Chapter 0964: Distribution of proceeds from the orchard.

Le Jiesheng had a good head on his shoulders, so he naturally understood what was going on. Therefore, as soon as Holy Emperor Extreme Void words came out, he stepped forward and said aloud. “Holy Emperor Extreme Void is right. It is indeed a pleasure to taste wine while enjoying the easy harvest of heavenly treasures by my Grand Essence Realm’s alchemists.”

After saying this, Le Jiesheng raised his hand, and two green flags landed in the middle of the hall, two feet apart from each other.

A moment after the two green flags planted themselves in the ground, a giant three-dimensional crystal screen appeared in the middle of the hall. In the crystal screen, one could see twelve entrances. These twelve entrances looked like gates within a misty immortal island, almost like a dream.

A semi-circular orchard gate appeared below the three-dimensional crystal screen a few moments later, with strong spacial fluctuations coming from inside. It created a contrasting feeling when combined with the image on the crystal screen. Especially as it looked as if it led to the deepest recesses of the abyss.

Ning Cheng recalled his conversation with Sheng Houtian and understood that these twelve gates on the screen should lead to the first level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that those twelve entrances were the actual entrances to the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.

Ning Cheng had never seen the opening of the Illusionary Fruit Garden before. But he understood that the circular gate below the large three-dimensional screen was the entrance to the first examination. It was also a part of a more extensive teleportation array.

“That’s the first level of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. Only pill deities who can refine a furnace of twelve top-quality Dao Sculpting Spirit Pills can enter through those gates. I can’t refine twelve top-quality Dao Sculpting Spirit Pills yet, but I still want to give it a go.” Jian Sanshan whispered to Ning Cheng while pointing to the image on the screen.

“Alchemists wishing to enter the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, please step forward.” After Le Jiesheng finished speaking, he cupped his fists towards the crowd.

“Haha, I’ll go first.” A slim Dao Raising Holy Emperor walked out. He first cupped his fists towards the crowd before stepping up to Le Jiesheng and giving him a storage ring. “Great Bear Seven Peaks’ Liang Qiuzhe greets City Lord Le. I’ll be taking 10% more this time.”

Le Jiesheng put away the ring. He then took out a somewhat large looking storage bag. He handed it to Liang Qiuzhe with the words, “Many thanks, and congratulations to Pill Deity Liang. I believe you will be able to advance one more level this time.”

Ning Cheng asked with some confusion, “Brother Jian, what do Lian Qiuzhe’s words mean?”

Only then did Jian Sanshan recall that Ning Cheng was an actual Dao Transformation Pill Sage. Ning Cheng obviously would enter the deeper parts of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. He had initially thought that Ning Cheng wouldn’t go inside, which was why he had never mentioned the intricacies of the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. Now that Ning Cheng asked, he quickly replied. “Since City Lord Le and his clan watches over the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, they get to dictate the distribution for each alchemist entering the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. The current agreed-upon share is twenty-eighty. That is, the alchemist gets to keep 20%, and the City Master’s house gets 80% as payment for watching over the Illusionary Fruit Orchard......”

Ning Cheng immediately frowned, “The Illusionary Fruit Orchard’s entrance is already controlled by the City Lord. Yet, he still requires such payment?”

Jian Sanshan had to explain, “Looking after the Illusionary Fruit Garden isn’t an easy task, especially since the guardian can’t steal or take anything from inside it. Even if they want to enter, they would have to do so with the others when it’s time for the orchard to open. Besides, the Le Clan isn’t the permanent guardian. Don’t ask me, as I don’t know how the Grand Essence Domain distributes its guardianship rights or the distribution ratio. However, I heard that it’s a joint decision by all the top powers of the Grand Essence Domain. If you don’t want to pay a certain amount of spirit crystals before entering, you will have to adhere to the 20-80 split, irrespective of your background.”

“When Liang Qiuzhe spoke about an extra 10%, he meant that once he entered the Illusionary Fruit Garden, he wanted to claim 30% of the harvest instead of the usual 20%. But since he wants to claim 30%, he would have to pay five million spirit crystals. The storage ring he gave to City Lord Le should contain five million spirit crystals or something of equivalent value. If he wanted to take 40%, then he would have to give up ten million, 50% would mean twenty million, and so on for higher shares.”

