Master Gu

Merc city - west

Walking through the crowds of people in this city can be complicated, this city was full of mercenaries for hire. Each one of them could easily be a paid assassin. Everyone knew where to go to hire capable individuals to perform a varied amount of tasks if you had the money for it. From a simple bodyguard to a top ranked assassin, nothing was impossible to find here. Due to this fact, Wei traveled the last 3 days to this city, he needed more manpower. According to his sources there's a particular group here that was the strength of one hundred men. It was an elite group that held a long track record of prestige and accomplishments. One should note though, this group was not easy to hire. It was not just about the money in this group's case, no, in order to gain favor of this group you needed to curry favor with the head boss and offer him what he wanted at that time, being an eccentric old man his tastes changed like the changing of sheets.

This man was named Gu Li, He had held the largest record in the city for mission completes, and once he established his guild, their power reigned unrivaled for over twenty years. Due to this no one could deny his requests. Sitting in his lounge sipping his tea, Wei requested an audience with Master Gu. Master Gu raised an eyebrow at this intrusion, "Speak what do you want entering here disturbing me peace? If you wish to join there is recruitment drive next month, currying favor to me won't change the outcome. If it is for a mission, make an appointment with my aide, my time is precious after all, though with this intrusion I may make you wait for a month." He sneered in the direction of the door at whoever dared disturb him.

Remaining in a bowed position, Wei waited for permission to speak, it did not matter if you were the king of a country, anyone must pay this man respect.

Sighing Master Gu continued.

"Speak! Do not further waste my time with your timidness." The icy stare he directed towards Wei at this point made Wei feel a chill run throughout his body and cold sweat formed on his back.

"Master Gu, My name is Wu Wei, I beg your pardon, I wish to hire the entire guild for a mission of importance that constitutes the fate of this world. Only your guild can help with this, name your price nothing is too great for this mission." Wei stayed in his bowed posture throughout this conversation in hopes that it would help.

Master Gu pondered over this, "Return in three days for your answer to conditions for hire, that is if we accept it. One of my men will inform you, leave now! Oh one more thing, never speak a word of this meeting. Leave before I change my mind."

Wei stayed no longer and abruptly left, he had no desire to anger this man, he needed him. He returned to his room at a local inn and waited. Three days later a man clothed in black knocked on his door, "Announcing, Return to the Dark Prophecy Guild for further instructions." and with that he disappeared as if he was a foggy dream.

Excitement ran through Wei's body, immediately he got up and left for the guild. Upon his entry he knelt and lowered his head, 'Finally I am so close, She will be mine. I can just imagine it, feeling her body with mine.' A lusty glint flashed within his eyes at that moment, if he only knew that one day he would understand how wrong he was and lament this day…

"So you came, this guild will accept on one condition.." Master Gu stared at this man before him with a sinister smile curling upon his lips. "Here is a list of ingredients of rare herbs found across this land, gather them and return with them, only then shall we accept this mission." Master Gu stated flatly. 'Heh, this young punk has no idea, once these herbs are combined the result will extend my life another fifty years.'

In truth, Master Gu would send someone to collect these every forty years to extend his lifespan, sure he could do so himself or send his men but the locations for these were in complicated and dangerous places, some even guarded by dangerous high level beasts. Why sacrifice his own guild members? Better to test the willingness and prowess of his clients. He had no shortage of them so if one dies, he can just send another it was in no way a hindrance to himself

Once this reached his ears, he right away nodded in confirmation to the great master and awaited the list of ingredients. Once in hand he left the Guild and began to research the locations of the herbs.The first was within a cave located within a mountainside, the only way to enter was to climb to the top of the mountain and descend down via cable line. Wei sent his most agile Shadow guard for this task. The next item on the list was located deep in the forest, it was said to be guarded by a ferocious beast who uses this herb as its nesting ground. Wei sent a team of twenty for this task. And down the list he went, assigning the remaining people he had left to each one, there were a total of ten herbs listed, each one was in a highly dangerous area or guarded by a high profile beast. The last herb though… he had to go by himself, this herb was held by a master of swords. Wei was told that this person was eccentric and required a favor in order to let loose any item that they held, so this task he must do himself. *sigh* "Well this will all be worth it wont it? Right! It will, let's go!." Signalling to his assistant he promptly left to the next town over in order to speak with this eccentric person, with any luck the request won't be too tedious.