The Decision

Chapter 13: The Decision

It wouldn't be easy to recruit someone from another world to be his subordinate. Especially if the other party has more of what he can offer. The less power that person has would be better. Powerlessness, be it in the form of finance, raw strength, or influence, would make them strive to work for him in order to gain those. But he couldn't think of anything that would catch their interest if they already have some of that power. They might even dismiss his proposal at the get-go.

Ningguang is the Tianquan of Liyue Qixing, that position grants her the political power that lets her dictate the law of Liyue. She is probably the wealthiest person on all Teyvat, and her combat ability is really no joke. Although still pale in comparison to the Archons but come on, they're the living gods of that world and she's just a vision holder. He is skeptical about recruiting her, it is unthinkable that she would accept the notion to be his subordinate.

'Unless …,' Satria mulled over that possibility. He thought of inviting Ningguang prior to her success. Before she gained those riches and her prestigious seat.

Ningguang is a common example of a rag to the rich. In the early years of her life, she struggled to try selling her wares, walking barefooted thousands of miles just to sell whatever goods she brought. Only relying on herself and driven by her ambition that she rises to her current position.

'But if I can specify the age of the invited individual. Would that mean, I'm gonna recruit an underage girl to work for me? I'm not doing that, or ...,' he tried to dismiss the thought out of his head, but it kept haunting his mind. '... am I?'

His other option would be Laura Markey. She is the granddaughter of the patriarch of a merchant clan, the Markey-Delphi that runs a successful business throughout the Aksu Empire. She was 17 at the time of her introduction to the story. After her cooperation with the MC of that world, Zhao Hai Buda, she got oppressed by her own clan because her grandfather antagonized the Buda clan and tried to curry favor with the Aksu Empire and the Radiant Church behind it.

Her clan hunted her down, but she still has a loving father in that world. If he could, he doesn't want to separate a family like that. He was unsure whether she could return back to her own world after he made a contract to work for him. While yes, he could actually open a gate that connected to her world, he prefer to not open a world carelessly.

Laura's origin world, the Ark Continent, is doomed for total destruction whether by the undead from the underworld, or the invasion of the mechanical world's army. The inhabitants of that world are destined to extinct if not because of Zhao Hai with his farm space which saves their lives. Opening a gate to that world would not bring a long-term benefit because the inhabitants of that world will be evacuated elsewhere.

'Let's think of other candidates …, Delfina? At the time of her introduction to the story, she's already a successful merchant just like Ningguang. I'm afraid that she won't even bother listening to my proposition. Then what about Ya Fei? Hmmm …, this is a bit tricky, what is it that she wants? A power to control her own fate?' Satria was ruminating again his train of thought.

He could try inviting Ya Fei. Enticing her with the promise of immense power if she decided to follow him. He doesn't necessarily have it available at the moment, but with time Satria is optimistic that he could get any kind of supernatural powers with his merchant system.

'That is actually feasible … if she wanted the power to control her own destiny. I can show her a path that she could follow.' but then he realized something was missing with this reasoning. In the first place, what is the 'destiny' she tried so hard to avoid? It was her clan, the Miteer clan which would likely force her to marry someone whom she didn't love. 'If I brought her into this world …, wouldn't that mean she already avoided that destiny?'

After careful consideration, and a minute of full contemplation. He finally decided to use the Invitation Letter.

The system interface opened and a template for the letter was shown. The body text has a limit of 1000 words, but Satria thought that he probably won't need that many word counts anyway.

As he was driving, he decided to make the system do the work for him.

"System write down what I said in the invitation letter ..."

[Acknowledged.]

He then said the content of the letter consist of a simple yet direct invitation for the recipient to come to his world. When he was filling in the details on the recipient, he raised an eyebrow as something caught his immediate interest. This letter doesn't need to fill in all the details about his circumstance. As long as he managed to invite the individual into this world, then it would immediately bind him/her to be his subordinate. It doesn't even have to fill in the matter of wages and other things like that.

'If it's only like that, then maybe ...' he decided to add couple more sentences to the letter. He proofread it to find whether there is a typo or misspelling, after finished he clicked sent and the invitation letter dispersed into fine particles.

"Now ..., let's wait." Satria let out a sigh and recited a silent prayer in hope that the other party accepted his invitation.

[Ningguang has accepted your invitation.]

"That didn't take long ..."

---=---=---

Wuwang Hill was located in the northern part of Liyue. It is an infamous location for its eerie atmosphere, if you venture deep enough into the hills, the sky would instantly be covered with dark gray fog regardless of whether it's daytime or nighttime. To reach Qingce Village, one must bypass this place, or else you had to take a roundabout route which will consume more time.

A band of caravans was seen venturing the hill with their armed bodyguards. Among them, a little girl was seen walking in the back following them from behind. She was carrying a makeshift rucksack almost twice her small body. She was walking barefoot, and despite her short breath, she still persevered in the hot humid weather of this place.

"Hurry up, Ningguang. Don't get too far off behind ..." a chubby young man called out.

"Yes, uncle Huang!" comes an energetic reply from the little girl.

"Jeez, didn't I say to call me big brother! We're almost arrived at Qingce village, after that you can rest."

"Ya, upa eleka!"

Before Ningguang said something in response to uncle Huang's caring words, the caravan was halted by the distinct alien voice of hilichurls.

"Ambush!" the sharp-eyed scout shouted out alerting everyone.

"Men, prepare for battle! Everyone else, take cover ..." the captain took the claymore from his back and issued a command. "Archer, weed out the ranged enemy units! Wei, Wuguo, Hua, you three go to the rear and beware of flanking!"

"Yes, sir!"

Ningguang followed the instruction and huddled together with the other caravan party.

