So Foolish

Lin Qingbai took another look at the great locust tree, growing more and more furious the longer he looked.

He muttered a curse under his breath, then turned and went back to his trading hall.

At Xinghua Lin Pavilion, in the rear courtyard.

Lin Qingbai strode into his room, picked up a cup of cold tea, and gulped it down.

Even after finishing the cup, the fury in his heart still wouldn't abate.

He raised the cup and hurled it hard against the floor!

It shattered into pieces.

"Damn it!"

Lin Qingbai shouted a curse.

Just then, someone suddenly walked in through the door.

He happened to see what had happened and asked, "Brother Qingbai, what's wrong? What's got you so angry?"

Lin Qingbai turned to look and saw that the newcomer was a member of the Lin Family, Lin Qingshan.

"Qingshan, what brings you here?" Lin Qingbai asked hurriedly.

Lin Qingshan held as high a position in the Lin Family as Meng Bohai did in the Meng Family. Even Lin Qingbai had to show him some deference.

Standing in the doorway, Lin Qingshan replied, "The clan head sent me. What happened just now? It's scorching hot out—was there really any need to fly into such a rage?"

Lin Qingbai answered, "Half a month ago, didn't our elder brother Qingke go to the Black Market and buy the method for making the Five Elements Defensive Talisman? I've been in seclusion these past few days, working on making it. Fortunately, I not only succeeded, but also improved the talisman. Its defensive effect naturally surpasses the Meng Family's talismans."

Hearing this, Lin Qingshan said, "That's great, isn't it? Hurry and sell them, and crush the Meng Family's talisman market!"

"Great my ass!"

Lin Qingbai swore, then continued, "I came up with a plan. I found a Rogue Cultivator who'd bought the Meng Family's defensive talismans and gave him a few Five Elements Defensive Talismans to return at Xinghua Meng Pavilion. Everything went well at first, but three days later, the Meng Family somehow came out with another new talisman!"

Lin Qingshan furrowed his brow slightly. "A new talisman? What's it called? How does it compare to our Five Elements Defensive Talisman?"

"Alas! The Meng Family's new talisman is called the Spirit Taming Talisman."

Lin Qingbai shook his head and sighed. "Its effect is even better than our Lin Family's Five Elements Defensive Talisman! The Rogue Cultivators who'd been drawn in by our talismans have probably all been lured away by the Meng Family's Spirit Taming Talismans!"

Lin Qingshan's brow furrowed even deeper. He said quietly, "How could this happen? The Meng Family came up with another new talisman in such a short time. Could they have consulted an expert?"

Lin Qingbai replied, "They didn't consult an expert. For the past three days, I've had people watching Xinghua Meng Pavilion. Apart from Meng Luohai returning to the pavilion, no one else has gone in."

Lin Qingshan thought for a moment, then asked, "How much is the Meng Family charging for the Spirit Taming Talisman?"

Lin Qingbai gave a bitter smile. "The same as our Lin Family's Five Elements Defensive Talisman: five Spirit Stones per talisman."

At that, Lin Qingshan clenched his fists and shouted angrily, "Damn it! The Meng Family is trying to cut off our Lin Family's livelihood!"

He knew that the markets of low-ranking families like the Lin Family, Chen Family, and Meng Family were mostly aimed at Rogue Cultivators.

Unlike cultivators from families, these Rogue Cultivators didn't have a large family providing them with cultivation resources.

Low-level Rogue Cultivators barely had enough to eat from one day to the next. Their pockets were light, so whenever they bought cultivation supplies, they compared prices at three different stores.

Now that the Meng Family's Spirit Taming Talisman cost the same as the Lin Family's Five Elements Defensive Talisman, those Rogue Cultivators wouldn't think twice. They'd abandon the Lin Family's talismans and buy the Meng Family's instead.

Thinking this over, Lin Qingshan said, "What are we going to do?"

Lin Qingbai looked Lin Qingshan in the eye and hesitated before saying, "That's not even the worst of it. To swallow up the Meng Family's share of the talisman market in one fell swoop, I gathered the clan members at the pavilion and had them work from dawn till dusk for half a month, making Five Elements Defensive Talismans. We've stockpiled over four thousand of them, and now they're all piled up in the storeroom!"

"What?"

Lin Qingshan exploded in anger. "Qingbai! How could you be so foolish?"

Lin Qingbai was filled with regret, too.

But there was no regret medicine in this world.

Lin Qingshan paced back and forth around the room, speaking in a quick, hushed voice. "Over four thousand talismans—that's more than twenty thousand Spirit Stones! Well, that's it. It's all gone down the drain!"

Lin Qingbai hurried to defend himself. "Qingshan, twenty thousand Spirit Stones is just the total selling price. The cost wasn't that high—only a little over ten thousand Spirit Stones."

"Only a little over ten thousand Spirit Stones?"

Lin Qingshan challenged him. "Is our Lin Family a ranked cultivation family? No! We're just a low-ranking family. Can we turn those ten thousand-plus Spirit Stones into cash? No! They can only sit in the storeroom, gathering dust!"

Lin Qingbai knew how serious the matter was. He pleaded, "Qingshan, help your brother Qingbai out!"

"Hah!"

Lin Qingshan dropped heavily onto a stool and looked up at Lin Qingbai. "I can't help! The ten thousand-plus Spirit Stones are only the cost of making the talismans. How many Spirit Stones did elder brother Qingke spend buying the method for the Five Elements Defensive Talisman at the Black Market? Do you know?"

Lin Qingbai shook his head with a mournful expression and sighed. "Five thousand or eight thousand Spirit Stones—I'm not sure."

Hearing this, Lin Qingshan felt as though his head were about to explode.

"Add that up, and the cost is still nearly twenty thousand Spirit Stones, isn't it?"

Even Lin Qingshan felt at a loss for words after saying it.

Lin Qingbai hurriedly poured him a cup of cold tea. "Qingshan, you have to help me. Right now, the most urgent thing isn't figuring out the cost of those talismans. We need to find a way to sell them as quickly as possible and get our funds back. We have to cut our losses!"

Seeing Lin Qingbai act so humbly, Lin Qingshan asked helplessly, "How much does it cost to make one Five Elements Defensive Talisman?"

Lin Qingbai quickly replied, "Including the talisman paper, the spirit-energy brush, and labor, it's about three Spirit Stones."

Lin Qingshan murmured, "Three Spirit Stones, three Spirit Stones... Qingbai, go put up a sign outside saying Xinghua Lin Pavilion is having a big sale: each Five Elements Defensive Talisman is only four Spirit Stones."

Lin Qingbai lowered his head and calculated. "Four Spirit Stones? That'll do. I don't mind making a little less, as long as we can get our money back quickly!"

Just as he finished speaking, a young member of the Lin Family came rushing in through the door.

"Uncle Qingbai! Uncle Qingshan!"

Lin Qingbai was already on edge, and the young one's sudden shout startled him.

"Were you chased in here by a dog? Mind your manners!" Lin Qingbai scolded him.

The young Lin Family member looked frantic. "This is bad, uncles! We don't know what's going on over at the Meng Family Trading Hall, but they've launched a sale. Everyone's run out of our shop!"

Hearing this, Lin Qingshan shot to his feet and asked, "A sale? What kind of sale?"