章節 43: Ghu Clan Young Master
Yaan spent the whole day working at the store. During this time, he didn't see or hear from the shopkeeper a single time throughout the day
Only seven customers appeared during the day. Five of these people were curious cultivators who wandered in off the streets. When they saw the shabby looking store, they entered hoping that they might get lucky and find something for cheap. Yaan served them properly, successfully selling wares to three of those people.
Aside from the feminine looking man, another person with a gold coin entered the shop. This person was a gloomy looking youth with extremely sunken and eery eyes. Despite looking exhausted, he emitted a powerful aura that didn't match his youthful appearance. When this person's gaze wandered towards Yaan, the youth's expression changed into one of surprise, then curiosity. He didn't say anything though, only showing Yaan his gold coin silently.
The young man spent around half an hour in the basement, then returned with the storekeeper, who wore a flattering smile to see him off. This was a rare occurrence, igniting Yaan's intrigue.
When Yaan asked the shopkeeper about that youth, the slobbish man only spoke four words:
"Ghu Clan young master!"
Yaan had now encountered two members of the Ghu Clan, and both of them left a deep impression on him.
The Ghu Clansman was the boat driver. Outside of North Ghu City, that Peak Spirit Core Realm man in a dull grey robe used a shocking spell to tear the Spirit Core out from his opponent. Not only that, but his bizarre spell even devoured the Spirit Core!
Now, this youth with a gaze that was somehow lacking in energy, yet terrifying at the same time, once again proved to Yaan that the Ghu Clan was no ordinary clan.
Well, this should be obvious really.
There were many factions in the Ghu Province that were led by Origin Soul Realm cultivators, yet the Ghu Clan was able to rise above the rest, ruling as the provincial overlord for the past 1,800 years!
That night, Yaan continued to read through the material identification book. He also spent some time cultivating his demonic body.
Two days earlier, when Leon showed him around the area, he took the opportunity to buy some materials. There were many pills that would be useful to Yaan. That said, basic natural resources like demonic beast bones fragments, hearts and some types of blood, as well as natural herbs and fruits, were all significantly cheaper. Since he didn't have much money to squander, he ended up spending 32 Rank 2 recovery pills on these sorts of natural materials.
Aside from his recently purchased resources, he still had a few Rank 2 demonic beast bone fragments remaining.
"I really do need to work…" Yaan sighed and shook his head. During a short three hours of cultivation, he used up one fifth of his body tempering resources!
For now, Yaan didn't want to think about this matter. He had just found a job and there were many useful ventures he could explore besides cultivating, so he decided to spend more time on these side endeavours, whilst reducing his time spent cultivating to an hour or two each day.
This may not sound like a lot, but it should be remembered that even when he was travelling through the dark forest, Yaan didn't spend much time actually cultivating. For body temperers, cultivation consisted of consuming materials and absorbing the energy from within.
This process could be sped up and controlled via meditation, but most of their time would be spent on trying to obtain resources. Unlike Qi refining cultivators, body tempering cultivators couldn't sit around all day, refining the Spiritual Energy in the atmosphere. If a body temperer wanted to improve, then it was essential to procure a continual supply of resources.
And so, since he could not cultivate his body endlessly, Yaan decided to practice his Agile Sword Arts, whilst making the most of the books in the shop to broaden his understanding of the world.
The shop contained a variety of identification books, as well as guides towards cultivation and other such works. Yaan hoped to find some texts or perhaps maps which outlined the entire Ghu Province, or even the lands beyond, but he quickly learned that such things were quite valuable, and would not be found in a store such as this one.
Anyway, since he wasn't harming the shopkeeper's business by simply reading these things in his spare time, Yaan guessed that lazy man probably wouldn't care.
A month drifted by peacefully.
Yaan only took six days to memorise the contents of the shop, along with everything in the identification guide which was given to him by the shopkeeper, so after his first week of work, his earnings increased to three Rank 2 recovery pills each week. The shopkeeper was impressed by his rapid memorisation and diligence, but the large man still remained more or less indifferent towards the business carried out above ground.
Around one out of every three people to enter the shop carried those special gold coins which identified them as 'true customers'. Whenever such a customer entered the shop, they met with the shopkeeper in the basement to conduct their dubious business in secret. The other customers were mostly poor cultivators, hoping to find a good deal within the rundown looking store.
Some of these customers only appeared once, whilst others seemed to have a regular appointment with the shopkeeper. The gloomy looking Ghu Clan young master was one such person. He made an appearance in this store on the same day of each week, and every time he visited, he would look at Yaan with curiosity, as if he had something that he wanted to say. In the end though, he never said anything.
