Shameless Immortal: Emperor of Ten Thousand Beauties
Chapter 249: A Foreign Flag From Thousand Waves City [2]
’We need to strike where it hurts,’ Ruolan calculated coldly, her sharp mind rapidly deconstructing the logistical battlefield.
’High purity means absolutely nothing if the production and shipping costs are fundamentally unsustainable. Even with a foreign clan’s massive wealth backing them, transporting heavy raw materials across provinces through the jagged mountain passes under a foreign flag is a logistical nightmare. They are burning a fortune just to keep those carriages moving to Crimson Iron City.’
Stepping out from behind the decorative silk screen, her sudden movement drew the immediate attention of the panicked, bickering council.
The elegant, premium fabric of her robes swished with an aggressive grace as she stepped fully into the light, her voice ringing out with a chilling, absolute clarity that instantly silenced the room.
"Do not lower the prices yet!" Ruolan commanded sharply, her piercing gaze locking directly onto the trembling Head Alchemist.
"If we drop our prices right now, we validate their challenge and show the entire city that we are afraid. Let them sell their pills today. Let them enjoy their brief moment in the sun."
She turned her gaze toward the union head, her posture exuding an unwavering, lethal confidence.
"Elders, issue an immediate decree to our shadow scouts. I want the exact transport routes of the Tang Clan’s convoys mapped out and brought to my desk by nightfall. If we cannot stop the pills inside the city walls, we will choke the mountain passes and intercept their supply lines before a single leaf ever reaches the Cao Clan’s gates!"
The union elders blinked in stunned silence, staring at the young alchemist. Her cold, calculated approach was a stark contrast to their blind panic.
"Intercept a foreign clan’s convoy?" the finance elder stammered, rubbing his sweaty forehead.
"Miss Ruolan, if we deploy our martial enforcers to raid the Tang Clan’s transport carriages in the mountain passes, it could trigger an all-out blood feud between our jurisdictions! If Thousand Waves City retaliates—"
"They won’t retaliate over a shadow war in the mountains," Ruolan interrupted smoothly, her blue eyes flashing with a chillingly mature political sharpness.
"The Tang Clan is operating under a foreign flag outside their home territory. They are sneaking resources into our city to disrupt our monopoly. If their carriages mysteriously vanish in the treacherous, beast-ridden passes, they have no legal ground to stand on. They will have to swallow the loss in silence."
She walked over to the grand mahogany table, leaning over the map of the province. Her small, delicate finger pressed firmly against a narrow, jagged canyon pathway cutting through the peaks.
"Here," she murmured, her chest rising and falling with a thrilled, predatory excitement. "The Viper’s Throat Pass. It’s the only route a massive, convoy carriages can take to reach Crimson Iron City from the eastern outer provinces."
"The terrain is a natural bottleneck. Gather our hidden Golden Core enforcers and three hundred elite late-stage Foundation Establishment guards. Do not wear the union’s uniform, disguise them as local mountain bandits."
The Head Alchemist’s eyes slowly lit up with a sinister, realization.
"An ambush... We wipe out their emergency herb supply before it ever touches the Cao Clan’s cauldrons. Without those fresh raw materials, their ten thousand boxes of pills will be a one-time miracle. By next week, they will run dry again, and the mob’s fury will return tenfold!"
"Exactly," Ruolan purred, a sharp, thoroughly wicked smirk curling her soft lips, an expression she had unconsciously mirrored from watching Senior Brother Mo over the past several days.
"Let the Cao Clan enjoy their little triumph today. Send our forces to the pass immediately. Tonight, we starve them out."
Meanwhile, back in the grand, locked council hall of the Cao Clan, the atmosphere was a bizarre mix of ecstatic relief and underlying dread.
The elders were completely gone, franticly managing the massive, gold-filled queues outside the flagship stores.
Only Patriarch Cao Yan remained in the hall, sitting silently on his throne.
At the far end of the long table, "Mo Liu" sat completely unbothered, lazily tossing a pristine high-grade spiritual stone into the air and catching it with a rhythmic, echoing clack.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
"Senior Mo," Cao Yan spoke up, his voice low, his hands gripping the gold-plated armrests. "The first wave of distribution is a massive success. The Golden Cauldron has closed their doors for the day, unable to match our ninety-six percent purity. But... my shadow scouts just sent a transmission from the commercial district."
Shen Yu didn’t stop tossing the stone. "Oh? Speak."
"The union’s elders were panicking, but a few moments ago, a heavy squad of their hidden martial enforcers quietly slipped out of the Golden Cauldron’s rear gates," Cao Yan whispered, his late-stage Golden Core aura flickering with anxiety.
"They are mobilizing in secret. They didn’t lower their prices, which means they aren’t going to fight us in the open market today. Senior... I fear they have deduced the logistical weakness of a foreign supply line. They are likely moving to ambush your Tang Clan’s next convoy in the mountain passes."
Shen Yu caught the spiritual stone in his palm, freezing his motion. For a second, the hall fell into a deathly quiet.
Then, a dark, deeply amused chuckle vibrated in Shen Yu’s chest, growing into a soft, eccentric laugh that echoed wickedly against the high ceiling. He slowly pulled back his deep hood, revealing his flawless features and his hidden golden pupils, which were currently gleaming with an exquisite, absolute malice.
"An ambush in the mountain passes?" Shen Yu murmured, a thoroughly sharp, predatory smirk curling his lips.
He had intentionally leaked the arrival of a "foreign convoy" under a fake flag precisely to see how the union would react.
He wanted to see if the little alchemist he left behind had the spine to play dirty.
And now, hearing that Ruolan was moving to choke the supply line, his heart danced with an wicked thrill.
She was playing his game beautifully.
"Senior?" Cao Yan looked at him, completely bewildered by the dark-robed expert’s sudden amusement.
"Should we deploy our remaining clan elders to reinforce the convoy? If the Golden Cauldron cuts off the herbs—"
"Reinforce them?" Shen Yu interrupted, his voice dropping to a relaxed, terrifying purr as he stood up, his dark robes fluttering with a sudden, suffocating spiritual pressure.
"Heavens, no. Why interrupt a masterpiece?"
-x-
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