After a feast of spirit cuisine, everyone was in high spirits. The furrows in their brows, usually weighed down by alchemy and artifact-refining duties, finally eased.
Even Ye Xingyu, one of the Xing generation who rarely spoke, began offering a few remarks.
"With your Thirteenth Aunt's cooking, our Ye Family could open a restaurant someday without any trouble!"
"That's right, Thirteenth Aunt—why doesn't our Ye Family open a restaurant?" Ye Jingli had eaten himself into a happy daze, his mouth slick with oil. Perhaps because the spiritual power was too abundant, his whole body even glimmered faintly with spiritual light.
"What are you talking about? Restaurants are the Mo Family's business!" Ye Xinghe shot Ye Jingli a glare from the side.
Ye Jingli lowered his head and said no more.
He knew he had crossed a line.
Within the marketplace, while one could theoretically sell anything, every family had its own particular focus.
The Taicang Xu Clan controlled Taihang Marketplace's Earthfire Hall and also ran the most valuable spirit-plant cultivation business. The Green Willow Mo Clan controlled two of Taihang Marketplace's only restaurants and, beyond that, dealt in array discs.
The Buqing Li Clan was a newly risen force, skilled in alchemy. The Idle Cloud Chu Clan specialized in artifact refinement, the Shanyue Chen Clan in spirit talismans, and the Soaring Cloud Ye Family in spirit beasts.
Of course, the businesses of the major Foundation Establishment families generally overlapped to some degree. The Ye Family, for instance, chiefly sold spirit beasts, but also sold spirit pills and magical artifacts.
Yet there was also an unwritten understanding: no family could surpass another in its primary trade.
For example, if the Ye Family sold spirit pills, their prices and varieties could not be better than the Li Family's.
Likewise, in the varieties