"Huh?"
Ming’s sudden question caught Yeon completely off guard.
He stared at Ming for a long moment. On Ming’s usually carefree, airheaded face, a rare trace of awkwardness flickered.
"I asked you: how long have you and Miss Suzy known each other?" Thinking Yeon hadn’t heard him clearly, Ming repeated himself, his voice dropping slightly.
Yeon gave him a deeply peculiar look. "Since when do you care about something like this?"
"Never mind that! Just answer me—how long have you two known each other?" Ming’s pitch rose a notch.
"Not long at all. She only came to Mountain Town for the first time about a month ago," Yeon explained.
"Oh."
Having received an answer, Ming reacted with visible coolness—it clearly wasn’t the response he had been hoping for.
Yeon took a step forward, his brows furrowing. "Why are you asking all this?"
"I just thought you two had known each other for a long time," Ming muttered, lowering his eyes.
"So what if we had?"
"Nothing."
Ming’s lukewarm reaction sparked an inexplicable flare of annoyance inside Yeon. What’s with this guy’s attitude? Wait a second... what is he actually trying to get at?
"I’m heading back first," Ming said, turning away.
Yeon couldn’t be bothered to deal with him and took a few steps forward. But after a moment, something felt off. He turned right back around and caught up to Ming. "You aren’t... hitting on Miss Suzy, are you?"
That familiar, awkward look flashed across Ming’s face once more, making Yeon’s frown deepen.
"I’m warning you—don’t go getting any weird ideas," Yeon snapped, pointing a finger at him. "Miss Suzy is my top client! I’m not gonna let you mess things up."
Hearing this, Ming blew a fuse too. "Miss Suzy is my top client as well! Who made you the boss of everything? What I do is my own business!"
The two locked eyes in dead silence, unseen sparks practically crackling in the air between them. Finally, both jerked their heads away in unison and strode off in opposite directions.
Yeon suddenly felt a wave of regret. He regretted bringing Suzy along to watch the commotion in the first place, and he regretted helping Ming out—only for the bastard to hit it off with Suzy!
He felt a vague, sour lump in his chest, though he couldn’t quite put a finger on why. Thinking about how Ming had walked away with two whole bottles of divine spring water while he only got one made Yeon even more depressed.
Oh man, this is bad... what if this guy actually steals my primary client away?
Yeon had been planning to act as the middleman, taking his cut to earn more divine spring water from Suzy down the road. Now, a real sense of crisis was settling in.
If Ming wedged himself into the deal...
Panicking slightly at the thought, Yeon immediately rushed toward the trading platform with his bottle of spring water, eager to fulfill all the errands Suzy had entrusted to him as quickly as possible.
Reflecting on it further brought him a sliver of comfort. Ming was nowhere near as well-connected as he was, nor did he have access to his vast web of channels. Suzy needed plenty of resources that Ming simply couldn’t procure on his own.
Having successfully cheered himself back up, Yeon happily set off to handle his business.
Meanwhile, Ming was practically sprinting back to his house.
The moment he stepped through the door, the first thing he did was pull out the bottles of divine spring water from his spatial pouch to inspect them closely.
This stuff is ridiculously valuable.
Remembering that Suzy had handed him two bottles in one go, Ming couldn’t help but marvel under his breath: What an absolute mogul! I HAVE to stick to this gold mine!
He was fully aware now of just how precious this liquid was—the sheer frenzy Yeon had displayed earlier said it all. He had two full bottles sitting right here; who knew how many spirit stones they could fetch?
Am I actually about to get filthy rich?!
Grinning ear to ear, Ming tucked the two bottles back into his storage pouch. Next, he pulled out all the fresh materials he had purchased today.
As for the rough, low-grade materials lying on his desk, Ming didn’t throw them away either—he neatly stowed them into his spatial pocket instead. Every bit counts—these are worth money! Even if I don’t use them, reselling them will still fetch a few spirit stones.
With his workspace cleared, Ming sat back down at his desk and began drawing talismans for Suzy.
She had requested a wide variety of charms. Ming wanted to rush through them and finish every single one before her next arrival. If he had spare materials left over, he could even toss in extra talismans as free gifts.
If I give her great perks, she’ll definitely keep coming back to work with me, right?
Ming’s thought process was simple: as long as his service and bonuses were top-notch, the odds of Suzy choosing him over Yeon would skyrocket.
While Ming was grinding out talismans with absolute focus, Yeon was busy paying house calls all over town, hunting down various resources for Suzy.
At the exact same time, Suzy had successfully materialized back inside her spatial domain, feeling immensely accomplished with her heavy haul.
Instead of leaving right away, she took a stroll around her domain to check up on her territory. Munching on the assorted spiritual pastries Yeon had bought for her, she sampled them one by one.
She had to admit, pastries infused with spiritual energy were on a completely different level of deliciousness. Even tech-manufactured modern snacks fell short in comparison.
However, Suzy didn’t finish them all. She only ate a tiny portion and stored the rest in her spatial inventory, planning to share them with Leonard and the others later. She certainly wasn’t going to keep such good stuff all to herself.
Once she finished her stroll, Suzy pulled out the Earthbind Talismans Ming had freshly crafted for her. Then, following the activation instructions he had shared before they parted, she prepared to test one out.
Using a talisman was remarkably straightforward—Suzy didn’t even need much practice. Likely because her body had been nourished and restructured by the divine spring water, she naturally retained a trace of spiritual energy, which was more than sufficient to trigger basic charms.
Reciting the word "Activate" in her mind, a soft, pale halo instantly manifested around her.
Immediately afterward, Suzy could clearly feel the earth beneath her feet becoming solid and firmly compacted. No matter where she stepped, the ground instantly stabilized, holding completely firm beneath her boots.
Though there were no actual fissures on the ground to test if the Earthbind Talisman could knit cracks back together, her gut instinct told her it would work effortlessly!
Before long, the talisman’s duration ran its course.
Based on her observations, Ming’s talismans were exceptionally stable this time around—no delays, no misfires, and no erratic stutters whatsoever.
It proved her theory correct: the only thing holding Ming back had been his low-grade paper.
Satisfied with the Earthbind Talisman’s performance, Suzy did a quick headcount. Having used one out of the fifteen Earthbind Talismans, she had fourteen remaining. In addition, Ming had crafted six Wind-Rider Talismans for her before time ran out.
Though her inventory was limited for now, Suzy was more than content.
Ending her test, she walked toward the outer boundary of her domain to attempt stepping out into the real world.
She didn’t succeed on the first try, but she could clearly feel that the spatial barrier preventing her departure had weakened significantly.
After resting inside the spatial domain for another two days, Suzy smoothly crossed over into the real world.