Who is the backing behind Baochang Pavilion?
The Master of Tianxiang Peak, a Nascent Soul True Monarch!
Yu Sanchong had never imagined that, with such a mighty mountain to lean on, where a single spirit stone could buy more than ten catties of spirit rice, he would fail to source any.
The shopkeepers around here had always been more than willing to help out the Yin Family, but just today...
"My apologies, but we really don't have any of this ordinary spirit rice today."
The goods were sold out; it wasn't that he didn't want to source them for him.
Manager Chen of Fengyuan Grain Store smiled cordially. "A major client came by and, as you can see, bought out my entire reserve."
His shop was filled with large wooden barrels used for storing rice, and each barrel was even inscribed with a tiny spatial array. Today, however, the bottom row of more than ten barrels was entirely empty.
"Why don't you try asking around a few other places?"
Ask around a few other places?
Little Sanzi's expression changed instantly.
He had already gone to four places in a row.
Just like Fengyuan Grain Store, they all had expensive spirit rice in stock, but the ordinary spirit rice was completely sold out.
This wasn't right!
Little Sanzi swallowed hard. "Manager Chen, do you happen to know that major client?"
"Never seen 'em!"
Suspecting that Yin Zhengjiang had sent Little Sanzi to source goods simply to muscle in on everyone else's business, Manager Chen shook his head on the spot. "It's just lower-grade spirit rice, hardly much profit in it anyway. Besides, the customer was wearing a heavy cloak that blocks divine sense. Even if you asked for their name, would you dare believe it?"
This?
There were far too many cultivators on the main street wearing cloaks like that. Not to mention him, even Elder Yin himself coming here in person wouldn't dare to lift their hoods.
Little Sanzi swallowed hard. "Then... I'll go ask a few other places."
"Off you go then. Tell Manager Yin that whenever he has a free moment, I'd love to invite him for tea!"
Watching the kid's light, unsteady footsteps heading forward, Manager Chen spat fiercely.
By now, however, Little Sanzi had no time to worry about anything else. After running to yet another unfamiliar shop and receiving the exact same reply, he no longer dared to delay and hurried back to report.
Not far away, Gu Chengshu watched him leave.
Old Uncle Yu had rattled off all of the Yin Family's business contacts to the original owner of this body.
Therefore, she had simply swept up the grain from every single one of those shops first.
Although her supply of spirit stones was running low now, just to be safe, she had to clean them out.
Carrying eleven heavy, bulging storage bags, she proceeded toward the Sihai Pavilion.
"You want to buy seventy-five thousand spirit stones' worth of ordinary spirit rice?"
"Yes!"
"...My apologies!" The clerk's face stiffened. "Our shop has always had purchase limits; we do not sell more than three hundred catties to a single customer!"
"Is that so?"
Gu Chengshu felt a surge of joy in her heart; she loved this kind of shop. "Even ordinary spirit rice is subject to purchase limits?"
"Yes!" The clerk nodded. "If fellow cultivator doesn't believe me, you can check the notice over there. Our Sihai Pavilion is an enterprise of the Alliance. Regardless of the grade of spirit rice, the limit is three hundred catties per person, per day."
Splendid!
That meant it was utterly impossible for the Yin Family to buy anything here.
"Sorry to bother you, I'll go check out some other places!"
Gu Chengshu turned around with a light, cheerful voice.
Perhaps because she was in such high spirits, she didn't even bother to disguise her voice this time.
Inside the shop, a cultivator wearing similar unisex attire collected their purchased spirit tea and walked out right behind her.
After quite a while, Gu Chengshu finally spent all of her money.
With over ninety thousand spirit stones, she had purchased nearly nine million catties of spirit rice. While this hadn't quite swept the entire inventory of the Lingyun Sect Marketplace, it had at least wiped out one-ninth of it.
Next...
She swaggered right past the front of Baochang Pavilion.
Inside the shop at that moment, Yin Zhengjiang was so frantic he practically had smoke coming out of his ears.
Wan Linglong looked on with a cold, stern expression, having received no spirit rice.
She didn't care whether Little Sanzi's excuses were true or false; she only cared about the spirit rice.
And she only cared about the cheapest, ordinary spirit rice.
