A Parting Gift

"And you are…?" Huo Shenshou asked in response, prompting Shi Li to go silent for a while. For a few seconds, the latter could not help but wonder whether it would be better for him to interact with this person or whether it would be better for him to muster his courage and just leave the man hanging. In the end, he decided to just roll with it. After all, making a few connections rather than not usually ended up giving people a few benefits from time to time.

Scratching the back of his head, Shi Li replied, "My name…is Shi Li. Er…nice to meet you as well, Huo Shenshou."

Letting out a chuckle in response to Shi Li's reply, Huo Shenshou soon asked him, "So, what brings you here to my humble alchemy shop?"

"To be honest, I was just passing by…" Shi Li told him. "In fact, I was just about to go home…"

"Is that so?" Huo Shenshou replied, maintaining an amicable smile on his face as he continued, "From what I could see from your body language, it feels like there's something more into it that you don't want to tell me."

'But of course,' Shi Li muttered inwardly. After all, Huo Shenshou was just a stranger to him who had just struck up a conversation out of the blue. He had no reason to tell Huo Shenshou what had transpired before he passed by this other pavilion.

"Anyways, I should get going now, lest you tell me to leave the premises as well," he said a few seconds later, completely ignoring Huo Shenshou's previous statement. With that, he made up his mind and was just about to leave, only for him to stop in his tracks as he heard Huo Shenshou say, "I'm guessing you were told to leave the Starry Alchemical Pavilion, huh? From what I could sense, you were probably told to leave since you were just there to check the prices of pills. Am I wrong?"

Slowly turning his head around, Shi Li stared at Huo Shenshou for a bit before slowly nodding, prompting the latter to let out a chuckle. Seeing that Shi Li had a slightly dark expression on his face after hearing his laughter, Huo Shenshou quickly changed the atmosphere of the conversation, telling him, "Just so you know, I was also kicked out by the pavilion a ton of times… though it was for other reasons."

"Poaching other customers to come to your pavilion, perhaps?" Shi Li could not help but say in response, to which Huo Shenshou nodded. "Pretty much. As the owner of this pavilion, I have to continue business somehow."

And it was at that moment that Shi Li looked at Huo Shenshou with surprise on his face. While talking to him, he believed that he was talking to one of the assistants that kept the pavilion running while the owner was gone. Never once did he think that he was actually talking to the owner.

"Eh?" Shi Li was truly caught off guard. Thinking that Huo Shenshou would scold him after knowing who he truly was, Shi Li decided to give the man an apology…only to think otherwise as Huo Shenshou told him, "If you're thinking of giving me an apology, don't. Unlike those two-faced people from the Starry Alchemical Pavilion, I'd rather interact with my customers with how I'd usually act around friends."

He then added with a chuckle, "Sometimes, it brings you benefits down the line."

After that, an awkward silence spread throughout the vicinity of the pavilion, prompting Huo Shenshou to let out a light cough to dispel it soon after.

"Well, moving all of that aside, is there anything I can help you with?" he asked. "Perhaps you would like to know the price of our Meridian Widening Pills, seeing how it would help you out while cultivating."

Hearing Huo Shenshou's words, Shi Li could not help but feel like he was hinting at something. Reading between the lines of his statement, Shi Li decided to ask, "Can you see…my illness?"

"Imperfect Meridians, right?" Huo Shenshou said in response, making Shi Li look at him with widened eyes. Sometime later, Shi Li's shock intensified when he continued, "And from the looks of it, you have a couple more illnesses running rampant in your body, though I'm not certain."

"How…" was the only word that Shi Li could muster. Then again, it's natural for someone like Shi Li to act this way. After all, all throughout his life, the only people that knew of his illnesses were his parents. For an outsider to figure out one of his illnesses with just one look was nothing short of a miracle from another perspective.

"I'm an alchemist. I pretty much have to become familiar with illnesses like yours while concocting pills," Huo Shenshou said in response to Shi Li's shock. "So, how about it? Want to know the prices of our Meridian Widening Pills? I won't ask you to leave after, I promise," he joked.

Taking in a few deep breaths to rein in his emotions, Shi Li eventually responded to Huo Shenshou's offer, nodding. With a light smile, Huo Shenshou went ahead and told him, "With what I could sense from your body, you're currently at the Acupoint Breaking Realm, so anything at Tier 1 wouldn't really make sense for someone like you."

"With that, I'll tell you the prices of our Tier 0 Meridian Widening Pills. A Low-quality pill costs 2 silver coins, unlike the Starry Alchemical Pavilion, which charges 5. Though, just like the other pavilion, each increase in quality warrants a doubling in price. A Middle-quality pill costs 4 coins, a High-quality costs 8, and a Supreme-quality pill costs 16 silver coins."

"How about it? Don't you think it's a good price?" Huo Shenshou asked after finishing his explanation. In response, Shi Li lightly nodded as he said, "It is a good price, but…"

"I don't have any money on hand."

"It's fine, it's fine," Huo Shenshou waved his hand as he let out a peal of laughter. "I'm not forcing you to buy any pills, anyway. In any case, you know now of a place where you could buy the same pills at a lower price."

"But aren't you making a loss here?" Shi Li could not help but ask. Although he was someone who would take advantage of something like this, he knew very well that business had to make a profit from the things they sold.

Surprisingly, Huo Shenshou shook his head as he told him, "Not at all. In fact, I'm still making quite a decent profit even after selling one Low-quality Meridian Widening Pill. Let's just say that compared to the Starry Alchemical Pavilion, I'm being generous with my pricing."

"Uh-huh…" Since Huo Shenshou told him that he had nothing to worry about regarding profits, Shi Li decided to leave it at that.

After a few moments of silence between the two of them, Shi Li eventually told Huo Shenshou, "I should head back now. I'm afraid my mother would start worrying about me if she finds out I'm wandering outside."

"Well, it was nice meeting you," Huo Shenshou said as he nodded, only for him to tell Shi Li to wait where he was for a bit as he headed inside the pavilion. Naturally, Shi Li was curious as to what the man was going to do. However, that question was quickly answered as Huo Shenshou urged him to receive the small gourd he was giving.

Looking at the gourd for a bit, Shi Li looked back at Huo Shenshou and asked, "What's inside this?"

"You could say it's an experiment that just happened to be a success," Huo Shenshou replied, a light smile still on his face. "As to what it actually is, think of it as a less potent version of the Meridian Widening Pill."

"Are you…serious?" Of course, Shi Li wasn't expecting a stranger like Huo Shenshou to give something like this to him. After all, they had just met today and bantered over the prices of a few pills. For Shi Li, it made no sense that someone like Huo Shenshou would do something like this.

However, when he heard Huo Shenshou's next words, he decided to place the thought at the back of his head, pondering over ways he could procure a few coins to buy pills from his pavilion.

"Yes, I am serious," Huo Shenshou said. "Just so you know, I haven't thought about a price for it yet, so you can have it for free."

"If you think there's a hidden agenda behind me giving you this gourd, then it would be the fact that I would want you to come back to my shop once you have money to spend. Hahaha!"

Scratching the back of his head, Shi Li did not know what to say in response. In the end, Shi Li softly thanked him as he quickly left the premises, prompting Huo Shenshou to stare at Shi Li's fleeting silhouette as he moved farther away from the pavilion.

As his silhouette disappeared from his line of sight, Huo Shenshou could not help but let out a chuckle. "Quite an interesting kid. I wonder if he's that kid from the Shi clan I hear about every once in a while."

"In any case, I have a feeling he'll come back here sometime soon."