A sudden coolness settled on his head; it turned out that the spiritual energy from the Hongjun Pagoda was surging down in a direct infusion, traveling straight to his Dantian before sweeping upward. Jun Moxie instantly felt the suffocating sensation vanish.

Invigorated, he quickly utilized this new influx of spiritual energy to recover his cultivation. After regaining only a third of his power, he could wait no longer. He activated the Yin-Yang Escape technique immediately!

Puff! Jun Moxie finally thrust his head out of the ground, gulping in the fresh air. He felt utterly reborn. Breathing greedily, My heavens, he had never realized the air could be so lovely and delicious!

Gasping heavily, Jun Moxie still hadn't noticed that only half of his body had emerged from the soil; roughly his lower half, from the waist down, remained buried.

“Young Master!!!” A voice pitched an octave higher suddenly rang out. The little loli, Ke’er, came running, crying as she rushed over, “Young Master, what happened to you? Who did this? How could they be so cruel, so immoral, burying someone alive? Waaah!”

Jun Moxie How could I tell this girl that I buried myself? That would be too humiliating! No, I absolutely cannot say it. Dear lady, please stop shouting! You’re deliberately exposing my embarrassing secret to more people!

With immense effort, he managed to persuade the little loli Ke’er to stop her torrential weeping. Jun Moxie painstakingly "pulled" himself free, much like a sapling yanked from dry earth, wrenching his waist and aching his legs until not a single part of him felt comfortable. This was all solid ground, with absolutely no give; it would be strange if it didn't hurt!

Though Ke’er was entirely one of them, the fewer people who knew about such a bizarre incident, the safer it was. Jun Moxie had intended to rest a bit, then run his cultivation method again to extract himself without injury. But being unexpectedly discovered by Ke’er turned him into a tragic figure.

He certainly couldn’t just whoosh out of the ground in front of the loli, leaving nary a depression behind, could he? That would be too outlandish! It might scare the little girl into a nervous breakdown on the spot. And if she couldn't keep her mouth shut, the consequences for Third Young Master Jun would be severe.

Forcing himself, he clawed a large hole in the ground, finally scrambling out completely exhausted and collapsing onto the earth to lie still...

After sternly warning little Ke’er not to speak a word of it, Jun Moxie was just thinking of returning to his room when suddenly a—

“Heavens! Ahhhhh!” A dramatically modulated shout, laced with intense musicality, erupted from Fatty Tang’s room, shaking the very firmament. This immediately sent the severely weakened and utterly spent Third Young Master Jun tumbling into a squatting position on the ground.

In two lifetimes, the great killer Jun had never been so humiliated. All the embarrassment of both lives seemed to converge on this single day!

“Third Young Master! Oh, my dear Third Young Master! Brother Moxie, my lord, my great lord! Where are you? Hurry, hurry!” Fatty Tang’s pig-slaughtering cries echoed across the heavens. The sheer, explosive noise, saturated with intense joy, sounded like a lecher who hadn't seen a woman in eight lifetimes suddenly catching sight of the Seven Fairies bathing naked before him!

Heart pounding with dread, Jun Moxie cautiously pushed open Fatty Tang’s door. Inside, Tang Yuan’s personal maid was shaking like a terrified sow, hiding behind the door and trembling incessantly. It was the dead of night, and Fatty Tang’s ear-splitting, ghost-wailing cry had caused the surrounding Jun family watchdogs to respond in unison—the aura was magnificent.

“Oh my god!” Fatty Tang remained in his state of high expression, looking at Jun Moxie with tear-filled eyes, violently trying to struggle off the bed. His expression was one of overwhelming excitement and fervor. His small eyes, mostly obscured by fat, were miraculously wide open, his face glowing with the light of pilgrimage. He looked exactly like a devout Buddhist suddenly beholding the presence of Sakyamuni appearing before him...

“Damn it! My lord, lie still! Get back down!” Jun Moxie rushed forward in three quick steps. If this fatty truly fell off the bed, he’d likely be crippled for life. If the man was crippled in his own home, Jun Moxie would be in deep trouble too. How could Jun Moxie not panic?

“I—I—I, you I I I, you,” Tang Yuan trembled, tears streaming, his lips shaking, “I I I, you, you, you—”

“You what, you! Stop with the ‘you you me me’!” Jun Moxie glared, furious, “Fatty, can I call you Big Brother, okay? Please, stop losing your mind! It’s the middle of the night. Even if you don’t rest, others need to. Take pity on my watchdogs; they’ve been working hard all day. Can’t you let them rest? Must you stay up all night to cheer with them?”

“I I I—I’m going to die, damn it!” Tang Yuan stared blankly at Jun Moxie, then suddenly burst into sobs, “Third Young Master, Brother, I truly did not know you possessed such talent for regulating the empire, wisdom for stabilizing the nation, unfathomable schemes, a mind that shakes the heavens and changes the storm, a genuine, unparalleled genius whose brilliance illuminates the world! I, I, my admiration for you is like the ceaseless torrent of the great river, surging in wave after wave. It is like the eternal pillars of the Heavenly Punishment Forest, the eternally white peaks reaching the sky, like the boundless, perpetually surging, fiercely turbulent ocean! Damn it! I... you really are—”

“Stop!” The barrage of flattery left Jun Moxie dizzy and somewhat disoriented, yet he sensed that the praise wasn't entirely about him. Finally, with a sliver of clarity before he was completely drowned, he cut off Fatty Tang’s endless chatter, “What exactly do you want—”

This fatty must have an ulterior motive. How am I so talented? While it is fact, if I’m this talented, everyone should see it. How could just this fatty figure it out? My brother is secretly profound.

