In one of the training halls of the Greenfire Sect grandmaster alchemist Koda Senzo was looking through the herbs his disciple had gathered. Not only was finding and identifying various herbs part of their training, but it also kept the sect from spending too many resources on new disciples.

While low ranking disciples of the sect might only be allowed to use low tier materials during their training, as the majority of the disciples were part of the lower rank after all, it would still be a considerable effort to buy resources for each one of them.

"I did not expect you to return so fast. Did I not tell you to gather these herbs on your own and not just buy them? How will you learn how to find them on your own and support yourself if you rely on the financial aid of others?"

It was easy for a master alchemist to find out, that the closest place where the required herbs could be found should have been the beast forest about a week's journey away from the city. How could his disciple therefore bring back so many herbs after just a single day without buying them from someone else?

"Master you misunderstand. I did not buy these herbs, I gathered them myself in the Earthly Spirit Pavilion's Old Vine Forest."

Terada Sen quickly justified his quick completion of the assigned task. While he might have picked a faster and simpler route to gather the herbs, he still completed his task that had been assigned. Who could blame him for using his wit and find a different place in order to gather the herbs.

"Earthly Spirit Pavilion? Old Vine Forest? I know of no Old Vine Forest close to the city, where would such a place be?"

Grandmaster Alchemist Koda was slightly confused. While he never heard of such a forest close to the city, he also did not think that this disciple would lie to him. He had always been an honest person after all.

If there really was such a place, then he could not fault his disciple for taking a shortcut if there was one available. What alchemist did not strive to improve on their efficiency and quality all the time?

-

Yui had just opened the gate to the pavilion not long ago, when they already had their first visitors.

"Welcome to the Earthly Treasures Pavilion, what can I do for you today?" she started her usual greeting, when she noticed Terada Sen stepping into the shop behind an old man.

"Young girl, get the owner of this place. I have something to discuss with them."

Being confronted with such an unusual and abrupt question, Yui was slightly nervous.

'Could this old man not at least say hello or properly greet me? Such a lack of manners is kind of rude.' she thought to herself, but stuck to her customer friendly approach and did not let anyone notice her anger.

Even Terada Sen frowned slightly at his master's disrespect, but how could he say anything as a little alchemist apprentice.

Keeping her usual customer service focus at it's best Yui kept her smile and did not comment on the lack of greeting at all.

"Senior, I'm Tai Yui and I own this Pavilion. If you have any requests, you can just let me know and I will do my best to help."

The old man's look turned into surprise and then after looking around the shop and only finding what appeared to be two mortal girls around became a frown.

"How can a mortal kid own a shop like this? I've been told that this shop even provides transportation talismans, how would someone like you, who is still green behind the ears even manage to make them?"

"Get your elders out so I can talk to them properly and don't waste my time!"

Grandmaster Koda let out a little bit of his cultivation aura, thinking that even though he should not harm them, scaring them a little bit would be fine, as they were obviously not telling him the truth of who owned this place.

Seeing Yui all nervous and intimidated, made him think that this approach obviously worked. What he didn't know was, that Yui was so easily scared, that even though the Pavilion blocked all of his aura on her to the point where she did not even notice it at all, his angry voice scared her even without his aura.

Yui was just about to reply to all of his accusations when Tora's voice came over from the corner, followed by a wave of her own aura. Before her words were even finished, storm clouds could suddenly be seen above the Pavilion and thunder and lightning was rumbling in the sky, as if the heaven itself were making a thinly veiled threat.

"Old man. My sister might be kind and not take it to heart if such a lowly person as yourself spouts such bullshit in front of her without any manners, but if you disrespect her again, I make sure that will be your last words ever."

The strange aura from the girl, pushed away the aura of Grandmaster Koda as if it didn't even exist in the first place, like a storm blowing against a single small leaf, there was not even any resistance he could bring up against this kind of power.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He was sure, that if this girl wanted, she could have easily killed him without even lifting a finger, crushing him with the power of her aura alone, but it seems like he was let off the hook once more, as the aura passed him by, causing him to freeze in terror for a moment, but didn't harm him at all.

'Have I been wrong? Are these girls powerful cultivators and not mortals?'

Grandmaster Koda was sure the earlier spike of aura came from the girl in the corner. It would only make sense if these two were twin sisters who lived with each other for both of them to have a somewhat similar cultivation strength.

'Is one of them perhaps unable to cultivate for some reason? But why would this girl be the owner of the shop and not the other one? Is she perhaps really kind hearted and was nervous that her sister would harm me and not because of my aura?'

Koda Senzo had many questions at this point, but there was no time to think about any of them. If he messed this up, the consequences might be dire, not just for himself, but for his sect as well. He had been living for quite a while and was fully aware of the strength of many powerful people around the city, including those of the grand elders and their sect master.

