Chapter 39 I am the sect leader's son-in-law, who dares to hurt me...
As autumn turned to winter, snow fell and the weather turned cold. The little fox fell ill and was taken away by You Fengchun to find medicine for treatment. Xue Wenxiang's happiness lasted only a few days before her subordinates called her back to deal with the backlog of affairs.
Xu Zangyu still hadn't received any reply from the sect.
Seeing the medicinal herbs in the field gradually wither and die, the pharmacy was almost at the point of closing down.
The pharmacy mainly sells Golden Spirit Pills, which can help cultivators improve their cultivation level. The prescription was obtained by Xu Zangyu from the Tianyi Sect, but the ingredients are mainly grown by the people of Yu'an Village. Originally, the harvest of medicinal materials was not good, so the price of Golden Spirit Pills should have increased, but now it has actually dropped by half.
Excluding labor costs, shop rent, and giving it away for free, there's no difference.
Xu Cangyu braved the snow to come over, took off his snow-covered cloak, and glanced at the medicine cabinet, sensing something was wrong.
"Uncle Zheng, is the price of the Golden Elixir correct?"
The shop was bustling with customers. Zheng Qian asked Zheng Ruo to greet him and pulled him into the inner storeroom.
"It's not that I wanted to lower the price on purpose. It's just that the First Pharmacy, Jishetang, lowered its price by half, and everyone else followed suit. We had no choice but to lower our prices as well."
"Jishetang? Why are their medicines so cheap?"
Zheng Qian opened the bags of herbs in the warehouse. "These are from Jishetang. They're more than twice as cheap, but the effects are much worse. We're replacing five-year-old herbs with one-year-old ones. For the blood-tonifying herbs, we've replaced them with white shaving cream, which has the same effects."
Xu Zangyu's heart sank more and more as he listened: "Although I don't understand pharmacology, this won't work, Uncle Zheng."
“But Jishetang does this, making a fortune. Since the beginning of winter, we have been forced to resort to this tactic. If I hadn’t done this, the pharmacy would have closed down long ago,” Zheng Qian sighed again and again. “The pharmacy is losing money. Many of them are so hot-tempered that they said they wouldn’t let us keep them and went to work at Jishetang. They haven’t been paid for several months.”
“Our small shop can’t compete with them; they don’t even dare to pay our wages.”
"They even bought a luminous pearl so that the workers could work continuously day and night."
Xu Zangyu couldn't help but rub his forehead: "They really know how to use oxen and horses well."
Zheng Qian: "That's right. The cattle and horses in our village have to rest when it gets dark. They don't even get the same treatment as the cattle and horses."
"Uncle Zheng, how many of the Golden Spirit Pills with the revised prescription have been sold?"
Zheng Qian mysteriously opened the box in the corner, his eyes brimming with excitement: "Two thousand taels of silver. It would take us three years to earn that much. With this money, the children in the village will have no worries about the future."
As he spoke, he noticed that Xu Zangyu's face was pale, and the medicinal herbs he was holding turned to powder in an instant.
"Destroy all of these things, and take back all the Golden Spirit Pills."
Zheng Qian was astonished: "This..."
Xu Zangyu walked silently out of the storeroom, recalling the details he had overlooked. The original owner's fate was tragic; his cultivation was completely destroyed. Besides offending Xiao Mingxin and being retaliated against, there seemed to be another crime he had ignored—
They used the name of a sect to amass wealth.
"Your Golden Elixir is only twenty taels a bottle?"
The wind and snow outside were getting heavier and heavier. Most of the people in the shop had already left. Only a pale-faced young man, leaning on his sword for support, entered. He was dressed in white and almost blended into the wind and snow. Zheng Ru didn't know when this person had arrived.
It appeared suddenly in the blink of an eye, and I thought it was some wandering ghost. It also walked so lightly that it made no sound.
Just as Zheng Ruo was about to give him the medicine, Xu Zangyu stopped him.
