Heretic Apothecary Genius

Chapter 44: We’ll See How Long Will He Continue Causing Trouble

While the fatty was in exclamation, the members of the Chang Le Gang stared from the outside. Some of them had even assembled members of the gang and were determined to save the gang leader and bring him out no matter how big the sacrifice was.

Uncle Beast was leaning on the spiritual beast carriage. A meaningful smile crept up his old and withered face under the hat. He shook his head twice slightly and appeared surprised about something.

“Good. Stand up. Since we are on the same boat, I shall cut to the chase. Settle these few things for me. I have a million jade coins here. Change these to spiritual jades for me immediately. The higher the grade of the spiritual jades, the better. Make sure to do this secretly, and do not let anyone else know about this. Afterward, send an invitation to the ten biggest gangs in the Jade Capital in my name. Tell them that I am going to… accept… disciples… tomorrow night at the family head accommodation in the Ren family abode!” When Ren Jie was talking about his motive, he dragged his voice and spat the words out one by one while looking at Chang Laosi.

Chang Laosi was originally very excited. However, he was stunned once again as he was about to stand up when he heard Ren Jie’s words.

In the Ren family… abode… about to accept disciples immediately…

He had thought that Ren Jie was merely admitting their master-disciple relationship when he accepted him as his disciple. He was already satisfied with that.

After all, ties with the ten biggest gangs in the Jade Capital were very complicated—some people may be brothers-in-law, some may have shares in certain business deals—but no one had ever admitted that they were related to the clans. All clans and sects would be involved in matters in the Jianghu 1. Big influential organizations would usually refrain from letting others know that they were involved in those matters.

Such things were all done secretly and in the dark.

Looking at Chang Laosi’s incredulous expression, Ren Jie nodded once again in confirmation. He then passed the banknote that was worth a million jade coins to Chang Laosi and told him to prepare those things even though he was still in a daze.

“Phew. Uncle Beast, let’s go back.” After Chang Laosi left the spiritual beast carriage, Ren Jie stretched and was prepared to lay down to rest.

“Ah!” All of a sudden, Gao Ren, who was previously in a daze, jumped up. He pointed in the direction Chang Laosi left and cried, “Money! The money! How could you let him take away all the money? Why do you want to change it to spiritual jades? You are not at the True Qi Realm. Even inferior-grade spiritual jades are useless to you.”

Spiritual jades were very valuable. However, only those who were at the True Qi Realm and above would gradually require spiritual jades. Furthermore, the quantity they required was limited. Spiritual jades were only essential for those who were at the Divine Power Realm. Ren Jie was currently only at the Body Refinement Realm. Why would he need so many spiritual jades?

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Ren Jie wanted to scream that out loud. However, it was likely that he could not explain it well, thus he simply said some other uses for the spiritual jades.

“I have some other uses for it. We two are not alone anymore. Even if we do not care about the followers in the academy and the servants in the family clan, we still have about a hundred personal guards to take care of.” Fatty was very anxious. They took all the trouble to accumulate such a huge sum of money. He felt that they should have kept a portion of it.

“Stop panicking. Stop panicking. We still have the apothecary rooms, silk and satin stores, and the manors…” As Ren Jie spoke, he handed the deeds to Gao Ren and continued, “We can keep the apothecary rooms and sell the rest. Think about some ways to sell them at a high price. Selling these will solve the problems that we currently face.”

Since Ren Jie had already made up his mind, Fatty could only shake his head and exclaim, “I hope everything goes according to what you have said. However, you are spending money increasingly recklessly. God knows what you are doing. If you continue with this spending habit, this cannot be sustained no matter how rich you are.”

“Ha!” Ren Jie laughed and said, “If you become slimmer and turn into a woman, you can definitely qualify as a housekeeper.”

Fatty glanced sideways at Ren Jie with a weirded out expression. He leaned back slightly and said, “What are you talking about? Meal Ticket Big Brother, you must have been so shocked by the Fang Qi incident that you became madly desperate for women.”

Ren Jie lay there while smiling. He did not bother about what the fatty said. That reaction made the fatty even more weirded out.

“Oh right! What do you plan to do with that middle-grade spiritual artifact?” Fatty felt that the atmosphere was very bizarre and decided to change the topic of the conversation.

“The Fangs are not that kind. There is a problem with this middle-grade spiritual artifact. The yin in it is way too strong. I am not very certain about it. Let’s not open it for now. We can wait until we find a solution,” Ren Jie replied casually before starting to sort the stuff in his head.

The Chang Le Gang was established by Chang Laosi. He had absolute control over the gang, unlike other big and influential organizations or big family clans. For matters that did not require much discussion or would not create any disagreements, Chang Laosi could call the shots.

Not long after Ren Jie and the others left, Fang Yan led four subordinates to the headquarters of the Chang Le Gang. He was notified the moment Ren Jie entered the Chang Le Gang and he rushed over immediately.

Fang Tianen and Fang Yan’s first reactions when they heard that Ren Jie had gone to the Chang Le Gang was that Ren Jie was being way too impatient. Did he really go to the Chang Le Casino to flaunt because of how much money he had lost to the casino in the past? No matter what was Ren Jie’s purpose, they could not allow him to have too many interactions with Chang Laosi. Therefore, Fang Yan had rushed to the Chang Le Gang headquarters hurriedly. When he saw that the door to the headquarters had been shattered and the walls had been broken down, he was absolutely dumbfounded.

What was Ren Jie thinking? What is happening?

