Now that the election for a clan leader has finally finished the awakening ceremony can be held.
It's been about three months since it was supposed to be held and there has been no sign of my next nemesis, either they're hiding and biding their time before striking or they've appeared somewhere far away. I'm reluctant to go further in the cave with the possibility of them ambushing me, but if they don't show up by that time I'll still proceed to see if there's any sign of the Blood Sea Ancestor's inheritance in that cave.
There are no notable prospects this year, the highest aptitude was a 67% man. Hardly anything to write home about. I tune out Chi Lian's speech about the importance of family, I have other issues to worry about.
I've already used up all of the gu that I got from Chi Lian to get a full set of rank 5 gu from the moonlight gu series.
Rank 5 Crimson Blood moon gu will serve as my main method of attack. The clan archives have a recipe to advance the blood moon gu to rank 4, the recipe for advanced to rank 5 wasn't mentioned. Deducing the recipe for this gu wasn't too difficult, most of the recipes for the moonlight gu series are fairly simple.
Rank 5 Heavenly Moon Armor gu will serve as my main method of defense. This is the rank 5 version of the rank 2 moon raiment gu used as a defense method by most of the clan. The main downside of this gu worm series is the absurd primeval essence cost it has, which thanks to the rank 5 blood frenzy gu won't be an issue. This gu worm generates a barrier over the gu masters skin, much like the jade skin gu.
Rank 5 Moonlight Treasure King gu is a support type gu worm. Its main function is to serve as the core of a killer move. It's ability is to pull the energy from the moon raiment gu worm series into the moonlight gu series, creating a much stronger moonblade.
The dream wings gu and dream travel gu combo will serve as my preferred method of movement, as usual. Teleporting with almost no cost to primeval essence is stupidly good.
Chi Lian's speech is finally over. "And remember, we are all family. We must rely on and help each other rise to ever greater heights!"
Going by the surge of cheering and clapping it appears that his speech went over pretty well. The Jia clan caravan is going to arrive in about a month, hopefully they have something good.
—
3rd person POV.
Chi Lian smiles and gives Jia Fu a deep bow. "We welcome the esteemed guests to our village!"
Jia Fu smiles and gives Chi Lian a small bow. "We gladly accept your hospitality."
The balance of power between the Jia clan and the Gu Yue clan has tipped significantly in favor of the Jia clan, requiring the new clan leader, Chi Lian, to show deference to Jia Fu.
Jia Fu is a rank 4 gu master, he alone is enough to wipe out all of the Gu Yue clan at a mere whim. Chi Lian says. "I would like to invite you for a cup of tea, we have much to discuss."
Jia Fu politely shakes his head. "I would prefer that we do business tomorrow, we are weary from our travel."
Outright refusing the invitation of another clan leader in this manner can be considered a small insult. Chi Lian smiles and nods. "Of course, we can discuss our business any time you wish."
Jia Fu gives Chi Lian a final small bow. "Thank you for your understanding, the same area as usual has been prepared for us, correct?"
Chi Lian nods. "Of course, the same area that you have always occupied during your visits."
Jia Fu motions for the caravan to follow him. "Many thanks, we will see eachother tomorrow."
Chi Lian gives Jia Fu a final deep bow. "I will wait for word from you."
Jia Fu leads the caravan into Gu Yue village, taking great care to analyze and catalogue all changes that have occurred since their last visit. The southern part of the village is identical to before, it is as they go deeper that the damage becomes more apparent.
Destroyed homes become more and more common as they get closer to the northern part of the village. Mortals carrying construction materials, be they planks, nails or anything else, are an ever present sight. Jia Jin Sheng claps his brother on the shoulder. "I told you that we should have bought those cheap labourer's, we could've sold them for quite a tidy profit here."
Jia Fu sighs. "You're right, we would've made over double the profits. I just didn't expect the village to have been breached to this extent."
Reconstructions after large beast tides will always have a single thing in common, no matter the village. There is much work to be done, and not enough manpower to work it all. Logs must be cut into planks, ore must be processed and turned into nails, bodies must be cleaned from the streets. Jia Jin Sheng shrugs. "To be honest I didn't expect the village to be this damaged either. I doubt that we'll make much profit from continuing to trade here."
Jia Fu shakes his head. "We will come next year as well and decide on whether to continue stopping here then."
