Sora Yu was not in a good mood.

“Senior brother, perhaps a walk around the marketplace will relax you,” a Foundation Establishment disciple on his left suggested.

“Yes, senior brother. Let’s go browse the shops and forget this matter,” another disciple on right agreed with the former.

Sora Yu was one of the sect’s Five Tributaries, a person treasured and cared for by all in the sect. Wherever he walked, eyes followed. A mere glance, heads bowed. Truly, he was the shining sun in a cloudless sky.

Yu nodded to the crowd of disciples in front of him and had them lead the way.

He was the record holder of seven of the sect’s challenges, the greatest number amongst the other tributaries including his Sister Hide who held six. Aside from that, he regularly took on difficult tasks and received rewards for his deeds, so he had accumulated over forty thousand sect credits. A number his juniors could only dream about.

Whenever he had fallen into a slump, spending some of his wealth would cheer him back up. His companions knew that, so they steered him to the marketplace in hopes that his mood would improve.

For Yu, his condition could not be easily solved this time. His Brother Matsushita, whom he had considered an equal, was humiliated by a young Qi Flourishing disciple that was admitted into the sect less than a week ago. His loss not only sullied the reputation of the Five Tributaries, but also elevated this no-name disciple’s prestige. Some rumors had sprouted up that she was an Odalisque in disguise.

Yu’s right eye narrowed slightly as he got angrier the more he thought about what had just happened.

He had sought his master, the fourth elder, for some advice on his cultivation, but instead of receiving guidance, his master shooed him away. The fourth elder had been completely occupied with camping outside this rumoured disciple’s cave, waiting for her to exit.

If that was all, perhaps Yu could have accepted it gracefully, but there were two other elders waiting alongside his master as well. Even if she were an Odalisque, why would three of the sect’s most venerable elders camp outside her door?

Just thinking about it had nearly caused Yu to forget his magnificent disposition and enigmatic demeanor that he upheld in public.

“Junior brothers, thank you for accompanying me here. I wish to purchase all of you some pills to help with your cultivation,” Yu announced to them after reaching one of the entrances to the marketplace.

The marketplace itself was an outside bazaar that disciples frequented when looking to spend credits, and they were unsure of what to spend it on, but because of the sect’s blessing, many had retreated into their caves to cultivate. Yu glanced around the entire marketplace, and to his expectations, he saw fewer disciples shopping around than usual.

It was a large, oval of propped up tables with merchandise laid out. You could enter from several spots and browse the merchandise as you walked around. Every one or two tables had their own TD that they used for transactions, and each vendor sold their own variety of items. The merchandise varied from cheaper items such as low-grade cultivation pills, weapons and storage bags to the pricier items such as storage rings or higher grade pills and weapons.

His escorts’ eyes sparkled as they put on faces of deep admiration and respect for their senior brother. They had brought him here to cheer him up, and instead, he voiced an intention to treat them.

‘This is a true senior brother!’ they thought.

They led Yu to the first merchant and cleared a path for him to approach the table.

“Greetings, young master,” said the merchant with clasped hands and a bowed head.

Yu especially enjoyed the treatment he received whenever he had gone shopping. While merchants treated those with wealth or those with status with care, those who had both were treated like Emperors, affording them the greatest courtesy and reverence. Because of his reputation and wealth, every merchant treated him with the utmost respect.

Yu acknowledged the merchant’s greeting and looked through the wares. He was surprised to see only a few items for purchase: several bottles of high-grade pills, a couple of books on cultivation techniques, two medium-grade swords forged with the blood of Foundation Establishment beasts.

“Is this all you have?” asked Yu, maintaining his aloofness.

“My apologies, young master, but someone had just come earlier and purchased most of my stock.”

Before leaving the stand, Yu waved his hands in the air to dismiss the merchant, causing him to breath easy once more. He allowed his juniors to lead him to another shop.

They continued going through the marketplace, but many of the shops had sold off most of their inexpensive wares, and all they could find were costly pills and items. Some of the merchant stands retained most of their merchandise, but they were either pricy to begin with or specialty shops.

Yu glanced at a specific specialty shop that sold high-grade weapons. He would frequently browse this shop for one reason.

Hanging off the front side of the shop’s table everyday for the past three years was the merchant’s most-prized item, a Voidmetal Dagger. This dagger would become translucent when infused with Qi and would glide through the air without making a sound.

It was fifty thousand credits. Only ten thousand more than what Yu carried with him at this moment, and he was confident he could haggle it down by another five thousand.

His eyes scanned for the dagger at its usual spot.

…

He stopped walking, causing his advance troops to stop as well. He blinked his eyes quickly several times.

…

‘IT’S GONE!’

The dagger was nowhere in sight, not in front of the table or anywhere on it.

Yu quickly walked to the table, taking large strides. His followers were surprised at the abrupt change in direction, but they followed behind him. The shopkeeper saw Yu approach him, and he quickly bowed his head with clasped fists.

“Greetings Master Sora. It is always a pleasure to see—”

“Did you sell it?” Yu interrupted him.

The merchant blinked at Yu, surprised with the question. “Sell what, young master? I haven’t had a single customer walk by my shop since I saw you yesterday.”

Yu breathed a sigh of relief. If no one had come by, then perhaps he took the dagger down to clean it.

“Are you cleaning the dagger that usually hangs here?” Yu pointed at the jutting nail on the far side of the table where a weapon could be hung.

The merchant furrowed his eyes. “I am not cleaning any weapons, young mas—” the merchant stopped mid-sentence after he walked around the table and saw the empty space Yu was pointing to.

