We Cooperate

"Miss."

A chilling voice suddenly came from outside the pavilion. The middle-aged coachman abruptly raised his head, stepped forward, and looked at his young lady. When the corner of his eye swept over Zhao Sheng, his gaze was filled with killing intent.

"Do not be rude! Stand down."

"Yes!"

The coachman, Wang Si, bowed in acknowledgment and immediately retreated to his original spot, lowering his head without another word.

After dismissing the coachman with a single command, Wang Yuyan said apologetically, "My servant was disrespectful and gave Young Master Zhao a fright."

Zhao Sheng smiled faintly. "It is nothing. A mere Half-Step Innate cannot hold me down. But when negotiations fail, you resort to forceful plunder instead. In my view, that is a very poor way of handling matters. It could easily bring disaster upon your Lineage."

"Hmph, you?" Wang Yuqi interjected indignantly. She felt offended.

Zhao Sheng shook his head calmly. "Me? Naturally not. But the world is vast, and there are far too many existences you cannot afford to provoke. Even if your Wang Family is a Cultivation Family, it would make no difference."

Wang Yuyan's expression changed upon hearing this, and she demanded, "How did you learn of our origins?"

After brushing the strings and playing a long, lingering note, Zhao Sheng said evenly, "Was that really so difficult to guess?"

Before the two could question him further, he explained, "To make a peerless Half-Step Innate expert willingly serve as a coachman, while both young ladies share the surname Wang and possess such immortal grace and peerless beauty... Other than the Cultivation Wang Family of Ganzhou, I cannot think of another Lineage in all of Ganzhou that meets these conditions."

"So that was it."

Upon hearing Zhao Sheng's explanation, Wang Yuyan's expression softened.

Yet Wang Yuqi beside her was delighted, her face taking on a proud, haughty look. No one had ever described the two sisters as possessing immortal grace and peerless beauty before.

More importantly, the one saying it was so handsome.

"I did not expect Young Master Zhao's discernment to be so astonishing. I presume your background is no ordinary one either?"

"To be honest with Miss Wang, I come from the Ganzhou Zhao Family." Zhao Sheng directly revealed his identity.

He had never intended to conceal his origins. In truth, aside from the Perfume, everything had proceeded smoothly according to plan so far.

From the experience of his past life, if he wanted to marry a woman from a Cultivation Family, he could not rely on too many schemes and tricks. Going with the flow was best.

And he certainly could not consider forcibly abducting someone. After all, the Bloodline Tracking Spell was the most widespread basic spell in the Cultivation World, bar none.

"The Ganzhou Zhao Family?" Wang Yuyan looked bewildered. She truly had never heard of a Zhao Family in Ganzhou.

Zhao Sheng knew that people from Cultivation Families had always looked down their noses at others, but he had not expected them to be this contemptuous.

"Yes, my ancestral home is in Nanyang, and my Lineage may be considered a Martial Arts Family. It is normal enough that Miss Wang has not heard of us."

Though Zhao Sheng forcefully salvaged his dignity, Wang Yuqi simply turned to the coachman and asked, "Wang Si, you come from the Jianghu. You should know the Zhao Family well, right?"

Are you even being polite?

At that moment, Zhao Sheng truly wanted to greet her with a few choice words.

Wang Si remained expressionless and replied in an even tone, "Reporting to Miss, the Nanyang Zhao Family is considered a great Lineage in Ganzhou and enjoys some renown in the Jianghu. It has produced two Innate Grandmasters."

Wang Yuqi was blunt by nature, and she suddenly understood. "Oh, I know Innate Grandmasters. My Third Uncle and Sixth Uncle are both Innate Grandmasters. Their strength is roughly comparable to cultivators at the Qi Refining Early Stage."

"Yuqi, stop talking."

Wang Yuyan nudged her younger sister, then said apologetically, "My sister has always spoken without thinking. Please do not take offense, Young Master."

"Haha, Miss Wang is innocent and lively. I like her far too much to be angry with her."

