Immortal Realm’s Smuggling Kingpin

Chapter 54: Opening Chaos (2)

On Mountain Feng Tong, inside the most famous Four Symbols Teahouse, a capable and experienced shop assistant served two glasses of red-colored liquid. “Boss, Manager, this is Luo Medicine Hall’s mysterious potion, while this one is the most delicious mysterious potion that we could create.” He introduced them respectively. For the original mysterious potion on the left, there was only a small amount, close to the bottom of the glass. For the imitation of the mysterious potion on the right, there was a huge glass.

Two people sat at the table—one was Four Symbols Teahouse’s manager, and the other was the owner.

The two looked at the glass of liquid on the right with sullen looks. The owner took a light sniff. “The smell is a little similar, but the appearance is far from it.” The manager shook the glass. The liquid was turbid with large amounts of fruit pulp floating in it.

The owner personally took a sip. “No, it’s a little sour. Not sweet enough. There’s also some… unspeakable feeling; it’s just not right.”

The shop assistant said helplessly, “Boss, Manager, have we gotten it wrong? Maybe Luo Medicine Hall’s mysterious potion isn’t made from these Immortal fruits. Otherwise, how could it be so clean? Moreover, there’s also the disparity in taste. This is something that I’ve led everyone to filter three times using gauze.”

The owner’s countenance was woeful, like Yang Bailao[1] who could not return home in the lunar year’s eleventh and twelfth month. “This won’t do. The labor costs are too high. Even if we do create it, it won’t be possible to win over Luo Medicine Hall if the selling price is too high.”

The manager also nodded. The manager had never tasted Luo Medicine Hall’s mysterious potion. Grabbing the glass on the left, he downed it. Holding it in his mouth, the liquid rolled around the tip of his tongue as he savored it. “Mm, it does have some unusual taste…”

The shop assistant was startled. “Manager…”

The manager had long swallowed. “Hmm, what is it?”

The shop assistant’s expression was quite unnatural. “No, nothing.” He gave it some thought. It’s better not to tell the manager that Luo Medicine Hall does not allow the mysterious potion to be brought out of their medicine hall. It can only be consumed on the spot. This small glass was from a waiter that I sent, who took a huge mouthful in the shop, kept it in his mouth, and spat it out when he came out to be used as a sample for research purposes…

The situation at Four Symbols Teahouse was just the epitome of the circumstances in many teahouses on Mountain Feng Tong.

Luo Medicine Hall’s mysterious potion had been officially named ‘Immortal beverage.’ The Immortal Qi inside the Immortal fruit had been pressed out together with the fruit juice. Different Immortal fruit juice, through proportionate blending, had Immortal Qi of different attributes complementing one another. Drinking it did a great deal of good to Immortals. Hence, everyone unanimously gave this title to Luo Medicine Hall’s mysterious potion.

The teahouses around the medicine hall were on tenterhooks. They made every attempt to bribe the shop assistants of Luo Medicine Hall and finally got two pieces of reliable information. First, Luo Qian was already prepared to ‘move in’ on the teahouses. Second, the mysterious potion’s raw materials were the various Immortal fruits that could be seen everywhere in the Immortal Realm.

Getting the first piece of information made them extremely nervous; getting the second piece of information finally allowed them to clutch onto their last life-saving straw.

Luo Medicine Hall—which was initially swarmed with people, but had average business—recently prospered all of a sudden. An endless stream of people came to buy medicine every day. They weren’t even customers who came for the mysterious potion. This was a strategy that the teahouse guild had worked out. They paid and hired people to buy medicine from Luo Medicine Hall to make Luo Qian think that Luo Medicine Hall’s business was flourishing and promising. He would focus on running the medicine hall and would not have the time to open a teahouse for the time being.

With this extra time bought, they would make the best use of time to develop the Immortal beverage’s formula.

Actually, even if they hadn’t done so, Luo Qian temporarily did not have sufficient funds to open a teahouse either. The medicine hall on Mountain Feng Tong had emptied Luo Qian’s savings. His two fastest streams of income—sexy underwear and aphrodisiac drugs. The former gave him earnings of 2,000 Superior Immortal Jade a month—it could only buy a piece of land the size of three mats on Mountain Feng Tong. The latter had been ‘monopolized’ by Qi Ren and was used to repay the debt Luo Qian owed him. His other businesses had no accomplishments, so Luo Qian did not have the funds for expansion for now.

Luo Qian decided that he would include the Immortal beverages that had certain effects with the elixirs sold by the medicine hall for one Standard Immortal Jade per glass after some time.

Coca Cola wasn’t expensive, but it was still one of the most valuable trademarks in the Human Realm.

Luo Qian also had the thought of small profits but quick returns, but he currently did not have the ability to produce so many beverages. It wasn’t just the problems of raw materials and juicers, but also the problems of filling and packaging. There were no cheap plastics in the Immortal Realm. If he wanted to expand the production scale and market for Immortal beverages, the first problem he would have to solve would be finding suitable containers to replace the plastic bottles and ring-pull cans of the Human Realm.

On the side where Luo Medicine Hall faced the street, a window was specially opened to sell Immortal beverages. Buy and consume, buy and go. Luo Qian had an idea and personally wrote two big words crookedly on a slab—street customers. It was hung above the takeout window.

These two words had once made Du Lengning and his disreputable gang of friends very puzzled. Du Lengning had grabbed Luo Qian and asked in private, “Is it a wrongly written character? I’ve only heard of serving customers. I’ve never heard of street customers before[2].”