The bodyguards with trained movement all readied their weapons. The bowmen take aim and shot down the hilichurl's archer from afar. The spearmen spread out and took a defensive formation encircling the caravan. There is no vision wielders among the bodyguard, however, they were confident facing these pesky creatures. They'd be fine as long as there are no giant Mitachurls or the monstrous Lawachurls appearing. The hilichurls were repelled in no time by the well-coordinated counterattack of the bodyguard.

"Sir, a pair of abyss mages, incoming!"

"What element?"

"Blue and white ..., hydro and cryo sir!"

"Damn it! Prepare the explosive!"

"Sir, bad news! Two Mitachurls from the rear?"

"What? Damn, damn, damn ... just why this is happening." the bodyguard captain gritted his teeth trying to find a solution to this imminent danger. "Everyone, listen up ..., lure them out of the caravan. Master Liu, after we make an opening I need you to run away in that direction."

"What, no, then who's gonna protect us?! You're supposed to ensure our safety ..."

"Am I not clear enough? Just follow my instruction if you want to stay alive!" after scolding his client, the captain then turned to the rear and instructed his men. "Da Yun, Ming, and Wuguo ... help me deal with the big one. Hua, you escort Master Liu to safety. Everyone else, hold down the mages."

The bodyguard kept the masked goblin-like creature busy in order to let the non-combatant merchants flee to safety. The bodyguard captain face off with an axe-wielding Mitachurl, while three of his men faced the one with a Geo construct shield. But he didn't notice, the state of his men on his back. The combo of Hydro and Cryo Abyss Mage was lethal and effective. Both elements combined could create a Frozen elemental reaction.

For precaution, these bodyguards prepared an explosive bottle filled with incendiary chemicals. They throw this bottle along with a flaming arrowhead. But it pose no real threat to the slimy Abyss Mage because they could blink short distance to dodge the throw. The fire from the explosion never reaches them.

The Hydro Abyss Mage after successfully dodging was doing a strange dance while levitating, it swung the magic staff and conjure rain only on these bodyguards. On the other hand, the Cryo Abyss Mage conjured cones of ice that revolved around him.

The bodyguards were getting wet because of the rain conjured by the Hydro Abyss Mage. When the revolving cones of ice hurled and touched them, an elemental reaction of cryo and hydro caused them to get frostbite until their body froze solid. With their body unable to move, the two abyss mages end their life with hurls of elemental magic.

Ningguang who saw this stared in shock as she saw the gory sight of a frozen body diced and sliced into pieces. Even their red blood was turned solid because of the cryo elemental magic.

"Hihi ..., muehehehe. Ahahahaha!" the hydro abyss mage let out a burst of three-stage villainous laughter as its cyan-ish glowing eyes stared at her.

It then swung its staff as hydro elements started to coalesce forming a hydro bubble. The hydro bubble crept and hurled toward her direction.

Facing the imminent danger, she hasten her running pace and sometimes looked back. But just like the annoying squirrels trying to snatch her Sunsettia fruit, the bubble keeps chasing after her. She tripped on an ominous-looking tree root and some of the wares in her rucksack spilled out.

Ningguang turned her body quickly and saw that the bubble was right behind her at a distance of about two meters. When she was faced with such a crisis, her only reaction was to close her eyes.

But in the next second, she felt light-bodied and her body was pushed away. No, her body was thrown away from that position. She opened her eyes after bracing the impact with the hard rocky soil to see the chubby merchant, Huang.

"Uncle Huang!"

"Run, Ningguang ..., get the hell outta here!" was his final word before the hydro bubble trapped his whole body and forced him to suffocate underwater.

Ningguang looked at him with eyes in disbelief. Her eyes flickered with hesitation, but she ultimately left him and run. There's nothing that she can do to help him, so the more rational thought is to flee while praying to the Lord Rex Lapis and the Adepti.

She runs forward following the fleeing caravan as a stream of crystal tears threatens to spill out of her eyes. But she was too far away from the main convoy. She tried to shorten the distance by running with all she got and every ounce of energy left inside her small body.

"Ya!"

Yet, fate plays cruel music on her. A lone and bloodied hilichurls already waited for her with a wooden club.

The hilichurl is around her height, but in such small stature packed with a great deal of power. And they are as tenacious as the roaches.

She couldn't hold back her tears as she saw no hope of surviving.

'Is this the end? Am I going to die?!'

It was at this moment that she saw something bizarre. It was ..., an ephemeral series of texts that suddenly appeared in front of her.

Despite she couldn't read most of the characters and symbols in that letter, somehow she know the content.

[Dear Ms. Ningguang, I hope you receive this letter in good health.

I'm Satria Purnama, a humble merchant and I want to invite you to come to my place. There's some transaction that I'd like to make with you. I believe you are in dire need of funds at this moment.

If you are interested, please answer [Yes] and this letter will transport you directly to my place. Let's talk about the detail after we met each other.

Sincerely.]

[Would you accept the invitation? You will be transported to the inviters right away.]

[Yes | No]

'What? Huh?'

Ningguang pondered the content of the letter and then after thinking about it in mere seconds, she clicked the [Yes] option.

But nothing happened.

The hilichurl stopped his freaky dance ritual and decided to attack her. She tried to dodge the incoming blow but then ..., she felt an incredible force pull her body to the sky. In the blink of an eye, she was gone. Disappeared from Teyvat.

The hilichurl who just swung its club found that its prey is suddenly gone and it made the masked creature perplexed. After staring at the empty spot for a while, it then decided to turn its attention to the group of humans who still fighting against the Mitachurl.

However, as the hilichurl merrily walked toward its buddy. A green shadow accompanied by a gust of wind flashed from behind, one thrust of a spear was all it takes to kill the hilichurl.

"Hmph, insignificant!" said the spearman with green hair.