"Hah... hah... Move! Move aside!"
Heavy, ragged breathing echoed through Moondrift City at intervals, as a young man sprinted at full speed down a crowded street. His frantic hurry caught the attention of a friend sipping tea at a nearby shop.
"Axiao! Where are you rushing off to!?"
The man grabbed his friend's wrist. In all the years they had known each other, he had never seen him act like this before, and could not help but feel curious.
The man called Axiao glanced left and right. He looked down helplessly at the wrist his friend had seized in a firm grip. Finally, he leaned in close and whispered into his ear, wary of being overheard.
"I'm rushing to the Goddess Alchemy Palace..."
"The Goddess Alchemy Palace? And why in such a hurry?"
Seeing the furrowed brow and confusion on his friend's face, Axiao reluctantly explained further.
"I heard a rumor they're selling high-grade medicine there today. They even have the Pure Yin Elixir my sister needs...."
"Are you sure you're not mistaken!? That place can barely even be called an Alchemy Palace anymore..."
Before he could even finish, dozens of cultivators appeared atop the rooftops, racing across the buildings at full speed. Every one of them, moving with all the skill their lightness technique could offer, shared the exact same destination — the mountain peak just visible in the distance!
Their sudden appearance sent the townsfolk into a stir.
"You're wasting my time! If that medicine sells out before I get there, I'm coming after you!"
Axiao shook his friend's hand off in irritation and stormed away. His friend, still baffled, suddenly noticed the crowds in the city had begun drifting, slowly, in one single direction.
...Toward the Goddess Alchemy Palace at the mountain's peak, without a doubt!
.
.
.
"No pushing, please! Please enter in the order provided!"
The Goddess Alchemy Palace was now packed with crowds, drawn in by rumors of the plentiful high-grade medicine on sale. For cultivators, nothing mattered more than precious treasures and elixirs that could help them break through to the next level. It was no wonder Luo Qingyan's little advertisement had managed to draw such a crowd.
"No cutting in line over there!"
Some of the Palace's disciples had been reassigned as queue managers. Four or five of them worked to keep the line, stretching from the Central Palace's front all the way to the main gate, orderly and moving smoothly.
"Hmph! You dare tell me to wait, little girl!?"
Of course, someone was bound to take offense. The moment Xinjia stepped in to remind them of the rules, a burly man built like a bear scowled and let out a low growl. He shoved the weaker cultivators around him out of his way with sheer brute strength, and the poor souls could do nothing but grudgingly give ground.
Because that man was the head of the Mad Dragon Sect.
The Dust Dragon, Huang Dafeng!
One of the precious few remaining Sages in Moondrift City. His brutal, savage fighting style, one that showed no regard for anyone regardless of rank, meant few people cared to cross him.
Countless rumors surrounded him: that he had once torn a restaurant apart because the food did not suit his taste, or wiped out several small sects over the slightest of grievances.
"It's fine, really... We can wait. Please, let Master Huang go ahead of us."
The cultivators who had been cut in line tried to smooth things over, unwilling to start trouble. They gave Xinjia strained smiles, feeling utterly helpless, and quietly stepped back to wait.
"Ha-ha-ha! That's more like it. Now hurry up and let my Mad Dragon Sect through, quick!"
Huang Dafeng roared with laughter, an immense pressure radiating from him as he did. Behind him stood dozens of Mad Dragon Sect members, grinning ear to ear.
But—
Xinjia, caught in that pressure, showed no sign of fear at all.
Quite the opposite — a faint smile crept across her lips.
Because she already had a capable backup waiting in the wings!
"...Mad Dragon?"
"Guk!?"
In that split second, every member of the Mad Dragon Sect felt a pair of eyes bearing down on them, accompanied by a low, commanding growl. Its depth and sharpness felt as though it could pierce straight through to the soul. Even simply standing there, Huang Dafeng felt as exposed as if he were stark naked, every single pore of his body scrutinized under a magnifying glass!
Sweat streamed down the burly man's face. He looked left and right, searching for the source of that terrifying gaze.
"...Daring to use the name of dragons. You lot really don't fear death, do you?"
In that instant, the Mad Dragon Sect watched the once-clear sky darken to pitch black. A pair of massive eyes, burning with red flame within, appeared in the middle of the sky! An oppressive force that would have utterly crushed any ordinary human swallowed their minds whole, leaving them trembling from head to toe!
"D-dragon..."
"A dragon! Help! Somebody help!"
