Chapter 38: Monopoly

Qingyang Market.

Qin Ming walked down the street somewhat absent-mindedly, replaying Shopkeeper Liao's earlier words in his mind.

Once spirit rice dropped in price, his own income would take a serious hit.

It directly affected the speed at which he earned spirit stones.

He turned it over and over in his head, and gradually grew restless and distracted.

Just then.

A large crowd of cultivators had gathered by the notice wall up ahead, pointing and murmuring about something.

Usually a few cultivators stopped here to read the notices, but this was the first time he had seen so many.

"Did something happen again?"

Qin Ming, curious, squeezed in to join the onlookers.

On the wall was posted a very eye-catching red bounty notice, its paper twice the size of those around it.

There was no portrait on it, only a description of a five-person bandit cultivator group; their exact appearance was unknown.

This gang of bandits was outrageously bold — in broad daylight they had used a scheme to seize the son of a certain Jin Yungu elder, then extorted a huge ransom.

And then, by extremely cruel means, they tore up the ticket!

The key thing was, it didn't end there.

What was even more shocking was that this gang of bandits, in the end, actually escaped successfully from the pursuit of a Foundation Establishment elder of Jin Yungu. Their actions.

Were no longer simply a matter of kidnapping and tearing the ticket.

But a brazen provocation against the dignity of the entire Jin Yungu sect! A purely vicious incident! Jin Yungu has now lost all face and is putting up a massive bounty to hunt down this gang, vowing to dig three feet into the ground — no matter the cost, even if they had to flip Yunze Dahuang over, they would find their trail.

The notice stated that anyone who captured or killed any one of these five would be rewarded with one Foundation Establishment Pill.

Anyone who provided concrete leads on the bandits would be rewarded with the chance to enter Jin Yungu's inner gate, plus one Marrow-Washing Pill.

Anyone who knew and failed to report would be treated as an accomplice of the bandits and killed without mercy!

"Holy shit, they're absolute beasts."

"They even dared to kill an elder's son of Jin Yungu!"

Qin Ming stared at the notice, dumbfounded.

And many of the cultivators watching, seeing the tempting rewards on the notice, were eager to try their luck.

"A Foundation Establishment Pill is good, but you need the life to take it, sigh!"

"Anyone who can escape unscathed from a Foundation Establishment elder is no pushover."

He shook his head very sensibly, then silently left the spot.

"This gang of bandits — could they be the same ones who killed Daoist Long?"

"So lawless, daring to provoke the dignity of an entire sect — the methods are very similar."

As Qin Ming walked, a thought suddenly struck him!

Back at "Qingliang Xiaozhu."

He secretly congratulated himself that choosing to move into the market had been a wise decision.

Although the price was a bit steep, at least it was much safer than outside.

Now the area around Qingyang Market was so chaotic that even a sect elder's son could be killed on a whim, without the slightest scruple — what wouldn't these bandit cultivators dare to do? The next morning.

Knock knock knock! Qin Ming was casting the Advanced Spirit Rain Art on the Withered Blood Poison Vine.

The courtyard gate outside was knocked.

Qin Ming put away the spell, walked over, and peeked out through the peephole.

He found that it was actually Cai Laojiu at the door.

He opened the gate's restriction and welcomed Cai Laojiu in.

"Laojiu, what brings you to my place today?"

"What's up? Sold the spirit rice and ready to treat me to a drink at Juxuan Pavilion?"

"Come in first and have some tea."

Qin Ming asked with a smile on his face.

"Tea, tea I won't have."

"Xiao Qin, uh, could you lend me a hundred spirit stones?" Cai Laojiu kept his head lowered, stammering, not daring to look at Qin Ming.

Qin Ming was startled at the words.

He and the other had been spirit farmers here together for so many years, and this was the first time Cai Laojiu had ever asked to borrow spirit stones from him.

Something was off. "Didn't I have you secretly sell off all the spirit rice yesterday?" "How come—"

Qin Ming, puzzled, noticed Cai Laojiu kept his head hanging the whole time, and frowned. "At least lift your head when you talk to me!"

Cai Laojiu, hearing this, immediately raised his head to look at him.

In an instant he revealed a face bruised black and blue, looking utterly wretched.

Qin Ming, seeing him in such a state, was stunned.

"Laojiu, what happened to you?"

Cai Laojiu then let out a pitiful sigh and said: "Sigh! Yesterday I got your message talisman, so I was heading to Shopkeeper Liao's to sell off all the spirit rice."

"But who would have thought, halfway there, I got blocked by Jiang Kun and his lot from the Lingyu Gate."

"They said I had privately sold Lingyu Gate's spirit rice to outsiders, not only beat me up, but also confiscated all the spirit rice."

"And on top of that, fined me double the value of the spirit rice — two hundred spirit stones."

"If I can't hand it over within three days, they'll... they'll send me to the war camp."

Qin Ming's brows knit into a frown at this — that Jiang Kun again! Last time at the Steward Hall he had also nearly caused trouble for him.

"What do you mean by selling privately?"

"After paying the spirit rice tax, the remaining spirit rice is all ours; even the Lingyu Sect has no say in it, right?"

"On what grounds are they fining you?!"

Cai Laojiu stammered, "Th-they said that Jiang Kun and those other inner sect disciples have also opened something called 'Mingzhen Tower' in the market."

"Their number one competitor is the 'Juxuan Pavilion' within the market."

"They never expected the profits from running a restaurant in the market to roll in so massively, and furthermore, a portion of the spirit stones earned through 'Mingzhen Tower' is also transferred back to the sect."

"Therefore, even the upper echelons of the Lingyu Sect have silently approved it."

"They said that in two days, when the spirit fields open for plowing, Elder Gu will announce this matter."

"From now on, strict orders will forbid spirit farmers under Lingyu Sect's jurisdiction from privately selling spirit rice to any shop other than Mingzhen Tower."

"Violators will be heavily punished."

"Additionally, several spirit farmers were also setting up stalls in the market yesterday to sell spirit rice; among them, one was even beaten until his legs were completely broken by that group of inner sect disciples led by Jiang Kun."

Speaking to this point, Cai Laojiu's voice became hoarse.

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming's mind buzzed with a hum.

"This is an attempt to create a monopoly!"

Putting other matters aside for now.

He himself had still signed an agreement with Juxuan Pavilion!

If he violated the Lingyu Sect's ban at that time, he would definitely not reap any good fruits.

But if he breached his contract with Juxuan Pavilion, he would then face astronomical compensation in spirit stones.

The spirit stones were one thing.

The key issue was that angering Gu Qingzhao would likely mean the Jingxue Pavilion would not let him off either.

He was crystal clear about the cost of breaching the contract.

"Sigh, that bastard Jiang Kun!"

"Why couldn't he meddle in anything else, but had to go and set up a Mingzhen Tower??!"

"That bunch of rogue cultivators should have kidnapped him too and torn up the ransom note!"

Qin Ming was simply so furious his teeth itched.

This maneuver had instantly placed him in a dilemma where he could neither advance nor retreat.

He pondered for a moment.

Immediately, he took out one hundred and fifty spirit stones from his storage bag, along with two healing pills, and handed them over to Cai Laojiu.

"Take these first to get by and heal your injuries."

"As for the other matters, we'll discuss them later."

Taking the spirit stones and pills from Qin Ming's hands, Cai Laojiu's eyes instantly turned red.

For a moment, he choked up and was speechless.

In this cruel Immortal Cultivation World, not just anyone is willing to casually lend out spirit stones.

PS: Thanks to every single reader who cast a recommendation vote; since there were so many, I express my gratitude to all of you here at once!

(End of Chapter)