Jia Fu pays the eavesdropping mortals no mind. Usually a conversation like this would've been best held behind closed doors to avoid the contents of it spreading, but that is precisely what Jia Fu wants.
The purpose of having this talk in public is not to indirectly inform Chi Lian that they are reluctant to continue visiting Gu Yue Clan. In truth the worth of Gu Yue village as a trading partner to them has risen, not fallen. Their profits will increase as the chaos in the village increases. The reason for this discussion to be public is to put Chi Lian on the backfoot and be more lenient during negotiations.
Sniding Chi Lian publicly was also part of this plan, the Gu Yue clan now needs the Jia clan more than ever before. A good merchant will always strike while the iron is hot.
—
Fang Yuan POV
With all of my recent blackmailing and bribery I've become quite the rich man, so much so that I find myself at a loss as to what else to purchase from the Jia clan caravan.
I've submitted bids for a rank 3 golden white silver relic gu, a multitude of rank 1 and 2 gu to use as refinement materials and even bid for their most expensive gu available, a rank 3 earth qi gu, and still have more than half of my wealth remaining untouched. There's also the debt that Chi Lian owes me, if I count that as well then I've not even spent a third of my wealth.
Sitting my ass on my pile of primeval stones won't do me any good once I get into a fight. It's for this reason that I approach Jia Fu. Jia Fu pours me a cup of tea, I give him a nod. "Thanks."
Jia Fu smiles, pouring himself a cup of tea as well. "You are welcome. What is it that you wish to inquire about, did you finally decide to join us?"
Not at all. "Not this year, there are some personal matters that I need to settle before I leave, I will be joining you next year. That is not the main reason that I wished to meet with you however."
Jia Fu raises an eyebrow. "Is that so? What is the reason you wished to meet with me then?"
I take a sip from my cup of tea. Not bad, still not as good as Shen Cui's tea. "I find myself with enormous wealth but little to spend it on. Primeval stones will do little for me in regards to combat strength, do you have anything that is not on display for me to purchase?"
Jia Fu cups his chin and gives my request some thought. After a handful of breaths he sighs. "There is one gu that comes to my mind. I personally own a rank 5 plunder gu, it is the most precious treasure that I own."
I think I get where he's taking this. "You want to get rid of it?"
Jia Fu takes a sip of tea, before nodding. "Precisely. It will not see much, if any, use in my hands. Feeding it is trivial, but trading it for primeval stones would be preferable for me."
I take a sip of tea. "How much do you want for it?"
Jia Fu says. "One point five million primeval stones. This is a rank 5 gu after all, it will not be cheap."
Most rank 5 gu have a price range between two hundred thousand and a million, gu worms that are particularly rare or common can diverge heavily from this range. The rank 5 plunder gu is not one of those gu worms, he's just doing that thing where he gives an absurd price as his first offer.
I give him an absurdly low price in response. "Three hundred thousand.primeval stones. You can't publicly display this gu for sale, owning such a gu might damage your reputation as a merchant."
Jia Fu sighs. "Your counter offer is too low, I can't sell for such a low price."
Jia Fu is a merchant, not a combatant. He still holds significant combat power, but his main priority is not becoming stronger, it is becoming richer. The rank 5 plunder gu will not increase his combat strength nor will it make him richer.
The rank 5 plunder gu has a rather simple effect, activating it allows a gu master to steal one of their enemies gu at random. Whether the received gu happens to be their vital gu or some rank 1 gu that they've got lying around in their aperture is entirely up to luck.
This gu worm has three big downsides. A gu master needs to sit still during its activation, moving in any way will cause it to fail and make both it and the using gu master suffer backlash. The second is that its activation can just randomly fail for no discernable reason, making the gu master and gu worm suffer backlash. The third downside is that in the event that using it succeeds, the gu worm stolen will be entirely up to luck.
I really, really want this gu worm. If Jia Fu knew that he would fleece me to high heavens, I need to insist on the lower price and not appear too desperate. "This gu worm is rather useless for you. You have to sell it behind closed doors and it doesn't help you increase your profits. Give me another price offer then, you know what price you can sell it for."
Jia Fu takes a sip of tea, before saying. "I can't go any lower than six hundred thousand. The market price of this gu worm is a million and one hundred thousand. Buying it at just a bit over half the market price is quite a stroke of good luck, wouldn't you say?"
I nod and extend my hand for him to shake. "Alright, I agree to six hundred thousand. I have the primeval stones with me, do you have the gu with you right now?"