“Gang Leader Chang, I have rushed here immediately after I heard that Ren Jie had come over. I was worried that he would cause trouble for you. What happened to this place?” Chang Laosi walked towards him with an upset expression. When Fang Yan saw the look on his face, a weight was lifted off his chest. By the looks of things, Ren Jie had a conflict with Chang Laosi. That was what he was anticipating. Of course, he had to appear as if he was concerned and worried regardless.

Humph! Chang Laosi secretly snorted. What the f*ck is that? If you were not the commander of the imperial guards or the lineal descendant of the Fang family clan, I would have killed you right now, he thought.

He had been in the Jianghu for almost half of his life, yet he still was tricked by Fang Yan. How could Chang Laosi not be mad about that? He completely idolized Ren Jie now. He was even thankful that Ren Jie had given him the opportunity to be his disciple. Ren Jie had given him a chance to achieve his goals and attempt a breakthrough to reach the Yin Yang Realm.

He completely treated the Fang family clan and Fang Yan as his enemy. However, due to his experience in the Jianghu, he was smart to not show his hostility towards them.

“Haiz!” Chang Laosi shook his head and said, “I bet someone said something to the Ren family head that made him come and look for me. You can see the outcome.”

“Elder Chang, do not worry. You have us, the Fang family clan. He cannot do anything to you. Otherwise, you can simply become a guest and stay at the Fang family abode. If he causes trouble for you once again, you can inform me immediately. He simply disregards the national laws. I will bring the imperial guards over to teach him a lesson.” Seeing Chang Laosi’s expression, Fang Yan was elated inside.

My dear Ren Jie, you are indeed a useless pampered kid. You wanted to pressurize Chang Laosi but have pushed him over to my side.

“Thank you, Commander Fang. I have to comfort my brothers in the gang and have many matters to attend to. I don’t have the time to host you.” Chang Laosi chased him away as quickly as possible. Everything would be okay after tonight. Chang Laosi appeared clueless, yet he was shaking his head internally. He was previously angered by the sudden pressure and disheartened. That resulted in him falling for that rascal’s tricks.

Although he had not confirmed the news with his master, he had heard that Fang Yan had previously waited at the Ren family abode for an entire day just to invite his master over, yet he ended up coughing blood after he was scolded by his master. This useless Fang Yan was simply finding his own demise by attempting to fight against Chang Laosi’s master who had the foresight and aspiration of the god of gamblers. I would be devastatingly unlucky if I was to work with you.

“Okay. Please feel free to settle those matters, Gang Leader Chang. I will take my leave now.” Fang Yan did not suspect anything. He seemed calm on the outside but was extremely elated on the inside. He had gained the trust of Fang Tianen and the Fang family clan by saving Fang Qi. That helped pave way for his next move to fight for the position of the lieutenant-general of the imperial guards. Moreover, he had gradually convinced Chang Laosi to stay on his team. In no time, he would be able to have complete control over him.

When that time came, he would receive ample manpower and capital from the Jianghu. Even if the inhumanly talented Lan Tian was to return, he would have better odds of fighting him.

Concurrently, news about how Ren Jie saved Fang Qi spread like wildfire throughout the Jade Capital. Because of the Fang family clan’s intentional promotion, the news was against Ren Jie’s favor.

Firstly, it was rumored that the poison was left by Ren Tianxing. That explained why Ren Jie had the means to treat the poison despite futile attempts by the imperial physicians. It was rumored that Ren Jie had poisoned Fang Qi to extort a huge amount of money from the Fang family clan.

The extortion had left the Fang family clan no choice but to seize the Chang Le Casino, one of the three biggest casinos in the Jade Capital. The Fang family clan had forcefully snatched others’ property. It was an involuntary move and was the only thing the Fang family head could do in order to save his daughter. Afterward, the Fang family clan provided financial support to the Chang Le Gang. The compensation helped Chang Le Gang to rebuild an even larger casino. The Fang family clan was definitely not helping a tyrant to victimize his victims. What they did was merely an expedient move.

It was rumored that Ren Jie devised some strategies that caused the Fang family abode to stink for days, and that Ren Jie had extorted a million jade coins and a middle-grade spiritual artifact from the Fang family. There were also other more severe rumors.

That instantly became a hot topic in the Jade Capital. That night was definitely not a calm night.

“This is absurd. Did you see that? He had originally only caused trouble within the family clan and the academy. Now, the entire Jade Capital knows what he has done. This is embarrassing! He is embarrassing every member of the Ren family clan. Why does the noble Ren family clan have such a family head?” Ren Hanlin slammed the table in anger and exclaimed in anguish.

“He acted tyrannically and seized others’ property by force. There has never been a kid as pampered and prodigal as him down the lines of ancestry. I heard from the Fang family clan that he wanted to balance the yin and yang with Fang Qi. He is simply… simply…” Ren Wenxu could not find a word to describe his feelings at that instant.

“Humph!” Ren Junyang was also furious. After a while, he suddenly snorted and said, “Let him continue causing trouble. The bigger the trouble he causes, the more beneficial it is for us. It is about time we call for the family clan elders’ conference.”

In the imperial palace, the emperor was in high spirits recently. It felt incredible being the onlooker as others fought. That gradually allowed him to feel like an emperor. In the past, the four biggest family clans were overly brazen. Even though the Lee family was the imperial family, people were used to calling them the five biggest family clans.

Look at that. In a few years, people would no longer mention the five biggest family clans.

The Lee family was the imperial family. It was the master of all. The other four biggest family clans were merely civil servants. They were merely civil servants!

The emperor had a lot of drinks and bestowed favor on three new concubines in that one night.

Footnotes:

The environment where martial artists live