Finishing Preparations

After lunch with the siblings, Shui and Yur left to buy what they came here to. Shui had already removed his Shin disguise since it was no longer needed it. Yur had held himself back, but now he thought it was time he got some answers.

"So, you gonna tell me why you were acting as a worker? I'll ignore how you managed to do it, but did you get Master's permission to do that?"

Bartos hadn't told anyone that Shui went to Cyrus, but Yur was sure he wouldn't allow Shui to become a worker. Such a profession was so dangerous even a grown man like him was reluctant to do it.

Shui glanced at Yur. He didn't want him to know about this, but what's done was done. Now he had to work on sealing his mouth.

"Before I tell you, you have to promise that you won't tell anyone."

"I don't mind but, it's gonna cost you."

Yur's money-loving nature was upsetting at times, but Shui was grateful for it this time. He took out a bag with one hundred gold and gave it to him.

"Will this do?"

"I guess. Just so you know, I'm not okay with you risking your life, but I'm not your guardian or anything so I won't push my opinions on you."

"Yeah, thanks. I became a worker to gain fighting experience. I didn't tell anyone this, but last fall I was attacked by someone."

"What!? Someone really tried to kill you? Do you know who it was?"

"I'm sure it wasn't someone from our clan, but that's all."

It wasn't a lie and it wasn't the complete truth either. He didn't know the identity of the one who tried to kill him, but he believed it was the Clite clan that sent him.

"Damn it. Why didn't you tell Master?"

"It wouldn't have made much of a difference. It's not like Uncle Bartos would be able to stop the one who sent him. And if he tried to protect me 24/7 there's a chance they might send an assassin for him too. All it would've done is increase their caution and worry everyone."

Yur understood the logic that Shui used, but he didn't want to accept it. This junior brother of his had been in lethal danger without their knowledge, and wanted to keep it that way to stop them from worrying. Yur didn't know him personally before his mother died, so he wondered,

'Was he always the type to force such a burden on himself? Had he ever relied on an adult?'

Yur had never pitied or looked down on Shui because of his circumstances, but at this moment he felt sorry. He felt sorry that he couldn't do anything to help this junior brother of his.

Shui felt Yur's hand brushing across the top of his head. At first he wanted to shake it off, but he changed his mind.

They went to an establishment similar to a bank for cultivators, in order to buy spirit gems. Just like currency was split into gold and silver, spirit gems also had differences, but not in material but in quality. All officially sold spirit gems were made to be the size of an adult's fist. A low-quality spirit gem would sell for one gold, a normal-quality spirit gem would sell for ten black gold and a high-quality spirit gem would sell for ten thousand black gold. The quality of a spirit gem could be determined by how shiny it was as well as the amount of energy in it, so even a layman would be able to tell the difference.

Shui and Yur weren't exactly dressed in their finest threads so there were quite a few biased gazes who looked down on them when they entered. Both of them saw this coming but they actually looked forward to it. It might have been Yur's influence, but Shui also loved pranking these shallow-minded people.

There was a free line so they went there and spoke to the one behind the counter. It was a handsome young man with a silver monocle over his right eye. Cultivators generally didn't need glasses but some wore them either as a fashion statement or because they had special effects.

"How may I help you?"

The young man showed a frown, but at the very least he was polite in tone.

"Gems. Normal-quality."

Yur dropped a bag of coins on the counter with arrogance fit for one of high status. The young man's frown became worse due to this rude action, but that frown quickly became a smile when he saw that the bag enhanced with spatial expansion, was filled with black gold coins.

Neither of them normally used black gold, but for the sake of seeing this change in expression Yur exchanged the majority of Shui's gold coins for black gold the day before.

"Yes! Right away!"

The young man hastily went deeper into the building with the bag, and soon came back with a bag of clear blue baguette gems brimming with nature energy.

"Please come again!"

With refreshed faces the two left the building. Naturally, Shui put the spirit gems into his satcchel since they didn't want any greedy men trying to rob them. Considering that someone from the spirit gem exchange building could be following them, they didn't waste time buying rations and a few other items including a tent before heading back to the clan.

Once he was back, Shui did as promised and drew 50 talismans with the 'Hide' symbol. He could have done much more, but he wasn't a simpleton who wanted to be taken advantage of.

And so, three days later, he was back in the office of Ulus with the goods.

"Well done. I can make a lot of profit with these. So how about you sell these to me for five gold a piece."

There was no set price for talismans since they weren't often on the market, but Shui knew the price Ulus gave him was way too low. Even if they could only be used once, these talismans were basically small special-rank artifacts. Each talisman was equivalent to a sealing artifact that could only be used on one object. Sure it was only hiding the aura of the object rather than suppressing it, but considering the profit that Ulus would be able to get with them, five gold wasn't a fair price.

However, Shui never came with the intention of getting a fair price.

"That's robbery but I'm not planning on asking you to pay more. I want you to swear a heaven and earth oath to do three things for me."

The moment Shui mentioned a heaven and earth oath, Ulus' face cramped up as he weighed the oath and his profit on a scale. It was request that could be overstepping his boundaries but Shui was sure Ulus wouldn't kill him so easily at this point. Not that he planned on letting him.

Eventually, Ulus opened his mouth again.

"Tell me them first."

"First, I don't want you giving away any information about my identity and what I can do."

"That's a bit."

"For six years."

"...I guess that's fine."

Shui knew he had to make concessions regarding the first term since he didn't believe Ulus would never sell him out one day. However, six years should be enough for him to reach a cultivation that would allow him to safely leave the clan, and by extension, the area around Cyrus.

"Second, I don't want you to endorse selling the pills to children."

"Oh, I didn't know you had such a kind heart."

"No, I just don't like that tactic. Besides, it would be best if you didn't cause too much trouble, right?"

Shui knew the reason why children could get the drug despite their limited funds. It was to either suck in their parents' money or force the children to work for them. However, with the mayor still upset because of the recent incident this tactic would only make the situation worse. Even if he was unable to find the drugs, he might get angry enough to directly attack Red Ravens.

Furthermore, even if Shui believed that those who didn't try to get stronger despite their adverse situations deserved what happened to them, children were an exception. Even the greatest genius required time to grow, and children didn't have that time. He had no intention of saving all of the children in the world, but preventing tragedy from reaching a few was fine. Even knowing that the drugs could indirectly affect them, the fact that he even asked for this was enough. If they one day found out he aided the Red Ravens and hated him for it, then that would be that. But he wasn't soft enough to hold back against someone trying to kill him.

"Hmm, what if I don't know that it's happening?"

"I don't believe you're that incompetent, but that's fine. Just don't let it go when you do know."

If it wasn't a heaven and earth oath then Ulus wouldn't have to worry about this term. However once he agreed to it, he wouldn't be able to feign ignorance. Still, the talismans were just that appealing.

"Okay, what's the last one?"

"If the siblings get into a bad situation, you can't interfere nor can you issue an order to that effect."

"What if they attack me?"

"Only if it's deliberate and they're directly offending you."

'In that case it would their fault.'

The guard known as Rut was now gone so the siblings would have to rely on themselves, especially since he would be going on a trip soon, so all he asked for was that Red Ravens wouldn't join in to bully them.

"Fine, let's do it."

They then swore their respective oaths. Ulus swore to obey the terms Shui gave and Shui swore that he wouldn't use the 'Hide' talismans to deal with any of Red Ravens' enemies. Both sides had a few loopholes in their oaths that could be exploited, but for the meantime they were partners.