Good Stuff! I'm Buying It All!

"I'll draw it right now."

Tang San put the scroll recording the matter of his mother into his Soul Tool, then headed to the dormitory to start recreating the Immortal Herb Illustrated Catalog.

He sneered to himself.

You want the Immortal Herb Illustrated Catalog? Fine, I'll draw it for you.

As for whether following its instructions to consume Immortal Herbs sends you into cultivation deviation, that's none of my business.

Lu Chuan paid Tang San no attention.

He took a table and chairs from the System Space, set them on the ground, and sat down to leisurely sip some juice.

Flender and the others stood where they were. None dared speak. They could only watch Lu Chuan uneasily, with no idea what he might do next.

Ning Rongrong, however, sidled up to Lu Chuan as though they were old friends, wearing the sweet smile of a gentle young lady.

If he hadn't known she was a little devil, he might actually have been fooled.

"Hello, I'm Ning Rongrong, from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

"Lu Chuan. An invincible merchant."

Ning Rongrong blinked. She had mentioned the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to test his reaction.

But from the look of him, he didn't care about the sect at all. He hadn't even offered her a chair.

She turned and pointed at Oscar.

"You. Go get me a chair!"

"Uh, sure!"

Oscar hurried off and soon returned with a chair, thoughtfully wiping it clean with his sleeve.

Ning Rongrong pulled it over and sat beside the table as though it were only natural.

Lu Chuan watched with interest over his glass of juice but said nothing.

"Brother Lu Chuan, since you're a merchant, what do you sell? I could give you some business."

Ning Rongrong looked confident. Money was the one thing the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect never lacked. If money alone could win this man's favor, it would be a bargain.

Lu Chuan raised an eyebrow and produced several Yellow Rank Dou Techniques.

"Want to fight like other Soul Masters? Want to break the rule that support-type Soul Masters can't attack and rise to the top? Then you need Self-Created Soul Skills! Even the crown prince swears by them!"

"The crown prince? He bought them too?!"

"Of course. He paid with a Spirit Bone over fifty thousand years old."

Ning Rongrong had been skeptical, but if even Crown Prince Senior Brother had bought them, it had to be true.

Still, she was stunned. A Spirit Bone over fifty thousand years old! Even to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, that was a substantial resource.

Lu Chuan then explained the classifications of Dou Techniques and Cultivation Methods, along with the Exchange's prices, one by one.

The more Ning Rongrong heard, the worse she felt.

A single copy wasn't expensive. Even a high-grade Yellow Rank Self-Created Soul Skill cost only a Spirit Bone with an additional eight hundred years of age and a thousand Gold Coins.

But only one person could learn it!!

There was no way to pass it down as an inheritance.

What a profiteer!!

But she wanted one so badly. Offensive Self-Created Soul Skills were far too important to support-type Soul Masters like her!

"Brother Lu Chuan, I don't have a Spirit Bone on me right now. Could I write home and have the sect send it over before we trade?"

Ning Rongrong waited for his answer.

"Sure. You can sign the contract first."

"No problem!"

At his confirmation, a golden contract appeared before her. She eagerly pressed her small hand against it.

The contract flashed with light, then vanished.

"Where should I find you afterward?"

"The Crown Prince's Residence," Lu Chuan replied calmly.

Ning Rongrong nodded and committed it to memory. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect already had frequent dealings with the crown prince, so visiting his residence wouldn't be difficult for her.

Lu Chuan went on to pitch Foundation Establishment Spiritual Liquid and Cultivation Methods for training.

As he laid each item on the table, Ning Rongrong gasped again and again, her eyes shining.

Crown Prince Senior Brother bought these regularly. They had to be good stuff!

She placed order after order without hesitation!

Contracts appeared one after another, and Ning Rongrong pressed her hand to each one.

The Shrek group watched enviously, especially Oscar, who was also a support-type Soul Master.

But envy was all he could afford. Every treasure on the table cost more than he could pay.

Just then, Tang San hurried over with a thick stack of papers in his arms.

He held them out, his face betraying little emotion.

"Here. This is the Immortal Herb Illustrated Catalog you wanted."

Lu Chuan picked up a page to inspect it.

Tang San suddenly collapsed as though he'd had a seizure. His whole body convulsed, foam spilling from his mouth. It felt as if every bone in his body had been broken, while his Meridians were torn apart, reformed, then torn apart again in an endless cycle.

"AARGH!!"

His agonized scream rang across the academy entrance.

Ning Rongrong jumped and stared at Tang San in horror.

"What's wrong with him? Why did he suddenly have a fit?!"

"Because the Immortal Herb Illustrated Catalog he gave me is fake. He signed a contract, so he has to fulfill the terms of the trade.

"If he misses the deadline or provides something fake or damaged, the contract will punish him.

"Of course, it works both ways. I have to honor the trade too."

Lu Chuan glanced at Tang San, deliberately emphasizing that last sentence, then set down the page in his hand.

Little Scumbag, you could at least have made an effort. The very first page you gave me was fake...

The information about Ah Yin that Lu Chuan had handed over had been altered, so it was fake too.

But that's what Little Scumbag gets for not reading the contract.

Ning Rongrong swallowed. She hadn't realized the contracts could do that.

And I signed so many...

She shuddered, immediately pulled out paper and pen, and began writing to her father, terrified she might suffer the same pain.

A long while passed before Tang San finally stopped.

His clothes were soaked through with cold sweat. He lay sprawled on the ground, his legs still kicking involuntarily now and then as he gulped for air.

His face was white as paper, and deep fear lurked in his eyes when he looked at Lu Chuan.

"I... I was wrong... I'll fix it right now..."

Tang San shakily got to his feet, picked up a pen, and began making corrections.

Lu Chuan's eyelid twitched. Good grief, not a single page of this was real!

Fortunately, the contract had kept Tang San in check. Otherwise, the brat might really have pulled off his dirty trick.

Only when the system deemed it acceptable did Lu Chuan put it away, satisfied.

"Old man, let's go."

He put away the table, chairs, and tea set, then disappeared into the sky alongside Dugu Bo.

Only after Lu Chuan and Dugu Bo were far away did the Shrek group breathe a sigh of relief, their tense bodies slowly relaxing.

The others silently counted themselves lucky. At least the man had been reasonable enough not to take it out on innocent bystanders.

Oscar and Ma Hongjun hurried forward, hauled up the unconscious Dai Mubai, and rushed back toward the dormitory.

The rest didn't want to linger either. One by one, they dispersed.

Back in his dormitory, Tang San shut the door behind him.

He slowly took out the scroll he had paid such a steep price to obtain and spread it across the table.

As he read it line by line, word by word, his pupils abruptly contracted.

"No... That's impossible! How could Father..."

He muttered under his breath, gripping the edge of the scroll so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

The flood of revelations overwhelmed him. Faced with everything written there, Tang San couldn't accept it all at once.

He desperately wanted to believe it was fake, but he couldn't ignore the constraints of the contract.

That man had never even seen the Immortal Herb Illustrated Catalog, yet the contract still detected my forgery.

If the contract works both ways, he has to abide by it too. He can't use fake information to deceive me!