《Jade Dragon Beauty》


 Chapter One

    Mo Shen traveled down the long road from the forest, where she traveled every day in order to gather what she needed to survive. Usually that meant wild foods or herbs, but recently she had arranged to work for the local tavern, a deal which paid well enough that she could eat proper food consistently.


    Soon she would reenter the village, carrying a large basket of wood on her back. As an orphan she had no parents to support her, so she had to take on jobs in the village in order to support herself. This specific job required her to bring as much firewood as she could to the tavern. The first basket got her a bowl of leftover stew before they threw it out to the pigs. The second allowed her to sleep on the floor of the tavern¡¯s storage room that night. This was her third trip, which would earn her a single copper coin. That would be enough to buy her a proper bowl of porridge in the morning, though she would probably save it in case it was needed later. Money was much more difficult to get than food, after all, and could be used for far more purposes.


    None of the other orphans could do the same, however. The forest was an hour¡¯s walk from the village, and the only wood that was acceptable was that which was already dry. This meant either traveling through parts of the forest where other¡¯s hadn¡¯t been for months in hopes of finding branches or small trees that had fallen down and dried enough, and because of their size you would have to gather more than a tree worth of wood to fill the basket. Or, you could do what she did and carry a hatchet to cut down large trees, cut them into logs, split the logs, then stack them under an outcropping or inside a cave so that they could dry.


    One might assume that a ten year old girl could not manage to chop trees down, or carry a basket full of wood, and that would be true for most ten year olds, but in her case she had an advantage. Before he died, her father had taught her the basics of cultivation. He was only a hunter, and therefore only had the basic cultivation technique of the town militia, but he had also read her too many stories about cultivators. That¡¯s why, at the age of five, she had wanted to be a cultivator so badly that she kept begging him until he taught her the basics. Those basics, however, only amounted to how to circulate the body¡¯s chi in order to remove toxins. For the last four and a half years she had practiced that technique every night. The progress she made meant that she had cleared almost all of the toxins from her body which could restrict the flow of chi, granting her five to six times the strength and stamina she would have without cultivation.


    Now she approached the town with a basket half her weight on her back. Thankfully, the snow had stopped falling ten days ago, on the first day of spring, and had mostly melted off of the road, letting her move more quickly and easily. This allowed her to gather three baskets of wood from the nearby woods instead of the one or two per day which she gathered in the winter. She had also checked the traps she had set, one of the few hunter skills her father had taught her, but she hadn¡¯t caught anything today, and so couldn¡¯t give a rabbit or squirrel to the other orphans for their own evening meal.


    The first grass shoots were starting to poke out from the soil. Most of the grass was mundane, but occasionally one could find a tuft of spirit grass, which could be harvested and sold to traveling cultivators for one silver per bundle. She had searched the sides of the road as she traveled, hoping that she could find one to sell to the group that would be arriving from the Jade Dragon sect tomorrow, but had no luck. It would probably be another two or three weeks before there were enough that she could find one near the road which hadn¡¯t been harvested already.


    The masters from the sect came to the village every two or three years to recruit any children in the village who had proper cultivation talent. Such talent was rare, though. The village had over ten thousand people, and all of them were of either Cleansing or Gathering potential. The chances of there being more than a few children with greater potential than that between eight and ten years old was slim.


    She had been a bit too young to be tested when they came through last time. Then, six months later, her father, a mid Collection hunter had left the village with the other hunters to deal with a monster and all seven of them had been killed. The Jade Dragon sect had been contacted using a messaging relic they provided the town master, and they sent someone to exterminate the monster, but it didn¡¯t bring her father back. The sect master that had come informed them that it was a middle Foundation level monster, so the hunters had little chance against it. If only he had been stronger, though, she believed he might have stood a chance. At the peak of the Collection phase he would have had more strength and stamina, improving his odds, but raising her and spending time with his friends had distracted him from his cultivation.


    Mo Shen was determined not to let her own cultivation fall behind. Old Lady Teng, a local alchemist, had allowed many orphans to sleep in her house over the winter, and had allowed them to read what books she had. Most of the children, if they could read and wanted to, had looked at the story books. Mo Shen had found an old Militia cultivation manual, a former belonging of her dead husband, and read it. It wasn¡¯t the best cultivation manual available, but it was easy to understand and only required neutral chi to cultivate, so was much faster than the five elements technique the Jade Dragon sect used. From that she had learned to Restrict her chi to expand her dantian, and therefore increase her chi reserves, and to Release her chi for a burst of strength, as well as how to break through to the next stage by constructing a shell around her dantian to solidify it¡¯s status.


    Unfortunately, Lady Teng had died in the middle of winter when her house got too cold during a snow storm, along with one of the children. The man who inherited her house and shop, her oldest son, was not as kind to the orphans as her and kicked the children out into the snow the next day.


    Shen had been forced to search for work since then, which had greatly limited how much time she could spend cultivating. Still, through cleansing meditation she was able to remain at the peak of the cleansing phase while the other orphans were in the middle or the bottom of that phase due to the toxins inherent in the food that the poor could get, and despite the fact that she made sure all of them knew the Cleansing technique. She even invited all of them to join her in cultivating, but few of them chose to do so.


    She entered the tavern and walked behind the counter, where she began to stack the fire wood. The sun would be setting soon, so she doubted she would be able to get another load of firewood before it set completely. There were techniques available to let one see in the dark, but the scroll to learn them were expensive. Once she had finished stacking the wood, she stood and walked to the woman behind the counter. ¡°That makes three, correct?¡± the woman asked.


    Shen nodded and the woman took a copper coin from the money box and handed it to her.


    ¡°Are you going for another load after this?¡± the woman asked, and Shen shook her head.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I would make it back before sunset.¡± she said.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. You haven¡¯t learned a light technique yet, and can¡¯t afford a torch. I forgot.¡± The woman knelt down and pulled a scroll from under the counter. ¡°This is the Torch Palm Technique. It makes your hand glow, and can be used even in the Cleansing phase. I know you like to cultivate, so I¡¯ll loan you this for the night.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t accept this.¡± Shen said. ¡°It is too valuable.¡±


    ¡°Nonsense, it¡¯s just a loan, and only worth one silver at that. Just read it and return it to me before you go to sleep. Who knows? Tomorrow you may be able to bring in an extra load, and pay me back.¡±


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    Shen cupped her hands a bowed. ¡°Thank you, Sister Pon.¡±


    ¡°Now, there¡¯s no need for that ¡®sister¡¯ stuff. We aren¡¯t cultivators.¡± she shooed the girl into the back with a wave of her hand.


    Around ten at night the woman entered the room and put a bowl of stew in front of Shen, who was busy practicing the technique. Occasionally her palm would flicker slightly with a dull light, but never properly glow. She walked towards the store room door and Shen jumped up. ¡°Wait, miss.¡± she said, and rolled up the scroll before handing it back to Pon. ¡°Thank you once again.¡± Pon nodded and left. The stew was overcooked and there were small burnt bits in the bottom, from the scrapings at the bottom of the pot, but that didn¡¯t matter to Shen. Burnt stew didn¡¯t contain any more toxins than the normal stew, so it didn¡¯t set back her cultivation. It just tasted worse.


    The next morning Shen got up and cleaned up the blankets she had slept on, folding them and placing them in the corner. Today the Jade Dragon masters should arrive around noon, so she would have to hurry if she wanted to bring in a load of firewood before they arrived.


    She quickly ran to the creek beside the village, to the women¡¯s bathing area, and washed off. Ideally, she would perform a few minutes of Cleansing meditation while standing in the water to wash away yesterday¡¯s toxins, but she was in a hurry. After washing what dirt she could from her waist length red hair without soap she got out of the creek, wiped herself down with a drying cloth, and got dressed. She then put her basket on her back and left for the woods.


    As she approached the village three hours later she saw a group of adults in fine robes entering the village, followed by seven children around her own age. This had to be the Sect Masters, being unable to fly because they had to bring the children with them. She ran into the village and through the door of the tavern, throwing her basket and tools on the floor behind the counter. ¡°Sorry miss Pon.¡± she said to the woman behind the counter. ¡°The masters are here.¡± Pon nodded, but Shen didn¡¯t see it as she ran out the door.


    She ran into the town center, where the masters were setting up in front of the Green Bronze Dragon statue that marked this as a village under their protection. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re so excited for.¡± said a twelve year old boy behind her. ¡°It¡¯s not like a parentless freak will ever be picked.¡±


    ¡°Not even worthy of being a concubine.¡± said a thirteen year old beside him. ¡°Her mother couldn¡¯t give birth to more than one child before dying. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be the same.¡± It was true. Shen¡¯s mother had died when she was three, giving birth to her younger brother, taking her brother back into the Cycle with her.


    She was considering saying something when a nine year old beside them spoke up. ¡°Well, I think she¡¯s really pretty.¡± Gin Ponma had always been a nice boy, and had even played with the orphans occasionally.


    The twelve year old laughed. ¡°Then I tell you what, little brother. When you become a man in three or four years I¡¯ll pay for you to visit her at the brothel, since a whore is the best she can hope to be.¡±


    Shen was about to speak up when the master whistled. ¡°Ok, children, listen up. I want everyone that is at least eight years old and hasn¡¯t been tested before to form three lines in front of the three pillars. One at a time you are to step forward, say your name and age and touch the stone. We will then write down the color and brightness level of all of you. In order to join the sect you will need to have at least Foundation potential. This means that the stone will glow green. If it glows anything other than red or yellow, you will step to the side with the other children we brought to the village. Any questions?¡±


    There were none, so the children lined up. The twelve and thirteen year old had been tested last time, so they couldn¡¯t participate, but Ponma could. He entered the line beside Shen and, when everyone had lined up, they started calling children forward.


    Most of the children made the stone glow red. They had Cleansing phase potential and, without a massive effort, would never go beyond that in their cultivation. Around ten percent made it glow Yellow. They had Gathering phase potential. They would be eligible to become city guards and militia. Then Mo Shen stepped forward. ¡°Mo Shen. Age 10.¡± she said, and reached out to touch the stone. A bright blue light came from it.


    ¡°Nascent talent.¡± gasped the master. ¡°Chi multiplier 17.¡± The twelve and thirteen year old looked surprised, but Shen just gave them a smile of superiority and stepped over to where the other recruits were. She knew that, as much as they hated the fact that she had higher potential than them, they would do nothing to challenge the Masters, who now protected her.


    A minute passed, during which time two of the other orphans were assessed but failed, before the boy from before stepped up. ¡°Gin Ponma. Age 9.¡± the boy said. He touched the stone and it glowed a dull green.


    ¡°Foundation talent.¡± said the Master. ¡°Chi multiplier 3.¡± Ponma happily took his place with the other recruits. From the crowd he saw his parents smiling.


    Once the assessment was over, the Master in charge addressed the crowd. ¡°This concludes the assessment. Those that tested well will go with us to the sect town where they will be raised as cultivators. Those of you that failed, do not think less of yourself. Some are simply born with more talent. What matters is how you use your talent. Train well, and you may one day even surpass these recruits.¡± They all knew that it was next to impossible to do that. Even someone with Collection potential would have to go through a tribulation to become Foundation level, something which challenged who they were at a fundamental level. And they could only do that if they managed to reach the limit through cultivation, which few of them would ever do. The fact that those that were recruited were at least Foundation potential meant that they would therefore reach the Foundation rank without having to go through that life altering challenge.


    Once the masters cleaned up what they had set up, they removed a basket of dumplings from their rings and passed them to the children. The children would need to have a full stomach if they were to walk back to the sect village. Thankfully, the masters had brought plenty of food with them. To Shen, it tasted heavenly. It was made of spirit rice and vegetables, not the mundane rice and vegetables that normal food was made of, and made expertly. This meant that it had no toxins in it which could interfere with her cultivation. She ate it quickly and was even given a second by the master.


    When everyone had finished, they stood up and left the town. Shen¡¯s village was the third on the journey, and they would need to visit another ten towns before they returned to the sect. This meant that they would be traveling by foot for at least one more month.


    Over the next month the masters made camp every night, then taught the children the basics of cultivation. As they were already technically members of the sect they could be taught the basics already, but none of the secrets techniques. Shen already knew most of what they taught, as she had read the Militia Manual, but there were still a few things that the manual didn¡¯t cover, tricks that the Sect taught to their members but not to outsiders. This included a variation of the cleansing meditation which worked faster when the levels of toxins were low, but the toxins were of a type that was difficult to remove and a method for exercising the chi pathways, like lifting weights but for chi. Neither were dangerous if they got out into the public, as neither would do much to help the people outside of rare conditions caused by stubborn toxin buildup, but they would help the rival sects improve further without similarly benefiting the Jade Dragon Sect.


    Soon they were only two days away from the sect village, and the group of children had grown to thirty seven. The six masters were barely able to control so many, so they had taken to telling the children stories of the monsters in the mountains to keep them from wandering off. Apparently monsters could be stronger than the masters and have the ability to control the elements. From what Shen had read, some of them were like this, but most were simply wild animals that had some bonuses from their own cultivation which animals seemed to be able to do instinctively.


    The next morning they broke camp and started the long trek up the mountain. The climb was harder than any the children had done before, but the masters didn¡¯t seem affected by it. This was likely because of the excess stamina granted to them by their cultivation. A week ago Shen had managed to break through to the Gathering phase, so she was getting tired much slower than the others, even given the fact that the children had also been cultivating during the journey, as the masters instructed. More than once she had to slow down to help Ponma climb the path.


    They took a break around noon. They would reach a village at the bottom of the real mountain by nightfall, the masters said, and the Sect Town was less than a day¡¯s travel from there up the mountain road. They wouldn¡¯t be gathering recruits from this village, however, as it was so close to the sect that they had already been tested and those that qualified were taken up the mountain weeks ago.


    The masters started handing out food, and all of the children were happy for the food and the break. The masters also handed out recovery pills so that the children could recover from the uphill climb. The land they had walked through before this had possessed small hills at best, so they weren¡¯t used to such a steep climb.


    Halfway through the meal, though, one of the masters stood up suddenly from where he was sitting on a rock. The other masters noticed and stood up as well. There was silence for a few seconds as the children didn¡¯t know what to do, then a hole appeared in the standing master¡¯s chest, blood leaking from the wound as he collapsed to the ground. ¡°Ambush¡± another master yelled, and a bolt of lightning flew towards the woods from the palm of his hand.


    A confusing battle followed with magic flying in different directions. Shen and Ponma huddled together in the group of students, trying to hide from the attacks. It became obvious that the masters were outnumbered as they started dying quickly from the numerous attacks directed at them. Soon the spells stopped flying and several people in snake masks came over to the children, stepping over the bodies of the Jade Dragons. ¡°Rejoice, children, for your lives will now have meaning.¡± the leader of the snakes said in a distorted voice.


    The snake masked people quickly took everything of value from the Jade Masters and the children had their hands tied together so that one could not run without taking the others with them. The snake masks then lead the children down a side path.


    Just as the sun was setting they reached a castle, its stone walls towering over the snake masked people. The two snake masked guards at the gate laughed. ¡°The master will be pleased.¡± one of them said, and opened the gate.


    The children were lead into the dungeons under the castle, where they were untied and given a bowl of gruel. ¡°Eat well, children, for only the strongest of you have any value to us.¡± With that, the man that fed them left, leaving the children split into four cells.

 Chapter 2

    The next day the children were awakened with the sunrise. Those that tried to sleep in were hit with tiny bolts of of energy. This energy sent waves of pain through their bodies and they screamed while spasms kept them on the floor. ¡°When you are told to get up, you get up.¡± one of the snake masked men said.


    Once the pain went away, those that had been hit with the attack stood up. ¡°Good, now all of you are to be tested. Not for potential, as the Dragons already tested for that, but for determination. We want to know which of you have the will to live. Will you fight to survive, like a predator, or will you roll over and die like prey? Only those with the will to live can survive here.¡±


    They were lead out into a courtyard, to where a sparring field was. ¡°First lesson. Two shall enter the field, picked at random. The first to draw their opponent¡¯s blood gets to eat. The other goes without.¡± The man pointed to two children. ¡°You two, enter the field.¡± The two hesitated and two masked men that were standing to the side grabbed them and carried them into the field. ¡°Now, fight.¡±


    The two children stared at each other. They had been taught by their parents not to fight. How could they¡­? They hesitated for a few seconds, looking at the other one to see if they really wanted to fight.


    Two bolts of energy left the instructor¡¯s hand and hit the two children, who collapsed to the ground in pain. ¡°Maybe you failed to understand my command. If you do not fight, not only do neither of you get to eat, but you both will feel pain. The tiny jolt that was used to wake you was only a fraction of the pain this technique can inflict. Every time we are disobeyed, the pain will increase.¡± The two had stopped jerking on the floor and now panted for breath. ¡°Now, are you going to fight, or are you going to experience even greater pain?¡±


    The older boy struggled to his feet a few seconds before the younger boy, and walked over. Just as the boy started to stand, he punched the boy in the face. It was a week swing, but it made the already weakened boy lose his footing and fall down. When he stood up a second time, his lip was bleeding slightly.


    ¡°See, that wasn¡¯t so hard, was it?¡± the man said, and tossed the older boy a hard lump of flour that was used as field rations by the militia. ¡°Next, you two.¡± The other two boys left the stage and two more entered it. While they seemed afraid at first, when the master told them to begin one boy ran at the other and slapped him as hard as he could. That didn¡¯t quite draw blood, and the other one punched him in the face, making his nose bleed.


    The rest of the morning combat went smoothly. Ponma tackled his opponent and slapped him until his lip was split and Shen fought dirty, kicking the boy in the stomach and clawing at his fase with her uncut finger nails. This meant that they were both allowed to eat breakfast.


    After practice, at eleven in the morning, they were lead to a side room. Inside were twenty bunks on either side of the room. For a total of forty beds. ¡°This is the housing for the outer disciples. This is where you will sleep until you earn a place in the inner sect. There are toilets over there and a sink over there.¡± he pointed to the locations. The man placed a basket of hard biscuits on the table, one for each child, and locked them inside.


    After eating the girls took turns blocking the toilet and bathing area off for each other, then the boys did the same. Even in prison, one must behave properly.


    At noon they were lead into a different training field. This one had dummies set up around the outside of it. The snake master motioned to a bowl of pills on a table near the doors. ¡°These are Blood burn pills. The power we used to make you feel pain was developed by mimicking the power of these pills. There is much power trapped within the blood, and you must learn to harness that power.¡± The children were each ordered to step forward and take one of the pills, but not swallow it. ¡°When you swallow this pill, you will start to feel a burning sensation inside your stomach. This is the power that you blood releases when it is destroyed by the pill. You are to take that power and channel it into your palm, then throw it at the target in front of you. If you refuse to use the energy, know that the pain will only increase until you release it.¡±


    Every child was ordered to swallow their pill. Some of them refused, only to have one of the other snake people force it into their throat where it started to burn there. The children then swallow instinctively, putting the pill in their stomach where it was supposed to be.


    Shen swallowed hers without being forced, and felt her stomach start to burn, like holding her hand over a candle. She forced herself to ignore the pain and focus on the energy that was causing it. The strange red energy swirled around her middle dantian, trying to force itself inside. Thankfully, the shell she had built around it when she advanced to the Gathering stage was holding back the energy, but she could feel it eroding. ¡°This is just like the Torch Palm technique.¡± she whispered to herself as she touched the energy with her mind, drawing it out into her palm. The energy lessened for a few seconds before starting to recover to its previous level. The chi was strange, like it hated life, but she ignored that for the moment and forced it into a ball. After twenty seconds of concentration it formed a rough ball in her hand, and she threw the ball at the target. Her aim was terrible, and it flew wildly to the side, but at least she could remove it from her body.


    Many of the children either stood doubled over or laid on the ground in pain, clutching their stomach. Thanks to her assistance with other chi techniques, however, Ponma had managed to take some of the energy and place it outside his body, into his palm, but not throw it. She could tell he was in pain, but she couldn¡¯t help him at this moment. She fired four more chi bolts with the strange chi before it started to dissipate.


    Now that her own levels of the energy were low enough that it wouldn¡¯t grow out of control, she ran over to Ponma and started instructing him. ¡°I can¡¯t reach into your body and take the chi from you, but you can already remove it from your body. All you need to do is direct it away from you. Imagine it becoming a stone in your palm. Believe it is a ball or stone, and it will obey.¡±


    He looked at her as if he barely understood the words she spoke, his teeth clenched in agony, but soon decided to try. He focused on the energy and tried to will it into a ball. The energy slowly started to take shape, but the distraction of the pain made it too difficult.


    ¡°Throw it away from you.¡± she said, seeing him start to lose control. He willed it to fly towards the target, and it flew two meters in that direction before dissipating. ¡°Good, now again. Cast it enough and the pain will go away.¡± She gathered the last of the blood chi in her body and formed a small ball with it, and threw it at his target. It missed the center, but still hit. ¡°Like that.¡±


    He tried again, and this time it was easier. It took him seven attempts before the pain started to subside.


    Shen breathed a sigh of relief. If she could teach the other students to do this, it wouldn¡¯t hurt them anymore. She started to move towards one of the others that had managed to release the chi but was blocked by an adult. She looked up and noticed that it was the main Master that had brought them out here. ¡°Interesting.¡± he said. ¡°Tell me, little girl, have you used chi before? You seemed to learn the lesson quickly.¡±


    ¡°My name is Shen.¡± she responded.


    ¡°Those of the outer sect do not get names, little girl. If you want me to call you that, prove that you are useful and you can be moved to the inner sect. Now, tell me if you have used chi magic before.¡±


    Knowing that she couldn¡¯t lie to him and not be hurt, she nodded. ¡°Only the Torch Palm technique. But rather than spreading out the chi, I compressed it into a ball, the way your people use it.¡±


    The Master nodded. ¡°Good. You have potential, then.¡± he pulled a piece of dried fruit from his ring. ¡°Here, little girl, this is your reward for doing so well in the lesson.¡± He then addressed the others. ¡°You may leave when you manage to release all of the energy from your body. Just know that if you fail to do so by evening meal, you will be locked into the training field and have to sleep outside tonight.¡± With that he left.


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    Shen returned to trying to instruct the others and soon seven of them had learned well enough to go to the other children and try to help them. All but one of them had managed by the time the bell calling them to evening meal had rung, and the children were forced to leave the boy behind. Shen tried to carry him out but was stopped by a guard. ¡°You may leave, he must stay.¡± the guard said. Shen knew she couldn¡¯t defeat the guard in combat, so she laid the boy on a bench to make him as comfortable as possible and left for the meal hall.


    After supper the children were locked into the bunkhouse. There were board games and cards, but most of them were too tired to do anything for entertainment and went directly to bed. The boys took the half of the room to the left of the door and the girls took the right half. There was only one more boy than girl this time, as one of them was left on the field, so there was no need to place someone on the opposite side.


    The next day, they were taken to the combat field once again. ¡°Today a simple wound will not be enough.¡± the masked man said. He placed a box of knives on the table. ¡°You must draw blood with a blade. The first to do so will be declared the winner, and will get to eat morning meal. The other will go hungry. Do not worry about injuring the person too much. We can repair any damage you do with these knives.¡±


    He stepped back and let the children take one of the blades. They were long and thin, and quite sharp. On their blades strange symbols were carved which Shen could not read. Some sort of talisman? She took one and, seeing that it had a string tied to it, tied the knife¡¯s sheath to her waist.


    Once everyone had gathered at the field, the adults started calling people to fight. She was paired up with an eight year old boy, the same one that had failed at the magic practice yesterday and had to sleep outside. He held his dagger shakily and his legs shook as well. Clearly he was terrified. ¡°Begin.¡± said the instructor, and Shen drew her dagger and walked towards him. He made no effort to come at her and, in fact had moved away from her.


    ¡°Fine, then, I¡¯ll end this quickly.¡± she said. She lifted her dagger and he moved his up slightly, closing his eyes. Maybe a morning without a meal will teach him determination, a lesson she had learned as an orphan through similar means. She sliced downward and cut the back of his hand. He screamed and dropped the blade, clutching his wounded hand with the other hand.


    Ponma at least had a proper fight and, though he lost to an older boy, he at least managed to dodge a few times.


    After combat the master addressed them. ¡°Congratulation, winners. As a reward for winning your first battle, you may keep your blade. The others will need to turn them in, but can borrow them again for the next combat session.¡± He pulled out a basket, proper bread this time. ¡°This is also your reward, as you did not hesitate to do what you must, even knowing your opponent and possibly even being friends. You have until noon off. Come to the dining hall at eleven if you want to eat, but make sure you are at the magic field at noon or you will be sorry.¡±


    Many of the children were saddened by the reminder of what happened yesterday at the magic field, but knew that if they failed to arrive they would receive even more pain.


    After eating her loaf, Shen returned to the bunkhouse. Many of the children there were playing cards or board games, but she sat at the foot of her bunk and started to meditate. Soon, several other children came over to her. ¡°Big sister.¡± one of the girls said. She opened her eyes. ¡°I noticed that yesterday you managed to perform the best in the magic practice. Do you think you could teach us?¡±


    Shen smiled. ¡°I can teach you what I know, but it will be up to you to practice it.¡±


    The girl smiled in return. ¡°That will be enough.¡±


    For the next two hours she lead them in meditation, teaching them to manipulate the chi inside their bodies. Few of them had any skill, despite the instruction of the Jade Masters on the journey here, but soon she had them doing a proper Cleansing meditation, cycling chi throughout their body to drive out any toxins that might block the flow of chi within them. Some of the girls got sick and had to run to the bathroom, but most only got covered in a black or gray oily substance and had to wash themselves and their clothes. The boys and girls in the group each took turns blocking the other sex from entering or looking at the area and, by middle meal everyone had finished bathing.


    The meal at the Dining Hall was simple hard biscuits, as they were still trainees, and after grabbing one and a glass of water they made their way to the magic training field. Many of them soaked the bread in their water to soften it up. Soggy bread was better than chipped teeth, after all.


    Today¡¯s magic lesson was the same as yesterday¡¯s but they had to take two pills each. The children were reluctant to take them, but the second that master of the field formed a ball of blood chi in his hand they stopped resisting.


    Shen lined up and took her pills. The energy flooded into her even faster, but because she was used to it she was able to form chi bolts almost as fast as it built up. She threw them at the training dummies and after thirteen shots the energy started to go away. She threw another three to get rid of the rest of it. Her accuracy had greatly improved and she managed to hit the dummy¡¯s chest about half the time.


    Once she was finished she noticed that several of the other children were managing to throw the bolts as well. Most of them were the ones who managed to handle the pain yesterday, but some were from her chi lessons a few hours ago. She walked around instructing those that were in too much pain and soon everyone had managed to release at least a little of it into their palms.


    The master gave the same condition as yesterday. If they complete the lesson, they may leave. If they don¡¯t finish by evening meal, they had to sleep outside again. Shen stayed behind to instruct the others and, about an hour before the evening meal, the boy who slept outside yesterday managed to form his first ball of chi and throw it at the target. While he never managed to hit the target, and barely managed to reach it, he was at least making progress. All of them got to sleep inside tonight.


    Shen lead most of them in a meditation session that night, and the next morning they were lead to the combat field again. After the half of the group that didn¡¯t get to keep their dagger grabbed one from the basket, the instructor spoke. ¡°Now that all of you know how to use chi, thanks to yesterday¡¯s lesson, you can learn how to use magical items. These daggers contain an array that converts any chi given to it into blood chi, to hurt the opponent even more. Your test today is simple. Put chi into the blade and draw blood. The blood chi will enter the opponent and cause them pain. Do this correctly, and you will get to eat morning meal, whether you win or not. Fail to do this, and I will demonstrate the technique by using it on you.¡± The master then chose two children and they stepped into the ring.


    Several children failed to activate the effect before attacking, and their injury didn¡¯t count. Once both children had managed to successfully use the technique, or one had been completely defeated, the match was over. Shen was paired up with Ponma, and, though he was faster than her, she managed to land a blow first. He screamed in pain from the slight cut and lunged at her, glancing her arm with the blade. A sharp pain filled her arm and she felt like it was on fire. Her hand started shaking in response to the pain, so she switched the dagger to her left hand.


    ¡°That is enough.¡± said the master. ¡°Both of you landed a successful blow. Tomorrow you shall fight until one surrenders or loses consciousness, but not today.¡±


    She was lead off the stage to a table where one of the snake people sat. The person formed some blood chi in her hands, but it had a blue haze to it. The person touched Shen¡¯s injured arm and, though it hurt, the skin began to knit together. ¡°Better?¡± the person asked. Judging by the pitch of the voice it was a woman.


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± Shen said, and the woman nodded.


    ¡°In that case, you had better return so that you can get your reward. From what I saw, you will likely be declared the winner.¡±


    Shen returned and the Master declared Ponma the victor, if only because he continued to fight after she injured him, whereas she was shaking so badly that she left herself open to attack. Still, both had passed.