"Sorry, Golden Elixir is no longer available for sale in this store."
The boy had dark eyelids, coughed three times with each step, and stared at people with a sinister look: "Why are you the only one not selling to me from the other medicines on the shelf? Are you the owner here?"
After saying that, he sat down to the side, determined not to give up until he got the medicine.
Zheng Qian arrived late, offering a cup of hot tea. Seeing that Xu Cangyu had no intention of agreeing, he could only say, "I'm the owner here, please don't be angry, sir. How about we look at some other medicines?"
After a long silence, Zheng Qian smiled and placed the cup of tea beside him. Zheng Ruo didn't understand why Xu Cangyu did this, but the man's arrogance was truly annoying.
"I said I'm not selling anymore. Didn't you understand? If you're here to cause trouble, then please leave on the right side of the gate."
The boy persisted: "What if I insist on buying it?"
A paper figure flew out of his hand, grabbed the Golden Elixir from the medicine shelf, and jumped over. It was snatched away by Xu Zangyu in mid-air. The paper figure stomped its feet in anger and flew over to punch Xu Zangyu's shoulder with its two paper hands.
Although the paper figure was light and airy, a punch from it was quite painful.
This young man looks sickly, but he's quite capable.
Xu Cangyu used his spiritual power to control the paper figure's body, which became stiff. A fist hovered in the air, seemingly about to fall. He noticed that the young man's fingers were trembling slightly, but the trembling only intensified until he finally coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"You underestimate me, Golden Core cultivator."
His body ached and felt numb. A fierce glint gradually rose in the young man's eyes. He watched as the person in front of him approached, his palm about to strike his heart.
The expected pain did not come; instead, a continuous flow of spiritual energy calmed the churning blood in my chest.
"Your heart meridian is damaged, so you must not rush to use the Golden Spirit Pill to improve your cultivation."
"I can't give you the Golden Spirit Pill, but this is an excellent healing medicine refined by my junior brother. It might help you recover your heart meridian." The young man was severely injured, and the spiritual energy in his body was extremely volatile and disordered. His body was on the verge of being crippled.
This was a healing medicine Chen Zhiguang had given him as a congratulatory gift for breaking through to the next level; it was of exceptional quality. The young man was discerning; he knew it was true after just one sniff.
He didn't swallow it immediately, but instead twirled the jade bottle in his hand repeatedly: "I'll ask one last time, who is the owner of the pharmacy?"
Xu Zangyu immediately understood that the man was there to cause trouble, and interrupted Zheng Qian, saying first, "It's me."
"It's good that you admit it." The young man's lips were purplish, and his mouth was pursed into a straight line. "May I ask which sect you belong to? Does your sect leader know that his disciple is selling counterfeit medicine?"
"How could it be fake medicine?"
Looking over with gloomy eyes, Zheng Ruo and Zheng Qian's eyes flickered, and the young man sneered silently.
“We bought our medicine from Jishetang. Even if the efficacy is a little worse, it’s made with the real deal. Besides, twenty taels of silver is already a huge discount.”
“Fools! A slight error in the prescription can lead to disastrous consequences. What’s the difference between this fake medicine and harming people?” He took the paper figure from Xu Zangyu’s shoulder and swept his sharp gaze across the crowd: “It’s good that you admit your crimes.”
Zheng Ruo: "Don't make false accusations! We're not doing business with you anymore, get out of here!"
Xu Zangyu knew it was too late; ever since he summoned the paper figure, unease had enveloped him.
He had heard Xiao Mingxin mention that there was another sect that was not very prominent, called the Gate of No Return.
I've heard that the art of Wumen is to create silken puppets, which can kill without shedding blood and seize the souls of others to place within the puppets as slaves.
Some say that those who have no way to leave are not living in the mortal world; they are living dead on the border between life and death, always appearing at midnight to seduce people's souls.
