After exchanging names, Jia Yuan left the Black Wing Merchant Guild Hall with his new sword, and walked back toward the secondary city gate. After walking around for a bit, he found the pot store he’d been kicked out of earlier in the day.
“I’ll take all of your pots.”
“A-all of them?!”
“Did I stutter?”
A while later, Jia Yuan left the store and proceeded to the food market, where they were about to close for the day.
He found a vendor selling rice, and quickly purchased a twenty-pound bag. Leaving the vendor, he looked to the skies - the day was growing late. He tapped his currency card, a smile on his face. Looking around, he roamed the city streets until he found a tavern.
Inside, was a counter, with a man standing behind it. Jia Yuan walked up to the counter and asked, “Hello sir, how much for a bed for a night?”
“5 small fire shards will do.”
“Right-o.” Jia Yuan confidently took a few small fire shards out of his pocket and flipped them towards the man behind the counter, who snatched them out of the air.
The man examined the shards, and after a few seconds, nodded. “Go up the stairs, third door on the right. Here’s the key.”
Jia Yuan went upstairs and opened the third door on the right as instructed. As promised, there was a small bed in the room. Exhausted, he collapsed onto it. Although it was a rather sorry excuse for a bed, it would still be the first bed that Jia Yuan had ever slept an entire night on.
As Jia Yuan laid on the bed, he recounted everything that had happened that day - it’d truly been a dreamlike experience for him.
Immersed in this state of happiness, he drifted off into a night of happy dreams.
Back at the Black Wing Merchant Guild Hall, Guo Huo was lying on his own bed in a massive room next to the one Jia Yuan had met him in. Despite the room’s massiveness, however, it had but a small bed crammed into a corner of the room.
Guo Huo was thinking about the interesting young man he’d fought earlier in the day. When they’d fought, Guo Huo had clearly felt the power of Jia Yuan’s Song. It’d even surpassed the strength of his high quality Song, which to Guo Huo, meant that the Song Jia Yuan practiced in was at the peak of high quality, or was of a heavenly quality.
Guo Huo was a fairly meticulous fellow. As such, everything he had done during his meeting with Jia Yuan, had been done with purpose.
First off, proposing the duel. A person from a rich family probably wouldn’t care too much about getting 20% off of such a sword - their hourly income might have been enough to cover the difference. So, when Jia Yuan had been immediately enticed by the possibility of a discount, Guo Huo had immediately noticed.
Furthermore, Jia Yuan hadn’t even asked or seemed to consider what quality of Song Guo Huo cultivated in - at this point, Guo Huo wasn’t sure if Jia Yuan was overconfident, or just foolish.
Besides all this, Guo Huo had entered the fight expecting to easily win, but was quickly surprised by Jia Yuan’s speed, and even more so, by the strength of Jia Yuan’s Song.
The most important moment during the fight, was when Jia Yuan had gone for the overhead strike. Guo Huo had managed to see Jia Yuan’s face. He’d seen the unwashed face of a common boy. He’d seen the wall of flame created in the wake of the sword’s path.
And he’d felt the power of the strike, felt the raging inferno of aura that had surrounded Jia Yuan.
A Merchant Guild needed strong warriors. After all, they frequently had trade caravans travel through the various Kingdoms, and sometimes from one Kingdom to another. As such, the Black Wing Merchant Guild maintained their own private army to protect their caravans and Guild Halls safe.
Of course, it was very expensive to maintain a small army of highly talented and powerful individuals. As such, it was a common practice for merchant guilds to try and befriend and rope in strong cultivators - especially when they were young.
This way, they could pay them less later.
However, Guo Huo had yet another motive. Although he didn’t look it, he was one of the strongest cultivators in the Fire Kingdoms. But, over the last few years, he’d realized that even he could not withstand the passage of time. When he realized this, he’d begun looking for disciple.
This was why he’d given Jia Yuan the golden Currency Card.
