Grace ignored Augustus and continued to gulp down bowl after bowl of food. "Another one, please," she demanded, her eyes never leaving the endless array of dishes laid out before her.
"Well, thankfully we're at a buffet," Augustus remarked, watching in awe as Grace devoured her food. "But it looks like we won't be able to come back here again. Shame, it's a pretty good buffet joint."
Suddenly, one of the waiters approached their table. "Excuse me, have your friend finished eating?" he asked, clearly irritated.
"I'm sure she'll be done soon," Augustus replied sheepishly, not wanting to draw any more attention to their table.
Grace looked up from her food, her mouth still full. "I've only eaten 40%. I can eat 60% more," she said boldly, undeterred by the waiter's impatience.
Augustus tried to enjoy his steak, but he couldn't help but be disturbed by Grace's ravenous appetite. "Why aren't you eating? The food here is delicious," Grace said, noticing his lack of enthusiasm.
"I'm not that hungry," Augustus replied, feeling slightly self-conscious.
"Here, have some dumplings," Grace offered, dropping a few onto Augustus' plate.
"Thanks," Augustus said, slowly picking at his food as he watched Grace eat.
After what seemed like hours, Grace and Augustus finally left the buffet, their time limit up. As they walked out, Augustus received a message from Ian about the contract.
[Brother, I have processed the contract]
[Great, please send someone to this address.]
[As I mentioned, there's another person that I would like you to take care of.]
As they waited for Ian to arrive, Augustus couldn't help but feel uneasy about Grace's insatiable hunger.
Finally, a car pulled up in front of them, and Ian stepped out. "Long time no see, Brother Gray," he greeted Augustus.
"We're equal business partners now. Just call me August. And this is the girl I mentioned, the future alchemist that we're investing in," Augustus introduced Grace to Ian.
"Yes, Brother August," Ian smiled brightly as he got acknowledged.
"This is the girl I mentioned - the future alchemist we're investing in." Augustus introduced Grace to Ian, the person that will be taking Grace from now on.
I looked at the young girl in front of me and raised an eyebrow. "This little girl? How old is she? Twelve?"
"I'm seventeen," the girl, Grace, interjected, clearly unhappy with being treated as a child.
"What?! You're so little," Ian exclaimed in surprised.
"Treat her with respect, she's our bank account. She might look young, but she can already refine grade-3 pills." Augustus proudly introduce here like she's his daughter.
"Ah, as expected of Brother August," Ian nodded in agreement. "You have found such a gem."
As we continued to chat, we arrived at the mansion where Ian resided. "Young master, we have arrived," the driver informed Ian.
Ian quickly got out of the car and opened the door for Grace and me. "Please treat it like your home," he said to us with a small smile.
"Did you live here alone? Don't any of your brothers or sisters live here?" Augustus asked, as this place is not supposed to lived by one person, he's afraid Grace would get bullied by the pampered children.
"I lived here alone, they don't like me that much, so my father decided to give me my own mansion," Ian explained with a hint of sadness.
'His family hates him that much?' Ian's family must really have something against him to buy him a mansion and never see him again.
"It's fine. You have me on your side," Augustus reassured him, feeling sorry for his situation.
Despite his ruthlessness, he was still young and had done an impressive job following my plan.
Ian's eyes lit up with gratitude as he heard Augustus' statement . "I'll follow you forever," he promised.
"Oh, yes. Here's the money you invested in the herbs. I doubled it as promised. I used some of it for Grace's clothing and food just now, if you don't mind," Augustus transferred the money to Ian's bank account with his eyephone.
"I'm totally fine with it. In fact, Brother, you should take all of it. I didn't do that much," Ian said, impressed by Augustus' work. We had secured 5% of grade-3 pill profits, which had an estimated net profit of over twenty billion per month.
"I'm glad that I met Brother Gray. I got to turn ten million into billions in investment," Ian marveled as he read the contract he had signed earlier.
"You did a lot too. Without your connections in the underworld, we wouldn't have been able to buy Deadly Lotus and Venom Weed. Moreover, we also secured over twenty kilos of them," Augustus acknowledged his contributions.
"Hehe, Brother, you're praising me too much. The people that I hang out with knew someone. That's all," Ian humbly replied.
As we were about to enter the mansion, we were stopped by someone who seemed to be an attendant of the mansion where Ian lived.
"Young master, can you tell us who they are? Your father won't be happy if you bring more outsiders to this mansion," The man stopped us from entering the mansion, "concerned" about Ian's father's potential reaction.
