Gu Fan sat comfortably on the very sofa inside the luxurious VIP chamber of the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion where he and Su Mei made love like crazy all night.

And his dear sister Su Mei leaned over the low wooden table to pour him a cup of premium spirit wine, with the deep slit of her red cheongsam riding high up her thick pale thighs to give him a perfect view while she served him.

And as he admired her, Gu Fan didn’t bother be sneaky with his gaze.

"Master, please stop looking at me so intently... it is making me hot," Su Mei whispered softly, as her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink under his unapologetic, intense stare.

"Are you feeling shy, Sister Mei?" Gu Fan just chuckled and reached out to softly caress her smooth thigh, gently running his fingers up her curves.

"I am!" Su Mei nodded gently avoiding eye contact with him.

"Who would believe it if they saw you that you are the 8th Stage Origin Cultivator, the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, and and elder of the Yin-Demon Sect?" Gu Fan teased her as he held her by the waist and made her sit on his lap.

"But you can’t get away by being shy."

"You still owe me a few Spirit Stones from our last transaction, Sister Mei," Gu Fan reminded her as he kept his hand gently resting on her leg while he looked at the thick ledgers spread across the table.

"But since you are my dear Sister Mei, I won’t burden you too much. And honestly, moving all those spirit stones back to the Clan sounds like a tedious, annoying chore."

"I want you to keep it with you and help me start a bloodless economic war in the streets of Poison Valley Town."

Su Mei’s eyes widened slightly in surprise since she had expected him to demand his payout tonight, but after hearing him, she leaned her soft body against his arm as his warmth and scent felt incredibly comforting to her.

"An economic war?" Su Mei asked softly as she rested her hand on his thigh, drawing circles on his thighs, "The Gu Clan and the Bai Clan are already at each other’s throats over the Spirit Mines."

"And the recent murders... They are bleeding resources just trying to maintain their defensive perimeters, but what exactly do you want me to do with your funds, Master?"

"I want you to bleed them entirely dry from the outside in," Gu Fan smirked maliciously.

"I want you to use my funds, as well as the surplus funds of the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion, to violently buy out every single strand of herb, every single beast core, talisman paper, and raw alchemical ingredient currently circulating in Poison Valley Town’s market."

"I don’t care if you have to pay higher rate to do it."

"We will hoard it all, let their customers and disciples riot from the lack of resources."

"Let their internal structures shake before we even consider selling a single herb back at a higher price."

Su Mei’s breath hitched as she realized the scale of her master’s plan because artificially inflating the market prices and hoarding all the raw materials would instantly starve both the Gu Clan and the Bai Clan of the basic resources they desperately needed to function.

He was asking her to break the unspoken balance between the clans in the town. This will take the two clans by surprise, not giving them the chance to prepare for it.

"If the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion buys up the entire town’s supply, both clans will panic since their poison refinement labs and alchemy halls will completely shut down within days," Su Mei agreed as her mind raced with the logistical details.

"However, bleeding the market dry like that is going to be incredibly expensive," A slight frown quickly appeared on her forehead, "And then there is also the Song Clan. It has been steadily growing its wealth by monopolizing the trade of weapons and defensive arrays."

"With the other two clans busy in their own problems, the Song Clan will become the undisputed first clan of the Poison valley Town."

Gu Fan narrowed his eyes slightly because he remembered the Song Clan from his original novel as a wealthy, strictly neutral merchant family that usually stayed out of the bloodbaths, but money was power in this world and he couldn’t let them interfere.

"The Bai Clan Patriarch is already actively trying to get close to the Song Clan leadership to secure emergency supply routes, weapons, and defensive arrays since they lost the Spirit Mines," Su Mei explained quickly as she noticed his shifting expression, rubbing his thigh to keep him relaxed.

"The Song Clan has been expanding their trading hubs massively with their weapon and array deals, so if we try to outbid them and buy out all the local medical merchants, the funds you left with me might actually fall a bit short."

"Is that all?" Gu Fan chuckled and without saying anything he flicked his wrist casually and dumped a massive, glowing pile of twenty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones and five thousand Medium-Grade Spirit Stones.

The stones fell over the ledgers with a heavy, clinking sound, completely burying the paperwork in a mountain of pure, concentrated stones that illuminated the dim room.

Before Su Mei could even fully process the absurd pile of wealth, Gu Fan pulled out a high-quality spatial pouch, swiftly sweeping all the glowing stones inside it before casually dropping the heavy pouch directly into her soft hands.

"Take this extra capital and crush the market entirely," Gu Fan told Su Mei stared at the pouch in her hands with her mouth slightly open in shock.

She could not comprehend how a single man held so much wealth.

"Try not to fight with Song Clan, but outbid them if you have to. Our focus is to choke the Bai Clan and the Gu Clan until their shops are completely empty."

"I want to watch them panic and squirm while I hold all the strings."

"Consider it done, Master," Su Mei whispered breathlessly as she looked up at his handsome face.

She crawled into his lap as she passionately kissed his neck and nipped at his earlobe, "Since the business is done, let us focus on much more pressing issue, master!"

~~~~~

By the time Gu Fan returned to the Gu Clan estate, it was completely dark, as he strolled confidently through the lit corridors.

He was no longer the despised seventh young master and the passing maids and servants immediately bowed down to him in respect before he casually pushed open the doors to Madam Li’s private quarters.

He dropped his robe onto a chair and walked straight toward the massive canopy bed where the Matriarch was resting in a sheer black silk nightgown.

Before she could even say a word, Gu Fan climbed onto the mattress and lovingly cupped her cheeks, tilting her head up as he leaned down to capture her lips in a deep, passionate kiss.

"Mmph... Mother," Gu Fan called her out lovingly as his tongue eagerly invaded hers, causing Madam Li to immediately fly her hands up to grip his broad shoulders while she eagerly kissed him back because she had been desperately craving his touch all day.

"Husband... you are finally here?" Madam Li whispered breathlessly as she briefly broke the kiss to look up into his dark eyes.

"I am right here, Mother," Gu Fan softly replied as he gently traced her jawline with his thumb.

"I waited for you all evening," she panted as she leaned her face affectionately into his palm.

"Then I definitely won’t let you wait a single second longer, Mother!"