"Golden Qi Gu for sale!"
"The finest Golden hair Gu money can buy! Come quick!"
Huang Jin mountain is an interesting place. My brother is still in seclusion and left miss Kai in charge of our caravan finances, approximately 12 hundred primeval stones. Quite a grand sum.
I have always wandered how the trade market works, so I have asked miss Kai to give me 200 primeval stones to check out the exchange market and master this interesting craft.
I am no fool and being taken advantage of doesn't sit right with me. I would rather go along with miss Zhang and learn from her.
"Good afternoon Sir Chun." The beautiful maiden with her guardian and servant greeted me and nodded back at her.
"Thank you for agreeing to teach me, young miss. I have asked my brother in the past about the knowledge of this craft, but his explanations are... Quirky."
She looked surprised and asked "Is your brother a good merchant?"
Now that I think about it, how is Kai Nem so good at trading? Our hunts are profitable, but we are in no way better than credible and long standing Gu master hunting parties. How did he manage to get us such a priority and advantageous deals?
"I have known him for most of my life and I can say, with great certainty, he has a certain mastery over the craft. I believe he hasn't made a single losing investment for as long as I have known him. This includes high stake deals worth thousands of G-u and much greater amounts of primeval essence stones."
She nodded her head and said "The golden wares here are an interesting commodity, so I recommend buying some beautiful furniture to sell at our next destination, but make sure you keep a capital sum, so you don't end up with only items and no universal currency."
That seems reasonable, but I have never seen brother Nem use such a method. He almost always completely invests in one thing and never leaves any safety currency.
"I'll follow miss and buy a couple of items you recommend me." She nodded with a smile and I followed her to study the art of bartering.
...
"Excuse me, miss Xin Ci!" Guts, danger level?
Nothing, so a rank 1 or 2 weakling. I can humour him for a while. "May I inquire who you might be?"
The middle-aged man cupped his fists and said "I am the personal guard of lord clan leader, here on his command to ask for a favour."
Interesting. What could a Gu master want from a mortal like miss Xin Ci? "Please speak."
The middle aged man nodded and said "I have heard a rumour about a refinement Gu master being apart of your caravan and about his great feats in Zhang clan, so my clan leader wishes to speak with him."
"Impossible! I will not have him disturbed for some clan leader to try and recruit him!" Just a Jin clan leader and he thinks he has the right to interfere with my brother's cultivation!
The middle aged man furrowed his brows and said "miss Xin Ci, I would prefer you keep your guards in check. And you, mortal, I recommend you don't talk over a Gu master, if you value your life, that is!"
"humph! Arrogant!" Not even this entire clan could take me and my brother down! Why should I give you, a nobody rank 2 face?
Shang Xin Ci looked a bit conflicted and said "I am only a mortal, the man I am escorting is an almost rank 3 cultivator and a great refiner. We aren't qualified to ask for his time. He spends most of his time isolated, cultivating. Asking him to come out might incur his wrath. I hope you can understand my plight."
The man suddenly gulped and said "I will consult our clan leader about it. Thank you for your understanding, miss Xin Ci."
The pitiful Gu master fumbled away and I continued with my business.
...
Who the fuck's knocking on my door? It feels like a rank 3 Gu master is here. Ah fuck! This is the clan with that unfinished Gu recipe Fang Yuan extorted. The what's their faces... Huang Jin mountain gold-diggers. "Come right in!"
An older rank 3 with a young man entered my tent and I came out of my carriage. Whoever decided to build a tent arround my carriage is a genius and needs a promotion ASAP. Aside from that, this guy has no real adventage. I still have quite a bit of primeval essence, so I can fight at any moment and a simple rank 3 isn't my match.
The old man took one look at me coing down from my carriage and said "You are quite young."
He doesn't believe my credibility. What an arrogant prick! "You must be the leader of Jin clan. I would recommend against bringing your son into this meeting."
The message in my words is 'watch your tongue old fuck! Your little bastard is in arms reach and you don't have the ability to stop me from killing him if you're here for trouble'
It takes a couple of seconds for him to realise what I said and the shocked look on his face and my knowing smile and eyes are all he needed to realize he had lost the initiative completely and is fully passive now.
