After leaving the council hall, Ghost Douluo did not return to his residence, but instead went directly through the side corridor of Spirit City and turned into a dark room on the first basement floor.
The room had no windows, only an oil lamp hanging in the center of the ceiling, its dim light barely illuminating a few files spread out on the table and a bronze token.
The token's design follows the Spirit Hall's standard pattern, but there's an extra engraving at the corner—a mark added by Ghost Douluo himself—representing "a usable person."
He sat down at the table, tapped the token twice with his fingertips, then picked up a charcoal pencil from the corner of the table and wrote several place names on a piece of paper: Godwind City, Heaven Dou City, and Suotuo City.
After finishing writing, he put down his pen, leaned back in his chair, and waited quietly for a while. In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the door to the dark room was gently pushed open, and three people filed in and stood in a row in front of him.
The three people were dressed differently and looked no different from ordinary people. However, they had a faint, almost imperceptible, chilling aura about them. Ordinary people could not smell it, but Soul Master would instinctively feel uncomfortable if they got close.
Ghost Douluo didn't look up at them, but simply pushed the papers on the table forward. "There's a Pill Pavilion branch in each of the three cities: Heaven Dou City, Godwind City, and Suotuo City. Go and cause trouble separately."
"How do I do it?" the person on the far left asked, his voice dry and hoarse, as if he hadn't had water in a long time.
Ghost Douluo leaned back in his chair, the oil lamp light casting shadows on his cloak, obscuring his expression. "No need for fighting or smashing things. Just have a loud chat near the shop entrance after closing time in the evening. I've written it down on a piece of paper; you can read it yourselves."
The three of them took turns picking up the page, glancing at it, and nodding to each other.
"Do it and leave, leave no trace," Ghost Douluo added. "Within three days, I want to hear the rumors circulating in Heaven Dou City."
Without asking any further questions, the three men left the dark room one by one. The door closed again, leaving only Ghost Douluo in the room.
He reached out and extinguished the oil lamp, plunging the dark room into complete darkness.
Two days later, in the busiest evening in Heaven Dou City.
The Pill Pavilion branch in Heaven Dou City is located in the middle of the main street. The shop is not large, but the signboard at the entrance is painted with the words "Pill Pavilion " in dark gold, making it visible from afar.
The long queue outside the store had just dispersed when two people who looked like "shop assistants" came out from the side door, tugging at their collars as they walked, as if they had finally been able to catch their breath after a long day.
They didn't go far; they stopped at the alleyway next to the shop entrance, leaning against the wall, their voices neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for passersby and the vendors at the opposite stalls to hear.
"I sold over a hundred more doses of pills today. These people are so easy to fool."
"That's right, they're grateful for just a few kind words, saying things like ' Pill Pavilion is truly a lucky star for us commoners' -- tsk, what do they know?"
"Whether they understand or not, the money's in my hands. Tomorrow's the same; a little kindness will make them ecstatic. Why not make this money?"
The "shop assistant" leaned back against the wall, her tone full of lazy disdain, and added at the end, "Next time, try a fresh compliment; it's easier than changing a prescription."
The vendor at the opposite stall, holding half a radish, stared blankly for a while before finally looking away. He then turned to an acquaintance next door and whispered, "Did you hear that? People from the Pill Pavilion... do they talk like that in private?"
"I heard that." The acquaintance frowned. "If this gets out, it'll be terrible."
The news spread faster than Ghost Douluo had anticipated.
That evening, several different versions of the gossip had already spread among the tea stalls and taverns on several streets in Heaven Dou City.
Some say that the staff at the Pill Pavilion are two-faced, claiming to "serve Soul Master " while secretly mocking ordinary people for being easily fooled.
Some say that Pill Pavilion's good reputation is all due to small favors and that they secretly look down on low-level Soul Master.
The next day, similar rumors spread through Godwind City and Suotuo City as well.
It was the same time after closing time, the same few "shop assistants" standing at the door chatting idly, in the same tone and with the same content.
The simultaneous reports from three cities make it hard not to think in one direction: the Pill Pavilion brand might not be as glamorous as it seems.
By the third day, the queue outside the Pill Pavilion's Heaven Dou branch had noticeably thinned. Some people stood across the street watching from afar, hesitated for a moment, and then turned and left.
A low-level Soul Master who had previously bought pills stood at the entrance, not going in, and pulled the person next to him, asking, "Have you heard? What those people from the Pill Pavilion were saying behind my back..."
The shop assistant noticed the unusual flow of people at the entrance and came out to take a look, just in time to meet the gazes of two passersby.
The scrutinizing and suspicious look in his eyes startled the shop assistant, who then turned back to report to the manager.
The shopkeeper immediately summoned all the employees to the back room and questioned them. Everyone shook their heads and said they hadn't said those things.
But the shopkeeper knew that such baseless rumors were the hardest to refute—the more he explained, the more it seemed like he was trying to cover something up.
The number of people queuing outside the Pill Pavilion branch continued to decrease over the next two days.
At the Godwind Academy, Feng Lingtian received the news even earlier than the innkeeper. He didn't hear it from a passerby, but from Su Mei'er's comment. "Have you heard the rumors circulating in Heaven Dou City about the Pill Pavilion?"
Feng Lingtian, who was flipping through a notebook about the growth cycle of Blue Silver Grass, looked up when he heard this. "What gossip?"
Su Mei'er briefly recounted the version she had heard. "The people of the Pill Pavilion secretly mocked the commoners for being so easily fooled."
This statement was like a fine needle, small in size but in a tricky spot. Feng Lingtian listened without saying anything, closed his notebook, put it back on the table, leaned back in his chair, and thought for a while.
"It's no coincidence that rumors are spreading simultaneously in multiple cities," Feng Lingtian said. "Someone is targeting the Pill Pavilion."
Su Mei'er looked at him. "Who do you suspect?"
"Who else could it be?" Feng Lingtian's voice wasn't loud. " Salas only left a few days ago, and this kind of tactic has already appeared. Bibi Dong failed to recruit him directly, so she changed her approach."
He paused, then said, "This time it's just a rumor, but next time it might be different."
Su Mei'er didn't press the matter and sat quietly beside him. Feng Lingtian looked out the window; the morning light was creeping over the treetops in the distance, and dawn was approaching.
Ghost Douluo listened to his subordinates' report in a dark room in the Heaven Dou City branch hall: the rumors had spread throughout the three cities, and the number of people queuing at the entrance of the Pill Pavilion had decreased by about 30%.
After listening, he didn't say much, but simply turned the oil lamp up a bit and pointed to the location of the Godwind Academy on the map spread out on the table.
Rumors are just an appetizer. His Holiness the Pope wants to incorporate the Pill Pavilion, not to make them bow down and admit their mistakes. The best way to make an organization bow down is to put enough pressure on it when it is at its weakest.
Ghost Douluo withdrew his hand, folded the map, stuffed it into his sleeve pocket, and got up to leave the dark room.
The time is almost right.