    After morning meal everyone returned to the bunkhouse where all of them joined in with the meditation. After both the boys and girls had washed the goo from their bodies they went to the dining hall, Shen in the lead, where they all got their biscuit and water and went to the magic field.


    After they had eaten, the master addressed them. ¡°Today¡¯s lesson will be a contest. Now that all of you can properly fire a Blood Bolt and can handle at least two pills, we will see who is the best. Your reward today will be in Contribution points. Consider them the money that most sects use. They can be used to purchase many things within the sect, from clothing to technique scrolls, to better food in the dining hall. Today¡¯s prize, five contribution points, is enough to buy a good meal in the dining hall, and will go to the person who can score the highest on their test dummy.¡± The children had seen other disciples eating proper stew and bread, and drinking things other than water. Three days of eating travel biscuits had them all craving something better.


    The master lifted a piece of cloth with a target on it in the shape of a chestplate. ¡°This is a target from one of the dummies. The outer circle is worth one point, the next two points, the next three, and this small inner circle, where the heart is, is worth five.¡± He motioned towards the basket of pills. ¡°Everyone must take at least two pills today, though you don¡¯t need to take them at the same time like yesterday. You may take as many as you wish, though.¡± The children looked surprised that anyone would do that. ¡°Every pill gives you more blood chi to work with, and more chances to earn points. The one at the end of the training with the most total points will be the winner and receive the contribution points.¡±


    With that he stepped back and let the children come and take the pills. Most only took two, but Shen took six and Ponma five. Once she was at her dummy she put one pill in her mouth with her left hand and started firing blood chi bolts with her right. Every time the energy started to die down, she put another in her mouth.


    After one hour the master called an end to the practice and totaled up everyone¡¯s score. Shen was in first place, with a score of one hundred and thirty three, but Ponma wasn¡¯t far behind with a score of one hundred and twenty one. Few others beside those two had taken more than the two required pills, so most of the scores were in the single digits, with the third place having a score of only seventy two.


    Shen was given a small copper bracelet with a Jade coin on the top. The master tapped his own bracelt to it and transferred five contribution points. ¡°You will learn to transfer points soon.¡± he told her when she looked at the bracelet in surprise. He then addressed the other children. ¡°A few of you barely even tried. Fail to put in an effort tomorrow, and you will be fined five points. You will then have to take on punishments to earn enough to return to a balance of zero. Dismissed.¡±


    The children started to walk out of the training yard and Shen walked over to the instructor. ¡°Instructor, sir?¡± she asked, and he looked at her.


    ¡°Yes, little girl?¡±


    ¡°May I take some of the Bloodburn pills with me? I wish to cultivate with Blood chi in my body so that I can learn to deal with the pain.¡±


    The man shook his head. ¡°Outer disciples are not allowed to possess pills outside of designated areas, like the clinic, supply room, or training fields. I can, however, let you and anyone else who wishes to practice with them remain here where I can supervise you, and you can meditate here.¡±


    Shen looked around at the other children. Many of them wished to return to the bunkhouse and rest, but around half agreed to stay here with her. She nodded at the master. ¡°In that case, may we use the field to meditate?¡±


    The man nodded. ¡°By all means.¡±

 Chapter 3

    Most of the children only lasted thirty minutes before the pain got the better of them and they were forced to discharge the blood chi into the targets. Still, they didn¡¯t wish to leave, as this was a good opportunity to practice, so they continued to take pills and launch attacks at their targets.


    Shen and seven others, including Ponma, worked to adapt to the blood chi. Like all chi other than Neutral, your body couldn¡¯t naturally handle it. You had to work with it until your body adapted to it. The Jade Master had said as much to them during one of his lectures two weeks ago, but few of the children paid attention. ¡°Elemental chi must be taken in balance. While your body can handle a slight imbalance, the larger it becomes, the worse the symptoms you will experience. It is only through practice with the elemental chi that one can learn to withstand the effects of the imbalance.¡± Shen thought that Blood Chi must be like that, but that either it had no balancing chi type, like the elements balanced each other, or they simply didn¡¯t know the balancing type.


    Over the next few hours she managed to reach a point where she could handle having four pills worth of blood chi inside her without being distracted by the pain, and three with only minor pain. When the evening meal bell rang, however, she got up. Many of the others had left, but Ponma and the boy who had gotten third place remained behind. She couldn¡¯t remember his name.


    ¡°Thank you for the opportunity to train, master.¡± she said, bowing to the man.


    ¡°No, thank you for staying. It gets lonely here, watching the field alone. Seeing the young using it brings joy to my old heart.¡±


    Shen nodded, thanked him again, then went to the dining hall, her group following behind her. She went to main line instead of the free line like the others, and when she got to the front she explained that she had just earned Contribution points that day and didn¡¯t know how to use them. The cashier woman instructed her to think of how many she wanted to transfer, then tap her bracelet to the other Point device. To demonstrate the woman sent her one tenth of a point and had Shen return it. Once she had succeeded Shen bought a bowl of stew for three points, a small loaf of bread for one, and a glass of fruit juice for another. She returned to her table and let all of the other children that had meditated with her taste the stew before finishing it herself.


    She returned to the bunk house after eating, seeing the sun start to set. The pain from the Blood Chi was still inside her, as she hadn¡¯t released it at the field, but she had done so on purpose. She wanted to circulate it even more tonight, in hopes of getting over three hundred points tomorrow.


    She opened the door to the bunk house and stepped inside, followed by the others that had meditated with her. ¡°Where is everyone?¡± she asked out loud. She now realized that she hadn¡¯t seen them in the dining hall either.


    A few children stirred in their beds and one got up to answer the question, her face streaked with tears. ¡°The snake people came and took them.¡± the girl said. Shen recognized it as the one that had asked her to instruct them in meditation yesterday. ¡°They said that they were the ten worst performers, and didn¡¯t fit in. Since they weren¡¯t even fit to be outer disciples, they would use them for a different purpose.¡±


    Shen looked at the girl in shock. She didn¡¯t know what they would do to the children, but judging by how freely they used pain on the children, they were at best being tortured or beaten. Shen ran towards the door but an adult stepped inside and closed it behind them. ¡°I can¡¯t allow you to leave.¡± the man said. ¡°I know this is hard for you, but this is the way of the world, and you must learn to accept it. The weak must suffer, or even die, so that the strong can succeed. You will learn this lesson eventually. I only regret that you must learn it so soon.¡± Shen tried to move around the man but he grabbed her by the arm and drug her back to in front of himself. ¡°I told you, I can¡¯t let you leave. Remain calm and you will soon be able to leave. We simply can¡¯t allow you to interfere with the ritual.¡±


    It was a ritual that they were to be used for, then. Shen knew what that meant. The man mentioned the weak dying, and a ritual, and she knew that this sect loved to use blood magic. From the stories she had read that could only mean that the children¡¯s blood was going to be used for a ritual, and it was unlikely that they would survive.


    Shen had no choice. She had to free her friends and escape from this place. Maybe if they got out of the castle they could hide out in the woods until the Jade Dragon Sect could rescue them? They would need to be able to defend themselves, but more than half of them had daggers and all of them could use blood bolts. At least, they could if they had Bloodburn pills to give them Blood Chi. That was when she remembered that she still had four pills worth of Blood chi within herself. She didn¡¯t know how much pain that would put the other man in, but she had to try. If they could get past that man, they could take the pills from the training field and run, and would have enough pills to protect themselves until help arrived.


    She turned like she was going to walk away, then started to create a ball of Blood Chi with both hands. The man was unable to see it, however, because it was behind her from where he stood. Once she had formed a ball the size of her fist she turned around and threw it at him. The man¡¯s eyes opened in surprise as the ball hit him in the chest, throwing him backwards into the door.


    He collapsed on the floor and started jerking like he was in intense pain, and his chest started to smoke. As Shen watched the cloth of his robes fell away where she had hit him and the skin started to bubble. Several children vomited at the sight of this, but Shen managed to stop herself. ¡°Come on.¡± she said, and ran outside, hoping the children would join her.


    As she ran for the training field she heard the alarm bell start to sound. How had they figured it out so quickly? Had the man been under watch? As she looked around for answers, however, she noticed over a hundred black streaks in the sky, flying at them from the direction of the setting sun. The Jade Dragon sect must have finally arrived.


    She lead the children into the training field, but the instructor stepped in front of her. ¡°You are not allowed to be here at this time. In fact, it is my understanding that all outer disciples are currently restricted to their quarters. Please return there, or I will have no choice but to stop you.¡±


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    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, sir, but I can¡¯t do that. They are about to kill my friends, and I need the Blood Burn pills to stop them.¡±


    The man shook his head. ¡°That is something I cannot do. The ritual you wish to stop is being carried out by the Sect Master himself. If anyone were to aid you, they would be executed, just like you will be if you continue this madness. Please, return to your room.¡±


    ¡°The Sect Master will be stopped soon enough.¡± she said to him. ¡°I believe the Jade Dragon sect are attacking in order to get us back, and they won¡¯t stop until we are freed.¡± She was pretty much parroting a line she read in a Cultivator novel, but it sounded good in her head.


    The man nodded his head with sadness. ¡°I believe that as well, however, my orders are clear. I cannot allow you in this place and you must return to your quarters. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°So am I.¡± She formed a Blood Bolt in her palm and fired it at him. He collapsed on the ground, his body curling up from the pain.


    Ponma went over and took the keys from his waist. ¡°I¡¯ll check the warehouse.¡± he said. ¡°My father was a merchant. I can at least do that.¡± Soon he came out with several medium sized jars of Blood Burn pills and one of a second type. The label read ¡°Blood Recovery pills.¡± He wasn¡¯t sure what they did, but it sounded like medicine, so he knew they would be important.


    All of the children there took two Blood Burn pills, having adjusted to that many through meditation, and they left for the main building, seven other fighters behind their leader. Many of the inner sect members ignored them, noticing that the Jade Dragon invasion was a bigger threat, but some tried to stop them. To that, Shen could only respond with a blood bolt. Only a few of them realized that this was more than just a group of Outer Disciples breaking the rules and fired back. Two of the other children had been hit by attacks from the Inner Disciples, but the adults had held back the strength of their attack enough that the children recovered within a few minutes. The children, however, didn¡¯t hold back and the adults were left on the ground unconscious or writhing in pain.


    Soon they managed to reach the central building of the castle. ¡°Magical Research¡± the door was labeled. They tried the door, but it was locked. Next, Shen gathered up as much blood chi as she used on the first guard and threw it at the lock. It made a sizzling sound but did nothing to the lock.


    With no choice, she decided to use her strength. She picked up a stone statue nearby and started striking the door with it. The door shook and bits of wood chipped off, but it didn¡¯t break.


    ¡°Excuse me.¡± said a man behind her. She started to form a blood bolt in shock, but then noticed that he wasn¡¯t wearing a snake mask. He dressed like a martial artist, wearing the same style pants that the men of her village wore when doing combat training. The man knelt down. ¡°Hello. My name is Yu Bang. I¡¯m a Foundation level body cultivator from the Jade Dragon sect.¡± He pointed to the blood bolt in her hand. ¡°Those things are kind of dangerous. Are you sure you want to play with them?¡±


    ¡°I know what I¡¯m doing.¡± Shen said, then threw it at the lock, hitting its center.


    ¡°Not bad.¡± said Yu Bang, ¡°But since blood chi doesn¡¯t do much against iron locks, and would only scar the wood, do you mind letting a strong man give the door a try?¡±


    She nodded and stood back. Yu Bang stood up and ran his shoulder into the door. The wood flexed and a large crack formed down it. Yu slammed into it a second time and one of the doors split in half, causing the other one to fly open. Two snake masked men inside fired at them, but the children returned fire, being careful not to hit Brother Bang, and the snake men fell over in pain.


    ¡°Not bad at all.¡± said Yu Bang, rubbing Shen¡¯s head. She was about to tell him to stop when another man landed his sword near by. They actually flew on swords like the stories said!


    ¡°You want to deal with the children or fight?¡± asked the man.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to fight.¡± he said, then took a few steps towards the destroyed door.


    ¡°Fine, then. I¡¯ll wait with the kids until someone else arrives.¡± The man touched his sword and it glowed before shrinking and disappearing into his rings. Storage rings were real too? Now that she thought about it, the Snake Master had given them bread from his own rings. ¡°Hello, kids.¡± the man said, looking nervous. ¡°I¡¯m Lo Chang. Foundation level magic cultivator. We should probably stay outside, so no one gets hurt.¡±


    ¡°But we want to fight.¡± said Ponma.


    ¡°Yeah, they have our friends and are going to kill them in some sort of ritual.¡± added the third place guy. Din something? Dan? Shen really needed to learn his name.


    ¡°Oh.¡± the man said. ¡°That sounds important.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t patronize us!¡± shouted Shen, also copying a book she read, as another woman landed beside her. The woman was probably in her fifties and also flew on a sword.


    ¡°In that case, how about I leave you here with Elder Sister Gin Sha and I go look into it.¡± Chang looked up at Gin Sha and, without waiting for a response, ran off to join the battle.


    ¡°Come on, children.¡± the woman said, ¡°Let¡¯s let them handle the fight and go back to the bunk house.¡±


    The other children started to leave with her, but Shen stood where she was. After a few seconds the woman turned around. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Shen.¡± Shen answered.


    ¡°Let¡¯s head back to the room, Shen.¡± she said, holding out her hand.


    ¡°No.¡± Shen said defiantly, confused by the sudden change. ¡°I have to rescue the others.¡±


    ¡°The other Jade Dragons are fighting them. Let the adults fight.¡±


    ¡°But I want to help them.¡±


    The woman looked and her and a scolding tone entered her voice. ¡°Don¡¯t argue. The front line is no place for a little girl. Now come on.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± said Shen, stepping back and raising her hand as a red ball formed in her palm.


    ¡°Then you leave me no choice.¡± the woman sighed and flicked her wrist. A green cloud flew from her hand and struck Shen in the face. Suddenly Shen was very, very tired, and fell to the ground, the blood chi harmlessly dissipating from her hand.


    When she woke up she was lying in a bed. The first thing she realized was that it wasn¡¯t in the bunk house. It was too comfortable and the sheets were too nice. The second thing she noticed was that she couldn¡¯t feel the blood chi inside of her.


    ¡°Hello.¡± said a woman as she walked over. The woman had green hair and looked to be in her late teens. ¡°I¡¯m Emma. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Shen. Mo Shen.¡± she responded. ¡°Where am I?¡±


    ¡°You are in a clinic in Jade Dragon Town. You were brought here after your rescue so that we could help you. You and seven other children had some sort of demonic chi inside of them, and we had to remove it. I think it was affecting your brain. Making you violent.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡­¡± Shen thought about it. Was her willingness to hurt people that got in her way because she was being corrupted? Did the blood chi make her throw a tantrum? ¡°It¡¯s called Blood chi.¡± she said. ¡°Those pills we had produced it.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes, those.¡± Emma said. ¡°We had to take them away and put them into storage. They were really dangerous. The Blood Recovery pills are over there, though.¡±


    ¡°Oh, those. We weren¡¯t sure what they did, but they sounded like medicine. What do they do?¡± she asked out of curiosity.


    ¡°Oh, they make you recover from blood loss faster. They will come in handy if the Body Cultivators go too far in their sparring sessions again. It¡¯s almost as if they like getting cut. So, are you feeling okay? If so I can take you to the other children.¡± Shen nodded and Emma gave her a set of clothes. She noticed that her dagger wasn¡¯t with them. They probably considered it a demonic relic. If only she hadn¡¯t left her hatchet with her backpack back in the village. She didn¡¯t like being helpless now that she had been able to defend herself.


    Once she had put on the simple robe and sandals Emma lead her to a nearby building where all of the children were waiting. Unlike her village, where the buildings were mostly made of wood and used wooden shingles to keep the rain out, this building was made of plastered stone and had clay tiles on its roof. The building had many rooms in its hallways and the walls were also covered in plaster. ¡°This is the Recruit building. You will be given a room here until you turn thirteen or one of the families in the sect want to adopt you.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I¡¯m going to be adopted?¡± she asked. It was a strange feeling for an orphan to know that someone might want to adopt her.


    Emma shrugged. ¡°Maybe. But even if you aren¡¯t, the sect will do everything it can to give you what you need to grow up strong and healthy, and to cultivate.¡± Emma left her in the room with the other children and went back to work.


    An hour later she was given a room with one of the other girls, Wong Mae, the eight year old that asked her to teach them cultivation a few days ago. After evening meal she went to the common room and lead Wong Mae and anyone else that wanted to join them in cultivation. Most of the others just wanted to rest, but a few, including Ponma, joined her.

 Chapter 4: Lessons, Part 1

    Master Xing entered the well lit room. Several Nascent Masters were standing around talking, but stopped speaking when he entered the room. ¡°Report.¡± he said.


    ¡°Master.¡± one of the men said. ¡°All people accounted for. Twenty nine children were recovered out of the initial thirty seven recruits.¡±


    ¡°Meaning the Black Serpents killed eight of them.¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡± he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. ¡°Only two inner sect members lost, both Foundation stage. The cultists seemed to stick to that blood bolt spell they favor so, while our people were in intense pain, only two of them died. One from falling off of his sword onto the stone pavement head first after being hit, and another because he got close to a cultist and they stabbed him in the heart with a relic dagger.¡±


    The Immortal Master Xing nodded. ¡°Continue.¡±


    ¡°There is also one Foundation level member missing, a Lo Chang. However, since many people saw him jump through the portal, including yourself, we know what happened to him. We just don¡¯t know how to get him back.¡±


    Master Xing looked at an elderly man in silver clothes. ¡°Master Wu. You are the master of Arrays and Formations. Do you think you can figure out where their ritual sent him?¡±


    ¡°I do not know, Master.¡± said Wu. ¡°Their methods aren¡¯t exactly the same as ours. I will, however, take a team and investigate. If it is possible, I will bring him back.¡±


    ---


    The next morning, after morning meal, the children were lead to a building in the inner ring of the town. The outer part of building was a hallway with chairs, and there was only one door to the inner room on the opposite side of the building, so that you had to walk halfway around the building to enter the room. Inside the inner room there was another stone on a pedestal, which had a jade tablet behind it. The walls were lined by dozens of identical devices, identical except for the monster part inside of it. ¡°Hello, children.¡± said the white-haired woman that stood just inside the room. Despite that hair color she was at most thirty five years old. ¡°I am Tia Wuxan. You can call me Sister Wuxan. This is the hall of traits. It is here that you will be accessed to see if you have any special bloodlines or physiques. If you do, I will help instruct you in anything unique about yourself that you might need to understand.¡±


    One of the boys raised his hand, and Sister Wuxan pointed at him. ¡°Does that mean you want to make sure we aren¡¯t monsters trying to sneak in?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Not really.¡± she answered. ¡°In fact, if you were monsters, we would congratulate you on remaining in human form for so long and be excited to accept you. Some people, though, are at least half human, but have ancestors who were monsters or magical creatures. My grandmother, for example, was a forest cat, so I have really good reflexes and can see in the dark. Other than that¡­¡± she brushed the hair away from her ears to reveal that they were slightly pointed and had tufts of hair on the end of them. ¡°It isn¡¯t really that important, but sometimes there are certain things we need to keep in mind like personality traits, or food requirements, or even special abilities that you might have, like my reflexes. Now, if all of you will wait out in the hallway, I will test you one at a time. This needs to be private, but I wanted all of you to see the room before you waited so you aren¡¯t worried about the testing.¡± Some of the children complained a bit, but they were all lead into the hallway outside. Soon Sister Wuxan began calling people in.


    Most kids didn¡¯t seem affected by what happened in the room, but some of them looked disappointed or excited upon leaving. Wong Mae was even crying when she left. Shen made a mental note to talk to her about it later, if she wanted.


    Shen was the thirteenth to be called. She entered the room and Sister Wuxan asked her to touch the device with the Jade tablet. Shen did so, and it started to glow slightly. ¡°Interesting.¡± Sister Wuxan said.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Well, the tablet only glows in response to something that isn¡¯t entirely human. That isn¡¯t a bad thing, though.¡± Sister Wuxan lead her to the wall of strange devices. ¡°These devices compare you to the creatures whose parts they contain.¡± She walked over to one with some hair in it and touched the stone. It glowed for a few seconds before dimming. ¡°This is the Forest cat device. Now that I¡¯ve touched it, the tablet will tell me how much of that monster I have in me. But we are testing you, not me.¡± She walked over to the first tablet and touched a few places on it. ¡°There, now it¡¯s reset. I want you to walk down the line and touch each of the devices, then wait until the light goes out.¡±


    ¡°Oh, ok.¡± Shen said nervously.


    ¡°There¡¯s no reason to be nervous. It¡¯s perfectly safe and no one but me, you, and the elders will be able to see what the tablet says.¡±


    Shen nodded and walked down the line, touching each device. Several minutes later she touched the last device and, when its light went out, she walked back over to the tablet. ¡°So, what did it say?¡± asked Shen shakily.


    ¡°According to this, you are 7% Dragon. Earthly Dragon, not Heavenly Dragon, so your powers and talents, if you have any, will be towards magic or the physical, not spiritual powers. Now we just need to test to see what powers you have.¡± Sister Wuxan walked over to a set of drawers and opened one of them, then returned with a box that was inside of it. ¡°This box will test for all of the known skills that earthly dragons might have.¡±


    ¡°How does it work?¡± asked Shen.


    The woman thought for a few seconds. ¡°Have you ever heard of a reversion stone?¡± Shen shook her head. ¡°A reversion stone forces any monster or spirit that touches it out of human form. It is used in areas where you want to keep safe, or sometimes against monsters that are hiding among humans for evil reasons.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s not what this does.¡± Shen said.


    ¡°No, but this box contains a ¡®Dragon Stone¡¯ that is based on reversion stones, but in a way doing the opposite. It makes any powers that come from a dragon bloodline activate, assuming you are at or below its rank. You aren¡¯t, by any chance, middle Foundation stage or above, are you?¡±


    Shen shook her head. ¡°Early Gathering.¡±


    Wuxan looked impressed. ¡°Interesting. Most people are only cleansing when they get here. How did you manage to break through? Did the masters instruct you in the sect¡¯s techniques while you were traveling here?¡± They were restricted in what they could tell people based on their status within the sect, but sometimes people would say things they shouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°They explained a few things to us, but most of it was things I knew already. My dad taught me the Cleansing meditation before he died, and one of the villagers let me read a copy of ¡®The Dao of the Militia¡¯ that she had. I learned Restrict and Release from it, as well as how to break through. The master just gave me some advise on how to do it easier or better.¡±


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    Wuxan nodded. As long as they stuck to simple advice and comments on the fundamentals all methods used, they weren¡¯t breaking any rules. The rules were meant to keep the Five Elements Technique from getting out, after all, not to stop people from having an easier time cultivating. At the Cleansing phase there was little difference between the two different methods, so there shouldn¡¯t be any problem with her continuing from where she currently was, using the Five Elements Technique in the Gathering phase. At most she would have to spend a bit more time purifying the chi that was already inside of her into one of the elemental types of chi.


    ¡°Well, then this should work, then. Now, I just need you to touch the stone and be careful not to damage anything if you have any damaging abilities like elemental breath attacks.¡±


    Shen nodded and reached out, touching the stone. Suddenly she felt her chi force itself onto the surface of her skin. After a few seconds, Wuxan smiled and nodded. ¡°Good. Looks like you have the Dragon Scales Barrier. This is a kind of defensive power that will protect you from magical and physical attacks.¡± Shen nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Is that worrying?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± said Shen, then paused for a few seconds before continuing. ¡°There was a story that some of the hunters and guards in the village used to tell about my dad. They said that, if he got serious in a fight, no weapon could hurt him. Do you think he might have had this power?¡±


    Wuxan nodded. ¡°That is probably true. Most of the time if a person has a bloodline power at least one of the parents will have that power.¡±


    Tears started to come out of Shen¡¯s eyes. ¡°Then why did he die. Shouldn¡¯t it keep him safe?¡±


    Wuxan knelt and hugged her. ¡°Do you know how he died? Was he poisoned? Did he get sick?¡±


    Shen shook her head. ¡°A monster near the village. He went out with some of the guards to fight it, but the monster killed all of them. The Master that came to fight it said it was a middle Foundation level monster wolf.¡±


    Wuxan nodded. ¡°The power can only block attacks that are weaker than it. A middle foundation monster¡¯s attacks would have been much stronger than anyone below foundation.¡±


    ¡°He was middle Collection.¡± Shen said, and started crying again. Wuxan knelt there for a few minutes before Shen¡¯s tears dried up and she stood up. ¡°Thank you, miss Wuxan.¡± she said.


    ¡°Here we call each other Sister or Brother. Those you want to learn from are Senior brother or sister, and Junior if they are learning from you. Everyone here should always be trying to learn. The only exception is the sect Master, as everyone learns from him, so he is called Master.¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have a name?¡±


    Wuxan nodded. ¡°Master Xing.¡± Shen nodded upon hearing this. ¡°So, how about I teach you to activate your power, then we let one of the other children test?¡± Shen nodded and, five minutes later, after she had activated the power without the help of the Dragon Stone, Shen returned to the hallway.


    Several hours later all of the children had been tested and they were lead to the cafeteria. There they had grilled vegetables and spirit rice. The meat was only given out with the evening meal unless you paid for it, and none of them had earned any contribution points yet.


    After that they were lead to a lecture hall. There were mats on the floor for the children to sit on, and everyone was told to take a seat. The woman that led them there sat down at the back of the room and started meditating. Soon after that an old man came in, walking with a cane. He tapped his cane on the ground and the children stopped talking. He looked at them. ¡°How old do you think I am?¡± the man asked and the kids started calling out numbers. He tapped his cane on the ground again, the sound reverberating off the polished stone walls. ¡°One at a time.¡± he said, then pointed at a girl with his staff. ¡°How about you?¡±


    ¡°70?¡± she asked and he chuckled.


    ¡°And you?¡± He pointed to a boy this time.


    ¡°90?¡± the boy guessed.


    The old man shook his head. ¡°I had my two hundredth birthday last year, and probably have another twenty years in me. One of the techniques that we old people learn eliminates most of the symptoms of aging, so I have aged very slowly over the last hundred years. And that is just one of the techniques we can teach you.¡± The man swung his cane and bursts of different colored energies came out of it and hit a wall. The children only recognized two of them, as one of them lit a nearby table on fire and the second put it out. Those must be Fire and Ice chi. ¡°My aim isn¡¯t as good as it used to be.¡± he said, chuckling, ¡°But I can still do this.¡± He placed the end of his cane on the ground and pushed on it, lifting himself into the air with one arm.


    ¡°I am named Po, though most of the people here just call me Teacher, as I have taught chi techniques for the last one hundred and fifty years to almost everyone in the sect. Now I am going to start teaching all of you. Most of you were probably expecting to be given a book or scroll and told to teach yourself, but that method hasn¡¯t been used for basic techniques since I was around your age. Most people learn better if they have someone to teach them. Though, since many techniques are rare enough that there might not be a teacher available, there are scrolls and books available in the library. You can even pay to have a copy made for you if you have the Contributions to pay for it. But what I will be teaching you for now is so common that everyone in the sect knows it.¡±


    He walked to the middle of the students, and they turned to face him. ¡°Can someone tell me what Chi is?¡±


    One of the girls raised her hand. ¡°A warm feeling in your stomach?¡± she asked.


    ¡°A good description of what it feels like, but not a description of what it is.¡±


    Ponma raised his hands and Teacher pointed his cane at him. ¡°The energy of heaven and earth which permeates all things.¡± he said.


    ¡°A good textbook definition,¡± said teacher, ¡°But do you know what that means?¡± Ponma shook his head, and several others joined him. ¡°Energy is the ability to do something. It may be in the sunlight which makes the plants grow or in the flow of a river which pushes a rock. It might be in the food you eat, to keep your body working. Or it may be in the fire that warms you. All of those are different kinds of energy. Chi is another type of energy, an energy which is everywhere. While it might be contained, no one really knows where it comes from. Some say Life, some say the Heavens. Some say the gods. I don¡¯t know, however.


    The important part is that it is everywhere, inside all things. It is in the air, the sky, the river, the ground, and even the fire. It is inside you, and it is inside all living beings. And through cultivation you can learn to use it to do things. This might be the same things that other things do in nature, or it might be something different. The limit is what you can will to happen and what limits you have because of your cultivation level.


    In case you haven¡¯t heard before, the six known stages of cultivation are Cleansing, Gathering, Foundation, Nascent, Immortal, and Ascended. There may even be levels beyond Ascended, but we don¡¯t know. Each of those levels expands your abilities, and what you can do with the chi.


    The most common form of chi is Neutral Chi. It is the form which most others come from. But as chi becomes part of an item it starts to take on the properties of that item. Chi that is part of the Earth becomes Earth chi. Chi that is in water becomes Water chi. Chi that is part of fire is Fire chi. Chi that is part of a plant is Wood Chi, and chi that is part of metal is Metal Chi. But it isn¡¯t pure. In fact, only a small part of the chi actually changes. Does anyone know what ¡®percent¡¯ means?¡±


    Ponma raised his hand again and was called on. ¡°Out of one hundred¡±.


