An incense stick later, at the old residence of Yang Biao, the Fish Gang's leader.
Lu Cheng stood in the courtyard, unable to help admiring the man's vigilance.
After taking the Young Gang Leader to meet the Young Gang Leader, Lu Cheng had wasted no time.
He'd brought five hundred taels in banknotes and hurried straight here.
Since Zhang Rensheng knew nothing about the attempted assassination, killing the Fish Gang's leader as well would likely cover it up.
After all, a Body Tempering martial artist was far beyond what Lu Cheng could handle right now.
Even buying himself some time would be worthwhile.
But, to his surprise, he'd come up empty.
The Yang Family's residence wasn't large, just a modest compound with two courtyards.
White mourning drapes hung everywhere, and the ground was so thick with joss paper that "covered" hardly did it justice.
Lu Cheng had turned the entire residence upside down in less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
He'd searched inside and out, even uncovering a secret room, but hadn't found a single person or a penny.
Even everything that could be sold for money had vanished.
The vigil candles in the mourning hall had long since gone out, and the wind had scattered the half-burned joss paper from the brazier across the floor.
Only the fruit offerings on the table still looked fresh.
According to the Young Gang Leader, Yang Biao had sent all his servants and concubines home several days ago, claiming he needed to observe mourning and keep to himself.
He'd even handed all the Fish Gang's affairs over to his subordinates.
For the past few days, he'd kept to his home and avoided visitors, only seeking Lu Cheng out with the money that morning.
Now it seemed he'd planned this well in advance.
His mourning and seclusion had been real enough.
But more than anything, he'd probably been laying the groundwork for revenge.
He'd gathered up all his gold and silver beforehand, then brought the money to the Young Gang Leader on the final day to settle the score.
As for why he'd "fled"...
Judging by the Young Gang Leader's simple-minded look, that five hundred taels had probably been Yang Biao's trap.
Now that he'd gotten what he wanted, staying behind would only invite trouble.
He might also have feared retaliation from the Long Wind Escort Agency.
After all, no matter how ruthless Yang Biao was, he was just a street thug. Against a martial artist, he wasn't worth a damn.
Daring to interfere at all had already been bold enough.
It wasn't surprising that he'd fled and gone into hiding.
Of course, all of this was just Lu Cheng's conjecture.
Now the dead were dead, and the ones who'd run were gone. There was no way to verify anything.
Still, it was for the best. That saved him the trouble of cleaning up afterward.
Besides that, he'd learned a few other things from the dead Young Gang Leader.
The stakes.
With the Martial Suppression Battalion involved, there was no avoiding the payout.
So the seventeen families had divided it into three shares.
The Four Symbols Martial Arts Hall, led by the Vermilion Bird and Black Tortoise Martial Halls; the Xu and Huang families; and the remaining eleven families would each pay one share.
The silver was manageable. These groups all had plenty of businesses, both legitimate and otherwise.
Three or four thousand taels was a lot, but they could scrape it together.
The real problem was the other pills and medicines.
Five thousand doses of Blood-Activating Powder, and five hundred portions each of Hundred Essence Pills, Bone-Strengthening Powder, Tendon-Changing Pills, and Jade Skin Ointment.
Even a third of those amounts was enough to leave them scrambling.
Lu Cheng didn't know how the other families were faring, but the Vermilion Bird Martial Arts Hall was still far short.
Its share alone required five hundred doses of Blood-Activating Powder.
But they only had eighty prepared doses and a little over a hundred batches' worth of raw ingredients.
Price was only part of the reason they had so little.
The real problem was that they didn't dare let word get out.
The tournament was still only being discussed in a limited circle.
Most people knew nothing about it.
All seventeen families could do was quietly stockpile pills and ingredients.
If news spread, the price of pills in Yang City and the surrounding areas would shoot sky-high in an instant.
That was something the seventeen families couldn't afford.
But sometimes, it wasn't up to them what they could afford.
"What do you mean, you want to buy all the ingredients for Blood-Activating Powder?"
In the Black Market, Old Pi stared in shock at Lu Cheng, who'd come back with another request.
"With five hundred taels, buying ingredients would get you... a thousand doses! Are you crazy?"
Hearing "a thousand doses," Lu Cheng was surprised too.
He'd only been thinking aloud. He hadn't actually worked out the numbers.
