As always, keep in mind that you are reading this from the biased viewpoint of the Main Character! Not everything is the absolute truth!

Also, I am going to put a few things into <> brackets from now on to make reading a bit easier.

Hope you enjoy!

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Chapter 11:

One thing that countless stories never tell the tale of when they talk about a world without something like a proper sewer, is the smell.

When we walked down the wide and rich streets of the different powers that inhabited Dragon City it was still alright but the moment you went down into a side alley or entered a market, a certain stench invaded your nose.

And it was bad.

A mix of urine, shit and too many sweaty bodies.

Considering that my sense of smell had already been heavily impaired thanks to my daily visit to a certain room of death, it was quite marvelous that I was still able to distinctly make out every little disgusting detail that had eventually filled these streets.

So I naturally couldn’t help but wonder if the smell alone would have given me a heart attack before my fateful encounter with the room of death that helped singe some of those fine hairs inside my nose off.

A rather peculiar, if not scary thought indeed.

But that was something for another time I suppose.

Hua Hong was currently leading the way through a thick crowd of people while holding my hand so she wouldn’t lose me.

An unnecessary action considering that everybody stepped aside as soon as they saw my gigantic frame but I let her do it if it made her happy to hold my hand like this.

We managed to make quick progress and didn’t even have to stop or ask for directions, she was apparently quite well informed of the location to our new, and hopefully temporary home.

It still nearly took half the day to arrive at the other side of the city as we had agreed upon to save as much money as possible from now on, so taking a carriage was therefore a no go.

Naturally that would have been a lot faster but the walk we had and especially for Hua Hong holding my hand for such a long time, was pretty nice.

As long as you ignored the stench that is.

Because it kind of ruined any romantic or peaceful mood if you ask me.

Seriously, is there no rain ever or are people just that dirty?!

I might also be a bit easy to tick off right now after spending such a long time in the crowded streets.

This was by the way one of the main reasons why I refrained from personally searching for the blacksmith after the first few days and instead concentrated on cultivating.

It was partially to escape this smelly hell.

And I mean it… only partially.

“We are here, Young Master.”

Hua Ping said while tapping on my shoulder to get my attention.

I had been standing there deep in thought for some time already and people started looking towards my direction with suspicious eyes considering I had examined a certain wall of a building for a lot longer than what seemed healthy.

“Ah, sorry about that.”

I told her with an embarrassed grin and she only showed her pearl white teeth in what seemed like an ‘I am already used to it’ smile.

Before us was a two-story building with paper windows and an outside façade that left one to believe that you were looking at a black scaled beast.

The craftsmanship alone was astounding as each corner, doorway and window frame was carved to look like scales which had then been painted black.

“Well, let’s go and step into the belly of the beast, shall we?”

I jokingly said while approaching the door and I could feel a number of people that had heard me roll their eyes behind me.

The inside was decorated in a unique fashion too as the overall flair was purposely a darker one.

Chairs that had been carved to look like various beasts with countless swords that killed them as the backrest.

Tables, seemingly made out of a dragon’s hide and a fire pit in the middle of the room as well as a chimney that stretched into the sky that resembled the pulsating heart of a mighty beast, thanks to the ingenuity of countless craftsmen.

It looked absolutely stunning and beyond anything I had ever seen up to this point.

There were a few people sitting around here and there as many eyes fell upon us, the newcomers when we entered the room.

“Ah, Welcome to the Dragon’s tail dear customers. We serve food, drink and lodging for anyone that can afford it and we also have a rather unique décor as you can see, which many other customers quite fancy.

Have you come to book a room?”

A young female attendant asked while approaching us and I could clearly see that she was more than a bit stunned by my wide and muscular frame that towered over everyone present in the room.

“We already booked our room.”

Hua Ping answered while stepping before me, as my body alone had previously hidden her and she showed the female attendant a small golden key in her hand.

Immediately the facial expression of the girl changed quite drastically.

She hastily bowed deeply before us to the point where her head was about to smack into the floor and a shrill shout from her mouth stunned everyone present.

