**Chapter 16: Merchant Caravan**

500 collections, yay! 

Also, thanks to everyone who wrote a review or comment and gave me Power Stones.

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*Next Morning – Academy, Class 1.3A*

"Why do I always pull all-nighters the day before I have school? I am so stupid… but refining is so addictive…"

Just the day before marked the third week since I had gotten my rank 0 refiner's token. This also meant that I naturally spent the whole night in the Refinement Hall using up the new resources I was entitled to.

The first two weeks, or ten attempts, I have used on the Windblade Gu. What can I say? It was really easy to refine. In the first set of five, I failed three times. But after reflecting on my mistakes for a whole week, the second refinement went much smoother; I only failed once.

This was due to me not being able to pay attention to the Heat Measure Gu, Refinement Clock Gu, and my own movements at the same time. Just difficulty in multitasking; this will probably remain a problem for me until I get some Wisdom Path Gu.

For the sets I chose yesterday, I just tried something different to mix it up and picked five different sets for five very different Gu. Nothing was even similar, not the path, not the refinement method, not the popularity, nothing. Some of them are not even in the exams.

It was a nice breath of fresh air. I actually managed to refine three of them successfully, and the two I failed also gave me some nice inspiration on how to improve my refinement.

I think my new strategy will be to pick the ones I failed last week and fill the five sets up with new Gu.

"Kind of funny that just three weeks ago I was thinking of becoming a master, when I am barely a beginner… but huh only one way to learn, so no use getting worked up about that."

"Kind of a pity I 'wasted' nine good opportunities for refinement, but there is no use in being angry about things I cannot control…"

But whatever, here I was, tired as hell, having to attend this stupid lesson with Elder Chen, the tiredness written on my face. But this look disappeared right when Elder Chen stepped into the room.

"I can feel as tired as I want, but I sure as hell am not going to let the Elder know about this."

"This guy is just pure evil. He would probably spin this in some way to get out of teaching by making us all run around the damn Academy again… Nope, not with me as the main culprit. I could live without my classmates hating my guts for a few weeks."

"Good Morning Students."

"Good Morning Elder Chen!"

"Good Morning Elder Chen!"

"Good Morning Elder Chen!"

"Alright, quiet down. I have just gotten news that the Ren Clan Caravan will arrive today in the late night hours."

"For you, this means that today's, as well as Thursday's lesson, will not take place. I am one of the few rank 3 Gu Masters of this clan, and I am needed in a different position for this next week while the caravan is on Fei Yu Island."

"…"

"…"

"As this will be your first Caravan as Gu Masters, I strongly recommend you to visit the caravan. Even if you cannot afford the Gu they have to sell, you can always just look or gamble a rock or two, maybe even get drunk with your friends. I don't really care, but you should all experience it."

"It broadens the mind, as they say. You are all rank 1 so this is your chance to see some rank 3 or even rank 4 Gu, and Gu Masters."

"Last but not least, the Ren sends a caravan to us every single year. They are one of our most important trade partners. Or to put it in other words, me and every other elder of this clan will be at the caravan every night to kick the ass of anyone that misbehaves or is a disgrace to one of our clans in general."

In a low voice, almost a whisper, he said: "And trust me, you don't want to find out what happens to these troublemakers…"

"Cool. And not at all ominous, Elder Chen… I am certain that it will not be every Elder that will be present, but looking at my greenhorn classmates I think they got the message he wanted to send."

"Anyway, that is all. You are free to go now."

"Thank you, Elder Chen!" echoed across the whole classroom.

But nobody got up from their seat before Elder Chen left the room. In this world, it was important to respect your Elders, even more important when they were so much stronger than you.

"So the Caravan will arrive this evening… it is about three weeks earlier than I have expected, but that is okay. I can finally get started on a few of my plans. Hehehe… now time to prepare."

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*Home - Basement*

"First step, take out all the money from the primeval Elder Gu. The people in the caravan don't know my exact identity so I can spend the money more recklessly than I could in the clan."

16874 primeval stones.

"Less than last time, but I have been refining a lot of Gu, and those failures are expensive, I tell you."

"Good, now the next step. Which Gu do I want to sell? I will put these in my Aperture; in the market, nobody will inspect it anyway, as it would count as negative attention, and this is one of those times where the clan wants to avoid that at all costs."

