The shopkeeper had never expected to become the target of everyone's ire so suddenly. His face darkened as he stared at Xiao Yan and Xiao Mo.
"You little bastards! How dare you stage this whole thing to trap me?!"
Xiao Mo quickly stepped back, opening his palm to reveal the pill as he fired off a question that cut straight to the soul.
"What, are you saying this wasn't found on you?"
The shopkeeper instinctively reached into his pocket.
"Of course it wasn't, because the pill from earlier is right here."
At those words, a wave of scoffing swept through the crowd.
Only then did the shopkeeper realize he had been tricked again.
Xiao Mo had led his thinking astray, and in his instinctive rush to refute him, he had actually taken the pill out.
"You!"
His whiskers bristled and his eyes bulged with rage, but he had nowhere to plead his case.
After all, he had deliberately hidden the pill to make it look as though the medicine did not work.
He had seen perfectly clearly just how potent these two young men's medicine was.
He had been determined to block every avenue open to them in front of everyone.
Yet he had never expected to get caught in his own trap.
"I'll kill you both!"
The medicine shop's owner had lost face before the crowd, and he represented far more than himself.
Behind him stood the Jia Lie Family Market, which meant his actions today had disgraced the entire Jia Lie Family.
Beside himself with fury, he seized the stall with both hands and violently flipped it upward.
Xiao Yan had never seen anyone so shameless.
He immediately reached out and snatched back the bags of medicine sent flying, preventing any major losses.
Unfortunately, the stall they had worked so hard to set up had been destroyed.
"Senior brother, how about we give him a taste of what we can do?"
He turned and nudged Xiao Mo, only to realize that his senior brother had not said a word this whole time.
What he did not know was that Xiao Mo was engrossed in the system, brimming with excitement.
"Damn, what a reward!"
[Ding! Host notification: successfully completed one face-slapping task.] [Ding! Congratulations, host, on leading Xiao Yan to the Jia Lie Family Market and completing one face-slapping action. Reward received: 5,000 Shop Points. Current task progress: 2/10.]
Perhaps because his performance this time had been outstanding, the system had provided an additional reward.
[Ding! The previous task is now live. Successfully destroy the Jia Lie Family Market's standing in the public's eyes to receive one supreme-grade Alchemy Furnace!] [Ding! Congratulations, host, on successfully obtaining supreme-grade Alchemy Furnace ×1.]
His eyes could not help lighting up as he gazed at the blue-violet Alchemy Furnace displayed in the system interface.
"Damn, that's some good stuff!"
It was even more beautiful than the purple Alchemy Furnace from last time. The rippling patterns on its surface and its innate heavenly spirit treasure aura, in particular, proved that it was an extraordinary treasure.
He now had no doubt that, if they used this Alchemy Furnace to refine medicine even once, they might be able to produce even purer pills.
The Rejuvenation Powder they had might even become several times more potent than before.
"Tsk, tsk. Not bad at all."
He gazed at the system panel before him with a broad smile, utterly lost in his delight.
To everyone else, however, he was simply staring blankly into empty space.
Xiao Yan, standing beside him, was especially baffled by what his senior brother was doing.
He could only nudge him harder.
When Xiao Mo still looked dazed, Xiao Yan reached over and pinched his elbow.
"Senior brother, snap out of it."
The pain instantly brought him back to his senses, and only then did he remember that he was still in the Market.
He hurriedly looked up and around, immediately spotting the people beside him and their overturned table.
"Damn, what happened? Where did our stall go?"
He rose and glared fiercely at the shopkeeper before him.
The shopkeeper had now completely adopted a smash-the-cracked-pot attitude, glaring viciously right back.
"So what? This whole area is our turf. If you dare cause trouble here, you'll bite off more than you can chew."
The shopkeeper wanted nothing more than to strangle the two young men before him. He was also considering whether to secretly deliver a fatal blow while they were caught off guard.
Perhaps that would let him bury the whole affair.
Then he could bring out some pills to placate the crowd, and these people might even agree to give false testimony.
At that thought, the shopkeeper's hand trembled uncontrollably as he slowly reached toward his waist.
Yet at that very moment, Xiao Mo was thinking along much the same lines.
He knew everyone around him could serve as his witnesses. As long as he could nail the Jia Lie Family Market firmly to the pillar of shame, its disgrace would be sealed.
Then he would no longer have to worry about the Xiao Clan's businesses going bankrupt.
At that thought, he looked at the shopkeeper without hesitation, then raised his hand and called out to the crowd.
"You're all my witnesses. If anything happens to either of us here today, this shopkeeper is definitely responsible!"
Of course he had to seal off the other man's escape route outright.
Then he took out a pill and charged at the shopkeeper with his hand raised.
The shopkeeper had already been preparing to silence them both. Seeing Xiao Yan charge toward him, he drew his dagger without hesitation and instantly thrust it toward his chest.
He had been ready all along, so the instant the shopkeeper came within reach, an ice pillar formed in his hand.
The ice pillar collided with the dagger with an ear-splitting crash.
As he sidestepped the dagger, he shoved the Rejuvenation Powder into the shopkeeper's mouth without hesitation.
Then he gripped his chin and sharply forced it upward.
Before the shopkeeper could react, he involuntarily swallowed the pill.
A cool sensation spread throughout his body, and the shopkeeper realized that the wound on his wrist no longer hurt.
"It healed?"
He stared at the wound, which had stopped bleeding and even closed up, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
He tugged his sleeve down to hide his arm, but failed.
This had happened right before the surrounding customers, and he instantly realized things had taken a bad turn.
Sure enough, the customers all cried out in amazement.
"Damn, that's incredible!"
The customers quickly flocked over, surrounding Xiao Yan in an instant.
"Give us some Rejuvenation Powder! We'll register our names and details right now, and we'll definitely visit your shop to support you."
Although they did not know the price of these pills, anything capable of producing such an effect would be worth buying, even if the price was rather high.
After all, taking one in the middle of a fight would practically give them a second life.
Especially when their opponents were exhausted, it could give them the chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Before you continue