Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Some of the Outer City’s small underworld factions were getting restless because they all wanted to avail themselves of such an opportunity and divide up the Three Murders Gang’s domain.
On the previous day, the Three Murders Gang didn’t just lose its Divine Master Realm Gang Master, who intimidated everyone in the Outer City, but it also lost its Level Nine Fairy Realm vice-master, as well as a hundred powerful members who were neighbors to the Gang Master. Moreover, most of the Three Murders Gang’s apex experts died among the flames.
At the moment, if they tried to resist the small factions’ invasion, they would find themselves faced with a war of attrition. It could be imagined that, in the future, the Outer City would go back to its past state, where many underworld factions existed side by side, and as long as the Inner City was willing to eradicate them, they could achieve this at any time, thus helping the Outer City return to order.
The situation wouldn’t be like in the past, where only a powerful underworld faction like the Three Murders Gang alone had all of the power.
Su Yu, who was behind all of this, didn’t care about the outside world’s matters. Instead, he just cultivated peacefully in the Tonglin Elixir Store.
After he went back on the previous day, he had tried several times to eliminate the ghost face curse. But, he had failed.
Since he was left without a choice, he could only start cultivating the Five Elements Mysteries Art. Once he finished cultivating it completely, he would be capable of controlling an ancient imperial saint artifact.
After he had passed the whole night cultivating, he ended up mastering two other demon clan’s characters. Now, he could comprehend a total of four characters.
As long as he continued cultivating, he would be able to use a tenth of the Five Elements Divine Prison’s power once he comprehended more than a hundred demon clan’s characters. Moreover, just a tenth of its power was enough for Su Yu to be invincible while facing anyone below the All Creation Realm level.
The next day morning…
Qing Liu and Ying Luan waited according to Su Yu’s instructions until the disorder died down before coming back after dawn. They both bustled around, cleaning up the elixir store, which was a mess. They even repaired the broken counter.
After they had made it through such a crisis, they treasured this opportunity that they had gotten only with great difficulty all the more. After all, their Shopkeeper Su wasn’t just generous, he was also a hidden great expert!
Ying Luan understood this matter even more because Su Yu managed to easily infiltrate the Three Murders Gang’s base and save them all. He would need to possess great power in order to achieve such a feat. Hence, she was looking forward to the future and was excited to learn from Su Yu.
“Shopkeeper Su, all of our elixirs were stolen by the Three Murders Gang. What should we do?” Qing Liu asked.
After Qing Liu and Ying Luan tidied up the elixir store, they had all gone to the back chamber. Su Yu didn’t care at all about those elixirs, which couldn’t even be considered as spirit elixirs, so he said, “I don’t care about them, so if we don’t have them, just let it be. After several days, a new elixir will be sold here. So, you all should just rest until then.”
Qing Liu was taken aback by this, and Ying Luan said anxiously, “Shopkeeper Su, that’s out of the question. The elixir store’s counter mustn’t be left empty.”
Su Yu raised his brows and asked, “Huh? Why is that?”
After she went through such an ordeal on the previous day, Ying Luan wasn’t stuttering anymore, and instead, she spoke smoothly, “According to the Red Blood Palace’s rules for elixir stores, no elixir store is allowed to leave its counter empty. Otherwise, the shopkeeper will be fired!”
Su Yu was startled to hear this. “Why have I never heard about such a rule?”
After he came here, he had carefully studied everything about working in an elixir store, and he never came across this rule! After all, the Red Blood Palace just cared about profits, so it didn’t set any detailed rules for how shopkeepers should manage their elixir stores.
“It’s a rule that was set by the Elixir Meet,” Ying Luan said. “A year ago, Shopkeeper Fei convened all of the elixir stores’ shopkeepers to talk over this rule. Now, elixir stores aren’t allowed to leave their counters empty, as such an action is seen as wasting the Red Blood Palace’s resources, and once anyone was discovered breaking this rule, the shopkeeper will be fined and deprived of his current duty. The Great General Manager already agreed to this matter, so it is absolutely official.”
Ying Luan then said, “I heard that the previous shopkeeper working here before us just focused on his cultivation because he felt that this store didn’t have good prospects. He planned to just wait for the end of his duty before leaving, so naturally didn’t care at all about the elixir store itself. As a result, there weren’t any elixirs for sale on the counter, and it was even left empty for five or six days.”
