Demon Lord and His Unknown Child With the Empress

A few days later, snow fell in Nanli City.

After stopping for a few days, it started snowing again.

It was peaceful in Nanli City, and the streets became lively.

It was almost time for the holidays and the Lunar New Year.

On the streets, everyone was busy buying Lunar New Year goods, and paper cuttings could be seen pasted on the windows of the houses lining the streets.

Bright red lanterns were hung, decorating the streets.

People selling Lunar New Year goods could be seen everywhere.

Even the cultivators residing in Nanli City could not help feeling infected by the festive atmosphere in the Mortal Realm.

Nanli City was full of a happy atmosphere.

The one exception was the Jiang residence. Its atmosphere was low and depressing.

A few days ago, the Qi family started buying large amounts of herbs at particularly high prices.

Among these herbs, many of them seemed worthless and were of little medical value.

Almost all the cultivators and herb suppliers sold their herbs to the Qi family at high prices.

Jiang Zhen had strong business acumen and could tell there was the Qi family’s purchase of herbs.

He found many alchemists to study the herbs the Qi family had purchased. Unfortunately, he could not figure out what kind of pill they were for.

This came as no surprise.

The Immortality Pill prescription from Ning Yechen was self-made, and no records of it existed in medical literature.

Qi Rongchang was very intelligent as well.

He knew that the Jiang family would definitely catch wind of this, so when he sent the orders to purchase the herbs, he included herbs that were not in the prescription.

Even if the Jiang family studied for a lifetime, they would never find the answer.

Meanwhile, at the Jiang residence, Jiang Zhen sat in the main hall, frowning and rubbing his temples, looking exhausted.

With the Treasures Merchant Alliance as the witness, he did not dare to hold onto control of the commercial streets in Nanli City.

After the Qi family gained control of the streets, they started suppressing the Jiang family’s business!

Many of his former merchants had now turned to the Qi family!

He was up to his elbows trying to fight back against the Qi family!

In the family, other than a few supervisors and his younger brother, Jiang Ming, everyone else was useless!

This was especially so for his son, Jiang Li, who only used to care about women and did not have the slightest business talent.

After losing his manhood, he kept losing his temper and smashing things, showing no signs of doing anything productive!

If Jiang Li were not Jiang Zhen’s only son, he would have been driven out of the family!

The Jiang family was still unable to find the mysterious character who had attacked Jiang Li and Jiang Gan.

No one in the family knew when they had offended such a powerful figure or when this person might strike again.

After Chen Rou’s death, Jiang Zhen and the rest of the family had been living in fear.

They were terrified that they would be next.

The mental torture left the Jiang family exhausted physically and mentally.

It was one thing after another, making Jiang Zhen feel troubled and his head ache.

“Big Brother.” Jiang Ming walked into the main hall and greeted Jiang Zhen.

During this time, he had been responsible for recruiting alchemists to research the Meridian Recovery Medicine sold by the Qi family and the recently purchased herbs.

At the same time, he was busy sending people to track down Jiang Gan’s murderer.

Seeing Jiang Ming, Jiang Zhen looked expectant and hurriedly asked, “How did it go? What have you learned about the Qi family's prescription?”

Jiang Ming shook his head and said with regret, “Nothing. The herbs the Qi family purchased are too wide in scope and strange. I found dozens of alchemists to study it, but it was no use.”

Jiang Zhen leaned back in his chair in disappointment and rubbed his brow. “In that case, why are you here?”

“The Qi family sent people again. They want to buy herbs from us at ten times the price.” Jiang Ming stepped forward, took out the list from his chest, and handed it to Jiang Zhen.

Jiang Zhen did not bother looking at the list. He just grabbed it and tore it to shreds. He shouted furiously, “Tell them to get lost! Otherwise, cut off their heads and send them back! Even if the herbs rot in the warehouse, over my dead body will we sell it to them!”

Jiang Ming stood by the side and pondered briefly before persuading, “Why don’t we raise the price and sell the herbs to them?”

“You want to sell the herbs to the Qi family?” Jiang Zhen glared at Jiang Ming.

Jiang Ming nodded solemnly. “You know about our debts.”

The Jiang family’s business relied mainly on selling Fire Lotus Medicine.

Now that the Qi family had taken over Nanli City, the Jiang family could no longer suppress the prices of the ingredients for the Fire Lotus Medicine.

The cost of production for the Fire Lotus Medicine had greatly increased while their sales channels had dwindled.

Recently, they made huge orders for Fire Lotus Medicine ingredients from other places using credit, and part of the debt was due monthly.

They also had to pay tribute to the Sacred Lotus Sect monthly, costing them a large amount of spirit stones.

Despite looking well off, the Jiang family had to make high cash outflows, so they hardly had any cash on hand.

Now that the Qi family was hurting their business, they did not have enough cash to make their payments due next month.

If they were unable to pay their debts on time, it would deeply affect their reputation.

Once their reputation took a hit, it would be difficult to cooperate with other businesses in the future!

Jiang Zhen was trying to solve this problem but to no avail.

They had thought the Jiang family was bound to win the competition, so they had made a huge order for the Fire Lotus Medicine ingredients on credit.

As long as they had won the competition and taken over Nanli City’s commercial activities, it would have been easy for them to pay off the debts.

Unexpectedly, they lost, putting the Jiang family into such dire straits.

“Sigh. Tell me about your plan. Since you want us to sell the herbs to them, I’m sure there’s more to this.” Jiang Zhen looked at Jiang Ming.

His younger brother was rather shrewd.

The Jiang family was able to have such success thanks to the two of them.

Sadly, neither of their sons lived up to expectations.

Jiang Min smiled and suggested, “Big Brother, I have an idea! The Qi family is probably buying those herbs to make the Meridian Recovery Medicine. This medicine isn’t for body tempering, so it won't affect our business. Why don’t we take this opportunity to sell the herbs they need at high prices and produce more Fire Lotus Medicine?

“When the time comes, we can sell them at high prices to meet our funding glow! This way, the city will still belong to us!”