Xiaoyao took all the high-grade pills from every batch for himself. To avoid suspicion, he would still include one or two high-grade pills, while all the ones he privately hoarded were handed to Chi Chi to swallow. Yes, swallow.
Chi Chi had a very strange ability—it could completely spit out everything it had swallowed without any changes whatsoever, not even the slightest change. Xiaoyao was also puzzled about how Chi Chi did this. After studying it and failing to understand, he gave up researching.
However, he often utilized Chi Chi's ability. The last time he sent a message to Guxing and others was done this way, making Chi Chi a message delivery tool. Recently, he had used Chi Chi's ability to have it go to the post station to send a letter to Guxing.
Of course, Chi Chi wouldn't actually communicate with postal workers, but it could successfully complete the task.
How? Very simple—Xiaoyao prepared the fees, wrote the letter's address clearly, and placed it in the post station. The people inside would naturally send the letter.
Returning to the main topic, after doing all this, Xiaoyao discovered his actions were unnecessary. Originally, he was worried they might search his alchemy room. After all, he had used the excuse of not being able to be distracted to prevent them from watching nearby. In such circumstances, they would naturally think of him secretly hiding things and search here.
Because of this, Xiaoyao had Chi Chi take the pills away. But what he didn't expect was that after seeing the pills, these people had no intention of searching at all. Similarly, after the Fourth Prince received the pills, he didn't suspect anything either—he just had people fully cooperate with Xiaoyao's pill refining. As long as he wasn't making useless pills, any advanced pills were wanted.
Xiaoyao seemed not to have considered that even if he only gave middle-grade pills, no one would suspect anything, because his middle-grade pills were already quite numerous—more than usual—while low-grade ones were fewer.
Calculating it out, even taking away some middle-grade pills wouldn't be problematic. As for high-grade ones, even if there weren't any, no one would suspect. The Fourth Prince would still be excited to death.
The reason was simple—advanced pills were originally very difficult to refine. Being able to produce middle-grade ones was already good. High-grade ones depended on luck—any amount was welcome, and if there were none, no one would demand anything.
The numerous middle-grade pills Xiaoyao produced were already a complete success for the Fourth Prince—or rather, exceeding expectations.
Xiaoyao had originally given the Fourth Prince some results at first, otherwise how could he make the Fourth Prince willing to invest? Soon, within just a few days, Xiaoyao had spent all the tens of thousands of taels the Fourth Prince had left here. But the value of the pills produced definitely exceeded this price—well, referring to what reached the Fourth Prince's hands.
Only by letting the Fourth Prince see that he was profiting would Xiaoyao be allowed to continue, and there had to be expectation, making him feel he might profit greatly. This way he would desperately throw money into it.
Xiaoyao knew this, so initially he created some relatively good results, and afterward he could perform a bit worse. Because of the earlier foundation, even if this time resulted in losses, the Fourth Prince wouldn't think much of it.
Thus, Xiaoyao balanced things this way. Overall, the Fourth Prince was profiting—well, that's how it appeared on the surface.
After a long time, the Fourth Prince became increasingly bold, ordering Xiaoyao to produce certain quantities of pills. At this point, Xiaoyao already knew the Fourth Prince was secretly selling the pills he refined, both earning money and improving the quality of his own pills.
Selling the low-grade ones naturally left only middle and high-grade ones. Now that he felt Xiaoyao could refine them, he naturally thought there would be more in the future—if he was going to consume them, he wanted the good ones.
This way, he could both earn money and obtain better pills for himself. Why wouldn't the Fourth Prince be happy to do this?
Xiaoyao didn't mind this—he continued his private embezzlement. He also benefited, and the greatest benefit went to him. Why wouldn't he be happy to do this?
The high-grade advanced pills in his hands had reached an incredible level—enough to supply Guxing and even allow the Young Miss to benefit. No one could imagine this, because no one would think a person could so easily refine high-grade advanced pills.
During this period, the medicinal materials Xiaoyao had refined were worth fully a million taels of silver. This was a huge sum. In other places, it would definitely arouse suspicion—such quantities were indeed suspicious.
But here it was different. People often purchased medicinal materials worth millions of taels, and large batches of finished pills appeared, some worth millions of gold pieces. So this was still very ordinary and didn't attract attention.
If all the pills Xiaoyao had secretly embezzled were brought out, it would definitely cause quite a stir, because so many high-grade advanced pills would be extremely rare even here.
