The Price of Greed

The Jialie Clan's medicine workshop, in the rear courtyard.

The air was thick with the rich scent of medicine, mingled with the faint, scorched tang unique to flames.

A young man in the robe of a First-Rank Alchemist carefully lifted three pills from a warm cauldron. A faint blood-red glow radiated from them.

His movements carried the reverence of a pilgrim.

His eyes were fixed on the pills in his palm. He breathed rapidly, his face flushed red with excitement.

"Success! Another success!"

Liu Xi's voice trembled with disbelief.

Behind him stood Jialie Bi, hands clasped behind his back. He wore a brocade robe and looked composed, but an irrepressible fervor surged deep in his slightly narrowed eyes.

"Clan Chief! Look!"

Liu Xi turned around, clutching the pills excitedly, and presented them to Jialie Bi like a precious treasure.

"Three portions of ingredients yielded nine pills of Blood Coagulation Powder! A success rate of seventy percent! That's more than thirty percent higher than before!"

"And look at the quality!"

He pinched one pill between his fingers, feeling its gentle medicinal energy.

"Every one of them is top-notch! Their medicinal power is at least ten percent purer than anything I've refined before! This... this is practically a divine treasure! A divine treasure!"

Jialie Bi said nothing.

His gaze passed over the pills and settled on the orange-red flame burning quietly beneath the cauldron.

The Rock Fire Seed.

In just a few short days, this thing had nearly doubled the Jialie Clan's pill production!

What did that mean?

It meant endless gold coins! It meant the resources to crush their old rival, the Aoba Clan, once and for all! It meant that the Jialie Clan would become Wutan City's undisputed overlord!

But only if...

This thing belonged to the Jialie Clan alone!

"Any word from the men we sent out?"

Jialie Bi's voice was low and hoarse, betraying nothing.

A guard standing nearby flinched and hurriedly lowered his head.

"Reporting to the Clan Chief, that brat... is slippery as an eel. Our men followed him several times, but lost him in the city's poor district. He seems to know that place... like the back of his hand."

"Useless!"

Jialie Bi gave a cold snort, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

If they couldn't catch the hen that laid the eggs, they would go straight to the merchant who sold it!

"Prepare a carriage and a generous gift."

Jialie Bi whipped his sleeve and strode outside.

"I'll pay a personal visit to Miss Ya Fei of the Miteer Auction House."

* * *

The Miteer Auction House, top-floor VIP room.

Ya Fei still wore her fiery-red qipao, reclining against a soft sofa as she toyed with a delicate white porcelain teacup. She looked languid, like a Persian cat dozing in the afternoon sun.

Someone knocked softly on the door.

"Miss, Jialie Bi, Clan Chief of the Jialie Clan, requests an audience."

A maid's respectful voice came from outside.

Ya Fei's hand paused slightly as she held the teacup.

A flash of keen light flickered in her alluring eyes, then vanished.

The inevitable had finally arrived.

"Show him in."

A moment later, the door opened.

Jialie Bi walked in with a genial smile, striding like a dragon and a tiger. Two attendants followed behind him, carrying a heavy wooden chest.

"Miss Ya Fei, forgive me for calling on you without an invitation!"

Jialie Bi cupped his hands in greeting and adopted a humble posture, like an elder paying a friendly visit to a neighbor.

"Clan Chief Jialie, you're too kind. You're an honored guest of our auction house. Please, have a seat."

Ya Fei set down her teacup, stood, and welcomed him with a radiant smile. She even poured him a cup of fragrant tea herself.

They took their seats, host and guest.

After a bout of empty pleasantries, Jialie Bi finally steered the conversation to the matter at hand.

He pointed to the wooden chest behind him.

"Miss Ya Fei, the Rock Fire Seed I bought at your auction last time is truly a rare treasure! The alchemists of my clan can't stop praising it. This small gift is my way of thanking the auction house for providing us with such a precious treasure."

Ya Fei merely glanced at the chest, her smile unchanged.

"Clan Chief Jialie, you're too generous. Providing our clients with the finest auction items is the very principle of the Mittel Family."

She picked up her teacup and gently blew across the steaming surface, every movement elegant and impeccable.

When Jialie Bi saw that she wasn't taking the bait, his cloudy eyes shifted. He decided to speak plainly.

"Miss Ya Fei, let's dispense with the pleasantries. I came today because I'd like to befriend the supplier of the Rock Fire Seed."

He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice.

