“Miss Emily, what is the reason you arranged to meet with Mr. Brooks?” Jason Brooks lightly leapt down from the spirit leaf, his movements graceful and at ease. With a casual gesture, the spirit leaf transformed back into a streak of green light and flew into the storage pouch at his waist.

A series of fluid movements, fully displaying the demeanor of a noble young master.

“Hm?”

Originally following along to stir up trouble, Ethan Brooks took notice of this young woman and realized she was not simple.

Judging by her appearance, she looked to be around twenty, yet her aura had already reached the fourth level of the Qi Refining stage.

This already belonged to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, having reached the second realm of the three Qi Refining realms—【灵泉】.

In this ancient world, the Qi Refining stage was divided into three realms: 【玄桥】, 【灵泉】, and 【气府】, corresponding to the first to third, fourth to sixth, and seventh to ninth levels of the modern Qi Refining stage, respectively!

Each of these three realms had its own bottleneck, but once the bottleneck was broken through, one’s state would transform and strength would advance by leaps and bounds.

In terms of aptitude, this young woman was about the same as Young Jason.

After all, Jason Brooks also had a four-spirit-root aptitude, and at just nineteen had already reached the peak of the third level of Qi Refining.

For a moment.

Ethan Brooks became a bit more interested in this Miss Emily. If she and Young Jason became a pair—

Who knows, maybe with a stroke of luck, they’d have a child with three spirit roots, and wouldn’t that be a huge gain for the The Brooks Family family? “Young Master Brooks.” Miss Emily still wore a forced, ingratiating smile as she said, “My name is Emily Martin, and I’ve rented a shop in our 【佘山坊市】, where I run a 【法器维修铺】.”

A magic artifact repair shop?

With just you?

Jason Brooks glanced at her, sizing her up with some suspicion. “Get to the point.”

“Ahem~ It’s just that business hasn’t been good lately, and the rent has gone up a lot. Boohoo~ The market manager said if I can’t pay the rent, I’ll be kicked out.” Emily Martin put on a pitiful look, even pretending to sob a few times.

“I have no say in the market’s operations.” Jason Brooks frowned and waved his hand.

The She Mountain Market was a joint venture of the The Brooks Family, Zheng, and Zhao families. Although the The Brooks Family currently held forty percent of the profits, now that his great-grandfather had died, things were uncertain.

Besides, even if his great-grandfather were still alive, Jason Brooks had no right to interfere in the market’s operations.

“No, no, I wouldn’t dare ask Young Master Brooks to waive my rent.” Emily Martin gave an awkward laugh, stepped closer, and lowered her voice mysteriously. “Actually, I’m working on a project, and I invested too much in the early stages, which is why I’m having financial difficulties.”

Jason Brooks asked with some curiosity, “What project?”

Emily Martin said in a very serious, low voice, “A mid-stage Qi Refining puppet replication project.”

Jason Brooks’s face immediately darkened.

But Emily Martin continued on her own, excitedly introducing, “The project is at its most critical stage now, and it’s about to succeed! One hundred spirit stones—if Young Master Brooks invests one hundred spirit stones, I’ll give you a ten percent—no, a twenty percent share!”

“Really?” Jason Brooks’s eye twitched, his expression slightly excited. “With such a good project, why did Miss Emily come only to me, Jason Brooks?”

“Well, isn’t it because Young Master Brooks is young and promising, with a bright future ahead.” Emily Martin patted her chest earnestly. “I, Emily Martin, don’t just take anyone’s money.”

“I suppose you think I’m the foolish son of a cultivation clan. Dumb, but rich, right?” Jason Brooks laughed in exasperation. “Heh heh, puppet replication, and mid-stage Qi Refining at that. Since you’re making things up anyway, why not claim you can replicate Foundation Establishment puppets?”

“I actually have fragments of Foundation Establishment puppet blueprints.” Emily Martin blinked her innocent eyes. “But it’s too early to talk about that. At the very least, I’ll have to wait until I reach the Foundation Establishment stage before I have a chance to research it.”

Jason Brooks laughed and turned to leave.

“Your project is too big for me, Jason Brooks. I’m not lucky or wealthy enough to handle it. Goodbye~~”

With that, he walked away without looking back, releasing his flying spirit leaf as he went.

Seeing this, Ethan Brooks couldn’t help but chuckle.

Although his great-grandson was a bit naive and honest, he wasn’t too foolish.

And Emily Martin’s glib tongue reminded him, Elder Ethan, of his own youth. Back then, he was penniless, but managed to talk his way around until he finally built his current foundation.

Emily Martin looked utterly disappointed. She had thought she could take advantage of Ethan Brooks’s passing to sneak into the The Brooks Family main residence and find a wealthy sucker to invest in her project.

For this, she had even pretended to mourn at the mountain gate, squeezing out a few tears.

But who would have thought that the The Brooks Family’s great-grandson would be so uncooperative.

Could it be that she, Emily Martin, had run into a fake fourth-generation cultivator?

Just as Jason Brooks was about to step onto the spirit leaf and get away from this rogue cultivator scammer, he suddenly caught sight, out of the corner of his eye, of a delicate brocade pouch in the grass between the rocks at his feet.

His heart stirred. With a wave of his hand, a stream of spiritual power shot out, sweeping aside the surrounding weeds.

The brocade pouch was immediately revealed.

It was actually a storage pouch.

This kind of low-grade storage pouch had no spiritual imprint, so anyone could open it.

Jason Brooks picked it up casually, opened the pouch and looked inside—and his previously nonchalant expression instantly froze.