    ¡°Exactly. ¡®One percent¡¯ means that if we had one hundred objects, one of them would be the thing we are talking about. Natural chi is usually between one half of one percent and one percent the type we want. So, in order to use it, we must purify it by removing the extra neutral chi or turning that neutral chi into the kind we want, or what we call ¡®refining¡¯. I will teach you to do both of those, but which method you choose depends on which works best for you.


    But not today. I understand that all of you have experience working with a type of demonic chi, but today we are going to learn how to work with neutral chi using two techniques, Restrict and Release.¡± A boy raised his hand and Teacher called on him. What was his name again? Dan something? Shen couldn¡¯t remember.


    ¡°Teacher, what do you mean by ¡®demonic¡¯? I thought it was called Blood Chi.¡±


    ¡°Yes, indeed. The specific type was called blood chi, but ¡®demonic¡¯ is a group of energies. We use ¡®demonic¡¯ to refer to anything that is against life, or at least social order. Demonic types of chi, for example, usually hurt you when you use them on top of what you are trying to hit, because it doesn¡¯t work well with life.¡± The children frowned and nodded as they remembered the pain cause by the blood chi. ¡°They are also usually addictive. By that I mean that they make you want more of them, and if you don¡¯t get them you start hurting and wanting them even more. Most types of demonic chi also alter your behavior. They make you angry, or sad, or violent. For that reason we believe that it is wrong to use demonic chi, and blood chi is a type of demonic chi.¡±


    ¡°But didn¡¯t I hear someone call the people that captured us ¡®demons¡¯? Aren¡¯t they a type of monster?¡±


    ¡°Maybe you heard that, but they aren¡¯t a type of monster, though there are demon type monsters. In this case a ¡®demon¡¯ is a person that chooses to live their life in a way that hurts others and goes against societies in general. They go beyond a criminal, because at least a criminal will know that they did wrong, even if they try to hide it. No, a demon doesn¡¯t care if they do right or wrong. They don¡¯t think about right and wrong. They think about what helps them and what hurts them. While a criminal will have some moral guidance to their actions, such as not hurting women or children, a demon cares only if hurting women and children helps or hurts them.¡± Teacher sighed. ¡°But this isn¡¯t the kind of thing I normally discuss with new recruits. Your situation was just special because you were taken by demons. So let¡¯s end this topic and return to talking about Chi.¡±


    For the next several hours he taught the children to slow and speed up the release of chi. Most of them didn¡¯t know where they were getting the chi from, but they practiced anyway. Eventually the kids were released to go back to their rooms.


    The next day everyone was lead back to the training room. This time he taught about Dantians. ¡°They are three different pools of chi, but are all connected, and in that way the same.¡± he said. ¡°Imagine that in a small village a man has three jobs. In the morning he hunts, around noon he butchers the animals and hangs the meat to dry, and in the evenings he mixes the animal fat with ashes to make soap. The hunter, the butcher, and the soapmaker can all be talked about as if they are separate people, or at least separate jobs, but in reality they are all the same person. If the butcher cuts himself, then the hunter and the soapmaker are also cut. And if the soapmaker builds a bigger work area, all of them are effected. It is the same when working with the dantian.


    The Upper dantian deals with spiritual matters and powers, the Middle with magic and the mind, and the Lower dantian with the body. Working on any of them will improve all three, just as it will improve the finances of all three men in the example, but the one you work on will receive the biggest benefit, like the way he can make more and better soap by expanding that part of his shop.¡±


    After that the children were taught to target one of the dantian with their Restrict or Release ability. The one they Restricted started to hurt, or at least felt tight, which allowed it to build up pressure and therefore hold more once it recovered from the slight stretching. This technique would let them make the most of their cultivation at the lower levels.

 Chapter 5: Lessons, Part 2

    For the next few days, as they practiced these techniques, he taught them of the history and geology of the world. The first day he told them about the world they were on. The region they were in was the Mountain region. It was at the northernmost part of the continent. To the southeast was the Jungle region, and to the east of it, across a few hundred li of ocean was the Island region. To the southwest of the Mountain region was the Grasslands region. To the south of the Mountain region was the Desert region. Most of the rivers that flowed out of the mountains came together to form the Great Dragon River, which flowed down the middle of the Desert region and ended to the south of it in the Swamp region. To the east of the Swamp region was the Forest region, and to the west of the Swamp region lied the Lakes region. South of the Lakes, Swamp, and Forest regions was the Tundra region, and it reached all the way to the planet¡¯s southern pole. The Mountain, Jungle, Island, Grassland, Swamp, Forest, Lake, and Tundra regions were known as the Eight Regions, and the cultures of the world were divided into those eight regional types, as they were once ruled by the Eight Great Empires.


    The next day he continued his lesson. ¡°Who can tell me where our knowledge of Cultivation comes from?¡± Various children made guesses, but most simply named various ancestors, all the way back to the Mountain Empire, remembering the lesson from the day before. They were getting closer to the answer but none had guessed correctly yet. ¡°Yes, but where did the first humans learn it?¡±


    ¡°Spirit Beasts?¡± asked one boy questioningly.


    Teacher acted like this was closer, but was about to give up when Mo Shen spoke up. ¡°The Dragons.¡± From what she had read about them, they were said to be the first true cultivators.


    Teacher nodded. ¡°Yes, the Dragons, or more specifically, one Dragon, the Immortal Dragon Philosopher Pai Wo.¡±


    The students quieted down and readjusted the pressure on their dantians so that the pain wouldn¡¯t distract them from the story.


    ¡°Dragons and Spirit Beasts have the natural ability to feel the chi within themselves and instinctively know of dantians. That instinctive knowledge is what separates a Spirit Beast from a normal Beast. While a wolf might learn to hunt and fight, a spirit wolf will understand the flow of chi within their bodies and, as mere pups, will have learned to alter that flow to make themselves stronger.


    Unlike Spirit Beasts, however, full dragons are born intelligent, like humans are. They were able to understand the flow of chi better than the others, experiment with it, and teach it to others. They learned to move chi within their bodies, at first doing so just to relieve boredom as they waited to conserve energy, and found that doing so made them feel healthier, and removed nasty substances from their bodies. As these substances left, the chi could flow more easily. Soon all dragons were taught to do this. Once they had done so enough they noticed that they felt like they had unlimited energy, using that energy to move instead of the energy in their food. Some even learned to do tricks with it, like shooting bolts of chi at their prey. It was at that time that each race of dragons developed the ability to breath the element that they are naturally gifted with, using chi as the fuel.


    Things continued like this for over one hundred thousand years until some dragons started wrapping chi around their dantians so that they could store more chi. Eventually one of them wrapped such a thick layer around their dantian that it started to compress and solidify, until it became a shell. They discovered that this hardening had awakened a new sense within them, the Chi Sense, the ability to detect chi outside themselves. They taught this to others and soon most dragons had taken this step as well, stepping into what we call the Chi Gathering Stage.


    With this knowledge many dragons started learning how to effect the world outside of themselves in new ways, like moving objects or communicating with their mind, developing what we call Chi Magic. Many others started learning to manipulate the chi inside of themselves, drawing chi from around them and around the outer shell of their dantian. This let them store far more chi. Eventually some in them started noticing the familiar feeling of unlimited energy, and, based on the previous discovery, they started wrapping it around their dantians, forming a second layer. Only a few of them managed to get that shell to solidify, however, becoming the first Foundation Stage Cultivators.


    They studied this fact and learned that most of them primarily had the element that they had the most talent with, but that the ones who managed to get it to solidify were almost balanced in the type of chi. They concluded that too much of one or more elements would prevent the solidification process, and some of them worked to balance the elements. Eventually all of these managed to get a shell to form.


    Once the shell was formed they found that they could feel all of their bodies much more accurately. By manipulating the chi within themselves they could grow new chi pathways where none existed before, making the chi flow freely through their entire bodies. Those that liked to fight found that they could instantly tell where they were damaged and how bad it was in much greater detail, and had a limited ability to focus chi on certain areas of the body to maximize the effects of the chi, repairing damaged areas at a much greater rate and more completely than their bodies naturally did so.


    As their knowledge of their bodies grew they were even able to feel their own souls within them, but barely touch it. Eventually, some of them tried to wrap another shell around their dantian and when one of them managed to get the shell to solidify they began to fully feel their soul. They could send chi into the soul, relieving psychological issues or stress, or draw it out, causing those problems. They could force a huge amount of energy into it and eventually it would grow, much like a restricted dantian. Some of them even learned to take small pieces of it and place those pieces in objects, at which point the object just became a second body for them. These were the first Nascent Soul cultivators.


    Some of them tried to continued the layering of shells around the dantian, but for thousands of years no one was able to get it to solidify no matter how perfect the elemental balance. Then one day one of them, having shoved all of the chi they could into their soul, felt their soul reach the point where it would normally grow, but it didn¡¯t. Instead it started leaking the chi back out faster than they could put it into the soul. Realizing that the chi wrapped around the dantian caused it to draw in chi faster than it leaked out, thus recharging automatically, he wrapped chi around his soul and, after several years, managed to get a shell to solidify.


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    When it finally did so, he realized that he was connected to his body and soul to such a degree that every cell in his body could be his body in the same way any object could if he put some of his soul into it. He had gained full control of his body, and was able to reshape it and repair it at will. With this knowledge, he stopped his own aging process and returned himself to a youthful state, though he kept his size. His name was Pai Wo.


    He taught the other dragons of this method so that they could use it, then the Spirit beasts, who had followed in the dragon¡¯s footsteps, learning their cultivation techniques. He developed a means to make oneself look like another race when they were in the Foundation stage, as well as a superior version for the Nascent Soul and Immortal stage. For the next several thousand years he meditated, having reached a point where he no longer needed food or water or air, surviving entirely off of chi. Then he left his cultivation and announced that he would be setting off to teach the ways of cultivation to the humans, the only intelligent beings on this world which he hadn¡¯t taught yet. The Dragons saw us as savages, and therefore, rather than eliminate us as many dragons wished, he would teach us to be better.


    He traveled to each of the eight regions, selecting a student from among the tribes of humanity, one in each region, and transferring his knowledge of philosophy and cultivation to each of them. Each of them set about teaching the people near them and building great cities based on the concepts of justice and fairness, though each interpreted those concepts in their own way. Eventually these eight students, each having achieved immortality, became the eight Great Emperors and lead their nations for over eighty thousand years.


    Then, around forty thousand years ago their was a war between the Desert Emperor and the Grassland Emperor. After both sides had lost millions of soldiers, the Desert Emperor entered the Grassland. The Grassland Emperor came out to stop him and a great battle was fought between the two of them. After fifteen days they were both almost out of chi when the Desert Emperor released a Relic he hadn¡¯t wanted to use. It sent a massive blast of Death chi, gathered over thousands of years, at the Grassland Emperor, and killed him, though it left an area of death over a thousand li wide in the middle of the Grassland. Today we call that the Great Wasteland, and within it nothing can live, and the undead are the only things moving.


    The other six Emperors couldn¡¯t allow such a weapon to be used or to exist, so they captured the Desert Emperor and hurled him into the sun, where he was burnt so completely that he couldn¡¯t put himself back together and his soul was forced to accept reincarnation. The six then had a meeting. If one of them could become so corrupt and kill so many, over fifty million in that one attack, then they themselves might be capable of doing the same. They made their children the new Emperors of their countries, as the Wasteland and Desert regions had been forced to do, and the six of them went into closed door cultivation together. Ten thousand years later they discovered how to Ascend to godhood and, after giving a copy of the method to each of their descendants, they left the cycle of rebirth and left to walk among the stars.


    Around ten thousand years later, the empires collapsed, and after twenty thousand years society has become a group of sect based city-states and small countries, none of them having control over massive areas of the planet, and constantly bickering with each other.


    Three thousand years ago, however, they were forced to work together as the demons appeared. Though that is a story for another day.¡±


    While the students wanted to hear the story of the demons, the sun was getting low and they had been practicing the Restrict technique all day, so they agreed to wait.


    It wasn¡¯t until a week later that they were taught to feel and manipulate a specific element¡¯s chi. Once they had a handle on all of the five elements, they were taught to draw it into themselves, then release it. To do so, one must focus on the type of energy they want, including all of the details of their knowledge of the element, and will it to separate from the other chi. This would filter out all of the chi that fits their view, causing it to move more easily than the chi which doesn¡¯t fit.


    To turn chi into the type they want was similar to how they formed balls with the chi. You merely needed to focus on a bit of chi and will it to be as you see that element. This was more difficult than refining it from another source, however, as any mistakes in your view would decrease the purity and quantity created. For that reason, most people focused on refining chi from common sources.


    Shen was the only one that was outside of the cleansing phase, and therefore the only one that could store elemental chi in their dantian, so they weren¡¯t instructed on that yet. After all, teaching them that now would be worthless, as all chi within the lowest level of the dantian, the cleansing level, is automatically purified into neutral chi.


    A few days later, however, he gave them their final lesson. This time he taught them three Cleansing stage techniques, telling them that they could learn the higher stage forms of them at the library. Normally, the Sect wouldn¡¯t require him to teach these, but recently he had seen that many of the new recruits went for weeks or months before they had an actual technique to practice, so three recruitment cycles ago he had started teaching these techniques to the students.


    The first was called Self-substantiation. He explained that all food that you ate came from plants, which use the energy from the sun to grow and make nutrients which you would use after eating them, or the animals that ate those plants. This method would allow you to do some of that yourself. At the Cleansing stage, by cycling chi through the stomach, intestines, and other internal organs in a specific manner, one could cause them to extract useful nutrients from anything you ate that was from a plant or animal, or anything that was alive once one practiced enough, including dirt. At the Gathering stage it would lessen the amount of food one needed to eat by reconstructing the nutrients your body destroyed through use, until you no longer needed to eat. At Foundation stage it would lower the amount of water you needed to consume, and at Nascent it would limit how much air you needed to breath, eventually making it so that even someone that was buried alive could survive.


    Teacher suggested that they practice this so that they could spend more time in meditation and therefore cultivate more quickly. After all, the longer one¡¯s cultivation session lasted, the deeper one tended to go into the technique, and the more benefit one got from it. Most of the students rejected this idea, however, finding meditation to be boring. To Mo Shen, however, it was just what she needed to do to get stronger. She had sat for hours at the age of five while hunting with her father. Surely she could last for a day now that she was ten.


    The next technique interested the children much more. It was called Movement. While it was limited to objects one was touching or, with enough practice, almost touching, it allowed one to move things outside their body. This allowed you to directly increase the force of a swing in a fight, move objects along the skin, or even, in desperate situations, remove arrows from your body.


    The third technique also interested them, but for a much different reason. It was called ¡°Spirit dust.¡± It turns out that there were rare crystals in nature which would form in areas of intense chi density. While inside the body chi would act like a liquid and flow, in the air it would become a solid and form crystals. By drawing the chi from the crystals into ones body, a technique which was part of the ¡®Spirit Dust¡¯ technique, these crystals could be used to replenish the chi within yourself or even power chi magic directly, though they were made of neutral chi and therefore weren¡¯t great for elemental spells. The Spirit Dust technique allowed one to push liquid chi out of the body so that it solidified into a crystal powder, which could power Cleansing stage magic, letting you carry chi on you or give it to another.


    At Chi Gathering the technique became Spirit Crystalization, which turned the dust into a poor grade spirit crystal which could fuel Gathering stage techniques. At every Stage above it the Spirit Crystalization technique could create one spirit crystal of low, medium, or high grade and cost anywhere from five to ten of the lower stage ones to make, acting as fuel for that stage¡¯s chi magic or providing five times the chi energy as the level before if absorbed. This series of techniques would allow the disciples to earn a steady, but not lavish, amount of money, thus allowing them to meet their own needs and cultivate at the same time.

 Chapter 6

    A week later Shen sat in her quarters, practicing with refining chi. As her roommate was out playing with some of the other girls she wasn¡¯t practicing with any of the five elements. She was practicing with Blood Chi. At first she had thought about what Teacher said, that if chi is inside something, it takes on the properties of that thing. That meant that their should be Blood chi in her blood, right? So she looked for it inside her, concentrating on trying to feel inside her heart and veins. Surprisingly, what she found the most of wasn¡¯t Blood Chi and she knew it. She wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but eventually she found a tiny bit of what she was searching for and pulled it out.


    Now she had a tiny ball of very impure blood chi in her hand. Based on how strong the samples of elemental chi was, this couldn¡¯t be more than one tenth of a percent pure. She wasn¡¯t sure how it was that weak. Water chi in a bowl of water was 1%. Earth chi in a rock was nine tenths of a percent. Why was this only one tenth of a percent?


    She had, however, been taught how to refine chi, so she started doing so. First, she tried to remove the excess. This only seemed to make it go away. Then she tried to focus on the concept. What did it feel like? An hour later she had her answer to what this was, exactly. This wasn¡¯t just Blood Chi. This contained death. This was Dead Blood Chi, and the pills that they took were a poison.


    Upon realizing that she threw it away and started working on a different form of chi. It was not surprising that the masters thought it was so dangerous, with it being tied to a concept like Death. Instead she thought about which of the elements she was the closest to. She liked fire, and seemed to be good with it, so she lit a candle and decided to practice her refining techniques on the fire chi within it.


    Several months passed as she practiced purifying the various elemental forms of Chi. At cleansing they wanted you to be able to refine chi to 3%. At Gathering that went up to 6%. At Foundation seven and a half percent, at Nascent nine percent, at Immortal ten percent, and at Ascended eleven percent. Not coincidentally, those were also the purities of the chi energy you got from a chi pill or elixir at those levels. The students had all been given one Gathering level pill of each element once they reached the Gathering phase so that they could start off with some chi of the correct purity in their Dantian to compare to. This meant Shen had been given these pills on day three, but hadn¡¯t bothered to take them until she thought she could make chi that was just as pure. She was wrong, and the chi she created was only 3% pure even for fire, her best element.


    ---


    Master Xing walked into the testing lab. ¡°Have your finished your analysis of those ¡®bloodburn¡¯ pills the children had?¡± he asked the alchemist.


    The elderly alchemist woman bowed. ¡°I have studied their effects on various animal, Master, but there are still things which I don¡¯t understand. For example, this jar was labeled as Gathering stage pills, but when I give one of them to a wolf the chi which is created has a purity of 10%. These Cleansing stage pills are similar, and produce 6% purity blood chi.¡±


    ¡°That explains how the children were able to defeat the cultists with them. The children had purer chi to work with, so the fact that they had much less didn¡¯t matter as much.¡± The Alchemist nodded. ¡°I want you to figure out how the low quality pills are producing such pure chi. If we can figure out how they made such pills, we may be able to create elemental pills with higher purity chi as well.¡±


    The alchemist bowed. ¡°It will be done, master.¡± With that, Master Xing left and the alchemist started a new project.


    --


    Shen gathered some of the fire chi within her dantian into a ball and threw it at the target. It hit the stone plate on the target¡¯s chest and exploded. When she passed 5% purity on her fire chi one week ago she noticed that her fire bolts started to explode when they hit the target. Now that she was at almost 6%, that effect had increased drastically. As the master in charge of the target range told her, the effect of a spell increases exponentially with the purity of the chi. She wasn¡¯t sure what ¡°exponentially¡± meant, but she knew that the 20% increase in the purity of the chi made it do a lot more than 20% more damage. It was closer to 40% more.


    She knew that she would need a new technique to stop it from exploding. She had seen others use even purer fire chi than her and not have it explode, so she knew the technique existed, she just didn¡¯t know the technique.


    When she was finished practicing, she went to the library. There you could have copies of the various techniques made in exchange for contribution points. They had been taught the way contribution points worked in this sect when they had received credit for their confiscated items, the sect treating it as if they had willingly handed over the items. Ponma had been holding onto all four jars of pills when they were confiscated, but he had made sure to tell them that they belonged to everyone in the group so that they all got credit for turning them in.


    The Bloodburn Pills had given them 100 contribution points for each of the three jars, even though they were two different grades. The blood recovery pills had given them 300 points. Apparently, one could receive two contribution points for each Gathering phase pill you donated, and there were around one hundred and fifty pills in the jar. That came to 600 points split across 8 people, so each of the eight children received 75 points. They also received 50 points for the daggers, and all of them had one on them when they were rescued.


    This meant that all of the children received one hundred and twenty five contribution points in their account. Unlike the demonic faction where everyone carried their contribution points on them, here your bracelet simply linked to an account, and could be used along with your mental command to transfer contributions to others. For example, say Shen bought something from another recruit. She might will the bracelet to give them five points while touching hers to the other person¡¯s. This would create a record on the jade of both of the bracelets, a memory that the promise had been made. Jade had the ability to hold memories, and the bracelets had circuits in them to help with that. In order for the balance on the account to be changed, you only needed to go to the bank where the records were kept and transfer the memories. This way, no one could fake a transaction, as both people involved would need to be linked to the memory.


    Each of the Cleansing stage techniques at the library came on scrolls and cost 25 contribution points. These were fairly basic second class techniques, mostly being concerned with the various forms you could mold the five elements into and their benefits and drawbacks, as well as how to make other forms of elemental chi from the five basic ones. The library had first class techniques available, but, because they were much more difficult to use, one of the elders created simplified versions of all of the Cleansing stage abilities, allowing the weaker members of the sect to have some useful abilities. Gathering stage techniques generally cost one hundred points and were more complex, usually first rate techniques, dealing with specific forms that worked well with specific elements and triggering specific effects with certain elements. For example, if one wanted to relieve pain with wood chi, that would be a Gathering phase effect. These were usually on scrolls, but the longer and more detailed effects were sometimes written in books.


    At Foundation stage all techniques were in books. They included complex descriptions of specifics of different elemental abilities, and between two different elements the techniques they describe might have nothing in common. It is at this rank that the more complex effects begin, like healing and element based movement. These generally cost anywhere from five hundred to two thousand points depending on how complex the technique is, and therefore how difficult it is to copy the book. After all, the best way to check if a technique was properly copied was to do it as the copy describes and use the ability. This takes time and the more complex abilities may be difficult for the librarians to learn.


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    The Nascent and Immortal stage books were all locked away in a back room, and therefore not available for her to browse. Shen wasn¡¯t sure what they might cost or what they might be like. She was fairly certain that the fact that only five percent of sect members ever reached the Nascent Soul stage and the sect only currently had one Immortal, one of its founders, meant that it would be difficult to test the books that were copied.


    The reason that few ever reached that level, however, was simple. Only about 1% of the people who joined the sect had Nascent level talent. Shen had been the only one among the recruits, and among the children of the sect members in the 8 to 10 age range, there were only two. Add to that that there were only two known ways to increase one¡¯s stage beyond their talent level. The first method was called a tribulation. If one pushed themselves to the limit in their cultivation they may realize what was keeping them from advancing. Usually this was not something physical, as that would usually be repaired during cultivation due to the superior health of cultivators, but something mental. Some people referred to it as ¡®facing your inner demon.¡¯ In a state of deep meditation similar to the ¡®image training¡¯ the martial cultivators used, it would appear as a physical enemy, one which attacked not just physically, but mentally. If you faced it and defeated it, however, your talent would usually increase by one level, unless you had another ¡®inner demon¡¯ of about the same strength.


    The second method is to re-cultivate. This was by far the more reliable method, but it was far slower. It required a cultivator to tear down all of the shells they built around their dantians and, using the superior knowledge they had now, compared to when they first made the shell, to start cultivating again from the ground up. Every time one did this the base of their cultivation would get stronger, and the weaknesses would be ironed out. It was like a builder tearing down a tower and building it again with what they learned as they built and the stronger materials they now knew about. Eventually they will build a strong enough base that the tower can be built past their limit. If a cultivator managed to do that, they will find that their inner demons will lose influence over them due to them being too strong willed for it to effect them, and the inner demon will either be defeated or go away. This is the method that all but a few within the sect use.


    Teacher used himself as an example when telling them about this method. He once had an addictive personality. Since he was young he would become obsessed with games or toys and refuse to give them up. As he got older he started gambling, then started drinking alcohol. It took him over one hundred years to develop enough willpower through cultivation that he could say ¡®no¡¯ to the things that formerly controlled him, and enter the Nascent stage. At that point he was able to stop drinking, as he no longer found it difficult to say no, and within a few weeks he stopped drinking at all other than one celebratory drink at major celebrations for social reasons.


    Shen walked over to a shelf by the front door and looked over the Cleansing stage effects. She had enough contribution points to learn one technique each from the Cleansing and Gathering stages, but she decided against this. Instead, she would learn five different Cleansing phase techniques. She would need many of them if she wanted to understand the Gathering stage techniques. Like the one she was currently looking at, ¡®Fire to Lightning¡¯. There were two techniques listed for converting elemental chi to lightning chi, as lightning chi was difficult to store within one¡¯s dantian. These two techniques were ¡®metal to lightning¡¯ and ¡®fire to lightning¡¯. They both had the benefit of making it no longer necessary to produce Lightning chi as she attacked, which was slow and usually about half the purity of the chi they had gathered and refined through meditation, and therefore one quarter of the effect of the stored chi. Instead, they used the similarity between the two types and made minor adjustments to the chi so that it would change to the other type. For this ease and speed they only somewhat decreased the purity of the chi. In the case of the second rate ¡®metal to lightning¡¯ the lightning chi would have 90% of the purity of the metal chi, and in the case of the second rate ¡®fire to lightning¡¯ the lightning chi would have 80% of the purity of the fire chi. The first rate version of both produced lightning chi 95% the purity of the one it was converted from, but was much more difficult to use,


    For Shen there was only one possible choice if she wanted to learn to use lightning magic. She chose the ¡®fire to lightning¡¯ technique. While the other was more efficient, she was naturally more talented with fire chi, and therefore the resulting lightning chi would be slightly more pure than if she created it the other way. She took that technique and the Bolt technique to the counter and told the woman behind the counter that she wanted to buy them both, crediting the purchase to her account. The scrolls were in such demand by the new recruits that the librarian and her assistants had made several copies of each in advance and just replaced the one on display as they were purchased rather than making copies after they were ordered.


    The Bolt technique was fairly simple. It made an elemental chi ability hold together better, doubling its range and penetration ability at the cost of concentration. Shen was confident that, with a bit of practice, she could concentrate properly and use it with the same skill she displayed with the ¡®bolts¡¯ she was currently using.


    She went to the training field and practiced the Bolt technique until she was out of every type of elemental chi except fire, then practiced creating balls of lightning. When she was starting to run out of Fire chi she succeeded, and managed to throw two weak lightning balls at the target before running out of Fire chi completely.


    As she wouldn¡¯t need to be at a higher stage for now, upon entering her room she started to break down the barrier around her dantians. Technically, having a store of higher quality Fire chi would let her practice the ¡®fire to lightning¡¯ technique easier, but if she wanted to do that she could just make fire chi at the field or spend some of her contribution points to buy elemental pills, as the Cleansing phase ones only cost one point each and the Gathering phase ones only cost four points each.


    What concerned her was how shaky her foundation was. Now that Teacher had taught her to cultivate she knew that the Cleansing phase wasn¡¯t just about removing toxins from the main chi pathways. She had ignored that fact when trying to rush to increase her chi reserves, only caring about improving her physical abilities. This was mainly because she had originally Learned Cultivation for the third rate ¡°Dao of the Militia¡± technique book which was widely used by militaries to train troops. They were mostly concerned with making the soldiers stronger, faster, and with better endurance, so the side pathways, which were mostly only needed for the movement of chi outside the body, could largely be ignored. In militaries, only the third rate ¡°Dao of the Mage¡± book which they used to train their healers and magic users mentioned the need to clean the side pathways, as those support staff needed to be able to easily use chi magic.


    The Cleansing stage was about allowing chi to flow throughout the entire body. This meant that even the smallest chi channels had to be cleaned out. She had largely ignored them, however, as the improvement to your physical stats and reaching the Gathering stage only required the main channels to be cleared. The Martial manual she had read only went over the cleansing of the side channels as a way for Cleansing level talents to maximize their power, while warning that it was slower than reaching Gathering for those that could.


    Her failure to do this step properly was limiting her ability to use magic. Specifically, it was restricting the flow of chi and therefore slowing her down and making her concentrate more. For the basic spells she was currently using this wasn¡¯t really necessary, as she could brute force a successful use of her techniques, but for the more complex ones this would be needed.


    It took her about two hours to destroy the shell around her dantians, and when she unraveled the shell enough it rapidly decayed, releasing a burst of neutral chi. Many nearby people detected this, but most assumed it was one of the recruits failing to break through and losing control before the shell was fully formed. After all, the average time it took a recruit to break though to the chi gathering stage was almost one year.


    Just as she finished lowering her cultivation Mae entered the room. It was evening meal time, so the two of them went to eat. They got the free food like always. Unlike the demons whose free option was basic survival rations, this sect¡¯s food was actually decent, even if it rarely included meat. Still, as neither of them were developing their martial arts skills they didn¡¯t really need the meat to rebuild muscles, so they were fine with not having any.