“This lowly one is incredibly honored to meet such important guests as you! Please, don’t hesitate to ask or use me however you wish!”

A rather heavy silence followed these mindboggling and dangerous words as the girl kept her head down.

I mean she wasn’t ugly to begin with but to say something like this before a bunch of other people…

Seems like the treatment of someone that had booked the best room in the inn for nearly 6 months is quite different indeed.

There naturally were countless better inns in Dragon City as this one was normally never booked by cultivators thanks to its somewhat remote location but we eventually settled on it, the price and appeal of the place was quite to my liking after all.

Still, to be greeted like this…

“Raise your head please, there is no need for this.”

I finally said towards the girl.

“I cannot! Someone as lowly as me can only do this to remedy the previous blunder!”

With ‘blunder’, did she mean the conversation where she treated us in a more casual way?

I mean that wasn’t really her fault right?

Makes one wonder about the temper of some of the other VIP guests that booked a room in this place for an extended amount time.

“Ti Fue, enough. Can’t you see that you are making our honored guests uncomfortable?”

An elderly voice suddenly resounded from a door to the right and a man, seemingly in his 60s came to greet us.

“My name is Ti Yan and I am the owner of this humble establishment. Please forgive my daughter’s casual words on behalf of this old man.”

He said while clasping his hands before me and bowing deeply.

“I was never angry to begin with and there is no need to treat us this way. If at all I prefer the more casual way to begin with.”

I said with a smile and wave of my hand.

The only real reason I preferred it this way was because I hated how everyone else present in the room was eyeing us at the moment.

Did I mention that any kind of attention was bad?

“As you wish.”

Ti Yan said while bowing again before doing the same towards Hua Hong and Hua Ping.

The action surprised me somewhat considering that it was obvious from their attire alone that the girls were servants of mine, but to treat them with such respect nevertheless…

This old man knew his stuff.

“Would you like to have a meal first before my daughter will show you to your room?”

“No thank you, finding our room for now is all we need.”

I replied and with a wave of Ti Yan’s hand his daughter led us up the stairs into the 1st floor.

She still seemed to be somewhat nervous around me despite my previous words.

The countless eyes that followed our departure I naturally tried to ignore to the best of my ability but I had a feeling that we were going to run into a bit of trouble later on thanks to this incident.

….

“Incompetent!”

Followed by these harsh words a wave of heat rushed to my feet, wandering up my body and eventually engulfing me before a punch into my gut sent me sprawling on the floor.

I coughed, nearly non-stop while holding my stomach as pain shot through my system non-stop

My long hair was singed from the flames and my body showed a few burn marks here and there but despite all of this, what hurt the most was the hatred in my brother’s eyes as he looked down towards my sorry figure.

“Your cultivation is shameful beyond words to our Lei clan! Born with the Phoenix Physique but too scared to use it, you are a disgrace!”

I could only lower my head in silence while his venomous eyes looked like they wanted to eat me alive.

He hadn’t always been like this.

My brother was originally a kind and caring person, especially towards me, his younger sister.

But by the time I turned 8 and they found out the ‘gift’ I was born with, something that was only seen once in a millennium in the clan, he changed.

The kind older brother I knew of was overcome with greed and jealousy.

‘Why did it have to be you; why couldn’t it have been me?!’ was what his eyes seemed to say each time he looked at me from that day onward.

He himself was someone with a peak earth grade cultivation talent in the clan which was an incredible rarity, but compared to my ‘gift’ it was much too inferior.

I had seen it as a curse these past few years.

It took away my brother, my friends and even my father saw me more as an object than anything else.

The only person in the world that still treated me like before was my mother, but that was because she herself was a rather special case.

I could feel my heart bleeding whenever I thought of her illness that was slowly wasting her life away and binding her to a bed.

Father had long since given up on her and gotten a new wife, an action that disgusted and angered me beyond words but mother only said I shouldn’t hate him for it.

Sadly, that was the only thing I couldn’t do that she asked of me.