Yung Luan paused to take a breath, then added, “After this matter was reported by the other elixir stores’ owners, our previous shopkeeper was severely punished. He was fined, deprived of his duty, and driven back to the sanctum.”
Su Yu raised his eyebrows when he heard this. He didn’t care at all about the elixirs, but his status as a shopkeeper was useful to him, so he couldn’t give it up for now. Thus, it appeared that he had to obey this rule.
“Okay, where can we acquire elixir stocks?” Su Yu then asked. Since small elixir stores couldn’t afford to hire an alchemist to make elixirs for them, they just bought elixirs and other various items from elixir dealers.
Ying Luan smiled, ran to the counter, then took an account book out from under it. The stock channels of the previous shopkeepers were recorded in the account book, as well as the supplier’s name and address.
Su Yu looked at it and saw that the Tonglin Elixir Store’s supplier was located in a place called the Bright Moon House. Apparently, the Bright Moon House’s owner had collaborated with the Tonglin Elixir Store for years. They also couldn’t produce elixirs, so they actually got theirs from another place, the Elixir Alliance.
The Elixir Alliance was the Tianya Auction House’s alchemists’ alliance, meaning that all those who joined the alliance were alchemists. The least skilled among them was still at an intermediate alchemist level, and there were plenty of high-grade alchemists among them. There were even two great alchemists among them, who could both make Incredible Elixirs.
Incredible Elixirs were elixirs that could be consumed by Divine Masters. Their production process was difficult, and they were greater than spirit elixirs, which could be consumed by Fairy experts. Although the difference between Incredible Elixirs and spirit elixirs lie just in a single word, there was still a great disparity between their effects.
Su Yu’s current skills weren’t good enough for him to make Incredible Elixirs. It wasn’t just that he lacked experience, but what was most important was his shortage of soul power. The process of production of the Incredible-grade elixirs wasn’t something that average people could even imagine.
In the process of making the elixir, it mustn’t come in contact with any tangible matters. The Incredible Elixirs production requirements were so strict that even impure humans mustn’t come in contact with them. This was because if they used their hands or anything that their hands had touched during the production process, they might cause the furnace to explode!
This, of course, created a big problem. They soon realized that since they couldn’t use any physical power, like their hands or objects, the only thing they could use was soul power.
This meant that they had to use only their souls to control the whole process. As this matter involved using soul power, it was difficult and complicated. If they didn’t have a powerful soul or didn’t go through a long period of training, they would be incapable of using their souls to make the elixirs.
This was the reason why great alchemists were a precious resource, as even in a city as big as Tianya City, there were only two great alchemists who could produce Incredible Elixirs! In fact, the great alchemists in all the Eighteen Blessed and Heavenly Lands could be counted on one’s fingers, as there weren’t more than ten of them.
The Red Blood Palace had three, while the Purple Cloud Palace also had three, and the remaining two were independent cultivators not tied to any formal palace. The Elixir Alliance also had two great alchemists, which were its pillars.
Those two people formed a neutral faction, which was in charge of just elixir production alone. Its alchemists would all hand over their produced elixirs straight to the Elixir Alliance.
The Alliance didn’t want to manage stores, and it also didn’t have time to look for clients, so they just left such matters to some traders they were connected with. These traders were usually all friends or relatives of some alchemists in the Elixir Alliance.
Afterward, the traders would sell the elixirs to elixir stores in all corners of the Eighteen Blessed and Heavenly Lands. These traders were called elixir dealers, and they all depended on the Elixir Alliance to make a living. So, if the Elixir Alliance collapsed, they would be left without a way to make a livelihood.
“Bright Moon House… Bright Moon Householder…” Su Yu muttered those names.
The Tonglin Elixir Store was small, and they didn’t need a great amount of stock, so he didn’t understand why they felt the need to look to other dealers and were constantly purchasing elixirs from an elixir dealer called Bright Moon Householder. Although this was troublesome, Su Yu was still forced to go there personally and purchase elixirs from Bright Moon Householder to fill up the counter.
“You should all rest for now, while I go to purchase the goods.” After saying this, Su Yu left the Tonglin Elixir Store and headed toward the Bright Moon House.