    Some of the boys joined them after a few minutes. They were all covered in sweat, and stunk. Shen assumed that they were trying the martial route. The boys, of course, had to share what they were learning at the training field. Din, or was it Dan, tried to share the specifics, but Shen wasn¡¯t paying attention, finding his story boring and still thinking about her own training.


    Eventually Ponma started telling them about how he was practicing dodging first. After all, even if he chose to be a mage that would be useful. Shen thought that was a good idea as well, and when he asked her to join them she said she would think about it.


    The next day Mae left for the apothecary shop and Shen was left alone. She had used Restrict to stop the flow of chi into her body so that her dantian would expand, so she couldn¡¯t cultivate or practice techniques. When she came back to this later, however, her dantian would be able to hold slightly more chi and the release or even Release of the pressure will help blow the toxins out of the minor chi channels in her body. This would make her cultivation tonight even better.


    One of the special things about the Cleansing level of the dantian, the stage at which it had no shells below it, was that it would naturally refill with neutral chi over the course of a few hours, depending on the density of the chi in the air. It would even purify any chi that was placed in it, turning it into neutral chi, so that the chi would always remain purely neutral. No other layer would automatically refill like this until it had a shell built around it, at which point it would refill with the same type of chi that was in it at the same purity as that chi. For example, when one was at Foundation stage, the Gathering level of the dantian, between the first and second shells, will constantly refill with elemental chi at whatever purity was in that level when the shell was built. Chi at this purity was often less useful to the cultivator, but because it couldn¡¯t be updated to a higher purity, the drive to recultivate, at least for that one level, was reinforced.

 Chapter 7

    With no real cultivation being possible at the moment, other than maybe creating various types of elements or creating bolts from neutral chi, which would slow her dantian¡¯s expansion, she left her room and decided to walk around town. She knew that Mae had been caught entering an apothecary¡¯s herb garden without permission, but because she was there to try and learn about the plants they made her an unofficial apprentice. They weren¡¯t allowed to take a child as an actual apprentice until the child was ten, but they could send her on errands, have her clean, and teach her about plants before then. This earned her one contribution per day. Once she turned ten she could then become an official apprentice, get paid three per day, and learn the basics of alchemy.


    Shen strolled around the town to familiarize herself with where everything was, as she hadn¡¯t had much of an opportunity to study the layout yet. According to one of Teacher¡¯s lessons, this city had been build five hundred years ago by the Five Immortal Founders when they decided to build a sect here. Each was a master of a different one of the five elements, Master Xing being the water master, so after they flattened the top of a mountain, giving themselves an area over one li across at the narrowest point to work with, they started building an array.


    Arrays were a type of formation that had the ability to not just use chi, but to gather and alter it. The masters collected jade from a deposit down the mountain as well as the small amount of jade that was here when they flattened the mountain. On top of being able to store memories, and therefore information like alchemy formulas and techniques, jade could conduct chi energy and was useful in the creation of formations and arrays. They then started building arrays of their preferred element to gather elemental chi from the environment.


    Master Xing built along the river which flowed down the mountain and the few ponds it created. The Fire Master built on the volcano next to this mountain. The Wood Master built in a wooded area on the side of the mountain, then started building terraces at the bottom of the mountain so that people could farm there, placing more arrays near the fields. The Metal Master found iron and copper deposits in the mountain and, using his power to dig deep tunnels into both of them, placed several arrays in each. The Earth master had the easiest time with his arrays, as they had already located a Jade deposit where he could build several arrays.


    Each of them used the jade they had gathered to build pathways back to the location of the future city, the pathway from the farming village quickly becoming the main way to visit the sect, being the widest and using no steps, and therefore allowing carriages and riding animals to use it to reach the top of the mountain.


    At the top of the mountain they laid out an outer circle, inner circle, and connected them with five spokes, laying jade blocks into the wall to form a giant defensive formation. This formation reproduced the Five Elements Barrier, a powerful defensive spell which was said to be able to block even an Immortal¡¯s attack. Each of them led their lines of elemental chi down one of the spokes to five special arrays which were built in the center of the circle. There secondary arrays were created which purified and crystallized the elemental chi, creating 99% pure elemental chi crystals on the surface of the arrays using the elemental chi that was being gathered from the area. The ability to condense elemental spirit stones was a Foundation level ability, but the five of them had worked together to design the most powerful version of it that they could.


    Should the area come under attack, they would be able to feed that energy into the main defensive formation and protect the city, the effect being greatly amplified by the purity of the energy. Once they were done with this step and crystals had started to form on all of the crystallization arrays they started building a city. Each one designed the district clockwise of their elemental chi channel, producing an area which could perform a specific function and adding additional arrays to gather the elemental chi which would be produced in those areas.


    The Fire district was dedicated to training fighters to defend the city. The Earth district would contain houses to shelter them. The Metal district would produce weapons, armor, and the other metal goods the city might require. The Wood district became a location to farm spirit herbs and to refine them into pills and elixirs. The Water district had the least to do with its element, but became a home to parks and trade. It had many ponds with aquatic life in them, and tiny streams connecting them. It also housed what industry didn¡¯t fit in the other areas, like clothing production and soapmaking, which both used water.


    Within a year of finishing it they had started to accept disciples and bring in workers from the area, mostly refugees from far away lands which were at war, usually with the demons. The Grand Library in the inner city and the smaller library of the outer city were filled with all of the techniques that the masters had collected over the years, and they made an effort to purchase more techniques from traders or other sects and cultivators if they could. All of these became available to everyone who lived in the city and soon most of the people in the city cultivated in some way rather than simply overlooking their cultivation as most people did. After all, even if you didn¡¯t intend to reach Foundation and be considered a true cultivator, the health and physical effects of cultivation made it worth practicing to some degree.


    Over time they brought in more disciples and filled the inner city. After two hundred years, however, the disciples held all of the land in the inner city and most of it in the outer city. That was when the rule was made that only inner sect disciples and above were allowed to live in the inner city, and that outer sect disciples could only enter the area during the daytime without an escort. Those that weren¡¯t part of the sect or were outer disciples could only live in the outer city, and non members could only enter the inner city with a member escorting them. Those rules had continued into the present, despite the fact that only one of the masters was still around.


    On the way there from the dorms, situated in the outer city Earth District, Shen cut through the Fire district on her way to the Wood district where the Apothecary was. She passed one of the martial practice fields and was about to ignore it when she saw Ponma enter the sparing ring with Dan-something. She really needed to learn his name. He was the third best out of the recruits, after all, and was ten years old like her.


    ¡®Dan¡¯ squared off against Ponma and, when the signal was given, ran at him, swinging. Ponma leaned to the side and Dan¡¯s fist missed him. This repeated several times before Ponma flicked his wrist and a small blue ball flew out of his hand, hitting the top of Dan¡¯s foot. He let out a slight yelp and Ponma swung at him, hitting his face but doing no actual damage. This scene repeated itself several times, with Ponma switching between the blue balls and throwing water in his face to distract him. Eventually the master of the field stopped them.


    Ponma technically won, as he was the only one that actually landed a blow, and earning a contribution point, but the master warned him that this was a martial arts competition, not a magical duel. He should use magic rarely, if ever, and attack spells were frowned upon. The point of this combat was to develop fighting skills, after all, not magic skills. If he wanted to use magic, he should learn to use spells which would speed up his dodges or enhance his fighting ability or striking power. As he was using Water chi, the master recommended the ¡®wet palm¡¯ technique, which basically just made slaps hurt a lot more, and would be close enough to the ¡®ice knuckles¡¯ technique that he could easily transition to it once he reached Gathering stage and could store water chi instead of making it as needed. The master also suggested that both practice the Release technique, Ponma so that he had the strength to do actual damage and Dan so that he could move fast enough to hit him.


    After the fight the two boys came over to where Shen was standing. ¡°Hey.¡± said Ponma. ¡°did you come to watch us?¡±


    ¡°I was just going for a walk when I saw you two. Good job beating Din...Dan¡­uh, that guy.¡± she pointed to the second guy.


    ¡°My name is Din Danka.¡± he said with a bit of annoyance. ¡°It¡¯s not that hard to remember.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s just that it has too syllables, which makes it a bit weird.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s weird about two syllable names?¡± asked Danka. ¡°All the people in my village had them. You are kind of weird for only having one. I keep feeling like ¡®Shen¡¯ is short for something. Like maybe it¡¯s ¡®Shenai¡¯ like my cousin. Ponma¡¯s the only one with a proper name.¡±


    Ponma held up his hand to stop the discussion before it turned into an argument. ¡°Danka¡¯s from Blue Lotus village, like my parents. The people there traditionally have two syllable names. That¡¯s why my dad named me Ponma instead of Pon like my mom suggested. It¡¯s all because the ancestors of the village come from the Jungle Region to the east two hundred years ago. You see, there was a war between two powerful sects which drove them from their homes. So they came to this region and asked the Jade Dragon sect to protect them, becoming the seventh village¡­.¡±


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    Shen held up her hand. ¡°I¡¯m not really interested in a history lesson right now.¡± Ponma looked a bit dejected from her response. ¡°I just wanted to say hello before I continued.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you aren¡¯t cultivating.¡± said Danka. ¡°You seem kind of obsessed with that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m actually using ¡®restrict¡¯ right now, so I can¡¯t really use any chi without working against that. So I decided to go for a walk.¡±


    Danka nodded. ¡°Wish I could take a day off to do that, but Field Master says I should work on my fundamentals first before I start improving my strength. He says things like ¡®with proper technique even a squirrel can beat a wolf¡¯. I¡¯d like to see that squirrel, through. I bet it¡¯s a cultivator and the wolf isn¡¯t.¡±


    Shen giggled. ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think it was an actual squirrel, just a metaphor. To really beat it the squirrel would have to be either really smart or really strong for a squirrel.¡± Danka nodded.


    ¡°So, are you doing anything to earn Points?¡± asked Ponma. Shen wasn¡¯t sure why he was asking, but answered that she wasn¡¯t. This was probably just a result of being the apprentice of a merchant, his father, before being recruited. ¡°Well, in that case, do you have any left from the ones we were rewarded? I have an investment opportunity if you are interested.¡±


    Shen wasn¡¯t planning on doing anything with the points in her account until she had mastered both of the techniques she bought yesterday, so she decided to hear him out. Apparently, he had learned that in three days a merchant caravan would come to Jade Dragon Mountain. They would be selling rare and hard to find magical and alchemical ingredients and buying the same from this town. After all, this mountain had many ingredients that were harder to find elsewhere, and the sect sent out many members to hunt monsters near this town and the villages/towns it watched over. This meant that the forgers, leatherworkers, and alchemists always had more ingredients than they could use. The local merchants would often purchase these ingredients for contribution points and sell them to the caravan for money, donating some of the money to the sect to restore the contribution points that they had spent and earning a profit.


    Ponma had been listening to them, and had worked out a plan. The mountain beside this one was a dormant volcano. This meant that there were five heated lakes or ponds on it, as the water was heated from underground by the lava. The one at the top of the mountain was inhabited by water dragons, most of the adult ones being Foundation level monsters and their elders being Nascent level. There was even rumored to be one or more Immortals sleeping at the bottom of the lake. The young dragons would swim on the surface, the only place that was cool enough for humans to swim, as the water there was only hot enough that it would turn your skin red. Beneath them lived the higher level dragons, and if anyone disturbed them, they could attack. That, combined with the few jade deposits around the mountain is where the mountain got its name, the sect being named for the mountain rather than renaming the mountain after the sect like most sects did.


    This meant that the caldera lake was off limits to human, but not the other four. Those four were all good sources of fish for the town, but one was more popular than the others. This lake stayed at a comfortable temperature all year, even when the ground was covered with snow and ice. In fact, that made it a popular destination during the winter, with it being widely used as a bath, with designated family, men, women, and couples areas.


    The unique conditions of this lake also meant that it was the perfect breeding ground for a type of flower known as the Water Blossom. The Water Blossom was like duck weed, floating on the surface of the pond and spreading quickly. For this reason the sect had teams constantly removing the plant from the water so that it didn¡¯t choke out the fish. While the fish could eat it, they had to eat other plants as well, and the Water Blossom would spread so thickly if not removed that it would block light from the other plants, causing them to grow more slowly and lowering the fish population.


    The plant wasn¡¯t just a weed, however, despite the fact that the vast majority of the time it was thrown out. The blue flowers for which it was known actually contained a good amount of water chi at a decent purity. Depending on how old the plant was that produced the flower it could be used to produce either Cleansing or Gathering level water chi pills. For that reason the apothecaries in town would sometimes gather it and pickle the buds, as storing them in vinegar or strong alcohol was the only way to keep them from losing the water chi inside of them. The lake just produced so many of these plants that they could never all be used by the village.


    Ponma had talked to the merchants and learned that they had considered gathering and selling the Water Blossom buds, but that they had decided that there wasn¡¯t enough money in it. After all, the buds could only be sold for about one copper each, and the exchange rate between coin and Points was one hundred copper per point. At twelve copper per silver and twenty silver per gold, it would take eight and a half silvers to earn one point by selling them. It simply cost too much to gather them for resale.


    Ponma had an idea, though. If he paid the kids in the town one Point for every five hundred buds they collected and preserved, or the same for every two hundred large buds, with him providing the jars and vinegar, they could still make several points per day, and he would have thousands or tens of thousands of buds to sell to the caravan. He had already invested the seventy five he still had, and was heading up to the lake now that practice was over, but could use more points to pay more kids for their help. Mae had already taught him how to preserve them, and he had verified the end product with her bosses, even taking care to preserve the older buds first, so he knew what to do.


    Danka hadn¡¯t donated any points, but he would be going with Ponma to help preserve the buds. Shen decided that this would be a good thing to waste time on, as it didn¡¯t require chi, so she agreed to help as well. She wanted to trust her friend, but knew nothing about business or alchemy, so she only gave him twenty five points. She was willing to lose the cost of a Cleansing scroll to show her friend that she trusted him.


    Ponma used the points to buy more large jars and vinegar, and he and Danka carried the two jars of vinegar on their backs, saying it was strength training. Shen only carried the two empty jars. She hadn¡¯t lost all of her strength, as she wasn¡¯t able to completely close down the flow of chi into her body yet, but she wasn¡¯t strong enough to carry a full jar that was big enough for her to climb in. These jars were all in the form of a backpack, and were the type that villagers might use to carry water to a village from the river or lake when the well was dry.


    When they arrived, there was a hill of flowers stacked in front of them. The children of the fishermen had really liked this job, so they had gone a bit overboard with today¡¯s harvest. Thankfully they knew enough to put the larger ones in a separate pile. They set down their jars and the boys started picking up any of the large flowers that didn¡¯t look too damaged and putting them in one of the empty jars Shen had carried up here. This filled one and a half jars, which were filled with vinegar to above the buds, and the jars were stacked to the side. They then did the same with the normal sized flowers, filling up all of the jars they had up there. Each of the jars required around a third of a jar of vinegar, so when they were done they had six jars of buds, a mostly gone pile of buds, and a little bit of vinegar left over.


    Ponma did the math. They had preserved seven hundred and fifty large buds and around six thousand small ones. This, combined with the fact that they had credit for an extra seventy large buds from yesterday meant that they had earned four points from the large buds and twelve from the small ones.


    After storing all of the jars in a large shed that the fishermen lent him, the three of them went to one of the houses. A twelve year old boy answered the door and Ponma thanked him for his help before giving him sixteen Points. Tomorrow, the day before the caravan showed up, would be the last day that they could gather buds. The fishers had agreed to bring all of his jars with them when they came to town, so he wouldn¡¯t need to worry about getting them down the mountain. The kids of the fishing village were happy to help out.


    With that, the three of them returned to town. It was almost time for Evening Meal by the time they got back, so they went straight to the cafeteria. Mae joined them and Shen asked Mae about the flowers. Apparently, they were edible, and were sometimes used as a food source when food was scarce, but, as it resulted in the person having a lot of water chi inside of them, sometimes getting sick from the imbalance, it wasn¡¯t used very often unless the village was desperate or had foods from the other elements as well, to balance it out.


    When she got back to her room Shen Released the chi in her dantian, pushing some of the toxins from some of the larger chi pathways, and realized that her dantian had gotten just a tiny bit larger.


    The next day she did the same thing. First, she meditated to close off some of the chi that was entering her body from her dantian. It was a little easier today, probably because her chi pathways were a bit cleaner, and she closed it off a bit more. She knew that this would result in a higher pressure and would make her dantian expand a bit more than it did yesterday. Teacher had warned that if they let the pressure go too high it would start hurting, then at a higher pressure than that it would tear the dantian, requiring time to heal, time in which you couldn¡¯t cultivate aside from a few minor exercises like the Cleansing meditation. She knew she was no where near that limit, though. She simply wasn¡¯t good enough with the technique.


    She ate Morning Meal, got a loaf of bread for later, as she had skipped Noon Meal yesterday, and went to the training field. After the boys were done practicing, the three of them went to buy more jars and vinegar, then they went back up the mountain. As it was the last day they could earn money this way, many of the children were still cutting buds off of the plants and throwing them in the pile as they arrived.


    The three of them got to work collecting the undamaged buds and pickling them as the kids brought more and more flowers. The boys had to go back to town to get more vinegar after a few hours, but Shen kept working. The Fishermen had hundreds of jars they could use, as they were used to preserve fish, so Shen didn¡¯t have a shortage of jars. They would just need to pay the Fishermen one point each, as that is what they cost in Town.


    As the sun touched the horizon they finished up the last of the pickling and figured out how much they needed to pay. Ponma was a bit short on points, so Shen had to give him another seventeen, mostly to cover the cost of the jars. After paying for everything, they thanked the people and left.


    As they didn¡¯t need the leftover flowers Shen took a sack out of her pocket and filled it full of the biggest flowers she could find. As they walked back to town, she ate one of them. It was slightly sweet and, as she walked she could feel a small amount of water chi forming inside of her. Before it could leak into her dantians and be purified she pulled it into her hand. ¡°What do you think, Ponma? Three percent? You are the Water chi expert.¡±


    She handed the ball to Ponma and he looked at it. ¡°Maybe three point two, three point three. Not bad, but only really enough to make one ball out of it.¡± He moved his fingers a bit and it turned a bright blue, then he threw it at a tree. He told Shen to touch the spot and she could feel that it was cold. It wasn¡¯t cold enough to freeze the tree, but was noticeably cooler that the bark around it. ¡°Water to ice.¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s what I used on his foot yesterday, if you remember. I¡¯m not that good yet, though. I lose about half the purity when I should only lose ten percent.¡±


    ¡°You want to practice?¡± she asked, and held the bag of flowers out to him. ¡°Take as many as you want.¡±


    By the time they got back to Town Ponma no longer had an appetite, but had gotten quite a bit better with his ¡®water to ice¡¯ technique. He was now up to 70% efficient with the conversion, making himself an even bigger threat to Danka.

 Chapter 8

    The next day Shen did her ¡®restrict¡¯ meditation and went to the bathhouse. This was a special day, as the sect always treated Caravan days as a festival day, giving most people a day off and paying those that chose to work in the most critical a jobs double pay, like the cafeteria and the peacekeepers. Even with the sect teaching against theft and assault, the number of thefts and fights still greatly increased during caravan days. Still, she had made a bit of progress the last two days, and that progress was only speeding up, so she made sure to Restrict her chi before leaving.


    The caravan would be here for three days, and she wouldn¡¯t get paid until the second one, as Ponma would find a buyer the first day if he could, so until then she had little money to work with. Though, if she needed money she could always trade a few contribution points for money. She had been told where the point exchange stalls were for that very reason.


    After her bath she returned her dirty clothes to her room and went to eat morning meal. There she met Ponma, Danka, and Mae sitting at one of the tables. ¡°So, everyone ready for the caravan?¡± asked Ponma, and the two older kids shrugged while Mae said yes.


    ¡°Are you sure about this business deal of yours?¡± asked Danka. ¡°It sounds confusing to me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I checked the math last night.¡± Ponma said before going into details. ¡°Each of the small bud jars have around eight hundred, and the large bud jars have around three hundred. Now, we have one hundred and seventeen points in the jars, but you helped as well, Danka, so I figure I owe you one per day, bringing it to one hundred and twenty.¡± Danka nodded. ¡°Now, we have seventeen and a half large bud jars and twenty seven small bud jars. If I sell each for three gold, we will earn one hundred and thirty two gold, or about three hundred and seventeen points. That will mean that they get the smalls for less than a copper each, and we still make a profit. Even at two per jar we will still make a profit. If they are in demand though, we might earn more. If we do, I will split up the profit proportionally with you, Shen.¡±


    ¡°Proportionally?¡± asked Shen. That wasn¡¯t a word she had heard before.


    ¡°Yeah, it means that your cut compared to your investment will be the same as my cut compared to my investment. My dad was just starting to teach me algebra when the ceremony came, so I¡¯m not the best at it, but I can do this much. For example, if I did get one hundred and thirty two gold, your cut would be forty seven gold, and you would earn a profit of five gold. Well, forty seven point four, but I don¡¯t think you can do fractions of a point and I paid to have Danka help us, and it was my idea, so¡­¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I get it.¡± She wasn¡¯t really interested in math. Who would be? Well, she supposed Ponma was, but he was a merchant¡¯s apprentice. ¡°But if you sell it for more, I make more too, right?¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡± he nodded, and they finished their meal. Apparently no one wanted to risk another math lesson.


    They then went up the mountain to Fisher village. The people there might be lending them the carts and bringing the goods with them, but they could help load the carts. When they got there they saw a group of people carrying jars to the back of a man-pulled cart. Shen Released her chi, purging a bit more of the toxins from her minor chi pathways, and went to the storage shed to help carry things. She only had around half of her chi left due to overdoing the Release, but she still had enough strength to carry the large jars. Mae, on the other hand, was struggling, as she hadn¡¯t spent that much time cultivating, so Shen told her to try using Release. Her strength fluctuated from five to seven times her normal level, throwing off her balance, so Shen took the jar and asked her to go help the young children move the smaller things.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you can pull the cart by yourself.¡± Shen said to the eleven year old boy Po whose cart was now loaded.


    ¡°Why¡¯s that? Even that little girl could carry the jars by herself with a bit of cultivation, and there are only twenty of them on there. Plus, the road is in good repair so the wheels make it much easier than carrying the load by hand.¡±


    ¡°You cultivate?¡± she asked. ¡°I thought you weren¡¯t sect members. Though, I guess you could always use the Dao of the Militia as a manual.¡±


    ¡°What makes you think we aren¡¯t Sect members?¡± he asked.


    Shen didn¡¯t have an answer. ¡°I guess I just kind of assumed, since you don¡¯t live in town. Don¡¯t all sect members live in town?¡±


    Po laughed. ¡°Not at all. A lot of us Outer members move out into the forest or to one of the villages, like Fisher, one of the farming villages, or maybe the one of mines. Living in the town is too expensive. The way my dad explained it, only about forty percent of children with two Foundation talent parents will be Foundation or above talent themselves. Maybe sixty percent if one is Nascent, and eighty percent if both are, though few Nascent elders have children as they tend to be older. You can¡¯t become an Inner sect member until you reach Foundation, so the rest of the people born in town have little hope of becoming Inner members. So it¡¯s hard for them to work eight out of ten days to pay for their apartment and basic needs like the sect requires of Outer Sect Disciples. Then the pay isn¡¯t big enough to raise a family, so you need to get a better job or work multiple jobs to afford the place.¡±


    Shen looked confused. ¡°You have to pay to live in Town? I thought it was free.¡±


    Po¡¯s fourteen year old brother Ko overheard and entered the conversation. ¡°That¡¯s because you aren¡¯t thirteen yet. On your thirteenth birthday you will have to get a job or move out. Unless you happen to reach Foundation before that.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you just pay with contribution points?¡±


    Ko shook his head. ¡°Not if you are outer sect. You also can¡¯t do any of the good missions, so you¡¯ll struggle to earn enough doing Minor and Low grade missions even if you can find an Inner sect member to ¡®donate¡¯ your rent for you for a few extra points.¡±


    ¡°You seem to know a lot about this.¡± said Shen.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m actually the only one in my family with Foundation potential, since mom and dad are both Gathering potential. I moved to town when I was ten to try and study, but wasn¡¯t able to reach Foundation before turning thirteen, so I had to move back home. Still, I doubt it will take more than a few months before I can break through, so maybe I can move back to town then.¡±


    ¡°Maybe you can take me with you.¡± said Po. ¡°I might only be early Gathering, but you know I¡¯m good with a spear. I even beat you sometimes when we go boar hunting at the base of the mountain.¡±


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t hunting missions Major?¡± asked Danka, walking up. All of the carts looked to be loaded, so the others were just finishing up some minor things before leaving. ¡°I thought you couldn¡¯t take Major missions until you are an Inner sect member.¡±


    ¡°Actually, as long as one of the people on your team is an Inner member they can take the mission and you can help them. All of the money just goes through them, so you have to make sure you can trust them.¡±


    Danka nodded. ¡°So is it tough living outside the town? It looks nicer than my hometown out here.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not bad.¡± answered Po. ¡°Mom traveled a bit when she was younger, and says that we have it better than in most villages. There aren¡¯t any dangerous monsters around here, and there¡¯s plenty of food. Good food too, and not the cheap, toxin filled stuff most villagers eat. And because we are sect members we have many low end magic techniques that we can use to make life easier. Worst we had to deal with was two years ago when a young dragon came to town. We played with it for a little while before its mom came to take it back, and she gave us a Blue Pearl as an apology.¡±


    Shen and Danka nodded just as one of the adults said it was time to set out. Everyone lined up, the strongest of them near the carts in case the cart puller couldn¡¯t slow it down enough when going down hill. Usually this only happened when the ground was slippery, but they had many younger people like Po pulling carts this time, so they might not be able to handle it the whole way. Once they were lined up the group set out for the town.


    When they arrived, somewhat surprisingly not having to help slow the carts, the carts were taken to a warehouse attached to one of the Apothecaries. Mae went inside with Ponma to talk to them and a minute later a woman in her early twenties came to open the warehouse for them. This woman was Sister Ku, and she ran the counter here. They unloaded all of the village¡¯s goods, as they were mostly magical or alchemical ingredients, and parked the carts.


    Just as they were finishing people in strange clothing started entering the town. Some of them wore colorful cloth garments, but the ones that drew Danka¡¯s attention were the men dressed in black leather pants and vests carrying swords. ¡°Soul Blades.¡± said Po, whispering. ¡°Mercenary cultivators that mostly work security for caravans or towns. Lots of us think about joining them, as they accept Gathering talent people, but few of us do. After all, who wants to leave your family to go train several week¡¯s walk away and protect people you don¡¯t even know. Better to stay here and help out the people you grew up with.¡±


    Danka thought for a little while. ¡°But if they are only Gathering potential, and I assume most of them are, how do they fight against demon sect members and stronger beasts? Most sects only accept Foundation and above, like the Jade Dragons do.¡±


    ¡°Sword chi.¡± said Ko, leaning in to join the whispered conversation. ¡°It carries the intent of ¡®severance¡¯. By cultivating it you can remove the weakness from your own body and do a lot of damage to your enemies. There¡¯s even a rumor that it can help you exceed your talent level. Focusing on one type of chi also lets you make it a lot better, so their sword chi at Gathering stage usually has the purity of a Foundation level master¡¯s elemental chi. This lets them fight above their level.¡± He looked around to make sure no one was listening except his brother. ¡°I can introduce the two or you to someone I know that works as a guard in this caravan. He can tell you more.¡± The two boys nodded and left with Ko.


    Of course, Shen knew nothing of this. She assumed that Danka was going to go challenge them in the sparring field, as it was still open for friendly sparring sessions, and ignored them. She had more important things to do. She left to get a jar from her room and came back. It contained a few of the Water buds that they had gathered yesterday and some of the left over vinegar. Once she was back, she and Ponma went to find the alchemical ingredient merchant.


    They found him by the time of Noon meal and offered him a sample. He verified that the flowers were of good quality and Ponma notified him of how much of each size they had. The man looked impressed and Ponma started negotiations. Shen couldn¡¯t really follow what was being said, but after a few minutes they shook hands.


    ¡°We came to an agreement.¡± said Ponma. ¡°I didn¡¯t get what I wanted, because this is the first time he has dealt with us and he doesn¡¯t know if he can trust us, but we got three each for the large buds and two each for the smalls. That¡¯s¡­¡± he mumbled for a bit as he did the math. ¡°Fifty two for the smalls and fifty one for the bigs, so one hundred and three. That is about¡­¡± more mumbling, ¡°Two hundred and forty seven points. I¡¯ll lead him over to the warehouse so that he can load them up, then I¡¯ll give you your portion.¡±


    Shen went to noon meal and as she was about to leave Ponma came in, grabbed some food, and sat down. ¡°Ok, I gave Danka two gold, about 4.8 points, since he helped us. The rest of the gold came to thirty two for you, sixty nine for me.¡± He handed her a bag of coins. ¡°That¡¯s almost seventy seven points if you donate it to the sect. Not a bad profit for a few days of work.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°In that case, if you think of another way to make money, let me know. I need more scrolls if I¡¯m going to reach Foundation before I¡¯m thirteen.¡± Shen took a few breaths to Restrict her chi again and got up. She wanted to do some shopping.