The young man in front of him looked exactly like the person Xiao Mingxin had described, making him even more uneasy: "I've already discovered the problem with the medicines in the store and am preparing to remove them all from the shelves. Did you accidentally buy them?"
“This is our fault, and I am willing to compensate you double, young master.”
Xu Zangyu bowed and apologized. The young man approached, his breath chilling: "How can you compensate me? I almost lost my life because of this medicine. If you want to compensate me, you might as well give me your life instead."
Zheng Qian's expression changed, realizing the seriousness of the situation. But the young man suddenly opened a wooden box in his palm, and Xu Cangyu was sucked inside. He then gently closed the box and leaned on the sword beside him, which he was using as a crutch.
"If you let him go, then come and arrest me."
Zheng Ruo only saw a white shadow flash by before her eyes, and then the young man disappeared, leaving only a string of footprints on the snow and a faint coughing sound in the wind and snow.
The wind blew a few more times, and the footprints on the ground gradually faded. Apart from the untouched cup of hot tea, there was almost no trace of where it had been.
Is this person a ghost?
Xu Zangyu also felt like he had seen a ghost; it was as if he had been locked in a strange place.
There are mountains and rivers here, and the scenery is beautiful. If it weren't for the fact that the sun overhead hadn't moved for half a day, he would be grateful to the young man for keeping him in a paradise.
There was no wind or rain here, and the branches of the tree did not tremble in the slightest. Xu Cangyu picked a fruit from the top of the tree. Its color was tempting, but it felt light as a feather in his hand.
With a gentle tug of his finger, the fruit tore in half like paper. He crumpled it into a ball and threw it on the ground. A red-eyed rabbit jumped out of the grass, ate the paper fruit in a few bites, smacked its lips, and stared at him with its bright red eyes.
Xu Zangyu felt uneasy under the gaze. Suddenly, a hole opened in the sky, and the young man's enlarged face appeared, taking up half of the sky.
"Which sect are you a disciple of?"
Xu Zangyu said, "Tianyi Sect."
There was no other way but to rely on the sect to save their lives at this point.
To his surprise, the young man's sarcasm deepened: "The Tianyi Sect has produced such a scoundrel as you. If you're hoping the people of the Tianyi Sect will rescue you, then I can't let you live."
He held a striped black python in his hand, its fangs so lifelike that Xu Zangyu immediately had a bad feeling.
“The people in our pharmacy are ignorant, and I will punish them myself. I will also compensate you for your losses. I don’t deserve to die.”
The boy paused in his paper-cutting: "Don't worry, I'll spare your life. I haven't settled accounts with your Tianyi Sect yet, how could I let you die so easily?"
The paper snake floated down from the sky and instantly transformed into a ferocious, live python, flicking its tongue at Xu Zangyu.
He saw several more people squeezing over from the hole in the sky to join the fun, looking at him like a cricket in a bamboo cage.
"Senior Brother Zhou, this is the person who caused your cultivation to plummet. Tianyi Sect is no small sect. If you don't take action now, and they take the person back, it may all end inconvenience and you'll just suffer for nothing."
"What's one snake? Let's add some poisonous insects instead."
The man was about to act with great enthusiasm, but Zhou Hui waved him away, saying, "Don't put anything unclean into Master's ritual implements."
Xu Zangyu breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart sank again when the black python charged at him.
He couldn't use his spiritual power anymore.
No matter what hand seals I used, there was no response.
"How could you possibly break my master's 'Invitation Jar' so easily?"
Xu Zangyu knew he couldn't escape this calamity, and begged for mercy without hesitation: "I confess, I plead guilty, ask me whatever you want."
Zhou Hui had actually prepared many interrogation methods, just in case he refused to confess.
The disciple next to him laughed and said, "Isn't it said that the disciples of Tianyi Sect are the most resilient? Could this cowardly person be an imposter?"
