After receiving twenty million gold coins, Yao Chen was quite satisfied. As an alchemist, he had never been short of money. He could casually sell a few high-grade pills at an auction house and make several million gold coins.
But these twenty million gold coins had been swindled from Jia Liebi.
Spending money like this was the most satisfying.
And he could fatten his own purse before wiping out the Jia Lie Family.
Why wouldn't he?
"Good, I'll take it." Yao Chen nodded and accepted a card from Jia Liebi. It held twenty million gold coins.
He had already transferred the money into his own account.
After drawing Jia Liebi a grand promise, he left the Miteer Auction House.
Before leaving, he told Jia Liebi, "Patriarch Jia Lie, go back and wait for word. I'll be refining some Rank 3 Pills soon to help your Jia Lie Family take complete control of Wutan City's pill market."
"Really? Thank you so much, my lord."
After returning home, Jia Liebi and his son Jia Lie'ao were both exceptionally excited.
But even after a week, they still hadn't received any word or reply from Yao Chen.
The pills he had promised never arrived, while the Xiao Clan's pill market had recently begun selling a Rank 3 pill that restored Dou Qi.
It was especially popular with the nearby mercenary groups, who were willing to pay a high price for it.
Over the past few days, business in the Xiao Clan's market had grown increasingly brisk, earning them a fortune.
Jia Liebi suddenly sensed something was wrong. Only then did it dawn on him: had the Xiao Clan swindled him?
By now, they had sold their Jia Lie Family's market business to the Xiao Clan.
He had thought he could place all his hopes in that alchemist.
But after waiting all these days, the Jia Lie Family had received no word of any Rank 3 Pills.
Instead, the Xiao Clan's market had recently started selling Rank 3 Qi Recovery Pills.
Jia Liebi was on the verge of a breakdown.
He had spent twenty million gold coins, yet not only had he failed to bring down the Xiao Clan, but even his own market business had ended up in the Xiao Clan's hands.
The twenty million gold coins he had spent had gone down the drain.
A thought suddenly struck him: could that alchemist have been a member of the Xiao Clan all along?
If so, hadn't they set him up?
"What do we do, Father? Did the Xiao Clan lay a trap for us? That fourth-grade alchemist might well be one of their own, deliberately swindling us!"
"Now our family's market belongs to the Xiao Clan too. I'd say that's almost certainly what happened!" Jia Lie'ao said furiously.
"I'm going to the Xiao Clan to settle accounts with them. They even dare to swindle the Jia Lie Family? They're asking to die!"
Jia Lie'ao was about to leave the hall and head for the Xiao Clan when his father, Jia Liebi, stopped him.
"What is it, Father? We spent twenty million gold coins for nothing! A good portion was borrowed, and the rest came from selling our market business. Are we just going to let it go?"
Jia Lie'ao said angrily. As one of Wutan City's three great clans, when had the Jia Lie Family ever suffered such a huge loss?
Jia Liebi's expression was grave. "Even if we've been swindled, a fourth-grade alchemist isn't someone we can afford to offend lightly. We could bring a calamity down on the Jia Lie Family!"
"But, Father, this is such a huge matter. Are we really just going to let it go?"
The Jia Lie Family had already descended into chaos.
Inside Xiao Yan's room.
Only now did Xiao Yan understand what his teacher had been planning that day.
"Teacher, that move of yours was brilliant! You got something for nothing. You not only made the Jia Lie Family willingly sell their market business and let our Xiao Clan take over, but you also swindled them out of twenty million gold coins, badly weakening them and leaving them short of funds and in an economic crisis."
"Truly worthy of being my teacher. You helped the Xiao Clan take over Wutan City's pill market with ease."
Xiao Yan praised him.
Inside Xiao Yan's room, Yao Chen saw the admiration in his face and eyes, and smiled faintly.
His attention was on the System Panel.
A few lines of text were displayed on it.
[Current Quest: Help the Xiao Clan take over the Jia Lie Family's pill market.] [Quest Reward: One Red Blind Box.] [Quest complete. Reward issued.] [The host currently has one Red Blind Box. Open it now? Please choose.]
Seeing the prompt on the System Panel,
Yao Chen immediately chose to accept and open the Red Blind Box he had just received, then chose to draw.
"System, open the blind box now."
[The host opened one Red Blind Box and drew a reward: Revival Coin x1, Soul Power +13, and one High-grade Profound Tier Wind Attribute Dou Technique.]
Seeing the reward he had just drawn from the Red Blind Box displayed on the System Panel,
Yao Chen was quite satisfied, especially with the Revival Coin.
It would allow him to come back to life, which was the most important thing for him right now.
Only with a body of his own could he fully unleash his Dou Sheng cultivation and power.
Otherwise, in his current soul state, he could never bring it all to bear.
Even possessing Xiao Yan's body, it simply couldn't withstand the power of a Dou Sheng's cultivation.
Several months passed, and Xiao Yan's Dou Qi had reached the Eighth Stage of Dou Qi.
He was one step closer to becoming a Dou Zhe, though he still had a considerable way to go before he could break through and advance.
Then, one day, the System Panel issued a new quest for Yao Chen to complete.
[Current Quest: Sell one Fifth-grade Pill and earn Ya Fei's respect.] [Reward: One Orange Blind Box.] [Accept the quest? Please choose.]
An Orange Blind Box?
Yao Chen was curious about what kind of reward he could draw from one.
As for auctioning off a Fifth-grade Pill, that was no problem at all for Yao Chen. He could casually whip up a few little pills and they'd be Fifth-grade Pills.
It was as easy as child's play, no difficulty whatsoever.
Yao Chen went to the Miteer Auction House and bought some ingredients for refining a Fifth-grade Pill, the Heavenly Nourishing Gold Pill.
This Fifth-grade Pill could help cultivators whose strength had been sealed, or who were too badly injured to use their full power, recover to a considerable degree.
Its effects were similar to those of the Sixth-Grade Obstacle Breaking Pill, but since its ingredients weren't as rare,
it was still somewhat inferior to the Obstacle Breaking Pill.
But its effects weren't bad either. It could at least restore most of the strength lost to a seal.
Yao Chen arrived at the Miteer Auction House. When Ya Fei heard him mention those medicinal ingredients,
and that they were to be used to refine a Fifth-grade Pill,
her expression turned utterly astonished, and shock surged through her heart.
"Could this alchemist before me really be a Fifth-grade Alchemist? N-no... that can't be!"