Seeing Yulou and Yu'an enter from the backyard, the clerk who had been slacking off at the counter quickly stood up.
"Young Master Yulou? Are you two going out so late?"
Yulou shook his head and said, "Have the kitchen make so food. Yu'an is hungry from his cultivation."
Yu'an thought, 'Actually, you didn't need to ntion that last part, did you?'
"Right away!"
After sitting down in the main hall, Yu'an pulled a flask of wine from his robes.
"Big Brother, today was my fault. This is rank-eight Monkey Wine, my treat!"
Looking at the flask, Yulou froze. eting Yu'an's puzzled gaze, Yulou subconsciously patted his own chest.
Mm, his was still there.
Lao Gui, gnashing his teeth sowhere, would have said, 'Thank you both, I sponsored all of it!'
Then, Yulou chuckled softly.
"Forget about the wine. It's too late, and besides, I didn't take it to heart."
He couldn't bring himself to waste rank-eight Monkey Wine so casually. He had already reached his daily cultivation limit; drinking it now would be a complete waste.
Furthermore, this wine was clearly given to Yu'an by his father. What would it look like if he just took it?
He wasn't the type to hoard everything for himself, so how could he take advantage of every little thing?
Yu'an waved his hand, looking deeply pained but forcing a generous front as he pushed the wine toward Yulou.
"Brother, if we don't drink tonight, then I'm gifting this wine to you. You can drink it whenever you want in the future."
Just then, Bailu hurriedly brought the food out from the kitchen. The girl looked like she had just been abruptly woken up.
Her eyes were barely open, her hair was tied into a ssy celestial bun, and a rogue strand of hair stubbornly dangled by her ear.
She set down the wooden tray and gently explained as she arranged the dishes.
"Young Master Yulou, Young Master Yu'an, this is all that's left for tonight. Please bear with it."
Pushing the wine back in front of Yu'an, Yulou looked at Bailu and asked, "Why aren't you resting yet at this hour?"
It was almost midnight. Not everyone was as reckless as Yu'an, dragging his older brother out for a drink in the middle of the night.
Having set down the food and utensils, Bailu nervously lowered her head and replied, "I told the clerks to notify imdiately if either of the young masters needed anything. Those mortals don't understand the matters of cultivators, and I was worried they might ruin things."
Yulou nodded, gesturing to a nearby chair.
"Sit down and eat with us. You're part of the Wang Clan too, so there's no need to call us young master. Just call Yulou."
"This..."
Bailu hesitated, wanting to refuse out of habit, yet secretly wishing she didn't have to.
"Yu'an, what do you say?"
Yulou reasoned that since he and Yu'an would be studying in Clear Stream Market for a long ti, they would have to deal with Bailu frequently. Living under the sa roof day after day, it was essential to build a closer relationship.
The path of cultivation wasn't just about raising one's cultivation base; navigating human relationships was also a part of the journey.
"Sister Bailu, sit here next to and have a drink with us."
Yu'an assud that Yulou, like himself, had taken a liking to this female cultivator nad Bailu. He imdiately decided to play matchmaker for his brother.
'Brother, having a sibling like is truly your greatest blessing!'
Before Yulou could stop him, Yu'an poured half a cup of Monkey Wine for him and another half for Bailu.
When it ca to his own cup, he hesitated with the flask before reluctantly pouring a re quarter-cup—he, too, had reached his limit for absorbing spiritual qi today.
"This is Yu'an's Monkey Wine, a rank-eight spiritual wine. With your Qi Induction layer five cultivation base, a single sip can easily equal at least four hours of hard cultivation."
Bailu's hand jerked as if she had received an electric shock, utterly startled by Yulou's description.
"This is far too precious, I..."
"Drink! Let's drink together!"
Yu'an waved his hand grandly, pretending he could easily afford to throw away such wealth, putting on quite a show of false bravado.
Bailu carefully lifted her cup and took a tiny sip.
The taste of the Monkey Wine wasn't harsh at all; instead, it carried a subtle, fruity aroma. The mont the rank-eight spiritual wine rich with qi slid down her throat, she instinctively began to refine it.
"A lot of rogue cultivators have arrived in Clear Stream Market recently. Has there been any change in public security?" Yulou asked Bailu, interrupting her focus on absorbing the spiritual qi.
