240: Check out my inventory

"The entire potion market in Linzhou will completely collapse overnight. Prices will drop lower than the cost, all pharmacists will go bankrupt, and the entire industry will regress by ten years."

"This is of no benefit to you, to me, or to any of us."

He sighed like a worried elder.

"That's why I said it's a pity."

"President Lin, you are a smart man, a man of great ability. We shouldn't have been enemies."

"We can cooperate and achieve a win-win situation. I need your channels and courage, and you need our scale and foundation. We each get what we need; that is what businessmen should do."

Old Shi looked at Lin Yu and extended an olive branch.

"Harmony brings wealth. Don't you agree?"

His words were airtight, containing both the threat of a big stick and the lure of a carrot.

Behind him, President Shi and Wang Teng listened with heartfelt admiration.

The older the ginger, the spicier it gets.

With this, the initiative returned to their hands.

Whether this kid chose war or peace, he would have to walk the path they laid out.

Cooperation?

This seemed to be the best possible outcome for now.

Everyone's gaze focused on Lin Yu, waiting for his answer.

Lin Yu smiled.

Instead of answering Old Shi's question, he slowly fished something out of his pocket.

A ring.

A ring that was pitch black and simple in design.

"Old Shi, are you a Professionals?"

Lin Yu toyed with the ring and asked a completely unrelated question.

Old Shi froze again.

The young man's train of thought was jumping so fast that he could hardly keep up.

But he still nodded, a hint of reminiscence flashing in his cloudy eyes.

"I suppose so. I was injured when I was young, and now I'm useless."

Lin Yu didn't ask further but simply handed over the ring in his hand.

"Take a look."

Two simple words, yet they carried an air that brooked no refusal.

Everyone in the carriage was stunned.

What kind of move was this?

Halfway through the negotiation, instead of discussing terms, he was giving a ring?

Even Li Mo fell into brief contemplation.

Was the boss... testing them again?

Old Shi had lived for eighty years; he had seen everything.

Without hesitation, he reached out and took the ring.

The ring was cold to the touch and had an extraordinary texture.

With just one look, Old Shi's sharp eyes judged that it was a storage ring.

And it was of excellent quality!

With a slight weigh, he understood.

"Sumeru Ring, Shifang Model."

Old Shi spoke slowly, as if talking to himself or for the benefit of certain people in the carriage.

"Internal space, ten cubic meters. It's a rare fine product on the market."

Behind him, President Shi and Wang Teng straightened their backs a bit more unconsciously.

As expected of the Old Man!

He saw through the item's details at a glance.

The kid brought out a storage ring just to show off his wealth and prove he had channels.

Laughable.

Too laughable.

In the face of the Alliance's overwhelming scale, how much could a storage ring hold?

Old Shi was also calculating.

His brain whirred; a standard potion bottle was two centimeters in diameter and thirty centimeters high.

In a ten-cubic-meter space, if packed tightly... it would be about 106,000 bottles.

One hundred thousand top-tier potions!

This number was enough to drive any small or medium-sized power crazy.

To be able to quietly produce such a large shipment under the monopoly of the four major companies, this kid indeed had some extraordinary abilities. Pity... one hundred thousand bottles sounded like a lot.

But compared to the 26.5 billion he just quoted, it was just a drop in the ocean.

It wouldn't even cause a ripple.

He slowly extended a thread of spiritual power into the ring.

Preparing to verify his guess and then give this young man his final and most merciful dignity.

The next second.

Old Shi froze completely.

The spiritual power entering the ring did not sense the cold, hard potion bottles he expected.

Inside... was it empty?

No.

It wasn't empty.

The things packed so tightly they were almost overflowing were... identical, pitch-black, simply styled rings!

The entire ten-cubic-meter space was completely filled with countless identical "Sumeru Ring · Shifang Model"!

What did this mean?

Displaying his stock of storage rings?

A merchant who wholesaled storage rings?

No!

That's not right!

Lin Yu was a smart man; he would never make such a ridiculous move at a negotiation table that determined the strength of friend and foe.

He brought out this ring; it must be related to what he just said.

Related to that 26.5 billion in stock.

An idea so absurd that even he found it laughable began to grow uncontrollably from the depths of his heart.

No... it couldn't be?

President Shi and Wang Teng keenly noticed that something was wrong with the Old Man.

The Old Man's hand was trembling slightly.

What was going on?

Behind them, Li Mo appeared to have his head down, but he was actually focusing all his attention on Old Shi.

He knew.

The boss's hidden trump card was here.

He just didn't know what it was that could stun this well-traveled Old Man.

Old Shi felt his breathing become somewhat difficult.

He forced himself to calm down.

Verify!

He had to verify!

He mobilized his spiritual power and randomly selected a ring from that sea of rings.

Then, he probed it with his spiritual power.

Buzz!

Inside Old Shi's head, it was as if a bomb had been detonated.

Packed full!

Densely packed!

Rows upon rows, columns upon columns, uniform Windwalkers Breath!

All of top-tier quality!

The familiar bottles, the exquisite packaging, and the aura of life that almost seeped out of the ring!

One hundred and six thousand bottles!

Not one more, not one less!

Old Shi's hand trembled even more violently.

A coincidence?

It had to be a coincidence!

He didn't dare believe it, nor was he willing to.

He abruptly withdrew his spiritual power and randomly grabbed another ring.

Probed!

Boom!

Still potions!

This time, it was top-tier Heart of Stone!

Still a full one hundred and six thousand!

Switch again!

Giant Strength Elixir!

Switch again!

Clarity Potion!

Switch! Switch! Switch!

How the hell is there even Life Serum?

Old Shi went mad, his spiritual power frantically darting through the sea of rings, inspecting one after another.

Every single one!

Inside every single ring, it was filled with exactly one hundred and six thousand bottles of different types of top-tier potions!

In the carriage, the atmosphere became eerie to the extreme.

Everyone watched Old Shi.

Watching this old man, who had just been calm and composed, ruling over everything, now pale-faced with bean-sized beads of sweat on his forehead, trembling like a leaf.

"Grandfather?"

President Shi finally couldn't help but speak out in worry.

Wang Teng also approached, his face full of bewilderment.

Only Lin Yu remained leaning against the window, looking outside with boredom.

As if all of this had nothing to do with him.

Old Shi ignored everyone.

His brain, the one that had strategized for decades, was now being tortured to the point of collapse by a very simple math problem.

The volume of a ring is about 0.2 cubic centimeters.

How many rings can fit in a ten-cubic-meter space?

Fifty million!

A full fifty million rings!

One ring holds 106,000 potions.

Fifty million rings... how many is that?

One hundred thousand... multiplied by fifty million... five trillion three hundred billion!

Five! Trillion! Three! Hundred! Billion!

26.5 billion?

That was the stock they were so proud of.

It was the confidence they had to crush all challengers.

But in front of this number... it wasn't even worth being called dust!

What was that?

That... that was twenty thousand times the total stock of Qingyun Pharmaceutical!

Thud.

A soft sound.

The pitch-black ring slipped from Old Shi's hand, which was trembling to the point of losing sensation.

It bounced once on the floor of the worn-out bus and rolled into the distance.