None of them however would be able to release such a powerful aura, not even close to it.

"Please forgive me for my disrespect earlier. I, Koda Senzo grandmaster alchemist of the Greenfire Sect did indeed forget my manners this time."

As a grandmaster of the Greenfire Sect it was nearly unheard of for him to ever apologize, especially in such a formal way. Even his disciple, who had not been targeted by Tora's aura at all was totally stunned by the quick change the girl's words had caused in his masters attitude.

'What just happened?' he wondered, but just followed his master in bowing to the girls again.

Yui was still trembling a little bit but did her best to get the situation back in control. She noticed neither the aura of this alchemy grandmaster in front of her, nor was she targeted by Tora's aura or the heavenly suppression from outside.

All she heard were some harsh words from her sister and some thunder rolling outside, that she did not even associate at all with their current conversation.

Not surprising, she was the most confused of all of them, especially how this alchemist suddenly did a 180° change in his approach and switched to being so respectful.

"I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding. There is no need to trade anymore harsh words sis."

Smiling at them once more, she repeated her earlier introduction.

"How can I help senior today? Even if I might be young, I can assure you, that you will still get the best quality service with our products."

"Lady Tai, I would like to inquire about the Old Vine Forest that you've sent my disciple to before. How large is this forest, how many people can enter and will it be open only for a certain amount of time? Do you have any other places similar to the Old Vine Forest, perhaps even with higher tier herbs, or are you perhaps trading herbs?"

Bombarded with such an amount of questions, Tai Yui was a little bit overwhelmed. Nonetheless questions were a lot better for Yui to deal with than emotionally charged or even aggressive words.

Normal questions she would be able to deal with, especially as she was coming from a modern high school background. It was not much different to their teachers at school.

"I cannot tell you the forests dimensions exactly, only that it will be open on a permanent basis, although each person may only access each of our places like the forest for two hours each day."

"You can spend two hours in our Spirit Copper Mine and another two hours in the Old Vine Forest but not any longer than two hours in any single place. This is to preserve the resources that are available and prevent any area to be overly burdened by our customers. Keeping our environment healthy is important in our line of work after all."

Doing her best 'green speech' that she could quickly come up with, she felt as if she had some exam at her school. It did not seem too different from the topics they might work on at school after all, just increasing Tai Yui's confidence even more.

Grandmaster Koda just nodded from time to time and listened attentively. It was obvious to him as a grandmaster how important preserving areas with spirit plants would be, not just for them, but also for future generations. It greatly surprised him though, to hear such words from a girl that did not even seem to be two decades old.

"We are currently watching the current market trends, assessing possible options to make investments and are considering a way to crowdfund certain projects. According to our statistics and comparisons of this country's income situation, compared to the long-term return of investment for our offers, we are confident that we can soon offer more services and places to visit.

"However, I am currently unable to give you any specific details on any new products or sales of herbs, as I am bound by various non-disclosure agreements with other third parties that we are depending on. I am thankful for your support and understanding."

Yui once again gave the grandmaster her best smile and hoped for the best.

Well, after thinking it through again, Yui was sure that this was perhaps a bit much bullshitting. Only half of it made sense, and a large part of the other half was a straight lie. She just hoped that it sounded better to the alchemist than to herself.

In the corner, Tora was obviously more informed about Yui's home world, as well as all the complex words she had used just a moment ago, as such Tora had a hard time to keep herself from laughing.

Unlike Tora however, the grandmaster was totally floored by all the complex words he had never heard of in such a way before. What did crowdfunding mean? What was return of investment or a non-disclosure agreement? While all of these words were pretty self-explanatory, sounded just right and seemed to make sense, Grandmaster Koda had never heard of them before.

He was sure though it was not because they didn't exist, but just because of his lacking aptitude and his experience in handling business transactions being too low. After all he was an alchemist not a merchant.

'Now I understand why this girl would be leading this shop even though she seems rather shy and easily scared. She must be a once in a thousand years seen business genius! No wonder her sister would be upset about my words. With such a young age and her insights into business aspects, she must come from a grand background.' he thought to himself.

For the simple cultivation life and technical level of this world that Koda Senzo came from, it was obvious that he was rather impressed.

"Lady Tai's words are as precious as gold. I can only give my thanks for your enlightenment on such business matters and will eagerly await news of more services."

"We are always happy to have such a respectable alchemist as Grandmaster Koda as our customer. We will make sure to inform you if we release any new locations or services that concern herb lore or alchemy."

When Grandmaster Koda finally left, Yui was sitting down on her chair exhausted.

"Do you think I managed to convince him sis?" she asked Tora without looking at her.

A slight chuckling could be heard from the corner of the room. "With such a business genius that even invents crowdfunding in such a place, I'm confident that golden times are ahead of us."

The laughter in the shop took quite a while to subside.