With over one hundred thousand outer sect disciples, plus the occasional shameless inner sect disciple trying to take advantage, the sect's annual consumption of spirit rice alone approached fifty million catties.
If they had to switch to expensive spirit rice, how could they possibly afford to feed everyone?
"Celestial Wan, please grant me a few more days!"
Yin Zhengjiang bowed low. "I guarantee..."
"You cannot guarantee anything."
Wan Linglong had no intention of giving him any leeway. "Manager Yin, I will give you another half an hour. If the spirit rice is still not gathered by then, you... and several of the leading figures of the Yin Family will be heading over to the Punishment Hall for a nice cup of tea."
How could that be allowed?
Because of Gu Chengshu, the Yin Family had already become a laughingstock. If they were all hauled into the Punishment Hall together on top of that...
"P-Please wait a moment, I... I will definitely scrape it together for you."
Things couldn't simply be this coincidental.
Behind the scenes, True Monarch Feng Lan was definitely up to no good.
Yet no matter how much she meditated her little schemes, it was impossible for her to buy out the entire marketplace.
If they were just given three more days, the Yin Family would certainly be able to raise the funds and buy enough from other places. But right now...
There was no money left in the shop, and he had none left either.
The Yin Family had exhausted every ounce of their strength; of all their allied clans in the vicinity, they had already borrowed from everyone they possibly could.
Even though his quota of eight million catties was massive, borrowing it piecemeal from various parties shouldn't have been too difficult under normal circumstances.
Thinking this over from every angle, he had no choice but to go beg that old codger Yu Sanchong once more.
A suffocating tightness gripped Yin Zhengjiang's chest. Pouring Ancestor Wan yet another cup of tea, he plastered a smile onto his face and hurried next door.
"Brother Yu, you heard what Little Sanzi said earlier."
Rubbing his hands together just as he had when he first opened his shop years ago, he began, "I can't scrape this spirit rice together on such short notice. Do you think you could do me a favor?"
"A favor, you say..."
Yu Sanchong drew out his tone.
The old man truly hadn't expected Chengshu to be so daring as to take all the shop's spirit stones to buy up spirit rice, completely cutting off the Yin Family's retreat.
"It's not entirely out of the question, but then again..."
"Just name it! As long as it's something within my power, I'll do it!"
"I still have to go report to True Monarch Feng Lan this evening."
The old man sighed. "How about this: I'll gather the spirit rice for you, but you'll use the inventory of Baochang Pavilion as collateral."
Collateral again?
They had already put up quite a lot as collateral.
A fresh batch of talisman paper and Dharma artifacts that had just arrived at the shop, along with several gourds of fine wine, had all been mortgaged over to him.
More collateral...
Thinking of the ancestor still waiting back at the shop, Yin Zhengjiang ultimately couldn't hold his ground. "Fine!"
He had only this one choice left.
His older brother was heading to Poison Dragon Shoal, and if they were dragged into the Punishment Hall on top of that, the Yin Family wouldn't have a single person left to hold things together.
"We're still short about eight million catties of spirit rice. Converted into spirit stones, that comes to eighty thousand..."
"You're wrong there, oh!"
Yu Sanchong interrupted him. "What on earth would I be doing business for if not to make a profit? To work for free? Even if I wanted to work for free, True Monarch Feng Lan certainly wouldn't be pleased.
How about this: I'll pull together eight million catties of spirit rice for you, and you'll mortgage eighty-four thousand spirit stones' worth of goods to me instead."
Eighty-four thousand?
If they mortgaged another eighty-four thousand spirit stones' worth of goods, what would even be left in Baochang Pavilion?
The veins on Yin Zhengjiang's forehead throbbed violently. He desperately wanted to blurt out that this was daylight robbery, but remembering True Monarch Feng Lan and the ancestor still waiting back at the shop, he simply lacked the courage. "Very well!" He stomped his foot. "Get the goods ready for me within a quarter of an hour!"
"Very well," Yu Sanchong said, not trusting him in the least. "However, we shall calculate the required collateral properly right in front of Fairy Linglong!"
"Done!"
Wan Linglong had watched the entire clash between the two households through her divine sense. Yu Sanchong's demeanor also made her suspect that Senior Uncle Feng Lan was pulling strings behind the scenes.
Still, this business method... was rather ruthless.
This had dragged both her and her master into the calculation entirely!