Robert Harris, however, remained calm and said, “Edward, don’t be so impatient. I know exactly what Henry Clark is capable of—there’s no way he could have cured that poison. Let’s just sit here and wait for the good news to come.”

“Ah, big brother, the Medicine Fragrance Pavilion has been competing with us for so many years. Now that we finally have such an opportunity, how can we not crush them completely to vent our hatred?” Edward Harris said through gritted teeth.

“Heh, Edward, you really need to work on that impatience of yours, or it’ll be very hard for you to break through to the Grand Alchemist level. The poison that strong man was afflicted with is quite peculiar. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the legendary Seven-Colored Flowing Cloud Python’s venom. If I hadn’t read a few words about it in a damaged ancient text years ago, we might have been the ones in trouble this time. But since I happened to come across it, it’s only right that Henry Clark is the unlucky one. Still, as unlucky as he is, it’s unrealistic to think we can topple Henry Clark with this alone. At most, it’ll give us an edge in business.” Robert Harris remained as calm as ever.

After hearing Robert Harris say this, Edward Harris didn’t look the least bit displeased. The step from Alchemist to Grand Alchemist seemed simple, but in reality, it was as hard as reaching the heavens—otherwise, there wouldn’t be so few Grand Alchemists in all of Qin.

But he clearly had no intention of changing his impatient nature, and still said anxiously, “Big brother, I just feel like something’s off. Why don’t we send someone to check out what’s going on over there?”

Robert Harris was afraid of alerting the enemy and drawing Henry Clark’s attention, so aside from David Turner, he hadn’t sent anyone else to gather information. But if something big was happening over there, they should have heard about it by now.

Could something really have gone wrong?

“All right, send someone over to check it out,” Robert Harris said after a moment’s thought.

Robert Harris wasn’t worried about David Turner getting into trouble, since on the surface he had no connection to Drunken Star Pavilion—he was just a beast hunter.

Edward Harris accepted the order and was about to send someone when suddenly there was a rapid knock at the door from outside: “Pavilion Master, something’s wrong—someone’s causing trouble!”

With a loud “crash,” the door was pulled open from the inside. Robert Harris glared coldly at the shopkeeper and asked, “Who is it?”

“Who’s got the guts to cause trouble here? What are you all doing, just standing around?” As soon as Edward Harris heard someone was making trouble, his temper flared up.

The shopkeeper said with a bitter face, “They… they’re not exactly here to cause trouble, they… they came to see a doctor.”

Seeing Robert Harris’s face darken, the shopkeeper quickly corrected himself, “No, no, they… they’re using the excuse of seeing a doctor to challenge us.”

“Who is it, exactly?” Robert Harris’s patience was wearing thin.

“It’s… it’s that good-for-nothing from the Ye family, Henry Clark’s son, William Clark,” the shopkeeper stammered.

“You’re scared by a good-for-nothing like that? What’s wrong with you? Do you even want to keep your job?” Edward Harris exploded when he heard it was William Clark, wishing he could tear the shopkeeper apart.

“Forget it, let’s go take a look ourselves,” Robert Harris ordered.

…

The three of them entered the front hall, only to see a young man sitting arrogantly in the seat that should have belonged to the shopkeeper. Robert Harris shot the shopkeeper a fierce glare, but now was not the time for punishment.

Just as Robert Harris was about to deal with William Clark, he caught sight of David Turner lying on the ground like a dead dog, and his heart skipped a beat.

When William Clark saw Robert Harris appear, he stood up unhurriedly, walked over, and said with a smile, “Mr. Harris, I apologize for coming so abruptly today. I hope you won’t take offense.”

The muscles on Robert Harris’s face twitched, and he had to suppress the urge to slap William Clark to death. Forcing out an awkward smile, he said, “Not at all, not at all. So it’s you, dear nephew. I thought it was some blind brat coming to make trouble at our Drunken Star Pavilion. If you’d let us know in advance, we could have prepared a proper welcome.”

Though Robert Harris was seething with anger, he refused to show weakness, calling William Clark a brat to his face. Everyone knew Drunken Star Pavilion and Medicine Fragrance Pavilion were rivals, but on the surface, they still kept things cordial. After all, both did open business—if they really started fighting, who would dare come for treatment in the future?

William Clark secretly laughed at Robert Harris’s narrow-mindedness, but still smiled and said, “Not at all, not at all. I was just anxious to save someone, so I had no choice but to come uninvited. I’ve long heard that Mr. Harris’s alchemy skills are the best in Qin, so I came to ask for a way to save a life.”

As soon as William Clark said this, Robert Harris wanted to tear him apart. If Drunken Star Pavilion was the only one here, it wouldn’t matter. But William Clark had made a big show of coming, as if he was afraid no one would know he was here to challenge Drunken Star Pavilion, attracting a crowd of peers. Now the front hall was packed.

To say in front of so many peers that Robert Harris was the best in Qin was a real provocation. After all, there were more than just Robert Harris and Henry Clark as Grand Alchemists in the capital. Not to mention, even the royal family had a Grand Alchemist. If word of this reached the royal family, Robert Harris would be in hot water.

The royal family’s intelligence network spanned the entire country—who knew if there were royal spies among the onlookers?