Quote of the Day: "Innovation is not about saying 'yes' to everything. It's about saying 'no' to all but the most crucial features."
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The walk back from the Void-Severing Pavilion's annex was conducted in a silence thick enough to bottle. Elder Bai radiated a palpable aura of dread, his hopes, briefly kindled by the improved formation and the tea tasting, now utterly extinguished. Lin Feng, however, was a cauldron of cold, focused calculation. The meeting with Steward Wang had been a failure in its immediate objective, but a rich source of intelligence.
Chu Yue was the key. She was an anomaly within the monolithic Pavilion—a thinker, not just a thug. She was intrigued, and intrigue was a lever. But levers were useless without a place to stand. That place was capital. He needed a product. Not a gimmick, not a free sample, but a genuine, must-have innovation that could generate five hundred Spirit Stones in less than a week.
It was an impossible ask. Which meant he had to ignore the impossible and focus on the variables he could control.
Back inside the teahouse, the air of despair was a suffocating blanket. Lin Feng ignored it, moving straight to the storage closet. He dismissed the common tea leaves. He dismissed the seven pathetic spiritual herbs. His eyes scanned the darker corners, the spaces where failure accumulated. His [Visionary Outlook] trait, forced upon him by the System, itched at his senses.
There, behind a sack of moldy rice, was a small, unglazed clay jar, covered in a thick layer of dust. It was heavy. He pulled it out, uncorked it, and a pungent, acidic smell assaulted his nostrils. It was vinegar. Old, forgotten, probably spoiled.
Elder Bai winced. "That... that was an experiment from your father. A failed attempt to create a 'Spirit Vinegar' by fermenting some damaged Sun-Kissed Roots. It was a disaster. The Qi curdled. It's useless."
Useless.
Lin Feng brought the jar to his nose, ignoring the initial acrid punch. Beneath it, there was a complex profile. The sharp tang of fermentation, yes, but also a deep, almost smoky sweetness from the roots, and a faint, electric tingle that was undeniably spiritual energy. It wasn't curdled; it was… transformed.
[Item Assessed: Fermented Sun-Kissed Root Solution.]
Grade:Unclassified.
Qi Purity:8% (Stable).
Properties:Highly Concentrated Acetic Qi, Unstable Energetic Compounds.
System Note:A failed product of alchemy. Direct consumption is not advised. Risk of Meridian Inflammation.
His mind, wired to see potential in toxic assets and corporate wreckage, saw not failure, but raw, untapped potential. It wasn't a beverage. It was a component.
"Get me the Sturdy Root shavings. And the spirit kettle," Lin Feng commanded, his voice sharp with intent.
"Feng'er, you cannot drink that! It will damage your meridians!" Elder Bai protested, aghast.
"I'm not going to drink it," Lin Feng said, already calculating ratios. "I'm going to weaponize it."
He set up a crude workstation on the counter. Using his [Immaculate Control], a trait he hadn't known he possessed, he measured a single, precise drop of the dark, pungent vinegar into a cup of pure water. He then added a sliver of the Sturdy Root. The goal was not to create a pleasant tea. It was to create a catalytic agent.
"The Sturdy Root's property is 'solidity,' 'stability,'" Lin Feng muttered, more to himself than to his grandfather. "Its Qi is slow, ponderous, difficult to absorb. The fermentation byproduct is volatile, energetic, penetrating."
He channeled a tiny, careful thread of his own Qi into the mixture, using the spirit kettle not to boil, but to gently agitate the energies. Through his [Meridian Sight], he watched. The sharp, acidic Qi of the vinegar acted like a solvent, striking the dense, stable Qi of the root. Instead of nullifying each other, they underwent a rapid, minute reaction. The Sturdy Root's Qi didn't dissolve; it fractured into thousands of easily absorbable particles, suspended in the solution.
It was no longer a tea. It was a delivery system.
"Elder Bai," Lin Feng said, his voice low with intensity. "Taste this. A single drop on your tongue."
Terrified but trusting, the old man did so. His eyes shot wide open. A gasp escaped his lips. "It... it's like a bolt of lightning! The root's energy... I can feel it directly, without mediation! It's harsh, too harsh to drink, but the efficiency..."
[New Recipe Discovered: 'Catalytic Qi Solution (Unstable)'.]
[Capital Score Insight: Potential for high-margin, niche product.]
[Karma Score Insight: Action demonstrates 'Resourcefulness' and 'Non-Attachment (Material)'.]
[Dao Heart Stability: 14/100.]
