Liu Xi

Fine! I'll just grow slowly on my own. If the Xiao family is a good place to stay for now, then there's no harm in remaining here. Chu Yang consoled himself this way.

Actually, staying with the Xiao family was not bad at all! The Xiao family treated him as an honored guest. Having only just arrived in the Dou Qi Continent and possessing such little strength, did he expect to soar into the heavens right away?

Yet just as Chu Yang began mass-producing Strength Advancement Pills to generally raise the fighting strength of the Xiao family, including himself and perhaps even Xiao Zhan and the others, news about Chu Yang had already been uncovered by the Galle family.

The current patriarch of the Galle family was Galle Bi.

"What? The Xiao family has found an alchemist, and he can even refine so many Strength Advancement Pills to raise the strength of the Xiao family's descendants?"

Upon receiving the news, Galle Bi nearly spilled the wine in his hand all over himself.

The Galle family had always been the Xiao family's economic rival. Both families wanted to crush the other and become the sole dominant family among Wutan City's three great clans.

The reason was that, over the past few years, the third of Wutan City's three great families had gradually declined and withdrawn from the ranks of the major clans. In truth, only the Galle family and the Xiao family remained to battle like dragons and tigers.

In business, the two families had been squeezing each other out for so long that they were already like fire and water. Sooner or later, they would come to blows.

Thus, both families had also been making covert moves to improve their martial strength.

Originally, their overall martial strength had been evenly matched. Neither side dared recklessly spark a conflict, because both understood without saying it: if the two families truly went to war, even the victor would have to pay a terrible price. Neither the Galle family nor the Xiao family wanted such an outcome.

If both sides suffered, it would be like a snipe and clam fighting while the fisherman reaped the benefit. It would only benefit others.

Therefore, although they were sometimes at each other's throats in business, neither family dared casually resort to force.

Recently, the Galle family had gained Liu Xi's assistance and was preparing to strike at the Xiao family in business. Yet the Xiao family had been even more ruthless, immediately finding someone to help raise their martial strength. He could refine Strength Advancement Pills that improved Dou Fighters' cultivation. Perhaps next he would refine pills that could improve Dou Masters' cultivation, and then ones for even higher levels...

How was the Galle family supposed to compete with the Xiao family then?

Once the Xiao family had accumulated enough martial strength, they could simply use force against them. What use would the Galle family's superior business be then? On the Dou Qi Continent, strength was ultimately supreme, while business was merely secondary. Back when Xiao Yan had seemed destined to become useless, even as the patriarch's son, he would have had no chance to continue cultivating Dou Qi and could only have been assigned to manage the family's other businesses.

Faced with such important intelligence concerning his rival family, Galle Bi, as the Galle family patriarch, naturally experienced great emotional turmoil.

However, someone beside him, a young man with a decent appearance but a face full of wickedness who was making tea with him, was even more agitated.

He was Liu Xi, the first-tier alchemist the Galle family had recently invited to aid them.

Faced with this crucial news that could severely undermine the Galle family, Liu Xi acted as though he had heard nothing and remained utterly calm.

At that moment, the frivolous man was still embracing women on both sides, clutching two young and beautiful maidservants from the Galle family as he continuously took liberties with them.

The two maidservants did not dare resist and could only let him indulge himself. He was the Galle family's honored guest, after all. He was also a noble alchemist, rarer than giant pandas in Wutan City and someone nobody dared provoke!

Galle Bi glanced sideways at him, inwardly cursing with contempt, What kind of idiot is this? Aside from knowing alchemy, does he have any proper skills?

Yet outwardly, he naturally would not criticize Liu Xi. Liu Xi was currently the key to defeating the Xiao family. Though Galle Bi despised him beyond measure, he still had to put on a warm front and discuss such matters as romance and pleasure with him.

Seeing Liu Xi's complete disregard for the Xiao family's rise, Galle Bi was furious inside, but he could not directly rebuke Liu Xi.

The crafty old man knew that dealing with Liu Xi required a roundabout approach.

He understood that Liu Xi was not only lustful, but also greedy for wealth.

If he wanted this man to devote himself fully to serving him, he needed not only to find him young, beautiful women, but also to stuff his pockets full of Gold Coins.

To be honest, Galle Bi had originally spent a great deal of money to win Liu Xi over. He believed that one could not catch a wolf without sacrificing a child.

Although this wolf sometimes appeared especially vicious and greedy, Galle Bi had no choice but to grit his teeth if he wanted to use him against the Xiao family.

As for the Strength Advancement Pills that could improve a Dou Fighter's cultivation, Liu Xi had never even heard of them.

He was, after all, only a first-tier alchemist! Moreover, Strength Advancement Pills were not originally pills found on the Dou Qi Continent.

Liu Xi had originally relied on the Spring Powder he refined to gradually seize the Xiao family's market. This was what he took pride in before the Galle family, and why Galle Bi and the others fawned over him.

If the Xiao family had not suddenly produced this trump card—an alchemist they did not know where they had found, capable of refining Strength Advancement Pills to directly improve the Xiao family's martial strength—then Liu Xi would have been able to seize all of the Xiao family's markets in no time by mass-producing Spring Powder.

But now...

Liu Xi knew that he did not have the ability to refine Strength Advancement Pills. Nor had he refined any pills capable of advancing Dou Fighters. After all, he was merely a first-tier alchemist.

Being able to refine a few pills already made him quite remarkable. He had always thought himself remarkable. In Wutan City, where alchemists were even rarer than giant pandas, he had always believed himself to stand out from the crowd like a crane among chickens.

But now, he felt that his prestige had encountered an enormous challenge!

As for the alchemist invited by the Xiao family, whose background he still could not fathom, Liu Xi estimated that the man might be even stronger than himself.

Yet outwardly, especially before the Galle family, he had to pretend not to be the least bit concerned about the Xiao family's alchemist. He even had to belittle him in order to elevate himself.

"Look at you lot, scared into this state just because the Xiao family found some wild brat from who knows where! I don't see how he could possibly compare to me. He probably just has some unique prescription." Liu Xi said.

Being called "a bunch of idiots" by someone around the same age as his own son made Galle Bi want to fly into a rage on the spot. Yet in the end, he forcibly endured it. There was nothing he could do; with the title of "alchemist" shielding Liu Xi, he was not someone the patriarch of a small local family could afford to provoke.