My brother on the other hand I couldn’t hate.

No matter how much it hurt and despite the grievances he was bringing me, every time I tried, the image of a kinder, younger version of him would bubble up in my mind.

And whatever pain I was in at the moment, just thinking of that past him made it all go away.

“Stand up, Lei Xi!”

A cold voice said, bringing me back to reality as I looked into his dark and clouded eyes.

Flames were already accumulating in Lei Long’s hands as waves of Qi crashed against me.

Slowly, despite the pain of each of my joints and the burns that filled my body, I did as I was told.

A smile, not gentle or kind as it had been in the past but cruel and malicious appeared on his face as he greeted my feeble body with an inferno that knocked me off my feet.

The only thing I could feel as darkness overcame me was the fire that seemed to devour my entire being whole.

….

I got to say the room itself was quite to my liking.

Just like the rest of the inn it followed a certain kind of theme and every single piece of furniture was carved or made to look like it was part of a dragon.

Bed sheet that resembled wings, windows that seemed to be the eyes of a gigantic creature as well as walls and a ceiling that were ‘covered’ in scales.

Can I just say that I applaud the effort and craftsmanship that went into this?

Because honestly speaking, even a 5-star hotel back in my own world pales compared to it.

Well except the bathroom I suppose, but I was going to let that one slide.

I talked about it with the girls and we eventually settled on booking only a single room instead of 2 or 3 as we had shared mine back in the clan all the time anyways so it seemed a bit ridiculous to change habits now.

With not much to unpack, the 3 of us quickly settled in our new home but we had a new problem now.

The bed was big, gigantic even, but putting 3 people into it would be cutting it rather close.

Not only that, Hua Ping always had her own until now so this was going to be interesting.

I could see that the girls were occasionally looking my way and then towards the bed but decided to ignore it for now.

That was something we would figure out at night, for now at least it was time to make some money.

How you ask my dear reader? Well I have some ideas.

….

The day was bright as the sun high up in the sky shone down on the small stall.

This particular stall was naturally my own one.

Just like every other day in the past 10 years I was sitting behind the counter and haggling with customers.

My wares, which ranged from simple vegetables I previously bought from mortal farmers to rare and potent herbs that were useful in cultivation sold pretty well.

It was not the best business on this busy marketplace, but it was my business.

I had worked to establish connections and contacts in Dragon City for years now and it had paid off with a solid and somewhat lucrative income.

The days passed rather peacefully normally but today seemed to be one of these rare occasions where something exciting and out of the ordinary would take place in this market area.

“Come, come, strong men and pretty women of Dragon City and take a look at my Pills! I, Ge Hong have made a new discovery in enhancing existing pills and would like to share this with the world!”

A voice suddenly clamored, cutting through any and all noise that previously existed in the market area.

Many people’s heads naturally turned in surprise and were looking for the source of this voice, only to find a tall and big bellied middle aged man standing at a corner of the market.

“Now, now, don’t be shy and take a look at the various pills I have refined.”

The man loudly said with a beaming smile that seemed to reach the heavens.

Grasping behind him, a collection of pills that had a purple color to them appeared in his palm and immediately a strong aromatic scent filled the surrounding air.

Interested by the words of this strange middle aged man and somewhat convinced by the strong medicinal scent that was drifting around everyone’s noses, a crowd quickly formed around him.

“Step closer and take a look! This is a pill called that has been once again refined by me to increase its effect by more than 10%!”

The surrounding crowd immediately let out a collective gasp and even I couldn’t help but swallow when I heard these words.

Everyone knew that taking a certain pill too many times would steadily decrease the effect it would have to a cultivator’s body as he or she would build up a resistance to the contents.

So increasing the effects of a pill by more than 10% would naturally make the whole pill worth a lot more in people’s eyes.

Who in their right mind would buy the inferior pill and ingest it after all?

I couldn’t help but shake my head though at this middle aged man and his tactics.

