Stealing Fragrance

As dusk approached, the man with the mustache closed the shop door and left.

He first entered a cultivator's restaurant, ordered some fine Demon Beast meat and a pot of spiritual wine. After eating and drinking his fill, he got up and headed to the residential area in the eastern part of the market.

Night had already fallen over the land.

The man with the mustache turned into a dark alley and walked to the outside of a Small Courtyard.

After looking around to make sure no one was nearby, he gently knocked on the courtyard gate.

A woman's voice came from inside the door after a dozen or so breaths.

Who is it?

"Sister-in-law, it's me, Sixth Brother."

"Squeak!"

The courtyard gate was opened from the inside, revealing a woman in her forties, whose figure was slightly out of shape, but who still retained her charm.

The woman looked around to make sure no one was in the alley, then asked softly.

"Xiao Liu, what brings you here?"

As she spoke, the man with the mustache made no attempt to hide, directly pushing his way past the woman into the courtyard.

"Don't worry, sister-in-law, there's no one outside."

After the man with the mustache entered the courtyard, the woman quickly closed the gate.

A lewd smile spread across the man's face as he reached out and pulled the woman into his arms. "I just missed you, didn't I?"

While speaking, his hands roamed restlessly over the woman's chest.

"Pah!" The woman spat out a light, coquettish sound, her eyes filled with allure.

"You've been acting up ever since your second brother and the others left."

Then, the two embraced and went into the house.

In a short while, with the help of the man with the mustache using both his hands and mouth, soft moans could be heard from inside the room.

Having witnessed all of this with his Divine Sense, Song Wen felt somewhat frustrated. After closing the shop, he sent the Sacred Beetle Gu into the shop, only to find that there was nothing of value inside, and the Yellow Essence Fungus was naturally nowhere to be found.

Song Wen speculated that the person with the mustache probably didn't have any Yellow Essence Fungus type of medicinal herb), and that the person demanding a deposit was trying to use it to buy Yellow Essence Fungus and then sell it to him at a higher price.

Therefore, Song Wen decided to follow the man with the mustache to see if he could find out where he bought the Yellow Essence Fungus.

Unexpectedly, instead of going to the place where Yellow Essence Fungus was, the man with the mustache actually found his own sister-in-law's bedroom.

An hour later, the second sister-in-law lay paralyzed on the bed, panting heavily, her face flushed.

He got up, put on his clothes, and went straight out of the Small Courtyard.

Just when Song Wen thought he was going to buy Yellow Essence Fungus, he turned into another alley, took a pill, and knocked on another courtyard gate.

The woman who opened the door this time was a young woman in her early twenties, who looked incredibly youthful.

The young woman's eyes flashed with secret delight when she saw the mustache. She pulled him into the yard, her voice tinged with reproach.

"You rascal, why are you so late?"

"Your third brother and second brother went back to the Su Clan this afternoon. They didn't even bother to come over earlier."

"The wait is making people unbearably lonely..."

Song Wen grew increasingly frustrated. He considered whether he should grab the man with the mustache and perform a soul search, but soul searches could only uncover fragmented memories, and sometimes could not yield the desired portion of the memory.

Or, should we go to the brothel first, and then come back to follow the man with the mustache?

After causing trouble at the Third Sister-in-law's house for an hour, the man with the mustache left, took two pills, and knocked on the door of the Fifth Sister-in-law's house in another alley...

It wasn't until the early hours of the next morning, around 3 AM, that the man with the mustache, supporting his aching back from a long night's work, walked towards the other end of the market.

After traversing most of the market town, the man with the mustache arrived at the spirit medicine opened by the Su Clan.

He walked confidently to the side of the spirit medicine and knocked on a small side door.

A moment later, the side door was opened. He bowed to the two guards standing inside the side door, greeted them, and then walked deeper into the inner courtyard.

The inner courtyard of the spirit medicine was quite large, covering dozens of acres, and guards were stationed in every corner of the courtyard.

The man with the mustache arrived at the outside of a three-story building, explained his purpose to the guards outside, and was only allowed to enter after the guards announced his arrival.

He went straight up to the third floor and entered one of the rooms.

Inside the room was a male cultivator in his forties, with Foundation Establishment Late Stage level, sitting Meditation Cushion- legged on a futon with his eyes closed.

Seeing that the other person seemed to be practicing internal energy cultivation, the man with the mustache stood timidly at the door, not daring to breathe loudly, unsure whether to go in or back out.

"Come in!" the male cultivator suddenly said.

Upon hearing this, the man with the mustache relaxed and bowed.

"Greetings, Fifth Elder!"

The Fifth Elder, his eyes still closed, asked.

"Xiao Liu, what brings you here?"

The man with the mustache replied.

"Reporting to the Fifth Elder, yesterday afternoon, a Rogue Cultivator came to purchase Yellow Essence Fungus."

"I suspect he might be a second-tier Alchemist, or that he has a second-tier Alchemist behind him, so I've come to report this."

The Fifth Elder opened his eyes and stared intently at the man with the mustache.

"Are you sure he's a Rogue Cultivator?"

The man with the mustache said, "This person is a completely new face; he's most likely a newly arrived Rogue Cultivator."

"Moreover, this person is completely ignorant of the rules of the Northern Lands Market. No matter which faction's Alchemist they belong to, anyone who frequently travels to the Northern Lands Market knows that the major factions prohibit the trading of Yellow Essence Fungus, a second-tier spirit medicine with a wide range of uses, in the market. The fact that he is inquiring about Yellow Essence Fungus everywhere clearly indicates that he is a newcomer."

The Fifth Elder nodded in agreement.

"What you said makes some sense. Did you leave any tracking marks on him?"

The man with the mustache said, "I'm worried about being detected by him or the second-tier Alchemist behind him, so I dare not leave any tracking marks rashly."

"However, he paid a deposit of five hundred Spirit Stone and agreed to pick up the Yellow Essence Fungus first thing tomorrow morning."

The Fifth Elder praised, "Hmm! Not bad, you do have some cleverness, and your mind is quite meticulous."

"These next two days, I will have Su Wei and Su Gu accompany you. If you can successfully recruit this second-tier Alchemist to the Su Clan and have him serve us, you will be credited with this. After that, he will work for me from now on."

Upon hearing this, the man with the mustache was overjoyed and bowed respectfully.

"Thank you for your guidance, Fifth Elder. I will serve you faithfully to the death and never waver in my loyalty."

Su Wei and Su Gu were two Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivators who followed the Fifth Elder. With their help, the man with the mustache was confident that he could bring the second-tier Alchemist into the Su Clan.

Song Wen was unaware of everything that was happening inside the building.

The building was protected by an array, which, although not a particularly advanced one, kept the Sacred Beetle Gu out. Song Wen had no choice but to have the Sacred Beetle Gu monitor the building from the outside.

The moment Song Wen saw the man with the mustache walk into the Su Clan's spirit medicine, he realized that the man was not a simple shopkeeper, but rather the Su Clan's informant in the market.

About fifteen minutes later, the man with the mustache emerged from the building.

Not long after he left the spirit medicine, two Foundation Establishment Early Stage spirit medicine also came out and followed him.