The sight of thirty or forty grown men suddenly collapsing onto the ground, begging for mercy, left the other customers thoroughly baffled. Even Huang Dafeng himself, a Sage, ended up foaming at the mouth, forcing his subordinates to carry him off and flee in a panic. The cultivators who had been shoved out of their places moments ago simply got their spots back and stared at each other, utterly bewildered.
None of them had any idea that, dozens of meters above them on the Central Palace's rooftop, a small dragon cub was lying there, basking contentedly in the sun.
It was the Dragon Queen, asked to handle troublemakers so they would not dare cause a scene again. For a being at her level, ordinary pressure alone was more than enough to leave even a Sage like Huang Dafeng psychologically scarred!
"...What a nuisance."
The Dragon Queen let out a wide yawn and flicked her tail lazily, with no idea a rumor was already beginning to spread by word of mouth: that the Goddess Alchemy Palace now had an incredibly powerful "guardian."
And that, from now on, even Sage-level cultivators would think twice before setting foot in the Goddess Alchemy Palace without minding their manners!
"That'll be six hundred gold!"
"Huh!?"
Inside the Central Palace, the buzz of activity only kept growing. The once-empty, forlorn glass display cases were now packed with medicine of every kind, shelves crammed full. All the production had since been moved out entirely, after Bai Fanxian finished renovating the space out back. On top of that, she had modeled the whole layout after the "department stores" she remembered from the modern era, giving it a distinctly contemporary feel.
Every medicine on the first floor was sealed with a small formation, linked to the Palace's main Border. Customers could browse freely and pick whatever they wanted before bringing it to the checkout counter up front. Only after payment was made would the seal on the medicine be broken.
And what happened if someone walked out without breaking the seal?
Naturally, someone had already tried to find out.
"Aaargh!?"
The instant a suspicious-looking man took one step out of the main hall with the medicine in hand, a massive bolt of lightning struck down and sent his whole body convulsing. His eyes rolled back, his skin scorched black, and in the end, someone had to carry him away so he would not block the path.
No one knew quite what became of him after that.
Unless whoever tried to carry the medicine out was at least as strong as the Dragon Queen herself, the result would be exactly the same, every single time.
This arrangement of Bai Fanxian's took a huge load off the Palace's disciples. They no longer needed to watch every customer at all times, and could rotate their time toward other duties instead.
"Is there a problem?"
The young disciple manning the register tilted her head, puzzled by the young man's startled expression. It was Axiao — he had finally made it all the way into the Central Palace.
And just as he was about to pay, he found himself utterly stunned.
Because the price of the medicine was far cheaper than he had ever imagined!
"Six hundred gold, really?... Did you drop a zero somewhere?"
"Hehe... No mistake. The Pure Yin Elixir is only Grade-2. How could it possibly cost six thousand gold?"
The girl gave a light laugh and released the seal on the pill before dropping it carefully into a fine white bottle and handing it over politely.
Even with the medicine already in hand, Axiao could hardly believe it. Pure Yin Elixir might only be Grade-2, but its refining process was notoriously troublesome. The alchemist had to maintain an extremely delicate balance of yin energy inside the cauldron, with even the slightest mistake risking an explosion. Even Tier-3 or Tier-4 alchemists tended to avoid refining it if they could help it.
Which was exactly why so few of them ever appeared on the market, and why each pill was priced so high that, some days, the cost alone could buy a Grade-4 medicine instead.
"Um... are you sure about this? I heard it's pretty difficult to make. Even at Wild Bloom, the price sometimes shoots up to ten thousand gold..."
Which was exactly why his sister, who needed this medicine regularly, had always struggled so much.
Seeing Axiao still looking unconvinced, the disciple's smile warmed, sensing the genuine sincerity in the young man's heart. She leaned in a little closer and whispered to him.
"Don't worry... our little Grandmaster happens to be quite skilled at refining this particular kind."
"But to actually get each pill out, it must..."
His words were cut off by the growing impatience of the other customers waiting in line behind him. Axiao walked out of the Central Palace with his heart still pounding, glancing back and forth between the medicine in his hand and the utterly transformed Goddess Alchemy Palace around him.
With this many customers, even the city's trading hall could not compare — and the sheer efficiency of how it all ran was not something anyone could easily replicate either.
And on top of it all, the prices were cheap!
Even he had to admit he would probably be back here often from now on. Plenty of other customers were likely thinking the exact same thing. This Alchemy Palace was bound to become wildly popular before long!
Axiao walked home to his sister, his heart light with happiness, having very nearly forgotten that according to the very rumor that had brought him here, the real draw for cultivators was never the Grade-1 and Grade-2 medicine sold on the first floor...
...but the high-grade medicine on the second floor, where the bidding was only just beginning to heat up!
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(Now Chapter 244)