The Legend of Fangren

"Elder, I'll go check out the pill shop next door."

"Alright...go ahead." Elder Qian nodded in agreement, which drew dissatisfaction from the others.

"Elder, why can't we go out for a stroll?"

As night fell outside, the colorful lights on the street became even more dazzling, making the senior and junior students yearn for it.

Elder Qian said, "Your cultivation is weak and you are ignorant of worldly affairs. It is not a good thing for a group of girls to go out and attract attention. Fang Shi is different. He has joined the Heaven and Earth Pavilion and Elder Qu entrusted him with the Heavenly Ring. He also has the task of purchasing along the way."

"Ah~" The girls never expected that Fang Shi's boast about being the top disciple of the Heaven and Earth Pavilion was actually true.

Fang Shi also sighed, realizing how useful it was to have his master's name.

Secondly, the elder was genuinely not worried that his humanoid beast would get into trouble walking on the street; he only reminded him, "Don't come back too late."

"Cicada."

Fang Shi ran out of the post station and saw that the streets were filled with people and brightly lit night markets, a scene he had rarely seen in all his years in the Xuan Realm. He never expected it to be a gathering place for cultivators, even more worldly than the cities of ordinary people.

"Third and fourth level cultivation is nothing more than human immortal or earth immortal, not heavenly third level, so they are still beings on earth and in heaven."

Arriving at the nearby alchemy shop, I was surprised to find that despite its small size, the four- or five-story storefront was quite grand. Stepping through the main entrance, the hall was brightly lit by luminous black stones used as lamps, and even the pills in the crystal cabinets shone with a smooth and lustrous light, surrounded by pill patterns and filled with a tempting aroma.

Merchants came and went in an endless stream, buying and selling pills, keeping the shop's alchemists busy, and the two senior masters were nowhere to be seen.

He pulled over a young alchemist to ask, but the young man only replied, "These two alchemists just went into the alchemy room and are busy for a while. They probably won't be out until late at night. If you are looking for a friend, please come again tomorrow."

He had barely finished speaking when someone called to him from the side, seemingly someone who wanted to buy medicine.

"Sir, please take a look. Just let me know what you'd like to buy later." With that, Dan Tong left.

With nothing else to do, Fang Shi walked along the crystal display cases, looking at the elixirs one by one.

He had little experience with elixirs; the items in his Heavenly Ring were mostly emergency healing medicines, the quality of which he didn't know, and he had never seen any with pill patterns.

Speaking of the patterns on the pill, they are quite elaborate, making the otherwise ordinary round pill look extremely fancy. I don't know if it's a marketing tactic or if there's some real skill involved. Perhaps, like in some fantasy novels he's read, it represents the quality of the pill.

After looking at several containers, perhaps because Fang Shi looked like a wealthy man, an old man behind the front of the container noticed him, walked up, and asked, "Young man, you've been lingering for quite a while. Is this your first time buying pills?"

Fang Shi nodded, and the old man said, "These pills, besides being divided into grades, are also divided into yin and yang. Yang pills are also called auxiliary pills, which are mostly used to restore profound energy, heal injuries and detoxify, while yin pills are weapon pills, which can bring some enhancement effects to cultivators during battle. Young brother, you can tell me what you need, and I can find it for you."

"Oh~" Fang Shi nodded as if he understood, but he was certain of one thing - this old man should be the cunning old man that the two fellow Daoists had mentioned. As soon as they saw that he was an outsider, they immediately came over.

Unfortunately, he wasn't fooled. He came to the pill shop purely out of curiosity, and even if he wanted to buy good pills, he would do so tomorrow.

The old man was puzzled. Fang Shi turned around and prepared to leave. He had been asked by the girls to buy him things when he left the post station.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted from the stairwell of the pill shop. The noise preceded the people being seen, sounding like an argument. One voice cried out, "...This box of pills is inferior! The pill patterns are stiff, yet it's coated with powder and sold as a good product mixed in with the good ones! Now I have the evidence, and you still dare to use it to pay off your debt!?"

