Chapter 161: You Martial Control Bureau Are Forcing Sales and Purchases, Aren't You?

Just as expected.

The moment Zhang Chu stepped into the Storage Bureau, the security guard had already made a call to the Bureau Chief, Jin Shilong.

Right as he got out of the car, he saw Jin Shilong hurrying over with his bulging belly, his eyes narrowed into slits with a smile: "Brother Zhang Chu, if the Kewei Research Institute needs any materials, you just need to make a phone call. There was no need for you to make the trip in person. The people under me are truly clueless; I'll deal with them later."

"Chief Jin, I'm here today to trouble you with a personal favor. Just a small token of my appreciation."

Zhang Chu quickly slipped over a 6-star beast core.

Jin Shilong glanced at it, utterly startled.

A 6-star core was worth over a million, given away just like that. He truly lived up to his reputation as the soon-to-be-knighted God of War of Binzhou: "Brother Zhang Chu, you are far too polite."

He swiftly tucked the core into his storage ring and escorted Zhang Chu into the office, having his sexy secretary pour some tea.

Watching the secretary's swaying hips as she left, Jin Shilong finally started the pleasantries.

First, he brought up the incident at the Qingcheng River Valley, mentioning that he had even sent a wreath. Next came expressions of joy over Zhang Chu's narrow escape from death. Jin Shilong wept and wailed so dramatically, it felt as though his own father had just gone through a life-or-death parting.

After listening to Jin Shilong's flattery while sipping his tea, Zhang Chu finally stated the purpose of his visit: "Chief Jin, your brother here was lucky enough to just get certified as a junior alchemist, but I'm troubled by the lack of alchemy equipment and raw materials on hand. So, I was wondering if I could buy some from the Storage Bureau, and hopefully, Chief Jin can give me a discount."

"Brother Zhang Chu, you actually got certified as an alchemist?!"

Hearing this news, Jin Shilong almost jumped out of his seat.

There were only twelve junior alchemists in the entire Binzhou, and the Storage Bureau alone accounted for eight of them. Alchemists had always been proud and aloof. Jin Shilong was the Chief of the Storage Bureau, but he held no sway in front of alchemists. If he could manage to get close to an alchemist like Zhang Chu, getting his hands on pills in the future would be a walk in the park.

"Brother Zhang Chu, just say the word for whatever you need! The Storage Bureau still has an abandoned warehouse; take as much as you want without paying a single cent, and I'll even have it delivered to your doorstep personally!"

"Since Chief Jin is so generous, what else is there for me to say?"

The two of them exchanged a round of mutual flattery.

Jin Shilong led Zhang Chu to Warehouse No. 9. The quality of the raw materials here was relatively subpar, but that had no impact on Zhang Chu. He wasn't refining pills for his own consumption anyway; his sole purpose was to farm points, so quality didn't matter in the slightest.

After gathering a thousand pounds of raw materials, Zhang Chu intended to pick up an alchemy furnace, but these were all defective goods and genuinely unusable.

"Looks like I'll still have to spend money to buy one from the Martial Artist Mall."

During the ride over, Zhang Chu had taken a brief look, and even the most ordinary alchemy furnace cost 20 million. He was likely going to take a massive financial hit this time.

After sorting out the raw materials, Zhang Chu drove away from the Storage Bureau.

Upon returning home, Zhang Chu stored the bulk of the raw materials in the basement warehouse. The space in his storage ring was limited and simply couldn't hold them all.

With that done, Zhang Chu lay down on his bed and logged into the Martial Artist Mall app.

A pop-up window automatically appeared from the system.

The first was a perk for reaching the 1-star Spirit Realm, granting two Spirit-Molding Pills and a one-million-credit voucher for purchasing Spirit Realm martial arts techniques.

The second was a perk for becoming a certified junior alchemist, offering a monthly allowance of one million credits, alongside the option to rent an alchemy furnace from the Martial Arts Administration Bureau—free for the first three months, followed by a monthly rental fee of 500,000 credits thereafter.

"The Binzhou Martial Arts Administration Bureau is so stingy, only giving two Spirit-Molding Pills!"

