“Well?” Zhou Lihua’s eyes crinkled as she spread her arms as though to unveil herself to him. “What do you think?”

What did he think? Wu Jian wasn’t sure what to think. His brain had melted through his ears and all he was able to do was see. He stared at the two without being able to adequately express himself at all.

“Um… p-please don’t stare so hard. This is embarrassing enough as is,” Hou Jingshu mumbled as she tried to cover herself.

Her words brought Wu Jian back to his senses. He took several deep breaths to calm down, all the while cursing his raging libido. Ever since that night where he and Hou Jingshu slept together, he’d been regularly thinking about it, wishing he could partake in that moment again. But he needed to be strong. They had agreed not to since that first night.

“I think… you two look stunning, but I’m not sure I want other men seeing you in these outfits,” Wu Jian admitted.

Zhou Lihua picked up an object from atop a box, which revealed itself to be a fan as she elegantly unfurled it. She brought the fan to her mouth. Her narrowed eyes seeped amusement.

“What an honest answer. I like that. Your possessiveness toward me makes me feel quite warm.” Hou Jingshu said nothing, just blushed, so Zhou Lihua continued. “Do not worry. This isn’t our finished outfit. It’s just the teaser.”

“Huh?”

Wu Jian had no idea what she was getting at, but then Zhou Lihua revealed a pair of shawls--one black and the other white. She wrapped the black one over her shoulder and handed Hou Jingshu the white one. What had once been a very sexy outfit suddenly turned into something that contained just a tantalizing hint of skin.

“Is that better?” asked Zhou Lihua.

“Uh… yes, it is,” Wu Jian said.

“Do not worry. I’m not interested in letting random men see me exposed. However, it is important for us to look attractive. Most of our customers will be men, and every man loves a beautiful flower. Watch closely when we begin selling and you’ll see what I mean.”

Wu Jian already knew that Zhou Lihua was right. He had seen examples of this already. Huǒ Shuchang was a pervert who sometimes let his desire for women run wild, like that time they had visited the Zhou Clan’s auction house in the Ming Province. A good looking woman could easily lead a man around by the nose.

“I still don’t really like wearing this,” Hou Jingshu muttered.

“We need to make money, so just bear with it for now,” Zhou Lihua said, causing her friend to pout.

Wu Jian helped set up the stall according to Zhou Lihua’s specifications. The alchemy pills came in boxes instead of jars. There were two types; a black box and a red box, both glossy with a lacquered finish. He placed each jar on the table in the order Zhou Lihua specified, making them as eye-catching as possible. Zhou Lihua said this arrangement was similar to the feng shui of a zen garden, but instead of calming the mind, it drew attention.

And she was right. Not long after the stall was set up, Zhou Lihua and Hou Jingshu appeared before the table. Their appearance combined with the neatly arranged alchemy pills caused every cultivator on this aisle to stop whatever they were doing and look in their directions.

“Get ready,” Zhou Lihua said under her breath.

Over a dozen men suddenly began crowding around the stall. They were so loud that Wu Jian had trouble picking up what they were saying. Their words were all jumbled together as they tried to shout over each other, but Zhou Lihua calmly opened her fan and raised it into the air, silencing the crowd of overly eager men.

“Gentlemen, please calm yourselves. Don’t you know you’ll frighten innocent women like us if you’re too loud?”

Wu Jian almost snorted, but he held it in. He would not use the word innocent to describe her. Devious. Playful. Mischievous. Now those were words that fit this woman to a T.

“Young miss, I came over here not only because of your beauty, but because of the strong medicinal scent coming from these boxes. Perhaps I am mistaken, but might these contain Meridian Opening Pills?” a random man in the crowd asked. His words invoked murmurs from the others.

“They do indeed, but that is only one of the items I am selling,” Zhou Lihua paused for effect. “While the red boxes contain Meridian Opening Pills, the black ones have Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills. Three to a box.”

Her words caused an uproar.

“Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills?! Young beauty, I’ll take ten boxes!”

