Chapter 63

Chapter 62

A long silence.

As a master of the art of deception, it was probably the first time in his life that he had remained speechless for so long in front of a person.

"Ji... Ji..."

Chunxian, unable to bear it any longer, called out to Chuxiankai with difficulty, but his face remained cold and indifferent, showing no sign of emotion.

"Ji... Ji."

"I know it's hard to believe, but I have always been sincere to you."

"I have just one question."

Chuxiankai's indifferent face made Chunxian shudder, and she struggled to speak.

"......Speak."

Chuxiankai's eyes burned like a volcano.

"Why did you smile?"

"Huh?"

Chuxiankai stroked his Tianlinggai (the top of his head).

"I'm talking about the moment when you anesthetized my entire body with a confusion drug and implanted the solitude into my skull."

"That...!"

"When I regained consciousness, however faintly, you were smiling more brightly than any smile you had ever shown me. Even now, your smile sometimes haunts my dreams, drenched in cold sweat."

Chunxian stammered.

"As you know, operating on the Tianlinggai is a dangerous procedure. After the surgery was successfully completed, you must have felt relieved."

Chuxiankai let out a bitter laugh and spoke sarcastically.

"Now, you can't lie freely."

"It's... not a lie."

Chuxiankai, who had been stroking his Tianlinggai, withdrew his hand and slowly folded his arms.

"Relief? Yes, it was a smile of relief. But it was a different kind of relief."

"What... What do you mean...?"

Chuxiankai's lips twisted strangely.

"The satisfaction of finally completing the mission, the thrill of a job well done, and the anticipation of the substantial reward from the higher-ups. At that moment, you must have imagined such a beautiful future, such a rosy life trajectory. It was a smile of relief that encompassed all the joys of life."

"No, that's not true!"

Chuxiankai laughed again.

"Do you know what the first words you said to me when I woke up were? You wouldn't remember, would you?"

"What!"

"To my face, covered in blood, you surprisingly said, 'Disgusting brat.' All the years you spent with me, completing the mission, were disgusting to you. Or perhaps, given how ugly I was, covered in blood, you found me even more repulsive."

Only then did Chunxian vaguely recall that moment.

But she never imagined that he, drugged and with blurred vision, could remember it so clearly.

Creak—

As Chuxiankai stood up from the chair, Chunxian, bound with ropes, began to struggle.

"Don't... Don't come closer! Have you forgotten? I have your blood seal...!"

Chuxiankai laughed again.

"Unfortunately, the blood seal in my mind was cleanly burned away by the will of the Lesser Sword Saint. The martial arts of Supreme Clarity are truly remarkable."

"Save... me...!"

Chuxiankai, who had been gripping Chunxian's neck with a cold expression, spoke his final words.

"Whom do you blame? The foolish one was myself. Let's never meet again, in this world or the next."

Tears of blood were already streaming down his eyes.

* * *

Zhaohui had left the Zhaogadaishanghui, but to his dismay, he had nowhere to go.

He couldn't possibly complain to Nangong Zhanghu or Zhang Yilong, who were already exhausted from their work.

The fact that he had no close friend to confide in made him feel even more disheartened.

He thought about visiting the Nangong or Tang families, or perhaps the alliance, but they were all business partners, and he couldn't really consider them close friends.

‘Have I lived wrongly in this martial world?’

Zhaohui, feeling a bit depressed, decided to go to any inn by the Poyang Lake to have a drink and soothe his heart.

Wuhukezhan (Five Barbarian Inn).

This was not an inn affiliated with the Zhaogadaishanghui.

Still, to avoid drawing attention, Zhaohui changed his appearance slightly and entered the inn, lifting the curtain.

"Welcome, sir!"

How could I, known as the Lesser Sword Saint in the martial world, be drinking alone in a modern setting or in this martial world!

The waiter, who had greeted Zhaohui warmly, noticed his gloomy expression and his eyes lit up.

"Would you like some Poisonous Wine?"

Indeed, the waiters in any inn have a keen sense of observation.

This one must have been eating the waiter's bread for at least five years.

"The strongest one."

"I'll bring you Zui Xian Lu (Drunken Immortal Dew)!"

Zui Xian Lu.

A famous Poisonous Wine in Poyang Lake, known for making one lose their senses for three days and nights after a single sip.

Zhaohui had heard of its reputation but had never tried it before.

"I'll take it. No snacks needed."

"Sure, sir!"

As the waiter hurried away, Zhaohui took a seat at the edge of the window.

The spirits of the Ling Realm were still bickering incessantly, so Zhaohui clenched his teeth to avoid hearing them.

"Ugh... Damn old men."

Suddenly, the voices around him caught his attention.

"Damn it! In this situation, the old days were much better, weren't they?"

"Right! Although the Black Heaven Chain was cruel, they didn't strangle merchants like this!"