Rank 1 Firestop Bleeding Gu; it is not that good, I will sell it.

Rank 1 Burn Healing Gu; same for this one.

"I can probably get more money if I sell these two together."

Rank 1 Scent Tracking Gu; it is good for following people, but for my use cases, not so much.

Then the other two Gu that I have looted but could not identify.

Rank 1 Cleansing Frog Gu; this is used to clean up dust and excrement, good for a lone cultivator, but I have servants so it is literally useless to me.

Rank 1 Delayed Hunger Gu; that is a rare one, food path and all. It is probably worth a lot. This is a Gu that can store one other Gu. The stored Gu in this case starves about 4 to 5 times slower than it would normally.

"This would be a cool Gu, if not for my cheat making it obsolete, but for people that buy and sell Gu in a merchant Caravan, this is worth a lot, probably worth more than most rank 2 Gu as it saves them potentially a lot of money on food."

The only Gu I am unsure of are Windblade Gu as well as Water Shield Gu; I have two of each, but I think I will keep them for now and use them in refinement or experiments later.

These are five Gu I can sell. I expect to make a minimum of 1500 and a maximum of 2300 primeval stones; that will depend on how well I can sell them.

One by one, they enter the dark green primeval essence that the liquor worm had refined for me.

I can expect a lower price; I just want to get rid of those Gu on the first day of the caravan to go after my actual plans.

Notebook in hand, I write them down in no order of priority.

1. Obtain an additional Liquor Worm.

This is a precautionary measure for my advancement to rank 2, in case I need to use it. It should not be as expensive as in Fang Yuan's era.

2. Purchase a second Red Steel Relic Gu.

Yes, you heard it right. I want to buy an additional rank 2 relic Gu. After acquiring the first one and accumulating all this money, my plan has changed. I will do my best to skip the entirety of rank 2 cultivation.

So, I will try to acquire one rank 2 relic Gu this time and then another in the next caravan to avoid drawing attention and not tying up all of my capital for too long.

This will set me back anywhere from 5000 to 8000 primeval stones.

It would be much cheaper to buy rank 1 relic Gu for 2000 a piece and instantly reach rank 1 peak stage, but I am not Fang Yuan.

What I mean by this is that I have not had a past life in the cultivation world. I want to experience at least one rank where I don't skip anything. And this can only really be rank 1, as ranks 2-3 are still ranks in which anyone can bully me, and ranks 4-5 just take so long.

This means I will cultivate through rank 1 without the help of relic Gu and be free of that cautionary restriction I have put on myself for the rest of my life.

3. Acquire a Gu specifically designed for storing poison.

This is very important to me. While my Greedy Toad Gu can store poisons if I package them well, I want a Gu designed specifically for this purpose to create killer moves. Honestly, this is a priority for me.

4. Procure a poison path defense Gu that can protect me from indirect attacks.

It is not a priority as I could probably refine something like this, but if I can find one that piques my interest, I will buy it.

5. Keep a lookout for any interesting poison materials or Gu.

This can be done while actively pursuing the other tasks.

6. Selling the food I have bought for my Water Bullet Gu and Liquor Worm.

As I write this, I look into my Greedy Toad Gu that holds about 20 primeval stones worth of Gu food. Then, at the room I am in, filled with exactly 16874 primeval stones.

"This definitely does not seem like a good idea. The risk of selling these is just not worth it."

That said, I crossed out the sixth point from my list without hesitation.

"I will just go destroy the food I have bought; this can wait until after the caravan, though."

7. Invest all the money I have left.

This step will only be carried out after I have done everything I could to fulfill the other goals.

My general goal is to buy Gu that gain value over time. I have a few in mind, all of them refinement materials, ones that cannot be found on Fei Yu Island. But it's no use thinking about this without knowing how much money I will have left at the end of this.

8. Purchase a Gu Master Slave.

For this, I will see what I can get, but my ideal would be a rank 2 peak stage Gu Master, with multiple rank 2 and 3 Gu binding him or her to me with absolute loyalty.

My use for the slave would be taking these risks, like buying and selling massive amounts of Gu, as I planned to do in step 7.

"Hehe… I will certainly be busy in the next week."

1888 words