Not only was it an attempt to further rope Jia Yuan into the Black Wing Merchant Guild, but the golden Currency Card also had a type of tracking magic engraved into it. This was a secret of the Black Wing Merchant Guild - with the golden cards, they could track their most influential customers, and if any of the cards were stolen, they could track down the thief by using said tracking.
Using it, Guo Huo could easily track down Jia Yuan at any time.
WIth a sigh, Guo Huo made up his mind. In the morning, he’d set out and observe the young Jia Yuan he’d met earlier. If he saw that the temperament and the strength of the young man was adequate, then… perhaps it was high time he took in a disciple.
And so the night passed, with a young man basking in the warmth of his dreams, and an old man fretting over the legacy he would leave.
As dawn approached, the streets of RockFire City quickly filled with the hustle and bustle of city life as the city’s residents went about their daily business and the streets filled with the shouts of merchants hawking their wares.
At the Black Wing Merchant Guild, Guo Huo had already woken up. He’d returned to the room he had met Jia Yuan in, and was staring at a talisman. This was a talisman connected to the magical locator on Jia Yuan’s gold currency card. He then looked around the room.
For the last few years, this sparsely decorated room had served as his office.
He took one last look, then headed out. Earlier that morning, he’d already told Shi Guo of his plans. Truth be told, Guo Huo actually didn’t handle much for the Guild. He merely served as the figurehead of the RockFire branch because of his strength. As for the actual business, he mostly let other people handle that.
After all, he had other responsibilities to fulfill.
Exiting the Guild Hall, Guo Huo was truly a sight to behold. He was a two meter tall old man, with flowing white hair held back in a ponytail, with a long white beard to match. He donned a long red robe, embroidered with fiery patterns, outlined with gold. To put it simply, he looked like a fiery god of war.
Finally, on his back hung a giant axe more than 1.5 meters in length. He walked down the steps of the Guild Hall, and took out the talisman once again, verifying the direction of his target.
He promptly exited to the outer parts of the city. Using the talisman, he quickly arrived at the tavern Jia Yuan was in, and impatiently demanded a room.
Unfortunately, the host told Guo Huo that all of the rooms were taken. Upon hearing this, Guo Huo turned to the side and frowned.
After a few seconds of this, the host grew increasingly nervous. After all, he could very clearly see that this person in front of him was very rich, and probably had very powerful backing. Even more than that, the man himself had an overpowering demeanor.
The host felt that this really was a man he did not want to irritate. However, just as the host was about to try and kick one of the guests from their room to make space for this new customer, Guo Huo turned back to him.
“That’s alright, kid. Do you have a place where I can change clothes in private?”
“Uh...of course! Right this way!”
The tavern had a backroom where they kept food and liquor - it would do nicely.
In past times, when Jia Yuan’s ring was created, spatial items were truly precious treasures. However, in recent times, the creation of such items had been somewhat standardized, at least amongst master craftsmen. However, they usually held smaller dimensions, usually no more than 125 cubic feet of space.
The necklace that Guo Huo wore was exactly one of these items. He tapped the necklace and withdrew some tattered and dirty clothes. As he changed into them, he transferred his fiery outfit and giant axe into the necklace. Afterward, he took a box out of the necklace, and put it on the floor.
It was a box of dirt. With the dirt, he dirtied his face, hair, beard, and the rest of his body.Now, he truly looked like a decrepit old man.
After finishing his disguise, he transferred the box back into the necklace, which he then took off. He then tied the necklace around his wrist, covered by his shirt.
He walked out of the room, and saw that the host was staring at him with his mouth wide open. The host couldn’t be blamed, however. After all, he’d seen a fiery war god walk into the backroom, and he’d now seen an old beggar walk out.
Guo Huo tapped his wrist, drawing a medium fire shard out, and handed it to the host. “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here, and give me a barrel of beer. I’ll be sitting in the corner.”
