The First Profit

A few days later…

These past few days, Yan Yun had been relatively well-behaved, consistently attempting to learn alchemy. Her progress was swift, yet she still required more time and numerous attempts. However, the current stock of materials was insufficient for her to exhaust, allowing her only to practice up to a certain point.

Each day, Yan Lingyun could only assist Yan Yun in refining a single batch of marketable pills.

These past few days, she had not been idle either, rising at dawn to run at the family’s training grounds.

Her fundamental physical fitness was simply too poor, compelling her to first employ the simplest methods to enhance her physique.

According to Yan Lingyun’s estimation, it would take at least half a month to refine all the pills, so she required some patience.

“Look, isn’t that Yan Yun? Has that kid had a change of heart? Why isn’t he reading, but running instead? Surely he doesn’t believe running will magically grant him talent, does he?” The family disciples could not help but burst into laughter once more.

In their eyes, whatever Yan Yun did was utterly futile.

They viewed her as nothing more than a clown, unaware that they themselves were the true jesters.

“Big Sister, Little Third, what new whim has possessed him now?” A few young girls practicing swordplay in the distance watched Yan Yun from afar.

These girls were all Yan Yun’s half-sisters: the eldest, Yan Xia; the second, Yan Ning; and the third, Yan Shi. The others were merely cousins.

“Presumably, he wishes to strengthen his physique,” Yan Xia remarked indifferently. “A man looking so delicate, after all, simply won’t do.”

The other girls present largely concurred with this sentiment.

“True,” another girl chimed in. “Little Third is even better looking than us actual girls. Oh, if only I had such a beautiful face! What a waste of such a striking appearance.”

Just then, a sarcastic voice echoed through the air.

“That merely suggests your mother wasn’t particularly good-looking, and her appearance wasn’t passed down to you.”

One immediately recognized the voice as belonging to none other than Yan Kun.

“You? Yan Kun, your mouth is venomous, isn’t it? If you can’t speak properly, then don’t speak at all.”

These words almost made the girl who had spoken earlier retch in disgust.

It appeared Yan Kun was indeed a sharp-tongued individual, his words always barbed, no matter to whom he spoke.

“Hmph! I can’t be bothered with you,” Yan Kun scoffed, a smirk playing on his lips. “Heh heh, I should go tease that kid.” With that, Yan Kun sauntered towards Yan Yun.

“Hey, Yan Kun, don’t go looking for trouble!” Yan Xia hastily warned.

Yet, Yan Kun remained his obstinate self, suddenly appearing directly in Yan Yun’s jogging path.

“Oh, Little Third, has the sun risen in the west today? Not reading, but practicing cultivation instead?” Yan Kun inquired.

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than Yan Yun ran past his side, treating him as though he were thin air.

He froze on the spot, the familiar sting of being ignored once more darkening Yan Kun’s expression.

He instantly darted forward, giving chase.

“Hey, kid! Why don’t Big Brother here teach you how to cultivate? Even if I can’t help you develop talent, at the very least, I can make you as strong as I am!” Yan Kun boasted to Yan Yun, flexing an arm thicker than her own thigh.

Yan Yun, however, remained utterly silent.

Yan Kun, for his part, possessed remarkable patience, chattering incessantly like a veritable motormouth.

Any other person would likely have been driven mad with annoyance, but Yan Yun alone possessed such endurance.

“Eh? Second Brother, is he acting up again? I just don’t understand why he enjoys teasing Little Third so much,” Yan Ning muttered, a hint of exasperation in her voice.

The others, too, found themselves at a loss for words.

Half an hour later, Yan Yun, drenched in sweat, slowly came to a halt.

As for Yan Kun, his throat was parched from incessant talking, yet Yan Yun stubbornly refused to acknowledge him even once.

“Second Brother, aren’t you tired?” Yan Yun finally spoke, acknowledging his relentless persistence.

That single sentence instantly revitalized the somewhat weary Yan Kun, as if he had been injected with a surge of energy.

“Haha! You finally acknowledged me! Why are you always so unresponsive to people, kid?” Yan Kun asked, stroking his chin.

Yan Yun immediately gave him a massive eye-roll.

“Don’t you find yourself incredibly childish?”

Having uttered these words, Yan Yun resumed her light jog.

This one remark infuriated Yan Kun to the point where his nose felt twisted.

“You? Who are you calling childish? Is this how you speak to your elder brother? Hey, I’m talking to you!” Yan Kun chased after her once more.

