Dragon's Origin

Even the tanned animal skins used for accounting only cost a silver coin in ordinary shops, or at most a few silver coins in the expensive cities of Worry-Free City and the capital. But the paper Wang Sheng just tested actually costs one gold coin per sheet.

Grandmaster Xuan's eyes gleamed with excitement. Wang Sheng had just said that the quality could be improved by another level. Grandmaster Xuan was very confident about this, after all, the current batch was made from the first batch of pulp. And the first time always means inexperience, unfamiliarity, and huge improvements after becoming skilled.

Since the birth of Xuan paper, pens, ink, and inkstones have been successively produced, and even the supporting items have appeared one after another. After Wang Sheng's inspection, they have at least reached Wang Sheng's minimum standards.

Obviously, these grandmasters and great grandmasters would definitely not be satisfied with Wang Sheng's minimum standards. It's still the same principle: the first exploration has huge room for improvement, and everyone is striving to come up with a work that can directly amaze the world.

Compared to the progress of these grandmasters and great grandmasters, the biggest bottleneck for Qian Sheng Yuan's opening is manpower. Needless to say, the shopkeepers Meiniang brought over are all experienced veterans, and they are more than capable of managing a branch. The problem is that the quality of the servants cannot meet Wang Sheng's requirements.

For every Qian Sheng Yuan store, Wang Sheng requires every shop assistant and maid to be literate, able to write beautiful regular script, and proficient in tea ceremony and in using every new stationery treasure produced in the store.

Thus, those works that these grandmasters and great grandmasters painstakingly created for the first time, which are already rare treasures in this world, have become Meiniang's training props for employees.

Since Wang Sheng and Meiniang decided to establish Qian Sheng Yuan, a group of carefully selected maids and shop assistants had been gathered in a large courtyard of Qian Sheng Yuan to practice calligraphy every day, absorbing a large amount of knowledge in a short period. Fortunately, these people came from the residences of the Seventh Prince and the four important ministers, and they all had some cultural background, so it wasn't too urgent, but it still dragged down the progress after all.

In addition to communicating with these grandmasters every day, Wang Sheng spent the rest of his time either learning to identify medicinal herbs with Daoist Qingling, or practicing the processing techniques of certain medicinal herbs in a separate courtyard. It seems that he has recently been researching grinding, using a very heavy and smooth stone mill to grind certain dry things into extremely fine powder.

It was just practice, and using medicinal herbs was of course too extravagant. Therefore, what Steward Wang knew was that the Marquis had asked him to buy a batch of top-quality charcoal, and he would spend a certain amount of time every day grinding it into powder.

Some time ago, the Marquis asked Steward Wang to purchase a batch of saltpeter under the pretext of making ice. Anyway, for a long time, those who practiced ice-attribute techniques in the mansion didn't need to consume their cultivation to make ice for everyone. The entire mansion, including the servants, could eat some cool ice cubes every day.

Of course, what Steward Wang couldn't understand even more was that the Marquis also asked Steward Wang to purchase a large batch of sulfur from the pharmacy, and whenever he had time, he would learn from Grandmaster Xuan to beat those pulps, beating those sulfurs. After each beating, he would open it to see the effect, to see if it had been beaten as finely as Grandmaster Xuan's.

Everything in this small courtyard, except for Steward Wang, was only known to Meiniang. However, after Meiniang came a few times, she disliked the choking smell in the small courtyard, and since then she rarely came. But Wang Sheng never interrupted, he came every day, even if the smell was indeed a bit irritating, Wang Sheng would wear a thick mask to continue.

Wang Sheng had learned a lot about identifying medicinal herbs, but identifying the taste of medicinal herbs recently faced a bottleneck. After all, people are not animals with developed sense of smell. After Wang Sheng identified those medicinal herbs with strong and easily identifiable smells one by one, it was not so easy for Wang Sheng to smell those non-toxic medicinal herbs that had almost no smell or no odor.

It was easy for Wang Sheng to taste them because his sense of taste had been strengthened, but the requirement to smell them was too high and he couldn't do it. This also led to the fact that only three legs of the Suanni Giant Cauldron in the Yuanhun space had solidified, and most of the cauldron body was still in a virtual state.

Since he couldn't smell more medicinal herbs, Wang Sheng couldn't upgrade his Yuanhun. Did he have to risk smelling those poisonous medicinal herbs? Although Wang Sheng's Nine-Character Mantra could guarantee that some micro-toxicity or extremely small doses of poison would not have any effect on his body, but after all, it was poison, so Wang Sheng decided to first learn the theoretical medicinal effects and determine the lethal dose before proceeding.

Everything seemed to be on the right track, waiting for the grandmasters' best works to be released and the Qian Sheng Yuan's shop assistants and maids to be trained before the store could open. At this time, an uninvited guest suddenly came to Wang Sheng.

In the huge bedroom, Wang Sheng was sleeping. Suddenly, his subconscious sensed a danger. He jumped up reflexively while still in his sleep and rushed to the nearest big pillar from the bed.

"Not bad, the vigilance is still very high, not wasted by luxurious life." A familiar voice sounded from the darkness, and Wang Sheng's tense body relaxed instantly. This voice was Old Daoist Lingxu.

What was Old Daoist Lingxu doing, suddenly appearing in his bedroom in the middle of the night without alarming any guards or those grandmaster experts?

Wang Sheng had no doubt that Old Daoist Lingxu could definitely succeed if he wanted to kill him, so he never thought that Old Daoist Lingxu would be unfavorable to him. He walked out from behind the pillar generously, and put the only remaining incendiary bomb in his hand back into the Naring.

"Find a place to drink." As soon as Wang Sheng came out, he saw the figure of the old Taoist standing in the darkness, knowing that he must have something to say. He greeted him and took the old Taoist straight to the practice room. Although the bedroom was big, it was not suitable for entertaining guests.

As soon as there was any movement here, Steward Wang and several guards who were almost always paying attention to the Marquis's movements were alarmed. Seeing the Marquis waving his hand to tell them not to worry, everyone hurriedly retreated. But those master guards secretly clicked their tongues one by one. They asked themselves that they were not lazy, but how did that old Taoist appear in the Marquis's bedroom?

Wang Sheng's Naring often had wine, and Steward Wang also diligently sent some snacks. Wang Sheng and Old Daoist Lingxu sat on the ground in the practice room and slowly ate and drank.

"Why did the old Taoist run to me in the middle of the night?" After eating and drinking for a while, Wang Sheng asked the reason why the old Taoist came to him so mysteriously.

"Have you felt someone staring at you recently?" The old Taoist put down his wine glass and suddenly asked very seriously.