…

…

…

“I’ve been robbed…”

They all stood there silently, letting the merchants’ words sink in.

Robbery in the sect was something rarely done. It was not only difficult to get away with it, but the punishment was severe. The item would be taken back, and you would owe a debt three times that of the stolen property. A repeat offense would result in the crippling of one’s cultivation and the excommunication from the sect.

“I’ve been robbed,” he repeated.

Yu bottled up the anger that was rising within him and turned to one of his junior brothers.

“Fetch the Vice Elder, and stay with them till you receive the full story.”

The junior brother nodded and flew away on his flying sword. Yu turned back to the merchant.

“Talk to the other merchants and corroborate their stories. Vice Elder will need it in order to track down this daredevil with a death wish.”

Yu was a Core Crystallization disciple of the Flowing River Sect. Even though he did not wield as much power or authority as the vice elders and above, his reputation and cultivation carried enough authority to move others to do his bidding. Even if this was the thief’s first offense, Yu was more than capable of ensuring that this vagrant would be brutally punished.

The merchant nodded his head and placed his merchandise into a storage bag before heading over to the neighboring merchants. As long as the merchants could compound a description of those who gotten close to the shop that day, then it would be only a matter of time before the culprit was caught.

Yu motioned for his followers to proceed through the marketplace. His mood had soured since arriving here. Now, he only wished to buy his juniors their pills and retreat back to his cave to cultivate his troubles away.

They continued through the remainder of the marketplace, failing to find any appropriate pills that Yu was willing to purchase.

‘This isn’t good,’ Yu thought, concerned with how things were proceeding.

He could not just tell his juniors that there were no pills cheap enough for him to buy. He would have to buy a bottle of higher grade pills, but there was a significant price difference between the grades.

At this rate, he would be stuck between losing a chunk of his credits or the respect of his followers.

They approached the final store and Yu silently celebrated when he saw that it still had most of its merchandise on the table, including the low-grade pills he desired for his juniors. The main issue at hand was the outer-sect disciple standing in front of the table.

He wore a shell-like earring on the left side of his head and a rusted sword on his back. He held a paper in one hand and a pen in the other, but he wasn’t writing anything down. He merely stood there in a daze.

‘If you are too poor to buy any of these items, then don’t come here to ogle them,’ Yu scoffed at Kenja silently.

Compared to him, outer-sect disciples were closer to beggars and peasants. He did not even like to stare at one for too long.

Yu’s followers all looked at him for his command. Yu picked out the junior brother with the lowest cultivation stage amongst them and nodded at him.

To make another disciple two whole realms lower than him move out of his way, people would label him a bully or a ruffian, and Sora Yu was neither of those. He would send a Qi Flourishing to deal with another Qi Flourishing.

This junior of his, although unsightly to look at, was extremely loyal to him and would quickly follow his orders. He nodded back to his senior brother and approached the dazed outer-sect disciple.

“Ahem,” he coughed, trying to get the dazed disciple’s attention.

…

The dazed disciple didn’t budge.

…

Yu’s junior brother was agitated, but he held back and coughed again, louder this time.

“AHEM!”

…

No response.

The junior brother was flustered and lost his compsure.

“Hey you! If you are going to stand there daydreaming, then get out of our way! Your uncles here don’t have all day!”

The man’s face became lucid and turned to face them. After a breath of time, he seemed to have realized he was in the way and clasped his hands.

“My apologies, senior brothers! Please forgive this foolish junior for wasting your time,” Kenja replied back.

“As long as you understand, now move already. Can’t you see Senior Brother Sora is a busy man!”

Kenja bowed once more and stepped aside for them. The junior brother looked back at Yu with a smile on his face, hoping for his senior brother’s acknowledgment. Yu gave it to him with a nod before approaching the table.

Kenja observed from the side.

“Greetings, young master. Welcome to my humble shop,” greeted the vendor.

Yu nodded to the vendor with a calm gaze. He began looking through various wares and picked up two bottles of Grade 1 pills. One was filled with the Qi Accelerant Pills and the other with Foundation Sculpting Pills.

They were the pills commonly used by those in the Qi Flourishing and Foundation Establishment stage, respectively. Each bottle would normally go for one to two thousand credits each, but they contained less than five pills. While the pills were extremely helpful, they were quite costly, especially considering that cultivators still had to use spirit stones and other resources to cultivate more quickly.

His followers saw the bottles, and they stared at them hungrily, their ardor for Senior Brother Yu rising.

“For both bottles, that will be five thousand credits, young master.”

‘Five thousand?!’

His face showed no outer change, but Yu was shocked. Five thousand was double the expected amount he wanted to pay.

“Isn’t that a bit more than what they are worth?” Yu stated to the vendor.

The vendor bowed in an apologetic manner as he offered an excuse, “These are my last two bottles for each of these pills, and they’re guaranteed to be of the highest quality. This is a fair price, I assure you.”

…

Only one thing ran through Sora Yu’s mind.

‘What a pile of bullshit! Highest quality my ass.’

The vendor had seen what direction Yu’s group had traveled from, so he knew that they passed by plenty of other shops that should have carried the same pill bottles. The fact that they had traveled all this way to his shop just to purchase these pills was evidence that they had failed to find the pills in the earlier shops. If the only supply left was his own, then of course he would raise his prices.

Moreover, Yu’s cultivation was past the stages where these pills were useful. He was obviously buying the pills for the mouth-watering group of followers behind him. If he were to back out now, he would look like a money-grubbing cheapskate who couldn’t pull through for his admirers.

Yu was struggling to decide whether he should purchase the pills when Kenja’s voice drew his attention.

“Those prices aren’t fair at all.”