All of them paused and could not help but turn around. They were smiling, but they looked worse than if they were crying. "Supremacy... What instructions do you have for us?"
Lonemoon smiled his brightest smile, causing each of the other cultivators to lower their heads in fear. Then, Lonemoon gestured and the pieces of paper that had fallen to the ground earlier all returned neatly in a stack back to his hands.
"Since these recipes mean nothing to my friend anymore, there's no point in leaving them behind." He lowered his gaze and put on his business-like smile. "Didn't you say these were your signature recipes? Redeem them back!"
"Re-Re-Redeem them?" They hesitated.
"That's right. Don't you sell recipes? We don't need them anymore – we should be able to refund them, shouldn't we?"
They all looked at him in fear. He had a point, but they had already returned Lonemoon all of his money earlier! Yet, he was looking at them so seriously that they knew no way to retort. Therefore, they gritted their teeth and nodded. "Of... course."
"Good, I'm not going to cheat you. Let me refund them at full price. These invoices reflect what these recipes are worth!" Lonemoon picked one up and read, "This secret recipe for barbecue spirit meat from Fragrant Restaurant was sold at 1500 top-grade spirit stones. Chef, please collect the stones from the boss."
"Yes, Father Niu!" Yi Qing immediately pulled out his storage bag and walked toward the man who was still putting on his apron.
"Oh, that's right. You haven't bought any spirit stones with you. That's alright – we can write I.O.Us."
Everyone: "..."
They were in so much pain that they wanted to badly to cry. What kind of evil landlord criminal syndicate was this?
Lonemoon spent an entire hour writing I.O.Us for each of the invoices he had in his hand, before returning those invoices back to their respective owners. Of course, this was what they owed him. The I.O.Us that cultivators used were very different from those that mortals used. These I.O.Us had spiritual powers. They could not be undone by anything other than repayment and death. That meant that the bosses would have no choice but to return the stones to Lonemoon, otherwise their cultivations will suffer.
He calculated for a moment and found what Shen Ying and the others used as living expenses for two months amounted to about 20,000 top-grade spirit stones. He had more than a million spirit stones in his hands now, so he could afford more than 50 times of their living expenses per month. That was not even counting the amount stated on those I.O.Us.
"Father Niu, you're amazing!" Shen Ying stood up and clapped.
Chef paused, then followed suit.
"Father Niu, nobody is your match!"
"Get lost!" Lonemoon shot a glare at them. "Don't think that I'm going to let you off now that I have my money back." Even if ordinary people splurged on food, they would not lose more than two mid-grade spirit stones. How did they manage to spend tens of thousands of top-grade spirit stones in just one day? They even landed themselves in such a huge debt!
"Aiya, Father Niu, stop worrying about those details!"
"Details my ass!" How the hell were tens of thousands of spirit stones considered details? " Do you think we mine spirit stones?"
"Yes, Fatty has a meridian-"
"Shut up!" If he had been a step slower, they would have been bankrupt even if they really did mine spirit stones. These two wastrels!
"Oh."
Lonemoon kept his newly earned spirit stones and made up his mind. They were not getting any allowance from him the next month! He sucked in a deep breath, then spoke calmly again. "Talk – what exactly did the two of you find out? You angered this bunch of fools on purpose and even made me play along with your act." If Lonemoon had not been standing between the two of them and the group, their smug expressions would have been exposed a long time ago.
Although the two of them were unreliable cheats, they were not stupid. Shen Ying's intelligence, for one, hit her at the most unpredictable of times. How could she possibly fall for such a see-through trap like this one? What's more, she had Chef with her. In other words, they "fell for it" on purpose.
"Aiya, don't put it that way. Weren't you happy when you counted your spirit stones!"
"What's wrong with me collecting spirit stones! Was he supposed to act for free?" Every time he stepped up to put on a show, he would charge ten million dollars at least. Now, he was only collecting a couple million spirit stones. He was already giving them a discount.
"Yes, yes, yes, Father Niu, you're a veteran actor! You're always right!" They were only poor worms who had to rely on him for food and lodging.
"What exactly is going on?"
"It's those elixirs," Yi Qing explained, stepping forward. "Master and I wanted to go to Immortal City Bian to buy some snacks. Along the way, we met an injured cultivator. He asked us to go to a medicinal shop at the end of the street and buy a bottle of top-grade Qi Preserving Pills for him. So we went there to get a bottle."
"There's a problem with those pills?"
"They worked well – they did indeed help to preserve one's Qi and core. They were regular Qi Preserving Pills that we normally see. The only thing was that we found one additional ingredient in those pills."
"What was it?"
"Soul-Preserving Herb!"
"What?" Lonemoon paused. "Isn't the Soul-Preserving Herb a seventh-grade spirit herb? The Qi Preserving Pill is a first-grade pill. Why would they use a seventh-grade herb in a first-grade pill? Was the alchemist so rich that he had to find a way to burn off his money? Or did he put them in by accident? Or were the Qi Preserving Pills mixed together with the Soul-Preserving Herbs so a bit of the latter's aura stuck onto the former?"
"I thought so too, at first." Yi Qing frowned and continued, "But I used my True Phoenix Fire to find out what was mixed into the pills. The entire pill turned into dust.
"How could that be?" Lonemoon stared at him in shock. "Shouldn't your True Phoenix Fire only burn to ashes things that are poisonous..." Wait! Lonemoon stopped himself mid-sentence as his eyes widened. "Are you saying that it was not the Soul-Preserving Herb that was found in the pill, but... Soul Extracting Pill!"
"That's right." Yi Qing nodded.
"Shit!" Lonemoon cursed under his breath. The Soul Extracting Pill also made use of a part of the Soul-Preserving Herb. Spirit Herbs like the Soul-Preserving Herb were extremely special. They only grew in places where the yin Qi was especially thick. Although their roots were in so-called yin soil, their branches were the main ingredients in Soul-Preserving Pills. Soul-Preserving Pills could fill up one's soul, and were normally used to improve one's divine perception. It could also be used to restore one's primordial spirit. That's why people say that it's an eighth-grade herb. But the roots of the Soul-Preserving Herb is the opposite. The yin Qi from the soil gathers in the roots of the herb, so that anyone who consumes it would injure their own divine perception. In serious cases, their primordial spirit might even be injured. The Soul Extracting Pill was made from the powder of these roots.
"The amount of Soul Extracting Pill in those pills was extremely small. Nobody would have realized," Yi Qing continued. He only realized because Master said that the pills were smelly, and he thought he should analyze what they contained. "No cultivator would be injured by that little bit of Yin Qi. The most that would happen is it would leave a mark in his or her divine perception."
"So..." Lonemoon looked to the two of them and narrowed his eyes. "You created such a huge problem out of the recipes just to enter their kitchen and see if there were any Soul Extracting Pills?"
"That's right!" Yi Qing answered firmly.
"Father Niu, we were so hardworking, weren't we!" Shen Ying said seriously.
"Hardworking my ass!" Lonemoon immediately exposed her. "Chef was alright – do you think I wouldn't be able to tell that you wanted to get in there for more food?!"
"Stop worrying about the details."
"What details? If you have the guts, open all of your storage bags and let me take a look!"
Shen Ying immediately pushed the storage bag behind her over to Chef and shook her head. "What snacks?" She did not have any guts to begin with.
"..." Do you think I'm blind? You've said it yourself – you took snacks!