An Opportunity

Qai's father wasn't surprised at all when his son popped the idea. He already got used to his son with those kinds of thoughts. But the guests from the Moon Village obviously didn't know what to answer.

The village chief was, without a doubt, in a sort of predicament. Such proposal wasn't as drastic as having a village girl wed to Shu Qai—in fact it would kind of form a seed of alliance!

And this time, it was the Shu family itself that extended its hand.

However, the village chief knew that he could not just compel Elder Lu to accept it, much less his nephew Su Yu—who would know what they had in mind?

Added to that fact, it seemed that, should they give in, the Shu family would be one cultivator stronger. And that, in itself, would pose another headache althogether!

"Ah."

The merchant suddenly roused from the shock.

"I cannot answer to that," he said after he took a look at his 14-year old nephew.

Elder Lu, for a moment, somehow entertained the idea and imagined what would become of Su Yu. He already took special notice of the sudden rise in cultivation of the entire Shu family by leaps and bounds—and figured out that his nephew joining them may become beneficial after all.

Su Yu, on the other hand, was also surprised by Qai's proposal and was eventually deep in thought. But before he had broken his silence, he looked back at his uncle and sighed.

"Should I accept your offer, what would my task in your family be?" Su Yu asked obviously not wanting to beat around the bush.

Qai grinned and rubbed the tip of his nose.

"Well," he answered, "you saw our Treasury Hall, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"How about you be in charge of developing our Armory," Qai explained. "We'll give you the freedom in it.. and support you with whatever you need to develop it."

Such offer wasn't grand—Qai only made it sound like one. That was because, to Su Yu's standards, he would have to start from scratch knowing that Shu family's Amory didn't have that much.

But having his own little world, solely under his control, could be considered as enticing enough.

He toured the family's property earlier and sufficiently assessed that shortage of material resources for crafting would not be a problem—the wealth of the Shu family right then may be meager but it was obviously on the rise.

Su Yu was again in deep thought. He took a sip from his cup of tea before he said another word.

"I'll accept..," he carefully said, "but on one condition."

"Eh."

Everyone present had a different reaction with his surprising approval. At least they thought that Su Yu would somewhat automatically reject the offer.

"What would that conditon be?" Qai asked.

"Young master Qai," Su Yu called.

In an instant, he evidently changed the way he addressed his benefactor, adding the word 'master'—easily submitting himself already to the Shu family.

"Allow me to go back to Moon Village first and spend time with uncle," he begged.

Su Yu then sighed as he turned his glance towards Elder Lu.

"And if there would ever be a chance in the future, please help expand Uncle Lu's business..," Su Yu said.

It was a simple request but Elder Lu felt grateful. He only had Su Yu as his heir. He knew one day his nephew would leave his side as it was natural in the cultivation world so he didn't impose upon Su Yu to be a merchant like himself.

Elder Lu taught him the path of blacksmithing though, not because he wanted to keep him, but becauss he wanted to add value in his nephew's cultivation.

But that condition made him feel how Su Yu placed importance to his business endeavor. He had mixed feelings but thought that this might be his nephew's opportunity—he thought a future with Qai at the helm wouldn't seem so bad.

"You didn't have to do that Su Yu," the merchant said.

"No, no.. that is definitely okay Elder Lu."

"Ah."

It was Qai who answered.

"In fact I can also see our family venturing into the same line of business like yours one day..," Qai added. "Perhaps we can tie up with you in that regard.. we can't simply let this kind of opportunity pass right?"

"Ha ha ha," Elder Lu laughed. "You're wisdom for your age is truly amazing.. I can now rest easy with Su Yu's decision."