Junior sister, I really need to control you.

Inside Baoguang Temple.

In front of the casting furnace shop.

Li Yinsheng pulled Mu Xiaoyu along and mingled into the crowd blocking the door and shouting insults.

After listening in the crowd for a while, he roughly understood what was going on.

Although the shops at the Casting Furnace Temple displayed many ritual implements that could be purchased directly, most of them were low-grade and unorthodox.

While some mid-grade magical artifacts are available for sale, there aren't many.

Firstly, there aren't many cultivators who can afford mid-grade magic artifacts.

Secondly, many mid-grade magic artifacts can be customized to a certain extent.

After all, a good magical artifact often accompanies a cultivator for many years, or even for a lifetime.

If one casually buys a magical artifact that doesn't quite suit their personality, they will feel uncomfortable for a long time. Therefore, when cultivators buy magical artifacts, they naturally strive for perfection.

Compared to buying a ready-made product, custom-made items are definitely more suitable for you.

Although it will inevitably be more expensive and you will have to wait for a while, it is still better than buying an unsuitable ritual object.

The reason these people were blocking the entrance of the casting furnace shop and cursing was because they had been stood up in the matter of forging magical artifacts.

Most of them had ordered mid-grade ritual implements from the Zhulu Temple's shop a long time ago.

But I haven't received the goods yet.

Most of them had come many times before, and each time they were brushed off, which naturally made them very angry.

In particular, not all cultivators who order mid-grade magic artifacts will be unable to obtain them.

If no one gets it, then we can feel a little more at peace with ourselves.

According to these people, many cultivators placed orders at the Forging Furnace Temple and returned with their magical artifacts within half a month to three months without any problems.

It is precisely these people who have been dragged on for a year and a half, or even two or three years.

The cultivators who can customize mid-grade magic artifacts are generally quite powerful. In Li Yinsheng's perception, most of these people have about thirty or even forty years of cultivation.

No wonder the people in the shop didn't dare to talk back when they were being cursed at by someone blocking the door; they just kept the door tightly shut and ignored it.

The monks outside who were shouting and cursing were already being quite restrained. If they were really angered, the shop of the Forging Furnace Temple would be torn to pieces in the blink of an eye.

However, Li Yinsheng was indeed very curious as to why some people could obtain magical artifacts while others could not.

Is this something that can be treated differently?

However, compared to this matter, what Li Yinsheng cared about more was that he wanted to buy things.

Inside the Casting Furnace Temple, there was a ritual implement that he wanted to buy for his junior sister, also for the sake of that matter he had considered yesterday—to add it to her schedule.

Judging from the current state, I don't know if the Casting Furnace Temple will even be open today.

Or... should we check out other shops that sell magical artifacts?

Just as he was pondering this, the wooden door was opened from the inside.

The female shopkeeper who had served him before and even given him a discount came out looking embarrassed and bowed to the indignant cultivators.

Seeing that someone was coming to deal with the situation, the monks cursed even louder.

However, this female shopkeeper was quite capable. She withstood the cultivators' accusations and persuaded and comforted them one by one, promising to deliver all the owed magical artifacts to them by the end of the year.

He also made some promises of future benefits to several cultivators whose wages had been overdue for too long before finally managing to get them to disperse.

Considering the female shopkeeper had given him a discount before, and since he still needed to buy things later, Li Yinsheng did her a small favor—

Among the troublemaking cultivators was one who was over forty years old and had a relatively high level of cultivation. At first, he was just speaking aggressively, but considering his past experiences, it was understandable.

However, as the man noticed the female shopkeeper was quite attractive, his tone gradually shifted, becoming increasingly suggestive.

Later on, they even started using fancy words.

The female manager, however, had to endure it because she needed to appease everyone.

Li Yinsheng then gave the man a slight warning, reminding him that it was fine to seek justice, but it was not good to use the pretext of seeking justice to speak rudely.

Fortunately, the man was sensible. After Li Yinsheng revealed some of his aura and gave him a warning, he became much more obedient.

When the female shopkeeper saw Li Yinsheng, who was wearing a straw hat and had come to her rescue, her tired eyes brightened noticeably.

Although Li Yinsheng had changed his robes and was no longer wearing them as before, his bamboo hat remained the same, and he was accompanied by his junior sister Mu.

With such obvious features, she certainly wouldn't fail to recognize him.

Once the crowd had dispersed, the female shopkeeper immediately bowed deeply to Li Yinsheng: "Thank you for your help, senior."

"It was nothing," Li Yinsheng said with a smile. "I was just about to buy some magical artifacts when this happened."

"Please excuse my poor performance, senior," the female shopkeeper said with a wry smile, leading Li Yinsheng into the shop. "Please come inside and let's talk."

