At the blinding sight in front of him, Elder Qian sat up straight, his old bones popping slightly as he leaned forward.

He rubbed his frail hands together, his sharp eyes gleaming with undisguised greed as he stared at the hundreds or so glowing beast cores spilling out of the heavy rundown sack.

’How?!’ Elder Qian thought.

To Elder Qian, Gu Fan was just a kid with the reputation of a useless cripple. He might have gotten lucky or used some underhanded tactics during the hunting competition.

But it made no sense that he could still pull out such a big fortune on his own. But elder Qian was a merchant. he did not care about the source. All he cared about was the profits.

And even if he brought a fortune, he was still a junior.

In the cultivation world, the weak were meant to be eaten by the strong. That was the absolute law.

"Why don’t you have a seat, Young Master Gu," Elder Qian said, his voice raspy, "I think we have a lot to discuss."

Gu Fan didn’t wait for an invitation. He pulled up a chair and sat down comfortably, crossing his legs.

Elder Qian narrowed his eyes as his nonchalant attitude and a thought crossed his mind. He decided to put the boy in his place early, as he slowly released his 9th Stage Spirit Realm aura.

A heavy, suffocating pressure slammed down on the room. It was like an invisible mountain pressing on Gu Fan’s shoulders. Normal body tempering cultivators would be forced to their knees, coughing up blood and begging for mercy.

But Gu Fan didn’t even flinch. He just sat there, looking completely nonchalant, as he dusted off his sleeve casually.

"There’s no need to test me out, Elder," Gu Fan said lazily, "I am still the exact same cripple I was before. So let’s not waste time with these silly tricks."

"Besides, if something were to happen to me in your office, you might end up making a lot of very powerful people incredibly angry. People you really can’t afford to offend."

Elder Qian’s face tightened, as the suffocating pressure vanished instantly. He looked at the completely unbothered boy, a deep sense of caution settling into his old bones. A cripple shouldn’t be this calm. Someone terrifying had to be backing him.

"You have a sharp tongue, junior," Elder Qian warned, trying to maintain control of the room, "But fine. You brought a massive haul of beast cores. I am assuming you are in a rush to liquidate these, I will do you a favour."

The old man spent a minute or so going through the beast cores and then tapped his wooden cane on the floor.

"I will give you five thousand Medium-Grade Spirit Crystals for the entire sack."

Gu Fan almost let out a chuckle as he heard the offer.

"Five thousand?" Gu Fan clicked his tongue, leaning forward, "Elder, the people backing me didn’t send me here to be insulted."

"The beast cores here range from 1st Stage of body tempering Stage all the way to 6th Stage of spirit realm."

"I will take one hundred thousand Medium-Grade stones, and not a single stone less."

Elder Qian’s eyes widened, "One hundred thousand?! Impossible! The market is flooded right now!"

"Flooded?!" Gu Fan shook his head.

"These are prime alchemy ingredients. The pure energy density alone is worth top dollar. If you don’t want them..." Gu fan slowly stood up, "The Blood Iron Mercenary Guild will gladly pay for them."

"Wait!" Elder Qian quickly stopped Gu fan from leaving, "Please sit down."

"Forty-five thousand Medium-Grade Spirit Crystals," Elder Qian ground out, sweating slightly.

Gu Fan smirked, "Fifty thousand, and we have a deal."

"Ehhh!" Elder Qian sighed, reaching for a ledger, "Fine! I will have the funds prepared by next week..."

Gu Fan’s eyes narrowed. Classic delay tactics. But he wasn’t the creator of the world for no reason. He just casually rested his right hand on the edge of the desk, as he sneakily triggered a sliver of the Purple Nether-Ghost Fire.

A tiny, almost invisible wisp of deep purple flame slipped from his finger onto the premium ironwood desk.

Ssssssssss!

And in an instant, the ironwood started melting, as the thick, heavy wood sizzled and liquefied into glowing slag right next to the Elder’s hand.

"Aaghh!" Elder Qian leaped out of his chair in pain as she stared at his melting table in shock.

He quickly channelled his Spirit Qi to snuff out the small flame, but to his absolute horror, his Qi instead of extinguishing it, fuelled it further.

