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Alex stayed in his cave, watching the standing pendulum move back and forth. The constant ticking sound was a clue at what speed the pendulum was moving in. The aura that came out of it was the Time aura associated with that level of speed.

Matching the two, if Alex could differentiate the aura and could tell the speed even without the sound, he was bound to learn the Time Dao sooner than later.

Pearl and Whisker sat around the artifact as well, but unlike Alex, they had no clue where to begin at all. They couldn\'t even feel the Time aura. Alex had only kept them there in hopes that they would soon begin sensing it.

Alex spent a few days doing his best to sense it all, but in the end, he failed to make the slightest difference. It was going to be a long while before he learned this Dao.

After a few days, he left the mountain early morning and returned back to Newsky City.

The sun was barely up when he walked out from the Teleportation building and made his way toward his store. Everyone seemed busy this morning, making their way to their businesses. As Alex arrived closer to where his store was, he was surprised to see an apothecary store open there. The thing that it was open this early and seemed to have been open for a while wasn\'t that surprising. What was surprising was the fact that there was another apothecary store just 3 buildings to its right that was also open.

Alex knew about this one, but that one hadn\'t opened before he left. It was a new one. He slowed down his pace, looking into the shops as he passed and saw a decent line of people waiting there. It wasn\'t anything great, but just enough so that they could keep on running without going into loss.

Alex walked away from the area, moving toward his store, and he found another one on the way. A new one.

\'Three? In such quick succession?\' Alex thought. \'How much money are they losing to shut us down?\'

It was a confusing moment for Alex. He had known this sort of thing would happen. It had happened with Wang Yanwei too. But seeing it happen to him made it feel more real, and the things he couldn\'t envision upon just hearing about the event were now plain sight to him.

When Alex finally arrived at his store, he couldn\'t believe the sight. Next to his store, there was another Apothecary store open right there. And it was just as big as his store was.

"They are not pulling any punches, are they?" Alex thought, unable to stop himself from chuckling a little. He walked into his store, with no more than 3 people waiting in line.

Compared to the others he had seen, this was a dismal amount.

"Things aren\'t going that well, are they?" Alex asked as he walked toward the group.

"You\'re back?" Fang Yuxie said with a bit of surprise to her face when she saw him walk in. "What happened? Weren\'t you supposed to stay for another month?"

"Oh? Has the news not traveled here yet?" Alex asked. Was Reverend Sixghost\'s sabers not that big a deal in the end?

"Boss!"

Rocksoul came running up to him when he saw him. Alex looked for the other staff, but it was way too early for them to come to work just yet.

"You\'re back, just in time to watch your store go under," Rocksoul said.

Fang Yuxie glared at him for his sarcastic tone. Rocksoul didn\'t shy away. He found humor to be the best medicine in dire circumstances. At least it helped them forget the pain for a few moments.

"It\'s that bad, huh?" Alex asked.

"Bad enough," Fang Yuxie said. "We\'ve had to increase the price of the pills to stay in profit. Sister Yanwei and I discussed this, and we thought this was the right thing to do. If not for that, we would have to let go of the staff.

"I see," Alex said. He looked around the store, understanding that the choice they made was one that hurt them. But they had no choice.

It was no different than when one\'s limb was dying from a life-threatening disease, so one had to cut the limb to let the person survive. Amputating a limb was never a good option, but it didn\'t mean it wasn\'t the right one.

Still, the disease had spread far enough, it appeared. They were bound to die soon if they did nothing.

Wang Yanwei walked out of the room with an old patient, passing him a talisman, before making her way toward Alex.

Rocksoul left, going to take over the customer and see if he could help him.

"I thought I heard your voice," she said. "You survived quite longer than I would\'ve imagined there."

"Longer? Isn\'t the secret realm open for a year?" Fang Yuxie asked.

"Yes, but I hear shenanigans happen in there all the time and most end up leaving long before that," she explained. "Are you going to get back to work or will you be resting for a few days?"

"I\'m… going to deal with the main issue at hand here," Alex said. "I\'ve let it run its course long enough."

Wang Yanwei raised an eyebrow. "And, just to be clear, what are you going to do?" she asked, but she knew the answer.

"The Duel, of course," Alex said.

The woman shook her head. "That\'s your plan? To lose it all at once?" she asked.

"Who says I\'m going to lose?" Alex asked.

"I do," Wang Yanwei said. "Remember, I make better pills than you, and I lost to them. Unless Ming Longxin is goofing off somewhere, we\'re not winning this. You\'ll have to reconsider what you\'re going to do."

Alex didn\'t give her words any thought. Instead, he asked, "During the time before your duel, were things as b bad as this? I see nearly two dozen stores all around us. And the one that opened next door, it\'s surprising we\'re getting any customers at all."

"We\'re getting customers. We have many loyal customers, which is why we haven\'t felt that much of an issue yet. But since we\'ve had to increase the pill\'s prices, many will leave for the shops that they will come across before coming to ours."

"As for how bad it was for me, no. Things weren\'t nearly bad enough. But then, they were also attacking me from a different angle. They targeted my suppliers. But since that didn\'t work this time, they\'re targeting the customers instead."

"I don\'t know how long our loyal customers can keep us afloat."

Wang Yanwei had begun frowning at some point. She had gone through this once already; she did not want to go through this again.

"I see," Alex said. "So the duel is inevitable."

"No, the duel is— listen to me. You don\'t want this duel. We\'re only guaranteeing this win for them. They\'re wasting a lot to get us at the moment. All we need to do is struggle for a little more."

Alex smiled and nodded as she spoke. "I understand," he said. "But I\'ve been waiting for this duel for a long time. I\'m going to go see how soon I can make it happen."