Whenever Yan Kun spotted Yan Yun, he was bound to harass her. Yan Yun herself had grown accustomed to it, feeling that her Second Brother perhaps harbored some peculiar fetish.

‘Like a “brother complex” (TL Note: “Dì kòng,” a Chinese slang term referring to someone who dotes excessively on their younger brother)?’

“Little Third is right, Second Brother is truly childish. He’s already in his twenties, yet he always gives off such an unserious vibe. If it were me, I wouldn’t bother with him either.”

The girls present nodded in unison once again.

****

A few days later, Yan Yun once again departed the Yan family estate early in the morning, having transformed her appearance before venturing onto the streets.

Today, she needed to find a way to sell the pills she had refined over the past half-month.

She first headed to a pill shop.

To her surprise, the moment the pill shop owner heard they were poisons, he immediately rejected them with evident disdain.

“Eh? What kind of attitude is that? Why the look of utter contempt?” Yan Yun muttered, completely speechless, after emerging from the shop.

Consequently, she visited several more shops, only to find that none would accept her poison pills.

This predicament left Yan Yun feeling quite anxious.

“Why won’t anyone take them? Old Ancestor, what’s going on?”

Yan Lingyun, too, was caught in an awkward silence.

“This? I’m not sure either. Logically, each of my pills should be worth at least several hundred spirit stones.”

This statement allowed Yan Yun to glean some crucial information.

“You’ve never sold them before?”

Yan Lingyun immediately responded with a serious expression, “I’m not short on money, you know.”

In other words, this marked Yan Lingyun’s first attempt at selling poison pills.

“Damn it, you’ve really led me astray! All that preparation for half a month—it’s not going to be for nothing, is it?” Yan Yun grumbled, feeling helpless.

Yan Lingyun, however, believed this shouldn’t be the case.

“These people simply don’t recognize true value,” Yan Lingyun stated. “Think again, is there anywhere in the city that might?”

At the mention of this, Yan Yun indeed recalled a place and immediately hurried towards it.

Before long, she arrived before a magnificent three-story pavilion.

The edifice was resplendent, clearly indicating it was no ordinary establishment.

Above its main entrance, three grand characters proclaimed: Thousand Gold Pavilion.

“This is it,” Yan Yun said, smiling as she gazed at the pavilion before her. “If they don’t accept them here, then there’s likely nowhere else that will.”

The Thousand Gold Pavilion was a mercantile guild, operating independently of all other factions.

Situated precisely in the heart of Qifeng City, its influence stretched across the entire Jiang Kingdom.

They both acquired and sold goods, though the items they offered were generally of high value, affordable to only a select few, which explained its rather quiet appearance.

After a moment’s consideration, Yan Yun stepped inside.

The interior of the Thousand Gold Pavilion was vast, with numerous patrons browsing leisurely.

From their attire alone, it was evident that these guests were all either wealthy or noble.

Their cultivation levels were generally quite high.

Yan Yun’s gaze swept across the hall, quickly landing on a counter bearing a sign that read: Transaction Desk.

At present, an elderly cultivator stood there, engaged in a transaction with a young girl.

“Elder, your item truly isn’t worth much,” the girl stated, a helpless expression on her face. “I can give you a hundred spirit stones at most. Otherwise, you’ll have to try selling it elsewhere.”

The elder held a half-shattered mirror, which appeared to be a damaged magical artifact.

“What? Young lady, this is a damaged magical artifact. How can it only be worth a hundred spirit stones? Please, add a little more.”

However, the girl continuously shook her head, refusing to add even a single stone.

In the end, the elder could only sigh and depart with his item.

As he happened to pass by Yan Yun, she inexplicably fixed her gaze upon the fragmented mirror.

After a moment’s thought, she immediately approached the counter.

“Hello, I’d like to sell something.” Yan Yun directly presented her pills.

The young woman responsible for inspecting goods paused slightly upon seeing Yan Yun’s pair of violet eyes.

“What kind of pills are these?” she inquired.

“Poisons,” Yan Yun replied.

The girl understood instantly.

“Oh, poison pills. Tell me about their effects.”

Yan Yun breathed a sigh of relief, having finally encountered someone knowledgeable.

She began to describe her pills.

The girl, in turn, eagerly discussed the pills with Yan Yun.

For instance, for the Bloodburst Pills, the girl offered a price of one thousand spirit stones per pill.

This clearly demonstrated her expertise. As for the other pills, their prices were also generally around one thousand spirit stones.

As they were all second-tier pills, their total value amounted to over ten thousand spirit stones.

For Yan Yun, this was undoubtedly a colossal sum.