Li Yunxian arrived in Yinhai City but didn’t head to Sheng Yu as originally planned. Instead, she went straight to the trading market.
This was her starting place, and she was here to turn the tables and make a stand. So, Li Yunxian took off the mask covering her face.
With furrowed brows and blazing eyes, she called out the names of the so-called “chief culprits” right away: “Zhao Longhua! Xu Wanying! Bo Xu….”
She shouted several names in succession, her voice sharp and commanding, “All of you, come out here!”
Such a commotion immediately drew a crowd’s attention toward Li Yunxian.
The people from other cities showed surprised expressions, glancing at the billboard, then at Li Yunxian, as if confirming whether she really was who they thought she was.
But the shopkeepers in the market who poked their heads out wore looks of delight.
“Teacher Xiao Li, you’re back!” They waved excitedly at Li Yunxian, and before long, she was pulled into a shop.
Before Li Yunxian could say a word, they cheerfully exclaimed, “Teacher Xiao Li, you’ve been offline for so long—we were all scared out of our wits.”
“A while ago, someone did a divination online, saying you were captured by those alien races, claiming to be a Nascent Soul. If you hadn’t logged in soon, everyone would have thought it was true.”
Li Yunxian raised an eyebrow. “Since when did they say I was captured?” she asked curiously.
The shopkeepers didn’t expect her to ask that and hesitated briefly but answered, “Quite a while ago, about a week back.”
Li Yunxian thought back—she seemed to have still been outside the city a week ago.
Come to think of it, it could kind of count as being captured by aliens.
She let that topic slide and returned to the main point. “Where are your bosses?”
She hadn’t seen a single one of them.
Li Yunxian figured it couldn’t be so bad as to make them all flee en masse.
“They’ve all gone to other cities to expand their businesses.” The shopkeepers smiled behind their hands and, after Li Yunxian’s pressing questions, finally explained what had happened during her absence.
The clarification video they released quickly caught the attention of the Yixing Star System.
After all, Li Yunxian had led the people of Yinhai City through the alien beast surge, which had been a hot topic at the time.
Now, the person involved was releasing live footage from the scene, reviving the heat that had already cooled.
And as expected by many, the baseless rumors were debunked, but Li Yunxian and her team’s popularity only skyrocketed.
Rumors stop at the wise; many people originally just listened for entertainment, treating it as gossip without taking it seriously.
But this new video was different.
The first-hand footage from the interstellar era let viewers experience it as if they were there.
Some viewers felt personally rescued, the suspense factor maxed out, and they instantly became fans, enthusiastically recommending the video to those around them, mimicking the people in the footage shouting “Boss” at Li Yunxian.
Others, the more rational types, remained calm and started analyzing how Li Yunxian managed to lead such a group through the alien beast surge.
From personnel coordination to tactical deployment, and naturally, to all the medicines, magical tools, talismans, and formation plates she used.
Those who had heard of new things in Yinhai City pondered how these items could be combined and used this way.
Those unfamiliar asked directly where such things came from.
The Yixing City Authorized Shop in Yixing City welcomed a small shopping boom.
This was an unexpected pleasant surprise for everyone, but nobody took it too seriously.
After all, Yixing City was a neighboring city of Yinhai, and these products had long been stocked there; only a few were unaware.
During the second wave when Li Yunxian released proxy authorizations, many local merchants in Yixing City obtained them.
However… after people in the Yixing Star System continued watching and the hype grew, Li Yunxian’s clarification videos began to be promoted widely on interstellar online platforms.
Their popularity broke boundaries.
***
At that time, the Yinhai Star System was busy dealing with the alien beast surge both online and offline, paying little attention.
When the crisis finally ended and Yinhai City reopened, before they could catch their breath, the Transmission Zone suddenly flooded with crowds, instantly filling the entire area.
“I have never seen so many people!!” one shopkeeper, recalling the scene, expressed a heartfelt awe.