    That night she put the robe she had bought in the drawer and put the scrolls on top. The robe was a green cotton one with a few red flowers embroidered on it. It had cost her ten silver, but she hadn¡¯t had anything that nice since her father died, and really wanted it, so she had talked herself into buying it. The other ten silver out of that gold coin had went to buying five scrolls and a small book. This was probably all stuff that the sect would teach her eventually, but with the cost of scrolls and books being what it was in the library she decided to spend a few coins and learn it early.


    All of these techniques used neutral chi, as they were meant for common people that didn¡¯t have elemental chi even if they were past Cleansing stage. The first two were self-descriptive, ¡°Enhance Sight¡± and ¡°Enhance Hearing¡±. The next two were things that everyone learned eventually, but Shen wanted to learn early, ¡°Telepathy¡± and ¡°Telekinesis¡±. They were actually spiritual abilities, not magical abilities, and she didn¡¯t know how strong her spiritual powers would be, but she decided to give it a try. After all, she had a lot of money at the moment. The last scroll was ¡°Light ball¡±. It was similar to Torch Palm which she had already learned, but could be thrown at a target to make it glow until the chi started to run out. She could probably have figured out how to do it on her own since she already knew Torch Palm and had worked with putting chi into ball form, but she wanted to study it to see if it worked the way she thought.


    Finally she got to the book. It appeared to be a weapon enhancement technique. It claimed that it could make weapons stronger, but she didn¡¯t quite understand how it worked. She would have to read the book to figure that out, she supposed.


    She was tired from a long day of wandering around the caravan stalls, so she decided not to cultivate heavily tonight. There had been so many exciting things in the caravan. They had dozens of entertainers, games with prizes, and more shops than she can remember seeing before. She would have to go again tomorrow.


    She Released her chi once more and cleared out a bit more of her minor pathways, then decided to read over one of the techniques. She grabbed a random scroll. Telepathy. She read it once, but it didn¡¯t seem to make sense. It included terms that she hadn¡¯t heard of, and asked her to cycle chi through her upper dantian and chi pathways she could barely see. Maybe it would be easier to understand once the pathways were clear? Surely she could understand it once she cultivated a bit more. Cultivation can improve your mental abilities as well as your physical abilities, after all. She read it again, but by her third time reading through she was too tired to keep going. The tiredness in her brain made it hard to continue concentrating on Torch Palm and when it went out due to a lack of concentration she didn¡¯t use the technique again, instead dropping the scroll on the ground and pulling a sheet over her so she could sleep.


    The next day went much like the previous one. She got up, took a bath, the took her dirty clothes and other toiletries to her room. She Restricted her chi flow once again and grabbed her money before leaving for morning meal. She was wearing her fancy new robe today, so she was careful not to get any food on it. The boys were planning something, and Mae would be playing with the other younger kids, so Shen would be on her own.


    She wandered the stalls and, because she had the money, decided to buy something from a food stall instead of going to the cafeteria. After getting something to eat, some sort of fried pastry, she sat down the fountain and started watching the people. Most of them looked pretty normal, being the same kind of humans she saw every day. A few were human but looked a bit different, with skin that was lighter or darker than the norm, or having unusual facial features or hair colors. The most interesting, though, were the beast people. They weren¡¯t actually animals, but some of the people had animal features. Maybe their ears were on top of their head. Maybe they had a tail, or two tails like that one woman. Many had fur or claws. Some had scales.


    The most interesting person, however, looked like a normal young human woman, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. She was tall and thin, with blue hair and wearing a light blue robe. She carried a metal fan on her wrist and was ordering some sort of meat dumplings like many other people. What made her stand out, though, was that sometimes, but not always, you could see blue scales beside her eyes. Once, for a few seconds, Shen was sure that the woman¡¯s pupils changed shape into slits. Shen was sure she was some sort of reptile. A lizard? A snake? Shen wasn¡¯t quite sure even though, strangely, there was something strangely attractive about that woman, like she was familiar.


    After getting her food the woman ate one of the dumplings. Shen could tell that they were hot by the steam coming off of it, but the woman didn¡¯t seem to notice. She smiled and quickly put another in her mouth. That¡¯s when she noticed Shen watching her. She put the last dumpling in her mouth and, after swallowing, walked over to Shen. ¡°Good day, sister.¡± she said, bowing slightly. ¡°I must advise you that I believe it to be rude to watch someone else eat. It is like you wish to take my food, which would be a bad idea.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± said Shen. She was surprised that the woman called her Sister, as she was pretty sure the woman wasn¡¯t a Sect member, but for some reason it seemed to fit. ¡°Sorry about that. I was just thinking about buying some of my own.¡±


    The woman nodded. ¡°Yes, perhaps you should.¡± With a slight bow she turned and left.

 Chapter 9

    Shen couldn¡¯t get the woman out of her head for the rest of the day. Something just seemed special about her. Familiar. Shen tossed and turned that night, dreams of that woman going through her mind. In the dream the woman was trying to talk to her but everything came out muddled, like that woman was talking underwater.


    The next day, the last day of the caravan, Shen put on her normal clothes. As she hadn¡¯t gotten in much practice that last few days, Shen decided to practice one of the scrolls. She read over the Telepathy one again, and it seemed to make a bit more sense this time, like the concepts just seemed to slide into place. By the time she started getting hungry she had cycled her chi the way it said to several times and her mind felt clearer. The encounter with the woman had taken her concentration away, but now she had gotten it back.


    She spent the day hanging out with her friends and, that night, they went to watch the fireworks the caravan had shot off. All in all it was a good festival.


    She did both the chi pathway cleansing and the telepathy meditation that night, and slept soundly. Still, she dreamed about that woman. She could almost understand what the woman was saying. She was inviting her somewhere. She had heard horror stories about adults inviting children to different places so that they could do evil things, from enslaving them to sacrificing them in some ritual, to things the adults wouldn¡¯t talk about until she was older. This didn¡¯t seem that way, though. This woman seemed nice, like she wanted to help Shen. Shen thought about it the next morning. The dreams might be a form of telepathy. She knew that the most basic form let you detect if they were lying or telling the truth, followed by their emotional state, then transferring concepts, then words. She wasn¡¯t sure how far telepathy could be taken, as the scroll only described things up to that point, but she knew that it didn¡¯t feel like the woman was lying. If it was telepathy, and she was lying, she must be really good at it.


    For the next month Shen practiced the Restricting and Releasing her chi, using it to clear her minor pathways. She had learned to mostly close off the flow of chi during this time, so she could Restrict and Release her chi about every five to ten minutes, making it a good exercise between reading the seven scrolls and one book she now owned. Every night, though, she would spend at least an hour practicing those techniques.


    The boys spent a lot more time at the training field during that month. Danka even started landing blows, so the field master had given him a wooden sword to practice with. Ponma mostly spent his time after the basic practice at the magic training field, eating Water Blossoms and throwing ice at the target dummies.


    One full moon cycle after the festival Shen found that her minor pathways were completely clear of toxins, and realized that to get any further she would need to break through to Gathering again. She planned on taking the next day to do that.


    That night, however, she dreamed of the woman again. ¡°Sister.¡± the woman said. ¡°I can finally see you.¡± the woman said.


    ¡°Is this a dream, or telepathy?¡± she asked.


    The woman looked a bit confused. ¡°Have you never dream traveled before? It is both, I suppose. I am sorry, however. It is hard to speak, as you are a bit far away. Come to me, and we may speak.¡± With that the strangely vivid dream ended and Shen¡¯s sleep returned to normal.


    When Shen woke up, she felt like she needed to visit the woman. She just didn¡¯t know where. She didn¡¯t know enough about the woman to figure it out. Was she one of the monsters that lived on the mountain? Shen wasn¡¯t sure. She was sure, however, that she would be better off if she could find the woman. After washing and eating she came back to her room. Today she had something important to do.


    She started by wrapping a layer of chi over her dantian. The chi the layer was made of came from the dantian, so she knew that it would start reabsorbing it, but she needed to get enough out of the dantian that it would refill and she had some extra to work with. After struggling for a bit, as it seemed to reabsorb the chi almost as fast as she could draw it out, she put her hands together and drew out as much neutral chi as she could, much like she had once done with Blood Chi. The fact that her chi pathways were so clean must have made it absorb chi faster, she thought as she took the rest of her chi, seeing the dantian fill up behind her. It was like a well that would almost refill as fast as you could draw water.


    She held the chi in her hands as the dantian refilled and, when it was full, started using the chi in her hands to form a string. This first shell would have to be simple. She wrapped the string around the dantian like one would rewind a ball of string, and continuously made more chi into a string as she did so. There were better, more efficient ways of forming a shell, but for now this one would work. Eventually she ran out of chi in her hand and had to start drawing it from her dantian. The layer of chi string was thick enough now, however, that it didn¡¯t reabsorb the chi at once.


    With each layer she found that less and less chi was being reabsorbed from outside, instead refilling from the natural bounty of neutral chi within the world. It soon only allowed chi in or out if she willed it and, not long after that, it started to glow and compress. She kept adding layers and not long after that the glowing stopped. Any string she tried to add to the top just added to the shell, no longer looking like string. There was now, in her perception, a white sphere around her dantian. She could still feel the chi flowing into her body from it, so she knew she hadn¡¯t cut it off completely, and was able to move chi into and out of it. She had succeeded in breaking through to Gathering and could now draw in chi rather than having to wait for her dantian to naturally fill.


    She tried using Restrict on her Dantian, but found that it acted differently than before. The chi didn¡¯t enter her body, but it also didn¡¯t fill her dantian. At least not the outer layer. She drew in a little chi from around her. She could make it take in chi, but it wasn¡¯t automatic. When she thought about it, though, it made sense. This layer wouldn¡¯t fill up automatically until she filled it on her own and broke through to Foundation, teaching it what it needed to refill the layer with.


    She opened her eyes and stood up. She realized she needed to go to the bathroom and ran to the toilets. When she got out, however, she noticed that people were coming back to the dorms. ¡°Mae,¡± she said, after returning to her room. ¡°Why is everyone back so early?¡±


    ¡°Early?¡± Mae said. ¡°Evening meal just ended. It¡¯s getting dark so I¡¯m going to meditate and go to sleep.¡±


    ¡°Wait, it ended?¡± Shen asked. Now that Mae mentioned it, Shen was pretty hungry. Mae nodded and Shen ran to the cafeteria. Thankfully they hadn¡¯t put up everything yet and, when they heard that Shen had just got caught up in breaking through to Gathering, the congratulated her and one old woman volunteered to stay behind and clean up after Shen left. She only had rice and a bit of leftover vegetable broth, but as hungry as Shen was, it was delicious.


    When she got back to her room she sat down on her bed. Mae was meditating, apparently trying to cleanse her minor pathways like Shen had, but Shen didn¡¯t want to meditate again. She had been meditating all day and was restless.


    She laid on her bed and watched Mae. ¡®Watching people meditate is actually really boring.¡¯ she thought, then had an idea. Maybe she could see what Mae saw. She activated her telepathy technique, something that was almost second nature after a month of practice, and focused on Mae. She started to get flashes, little bits of information that told her what Mae was doing and, more importantly, what she was doing wrong. ¡®You know, it would work better if you built up some pressure and forced it through.¡¯ she thought. ¡®You are being too delicate.¡¯


    ¡°I know that¡¯s how you did it, but I want to try a different way.¡± said Mae. ¡°I think this way will be faster in the long run. Now, can you please not talk to me while I¡¯m doing this? You¡¯re disturbing my concentration.¡±


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ¡®Wait. She had heard me?¡¯


    ¡°Of course I did. You weren¡¯t exactly whispering. Now, please be quiet.¡± As Mae was being polite about it, Shen decided to talk to her about it later. She ended the telepathy technique and closed her eyes. The fact that she had managed to get telepathy to work was a major breakthrough and, thinking about it, she went to sleep.


    The next day she decided to take a break. She put on the worn clothes that she was wearing when they rescued her and walked out of town after morning meal. An hour later she found herself entering Fisher village. She didn¡¯t really have anywhere to go, so she just kind of wandered around town. She had exchanged what gold she had for Points after the festival, so all she had on her was her Point bracelet and a small bag with a few coppers and silvers. Her Point account was now up to two hundred and thirteen points after depositing seventy five gold, but she didn¡¯t really need it up here.


    She saw Po and Ko bringing it some nets on a dock and they waved at each other. She didn¡¯t want to disturb their work so she didn¡¯t go and speak with them. Eventually she found herself wandering further up the mountain. Their wasn¡¯t really a path up this far, but the more she traveled the more she knew that this was the right direction.


    Eventually she stepped into a clearing full of flowers. Each one seemed to glow slightly. ¡°Sun orchids.¡± said a voice behind her. Shen turned around to see the young woman from the festival. ¡°I grow them here. Hello sister.¡± The woman bowed slightly and Shen returned the gesture.


    ¡°Are they magical? Alchemical?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Technically they have Gathering level Sun chi, but that¡¯s not why I raise them. They just look pretty.¡±


    Shen smiled. ¡°I guess they do.¡± She stood there and thought about the situation for a few breaths when she realized something. ¡°Wait, did you call me here?¡± she asked.


    The woman smiled and nodded. ¡°Yes, I did. My name is Shodanakarel, but you can call me Sho. Sister Sho if you want to.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a long name.¡± said Shen. ¡°I¡¯ll stick to Sister Sho if it¡¯s ok.¡±


    ¡°It is. So, do you want to see why I called you here?¡± Shen nodded and Sho motioned for her to follow. They briefly walked down a small path between the trees until the path lead into a large open area. All around were people that looked more or less like humans, and there were winged reptiles mixed in with them. These reptiles went from being as small as a dog to as big as a house. They were speaking in a strange language that Shen hadn¡¯t heard before, but she knew at once what language it was. That was Draconic. These people were Dragons.


    Shen stood there in surprise for a few breaths when a large blue dragon landed in front of the two of them. ¡°Shodanakarel.¡± it said in a scolding tone. It continued speaking in that tone in Draconic and Sho responded. The large dragon looked at Shen, then started shrinking. After ten breaths a naked man stood before them. She hadn¡¯t noticed it but all of the dragons that were in their natural form seemed to be naked. The man waved his hand and a black robe popped out of it, which he quickly put on.


    ¡°Shodanakarel.¡± he repeated. ¡°How many times have I told you, you can¡¯t invite a human back here without council approval. It¡¯s bad enough that you left to visit that human festival a month ago, but to bring one back¡­¡±


    ¡°But she¡¯s not just a human, father, she¡¯s one of us.¡±


    The man looked Shen over. ¡°A relative, perhaps, but not a pureblood.¡± He looked at her for a few more breaths. ¡°I¡¯d guess she¡¯s part Fire Dragon. Tell me, girl. Are you good at fire magic?¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°It¡¯s my best element. I¡¯m not very good with water, which I believe is what your people are best with.¡±


    He looked at her for a few more breaths. ¡°I thought so. Strange. The nearest Fire Dragon village is over ten days from here, as we fly. Six months for a human. Tell me, are you from there? Maybe one of their descendants with a human?¡±


    Shen bowed her head a bit in shame. ¡°I¡¯m not sure, sir. My father died when I was five and he never told me about his ancestors. My mother was already dead, but I believe it was his side of the family I get my dragon bloodline from, as he also had the Dragonscales ability.¡±


    The man nodded. ¡°Interesting. Few with blood as weak as yours still have that ability.¡± He thought for a few minutes, then looked at Sho. ¡°For now, she can¡¯t enter the village proper. Keep her here in the park until I get back. Maybe play with the other children. I need to speak with the elders.¡± Sho nodded and the man reabsorbed the robe into his hand and took his natural form once again before taking off in the direction of the mountain peak. That must be where the council stayed.


    ¡°Well.¡± said Sho, looking at Shen. ¡°Would you like to go play? I¡¯m sure the other kids would like to meet you.¡± Shen nodded and Sho lead her to another group of dragon women. After informing them that Shen was ten, the women praised here for her Shifting skills and tried to introduce their own children, all of them acting like toddlers. Sho had to explain that Shen was mostly human and therefore was an older child and didn¡¯t need to Shift in order to look like a human. The women seemed much less impressed but eventually she was introduced to some older children who were playing some sort of ball game involving hitting a ball with a stick and running around a square.


    A little while later all of the children started taking a break. Shen went to sit down only to have Sho walk over and hand her a plate. On it were several different types of raw fish. ¡°It¡¯s called sashimi.¡± said Sho. ¡°One of the people that visited our village when I was a kid introduced it to us. It¡¯s actually really good.¡± She handed Shen some sort of sticks taught her how to properly pick up food with them. While Shen didn¡¯t like it at first, there were several sauces on the side that she could dip them in, so she didn¡¯t mind eating it. One thing she noticed is that people didn¡¯t look around while eating. Nobody talked, other than a few children. Only one parent actually looked around, when her daughter asked a question and suddenly the girl looked like she was being scolded. Shen could only guess that the woman had used telepathy to do so.


    When she was done, the dragon from before, Sho¡¯s father, returned. After retaking human form and putting on his robe, he walked over to where Shen was. ¡°The council has come to a decision. As she is part dragon, she is allowed to visit us as long as she doesn¡¯t break any serious laws or bring any other non-dragons here. She is also restricted to the outer city, and cannot visit the inner city without prior council approval.¡± He then knelt down and held out his hand. ¡°Welcome to Water Dragon Town, miss Shen. I am Caliasara Nematari. I understand that most humans in the nearby town only use one syllable for a name, however, so you may call me Cal.¡±


    After that Shen started a new pattern. Four days per week she would spend her time studying or meditating, and three days a week she would travel to Water Dragon Town and play or study with the kids there. During this time some of the other dragon kids started studying combat and having mock battles. As combat seemed to be an important part of dragon culture, she joined in their fights. There she met a boy name Dodonakas, or Do. He was thirty years old, an older child in dragon terms, but looked like an eleven year old when he took human form. Do wasn¡¯t the best at Shifting, though, and usually still had scales over most of his body, and often still had fangs instead of canine teeth and a small tail.


    Today¡¯s sparring session required that he fight while in human form. The tribe often sent their people out into the world to learn about different cultures, technology, techniques, and other interesting information, so everyone in the village needed to learn to hold their human form even in stressful situations like combat.


    As Shen didn¡¯t have to do that, she had an advantage in this type of combat. The one she had trouble with was aerial combat. Sho was trying to teach her shifting, but even after a week she could barely manage to change the color of her hair. Spirit beings had the best natural talent for this, followed by magical beings, like dragons. After that came monsters, and then animals and humans. That was because the ability to change ones form was a spiritual ability, and most humans were weak in spiritual ability. Even when human monks studied for decades, few of them could manage even basic shifting, instead developing abilities to deal with spirits of various types as well as telekinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance.


    A week before her eleventh birthday Shen stood in the practice field across from Do. He had gotten better with his Shifting during their sparring sessions and now had gotten rid of the tail and fangs, as well as most of the scales. ¡°I¡¯m going to beat you today.¡± said Do. ¡°I¡¯ve got a special technique I¡¯ve been developing.¡±


    ¡°I look forward to it.¡± Shen said. Neither of them had any weapons. Dragon culture rarely used weapons in combat, though if they were to be placed in a role which required one, like a guard position, they would be taught to handle a weapon. The adult in charge of the spar waved their hand, signaling the start of the combat.


    The two ran at each other but, just as they reached each other Shen knelt down, dodging a high swing by Do. He usually opened with a claw strike at the other person¡¯s head, a bad habit he had picked up more than a year earlier when fighting other dragon children. Dragons, after all, often used claw strikes against each other. Against a human, however, when you lacked claws, it was a poor move that would be better replaced by a fist.


    As she knelt Shen held her fingers together and jabbed at his stomach. He saw the move coming and reacted by feeding chi to his stomach. In response his Dragon Scales activated and Shen hit a barrier. Angry that she had gotten the first blow he clawed at her several more times, but she managed to dodge all of them.


    He did, however, manage to knock her off balance, and so decided to use his special attack. Water chi flowed into his mouth from the natural source within him, called a dragon heart. It was a stone which grew over the lifetime of the dragon and would naturally produce more and purer chi of their element, but could be improved with meditation. Once it was gathered he opened his mouth and exhaled the chi, causing a jet of water to leave.


    Shen jumped to the side just in time to avoid the worst of his Dragon¡¯s Breath attack, only getting her feet and lower legs soaked. The impact changed the direction of her dive, she she ended up rolling sideways before stopping. Do started laughing. ¡°Careful.¡± he said, ¡°I hear humans don¡¯t like getting wet.¡±


    ¡°Oh, we can use attack magic, now? In that case, I hear dragons don¡¯t like getting cooked.¡± He held her hands to the side, palms up, and balls of fire appeared in both of them.


    ¡°Hey, no fair using fire magic.¡± he said, then jumped back as a ball hit the ground in front of him, exploding with the force of a firecracker. Shen was actually holding back a bit, and creating this fire chi from the neutral chi in her first level. She had much purer fire chi, almost 7% purity, in the second level of her Dantian, but didn¡¯t want to risk using it as it would damage the sparring field and risk causing serious injury. So she was using the five and a half percent purity fire chi she could make on a whim.


    Do dodged several more balls of fire before letting his Shift fall and flying into the air. Most of the adults saw that Shen was holding back and purposefully missing him, so when he started complaining about her use of magic they just laughed at him. ¡°You know that attack magic isn¡¯t allowed in this type of spar. If you are going to cheat, why shouldn¡¯t she?¡± said Sho. He looked surprised, like he couldn¡¯t think of what to say, then Sho smiled. ¡°I think he¡¯s learned his lesson now, Shen.¡± she said. ¡°Do you mind not using attack magic again as long as he also stops using it?¡±


    Shen nodded and Do landed. They once again agreed to the rules and their sparring session continued, this time with Shen winning through normal chops and jabs rather than magic. Though the fight was close, Do¡¯s predictable moves made it easy for Shen to counter him.

 Chapter 10

    Shen entered her room shortly after it got dark outside. Do had managed to get two blows through her Dragon Scales, as she was still slow at activating it. While you could keep the power on all of the time, it was like Releasing your chi constantly. It wasted a lot of chi and would quickly tire you mentally.


    She laid down on her bed and started moving wood chi through her bruised arm and ribs. While this wasn¡¯t a true healing magic technique, it could relieve pain. For this she used the Wood chi stored inside her dantian. It wasn¡¯t as pure as the fire chi she had in there, at only five and a half percent, but she had gathered much more of it in order to balance out the other elements. At first she had just tried to gather as much fire chi as possible, but she started hurting and sweating all of the time, even when in cool locations like underground, so she decided to bring in some water, wood, earth, and metal chi to balance it out. She didn¡¯t have any real techniques for the others, tough, so they mostly just sat there keeping her from getting too out of balance. Eventually, she knew, she would get used to the imbalance, but she also knew that day wouldn¡¯t be any time soon.


    As she laid there Mae walked in. ¡°You¡¯re hurt.¡± Mae said, noticing the bruise on her arm, then dropped her bags and ran over. ¡°Did you get in a fight?¡± she asked. Mae was a natural with Wood chi, and had been learning several healing techniques which used it. Mostly they only dealt with bruises, swelling and pain management, but that was all that was needed in this situation.


    ¡°Just a sparring session with some other kids. I didn¡¯t think it was that bad until I got back here.¡± She lifted her shirt and showed Mae her ribs.


    ¡°They¡¯re already turning yellow. Idiot.¡± Mae said, then started fixing the bruising on her ribs. Mae managed to make the worst of it go away before she ran out of chi and had to take a break. Mae was still at the Cleansing level and, as such, only had the weaker wood chi she had to make on the fly, so she had little energy and her spells were less effective than normal. Still, it was good to be friends with a healer.


    ¡°Tomorrow I¡¯ll take it easy.¡± said Shen.


    Mae shook her head. ¡°You are scheduled to fight Danka in the ring. You agreed to it a week ago, so no backing out.¡±


    Shen sighed. ¡°Right.¡± Danka used a sword, so she would have to use different tactics than with Do. The others didn¡¯t know that she was going to the dragon village. She told them that she just liked walking through the woods and studying the plants and animals. She had even picked up a few minor missions from the mission hall so that she could bring back useful medicinal and alchemical plants and keep up appearances. It had earned her a few points, but she hadn¡¯t bought anything new with them. Maybe she should pick up a new technique?


    With her ribs mostly healed, she sat up and started drawing in chi. It wasn¡¯t much, but she should try and store as mush elemental chi as possible, just in case. The small amount of extra strength she got from having more chi in her body could be the difference between winning and losing.


    The next day she got ready and went to the field, the pain having almost entirely went away. A few minutes later Danka arrived. ¡°Ready for the fight?¡± he said, going over to the practice weapon rack and grabbing a wooden sword.


    ¡°Sure I am. Are you?¡± Maybe if she could make him unsure about this it would give her an advantage.


    ¡°Of course I am. I¡¯m the one that¡¯s been practicing fighting, after all. You¡¯ve just been taking walks. At best you can avoid me long enough to wear me out.¡±


    Shen shrugged. ¡°Exhausting your opponent is a valid strategy.¡± she said. She noticed Ponma nodding slightly at the other side of the sparring area.


    Danka just smiled and walk onto the field. The field master motioned for them to start and Shen dashed at him. This surprised him and he swung without really aiming, missing her as she ducked and headbutted him in the stomach. It didn¡¯t do much more than knock the air out of him, as she hadn¡¯t wanted to risk injuring herself. Do liked to headbutt her at the starts of fights too, but dragons had much stronger skulls and neck muscles than humans so he didn¡¯t risk a concussion when he hit her at full strength. Luckily Sister Sho was there to heal her cracked ribs the two times he managed to take her by surprise.


    Shen grabbed him and kicked his legs out from under him and he hit the ground. She swung at his face a few times, managing to get two blows in before he got his arms up to block, and making him drop his sword. The dragons might not have taught her proper fighting with a weapon, but they were great at wrestling.


    He managed to roll to the side so that she punched the stone under his head and, when she instinctively grabbed her hand he rolled away and got up. He was about three meters from his sword now, so he would need to either fight her in hand-to-hand or get back to it. When she stood up and kicked the sword off of the platform he knew which option was being forced on him.


    They circled each other for a few seconds before he jumped at her. She jumped to the side to avoid him, but he shifted onto his right foot and swung sideways, hitting her in the ribs the same place she was bruised yesterday. Strangely, his blow felt like it hit some sort of soft armor, but she still grabbed her ribs from the pain.


    Unknown to him she had figured he would try something and left herself open, engaging Dragon Scales for half a second just as his blow landed. Still, it wasn¡¯t as solid as she would have liked and the fact that he hit where she was already bruised meant that she still felt it. She took several steps back and when he swung at her again she ducked and swung with a fire enhanced uppercut. This was based on a technique that dragons had taught her, though Do used ice to give himself claws using a similar technique. Still, the fire was enough to throw Danka off balance and let her sweep his legs.


    He hit the ground hard and she kicked him in the ribs just to make sure he was down before the Field Master stopped the fight, declaring her the winner. The field healer came over and looked at Danka¡¯s injuries. Apparently he had broken his arm when he landed, which would take at least two days to heal properly, so he was walked to the clinic and given time off of sparring for the next three days. He still had to do the morning run with the fighters, but as he couldn¡¯t swing a sword with a broken arm he would have to practice one of the body cultivation techniques the Field Master taught instead. This only made it worse for Danka, as he hated meditating. The fact that he knew it would enhance his body and make him a better fighter was the only reason he did it, despite having Foundation level talent.


    Shen was declared the winner and awarded a contribution point. She didn¡¯t do it for the fight, however. She did it because spending all day ¡®by herself in the woods¡¯ looked suspicious. Many cultivators, however, trained on their own then came to town to spar, so it would serve as a great way to keep up appearances.


    Once the field healer had treated her injuries, including several they were certain she didn¡¯t get in that last fight, Shen grabbed a loaf of bread from the dining room in the Fire district and left the town, heading towards the dragon village.


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    Thirty minutes later she went through Fisher village and picked up one of the jars. She had picked up a few Water Blossoms on her way through the village a few weeks ago and, when she got to the dragon village she had pulled them out and offered them to some of the kids there. As it turns out, Water Dragons really like them, as they don¡¯t run into the same problem humans have with having too much water chi in their bodies, so they became quite popular. They treated them as a snack food, much like humans would carry nuts with them for when they got a bit hungry, so any time she brought them some they were happy to receive them.