Ning Cheng sucked in a cold breath. Wasn’t this simply robbing people of spirit crystals?

At this moment, more and more alchemists walked into the entrance under the crystal screen in the middle of the main hall. Ning Cheng found that most alchemists didn’t pay any spirit crystals. Apparently, they intended to split the harvest according to the 20-80 rule. As for those alchemists who paid, they all publicly stated the extra share they needed.

“The truth is, City Lord Le is already quite generous with his distribution plan. After all, the alchemists who can enter the orchard are just a minority. Even in the best-case scenario, only twelve can enter. Plus, at the end of the banquet, City Lord Le even gives them considerable gifts.” Jian Sanshan continued.

“Then, how does City Lord Le know how many spirit grasses or dao fruits the alchemists obtained after going inside?”

Jian Sanshan showed a warm smile, “The Illusionary Fruit Orchard opens only once every hundred years. As such, there’s already a ceiling to the number of spirit grasses anyone who goes inside can get. Besides, didn’t you see how City Lord Le gives a storage bag to each person? That’s because after entering the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, one simply cannot use any type of spacial storage device. Even if you possessed a top-quality True Spirit World, it wouldn’t be possible to use it inside. You can only put the spirit herbs you obtain into that storage bag. It makes it clear as to how many spirit herbs each person obtained.”

“There’s no danger inside the Illusionary Fruit Orchard, so the alchemists can easily collect the spirit grasses once they enter. Normally, the alchemists would put what they need into the storage bag before entering, like pills, furnaces......”

Ning Cheng felt secretly glad that he asked Jian Sanshan about these matters. He wondered why Le Jiesheng gave each person a storage bag, especially the kind where anyone’s spiritual consciousness could sweep in. Turns out, it was the only way to store things and also keep everything transparent.

The Illusionary Fruit Orchard didn’t allow the use of spacial storage devices, so he wondered if his Mysterious Yellow Bead would work in the Illusionary Fruit Garden. But Ning Cheng quickly cast this thought aside. Since the Illusionary Fruit Garden didn’t allow the use of spacial storage devices, it meant that a great powerhouse must have set it up.

In other words, who could tell if this powerhouse had secretly set up a monitoring array or something similar to it inside? He might as well be cautious and not use the Mysterious Yellow Bead and just go with the storage bag like the others.

“I want 80%.” Jing Han’s voice suddenly rang out at this time.

Ning Cheng saw Le Jiesheng pick up Jing Han’s storage ring and looked at it for a long time before nodding. “Good, I hope Pill Sage Jing can keep up the good work.”

“80%? How many spirit crystals would it require?” Ning Cheng truly felt the itch to see how many spirit crystals Jing Han had put inside the storage ring.

Jian Sanshan whispered in Ning Cheng’s ear once again. “Normally, you can’t use spirit crystals to ask for an 80% share. People usually use other treasures of equivalent value. Besides, even a Dao Transformation Pill Sage like Jing Han can only ask for 80% at most. Any more than that, even if he put in heavenly treasures, City Lord Le might not agree to it.”

At this moment, there were already over seventy people who entered the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. Ning Cheng decided it was time to enter and stood up before saying to Jian Sanshan, “I’ll go in first. You can follow me.”

Seeing Ning Cheng stand up and walk towards Le Jiesheng, all eyes immediately focussed on Ning Cheng. It didn’t matter how bold Ning Cheng was or how strong Ning Cheng’s backers were. Just because Ning Cheng had the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills on him was enough for everyone to focus on his every action.

Le Jiesheng seemed to have forgotten what Ning Cheng had said earlier. Without waiting for Ning Cheng to speak, he smiled and took the initiative. “Since this is the first time that Alchemist Ning has come to my City Lord’s mansion to participate in the Illusionary Fruit Orchard. I, the City Lord, have really been remiss in my duties. I’m not even aware of Alchemist Ning’s rank.”

Ning Cheng took out a light blue qualification token and said, “City Lord Le has spoken too highly of me. I just got lucky in passing an assessment for this and would like City Lord Le to check it.”