"You might be correct, but I prefer keeping my son close to me, so he can learn from me about how to manage our clan and external affairs."
I nodded my head "so, what brings the respectable clan head to my humble abode? If it is a small favour, then I would prefer we end this night on good terms." meaning: 'keep it short and to the point. You aren't worth my time!'
I might be a bit too overbearing, but I have the lower cultivation here. I need to fully stomp on him to the point where he forgets cultivation is even a factor and he rationalizes fighting a wisdom path Gu master with wit.
"I have heard you are a master refiner and wanted to request your help. My clan has been trying to develop a Gu recipe for a few years and a refinement master's insight would be quite useful for us."
I remember it was the golden silkworm Gu they wanted. According to the 4 ranks of it in baby alchemist, then this is a very simple Gu, with metal path progression. The recipe is mostly garbage tho and I can only make out, that no similar ingredients are used during refining. Either that or I am talking out my ass.
I figure out this technique when it came to me in a dream a week ago, so I ain't the best at it. Well, technically I am the ONLY one using it, so... Basically it works like this: Baby Dao Alchemist shows me the Dao marks of multiple ranks, I inspect them and compare the different ranks.
You need an incredibly comprehensive knowledge of how dao marks change using different materials for this technique to work, so it is completely unrealistic to even expect someone to use it, but what else can you expect from a technique thought up inside a dream? Abstract dream realms are a midfuck and a half I tell ya!
"I am well versed in metal path refinement the most, so I can provide the best insight if the Gu is of metal origin."
I have the most knowledge on luck path Gu worms, but hey, this guy doesn't need to know that.
The Jin clan leader made no movement and said "Quite a coincidence, as I need insight on how to refine a rank 3 metal path Gu worm. Here is a rough outline of the recipe. I would be grateful if young master does me a favour by inspection it."
The young man next to him scoffed with a smirk and I just took the recipe. What is this garbage recipe? The combination will make a golden silkworm Gu, but it is very wasteful. Jinzan grass has no other use, so might as well tho.
I'll improve upon this a bit and give it back. Of course I won't fall for the obvious pitfalls he made to mislead me. Jinzan grass should go with gold dust, about 13.2 kg of rank 1 marble gold...
"Here you go. I think this should be a pretty decent improvement. Though, I think I missed the recipe by 1 or two golden silkworm Gu, so don't hold me accountable if it doesn't work."
The young master was bored out of his mind and a bit irritated, as I took well over an hour to finish the base recipe. I actually figured it out in like 10 minutes, but I wanted to dully top off my primeval essence and not look like a refinement monster.
I worded my sentence carefully, so the teenager there doesn't understand what I meant, but the clan leader knew exactly what I was implying. Having his clans greatest secret leaked so blatantly probably spooked him a bit. "Though a bit of polish shine gold Gu would be a fine replacement. They have similar uses, so not much difference."
He tried to sell the recipe off as a polish shine gold Gu one, so I basically told him I know everything. "That's all for my remarks. I hope clan leader will appreciate my humble effort and pay me my fair due for this recipe."
The small smile on my face probably looked like a devil's wide-toothed grin to this guy, as I could see the cold sweat on his forehead. "I will not waste sir Gu master's time. If you ever need anything from my simple clan, then feel free to ask. I am not ungrateful enough to refuse after you did such a favour for me."
They probably have nothing I will ever use, but hey, at least I can get some clout out of this. Reverse engineering a Gu recipe is hard, but not as hard as making a new one. He won't reveal the full truth, but the truth he will reveal will be my actual competence level, so I basically just got a lot of fame in southern border.
Well, back to cultivating. "Jack, if I ain't being too big of a hermit, can you at least not let little shits into my tent? The jackass was scoffing so much you'd think he was having an asthma attack!"
Muffled aounds of laughter came from the outside and I just went back to cultivating peacefully.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.N.
Thank you Ken for all the stones! And hope you enjoyed seeing the glaring difference between Kai Nem and Chun Jack. If you didn't get it, Chun Jack is slightly arrogant and doesn't analyze much, while Kai Nem analyzes evey small detail to bully his opponent into submission.