A few blue eyed youngsters might fall for these pretty and enticing words but it was clear from the outlook of the overall crowd that many had their doubts.

Finally, after a few more minutes of continued advertising from the middle aged man, someone stepped forward.

Many eyes landed on this young female, dressed in expensive robes that had an annoyed expression on her face as she looked at the middle aged man who instead only showed her a kind smile.

Just going by looks and demeanor alone, I couldn’t but inwardly sigh as this girl was obviously from a rich and powerful background.

“What is the name of this pill, old man?”

The young female asked, a look of contempt on her face.

As if he didn’t see her expression at all the middle aged man let out a small chuckle before speaking again.

“I have named it the pill.”

The girl let out a hollow laugh and showed a row of pearl white teeth.

“So if I understood this correctly you are trying to sell people this ordinary pill under a different name.

You are nothing more than a dirty con artist!”

Her loud and crystal clear voice echoed in the entire market place and immediately a few people in the crowd who had previously been skeptical of this middle aged man couldn’t help but shout a few words too.

“She is right; you are obviously trying to swindle people out of their hard earned money old man!”

“Even telling us the name of the pill you are blatantly advertising as something special, shameless!”

“Go back home before some big shot or the market police puts you behind bars you charlatan!”

Despite the countless voices throwing curses and mean words his way, the middle aged man named Ge Hong didn’t even blink an eye as he looked towards the young female standing before him.

“Unconvinced of its effects? Well then take one and see for yourself.”

Immediately a purple colored pill sailed through the air and was swiftly caught by a slender, white hand.

The young female who had previously spoken aloud eyed the pill in her hands dubiously before gingerly putting it between her rosy lips.

Immediately the crowd in the market place went deathly silence.

Even I couldn’t help but rise from my seat.

A nearly inaudible ‘gulp’ went through the rows of people before the girl furrowed her brow and closed her eyes.

Seconds slowly passed and turned into minutes as everyone present waited with a baited breath.

The only one who was seemingly calm during this time was Ge Hong as he stood, hands crossed over his bulging stomach, waiting with a smile.

After nearly half an incense stick of time, a serious expression appeared on the girl’s face and she opened her eyes.

Before anyone in the crowd could ask questions, her crystal clear voice once again resounded in the surrounding area, but this time a bit quieter.

“How much for 5 of them?”

I couldn’t help but open my mouth in disbelief as I fell backwards, only to land back on my chair.

The expected scene of this obvious charlatan being called out on his tricks didn’t happen, instead the girl immediately asked for the price of 5 of them.

Could it be?

The crowd in the area naturally had the same thoughts as fiery gazes immediately fell on the pills in the middle aged man’s hands.

“Well considering these pills have been largely refined by someone else and only have an increased effectiveness of 10% I will naturally only ask for a 10% increase of the original’s price.

One is 1 thousand Silver coins so one pill will therefore only cost 1 thousand and 100 Silver coins.

Is that agreeable with you little girl?”

Ge Hong asked with a magnanimous smile that seemed to show only goodwill to everyone around him.

Once again the crowd was stunned and a few people present nearly fell to the floor thanks to his words.

This kind of cheap price was insane!

It wouldn’t have shocked anyone in the market place if this new pill would cost 150% of the pill because an increase of 10% was a big thing.

But to only sell it at such a low price…

This was obviously a once in a lifetime chance!

“Hey, old man Ge, give me 10 of those pills please!”

“I need 20 of them for my 4 sons!”

“I will take 10 too!”

A clamor of voices erupted after the young female had conducted her business and quickly disappeared in the approaching masses that flowed towards the big bellied middle aged man like a river flowing into the sea.

After only half an hour, Ge Hong had to announce that he had run out of pills to sell.

“Fear not my friends of many ages, I have simply run out but that does not mean that there won’t be more. At the first light of dawn tomorrow I will be standing here in this same spot with a new batch of pills, no worries!”

The before dejected crowd of people who didn’t have a chance to purchase a pill immediately erupted in loud cheers after hearing those words.

“Make sure to make more this time!”

