As the days passed with agonizing slowness, the Jia Lie family's market stalls across Wutan City found their stock of healing medicines dwindling with each passing hour. Until the final day arrived—when the last bottle of healing medicine was sold, the Jia Lie clan member manning the stall could only manage an awkward smile at the crowd of mercenaries pressing against the counter: "We sincerely apologize, but our shop is experiencing a supply shortage and will need to close temporarily."
Outside the shop, the words fell like a stone into still water. The mercenaries, who had been jostling and shoving one another for position, fell silent. They fixed the shopkeeper with savage glares for a long, uncomfortable moment, then dispersed with curses and muttered threats.
Among the parting remarks, several particularly crude invectives left the shopkeeper's face white with humiliation.
Within an hour of the Jia Lie family's last healing medicine selling out, the news had spread across virtually all of Wutan City. Everyone was stunned. Some gloated with quiet satisfaction, some felt a twinge of sympathy, and others simply sighed.
Without the healing medicine to sustain their position, the Jia Lie family's confrontation with the Xiao Clan was destined to end in total defeat. After this crushing blow, the Jia Lie family's vitality had been severely wounded. Their influence in Wutan City would likely never return to its former heights, when a word from their patriarch could set the entire city into motion.
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The Xiao Clan. Council hall.
"The Jia Lie family's source of healing medicines has been cut off?" Xiao Zhan repeated, his voice rising in disbelief as he listened to the report. After a moment of stunned silence, he shot to his feet, the elation on his face nearly impossible to contain.
He exchanged excited glances with the three elders, seeing matching expressions of wild joy on their faces. Xiao Zhan took two excited steps across the hall, then finally managed to rein in his emotions. He turned to the messenger with a broad smile: "What about their alchemist—the one called Liu Xi?"
"Unknown, sir. After the incident where Jia Lie Ao and Liu Xi clashed with young Master Xiao Yan that day, no one has seen him since."
Hearing this, Xiao Zhan and the three elders exchanged a subtle glance, their gazes drifting almost imperceptibly toward the young man sitting casually in a chair nearby.
"Why are you all looking at me? It's not like it had anything to do with me." Xiao Yan rolled his eyes at the four staring faces, looking thoroughly innocent.
Xiao Zhan shook his head with helpless resignation. He would never believe that claim. If it had nothing to do with Xiao Yan, then how had Liu Xi simply vanished into thin air after crossing paths with him?
"Oh, Patriarch—I learned from a Jia Lie family insider who let something slip that the Jia Lie family's Second Elder, Jia Lie Nu, appears to have been killed by a mysterious black-robed figure while transporting medicinal supplies." The messenger hesitated, then lowered his voice to add this detail.
Xiao Zhan's steps froze mid-stride. His eyelid twitched slightly. After a nod of acknowledgment, he waved the messenger away, then fixed his gaze on Xiao Yan with a knowing smile: "Yan'er, to be able to easily kill a Three-Star Great Dou Master like Jia Lie Nu—in all of Wutan City, the only person capable of that would be... your teacher, wouldn't it?"
Xiao Yan touched his nose and sighed. "Jia Lie Nu is indeed dead."
Hearing this confirmed directly from Xiao Yan, Xiao Zhan shook his head with a mixture of emotions. This Jia Lie family—their rival for decades—had begun to crumble because of a single teenager. The feeling was... He sighed with a wry smile: "I know that old gentleman helped our Xiao Clan mostly because of you. But when you have the chance, please convey our gratitude on behalf of the family. We owe him an enormous debt."
Xiao Yan shrugged and nodded casually.
"Now we just sit back and watch the Jia Lie family try to clean up this mess." Xiao Zhan chuckled, the undisguised schadenfreude in his laughter difficult to miss. In the battle for the healing medicine market, the Jia Lie family had suffered a catastrophic defeat. This loss had devastated their vitality, while the Xiao Clan had emerged as the biggest winner of the entire contest.
In just two months of confrontation, the Xiao Clan had gone from the brink of ruin to a miraculous reversal of fortune. The profit from two months of healing medicine sales had equaled nearly an entire year's usual income. And now, the Xiao Clan's influence in Wutan City had clearly surpassed both the Jia Lie family and the Ao Ba family. Furthermore, thanks to Xiao Yan, even the Mitel Auction House had been making increasingly friendly overtures toward the Xiao Clan. All of these factors combined had made the Xiao Clan the most talked-about power in Wutan City.
Yet despite the devastating blow, the Jia Lie family was not finished. A centipede does not die even when stomped—even without the healing medicine profits, the Jia Lie family's military strength remained formidable. Their years of cultivated armed forces were not something anyone in Wutan City could afford to ignore lightly.
The Jia Lie family understood full well the Xiao Clan's rising influence now. After realizing that competition was no longer viable, they could only coil quietly like a wounded serpent, licking their wounds in silence—apparently waiting for an opportunity to strike back at their enemy.
But this period of coiling didn't last long. The very next day after the Jia Lie family's medicine ran out, two Great Dou Masters from the Telan City medicinal family arrived with an imposing entourage, storming into the Jia Lie compound with aggressive demands that Jia Lie Bi settle the outstanding three hundred thousand gold coins within two days.
The Telan City medicinal family's move was like driving a stake into the Jia Lie family's crown—they were publicly humiliated in front of all of Wutan City. Every citizen whispered about how the proud Jia Lie family had been reduced to begging for mercy from creditors. The shame was unbearable.
"This is the consequence of overreaching," Ya Fei remarked to Xiao Yan when he visited the auction house that afternoon. "They borrowed thirty thousand gold coins' worth of herbs on credit, and now that their last source of revenue has been destroyed, they have no way to pay."
Xiao Yan's lips curved into a cold smile: "That's precisely what makes it poetic. They spent years trying to crush our Xiao Clan, and now they're being crushed by their own greed."
Ya Fei looked at the young man beside her, a complex expression flickering across her beautiful face. She had known from the beginning that this boy was different. But the speed at which he had dismantled the Jia Lie family's entire operation—it was almost frightening.
"The Jia Lie family will likely have to sell off a significant portion of their assets to settle this debt," Ya Fei said. "And once that happens, their position in Wutan City will be permanently weakened."
Xiao Yan nodded, his gaze distant. "This is just the beginning. The Jia Lie family's downfall will send ripples through the entire city. Other families will start jockeying for the vacuum they leave behind."
"And the Xiao Clan?" Ya Fei asked, her voice carrying a note of curiosity.
"The Xiao Clan will do what it has always done—grow stronger." Xiao Yan rose from his chair, his eyes carrying a quiet determination that belied his young age. "The healing medicine was just the first step. There's much more to come."
He walked toward the door, then paused and turned back: "Oh, and one more thing—could you keep me informed about the Jia Lie family's financial situation? I want to know exactly when they start selling off their properties."
Ya Fei watched his retreating figure with a thoughtful expression. "That young man," she murmured to herself, "is destined to go far."