006. Butterfly Effect Sounds Alarm Bells; Insufficient Luck Necessitates Seizing Opportunities
Wherever there are people, there is Jianghu.
Arriving in an unfamiliar environment without strength inevitably leads to bullying and exclusion. The merchant caravan was similarly full of oppression and unspoken rules.
However, with Qitian's methods, dealing with a few low-rank Gu Masters was effortless. In just a few days, by revealing a portion of his strength and employing some minor tactics, Qitian established prestige among the low-rank Gu Masters.
He also learned about the origins of this merchant caravan.
The leader of this caravan was the Jia family's young master, Jia Fu. And this caravan even possessed a Gu House, something typically only found in large-scale caravans.
It seemed this was likely an impact stemming from Fang Yuan's rebirth.
Calculating the time, Fang Yuan should have killed Jia Jin Sheng last year.
Under Fang Yuan's misdirection, Jia Fu mistakenly believed Jia Jin Sheng's death was a conspiracy orchestrated by his competitor, Jia Gui.
After Jia Fu returned to the clan, he adopted a series of aggressive measures, intensifying the competition between the brothers.
To achieve better caravan results, this year, even before the snow had fully melted, several Jia family brothers had eagerly set off, leading their respective caravans to trade in all directions.
This team was precisely the one led by Jia Fu.
No wonder the caravan arrived earlier than usual this year and was significantly larger in scale.
At the same time, Qitian secretly sounded an alarm bell for himself.
The "butterfly effect" brought by Fang Yuan had already affected him. So, how much impact would the "butterfly effect" caused by himself create?
Actually, in his previous life, Qitian's appearance had already caused considerable impact on the original plot.
But it was unknown whether Qitian's strength was too weak to affect the grand trend, or if it was the result of an invisible hand manipulating the fates of all beings; the major course of the era did not change.
This made Qitian recall a frequently seen phrase in many Honghuang-type novels from his past life: "The grand trend does not change, but minor trends can."
In Honghuang, the grand trend of heaven and earth was merely the game between Sages; beneath the Sages, all were ants. And above the Sages was the Heavenly Dao; before the Heavenly Dao, even Sages were merely ants.
And in this world, was the current grand trend all part of the arrangements of Rank Nine Venerables? What lay beyond Rank Nine?
Question after question lingered in Qitian's mind.
But one point was certain: only strength was the foundation of everything.
Although his combat strength reached Rank 7 in his previous life, he was ultimately just a Rank 6 Gu Immortal, merely a slightly larger ant before Rank Nine Venerables.
Consider those Rank Nine Venerables; each was the strongest expert of their respective era, reigning supreme and invincible under heaven.
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's arrangements, after her death, could scheme against three Venerables of the same rank, ensuring Heavenly Court's prosperity for three million years thereafter.
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's arrangements allowed the Golden Tribes, possessing his bloodline, to control the entire situation in Northern Plains for hundreds of thousands of years.
...
In his previous life, Qitian hid within Fang Yuan's mind for two hundred years, trying his best to avoid influencing Fang Yuan, fearing his own existence would cause Fang Yuan to deviate from the original trajectory, causing his own plans to fail.
Fortunately, Fang Yuan was reborn just like in the original story. Was this coincidence or inevitability? Qitian didn't know, but Fang Yuan being able to refine the Spring Autumn Cicada and defy fate in this life, changing the destiny of many, already demonstrated Fang Yuan's extraordinariness.
Perhaps Fang Yuan was the clue to eternal life; this was also why Qitian didn't plan to kill Fang Yuan prematurely.
Fang Yuan possessed five hundred years of future memories; Qitian was no different, and he even knew Fang Yuan's future path. As long as his own strength was sufficient, keeping Fang Yuan alive offered more advantages than disadvantages.
Besides, even if he wanted to kill Fang Yuan, he might not succeed. Just like Ma Hong Yun, despite his poor strength, was protected by luck; even when Fang Yuan became Rank 6, he couldn't kill Ma Hong Yun. And no matter how bad Fang Yuan's luck or how dire his straits, he never truly died, instead often benefiting from misfortune; even Giant Sun's will fell at his hands.
