“You’re way too biased toward them. Isn’t that a bit much?” Hua Xinhu frowned, thinking Hua Jian was being way too easygoing.
How could you just agree to everything they say? Even if you’re trying to lure Tianmomen into a trap, you can’t make it so obvious.
“No, no, no, Sister Xinhu, that’s not right. Tianmomen is who? They’re our Wanhuagu brothers and sisters. This Miss Youye is my dearest friend. I, Hua Jian, always treat my friends well!”
Hua Jian laughed heartily, signaling Hua Xinhu with her eyes to stop questioning her.
Right now, she was playing a double act with Hua Xinhu.
She was the live-stream sales host, and Hua Xinhu was the shill who pretended to block the host from offering such a low price.
Of course… Hua Xinhu really hadn’t understood Hua Jian’s plan yet.
She genuinely thought Hua Jian was losing out badly by giving Tianmomen a ten percent dividend for free.
So the two of them argued back and forth about the dividend, eventually confusing even Youye.
Could it be that Hua Jian really was doing this for my benefit? Is this deal really that profitable?
If even she thought so, the other Tianmomen cultivators felt the same.
“Maybe we should just agree. This price is fair.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s agree.”
These words made Youye waver even more.
After some inner struggle, she still couldn’t resist the persuasion from both sides and nodded in agreement to Hua Jian’s proposal.
Seeing Youye nod, Hua Jian looked overjoyed.
She immediately declared that this deal was such a steal for her friend.
If only Hua Xinhu’s body could handle alcohol, she’d definitely toast to it.
“Sister Xinhu, open their storage pouches now. Negotiate the prices with our Tianmomen friends based on what’s inside.”
“Hmph, if you don’t give me an explanation later, I’ll go into the city and knock you dead!”
Hua Xinhu scowled, grabbing the storage pouches Tianmomen had brought and starting to break the seals one by one.
Watching Hua Xinhu’s expression, Youye’s suspicion about this whole affair lessened a bit. That unhappy look didn’t seem fake.
Has Hua Jian really changed this time?
Am I truly profiting?
But why? Hua Jian wasn’t like this before.
While Hua Xinhu was busy opening the storage pouches, Youye quietly crooked her finger at Hua Jian.
When Hua Jian looked at her, she pointed outside, signaling for a private chat.
Hua Jian naturally wouldn’t refuse. After all, she was currently using Hua Xinhu’s body.
Even if Youye had ill intentions, she couldn’t hurt her.
Leaving the room, which had grown tense due to Hua Xinhu’s bad mood, Youye looked at Hua Jian with suspicion and voiced the doubt in her heart.
She still couldn’t figure out why Hua Jian was doing this.
“I know that in your eyes, our Wanhuagu doesn’t have a very positive image. We’re seen as selfish misers who only care about personal gain.”
Hua Jian clasped her hands in her sleeves, a mysterious smile on her face as she explained.
“But as the Wanhua Saintess, I deeply understand that compared to those petty profits, the great cause of the Magic Path is far more important!”
“You think I’d believe that nonsense?” Youye rolled her eyes.
“Haha, if you want the truth, it’s that I want to be friends with you. The ten percent value of those storage pouches is nothing compared to your goodwill.”
Hua Jian pointed at Youye, indicating she wasn’t that kind-hearted.
Using small favors to buy off a rising cultivator from Tianmomen was a very Wanhuagu thing to do, wasn’t it?
“Don’t rush to refuse me. More friends mean more paths, right?” Hua Jian winked at Youye, then smiled and walked back inside.
Youye stood there thinking for a while. She felt Hua Jian hadn’t lied to her this time.
Trying to buy her off with this method—hmph, just like Wanhuagu, birds of a feather.
Now that she understood Hua Jian’s true motive, Youye’s doubts vanished completely. She no longer suspected the proposal.
If it’s a bargain, why not take it?
Worst case, she could just deny everything later. Hua Jian would have no way to deal with her.
With that thought, Youye turned and walked back into the room, quietly waiting for Hua Xinhu to finish breaking the seals on the storage pouches.
These pouches were all used by Ling Kings, and the Divine Sense Seals on them were at most at the Ling Emperor level. For Hua Xinhu, none of them posed any challenge.
It didn’t take long for Hua Xinhu to finish. Then the other Wanhuagu cultivators started haggling with the Tianmomen cultivators over how many Spirit Stones the contents were worth.
