Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex flew on a boat with Fan Yanshi and Fan Li sitting behind him. They were on their way to the Frigid Rune sect to complain about how they had been treated lately.

Fan Yanshi was a little reluctant because he understood just how little they meant to a sect that was around for nearly a thousand years now.

However, he still understood that they could not let this continue. Not only were they lowballed every time they tried to sell something nowadays, but they were also provided with some of the worst resources that could barely grow anything.

Alex steered the ship until he saw the mountain range in the distance, behind which was the sect.

After around 10 minutes, they landed next to the mountain and walked up to the pass between the mountain range where people from the sect stood guard.

Alex was about to go ahead and speak, but Fan Yanshi stopped him. "Please, let me do the talking. I'm from the sect so my words will hold whatever little bit more weight they are worth," he said.

Alex frowned a bit but nodded in the end.

Fan Yanshi walked up to the guards and introduced himself. "Hello seniors, I am someone from one of the villages affiliated with the sect and have some things to complain about. Who should I speak to?"

The guards looked at them carefully and then pulled out a talisman before contacting someone.

"Wait for a bit, someone will come by soon," the guard said.

Fan Yanshi nodded and stayed around in the snow outside. It was turning evening, so they needed to quickly get done here and leave for the city.

The people in the village were already making lists of what they wanted this time around.

A person came out, an older woman with streaks of white hair on her head and a cultivation base of True Emperor 8th realm.

"I was called?" the woman asked.

"Yes, elder. These people are from one of the sect's villages and want to complain about something," the guards explained.

"Huh? What do you want?" the older woman turned to the three.

"Elder, we come from the village nearby where we survive by selling what we grow for the sect back to the sect. However, recently even though our harvest has grown, our earnings have lowered."

"Is the sect really paying less for everything now?" he asked.

"Huh? No, prices have not lowered. What do you mean?" the older woman was confused.

"Then have we been lied to?" Fan Yanshi asked.

The woman frowned and brought out a talisman. "Who's your handler?" she asked.

"Sha Yuan," Fan Yanshi said.

The woman looked at the talisman. "No, the prices here are… okay. You could argue for a few spirit stones more, but based on what you have harvested this quarter, you do get only 350 True spirit stones. That's a lot better than most other villages do, you know? They barely even reach 300," she said.

"What?" Fan Li cried out in surprise from behind before quickly clutching onto her mouth.

"Please forgive my wife, elder. She's surprised because we did not get 350 True Spirit stones. We only got 290," Fan Yanshi said.

"Huh? But it says here you got 350. Are you saying your handler lied? That's a big accusation, you know?" she said.

"Yes," Fan Yanshi said. "He lied. Not only did he lie, elder, but look at what he gives us as resources for the next harvest."

Fan Yanshi handed over the storage bag and the woman checked the bag.

"What the hell? Why are these so bad?" the woman was surprised. A flash of anger showed up on her face and she looked at the guards.

"Go call this Sha Yuan outside," she said.

They waited for a few minutes before the guards brought out the young man who was immediately worried when he saw the situation.

"Disciple Sha Yuan, can you tell me everything you did today in their village?" she asked.

"Nothing much, elder. I simply took what they harvested, paid them, and gave them the resources," he said while glancing at the three.

"And how much did you pay them?" she asked.

"350 True Spirit stones," he said.

"Lies!" Fan Li shouted.

"What lies? Why would I lie?" the young man shouted back.

"Are you really telling the truth?" the elder asked.

"Of course, elder," he said. "Do you believe these untalented fools who can do nothing but feed off of the sect?"

The older woman frowned. "Then what about the resources? Why are the resources that they are getting so bad?" she asked.

"Bad resources? I do not know about that, senior. I just grabbed some randomly and took it. My apologies, I should have checked," he said.

"No, he's lying. He said that it was because the sect was lacking in resources, so we had to use the trash ones," Fan Yanshi said.

The older woman frowned. She couldn't tell who to believe here. She asked one of the guards to go bring another batch of better resources for them in the meanwhile.

Then, she got to thinking.

The four of them saw the contemplative look on the elder and knew that she was thinking, but it was impossible to say what she was thinking exactly. Was it in their favor or not?

"What's there to think about so much?" Alex asked from the side, derailing the older woman's train of thought.

"Please don't speak while I'm thinking. These things are hard to discern," she said.

"Well, just feed him a Truth Seeking pill. He will tell you if it's a lie or not," Alex said.

"That's easy to say, young man. But using such a big pill for such a small case isn't worth it," she said.

"But it will help us get through this faster," Alex said.

"It will, but I'm not willing to spend such an important pill for this," she said. "Pills are already so hard to get by anyway."

"Huh? I mean, if you don't have one, I can let you use one," Alex said as he pulled out a pill from his storage bag. "Here, eat it."

Sha Yuan looked confused and frustrated, while the older woman's eyes shined. "Where did you get this pill?" she asked.

"Did you make this pill, brother Yu? You don't have to use it here," Fan Yanshi said.

"He couldn't have made it. It's a True Rank pill. If he can casually make a 100 True Spirit stones worth pill, he wouldn't be here to complain," she said.

She tried to gauge if the pill was a fake one, but the aroma and slight fluctuations of energy coming from it proved that it was a real one.

"It costs 100 True spirit stones for a pill?" Fan Li looked surprised. "Brother Yu, you can't use that."

"It's alright. Where else would I use such a pill?" he asked.

"Maybe sell it?" she said.

"It's fine," Alex said and turned around to look at the elder. "You are fine with me feeding him the pill, right elder?"

The woman narrowed her eyes, trying to look at his expression, but she could see nothing through the mask at all.

"If you want to end a few dozen true spirit stones worth of disagreement using a pill that costs twice as much, then be my guest," she said.

"Of course," Alex said and placed the pill in front of Sha Yuan to eat. "This disagreement is not about the money after all."

"What? No, I'm not eating that," Sha Yuan said.

"Eat it," the elder ordered.

"But, Elder it could be poison. They are trying to poison me," he said.

"It is the real pill," she said. "And if I'm wrong, I have an antidote to save you. Now eat it."

The young man was forced to eat the pill in the end, and then the truth came out.

It was true. He was duping the villagers by not paying them what their harvest was worth.

The female elder was a little surprised, but she had already expected it. However, what was more surprising was the fact that he had duped the sect as well.

It turned out that not only did he pay less to the villagers, but he also hid some of the harvests from the sect.

It was obvious that the handlers took a few things for themselves, but in the overall span of things this never really harmed the sect since what was stolen from them was negligible.

However, when the female elder found out that he had stolen nearly 10% of the harvest from the village last time, and nearly 25% this time, she became furious.

Sha Yuan was made to bring out everything he stole from the sect, plus the spirit stones he got and in addition to that, more of what he owned as compensation and punishment.

Then, he was removed from his job as a handler, and Fan Yanshi was promised that he would get a new handler soon.

Sha Yuan was taken by the guards to be imprisoned and punished by the sect's law enforcers for a month or two.

"Here, these belong to you," the elder said. "I hope you can forgive us for our mistake."

"Of course," Fan Yanshi said. "It wasn't the sect's mistake after all. It was just the one individual."

"Thank you," the elder said. "Now, if you will excuse me."

She turned around and left.

Fan Yanshi and Fan Li looked at what they had just obtained.

"So much money," she said with shining eyes. "We're rich."