As the saying goes, strength determines everything! Before his own strength reached the point where he could ignore the rules of this world, careful planning and leveraging external forces were indispensable.
This caravan's destination was not towards Shang Clan City, but eastward.
Qitian had already planned for this. Shang Clan City had prosperous trade, making it relatively easy to replenish Gu worms.
Although he planned to go to Shang Clan City, there was no rush.
But during this past year, Qitian discovered his luck was greatly inferior compared to his previous life. Although Qitian's luck in his past life couldn't compare to the likes of Ye Fan, Hong Yi, or Han Li, he was still considered someone with great luck. Now, although he lacked a Luck Inspection Gu, Qitian vaguely sensed from certain details that his luck was weaker than before.
This point wasn't hard to understand. The Spring Autumn Cicada lowered the user's luck. Although Qitian was a stowaway, the effect on him was the same. After all, committing heaven-defying acts reduces one's luck; Dong Fang Chang Fan was an example.
In this life, Qitian lacked great luck, but correspondingly, he gained the experience of his previous life. Since he was a regressor, he had to fully utilize the advantage of rebirth to seize opportunities.
The previous Talented Scholar of Many Gu's inheritance yielded huge gains for Qitian, but strictly speaking, that opportunity belonged to his previous life's luck. He only inherited it smoothly this life thanks to his past experience.
The path directly to Shang Clan City, while safe, offered few opportunities suitable for Qitian to seize. Conversely, heading east presented several good opportunities, and he could also visit Qing Mao Mountain along the way.
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One month later.
Purple Nether Mountain had been left far behind by the caravan.
Along the way, they frequently encountered beast groups attacking the caravan, but mostly small ones. Larger beast groups tended to appear only once every few days.
And Qitian also "benefited greatly" from the battles with beast groups. After a night of closed-door cultivation, he successfully "broke through" to Rank 2 the next morning.
Afterwards, Qitian used the Black Boar Gu and some materials acquired from previous battles with beast groups to trade within the caravan for a mount Gu – a Mountain Spider – and a batch of goods.
The Black Boar Gu was a very precious Rank 1 Gu. It could be combined with the Green Silk Gu to refine the Rank 2 Black Mane Gu, which could then be advanced into the famous Rank 3 Steel Mane Gu. However, this path wasn't suitable for Qitian. Due to his Ice Muscle, the effects of Gu worms like the Black Mane Gu would be diminished, and besides, he had no need for it.
The Mountain Spider was a common Rank 2 mount Gu, large-bodied and hairy all over, suitable for mountain paths, though not very fast. If refined together with the Wolf Strength Gu, it could become a Mountain Wolf Spider, retaining its size but greatly increasing its speed.
Squeezed onto the back of the Mountain Spider laden with goods, Qitian blended into his current identity, moving eastward with the vast caravan.
Qitian had experience with caravans in his past life. Combining this with business experience from Earth, Qitian consistently identified business opportunities along the way with his keen insight. Because he was familiar with the specialties of various famous mountains and the needs of major clans, Qitian often found success everywhere, earning profits all along the route.
Consequently, he attracted the attention of the caravan leader, Jia Fu.
This was also within Qitian's expectations. Although Qitian was confident he could hide his Rank 3 strength, doing so would cause various inconveniences, such as feeding Gu worms and acquiring new ones, which would become restricted.
Therefore, Qitian planned to use this opportunity to reveal his strength. After all, besides being reborn, he had no secrets that couldn't see the light of day. Hiding his strength initially was only to smoothly join the caravan. Now that this goal was achieved, the next step was to reveal his strength opportunistically to gain more convenience.
"These past few days, you've made several moves, each time showing unique insight, earning more than you lose. You have great business talent. Little brother, are you interested in coming to work for me?" Jia Fu extended an offer to Qitian.
'This is it!' Qitian smiled inwardly.
Just as he wished, Jia Fu was very interested in the business talent he displayed and took the initiative to recruit him.