He shakes my hand. "I have it with me at this moment."
Jia Fu opens his hand and pulls the rank 5 plunder gu out of his aperture and into his open palm. The rank 5 plunder gu looks like a bright blue, fingernail sized ant.
I pull out thirty yellow tusita into my open palm and extend it to Jia Fu, who gives them a confused look. "Do you not have a primeval elder gu worm?"
The primeval elder gu worm is a storage type gu worm that stores primeval stones. It ranges from ranks 3 to 4, each capable of storing one million and ten million primeval stones respectively. I shake my head. "They're not sold in our market, this is the best that I could do with what we have available here. Each tusita flower has twenty thousand primeval stones inside."
Jia Fu takes the tusita flowers from my hand and proceeds to dump all of the primeval stones from a single one on the floor. He then pulls out a rank 3 primeval elder gu and stores all of the primeval stones inside of it.
The primeval elder gu looks like the head of an old man sculpted from grey rock. It's about the size of a closed fist. The face of the old man bears a sad expression, as if he was crying. Jia Fu unloads the second flower and fills the primeval elder gu with its contents.
He continues dumping and loading primeval stones, as he does so the face of the primeval elder gu becomes less sad. By the time that he's done with the last tusita flower the face of the primeval elder bears a slight smile.
Jia Fu puts the now over-half filled primeval elder into his aperture, before pulling out another primeval elder gu, this one bearing the same depressed expression that the first one had at the start. He hands me both the rank 5 plunder gu and the rank 3 primeval elder gu. "Consider the primeval elder gu a gift from me to you."
Looks like getting handed thirty tusita flowers full of primeval stones caused him brain damage. To be fair to the man, that was probably the same move as asking the IT guy why your unplugged keyboard isn't working. "Thanks a lot, glad to be doing business with you."
Jia Fu smiles. "Much the same. I eagerly await the day that you join us."
—
I roll two d10 dice, snake eyes once again. I give the clerk a shrug. "Sorry man, it's just not your lucky day."
The clerks are paying me a whole lot more attention than they did in their previous visits to our village. It's one thing for someone to roll random dice when gambling, it's another when the results of the die don't make any mathematical sense.
It's at the fifth stall that the dice land on something other than snake eyes. The digit die lands on a one and the tens die lands on a zero. I point at a random golden gacha rock. "That one ple-"
"I will offer you five thousand primeval stones for that gambling rock!"
I blink and turn towards the person shouting at me. A tall, handsome man is pointing at me. "I, Jia Jin Sheng, will offer you five thousand primeval stones if you sell that gambling rock to me!"
I blink, before shaking my head. "I don't want to sell it. I purchase gambling rocks for fun, not for profit. I would rather not ruin my favorite pastime by turning it into a business."
Jia Jin Sheng's expression becomes more resolute. "Ten thousand primeval stones then! You bought that rock for less than ten primeval stones, you would be making over nine thousand primeval stones for nothing! With that many primeval stones you could buy over a thousand gambling rocks!"
Ten thousand primeval stones don't mean much to me compared to whatever gu worm is inside of this gambling rock. "Please don't cause a scene, I will repeat myself for the final time. I do not wish to make a business of my pastime."
I move past Jia Jin Sheng. "Twenty thousand primeval stones then, that will be my final offer!"
I don't give him a response.
—
Twin Crane Brothers Story.
The two brother's happened upon the true inheritance of the Blood Sea Ancestor, even a mere false inheritance of the Blood Sea Ancestor would be more than enough to tempt even the most virtuous members of the righteous path, a true inheritance would corrupt even the most virtuous.
Despite this temptation, the younger brother still decided to share the inheritance with his older brother. "Brother, with this inheritance the two of us will rule heaven and earth! None will stand in our way!"
The older brother smiles. "Indeed young brother. A false inheritance of the Blood Sea Ancestor is more than enough to turn even the least talented gu master into a demonic powerhouse, a true inheritance would be more than enough to triumph over the righteous path!"
The thought of betraying his older brother does not even cross the mind of the younger brother, his trust in him more certain than the earth sitting under the heavens.
The younger brother turns to his older brother and clasps his shoulder. "Brother, I want to tha-"
The older brother stabs his younger brother in the heart. The now betrayed younger brother stares dumb-founded at the man who raised him when no one else did, who took care of him when he was small, who stood beside him when no one else had. "Brother… Why?"