He looked up, his eyes wide with terror, locking onto Gu Fan who was calmly examining his fingernails. He knew the boy had something to do with this.

"Extinguish it! Please!" Elder Qian begged, backing away as the desk continued to melt toward his ledgers.

Gu Fan looked up, feigning innocence, "How can I?"

"It’s too hot... Maybe I can have get it done by next week..."

"I am sorry, Young Master Gu fan! I will have you paid the correct price right now, no more of these delay games."

"Why so? I can surely wait for a week," Gu Fan casually waved his hand, extinguishing the purple flame, and the heat faded, but the melted ironwood still smoked heavily on the floor.

"But if you insist," Gu Fan said calmly, remaining seated, "I will take those Fifty thousand Medium-Grade Spirit Crystals. Plus a Golden spatial token of the Heavenly treasure pavilion, along with the that ’Soul-Binding Slave Collar’ you keep hidden in your vault."

"You... How do you know about that?" Elder Qian gasped.

"Like I said, I have powerful friends," Gu fan gave Elder Qian a pleasing smile that only made Elder Qian’s heart drop further.

"The Slave Collar is a forbidden dark-art artefact! It’s worth a fortune on the..."

Gu Fan’s finger sparked with a tiny purple ember, "I don’t like the colours of your Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. Why don’t we paint it black? Something like Charcoal black."

"Done! Done!" Elder Qian shrieked, squeezing his eyes shut, "I will get it! Just spare my Heavenly Pavilion!"

Elder Qian scrambled to a hidden safe built into the stone wall. His hands shook violently as he unlocked the heavy steel door.

He pulled out a glowing spatial ring, a black jade VIP token, and a heavy, pitch-black metal collar pulsing with dark Qi. He handed them to Gu Fan, keeping his distance.

Gu Fan caught the items. He scanned the spatial ring with his Qi. The fifty thousand Medium-Grade Spirit Crystals were neatly stacked inside, forming glowing mountains of pure energy.

He looked at the Golden card shining in his hands and smiled. this was going to be of great help to him.

He then looked at the black collar, and could feel the the cold, dark energy radiating from it.

A knowing smirk crossed his face. He remembered writing this exact item into existence. In his original story, Gu Chen was supposed to find this much later, getting into a massive, face-slapping bidding war at an underground auction just to buy it.

[System Notification: ’Soul-Binding Slave Collar’ detected. This is a Spirit-tier dark-art artefact is capable of forcefully binding the soul of...]

"Save your breath, System," Gu Fan interrupted mentally, cutting the blue text off. "I already know what it does. I created the damn thing. and it is perfect."

[Ding!]

[10x Plunder Multiplier Applied!]

[Target item is a unique artefact. Applying multiplier to Quality instead of Quantity.] 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

[Spirit Grade ’Soul-Binding Slave Collar’ successfully evolved to Low level King-Grade: ’Absolute Submission Collar’.]

[Effect: Once bound, the target’s loyalty is irreversibly locked to the Host, immune to any soul-breaking or dispelling arts below the Profound Realm.]

Gu Fan’s smirk widened into a full-blown villainous grin. He threw the ring, the VIP token, and his newly upgraded King-Grade collar into his Void Band.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Elder Qian," Gu Fan smiled, leaning back in his chair. "Now that this is done, next order of business..."

But before he could say anything else, the heavy oak doors swung open.

A woman walked into the study.

Gu Fan read the blue prompt in his mind. So the old man was just the face; she was the one who actually ran the guild.

She wore a scandalous, chest-baring red cheongsam. The slits on the sides ran all the way up to her hips, exposing her milky white thighs. Her massive breasts heaved with every step, threatening to spill completely out of the tight silk.

"Elder Qian, I heard some commotion," Su Mei said, her sharp eyes scanning the smoking, melted desk, "Is everything alright?"

Her gaze locked onto Gu Fan, and a deeply amused, seductive glint flashed in her eyes.

Elder Qian immediately bowed his head, quickly stepping aside and offering his lavish chair to her. Su Mei gracefully sat down, crossing her long legs and resting her chin on her hand, looking directly at Gu Fan.

[System Notification: Target Identified.]

[Name: Su Mei]