The Price of Greed

Jialie Clan, backyard apothecary.

A dense medicinal fragrance, mixed with the scorched scent unique to flames, permeated the air.

A young man wearing the robes of a First-Grade Alchemist was carefully extracting three pills that radiated a faint, blood-colored light from a warm medicine cauldron.

His movements carried a sense of pilgrimage-like devotion.

His eyes were locked onto the pills in his palm, his breathing rapid, his face flushed red from overwhelming excitement.

"It's done! It's done again!"

Liu Xi's voice trembled with a hint of disbelief.

Behind him, Jialie Bi stood with his hands behind his back, dressed in brocade robes with a calm expression, though deep within his slightly narrowed eyes, an irrepressible heat surged wildly.

"Clan Head! Look!"

Liu Xi held the pills up, turning around excitedly to present them to Jialie Bi as if offering a treasure.

"From three portions of materials, I've refined nine Blood Coagulation Powders! The success rate is a full seventy percent! That's over thirty percent higher than before!"

"And look at the quality of these pills!"

He picked up one of the pills, his fingertips feeling the gentle, warm medicinal power within.

"Every single one is of the highest grade! The medicinal potency is at least ten percent purer than anything I've refined in the past! This... this is simply a divine object! A divine object!"

Jialie Bi did not speak.

His gaze drifted past the pills and landed on the orange-red flame burning quietly beneath the medicine cauldron.

Rock Fire Seed.

It was this very thing that had caused the Jialie Clan's pill output to nearly double in just a few short days!

What did this mean?

It meant endless gold coins! It meant the capital to completely crush their old rival, the Aoba Clan! It meant that his Jialie Clan would become the undisputed hegemon of Wutan City!

The prerequisite was...

This thing must belong solely to his Jialie Clan!

"The people we sent out—still no news?"

Jialie Bi's voice was low and hoarse, revealing neither joy nor anger.

A guard standing to the side trembled upon hearing this and quickly lowered his head.

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

"Useless!"

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

Since they couldn't catch the chicken that laid the eggs, they would go straight to the merchant who sold the chicken!

"Prepare the carriage, and prepare a generous gift."

Jialie Bi flicked his sleeves sharply and turned to walk outside.

"This old man is going to personally pay a visit to Miss Ya Fei of the Miteer Auction House."

Miteer Auction House, top-floor VIP room.

Ya Fei was still dressed in her fiery red qipao, leaning languidly against a soft sofa, toying with an exquisite white porcelain teacup in her hand, looking like a Persian cat dozing in the afternoon.

The door was knocked on gently.

"Miss, the Jialie Clan Head, Jialie Bi, requests an audience."

The respectful voice of a maid came from outside the door.

The hand holding the teacup paused slightly.

A flash of sharp light flickered and vanished within those charming peach-blossom eyes.

What was meant to come had finally arrived.

"Invite him in."

A moment later, the door was pushed open.

Jialie Bi walked in with a warm smile and a confident stride, followed by two attendants carrying a heavy wooden chest.

"Miss Ya Fei, I hope you will forgive this presumptuous visit!"

Jialie Bi cupped his hands, his posture humble, like an elder from the neighborhood visiting an old friend.

"Clan Head Jialie is too kind. You are a rare guest at our auction house; please, take a seat."

Ya Fei set down her teacup, stood up, and greeted him with a charming smile, personally pouring him a cup of fragrant tea.

The two took their respective seats as host and guest.

After some meaningless pleasantries, Jialie Bi finally steered the conversation toward the main topic.

He gestured toward the wooden chest behind him.

"Miss Ya Fei, the Rock Fire Seed purchased at your establishment last time was truly a marvel! It has our Jialie Clan's alchemist singing its praises. This small token is a gesture of gratitude for the auction house providing us with such a precious treasure."

Ya Fei merely glanced at the chest, the smile on her face never wavering.

"Clan Leader Jialie is too kind. Providing the best auction items to our clients is the very foundation of the Mite'er Family's philosophy."

She picked up her teacup and blew gently on the steam, her movements elegant and utterly impenetrable.

Seeing her refuse to take the bait, Jialie Bi's murky eyes rolled, and he decided to stop beating around the bush.

"Miss Ya Fei, let's speak plainly. I have come today to make friends with the supplier of that Rock Fire Seed."

He leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping a notch.

"My Jialie Clan is willing to offer a price he cannot refuse to buy out every last Rock Fire Seed in his possession! I can even promise that as long as he is willing to cooperate with my Jialie Clan, as long as there is meat on our table in Wutan City, he will never go without a bowl of soup!"