"A thousand doses does sound like a lot." Lu Cheng considered it.
"But we can't predict exactly how things will go."
"If we end up needing more, we'll be in trouble."
"And as the amount we buy goes up, they definitely won't keep selling it for five qian a dose."
Old Pi shook his head repeatedly.
"Needing more? It's medicine for training, not rice."
"Forget a thousand doses—even a hundred would last you until you died."
Lu Cheng shook his head. "No, you don't know what I'm trying to do."
"How about this? Help me rent a shop in a remote part of the Black Market. It doesn't need to be big. Just find the cheapest one."
"Use all the rest to buy ingredients for Blood-Activating Powder."
"Only Blood-Activating Powder. Nothing else."
The other pills were too expensive, and there wasn't enough of a market for them. They couldn't produce the effect Lu Cheng wanted.
Old Pi stared blankly at Lu Cheng.
"You really are crazy. You've got some talent for alchemy, but you can't go about it like this."
Lu Cheng's success in refining fifteen doses of Blood-Activating Powder in a row had shocked Old Pi to the core.
Before that, even the best alchemist in Yang City could only manage an eighty percent success rate when refining Blood-Activating Powder.
Old Yang could only manage fifty percent.
One reason pills were so expensive was the losses from failed attempts.
The higher the grade, the more expensive the ingredients and the lower the success rate. Naturally, the prices became outrageous.
Lu Cheng shook his head and said:
"No, I'm not crazy. What I'm doing isn't that complicated."
"It's just that I can't explain it to you properly in a short while."
Then he fixed his gaze on Old Pi. His eyes beneath the black cloth were uncommonly resolute.
"Old Pi, you won't have to spend a single coin. All you need to do is help me buy the ingredients, and you'll earn more silver than you could in one lifetime—no, ten lifetimes. Are you sure you want to refuse?"
Hearing that he wouldn't have to pay and could still make money, Old Pi finally nodded.
Still confused, he asked:
"Old Pi... who's that?"
"..."
Lu Cheng pursed his lips.
"Old Pi... is a code phrase."
Old Pi looked at him in confusion. Lu Cheng waved a hand and spoke with conviction.
"It really is just a code phrase. This plan is enormous, far more important than anything ordinary, and it'll last a very long time."
"Buying ingredients is only the very beginning, but it's just as important as everything that comes afterward."
"Even I can't fully predict what might happen later."
"But don't worry. If this succeeds, you'll earn more than ten lifetimes' worth of silver."
"So we have to be careful. You can't tell anyone but me."
"And from now on, even if it's me speaking, if I haven't said 'Old Pi' first, don't pay any attention to what I say."
Old Pi rubbed the leather mask on his face and smacked his lips. Something about this felt off.
But since he wouldn't have to pay, there was no way he'd lose money, no matter what Lu Cheng did.
Besides, no matter how much alchemy there was, Lu Cheng would be the one doing the tiring work. What reason did he have to refuse?
He had nothing else to do in the Black Market anyway.
Old Pi nodded.
"Fine. What code phrase should I use when I call you? Old Pi too?"
Lu Cheng:
"..."
"No. Just call me... Livermore."
"Lee-fu-mo-ear? A millstone... has ears?"
Lu Cheng:
"It's not a millstone. It's... forget it. Just call me that."
Then he added:
"But a plan this big needs a name."
"Old Pi, from now on, we'll call this plan the 'Financial Storm.'"
Old Pi:
"..."
Lu Cheng:
"Also, the ingredients must never be bought in Yang City. Buying five or eight doses every few days would be fine."
"But if we're buying in bulk, we'll have to get them from another county. Hmm... preferably another prefecture, and somewhere with no ties to Yang City."
Old Pi:
"..."
After explaining a few more details to Old Pi, Lu Cheng asked where the Black Market's northern exit was.
Once he had the exact location, he left all the banknotes behind and hurried away.
Before the plan began, he needed to return to the escort agency and get to know Feng Zhan, Fatty, and the others better.
If all went as expected, he'd spend most of his time in the Black Market from now until the tournament began.
There were plenty of things in the plan that he'd need Fatty and the others to help with.
And for his training, if he could spar with Feng Zhan often, he'd have a much better chance of reaching Perfected Strength Refining within three months.
Lu Cheng hadn't forgotten what his main goal was.
The martial path was the true way.
Before you continue