The Karma reward was smaller this time, the System recognizing that his motives were still purely utilitarian. But it was progress. He had turned a liability into a potential asset.
"This is not for drinking," Lin Feng announced, his plan crystallizing. "This is an additive. A single drop used in the final stage of alchemical refinement, or in the brewing of a high-grade medicinal tea, could drastically increase the absorption rate of the primary ingredient. It cuts the refinement time."
He was selling industrial acid to gold refiners. He wasn't creating the gold; he was selling the tool to process it faster.
"But who would buy it? Who would believe us?" Elder Bai asked, the practical concerns crashing back.
"We are not selling 'belief.' We are selling a demonstrable result," Lin Feng stated. "We need a test subject. A cultivator with a specific, observable problem that this solution can solve."
As if summoned by his will, the door chime tinkled.
It was the young, patched-robe disciple from the tasting—the one who had genuinely appreciated the subtle stability of the Sturdy Root essence. Today, however, his face was pale, his spiritual aura flickering erratically. He looked on the verge of collapse.
"Elder Bai... forgive the intrusion," the disciple stammered, leaning heavily on the doorframe. "After the tasting yesterday... I was inspired. I attempted a minor breakthrough in my cultivation manual. But the Qi... it's stuck. It feels like a rock in my dantian. I can't disperse it."
Elder Bai's face fell in sympathy. Qi blockages were a common, dangerous hazard for low-level cultivators without proper guidance. The standard treatment was expensive, time-consuming purgative teas from the Pavilion.
Lin Feng saw not a person in pain, but a perfect test case. The disciple had consumed the Sturdy Root essence. He had a blockage characterized by dense, stagnant Qi. His solution was designed to fracture exactly that.
"This is not a treatment. It is an experiment," Lin Feng said directly to the disciple, his tone devoid of bedside manner. "I have a substance. It will be intensely uncomfortable. It may cause significant pain. But it has a high probability of breaking the blockage. There is no charge."
The disciple, whose name was Liang, looked from Lin Feng's cold, confident eyes to Elder Bai's worried ones. He was desperate. The Pavilion's solution would cost him Spirit Stones he didn't have.
"I... I will try it," Liang whispered, his voice tight with fear and pain.
Lin Feng prepared a new mixture, even more diluted than the first. He used a single drop of the catalytic solution in a full cup of common tea. "Drink it. Now."
Liang drank it in one gulp.
The effect was immediate and violent. He cried out, doubling over as a visible shockwave of distorted Qi rippled out from his core. His face contorted in agony. Elder Bai rushed to his side, but Lin Feng held up a hand, his [Meridian Sight] locked onto the disciple's dantian.
He watched as the sharp, penetrating Qi of the solution slammed into the dense blockage. It wasn't a gentle dissolution; it was a targeted explosion. The "rock" in Liang's dantian fractured, then shattered into a fine, manageable dust that his own circulation could suddenly process.
The disciple vomited, a jet of black, foul-smelling liquid. Then, he slumped against the counter, breathing heavily. But the erratic flicker of his aura was gone. replaced by a weak, but smooth and stable, flow of Qi.
"It... it's gone," Liang panted, tears of relief mixing with the sweat on his face. "The pressure... it's gone! It hurt... so much... but it's gone!" He looked at Lin Feng with an expression of awe and terror. "What was that?"
"A solution," Lin Feng said flatly. He picked up the clay jar. "We have a limited quantity. You will tell no one of the pain. You will only tell them that the Serene Heart Teahouse has a method to clear stubborn Qi blockages. Do you understand?"
Liang nodded fervently, kowtowing twice before stumbling out, his body weak but his spirit unburdened.
[Karma Score Increased!]
[Trait 'Crisis Conversion' has been acknowledged.]
[Trait 'Empathy (Controlled)' has been balanced with 'Cold Calculation'.]
[Dao Heart Stability: 18/100.]
[Reward: 'Catalytic Qi Solution' recipe stabilized. Host granted instinctive knowledge of safe dilution ratios.]
Lin Feng looked at the jar in his hand. It was no longer failed vinegar. It was a product. A brutal, effective, and highly specialized product. He would market it not as a medicine, but as a spiritual tool for the desperate and the ambitious. He would sell the pain as a feature, not a bug—proof of its potency.
He had his first real weapon in the business war. It was ugly, dangerous, and perfect for the market.
The acid test was over. His product worked. Now, he just had to find enough desperate people to sell it to, and do it before the Void-Severing Pavilion decided to simply crush him and take it.