Chương 822: Chapter 821: The Joyful Merchant

Kui wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his sleeve. The dirt road was long and the afternoon sun was hot. He adjusted the heavy canvas pack on his shoulders and let out a tired sigh. He was a wealthy man. He had a spatial ring hidden carefully inside his robes that contained enough spirit stones and rare goods to buy the nearest city but he chose to walk. Kui chose to carry a heavy and mundane pack. His goal was to look exactly like a lowly traveling merchant trying to make a few coins.

It was the safest way to survive in an unknown land. Kui trudged along the path and thought about how his life had taken such a bizarre turn. A few months ago he was the esteemed Guild Master of the Golden Shell Guild. He was expanding his trade routes across the continent and securing alliances with sects. He had power, wealth and the backing of the Wise Host. Then came the ruins. His people had discovered a collapsed sect ground deep in the wilderness. It was supposed to be a standard excavation.

Kui had personally led a small team of trusted guild members into the depths to appraise the treasures. They walked through damp stone corridors and cataloged ancient weapons. Then the ground violently shook. The structural arrays of the ruin failed all at once and the ceiling began to cave in. Massive blocks of stone crashed down around them. Kui saw a massive pillar falling toward one of his junior appraisers. He did not think, he lunged forward and shoved the young man out of the way.

The junior member tumbled to safety but Kui did not. The passage collapsed entirely and trapped him on the wrong side of the rubble. Whatever the materials were made of, he was not strong enough to move them. He survived the initial cave in though. He was trapped in the darkness of the ancient sect. He spent two agonizing weeks wandering through the lightless corridors. Thankfully, he had his storage ring so he did not starve or die of thirst but the isolation was terrifying.

He mapped the underground maze and looked for any possible exit. On the fourteenth day he found a hidden chamber. It was a small room carved from red stone. In the center of the room sat a skeleton resting on a throne of rocks. The skeleton was wearing rotted robes. Clutched tightly in its bony hands was an old wooden pipe. Kui was a merchant at heart and couldn't resist. His curiosity outweighed his fears. He approached the throne and carefully pulled the old pipe from the skeleton to check it out.

The moment the pipe left the bony fingers, the entire chamber shuddered. The final foundational array of the ruin shattered and the floor simply vanished beneath his feet. Kui plummeted into the dark. He tried to channel his Qi and fly but the pressure of the collapsing space suppressed his cultivation entirely. He fell helplessly down. A jagged rift of purple and black energy tore open in the darkness right below him as he fell and he fell through the rift and lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he was lying in a dense forest. He was not in his original realm anymore, at least that's what he figured out several days later. Kui did not know the truth of his situation. He believed he had simply fallen through a spatial tear and landed in some distant, uncharted territory or perhaps a different realm like the Wise Host had done. He was wrong. He had actually traveled back in time but he wouldn't know this for a very long time.

He was thrust deep into the ancient eras and he was walking on soil that existed thousands of years before he was even born. When Li Yu had traveled through time, the cosmos had reacted violently. The timeline recognized Li Yu as a threat and tried to crush him with rejection. The temporal pressure had almost erased Li Yu from existence before he was pushed out of that time period. Kui experienced none of that. His cultivation was so incredibly weak that the timeline did not even seem to register his presence.

He was not a supreme expert capable of altering cosmic destiny. He was just a merchant with a cheerful smile and the cosmos seemed to have been charmed by it because it ignored him completely. He slipped through the cracks of time like a speck of dust drifting through a hurricane. He felt no rejection force and no pain. Since arriving in this new and ancient land, Kui relied on his oldest instincts. He kept his head down and he observed everything.

Looking and speaking very little was always a good idea in new lands or environments. He walked out of the forest and found a sprawling city. The architecture was older and the clothing styles were slightly different than what he was used to. The cultivators here seemed more primal than people he knew. He realized very quickly that standing out would get him killed. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

In order to make a living and explore this new land, he became a solo merchant. He registered under a fake name and rented a tiny stall in the outer market. He had his storage ring full of pills and other treasures. He could have lived very comfortably in some small town. He did not do that though. He knew the local warlords and sects would slaughter him for his secrets and wealth should it ever get out. Kui worked small at first. He sold basic healing salves and common fabrics.

Kui carefully introduced slightly better quality goods over time to build a reputation as being able to procure better things. He smiled at the guards and paid his taxes early. He let people think he was just a lucky peddler and always treated everyone fairly. He built connections and learned the lay of the land. Kui focused entirely on survival. Five years quickly passed. The passage of time smoothed out the rough edges of his new life.