As we approached the mansion, a stern-looking attendant blocked our way, seemingly tasked with the duty to keep an eye on Ian's activities.
"What? This is my mansion, I do what I want with it," Ian scolded the attendant and demanded that he move out of the way. "F*ck off."
The attendant stood his ground, reminding Ian that the mansion belonged to his father, and he was bound to follow his father's rules.
"Both of them are my business partners and one of them is going to live at here," he explained, trying to reason with the attendant.
The attendant scoffed at Ian's answer, "Business partners? I'm sure they are but I won't let anyone cause trouble, I'm assigned by your father to keep you on check."
"If your friends is able to force me to move, I'll deem him worthy of entering the mansion." The attendant said to Ian.
"I'm sorry, how about we rent a house?" Ian apologized to Augustus, feeling embarrassed about the situation.
But Augustus was undeterred. "What is the rule?" he demanded, stepping in front of the man with confidence.
Upon closer inspection, the attendant was taken aback by Augustus's physique, noticing that he was as tall as him and his muscles were toned, as if he were a trained soldier.
He quickly scanned Augustus's strength and realized that he was at the Pinnacle of Foundation Establishment.
"How old are you?" the man asked Augustus, his tone no longer as hostile as before.
"I'm 17, turning 18 this year," Augustus replied, smiling confidently.
The attendant was surprised by his answer and asked, "What are you doing with Master Ian?"
"You call him Master now? After you disrespected him in front of his friends?" Augustus countered, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"I respect my master but not his friends," the attendant replied, staring at me with disdain.
"Then you better should be respecting his friends," Augustus retorted.
"Prove it to me, make yourself worthy." The attendant scoffed and challenged Augustus to prove himself.
"Then you better not move," Augustus replied, "Ian do you have it?" he signaled to Ian.
Ian understood the assignment and took out a sword from his dimensional storage.
[Reinforced Steel Sword, Grade-2 Equipment]
[Stat Increases: +5 STR]
[Requirement: Foundation Establishment Realm]
It was not the best sword Augustus had ever seen, but it would do the job as revealing Dawn Blade isn't the best choice.
Augustus grasped the hilt of his sword tightly and prepared to unleash the only technique he had spent years perfecting.
"Finally, I get to use Ichimonji's Strike on someone!" He had trained for years to perfect this technique, only to be scolded by Leo for wasting his time. But now, he was back in his original world and had a chance to showcase his skills.
Observing Augustus with a mix of confusion and disdain, the man sneered, "What is this guy doing? He's channeling his power? I'm three realms above him. There's no way an attack from Foundation Establishment could hurt me."
The man was a Soul Formation Realm cultivator, two realms above the Golden Core Realm.
But undeterred by his opponent's strength, Augustus focused his mind and channeled his sword aura and mana into the blade.
He also infused his Qi to enhance the power of his shoulder muscles, preparing himself for the decisive strike.
"Since this guy let me prepare all this, he better get ready for it," Augustus thought, determined to make the most of his opponent's mistake.
The man watched as Augustus swung his sword down with force. The attack was slow in his eyes, but he noticed that the power behind it was overwhelming.
As it descended closer, the man felt as though his life was flashing before his eyes. Instinctively, he knew that he had to dodge this attack if he wanted to survive.
In the last split second, the man blinked and swiftly sidestepped Augustus' attack. The ground split apart, and the damage extended all the way to the back, destroying the main hall of the mansion.
The man sweated profusely, imagining what would have happened if he hadn't dodged the attack.
"I thought you wouldn't move from your spot!" Augustus said, frustrated that his opponent had dodged the attack.
"Kid, you charged your attack for like five seconds straight. What was I supposed to do?" the man complained.
"You're at a higher realm than me. You should have taken it like a man," Augustus retorted, irritated by the man's lack of sportsmanship.
Ian, who had been watching the scene, was in awe of Augustus. "Brother Gray, you're so cool! How did you do that? My attendant here is at the Soul Formation Realm, and you managed to scare him!"
"I'm sorry about the mansion," Augustus apologized to Ian, aware that the damage caused was his fault.
"There's no need to worry. Urgo will fix it up. It was his mistake," Ian assured him.
Urgo, who had been silent until now, bowed his head in apology. "My apology, Mr. Gray. I will take responsibility for my mistake."
Urgo bowed his head reluctantly as he's someone from Soul Formation Realm bowing to bunch of kids, even the Chen Family head regard him highly. 'I'll have to report this to the head.'
"Feel free to enter this mansion," Ian said, gesturing for Augustus and his companion to follow him. "And don't worry about Urgo. He's just being extra cautious."