Forty-eight hours after the launch of the Taichu Benevolence Pharmacy Chain, the commercial empire of the Blood-Pill Syndicate lay in smoking ruins.
Across seventy-two major cities and market crossroads in the thirty-six Cave-Heavens, all one hundred and eight licensed dispensaries of the syndicate sat completely paralyzed.
Outside the Golden-Cauldron Apothecary in Cloud-Mist Market, an enraged mob of three thousand loose cultivators surrounded the boarded-up windows.
They hurled rotten turnips, shattered pill bottles, and cobblestones against the heavy mahogany shutters.
“FRAUDS! REFUND OUR HARD-EARNED STONES!”
“DAN CHEN FED US CORPSE-BEETLES! COME OUT AND FACE JUSTICE!”
A back door swung open, and the fat store manager tried to slip into the alleyway with two heavy velvet sacks of spirit stones.
He did not get far.