Yaan was equally curious about this Ghu Clan young master, but he knew better than to ask questions. In this world, being too nosy could easily invite trouble.
On this day, as the shopkeeper saw the young man off once again, the eery looking Ghu Clansman finally stopped and spoke to Yaan. His voice was deep and slow, bit it was what he said that truly shook Yaan.
"You're not human, are you…?"
Yaan's body became stiff. Under the scrutinising gaze of this person, he found it difficult to maintain a normal expression. After all, he didn't expect the Ghu Clan young master to suddenly touch upon one of his most deeply held secrets!
Unexpectedly, the Ghu Clansman actually started smiling when he saw Yaan's reaction.
"The Ghu Clan doesn't persecute the demonic races, but it's still best to keep this a secret…" After saying this, the young man shot the shopkeeper a look, who seemed to understand something and gave him a subtle nod.
The pale young man didn't wait around for Yaan to reply and unhurriedly left the shop. The shop bell rang out as the door closed behind him, awakening Yaan from his stupor.
"Yaan…would you like to earn a bit more?" The shopkeeper asked him, seemingly from nowhere. Yaan turned towards the large man and saw that he didn't appear to care at all about the Ghu Clan young master's shocking words.
"You…"
"Don't worry, I don't care about you being a demon. I happen to know a few demonic race people in this city."
After hearing this, Yaan relaxed slightly and pondered over the man's words.
He naturally wanted to increase his earnings, who wouldn't like to earn more money? However, this matter was even more important for Yaan, since he was struggling to afford sufficient resources to support his cultivation with his current earnings of three Rank 2 recovery pills each week.
This wasn't even a bad wage, but at this current rate, he would need to work for two more years just to afford enough resources to cultivate to the Late 2-Star Realm.
This speed actually wasn't bad at all, it just wasn't as impressive as what he was accustomed to.
Because of this, Yaan had been considering the battle arena. There were a few battle arenas in North Ghu City. Each arena provided cultivators with the opportunity to earn a quick profit by taking on the risk of loss, or even death.
However, Yaan was always worried that his identity as a member of the demonic races would be exposed.
Well, he had already been somewhat exposed, but fortunately, it sounded like that Ghu Clan young master and the shopkeeper wouldn't reveal his secret to others…or at least, he hoped that was the case.
"What is this work, and how much extra would I be earning?" Yaan asked directly. He knew that this work was most likely related to the shopkeeper's business in the basement. He wasn't sure what nefarious things this might entail, but he was willing to do whatever it took…so long as the pay was sufficient!
"Corpse trade!" The large man stated plainly.
"Huh?" Yaan blinked, not expecting this answer.
"My store buys and sells the corpses from the nearby arena, directly dealing with the Ghu Clan. The Ghu Clan makes income through various means in the city. Despite being a demonic clan, they maintain this city as a peaceful place and leave their demonic status out of the equation. Corpses make up a big part of their income, but selling them publicly wouldn't be ideal for their image. So, they trade with stores like mine in secret."
"You…buy and sell corpses?" Yaan stared blankly. Whatever he had imagined, it certainly wasn't this!
"The corpse trade is common amongst cultivators, stop being dramatic." The large man rolled his eyes.
"Ah, right." Yaan nodded slowly. Thinking about it, there was a sect that specialised in corpse puppets back at the Northern border, they probably had similar dealings to this. It was possible that they even bought corpses from the Ghu Clan!
"Then, that Ghu Clan young master…" Yaan realised something.
"Right. He's the provider of the corpses."
"I've never seen him walk in with a corpse before though…ah! He must use a spatial ring."
"So you understand. His name is Ghu Nadda, he brings me a few corpses from the arena each week. He signalled to me earlier that you would be acceptable to take on this job. He does the job for pay from his clan, but I suppose that he has other things he would rather spend his time on. I told him before that I would try to find someone to transport the corpses for him. The pay is ten Rank 2 recovery pills for each round."
"So I would be able to earn an extra ten Rank 2 recovery pills each week?" Yaan's eyes widened and his heartbeat sped up slightly. This wasn't just a slight boost to his salary, he would be earning over four times more if he took on this additional job!
"That's right." The shopkeeper nodded. "All you need to do is collect the corpses and listen to Ghu Nadda's valuation price, then bring them here. I'll assess the value myself, if it's close enough to whatever Ghu Nadda stated, then we have a deal. After that, you go back to the arena and give the young master his money. Oh, you still need to work as my shop assistant, though."
In the end, Yaan agreed to this arrangement. Whilst dealing with corpses felt like a somewhat grim business, the pay was too enticing to refuse.
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