The Moonlit Market opened every five days, exclusively in the evenings.
Wu Pingyuan had been counting the days, and at long last, the next Moonlit Market had arrived.
Alongside his sect's treasurer uncle, he arrived early and waited eagerly at the market. Wu Pingyuan widened his ox-like eyes, scanning the crowd from the easternmost to the westernmost end, terrified of missing even a single figure.
Growing impatient, the uncle urged, "Have you found the masters yet?"
Wu Pingyuan shook his head.
Rubbing his palms together, the uncle murmured—whether to comfort Wu Pingyuan or himself was unclear—"Let’s wait a little longer. Maybe those young masters will show up soon."
Indeed, while Wu Pingyuan and his uncle waited anxiously, Yan Luoyue and her two companions were rushing toward the Moonlit Market as fast as they could.
Their delay was entirely justified: Yan Gan and Sang Ji had been held back after class as punishnt.
The previous night, Yan Luoyue had lit a fire and brewed three full barrels of dicinal paste.
Yan Gan and Sang Ji had stayed up late helping her package the paste into boxes, which now sat neatly in their storage pouches.
So absorbed were they in their money-making venture that they forgot sothing crucial.
It wasn’t until morning, during class, when the teacher demanded howork submissions.
"……"
Sang Ji and Yan Gan exchanged a glance, their expressions blank.
Naturally, they hadn’t done their assignnts. Resigned, they held out their palms to endure the bamboo ruler’s sting.
After their punishnt, the two turned their gazes toward Yan Luoyue, eyes brimming with silent commiseration.
Yan Gan’s stare conveyed encouragent: *Don’t worry, little sister. At least you brewed dicine last night.*
Sang Ji’s thoughts echoed support: *Hang in there, little sister. Getting beaten is routine—just rember to apply so of your own ointnt afterward.*
This shared misery lasted only until Yan Luoyue’s next move.
Pausing deliberately, she reached into her desk, pulled out a completed assignnt, and handed it in without hurry.
Yan Gan & Sang Ji: "!!!"
*What?! All three of us were obsessed with making money, so how did you manage to finish your howork?!*
*And if you did it, why didn’t you tell us so we could copy from you, your dearest brothers?!*
Yan Luoyue’s eye twitched. She was even more exasperated than these two unlucky brothers.
"I write all my howork in the afternoon," she said flatly. "Didn’t you notice? I don’t have combat training then."
In the end, the only two students who failed to submit their assignnts were forced to stay late—completing their missing work and writing an extra twenty pages of calligraphy as punishnt.
Once they finally finished, Yan Gan and Sang Ji scooped up Yan Luoyue and sprinted toward the Moonlit Market.
This ti, they didn’t even have a chance to catch wild chickens from the back mountain.
Along the way, Yan Gan and Sang Ji took turns encouraging each other to "be brave" and demonstrate how to "break a bone lightly"—just trust , brother, my swing will be gentle.
Unsurprisingly, this debate led nowhere.
By the ti they reached the Moonlit Market, all the good spots had been taken. They had no choice but to scour the edges for a place to set up their stall.
Sang Ji’s sharp eyes soon spotted a decent location. Without a word, he signaled Yan Gan with a glance.
Yan Gan understood imdiately and nodded back.
The two lunged for the vacant spot.
As fate would have it, a squirrel demon had also set his sights on this pri real estate.
"……"
Their gazes t, igniting an unspoken battle.
Though no referee blew a whistle, both sides raced toward the spot with the intensity of a hundred-ter dash!
Then, out of nowhere, a large hand shot out, abruptly ending the silent competition.
The hand seized Yan Gan’s sleeve, throwing him off balance with a stumble.
Seizing the opportunity, the squirrel demon dropped to all fours, securing the spot.
So overjoyed that he couldn’t maintain his human form, his fluffy tail burst free from his robes, wagging triumphantly.
Fuming, Yan Gan whirled around to glare at the culprit.
"What’s your problem?"
Recognition flashed across his face, and his tone turned even fiercer. "You?! Did you do that on purpose?"
The human cultivator who had yanked his sleeve—none other than Wu Pingyuan—bead with delight.
After searching high and low, he had finally found his targets.
Seeing Yan Gan’s dark expression, Wu Pingyuan raised a placating hand. "Young masters, please don’t be angry. Hear out—our sect has a big business proposal for you."
"…Young masters?"
Yan Gan and Sang Ji exchanged confused glances. What kind of strange title was that?
"…Big business?"
Ears perking at the keyword, Yan Luoyue’s eyes sparkled.
The copper-coin-sized turtle at her sleeve smoothly transford into a bright-eyed little girl.
She tugged at her brother’s sleeve, landing neatly on her feet with a bounce.
Wu Pingyuan watched the seamless transformation with fascination.
He blinked, feeling a strange sense of wonder.
"Your sect wants to buy sothing—Sweet Delicacy Pills, right?" Yan Luoyue gestured toward a warmly lit tea stall. "Let’s sit there and talk."
"Wait." Wu Pingyuan rubbed his ear. "I might have misheard. What’s the na of that black ointnt again?"
Yan Luoyue enunciated clearly. "Sweet Delicacy Pills."
Wu Pingyuan: "……"
Frankly, he couldn’t comprehend it.
This naming sense was on par with whoever dubbed it "Little Tortoise Paste," wasn’t it?
The Canglang Sect’s lead negotiator was their treasurer uncle—a burly man built like an iron tower.
