"...I want you to teach me martial body. Your family four stars and a half martial technique."
A rather awkward atmosphere enshrouded the place as Han Yufei's calm and composed face finally crumbled.
Even when we were fighting his face had never once changed this much. It was clear that he was extremely shocked by my request.
"...Are you making fun of me?"
Han Yufei suddenly stood up as he sharply glared in my direction.
A threatening aura sprung out from his body, shrouding the whole room.
"You think that just because I surrendered in the tournament, that I'm now a pushover?"
His voice was becoming increasingly louder with each word he said.
Pushing my hands down, I tried to calm him down.
"No, I don't think that at all. Calm down and listen to me."
But that didn't seem to work as Han Yufei got even more riled up.
"Calm down? ...how do you expect me to calm down when you just asked me to teach you our family's most prestigious art? Do I look like a joke to you?"
"Of course, I know what I asked was outrageous, but I obviously have something of equivalent value in exchange."
"...Eh?"
Han Yufei suddenly froze.
"What did you just say?"
Finally gaining Han Yufei's attention, I continued.
"What I'm trying to say is that I'm willing to exchange something of equal value with you in order for you to teach me the martial technique. In fact, you can also say that it's actually a notch above what you're going to teach me."
"A notch above?"
Han Yufeis's brows furrowed at my last words. He was obviously not convinced. I smiled at his doubt.
"Yeah, I can offer you something even better than your family martial arts."
Han Yufei sat back down.
His eyes were filled with interest.
'Got him.'
I thought as I inwardly smiled to myself.
Just by looking at his eyes, I could tell that I had gained his interest. This was all I wanted.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tapping on the table with my right hand, I remained silent for a couple of seconds. Staring at Han Yufei who was looking back at me, I only spoke up once I noticed that he was about to lose patience.
"In exchange for you teaching me your martial technique, I will give you a five-star manual."
The room froze at my words as Han Yufei was unable to process what I just said.
But it didn't take too long for him to finally understand what I said as his eyes shot wide open. Standing up and smacking the palm of his hand on the table, he leaned forward.
"Did you just say five-star martial manual?!"
His voice cracked a little as he said those words.
It was clear that he was still in disbelief by my proposal.
Staring at him from my seat, I nodded back.
"Yeah. I will give you a five-star manual in exchange for your family art. That simple."
'The Gravar style'
That was the five-star manual that I was planning to exchange with him.
I had always had this plan in mind whenever I saw Han Yufei. The Gravar style, although powerful, was practically useless to me.
Even though Han Yufei was not a sword user, Han Yufei wished nothing more than for his clan to rise into prominence and dominate the other Chinese clans.
The Chinese clans were quite powerful, and there was a lot of competition amongst them.
By owning a five-star sword manual, the chances of his clan rising to prominence would drastically improve.
Obviously, by giving him the Gravar style, I wasn't just trying to get his martial manual, but I was also trying to form a connection with the Chinese clans.
Han Yufei remained silent. Squinting his eyes, he appeared to fall into deep thought. But it wasn't long before he managed to recompose himself and carefully ask.
"...How can you prove to me that you are not laying?"
I smiled at his question. I had long seen it coming.
"It's simple really."
Taking a small piece of paper from my dimensional space, I slid it over.
"We can sign a mana contract."
The moment the words 'mana contract' escaped from my mouth, all doubts seemed to have been dispelled from Han Yufei's head as his brows relaxed.
"Let me see it."
Before saying anything else, sliding the piece of paper in front of him, Han Yufei carefully looked through it.
"Hm?"
But as he was looking through it, his brows which had previously relaxed furrowed once again.
He then proceeded to put the paper down.
"This is not a mana contract."
"No, it's not."
I shook my head.
Before he could voice any complaints, I quickly continued.
"These over here are just the terms that I want to propose for the deal. Regarding the mana contract, you can be the one who provides it. I'm sure you will feel like it's more secure if you are the one that makes the mana contract, right?"
Although hard, it wasn't impossible to replicate a mana contract.
There were many out there that had been duped by fake mana contracts, and so, by allowing him to provide the mana contract, I was essentially showing him my willingness to cooperate with him.
Of course, that was merely on the surface. In reality, a mana contract of that caliber was just too expensive for me to purchase.
I just couldn't afford it at the moment.
"I see."
Fortunately, it seemed as though Han Yufei bought the excuse as he thoughtfully nodded his head. Then, taking the paper back, he continued to look through it.
I secretly smiled to myself when I saw this.
"...eh?"
Furrowing his brows once again, Han Yufei put the paper down and pointed toward a certain section of the draft contract.
"Over here it says 'The signee of the contract will join Caïssa mercenary group as a member for five years before he is free to leave.' What in the world is Caïssa?"
"Ah, that."
