Starting the plan

"You…!" Finally noticing the face of the elder, the young man attempted to say something only to suddenly take water in his mouth. Pursing his lips, he stared daggers at Sheeren, only to lower his head in the next moment.

"I do apologize for acting rash. Please excuse this naive fool." Backing off, the young man gritted his teeth. Sending yet another look towards the girl, his expression only worsened before he stormed out of the building.

"Are you all right?" Not even bothering to move a single step away, Sheeren guided the man away with his eyes before directing them towards the girl.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Still…" Leaning her head towards the exit, Aina hesitated. But before she could voice out her protest, the old apothecary gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Our master sent me here. You did a good job." Praising the girl, Sheeren shook his arm before retracting it from the girl's shoulder. Turning his head towards the doors, the old man's face soured a bit. "I wonder if he will be all right…"

Outside of the shopping hall, Sebian already donned his disguise. With a random hat, spacious cloak and a clean shave done with just a few swings of a small knife, Sebian's looks changed drastically. For the price of just a few grade one stones, he managed to fully change his aura. From a random savage clad in poorly processed animal furs to a distinguished yet humble merchant.

'I wonder how long will that bastard take…' Even though he didn't saw the man's face previously, he could recognize his aura without trouble. Adding the strange way Aina acted for a moment back at the stall, there was no need to doubt it.

The party responsible for implanting the thought-manipulation bug finally made its move.

Leaning over one of the random stalls in the surrounding, Sebian calmly observed the situation across the street. And soon enough, the doors of the shopping hall burst open, with a young man walking out in a fury.

'So the game begins…' Shaking his head, Sebian brought several pills to his lips before chugging down a healthy gulp from a cup of hot wine he bought from one of the stalls. Consuming those refined pills whenever his constitution allowed, Sebian no longer had any reason to worry about the mana poisoning. Because what for others would be an ultimate curse and flaw, gave a whole lot of new opportunities to the alchemist.

With his pills reaching far higher grade than anything accessible on the local market, not only would they have a limited amount of toxins, their medicinal energy would also be far denser. And even if the alchemist could only absorb a silver of this energy, the mana could not be destroyed or wasted, just like the matter itself. And even though Sebian couldn't use most of the medicinal energy to raise his cultivation, that energy was still out there. Free for grabbing for anyone daring enough to reach for it.

Watching as the furious young man looked with hate and surprise at the shopping hall, Sebian finally moved away from the stall. Walking directly towards the young man, he passed by him as if it was nothing, moving ahead first. And in the single moment when there was the least distance between the two of them, all the powerful aura from Sebian's pill that he could absorb gently swayed and attached itself to the young man's energy.

'Huh, that wasn't easy…' With his cultivation sacked, even infusing the intent into the energy was a task barely within the scope of what the alchemist was capable of. Not daring to turn his head around, Sebian approached yet another stall only to lean over its products.

"Haah. I guess I need to go back." Sending one last look towards the shopping hall, the young man finally broke off from his daze before directing his steps directly towards the Gloryhouse sect. 'So he was exposed? I will have to praise that lass later on.' In the end, no matter how helpful it would be for the plan to have the girl cornered back at the stall, Sebian couldn't allow such a situation. That's why, as soon as he left the building, he made sure to erase his presence and rush to the nearby workshop. And with Sheeren's cultivation and willingness to heed any of the alchemist's orders, the apothecary could make it just in time.

The next few moments of Sebian's life were surprisingly easy. Unless it was some kind of technique, the young man appeared not to be wary of his surroundings at all. Not expending any effort or caution, he directly walked towards his sect. Showing some kind of token at the gate, he passed the entrance without any trouble.

'I guess he wouldn't want the news to spread…' As a wicked plan appeared in Sebian's mind, a wide smile appeared on his face. Walking towards one of the gate guards, he bowed his head deeply, before speaking up.