"It's genuine, you'll know as soon as you inquire about Xu Zangyu's name."
Xu Cangyu was panting as he ran. This thing was chasing him, and if he was even a step slower, he would lose a piece of flesh.
Suddenly, it became quiet outside.
Xu Zangyu noticed a figure with snow-blue sleeves, pale, paper-white knuckles, and even the veins on the back of the hand were bluish-purple—it didn't look like a living person at all. He felt a chilling coldness emanating from inside.
"Master, the person has been arrested."
"Oh, you haven't killed him yet. Zhou Hui, you're kind-hearted this time."
The sound sent a chill down Xu Zangyu's spine.
He couldn't see Zhou Hui's expression, but he could hear the awe in his voice: "Master claims to be a disciple of the Tianyi Sect. If we act rashly, the Tianyi Sect might not be able to handle us."
"The lives of Tianyi Sect disciples are precious, but the lives of Wumen disciples are not? I've never seen you show mercy to people from other sects either."
Xu Cangyu was pounced on by the black python. He forced the python's gaping maw back down, then pulled off his belt and tightly wrapped it around the python's flat mouth, tying a knot before kicking it away.
Xu Zangyu collapsed to the ground, panting. From this angle, he could see a pair of cold, indifferent eyes. As if sensing his gaze, the eyes peered over, and Xu Zangyu shivered from the cold.
Zhou Hui handed over the jade bottle he was holding. "When I captured him, he used this to bribe me, saying it could alleviate the damage to my heart meridian."
The pale hand took the jade bottle. "Not bad, excellent wound medicine, nothing else added."
A low chuckle: "Is it fear, or a lingering conscience?"
Xu Zangyu felt the world shake, and after a moment, he felt as if he was being held in a hand.
As he rose, he could see the face of the person in front of him clearly.
Surprisingly, it wasn't as ferocious as I had imagined.
He was a refined and handsome young man, like a scholar nurtured by the sea of books, elegant and serene.
Only those eyes and brows seemed slightly indifferent, possessing a coldness that kept people at a distance.
He thought of Xiao Mingxin.
However, unlike Xiao Mingxin's outwardly sharp temperament, his expression was always indifferent, as if he were looking at a dead object.
Compared to that Brother Zhou, this one seems even less like a living person.
"Tianyi Sect is acting quickly. I have already received a message from their sect. If they don't take action now, don't blame your master for not avenging you."
After he finished speaking, Zhou Hui's hesitation subsided, and the ruthlessness in his eyes deepened.
"You nearly killed me, so I'll take your right hand. Is that fair?"
Xu Zangyu was poured out of the box, and then the Immortal Binding Rope bound him tightly.
Zhou Hui drew his sword, looked at his shoulder and gestured, and even thoughtfully prepared gauze and hemostatic medicine next to him.
The sword did not fall.
"etc!"
The two looked at him and saw that he was arrogant and said, "You dare to try chopping me. Everyone knows that I am the sect leader's son-in-law. If you hurt me, you will be making an enemy of the Tianyi Sect."
"Oh."
It was that damned sneer again.
"The daughter of the Tianyi Sect leader recently claimed that her true form was a man and forced a man to marry her, but the sect leader rejected her claim."
"I heard that the man was of a strong character, and when he realized he had been deceived, he vowed to fight to the death. Are you that man?"
Xu Zangyu forced a lie: "How could I refuse to obey? We're just lovers having a fight and don't want to make a scene in front of everyone."
Wen Qianchu gestured for Zhou to retract his sword: "What a sharp-tongued person. I'd like to see how much the Tianyi Sect treasures you."
A disciple hurried in.
"The Tianyi Sect sent an urgent message, ordering us to release the people immediately."
Xu Zangyu seemed to see the words "Chu Shu" on the paper, but before he could see them clearly, the letter turned to ashes at Wen Qianchu's fingertips.
"They dare to order me around even though they have people in my hands."
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