"Sister, bring people! The more, the better!"
Upon receiving her younger brother's message, Meng Yanzhuo immediately led her people and flew toward the location.
In the Penglai Realm, except for the Fighting Arena, fights among academy students were strictly forbidden anywhere else.
Besides, Meng Haize was not one to stir up trouble, so for him to suddenly send such a message made the situation seem extremely urgent.
When Meng Yanzhuo rushed to the scene in a desperate panic, she found her younger brother chatting and laughing with someone beside a street stall...
"Meng Haize!"
A split second ago, Yan Xiaosan was still chatting and laughing with his newly made friend, and the next second, that new friend was being chased and mercilessly beaten by a woman descending from the sky.
Well... that certainly escalated quickly.
The woman wore her hair in a high ponytail, with striking facial features and a tall figure, her hands landing blows one after another.
Noticing the striking resemblance between the two faces, Yan Xiaosan quietly withdrew the hand he had raised to intervene.
"Sister! Sister! Stop hitting me!"
Meng Haize hugged his head and scurried around in panic. He never expected his sister to make him look so wretched the moment she arrived, especially since he had just been boasting to Brother Yan about how he had wreaked havoc in the ancient secret realm and how no one could subdue him.
"You told me to bring people, right? The more, the better, right?"
At first, Meng Yanzhuo only intended to teach her unruly and unreliable brother a lesson, but soon she was hitting her stride, and the blows flowed naturally.
How satisfying. He truly lived up to his reputation as the punching bag of the Meng family.
Seeing his sister's hands moving so fast they left afterimages, Meng Haize leaped up in sheer terror, grabbed a Put Chai Ko from the stall using Yan Xiaosan's technique, and shoved it straight into his sister's mouth.
"Care to explain yourself— Hm? This pastry?"
Meng Yanzhuo finally pulled back her hand, took the bamboo skewer, and asked Yan Xiaosan, "Is this food sold by you, Daoist Friend?"
Seeing Yan Xiaosan nod, Meng Yanzhuo finally understood why her brother had summoned her.
Meng Haize possessed a Single Water Spiritual Root, along with a rare water-attribute spiritual physique—the Abyssal Water Physique.
Its most famous ability was allowing water-attribute cultivators to possess higher quality spiritual qi than ordinary people, as well as the capacity to hold much more of it.
High energy and high endurance meant he needed to absorb far more spiritual qi than anyone else, making the purity of that spiritual qi especially crucial.
However, refined spiritual qi wasn't something you could just pick up off the street. In today's Cultivation World where top-grade spirit stones were non-existent and upper-grade spirit stones were in short supply, if Meng Haize wanted to advance quickly, he had to rely on sheer volume.
Meng Haize's nickname as the Meng family's bottomless money pit was well-earned.
Furthermore, this Put Chai Ko contained exceptionally pure spiritual qi that was far easier to refine and absorb than the spiritual qi inside spirit stones, and it offered tremendous benefits for cultivation.
Meng Yanzhuo turned her head and asked Meng Haize, "What? Is your money short?"
Meng Haize shook his head. "Daoist Friend Yan's prices are fair—a Put Chai Ko only costs ten middle-grade spirit stones. But Daoist Friend Yan's stall has a rule: a purchase limit of two per person. That's why I asked you to bring people over to help me out."
As soon as he finished speaking, another slap landed on his head.
"Use your words properly!" Meng Yanzhuo signaled the students behind her to step forward and make their purchases. Then, she met Yan Xiaosan's gaze and gave a slight bow. "I am Meng Yanzhuo of the Meng Family Academy. I would like to discuss a business proposition with you, Daoist Friend."
"Meng Yanzhuo wishes for Daoist Friend to provide this Spirit Food to our academy on a long-term basis."
Yan Xiaosan hesitated. Since Meng Yanzhuo and Meng Haize could act in the name of the academy, they undoubtedly had formidable backing. Befriending them would make moving about the Penglai Realm much easier in the future. However, supplying a single academy long-term meant that once word spread, if other academies made similar requests, refusing them after setting a precedent would simply offend people.
The ones who would get to consume a long-term academy supply would invariably be the top-ranked students—those at the absolute peak of strength.
Yet what he wanted were Cool Points, which meant his target audience needed to be as broad as possible.
