"Heh, who would have thought? The mighty Nine-tailed Fox Queen actually tried to curry favor and was rejected!"
"Oh my, I really hit the jackpot! My luck has never been this good in all my decades. Thank you so much! Life is truly unpredictable. I thought I'd be stuck in this cold palace forever. Once I deal with the Emperor and take the throne, I'll build a temple to you, Myriad-year Empress Dowager."
"Envious, envious. I used to be the unluckiest in the group, and now I'm making a comeback! Could you please tell me what deity you've been praying to recently?"
"I'd like to pray too, to change my luck."
"So the big shots in the group aren't aloof, but rather we simply don't have anything that can capture their interest? I'm crying because I'm too poor."
The members of the group quickly started discussing amongst themselves. However, they only discussed and lightly teased the Nine-tailed Fox Queen. None of them dared to bring up what they wanted to exchange with Ding Yun.
After all, if even immortal artifacts couldn't earn it, they didn't have the audacity to believe they could.
It was better to not mention it than to be embarrassed.
Furthermore, they didn't feel they truly needed the Supreme Alchemy Technique. For group members who lived in worlds devoid of demons, gods, or buddhas, the Supreme Alchemy Technique held less appeal than rejuvenation pills and longevity pills.
Therefore, the current situation was quite to their liking.
It would be even better if the Myriad-year Empress Dowager could ask Yue Li Chang'e for more rejuvenation and longevity pills.
That way, they might have a chance to use mortal items.
To exchange for these two items with the Myriad-year Empress Dowager.
Compared to offering something that could impress Yue Li Chang'e, impressing the Myriad-year Empress Dowager was clearly easier.
To this end, some people even quickly messaged Ding Yun privately.
Asking Ding Yun to be sure to ask for more rejuvenation and longevity pills, and that they were willing to exchange them for a large amount of worldly possessions.
That is, so-called gold, silver, jewels, antiques, and rare treasures.
...
Meanwhile, in the private chat between Ding Yun and Yue Li Chang'e.
Because Yue Li Chang'e was indeed extremely eager to obtain the Supreme Alchemy Technique, and Ding Yun did not ask for the moon. Although the items requested were numerous, they were not particularly valuable, at least not exceptionally rare or precious in the cultivation world.
Therefore, the negotiation went very smoothly.
The final agreed-upon result was that Yue Li Chang'e would provide one bottle of ten rejuvenation pills, and two bottles each of Jiazi Pills and Detoxifying Marrow-Washing Pills, one hundred bottles each of Innate Pills and Vajra Pills (one hundred pills per bottle), one copy each of Innate Cultivation Technique and Vajra Indestructible Technique, and one custom-made upgraded version of the Life and Death Talisman.
Most of the preceding items had already been agreed upon, the difference being only a slight negotiation on the quantity, which was a bit more. The only significant change was the last item, the custom-made Life and Death Talisman.
Initially, Yue Li Chang'e wanted to give Ding Yun slave talismans or contract talismans to control subordinates.
However, these two types of talismans were troublesome to use.
They required a drop of blood and signing a contract, and in essence, they were just suppression and control through mental power.
Instead of being so troublesome.
Why wouldn't Ding Yun simply control them with her mental power?
So after thinking about it, Ding Yun specifically described to Yue Li Chang'e the Life and Death Talisman she remembered from a novel, and asked her to help create a similar cultivation method for her.
But it couldn't be exactly the same.
It should take the essence and discard the dross.
For example, if one were to suffer from the Life and Death Talisman, it would be best if the talisman could be controlled by herself at will, without needing to suppress it by taking medicine. And if possible, it would be better if it didn't make people wish for life and fear death, but rather to be able to decide life and death in a single thought. This would also avoid situations where someone with exceptionally strong will refused to yield, even if it meant death.
Another important point was that the Life and Death Talisman should not be countered by those who had cultivated the Innate Cultivation Technique and the Vajra Indestructible Technique. It would be best if it could specifically counter people who cultivated these two techniques, so as to truly ensure foolproofness.
Although Yue Li Chang'e found Ding Yun's request troublesome, she was the one who needed something, so she could only nod in agreement. She also mentioned that she didn't have enough stock for some items, and creating a new cultivation method wasn't something that could be done in a day or two.
So she could only provide a small batch of Innate Pills and Vajra Pills, along with the two cultivation techniques, so that Ding Yun could first resolve the most urgent issues, and then trade for the remaining items later. As for the Supreme Alchemy Technique, she was not in a hurry and believed that Ding Yun would keep her word.
After such negotiations were concluded.
Yue Li Chang'e first sent a designated red packet.
After receiving the red packet, Ding Yun completely ignored the contents of the group and immediately began to examine the pills and secret manuals sent by Yue Li Chang'e.
Although most of her skills were sealed.
Some common knowledge, basic skills, cognition, and discernment abilities were not sealed. Therefore, even though she couldn't refine pills or create new secret manuals, she could still check the authenticity of the secret manuals and whether the pills had any problems.
This was not an issue.
After discovering that both were fine, Ding Yun immediately summoned the Chief Eunuch that very night and asked him to quickly find some trustworthy eunuchs or palace maids who were literate and even possessed a relatively high level of education.
However, as soon as Ding Yun made her request.
She noticed the Chief Eunuch's conflicted and embarrassed expression.
"What's wrong? Are there any difficulties?"
Ding Yun's request was made out of necessity. After all, Duke Anguo might arrive in two days. If she found a group of illiterate people, it would be difficult to train them into martial arts experts in these two days, let alone teach them to recognize all the characters in the two martial arts manuals.
Not to mention making them understand.
If she hadn't known that requiring eunuchs and palace maids to be familiar with Buddhist and Taoist scriptures was even more difficult, Ding Yun would have actually preferred people familiar with Buddhist and Taoist scriptures, because such people would learn the Innate Cultivation Technique and the Vajra Indestructible Divine Technique more quickly.
"Your Highness, if you only require literacy, I can find some. But finding those with a high level of education is difficult. Even I dare not claim to have one.
Currently, the only place in the capital where one can find many educated people is probably the Academy of Scholars. There are many talented scholars there.
They are waiting for the court to fill official positions."
The Chief Eunuch was also helpless. This was not the peak of the dynasty, where the children of disgraced officials had to enter the palace to serve as palace maids or eunuchs, like Shangguan Wan'er back then. Now that the dynasty had just been established, the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace were mostly commoners who couldn't survive otherwise.
Those who were literate had very limited literacy.
They were probably not even as good as children from aristocratic families who had just started their education.
This clearly did not meet the Empress Dowager's requirement of a high level of education, so he could only tell her the truth.