Having reached this point, it was practically an ultimatum.

Coercion and temptation.

The personal promise of a clan leader from one of Wutan City's top families carried enough weight to make any ordinary person tremble with fear and gratitude.

The air inside the VIP room seemed to thicken as a result.

Ya Fei continued to smile.

That smile remained charming and alluring, yet it felt as if a layer of invisible gauze separated her from the world, making her impossible to truly read.

She shook her head gently.

"I appreciate Clan Leader Jialie's good intentions. However..."

Her voice was as soft as water.

"Protecting the privacy of our clients is the fundamental principle upon which the Mite'er Auction House stands throughout the entire Jia Ma Empire. That rule cannot be broken."

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

The temperature in the room seemed to plummet in that instant.

He leaned back into his chair, his murky old eyes staring fixedly at Ya Fei, and a pressure belonging to a Dou Shi expert began to permeate the room, faint yet palpable.

"Miss Ya Fei."

He spoke again, his voice now tinged with cold rigidity.

"Rules are rigid, but people are flexible."

"The Mite'er Auction House is a massive entity, and naturally, I cannot afford to offend it. But this is Wutan City."

"For the sake of some nobody who crawled out of who-knows-where, is it really worth offending a local powerhouse like my Jialie Clan? Does Miss Ya Fei truly think... that this is a profitable trade?"

A threat.

A naked, undisguised threat.

The lazy Persian cat finally retracted her seemingly harmless claws.

The smile on Ya Fei's face vanished completely.

She placed the teacup she had been toying with gently onto the rosewood table in front of her.

"Clack."

A soft sound.

It was not loud, yet it struck Jialie Bi's heart like a heavy hammer.

The atmosphere in the entire room froze instantly.

Ya Fei slowly raised her eyes.

Those peach-blossom eyes, usually shimmering with liquid light, were now like two bottomless, frozen pools, devoid of even a shred of warmth.

An aura, no weaker than Jialie Bi's and perhaps even more refined and overbearing, erupted from her delicate frame!

"Clan Leader Jialie."

Her voice had changed as well.

Gone was the soft allure, replaced by the cold, sharp edge of a top-tier power.

"The reputation of the Mite'er Family spans the entire Jia Ma Empire. From the Imperial Capital to the borders of the Black Corner Region, every auction house follows the same ironclad rule."

"If that rule were to be broken here in Wutan City today..."

"When the headquarters holds us accountable, that is a responsibility you cannot bear, and I, Ya Fei... cannot bear either."

She watched Jialie Bi quietly, every word like a cold blade stabbing into his heart.

"Or perhaps..."

Ya Fei's red lips curled into a cold arc.

"Clan Leader Jialie, are you willing to risk a total falling out with the entire Mite'er Family for the sake of a secret you haven't even obtained yet?"

Jialie Bi's pupils contracted violently.

He was stunned by Ya Fei's final remark.

Make an enemy of the entire Mite'er Family?

Even if he were given ten times the courage, he wouldn't dare!

He could afford to look down on this tiny branch in Wutan City, but he would never dare to provoke that commercial behemoth entrenched in the heart of the Empire, a giant to which even the Misty Cloud Sect had to show a measure of respect!

Jialie Bi's complexion shifted between green and white, looking unsightly to the extreme.

He gripped his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the excessive force.

He knew that what Ya Fei said was the truth.

Taking it by force was no longer an option.

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

A long while passed.

Jialie Bi stood up abruptly, his chest heaving violently, until he finally squeezed a few words through his teeth.

"Good! A very sharp-tongued Miss Ya Fei indeed!"

He let out a heavy, cold snort, didn't even glance at the chest of gifts, and whipped his sleeves around.

"We shall see!"

Having said that, he didn't look back, and with a heart full of rage and humiliation, he strode away.

The door was slammed shut with a thunderous bang.

Only when those heavy footsteps had completely faded away did Ya Fei's body, which had been taut the entire time, slowly begin to relax.

She leaned back against the sofa, the icy, overbearing demeanor on her face receding like a tide, replaced by a look of gravity and exhaustion.

She picked up the cup of tea that had long since gone cold and took a light sip.

The tea was bitter.

She knew that today's confrontation was merely the beginning.

An ambitious man like Jialie Bi would never let the matter rest here.

If he couldn't win openly, he would certainly resort to underhanded tactics.

And that mysterious young man...

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

She remained silent for a moment, then spoke in a faint, composed tone toward the door.

"Someone come in."

"Immediately notify Mr. Su Chen and tell him... the fish has taken the bait."

"Tell him to be extremely careful from now on."