A hint of contempt flashed past the corner of Le Jiesheng’s eyes. How could a mere Dao Sculpting Pill Deity’s qualification token be worthy of his inspection? There were plenty of Dao Sculpting Pill Deities in here.

He directly took out a storage bag and handed it to Ning Cheng and said, “Then, congratulations in advance to Pill Deity Ning for obtaining many dao fruits.”

Everyone in the hall naturally knew that Le Jiesheng was mocking Ning Cheng. Congratulating a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity for obtaining dao fruits from the Illusionary Fruit Orchard? It was just short of slapping the pill deity in the face. To get dao fruits from inside, one had to be at least at a pill sage; a Dao Sculpting Pill Deity was simply too far behind.

Ning Cheng didn’t care and said with a smile, “Many thanks, City Lord Le. Dao fruits are of great use to me. But in case I get many dao fruits inside, taking out too many would always hurt a little in my heart. Therefore, I would also like to take something out that could be converted to spirit crystals so that I wouldn’t have to share too much of my harvest.”

When Ning Cheng said this, someone in the hall finally couldn’t help but laugh aloud.

Le Jiesheng still had a faint smile on his face, “Oh, what Pill Deity Ning does make sense. I wonder how much Pill Deity Ning wants to take away?”

Ning Cheng hesitated for a while before taking out a jade bottle and saying, “I thought I didn’t have any more Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills on me. I never thought I would find another bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills; what a stroke of luck. There are a total of six pills in here, and they’re all top-quality Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills......”

The smile on Le Jiesheng’s face instantly narrowed as he raised his hand and grabbed the jade bottle held out by Ning Cheng. Because he had superficially advanced to the Dao Fusion level, his Sea of Consciousness wasn’t stable at all. Even after several hundred years, he couldn’t stabilise it. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that although he was a Dao Fusion cultivator, he still couldn’t compare to a genuine Dao Fusion expert.

historical

And a spirit pill like the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill was precisely what he needed right now. Previously, when Ning Cheng had taken out the Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill and sold it to Jing Han, he almost choked himself to death. He hated himself because he couldn’t grab it back then. Now that Ning Cheng had once again taken out six top-quality pills, he couldn’t stay calm even if he looked calm on the surface.

Ning Cheng let Le Jiesheng grab his jade bottle and didn’t care about others’ reactions.

Jing Han, who hadn’t entered the first level’s assessment area, also saw Ning Cheng take out another bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills. Seeing that, he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking in anger.

Ning Cheng had previously stated that the ones sold to him were the last few, but now he found ‘another’ bottle. If he could do something right now, he would have immediately killed Ning Cheng.

Le Jiesheng opened the jade bottle and his spiritual consciousness swept in. A refreshing sensation that made his Sea of Consciousness feel as if it had been infused with a revitalising aura emerged, and Le Jiesheng’s heart filled up with joy. This was what he needed. No matter what, he had to do everything to keep these six Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills.

“You can take 60% of your harvest from the Illusionary Fruit Orchard.” After taking in a deep breath, Le Jiesheng quickly capped the jade bottle and spoke up with a deep voice.

Ning Cheng immediately held out his hand, “Forget it, I don’t even know if I can reach the first level. And even if I did, a bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills would only allow me 60%. I might as well keep this bottle of Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pills and exchange it later with another pill sage for dao fruits. By the way, I exchanged two dao fruits with the generous Pill Sage Jing Han a few moments ago. Is City Lord Le bullying me for not having seen the world?”

“How much do you want?” He knew that if he didn’t put the jade bottle back into Ning Cheng’s hands, everyone would most likely condemn him. But Le Jiesheng still didn’t hand over the jade bottle.

Ning Cheng sighed and said, “I suddenly have some regrets. I can most likely only enter the first level with my alchemy level, the best-case scenario. But even in that case, I would only obtain some ordinary spirit grasses. I heard that the Great Spirit Pill Sect spent tens of millions of top-grade spirit crystals to purchase a single Empyrean Consciousness Transmutation Pill. Moreover, it was only a high-quality pill. Here I am with top-quality pills and even six of them..... Oh my, just how many top-grade spirit crystals would it fetch? I wonder why I feel so confused about it? As even if I get all the spirit grasses and dao fruits inside, it still feels that I would be at a loss.”