"It's okay, I'm not blaming you. I know you did it for my own good," Chen Xia said as he put his arm around Big Yellow Dog's shoulder to console him.
Big Yellow Dog was also very happy. He shook his dog head and said, "It's nothing, I was just doing what I should."
"Well then, what about the paw print on my face?" Chen Xia pointed to the mark on his face and asked again.
"I...I was just trying to save you anxiously," Big Yellow Dog quickly explained.
And it was indeed the case.
It was just that the paw print on Chen Xia's face was too deep. Otherwise, he wouldn't have kept pressing Big Yellow Dog on this issue.
Generally speaking, you can't slap with such force unless you have a deep grudge.
At the moment, one person and one dog were staring at each other.
Fortunately, Chi Yu advised at the side, "Although you used too much force, at least you didn't beat him to death."
Big Yellow Dog turned his head and glared with his dog eyes.
Chen Xia let out a breath, "Well, if you guys have any dissatisfaction with me in the future, just speak up and I will definitely send you on your way."
Of course Big Yellow Dog and Chi Yu were not dissatisfied at all, so they shook their heads.
Zhang DaoMing was left standing on the side. Seeing the intimate three brothers, he felt the warmth and kept nodding, glad that he didn't have such good brothers.
"Old Zhang, what are you doing here?" Chen Xia glanced at Zhang DaoMing, propping Big Yellow Dog's shoulder with one hand, and asked in puzzlement.
Zhang DaoMing quickly straightened his body and replied, "Aren't you an alchemist? The few of us alchemists discussed and decided to look for you to cooperate and establish an alchemy association called Blue Sky Sword Sea."
"Can you open an association with just four people?" Chen Xia frowned.
They couldn't even get two mahjong tables together.
"Once we have the reputation, people will naturally be attracted to join. Moreover, our goal is to make profit. If you are willing to join, there will be many benefits," Zhang DaoMing quickly said, while nervously rubbing his hands. When it came to making money, he was a little impatient. It was evident that he really lacked money.
But this was normal too. Alchemists were usually quite short on money, especially Zhang DaoMing, a pharmacist who needed to rely on alchemy to gain experience.
At this stage, pharmacists like him were often spending more than they earned, unless you came from a prominent family and didn't need to buy your own materials.
Only when they reached the level of Master Pharmacist could they make money while practicing new pill formulas.
However, not only alchemists lacked money. Ordinary cultivators in the vast heavens basically lacked money too. Skills, supernatural powers, treasures, pills, talismans, formations, etc., were all bottomless money pits.
Just focusing deeply on one of them would cost countless taels of silver.
Chen Xia was lucky. He leveled up his skills by luck, comprehended supernatural powers by luck, and even his breakthroughs and alchemy were by luck.
That was why he didn't feel the financial pressure. But money was always the more the better.
"What benefits do I get?" Leaning on Big Yellow Dog's shoulder, Chen Xia asked curiously.
Zhang DaoMing rubbed his hands nervously and said, "For now we have come up with two methods to give you, see if they are suitable."
"The first is to make you the chairman of the alchemy association. After all, your alchemy skills are the best, so the benefits for you will be the greatest too. You can keep all the profits from the pills you make, and at the same time, the other members of the association will have to give you 10% of the income from the pills they make."
"But in return, you will have to do more things, like guiding other alchemists, helping with promotion, recruiting new members, expanding the association, and taking responsibility when something goes wrong in the association..."
Chen Xia frowned, "Skip to the second method."
With his lazy temperament, he was destined to not be able to handle such complicated matters.
Zhang DaoMing smiled and said, "The second is to be the honorary vice chairman. You will have very little to do, the profits from your own pills can still be kept in full, but there will be no commission.
However, the association can give you a salary, and will help sell your pills at auction to increase the price."
In other words, it was like the alchemy association paying Chen Xia a salary just to put his name in the association.
Chen Xia shook his head and stroked the stunned dog’s head. He smiled and said, "I have a third method here."
"What is it?" Zhang DaoMing was a little confused.
Chen Xia stroked the dog’s head with his right hand, and raised his left index finger with a smile.
"I want the salary."
He raised his second finger.
"I also want the commission."
Then the third finger.
"And I want to do less work."
Zhang DaoMing's face was a little confused. What did he mean, he wanted all the benefits?
"In exchange, I can make some difficult pills for you guys to help build your reputation. With reputation, it won't be hard to make money, right?"
Chen Xia stopped stroking the dog's head, clasped his ten fingers together, and smiled.
"As long as you stand at the crest of the wave, even a pig can take off."
This was also the reason why Zhang DaoMing came looking for Chen Xia. Their alchemy association needed an alchemist who could dominate the situation.
Otherwise, how could four pharmacists establish a reputation? It would be easy to fool some ordinary disciples, but as soon as other pharmacists or even master pharmacists came to challenge them, they would be outclassed.
"That's possible." Zhang DaoMing nodded and added, "But in that case, you must promise to make a master pill every three years to build the reputation of the alchemy association."
"Okay, but you guys will have to provide the materials and pill furnace." Chen Xia replied.
Zhang DaoMing frowned, "In that case, we will have to take 80% of the profits from this master pill, and you get 20%."
Generally speaking, alchemists would take 40% of the profits for their skills. But because Chen Xia had the commission and salary from the alchemy association, he could only get 20%.
Chen Xia nodded, "No problem."
What he was doing now was business without capital investment. He didn't need to pay for materials or pill furnaces himself. All he had to do every day was lie down and collect money.
The cost was making a pill every three years, which wasn't too difficult. He could casually practice with luck.
Zhang DaoMing let out a breath, the corners of his mouth stretched into a smile, his short stature straightened, "Let me get a contract from the Way of Heaven, and I'll send it to you in a few days."
Among cultivators, motives were unpredictable. Verbal agreement alone was definitely not enough, so they would usually sign a contract from the Way of Heaven.
It wasn't really making a contract with the Way of Heaven itself, just using the cultivator's future luck as collateral to ensure the integrity of both parties.
If one party showed signs of violating the contract, their luck would be reduced and things would go badly for them in the future.
This was a contract with relatively low cost. Higher cost ones would directly stake their lives as collateral. Once they violated the agreement, their soul would shatter and their life would be in danger.
However, contracts had one advantage, which was that the interests of both parties had to be equal. There would be no case of one party being exploited.
Things like you working long hours every day with no days off, but only getting a salary of 3,000 yuan per week, would be absolutely impossible.
Perhaps this was the balance between the Way of Heaven.
It could be called very conscientious.