“Wentang, is what you said true?” Bai Zhenkong’s voice trembled. Zuo Wentang responded to his question with a silent nod.
Ye Yuzhou knew immediately that Zuo Wentang must have told him about the impending conflict with the Snake Country. He sighed and turned to Yang Jie. “Wait outside, there’s something I’d like to discuss with City Lord Bai.”
Although Yang Jie was reluctant, he still turned and left, not daring to explicitly disobey Ye Yuzhou’s orders.
After giving it some thought, Ye Yuzhou said, “City Lord Bai, you can rest assured. War is no trivial matter. I believe the Snake Country isn’t going to make such a reckless decision. And if it all goes according to plan, they might not even do anything at all.”
Bai Zhenkong was briefed on the current situation.
“Mr. Yuzhou, it’s not that I don’t believe you but I don’t understand why you’re so adamant about helping that mysterious person. To the extent that you risked drawing trouble to yourself. We know that the son of the Snake Country’s state preceptor has been killed. We should have apprehended the murderer and handed them over to avoid rousing their anger. Moreover, it seems that the mysterious person was sheltering a monster so nothing justifies protecting him.” Bai Zhenkong sounded harsh. Had it not been for Ye Yuzhou’s status, he might have even lashed out by now.
If this incident really did lead to a war, his position as city lord would more likely than not be revoked.
Ye Yuzhou smiled. “City Lord Bai, what you said is correct, but I’m afraid that isn’t the case. I can’t tell you the specific reasoning behind my decision but you don’t have to worry about Snake Country declaring war. If war was to ever break out, I will bear full responsibility for it. I won’t let you be dragged down, City Lord Bai.”
Due to this issue, Ye Yuzhou and Bai Zhengkong ended up parting on bad terms.
Once outside the City Lord Manor, Ye Yuzhou immediately went to a secluded place and changed his clothes. In addition to that, he put on a hat that concealed his face. Then, he went to one of the city’s marketplaces.
There was a place that specifically sold birds of all kinds. In the corner beside this stall was a blind old man, and placed next to him was a wooden rack with five hawks.
The old man was practically here every day from dawn till dusk. Normal folks had no idea what he was here for.
But members of the villainous community would recognize that this was a ‘relay post’. Requests for assassinations, intelligence, manhunts, specific items including stolen goods, and everything else that was unethical could be done here. This was a place to exchange information.
Of course, the fees were incredibly high as well.
Having travelled to many places for training, Ye Yuzhou came to learn of this ‘community’s rules.
The people here never questioned a requester’s identity. They only did the work that was handed to them.
Ye Yuzhou knew how the place worked so upon arrival, he tossed down a gold coin. This gold coin was specifically minted for this purpose and had a dragon pattern on it. This wasn’t a national currency but instead, it was a ‘dragon coin’ especially used by the villainous community.
“Give me a newspaper!” Ye Yuzhou said.
If Lin Jin was here, he would have been confused by the phrase ‘newspaper’.
The blind old man said nothing but took out a wooden roll from under his butt and handed it to Ye Yuzhou. Ye Yuzhou didn’t read it but took out another two shiny golden dragon coins.
“I’d like to post news on the papers!” Ye Yuzhou said quietly.
A smile cracked across the blind old man’s face, revealing yellow teeth before putting up five fingers.
Ye Yuzhou was stunned but took out another three dragon coins nonetheless. The blind old man extended his hand with a smile on his face. Ye Yuzhou handed him what he had already written down.
After that, Ye Yuzhou turned to leave while the blind old man got up. By holding onto the walls, he walked off somewhere before returning to sit back down for another nap.
However, one of the hawks on his wooden stand was now gone.
Once Ye Yuzhou returned to the Friar Association, he mused, ‘I’ve sent the word. I wonder if Black Crow and Ghost Child will see it.’
Then, he took out the wooden roll from the blind old man to find a piece of paper inside.
Written on the paper were dozens of pieces of information.
This included title, content, time, and who the requester was.
This was the ‘newspaper’.
On it was the latest news for the villain’s community. It contained the latest search requests, as well as assassination requests. Of course, people rarely post the content in a straightforward manner. Most of them used code words so newbies couldn’t possibly understand what was being relayed.
After glancing through the roll, Ye Yuzhou didn’t find anything worth his time. Most of the news on this paper happened in places far away from the Jade Dragon Kingdom so after reading it, he tossed it into a fire and burned it.
Speaking of which, Ye Yuzhou was still in a rather pleasant mood. He had released word on behalf of the Curator, so from a certain perspective, he could be considered the Curator’s ambassador.
Ye Yuzhou had also taken a wild guess at the Curator’s identity.
He had heard of a fair amount of experts in this world but none of them seemed to match up to the Curator.
To Ye Yuzhou, those experts were far inferior in comparison to the Curator.
***
The Shi family’s medicine hall.
Recently, due to the competition from Chen medicine hall, the Shi family’s medicine halls had been practically deserted with only a handful of customers.
To crush the Shi family completely, the Chen family further lowered the prices of their goods. Customers with their hard-earned money would naturally take the cheaper option if available. Moreover, the Chen family’s goods were generally of a high standard and their reputation could be said to be on par with the Shi family.
Shi Wenjun knew about Chen Wenlin’s under-handed methods. As the head of the Shi family, besides being a specialist in the art of pelletization, she was also well-versed in business tactics.
Had it not been for her, the Shi family would have been done for by now. While there were other alchemists in the family whose pelletization skill exceeded hers, no one came close to Shi Wenjun when it came to running a business.
This time, Shi Wenjun managed to hold out when the Chen family lowered their prices to up the competition. Even though they weren’t selling anything, she refused to cave in and lower their prices.
This was because Shi Wenjun knew that the Chen family’s trump card was the pill business.
The pill business was the Shi family’s lifeline.
If after gaining the prescriptions, the Chen family could compete fair and square by selling them at the same price, that would’ve been alright. But the Chen family was seeking to crush the Shi family so this was a matter of survival. A battle was inevitable.
Though, speaking of which, Shi Wenjun was quite impressed by Chen Wenlin. He was a man who started from scratch. Under normal circumstances, after Wu Chenwei stole the prescriptions for the Chen family, that would have been the end for the Shi family unless the latter had other prescriptions hidden away.
Fortunately for them, they managed to receive Lin Jin’s support during this crisis and got themselves new prescriptions.
Just the prescription for the nine water floating pill was enough to ease the family’s current situation.
Thankfully, Lin Jin had given them more than just this one prescription.
For the past few days, the Shi family’s alchemy experts have been behaving mysteriously, keeping themselves locked inside the house to practice pelletization. And today would be the day they launched their counter-offensive.
Early in the morning, the Shi family put up a sign outside their largest medicine hall branch in Maple City. They also invited many dignitaries to the launching of their family’s new pills.
It was a grand display.
Besides inviting authorities and wealthy merchants, they even invited the Chen family as well. Despite being a woman, Shi Wenjun was brazen in her actions. By doing this, she made her intention clear that she was going to take the Chen family head-on.
They have been keeping their new product a secret. Besides the core members, the other Shi family members knew nothing about this. They have learned to be more cautious now. Otherwise, it would take only a single sell-out to spell the end for their family.