Before the words were finished, another person spoke up, a woman's voice: "Nonsense! The two of us have never cheated in refining pills. We always have multiple layers of checks when handing them over to the shop. How could we possibly just cover them up with a layer of powder and get away with it? You say the pill's patterns are stiff, but it's clearly because you didn't store it properly, causing the pill to spoil, and now you're coming to make trouble?"

"fart!"

The argument was heated and out of control, and it seemed like they were even fighting. Finally, the wooden box hit the ground with a crash, and a pill rolled down the stairs, causing the onlookers on the first floor to scatter.

One of the medicinal pills rolled right to Fang Shi's feet, and he picked it up. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the pill patterns on its surface were indeed somewhat cracked, unlike the smooth and rounded ones in the display case. There was also some peeling off the surface layer, which must be the pill powder that the person had mentioned earlier.

However, upon closer inspection, the powder that has fallen off is not completely severed, unlike external objects; rather, it does resemble the surface of a medicinal pill that has deteriorated and peeled off.

The old man behind the container was called over, and he asked, "What kind of pill is this?"

The old man glanced at it and said, "It's a first-grade Yang healing pill. It doesn't have any particular element. It's used to restore Xuan Qi... This kind of thing isn't uncommon. Every now and then, you'll run into guys who don't know anything about nurturing pills causing trouble."

So it wasn't a big deal. Fang Shi thought it was just his protagonist aura triggering an event automatically.

Since that was the case, he figured that taking the pill shouldn't cause any problems.

The old man said, "It's nothing serious, but this pill has deteriorated into a damaged pill, not even as good as a low-grade pill. It won't do you any good if you eat it. I can't see much of your profound energy either, so it's best to eat less of it to avoid getting an upset stomach."

"Thank you for your guidance, sir."

After Fang Shi finished speaking, he flicked the pill into his mouth as if he hadn't heard it.

miemiemie~ It's quite sweet, a bit like candy.

Little did he know that his gluttony would lead to someone coming down from upstairs to confront him.

"Hey! You little brat, why did you pick up my pills and eat them? I'll have to ask the shop to compensate me!"

"Huh? Really?" Fang Shi saw that the slightly chubby man in front of him was dressed in wealthy clothes and wondered if a single first-grade pill would be worth that much.

"Then... how about I pay for it?"

"Okay, give me a hundred coins," the man said.

No... a single Tier 1 pill costs 100 coins?

Fang Shi's eye twitched, and he glanced at the counter, thinking to himself, "Brother, you're being ridiculous. The intact pills in other stores are only priced at one hundred each, and you're charging one hundred for these damaged pills? That's outrageous."

The old man behind the container also spoke up for Fang Shi: "Sir, you've gone too far. What you've rolled on the ground is just a remnant pill, not even a common one. It's not worth a hundred. Even we only get five, six, or seven yuan for recycling medicinal residue. How can you rip people off like this?"

To everyone's surprise, the man was even more relentless, saying, "Hey, you old man, you dare to talk back? Don't forget I came here to demand an explanation from your shabby shop. I won't let him get away with this, and I won't let your shop get away with this either!"

Upon hearing this, the old man's face darkened: "Sir, this must be your first time doing business in Jade City."

"Hmph, so what? I'm a businessman who travels all over the country, and the lords of countless cities treat me with respect and do business with me. Today, I came to buy some pills because of Emerald City's reputation, but who would have thought that the goods in this big city are mostly inferior and rotten!"

Upon hearing this, and seeing that there was no trace of mystical energy on his body, the onlookers understood.

This person must be a wealthy merchant who deals in ordinary goods. He's probably a rich man among mortals, or at least a poor nouveau riche. Now he wants to get involved in the business of the cultivation world, but he forgot to rein in his arrogance. As a result, he's going to get a cold shoulder.

The surrounding monks and guests remained silent, waiting to see the spectacle unfold.