“Don’t listen to this swine! He doesn’t have the money for ten boxes! I’ll take twenty, young miss! Please sell them to me!”

“I’ll take your entire stock!”

“Fuck you! You can’t hog all of these pills to yourself!”

“Bwa ha ha ha! The strongest always gets the most spoils! If you don’t want me taking them all, prove your strength by defeating me!”

It was insane how these people were so ready to come to blows over these pills, but Wu Jian understood them. Middle Grade Chi Gathering Pills were rare in the Shang Kingdom due to the scarcity of the ingredients. Most of the ingredients were held by the Shang Kingdom and distributed to members of the academy, or they were hoarded within the top three sects--The Ice Phoenix Sect, Burning Hands Sect, and Saintly Sword Sect. Rogue cultivators and even normal noble families rarely got their hands on the ingredients needed for these pills, nevermind the pills themselves.

“Gentlemen, please calm yourselves. Do not forget that we are inside of the Alchemist Association’s Bazaar. The strength of your arms means nothing here. It is the strength of your wallet that determines victory,” Zhou Lihua said, eyes crinkling.

She already had these men by the balls. They were captivated by her words and mysterious beauty. It must have been the eyes. While the tantalizing glimpses of skin no doubt evoked provocative thoughts in the men present, her eyes contained the luster of stars. She had a devastating gaze.

Zhou Lihua snapped her fan shut and let it come to rest against her palm. “Now… I have 40 boxes of Meridian Opening Pills and Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills. Since these pills work best when paired together, I will sell both at the same time. The ingredients to refine these were quite hard to come by, so rather than simply selling them, I will auction them off. The starting price for one box of both pills will be thirty thousand spirit coins.”

Wu Jian almost gaped at the cost, which was half of what the Yang Fire Flower went for. This almost seemed like daylight robbery to him. At least, it was until he remembered that pills were even more valuable than ingredients. Ingredients could be quite valuable, but they were useless in the hands of a normal person. On the other hand, a pill was something a normal cultivator could use. They just had to swallow it and start cultivating.

“Thirty one thousand spirit coins!”

“Thirty two thousand!”

“I’m not gonna let you get ahead of me! Thirty-five thousand spirit coins!”

The cultivators bidding for the pills were already aware of their value and had no issue upping the ante for them. The first set of pills went to a man for one hundred thousand spirit coins, and the second went for ninety thousand. The third, fourth, and fifth boxes sold for nearly two hundred thousand each, and every pair of boxes after that surpassed the two hundred thousand mark.

Zhou Lihua was an expert at commanding the crowd. She used her brains and beauty to ensnare the men present, not only enrapturing them with her appearance, but also increasing their sense of urgency. Every time she sold a set, the men’s fervor increased. They threw even more money into their bids. By the time half their pills were sold, the price had already risen to four hundred thousand spirit coins.

The amount of money still seemed excessive to him. The Three-Layered Red Yin-Yang Pill had only sold for one hundred thousand, but that had also been a single pill. The people here were getting six pills in total. These pills were also valuable for anyone within the Asura Realm. Very few people in the Shang Kingdom even had use for a Three-Layered Red Yin-Yang Pill because most never reached the half-step Human Limit Realm.

It wasn’t long before they only had five boxes of each pill left, and the amount of money they made had already exceeded fifteen million spirit coins. That should have been more than enough money to help procure the Ten Thousand Year Spirit Spring Water in the upcoming auction.

Wu Jian felt his hope rise.

“Oh, my. What is this? Zhou Lihua, is that you, my dear?”

The voice made everything happening grind to a halt. Wu Jian turned as the crowd parted to reveal a young man with pale skin, long silver hair, and gray eyes. The arrogance in his smile immediately repulsed Wu Jian. His ostentatious silver robes billowed behind him as he waved a fan before his face.

Trailing behind him were a pair of guards. They were tall and covered in muscles. Neither was very attractive, but an arrogant young master like this would never have a guard who was more attractive than him--unless it was a beautiful young woman. Both guards were at the fifth stage of the Asura Realm. Meanwhile, the young man was at the fourth stage.

