A middle-aged man in a suit spoke anxiously on the phone projection. Chu Hongye’s expression turned solemn. The older man was the CEO of the company and had been through a lot. Under normal circumstances, he would not show such a panicked expression.

Moreover, a giant like the Chu family backed Tengda. They typically would not encounter any significant issues, and there were none that the Chu family could not solve. Prominent families, major financial groups, and significant forces that could compete with the Chu family would not target Tengda and did not need to do so. Their group could develop to this extent because they needed the face of the Chu family as a banner.

Chu Zhiguo could not suppress his words and spoke before Chu Hongye could, “What’s the matter?”

The CEO quickly replied, “This isn’t good. Someone posted our company’s pill formulas online.”

Chu Zhiguo quickly realized what was happening. He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine and quickly asked, “What happened? Are those our company’s exclusive formulas?”

After what Chu Hongye said, Chu Zhiguo understood what was happening. He was a good-for-nothing, but he was not stupid. He knew very well what Tengda relied on to establish themselves in Calm Ocean City to become a first-class alchemy company.

They relied on those formulas, which were also the foundation of most alchemy companies. Since there were too many formulas around and too many rival companies, it was tough for any one of these companies to survive. They had to develop their own unique secret formulas.

Also, Tengda had been painstakingly quiet for decades and finally developed its own formulas. These formulas came from a variety of sources, but without a doubt, each was important and brought in many profits for Tengda.

It would not immediately destroy their company if they lost the formulas. After all, they still had other their business and real estate. It’s just that they would be no different from newer companies.

More than half their reserves had been accumulated over years. Once everything was gone, the consequences were simply unimaginable.

Chu Zhiguo’s face turned pale at this thought. He was nothing without Tengda.

“How is that possible? Did someone in our company leak the formulas?” Chu Hongye’s first reaction was that they had a mole in their company. That was the only way he thought it possible that someone had stolen the formulas.

“We’ve assessed the situation, Chairman. The secret wasn’t leaked from someone in the company. Even if someone leaked it, it wouldn’t be published on the Internet!” the CEO said with a wry smile.

Chu Hongye immediately reacted. “Indeed, there’s only one possibility if there was an internal leak. I would’ve then have suspected someone from the outside had bribed our employees and intended to release the same pills under their company.”

The person who stole the formulas would not have released it on the Internet because it would be a loss for both sides and no one would benefit. Simply put, those alchemy companies would have more pills to launch simultaneously.

If others monopolized these pills, the price would plummet. It would be a thankless task if other companies did this. No one believed that other companies would do such a thing.

“Is our company the only one affected, or have other companies been hit as well?” Chu Hongye quickly asked. It would be okay if other companies’ formulas had been leaked as well. If it only happened to Tengda, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Of course, not registering a patent would allow Tengda to make a considerable profit. But if their formula was leaked, no force could protect them, and nothing could stop other companies from copying them. It was like a double-edged sword that hurt all sides.

“Currently, only our company’s formulas were the only ones leaked. It has already sparked countless discussions,” the CEO quickly replied.

Chu Hongye’s expression became increasingly unsightly. Chu Zhiguo who was standing to the side had already started surfing the Internet and finally found the post that was enough to kill Tengda.

Tengda’s unique pill formulas were a significant revelation.

The post had become a hot topic on the forum. Just the replies alone had reached hundreds of thousands, while the number of people who had seen it was a dozen times more than that.

Chu Hongye felt dizzy just thinking about what had happened. It was too late for Tengda to delete the post since too many people had seen it. The formula had already spread like wildfire. Other companies would certainly have already begun manufacturing the pills.

“Read the post. Maybe they made a mistake in the formula before posting it.”

Chu Hongye was grabbing at straws as he hurriedly opened the post to read it meticulously. The post was extremely accurate, including the pill concoction process, things to pay attention to, and so on.

It was just that the format was a little strange. It did not seem like it was stolen directly from Tengda. It was as if someone had figured out the entire process on their own.

The idea was absurd. It was impossible to reverse engineer the concoction process based on the pills circulating on the market. That was a joke in any industry.

This resembled unique steel materials. It would be useless if one could figure out what material and proportion others used to make unique steel materials. The effects would vary greatly if the temperature differed during the forging process. The temperature during the concoction process of each pill would result in a considerable difference in their effects.

Chu Hongye was not ready to consider this terrifying idea. He simply thought it was over for Tengda. Decades of hard work had gone down the drain.

After their formulas had been leaked, Tengda’s stock prices would inevitably plummet and their assets disappear overnight when the stock market opened the following morning. After decades of hard work, they would become nothing overnight.

‘It’s over!’ These words echoed in Chu Hongye’s mind. He had painstakingly developed this company, but everything got reduced to ashes.