Kui had slowly and meticulously built a small empire from the ground up once again. He was no longer a peddler in a tiny stall. He owned a large and respectable compound in the merchant district of the city. He had officially established his organization. He called it the Golden Shell Guild once again. It was still relatively small compared to the massive entity he had run before. He kept the growth deliberate and controlled.

He did not want to attract too much attention or hatred from the established organizations. Kui found niches and supplied things others were not so he would step on the least amount of toes. He built solid and mutually beneficial connections with the other prominent merchants in the region. Kui was known as a fair and reliable business partner over those 5 years. The roads in this era were incredibly dangerous. Bandits and rogue beasts constantly threatened his supply lines and trade routes.

Kui realized he could not rely on local mercenary bands. They were undisciplined and often betrayed their employers for a higher payout. He needed his own dedicated force. He began to recruit. He found desperate but skilled orphans, wandering swordsmen and cultivators who had been exiled from their sects. He gave them food, shelter and a steady wage. More importantly, he gave them a purpose and Kui was extremely good with dealing with people. He ordered armor forged for them.

He commissioned large and unyielding shields painted with a distinct golden hue. He hired retired veterans to teach his new recruits how to fight together in a tight and unbreakable formation. He taught them that survival depended on the man standing next to them. He named this new guard troop the Golden Shell Phalanx. Kui smiled whenever he looked at them drilling in the courtyard. He thought it was a fitting name.

He did not know that he was setting the foundation for the powerful force that would eventually fight alongside his Wise Host in the distant future. This was their true origins. It was a quiet afternoon in the guild compound. Kui was sitting in his spacious office and going through his mountain of paperwork. The room was decorated with tasteful but subdued art. He sat behind a large wooden desk and reviewed the latest ledgers. The trade routes to the eastern provinces were yielding excellent profits.

His strategy of selling bulk low grade spirit herbs was working perfectly. A sharp knock echoed from the heavy wooden door.

"Enter." Kui called out while setting his brush down. The door opened and his chief of security stepped into the room. The guard looked slightly confused and nervous.

"Guild Master." The guard bowed respectfully.

"I apologize for the interruption. There is someone here who wishes to see you." Kui frowned slightly. He checked his schedule.

"I do not have any appointments today. Tell them to leave their proposal with the front desk and I will review it tomorrow."

"I tried, Guild Master." The guard replied hesitantly.

"He bypassed the front desk entirely. The outer guards did not even see him enter the compound. He just appeared in the hallway. He insists on seeing you. He said you would definitely want to speak with him. I fear he is quite powerful, Guild Master. I don't think anyone here could contend with him." Kui narrowed his eyes and was a bit nervous now. A person bypassing his security without triggering any alarms was a massive threat. It meant the visitor was a cultivator of immense skill.

Kui subtly reached under his desk and rested his hand on a defensive array trigger.

"Let him in." Kui ordered carefully.

"But remain stationed right outside the door." The guard nodded and stepped back. He opened the door wider and gestured for the visitor to enter. A young man walked into the office. He wore simple and unassuming robes. He had dark hair and a relaxed posture. He did not radiate any terrifying aura or oppressive soul pressure. He simply looked around the office with mild curiosity before his gaze settled on the man sitting behind the desk. Kui froze. His hand slipped away from the defensive array trigger.

His heart hammered violently against his ribs. He blinked once and then blinked again to make sure his eyes were not playing a cruel trick on him. He recognized that face instantly. He had spent the last seven years or so wondering if he would ever see that face again. He wondered if his friends were looking for him. He wondered if the man who had given him everything had forgotten about the cheerful merchant who vanished in the ruins. The visitor looked exactly like Li Yu.

It was the Half Soul that had traveled back in time through the singularity. The Half Soul offered a small and familiar smile. The overwhelming relief and joy shattered his usual composed merchant persona entirely. Kui practically leaped out of his chair. He knocked a stack of ledgers onto the floor but he did not notice. He scrambled around the large wooden desk.

"Wise Host!" Kui shouted. His voice was thick with emotion.

"When you had suddenly left I thought I would never see you again. Then when I had the accident in the ruins I really thought I'd never see you again!" He ran across the room and threw his arms around the young man. He pulled the Half Soul into a massive and crushing hug. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes but a massive smile was on his face. The isolation and the stress of the last five years melted away in an instant. He was no longer a stranded peddler in a strange and dangerous land.

His leader had found him. The cheerful merchant didn't let go of holding onto his friend.