Zhao Sheng's words were exceedingly bold and blatant. The Wang sisters both flushed with embarrassment, while Wang Yuqi's little face turned as red as a tomato.

Since childhood, no one had ever dared speak so brazenly in front of them.

Zhao Sheng had made quite an impression from the very beginning. If some ordinary mortal had dared speak like that, grass would already be growing on his grave.

With those slightly out-of-line words, Zhao Sheng successfully dissolved the awkward atmosphere from before and recovered the situation.

Wang Yuyan no longer focused on Zhao Sheng's family background, instead returning to the original subject. "Young Master Zhao, I am determined to obtain the Perfume formula. Name your price."

Her tone was exceedingly firm, carrying the clear meaning that she would not rest until she achieved her goal.

Zhao Sheng frowned when he heard this, rapidly weighing the matter in his heart.

It now seemed that Perfume's true value greatly exceeded his expectations.

However, this unexpected development was clearly more beneficial to him.

After thinking it over again and again, he decisively said, "I do not wish to go against my ancestors' wishes, so the formula cannot be sold. But we can cooperate."

"How would we cooperate?" Wang Yuyan's eyes lit up as she immediately pressed him.

The reason she was so fixated on the Perfume formula was simple: she wanted to earn spirit stones.

In the eyes of mortals, the Wang Family stood high above all others.

But in the Cultivation World, the Wang Family remained at the very bottom of the food chain, only slightly better off than Rogue Cultivators.

The entire Wang Family had only nine cultivators: two at the Qi Refining Late Stage, three at the Qi Refining Middle Stage, and four rookies at the Qi Refining First and Second Layers.

It was worth mentioning that Wang Yuyan was the weakest cultivator in the Wang Family. She possessed Five Spiritual Roots and had cultivated for five or six years before barely advancing to the Qi Refining First Layer.

The Wang Family relied solely on twenty mu of Spirit Fields, crafting First-Order Talismans and refining Spirit Materials to earn some spirit stones. Altogether, they earned only around a thousand spirit stones a year, barely enough to support the family's cultivators in their training. Their days were extremely tight.

Thus, after Wang Yuyan tried the Perfume, she keenly discovered a business opportunity. After testing it over the past several days, she became even more certain of it.

Perfume had a very profitable future!

In the Cultivation World, female cultivators had many ways to keep themselves fragrant all day long. For instance, the First-Order Spirit Pill Hundred Fragrance Pill. So long as a female cultivator took one pill, her body would emit a rich natural fragrance for an entire year.

Yet purchasing one Hundred Fragrance Pill required ten spirit stones. Perhaps in the eyes of certain female cultivators, that was nothing.

But one must not forget that the greatest number of people in the world would always be those at the very bottom. Among female Qi Refining cultivators, there were plenty who could not bear to buy Hundred Fragrance Pills.

And that was where Perfume's value lay.

Hundred Fragrance Pills were too expensive, while Fragrant Powder was too low-end?

No problem. Spend one spirit stone to buy a large bottle of Perfume, enough to last you an entire year.

Wang Yuyan had calculated that earning eighty or a hundred spirit stones a year should not be a problem.

By that calculation, the Perfume business would be equivalent to one-tenth of the entire Lineage's annual output. It was simply outrageous profit.

Wang Yuyan understood very clearly that once the Lineage noticed the Perfume, neither Young Master Zhao nor the two sisters would be able to keep hold of the Perfume formula.

Therefore, Wang Yuyan and her sister had long discussed it: before the Perfume was exposed, they would earn as much as they possibly could.

One had to know that young ladies of Cultivation Families needed to save up dowries as well.

With spirit stones at her side, even if she married into another family, she would be able to speak with her back straight.

In this regard, Divine Immortals and mortals were no different.

Furthermore, Zhao Sheng's proposal was precisely what Wang Yuyan wanted. She had few trusted subordinates at hand, and even if she obtained the Perfume formula, she would have no way to keep it secret.

By contrast, Young Master Zhao had ample manpower and could better keep secrets.