The Extravagance of the Rich

The sudden appearance of someone purchasing puppets from the Heavenly Puppet Gate naturally drew a crowd of powerful cultivators. Someone who had been conversing with the Yunhua Sect elders immediately inquired of Elder Yun Yan beside them upon seeing Yan Yun and her two companions:
“Are those Yunhua Sect disciples? Fellow Daoist Yun Yan, are they from your sect?”

Yun Yan and the others instantly looked over, and their expressions froze.

‘Why have those three come to the Great Trade Hall? They want to buy puppets from the Heavenly Puppet Gate? This is bad.’
Yun Yan quickly motioned to Yun Ning and the other elders, rushing towards Yan Yun and her companions.

Meanwhile, Yan Yun gazed at the puppets before her, identical to herself and Jiang Yao, utterly thrilled.

Yan Yun poked here and prodded there.

“Tsk, tsk, the quality is so real. If these were in our world, they’d definitely sell out,” Yan Yun said with a beaming smile.

Seeing Yan Yun brazenly poking the puppet’s chest in front of so many people, Jiang Yao swiftly slapped Yan Yun’s hand.

Yan Yun winced in pain and quickly retracted her hand.

“What are you touching? So many people are watching. Aren’t you embarrassed? Hurry up and buy them, then let’s go,” Jiang Yao urged.

Yan Yun, quite pleased with the two puppets, was about to pay.

“Cough, cough!” Just then, a series of coughs and sharp gazes came from the side.

Yan Yun suddenly felt a prickling sensation on her back, remembering her mother was still nearby.

She meekly looked at Su Muyu, only to find Su Muyu staring at her with her arms crossed and a displeased expression, her eyes seeming to say:

‘What about mine? You only bought one for your wife.’

Yan Yun pondered for a moment, then walked over to Su Muyu.

“Hey, Mom, why don’t you get one too?”

“Hmph! Buy it or don’t, I don’t care,” Su Muyu huffed with a touch of haughty pride.

Yan Yun knew her adorable mother was about to act childish again.

“Of course, I’ll buy one! How could I not? Do you need to modify its appearance?” Yan Yun asked.

Upon hearing this, Su Muyu immediately nodded.

“I’d only be happy if it looked like you. Then I could even take out my frustrations on your puppet,” Su Muyu declared solemnly.

Yan Yun immediately found herself between laughter and tears.

Nevertheless, she once again spoke to the Heavenly Puppet Gate female cultivator.

“Senior, I’d like another beautiful female puppet, still in my likeness.”

The Heavenly Puppet Gate female cultivator was ecstatic; selling three puppets at once meant over ten million spirit stones!

“Alright, alright, please wait.”

However, no sooner had she finished speaking than Yun Yan’s voice rang out.

“Wait.”

Yan Yun and her companions immediately turned around, and upon seeing their sect elders, the three promptly stepped forward to salute.

“Elders, why have you come?”

Yun Ning was the first to pull Yan Yun aside.

“Little girl, what are you doing? Buying puppets? Don’t be such a fool; this is incredibly uneconomical,” Yun Ning advised.

As soon as Yun Ning uttered these words, Lu Fan immediately overheard.

“Hey! Fairy Yun Ning, isn’t that out of line? Aren’t you deliberately trying to sabotage my business?” Lu Fan quickly reminded Yun Ning.

Yun Ning offered an awkward smile and looked at Lu Fan.

“Sect Master Lu, our disciple is naive and this is her first time in a place like this. How could a mere disciple have so much money? Perhaps you should sell your puppets to someone else.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Fan became displeased.

“This little girl has no money? Are you trying to fool me? She just bought over ten million spirit stones worth of puppets from my disciple without even batting an eye. And you say she has no money?”

These words utterly astonished everyone present; many didn’t recognize Yan Yun and began asking who she was.

“Who is this young lady, to be so extravagant? Buying over ten million spirit stones worth of puppets in one go?”

“Hard to say, hard to say. She’s certainly no ordinary person. But the Heavenly Puppet Gate has definitely found a gullible buyer this time.”

Yun Ning’s face twitched violently upon hearing this.

“You, did you really buy them?”

Yan Yun nodded innocently.

“Yes, I bought them.”

Yun Ning and the others then looked at Jiang Yao and Su Muyu.

“You two didn’t stop her?”

Jiang Yao and Su Muyu sighed in unison.

“We tried, but she wouldn’t listen.”

By this point, it was too late for Yun Yan and the others to intervene.

“You, you little girl, do you have so much money you don’t know what to do with it? Of all things, why buy puppets? With this amount, you could afford a Divine Venerable artifact, or even a half-step Venerable Realm demonic beast pet!” Yun Ning and the other elders’ faces darkened.

The Heavenly Puppet Gate female cultivator then meekly asked:

“Um, young lady, do you still want this puppet? If you do, I’ll continue modifying it. If not, please say so soon. However, those first two have already been traded, so no backing out now.”

Upon hearing this, Yun Yan immediately said to the female cultivator:

“Little girl, our disciple has already been swindled out of tens of millions of spirit stones by you. Are you going to swindle her out of another ten million? Isn’t this inappropriate?”

Facing Yun Yan’s accusation, the Heavenly Puppet Gate female disciple meekly replied:

“She said she wanted to buy it herself; we didn’t force her.”

Yun Yan immediately glared at her.

However, Yan Yun quickly interjected.