Luo Qian inwardly despised this vulgar[3] fellow with poor taste for a while. However, Luo Medicine Hall receiving customers quickly became famous throughout the Immortal Realm. Everyone knew that Luo Qian was the king of wrongly written characters.

Li Fei’er often pursed her lips to laugh secretly. Luo Qian was so angry that the vein on his forehead was like a snake, yet he could do nothing. Regardless of how he explained, everyone did not understand that street customers just meant takeout.

Du Lengning pissed him off with one comment: “Since that is the case, why don’t you simply call it takeout, instead of ‘receiving customers?’

Luo Qian could no longer be bothered to explain it to him again——It’s street customers, not receiving customers.

The VIP reception room’s security was tight; it could be called the number one reception room in the Immortal Realm. On this day, the reception room that had remained idle ever since it was built finally received a heavyweight client—Qi Ren.

Qi Ren stood at the entrance, watching that medicine furnace and the long queue at the takeout window. He chuckled and said, “Brother Luo, your business is booming. Even Brother is envious…”

Luo Qian wore a bitter smile. “Aren’t you clear about how things are like here? You should know from that pitiful amount of Immortal jade I have deposited with you.”

Qi Ren brought a handsome youth here. Speaking of handsome, just how good-looking was he? The youth, dressed in plain black robes, had already made Du Lengning—who always prided himself as the Immortal Realm’s ‘handsome man’—so jealous that he wanted to run into a wall.

Luo Qian led the two people into the VIP room. Qi Ren knew that this place was extraordinary at one glance. He could not help but look at Luo Qian in a new light. “Alright. Brother Luo, this secret room, I’m afraid that even a Ninth-Order Immortal wouldn’t be able to break in easily.”

Luo Qian served the Immortal beverages with a grin. “Come, have a taste!”

The Immortal beverages were already well-known in the Immortal Realm. Qi Ren and company took a few sips and said, “Brother Luo, I came to you this time because I have something to ask of you”—he raised the glass—”and it’s about this.”

The handsome youth at a side stood up, cupped his fists, and bowed respectfully to Luo Qian. “Brother Luo, Yin Quanyin will be relying on you!”

Qi Ren introduced the youth to Luo Qian. “This Brother Yin is the second son of Trueness Spring’s Yin family.” The memory came to Luo Qian. “He is one of the Immortal Realm’s three handsome men, Yin Quanyin!” Of course, one of the Yin family’s successors certainly didn’t just have a fine exterior. Yin Quanyin also ranked amongst the Immortal Realm’s five youth swordsmen with his ‘Rock Spring Sword Seal.’

Luo Qian really couldn’t figure out what such a son of a rich and powerful family would have to ask of himself.

Qi Ren explained, “Old Luo, Young Master Yin has always admired the seventh Miss of Broken Moon Realm’s Yunlang family, Yun Xi. Only Immortal Yun Xi is very high and mighty. She has many suitors. Even with Young Master Yin’s talents, Immortal Yun Xi speaks very bluntly to him. This time, he heard that Immortal Yun Xi really likes the Immortal beverage of Luo Medicine Hall. Hence Young Master Yin entrusted me to ask for your help.”

Yin Quanyin said, “Brother Luo, I’ll pay 50,000 Superior Immortal Jade, but I ask that Brother Luo concoct an Immortal beverage that is unforgettable upon drinking for Miss Yun Xi.”

Luo Qian said coolly, “This 50,000 Superior Immortal Jade of yours is also buying the recipe for such an Immortal beverage, am I right?”

Yin Quanyin nodded seriously. “Exactly. I hope that other than selling it to me, Brother Luo will not sell this unique Immortal beverage to anyone else.”

Luo Qian thought inwardly, This good-looking young master has a sly idea. This way, even if Yun Xi does not want to meet him, she will still have no choice but to buy the Immortal beverage from him. However, who is Yun Xi, and how she is, has got nothing to do with me. If Yin Quanyin offers a slightly higher price, I would even consider getting some marijuana from the Human Realm and mixing it into the Immortal beverage.

“Alright. I can give it a try, but I dare not guarantee success,” said Luo Qian.

Yin Quanyin was also reasonable and fair. “Of course. As long as Brother Luo puts his heart into it, I will directly deposit the 50,000 Superior Immortal Jade into your account through Boss Qi, regardless of the outcome.”

…

Thump.

A muffled noise sounded as Luo Qian appeared in the Human Realm. He quickly found a big home appliances mall. Luo Qian carefully searched through the various juicers. The average juicer could not satisfy Luo Qian’s needs. He needed a high-tech product with functions that could analyze the fruit juices’ composition and carry out a personalized fruit juice concoction according to different people’s varying tastes. He’d seen the domestic edition of such a juicer on a magazine advertisement before.

Perhaps it was because such an item was too cutting-edge, but he did not find such a juicer even after searching several electronics malls. Luo Qian had no other method but to ask Pei Sefei for help.

After parting the previous time, Luo Qian had not contacted her for a long time. In between that, he’d come down once, but he came and left quickly and had no time to meet her. Actually, it was also because Luo Qian was conflicted in his heart. He knew that there wouldn’t be an outcome if they went on like this. Hence, unless necessary, Luo Qian did his best to avoid meeting her.

[1] A character in The White-haired Girl who leaves home at the end of the year to escape his debts as he cannot afford to pay his rent

[2] The Chinese characters for ‘serving’ and ‘street’ are different characters with the same pronunciation

[3] The meaning of the Chinese term for ‘serving customers’ refers to prostitutes receiving clients