"Hmm?" Star Constellation turned her attention to the dream Shuai Ge was in: "Is that the legendary Shui Ni? How intriguing."
Star Constellation focused her attention on Shuai Ge's dream as it contained the first pioneer of Water Path.
"What a pity the Dream doesn't belong to Shui Ni, it would have easily boosted Shuai Ge's attainment to Great or even Quasi-Supreme Grandmaster." Star Constellation then turned her attention to another Dream.
Meanwhile,
Wet Hair was giving demands to Shui Ni, "I want a guarantee that I won't be chased to death by anyone from your clan after this."
Shui Ni gritted his teeth, "Done."
"I want 5 Water Path Immortal Gu."
The half-breed commander, Shui Li, was outraged,
"You!"
But Shui Ni held out his hand,
"I can agree but only Rank 6 Gu and 2 when now and the other 3 when you return my daughter." Shui Ni sounded calm and rational, but he was secretly clutching his hand hard behind his back, so hard he nearly popped a blood vessel.
"I want to kill this bastard," he thought to himself.
Wet Hair sneered: "Nice try, how do I know that once I hand over the girl, you won't stab me in the back!"
"You! I gave you, my word!"
Wet Hair snorted, "We didn't make an Alliance agreement so there's nothing actually holding you down, besides your word," Wet Hair spat at the floor: "And even if I did have an Alliance agreement with you, the difference in our cultivation would mean a light slap to the face."
"Besides, even if there was an Alliance agreement strong enough to threaten you, they wouldn't happen to be around here, and there is nothing stopping you from including small loopholes such as hiring assassins to kill me or setting up anonymous bounties on my head."
Wet Hair rolled his eyes, "I wasn't born yesterday you know."
Shui Ni gripped his hand extremely tight, "I have a way to guarantee that I will uphold my end of the bargain,"
Wet Hair's interest was piqued, "Oh? What's that?"
"There is a famous information Path Immortal that possesses the Rank 8 Immortal Gu Mountain Pledge Gu."
!!!
Rank 8 Mountain Pledge Gu!
Fang Yuan had once run into Mountain Pledge Gu before, back he was only a Rank 6 and he met Hei Lou Lan's aunt, Fairy Li Shan!
"Back then I was only a Rank 6 Gu Immortal Zombie, how times has flown," Fang Yuan lightly shook his head.
Fairy Li Shan appeared alongside Hei Lou Lan after they destroyed the eighty-eight True Yang building.
The former was the aunt to the latter.
Fairy Li Shan cultivated Information Path as her main, and Wood Path as her side.
Combat wise she wasn't very strong, even as a Rank 7, she could barely contend on equal footing against Fang Yuan's Strength Zombie, much less the current Fang Yuan.
But her true area of expertise was holding onto Rank 6 Mountain Pledge Gu!
With this Gu, she was famous amongst the Northern Plains as she was the mediator many big factions called to create alliance agreements.
The effect of Mountain Pledge Gu was incredible, as long as the mountain a pledge is made to still exists the alliance agreement would hold on.
Through this, Fairy Li Shan became incredibly rich.
And not many people messed with her directly because of her neutral status, even though she resided with the Snowy Mountain Alliance.
Unfortunately, she died alongside her sister, Blazing Heaven Demoness, during the battle of Yi Tian Mountain.
Fang Yuan sighed to himself: "How tragic, I must affirm myself to pursing Eternity!"
He would not follow in the footsteps of those he had to step over on his Path of Eternity.
"Mountain Pledge Gu…" Shuai Ge thought to himself: "This was not mentioned in the legends, in the legends, Shui Ni made a deal with the Demon Wet Hair, but I guess their deal was made under an alliance agreement."
Wet Hair contemplated the offer, "And how do I know you won't find some way to bypass the agreement?"
"After all, a Rank 8 like him would rather possess the favour of a Rank 8 like yourself, much less uphold a deal for the sake of a Variant like myself."
Shui Ni frowned, "Because Old Man Shan is someone with an incredible reputation to uphold, even amongst the Variants."
Old Man Shan!
That was another legendary person of the medieval antiquity era.
He was a rare person amongst Humans; impartial.
Whether one was a Human, Variant or even a Beast that gained intelligence, Old Man Shan would not refuse.
The only question was money!
Although he might have seemed 'benevolent' he was simply opportunistic and would not turn down any streams of revenue.
Though he was also an uptight person that was a stickler for rules and fairness.
He believed in establishing a good reputation that would allow him to do business with anyone.
"Illegal work is too much hassle." He said: "I rather have people come to me to do business rather than go to them."
Shuai Ge was shocked, "To think I would meet so many famous people in history."
Wet Hair responded, "In that case, I agree, bring over Old Man Shan to officiate the deal."
Before Shui Ni could leave to go get Old Man Shan, "Oh and one more thing, I'll also be taking 100,000 Immortal Essence Stones."
!!!
"You!" Shui Ni was infuriated but he held it in, "Fine."
