"Young Master, where are we headed?" Xiaocui blinked up at him. After more than a month at his side, the sharp-witted girl had begun to sense that her Young Master was no longer the same as before.

"No idea. We'll wander a while and see whether anyone's so taken with this young master's dashing good looks that they hand over a few tens of thousands of taels for me to spend," Tang Yan answered offhandedly.

Xiaocui rolled her eyes at the nonsense and pretended she hadn't heard a word.

Young Master Tang made straight for wherever the crowds ran thickest. Only after the better part of an hour did he stop, muttering under his breath, "About time they showed themselves."

With Alchemist Tang's keen Soul Power, he could of course feel the people trailing him through the crowd. There was no need to guess. In Yun City, only one family had openly torn off all pretense with the Tang Family, and that was the Liu Family. And among the Liu Family, the one most likely to pull a stunt like this was Liu Yuan.

Then, all at once, Tang Yan felt the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron within him give a sudden shudder.

In the month and more since his rebirth, the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron had rarely stirred on its own. The first time had been when it passed the Supreme Alchemy Scripture to him. The second was when it swallowed his Initial Spirit Pill.

So what was setting it off this time?

Tang Yan's gaze swept the surroundings like lightning, and at last came to rest on an old man at the side of the road.

Feigning a leisurely stroll, he made his way toward the old man. The cauldron's reaction grew fiercer still, rocking back and forth inside his Dantian, as if something nearby had roused a hunger it couldn't contain.

Tang Yan studied the old man in turn. He looked to be around sixty, an ordinary mortal, with a small stall set out before him and a few medicinal herbs laid across it.

Most of the herbs were utterly common. The most valuable among them was a mountain ginseng, perhaps thirty years old.

"Flatcap grass, common. Bone-strengthening grass, common. Red fruit, common..." In the few steps it took to reach the stall, Tang Yan sorted through the old man's herbs one by one. He went over them end to end and found nothing out of the ordinary.

He walked up frowning. The old man, who hadn't seen a single customer all this while, suddenly spotted a richly dressed young lord approaching and broke into a wide smile. "Young Master, which herbs would you like? This old one's prices are more than fair, and these were dug up only days ago. Their potency is still at its fullest."

"Old man, are all your herbs here on the stall?" As he spoke, Tang Yan's eyes drifted toward the old man's bamboo basket.

The old man sighed at the question. Clearly this young lord hadn't taken a liking to a single herb on his stall. He smiled bitterly. "Everything I can put out is already here on the ground."

Tang Yan's eyes brightened. Everything he could put out for sale was on the stall, so didn't that mean there was still something in the basket? He stepped over, lifted the cloth covering it, and sure enough, one more herb lay inside.

The instant he made out its shape, Tang Yan's pupils contracted sharply, and he nearly cried out.

The herb wasn't large. Withered yellow all over, about the size of a radish, with root threads beneath it tangled and curled. Its appearance was hideous beyond words.

As it happened, Tang Yan knew exactly what it was. Its name was the Spirit Vortex Fruit.

The thing was exceedingly rare, with brutally strict demands on the environment it grew in. Its chief effect was to temper the Dantian, letting it hold more True Qi. It was much like a cup: keep the height the same, but widen its mouth, and it could hold all the more water.

He'd never imagined a single outing would turn up a treasure like this. Forcing down the delight rising in his chest, Tang Yan asked in an idle tone, "What's this thing? Ugly as sin."

"I dug it up deep in the mountains. Forgive this old one's poor eyes, but I don't know what it is," the old man answered honestly.

"This young master rather likes the look of it. Stew it up with an old hen back home and it might make a fine tonic soup. So, old man, how much silver?" Tang Yan asked breezily.

The old man waved a hand. "I've no idea what it is myself. Looking the way it does, its potency's probably long since drained away. If the young master wants it, just take it."

"Then many thanks, old man. Xiaocui, pay him. One hundred taels." Tang Yan waved a hand.

Xiaocui sighed inwardly that her Young Master had slipped back into his spendthrift ways. She drew a hundred-tael note from the purse and handed it to the old man.

"I couldn't, I couldn't." The old man waved his hands in a fluster. "This herb's worth one tael of silver at most."

"When this young master tells you to take it, you take it. Enough chatter." Tang Yan put on a show of displeasure.

The old man froze, his eyes brimming over. He dropped to his knees with a thud. "My grandson is gravely ill, and I'd been at my wit's end for the money to treat him. The young master's great kindness, this old one will carve into his heart. Should there ever come a way for me to repay you, I'll spend these old bones to the very last to do it!"

"Elder, please, get up quickly. If anyone sees this, they'll think Young Master is bullying the common folk again." Startled, Xiaocui hurried to help the old man to his feet.

Tang Yan had no mind to linger. The moment the Spirit Vortex Fruit was in his arms, the Heaven and Earth Creation Cauldron in his Dantian began rocking in wild excitement, like an infant howling to be fed.

Then a jolt of alarm shot through him, and he thrust the Spirit Vortex Fruit into Xiaocui's hands. The wretched cauldron was this worked up, and Tang Yan's mind flew straight back to the time it had gulped down his Initial Spirit Pill. Don't tell me this greedy thing wants to eat the Spirit Vortex Fruit too?

"Young Master, what is this thing? It's so ugly." Xiaocui held the Spirit Vortex Fruit with a touch of distaste.

The Spirit Vortex Fruit truly was hideous to look at. Tang Yan quickly gave a solemn warning. "Xiaocui, this is a precious thing. Hold on to it carefully. If it gets knocked or bruised, we'll lose out badly. Cradle it well, and once we're home I'll reward you with a hundred taels of silver."

At that, Xiaocui's face lit up at once, and she cradled the Spirit Vortex Fruit like a treasured egg. For all the years her Young Master had spent as an utter wastrel, he had always been good to her. Still, this sudden burst of generosity was a first.

Tang Yan had lost all mood for strolling the streets, and was just about to turn for home when an ill-timed voice rang out. "Aiyo, and here I wondered who it was. Why, it's none other than Young Master Tang. We haven't met in over a month. You haven't forgotten me, have you?"

"How could I? Just a month ago I beat you down like a stray dog and won two thousand taels off you besides. A good soul who takes a beating from me and then hands over his silver, how could I ever forget?" Tang Yan regarded the newcomer with a sunny smile.

Four had come. Apart from Liu Yuan, two were dressed as guards, and there was also a young man in green robes.

Tang Yan's eyes narrowed. This young man's strength had already reached Yellow Rank First Grade. He had to be a direct-line scion of the Liu Family.

Perhaps because Liu Yuan had thought Young Master Tang looked so dashing with that folding fan last time, this time he too had decked himself out in a white robe, a folding fan in hand.

Walking with his head high and chest thrown out, all that posturing did lend him a faint scholarly air. But the moment Tang Yan's mockery reached him, his breath went ragged and his face flushed crimson.

It had only been a few days. How had Young Master Tang's tongue grown so venomous? Not a single foul word in any of it, and yet every line left Liu Yuan feeling he'd suffered the gravest of insults.

"You f-ing-" Liu Yuan's mouth flew open to launch into a tirade.

"Keep it down!" Tang Yan thrust a finger at him and barked. "They say you can judge a man's taste by the company he keeps. Shout like that, and people will think you and I are close. And if anyone decides I've got as little taste as you, wouldn't that drag my Tang Family's face through the mud?"

Liu Yuan's mouth worked, desperate to spit out some curse, yet not a word would come. He felt only a surge of blood rushing upward, and a thick, suffocating wave of humiliation welling up from within.

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