Chief Steward of the Ten Thousand Treasures Commerce

Most other things the household needed to buy were also delivered to the door under long-standing supply arrangements.

After leaving the carriage firm, Lin Fan began visiting shops in Commandery City that helped wealthy families hire female tutors. He looked for a suitable candidate and insisted that she pass every stage of his screening. She had to possess both talent and virtue.

With those household matters settled, Lin Fan returned once more to the courtyard where he cultivated.

The last rays of the setting sun fell across the courtyard's clean bluestone paving.

Lin Fan sat cross-legged in the courtyard and closed his eyes, once again circulating his cultivation method. Powerful Inner Qi rose and flowed through his limbs and every part of his body.

At that moment, on the other side of Commandery City, the atmosphere in the main council hall of Ten Thousand Treasures Hall had grown oppressive.

Ten Thousand Treasures Hall had been established in Commandery City for nearly a century. It controlled several sizable pill shops and had always led the local pill trade. Its High-Grade Pills had once sold briskly; countless martial families came to buy them for cultivation, bringing in considerable revenue every month.

But when the sales ledgers for the past month or two reached the chief steward of Ten Thousand Treasures Hall in Commandery City, he glanced down at the rows of cold figures, and his face immediately darkened.

Revenue from High-Grade Pills had shrunk by a full seventy percent. Only thirty percent of its former sales remained.

At least half of Ten Thousand Treasures Hall's profits came from selling High-Grade Pills. With sales plunging off a cliff, a huge source of income had been cut away.

Smack!

Several thick ledgers slammed down onto the rosewood desk under the chief steward's hand, their