"Excuse me, may I ask for a bit of your attention?" Even though Sebian formerly stood at the top of the world, theatrics like that didn't pose any trouble for him or his pride. Because just thinking about what this man did to that sweet girl made Sebian's blood boil in rage.

In a sense, it was quite an achievement. To infuriate someone who saw literally everything, as the very first person in this entire world. 'I will spare no effort to destroy everything that he holds dear.' This silent conviction within the alchemist's soul was akin to the young man's fate being sealed. 'If I'm going to topple the biggest sect in this place just to get this girl in the bed, how could I be worried about making hell out of a random bully's life.

"What do you want?" The guard's response wasn't hostile, but simply bored. For someone standing at the gates of such a huge sect like this one, pesky merchants had to be a common sight.

"I do not wish to disturb you, but I came here with great news." Pulling out a small box of pills from underneath his fancy robes, Sebian shielded it with his own body from the crowd walking on the street before opening it up. "Sir, there are twenty Kubian pills within this box. From what I heard, all the sect members are banned from buying them, so I came here to conduct a mutually beneficial business." Passing the box of pills to the guard's hands, Sebian could see both the shock in his eyes and the jealous stares of the other guards nearby.

"Sir, what do you want to say? And what it is about sect members being banned from it?" Even though the appearance of Sebian's stall caused quite a ruckus, it was an event on the local scale for now. Only now, the reach of the news would explode rapidly. Because rather than confining the information to just selected few members of the various sects, Sebian was about to stir the pot and force everyone to participate in the farce he prepared.

"With all due respect, and please pay no mind to me as I'm only recounting what happened." Instantly bowing his head again, Sebian hid his face. At this point, he could no longer stop the corners of his mouth from twitching.

'This feeling of doing them in so easily… God, I forgot how exhilarating it is!' Shaking his head to calm his facial muscles down, Sebian raised his eyes at the guard before explaining in a low voice. "From what I heard, one of the Gloryhouse sect young masters greatly offended the senior disciple of a strange grandmaster who's passing by the city. In a fit of rage, he openly threatened all the sects in the area with an unending arrogance before banning their elders and disciples from buying even a single pack of pills."

At first, Sebian fed the guards just a slightly more colourful version of what happened. As the baseline of his story, it could be easily verified. Even if the discrepancy between his report and what others would say would be visible, anyone could easily amount it to just varying narrative abilities and natural shifting of information. But what he was going to say next, would finally put the first real nail to his plan of toppling the entire Gloryhouse sect to casually throw it at Aina's feet.

"Sir, I managed to make a small purchase myself. This box of pills is a token of my willingness to cooperate, and in a way, a proof of the might of that strange grandmaster." Pointing his hand at the pills, Sebian brought the guard's attention towards them once again. Because contrary to civilians, those pills didn't hold that great value for a member of a sect.

Given the support he was bound to receive for his work and loyalty, those pills would amount to a fair bit, but not an overwhelming value. "Sir. That mad grandmaster is selling them at less than half the price." Throwing the first bit, Sebian smiled. "The price of those pills would be about fifty grade two stones on the market, but that man is selling them for just twenty grade two stones. And I'm willing to bring them directly to you at a price of twenty-one stones."

With his smile widening even more, Sebian moved a step further. Despite lacking strength, especially in compression to someone tasked with guarding the gates of the sect, he seemed to overwhelm the stronger guy with ease. "And what's most important, there doesn't seem to be any limit on the purchase." Easing his presence, Sebian genuinely smiled. 'In the end, normal folk like him will benefit from the entire situation.' As wicked as Sebian could be at times and as relentless he was towards his enemies, he wished not to harm the common folk.

Ultimately, the Gloryhouse sect would fall. There was no escaping it. But over the course of its abolishment, others like him could rise. And as someone who grew up from the absolute bottom, Sebian felt a sense of obligation to grant opportunities to others clever or witty enough to follow his path.

"I saw someone buying ten packs at once. And the stall owner didn't even twitch as he pulled ten boxes like that!"