A small P.S. for everyone. I know how unreliable I am, but bare with me here, I had a good idea. I am going on Hiatus for you lot. I probably won't upload for months or years. Quote, upload. I will try to write constantly for myself and get a bunch of chapters saved up. I'll probably finish the story and then slowly upload it afterwards, so you guys can have daily upload or somewhat daily uploads depending on if I feel like editing something during the upload period.
No
"We have entered Xiao Yue mountain's territory, the remaining journey is all uninhabited mountains and valleys. Gu worms and beasts roam free, and not even a hamlet exist. From tonight onwards, everyone has to place their full attention on the surroundings." Jia clan's leader instructed.
I must admit I didn't give enough credit to brother Nem about his merchant talent. Making a profit was quite difficult for me. Over the last month I have barely made any profits and am constantly fluctuating between 170 and 240 primeval essence stones. I guess merchant life isn't really for me.
I have gained a newfound sense of respect for miss Xin Ci as well. How she can make such lucrative trade deals is beyond my understanding.
Half a month after the rank 3 gave my brother a few thousand primeval essence stones for his service, we arrived at Hun Mu mountain,. place full of weird trees, trees Guts especially hated, to the point where he was on high alert the entire week we spent there and continued to be alert until miss Xin Ci sold off the entire stock of the weird spiritual wood to an elder at Da Fang clan multiple weeks later.
Though we did stop at a weird place, where it rained a dense and powerful oil water. Training to use Guts in that environment was extremely difficult and quite insightful. My profit Margaret took the biggest hit there.
My investment on the demand for this oil turned out extremely wrong and I lost half of the money I had earned. The only way I could keep my profits up was hunting beasts and selling them.
Peddling is... Quite far from my calling. Though miss Xin Ci handles her trade quite well. Our Valuation, I think it's called, has more than tripled, which is astounding! Such an amazing person!
The meeting of our caravan heads ended an hour later and I left it with miss Xin Ci and Co.
"I hate to admit it, but maybe I should retire as a merchant." I should at least give the miniscule wealthy I amassed away to the mortals. I haven't done much for them, so at least I can do them a small favour. Our parents won't take it back and I am no good at money management, so best give it away and let brother Nem handle all the finances in the future.
Miss Xin Ci looked at me with a sad expression and said "it was enjoyable teaching you on our journey. You are surprisingly well versed in trade, but luck wasn't on your side these few times. Don't let it get you down and keep trying, you have more knowledge than most caravan heads."
I have knowledge, but it comes from brother Nem's experience and wisdom, not my own. I can't compare to someone as talented as him. His genius is enough for the both of us, so I should focus on being better at protecting him, rather than waste my time learning something pointless like peddling.
"I did like getting to know you people along the way. Uncle Zhang might be a bit grumpy, but seeing a Gu master as kind and reliable as him is reassuring." I have to admit, Uncle Zhang sure is a good man. His ability to revive people at near death is enough to cover his lacking combat skill. He is quite amazing for a mere rank 3 cultivator.
"Awoooooooooo!"
What was that noise? I know people say all of southern border's wolves gather around this mountain, but there is no way that is true. Our first night and we are already under attack, just how is that possible? Didn't brother Nem personally share his luck with me and bless everyone else here?
"Miss Xin Ci, go warn my brother. This is a dire situation and I might not be able to keep everyone safe. Uncle Zhang, please keep her and sister Die safe. I will go out and help the others deal with these beasts."
Uncle Zhang nodded and they went towards my brothers carriage. I hope he has enough primeval essence to help us fight when he is alerted.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This doesn't make sense. In the second book, Fang Yuan was the one who lured the beasts out and used them for his own goal, tricking Shang Xin Ci. He isn't here, so why are the wolves here? This makes no sense and is extremely annoying. At least both my apertures have advanced enough for me to have maximum primeval essence of rank 2, 200% dark red primeval essence with liquor worms.
I can fight these beasts off, but this whole situation is nonsense. How could the beasts know to come here and attack us? Would the attack really have happened even without Fang Yuan?
"Master Kai, we need yo-" Notes for later. Now, how come Chun Jack isn't here to warn me? Does he seriously trust these three to come to a "vulnerable" me? I will let it slide this time.
