Shameless Immortal: Emperor of Ten Thousand Beauties

Chapter 240: Chapter 240: The Marriage Lifeline Turns to Black Ash

The journey back to Crimson Iron City was nothing short of an agonizing blur.

The core disciple rode his spirit-steed like a man possessed, pushing the beast past its physical limits until it literally collapsed and died of exhaustion right outside the Cao Clan’s secondary gates.

Covered in mud, sweat, and the heavy stench of despair, the disciple dragged his bruised body through the estate, bursting into the grand council hall without even announcing his arrival.

"Patriarch... Patriarch!" the disciple choked out, falling flat onto his face, the crimson-sealed marriage scroll slipping from his weak fingers and rolling across the marble floor.

Cao Yan, who had been pacing the length of the hall for a full day without a single wink of sleep, lunged forward.

He snatched the scroll, his eyes scanning the unmarred, intact seal.

"Why is this still sealed?!" Cao Yan bellowed, his face contorting into a mask of pure fury as he grabbed the disciple by his collar, lifting him clean off the floor.

"Where is the Ge Clan?! Where is the signed alliance?!"

"They... they abandoned us, Patriarch!" the disciple wept, coughing up a trace of blood from the reckless sprint.

"They slammed the iron gates directly in my face! They turned on their Grand Defensive Array! The head guard said Young Master Ge Xuan was suddenly struck down by a ’spiritual plague’ and that the marriage contract is completely void! It’s a lie, Patriarch! They are fleeing! They left us to die alone!"

The entire council hall fell into an absolute, deathly silence.

The words echoed off the high walls like a funeral knell.

Cao Yan’s hands began to shake violently.

The crimson scroll in his grip caught fire from his leaking, unstable Qi, burning into a pile of black ash that drifted through his fingers.

His knees subtly buckled, and for the first time in his life, the proud Patriarch of the Cao Clan collapsed heavily back onto his throne, his eyes completely hollow.

"A spiritual plague..." an elder whispered, his voice cracking with a terrifying realization.

"They saw the Golden Cauldron’s ninety-three percent purity Tier 3 pill. They saw the fifty-one percent price cut. They knew we were walking into a meat grinder, and they cut their ties to save themselves."

"Those fat, treacherous bastards!" another elder screamed, slamming his fist against a pillar until his knuckles bled.

"We spent our entire liquid capital preparing for this campaign based on their word! We are ruined!"

Panic, raw and unadulterated, swept through the hall like a wildfire.

Elders began to shout, some suggesting they pack up the family treasures and flee the city before the debt collectors and the union’s martial enforcers arrived, while others openly wept.

"Silence! All of you, shut the fuck up!" Cao Yan suddenly roared, his voice carrying the full weight of his late-stage Foundation Establishment pressure.

The sheer force of his anger cracked the floorboards beneath his feet, instantly silencing the bickering elders.

Cao Yan forced his trembling breathing to steady, his bloodshot eyes narrowing into dangerous, desperate slits.

"Flee? Where would we flee? The moment we abandon Crimson Iron City, our rival clans and rogue cultivators will hunt us down like wounded beasts for our remaining resources."

"Our ancestor is in deep, death-seclusion trying to break through. He will not wake up for a commercial collapse. We must survive this on our own."

The finance elder stepped forward, his face pale as paper.

"But Patriarch, how? Yesterday was a total disaster! Our retail dispensaries recorded nearly zero sales after the union announced their fifty-one percent discount. The entire city is buying from the Golden Cauldron."

"Our warehouses are completely packed to the ceiling with Tier 0 to Tier 2 pills that we mass-produced at premium costs. If those pills sit there for another three days, our capital chain will snap entirely, and the clan will dissolve from the debt."

The elders gathered around the grand strategic map of the city, their expressions grim as hours of intense, suffocating debate dragged on.

Every single traditional route was closed.

They couldn’t ask the local sects for loans because the sects were currently catering to the union for the new Tier 3 mines-cleansing pills.

They couldn’t appeal to the city governor because the Golden Cauldron paid double their taxes.

Finally, after the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, bloody shadows across the hall, only one horrific, suicidal option remained on the table.

"We have to dive deeper into the price war," Cao Yan whispered, his voice sounding incredibly old, his fingers gripping the edges of the stone table so hard they left indentations.

"Patriarch, no!" the finance elder gasped, his eyes bulging.

"To undercut a fifty-one percent discount, we would have to drop our prices to at least fifty-five or sixty percent! At that rate, we aren’t just losing profits, we are actively losing spiritual stones on every single pill sold! The material costs alone will eat us alive!"

"Do you think I don’t know that?!" Cao Yan snarled, his eyes flashing with a terrifying, predatory desperation.

"But look at the reality! Right now, we have zero momentum and zero sales. Having our entire inventory sit in the vault is a total, absolute hundred-percent loss!"

"If we lower our prices to fifty-five percent, yes, we will incur significant, bleeding losses. But at least we will trigger a manic buying frenzy! It will move our stagnant stock, bring back a fraction of liquid capital, and generate some cash flow!"

He slammed his hand on the table, pointing at the Golden Cauldron’s territory on the map.

"We just need to survive the initial wave and force the union to see that we are willing to drag them down into the mud with us! If we can move our stock, we can liquidate our assets, pay off our immediate debts, and keep the clan’s core foundations intact until a better opportunity arises! It is better to bleed half our blood than to be buried alive in a closed casket!"

The elders looked at one another, their jaws clenching.

It was a horrific, bitter pill to swallow, but logically, the Patriarch was right.

Total stagnation meant instant death. A bleeding, desperate price war at least gave them a slim, fighting chance to keep the Cao Clan’s gates open.

"Issue the command to all our retail managers immediately," Cao Yan ordered, his voice cold and resolute as he stood up from his throne.

"Change the formations outside our shops. Effective tomorrow morning... the Cao Clan is slashing all Tier 0 to Tier 2 pill prices by fifty-five percent! Let the city know that we are not dead yet!"

-x-

A/N:

Weekly PS: 54/100

Monthly GT: 40/30