Chapter 503 - Ripples (X)

Chapter 503

Ripples (X)

Just as I was about to ask whether he was satisfied, Lao Shun vacuumed all the remaining items into his spatial ring like a thief afraid of anybody else taking his spoils. If it weren't so absurd, I'd have laughed at just how funny he looked doing it.

"Eh? What'd you get? Come on, share some wealth!"

"Here," instead of any of the items, he procured a small, brown satchel and tossed it at her. "The promised hundred mid-quality stones."

"Tsk, cheapskate," she said, though she deftly grabbed the satchel and stored it into her own ring. "They must be something else if you're parting with the stones so easily."

"Just some cheap garbage," Lao Shun said.

"Oh?" My eyebrow twitched involuntarily. "Cheap garbage? Then give it back so I can throw it into trash."

"..." He shot me a glare, one that seemed to be saying, 'Read the subtext, dude!', except he probably thought of something other than 'dude'.

"Whatever," I shrugged, storing away the pills. Finally, I had everything--well, except the place. "Let's go out."

The 'doors' to the chamber parted, and, before we could exit, we stopped--there was an audience of about twenty people waiting there, all stinking to high heavens of herbs and flowers. Every last one of them looked to be about four hundred years old, having wrinkles that themselves had wrinkles, half of whom also had deeply hunched backs, and only two who looked to have a full set of teeth.

Whether their own or not, though...

"E-eh? Little Shun...?" an aged voice called out as soon as Lao Shun stepped out to my side.

"Hm? Ah, Master Zhao. What are you doing here?" Lao Shun asked as I stepped aside, letting him have this.

"I am--no, wait, that is beside the point. You... did, were you the one who caused the Song? Right now?"

"... you make it sound as though it would be the wildest thing in the world." There was little love and even respect in Lao Shun's voice, and even less so in his expression. "I thought Sect Master said nobody would disturb us."

"Well, they didn't," I said. "You finished your cooking, didn't you?"

"... cooking?" he eyed me with a slightly different variant of cold as his eyebrows twitched.

"It, it really was you!" the man exclaimed. "L-Little Shun, the pills! Will you sell the pills to the Tower?!"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Freewebnovel. Report any occurrences.

"W-wait, you old bastard! No, great Alchemist, sell it to us! We'll pay twice what they will!"

"To hell with you! We'll pay three times!"

"Tsk, are your coffers empty or what? Ten times!!"

"Pah, you rich bastard! Bet with your own money, not your father's!"

"As father's only heir, his money is my money, you poverty-stricken bastard!"

I wish I could say this was the first time I saw a bunch of old men bickering like a bunch of little children, but it's not. Not in this world, not on Earth either.

"Don't ask me," Lao Shun announced to the room. "The pills are his." He pointed at me, at the same time shooting me a smirk of self-satisfaction.

"Hey, kid," one of the old men said. "You do know the old adage, no? Treasures you can't protect are death sentences."

"Indeed, indeed. Not to be shameless, but I will give you a hundred stones per pill!"

"Tsk, cheapskate; I will give you... hundred and fifty!"

"..." I eyed them emptily for a moment before I sighed. "Hey, old shits," I said. "Why do you think the pills are mine? Do you think it's because this little shit here was feeling nice and gave them to me?" My words gave birth to truly beautiful silence. "I understand you all have peas for brains, but for once in your godforsaken lives, think. Haah, the old adage of 'youth is wasted on the young' rings less and less true whenever I met smooth brains like you."

Leaving them stunned in silence, I walked past and out and immediately felt a bit of regret. Not too much, though; I'm here under the protection of Sect Master, and I should flaunt that... at least a bit.

I exited out of the building... only to be welcomed by that very man standing there alongside a few others. He looked at me rather strangely for a moment, as did the rest of them, but ultimately chose not to bring up the little... incident down below.

"Congratulations, Junior Qi; your Disciple is truly remarkable," the Sect Master said.

"... yes, I've raised him well," I played along, putting on a strained smile. "I didn't expect him to cause such a phenomenon."

"We are merely blessed for him to have done it here so that we all may experience it once in our lifetimes. I hope that our humble Alchemy Chamber was not too terrible."

"Oh, it was adequate," tsk, this bastard was actually fishing for a pill. I mean... there's probably no true harm in giving him one, especially because Lao Shun procured two full sets, but I won't give him one just because he gave us a random-ass chamber.

"..." awkward silence set between us as the other elderly around him started eyeing me somewhat aggressively. It'd be a lie if I said I didn't get a bit scared, but he quickly put an end to it. "How about you join me for a cup of wine in my garden so we can properly celebrate?"

"It would be my honor."

We were escorted by rather sharp gazes of people at our back as he took us up the winding path to our right and past one of those colosseum-like buildings. The world suddenly shuttled in a strange manner as I felt energy coalesce around me for a moment before dispersing.

At the same time, the world changed, switching from the dirt-paved path winding out toward the top and into a rather scenic little thing. There was a small, wooden cabin nestled between tall and thin pine trees, and next to it was a small garden with an even smaller pond of water over which a simple gazebo was built.

"Others merely think you are a guest for the most part," he said. "We tried to keep the truth contained. That was why they were so openly hostile to you."

"You and I have a vastly different definition of 'openly hostile'," I said.

"Ha ha ha," he suddenly burst into a rather hearty laugh as we reached the garden. The scent of springtime flowers burst forth like a tsunami, nearly knocking me out. "I suppose we do. Once you get to my position, any slight means open hostility."

"Doesn't it get tiring?"

"Obnoxiously so," he nodded as we sat down. "As such, I will be candid with you since you seem the sort to take it in stride. One of the pills," he added just as he finished pouring two cups of wine. "How much will it cost me?"