settings..."

Ning'Er's mouth hung open as she was stunned for a moment at the perceptiveness of this woman. She would need to be careful around in case she revealed too much inadvertently.

Yang Xin laughed out loud again. "Don't worry, you're completely right in your observation! My beauty, the way I dress, the manner that I may cause the imaginations of men to run wild..." She leaned forward as if to whisper conspiratorially, causing her breasts to hang forward and almost pop out of her tight fitting dress. "It is a powerful weapon that I use aside from my sharp mind. You should come round more often, us ladies have to stick together!"

Ning'Er could sense no maliciousness in the woman's words and understood that there was a sincere intention to look out for her. "Thank you for being so honest with my, Director Yang Xin! I've always been impressed when I heard about your accomplishments in Glory City as the youngest ever Director of the Alchemist Association!"

"So how can I help you today?" Yang Xin asked.

"I have a Master who prefers to stay hidden for now. He was the one who imparted the miraculous inscriptions that you would have seen come out of the Guild of Inscriptionists recently. In his travels, he has dabbled in alchemy and has come upon some very valuable recipes, which could help Glory City. He has tasked me to form a partnership of trust with the Alchemist Association." Ning'Er began.

Yang Xin's eyes turned serious as she heard Ning'Er's words. She knew that it was not just the words of a child because of what she had investigated about this girl. The inscriptions which were coming out of the Guild of Inscriptionists were truly amazing, and the progress of this girl's group had to have the support of incredible cultivation materials as well. There was no other way! What if this mysterious Master had been also creating pills and elixirs for this group? It would help to explain their miraculous progress!

"Do you mind if I call a Senior Alchemy Master that I work closely with? Although I am an alchemist, his knowledge would help greatly to verify the recipes." Yang Xin responded with some agitation in her voice.

"Of course!" Ning'Er agreed knowing who this person was.

Ten minutes later, President Gu Yan came into the room excitedly. "Young girl, you say you have some precious recipes from your Master??"

Ning'Er decided to clarify the expectations first to avoid misunderstanding later. "My Master has made it clear that he would like to work with the Alchemist Association for this. He has offered to start with four priceless recipes: Soul Nurturing Pills, Soul Concentrating Pills, Soul Tempering Pills, and Scarlet Body Enhancing Pills.

She looked up to see Yang Xin and Gu Yan staring at her in complete shock. These were long lost pills that had incredible potency! The only soul-enhancing pill that the Alchemist Association could produce at the moment was Soul Assembling Pill, which was considered just a low-grade elixir in the Sacred Empire Era. Soul Nurturing Pills were considered middle-grade and provided around ten times the effect of Soul Assembling Pills. A Soul Concentrating Pill was high-grade and had over a hundred times the effect, whilst Soul Tempering Pills were top-grade elixirs providing more than a thousand times the effect!

They had not imagined that these long-lost recipes would be found again. It would provide an even greater effect to the future of Glory City than the current trajectory of the Guild of Inscriptionists! President Gu Yan swallowed nervously before asking, "What...what does your Master want in exchange?"

"In order to continue his experiments and adventures to uncover relics and knowledge from ancient eras, he's asking for thirty percent of all profits. The Alchemist Association will be responsible to source the materials, provide the labour, and utilise their marketing channels in order to produce and sell the pills." Ning'Er replied.

President Gu Yan stuttered out, "Thirt...Thirty percent? We'd be willing to take fifty percent and give your master fifty percent, and we'd still make a lot of funds." As he did the calculations in his mind, he directly said what was on his mind without thinking of being ruthless.

"Don't worry, President Gu Yan. My Master has made his intentions clear to me. He's not looking to make as much money as possible. His primary purpose is to increase the overall strength of Glory City. If it will help, the remaining twenty percent can be allocated to identifying and training talented commoners without the funds to pay for the training at the association."

Yang Xin and Gu Yan were astounded at the magnanimity of this hidden Master. This system would greatly benefit the Alchemist Association and build their strength greatly over time. They would now have the resources to be able to even build up commoners with the talent for alchemy which would greatly benefit them over time.

They quickly drew up a formal contract and signed on the terms agreed. Ning'Er then handed President Gu Yan the invaluable recipes. He stood there trembling in excitement as he looked over them. With his experience, he could tell that they were authentic immediately, and he was stunned that the spirit herbs used to produce these incredible elixirs were so common and cheap. Even the requirements of the tier of alchemist to make them were not too high!

"One more thing. As you might have noticed, some of the families of the city have started working together to build towards something. I would like to request that the Alchemist Association work closely with the Lu Family. I believe...they will be in the possession of several important recipes as well." Ning'Er concluded before she left the President and Director. They didn't ask any further questions because they understood what she was saying - her Master had given some recipes to the Lu Family as well!

Over the next couple of weeks, Director Yang Xin would mobilise large amounts of funds from the Alchemist Association to purchase many spirit herbs that were considered common, low-level and even useless. This left many of the onlookers completely confused but many commoners began to have more access to a way to make money, because they could scour the countryside around for these herbs that were known to be rather unimportant.

Even within the Alchemist Association, there was muttering and complaints from those who did not know why Director Yang Xin would frivolously use up so many funds without a clear reason. The only other Senior Alchemy Master was also disgruntled that the President and Director were making moves without informing him. He wondered if he should use this as a reason to bolster his chances of being nominated President instead in future because he didn't always agree with Gu Yan's decisions, and it was clear that the association was in serious decline!

However, when the information was released a month later, the entire Alchemist Association was in complete uproar. Long-lost recipes had been found and because they were under the control of President Gu Yan, it solidified his position as the President of the association. Director Yang Xin similarly rose in influence and authority, as she was clearly in the same camp as the President for many years.

The moment the public found out the news, Glory City was caught up in a furor that hadn't happened even when the Guild of Inscriptionists had revealed their new products recently. Every clan went completely crazy in their demand for each of the precious elixirs once their effectiveness was verified, and the orders for the Alchemist Association were quickly backed up for over a year even if all of them worked overtime to produce the pills.

The City Lord's Mansion even made a secret order to book a large batch of the elixirs, as well as ask them to monitor who purchases them so that they could control the amount that filtered into the Black Market, or even to the Dark Guild.

.....

Ning'Er sat on a bench in Linjian's home, sighing with contentment as she placed her head on his shoulder. It felt like every day had been busy with not enough time to accomplish everything she wanted to, whether it was training with her team, working out the details of each of the projects going on with the various clans and their partnerships, and imparting important knowledge to relevant parties such as the invaluable alchemy recipes for the Lu Family.

They would control the recipe for the Nine Transformation Pill, which allowed warriors to survive injuries which would have been fatal otherwise, as well as various other elixirs of recovery, flame and cold resistance, and countering poisons.

It finally felt like some of her plans were coming to fruition after all her hard work. She would not have to worry about finances any more, and with the elixirs which were now being produced, her team, and even the experts of the families in Glory City, would be able to reach Legend Rank smoothly if they didn't encounter anything unexpected.

At the rate she was progressing in her strength, she wasn't even sure if she could take part in the younger generation tournament anymore. Even though her age was far younger than the age limit of twenty one, the most powerful in that tournament were only at 4 Star Gold Rank, whilst she had already reached 3 Star Gold Rank! Using one of fruits of the Silver Moondrake, she had been able to grow at an amazing speed, and this precious spirit herb had even dramatically increased her physical vitality and strength as well.