"Sorry, but we aren't interested." A store owner bowed and politely rejected Mark.
Mark let out a sigh and returned the pistol, revolver, and the two Semi-Automatic guns to his inventory before leaving the store in disappointment.
As he stepped outside, a horse carriage stopped before him. Alina was having reins of the horse and is sitting there as a coachwoman. Naturally, the attraction of the passersby to her is evident but Mark doesn't wish to cover her beauty because he wanted to use it as bait to invite the trouble so that he can get grounds for justice.
Alina jumped down and opened the door of the carriage, "Big Brother, you looked tired. Do you want to take a rest?"
"Yeah, I guess." Mark nodded and let out another deep sigh, "Let's call it a day."
Right now, Mark and Alina were staying in the city of Tianping, located about 172 km away from the town of Daqing and 95 kilometers away from Huqiu city.
After finishing his business with the Meng Clan, Mark didn't stay in the town any longer and started his journey towards the nearby city, ignoring the villages on the way.
He then reached Huqiu city by the Tank and walked from the outskirts.
It's not that he wanted to stay away from the trouble, but as the streets were quite narrow for the tank to move freely, he opted for walking. To make sure this doesn't happen again, Mark bought a horse carriage for 150 gold coins and used it to roam in the city.
If it was before, he wouldn't have gotten so much courage to do that but after extorting 10000 gold coins from Meng Clan, he felt rich and thought that he need to behave like one too. Not only did he buy the carriage, but he also went on a shopping spree for the rest of the evening to buy a few luxurious clothes for him, Allen, and Alina, spending another 200 gold coins just like that.
The next day, he spent it searching for the store to sell his weapons in bulk. After visiting like 60 stores, except for those Big Three (Everlasting, Lunaris, and Hollow), only one store agreed to buy and that too, only a mere twenty single-shot pistols and hundred bullets.
When he thought of this plan, Mark decided to charge 10% extra to the buyer as commission after the transaction is over, but now, he didn't even make a copper coin of profit by giving a hundred bullets for free to the store owner for buying those twenty single-shot pistols. Nevertheless, his share is no longer important as he had a huge wealth now.
Overall, his trip to Huqiu city didn't make him happy. Not only he didn't get to sell many weapons, but the city wasn't ruled by some noble clan. A member of the Sui Clan is the administrator of the city. He heard this administrator was a good ruler and didn't have any kids too. So, Mark didn't have any excuse to start a fight with him. Even if he had, the administrator was just a single man. He might not afford so much money.
On the third day, he set out to Tianping city, located at the foot of Mt. Hua. To Mark's bad luck, the city was ruled by the Mt. Hua sect, which is located on the top of the peak.
And Mark cannot go against the sect as it has a 7-circle realm expert as the sect leader. Excluding him, several 6-circle and 5-circle realm experts were staying on the peak. Moreover, sects usually don't have money as it wasn't useful. They only have ether crystals.
In the end, he pushed away his grand plan of extorting the money and went on to visit the stores for his business. At least, there was someone in Huqiu city that accepted his deal but here at Tianping, none of the store owners came forward as they were feared of making business with unknown weapons and some of them even advised Mark to go and try his luck at the Imperial City or the headquarters of the Province.
So, instead of trying his luck, Mark decided to change his plan. He went to the Information Guild, which basically sells the details that aren't considered secret and are usually available to the public. It's like a helpline center. The information ranges from the details of the city to even the monsters at the Bloodhill forest.
Mark paid five gold coins and received the details of all the major and minor noble clans in the Empire. Along with that, he also received the locations of the dungeons that are still open to the public.
Back to the present, Mark returned to the inn and took a rest for the night. The next day morning, he opened the scroll and looked at the details obtained from the guild.
"Alina, project the map." He said to the Android.
As a holographic screen was projected through her eyes, Mark took a closer look and decided on his targets.
"Alina, we'll leave for Maxong town as we decided earlier. But, after that, we'll take a detour to Shangwan city via the towns of Yijiashan, and Chigang."
