Arthur helped him up, saying, "There is no need for this. When I decided to help you, I wasn't hoping for you to swear your life to me."
He really didn't care that the man was swearing to repay the favor because he wasn't going to count on his promise. What he relied on was the Fate Binding divine ability.
As long as he helped the man, he would receive significant feedback from the man whenever the man makes progress in his cultivation in the future. So he didn't really care about any verbal promise of gratitude.
He gave the man a rank 4 cultivation technique that could help him advance to the fourth mortal coil. This was a cultivation technique that he gained from raiding the Milton family together with Storm Hawk.
Storm Hawk and his other partners in crime also have a copy of this technique. They had shared it because it would be wasteful not to.
The technique wasn't anything special either. It could only cultivate the path of energy refining and was of the five elements, so it didn't specialize in any element and was weak in power and speed. So it was not extravagant to give it to someone he just met.
He also gave the shopkeeper a talisman. This was the same talisman he had been given by the sect when he advanced to the third mortal coil and joined the inner sect.
This talisman can produce attacks at the fourth mortal coil. He gave it to the shopkeeper as a means of protection. After all, he didn't want his investment to go to waste.
After all of these, he gave the man information on how to contact him and said to the man, "When you reach the peak of the third mortal coil, reach out to me. I will help you get the right environment to advance to the fourth mortal coil."
The man teared up. because of Arthur's immense generosity. He began to sob.
In between his sons, he managed to say, "Thank you for your faith in me, sir. I can't believe that you think so highly of me and are even willing to risk your resources to help me. I hope that I won't fail your expectations of me."
Arthur said with confidence, "I have faith in your potential. I can't be wrong about that, so you should have faith in yourself too."
Then he said to him, "I have to leave. Work hard so that I can hear from you soon. I have great faith in you, White Teak."
With that said, he disappeared from the store and went on his way. The shopkeeper looked around but didn't see him.
After he was sure that Arthur was gone, the shopkeeper stopped taking customers and closed down the shop. He shut down the shop to consider what to do next.
In the safety of his shop, he frowned and thought to himself, "What a nosy fellow. Why did he have to interfere in my affairs?"
He snorted and said, "At first, when he claimed that he had come to help me, I thought he wanted to scam me. I thought he was just saying that in order to cheat me of my money. After all, he is from the Blood Skull sect."
"I didn't expect at all that he truly wanted to help me. What a strange fellow."
He sat down on a chair and chuckled to himself, saying, "I mean, he is not wrong to say that I have potential. My potential is so unbelievable that his head would explode if he knew."
He threw aside the cultivation technique and the talisman that Arthur gave him and said, "Something as trashy as this is not worth my potential at all. He is just a small-time talent in a backward place."
He laughed and said, "What did he call himself again? Daoist Lightning Tyrant? What a pompous fool. The way of lightning is dead. The power of heaven is not to be coveted. Only suicidal idiots and fools cultivate lightning."
He laughed and said, "What a fool. What an ignorant fool. But what else do I expect from backward cultivators?"
But then he stopped laughing and frowned as he asked himself, "He is a fool, but how did he know that I had immense potential in the first place? I thought I had hidden myself well enough. Can he see through my situation? Do I have to get rid of him?"
Then he shook his head and said, "It is unlikely that he saw my true situation, or he would have pissed himself in fright. And knowing the Blood Skull sect, if one of their talented and young golden core elders dies, they will turn this whole region upside down."
"I don't fear these fools from the Blood Skull sect, but I don't want too much trouble. It is not worth it to kill the boy. I just want to open a shop and make money in peace."
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, saying, "Is it so hard to run a shop? Must I leave this place and change my identity?"
He didn't want to leave, but this wouldn't be the first time for him to do so; he was very quick to make a decision.
He said, "Better safe than sorry. That boy doesn't look like someone unreasonable, but there is no telling. He might start watching me and bordering with all of that talk about how much potential I have."
"So I should just change my identity. Better safe than sorry."
With his mind made up, he began to pack his things. He placed everything he owned into a large space ring.
While he was packing, some people began to prowl the surroundings of his shop. They were lurking around in order to rob him.
Some people had seen the shopkeeper meet with a cultivator at the fourth mortal coil and receive something from that cultivator. News quickly spread, so some people got the idea to rob the shopkeeper of his opportunity.