Shameless Immortal: Emperor of Ten Thousand Beauties

"The board is set, Ruolan," he said softly. "Tell me... do you want to head out and take a look at the chaos we’ve created?"

"Chaos?" Bai Ruolan’s eyes lit up with a sudden, almost childish glee. She bounced slightly on the sofa cushion, all her exhaustion completely forgotten.

"Oh, Senior Brother Mo, you really have the best ideas! Let’s go, let’s go! I want to see the looks on their stupid faces!"

Shen Yu chuckled, his eccentric, playful energy matching her sudden burst of enthusiasm.

He snapped his fingers, tossing her a thick, heavy black cloak.

"Put this on, Little Alchemist. A true mastermind never reveals their face until the final curtain call."

Ruolan giggled, eagerly wrapping the large cloak around her voluptuous figure, tucking her damp blue hair securely under the deep hood.

She looked like a little rogue cultivator, though the massive, heavy bounce of her chest beneath the loose white silk still threatened to ruin the disguise.

Shen Yu threw a similar black robe over his own green-haired frame, his green pupils flashing with a wicked amusement beneath the dark fabric.

Using a suppressed variant of the Phantom Step, the duo glided out of the merchant union’s high tower, moving through the bustling streets unnoticed until they reached the grand central square of the commercial district.

Directly ahead of them stood the crown jewel of their rivals, the largest, most extravagant primary store of the Cao Clan.

Ever since the early morning bells, the Cao Clan had been running their aggressive market campaign at maximum volume.

Massive crimson banners hung from the roof, shouting about unprecedented discounts.

They had thrown their doors wide open, offering Tier 0 to Tier 2 cultivation medicines at prices so unbelievably low it made the surrounding rogue cultivators think the heavens had blessed them.

The strategy was working exactly as the Golden Cauldron had planned.

The union had intentionally chosen to withhold their counter-strike for a few hours, giving the Cao Clan a final, desperate chance to breathe, and more importantly, a chance to pour every single remaining piece of their liquid capital into the market to sustain the massive demand.

The street outside the store was an absolute madhouse.

A frantic, howling crowd of hundreds of lower-stage cultivators pushed and shoved against each other, waving their spiritual stone pouches in the air as they fought like starving beasts to buy the cheap pills.

"One at a time! There is enough for everyone! The Cao Clan feeds the masses!" a senior manager shouted from atop a wooden platform, his face flushed with an arrogant, triumphant sweat.

Standing on the roof of a distant tea shop, hidden completely within the shadows, Shen Yu and Bai Ruolan looked down at the spectacle.

Ruolan leaned close to him, her hood nudging his shoulder as a cruel, almost childishly sweet giggle escaped her lips.

"Look at them, Senior Brother Mo! They’re so happy. They really think they’re winning the street war. It’s almost sad!"

"An animal always squeals loudest right before the butcher drops the cleaver, Little Alchemist," Shen Yu murmured, his voice laced with a playful voice as he crossed his arms under his sleeves.

"They are bleeding their vaults dry to maintain this fake monopoly. The higher they fly right now, the sweeter the crunch when they hit the dirt."

"Can I drop the hammer now? Please?"

Ruolan asked, pulling at the sleeve of his black robe, her blue eyes wide with an eager, childish impatience.

"I want to see the manager cry!"

"Patience, beautiful. The curtain is rising right... now." Shen Yu smirked, pointing his finger toward the edge of the frantic crowd.

Right on cue, a loud, thunderous voice erupted from the back of the square, amplified by a low-grade sonic talisman.

"Wait! Stop buying those dirty trash pills! Have you idiots heard?! The Golden Cauldron Merchant Union just opened their central vaults! They have successfully refined a flawless, ninety-percent-purity Tier 3 Iron-Cleansing Hearth Pill! They’re selling the first batches on an open auction basis right now at the main plaza!"

The words cut through the roar of the crowd like a freezing wind.

The entire mass of cultivators instantly froze.

The frantic waving of spiritual stones stopped, and a suffocating, absolute silence fell over the front of the Cao Clan store.

"A... a flawless Tier 3 pill?" a late-stage Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator gasped, his eyes bulging.

"Ninety percent purity?! That means zero toxic residue! The Golden Cauldron actually broke through their bottleneck?!"

"What are we still standing here for?! A Tier 3 pill of that grade is rarer than dragon scales! Even if we can’t afford the auction, the union always drops standard batches afterward! Run! To the Golden Cauldron!"

"Move out of the way! Let me through!"

Within a matter of seconds, the frantic crowd completely broke.

The cultivators who had been fighting to get inside the Cao Clan store turned around in a massive, disorganized stampede, violently pushing past the store guards as they ran like wild hounds toward the union’s biggest grand outlet at the other end of the district.

The Cao Clan manager on the platform was left completely stunned, his jaw dropping so low it looked like it would detach from his face.

He stared blankly at the suddenly empty, dust-filled street, his hands trembling as the realization of a total high-end market bypass began to choke the life out of his throat.

Up on the roof, Bai Ruolan threw her head back, a loud, ringing laugh bursting from her throat as she clapped her hands in pure delight.

"Haha! Look at him! He looks like a choked chicken! Oh, Senior Brother Mo, this is absolutely magnificent!" 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Shen Yu’s lips curled into a thoroughly wicked smirk beneath his hood, his green pupils locked onto the scattering crowd as the jaws of his economic trap finally snapped shut on their enemies’ necks.

-x-

A/N:

Weekly PS: 25/100

Monthly GT: 33/30

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