"Sigh... Don't even mention it. Now, customers in the market won't even look at goods that aren't from the Zhaogadaishanghui. I've never seen such ruthless business tactics! Refunds? Returning goods or giving cash back? What kind of talk is that? Are merchants supposed to be fools?"

Refund.

The policy of exchanging or returning goods due to defects or a change of mind is a modern business model.

When the Zhaogadaishanghui entered the Poyang Lake area, they introduced this refund policy.

At first, Zhaohui, a modern person, was astonished by the state of the business world in the Central Plains.

Without proper refrigeration technology, food supplies often spoiled within a few days, and merchants would just cover them up and sell them, focused only on making money.

Customers, who discovered this, would just accept it as bad luck, never thinking to complain.

In this Central Plains, there was no concept of corporate ethics or consumer rights.

Therefore, when Zhaohui first proposed the refund policy, the affiliated merchants of the Zhaogadaishanghui strongly opposed it.

It was obvious that profits would plummet immediately.

However, Zhaohui pushed through with the refund policy with firm conviction.

Although profits would sharply decrease at first, he knew from modern experience that building consumer trust would bring enormous benefits in the long run.

The result was the current scene in this inn.

Zhaohui sneered and muttered to himself.

"Selling spoiled meat and vegetables by spraying them with Dechouxiang (Decay Fragrance), rubbing pig fat on rusty and moldy knives to sell them, and passing off ordinary wood as zitan wood... Was that right from the beginning? Why blame the Zhaogadaishanghui for all the wrongs when you've been doing business unethically until now? Haven't you already made a lot of money?"

Zhaohui's words only fanned the flames of the merchants' complaints.

"What does a young man like you know about the principles of business?"

"You! You dare to say things that you wouldn't dare to say to the leaders of the Mogashangduan!"

Merchants have a unique way of dealing with situations.

Ordinary merchants usually gauge the other person's appearance and demeanor before carefully expressing their anger, but they immediately started criticizing Zhaohui. They were so enraged that their rationality was impaired.

However, their instinct, honed from a lifetime of shrewdly judging people in business, was inevitable.

After their fiery outburst, their faces gradually turned pale.

They finally realized that Zhaohui, dressed in luxurious silk and adorned with various trinkets, was not an ordinary person.

"Sir, I don't know which family you belong to, but your words were extremely rude! Please retract them!"

Zhaohui smirked.

"No way. Objectively speaking, the Zhaogadaishanghui hasn't done anything wrong. What do you mean by retracting? Exchanging defective goods is a way to protect the rights of the buyer, isn't it?"

Just as the leaders of the Mogashangduan were about to speak.

A nobleman, who had been quietly sipping tea at the corner by the window, spoke up.

He was also dressed in luxurious silk, and his demeanor clearly indicated that he was from a high-ranking family.

"Exchanging goods that have lost their value for proper ones is indeed in line with the principles of business."

The nobleman then looked at Zhaohui and smiled warmly.

"Exchanging goods for silver is a different matter. It's likely that you intend to dominate the business in Poyang Lake. This can be considered a policy that goes beyond the principles of business."

Zhaohui, feeling a bit taken aback, tried to maintain a smile.

"Competition is what enriches the market."

The nobleman burst into hearty laughter.

"Ha ha! You're packaging the protection of consumers' rights in a nice way, but in reality, the Zhaogadaishanghui is aiming to dominate the business in Poyang Lake. For a new merchant group like them, it's a way to win the hearts of the people of Poyang Lake at once, and they can certainly bear the temporary losses. The chairman of the Zhaogadaishanghui, the Lesser Sword Saint, is truly a formidable and impressive person."

"......"

It sounded like praise, but it wasn't really praise.

As he probed deeply into Zhaohui's intentions, Zhaohui began to find him interesting.

"Competition is inherently like that, isn't it? When the other party introduces policies like exchanges and refunds, you need to either adopt similar policies or quickly respond with other strategies. It's a natural part of the market's logic to compete on prices, and blaming only the Zhaogadaishanghui is like admitting your own incompetence."

However, the nobleman by the window did not back down from Zhaohui's logical argument.

"Your argument has a contradiction."

"What contradiction?"

The nobleman, smirking.

"The Mogashangduan, unlike the large-scale Zhaogadaishanghui, doesn't have the resources to bear 'temporary losses.' Exchanges? Refunds? They probably can't last a month, let alone seven days. That's the absence of business principles. What the Zhaogadaishanghui is doing is nothing but the ruthless violence of a large merchant group."

"......"

Zhaohui was speechless at his logically sound rebuttal.

His argument was similar to the criticism of the violent business practices of modern large corporations.

"The large merchant groups in the Central Plains have maintained business principles to coexist. If they had only pursued profits, they would have acted like the Zhaogadaishangh