The atmosphere plummeted, leaving Qian and Li speechless, facing each other with their drinks.
Perhaps sensing the awkwardness, as the Shihori family’s blades hadn't yet struck their own homes and life had to go on, albeit a little tougher.
A moment later, young brother Qian spoke.
“I don’t know if the Shihori family will attack us, or if we’ll attack them. I just hope it doesn’t reach the city. My life’s fortune, built over decades, is all here. If even one of my many shops is smashed, it’s like cutting a piece of my flesh.”
“Brother Qian, are you truly ignorant, or are you pretending to be?”
“If we were the ones being attacked, of course, we’d defend the city. But there are tens of thousands of cavalry outside. Tell me, are cavalry legions used for routine border patrols, or for defending a city? Cavalry is meant for offensive field battles, isn’t it?”
“I suspect the Xi family is about to attack the Shihori family.”
“That’s true. The old patriarch dedicated half his life to diligent governance. Now that the Xi family has finally grown strong, it’s time for them to counterattack the Shihori family and avenge the past invasions.”
“Oh, give it a rest. Peace is the hard truth of development. War only destroys farmlands and cities, leaving people displaced and destitute. Isn’t it better for everyone to develop peacefully? And you actually wish for war.”
“I don’t wish for it, I don’t wish for it. I just want to make money.”
“Alas, Brother Qian, the tariffs at the checkpoints along the way for this trade journey were exorbitant. While it’s understandable that it’s for supporting the court, my brother, I’m truly finding it hard to make ends meet.”
“Um… Brother, take care.”
“Alas, Brother Qian, can you settle the outstanding payments for these last two shipments? Brother really can’t hold on any longer.”
“That, Brother Li, junior brother is also tied up with this batch of goods and temporarily cannot mobilize funds. See, would you be willing to extend the payment by a few more days?”
“Damn it all, why are you so uncooperative?”
“It’s not that, Brother. Junior brother genuinely has his difficulties. How about this, junior brother has some shops in this city, I could mortgage them to you first?”
“Heh, you’re a sedentary merchant, and I’m a traveling merchant. What use do I have for your shops? I’d have to spare effort to manage them. With war looming, your shops won’t be worth much.”
“Isn’t that the truth, isn’t that the truth? With war about to break out, who knows if we’ll even live to see tomorrow? Let’s drink today and worry tomorrow. Let tomorrow’s worries be for tomorrow. Let’s survive this war first.”
“Indeed, let’s drink.”
The two unfortunate brothers, drinking their sorrows away, began to brag about other things, such as whose wife was prettier, or which brothel had new attractive young men.
Wan Lei listened with waning interest. He felt that occasionally sitting down to hear the voices of the common people wasn't so bad.
War was indeed imminent, but it had nothing to do with him.
He wasn’t so self-important as to think those ten thousand cavalry were here to hunt him. Otherwise, the cavalry would have entered the city and spread out to search, not calmly pitched their tents outside.
If the Xi family truly sent ten thousand cavalry to kill him, then the head of the Xi family must have gone mad.
With his cultivation reaching his current level, he was impervious to ordinary sword and blade damage.
This wasn’t a high-martial world. Even the strongest of experts would be worn down by wave after wave of armies, or riddled with arrows like a hedgehog.
Gouzi had said that the so-called high-martial worlds were merely low-spirit planes. Once one reached the level of a mid-spirit plane, the power of mortals was negligible.
He, Wan Lei, could stand in mid-air and let the cavalry below shoot him with arrows. Even if they shot for decades, he wouldn’t suffer the slightest injury.
At this moment, his mood was the same as the two merchants at the next table.
Both were worried.
However, they worried about their businesses, while Wan Lei worried about when he could find Li Mei Xian.
No one worried about the common folk.
Fang Xiaoyu stared silently out the window. The old man, however, was in good spirits. He drank eight of the ten jars of wine by himself throughout the night; the remaining two were shared by the other two.
As dawn broke, they descended the stairs. The old man stopped at the wine counter.
“How much for a gourd of wine?”
“Sir, a gourd counts as one jar, two fire crystals.”
The speaker was the innkeeper at the wine counter. The waiter from yesterday, perhaps having received a generous tip, had gone to a brothel for fun and was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you sure? Two fire crystals for a gourd?”
“Certain. We’ve always sold it like this, fair to all.”
“Very well.”
The old man produced two fire crystals and placed them on the counter. The innkeeper happily took them.
Then, the old man took out his gourd.
It wasn’t the one slung at his waist, but one he retrieved from his spatial ring.
It was more than a person tall.
It was enormous,
Too big for words.
Yes, the old man’s two friends had covered their faces and hidden outside the door, pretending not to know him.
“This… customer, you’re going too far. You call this a gourd? This is a fermentation vat!”
“Isn’t this a gourd? Even if the King of Heaven himself came today, it’s still a gourd. Hurry up and fill it. You said fair to all, so are you a shop that bullies its customers and breaks its word?”
The innkeeper’s beard trembled with anger. He had never seen such blatant bullying. Everyone else’s gourd held about as much wine as a jar. Yet, this gourd… where on earth did he find such an exceptionally gifted gourd?
“What, you think I’m being unreasonable?”
The old man glared, and his cultivation pressure immediately erupted. The poor innkeeper was almost forced to his knees by this pressure.
“Reasonable, reasonable.”
Saying this, the innkeeper hastily went to fill the wine.
This one gourd of wine completely emptied a large vat.
“Please take care, sir. Come again often.”
Amidst the innkeeper’s enthusiastic farewell, the old man walked out of the wine house, fully satisfied.
“Ah, these people are so hospitable. All good people. I must come here often.”
The old man nodded repeatedly, feeling very gratified.
“Shameless.”
Fang Xiaoyu spat, giving the old man a contemptuous glance.
“How can you say that? He said two fire crystals for a gourd, and I paid for it. It wasn’t forced buying or selling. He was very happy. Look, this shop doesn’t bully me, an old man. Truly fair to all.”
The old man felt no shame for using his cultivation to force a consensus.
Fang Xiaoyu disdained such behavior, but Young Master Lei’s eyes grew brighter.
He suddenly felt that his own past extortion and blackmail were too simple and crude, his demeanor too ugly, lacking any aesthetic appeal.
He should be like the old man, reasoning with the other party while secretly intimidating them, acting righteously, holding a club while asserting his logic, making others feel that what he said was very reasonable.
In the end, a consensus was reached, and both parties maintained their dignity.
This, he realized, was the true art of blackmail.