"I know what is happening outside and I am going to help in a second. I just need to do something. Miss Zhang and Xiao, I recommend you stay here and be vigilant. Uncle Zhang, with me there will be no need for you to go out, so protect these two and the mortals of my group will be arriving soon, so make sure you let Eli Ni, Gon Tu and the Wangs in and keep them safe. I am counting on you."
I might not know these three that well, but if Chun Jack trusts them enough to send them to me, then I can trust them. I'll put my faith in Chun Jack's judgment for now.
With that out of the way, I left my tent. Wait, these MFs didn't give me a tent?! They put a tarp on a poke over me and just left me there! Oh I so am going to have a word with whoever thought this was a good idea. I mean it was, but still! I'm an refinement expert! Who the fuck puts a tarp over a refinement expert?!
Save that for later. Now what do I do about these wolves? As I look around, the most dominant ones are shadow wolves, some are gray moon wolves. A jade wolf? Okay now that's fancy!
"The southeast direction has been broken through!"
Is that Chun Jack over there fighting a hundred beast king? Well, these beast will require minimal primeval essence usage. I should be done in about 20 minutes.
"I'll take the southeast!" and with that I rushed over and checked on these beast. There are about 40 of them there. What a joke!
"Light of disintegration: 100 slashes!" and with that they are all dead! Each wolf was either beheaded or bisected. I have enough primeval essence to throw an attack with 160 slashes, so something as simple as 100 barely costs me half my total amount.
Rank 3 attack power against these weak normal wolves can do wonders. The mortals and rank 1 Gu masters stared in shock as I walked away "Fix the defenses here and make sure another break doesn't happen. I need to go and oversee some other area."
The mortals there gulped and quickly got to work. I can still go and fight, but I would rather watch and see how my family handles themselves. I know how to fight and do constant image training in dream realms, so my skills won't go rusty, but I haven't seen my mum or dad fight for quite a while and want to make sure they don't just die off because I am not there to protect them.
If someone is about to die, I will interfere. If someone dies, I will resurrect them. My mum is helping the injured and my dad is with Wang Da on the front line, throwing attack after attack. Zombies primeval essence regeneration is bottom tier, so I should probably give my dad a rank 3 lotus, so he can be at peak strength. Wang Da too. They are too important to just be physical fighters. That's gonna be about 2k down the drain, but I am unfathomably rich, so who cares?
2k is something I can afford to waste now, much less when I reach Shang clan city. Especially with how I will hold the purple emblem for saving her. Now let's see how things go.
It took these mortals about 10 minutes to do cleanup and a few people died. A lot more resources were lost and generally nothing good came of the raid, but I have been observing the situation out in the world and using emotion type Gu to check on the mortals.
Emotion Vision Gu can see what kind of emotions people emit and I can check on who they are thinking about while emitting those emotions. It seems Xiao Die has developed a little crush for my brother. Quite interesting. Shang Xin Ci has a friendly stance towards me, while Zhang Zhu is gray towards me and friendly towards Chun Jack.
I am guessing gray means weary, as he probably saw my lights of disintegration and knows he can't stop me. For now I will observe everything that is going on, as I don't understand how this is happening. Fang Yuan is extremely behind me. He will arrive about 10 days after I do at Shang Clan city, so it can't be him.
I need to find out if there is some kind of Saboteur here messing shit up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A.N.
I know I haven't updated in a while and this isn't an I'm back chapter. This story has been written to the near end of the second(3rd?) volume of reverend insanity. I'm still trying to write it, but while you wait for this, check out my other story. It is being updated regularly and has an MC loosely similar to Fang Yuan, so I know you lot will enjoy it.
Check out The Boys: Dominantion and enjoy it.
— Chương tiếp theo sắp ra mắt — Viết đánh giá
Bạn cũng có thể thích
bình luận đoạn văn
Tính năng bình luận đoạn văn hiện đã có trên Web! Di chuyển chuột qua bất kỳ đoạn nào và nhấp vào biểu tượng để thêm nhận xét của bạn.
Ngoài ra, bạn luôn có thể tắt / bật nó trong Cài đặt.
ĐÃ NHẬN ĐƯỢC