    She had started paying the kids in Fisher to pickle them for her, with her buying the supplies to do so, and every day she went up there she would take one jar of pickled Water Blossom with her. Some of the Dragons preferred the pickled ones to the fresh ones, so they disappeared within hours of her arrival every day. She was certain that she could make a business out of selling these to the dragons, but she wasn¡¯t sure what they used as money.


    Eventually she worked out deals to trade them for various alchemical ingredients that the dragons produced or gathered, and which could be sold in town. This netted Shen several contributions per day as she sold or donated the ingredients to the apothecaries in town.


    The good will she gained from bringing the dragons a new favorite snack helped her fit in a bit more, and several parents swore that feeding pickled Water Blossoms to their babies made them learn water magic faster, making even more people like her. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t really expand the trade. She had thought about buying a cart and hauling several jars per day, but there wasn¡¯t a path to the dragon village. The jars were too bulky to bring more than two at a time, and even that was a serious workout at her current level of cultivation. Ideally she would buy a magic container of some sort, but storage rings were too expensive and even a magic bag, the cheapest form of storage which could only hold five or six jars, cost over a thousand contribution points.


    She also considered having someone else help her carry them, but she couldn¡¯t bring non-dragons here, the dragons wouldn¡¯t go to Fisher just to get the jars, and as far as she knew there were no more part-dragon people in the town that she might get permission to bring to the dragon village with her. All of this basically meant that her business was stuck at barely making enough for her own needs. Not that she spent that much, but any starting apprenticeship paid three points per day, so she compared it to that.


    Her daily trips to the village did mean she got in a lot of practice with her techniques. Besides getting used to Release and strengthening her muscles by carrying two jugs at a time, she also got to practice her enhanced senses, use telepathy when talking to the dragons, and practice telekinesis as she traveled by picking up anything useful that she passed as she took a slightly different path each time she climbed the mountain. She even got to practice her light spells when she spent too much time sparring with the dragons and didn¡¯t leave until after sunset.


    A few days before the caravan arrived Shen entered the library. She wanted to purchase several more techniques, including offensive and defensive techniques from the Earth and Metal elements, not being very good with water and only learning the basic healing spells from the Wood element so she could last longer in a fight. After all, these basic wood abilities were able to lessen pain, reduce swelling, reduce bruising, and stop bleeding.


    She had already picked up a few tactical abilities, like heat vision through the fire element and vibration detection through the Earth element, which would let her sense when animals were nearby through the ground. The one she had picked up a month ago let her detect metal through the metal element, though so far it had only let her find a few small bits of ore as she wandered the mountain. Most of her money came from detecting various types of chi in the wildlife and taking it that wildlife back to the apothecary Mae worked for to see if it was worth anything. That simply added a bit to the income.


    A few times she had found things that were dangerous poisons and ruined the rest of the magical ingredients she had gathered by putting them in the same bag, so now she had multiple bags and placed anything she wasn¡¯t sure of in a bag by itself.


    Now she had around six hundred contribution points in her account and went inside, hoping to buy something interesting before the caravan arrived. She was looking for the shelves when she saw two interesting texts near the back wall. This was where the library put the techniques that were unpopular. Sometimes they would even have discounts on them, as the popularity of techniques dropped and they found that they had too large of a supply of some copies.


    The first technique book was called ¡°Balanced Elements¡±. It explained how each element naturally benefited or canceled out one of the others and taught how to exploit that fact. It contained four primary techniques and a few side techniques. The four techniques didn¡¯t seem to be ranked by cultivation level, but would grow stronger as you reached higher stages by adding in the secondary techniques which were ranked. One primary technique was about countering elemental chi with the one which canceled it out. The most popular way to do this was to shoot water chi at a fire effect, but according to the book you could also do the same to cancel Water with Earth or cancel Earth with Wood. The next technique taught one to use the element which fed the element to improve its strength. According to the text, a fire elemental effect could have wood chi added to it to boost the effect. The third technique was about enhancing the purity of the elemental chi by using a purer form of the element which boosted it up to the purity of the purer element. Essentially this meant that she could use her almost seven percent pure fire chi to make almost seven percent pure Earth chi, then continue that with Metal, then Water, then wood, completing the cycle. The fourth took that a step further by using the three elements which didn¡¯t cancel an element out to remove any secondary types. While it wasn¡¯t energy efficient, it could theoretically remove almost all other chi types from the elemental energy. The manual claimed that the best it had been documented to do was around 60%, though that was by an immortal who spent over a year refining wood chi to try and heal a sick friend of hers.


    The second technique book was simply titled ¡°The Complete Dragon Technique Guide.¡± It didn¡¯t have a description in the front cover like every other technique book Shen had seen, instead starting with an elementary description of what chi and cultivation was, things that everyone grew up knowing. Both books were labeled as costing 500 points, so Shen took them to the front of the library to ask about them.


    The chief librarian was familiar with the first one. One hundred and ten years ago, when she first started working in the library, it was quite popular. It lost most of its popularity fifty years ago, however, as it had little use in combat, and combat effectiveness seem more important now that the front with the demons was getting closer. Demons, after all, often didn¡¯t use elemental attacks, which made the techniques in the book useless against them, relegating it to something one used to improve their own foundation rather than fight.


    The second was similar, but much older. This was written over two thousand years ago by a man who collected everything he could find of what the Immortal Dragon Philosopher Pai Wo had taught his disciples. It claimed to be a complete collection of those teachings, though anyone that read it would realize that there were holes and missing passages. Both were first rate manuals, which confused Shen. After all, why would you only charge five hundred for a first rate manual, even if it wasn¡¯t popular?


    The Librarian explained that the first one was considered by most to just be a low level guide containing a few Gathering techniques at best, so, as it contained four primary techniques it was priced comparable to four Gathering phase techniques. As for the second, it was merely a curiosity that no one actually tried to cultivate.


    ¡°These are the original techniques which the dragons used, so it is far too slow.¡± said the Librarian. ¡°After all, even a mortal dragon, not that any modern dragon doesn¡¯t cultivate, will live for around 1500 years. The slowed aging from the higher levels merely expands that. So, if a dragon spends 500 years cultivating to reach Gathering phase, that is like a thirty year old human. There are many thirty year old Gathering phase people among the outer disciples. This doubles the time the dragon has left to two thousand years, so if they spend the next thousand reaching foundation, they are now middle aged. Some of our people take that long to reach Foundation as well. The reason this is considered first rate is because dragons end up with an incredible strong foundation. In terms of the amount of chi they have, an early Gathering phase dragon has more than twice what the Master has, even though he is six hundred years old. In fact, if he were forced to fight such a Dragon, he would need to rely on techniques from higher tiers which the dragon would have little defense against, as he couldn¡¯t win a battle of force.¡±


    Shen thought about it for a while and decided to buy the first book. After all, she didn¡¯t have a thousand years to go to the Foundation stage. She had maybe one hundred and fifty. Maybe, once she reached Foundation and that one hundred and fifty doubled again to three hundred she might take a look at it, if only to understand where the idea of cultivation had started from.


    By the time the next Caravan was set to arrive a year after the first she had hundreds of jars saved up at Fisher village, and Ponma merely needed to negotiate the price with the merchant. It meant that he made a much lower profit than her this time, but, as he did so much less work this time, he was happy to let her take the majority of the profit. Most of the wagons to arrive were the same ones from a year ago, so Ponma found the same man that purchased them last time and negotiated with him again. Apparently he had found a buyer in the next major sect town that had a shortage of water type ingredients and was willing to offer three gold each for the jars. Ponma talked him up to three and a half for the large buds, and the ninety eight small bud jars and the thirty seven large bud jars switched hands, as well as 423 gold coins and 10 silver. Shen let Ponma keep 43 gold coins and the ten silver, a little over ten percent of the sales, and thanked him for helping her out.


    The 380 coins she kept were exchanged for 912 points and that night she used what was left in her account to buy a magic bag to carry with her into the mountains. With only a few dozen points left in her account, she tried not to waste any money at the caravan, only spending money when her friends, the guys from Fisher village, or one time Sho, wanted to spend time together.

 Chapter 11

    For the next month Shen studied the Balanced Elements book every chance she got. She continued with her businesses, as well as sparring with Po and the other child dragons, but what was in the book began to distract her. She did make use of it a few times to defeat Po, as she had plenty of Earth chi to cancel his water attacks, and even managed to use a bit of Wood chi to add a bit of extra power to her fire uppercut, which knocked him out.


    She studied little else during this time, though Sho did make sure she could reliably use the shifting technique. Shen was only able to change her hair, eye, and skin color, but for now it was enough. The rest of the time she spent practicing what was in the book.


    Shortly after her twelfth birthday she discovered something. The large number of Water Blossoms which Fisher couldn¡¯t pickle due to a lack of supplies allowed her to have an easy source of water chi, which she could use to refine wood chi. Only the largest of the buds contained pure enough chi to improve its purity, at just over five percent, but it did allow her to create a large quantity of wood chi at around three and a half percent which could be purified later, only needing to use the abundant water chi to enhance the wood chi she gathered from the plants in the forest.


    Her life was disrupted, however, when the major life event occurred which made her officially a woman. Thankfully she had been told of this by some of the other women in the sect, as they knew she was approaching that age, so when it happened she went to Wuxan to talk to her about it. After being assured that there was nothing about her bloodline which would make this occurrence unusual, she left. She took the next few days off from going to the dragon village, telling Mae the truth about what was happening, but telling the boys that she was simply going to spend the next several days in cultivation. She had plenty of water and Water Blossoms in her room, and could go to the bathroom down the hall when she needed to, so for three days she spent her time eating Water Blossoms instead of normal food and purifying her various types of Chi.


    First she lit many candles around her and drew in the Fire chi, purifying it as she drew it out, then focusing on the concept to get it up to 7% purity. Once she had so much Fire chi inside of herself that she felt hot and started sweating from having too much, she put out the candles and started meditating again. This time she used the Fire chi to purify the Earth chi. It took her over a day to get the Earth chi to 7%, by which point the Fire chi she was bringing in was at 7.1% purity. She then used the Earth chi to purify the Metal Chi, refilled the Earth chi, and then refilled her Fire chi.


    She soon realized that this would require larger and larger quantities of fire chi as she completed the circle, but she was running out of candles, having depleted her contribution points to get them. After three days of meditation her symptoms were all but gone, so she took a shower and left for dining hall, as it was now night. She told her friends of her progress in purifying chi, and that she wanted to find a larger and cheaper source of fire chi so that she could continue her meditation. The boys suggested a bonfire. They could disguise it as an exercise for the fire aligned outer disciples and would likely get permission to do it as long as she played along. Shen wasn¡¯t a fan of the plan, however, as it would still leave her with the same problem as before. She would need huge amounts of Fire chi to complete the circuit, and likely an entire bonfire for herself to fill dantians to their limit. Even then, she would want to go even further to expand that level as well, and might take years expanding it, as the process of expanding it was slow. After all, while she would have to get a job at thirteen she could remain at the Gathering phase as long as she wanted to. She only needed to reach Foundation and be automatically promoted to Inner Disciple if she wanted to be able to pay rent in contribution points and take major missions with the sect.


    That night she dreamed of the layout of the city and when she woke up she had an idea. What if, instead of purifying all of the elements on her own, she could do like the immortals did when building the city and build a formation to gather and purify the energy itself? She would then only need to sit in the middle of the formation to gather the elemental chi.


    That, however, sounded like it would be expensive, so she bathed, got dressed, and left for the dragon village. Now that she had a magic bag she was able to carry five jars with her every time she went there, so, assuming there were enough jars in Fisher, she could earn the money that she needed by just going to the village like normal.


    When she arrived she privately met with Sho to explain while she had missed several days of practice. While Sho had studied humans enough that she understood the situation, almost to the point that she was obsessed with humans, she knew that the other dragons wouldn¡¯t understand. After all, that wasn¡¯t an issue for dragon women, so they wouldn¡¯t know how to deal with it or be discrete about it. Shen informed her what she had told the boys and Sho decided that would be the excuse that they would use. Many dragons went into closed door cultivation, sometimes for months or years, so none of them would question Shen doing the same.


    Shen returned to her routine and, for the next several months she continued with her trade and practice, saving up her money as she thought about the idea of using a Formation to gather chi. The only thing that really changed was that every month, around the same phase of the moon as the last time, she would take at least one day off to go into closed door cultivation. And strangely, for a day or two before that and a day or two after she returned, all of the adult male dragons treated her nicer than normal. She asked Do about it, but he didn¡¯t know why it was happening. Sho seemed to know, but refused to talk about it, claiming that she need to ¡®do some research¡¯ before she could be sure.


    Soon Shen had enough money to start considering the idea of a formation, so one day she went to a shop in the water district. This shop specialized in Formations and arrays. She knew that the Jade Dragon Sect treated them differently than the other sects in the area. In most sects the disciples collected relics, including formations, arrays, and talismans, as well as all manner of magical devices, and used them to fight. In the Jade Dragon Sect, however, Teacher taught that they should learn to rely on their own strength, not the strength of an item. After all, items can be taken from you, but techniques and cultivation can¡¯t. While the last part wasn¡¯t entirely accurate, it was certainly true that you wouldn¡¯t lose those things just from being kidnapped or robbed.


    In this sect, they only used such external aids if they were needed to do a job. As such, most of the products being offered were for emergency use, such as a single use barrier, or talismans which used rare techniques to produce an effect few people learned but many would require at some point. In essence, relics were being treated much like pills or elixirs.


    The man in charge looked to be in his forties, though Shen knew that he could be well over a hundred and still look like that if he cultivated to a higher level at a young age. After all, each time you advanced your aging rate was roughly cut in half, doubling the years you had left. He had many small scars all over his body and two burnt areas visible, one on his left forearm and one on the right cheek. Either he was an experienced warrior or he had many accidents while experimenting.


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    It would be rude to ask which it was, though, so Shen just walked up to the front counter, greeted him, and explained her idea. From what she understood, a formation could be made to mimic any technique if one knew how to design it properly. Her idea was to take in massive amounts of all five elements from large sources somewhere in the woods and use them to refine each other. She wasn¡¯t sure if she was going to use one element of higher purity to purify the others in a chain or if she should use the other method, using the four other elements to purify one of them to high purity. She would decide that after she had checked to see which would give her more and purer energy in the end.


    The Formation Master wasn¡¯t familiar with this technique, so he couldn¡¯t build the arrays himself, but he did give her some pointers and recommend some materials. First, he suggested that she do it away from the sect town. What she was planning was much more like what he had seen in other sects, and definitely wasn¡¯t creating emergency items. This technique would be used to directly produce high purity elemental chi which would be used in her cultivation attempt to reach Foundation stage, so it wouldn¡¯t be accepted by most of the people in the sect. The Formation Master didn¡¯t really care about that, however. The sects rules had held him back in his own study of Formations for decades, so now he would help her break, or at least bend, those rules.


    He sold her a book on the basics of formations and arrays and some special chalk which was made by compressing crushed burnt egg or sea shells and jade dust together. This chalk had enough chi conductivity to make most Cleansing and Gathering level formations. He then invited her in case she needed more supplies or had questions.


    For the next month she studied the Formation manual every day after her trip and practice. There were two basic methods for creating a formation. The first copied the chi pathways in the body, and therefore more accurately duplicated the abilities of a cultivator. It had the downside of being much weaker than the ability it was meant to duplicate, however, as the chalk she used was much less conductive than the chi pathways in her body. One could overcome this shortcoming by using more conductive, and therefore more expensive materials, but she didn¡¯t have the money for that.


    The second technique used techniques similar to talisman creation or imbuing a concept onto chi. There were certain symbols which humans resonated with on a fundamental level, like how they had an instinctive fear of reptiles or certain predator features. Through the study of and combination of these symbols one could create more complex effects like the concepts of the different elements, or health, or growth. That, combined with focusing on the symbols while imbuing them with chi would allow you to impart an effect onto the symbols which could be activated by adding chi. These had the advantage of power and efficiency, but the weakness of only being able to create simple effects.


    If one wanted to create a complex and powerful effect, like the shield which protected the Sect Town, one would need to combine the two, using chi conductive materials to connect the symbols in the correct way to reproduce the desired effect. To learn how to connect them properly could take years if one started from the bottom up, and then they are unlikely to be the best they can be. Because of this, most formations which are used will be written down in a book so that the student can simply duplicate what the master did and hopefully, eventually, modify it to improve its performance slightly. Books of these Formations can be found in most sects, and the one which protects the city is such a formation, but they aren¡¯t very common in the Jade Dragon sect for the simple reason that they don¡¯t fit with the Sect¡¯s teachings.


    By the end of the month she had set up a healing Formation within her quarters which she would use whenever Mae wasn¡¯t available, but she couldn¡¯t go any further in her studies. The Caravan would be coming in one month, however, so she would have to search through what they had available to see if they had any more information on formations.


    This time, when they arrived, she earned over a thousand contribution points by selling water blossoms to the caravan, over 420 gold coins. When she went to purchase techniques from them, however, she ran into a slight issue. The cultivator that was selling the best techniques only accepted spirit stones as payment. She hadn¡¯t bothered practicing the technique to produce them, so she didn¡¯t know where to get them. She asked around and eventually found that the sect sold them in exchange for contribution points. Five points got you one low grade stone. Above that quality you paid more contribution points, multiplying the cost by ten. While they only contained five times the chi of the level below them, these stones were rarer and harder to condense, so someone who specialized in purifying spirit stones could profit by combining lower grade crystals into higher grade ones.


    The man that sold the book of basic Formations wanted one hundred low grade spirit stones for it. Five hundred points. Not wanting to alert Ponma to what she was doing, as he was one to always follow the rules, she couldn¡¯t negotiate the man down. She asked the Formation man about it and he agreed that it was expensive, as most sects would only charge seventy five or eighty stones, but that it would help her learn to do Formations. She thought about it for over a day before cashing in her points for one hundred stones and visiting the man, buying the book on the last day he was in town.


    This book proved to be well worth it. It contained arrays for gathering all of the five elements which were far more efficient than anything she had discovered so far. It even contained purification formations so that one could make the five elements purer. There were some minor bits missing from what she wanted to do, but she knew that this would drastically improve her abilities.


    She spent three hundred points from her profits on low quality Jade plates, a basic manual on stone carving from the Formation shop, and the tools to carve the Jade. The Jade the sect mined on this mountain was only good for up to Foundation grade relics and formations, but the five Masters had used large quantities of it to compensate for that when building the town, including using jade bricks without mortar to build the pathways when you would only need jade tiles if you used Nascent level materials. Purple Jade, the Nascent level type of Jade, was expensive and hard to find, however, so most people used green, the Cleansing quality version, blue, the Gathering quality version, or occasionally White, the Foundation level version. What Shen had bought were all green, the dark green kind that were usually overlooked for being too low quality for proper goods. They did, however, work perfectly well for making practice formations.


    When her thirteenth birthday arrived and she was required to find a job, she talked to the Formation master and handed him a stack of plates which contained the sample device she had been working on. Each one was a dark green jade tablet that either gathered a type of chi or concentrated it. She had carved the outside so that they would fit together in a pentagon shape, and in the middle sat a gathering tile where one could place a beast core. Though she hadn¡¯t been able to find one for sell, she had seen a few around the sect. They grew inside some Foundation or higher ranked spirit beasts, the more powerful ones being more likely to have them and having better quality cores. They had one interesting feature: they could store chi. You could put chi into them or remove it with little more effort than inserting it into and removing it from your own body.


    The Formation Master, who now introduced himself at Wei Chen, put the pieces together and, when he saw that it would slowly feed a balance of the five elements into a beast core that was placed in the middle of the formation, gladly accepted her as an apprentice. The only problem with that was that she couldn¡¯t demonstrate her skills for others. He ended up teaching her how to make single use talismans and how to engrave metal in order to make use of her skills and cover up what she preferred doing. She started spending most of her days putting the formations on flying swords that let them fly more efficiently than simply using telekinesis on them. This was one of the formations that almost all sects learned, and were over ten thousand years old, and therefore extremely efficient. She wasn¡¯t allowed to learn to make magic bags or storage rings yet, as they were quite expensive, but this level of sword was mass produced by the apprentices of the forgers in the Fire district, so they were cheap enough to practice on.


    Occasionally she would assemble her practice array, set an object from each element on the correct element, and touch the center. This would give her 6% pure chi of all five elements at once. She had to carefully balance the quantity and quality of all of the elements when making the array, even having to remake several of the tiles in the attempt, but now she had succeeded in making a proof of concept device.

 Chapter 12

    Now that she had a job she had much less time to visit the Dragon village, but still made an effort to go there on every day she had off from work. She even occasionally used the excuse of ¡®testing the merchandise¡¯ to take one of the flying swords she had created and fly to the village. This was, of course, after she swung by Fisher to give them more vinegar and jars and take five of the filled jars with her. Ponma would also bring jars and vinegar to Fisher, but both of their businesses were kept separate, with their inventories only mixing when the caravan came to town, as they both sold to the same merchant and Ponma was negotiating for both of them.


    Whenever she went to the village she noticed the same strange behavior from the men, but tried to ignore it. She simply dropped off the jars, collected her payment, and returned to work. The only time she stayed and practiced her combat skills was when she had a day off, but, as an outer disciple, the sect required her to work seven days out of ten, so she didn¡¯t have many days on which she could do that.


    Around a week before the caravan arrived she was looking over the minor jobs on the job board the morning of her off day. The major jobs had received an urgent update last night, looking for a group to handle a bandit group that was attacking travelers. They wanted to make sure that the road was safe for those that visited on Caravan Day, so they had increased the reward, hoping that four or five Foundation level inner disciples would deal with them.


    Shen, however, wasn¡¯t high enough level to deal with them, especially by herself. Instead, she found a job she could do. Someone wanted to hire a person to walk their pet Ice Wolf. Spirit animals were more in tune with nature than normal animals, as they could sense the differences in the chi within the towns and the chi in the wild. This meant that they would slowly grow more agitated as they stayed in a town, and would eventually be driven almost insane if kept in a settlement and out of nature for too long. This man wanted someone to take his Ice Wolf on a walk through the woods, at least eight hours long, so that he could experience nature again before the winter got here and the wolf would have to stay inside for several months.


    After accepting the job, Shen took the job request to the inner city gate where she was let through. A few minute later she walked up to the man¡¯s front door and knocked. An old man opened the door. He looked to be as old as Teacher, if not older. ¡°Yes, Junior sister?¡± he said. ¡°What can I help you with?¡±


    ¡°Mr. Li?¡± Shen asked, and when he nodded she held up her copy of the job posting. ¡°I saw that you needed someone to walk your pet at the job board, and took the job.¡±


    Mr. Li looked at her few a few seconds. ¡°Peak Gathering, hm?¡± he said, then nodded. ¡°Good. Good. Shoom is late Gathering, and spirit beasts will only really listen to someone that is stronger than them.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m stronger. I favor fire spells, which his ice powers would easily beat. I just haven¡¯t broken through yet because my internal elemental balance is off.¡±


    Mr. Li smiled and shook his head. ¡°Oh, in an actual fight he might be able to beat you, then, but for spirit beasts power is about chi pressure. After all, until they reach Foundation and become intelligent, their own abilities are limited by the pressure of the chi within their dantians. Therefore, a spirit beast with a higher minor level, and therefore pressure, can suppress a spirit beast with a lower minor level, and therefore a lower pressure.¡± One technique which was rarely used by cultivators was the ability to force chi back into an opponent¡¯s body with higher pressure chi. Most people naturally figured out how to do it once they reached Chi Gathering, as it was a fairly basic way to use chi. Cultivators, however, rarely used it, as the Release ability they all learned at Cleansing stage taught all cultivators to increase their chi pressure. This meant that all cultivators knew how to defend against this, making using it on someone that wasn¡¯t far below you a waste of chi. If they were already far below you, you could already defeat them easily, making it situational at best.


    He let her into his house and showed her to a room where a large white dog with ice blue eyes laid on a cushion, surrounded by plants and various chew toys. Mr. Li grabbed a bracelet from a hanger on the wall and handed it to Shen. ¡°That is a contract bracelet.¡± he said. ¡°It makes you my agent, so that the servitude spell will recognize you and let you control him. You probably won¡¯t need it, but just in case he starts to act up it will help you.¡±


    Shen knew that since ancient times servitude contracts would be done in pairs, a servant tattoo on the servant and a master tattoo on the master. The bracelet would be linked to the master¡¯s tattoo, letting the wearer act as an overseer of the servants. Through the contract the master could use the magic inside of the tattoos to suppress the will of the servant, essentially mind controlling them into doing what the master wanted. This was fine against lesser beasts and low level spirit beasts, but once a spirit beast broke through to Foundation, they would be as intelligent as a small child, and such a contract would therefore fall under slavery laws. In Jade Dragon Sect Territory slavery was illegal. This meant that he would need to have the tattoos removed if Shoom managed to break through. Shen knew that some people would give their pets pills which would poison them to prevent such a breakthrough, but didn¡¯t know if Mr. Li was one of those people.


    ¡°Come on, Shoom.¡± said Mr. Li. ¡°This nice girl is going to take you for a walk.¡±


    Upon hearing this Shoom stood up and walked over to Shen, then licked her face. Shen was a bit surprised that he understood what his master wanted, but then realized that, as a late Gathering spirit animal his intelligence would be on par with a monkey or ape, and Shoom was well trained besides that.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t mind me asking, sir, why does he need to stay inside during the winter? Couldn¡¯t an Ice Wolf survive the cood weather?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes.¡± replied Mr. Li. ¡°He could survive even in a blizard, by I¡¯m too old to go out in the cold weather, so I can¡¯t do anything outside when it¡¯s cold. So, I¡¯m going to keep him inside with me most of the time.¡±


    Shen nodded, said goodbye and they left the house. It was early enough that they might be able to make it to the Dragon Village before lunch. On her way out of the city¡¯s inner ring, however, she met someone she hadn¡¯t seen in a few months. ¡°Sister Wuxan?¡± Shen asked, and Wuxan came over.


    ¡°Hello, Shen. I didn¡¯t expect to see you here. I assume you are taking Shoom on a walk for Mr. Li?¡± She knelt down and petted Shoom on the head.


    ¡°Yes. I was going to go for a walk all day anyway, so I decided I might as well take him with me.¡± Wuxan nodded, then stood, a slight look of sadness on here face. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± asked Shen, and Wuxan shook her head.


    ¡°I was just remembering something my grandmother told me. She used to be a spirit beast pet too, but when she reached Foundation, because slavery was legal in her master¡¯s country, he didn¡¯t release her. It wasn¡¯t until twenty years later, when she was almost Nascent, that he died when they were hunting monsters and she managed to escape, though she was badly wounded. She ended up in Red Lotus City where she met Grandfather. But that¡¯s a different story.¡± Red Lotus City was about two hundred li to the south, so they must have kept moving even after that. Wuxan wiped a tear from her eye. ¡°But I¡¯m sure Mr. Li won¡¯t treat Shoom like that. I¡¯ve never known him to mistreat anyone.¡±


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    Shen nodded. ¡°Yeah. He seemed really nice. Well, I¡¯ll talk to you later. The days are getting pretty short, so I need to get going if I¡¯m going to take him out of the city for a whole eight hours before nightfall.¡±


    Wuxan nodded and stood up. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll talk to you later.¡± she said, then continued on her way home.


    Two hours later Shen and Shoom entered the outskirts of the dragon village. Several parents ran over to greet her. She quickly took out the five jars of pickled water blossoms. Now that she knew the value of spirit stones she had started to accept a spirit stone per jar, but had also written down a list of every magical plant or animal part that the job board was looking for that was worth no more than seven points each. After all, with a spirit stone being worth five points, charging more than seven would mean taking advantage of these people.


    Soon she had received two spirit stones and seventeen contribution points worth of materials. That¡¯s when Sho walked over and noticed the numerous children playing with Shoom. ¡°So, you brought a friend?¡± asked Sho.


    ¡°Oh, yes. I hope that¡¯s okay. I took a job to walk him for his master, and wanted to come deliver these jars anyway. I can leave if you don¡¯t want him here anymore, though.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± said Cal, Sho¡¯s father, who Shen hadn¡¯t noticed standing there. ¡°Several times a year local spirit beasts will come with their families to trade with us. The adults can take human form, but the children aren¡¯t able to. Still, they like playing with the children, so we don¡¯t have an issue with it.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I didn¡¯t see you walk up.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I just heard that you had arrived and decided to come say hello. You don¡¯t happen to have any of those large blossoms, do you? They taste much better than the small ones. Much purer water chi, after all.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, no. I only brought small ones today, and already sold them all. I can bring you one next time if you want, though.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d love one. Is two spirit stones enough, or do you want materials? I have an herb garden with some herbs in it that are decades old. You could come by and look at them if you want.¡±


    This sounded a bit strange to Shen so she declined. ¡°No, two spirit stones will be enough.¡± His behavior reminded her it was the time of the month when all of the men in the village would start being nice to her for some reason. While the sect could use the better quality herbs, she wasn¡¯t comfortable enough around him to go to his house without Sho accompanying her.