"My Jialie Clan is willing to offer a price he can't refuse for every Rock Fire Seed he has. What's more, I can promise that as long as he's willing to work with my clan, he'll always have a share of the spoils in Wutan City."

At this point, he had practically laid his cards on the table.

Threats and temptations.

A personal promise from the head of one of Wutan City's foremost clans carried enough weight to leave any ordinary person overwhelmed with gratitude.

The air in the VIP room seemed to thicken.

Ya Fei was still smiling.

Her smile remained charming and alluring, yet it was as if an unseen veil had fallen over it, making it impossible to see through.

She shook her head gently.

"Clan Chief Jialie, I'm grateful for your kind offer. It's just that..."

Her voice was soft as water.

"Keeping our clients' information confidential is the very foundation on which the Miteer Auction House stands throughout the Jia Ma Empire. We cannot break that rule."

The smile on Jialie Bi's face slowly disappeared, bit by bit.

The temperature in the room seemed to plunge in an instant.

He leaned back in his chair, his cloudy old eyes fixed on Ya Fei. The pressure of a Dou Shi expert began to seep through the room, faint but unmistakable.

"Miss Ya Fei."

He spoke again, his voice now edged with coldness.

"Rules are dead, but people are alive."

"The Miteer Auction House is a vast enterprise. I know I can't afford to provoke you. But this is Wutan City."

"Do you really think it's worth offending a local power like my Jialie Clan over some nobody who came out of nowhere?"

A threat.

A naked, utterly unvarnished threat.

The seemingly harmless Persian cat had finally unsheathed her claws.

Ya Fei's smile vanished completely.

She gently set down the teacup she had been toying with on the rosewood table before her.

"Tap."

The sound was soft, yet it struck Jialie Bi's heart like a heavy hammer.

The entire room's atmosphere froze.

Ya Fei slowly raised her eyes.

Her usually rippling, alluring eyes had become two unfathomable, icy pools, devoid of even a trace of warmth.

An aura no weaker than Jialie Bi's—indeed, more focused and domineering—erupted from her delicate frame!

"Clan Chief Jialie."

Her voice had changed, too.

All traces of softness were gone. Only the cold, sharp edge of a top-tier power remained.

"The Miteer Family's reputation reaches across the entire Jia Ma Empire. From the sacred city of the Imperial Capital to the borderlands of the Black Corner Region, every auction house follows the same ironclad rule."

"If that rule is broken here in Wutan City today..."

"If the headquarters holds us accountable, you won't be able to bear the blame. Neither will I, Ya Fei."

She stared at Jialie Bi, every word like a cold knife stabbing into his heart.

"Or perhaps..."

Ya Fei's red lips curved into a chilly smile.

"Does Clan Chief Jialie want to risk a complete falling-out with the entire Mittel Family over a secret he hasn't even gotten his hands on?"

Jialie Bi's pupils contracted sharply.

Ya Fei's final words had stopped him in his tracks.

Make an enemy of the entire Mittel Family?

Even with ten times the nerve, he wouldn't dare!

He might disregard this little branch in Wutan City, but he would never provoke the commercial behemoth entrenched in the heart of the empire—a power even the Misty Cloud Sect treated with deference!

Jialie Bi's face turned from green to white, twisted into an ugly mask.

He clenched his fists, his knuckles whitening from the force.

He knew Ya Fei was telling the truth.

Trying to force her hand wouldn't work.

This woman was a hundred times more troublesome than he'd imagined!

After a long while,

Jialie Bi rose abruptly, his chest heaving. At last, he ground out a few words through clenched teeth.

"Fine! What a sharp tongue you have, Miss Ya Fei!"

He gave a heavy snort, not even sparing the gift chest a glance, and whipped his sleeve.

"We'll see about that!"

With that, he left without looking back, marching out with rage and frustration burning in his heart.

The door slammed shut behind him with a deafening crash.

Only after the heavy footsteps had faded away did Ya Fei's rigid body slowly relax.

She leaned back into the sofa. The icy strength in her expression receded like the tide, replaced by gravity and exhaustion.

She picked up the cup of tea, long since gone cold, and took a small sip.

The tea tasted bitter.

She knew today's confrontation was only the beginning.

A ruthless man like Jialie Bi would never let this go.

If he couldn't act openly, he would surely resort to covert means.

And that mysterious young man...

Su Chen's calm, youthful face surfaced in Ya Fei's mind.

She fell silent for a moment, then gave a quiet order toward the door.

"Someone."

"Go inform Mr. Su Chen at once. Tell him...the fish has taken the bait."

"Tell him to be especially careful for the time being."