That took even longer than breaking the seals. They argued until night fell and stars appeared before finally reaching a rough agreement.
Halfway through the argument, Hua Jian got bored and logged off.
Only when she heard the arguing was over did she log back on, cheerfully seeing the Tianmomen group out of the camp.
After sending off those suckers, Hua Jian felt Hua Xinhu’s piercing gaze on her.
“Spill it. Why did you make them say that?” Hua Xinhu pressed a hand on Hua Jian’s shoulder.
Even though she knew Hua Jian could abandon the body anytime, she still had to apply pressure.
“Do you really think this method of mine benefits them?” Hua Jian snorted, her voice dripping with disdain for Hua Xinhu.
“So you didn’t get my meaning either.”
Looks like your Wanhuagu people aren’t that sharp either. Such an obvious flaw and you missed it.
Hua Xinhu paused, then followed Hua Jian’s logic.
“Didn’t you tell Tianmomen they’d get a sixty percent dividend?”
“That’s what I said, sure. But that’s without Hua Jian’s help. That ten percent is pure profit for them. That’s a sizable amount.”
“You call yourself dumb and still don’t believe it. Think about it: with your method, we’d only get sixty percent of the goods. Now, how much do we have in hand?”
“A hundred percent… No, wait, doesn’t that hundred percent include fifty percent that belongs to Tianmomen?”
“Ha, the Spirit Stones are already in our hands. Do you think they can take them back?” Hua Jian’s lips curled into a ghostly smile in the night.
“Later, I’ll privately sell them maps of the Secret Realm, tokens to freely enter the Array of Bewilderment—trust me, I’ll get all their Spirit Stones back into our hands.”
The Spirit Stones on the books were just numbers. Turning those numbers back into actual goods was a different story.
Hua Jian only promised that Tianmomen could use their book balance to buy services from the camp. She never said they could withdraw the Spirit Stones.
“Even so, aren’t we still losing that ten percent for nothing…”
“Come here, put your head closer.” Hua Jian beckoned to Hua Xinhu.
Puzzled but obedient, Hua Xinhu leaned in.
Then Hua Jian delivered a sharp chop to her fox head.
“Are you stupid? The Spirit Stones are already in our hands. We set the prices however we want! Does she have any room to bargain?”
Thinking that Hua Xinhu had once been a Saintess candidate, Hua Jian felt Wanhuagu was doomed.
Even she could figure out such a simple logic, but Hua Xinhu couldn’t. How tragic.
“Can you stop obsessing over petty immediate gains? Broaden your horizons. We need to trick people subtly, make them think we’re the good guys even after we’ve swindled them!”
“You villains are so low-level. Murder and arson are outdated now. A villain needs to keep up with the times, understand?”
“If we gave her forty percent of the Spirit Stones, we’d have to scheme to get them back. Now all those Spirit Stones are ours. Don’t you see anything wrong with that?”
Hua Xinhu, struck by Hua Jian’s chop, stood frozen. She pondered for a long time and realized Hua Jian’s reasoning seemed correct.
On the surface, they appeared to have lost ten percent of the Spirit Stones for nothing, but when you counted everything, they absolutely weren’t at a loss.
Since the Spirit Stones were with them, and Tianmomen had to buy things, wiping out Tianmomen’s book balance was trivially easy.
“People need to think long-term, got it?”
“Tch!”
Hua Jian rolled her eyes, not caring whether Hua Xinhu truly understood, and immediately logged off.
Regaining control of her body, Hua Xinrui timidly looked at Hua Xinhu, not daring to continue Hua Jian’s topic.
She had watched the whole scene of Hua Jian chopping Hua Xinhu’s head.
All she could say was that Hua Jian was ruthless. If it were her, she’d never dare to hit Hua Xinhu like that.
It would be her who suffered.
“Under Sister Hua Jian’s teaching, I think I’ve learned something reasonable. Hua Xinhu didn’t even have time to get angry before Hua Jian’s words put her in a state of offering flowers.”
“That little brat, full of tricky ideas.” Hua Xinhu wasn’t so petty as to hold a grudge against Hua Xinrui.
Besides, Hua Jian’s chop wasn’t entirely unjustified. She did deserve it.
“Sigh, when did I become so shortsighted? I couldn’t even see something so simple. How shameful.”
