Although the Famous Medicine Sect's methods were unscrupulous and, if exposed, would be utterly disreputable, given its century-old foundation and connections across the island, its effectiveness was beyond doubt. Over time, it was enough to deal a fatal blow to the reputation the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion had worked so hard to build. And the most frustrating part was that even if Tianchan and the others knew, they were helpless—because the slander was all carried out in secret. They simply had no evidence, and naturally had no way to bring a complaint.

"Actually, if you think about it carefully, it's rather laughable that the prestigious Famous Medicine Sect has been *reduced to such a state. After all, with Island Lord Aotian's protection, they don't dare move against our Heavenly Elixir Pavilion openly, so all they can do is resort to such despicable, disreputable tricks. A pack of petty villains." Wei Shenjin said with contempt.

"Wei Zhao said that the best way to deal with this kind of rumor-mongering is a head-on confrontation—crush the Famous Medicine Sect completely, and the rumors will collapse on their own. It's just a pity my alchemy isn't strong enough. If only Wei Zhao were here. It's been a full four months since he went to the mundane world, and I still don't know how he's doing. Sigh..." Tianchan looked worriedly at Wei Zhao's body lying on the bed. Though after so long it appeared utterly unchanged, it was still deeply worrying.

"Well... last time when I accompanied Boss Wei Zhao to the Primordial Spirit Projection, I heard that Steward Sun of the Teleportation Hall and Nantian Jiguang say that staying in the mundane world for two months at a time was already quite good. Now four months have passed—there wouldn't be some mishap, would there?" Wei Shenjin couldn't help muttering.

The two women had already been somewhat worried, and hearing this made them even more anxious. Xueli couldn't help saying, "Why don't we go find someone to ask about it? Otherwise I just can't feel at ease."

"That's fine, but who would we ask about something like this? We can't very well go to Nantian Jiguang, can we?" Tianchan said with a frown.

"Last time during the Primordial Spirit Projection, Island Lord Aotian said that Boss Wei Zhao's business was his business, and that if we needed help we could go to him. How about I accompany Sister Tianchan to the Island Lord's Pavilion?" Wei Shenjin suggested. Although Aotian Zhou had indeed said this, his own status was too low—if it were just him, forget requesting an audience with Aotian Zhou, he probably couldn't even get through the doors of the Island Lord's Pavilion. But Tianchan was different: she was not only Wei Zhao's beloved, but also Tianxingdao's sister, and she still carried some weight at the Island Lord's Pavilion.

"All right, then it's decided. No matter what, at least we can set our minds at ease." Tianchan decided on the spot.

Meanwhile, over at the Famous Medicine Sect, Tong Yangxi was also reporting the situation to Zheng Dongyang.

"Oh? Business has been growing every day lately—looks like things are going quite well." Zheng Dongyang said with satisfaction as he looked over the account books.

"That's only to be expected. After all, we've put in so much effort, openly and covertly, and with a seventh-grade alchemist like you personally overseeing the pill refinement, if even that couldn't win back the business, then we'd really be cursed." Tong Yangxi chuckled.

"By the way, how are things over at the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion? Cold and deserted, with scarcely a customer, I take it?" Zheng Dongyang said with a playful look.

"Uh... the rumors we've been secretly spreading have already taken effect. The Heavenly Elixir Pavilion really has been declining day by day lately, but overall the blow to them hasn't been that great—you could only call it barely satisfactory." Tong Yangxi spread his hands.

"How can that be?" Zheng Dongyang's face darkened. Wei Zhao and the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion had long been thorns in his side. Now that Wei Zhao's primordial spirit had projected to the mundane world, it was the perfect opportunity to crush the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion beyond recovery. To that end, he had even stooped to using his influence as a seventh-grade alchemist to personally take part in spreading rumors—and even that had only produced a barely satisfactory result?

"I hate to say it, but I have to admit the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion is truly no simple matter. To be fair, their pills are genuinely high quality and low priced, and over the past few years they've built up a rather impressive reputation on the hype of their top-grade pills. With just a few rumors from us, it's simply impossible to do them real damage." Tong Yangxi shook his head helplessly.

"So all our efforts were wasted?" Zheng Dongyang frowned.

"Not exactly. What we can do is take advantage of Wei Zhao's absence to completely seize the high-grade pill market—that alone is a very gratifying thing for our Famous Medicine Sect. But to truly strike at the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion through this is unrealistic. After all, they haven't sold high-grade pills for years anyway; at most we've just maintained the status quo." Tong Yangxi spread his hands with a bitter smile.

"Mm, I suppose so. If the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion could be brought down by such a few disreputable little tricks, they wouldn't have dealt us such a heavy blow before. We were being a bit too naive." This time Zheng Dongyang wasn't angry—instead, he was unexpectedly calm and composed.

"So what do we do? Wei Zhao's primordial spirit projection should be about over. If we wait for him to return, dealing with the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion will be even harder..." Tong Yangxi couldn't help feeling anxious.

"You needn't worry about that. Since we can't take down the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion through commercial means, then we may as well take a different path." Zheng Dongyang smiled with a meaningful look.

"A different path?" Tong Yangxi was baffled.

"Indeed. Have you ever considered that the key to dealing with the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion doesn't lie with our Famous Medicine Sect, nor with their Heavenly Elixir Pavilion, but somewhere else—or rather, with someone else: Aotian Zhou." Zheng Dongyang said with an air of profundity.

"Acting Island Lord Aotian Zhou?" Tong Yangxi was startled, but quickly caught on. Indeed, as Zheng Dongyang said, Aotian Zhou was the source of this awkward situation. If not for this big shot shielding them from above, the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion would have been destroyed by them long ago—there was no way they could have survived until now.

"You understand now? If we want to deal with the Heavenly Elixir Pavilion and don't find a way to deal with Aotian Zhou, we'll just be scratching an itch through a boot—doomed to fail." Zheng Dongyang explained.

"That's all very well, but deal with Aotian Zhou?" Tong Yangxi wore a strange expression. Never mind that Aotian Zhou himself was an unfathomable big shot—the Aotian family behind him was one of the few top-tier clans on Yunjie Island! (To be continued.)