Re-life: Life as a demon patriarch

Chapter 7: Gamble

The VIP lounge was silent for a moment as Gu LinFang was lost in thought.

'Initially I intended to sell more than one bottles of such pill, but hearing now that they're perfect grade items...I believe it's best to keep them to my self...I wonder if it's possible to reverse engineer pills without the system? Or can I make an entirely new pill?' Suddenly, He seemed to be looking forward to concocting pills.

"That's fine by me as well, Do you perhaps have a cauldron or two up for sale today?" He quickly responded to avoid any awkwardness.

He just remembered that he doesn't have the necessary tools for pill making except the green grade spirit cauldron the previous owner of his body had. It was a cauldron and a magic weapon as well, something that had been with him for years, which he obtained by robbing someone of his life.

'thinking about it now, it seems this guy wasn't a good guy either...so there shouldn't be any scruples if...' Gu Fang was once again amusing himself with the rubbish that seems pop up from time to time since he got into this body.

"There's indeed one, an Earth grade cauldron!".

'Earth grade? That should be uhm... Blue grade item? Not bad' Gu Fang was pleased.

On his second day in this world, he had learnt that, the people graded items different from the way system did. It started from the bottom being, Mortal grade, then yellow, Earth, Sky, immortal and finally heaven grade.

Gu Fang adjusted himself slowly on his seat while dropping his tea cup with a skeptical expression and said, "Hmm... that should be fine as well".

He then nods repeatedly saying, "How much would you sell it for?".

Gu Linju on the other hand felt her hands shake upon hearing 'earth grade' and was even more surprised by how casual her father was going about it as well!.

'He didn't even flinch and is even acting like it's beneath him...'

"Brother Gu, don't be overly serious..." Master Fu says while making a gesture that said, 'just take it...'.

Gu Lin Fang cuts in immediately with a smile, "Brother Fu, that won't do ... how can I accept such!?".

Inwardly he was sneering at the old man, 'predictable, obviously trying to rope me in... not my first time with your type... wait! I forgot I'm an old man as well Tsk tsk tsk'

Master Fu squeezed his face with a teasing smile, "there's no need to stand on ceremony, Brother how about this, I'll gift it to you... just take it as my gift to the little niece ...".

"This...Haais...then I shall graciously accept this gift" Gu Lin Fang made it seem like he only accepted with great reluctance before cupping his fist in greeting with a touched expression.

There was no movement from Gu Linju as she was still in shock but the old man and Chang ye saw it as something else.

'Looks like this is indeed nothing to them', Master Fu seemed to be impressed with himself for some reason as he stroke his beards while saying "Good Good Good" repeatedly.

Gu Lin Fang didn't say anything more as he observed the two, their facial expressions towards each other got him thinking before coming to a conclusion about Master Fu , 'He most likely has a high position in the Chang clan'.

"Master Gu" Chang ye suddenly spoke impatiently at this time, Gu Lin Fang also noticed the change in the way Chang ye addressed him.

"Yes?"

"Is there something else you need? You know, It will take a while to bring the cauldron over, so why don't we handle other things as we wait?" Chang ye asked with a smile that wasn't a smile.

'could there be a kind of competition between Master Fu and Chang ye?he seems more impatient since I got the Cauldron from Master Fu' Gu Linfang wondered as he had noticed some friction between the two of them from their expressions since they all met, they didn't even try to hide it.

'Well, none of that concerns me...in fact, it might be in my favor' he suddenly thought of an Idea, for the first time his opportunist trait was kicking and it was saying he should take advantage of Chang ye's impatience.

"Indeed, I just arrived in Iron crow city and got a new residence" He paused before Saying,"I'm in need of servants, Furnitures and so on...any idea on how I can employ some servants?".

"Hmm, how about slaves?" The young Master quickly gave a suggestion.

This reminded Gu Linfang of the fact that slavery was still a thing here.

"Alright, that's fine too"

"Right this way then", Chang ye stood up immediately and led the way back to the to the Main Hall, before walking through a door to enter a basement-like structure.

But to Gu LinJu, It suddenly felt like it took them a full nine minutes to get to the end of a stairs. Gu Linju became uncomfortable and chose to hold Gu Lin Fang's sleeve. He looked at her for a second before stroking her hair absentmindedly, though that seemed to calm her down.

At this time, Chang ye spoke again with a pale face, "I'm sorry Master Gu, I had forgotten to turn off the formation array before walking in with you all just now".

Master Fu scoffed in annoyance, it was obvious Chang ye had been testing Gu Lin fang's cultivation level just now but failed miserably, He didn't get any information.

Unfortunately he was unaware that their bloodline had a high resistance towards illusions, so they didn't really notice, Gu Linju felt uncomfortable due to her low cultivation.

Young Master Ye felt she was fine because of Gu Lin Fang, so he quickly gave an apology.

Gu Lin Fang on the other hand was confused as he only felt that they had just walked through a door and paused, then he thought about Gu Linju's odd behavior a second ago.

That was when he quickly caught on to what might have happened and chose to act along with it, He says with a cold smile, "I hope this would not happen in the future as I might not be polite".

Chang ye was solemn and apologized once again, before introducing, "due to the war few years ago, There was a huge inflow of refugees and food became a bit of a problem... so there were those who were sold into slavery by their family, some who sold themselves..." Seeing no changes on Gu lin Fang's face and how Gu Linju was glaring at him, he added feeling uncomfortable, "There are some cultivators who were bandits, criminals...there are, I don't know Master Gu, do you have a kind of slave your interested in?".

"Hmm... I did say I needed servants before and now that mentioned it, I am indeed in need of guards" Gu Lin Fang wore a contemplating expression as he spoke.

