"Let's hear the bad news first."
Jiang Chen shrugged. "Cut the chatter. You're wasting my time."
Wei Jie chuckled. He knew Jiang Chen wasn't truly angry, but he didn't drag things out any longer. "The good news is, the Glazed Royal City's top auction house is holding a massive auction tomorrow. Apparently, there'll be quite a few quality items going under the hammer."
"And the bad news?" Jiang Chen frowned.
"The bad news is, our Wei family only has two spots." Wei Jie's expression soured as he said this.
"What kind of auction is this, so exclusive that even the Wei family only gets two spots?" Jiang Chen found it hard to believe. For a massive auction, given the Wei family's standing in the Glazed Royal City, their allocation shouldn't be that meager.
Wei Jie said gloomily, "The theme of this auction is related to pills and medicines. Because our Wei family has been relatively weak in the alchemy department these past years, it's only natural that we'd be overlooked on the invitation list. The fact that they gave us two spots at all is already a nod to our status as a Ninth-Rank Noble House. In truth, since our Wei family doesn't have a Pill King, it would be perfectly justified for them not to invite us at all!"
Related to pills?
At this, Jiang Chen showed a flicker of interest.
The Glazed Royal City's top auction house, a massive pill-and-medicine auction.
Either of these alone would have been enough to pique his curiosity, let alone both together.
If he was going to build an alchemy business in the Glazed Royal City, this kind of grand event was absolutely not to be missed. He had already browsed through the shops on Shennong Street, but that only gave him a surface-level understanding. Many of the finer details required sustained observation over time.
This auction, on the other hand, was the perfect opportunity to get a real look at the Glazed Royal City's pill and medicine world.
Seeing the interest in Jiang Chen's eyes, Wei Jie hurriedly said, "Brother Zhen, my father's intention is that one of these two spots must go to you no matter what. But..."
"But I'm not your family's Guest Pill King, so you're worried it might seem improper?" Jiang Chen asked with a half-smile.
He actually knew the Wei family was eager to hire him as their Guest Pill King, but they were too embarrassed to bring it up.
Wei Jie scratched his head sheepishly. "Brother Zhen, this is really hard to say. I mentioned it to you before—our Wei family used to have a Pill King of our own, but he perished because of some old grudge. So now, every Pill King in the Glazed Royal City knows that serving as our Guest Pill King comes with real risk. That's why... we wouldn't dare force you into this."
Jiang Chen had heard this before from Wei Jie. At the time, he'd found it odd but hadn't pressed further, since he didn't know the Wei family well enough and had no interest in being their Guest Pill King.
Now that he was cooperating with the Wei family and knew them better, he felt that serving as their Guest Pill King wouldn't really be a problem.
What he didn't understand was—what risk was there in being a Guest Pill King?
Did the rivalries between noble houses somehow make Pill Kings into scapegoats?
But even so, what did Jiang Chen have to fear? When it came to alchemy duels between noble houses, he wasn't afraid of anyone. The Pill King who thought he could outplay Jiang Chen in the Dao of Alchemy probably hadn't even been born on the
"You should know me by now, Young Jie. I'm not someone who avoids trouble—I just can't stand dishonesty," Jiang Chen said coolly.
Wei Jie froze, then hastily explained, "Brother Zhen, I'm absolutely not trying to hide this from you. It's just... really embarrassing to bring up."
"How so?"
Wei Jie thought for a moment, then sighed. "The truth is, our Wei family has been treated most unjustly in this matter. Our current awkward situation is directly tied to it. You should know that our Wei family belongs to the Panlong Grand Clan. Our status as a Ninth-Rank Noble House exists only because of the Panlong Grand Clan's support and protection. So our family has always been completely loyal to the Panlong Grand Clan, devoted body and soul..."
Jiang Chen frowned. "Get to the point."
Wei Jie gave a bitter smile. "Brother Zhen, this involves a closely guarded secret. After you hear it, you must never speak of it to anyone—or disaster will follow."
Jiang Chen nodded slightly.
"The story goes back to a secret involving the Panlong Grand Clan. Decades ago, rumors began circulating that the Panlong Clan Lord had hit a bottleneck in his martial cultivation. And the Panlong Clan Lord is the most senior and oldest of the twenty-eight Clan Lords in the Glazed Royal City. Rumor has it that he's already past three thousand years of age. Yet his martial realm has remained stuck at the ninth level of the Imperial Realm—he can't take that final step into the Great Emperor Realm..."
"The Great Emperor Realm?"
"That's right. The peak of the Imperial Realm—take one more step forward and you enter the Great Emperor Realm. But that step is one that countless ninth-level Imperial Realm experts have spent their entire lives trying and failing to take. The Panlong Clan Lord is one of them. If he could make that breakthrough, he would become the Glazed Royal City's eighth Great Emperor. But if he can't, the Panlong Grand Clan might not even be able to keep its position as the city's foremost clan. That's how cruel the world of martial cultivation is—and even more so in the Glazed Royal City. A single step separates the heavens from the abyss."
Wei Jie let out a soft sigh, his voice thick with emotion, and continued: "The Panlong Clan Lord tried every secret method imaginable, but none could push him past that threshold. Then, one day ten years ago, he sensed that within the next few decades, his power would begin to dissipate. Once the signs of dissipation appeared, his death would follow shortly after."
Jiang Chen was no stranger to this. He had witnessed the aftermath of an Imperial Realm expert's power dissipation in the ruins of the Myriad Phenomena Extreme Realm, deep within the Myriad Phenomena Domain.
Power dissipation—for a martial cultivator, it was the cruelest and most helpless fate of all.