    He nodded. ¡°In that case, I look forward to your return.¡± He nodded slightly and Shen did the same.


    He didn¡¯t leave, however, so Shen looked at Sho. ¡°So, do you think you could teach me some more illusion magic? I don¡¯t think I can do any actual shifting until I reach Foundation, but if I can expand on when I know with illusions¡­.¡±


    Sho nodded. ¡°Sure, lets go over here.¡± she said, pointing to an open part of the field. Sho spent the next hour teaching Shen how to alter people¡¯s perception of static objects, and Shen promised to practice more. The whole time they were talking Cal was watching them, so she wasn¡¯t comfortable staying any longer.


    She walked over to where Shoom was laying. Several small dragons were laying on or around him napping. Apparently they had played so hard that they wore themselves out. ¡°Come on, Shoom.¡± Shen whispered. ¡°We need to go.¡±


    Shoom opened his eyes, carefully dumped the child off of his back, and walked over to her. He was gentle enough that the child didn¡¯t wake up.


    ---


    Ten li from Farmer village a fat man in a straw hat and gray robe walked down the road wearing a massive backpack. To the casual observer he was just a poor traveling merchant, carrying his wares on his back as he moved between the cities.


    As he stepped between two large rocks, however, a group of men jumped out to block his path, six behind and seven in front. ¡°Hello.¡± he said, slightly bowing. ¡°How can I help you gentlemen?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re actually from the nearby sect, and are here to collect the toll for using this road.¡± said a man in a greasy yellow vest. ¡°Now, how about you hand us your backpack so we can see how much you owe?¡±


    The fat man smirked. ¡°Any reasonable toll would be a flat amount, not a percentage. Tell me how many spirit stones or gold coins I owe and prove which sect you are from and I will gladly pay. Assuming your fee seems reasonable.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think the human shaped dumpling understands, brother.¡± said the scarred young man beside the first. ¡°You¡¯ll pay whatever we ask, or you¡¯ll pay all of it. And maybe your life as well.¡±


    The fat man nodded and removed his backpack. The thirteen men smiled as he did so. ¡°Things must be getting bad for the sects if their outer disciples must act like brigands just for them to pay their bills.¡±


    The greasy man drew a curved sword from his back and the others copied him, drawing various weapons. ¡°How did you get to be a merchant if you are this stupid?¡± he asked the fat man. ¡°We obviously aren¡¯t from any sect, unless you count the Black Cougar Mountain Gang.¡±


    The fat man nodded. ¡°Then I don¡¯t risk offending anyone that matters by saying no.¡± With that a wave of chi flew out of him creating a wind which blew all of the dead leaves off of the trail around him.¡±


    ¡°So, you¡¯re a cultivator.¡± the greasy man said. Several of the men looked scared at facing a cultivator. They were hoping for a weak target they could push around. Who knew what a cultivator might send against them?


    ¡°We can take him, boss.¡± said the scarred young man. ¡°He¡¯s only middle Gathering. You¡¯re Late, and several of us are early.¡±


    To this suggestion the greasy boss smiled. ¡°Sounds like a plan. Let¡¯s go, boys.¡± With that the thirteen men charged him. Before they could reach him, however, the wave of chi developed lightning within itself and another wave flew out from the man. Several of the bandits collapsed on the spot with lightning burns on them from the impact, and several more were knocked down. The boss seemed to be the only one to withstand it.


    ¡°Damn you.¡± he screamed as he charged the fat man and swung.


    The merchant merely stepped to the side while placing his hand on the boss¡¯s chest. ¡°I hope you live a proper life the next time around.¡± he said, and a massive bolt of lightning flew from hit hand, throwing the bandit backwards and into one of the giant rocks on the side of the road. The fist sized smoking hole through his chest assured the few of his men that were able to stand that he was no longer alive.


    The fat merchant looked around at the bandits. ¡°What was it that your brother said? I had to give them anything they wanted of mine or they would take everything and maybe my life too? I think I¡¯ll offer you the same deal.¡± One of the bandits was angered by this reversal and charged, sword raised in the air. Before he could swing it down however, a sword rapidly enlarged in the merchants hand and he thrust it through the man¡¯s chest. ¡°It seems some of you went for the second option. There are four of you left standing. What will you choose?¡± He withdrew the sword and the newly killed bandit collapsed. The merchant flicked the sword, flinging the blood onto two of the surviving bandits, then it shrunk and reentered his ring.


    Ten minutes later four bandits kowtowed once more before getting up and leaving with their clothes and a few days worth of rations, including one canteen each. The Merchant stood and looked at the pile of loot beside him. These bandits weren¡¯t particularly poor, and even had a magic bag and a few herbs he could sell to the sect. This attack had made him even richer. He waved his hand at the pile and the items in it started to shrink and fly into his ring. This should be enough for him to enjoy himself as well as paying for another month of travel. Hopefully the sect would have a brothel where he could relax. Even if they didn¡¯t, they would surely have a nice restaurant.


    The merchant continued on his way and soon found himself entering a village which called itself Farmer. Apparently, it was a farming village staffed by the outer sect members of the sect, and was responsible for providing most of the food and herbs for the sect. After eating his fill at the village, the merchant left a spirit stone on the table, tipping the owner more than the large meal had cost, then made his way to what they called the White Jade Road.


    A path wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side wound its way up the mountain to where a moderate sized city sat, the presumed sect town. This road was paved with bricks of white jade, each brick being worth at least a spirit stone. As he stepped onto the road, however, the merchant immediately understood why they had built such an expensive road. Wood energy from the surrounding fields flew into the road and up the mountain. There were even arrays between some of the fields to help gather this chi.


    As he walked up the mountain he noticed that from a side path a stream of metal chi joined the wood chi as the road divided into two lanes. Another quarter of the path later, and a stream of earth chi joined the other two, turning the road into three strips of jade bricks. As he approached the gate he noticed the three paths split and go along the outer wall to three different walls which lead to the center of the city. ¡®Interesting¡¯ he thought. ¡®Someone was smart enough to build a defensive array here. They might survive the coming battle.¡¯


    The Wood line split from the other two and went clockwise around the city, with the Metal line leading directly to the wall and the Earth line leading a bit counter-clockwise to its inner spoke wall. He followed the Wood line, which maintained the full width of the road, until it crossed over a second line which joined the inside of the curve, then reached a large gate. This second line was full of water chi, and connected to the water spoke wall of the city.


    As he made it to the gate two middle aged guards raised their hands. They both seemed to be in the late Foundation stage. ¡°Halt.¡± said the one on the left. ¡°This town is home to the Jade Dragon Sect. State your business.¡±


    ¡°My name is Quan Xiu. I am a traveling talismonger. I was hoping to offer my wares to the people of your sect.¡±


    The two guards looked at each other before nodding. ¡°Fine, you may enter.¡± said the one on the left. ¡°I assume you are here for Caravan Day, but that¡¯s a week from now. Just know that there are some rules you¡¯ll need to follow. The main one is that no one who isn¡¯t a member of the sect is allowed in the inner city without an Elder escorting them, and they only escort people for important business. Most of the business with outsiders is done in the Water district, which this gate leads into. You¡¯ll have to rent a room in one of the inns, but they aren¡¯t that expensive. The cheapest is only a gold per night.¡±


    The merchant knew that in most mortal settlements you could get a decent room for a silver per night, so this was twenty times as expensive. Still, it was much easier to make money in a sect town, so things tended to cost more. ¡°Thank you for the advise, sir.¡± said the merchant, cupping his hand and bowing. ¡°I will stay in the outer city, then.¡± With that the guards stepped aside and let him enter the city.

 Chapter 13

    As the sun set Shen reentered the city through the Wood district gate. While much smaller than the main Water and Fire gates, the road from it lead directly to Fisher. She had left the city plenty of times, so the guards recognized her and waved her through.


    She quickly made her way to the inner city, as she wasn¡¯t allowed in that section after dark, and went to Mr. Li¡¯s house, returning Shoom and the bracelet and getting the job page sighed. She ran back to the gate to the outer city, being warned that she was running late by the guards, and returned to the job board to turn in the job and get paid. She scanned her bracelet to receive the five contribution points and went to get something to eat.


    At the cafeteria her friends were talking. ¡°Did you hear, Shen?¡± asked Mae after Shen got her food.


    ¡°About what?¡± asked Shen as she lifted some kind of grilled spirit vegetable into her mouth.


    ¡°The bandits. A group of four inner disciple went to hunt them down only to find nine corpses that had been stripped of all of their stuff. Someone had used lightning magic to kill them all, except for the one that was run through with a sword.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like they messed with a cultivator they couldn¡¯t handle.¡± said Shen, putting more food in her mouth.


    ¡°Sure,¡± said Ponma, ¡°But who? Anyone in the sect would have reported doing it for the contribution points.¡±


    ¡°Probably an independent cultivator, then.¡± said Danka. ¡°A few of them live on the nearby mountains. Of course, Shen knows all about that.¡± He looked at Shen.


    ¡°Why would I know about independent cultivators living near here?¡± she asked, puzzled.


    ¡°You¡¯ve been running off most days you didn¡¯t have to work for three years now, and someone¡¯s been training you. Otherwise you wouldn¡¯t be such a good fighter.¡± She was able to beat Danka six times out of ten, and Ponma nine times out of ten.


    ¡°You two are learning to fight too. You¡¯re learning some sword technique, right? And Ponma is learning some drunken monkey thing?¡±


    ¡°Steel Cleaving Style and Drunken Monkey style, yes. But we¡¯re being taught my the field master and bought a manual from the library so we could learn it. I¡¯ve never seen you with a manual, nor has Mae, who you live with. And you are learning some technique just as fast as us. That means that you¡¯re being taught, probably not by a sect member either, as no one has claimed to be your master, even though that would earn them more contribution points as a teacher.¡±


    They were getting too close to the truth, as Shen was technically being taught by a village of independent cultivators. ¡°Is it against the sect rules to be taught by one?¡±


    Danka shook his head. ¡°No, not if they are teaching a neutral or good Dao. From what I can tell, everything you have learned is neutral. Including that weird fighting style. What is it called again?¡±


    ¡°Way of the Dragon.¡± Shen said. Technically, the actual Way of the Dragon was a different 5000 year old style that, while based on the ways dragons fought, was altered to work better for humans. Her technique was the actual way taught by dragons, with a few minor modifications like using fists instead of claws and finger jabs instead of claw strikes. It was essentially a different offshoot from the same base.


    ¡°Really?¡± said Danka. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of it, but didn¡¯t realize that was what you were using. It¡¯s a first rate fighting technique favored by some mercenaries.¡±


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± asked Mae.


    Danka looked a bit surprised, then steadied himself. ¡°Oh, I heard some of the mercenaries talking about it last Caravan Day.¡±


    Danka finished eating and got up to take his dishes to the kitchen. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to head out. I¡¯ve got tomorrow off, but I¡¯ll probably be gone all day, so I¡¯ll see you guys tomorrow night.¡±


    After that the group finished eating and went home. Shen spent a few hours balancing the elements inside her dantian before climbing into bed and going to sleep. While she had managed to get the earth and metal elements above seven percent to balance out the fire element, the water was still below five and the wood was still below four percent. It would probably take her a few weeks or a month to get them all above seven percent, at which point she would be comfortable advancing to Foundation.


    Each layer of the dantian would refill with the same type of chi that was in the shell that surrounded it, so if she wanted it to fill with good quality chi she needed to fill it with such chi before she built the shell. She didn¡¯t know as many techniques as the other disciples did when they were advancing, nor did she have the amount of practice of most of them, but advancing would allow her to work and train as she liked, rather than be stuck in a job. She didn¡¯t mind the job exactly, as she wanted to learn about relic creation, but sitting at a table making the same items dozens of times was boring. She wanted some variety, and walking through the woods and sparring with others would give her that variety.


    The next day she was sitting behind a work desk engraving a sword when a fat man in a straw hat entered. The master behind the counter greeted him. ¡°I am Wei Chen, owner of this relic store. How can I help you sir?¡±


    The fat man bowed. ¡°I am Quan Xiu. I am a traveling Talismonger. I am hoping to sell some of my wares here.¡± He sat a box on the table in front of Wei Chen.


    Wei Chen opened it and noticed that there were twenty stacks of neatly wrapped talismans inside. Upon opening a few he found that each pack contained twenty identical talismans. ¡°These all seem to be either rarer Cleansing stage or common Gathering stage talismans. How much do you want for them?¡±


    ¡°I was hoping to get one spirit stone each.¡±


    Wei Chen thought about it for a few seconds. That was normally what he would charge for a Cleansing stage talisman, but, as these were rare effects he could probably charge more. The Gathering stage ones would earn him a descent profit either way. He touched the top one on a stack and put enough chi into it to make the writing glow slightly. ¡°Do you mind if I do some tests on them?¡± he asked. ¡°I won¡¯t actually use them, but I need to verify the quality.¡±


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    ¡°As long as you pay for them, I don¡¯t mind if you use them.¡± replied Quan Xiu, and Wei Chen nodded before taking them into the back of the store to test them.


    After Wei Chen walked away Quan Xiu noticed Shen engraving a sword. ¡°Fire Flying sword?¡± he asked, and Shen nodded.


    ¡°I apologize for not bowing,¡± she said while concentrating on her work. ¡°But I must complete four of these swords before I can leave, and if I make a mistake at this time it will ruin the enchantment. So I can¡¯t give you my full attention.¡±


    Quan Xiu smiled. ¡°I understand. My master used to give me similar tasks, and some of them can have worse effects than simply a broken enchantment if you make a mistake.¡± Shen nodded and continued.


    A few minutes later she put down her engraving tool and took a few seconds to breathe. After relaxing she motioned to the sword, injecting a bit of fire chi into it and it floated off the table. She moved her fingers around, making it circle the room a few times then spin in place for a few seconds before she pointed at the weapon rack and it flew over, slotting itself into one of the slots.


    She stood up. ¡°Apologies, sir, my name is Mo Shen.¡± she said, with a bow.


    Quan Xiu nodded. ¡°Not bad craftsmanship.¡± he said, pointing at the sword. ¡°Have you been his apprentice for long?¡±


    ¡°Only a few months, sir. But I made a few relics before joining him to prove my skill.¡±


    The man then noticed the jade tablets she was standing on. ¡°Is that one of them?¡± he said, pointing.


    Shen nodded. ¡°I made this to collect ambient fire chi and purify it so that it can be absorbed by a person. I have one for each of the five elements. It fact, I need to start this one before I make the next sword, if you¡¯ll allow it.¡± Quan Xiu nodded and Shen went over to a shelf to get a large candle. She sat it on the gathering part of the array before lighting it with a spark from her finger.


    ¡°Six percent?¡± asked Quan Xiu, feeling the chi leaking from the device. ¡°Not bad. That makes it a proper Gathering stage device.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Once I get to Foundation I will build a new one for that stage, and hopefully increase the output rate, but for now this is good enough.¡± She grabbed a sword from a crate, laid it on the table, and sat down on the array to begin absorbing the chi.


    ¡°You can¡¯t expect much more out of such low grade jade.¡± Quan Xiu agreed. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind my asking, why do you need to make so many elemental flying swords? Does your sect have such a high demand?¡±


    Shen shook her head. ¡°The master sales them to the Caravan merchants that come through every year. It¡¯s hard to find a relic crafter that can make a proper elemental sword outside the sects which specialize in elemental chi, so there is always a large demand for them. Tomorrow I will be making Earth swords, then Metal the next day, then Water, the Wood. Master usually makes them himself, but he only has so much time and chi available to do so.¡±


    Each element of flying sword had its own benefits besides being able to channel spells of the same element through them. Fire swords could be given additional fire chi to increase their flight speed, and were generally faster than any other element when doing so, but used more chi. Water swords and Earth swords were similar, in that they would fly faster when near their element, drawing in the chi from the element. This meant that water swords were faster over water and Earth swords were faster over the ground, though the closeness of flight needed for the extra speed made many people weary of using an Earth sword. Metal swords were far more durable, and could be given metal chi to increase that durability even more. Wood swords were less durable, as they needed to be made of wood to have the greatest effect, but they improved the health of the holder, letting them heal faster and letting them regenerate chi faster. This fact meant that many cultivators would wear a Wood flying sword anywhere they went, even if they didn¡¯t specialize in the Wood element or know how to fight with a sword.


    As they finished speaking Wei Chen walked back to the front of the store. ¡°All of these seem to be of high quality. Tell me, can you get more of them? I might want to buy more of some of them.¡±


    ¡°All of the ones in that box are ones I can make myself.¡± answered Quan Xiu. ¡°I have several others that I cannot make, however, and would be willing to sell you for a higher price.¡±


    Wei Chen nodded and they started negotiating as Shen started work on the next sword. Thirty minutes later Quan Xiu had an order for another six hundred talismans, leaving the four hundred he brought with him behind and receiving five hundred spirit stones as an advanced payment.


    Shen finished the last sword just before sunset, then got up and stretched. ¡°Good,¡± said Wei Chen. ¡°Tomorrow you can start on the Earth swords. Four should be enough. Once you are done with all of the different elements, however, you can make any that you want until the Caravan leaves. They¡¯ll buy all of them, but I wanted to make sure you can make all types before letting you choose.¡± Shen nodded, collected her three contribution points of pay, and left. She technically earned four per day, but the basic living space she had been given cost her one of those. Of course, she couldn¡¯t actually pay with contribution points until she was an inner disciple, due to sect rules, so the shop paid for her out of her pay.


    She wasn¡¯t particularly hungry, so she decided to go for a walk before she went to eat. She headed out the Wood gate and started making her way towards Fisher. About a li down the road she heard what sounded like powerful sword swings off the main road. Shen stepped off the path and walked a few dozen meters until she came across a clearing.


    In front of her stood a shirtless Danka. He held a metal sword in front of himself and stood there with his eyes closed. After a few seconds Shen was about to say something when she felt a strange type of chi gather around the blade. Once the blade was completely covered in the chi he swung it and energy flew from the blade, flying in a straight line and hitting a group of saplings. The trees swayed a bit and a few tiny branches and leave fell off, but that was all that happened.


    Danka sighed in disappointment and lowered his sword. ¡°What was that?¡± asked Shen and he spun around in surprise.


    ¡°Shen? What are you doing here?¡± he asked, acting as if he had gotten caught stealing.


    ¡°I was on my way to Fisher when I heard you practicing. That was an interesting technique but I don¡¯t think you¡¯ve learned it quite yet.¡±


    Danka sighed again. ¡°I know. No matter how much I try I can¡¯t get it work, as it breaks apart too quickly.¡±


    ¡°Is it a matter of chi purity?¡± Shen asked and he gave her a confused look. ¡°Well, when I was learning fire spells I noticed that the bolts don¡¯t really explode until the fire chi is at least five percent pure. Maybe it¡¯s similar. Maybe the chi only stays together above a certain purity.¡±


    Danka thought for a few seconds, then nodded. It waas Sword chi, after all, which was based on the concept of Severance, so the energy itself breaking apart made a lot of sense. ¡°Maybe. I¡¯ll try that.¡± He walked over to a stump and picked up his shirt to put it back on. ¡°I¡¯m out of chi for now, though, so I¡¯m heading back to town.¡±


    Shen nodded and decided that, instead of continuing to Fisher, she would return to town with Danka. An hour later they sat down at a table, and a few minutes later Mae and Ponma joined them. ¡°So, anyone do anything fun today?¡± asked Ponma. ¡°I spent all day hauling jars of vinegar up to Fisher so I could maximize production before the Caravan arrived. It might be profitable, but it was super boring.¡±


    ¡°Sword practice.¡± said Danka, not adding anything else.


    ¡°I made four Fire flying swords.¡± said Shen, sounding bored.


    ¡°Well, I got to start making pills today.¡± said Mae, seeming excited. ¡°I did all of the prep work yesterday and today they let me fire up the pill furnace and start baking them. I only got one success, but I am just learning.¡± She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pill. From the chi they could sense coming out of it, it was a basic cleansing pill for removing toxins. For anyone that was out of the cleansing stage it was basically worthless unless they were poisoned or forced to eat toxic food, but it might be worth something to the Caravan or the younger sect members who weren¡¯t at Gathering yet.


    They all congratulated Mae and talked about the upcoming Caravan until they were done eating, then went home.


    ---


    A few hours earlier a certain fat merchant was sitting in a restaurant in town, enjoying a cup of tea while watching the people pass by when he happened to see someone in red sect elder clothing walking by. ¡°Sir Elder.¡± he said, walking over to the man.


    ¡°Ah, a merchant.¡± said the Elder. While the caravan was in town many merchants would try to talk to the sect elders in order to try and negotiate trade deals. As the elder in charge of the weapons sales of the Fire district he was one of the more common elders they wanted to talk to. This just happened a few days earlier than he expected. ¡°Let me guess, you want to discuss business.¡±


    ¡°In a way, sir.¡± said the merchant, bowing. ¡°Quan Xiu, talismonger.¡±


    ¡°Talismonger?¡± the elder responded before remembering to introduce himself. ¡°Chen Ming. We don¡¯t actually have much use for Talismans in the forges. Maybe a few fire resistance ones in the smelting area, but the apprentices tend to learn that trick pretty quickly.¡±


    ¡°I understand, sir. But in this situation I am needing to deliver a message.¡± A scroll popped out of his ring and he handed it to the elder.


    The Elder unrolled the scroll and looked at it before a look of concern appeared on his face. He quickly closed the scroll and put it in his ring. ¡°Are you certain of this?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately yes, I witnessed it myself. But I don¡¯t think this is the place to discuss it.¡±


    Chen Ming nodded. ¡°True. Follow me.¡± He quickly made his way towards the inner city, the merchant having to rush at first to catch up with him. He didn¡¯t stop there, however, and soon was at the core area of the city. There he talked to the guards and requested an audience with the sect master. They were let inside to a waiting room and he handed the scroll to one of the guards who left to take it to the Master.


    A few minutes later they were brought into a room where many elders sat on cushions, with a much more powerful man sitting in the middle of their arch. This was Master Xing, the immortal leader of the sect. ¡°Merchant messenger.¡± he said in a steady voice which didn¡¯t betray the concern within him, ¡°Can you verify what this scroll says?¡±


    Quan Xiu knelt on the ground. ¡°Yes, master. The Demons are advancing. At their current rate they will be at your sect in about three years.¡±

 Chapter 14

    For the next several days the four friends continued their jobs, preparing for Caravan Day. Danka, as part of the town guard, was on patrol with one of the inner disciples. Ponma, not having accepted a job yet as he was still twelve for a few months and therefore didn¡¯t have to get a job, carried all of the jars and vinegar he could to Fisher, having purchased several magic bags with his profits from the last Caravan Day and his other business ventures. Mae got much better at pill refinement, only losing a batch of cleansing pills occasionally and being given permission to make healing pills. Shen continued to make flying swords, making Wood and Water swords when she had made enough of the others so that she could get more practice with those elements. Master would get ten gold per sword from the caravan merchants for a sword of that quality, the equivalent of twenty four contribution points, so he sold her one of her Wood swords for twenty points and she started wearing it. She would have to remember to tell her friends about this so that they could buy their own, even if they would have to pay full price.


    Now that she had her own flying sword she was able to fly to Fisher to resupply them and to Dragon Village to deliver the jars to them after work. She would have one of the Caravan days off, but she used her two days off during the time building up to it to move as much merchandise as possible. She was able to move faster than Ponma, as the sword didn¡¯t need to follow the path and flew twice as fast as he could walk, but he was able to do much more business as he had every day to work on it and didn¡¯t need to travel several li to meet her customers.


    Still, she managed to sell thirty jars to the village for a total of twenty eight spirit stones and several magical ingredients. She wasn¡¯t making much profit from these sells, as it cost her almost five contribution points for the materials and labor to produce them, but she was earning a lot of good will with the people she hired and sold to, which might be much more valuable.


    There would be two fighting competitions being held during Caravan Days, one for the outer disciples and one for the inner, so Shen, Danka, and Ponma all signed up for the Outer disciple competition. The reward for first place was a Beast Core from a middle foundation Burnt Fox, so all of them could benefit from owning it, if for no other reason than that it would let them store far more chi. Though the fact that it came from a Fire elemental spirit beast would mean that it could store more Fire chi than neutral chi, and wouldn¡¯t be damaged by an elemental imbalance which favored Fire. This is why Shen wanted it, as she favored Fire.


    The day the Caravan arrived her master closed the store. He always took the first day of the festival off anyway, and would only need to visit the store to sell the various goods he had produced for resale. Shen only had one thing to do at work before she left for the rest of the day. She gave Master Chen another twenty contribution points and took one of the fire swords she had carved earlier that week. The competition for the outer disciples would be starting at noon, and she wanted a proper weapon for it.


    For two days this week she had been practicing with the sword in the dragon village and, while she knew that she wasn¡¯t the best with it, she was at least passable. While she was currently better at hand-to-hand combat, she couldn¡¯t rely on that in a proper competition, as without a weapon she would be forced to use her own arms to block blows. This would quickly deplete her chi reserves if she relied on Dragon Scales to block the damage, or would damage her if she didn¡¯t. Thus, she purchased a weapon which, while not of the best quality, would be good enough to get her through the competition.


    She bought some food from one of the stands there and glanced at the merchandise the caravan had for sell before heading to the fire section of the city where the tournament would occur. There were a few interesting things available, and she considered buying a few minor relics like jewelry or clothing with special effects, but she decided against it for now. They wanted five spirit stones for even a basic self-cleaning robe, and ten if you wanted it to be self repairing as well. While she had more than enough money, if she was going to spend that much she wanted something nicer than basic robes.


    The field master called for the attention of all of the participants and instructed them on how the fights would work. Each participant would draw a number from a box, and tell the field master what number they drew. They would have to fight the person with the matching number from their bracket, which would be listed on a board beside the field. If the other person lost consciousness, left the field, or surrendered, you won the match. The winner of each match would then face the winner of the neighboring bracket in the next match. As sixty outer disciples signed up for the match, the numbers sixty one through sixty four were removed from the box, so the last four were removed from the chart, and whoever one the brackets before them would have a slightly easier time.


    Everyone took turns drawing. Shen was number eight, so she would go near the beginning. Her opponent was one of the many sword fighters that trained here, a child of two sect members, so she would be fine using her sword for the fight, as he also had a metal sword, though a non-relic one.


    After the first three matches she made her way onto the stage. Elevated seats had been set up at the side of the field so that people could watch the fights, as the bets was one of the main reasons the tournament was held now besides just testing the recruits later. Even with all of the seats there were still dozens of people sitting or standing on flying relics, where they could get a better view. ¡°Do your best, Shen!¡± a woman called from one of the relics. Shen looked up and saw Sho, Do, and Cal sitting in a small flying boat. Cal had shown no interest in visiting the sect before, so she wondered why he was here. In fact, he had even scolded his daughter for visiting three years ago. What could have changed?


    The field master got Shen¡¯s attention and started the match. The other boy ran at her and swung, but thanks to her hand-to-hand training she was able to dodge his blow. He kept swinging, not wanting to give her a break, but she was able to dodge most of the blows, only having to parry two of his blows that got too close. After a minute his movements became sluggish as he ran out of energy. He had apparently been using Release during every blow to speed them up and didn¡¯t have the chi reserves to maintain it for more than sixty or seventy swings. Shen had taken several steps backwards while dodging, however, so they were now at the edge of the field. He swung again and she parried his blade into the stone platform beneath them and brought her leg up to kick him in the ribs. He fell over, dropping his sword, and rolled a few times before falling out of the ring. Luckily it was only half a meter above the dirt outside so the fall didn¡¯t hurt him.


    ¡°Winner Shen!¡± the announcer called and several people cheered, including the three in the boat. Shen left the stage and the matches continued, though she didn¡¯t pay attention to them, choosing instead to cultivate to restore the small amount of energy she had used during the fight. An hour later someone told her that she was next. Contestant number six had won his match, so she would be fighting him next. After hearing the crowd cheer for the fighters she made her way outside as a bruised fighter left the field.


    Contestant number six was a larger, muscular boy, maybe sixteen years old. He had been stuck at Outer Disciple for many years as he was unable to break though the Foundation bottle neck, and he liked to take his frustrations at this fact out on the younger disciples. ¡°Begin¡± the field master called and he ran at Shen swinging.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    His sword was a Metal flying sword. While it was only a low grade one like Shen had, he was able to put far more strength behind it than number seven had, even without using Release. He was also more skilled and Shen was forced to work much harder to dodge and parry his blows, even getting hit a few times and having to rely on her Dragon Scales to avoid actual damage. She knew that if she continued to fight like this she would run out of chi before him, as Dragon Scales required too much chi with her current level of skill, so she threw her sword on the ground, jumped on it, and flew off the field. He did the same and started chasing her, and she responded with bursts of fire directed at him. Because she hadn¡¯t practiced attacking while also flying, however, her attacks were weaker than normal, so they only annoyed him.


