Chapter 183: Titans Make Their Move
Chapter 183: Chapter 183: Titans Make Their Move
Chapter 183: Titans Make Their Move
A few more days passed.
The impact of the Celestial Elixir Pavilion had thoroughly saturated every corner of Stormveil City.
The artificial scarcity strategy Rhain had implemented at the Celestial Elixir Pavilion proved to be devastatingly effective beyond even his own projections.
With the daily cap firmly locked at thirty pills, the demand-to-supply ratio had spiraled into something bordering on collective madness.
Day and night, the street was crammed with frenzied nobles, arrogant clan heirs, and powerful rogue cultivators, all frantically waving spatial rings stuffed with astronomical sums of Aetherium Crystals.
Prices of the flawless pills were bid up to astronomical heights on the black market the second they were purchased, creating a vicious cycle of skyrocketing demand.
A single flawless Epic-Grade recovery pill — which Vulcan had initially priced at a twenty percent premium above standard market rate — was now being resold on the secondary black market for nearly five times its original cost.
The Celestial Elixir Pavilion had become the single most talked-about establishment in all of Stormveil City.
The shockwave was so massive that it had also entered the Academy.
"I heard a peak Core Formation clan patriarch personally queued up this morning just to secure a single physical tempering pill from Celestial Elixir Pavilion!" One said in disbelief. "They say the purity is always one hundred percent. Not a single trace of impurity!"
"That’s really insane! Even the Preceptors in the Alchemy Division are losing their minds over it! My master purchased one of these pills from the outside market to study it. He spent the entire night trying to reverse-engineer the refinement process, and he couldn’t even comprehend how the elemental balance was maintained!"
"Who exactly is producing those pills?" another muttered bitterly. "They are making our entire Alchemy Division look like a bunch of incompetent novices!"
Meanwhile, back in his secluded courtyard in the Inner Palace, Rhain sat cross-legged, his brow furrowed into a slight frown.
The five hundred pills he had delivered to Vulcan would sustain the shop for roughly a little longer than two more weeks at the restricted pace. But after that, the shelves would go bare again.
Neve had made it abundantly clear that another bulk purchase of that magnitude through the Academy’s internal vault would trigger an audit that would bury them both.
The three Noble Families controlled nearly every major herb plantation and supply chain in the region.
The moment a mysterious buyer started hoovering up rare materials at that volume, every intelligence network in the city would converge on him like wolves.
He needed a permanent, independent, and untraceable supply chain.
Just as he was pondering his next move, a sharp vibration came from his spatial ring.
Buzz!
Rhain pulled out the glowing transmission talisman.
"Master," Vulcan’s voice carried an unusual edge of tension. "We have a situation."
Rhain’s dark grey eyes narrowed. "Speak."
"High-level representatives from all three great Noble Families have arrived at the Pavilion simultaneously," Vulcan reported, his voice low. "They are demanding a direct, face-to-face audience with the Master Alchemist behind the flawless pills. They have been waiting in the VIP room for the past hour, and none of them are willing to leave."
Rhain fell silent for a long moment.
Under normal circumstances, he would have flatly refused.
Revealing himself to anyone, even in his disguise appearance, could introduce many unnecessary variables and potential exposure.
But the herb crisis changed the calculus entirely.
The three great Noble Families of Stormveil City controlled the vast majority of the region’s herb plantations, processing facilities, and distribution networks.
If he could negotiate a direct, exclusive supply agreement with even one of them, his production bottleneck would be permanently resolved.
They had come to his doorstep voluntarily, each one desperate to monopolize the source of flawless pills.
That desperation was his leverage.
"I am coming," Rhain replied. "Keep them waiting. Do not let any of them leave."
"Understood, Master!"
Rhain stood up, and brushed his fingers across his face.
Faceless Emperor Mask rippled, and the handsome eighteen-year-old youth vanished.
In his place stood the dignified, middle-aged figure of Grandmaster Korryn — sharp eyes, composed bearing, and an aura of absolute authority.
The Boundless Sky Wind wrapped around him, and Rhain shot silently into the night sky, heading straight for the commercial heart of Stormveil City.
_______________
The Celestial Elixir Pavilion’s VIP room occupied the second floor of the establishment.
It was spacious, elegantly furnished with polished darkwood tables, and lined with sound-insulating arrays that ensured complete privacy.
But the atmosphere inside was anything but elegant.
Three rival delegations occupied three separate sections of the room, seated as far apart from one another as the space would allow.
The tension between them was as sharp as a blade.
Representing the Emberford Noble Family was a delegation that radiated supreme confidence.
At its head sat a stern, white-haired man in robes of deep crimson — Lord Ashwin, the Emberford Family’s Chief Alchemist and a half-step Domain Master Realm expert.
His mere presence pressed down on the room like an invisible mountain.