“Yeah, I am going to tell all my friends about it so make sure you have enough in stock!”

Just as fast as he had appeared before he disappeared again, only this time many eyes followed the departing figure of Ge Hong.

Turning my head slowly towards lady Ma that had a stall next to mine I couldn’t help but open my mouth somewhat baffled.

“Do you really think he is going to be back tomorrow?”

The woman simply shrugged her shoulders as her eyes too followed the silhouette of Ge Hong.

“One thing is for sure though, should he be here tomorrow and there is no angry mob asking for a refund, then I am going to buy some for my son too.”

Despite my doubts I couldn’t help but agree that she was right.

Maybe I really should bring some more money with me, just as a precaution.

….

Looking at the vast amount of silver Coins in my hands that piled up to a small mountain, I couldn’t help but smile in utter glee.

In an incredibly short amount of time I had made quite the profit.

The girls and I originally had about 22 Gold coins left after renting the room in the Dragon’s tail inn.

This money was supposed to be used for things like cultivation and food as well as other things but I had decided to use 10 of our precious gold coins for an experiment.

After looking around in a shop that sold pills as well as various herbs for nearly half a day before stumbling upon this very cheap but effective pill called I had slowly formulated a plan in my head.

The price for this pill was in reality not even 1 thousand Silver, at least not in the bigger shops that I was looking in.

They went for about 800 Silver a piece but that was only because I was flashing my identity as a ‘Young Master’ around, normal people had to pay the original price of 1 thousand Silver coins.

Well the truth was that ‘normal people’ wouldn’t even be able to afford these pills to begin with.

There was a vast difference in treatment for cultivators and mortals.

A mortal soldier would get about 1 Silver each month as payment and could barely scrape by a living while a cultivator that was part of the country’s army or city guard would receive a salary of 5 thousand Silver and upwards, depending on his or her cultivation level.

The reason for this was quite simple really.

A mortal could train their body over years and be an expert of weapons as well as easily swing about 200 pounds of force.

While a cultivator on the other hand would be able to instantly increase their power by 50 pounds each time they advanced a layer and that was taking the lowest of all levels in cultivation into account.

Let’s not even talk about the case of a cultivator training himself in martial arts that needed Qi or other techniques.

The simple but hard truth was that having Qi and not having it was just too big of a gap to cover for mortal soldiers.

Someone at the 3rd layer of Foundation Gathering for example alone could easily beat a dozen soldiers or more.

The only ones who made more profit than cultivators were merchants, but to be a merchant you needed a quick mind and already preexisting funds to start with.

Those two things alone proved to be an immense hurdle for many which wasn’t a surprise considering the low wages and bad treatment that non-cultivators sometimes received.

Now you might ask yourself dear reader, how did I suddenly gain enlightenment into pill concocting and was able to enhance this type of pill?

Well the simple answer was, I didn’t, not really anyways.

When the shopkeeper had first explained to me the effects of the pill he told me that consuming it was quite the struggle as a lot of energy had to be used to consume this type of aggressive pill properly.

I naturally ate one as a test run and couldn’t agree to his words more.

The Qi that came from this pill once you ate it was like a vicious beast and your body the cage.

You had to constantly fight it until you absorbed all the Qi that the pill was able to provide.

This process alone wasted quite a bit of Qi from the pill and your body itself, this was one of the reasons why the pill was so cheap too.

The idea I had after trying my first pill of obviously low quality was to improve it.

I mean I was in no way an expert of anything but there were a few things even I understood thanks to my previous world’s knowledge.

Let’s not even talk about the chemical reaction or contents of these various pills in the shop that I was looking at which for some reason contained this mysterious thing called Qi.

Everyone knew that a calm mind was needed to properly absorb the Qi in the atmosphere as well as a certain degree of concentration, that was what meditation was used for after all.

My idea? Find an ingredient to add to this pill that would help the mind relax and be at peace while absorbing it.

I can only thank my own luck that I had already found such an ingredient in one of my previous endeavors around the city.