Master Fu looked at the side, "Young Master Chang, why don't we just let them see for themselves...looks like they would be living here for a while."

As soon as he was done speaking, they arrived in front of a metal door. Young Master Chang ye knocked and a part of the door opened with a pair of eyes looking at them for a few seconds and closing once more.

When the door was then opened, Gu Lin Fang cussed inwardly, 'f*ck!!!...Damn door needs oiling!...'.

Gu Lin Fang eyed the door for a second while crossing it.

'Damn!?'.

When they got in, Gu LinFang couldn't help raising an eyebrow, 'this place is huge!!'.

"For servants, this are the best in our market" as soon as young Master Chang ye said those words, it was as if it was flames tossed into a drum of gasoline.

"GREAT MASTER!!! take me out of this place, I promise I'll be good!!" A woman yells from amidst the commotion behind the cage. Too bad there were many others who's voice towered over hers.

"Hmph!" Master Fu snorted while flicking his sleeve and all the slaves in the cage held their heads in pain, screaming.

Even those who had dead eyes earlier, was forced out of their delusions.

'interesting' Gu LinFang immediately became interested in this method.

Young Master Chang gave an awkward cough to hide the embarrassment of freezing earlier when the commotion broke out, "Master Gu, he he I must have made you laugh..."

"..." Gu Linfang and Ju'er wore stoic expressions, on one hand Gu Lin Fang was pretending to be angry and on the other hand, Gu Linju was really angry with him.

Perhaps he was expecting this, he smiled wryly.

"Are there any cultivators amongst this people?".

"No... they're kept separately"

"Is that so? Well I will just pick four of these people" Gu LinFang says while pointing out two men, one woman and a teenage girl from the group.

Young Master Chang ye was surprised and couldn't help asking, "Just four?"

"Yes, for now"

"Then I rather just gift them to you" Chang ye says with a smile as he bowed In salute.

"Then I will have to thank you, I would like like to see the cultivators now" Gu Lin Fang didn't really bother to mix words, he was going to take this as a form of apology, plus he's now a hundred percent certain that they were both competing on who would be able to rope him into the Chang clan.

"Alright lemme show you the cultivator batch!" Chang ye led the way once more, although this time, they didn't walk too far this time, "their spirit roots were blocked, so they're only in coma presently".

A large group of people were spread across the floor in front of him like fish, if Chang ye hadn't spoken, he would have thought it was the morgue.

They were about 40-60 people just lying there on the ground, breathing...but motionless.

As their spirit roots had been sealed, it was hard to tell their cultivation levels, so it all depended on luck.

Obviously, Gu Fang was aware that the really good ones must have been taken in by the Chang clan before displaying any, added with the fact that this is just a small branch.

All this minor arrangements here and there, was what allowed the Chang clan stand where they were as a Merchant clan despite not having much official power.

Gu LinFang didn't waste much time and picked up about 10, who looked Pleasing to his eyes.

He gave a side glance to Master Fu and asked,"How much do I pay for these people?".

Gu Linju on the side looked at the people her father chose and was shocked by one of the faces she just spotted amongst the selected slaves.

'Gu LiCheng?' unsure, she didn't say anything else, 'I wonder if father saw him...'.

He noticed that Master Fu seemed to be the one overseeing this branch for a while now and this young Master must have only gotten here recently to take over or something, judging from how the workers and guards aren't used to him yet, There's also the fact that Chang ye seemed too eager to please, lacking experience.

Perhaps they aren't from the same faction, so Master Fu wasn't letting go that easily... this could also be a test for Chang ye, but Gu Fang didn't care...he might as well cozy up to Master Fu while making Chang ye more thirsty.

So presently, he was gambling on his guess.

"Senior Gu..."True to his thoughts, Chang ye wanted to say something, most likely gifting once again but Master Fu cut him off with a smile as he answered Gu Fang's question, "600 low grade spirit stones...".

"Master Fu is just as upright as ever, alright why don't you just deduct it from our earlier transaction?" Gu Lin Fang was intrigued as he completely turned his body to face this tricky old man as he asked.

"I'll do that then"He smiled looking amused, Chang ye still remained clueless of his loss in the power struggle...but that's just what Gu Fang wanted anyways.

'Looks like my exp didn't go to waste'.

_______________

Some minutes later, Gu Fang left the Chang clan property.

And at About the same time, Master Fu was talking with a glowing orb in his hands,

"So, you are saying, a rank four alchemist, popped out of no where?"A hoarse voice came from the orb, it was a young man's voice that sounded lazy.

Master Fu continued to speak with a smile as he explain his thoughts, "Although it might not be relevant but I think he might be one of the Gu clan survivors from a few days ago".

"should we be cautious of... "

"No young Master, It's just a small clan... perhaps he's unaware of what happened there and has been wandering around outside, I'm just unsure of his cultivation rank" Master Fu wasn't very sure of his suspicion...

Somewhat convinced, the young man added,"Uncle Fu, He could just be a wandering cultivator as well and had nothing to do with them".

"Yes"

"Send someone to observe his movement in the next few days"

"As you command young Master...,How is the Master's health now?" Master Fu spoke his words softly, afraid of stepping on any landmines.

The orb flashed repeatedly, obviously showing that the person on the other side lost control of their Qi momentarily.

"Eldest brother still won't let anyone see him...be careful over there, that place is an important source of our income... Fourth brother is just a pawn in eldest brother's schemes, don't let him learn about the Mu bang(Tomb Gang)...let them increase the speed of things!"

Shocked, Master Fu was at a loss for words "This...As you wish".