“Senior, please continue. I’ll take all three puppets. Here are the spirit stones.” Yan Yun then took out another ten million spirit stones from her storage artifact and tossed them to the female cultivator.

After receiving the bag, the female cultivator opened it and her eyes gleamed with the light of money.

The other Heavenly Puppet Gate elders watched longingly at the bag shimmering with spirit stones.

“Thank you! Then I’ll continue.”

Now, everyone present was dumbfounded.

“This, ten million spirit stones, just thrown out like that? My heavens, Old Ghost Yun Yan, what’s the background of this disciple of yours? This fortune surpasses that of most Divine Venerables!” Some of the powerful cultivators who knew Yun Yan and the others asked in a daze.

Yun Yan and the elders were utterly helpless with Yan Yun.

“Alas! She’s probably richer than our Sect Master. She’s the Yan Yun who spread the Heavenly Poison Sutra,” Yun Yan explained.
Everyone was astonished upon learning Yan Yun’s identity.

“She’s the successor of the Heavenly Poison Maiden? Didn’t they say he was a man? How is she a girl?”

“Alas! Due to cultivating a poison cultivation technique, her gender unexpectedly changed. She was a man before, but now she is a woman. Those two female disciples by her side are her mother and her wife, both of whom are geniuses of our Yunhua Sect,” Yun Yan explained listlessly.

After hearing Yun Yan’s introduction, even these Divine Venerable Realm cultivators couldn’t help but exclaim, ‘Good heavens!’

As for why Yan Yun was so wealthy, they could now understand.

Since its establishment, the Purple Abyss Pavilion’s business had been incredibly booming.

Yan Yun’s personal fortune amounted to nearly fifty million spirit stones.

After all, these items were all crafted by Yan Yun herself. When the profits were distributed, Yan Yun took the larger share of sixty percent, while forty percent belonged to the sect. However, the sect also allocated one percent to various regional agents.

Even so, the Yunhua Sect still earned a net profit of twenty to thirty million spirit stones after deducting costs, which was more than their entire annual income from before.

To put it plainly, Yan Yun was now their cash cow. She launched new types of poisons every month.

Moreover, she was willing to help others cultivate poison cultivation techniques for a fee.

Some were jealous, others disliked it. But beyond that, there was also a group of Yan Yun’s fans.

These were all people Yan Yun had helped, or whom she had taught poison cultivation techniques to without charge.

These individuals were now Yan Yun’s loyal supporters.

They would spontaneously promote Yan Yun, even going so far as to fight on her behalf.

And while these people were not strong in overall power, most of them were elite disciples from various sects and factions.

In other words, although Yan Yun did not directly control a force, she indirectly commanded power comparable to an ordinary second-rate sect.

Yan Yun took out another ten million spirit stones from her storage artifact and handed them to Su Muyu.

“Mom, here you go.”

Su Muyu didn’t stand on ceremony, directly accepting the spirit stones and placing them into her own storage artifact in front of Yun Yan and the others.

“Old Ghost Yun Yan, you never expected it, did you? My daughter is a person who can earn money!” Su Muyu was incredibly smug, finally feeling vindicated. For decades, she had suffered immensely. No one in the Yunhua Sect gave her a good look, and even her own husband treated her coldly.

Now, her daughter was so accomplished, making her feel as if she was floating on air.

Yun Yan’s face was very grim; he hadn’t expected this Yan Yun to possess such capabilities.

Soon, Yan Yun’s transaction with the Heavenly Puppet Gate was complete.

“Hahaha, Miss Yan, I never imagined you were the successor of the Heavenly Poison Maiden! No wonder you’re so wealthy. The puppets are ready. Here are the instructions and control methods.”

The Heavenly Puppet Gate female cultivator politely handed the puppets to Yan Yun.

Yan Yun accepted the items.

“Thank you, Senior. Could you leave your contact information? Perhaps I’ll need even more powerful puppets in the future,” Yan Yun said casually.

Upon hearing this, the female cultivator immediately took out a specialized communication jade slip from her person and handed it to Yan Yun.

“Of course, of course. Feel free to contact me anytime you wish to buy puppets.”

The other members of the Heavenly Puppet Gate could only watch with longing.

“It seems this old man must return and diligently study how to refine beautiful female puppets,” someone remarked.

After taking the token, Yan Yun’s eyes darted around thoughtfully.

“Oh, Senior, does your Heavenly Puppet Gate sell the foundational methods for puppet refining?”

The Heavenly Puppet Gate members were all stunned for a moment.

“You mean the introductory refining methods for puppetry? That doesn’t cost money; I’ll give you a copy for free.”

The female cultivator directly handed Yan Yun a booklet.

This clearly showed that it wasn’t a particularly rare item, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been given to Yan Yun for free.

“Thank you.”

Just like that, Yan Yun and her two companions happily followed Yun Yan and the others to the Yunhua Sect’s designated trading area.

“Alas! You girl, why are you buying puppets for no reason? You’re not planning to use puppets to win rankings, are you?” Yun Yan asked as they walked.

“Is that not allowed? Does the assembly prohibit the use of puppets?” Yan Yun countered.

Yun Yan immediately responded with a smile:

“Some activities permit it, but arena matches do not allow the use of treasures that vastly exceed one’s cultivation.”

Yan Yun nodded faintly after hearing this. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t be used in arena matches; the main thing was the elimination rounds.