Utterly Baffling...

Li Guanqi slipped into the city without drawing anyone's attention. The hidden formations protecting Feiyun City were practically non-existent to his eyes. Once inside, he chose not to head straight for the auction house. Altering his appearance into that of an unremarkable middle-aged man, he strolled along the broad streets. He wanted to take his time observing the subtle details of Feiyun City. Although Qianqiusui was clearly causing problems now, Feiyun City was undeniably bustling. Even spanning a full hundred li around, every street was laid out like a spiderweb extending across the city. The shops at every major thoroughfare were packed with lively crowds. Moreover, the wares displayed along each street were a dazzling sight—one could even find specialty goods from regions such as the Luoxia Domain! In the past, such an abundance would have been unimaginable. Apothecary shops specializing in natural spiritual herbs were especially popular with swarms of alchemists. Li Guanqi frowned slightly. After just a casual glance, he didn't spot anything overtly amiss. Yet after watching for a while longer, he noticed a lingering bitterness on the merchants' faces. His eyes flickered, and he walked up to a wine shop. The proprietor was well along in years. Seeing Li Guanqi approach, he immediately greeted him with a warm smile. "Esteemed guest, what can I get for you? "My shop may be a bit out of the way, but we're an established brand in the city. All our wine is brewed from top-tier ingredients." Li Guanqi's nose twitched slightly. The aroma was indeed not bad. Of course, that was only by the standards of ordinary mortals and low-level cultivators. Li Guanqi casually picked one of the slightly more expensive jugs, which happened to be the cheapest of the spirit wines. "I'll take this one. Pour me a twenty-jin jar. It smells decent." The shopkeeper beamed even brighter and set about scooping and pouring the wine himself. "You have sharp eyes, esteemed guest! This is the best-selling wine in our shop, mostly because of its great value." With business in hand, the shopkeeper looked upon Li Guanqi with much softer eyes. Leaning against the counter and watching the caravans passing back and forth around them, Li Guanqi asked softly, "Say, shopkeeper, the city seems so lively, so why don't any of the shop owners look happy?" As the old man filled the jar, he cast a glance outside and let out a quiet sigh. "You must have just arrived from out of town, young man?" Li Guanqi nodded. "It's nearly month's end, you see. Time to pay the tribute tax." Li Guanqi frowned deeply. It was the first time he had heard such a term. "Tribute tax?" Cradling the jar to seal it, the old man sighed. "What else? It goes to Yunding... "Work your fingers to the bone all year round, and ninety percent of the profits go to the tribute tax. "Do we make money? Sure we do. "But the lion's share of everything we earn gets handed over. In the end, we're just scraping by—neither starving nor turning a profit. "And if you want to transfer your shop lease in the city... no one dares take it over." Li Guanqi understood everything up to that point, but the last sentence puzzled him. "What do you mean, no one dares take it over?" After sealing the wine, the old man leaned close to Li Guanqi and whispered, "The title deeds to the shops in the city—you can only lease them if you have Yunding's official seal. Subleasing? Don't even dream of it. If you quit, there's plenty of folks lined up to take your place." The old man quickly composed himself, feeling he had spoken too much to an outsider. "Haha, pay no mind to this old man's rambling. Here you go, esteemed guest." Li Guanqi smiled, stowed the wine away with a wave of his hand, and handed him two low-grade spirit stones. The old man accepted the stones with a beaming smile, his grin widening even further. It was as though a heavy stone weighing on his heart had suddenly rolled away. At this, although Li Guanqi felt anger simmering in his chest, he managed to keep it under control. At least in managing Feiyun City, Qianqiusui was not squeezing these merchants to death. It felt more like... she was making these merchants work for her? With a flicker of movement, he vanished from the street and found a noisy tavern set somewhat away from the city center. The tavern waiter took one look at Li Guanqi and could tell he possessed an extraordinary bearing. Even though his appearance and clothing were utterly ordinary, these waiters were exceptionally sharp. Feiyun City crouched with hidden tigers and dragons; they never dared look down on anyone, even a beggar on the street! Warmly greeting Li Guanqi, the waiter led him to a relatively quiet seat by the window. Li Guanqi smiled and casually slipped him a small nugget of gold. Seeing this, the waiter grew even more reverent, hurrying off to instruct the kitchen to bring out dishes. Li Guanqi sipped the wine he had just brought along, tuning his ears to conversations in all directions. The reason he had avoided the grand restaurants in the city center was that people there put on airs, pretending to be refined. In contrast, a tavern like this, away from the city center, was filled with people from every walk of life. Gradually, the clamor in Li Guanqi's ears was filtered down to just a few distinct voices. "Ah, don't even get me started! First thing this morning, I hauled a cart of spirit herbs all the way from the Southern Domain. The round trip via teleportation arrays took seven whole days. "When I entered the city, they charged me an entrance tax of fifteen percent based directly on the assessed value of my goods! I practically made the entire trip for nothing." A man dressed like a wealthy merchant sighed repeatedly, throwing back a mouthful of strong liquor. Another burly man at the same table sighed and chimed in, "Same here. A wasted trip. "If Feiyun City didn't have such deep ties with the Sword Venerable, and if we didn't need to maintain our standing with Guanyun Pavilion, I wouldn't even bother coming here." Another man agreed, "Yeah. While Guanyun Pavilion hasn't raised the price of its intelligence, getting your hands on a Guanyun Jade Pendant is harder now than getting a Tianji jade pendant from Tianji Pavilion back in the day." Li Guanqi listened for a long while; nearly all the complaints revolved around such matters—exorbitant taxes and fees. Li Guanqi's brows knitted. 'Why is Qianqiusui hoarding wealth? To cultivate personal confidants? 'That makes no sense... She should know full well that she cannot possibly oppose me!' Just then, an unremarkable, scrawny man was bragging to the woman beside him. "Heh, Xiaofang, you have no idea. That Head Qian is keeping a man, completely infatuated with him day in and day out." The plump woman picked up a bite of food with her chopsticks, looking entirely unconvinced. "That woman is an ethereal beauty. What kind of man could possibly hold sway over her? "Are you trying to hoodwink me?" The man, his mouth full of yellow teeth and his face emaciated and sickly, cast a leering glance around. Seeing that no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice. "I saw it with my own two eyes! Qianqiusui hangs on that pretty boy's every word! "Last month, that man told her to raise the tariffs, and look at that—they went up immediately! "Besides, he looks an awful lot like the youngest son of the city's Meng clan..." After finishing, the man shook his head to himself, as if second-guessing his own words. "That brat was a sickly weakling a few years ago. Couldn't possibly be him, right...?" Holding his wine cup, Li Guanqi's eyes flickered, and he murmured softly under his breath, "The Meng clan's youngest son? Hanging on his every word?" A dangerous aura surfaced on Li Guanqi's face. 'A mere clan scion from Feiyun City can make the haughty Qianqiusui hang on his every word?' Li Guanqi caught the distinct scent of a conspiracy. Though he did not yet know whether this rumor held any truth, he felt that information from such unremarkable little figures often proved more genuine. Rising from his seat and leaving the tavern, Li Guanqi sent a message transmission to Ji Yuchuan. "Send me a list of all the major clans in Feiyun City. "Pay particular attention to the Meng clan." Li Guanqi looked up at the grand, imposing structure of the Yunding Auction House standing proudly at the heart of the city, his eyes narrowing slightly. Then, with a flicker of his body, he vanished from the spot.