She quickly replied, "Senior Gao Jian patrols with the Clear Stream Market security team every day, so no rogue cultivator dares to cross him right now. Besides, they all ca for the rit Hall branch of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect, so naturally, they won't cause trouble."
"Our Wang Clan can afford the costs of the rit Hall's exchanges, but those rogue cultivators have nothing to their nas. What could they possibly exchange?" Yu'an asked.
He and Yulou had been discussing this earlier in the day, but neither could figure it out.
Bailu's expression turned a bit strange as she answered, "The Red Lantern Illumination Sect needs Qi Induction and Qi Refining cultivators to test out new cultivation thods and pills. These test missions offer rit points as rewards, which is exactly what many rogue cultivators are after. Furthermore, word has it that the rit Hall branch will open up profound Qi Refining stage spells and techniques for exchange. Unlike the regular exchanges for Red Lantern Illumination Sect disciples, once these rogue cultivators exchange for a technique or spell, they are allowed to teach it to others. Most rogue cultivators view this as a once-in-a-lifeti opportunity. They've either scraped together a sum of spirit stones or are preparing to take on missions, hoping to get their hands on a manual they desire."
Yulou nodded repeatedly, finally understanding the situation.
Even without any capital, one could serve as a test subject to earn rit points. Once enough points were accumulated, they could gain full ownership of a technique.
If the Red Lantern Illumination Sect was viewed as a massive conglorate or a monopoly enterprise in this cultivation world, then this special event of deploying the rit Hall to subordinate markets was essentially the cultivation world's version of Single's Day.
Except...
In the world of cultivation, supre power belonged to the individual. Every low-level rogue cultivator was, in a sense, a potential participant in production, while monopolized techniques were unique ans of production.
As long as they exchanged for the right technique and found a way to monetize it, those rogue cultivators would have a foundation to stand on. On the surface, this seed to threaten small clans like the Wu clan, a Qi Refining cultivation family, but the ripple effects would eventually spread upward.
The Wang Clan wouldn't be able to stay out of it, nor would Purple Palace宗门 like Dripdrop Cave or Wondrous Peak Mountain. Since the rogue cultivators were going all in, the higher-ups would be forced to follow suit.
In fact, relinquishing the monopoly over technique inheritance—this unique form of printing money in the cultivation world—might eventually co back to bite the Red Lantern Illumination Sect.
Logically speaking, by pushing the sect's secret techniques down to the absolute bottom of the production chain, the Red Lantern Illumination Sect was heavily overdrawing the long-term stability of its own monopoly. Considering that the new sect master of the Red Lantern Illumination Sect hailed from a prominent rchant family in Wunan...
The water here ran incredibly deep.
Inside Forge Peak Residence, Zhong Ningyao's eyes lit up the mont she saw Yulou walk in.
"You two finally showed up. Why so late today?"
"Huh? Senior Martial Sister, I'm sorry." Yu'an instinctively assud he was in the wrong.
Won truly were his tribulation.
Zhong Ningyao didn't bother explaining and barked out orders in a frenzy.
"Yulou, mind the shop out front for . Yu'an, co to the back and help out."
Leaving the smart one up front to handle custors while dragging the fool to the back to act as a beast of burden—Zhong Ningyao had calculated this very precisely.
"What exactly is going on?" Yulou asked.
Zhong Ningyao's face twisted in disgust as she vented, "That animal Jiang Baobian extorted tens of thousands of spirit stones under the guise of a Unity Fee. He found a Foundation Establishnt colleague to help him balance the books by designing a flashy but useless firework artifact to fool everyone. But the artificer Gao Jian hired is working too slowly. This morning, Jiang Baobian desperately approached my father, asking Forge Peak Residence to help refine a batch so they can balance the accounts before True Person Danri arrives with the rit Hall."
Yulou stood there flabbergasted.
Wow. Jiang Baobian truly lived up to his reputation as an elusive expert.
His thods for balancing the books were top-tier. Hiring a fellow Foundation Establishnt cultivator to design it allowed him to skim a portion under the guise of design fees.
A firework artifact would be destroyed upon use. It would look spectacular, and all evidence would literally go up in smoke.
The man was an absolute professional! But this was just too familiar—even in a cultivation world, Single's Day required balanced books!
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