Before long, the courtyard gate opened, and a servant asked, "Who are you two looking for?"
"My name is Du Shu. I've come to visit Workshop Master Yue to discuss cooperation on pills," Du Shu said amiably.
"It's too late. Please come back tomorrow," the servant said apologetically.
Du Shu was in no hurry. "We're not idlers. We have our reasons for disturbing him at this hour. Passing along a message is little trouble; delaying an important matter for the workshop master would be far worse."
Du Shu and Fang Xuan both carried themselves with distinction. Intimidated at once, the servant asked them to wait and went back to report.
Before long, the servant courteously invited them into the courtyard.
In the Yue Lineage's reception hall, a muscular middle-aged man walked in, dressed in a short tunic and trousers.
"I am Yue Dongli. Who might you two be?" The man's voice was resonant, his eyes bright.
"Du Shu, and this is my good friend Fang Xuan," Du Shu introduced.
"Greetings, Workshop Master Yue." Fang Xuan cupped his fists.
Yue Dongli found their faces unfamiliar, but their bearing was extraordinary, so he dared not underestimate them. Puzzled, he asked, "What brings you here so late at night?"
Du Shu came straight to the point. "The Yue Lineage's Pure Pill Workshop is a Pill Dao lineage with a history spanning five thousand years. It once wrestled with the Pill Alliance, with pill shops throughout the southern Spirit Wasteland.
"Unfortunately, fortune failed you, and you couldn't catch the tides of the times.
"Then the Myriad Pill Tower rose as an unexpected force, taking a considerable share of your market and sending the Pure Pill Workshop's business into a steady decline.
"Today, you have only one small pill shop in each of the nearby