On Yan Luoyue’s side, Sang Ji took the lead.
As the son of the Blacksnout Crocodile clan’s elder, he had seen his fair share of business dealings.
Channeling his father’s negotiating style, he managed to appear surprisingly convincing.
On one side: a part-ti treasurer from a body-refining sect.
On the other: a half-baked crocodile demon novice.
Their skills were equally matched—or rather, equally lacking.
The ensuing discussion about the Sweet Delicacy Pills’ supply was nothing short of amateur hour.
With Yan Luoyue occasionally chiming in, they painstakingly drafted their first tentative agreent.
The one-year contract’s key terms were as follows:
1. Yan Luoyue’s group would supply the Canglang Sect with 8,000 boxes of ointnt per quarter, priced at 15 spirit pearls per box.
2. The Canglang Sect would pay an advance of 600 low-grade spirit stones as the quarter’s deposit.
3. Additionally, during the supply period, if Yan Luoyue’s group had surplus stock…
The Canglang Sect would not interfere with the ointnt. However, Yan Luoyue and her two companions had to guarantee that the price they offered the sect would be the lowest on the market.
During the negotiation, Sang Ji couldn’t help but keep shooting Yan Luoyue aningful glances.
Sang Ji: *Little sister, can you really brew this much dicine all by yourself?*
Yan Luoyue nodded confidently: *Don’t worry, it’s no problem.*
Under the right conditions, simple low-grade pills like these didn’t even need to be refined by hand. Once she acquired a suitable fire source, she could easily craft an automated dicine-making machine.
After thoroughly exchanging opinions, Yan Luoyue couldn’t resist asking the other party: *"The Sweet Delight Healing Pills do have excellent restorative effects, but why would you need so many?"*
Eight thousand boxes per quarter was no small amount.
The sect’s accountant answered truthfully: *"The sect plans to distribute this ointnt to our disciples as a monthly supplent."*
Though not high-grade, the dicine was incredibly useful for body cultivators.
The Canglang Sect treated the three children with unwavering respect, precisely because they hoped to maintain a good relationship for future cooperation. Their goal was to eventually commission the "master" behind the dicine to develop more advanced external treatnts for Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators.
…It was just that the three of them were tight-lipped. No matter how much the accountant probed, he couldn’t uncover the identity of the pill-refining "master."
Wu Pingyuan remarked offhandedly: *"It’s a pity the ointnt boxes are so small—just a few scoops with your fingers and it’s gone. Seven or eight boxes a month might not even be enough."*
The containers for the ointnt were delicate and charming, no larger than matchboxes, looking particularly exquisite in the rough palms of the burly cultivators.
Yan Luoyue spread her hands innocently.
The dosage might be a little small, but the bamboo boxes sold at the general store only ca in that size.
Still, the ntion of bamboo boxes reminded her of sothing…
Seizing the idea, Yan Luoyue rubbed her chin. *"Does the supplied dicine have to co in small boxes? Could we switch to a different container—say, a jar?"*
The accountant hesitated before replying: *"That… should be acceptable."*
Under the terms of the contract, he trusted that the other party wouldn’t tamper with the quantity.
It was just that, combined with the na *Sweet Delight Healing Pills* and its color, the image of an entire jar of sweet bean paste was hard to shake.
Yan Luoyue cheerfully shook his hand. *"Then it’s settled!"*
This way, she could save money on bamboo boxes and the ti spent manually filling them.
Yan Gan, ever the pragmatist, advised: *"When distributing the ointnt, make sure the disciples bring their own containers. All you’ll need is a ladle—one scoop per disciple, another scoop for the next…"*
The accountant: *"…"*
*Enough. Stop talking. The ntal image is already too vivid.*
Wasn’t this just like scooping sauce in a cafeteria now?!
Yan Luoyue and her group had prepared five hundred boxes of ointnt for their stall. With the deal settled, they handed them over to the Canglang Sect in advance.
As the three of them diligently unloaded the dicine baskets, a flicker of sparkling light caught Yan Luoyue’s peripheral vision.
Curious, she lowered her head and glanced around.
Just then, a conversation drifted to her ears from two or three stalls away.
*"Has anyone here seen a demonic snake? The creature is erald green, no thicker than a pinky finger, and about the length from fingertip to palm…"*
*"Haven’t seen it."*
*"If any cultivator provides a lead, whether the snake is dead or alive, our young master will offer a generous reward!"*
*"Hmm, we’ll keep an eye out…"*
Yan Luoyue blinked. *Huh. That shimr I just saw was green, wasn’t it?*
As the thought crossed her mind, she instinctively looked down.
The next second, her gaze froze on the basket in front of her.
The "demonic snake" those cultivators were hunting was right under Yan Luoyue’s nose.
The soft, golden glow of the tea stall’s lanterns cast an enchanting sheen over the little green snake’s jade-like scales, turning them into a srizing, translucent erald. The richness of the color struck her as oddly familiar.
Unaware it had been spotted, the tiny snake was still burrowing headfirst into the basket.
Perhaps it had heard the search party nearby, because the tip of its jade-green tail trembled like a delicate, tinkling bell.
*"…"*
A *-0.5* suddenly floated before her eyes. Yan Luoyue instinctively checked her health bar.
Sure enough, her HP had dropped again.
She had a sneaking suspicion—this ti, her life points had been drained by sheer cuteness overload!
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