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"Who's asking about rent!" the young man bellowed with rage. Why would I ask you about rent? What use would renting this lousy place be to me?

The shop assistant was probably frightened by the young man's aggressive stance and stuttered as he spoke.

"G-Guest, you didn't make it clear, I-I didn't know you couldn't afford it," he stammered.

"You!"

The commotion from the young man was drawing too much attention, quickly catching the interest of the other diners.

"Isn't that the Left Chancellor's grandson, Li Zhuo?"

"He's the one known as one of the Four Young Masters of the Imperial City, Li Zhuo. I heard the Left Chancellor particularly dotes on this grandson?"

"Goodness, the person competing with Li Zhuo in terms of wealth is in for big trouble, aren't they?"

"Who would say otherwise? In the Imperial City, who dares to vie for attention with Li Zhuo."

"And that shop assistant, he's probably going to face disaster too."

Lu Yang wasn't very familiar with the prices in the Imperial City, and curiously inquired, "Is the rent for the Tianxiang Building very expensive? Why does it seem like he can't pay?"

Meng Jingzhou yawned out of boredom at the side: "A poor devil, understandable really. It's just about swelling one's face to fill out a fat man's figure, wanting to save face in front of a lady. Tighten the belt, order a pot of wine and a few side dishes, and that's all the money he can muster. As for the rent, even if he breaks his waist, he won't be able to come up with that amount.

Shop assistant, I'll pay a year's rent for this place!"

Hearing this, the shop assistant was overjoyed and immediately went over to serve Meng Jingzhou's table, giving him a shoulder rub and leg massage: "Thank you, sir!"

Li Zhuo's face turned alternating shades of red and white. He was extremely conscious of his public image, always flamboyant, and had never suffered humiliation here before.

He even felt that the eyes of those who recognized him and originally regarded him with awe were now looking at him differently.

He quickly tallied up how much he could extract in Spirit Stones: "It's just a year's rent. I'll pay two years for the Tianxiang Building!"

The shop assistant, delighted, rushed to Li Zhuo's side and began massaging with practiced movements.

"Three years," Meng Jingzhou said languidly, without even lifting an eyelid; to him, it was all chump change.

The shop assistant switched sides once more to Meng Jingzhou.

"Three and a half years...four years!" Li Zhuo didn't dare to take out that many Spirit Stones, but not wanting to lose momentum by settling for half a year, he upped it to another half year.

"Five years, and add today's expenses for everyone to my tab," Meng Jingzhou said offhandedly, feeling good about today and wanting to spend freely.

The shop assistant ran back and forth, wishing he could split into a clone to massage both patrons at the same time.

Li Zhuo was so angry that he wanted to curse. Who was this upstart anyway? Once he found out this person's identity, he would make sure he couldn't complete a single business deal in the Imperial City!

"Six years!"

He narrowed his eyes, glaring at Meng Jingzhou's detestable face: "Wait, I can come up with that many Spirit Stones, but can you?"

"Since you've already claimed you've got five years covered, you need to prove you've got that many Spirit Stones!"

Meng Jingzhou sneered: "I can come up with not only just the rent for five years but for six as well. I simply can't be bothered to compete with you, that's all."

"This is what you said!" Li Zhuo couldn't believe it. For his rival to pull out so many Spirit Stones, even he felt a great pressure to produce such an amount all at once.

"Go fetch a Meng Family member to collect the rent!" Li Zhuo ordered his guard. The Tianxiang Building was a Meng Family property.

He also had his guard go home to fetch more Spirit Stones as he didn't have enough on him.

Soon after, the housekeeper Xu You arrived, as he usually was the one to collect rent for the Tianxiang Building.

Li Zhuo, with much pain, took out a Storage Ring and handed it to Xu You. The six years' worth of rent he had scraped together would surely invoke the wrath of his father and grandfather if they learned of his actions today.

```

But it doesn't matter now, all that matters is getting this bad blood out.

Xu You checked the Storage Ring with his Spiritual Sense, and it indeed contained six years' worth of rent.

"Now it's your turn!" Li Zhuo stared at Meng Jingzhou with a death grip, "I want to see how you're going to produce six years of rent!"

Meng Jingzhou turned to Xu You and extended his hand: "Uncle Xu, give me some Spirit Stones."

Xu You passed the recently acquired Storage Ring to Meng Jingzhou. Although Meng Jingzhou was in disguise, that was how he looked when he arrived in the Imperial City, which Xu You had seen before.

"Look, six years of rent."

"You're a Meng Family Member?!" Li Zhuo realized, unable to suppress his fury any longer. He felt like a clown, played by the opponent.

"I'm playing you for sure! Scaring away customers and feeling justified about it!" Meng Jingzhou dropped the act and simply took off his mask.

Seeing this, Li Zhuo felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. The rage ready to explode dissipated completely, leaving him standing there, dumbfounded, before he started pointing at Meng Jingzhou with trembling fingers, exclaiming, "You're Meng Jingzhou?!"

How could this guy have come back!

Why didn't anyone inform him?

Or could it be that he is the first person to know of Meng Jingzhou's return?!

"Wow, Li Zhuo, growing some guts, are we? Daring to call this young master by name?" Meng Jingzhou sneered, twisting his neck and flexing his wrists with audible pops, step by step approaching Li Zhuo, who was so frightened he couldn't even bother about the beautiful companion in his arms anymore, and kept retreating.

The spectators watching the spectacle hadn't expected that the one competing with Li Zhuo in terms of wealth would be Meng Jingzhou.

"The Meng Family's Young Master has returned!" someone who understood what this meant shuddered inwardly. It seemed that the Imperial City would not be tranquil for the coming days.

"Who's the Meng Family's Young Master?" asked someone unfamiliar with the Imperial City.

"The Meng Family's Young Master Meng Jingzhou, the one who joined the Seek Dao Sect, haven't you heard?"

"How does he compare to the Four Young Masters of the Imperial City in terms of strength?"

"The Four Young Masters of the Imperial City are nothing. If Meng Jingzhou hadn't left the city, not one of them would dare to show their face. This guy once dared to hit the little prince hard!"

"I heard Li Zhuo was taught a lesson by someone, was it done by this Meng Jingzhou?"

"Right, it was him!"

"Who's the guy sitting next to Meng Jingzhou?"

"Don't know him."

Li Zhuo's face turned ashen, seriously frightened by Meng Jingzhou. He forced a smile and said, "Young Master Meng, what are you talking about? It's just that I was too excited to see you after such a long time, I forgot the rules."

"Old Lu, how about it, do you now realize my status in the Imperial City?" Meng Jingzhou boasted proudly. This was a rule he had set back then, that Li Zhuo and his ilk had to call him 'young master' when they saw him.

Lu Yang rolled his eyes, uninterested in engaging with him. What's the big deal? I'm the Sect Leader at the Seek Dao Sect.

"Old Lu... He's Lu Yang!" Those familiar with Meng Jingzhou's identity and who had read "Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect" could easily guess Lu Yang's identity, and they exclaimed in shock.

In terms of fame alone, Lu Yang's name was more widely known than the Left Chancellor's.

Maybe people didn't know what the Left Chancellor's name was or what he'd done, but they definitely knew what Lu Yang was all about.

"That disciple of Daoist Buyu, the next Sect Leader of the Seek Dao Sect, Lu Yang?!"

"That's him, now who else would dare to take the name Lu Yang!"

"How did both of them end up in the Imperial City!"