Rebirth of the Useless Bastard Son

“Is the Tiger King awake today?” Cheng Qi turned to him and asked. Li Tianyan had gone to the Qiankun Realm earlier that morning to tend to the spiritual grass, so he was expected to check on the Tiger King as well.

“Not yet, but once the Snow Jade Bone Ginseng matures, its injuries should be fully healed,” Li Tianyan replied, gently rubbing Cheng Qi’s head.

After renting the shop, Li Tianyan had visited several spiritual herb stores and eventually purchased Heavenly Red Grass and Red Sage Root. However, he had only managed to acquire a seedling of Salivary Blood Grass, which needed to be cultivated in the Qiankun Realm for some time. Fortunately, he had also found a young Snow Jade Ginseng plant. With this spiritual grass, the Sky-Eating Tiger King could be saved.

In addition, Li Tianyan had bought several seeds of Huang-level spiritual grass, which had drained nearly all of his remaining spiritual stones. Now, he had no choice but to work diligently in the Qiankun Realm to harvest spiritual grass and refine it into medicinal pills for sale.

“That’s good. Young master, please watch the store for me. I’ll head over to the grocery store across the street to pick up a few things,” Cheng Qi said, recalling that some seasonings had been used up. He hurried out while there were still few customers in the shop.

“Little friends, are you two alchemists?” the grocery store owner asked tentatively as he packed the items and handed them to Cheng Qi.

Cheng Qi nodded calmly. “Yes.”

“Ah, I see. My apologies for not recognizing such talent earlier. You two are truly young and promising,” the shopkeeper said with newfound respect upon hearing his confirmation.

“No wonder you managed to drive Shen Laizi away in just seconds,” added a store clerk.

When they had seen Shen Laizi enter the alchemy shop earlier, they had assumed the young cultivators would suffer a loss. To their surprise, Shen Laizi had ended up suffering an unexpected defeat.

“Is Shen Laizi famous?” Cheng Qi asked curiously as he handed over his spirit stones to pay.

“The shop you rented belongs to Shen Laizi. Every time he rents it out, he treats the tenants’ shops as his own personal property. He takes whatever he wants and drives away their customers,” the clerk explained, shaking his head.

“Don’t the tenants report him to the city guards?” Cheng Qi asked, a strange expression on his face.

The shopkeeper sighed. “Most of the tenants here are outsiders. As long as there’s no major conflict, the city guards don’t bother intervening. Some impulsive cultivators, however, have tried to fight back, but Shen Laizi used those moments to escalate the situation. He’d smash their shops, and when the city guards finally arrived, they’d punish both sides with fifty lashes each. Yet, in the end, Shen Laizi always managed to escape unscathed.”

Shen Laizi was accustomed to using low rents to defraud other people’s money and then employed all sorts of tricks to drive away the tenants. It seemed that tens of thousands of yuan for a year were a good deal, but in reality, very few tenants could endure staying for even a month.

“This guy is so bad,” Cheng Qi frowned in disgust.

“You have to be careful. Shen Laizi won’t give up so easily. He hangs around with a bunch of gangsters all day and even knows a few core formation cultivators,” the shopkeeper kindly reminded him.

“Thank you for the advice, shopkeeper,” Cheng Qi said, expressing his gratitude before carrying his things back to the alchemy store.

Sure enough, less than a moment after the two cultivators left, the number of customers at the alchemy shop began to increase gradually.

The newly opened medicinal pill shop on Dongling Street had offered top-quality Qi Condensing medicinal pills at half price for a limited time. Many cultivators had heard about it and flocked to the shop. Some even bought two pills but still felt unsatisfied, asking others to help them purchase more. The news spread quickly, from one to ten, and within just one day, the news had travelled throughout the streets surrounding the shop.

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At the Zhao Family Mansion in Alliance City.

“Young lady, please stay back. You are not allowed to enter without prior notification.”

The guards at the Zhao family’s gate stopped Pei Yu as she arrived.

“Open your eyes and look! I am Pei Jiayu. How dare you stop me?” Pei Yu exclaimed angrily, though she felt a little aggrieved in her heart.

In the past, when she visited the Zhao family, she never needed permission to enter. When did this change?

“No matter who you are, your visit must be reported. If you don’t want to wait, you can leave,” the guard said formally, maintaining a professional tone. Madam Zhao had already instructed them not to allow the young master to see this young lady.

“You…” Pei Yu was furious at their indifferent attitude.

However, she quickly remembered the purpose of her visit and suppressed her temper. “Hurry up and report my arrival. I’ll wait here,” she said curtly.

The guard who went to report did not approach Zhao Shubao but instead went directly to Madam Zhao. After receiving Madam Zhao’s approval, the guard returned to the gate and said, “The young master is unavailable. Young lady, please return home.”

“What? You said I could enter after notifying him, and now, after making me wait so long, you’re telling me to leave? Get out of my way!”

Pei Yu’s barely restrained temper flared completely. She shoved aside the two obstructive guards and tried to force her way in, only to be intercepted by Madam Zhao, who had come out of the house.

“Pei Jiayu, you are so audacious to behave like this at Zhao Mansion. Are you expecting me to personally throw you out?” Madam Zhao said coldly, glaring at the girl before her.

Madam Zhao had never liked Pei Yu, but since Shubao seemed to like her, she had refrained from saying anything before. However, things were different now.

Although Shubao hadn’t mentioned anything about Pei Yu when he returned, the rumours had already spread throughout Alliance City. A woman who seduced her clan sister’s fiancé and had pushed her own clan sister into a swarm of beasts was unworthy of stepping through their Zhao family’s gates.