Path to Transcendence

Chapter 683: Sky Nimbus Company

Julius laughed lightly and rubbed his head. “Honestly, I was paying attention to your clients and other people joining your group. From what I can tell, they seemed like tidy and well-mannered people. They also seemed to be familiar with you, so I concluded that you must be trustworthy, or at least more than some of the other ones,” Julius explained and discreetly looked over at some of the other caravans gathering to leave.

“I noticed that many of the other caravans didn’t have as well-mannered people within their groups,” he finished.

That was the truth too. There were a surprisingly large number of caravans, with ragged people in their ranks. Not just ragged, though, but he could tell from their auras that they weren’t of the purest of intentions. Julius doubted these people would join the caravan only to attack them later, but if he was going to travel with a group for a while, he wanted to make sure they were good people.

The merchant looked pensive as he digested Julius’s words.

“Is that all?”

Julius rubbed his head again. “And your carriages looked a bit more comfortable than some of the other ones.”

This made the man laugh lightly. “The comfort does come at a price.”

“That’s okay, I can pay. But is that a yes?”

The merchant pressed his lips together before suddenly turning around. “Hey, Arlen! Come over here for a second,” he called out to a man talking to someone a couple of dozen feet away.

Arlen turned around, hearing his name. He wasn’t exactly short, but he wasn’t tall either. He had on a nice dark green suit that matched his slightly green hair. He also wore a pair of wire-frame glasses that sat right on the edge of his nose. He excused himself from his current conversation and strode over to them with a curious expression.

“Need something, Walter?”

The merchant, whose name was apparently Walter, pointed at Julius. “He wanted to join our group. What do you say?”

Arlen sized up Julius. His eyes had the faintest trickle of mana going through them, signifying a skill or technique of some kind being used.

Julius was deliberately making his aura slightly stronger than average, but nothing too spectacular. He wanted to come across as a wealthy scion of a clan who had training, but not more than that.

He understood that holding back his aura, or deliberately showing a weak one, was sometimes even more conspicuous. Not to mention, he didnʼt think doing that would trick this man.

Julius didn’t mention this, but this was the other reason why he’d wanted to join this caravan. While Arlen didn’t seem outwardly impressive, he could tell when someone was skilled. The way he handled his aura and his mana showed that he had some skill. Additionally, the fact that he appeared to be Walter’s second in command meant he had to be pretty competent.

From what Julius could tell, Walter seemed to be a successful merchant. The number of powerful enchantments and the quality of guards other than Arlen seemed to indicate as much. And

“What’s your name?” Arlen asked while his eyes were still tingling with mana.

“Julius,” he answered with a smile.

“Do you belong to any clan or sect?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Are you a criminal?”

Julius shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

This seemed to amuse Arlen slightly. “And are you going to cause any issues for us if we let you join us?”

Julius shook his head. “No, sir.”

Arlen gazed at him for a few more moments before nodding at Walter. “I think he’s fine.”

Walter tapped his chin, as if he wasn’t quite convinced. But eventually nodded his head and said to Julius, “We are heading to Goldmere, but we are making several stops along the way in various towns and cities. Is that alright with you?”

“Yeah, thatʼs fine with me.”

“Okay, in that case, go and see Genene over there,” Walter said with a warm smile.

Julius saw where the man was pointing and spotted the woman who was getting the rest of the people in the caravan situated. He thanked the two men before he went over to her, where he greeted himself.

She seemed a bit hesitant, but once he told her that Arlen and Walter were letting him come along, she became very friendly. He paid her a fee. It cost him around ten gold, which he was pretty sure was much more than most other groups. Or he was just getting fleeced, but considering he had a literal pile of platinum and gold in his storage space, he wasn’t worried.

And to be fair, it was worth it. When he entered the carriage, he was reminded of a fancy train car. It was spatially enhanced on the inside and had almost a dozen rows of seats on either side of the windows.

He knew that carriages enchanted this way were very expensive, so the price was starting to make sense. He was even offered some free snacks by one of the caravan staff. Something he wasn’t about to decline.

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He took the time to field-examine the rest of the compartment’s passengers. He spotted a young couple near him who seemed wealthy in their own right. A family of four sat near the back. The two young children were playing with some kind of toy, while the parents watched with amusement.

An attractive young woman sat diagonally from him. She seemed like every bit of a noblewoman. The dress, the jewelry, and the slightly aloof air about her. But he also noticed that she had several very powerful items on her person. Ones that made detecting her aura a very difficult task and required a lot of his focus. Even then, he didn’t get much information. He did get a faint whiff or something bright and lively, almost like smelling a garden in bloom.

There were a few other passengers who caught his eye. An older man wearing a very expensive-looking pair of robes. Then there was another young man, a little older than Julius, who seemed a bit nervous, though.

He was looking around the carriage constantly and was twisting the ring around his finger a little anxiously. He was the only person Julius noticed who looked a little out of place. He wasn’t wearing expensive clothes or had any signs of being wealthy, but here he was.

Even Julius was wearing some nice clothes. Fitting for someone who was pretending to be a wealthy scion.

At first, Julius was unsure of the young man, but after Genene walked over and spoke to him affectionately, it became clear there was something else. Maybe he was just a family friend getting a ride or something.