The Bright Moon House was actually just an ordinary house with a courtyard in the Inner City, but if elixir store’s owners wanted to purchase elixirs, it was a valid option. When Su Yu was just about to enter the house, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a familiar-looking woman, so couldn’t help but stop in his tracks outside of the courtyard.
A beautiful woman in a green dress was standing before the courtyard entrance. She seemed dignified and pretty, and she was taking light steps as she was walking.
Just a half step behind her was a middle-aged scholar in a long robe. He was following her closely and wearing a faint smile as he spoke to her.
“Fairy Lu, just set your mind at ease. If an elixir like it came out from the Elixir Alliance, you would be the first person to get wind of it. I’m one of the Elixir Alliance’s three great elixir dealers working with the alliance, and I believe that if they wanted to sell an elixir like it, they would hand it to me first, then ask me to sell it,” he said.
Lü Chuyi’s brows were furrowed as she nodded faintly before she left out a soft sigh. “I’m just trying my luck. So, you don’t need to care about it too much. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
After she spoke, she proceeded forward and was about to leave the Bright Moon House. However, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a person standing calmly on a corner outside the courtyard.
When she saw him, her body shivered and her eyes widened. As she looked over to where he stood, her heart thumped quickly.
It’s really him! The image of a silver-haired youngster appeared in her mind. He was resolute, warm, kind, and mysterious. Moreover, he was also the guy who took her first time from her.
The silhouette which she saw out of the corner of her eye seemed similar to Su Yu’s image in her mind. Both of the men’s airs and looks seemed extremely similar. However, when she looked over there again, what appeared before her was an aged white-haired old man!
This man had grizzled hair, which fluttered in the wind, and although he was quite old, he still stood straight and tall. He also had an air of transcendence about him.
Oh… It wasn’t him! Lü Chuyi was shocked by such a great physical disparity, even though the air given off by the men were too similar in her opinion.
Su Yu turned around and looked at Lü Chuyi. He had an impulse of going over to her and revealing himself, but he knew that he could not.
A smile appeared on his aged face as he asked, “Miss, are you looking at me because you have something to ask me?”
Lü Chuyi returned to her senses and shook her head, clearly at a loss. She then raised her eyes to meet Su Yu’s and stammered, “I don’t…”
She couldn’t continue because when she was faced with his gaze, she discovered that even the men’s gazes were too similar. His eyes were as profound as the starry sky, just like that guy’s eyes had been!
He also had a special charm, which one could lose oneself around, just like the other guy. They both had a mysterious charisma, too, making it difficult for one to forget either of them.
All of this made her wonder… Is it possible for two people, who have such extremely similarities to exist in the world?
Lü Chuyi’s heart became a mess, and she pondered these things in her heart for a long while. She then asked in a soft voice, “Mister, may I ask you whether you know someone called Yin Yu?”
Su Yu’s only name that she knew was the name “Yin Yu,” which was the one that Su Yu used in the Mysterious Heavenly Divine Pavilion. Su Yu revealed a smile and shook his head. “I don’t know him. My name is Su Yuxian. Miss, may I ask who this person is to you?”
It isn’t him? Well, of course not! That would be impossible! Must have been wishful thinking of this silly girl’s part… Lü Chuyi couldn’t help but laugh at herself. She then blushed as she apologized to him, “He’s just an old acquaintance of mine. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
After she spoke, dejection appeared on her face. She then stepped out and rode the wind as she flew away. She was as graceful as a butterfly as she quickly disappeared over the horizon in the blue sky.
Su Yu let out a long sigh while observing her retreating figure. After he curbed his emotions, and went into the courtyard, where he ran into the middle-aged scholar, who just saw Lü Chuyi off.
“Old mister, may I ask why you came to my house?” The middle-aged scholar was quite polite. He was more respectful to him because he had just witnessed Su Yu exchanging words with Lü Chuyi.
His house? Su Yu suddenly realized that the person before him was Bright Moon Householder.
“I’m Su Yuxian, and I’m the new shopkeeper of the Tonglin Elixir Store. I came here to pay a visit to Bright Moon Householder.” Su Yu revealed a faint smile.
Upon hearing him, the expression of Bright Moon Householder, who was still respectful to him a moment ago, froze and became quite stiff. His smile disappeared and he wore a cold look as he sized up Su Yu.