It wasn’t wrong for the Gu Zhu to make Hua Jian the Wanhua Saintess. With that level of malicious cunning, Hua Xinhu had to concede defeat.
If it were her, she’d probably never think of such a swindling method in a lifetime.
…
“Whew, finally done…”
Stretching, Hua Jian let out a sultry moan that made Qian Feixue, who was copying sect rules nearby, blush and cover her ears.
But Qian Feixue was so shocked that even her soul trembled, making people’s spirits quiver.
“Are you using charm even with your soul?” Hua Jian examined her own soul—wait, no, she examined Hua Jian’s body.
Had Hua Jian secretly been practicing Wanhuagu’s Secret Technique behind her back?
Looking at the snake-like curves Hua Jian made when she stretched, maybe the guess wasn’t unfounded.
“What are you staring at? I’ve been busy all day. Can’t I rest?” Hua Jian glared back at the staring Qian Feixue.
“I think you’ve been sitting in that spot all day,” Qian Feixue muttered.
Since she got up, Qian Feixue had been here copying sect rules, and Hua Jian had been sitting on the cushion nearby.
Not moving the whole day!
That was clearly slacking off!
“I was multitasking on things elsewhere. Kids shouldn’t talk nonsense.” Hua Jian walked over to Qian Feixue, pressed her thumbs against Qian Feixue’s temples, and twisted hard.
Qian Feixue struggled in pain, but against Hua Jian, she had no chance of resisting.
Finally, with tears in her eyes, she looked at Hua Jian, begging for mercy.
“Stop bullying Feixue,” Linglong interjected helplessly.
“I’m just bonding with my cute little sister Feixue. How is that bullying?” Hua Jian giggled, moving her hands down to Qian Feixue’s armpits and lifting the little girl up.
“Alright, stop copying that stuff. Go rest.”
“I haven’t finished copying yet…”
“I told you to rest, so rest. Do you want to drink the medicinal soup your sister prepared for you?”
At the mention of Qian Feixue’s medicinal soup, Qian Feixue shivered.
“Then you finish copying. I’ll go rest.”
“By the way, can you teach me how to make dolls?”
“Huh?” Qian Feixue was stunned, wondering why Hua Jian suddenly brought that up.
Even though the cloth doll Hua Jian made for her was ugly, she never thought a Wanhua Saintess would be interested in learning such useless little skills.
After Linglong’s talk the previous day, Qian Feixue now knew Hua Jian’s identity, but her preconceived biases were hard to erase.
So she still thought Hua Jian shouldn’t be interested in this kind of thing.
You’re the Wanhua Saintess. Shouldn’t you be doing more villainous things? Learning to make cloth dolls from me? What’s that about?
“I think handmade little dolls make great gifts, you know?” Hua Jian explained with a grin.
As she spoke, she pointed at Linglong, who had approached. “Perfect. When it comes to making dolls of her, you’re super experienced.”
Hua Jian’s meaning was crystal clear. She wanted Qian Feixue to teach her how to make a doll of Linglong, then give it to Linglong as a present.
The idea made Qian Feixue’s eyes light up, but then she felt deflated knowing she’d only be an observer.
Watching someone else use her craft to make a doll they wanted to give—what made it even more awkward was the subtlety of it all.
After learning about Hua Jian’s idea, Linglong also came over and said she wanted to learn how to make dolls from Qian Feixue too.
She also wanted to make a doll for Hua Jian and give it to her.
That way, she and Hua Jian would be exchanging gifts.
Hearing Linglong’s words, Qian Feixue felt even worse inside.
“I get it. I’m just a link in the game between you two, aren’t I? Wuwuwu, that’s really heartbreaking.”
Qian Feixue forcefully blew her nose. Heartbreaking as it was, now that her idol had spoken, how could she refuse? She couldn’t.
Even if she could only be a lightbulb to assist, she felt her death was worth it!
“Hehe, great! With Sister Feixue teaching us how to make dolls, I believe we can definitely make one that you’ll be satisfied with.” Hua Jian smiled and comforted the little Feixue. “Don’t be so upset. We’ll also make a doll for you with our own hands later.”
“It won’t be free labor. Two saintesses personally making saintess merchandise—don’t you want that?”
Qian Feixue thought about it and tried to sternly reject Hua Jian, telling her sternly that she, Qian Feixue, wasn’t the kind of person to be easily bought.