In the end, it wasn’t his concern, and so he settled down in his seat, relaxing comfortably in the plush seat. He even felt himself start to doze off after the carriage began to move away from Burning Sun City, leaving the Burning Sun Sect behind.

***

Arlen POV

He watched as the young man walked away. Although nothing from his skills alerted him to anything suspicious, he couldn’t help but feel something odd about him. Walter must have, too; otherwise, he wouldn’t have asked him over him.

He and Walter had been friends for over thirty years despite being two very different people. Arlen was the son of a poor farming family who could barely support their own children and had run off at the first opportunity he found. While Walter was the estranged son of a successful merchant family. Walter didn’t like to talk about them much, but part of his reason to start his own company was to prove his family wrong.

The two of them had joined the Cloudpiercer Hall around the same time, and both left the hall together over a decade ago when Walter wanted to begin his own merchant group. And so far, it has been going really well.

The Cloudpiercer Hall had been an excellent place to learn and work their way through the tiers, but there was a lack of freedom that both of them disliked.

The Sky Nimbus Company gave them the freedom they both desperately wanted. And it has done very well in recent years. It was thanks to this that Arlen had finally been able to advance to Tier 5, with Walter not far behind him. Though his friend had relied entirely on treasures. It wasn’t that big of a deal since Walter wasn’t planning to advance past Tier 5. Most people didn’t; they understood that reaching Tier 6 was nothing but a pipe dream. But Arlen still liked to entertain the idea and possibility of crossing into that venerable realm.

Walter liked to tease him about it, but he truly believed he had a chance. Regardless of how small it was.

You think he’s hiding something?” he asked once the young man was far enough away.

Walter shrugged. “Probably, but everyone is hiding something.”

Arlen scoffed. That was true enough. Everyone had their secrets, and part of being a merchant was understanding when not to pry.

“Why let him join then?”

Walter chuckled and pulled out a pipe. He lit it up and took a deep puff before offering it to Arlen. He accepted the pipe and took a nice, deep pull of his own.

Walter breathed out a cloud of smoke, manipulating some wind mana with it so that a small dragon-like creature swam through the air. “Because he’s interesting,” he said before grabbing the pipe from Arlen and taking another puff. “Why? You worried that he’s going to cause trouble?”

Nymis, his wind spirit, sent a gust of wind that blew the smoke off into the morning sky. She’d never liked smoking and always tried to get Arlen to stop.

Arlen shook his head. “No, he seems like a nice young man,” he replied.

From what he could tell, the young man didn’t seem like the type to cause trouble. He suspected Julius was from a clan or sect, though when he asked him about it earlier, Julius showed the slightest bit of hesitation. The way he handled his aura indicated advanced training. Not to mention, he seemed to have the money to afford this caravan. But that was the only thing, and it wouldn’t be the first time Arlen had seen this.

“What do you think?” he asked Nymis. She usually had a good sense of people.

He got a light breeze full of warm, positive feelings in response.

“She seems to like him,” he relayed over to Walter. But on the inside, he was slightly surprised. Nymis didn’t like everyone; she was a fickle thing, a common trait with wind spirits. So her having a good impression of the boy was a good sign.

Walter clapped his hands together and put the pipe away. “See? There’s no need to worry. And no reason to deny easy money. If he ends up causing trouble, we can deal with it then.”

“What if said clan or sect is coming after him?”

Walter sighed. “Then we’ll deal with it. Make sure everything is all set. This next shipment is important. We need to deliver this to Lord Yoshu as soon as possible. He wants it before his daughterʼs birthday, and we have to complete our other deliveries before that.”

“Did you find out if there are any more issues in the surrounding regions?” Arlen asked curiously.

Walter shrugged. “The Burning Sun Sect seems to have calmed down, but my sources say that something big happened up there during the Solstice Festival.”

Arlen rubbed his neck. “Let’s hope it doesn’t make them clamp down on security as they did a few months ago. I don’t want to deal with something like that again.”

“That’s what happens when a sect this powerful loses as many inner disciples as they did. I’m honestly more surprised things didn’t get worse. Other sects would have taken this as an opportunity to forcibly quell any rumors. Remember what happened with the Jade Compass Sect a couple of years ago?”

Arlen grimaced. “Don’t remind me.”

A couple of years ago, the Jade Compass Sect had been involved in a particularly embarrassing situation involving several of its elders and many of its disciples. And considering the Jade Compass Sect was an upper-middle-tier sect, they wanted to dissuade people from talking badly about them. What resulted was a several-month-long extermination of the sect’s enemies and whoever talked badly about them.

Of course, it became an even larger issue, and several sects banded together to fight against them. Tens of thousands died, and in the end, the Jade Compass Sect was destroyed, the remnants broken up into pieces and divided amongst the remaining sects.

As for the Sky Nimbus Company, they were unlucky enough to get tangled up in the whole situation. Fortunately, they only came out of it a little worse for wear.

Walter was about to say something else when Genene came running over, letting them know that everything was all set.

They both let out a sigh and got ready to depart. Hopefully, they wonʼt come across any trouble this time around and complete the task for Lord Yoshu without any issues.