At the same time, Xiaoyao couldn't wait for the Fourth Prince to sell the pills, because this would mean he hadn't really done anything for the Fourth Prince—just borrowed the Fourth Prince's hands to earn money and obtain the pills he wanted.
Although the Fourth Prince gained some profit from this, Xiaoyao believed that soon the Fourth Prince would discover this small profit would disappear. Xiaoyao would make the Fourth Prince lose his entire fortune.
This opportunity soon appeared.
Xiaoyao saw a large order. It seemed the Fourth Prince wanted to do a big business deal. Seeing the pills listed, Xiaoyao smiled. To complete this batch of pills all at once would definitely require paying high costs for medicinal materials first.
This business was not only large in quantity but also involved very expensive medicinal materials. Of course, if successful, the profit would be considerable, which was why the Fourth Prince took this order.
It seemed the Fourth Prince's business had been going well recently for someone to approach him for such a big deal.
If Xiaoyao's guess was correct, this business should require a deposit first—otherwise few would take it on. Also, given the Fourth Prince's funding level, he couldn't afford these materials.
From the incoming and outgoing account records, Xiaoyao had already calculated exactly how much the Fourth Prince's resources were worth. If this became known, it would definitely shock everyone.
The Fourth Prince had captured and confined someone, yet still had his background completely figured out by that person. This was such an ironic situation. What was most incredible was that with just this simple information, Xiaoyao could actually calculate the Fourth Prince's assets—this was truly unbelievable.
Of course, Xiaoyao's results weren't very accurate, but they were close enough. At least he could know the Fourth Prince's general situation.
Because of this, Xiaoyao knew the opportunity had come. A batch of materials had just been purchased, already tying up funds once. Adding this batch, the Fourth Prince had a high possibility of becoming insolvent. At the same time, his trading company would lose credibility, which was an even greater loss.
Due to his previous cooperation, Xiaoyao easily gained trust. Using the excuse of temporarily needing rest, he secretly refined all those materials completely and swallowed everything. This time, he swallowed even the middle and low-grade pills together, leaving nothing for the Fourth Prince.
...
"Kid, how are you?" When the Fourth Prince's subordinates prepared meals for Xiaoyao, they discovered the previous meal hadn't been touched, so they asked with concern.
"..." There was no sound from inside.
"Hey, give us a response!" the Fourth Prince's subordinates asked.
"..." Still no sound at all.
"Quick, quick, open the door..." At this moment, someone realized something was wrong.
"..." When they entered, they discovered the room was completely empty. The doors and windows were all intact, and the person inside seemed to have vanished into thin air. This left everyone puzzled.
"How could this happen? How could he disappear? How did he escape..."
"Quick, go search..."
Now all they could do was search for him first, but no matter how they searched, they couldn't find any trace of Xiaoyao. Finally, they could only give up and report the matter.
...
"What?! He disappeared? And all those medicinal materials are gone too!" After receiving the message, the Fourth Prince flew into a rage and smashed his desk "into two pieces."
At this moment, his expression was as ugly as could be. He wanted to kill Xiaoyao, and even more wanted to kill his useless subordinates!
A small servant had actually managed to escape—this was definitely dereliction of duty by his people.
To ensure the pill refining proceeded smoothly, he had sent an elite squad there to prevent Xiaoyao's escape and guard against external threats. Therefore, even a King-level expert wouldn't easily escape, let alone a small servant.
Because of this, the Fourth Prince even suspected whether his subordinates had betrayed him. Otherwise, how could such a thing happen? This sum wasn't small and could easily tempt people.
But thinking about it, it seemed impossible. The people he sent were all death warriors with unquestionable loyalty. Also, if this were really the case, there was no need to notify him now. If he discovered it himself, it would take at least some time, which would be enough for them to escape anywhere.
"A bunch of waste! Can't even watch one small servant!" After the Fourth Prince finished cursing, he frowned in distress. "What should I do now? I've already received the deposit. If I can't deliver now, I'll have to pay double the deposit as compensation. Where do I have that much funding?"
Xiaoyao didn't seem to know that the Fourth Prince's deposit required double compensation. If he had known, he would definitely be even more certain of one thing—the Fourth Prince would become insolvent.
The result was just so. The Fourth Prince quietly sold all his hidden private assets, and the pills he held were also used for compensation. This time, not only did he gain no benefit, but he also lost his painstakingly built private wealth and still owed money.
(End of Chapter)