I scratched the back of my head.
"In short, for five years, you will join my mercenary group. I made it this way since what I'm offering is actually of higher value than what you are offering."
"What!?"
Han Yufei stood up.
"Join your mercenary group? Do you know who I am?"
"Of course, I know." I calmly said.
'You are one of the people I have been keeping close watch of ever since transmigrating into this wolrd. Of course, I know who you are.'
"Han Yufei, <B-> rank, ranked fifth in Lock, age twenty years, son of Han Gaye, current head of the Han clan, and current Heir of the clan."
A look of shock appeared on Han Yufeis's face as I recounted all the information I knew about him.
The shock did not last for long as he quickly calmed himself down.
"...If you know all of this, why are you asking me to join?"
His words were filled with confusion and doubt.
I merely smiled at his question.
"Because you're still young. From the way things are going, you won't become the head until you're fifty or something, right?"
"..."
Han Yufei's face turned ugly at my words.
Despite that, he didn't answer back. He knew that my words held some truth into them.
With people now being able to live over two hundred years of age, it would still take quite a long time for him to actually become the head of the Han clan
If he kept on waiting, he was essentially going to be losing a lot of time waiting for something that would happen a few decades into the future.
What he lacked was real experience, and I could provide that for him.
"Why waste your time there? If you join me, I can guarantee you that you will definitely see your strength improve."
I held great confidence in myself as I said those words.
I may not be a great teacher, but I definitely knew the right places to help my members train.
Compared to when I first saw them, the current members of my mercenary group were a far cry from where they were in the past. If he joined, I didn't once doubt the fact that he would see massive growth in his skill.
Of course, the real goal was to gain his trust. If in the future he planned to leave, I wanted to at least have a solid relationship with him so that I could pull the Chinese clans to my side.
That alone would massively boost my influence in the human domain.
As soon as I finished saying what I wanted to say, silence descended upon the room.
Staring at him, I didn't say anything else. I had already said everything that I wanted to say. Whether he wanted to accept my offer or not, it all depended on him.
The wait for his answer did not last for long. Raising his head and meeting my eyes, Han Yufei opened his mouth.
"I..."
***
At the same time, in a different location.
"How far is the place?"
Gazing around him and only seeing trees, Kevin looked at Emma. Lowering her head and gazing at a small holographic map, Emmas scratched the back of her head.
"Ehmm."
Tilting her head sideways, she continued to scratch the back of her head. Behind her, Melissa facepalmed.
"Don't tell me that you're lost."
"I don't think so."
Emma replied in a high-pitched voice. Clearly indicating to the others her lack of confidence.
"Oh god."
Melissa's face scrunched up as her hand twitched.
'Calm down, calm down, we have agreed to cut down on the potions. Calm down, calm down.'
Unaware of what Melissa was thinking, Emma, handed the map to Kevin and pointed toward a certain spot.
"...We are on the right path though. Look."
"Let me see."
Taking the map, Keving took a good look at it. Staring at it, his brows furrowed.
"It really does look like we are on the right path."
"See."
Once he confirmed that Emma was right and they were indeed following the right path, he handed the map back to her.
As he handed her the map, he asked.
"Strange, where did you hear about the place from?"
Taking the map, Emma quickly replied.
"Someone suggested it to me, I don't quite remember though, I wasn't really paying too much attention to what they were saying, but apparently it's a very famous place. I've confirmed with a couple of elves along the way."
'Typical.'
Kevin thought.
Emma was the type of person to ignore most of the things that others said to her. Of course, this only applied to strangers.
"…hm?"
Kevin's feet suddenly came to a halt. It was so abrupt that Emma, who was walking behind him, smashed her face against his muscular back.
Grabbing ahold of her nose, she looked up at Kevin.
"Ukh. What was that f—"
Placing his hand on Emma's mouth to shut her up, Kevin put his finger on his mouth.
"Shhhh."
His sudden behavior caused everyone to instantly became alert.
Once he made sure that everyone was alert, Kevin took his hand away from Emma's mouth.
"What's going on?"
She softly mumbled, her eyes were filled with vigilance. Kevin shook his head in response. He too had no idea, but he knew there were other people around the area.
"I don't know, but it looks like we are not the only people here."
Rustle—! Rustle—!
Not even a couple of seconds after he said those words and the nearby vegetation rustled.
Following this, multiple figures suddenly appeared, surrounding everyone.
WIIIIIIING—
What followed after was the appearance of a transparent dome that covered the whole surroundings.
"…Shit."
Kevin cursed, a grim look appearing on his face.
SHIIIING—!
Besides him, the others got their weapons out and prepared to fight.
No one said a word as everyone understood that they were being ambushed. Instantly, mana sprung out from their body as they gazed in the direction of their aggressors.
