Chapter 3355 — Adding Conditions
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Blinded by greed! Tuo'er Riyue was beginning to regret it. The Palan clan had always been a neutral family, never forging feuds with any sect. And now look—they had been dragged into the internal strife of the Five Luminaries Sect!
"Very well. But my son Tuo'er Tu was crippled helping you dispose of Wei Zhao. You owe me an explanation for his injuries, at the very least. That fourth-grade top-grade Great Returning Pill—add one more to it when the time comes. What do you say?" Tuo'er Riyue's whole outburst had, in truth, been aimed at securing some advantage for himself; since he could not win the argument, he simply stated his terms outright. "This is my bottom line!"
"Elder Patriarch, it is not that I, Kang Jingming, am unfeeling. A deal is a deal—these things were agreed upon. You cannot expect me to add a top-grade Great Returning Pill just because one of your people was injured. If another of your people is hurt in a few days, am I to hand over three top-grade Great Returning Pills?" Kang Jingming was naturally in no position to agree outright. Though refining fourth-grade pills was a highly uncertain business, it was not absolutely impossible.
If the Xuanzhen Ancestor should succeed one day, the debts he would owe outside would pile up enormously. And fourth-grade pills—how could they be refined so easily? Besides, Kang Jingming had his own considerations. If he had agreed to Tuo'er Riyue's demand without a moment's hesitation, it would have rung false. Tuo'er Riyue knew perfectly well how precious a fourth-grade pill was; if Kang Jingming had consented without so much as blinking, Tuo'er Riyue would have suspected he was only boasting to fob him off.
"Of course there will be none in the future. These two pills—that is my bottom line," Tuo'er Riyue said. Seeing Kang Jingming's attitude, he actually felt reassured—just as Kang Jingming had calculated: had he agreed at once, Tuo'er Riyue would have been certain the Five Luminaries Sect could never refine a fourth-grade pill and was simply making reckless promises.
"Elder Patriarch, this is a fair transaction, entered into with the consent of both of us. If, from now on, everyone who does business with the Five Luminaries Sect may alter the terms at will, how are we to conduct ourselves in the future?" Kang Jingming, too, had to consider the Five Luminaries Sect's dignity.
"Fine. In that case, I shall simply find someone else to trade with! That Wei Zhao is still locked in the Palan clan's trap dungeon. Since his master is the Xuanyuan Ancestor, perhaps he too is skilled in the art of pill refinement. I shall go and strike a bargain with him—I daresay he will be glad to trade with me!" Tuo'er Riyue had not expected Kang Jingming to be so unbending. He had thought that after saying all this, Kang Jingming would half-yield and agree—who would have known he would prove so firm? With no other recourse, Tuo'er Riyue could only press on doggedly with his mix of threats and inducements.
Yet in his own estimation, the effect was likely to be slight. After all, Tuo'er Tu had said that Wei Zhao himself confirmed his master had been stripped of his position and was no longer the head of the Five Luminaries Sect.
Of course, Tuo'er Riyue did not know that although Kang Jingming was the Xuanchen Ancestor's son-in-law and appeared to wield great authority within the present Five Luminaries Sect, the Xuanzhen Ancestor was a special case. Even the Xuanchen Ancestor would not presume to order him about in the matter of pill refinement—that had to be negotiated. How, then, would Kang Jingming dare to make decisions on his own? (To be continued)