After filling in his home delivery address, Zhang Chu completely ignored the option to rent an alchemy furnace. A monthly rent of 500,000 meant six million a year. Ten years' worth of rent could buy a mid-tier alchemy furnace instead.

"I'm not falling for that kind of high-end exploitation."

Closing the perks interface, Zhang Chu opened the alchemist section and began browsing posts by these "grandmasters."

The posts varied wildly. Aside from shared experiences in pill refining, the most common topics were comparisons of various alchemy furnaces. Zhang Chu intended to go all out in one go and buy the best furnace in the mall—the "Bronze Twin-Eared Divine Dragon Cauldron," priced at 200 million. He needed to find out if this furnace was truly as miraculous as the hype claimed, supposedly capable of boosting pill quality by 30%.

He spent the entire afternoon engrossed in this research.

As dusk approached, Zhang Chu stretched lazily, got off the bed, and decided to go out for a bite to eat.

That's right—he was heading back to that spicy hot pot place he had nearly demolished last time. Zhang Ziteng was still asleep, so eating a normal amount of food wouldn't get him laughed at.

Just as he reached for his jacket to head out, the doorbell rang.

Tiedan darted over instantly, projecting the image outside the door into its visual feed.

"Chen Long?"

Noticing the visitor was from the Martial Arts Administration Bureau, and the leader was none other than Chen Long, Zhang Chu opened the door: "To what do I owe the honor of the young master Chen making a personal house call?"

"The man dominating the trending searches—I'd rather not be here, but my dad made me bring you something, my respected great alchemist."

Chen Long entered the living room, reeking of envy, jealousy, and bitterness. That afternoon, he had been summoned back to the Martial Arts Administration Bureau by a phone call, and the very first news he heard was that Zhang Chu had been certified as a junior alchemist.

Comparisons only served to infuriate people. Before meeting Zhang Chu, Chen Long had been widely recognized as the undisputed number one genius of the Martial Arts Administration Bureau.

And now?

He was nothing more than absolute trash!

Yet Chen Tianxiang had personally ordered him to deliver the items, repeatedly instructing him to maintain a polite attitude.

Nonsense!

Did that even need to be said?

Alchemists and array masters were absolute bigshots in Binzhou. If anyone dared to give them a sideways glance, scouts from neighboring cities would immediately swoop in with high pay and lavish perks to poach them.

"What kind of item requires the esteemed young master Chen to handle door-to-door delivery himself?"

Naturally, Zhang Chu didn't believe it was just for two Spirit-Molding Pills.

*Thud!*

The next second, Chen Long flicked his right hand, and a massive object materialized right in front of Zhang Chu.

"Holy crap, I didn't place an order! Your Martial Arts Administration Bureau can't just force-sell things like this!"

Looking at the Bronze Twin-Eared Divine Dragon Cauldron that had materialized out of thin air, Zhang Chu felt a sudden darkness wash over his vision.

He pulled out his phone to check.

Confirming it was only sitting in his shopping cart without having been paid for, nor was it a "ship now, pay later" deal, Zhang Chu hurriedly backed away.

He only possessed a modest 20 billion. But this massive 200-million item—he had stared at it all afternoon and couldn't bring himself to buy it out of heartache.

Who could have guessed that the moment he turned around, Chen Long would just drop it off at his doorstep?

"My dad said that since you're the youngest junior alchemist in Binzhou, this is your reward."

Seeing Zhang Chu's tense expression, Chen Long chuckled.

A gift?

Judging by Chen Long's demeanor, he didn't seem to be lying.

A 200-million item, given away just like that? This hardly aligned with the Martial Arts Administration Bureau's usual stingy daily operations. He had just been reading the forums earlier; alchemists everywhere were cursing the Martial Arts Administration Bureau for being shameless, as everyone had suffered through the awkwardness of renting alchemy furnaces.

"However, my dad did say there's a tiny request..."

Chen Long added weakly.

"I knew it."

Zhang Chu rolled his eyes in frustration on the spot: "I knew the Martial Arts Administration Bureau would never do a losing business..."