He then wore a mocking smile at the corners of his mouth as he said, “I was just wondering who the new replacement was. So… It’s the famous and renowned Su Yuxian…”
Su Yu couldn’t help but furrow his brows upon hearing his mockery. He tried to recall when he had ever offended this guy!
“Speak! What did you come here for?” Bright Moon Householder hid his hands in his sleeves, once again demanding to know why Su Yu came here, while wearing a fake smile.
Su Yu furrowed his brows and examined Bright Moon Householder with his eyes. “It seems like you don’t plan to sell me any elixirs.”
Bright Moon Householder curled up the corners of his mouth. “Hehe, it isn’t that I don’t want to sell them to you, but I just don’t dare! Great Shopkeeper Su, someone as great as you dared to face even Shopkeeper Fei, while I’m so afraid of him. How could I dare do business with you?”
It was all because of Shopkeeper Fei! Su Yu understood everything now as he recalled what had occurred in the Elixir Meet. Su Yu hadn’t let himself be exploited, and he talked back to Shopkeeper Fei in front of everyone!
He really didn’t expect that Shopkeeper Fei would so narrow-minded as to go this far to make trouble for Su Yu! Since Shopkeeper Fei’s Heavenly Fragrance Elixir Store was one of Bright Moon Householder’s most important clients and Su Yu’s Tonglin Elixir Store was insignificant in comparison to it, if Shopkeeper Fei forbade Bright Moon Householder from selling elixirs to Su Yu, it was obvious who he would listen to!
However, he still mocked Su Yu just to add insult to injury, as well as in hopes of gaining more favor with Shopkeeper Fei. This proved that Bright Moon Householder’s character was really lacking.
Since they already spoken up to here, Su Yu refused to remain and invite any more mockery. So, he just turned to leave.
“Wait!” Bright Moon Householder’s expression became ice-cold. “Before you leave, you should first pay all of your outstanding debts!”
Su Yu was aware of this matter because while he was thumbing through the account book, he discovered that the previous shopkeeper had left behind a sizeable debt. He had bought elixirs on credit, so they owed him a hundred crystals. The payment was delayed until now because the store didn’t have a new shopkeeper to handle everything before Su Yu had arrived.
Su Yu fished out a hundred crystals from his sleeves. Since he accepted the shopkeeper office, he would surely pay off all of his debts!
However, Bright Moon Householder still left his hands in his sleeves, and it didn’t seem like he planned to accept the payment. Finally, he sneered and said, “A hundred! Are you kidding me?”
Su Yu replied calmly, “What? Isn’t the debt just a hundred?”
Bright Moon Householder sneered coldly. “It was a hundred in the past, but it’s now ten thousand! Guards!”
Swoosh!
The courtyard was immediately swarmed by a group of guards, all of whom were powerful experts at the Level Six Fairy Realm.
Su Yu’s gaze flickered. “What do you mean by all of this?”
Bright Moon Householder replied calmly, “All purchases on credit have interest attached to them. Hence, it was a hundred crystals a year ago, but it’s ten thousand now. If you don’t pay it back today, don’t dream about leaving! You will still here until you pay back that debt!”
It was obvious that he was in cahoots with Great Shopkeeper Fei, as for every day that Su Yu didn’t come back, the elixir store couldn’t open, which meant that a whole day’s profits were lost! Once he didn’t open the business for more than five days, he would be deprived of his work as a shopkeeper altogether!
Su Yu raised his eyes and put away the crystals, while his gaze became ice-cold. Even if Bright Moon Householder didn’t want to sell him elixirs, he wouldn’t make trouble for him. It was his right to choose what would bring him more profits, and Su Yu knew that he couldn’t force his hand anyway.
However, since he was now trying to harm Su Yu on purpose, while helping an evildoer, this was a completely different matter!
“Are you sure about this?” Su Yu asked calmly.
Bright Moon Householder sneered. “Even at such a moment, you are still feigning calmness. I can’t help but admire you for this. Guards, capture him!”
A group of servants surrounded Su Yu, while just looked at Bright Moon Householder and nodded. “Okay, I already understood what you meant, and I have given you an opportunity to be a better man. So, I hope that you won’t regret your choice…”
