I Am Immortal in Great Yu

Outside Caozhi Hall.

Lord Hu was dressed in his usual jet-black short coat, flanked by two underlings and holding a broadsword.

"Well, if it isn’’t Lord Hu?! A rare guest, truly! Come, please, come in!"

Fang Rui led Lord Hu and his two followers inside, brought out a chair, and asked, "What brings you here today?"

"Sigh. To be honest with you, Brother Rui, I’ve run into a bit of trouble!"

Lord Hu didn’t answer directly, instead launching into a complaint. "These past two days, the gang suddenly assigned us a task to find supplies. Tell me, isn’t that just putting a man in a tough spot?"

The Lin Family, one of the two most powerful families in Changshan County, had started hoarding supplies six or seven days earlier, which was convenient for them since they controlled the Black Market.

And the Xia Family?

They were a bit slower to react and didn’t have the convenience of a Black Market, but they had their own methods: delegate the task to the various gangs in the city.

And so, Lord Hu now needed to ’meet his quota’.

"It is a tough spot..."

Fang Rui agreed, a placating smile on his face, ready to see what Lord Hu was really up to.

’He’s surely up to no good, but what’s there to fear? He’s a grasshopper in autumn. Let’s see how high he can jump,’ he thought to himself.

"If you ask me, I’m going to need your help with this, Brother Rui!"

"Oh? And how can I help?" Fang Rui asked, his expression unreadable.

"Simple."

Lord Hu said with a grin, "I’ve heard that you stockpiled a batch of medicinal herbs a while ago, Brother Rui. I’d like to buy them from you at the original price."

The dagger was revealed.

’So it’s about the medicinal herbs!’ A glint flashed in Fang Rui’s eyes.

As for how Lord Hu knew about them?

It was a long story.

In the beginning, when Fang Rui started making finished medicines, he was extremely cautious. He procured his herbs discreetly, and Lord Hu truly didn’t notice much.

It wasn’t until Fang Rui truly broke through to the Seventh Grade and revealed his strength as an Entry Grade Martial Artist that he started to relax a bit...

By then, Lord Hu had already taken notice.

He guessed that Fang Rui was just following the trend of selling finished medicines in the Black Market. But since Fang Rui was also an Entry Grade Martial Artist on the surface, it wasn’t worth falling out over such a small matter, so he didn’t do anything.

But a few days ago, Fang Rui suddenly stockpiled a large quantity of medicinal herbs, which caught Lord Hu’s attention.

Just as the Xia Family assigned their task and the gang re-assigned the quotas, Lord Hu naturally set his sights on this batch of herbs to ’meet his quota’.

’With these herbs, not only can I complete my mission, but I can also make a huge profit on the side. Who knows, this could lead to even greater opportunities in the future!’

Lord Hu thought to himself.

He had his own sources and, just like Fang Rui, knew about the county reserves’ defeat.

But instead of being alarmed, he was delighted.

Chaos in the city was a disaster for the common folk, but for an ambitious man, it was a golden opportunity. The old order was collapsing, and a new one had yet to form—it was the perfect time for the underdogs to rise and make a name for themselves!

’He must think I don’t know what the market rates are!’ Fang Rui sneered inwardly.

Original price?

These days, the prices for scarce goods like medicinal herbs were changing daily. Even at the supposed ’market price’, there were no sellers. Asking for the original price from days ago was out of the question.

What’s more, once news of the reserves’ crushing defeat spread, the silver coins would devalue, and people would be scrambling to buy these herbs for three, even five times the price.

And Lord Hu thought he could just take such a massive prize with nothing but empty words? He had to be dreaming!

"Lord Hu, I’m not planning on selling these herbs," Fang Rui said with a smile.

"Is that so?"

The smile on Lord Hu’s face instantly turned cold. With a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he said, "Brother Rui, are you saying you won’t help? That really disappoints your big brother."

"Take a word of advice from me. Even though you’re an Entry Grade Martial Artist, in chaotic times like these, you can still get into trouble for holding onto things you shouldn’t have!"

After the threat, his tone softened. "Of course, if you’re not willing to hand over all the herbs at the original price, you can keep a small portion to make into finished medicine packs. I can even give you... a ten-percent processing fee."

He was using both hard and soft tactics.

First, a personal threat. Then, a subtle hint about having leverage on him for selling finished medicines. Finally, he pretended to take a step back to give Fang Rui some room, lest he ’corner the rabbit’.

Such methods were undeniably shrewd!

If Fang Rui were just a regular Entry Grade Martial Artist, he might have actually been strong-armed by Lord Hu. But he wasn’t!

Lord Hu only thought Fang Rui was following the trend of selling finished medicines on the Black Market. He never expected that Fang Rui was the ’progenitor of finished medicines’ himself.

After all, in his eyes, Fang Rui had only just reached Entry Grade and suffered from an Innate Body Weakness. How could he possibly have turned the tables on and killed ruthless men like Zhou Changlin and Gao Tong?

It was precisely for this reason that Lord Hu had the guts to pressure him.

’Heh, a ten-percent markup? Not only is he trying to rob me blind, but he also wants to exploit my labor? All I can say is: thanks for nothing!’

Fang Rui was still smiling on the outside, but murderous intent was surging within him.

The truth was, if he revealed his true strength, he was sure he could scare Lord Hu witless.

But... he couldn’t!

Because his rate of improvement was simply too fast—so fast it didn’t match his identity and defied common sense!

Even revealing his Seventh or Eighth Grade strength in front of Lord Hu was risky. It could easily lead people to connect him to the Black Market’s ’progenitor of finished medicines’, potentially endangering Mrs. Xue of the Fang Family and Fang Ling.

’Lord Hu must die! But I can’t kill him here at home. It could cause trouble later on.’

’The best plan is to stall for a bit and send him away. Later, I’ll kill him somewhere else and be done with it!’

With this in mind, Fang Rui pretended to ponder for a moment and said, "Lord Hu, could you give me a moment to consider?"

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to feign compliance and agree for the time being. It was that if he agreed, Lord Hu would surely worry that delays might bring complications. Fearing the news of the county reserves’ defeat would spread and cause problems, he would definitely demand to take most of the herbs on the spot.

It would be easy for them to haul the herbs away in plain sight, but getting them back would be much, much harder.