Dong Qu sniffled and continued with reddened eyes, “The spiritual plants that you see on the shelves have all been gnawed by the Plant-Eating Worms. The herbs reached maturity after barely two years, but they’re not half as tall as they should have been, and each one is only as thick as a pinky. They’re pitiful to look at, but they’re already the best spiritual plants we can put out. The people who originally supplied us with spiritual herbs also kept their distance from us and couldn’t be relied on at all.”

　　Qing Zhu understood the situation now. He also went to several other small shops before this. Although they didn’t sell spiritual plants, the situations were also similar. It was nothing more than some stores being tampered with by people while others had traitors, and some even changed the shopkeeper altogether. This gave Qing Zhu a headache.

　　However, besides the restaurant, which had been tampered with by the Jian family, they couldn’t figure out the ident.i.ties of the perpetrators responsible for sabotaging the other stores at all, which was the main reason everyone felt so vexed.

　　Qing Zhu composed himself and asked, “Does Shopkeeper Dong know who exactly did this kind of wicked thing?”

　　Dong Qu shook his head and sighed, “I can’t think of anyone who would do such a wicked thing except the Zhang family, who is our compet.i.tor.”

　　Qing Zhu frowned slightly. When Lin Zhan expanded his business to Purple City back then, he had already taken into account the Zhang family’s situation, for that family was the local tyrant in the region. The Zhang family also had some spiritual herb shops and did fairly well, but they weren’t very attentive to this line of business. Moreover, compared with other cities, the number and proportion of alchemists in Purple City were slightly higher. Lin Zhan really didn’t want to give up this juicy piece of meat. Therefore, when he opened the shop, he paid a personal visit to the local boss, the Zhang family.

　　Moreover, Lin Zhan even reached an agreement with the Zhang family where 20% of the Lin family’s profits went to the Zhang family in exchange for the Zhang family providing convenience to the Serene Herb Manor and protecting it so that it could operate normally.

　　Back then, Lin Zhan gave the Zhang family enough face, and he was also the Young Master of the Lin family. Therefore, the Zhang family was happy to open the door of convenience to Serene Herb Manor on the basis of benefits. The two families were quite happy after several years of cooperation. Although they competed with each other, the rivalry was relatively benign.

　　As a result, Qing Zhu could not help feeling a little surprised and felt that the Zhang family’s family had done a great job and shouldn’t do this kind of thing like throwing stones at someone who’s down.

　　So Qing Zhu asked, “Serene Herb Manor has eleven branch stores in the East Continent. This is one of those branch stores. Do you know the general situation right now?”

　　Dong Qu’s face was even more bitter. “Back then, the spiritual plants I had here encountered problems. For a while, I couldn’t find a way to put out the fire, so I asked for help from the Serene Herb Manor shops elsewhere. Unexpectedly, eight of the eleven shops actually had similar problems. They couldn’t even take care of their own problems and had no time to help me. Later, two more failed intermittently. There are even three stores that have already closed down.”

　　Qing Zhu’s heart sank as he thought to himself, This situation is really bad.

　　Dong Qu was an honest and dutiful person. Although he was the shopkeeper, he wasn’t actually smart enough to manage well but was loyal enough. At this time, Dong Qu actually put the blame of destroying the spiritual plant fields on the Zhang family’s heads. Any discerning person could see that someone deliberately targeted Lin Zhan’s Serene Herb Manor behind his back.

　　If someone didn’t deliberately frame the Zhang family, then it would have been impossible for them to secretly sabotage the Serene Herb Manor stores simultaneously in different cities with just the Zhang family’s power alone.

　　Qing Zhu asked, “Which branch is the Serene Herb Manor that has no problem?”

　　Dong Qu’s face turned frosty as he answered coldly, “It was the shop originally located in Red Cloud City. Now, that Serene Herb Manor has already moved to Profound City!”

　　Qing Zhu was startled. “Is that the shop that s.h.i.+ Yongtai is in charge of?”

　　Dong Qu nodded and replied with a dark expression, “Exactly that shameless old man.”

　　Qing Zhu narrowed his eyes, “How come I didn’t see a Serene Herb Manor when I was in Profound City?”

　　“How can it still be called Serene Herb Manor? s.h.i.+ Yongtai, this ruffian, had already changed the name from ‘Serene Herb Manor’ to ‘Yongtai Manor’.”

　　Qing Zhu actually had some impression of Yongtai Manor. This spiritual plant shop was quite famous in Profound City and was in the top five in the city. He had pa.s.sed by Yongtai Manor before but only glanced at it from the outside and felt that it looked a little familiar. However, he never would have thought that this was actually Lin Zhan’s Serene Herb Manor.

　　“Too shameless!” Qing Zhu cursed.

　　Dong Qu angrily pounded the table with a fist, “Back then, s.h.i.+ Yongtai, this old fellow, first refused our request for help, then made a big announcement saying that Boss was no longer there and that he’d also found a stronger and better backing. He even said something about how a wise man submits to circ.u.mstances and how only fools will stubbornly resist for real. He laughed at me and the other shopkeepers. I was so angry that I started to fight him. Unexpectedly, he had two more powerful people under him who directly injured me instead. I had no choice but to return and recuperate. In the blink of an eye, I recuperated for two years. Many of my subordinates who followed me in the past saw that the Serene Herb Manor couldn’t keep afloat anymore, so they all left one by one. Many of them went to the Zhang family’s spiritual plant shop across the street. Now, the young people Young Master Zhu met are all new recruits I just hired; almost all of them are the children of impoverished families who couldn’t afford food.”

　　The reason why Lin Zhan let s.h.i.+ Yongtai take charge of an entire spiritual plant shop back then was to give this old servant from the Lin family, who had no wife, no children, and no cultivation potential, a place where he could enjoy a life in retirement. Unexpectedly, this s.h.i.+ Yongtai turned out to be an ungrateful b.a.s.t.a.r.d who started to lay his hands on Lin Zhan’s private property as soon as Lin Zhan met with an accident.

　　Qing Zhu narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself, He must find out the ident.i.ty of this so-called “backer” that s.h.i.+ Yongtai mentioned.

　　“I’ll go back to Profound City now and find s.h.i.+ Yongtai, this old fellow, and thoroughly ask him what happened,” Qing Zhu said coldly.

　　Dong Qu hurriedly pulled on Qing Zhu’s sleeve, “You need to be careful and must not act on impulse. I personally fought the two cultivators by s.h.i.+ Yongtai’s side. They truly were powerful. At the very least, I was still a Hardened Body Stage Second Layer cultivator back then. Only one of the two cultivators moved one of his fingers. I didn’t even get to clearly see how he moved or what weapon he used before I was severely wounded, and even my cultivation level fell.”

　　Qing Zhu looked at Dong Qu in surprise, “Could it be that those cultivators are at the Profound Realm?”

　　Otherwise, how could Dong Qu not even know how he was injured?

　　Dong Qu shook his head, “I’m not sure about this, but the person who moved was at least a Primary Realm peak Condensed Pulse Stage cultivator!”

　　After he calmed down, Qing Zhu sneered, “It doesn’t matter. Even if both of them are Profound Realm cultivators, I’m still not afraid. I’d like to see with my own eyes exactly what they’re truly capable of.”