Flanking him were three Master Rank Alchemists, each one radiating the composed arrogance of men who considered themselves the pinnacle of the alchemical world in Stormveil City.
But the figure who drew the most attention sat slightly apart from the alchemists.
Lyra Emberford.
At merely nineteen years of age, she exuded the staggering aura of a Level 9 Spirit Manifestation Realm expert.
Her distinctive, cascading crimson hair fell elegantly over her shoulders, framing a face of otherworldly beauty.
She sat with her arms crossed, her chin tilted upward with an innate, haughty confidence.
Across the room, the Valemere Noble Family’s delegation was equally imposing.
Their leader was Lord Caelan, the Chief of the Valemere Family’s Master Alchemists and likewise a half-step Domain Master Realm expert.
His gold-streaked hair was swept neatly back, and his calculating eyes darted between the Emberford delegation and the door with the confidence of a man accustomed to outmaneuvering his rivals at every turn.
Behind him stood four Master Rank Alchemists, their expressions uniformly haughty.
The two great delegations had been exchanging barely veiled barbs since the moment they had been shown into the same room.
"Don’t look so smug, Lord Ashwin," Caelen mocked. "Your Crimson Cauldron Hall’s reputation has been dragged through the mud these past few days. When the Grandmaster arrives, our Valemere family will definitely secure the exclusive contract. We actually have the wealth to back it up."
Ashwin just scoffed coldly. "Wealth is useless if your alchemical foundations are garbage. Only our Emberford family possesses the heritage to properly support a Grandmaster."
One of the Valemere Master Alchemists, a wiry man with small eyes, couldn’t resist adding fuel to the fire. His gaze drifted toward the third delegation — or rather, the single person who constituted it.
"Speaking of contract," the wiry alchemist drawled, "I notice the Thunderwood Family sent only one representative. And a rather young one at that. Did the Thunderwood family simply give up before even trying? Sending a little girl with a Level 1 Spirit Manifestation cultivation to negotiate with a supreme alchemist? Do they truly care so little about this opportunity?"
Several pairs of eyes shifted toward the far corner of the room.
Sitting alone at a small table, with no guards, no alchemists, and no entourage whatsoever, was a young woman.
She appeared to be around twenty years of age, with soft features framed by waves of blue hair that fell past her shoulders.
Elara Thunderwood.
In terms of pure, breathtaking appearance, she was not one bit inferior to Lyra.
She possessed a serene beauty that easily placed her among the most beautiful girls in the Inner Province.
Yet, the aura radiating from her delicate frame was astonishingly weak.
First level of the Spirit Manifestation Realm.
For a twenty-year-old direct heir of a great Noble Family, furnished with limitless resources since birth, to only be at the first level was considered highly mediocre. Most of the city knew she had absolutely no chance of inheriting the Patriarch’s seat, completely overshadowed by her genius brother.
Yet, being in the presence of such highly accomplished people, Elara had an utterly calm face.
Her eyes shifted toward the man who had spoken.
"Our Thunderwood Family’s interests do not revolve around alchemy to the same degree as the esteemed Emberford and Valemere Families," Elara replied, her voice pleasant and composed. "I am simply here to present a modest proposal on behalf of my father. Whether the Grandmaster finds it agreeable is, of course, entirely his prerogative."
The wiry alchemist opened his mouth to press further, but Caelan silenced him with a subtle gesture. Even he knew better than to antagonize the Thunderwood Family too openly.
Thunderwoods might not dominate the alchemy trade, but their military strength and political connections were formidable enough to make any prolonged feud deeply unpleasant.
Despite her seemingly disadvantaged position, no one in the room truly dared to look down on Elara Thunderwood.
Her cultivation might have been low, but her reputation is anything but that.
Since the age of twelve, she had been personally handling her family’s commercial affairs.
Under her sharp, analytical mind, the Thunderwood Family had secured a string of extraordinarily profitable deals that had dramatically expanded their financial reserves and trade influence.
Several transactions she had brokered were still studied in Stormveil City’s merchant circles as textbook masterstrokes.
It was precisely because of her brilliant business acumen that a significant faction of elders still fiercely supported her bid for the family head position over her brother.
Just as they were starting to throw another round of taunts and insults at each other...
Buzz—!
The spatial arrays heavily guarding the VIP room’s entrance suddenly rippled.
The furious shouting ceased in an instant.
Every single pair of eyes in the room snapped toward the door.
The towering figure of Vulcan was holding the door, as a middle aged man stepped through the threshold with his hands clasped casually behind his back, and his eyes radiating the quite authority
Afterward, Vulcan closed the door again.
The sound insulated arrays activated once again, so that no one could hear a single word of the deal that was going to happen next.
Rhain’s eyes calmly swept through the uninvited guests.
"I hear you all wished to see me," he said, his deep disguised voice resonating through the silent room.