“This business strategy—” The fatty shook his hand, clutching a few sheets of paper, “—Did you really write this? You didn’t hire a ghostwriter?”

Jun Moxie nodded, utterly confused, “Yes, what about it? For this little thing, I’d need a ghostwriter?”

He really didn't need a ghostwriter. Young Master Jun, in his past life as the King of Assassins, often had to play various roles and assume different identities, so he needed some basic knowledge. For instance, the proposal he gave the fatty—that proposal wasn't even top-tier work; perhaps any graduate from a famous commercial university could have produced something better than what Young Master Jun drafted!

It was just some simple conceptualization; he couldn't write anything too profound.

Is it really that amazing?!

“What do you mean, ‘what about it’?” Tang Yuan grabbed Jun Moxie’s hand with inexplicable excitement and fervor, squeezing it tightly, “Master, Master, you are above, please accept this disciple’s bow! No, no, Master, please, you must take me as a disciple, even as a grand-disciple is acceptable! Waaah, I’m too excited!”

Jun Moxie immediately felt his hands enveloped by a thick sponge and tried desperately to pull free. The fatty used all his strength and wouldn't let go. Young Master Jun was at his lowest point of physical energy and genuinely couldn't wrench his hands free. He could only hear the fatty pleading tearfully, “Master, Master, please show mercy and accept your disciple.”

“Fatty, if you keep acting like this, I swear I’ll throw you into the pigsty alive! Let go of my hand quickly!” Jun Moxie threatened viciously, then scratched his head in confusion, “This plan, does it actually have some merit? Is there really such a thing as the protagonist’s 'turtle' aura, where throwing out something random makes underlings cry out to cling to your thigh?!”

Tang reluctantly released his grip. Hearing Jun Moxie’s words, his eyes immediately widened, and he exclaimed indignantly, “What do you mean, ‘some merit’? There’s a limit to self-praise, even if this is clearly the ultimate compendium of commerce! It is a monumental invention never before seen or heard! It is a sacred text worthy of every merchant in the world worshipping and studying diligently for a lifetime! But you must still be humble; that is the bearing of a true master of the commercial world!” As he spoke, Fatty Tang grew agitated again.

“Uh? Is it really that good?” Jun Moxie felt genuine doubt. How did I become a master of the commercial world? After all, he’d never actually run a business; at most, he’d played the part. The data he included was merely everything he could recall from the two previous eras of his life, hastily written down to let Fatty Tang judge and utilize. He truly had no confidence in it.

He hadn't expected Fatty Tang to praise it so highly. It was entirely beyond his expectations.

The great killer Jun had clearly overlooked the limitations of the two eras he had experienced, the comparative nature of commerce...

Having no knowledge is terrifying!

But possessing knowledge centuries ahead of its time is even more terrifying!

Tang Yuan took two deep breaths, then winced, his face contorted. All his recent commotion had agitated his wounds. Before, he had been too “excited” to notice, but now that he had settled down, the pain was apparent. The fatty grimaced, “Third Young Master, quick... quickly check my backside... Is it bleeding? It hurts terribly!”

“Ugh!” Jun Moxie gagged, “Damn it, I’m not looking! If you spray again, I still need this face for chasing girls.”

Tang Yuan was simultaneously angry, amused, pained, and embarrassed, “Damn it, do you think I can just spray whenever I want? I didn’t take any medicine today, and I barely ate!”

Jun Moxie adjusted his wound and said seriously, “Fatty, let’s be serious. The ideas in here, can they truly be used?”

“Believe me! This is absolutely the golden rule for all merchants in the world! It’s full of ingenious ideas never before seen! As long as we follow what’s written, with only minor adjustments, it will be only a matter of time before you and I amass fortunes and become the richest men on the continent!” Tang Yuan swore to the heavens, brook no argument. “Third Young Master, as long as you have the goods, watch how I, Tang Yuan, open our shops across the entire continent! Damn it, even the Xuan Beasts in the Heavenly Punishment Forest, as long as they use silver, I can open a store among them!”

“That’s good then!” Jun Moxie sighed in relief. “From now on, I’m done with this area. When your injuries heal, you are responsible for everything. Remember, regarding any commercial matters—hiring people, buying land, construction, recruitment, opening stores, maintaining secrecy, and so on—do not seek me out for anything else! I truly have no interest in this stuff!”

“Rest assured, I understand. When a master stands at the pinnacle, they disdain repeating a journey with no rivals. I truly understand! This time, I, Tang Yuan, will handle the legwork for you, and the gold and silver will roll in; just watch!” Tang Yuan said confidently, his eyes immediately refocusing on the papers. He kept reading and murmuring in admiration.

“Then I’ll go sleep; I have things to do tomorrow,” Jun Moxie tested cautiously.

“Scram, scram! Don’t disturb my excitement over this good thing.” Tang Yuan waved his hand dismissively, like shooing a fly, his eyes still fixed on the papers.

“Hmph! Just now you were begging to become my disciple, and now this attitude! You unfilial disciple, destroying your master!” Jun Moxie cursed resentfully, but received no reply; Tang Yuan’s attention was entirely elsewhere now...

Young Master Jun walked out sulkily.