After a few hours of drinking, Guo Huo finally saw Jia Yuan descend the stairs of the tavern and exit. Immediately after, Guo Huo finished his last barrel of beer, put a few small fire shards on the table, and left.
Guo Huo walked very slowly down the street with a hunched back, as if he were actually an impoverished elder. He didn’t really care to follow Jia Yuan too closely. After all, he had the talisman - he’d be able to find Jia Yuan at any time.
Oblivious to that he was being tracked, Jia Yuan made his merry way along the streets of RockFire city, heading to the city gate.
After a few minutes of walking, Jia Yuan reached the city gates and passed through without harm. However, he wasn’t aware that by the city gate, a person had been staring at him.
This mysterious man, upon seeing Jia Yuan exit the city, ran to a nearby alley where a bird had been tied down. He wrote a quick message, then tied it to the bird’s leg. Upon doing so, he released the bird, which flew away.
As for Guo Huo, he saw this and smiled. It looked as if the young man he was interested in would have a test in store for him. For Guo Huo, this was perfect. Not only would he be able to see the true combat strength of Jai Yuan, but he would be able to observe how the young man’s young brain worked.
After Jia Yuan had walked on the road for about seven hours, he became rather dreary and tired, and started walking while staring at the ground in a daze. He’d been walking for the last few days, after all.
He didn’t even realize that he’d almost walked to the village he’d saved a few days prior, about a five minute walk away from it.
Usually, he would have been able to see the village. This time though, when he finally raised his head, he was in for a shock.
For in front of him stood about a hundred bandits, dressed in the same garb of the ones he had chased out of the village two days prior. Just as this began to register, he noticed that he had been completely surrounded by five hundred bandits in total.
Guo Huo was an astute fellow, so naturally, his instincts had been tingling for quite some time before Jia Yuan had been surrounded. As such, he’d found a nice hiding spot to observe Jia Yuan deal with the bandits.
When he saw that Jia Yuan hadn’t even noticed the hundred bandits quite literally standing in front of his face, Guo Huo had had quite a strong urge to just walk back to RockFire City. However, he stayed because he was shocked at just how many bandits had been sent to deal with the kid.
Five hundred bandits! As the head of the Black Wing Merchant Guild’s RockFire City Branch, he knew about the bandit groups surrounding the city. According to his intel, this particular bandit group should only have about five hundred to six hundred people, meaning that they had sent everyone available to deal with Jia Yuan
Unfortunately, Guo Huo hadn’t heard about Jia Yuan routing the bandits two days prior, or he probably would’ve said it was to be expected. After all, even bandits can't stand the shame of having over fifty brothers killed by a single child.
However, his interest was piqued by the scene before him. How would Jia Yuan respond to this predicament? At this time, Guo Huo thought about what he would do if he were in this situation.
“Hmm, let’s see. At the third level of Absorption with at least a high quality Song, I wouldn’t worry too much about getting instantly killed by a hit from one of these bandits. I’d probe each side to establish which side is the weakest, and break through that side with force. As long as I can make it out of the encirclement, I can escape into the wilderness and it will be hard for the bandits to chase me en masse.
“Of course, I would have to act before the bandits close the encirclement too much. If that happens, then I would be dead meat. Unless that kid can fly, that would be the best way to approach the situation, and perhaps the only way to make it out.”
However, what he saw Jia Yuan do instead,was almost enough to him puke.
Instead of doing any of what Guo Huo had thought of, Jia Yuan had instantly drawn his sword from his ring and dashed directly toward the hundred or so bandits blocking the road in front of him.
Guo Huo exploded in silence. “You idiot!! That’s the front, the vanguard of the formation, the place most likely to have the strongest warriors! What’s more, if you escape down the road, all of the bandits can chase after you easily! You’ll even lead them to the village and you’ll get all the villagers killed!”
It took extreme willpower for Guo Huo to not actually explode with frustration. However, he kept calm, and crept towards the battle, unseen by the bandits or Jai Yuan.