“Lord Chuān,” Zhou Lihua said calmly. “I had not realized you came back to the Shang Kingdom. I hope you haven’t snuck in like last time.”

“No, no. Worry not. I have arrived here through official channels this time,” the young man called Lord Chuān said. “I am here for the upcoming auction and thought I would stop by the Zhou Clan for a visit. You were not there, but I learned through Zhou Wen that you had gone to this bazaar, so I came all the way here to see what you were up to… oh? Might those be Meridian Opening Pills and Middle-Grade Chi Gathering Pills?”

“They are,” Zhou Lihua confirmed.

“Might I inspect them?”

“… You may.”

The man walked over and opened two boxes, a black one and a red one, and leaned down to inspect each. He not only took in their appearance but also their scent.

While he was inspecting the pills, Wu Jian stealthily moved over to Hou Jingshu, whose only role thus far had been eye-candy.

“Who is this man?” he asked in a hushed whisper.

She whispered back. “That’s Cì Chuān. He is the son of Emperor Cì Shā of the Zhou Kingdom.”

Wu Jian knew very little about the Zhou Kingdom, other than the bit his father had taught him. It was a nation famous for its hot springs, which were said to not only rejuvenate a person’s skin but also halt the aging process, increase their cultivation, and even improve their sex drive. They were a wealthy and powerful nation thanks to the massive amount of tourism they got each year. However, the emperor was supposedly a despot who suppressed his people. That was the rumor his father had shared with him.

“These… are incredibly well-made,” Cì Chuān said at last. “I had not realized your alchemy had advanced this far. How much do they cost? I’ll take whatever you have left.”

His words caused the people who’d been silent up until now to shout him down.

“Who the hell do you think you are?! You can’t just barge in and expect to take the remaining pills!”

“You are like a frog who wants to eat swan meat! Get in line with the rest of us!”

Cì Chuān seemed amused by the insults being hurled at him. If nothing else, this man had thick skin.

“Ah. The insults of hicks who know not the immensity of heaven and earth are quite amusing,” he said, just loudly enough to be heard over the crowd.

“What was that?! Why don’t you say that to my face, you hack!”

“I can’t believe someone who’s only at the fourth stage of the Asura Realm would dare insult us!”

“Hmph. You think I am just a cultivator at the Asura Realm?”

Cì Chuān spun around and held out a hand. Bright white flames immediately sprung into existence on his palm. It was so hot that heat waves distorted the air, and even Wu Jian began sweating despite their proximity.

“Behold, peons. I’m not just a cultivator. I’m a tier 5 alchemist with a heavenly flame in my possession. You fools have no idea who you’re talking down to. Mayhap you should stay quiet, lest you bite your own tongues.”

His words silenced everyone. Wu Jian did not know what a heavenly flame was, but he could tell the fire in Cì Chuān’s hand was no ordinary flame. And he said he was a tier 5 alchemist? That meant he was at the same level as Zhou Lihua’s master!

The man dispersed his flames, turned around, and smiled. “Now then, I would like to buy those pills from you, if you wouldn’t mind.”

It didn’t take a genius to know why an alchemist two tiers higher than Zhou Lihua would buy pills from her. This was like how normal young men would offer the woman they admired flowers. He was essentially courting her.

Wu Jian clenched his hand. He didn’t dare do anything that could jeopardize their task, but he really wanted to sock this arrogant fool in the face for his indiscretion.

Zhou Lihua remained calm. “Lord Chuān, you must know the rules of the bazaar. The one who sells sets the price. I am currently auctioning off these pills. If you want them, you must outbid those here.”

“Oh? How intriguing.” The man snapped his fan shut and tapped it against his open palm. “Very well. We shall do things your way.”

Zhou Lihua once more started the bidding, which continued after some hesitation. It wasn’t long before she once more held the crowd captive. The price for the pills went higher and higher, soon exceeding two hundred thousand.

“Five hundred thousand spirit coins,” Cì Chuān suddenly declared, much to everyone’s shock.