We Cooperate

"Miss."

A chilling voice suddenly came from outside the pavilion. The middle-aged coachman jerked his head up and stepped forward, staring at his young mistress. When his gaze brushed past Zhao Sheng, it 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 position, lowering his head without another word.

After rebuking the coachman with a single sentence, Wang Yuyan said apologetically, "My servant was discourteous and startled you, Young Master."

Zhao Sheng smiled faintly. "It is nothing. A mere Half-Step Innate cannot do anything to me. But when negotiations fail, you resort to force and plunder. I find that way of handling matters very poor. It could easily bring disaster upon your family."

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

Zhao Sheng calmly shook his head. "Me? Naturally, I cannot. 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 at once upon hearing this, and she demanded, "How do you know our background?"

After plucking a lingering note from the strings beneath his hand, Zhao Sheng replied evenly, "Is it really that 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. And the two of you are both surnamed Wang, with such celestial grace and peerless beauty. Apart from the Cultivation Wang Family, I cannot think of another family in all of Ganzhou that fits these conditions."

"So that is how it is."

Hearing Zhao Sheng's explanation, Wang Yuyan's expression eased.

Meanwhile, Wang Yuqi was secretly delighted, her face taking on a proud look. No one had ever described the sisters as possessing celestial grace and peerless beauty before.

More importantly, the one saying it was so handsome.

"I did not expect Young Master to have such astonishing discernment. I imagine your own origins must be quite extraordinary as well?"

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

He had no intention of concealing his background. In truth, aside from the perfume, everything had proceeded smoothly according to plan so far.

Based on his experience from his previous 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 absolutely 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 had genuinely 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 Nanyang, and my family can be considered a Martial Arts Family. It is only natural that Miss Wang has not heard of us."

Though Zhao Sheng tried to salvage 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?"

Do you have any manners?

At that moment, Zhao Sheng dearly wanted to greet her with that question.

Wang Si remained expressionless as he answered calmly, "Reporting to Miss, the Nanyang Zhao Family is considered a prominent family in Ganzhou and has some renown in the Jianghu. They once produced two Innate Grandmasters."

"Oh, I know about Innate Grandmasters." Wang Yuqi suddenly understood and blurted out, "My Third Uncle and Sixth Uncle are both Innate Grandmasters. Their strength is about equal to Qi Refining Early Stage cultivators."

"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 charming. I like her too much to be angry at 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.

Only because Zhao Sheng had made such a good first impression would they tolerate it. If any ordinary mortal had dared speak like that, grass would already be growing atop his grave.

With those slightly improper words, Zhao Sheng successfully dispelled the awkward atmosphere from earlier and recovered the situation.

Wang Yuyan no longer paid attention to Zhao Sheng's family background and instead returned to the original subject. "Young Master Zhao, I am determined to obtain the perfume formula. Name your price!"

Her tone was extremely firm, carrying the air of someone who would not rest until she achieved her goal.

Zhao Sheng frowned upon hearing this, swiftly weighing matters in his mind.

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

However, this unexpected turn was clearly more advantageous to him.

After considering it again and again, he decisively said, "I do not wish to go against my forebears' 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 for details.

The reason she was so obsessed with the perfume formula was simple: she wanted to earn Spirit Stones.

To mortals, the Wang Family stood high above them.

But in the Cultivation World, the Wang Family had always occupied 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, earning a little in Spirit Stones each year by crafting First-Order Talismans and refining Spirit Materials. Altogether, they only made around a thousand Spirit Stones annually—just enough for the family's cultivators to cultivate—so their days were exceedingly tight.

Thus, after Wang Yuyan tried the perfume, she keenly spotted a business opportunity. After conducting experiments over the past few days, she became even more certain of it.

Perfume had a very lucrative future! In the Cultivation World, female cultivators had many ways to keep themselves fragrant all day long. For example, the First-Order Spirit Pill Hundred Fragrance Pill. Taking just one pill ensured that a female cultivator's body would emit a rich natural fragrance for an entire year.

However, buying a Hundred Fragrance Pill required ten Spirit Stones. Perhaps, in the eyes of some female cultivators, that was nothing.

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

And that was where perfume's value lay.

Were Hundred Fragrance Pills too expensive, while Fragrant Powder was too low-end? No problem. Spend one Spirit Stone on a large bottle of perfume, enough to last you an entire year.

Wang Yuyan had calculated that earning a hundred or so Spirit Stones a year should not be a problem.

By that calculation, the perfume trade was equivalent to one-tenth of the entire family's annual output—a simply staggering profit.

Wang Yuyan knew full well that once the family took notice of the perfume, neither Young Master Zhao nor she and her sister would be able to keep the formula.

Therefore, Wang Yuyan and her sister had long since agreed that, before the perfume was exposed, they would earn as much as they could.

One had to know that even the daughters of Cultivation Families needed to save up a dowry.

With Spirit Stones on her person, even if she married into another family, she would be able to speak with her back straight.

In this regard, immortals and mortals were all the same.

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

Young Master Zhao, on the other hand, had ample manpower and was better able to keep secrets.