Shameless Immortal: Emperor of Ten Thousand Beauties

Chapter 245: Chapter 245: The Puppet Choice

The mere aroma was so pure that it caused the stagnant, chaos-ridden meridians of the surrounding Golden Core elders to violently throb, injecting a sudden, rushing wave of clear, cooling vitality straight into their anxious minds.

Cao Yan gasped loudly, his eyes widening to the size of saucers. His hands shook so violently he nearly dropped the vial as he stared down at the flawless, gleaming pill.

"This... this fragrance...!" he stuttered, his voice breathless with sheer, unadulterated shock. "Ninety-five... no, ninety-six percent purity?! Heavens, how is this possible?!"

"Ninety-six percent purity?!" Cao Yan stammered, his vision blurring from the sheer, overwhelming weight of the discovery. He looked up at the stranger, his hands cupping the vial like a holy relic. "Senior... this... this isn’t an Iron-Cleansing Pill. What divine medicine is this?"

"That," Shen Yu purred smoothly, taking a slow step forward as his dark robes rippled, "is an advanced, optimized variant of the Tier 2 Pure Flow Pill. Unlike the generic trash flooding the market, this formulation completely flushes the toxic earth-sediment from the meridians of Foundation Establishment cultivators within seconds, boosting their internal Qi circulation by thirty percent while they mine."

He paused, letting the strategic value of the pill fully sink into the minds of the trembling elders.

"As for who I am... I stand here today as the grand representative of the Tang Clan from Thousand Waves City," Shen Yu lied effortlessly, inventing a powerful, distant entity to completely mask his true identity. "We have watched the Golden Cauldron grow far too arrogant. I am here to offer a deal, Patriarch Cao. A deal to drag your family out of the grave you so eagerly dug for yourselves."

"Senior!" Cao Yan dropped directly to his knees, slamming his hands against the floorboards as he bowed his head low, completely discarding his pride as a grand patriarch. "We beg for your salvation! Name your price! Spiritual stones, iron veins, our clan’s secret techniques—we will give you anything! Please, supply our Cao Clan with these pills! Save us from this execution!"

"Save you?" Shen Yu laughed softly, a dark, rich sound that sent a cold shiver down the spines of the Golden Core Supreme Elders. He slowly rose from his seat, his loose dark robes fluttering with an invisible, suffocating spiritual pressure that instantly forced everyone in the hall to lower their gaze.

"I am a businessman, Patriarch Cao, not a savior. I do not care about your survival," Shen Yu murmured, walking casually down the length of the table, his steps completely silent. "But I happen to have a strong dislike for the Golden Cauldron’s overbearing monopoly. I want to see them bleed. And your desperate little clan is the perfect weapon to slash their throat."

He stopped right in front of the kneeling patriarch, looking down at him like a deity deciding the fate of an ant.

"I have ten thousand boxes of these high-purity pills ready for delivery, along with a continuous supply of the rare herbs required to keep your cauldrons burning," Shen Yu whispered, his golden pupils flashing with a chilling, exquisite malice beneath his hood. "I will provide them to you at a fraction of the market cost. But in return, I want eighty percent of your clan’s primary iron ore production for the next ten years, and absolute obedience to my commands behind the scenes."

The words slammed into the council hall like a physical blow. Cao Yan froze, his breath catching in his throat.

Eighty percent of their iron production for a decade? Absolute obedience? It was a ruthless demand that would effectively strip the Cao Clan of its autonomy, turning them into nothing more than a hollowed-out puppet branch of a foreign entity. For a proud patriarch who had spent his entire life fighting to elevate his family’s name, bending the knee to a faceless master was an incredibly bitter, suffocating pill to swallow. He hesitated, his jaw clenching so hard his teeth audibly ground together, utterly unable to force the words of consent past his lips.

Seeing the heavy reluctance paralyzing the patriarch, Shen Yu merely chuckled—a low, mocking rumble that vibrated with a twisted, eccentric amusement.

"Hehehe... it is obviously a difficult decision for a proud patriarch, isn’t it?" Shen Yu purred, his voice dripping with playful malice as he casually waved his hand.

Flash!

With a brilliant shimmer of spatial energy, a heavy, velvet-lined wooden crate materialized directly onto the center of the long council table. The brass latches snapped open on their own, the lid popping back to reveal rows upon rows of identical crystalline vials, all gleaming like raw jade under the flickering torchlight.

"Consider this a small gesture of goodwill from the Tang Clan. One hundred vials, entirely free of charge," Shen Yu murmured, slowly turning his back to the kneeling man as his silhouette began to faintly blur into the shadows. "Take twenty-four hours to deliberate, Patriarch Cao. But do remember... by tomorrow morning, you will either sign my contract and wage a full-force war against the Golden Cauldron, or you can sit back and watch that furious mob outside tear your flesh from your bones while the debt collectors systematically erase your name from the city records. I expect your answer by tomorrow’s dawn."

Before Cao Yan could even raise his hands to beg him to stay, the air around the far end of the hall warped violently. With a faint, ghostly whisper, Shen Yu stepped back into the Phantom Steps and vanished completely into thin air, leaving behind only the dazzling, intoxicating scent of ninety-six percent purity medicine and the ticking clock of the clan’s imminent destruction.

-x-

A/N:

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