"I understand, Big Brother," Alina nodded.
Soon, they left the inn and left the city, traveling towards the town of Maxong, which is only thirty kilometers away from Tianping.
At first, they didn't find anything amiss but as they entered the town and proceeded towards the most popular inn, Alina informed Mark through the small window, behind her. "Big Brother, two people are following us. Both are at the 5-circle realm and were spotted at Huqiu city as well as Tianping city. Such coincidence is unlikely. Do you want me to capture them? or Do you want to lose them?"
"Spies, eh? Who could it be? Is it Sui Clan? Meng Clan is close to them. So, it might be them. Hmm, if that's the case, then, what might be their motive? Assassination? Or just spying?" Mark fell into thoughts for a while before he waved his hands, "no need. Let them follow. We'll wait until it's time. For now, go to Qian Mansion."
"I understand." Alina closed the window and continued to ride the carriage.
Instead of wasting time investigating about Qian clan's young master, Mark went to the Qian clan mansion directly to meet him directly.
Of course, to get things faster, Mark bribed five gold coins to the gatekeeper, who took the both of them to the Steward of the mansion. He further bribed the Steward about twenty gold coins and successfully arranged a meeting with Qian Ya-Hui at a restaurant.
At around noon, Mark and Alina were waiting at an empty restaurant. Mark didn't even hesitate to pay hundred gold coins to book an entire restaurant for a couple of hours. Despite that, he wore modest clothes, made out of linen so that it won't give an impression that he was too wealthy.
After all, he knew that nobles only grow arrogant when they were dealing with people that have less status and power. This is what he was aiming for.
As the appointed time passed by, Mark started to grow impatient but kept calming down himself to wait for the young master of Qian Clan.
He took out the pocket watch and looked at the time, "damn it. It's already 12:40. When will these guys arrive?"
A teenager around 15-years-old and two middle-aged men entered the restaurant of which the right one is familiar. He is the Steward of the mansion that arranged this meeting.
One look at the person on left, Mark realized that he was the supposed young master, considering his Guanfu styled clothing is made of Silk. There's also a pure gold ornament on his head, which supports the hair. However, what surprised him is the person in the middle, who too looked rich.
Just as he assumed, both of them were stunned for a second when they saw Alina sitting beside him.
As they continued to walk towards the table, Mark stood up on his feet and cupped his fists, "Greetings, Lord Qian. Thank you for coming."
Instead of the person on the left, the middle one nodded in response and took the seat. The steward introduced them, "He is our clan elder Qian Xuegang, our clan head's brother and this is young master Qian Ya Hui, the one you wanted to meet."
Upon realizing their identities, Mark felt that he hit a jackpot and proceeded to introduce himself, "My name is Lu Zhen and this is my servant. I'm a merchant from Imperial City, dealing in weapons known as firearms."
"Firearms?" The three of them took a look at each other before Qian Ya-Hui asked, "I never heard of such a thing. What are they?"
Mark took out the single-shot pistol, revolver, semi-automatic guns, and bullet from his inventory and let Alina explain the details.
"I see…" Qian Ya-Hui was nodding every few seconds as if he was listening carefully. The middle person, on the other hand, was just staring at the Android as if he came for her.
Meanwhile, Mark activated the ability of his Ring and started to absorb the luck from Qian Xuegang as he realized this guy might be the one that makes decisions.
60 seconds later;
*Ding! 2 points of luck have been absorbed.
Mark inwardly smiled as his luck points temporarily raised to five and Qian Xuegang's luck points were reduced to one. That means this young master was bound to take a bad decision and end up unlucky.
Once the demonstration is over, Mark spoke, "This is a never seen weapon that was basically known in the Imperial city. It is popular among the masses rather than spirit warriors. I wonder if Qian Clan is interested to make a profit. How much of the share are you expecting in return?"
Qian Ya-Hui looked at his uncle as he was clueless. It was then Qian Xuegang spoke, pointing his finger at Alina. "You said she's your servant, right?"
