Against the Rat Race

Su Yuan and Ink Qilin had already changed into black robes.

Two rows of black-robed figures dressed identically stood silently on either side.

Once the flying vessel came to a steady stop, the black-robed figures swarmed aboard and silently began their work.

Those unloading unloaded, those registering registered. Everything was orderly and highly efficient.

Su Yuan swept his gaze over them and asked,

"Venerable, are these all your people? Are they truly reliable?"

Ink Qilin was so exhausted that his tongue hung out. After taking several deep breaths, he finally snorted.

"If they were all my people, that would be unreliable. Let me tell you, everyone here is a shareholder in this black market. Who knows what great deity stands behind each of them? The waters run deep! Did you think I alone could swallow such a huge batch of hot potatoes?"

Su Yuan nodded slightly.

There was no relationship more reliable in the world than one bound by shared interests.

Take himself, for instance. Since he and Ink Qilin had boarded the same ship, each taking what they needed, this Venerable had shed his initial arrogance toward him and gradually begun treating him as an equal.

Once the goods had been inventoried, everyone moved into a secret chamber.

The moment they sat down, praise and flattery erupted from all sides.

"The Pacification Recruitment Team only finished inventorying and releasing these goods this morning, yet they were already in your hands by night. What a method..."

"I am impressed! This is what it means to have hands and eyes reaching the heavens!"

"If I didn't know Taibai was currently in Yu Yu Palace of Clear Subtle Heaven discussing the Dao, I'd suspect that old man had stolen from the very vault he was guarding!"

Ink Qilin raised a hand to suppress the discussion and used the lines they had prepared beforehand.

"Enough idle chatter. We have three rules for this batch of goods."

"First, how the goods are divided, who receives them, and what they receive will all be arranged by us. No one gets to pick the best for themselves."

"Second, all goods may only be sold through the black market! Every year, I will provide a list detailing how much may be sold and what may be sold. Anyone who dares dump goods privately and ruin the greater plan, don't blame me for showing no mercy."

"Third," he paused and stressed his words, "we take fifty percent of all sales revenue from this batch."

The instant he finished speaking, the secret chamber erupted like a pot of boiling oil.

"Fifty percent?! Why don't you just rob us!"

"The black market barely makes any money as it is, and you still want fifty percent!"

"Why should we drag this out for two thousand years?"

"Such a huge appetite—aren't you afraid of choking to death? Believe it or not, I'll report you to the Thunder Bureau right now!"

Seeing everyone questioning them at once, Su Yuan knew the timing was ripe.

He took out a jade slip and projected it onto the wall. It was an exceptionally detailed line chart.

The chart clearly listed the price and transaction-volume fluctuations of ten of the black market's most dependable commodities over nearly two thousand years: Three-Turn Golden Elixir, three-thousand-year Peaches of Immortality, ten-thousand-year Sinking Water Jade, Star Sand, Shou Mountain Copper Essence, and more.

"Everyone, take a look. These are the actual transaction figures for ten hard currencies over the past eighteen hundred years. And this pale gray line is the Heavenly Court's official guide price."

Su Yuan pointed at several sharply declining sections.

"Do you see it? Every time prices were cut in half, it coincided with an abnormal surge in supply! Why? Because some people, eager to quickly recoup spirit stones, spared no cost in vicious dumping!"

His sharp gaze swept across the room.

"Rare resources that should have carried immense profit margins were turned into cabbage prices by your own hands! At one point, they even fell below the official price! According to calculations, due solely to this disorderly competition, everyone here has earned at least this much less over the past thousand years—" With a flick of his finger, an enormous, staggering number appeared on the light screen.

"Eighty-five billion spirit stones!"

The questioning in the secret chamber gradually faded. Everyone rapidly pinched their fingers, calculating whether the chart was genuine.

Su Yuan pressed his advantage.

"If we keep operating in this current cottage-industry model, fighting separately and undercutting each other—one of you cuts five hundred spirit stones, another cuts a thousand—then why are we even running a black market? We might as well disband and go back to honestly open stalls in the Heavenly Court commercial district!"

Someone below voiced a doubt.

"Then what should we do? Honestly, I don't want to keep cutting prices either, but there are always bastards cutting theirs! If I don't follow suit, I won't sell a single item!"

"What we need is unified trading, unified pricing, unified supply, and unified rules for a major market!"

Su Yuan raised his voice.

"Everyone here is a carefully selected leader in your respective industries. So let me ask you: whose money are we making? Is it the thin margin between selling price and cost? Of course not! We make the multiplied profits brought by scarcity! We make money from those independent cultivators and minor immortals who desperately need breakthroughs but have nowhere to turn! What do we rely on? Exclusivity! Rule-making! Monopoly!"

His words seemed to possess a strange magic, igniting flames in everyone's eyes.

"I'm in!"

An impatient man slapped his thigh hard.

"I've had enough of this crap! For the past five hundred years, I've been dumping my pills at a fucking loss. I don't know which bastards have been undercutting me the whole time! Fuck..."

"That's right! Count me in! Business is hard these days. We need to band together and harvest the retail traders!"

Another person immediately echoed him.

With someone taking the lead, those who had still been calculating and hesitating seemed swept up by the rising fervor and voiced their support one after another.

At that moment, Ink Qilin suddenly tore off his hooded robe, revealing his true face.

"If we are to undertake such a great endeavor, why hide our heads and tails! I am Ink Qilin of the Thunder Bureau. My name remains the same whether I stand or sit!"

His voice boomed like a great bell as his lightning-like gaze swept across the room.

"The door to the secret chamber is right there. If anyone still dares not show their true face or does not trust this undertaking, you may leave now! I will not stop you!"

Su Yuan was startled. This was nothing like the gradual approach they had discussed beforehand!

But on second thought, although Ink Qilin's move was a risky gambit, it was also a brilliant stroke.

Only by being honest with one another could their shared interests bind them more tightly.

More importantly, he was Ink Qilin. Whoever dared walk out now would surely find the Thunder Bureau using the Vast Heaven Mirror tomorrow to thoroughly investigate their illegal black-market dealings.

After seeing Ink Qilin's true face, did they still think they could easily get away?

Sure enough, the room fell deathly silent. Everyone looked at one another, and no one wanted to be the first to state their position.

Suddenly, a black-robed figure seated at the far end rose sharply and strode straight toward the secret chamber door!

This was bad! They had botched it!

Alarmed, Su Yuan nearly rose to stop him.

But Ink Qilin grabbed his arm and held him down. His eyes gleamed as he stared only at the remaining people and said in a low voice, "Let him go."

Those brief dozen or so steps seemed infinitely drawn out. Everyone's eyes clung to that moving black silhouette.

The man reached the door and raised a hand to press the control node of the formation.

With a dull click, the massive stone door locked shut completely!

Only then did he turn around and slowly pull back his hooded robe.

He revealed the face of a middle-aged man, with a leopard-like head, round eyes, a swallow's jaw, and tiger whiskers. Even without anger, he radiated authority.

"I am Chong Yingluan! I'm in!"

A chorus of sharp intakes of breath immediately rose from below.

"The Little Northern Marquis... Chong Yingluan!"

"It's actually him?!"