With this thought in mind, Yan Xiaosan declined, "I am Yan Xiaosan. I thank Meng Daoist Friend for your kind offer, but the two-item purchase limit is based on my own considerations and serves my cultivation."
In the Cultivation World, interfering with someone else's Dao path was a major taboo. Once Yan Xiaosan uttered those words, even though Meng Yanzhuo felt that a purchase limit of two had nothing whatsoever to do with cultivation—suspecting it was merely the pedantic rule of an eccentric expert who loved to flaunt his uniqueness—she could only abandon her line of questioning.
Although her younger brother deserved a beating, finding a resource that genuinely suited him was no easy feat, so she, as an elder sister, had to fight for it.
Meng Yanzhuo tried again. "I hope Daoist Friend Yan will understand. Haize has a special constitution, and his demands for spiritual qi are far higher than ordinary people's..."
While she was racking her brains, she turned her head only to see Meng Haize stuffing other students' pastries into his mouth, eating with immense delight. Her anger flared—who was she doing all this for, anyway?
With a long stride, she delivered a kick.
Meng Haize stumbled, but when he caught his sister's murderous glare, he immediately swallowed the Put Chai Ko in his mouth, stood up straight, nodded like a pecking chick, and blinked his round eyes wide. "That's right! Have pity on me, Brother Yan! I eat a lot and use a lot at home, everyone finds me annoying, and my sister beats me every single day!"
Yan Xiaosan: "..."
Meng Yanzhuo: "..."
Her fists were clenching again.
"I can help Brother Yan be an errand boy and do odd jobs! I use and buy a lot of things normally, and I'm well-acquainted with several trading firms. Whenever Brother Yan needs to buy anything, just give me the word, and I'm also quite skilled at drumming up business!"
"Just keep me fed!"
Attracting customers!
A sharp gleam flashed deep within Yan Xiaosan's eyes.
Cultivators who could enter the Penglai Realm were naturally blessed with great talent, and certainly none lacked arrogance. Despite his best efforts all morning to drum up business, he had only drawn a few glances, and not a single person had actually bought anything.
Regardless of whether Meng Haize could pull in customers, relying purely on the students and connections of the Meng Family Academy meant he would certainly lack no opportunities to break into the market. Compared to building a reputation and brand slowly on his own, this could save him a massive amount of time.
Considering this, Yan Xiaosan nodded in agreement.
He somehow felt as though he had missed something.
Meng Yanzhuo breathed a sigh of relief. At least this silly hound had shown a spark of cleverness for once.
"The Meng family will surely prepare generous gifts to visit in the near future."
Assuming his newly appointed post, Meng Haize immediately began shouting slogans from the side.
"Step right up and take a look! Warmly recommended by a Human Rank cultivator!"
Though everyone in the Penglai Realm was a genius, even geniuses had tiers of strength; otherwise, no one would ever submit to anyone else.
Thus, the Heaven, Earth, and Human Ranks came into being: one thousand for the Human Rank, one hundred for the Earth Rank, and ten for the Heaven Rank.
Aside from the ten Heaven Rankers whose strengths were indistinguishable, the higher one's ranking on the Earth and Human Ranks, the stronger one's power.
The moment the Human Rank signboard was raised, it genuinely attracted quite a few onlookers.
"I recognize him. Top one hundred on the Human Rank, the Abyssal Hammer, Meng Haize."
"The person beside him must be his sister, right?"
"There are quite a few students from the Meng Family Academy here. Could this stuff actually have some background?"
"It doesn't look like anything special, though."
Seeing people look over, Meng Haize continued his pitch. "Put Chai Ko! Ten middle-grade spirit stones, fifteen middle-grade spirit stones, we have them all! Absolutely top-tier goods! Cultivators never deceive cultivators, purchase limit of two per person."
Yan Xiaosan marveled. If Meng Haize had lived in his past life, he would have easily been a top sales champion.
With him around, there was no need to worry about the Put Chai Ko failing to sell.
"Since it's good stuff, why not put the academy's emblem on it? Why push around a broken cart to hawk it? It lowers a cultivator's dignity!"
"You don't believe this is good stuff?"
Growing anxious, Meng Haize reached out, skewered a piece, and shoved it into his mouth, muttering defensively, "How could this not be good stuff?"
Passersby: "..."
Meng Yanzhuo: "..."
Yan Xiaosan: "..."
Hilarious. There was indeed no need to worry, because it wouldn't even need to be sold.