Li Yinsheng led Mu Xiaoyu inside and they sat down in the inner hall.

The female shopkeeper ordered someone to bring over a pot of fragrant tea and several plates of pastries.

Mu Xiaoyu's eyes were immediately drawn to the several plates of exquisite pastries, and she kept stuffing them into her mouth one after another.

"What would you like to buy, senior?" the female shopkeeper asked seriously.

She knew very well that, despite the great commotion outside, the most powerful among those people was probably not as skilled as the young man in the straw hat in front of her.

Although the Zhulu Temple strictly forbids investigating the origins of guests, she was not entirely clear about the person's background or identity.

But based on his cultivation level and age alone, he must be treated with utmost seriousness.

Besides, they had just helped me.

Moreover, he is also very handsome.

"No rush, no rush," Li Yinsheng picked up his teacup. "Shopkeeper, why were those cultivators' magical artifacts delayed for so long?"

"And even if you try to appease them, you only talk around the subject and refuse to give them a clear answer as to why the delivery of the ritual implements has been delayed again and again."

Li Yinsheng voiced his doubts, not expecting the shopkeeper to answer him, but asking wouldn't hurt.

If the female shopkeeper said she couldn't answer or gave an evasive answer, he wouldn't press her for details.

However, he did not expect that the female shopkeeper, after biting her lip and pondering for a moment, would actually answer him.

"At this time, it is not proper to speak carelessly, but since you have just helped me, it would seem that I, a mere woman, would be impolite to keep it from you."

The female shopkeeper sighed and explained, "Those cultivators outside, their magical artifacts are actually 99% complete, but they're all stuck on the last step."

"Because we were just one step away from completing the project, we were unable to deliver the goods."

"What's the missing step?" Li Yinsheng asked curiously.

"This final step involves using top-grade cinnabar refined through secret methods to inscribe a spiritual rune on the magical artifact," the female shopkeeper said. "Not all magical artifacts require this step, so other magical artifacts can still be delivered normally."

"Why are we stuck at this step?" Li Yinsheng was very puzzled.

"Because we've run out of cinnabar to use for adding spirit runes," the female shopkeeper said with a wry smile and a shake of her head.

"Shopkeeper, are you joking?" Li Yinsheng was somewhat skeptical. "High-grade cinnabar is rare and expensive, but how could a prestigious casting workshop like yours not have been able to procure even a single piece of it for so long?"

"The temple does have high-grade cinnabar, but it has never been enough. In the last six months, it has been even more strained. So most of it has been used to make high-grade magic weapons, and there isn't much left for mid-grade magic weapons," the female shopkeeper said helplessly.

Li Yinsheng was even more surprised: "A prestigious casting furnace temple can actually be stumped by some high-grade cinnabar?"

"Senior doesn't know?" The female shopkeeper was also somewhat surprised. "Among all the Taoist temples under the Zhengyang lineage, except for Shouyi Temple, none of them are not troubled by high-grade cinnabar."

"Who said that? Our Xuanzhen Temple has never had a headache over high-grade cinnabar!" Li Yinsheng thought to himself.

"If top-grade cinnabar is so rare, why isn't Shouyi Temple included?" he asked.

"Naturally, it's because Shouyi Temple monopolizes all the high-grade cinnabar. Every Taoist temple has to buy from them, and can only buy from them." The female shopkeeper said this with obvious gritted teeth.

"Don't you care about lineage?" Li Yinsheng asked.

"The lineage turns a blind eye to this, after all... it is said that Shouyi Temple has quite a powerful backer within the lineage." The female shopkeeper shook her head.

"Shouyi Temple is domineering and takes advantage of everything in the Taoist temples," she sighed. "My Zhulu Temple has been targeted by Shouyi Temple because it refused to be exploited by them in the past two years, and now we are running out of high-quality cinnabar."

"That's really domineering..." Li Yinsheng couldn't help but sigh.

He was certainly familiar with Shouyi Temple. It was Shouyi Temple that had previously announced that it had "reserved" the spiritual vein of Xuanzhen Peak. As the person involved, he naturally knew this.

However, he never expected that Shouyi Temple would be even more powerful and domineering than he had anticipated.

Zhulu Temple was already one of the most powerful Taoist temples, but when the female manager mentioned Shouyi Temple, she said that Zhulu Temple would be exploited by Shouyi Temple.

In this light, Shouyi Temple truly deserves to be the number one Taoist temple under the Zhengyang lineage.

Unfortunately, it's a bit unethical.

The female shopkeeper then told him that the monk who had caused trouble at the entrance and spoken rudely to her earlier, although not wearing the robes of Shouyi Temple, was someone she recognized as a monk from Shouyi Temple.

I don't know if the other person is simply frivolous and rude by nature, or if they came with malicious intent to deliberately cause trouble.