Li Yunxian couldn’t help but smile.
“So they really did go to farther new cities to develop business, huh?” she summed up.
Without waiting for an answer, she reopened her message box, which showed 9999+ unread messages.
She scanned through the latest messages, picking out the more substantial ones.
Sure enough, they were all applications from new star systems asking to become her proxies and expand.
Glancing at a few, she noticed they all began by asking if something had happened to her since she hadn’t logged in for so long.
The timing was roughly the same as a week ago.
Just like what the shopkeepers said—a Nascent Soul diviner had predicted she’d been captured by aliens a week prior.
The shopkeepers also gave Li Yunxian a confirmation and shared some information she hadn’t expected.
“It’s not just that. Old Ancestor Yisuan’s divinations are quite famous. People also wondered since no one in the entire Yinhai Star System had seen you—maybe you were in another star system.”
“If you were really captured, what if no one rescued you?”
The shopkeeper gestured outside with his hand.
“So everyone agreed to put this up both online and offline at shops. If something really happened to you, everyone would know immediately.”
Li Yunxian rolled her eyes hearing this. “And it doubles as advertising, right?”
“Did your bosses give you extra pay for spouting this nonsense to me?” she teased the shopkeepers.
They chuckled. Judging by their expressions, they’d earned quite a bit.
Still, Li Yunxian believed their worry for her was genuine, and the heat and advertising were real as well.
They might even be using this opportunity to curry favor with her, hoping to be prioritized for future authorizations.
It was a normal business tactic—killing two birds with one stone.
Li Yunxian didn’t bother overthinking their less-than-pure intentions. Her heart warmed a little, and she wasn’t as upset as before.
Just as she was feeling touched, she heard the shopkeeper’s chuckle and words.
“But now everyone treats these ads as your official authorization mark.”
“Shops that don’t display anything related to you are probably selling fakes.”
“After all, if they dare to show it, it means your business is involved and they won’t be sued for image rights.”
“Think of it as an anti-counterfeit certification.”
Li Yunxian:
Li Yunxian:
She actually felt like suing them all.
Dizzy and a little dazed, Li Yunxian finally stepped out of the shop.
Only then did she notice the trading market was much less crowded than before.
And… the counters were almost completely sold out.
No stock left. Of course, with fewer people, the shopkeepers had plenty of free time to come chat with her.
As Li Yunxian left the trading market and walked through Yinhai City, she realized it wasn’t just the market that was empty.
The streets throughout Yinhai City had hardly any people.
Li Yunxian was stunned.
After some thought, she headed toward the wilderness area.
There were no signs of people at the usual alien beast spawn points.
Not even in the areas where guilds gathered.
What?
Had Yinhai City become a ghost town?
Li Yunxian opened her message box and messaged Sheng Yu, asking where she was.
Within seconds, her phone buzzed incessantly.
“I’m here in Huanhuo City!”
“Boss, you finally logged in. I thought you forgot about me, boohoo.”
Then came a flurry of Sheng Yu’s questions, asking if anything had happened to Li Yunxian in reality.
Li Yunxian answered briefly and got straight to the point: “I’m back, but why is the whole city empty?”
In response, Sheng Yu’s voice cracked with tears.
“They were all drafted.”
“The new cities actively reached out for markets outside the previous authorization areas, and everyone said the slow hands would lose out.”
“Every living person in the city was dragged off to expand the market.”
“I haven’t slept for a week, ahhhhh.”
Li Yunxian:
Li Yunxian:
So miserable.
Feeling like she was the culprit in various ways, Li Yunxian sighed inwardly.
Looking at the endless stream of crying messages in the chat box, she closed it again.
She looked up at the empty city beneath her feet and then at her account balance—growing exponentially, but it was just game currency, numbers she could only regard as virtual.
She sank into thought.
Jin City wouldn’t allow modifications…
What about Yinhai City?
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.