Shui Ni exited the hurricane and went towards Mystic Water City, the capital of the Shui Clan.
In 10 breaths time, Shui Ni returned with Old Man Shan.
"Hohoho, to think you got yourself in such a jam old friend." Old Man Shan followed behind Shui Ni.
Old Man Shan had the typical visage of a wizened old man, he had an arched back, grey hair, and a long beard, he carried around a wooden walking stick and appeared frail and weak.
But no one would dare disrespect the man in front of them as he was a genuine Rank 8!
"Alright," Old Man Shan began cracking his fingers, "let's begin."
On Old Man Shan's right hand was a beetle.
It was thick and solid, bigger than an adult's palm, its body was ash grey with a stony texture, a pair of large pincers grew on its head, its back was not glossy and was instead rugged like mountains, and there were specks of stripes, like moss, on the joints of its legs.
It was Mountain Pledge Gu!
But unlike the Rank 6 version that Fang Yuan had seen, this Beetle's back was more than just rough and rugged, it had a full-on mountain, with moss and vines draping over it!
"That's not usual," Fang Yuan thought.
But before the agreement could begin Wet Hair shouted:
"Wait!"
Everyone turned to him.
"How do I know that the mountain you choose won't be destroyed so you can kill me?"
Old Man Shan chucked, "Not bad kid, to be able to keep your cool and inspect the situation so well, I applaud you, if you ever make it big enough to need my services, I'll give you a discount."
Shui Ni stared coldly at Old Man Shan.
Old Man Shan ignored Shui Ni's stares and proceeded to explain, "You see this mountain on the back of the Mountain Pledge Gu?"
Wet Hair nodded.
"That's a mountain I shrunk with an Earth Path Killer Move and incorporated onto Mountain Pledge Gu! So, to destroy this mountain would be to destroy this Mountain Pledge Gu!"
Wet Hair revealed an incredulous shocked expression, "How do I know you won't do that just so Shui Ni would owe you one?"
Old Man Shan let out a cackle, "Boy I liked your moxie once but doubting me a second time is pushing it. Listen, not only is this Mountain Pledge Gu my livelihood it's also the thing holding up some of the biggest political plays in the Central Continent, if this Gu dies, so do those bonds and the ensuing political storm would easily swallow me or Shui Ni!"
Wet Hair nodded politely under the threat of Old Man Shan, after all, it was evident that this guy gave no Fs.
"Now let's finish this thing, I charge by agreement, not by the hour and I'm thinking to redo that policy."
Shui Ni and Wet Hair stepped forth.
"I, Shui Ni, agree that in exchange for my daughter, Shui Xin, alive and completely unharmed, to give Wet Hair, 5 Rank 6 Water Path Immortal Gu, 100,000 Immortal Essence Stones and abstain from making any attempts on his life."
"I, Wet Hair, agreed to return Shui Xin, alive and completely unharmed, in exchange for those conditions."
2 lines of Information Path Dao Marks extended from Mountain Pledge Gu, towards their souls and bodies.
"And with that the agreement is complete!" Old Man Shan clapped his hands.
As soon as the agreement was complete, Shui Ni took out the 5 Immortal Gu and 100,000 Immortal Essence, while Wet Hair forcefully stopped his refinement, causing his Rank 6 Gather Water Gu to take serious injuries.
Old Man stood in between the 2 men to facilitate the exchange.
Both men passed their respective goods to Old Man Shan.
Old Man Shan first passed Shui Xin to Shui Ni.
"Father!" Shui Ni tearfully embraced her Father.
"Shh, its okay everything is fine now,"
The next words didn't come out from Shuai Ge but from the true Wet Hair himself,
"My Gu and money now." His hand held out toward Old Man Shan.
But Old Man Shan just chuckled, "What Gu and money?"
"You!" Wet Hair was outraged and wanted to point his finger at Old Man Shan, but as he tried to point his finger, he realized that he couldn't feel his hands, in fact, he couldn't feel his feet or legs either.
The last thing he heard was Old Man Shan saying, "You know, you were right to suspect that something might happen to you, but you were focused on the wrong person. You see while I don't involve myself in conflicts or illegal deals that only applies to the level of Rank 8! Taking Gu and Immortal Essence from you is hardly considered stealing, in fact, I consider it payment via unwilling messenger."
Old Man Shan had a sadistic grin on his face as Wet Hair was slowly dusted from existence, "You should have read the fine print more carefully, can't you see the tremendous emotional damages you indicted on Ms Shen Xin? How is this considered 'completely' unharmed."
Old Man Shan turned away from the now dusted Wet Hair and shook hands with Shui Ni, a gentle smile plastered across his face:
"Pleasure working with you as always, here's the 4 Immortal Gu back as promised, I always keep my word."
Shui Ni shook back, " A pleasure working with you as well, Old Demon Shan."
The new Keyboard is awesome!
So smooth and bouncy.
Though I'm still getting used to it.