Chapter 92: Tired from Making Money

After learning of Aji's gift, Long One paid a handsome price to recruit him into his own team.

Alas, heaven often has other plans. On an outing, Long One ran into Ye Da, and in the end, he met his ruin.

Long Two was in charge of leading the team to help his brother excavate the mine, gathering all kinds of stone and metal ore. Yet his brother never returned, and before the end, he even discovered that his brother's portrait had gone dark.

So...

Long Two hurried back to the stone house and found the fortune-teller to ask what had happened.

"Mr. Long Two, I have seen in the mist mirror..." Aji stared hard into the white fog that revealed nothing to anyone else. "Your brother has suffered... misfortune!"

"Misfortune? What kind of misfortune? Did he run into a very powerful monster?"

At those words, Long Two felt a sharp pang in his heart.

Though he had already had a premonition, and had guessed that his brother might already have...

Now that it had been confirmed, he found it even harder to accept!

Just that morning, before leaving, his brother had said to him, "I'm about to advance to the third rank. By then, no one in the entire northern district will be my match!"

How could such a confident brother suddenly...

"Not a monster."

Aji shook his head. "What I saw was..."

"A male player."

"A man with two wolves."

"What do you mean?" Long Two's eyes flew wide open. "You mean someone killed my brother? And the one who killed him was a player?!"

Aji nodded. "Yes, Mr. Long Two."

"Impossible!"

Long Two shook his head furiously. "My brother was already approaching the second rank. He was even traveling with several players, and he even carried a protective relic on him!"

"How could he possibly die at the hands of a player? That's utterly impossible. You must have seen wrong!!"

"I..."

Aji very much wanted to say that the mist mirror could never be wrong.

But when he saw the veins bulging on Long Two's forehead, the redness in his eyes, the whole man like an enraged lion with nowhere to vent, Aji could only swallow his words and say, "Perhaps I misread it."

"Ah!!!"

"Crash!"

Like a madman, Long Two swept everything on the wooden table, made of fine timber, to the floor. Through clenched teeth, he spat out two words: "Who was it? Who did this!!"

"Forgive me, Mr. Long Two, but I truly cannot see that."

Aji could only helplessly shake his head. This was divination, not surveillance. How could he know who it was?

Still, fearing that he would utterly enrage this hot-tempered rich heir, Aji hurriedly searched the mist mirror for something he could use to bridge the gap. "But I can see that this man does not seem to have gone far from the place where Mr. Long One's soul rests."

Long Two immediately remembered what his brother had told him yesterday: that he had bought a map of the Herb Valley.

He hurriedly opened the trading channel, found the person who had sold the Herb Valley clue yesterday, and bought a clue to the valley from him as well.

But just as Long Two, upon obtaining the clue, was about to gather his men and set out at once, the fortune-teller Aji spoke again to dissuade him. "Mr. Long Two, I just divined your fortune and misfortune for you. If you go there now, you may..."

"May what?!" Long Two roared. "What can a mere player do against my team?"

"The reason the boss lost to that man must be because he underestimated him," one of Long One's former subordinates hastily echoed. "Otherwise, how could a mere player possibly be the boss's match!"

"Exactly!"

Long Two was very pleased with this subordinate's attitude.

But neither was he arrogant enough to completely ignore the man who had killed his brother, so he still turned back to the fortune-teller and said, "I may not encourage others' pride while dampening my own spirit, but I will take with me everyone my brother left behind!"

"I refuse to believe that more than a dozen first-rank experts can't beat one player!"

"Unless he's some kind of immortal!"

"Mr. Long Two speaks rightly," Aji said, waving away the mist mirror. He no longer wished to look. Placing a hand over his chest, he offered his blessing: "Then Aji wishes you triumph at your first battle!"

"Gather everyone!" Long Two's eyes were red as he angrily shouted, "Anyone who can move, come with me! As long as you help avenge my brother, each of you gets a million as a reward, and whoever brings back the enemy's head gets five million!"

"Brother Long is mighty!"

Everyone shouted in unison.

"Move out!"

Long Two swept an arm through the air and led the others forward in a mighty procession toward the Herb Valley.

...

Inside the stone house, where the stove burned red-hot...

Ye Da naturally had no idea that Long One's younger brother had already set his sights on him.

At this very moment, he was desperately simmering bamboo shoot and pork soup!

Because he could not sell it fast enough!

Absolutely could not sell it fast enough!!

Ye Da had already priced a serving of bamboo shoot and pork soup at the cost of one unit of fine timber, yet it still sold faster than he could make it!

The weather was far too cold.

And on top of that, everyone knew that the Bear-Slaying Lord's cooking was superb. The bamboo shoot soup he simmered was not only richly meaty, but never greasy in the slightest!

That was because Ye Da spared no seasoning, no salt, no pepper!

Thus...

The deliciousness of his soup surpassed that of many sellers.

So many people were selling theirs for less than Ye Da's price, yet their sales were nowhere near his!

And in weather like this...

A bowl of hot soup was practically the very definition of happiness.

So Ye Da sold pot after pot, yet those players still fought like madmen, scrambling and snatching.

On the black market, Ye Da's bamboo shoot and pork soup had climbed to the high price of two units of fine timber per bowl, and still the buyers came in an endless stream.

If Ye Da were not so reluctant to raise the price, he would have loved to keep all that dirty money for himself!

Who told these players to be so desperate?

"Making money is bloody exhausting!"

After selling a hundred bowls of soup in a frenzy, Ye Da finally collapsed onto the ground, too lazy to move even a finger.

It was true he was making a fortune in materials.

But he was utterly exhausted!

Ye Da pricked up his ears. The stone house door was no longer rattling under the wind, which meant the blizzard had passed.

It was about time to go out!

So...

Though he still had some bamboo shoots and meat left, Ye Da still announced on the trading market that the soup was sold out, instantly drawing a chorus of wails.

But he couldn't just sell and never go out, could he?

Sigh, I really do need a partner.

Ye Da did not even need him to venture out and fight monsters. He would only need to help sell boxed meals all the time, and that would be enough.

"Woo woo!"

The little wolf cubs also seemed to sense that the world outside had calmed down, and they were all hinting to Ye Da that they wanted to go out and play.

But Ye Da was truly exhausted. It was all this easy money's fault, making him waste all his strength cooking!

If he could have just a little medicine now and recover a bit, that would be perfect!

"Hey, wait!"

Ye Da suddenly brightened. "Do I have enough materials to craft an alchemy table?"

"I've got plenty of medicinal ingredients on hand. The only thing I'm missing is an alchemy table, and then I can mass-produce quite a few potions!"

"As long as I have potions to replenish myself, I'll be lively and vigorous again!"