It was called .

Now I know what you might be thinking, what the fuck was that?

I mean even I had never heard of it considering I knew it under a different name.

It was Lavender.

Plain and simple.

It was something that calmed the nerves, used in various antidepressants and making it into oil was quite the common technique back in my world.

They had used this in this world as a form of incense or flower décor.

No one had apparently figured out that this simple and cheap ‘weed’ as many called it could be used in medicine or even cooking.

I was honestly surprised when I saw this all too familiar plant in a small shop that sold all kinds of incense that would aid in cultivation as well as cover up some nasty smells in your home.

Did I know if my idea with mixing lavender and this pill with foreign ingredients would work?

Hell no.

So I simply made a watery paste out of the lavender I bought and dunked the pill into it.

Messing around with this foreign object with who knows how many different ingredients in any other way didn’t seem like a good idea so coating it was my first try.

I let the experimental pill sit for a few minutes until it dried and then just gulped it down.

This was naturally a bit dangerous but I was ready to throw up at any moment should I feel something was wrong.

The intensity of the pill itself didn’t really lessen but the constant smell of lavender that was stuck in my nose after swallowing the pill helped calm my mind a great deal and made absorbing the Qi of the pill easier.

Thus my claims that my pill truly increased the amount of Qi were not really wrong, but it was more like the amount you were able to absorb increased, not the actual amount of Qi stored in the pill itself.

Color me surprised but my plan had for once worked flawlessly.

I feel like I am having it way too easy now so I am beginning to get a bit worried.

With my experiment being a grand success I decided to buy a big supply of pills as well as a stock pile of lavender and quickly manufactured them into my precious new money maker.

The first batch contained around 120 or so pills that all in all had a value of at least 12 Gold.

My next step in my plan was to use a disguise, so I put a wig as well as fake beard on, changed my features slightly so I looked a lot older and stuffed my disguise kit that was mainly used as a bag with loads of bulky things to make it puffy and round.

Then I used a hidden feature of the bag and simply put it on my front while adjusting the straps properly.

I also removed any sharp or hard items that were contained in the bag itself.

A big belly was therefore easily manufactured.

After putting some wide clothes on as well as another set on top of it so my tall frame looked a lot bulkier, I was basically finished.

I decided to hunch over a bit so my height didn’t quite tower over everything around and turned towards the girls.

“So, what do you guys think?”

I asked them in a huskier and deeper voice that I decided to improvise.

They only looked at my transformed self with open mouths so I figured that I had done a good enough job for now.

After a few minutes of experimentation with my new voice I finally felt comfortable talking this way and once again addressed them.

“One of you will have to help me get the ball rolling and play a certain role for me. Any volunteers?”

I asked and surprisingly enough Hua Ping actually decided to be the one in the spotlight.

Or to put it in another way, “I always wanted to act like a snobby brat from a rich family anyways”.

Her words, not mine.

We went through the dialogue I had prepared for her many times until she could play the whole thing to the point where even I believed it and went on our way.

The results spoke for themselves.

Even I didn’t think it would be this easy to convince a crowd of people with flowery words and a helper in form of an arrogant rich girl.

Do the people of this world really not know how to see through an obvious sham?

I mean what I was selling them did work but if the entire population was this easy to trick then becoming a full-time con artist may actually be the way to go for me here.

I am obviously joking naturally but it was something to consider.

One thing you might be wondering about is why I sold these pills I created for such a cheap price.

Well the reason is quite simple really, I didn’t only want to make money.

After today I had established myself under a different name.

Ge Hong was seen as an elderly figure that always had a good natured smile on his face and instead of taking advantage of others sold his inventions for cheap and didn’t rip people off.

He was a saint really, at least that was what people saw him as.

And sometimes, Image is a lot more important and powerful than even money.

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And that is that, a little peek at a different character that will be introduced eventually and the rise of Ge Hong!

Hope you liked it and leave a comment below if you feel like it people, always love reading them.

I wish you all a wonderful day! [th_059_.gif]