    He managed to close the distance and started swinging at her with his fists. Shen was able to dodge or block him due to her training, but he was far stronger than her so he didn¡¯t need to expend chi to fight like this, while she did. Knowing that this would deplete her reserves even faster, she would have to end this quickly. She flew slightly further away so that he would have to lean over slightly to hit her, then let her sword fall by a meter. As he tried to right himself she drew her wooden sword and hit him in the shins, using Release to make sure that it hurt.


    When he flinched from the pain he lost his balance and fell off of the sword, falling five meters before hitting the stone. There was a crack as he impacted the stone and he lost consciousness, his sword falling beside him a second later as it could no longer receive orders from an unconscious person. ¡°Winner, Shen.¡± said the field master and even more people cheered this time.


    Shen left the field, and knowing that she wouldn¡¯t have a fight for a little while made her way to the bathroom. There was something damp between her legs and it would be quite embarrassing if she wet herself during the competition. When she got there, however, she realized that she hadn¡¯t done so. ¡®Blood?¡¯ she thought. She hadn¡¯t been hit hard enough to even be bruised during the match thanks to Dragon Scales, much less get seriously injured. It only took her a minute to realize that, during the rush to prepare for Caravan Day, she had lost track of the lunar cycle.


    She quickly went to her quarters to clean herself, used the bathroom, and ran back to the field. Her situation might distract her from the fight, but she wouldn¡¯t let it take the victory from her. When she arrived and realized that she still had some time she sat down and started cultivating. She had used a lot of chi in that last fight, especially Fire Chi, so she needed to replenish them. She barely managed to do so before number fifty eight and fifty four entered the field, and she was informed that her fight would be next.


    She got up and walked to the exit onto the field, where she found Ponma standing. ¡°You watching the fight?¡± She asked him.


    ¡°Actually I¡¯m waiting for my next fight.¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m contestant number one.¡±


    Shen knew that she would likely face him in this contest, but wasn¡¯t expecting to have to do so so soon. ¡°Oh, well, I¡¯m number eight, so I guess you¡¯ll have to face me.¡± she said.


    Ponma nodded. ¡°Well, I guess I¡¯ll have to try my hardest this time. My last two opponents were too easy.¡±


    ¡°My first was pretty easy, but the second wasn¡¯t bad.¡± she said, making small talk. A cheer came from the field as number fifty four held his spear in the air in celebration and two outer disciples from the medical division ran over to lift his opponent onto the stretcher. ¡°Hey, look, it¡¯s Mae.¡± Shen hadn¡¯t noticed at first, but Mae was lifting the man¡¯s legs to put him on the stretcher so that she could help carry him to the clinic.


    ¡°I guess as an apprentice alchemist she does qualify as one of the medics.¡± Shen responded, and Ponma nodded. Neither of them greeted her as she ran by because they didn¡¯t want to disturb her, but Shen could tell that she was using Release in order to keep up with the other healer.


    The next match was called and the two of them went onto the field, Ponma going to the left and Shen to the right. The field master started the match and both of them opened with a spell. The two spells collided in the middle of the field, but because water chi had a natural advantage over fire, it wasn¡¯t completely destroyed, continuing to splash harmlessly against Shen before dissipating. Chi based attacks like these didn¡¯t really contain the element, but merely behaved as the element, so Shen¡¯s clothes were dry after the attack dissipated. The one exception to that was fire, which heated the air enough that it could actually catch things on fire, and technically did contain a small bit of super-heated air, which was essentially fire.


    They continued to throw weak attacks at each other until the constant splashes distracted Shen enough for Ponma to try something bigger. ¡°Ice blade¡± he called, and a crescent shaped blade of ice shot from his hand. Shen noticed too late to dodge and was only able to bring up her arms in time to activate Dragon Scales and block the attack. It still had enough force to push her backwards by several meters, putting her only three meters from the edge of the field.


    Ponma took the opportunity to ran at her and jump, tackling her to the ground. His own melee style was also a hand-to-hand type focusing on dodges and grapples, so he was able to pin her to the ground and wrap his legs around her throat in an attempt to choke her out. Shen realized what he was doing and, instead of fighting him, released all of the Fire Chi she had stored up in a burst, catching his clothes on fire. She had gotten used to running out of each of the elements while carving flying swords, so she was largely unaffected by the imbalance. He released her to try and put the fire out, and she immediately jumped up and grabbed the back of his shirt, throwing him hard enough that he slid off the edge of the field.


    The crowd was surprised by this turn of events, but started cheering just as the field master declared her the winner. She jumped off the side of the platform and helped Ponma up, making sure that he was no longer on fire. ¡°Sorry about that.¡± she said. ¡°You almost beat me and that was the first solution that popped into my head.


    Ponma laughed. ¡°It¡¯s ok. You surprised me and managed to take advantage of that to win, so you deserved the victory. I¡¯ll have to practice wrapping a layer of water chi around myself so that doesn¡¯t happen again.¡±


    They returned to the waiting room where defeated contestants were allowed to go and watch the matches. They saw Danka, but he was off in the corner practicing his sword swings so they didn¡¯t bother him as they sat down to cultivate. Shen needed to at least refill her Fire Chi, if nothing else, before the next fight.


    She managed to restore most of it before the next match, but this guy was a Wood user that had mostly gotten through the fights using magic, so Shen was able to use up the chi of his attacks by adding it enough Fire Chi to redirect it, making small explosions like fireworks fall onto the field. Wood Chi wasn¡¯t very useful in combat, being much more useful in healing and agriculture, but her opponent insisted on becoming a wood fighter and wouldn¡¯t be persuaded to turn away from it.


    Seeing his determination, she drew her wooden sword and swung at him. At least Wooden weapons were a passable weapon at this level, so she would actually challenge herself. The fourteen year old boy used a staff and had obviously been practicing, as he managed to hit her several times while dodging or parrying all of her blows. Furthermore, because his weapon could be controlled from one end, giving it more reach, he was able to keep his distance, making it difficult for her to even get into range.


    Shen used him to practice her sword combat for a few minutes while analyzing his skills. He seemed to rely on the length of his weapon to attack and keep her at a distance. The few times she had gotten lucky he had barely been able to dodge, so his own footwork was probably weaker than hers. The other times, however, she had only accidentally gotten within range, so she couldn¡¯t take full advantage of it before he managed to back up. That gave her two strategies, either force him backwards enough that he falls out of the field or get in so close that he can¡¯t dodge and hit him hard.


    She decided to try the first one first. She started knocking his spear aside by using Release just as their weapons impacted so that the attack was stronger than he had prepared to stop. Every time she did this he would jump backwards, and eventually he was withing two meters of the edge of the field. She did it once more, expecting him to jump backwards, putting himself close enough to the edge that she could grab his pole and shove him off the edge, but instead he jumped sideways, starting to circle around her. She tried again, getting him into a corner where jumping sideways wouldn¡¯t work, but he simply dived forward and rolled, knocking her legs out from under her as he passed her so that she couldn¡¯t counterattack.


    They both stood up and Shen knew that that strategy wouldn¡¯t work, so she rushed him. She managed to knock his spear to the side once more, as he still hadn¡¯t managed to figure out how to deal with her parrying method, and got within the weapons reach, using a followup blow to hit him in the ribs. He gritted his teeth from the pain and slid his pole back in his hand so that he could fight at that range, but Shen swung at his head. When he tried to block it the other end of the pole hit the ground, throwing off his aim and the blow connected, knocking him down and dazing him. Luckily she hadn¡¯t used Release that time or it would have meant a fractured skull at best.


    ¡°I give up.¡± he said as she prepared another strike, and she stopped her swing.


    The crowd cheered and the field master declared Shen the winner. The Wood fighter was then helped off the stage before being sat in a wheelchair so that he could be taken to the clinic to be checked for a concussion.


    Shen now had two fights left to fight, but still had most of her chi left, only using neutral chi and a small amount of Fire chi in that fight. After waving at the crowd she returned to the waiting room where she immediately started gathering chi.

 Chapter 15

    She had almost refilled her chi before the next match was called. After this quarter-final match she would have fifteen minutes to replenish her chi. That way the main event wouldn¡¯t have two depleted fighters competing. This round, however, was happening only five minutes after the first, so she didn¡¯t have enough time to completely recover.


    When she entered the field she saw that she was facing a middle aged man. While the recruits to the sect all had to have a talent of at least Foundation to be accepted, the children of members automatically became members at birth, and therefore weren¡¯t required to meet any particular standard. Thus, people like this man, who only had Gathering potential, would usually get stuck at Outer Disciple for his entire life. Most of them wouldn¡¯t join a contest like this, as it was generally thought of as something for the younger members, but there weren¡¯t any rules against it.


    This man had been a member of the city guard for over thirty years and had even won this contest several times over the years, though he was never able to maintain that position two years in a row. ¡°Kril,¡± the audience began to cheer, as he was quite a popular member of the guard and had even risen to the commander of the outer city guards a few years ago.


    Once the cheers started to die down the field master made sure that both contestants were ready and started the fight. Shen raised her sword to block his strike only to be knocked back by several meters. Not only were his skills with a sword superior to hers, but he was using a mid grade Metal flying sword worth two hundred and fifty points compared to her low grade sword. If she tried to fly away he would have several times her speed, and due to his sword¡¯s Metal attribute, his own affinity for metal chi, and his greater strength, he could do far more damage than she could with a sword. It was only the fact that both of them were at the peak of Gathering and her constant use of Release that allowed her to have a chance against him in combat.


    Seeing that she was getting close to the edge of the field she ducked and rolled, bringing the pommel of her sword up to hit his knee cap. He screamed in pain and swung downwards, hitting her on the back with his full strength. She managed to activate Dragon Scales in time but was sent rolling fifteen meters away before coming to a stop. She stood up as he walked towards her, though struggled to do so with the pain in her back. Even with the Dragon Scales she would have a nasty bruise, though thankfully he hadn¡¯t also used Release. If he had done so, or she didn¡¯t activate Dragon Scales in time, she likely wouldn¡¯t still be alive.


    ¡°You know, little lady, you¡¯re pretty tough. Reminds me of my daughter.¡± He picked up the sword Shen had dropped when she was struck and noticed that it was bent in several places and severally nicked. ¡°Your blade really wasn¡¯t designed for this level of abuse.¡± He looked at his own blade and noticed that it was unharmed. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what. How about we stop using weapons. After all, all you have left is that wooden sword, at it won¡¯t do anything against me.¡± After making this statement he threw both of their swords out of the ring. ¡°Should be a fairer fight that way. After all, I heard you are better at hand to hand anyway.¡±


    ¡°Who told you that?¡± asked Shen, breathing heavily in an attempt to draw in as much chi as possible in the next few seconds.


    ¡°My grandson over there.¡± He pointed to the boy she had knocked out of the ring in the first round. ¡°He asked around about you after you beat him so easily. You know, if you want to join the guard, there¡¯s always an opening for you, especially since you made it this far.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, but I like making relics.¡± she responded and he nodded. After saying so she raised her hands like she was ready to fight.


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± he said, and ran at her. They swung at the same time but she managed to get inside his reach at the last moment, getting hit it the side of the head by his forearm instead of his fist. Dragon Scales was able to handle that without her becoming injured. Her blow, however, landed in the middle of his stomach. While his abdominal muscles were tough enough to block a normal punch, she had used Release at the last second, causing her fist to hit harder than normal. This stunned him for a split second, allowing her to rapidly add four more punches to his stomach before he jumped backwards to avoid her.


    ¡°Ouch. That¡¯s gonna leave a bruise.¡± he said, rubbing his stomach.


    ¡°Your sword did worse to my back.¡± Shen responded. He nodded and ran at her again. This time she slid sideways on her knees at the last moment and spun around, hitting the back of his knee. This caused him to trip and fall over, at which point she started beating his face in with her fists, using Release to get through his natural defenses.


    A few seconds later the field master stopped her and checked Kril¡¯s pulse. ¡°He¡¯s still alive, but he¡¯s not getting up for at least a few minutes. Winner, Shen.¡±


    This time the crowd cheered even louder than before, though some of them were cheering for her unconscious opponent as well. Shen didn¡¯t mind. If he had held onto his sword, the fighting style he was better with, there¡¯s no way she would have won. She would have to thank him later.


    After catching her breath again after the rage-fueled attack she left the stage. She would only have fifteen minutes plus however long her next opponent took, so she needed to recover her energy as quickly as possible. When she reentered the waiting area she sat down to start cultivating but Mae ran over. Apparently she had already returned from the clinic.


    ¡°Do you mind if I check where the sword hit you?¡± Shen shook her head and Mae lifted the back of her shirt. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s going to be painful for the next few days, but it doesn¡¯t seem you have any broken bones and it didn¡¯t break the skin.¡± She reached into a bag on her waist and handed Shen a pill. ¡°Here, Shen. I made these a few days ago. They¡¯re only really good for bruises and pain, but thankfully that¡¯s all you have. I was afraid Kril had caused serious damage. I¡¯ve heard he can decapitate monsters with a swing, after all. I assume you used your secret ability?¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Yeah. I thought it would block more, but¡­¡±


    ¡°It might protect up to your level, but even it can be overpowered with enough chi or brute strength. If you¡¯re going to make a habit out of fighting you should get some armor too.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I will. I¡¯ve just never needed it before.¡±


    Mae nodded and stood up so that Shen could meditate, heading over to where they had loaded Kril onto a stretcher. He was the second guy she had put through a concussion test today. Hopefully both would be okay.


    She heard the crowd cheering outside and knew that the last match had ended quickly, leaving her with only fifteen minutes. Without delay she started bringing in chi as fast as she could, not caring about its elements or purity. Normally one wouldn¡¯t do this, as the imbalance could cause health problems, but due to elemental relic creation depleting her of every element she was better than most at handling such imbalances. Hopefully she wouldn¡¯t regret this.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    She managed to refill all of her chi with low quality chi of all five elements, but only had a minute to purify it before the field master called the two fighters onto the field. She would have to fight with only the elemental energy she could make on the fly, or stick to non-elemental abilities. She opened her eyes and walked out onto the field, seeing that her opponent was already there. ¡°Danka?¡± she asked and he smiled.


    ¡°Surprised I made it to the final round?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Kind of. I knew you were good with a sword, but¡­¡± She then remembered that her sword was laying broken beside the field. She might be able to use her wooden sword to parry a few blows, but if it took a direct hit it would be cut in half.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a shame what happened to your sword, but we can¡¯t really change that now.¡±


    Shen nodded and drew the wooden sword. It was better than going into a sword fight unarmed, at least.


    Seeing that they were both ready the field master started the final match. They ran at each other and met in the middle, Danka swinging a few wild blows her to test her abilities. She parried most of them, but as he started to actually try she was force to start dodging, as her blade couldn¡¯t properly parry one made of steel.


    Eventually she had to start retreating to avoid getting hit. She had to avoid falling out of the ring by rolling sideways multiple times. No matter what she did she couldn¡¯t seem to get an attack in. His skill with a sword was just that much greater than hers. After a few minutes of backpedaling she raised her sword to block a blow and he angled it so that his sword would dig into hers, pulling the blade out of her hand and throwing it across the field. She had no choice but to fall back onto her hand to hand skills.


    She lunged at him and managed to land a blow to his face. He stumbled backwards and drew his sword close to him, using the flat of the blade to parry her punches and kicks, even jumping occasionally to avoid getting kicked in the legs. This only kept him busy for a few minutes though, as eventually she started to run out of chi. Every one of her blows had been enhanced by Release and, while she had been pushing him back with every blow, sometimes by several meters, he had managed to endure it simply because his medium quality non-relic sword was durable enough.


    Upon noticing that her knuckles were starting to bleed Danka counterattacked with the strongest blow he could manage. Though she parried the blow with her arms, when she stopped sliding fifteen meters away, one of them hung uslessly at her side at an odd angle. He was certain that he had broken it. ¡°You lost, Shen.¡± he said. ¡°Surrender and I won¡¯t have to use my trump card.¡± While he was almost full of chi his arms were hurting from swing the sword so much and so rapidly. He had not trained to block in that manner before, and his arms were angry at him because of that.


    Shen shook her head. ¡°Knock me out of the ring if you think you can.¡±


    Danka sighed and, seeing that no one was behind her, closed his eyes. Shen wondered what he was doing for about a second before realizing that she had seen him do this before. Strange chi gathered around his blade, but this time it was far stronger and far more intact.


    Shen looked around desperately for some way to stop it and found her wooden sword a few meters away. She ran over to grab it, then held it in front of her, flat side towards him to block as much of the attack as possible.


    ¡°Distant Slash!¡± Danka called out and swung his sword. A wave of yellow energy left the blade and flew at Shen, looking like a larger version of the blue ice blades Ponma had used.


    Shen caught the slash on the flat of the blade and, for a few seconds, it looked like the attack would be blocked. Then she saw that wooden sword start to be cut in half and put all of here energy into Dragon Scales on her chest. A second later the sword broke in half and the wave slammed into her, throwing her twenty meters backwards before it dissipated. She hit the ground hard and the medical team ran over to quickly check on her. There was a bloody but shallow cut across her chest that had torn her shirt open, but where the wooden sword had been it had only managed to bruise her.


    Danka was declared the winner and the crowd started to cheer as Mae loaded her onto a stretcher to be rushed to the nearby clinic.


    ---


    Shen woke up the next day. Apparently she had hit her head when she was thrown from the ring and been knocked out, but they had managed to heal her. They were even certain that the scar on her chest would go away once it healed, though that would take a few days, unlike the bruise on her back which was already healed.


    They gave her a new uniform shirt and she got out of bed. ¡°Unfortunately, I was ordered to give you something when you woke up.¡± the healer said, and handed her a letter. According to it, she was being summoned to speak with one of the elders.


    Why would she need to speak with an elder?, she wondered as she made her way to the inner city. Was she being punished? Surely not. She hadn¡¯t done anything wrong. Was her business with the Water Blossoms against some rule? She didn¡¯t think so. Or did they find out that she had been visiting the dragons? She was certain that it wasn¡¯t a rule violation, and that it was merely taboo because the dragons didn¡¯t like dealing with humans. But what if there was a rule?


    Ten minutes later she found herself at the Elder¡¯s office. She went inside and showed the letter to his assistant, and the woman asked her to wait there as she notified the elder. Shen sat there nervously, trying to meditate but being unable to do so for several minutes, until the assistant came back to the front and informed Shen that he was ready to see her.


    She followed the assistant to the back office where the Elder was waiting. Once she was in the office the man motioned for her to take a seat and the assistant offered her a glass of tea. After accepting the tea they both thanked the assistant and she left.


    ¡°Now, down to business. I am the Elder that is in charge of diplomacy for the sect. Do you know what diplomacy is?¡±


    ¡°You are in charge of making sure the other sects and kingdoms in the area like us?¡± she asked.


    The man nodded. ¡°Close enough. And unfortunately yesterday I got a rather unusual request from a powerful nearby city-state. Lord Caliasara Nematari of the Water Dragon Village has asked for your hand in marriage. Now, this isn¡¯t unheard of, but it is usually the children of elders that are requested for political marriages, and usually for the children of foreign dignitaries. So not only is a recent recruit being requested, which is strange, but a much older and more powerful man is making the marriage request, so it can¡¯t even be that he is interested in your strength. Can you explain any of this to me?¡±


    Shen was in shock. ¡°Why would Mr. Cal want to marry me?¡± she asked. ¡°Besides the fact that I¡¯m too young, he¡¯s like eight hundred years old.¡±


    The elder shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. We can start with the fact that you called him Mr. Cal instead of by his name. Do you know him?¡±


    Shen considered lying for a few seconds before nodding her head. ¡°I¡¯m friends with his daughter. Of course she¡¯s like seventy three or something, but she¡¯s more like a seventeen year old.¡±


    The elder nodded. ¡°I see, and I take it that you¡¯ve met him before. Maybe several times.¡±


    Shen nodded again, and decided to tell him the whole story. ¡°I¡¯ve been going to the Water Dragon Village for the last three years to receive training. I¡¯ve even spared with them hundreds of times. Well, his second nephew or something like that. His name is Do, and he¡¯s thirty five, but is basically a twelve year old boy. I also trade with them some. I¡¯ve been paying the kids in Fisher to pickle Water Blossoms for me, and sell them to the villagers.¡±


    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve heard about your business. Impressive that you managed to make a successful business out of something we thought was worthless, though we only knew you were selling them to the Caravan, not the Dragons. Though I suppose Water Dragons would have a sweet tooth for those flowers.¡±


    ¡°They are basically candy to them.¡± Shen agreed. ¡°Still, nothing in that makes me think that he would be interested in me. At least not like that.¡±


    The Elder nodded. ¡°Well, because you are so young, we have one option. Within the sect we don¡¯t allow anyone under the age of fifteen to get married. I hear your fourteenth birthday is in two and a half months, so you have a bit over one year before we have to send you away.¡±


    Shen was shocked by how they had already agreed. ¡°Don¡¯t I get a say in this?¡±


    ¡°Not while you are a member of the sect. Especially as an outer disciple. We might be able to try to negotiate for an inner disciple, and would almost certainly refuse for an elder under normal circumstances, but you have to understand that this is a dragon we are talking about. A Nascent Soul level dragon. Only Master Xing would have any chance against him in battle, and that¡¯s if he comes alone. If he brings anyone else, we¡¯ll only be able to hide behind the city¡¯s shield for so long before he breaks it and either takes you away or destroys us all. As much as I hate forcing young people into marriage like this, I don¡¯t really have a choice.¡±


    Shen nodded her head and sat there for a few minutes. Then she realized something. ¡°If I can reach Foundation before my fifteenth birthday, I¡¯ll become an inner disciple, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes, anyone that reaches Foundation is promoted to inner disciple, and anyone that reaches Nascent Soul is promoted to Elder. Though there are other ways to earn such a promotion. Unfortunately, with the threat we are facing, the other elders and I won¡¯t be willing to do much more than buy you more time. If he insists, we will have to hand you over.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to break through soon, then convince him to call this off.¡±


    The elder sighed. ¡°Unfortunately, that is the only option I could think of as well.¡±


    With that, Shen thanked the elder and left. If the three of them were still here at the festival, she would have to find them and try to straighten this whole thing out. If not, then she had one year and two and a half months to fix the situation or she would be stuck with someone she didn¡¯t like for at least the next two hundred years.

 Chapter 16

    After leaving the Elder¡¯s office she returned to the outer city where she began looking for the three dragons. It was the last day of the festival and she was supposed to be at work, but the fact that she was injured in the competition might make a good enough excuse if Master Chen complained about her missing the day. If not, she would have to tell him about the situation with the dragons, even if it was embarrassing.


    While she was looking around she happened to run into Ponma, who gave her the money for her Water Blossoms. He had convinced the caravan to pay them in spirit stones, one and a half per jar for the small blossoms and two for the large blossoms, as they would mostly be selling the blossoms to other cultivators and sects, who would pay them in spirit stones, so she received three hundred and seven stones after he deducted the thirty one he earned as a commission. If she was an inner disciple this would be more than enough to pay her expenses for the year, so she could spend the entire year in cultivation. As things were, though, she would still have to spend her time making flying swords and talismans.


    After saying goodbye to Ponma she continued to look for the dragons, but it wasn¡¯t until almost sunset that she found Sho sitting on the roof of one of the buildings. Without a flying sword she had to jump onto a nearby wall and push off to grab the roof¡¯s overhang, after which she was able to pull herself up.


    ¡°Hello, Shen.¡± she said. ¡°Come to watch the fireworks with me? Do and my dad decided to skip it. It¡¯s hard to explain to someone how beautiful explosions can be.¡± Just after the sun had set on the last day of the festival the caravan and the sect both set off fireworks as a sort of competition, and almost everyone in the sect and caravan would pause what they were doing to watch the display. Shen, however, shook her head.


    ¡°I actually need to talk to you about something important.¡± she said, then told Sho about the request Cal had sent to the sect. ¡°Do you know why he would do that?¡± she asked, just as the first firework was shot off by the caravan, starting the show.


    Sho nodded her head. ¡°I have an idea.¡± she said, ignoring the show. ¡°Have you noticed how all of the men treat you different a few days per lunar cycle?¡±


    ¡°Yes, and I assume that my...time of the month is changing my smell, but I¡¯m not sure why it makes them act like that.¡±


    Sho sighed. ¡°You smell like a female dragon that is producing an egg. Even though it shouldn¡¯t happen for me for a few more years, my mother made sure to explain it to me before she left almost a decade ago. The brains of Male dragons are wired to try and please Female dragons that are producing an egg because it means that she might consider them for the one who fertilizes it. This is important for dragons because every egg that a female produces is a little less likely to produce a child, so they must produce children early if they want to have children. In fact, after seven hundred or so, a female dragon might never produce another child due to that low chance.


    I came from my mother¡¯s first egg. Even though my father was much older than her, he was the nicest of the men who courted her, and her mentor, so she chose him when it was time to find a mate. He probably thought you were in the same situation.¡±


    ¡°But, I¡¯m way too young. I don¡¯t plan on having a child for at least three or four years, maybe even five or more.¡±


    ¡°I know. In human society, women often wait until they are older. Humans don¡¯t develop the mental maturity to look after a child until several years after they can physically produce one, so it makes sense. Dragons, however, develop that level of mental maturity far before they can lay or fertilize an egg. I reached that point in my early fifties, even though few dragons can produce an egg even in their early sixties. My father, however, doesn¡¯t know about this. In his mind, you may look young, but everything he knows about dragon biology, as well as your business skills and diligence in training, tells him you are as mentally mature as a sixty year old, if not seventy year old.¡±


    Sho stood up and stopped watching the fireworks. ¡°I¡¯ll go talk to him about this. Maybe I can explain things to him. Until he calls this off, though, I think you should stop coming to the village. Having you around will just make this harder for him to accept, especially if you come during the wrong time of the lunar cycle.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I understand.¡± she said, a bit of sadness welling up in her and threatening to push out a tear.


    Seeing this, Sho knelt beside her and gave her a hug. ¡°I know you want to still visit us, but it just isn¡¯t safe to do so right now. Though, what if I make you a deal? I will see if Do wants to come by occasionally so you can spar, and I¡¯ll go to Fisher once a week to buy ten jars of Water Blossoms. I know the people in the village will want to keep eating them, and the people of Fisher love the money its making them. And, of course, I¡¯ll be back next Caravan day and we can spend time together then, alright?¡±


    Shen nodded, trying to stay brave. ¡°Ok. As long as I get to still see you and Do, I think it will be ok.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± Sho said, giving her another hug. The fireworks were reaching their crescendo¡¯s peak in the background, drowning out their conversation and Shen¡¯s tears.


    Once the fireworks ended and Shen had stopped crying, Sho let go of her and stood up, pulling out the flying boat from before and ordering it to expand. ¡°Well, I¡¯d better explain this to my father, and hopefully convince him to call off the request.¡± she said, and Shen nodded. Sho then fed a bit of chi into the boat and ordered it to fly towards the dragon village, and it quickly accelerated to faster than a horse could run.


    Once her eyes were dry and the cold started to set in Shen jumped off the roof and walked back to her room. Hopefully, this whole situation could be cleared up soon and things could go back to normal.


    The next day Shen got ready and reported to work as normal. She apologized to Master Chen for missing work yesterday, but he said it was okay because she would have only been able to work half a day anyway. With that he handed her a stack of talisman paper and a set of instructions for creating defensive talismans. They would only be able to block a single attack, but if created properly were strong enough to block an attack one rank above them in strength, but not technique. Higher realms had tricks that lower ones didn¡¯t, after all, and the talisman couldn¡¯t block something that the creator didn¡¯t know was possible.


    It took her several tries before she was able to successfully create one of them, as she didn¡¯t have much practice creating talismans, and even then it was pathetically weak. Still, she was able to make one every few minutes on average, including the preparation work, and by noon she was capable of making ones which could actually be sold, if only to the weakest outer disciples in bulk.


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Some time in the early afternoon, as she was hanging her latest batch up to dry, one of the guards came in the store. ¡°Hey, Chen,¡± he said, walking up to the counter where Master Chen was also making talismans, though his were much better.


    ¡°Hey Lin. What do you want? I¡¯m a bit busy trying to fill the new quota.¡±


    ¡°Did you hear? The library just got in two new technique books and are selling mass produced copies of them, even dusting off that old printing press to make as many as possible. They are even selling them for cheap at a stone each.¡±


    ¡°A stone?¡± Chen asked, looking up from his work. ¡°Don¡¯t you mean a point?¡±


    ¡°No, I mean a stone. I was confused too, but apparently they decided to sell these for spirit stones instead of contributions.¡±


    ¡°Maybe they made a deal with the merchants to sell copies?¡± asked Shen, walking to the front. ¡°Selling them for stones would make it easier to deal with the merchants, as you wouldn¡¯t have to hope that the sect has the stones to cover the payment when they show up next year.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Mr. Lin said. ¡°Makes as much sense as any reason, I guess.¡±


    ¡°Any idea what the techniques are about?¡± asked Chen.


    ¡°One is about something called ¡®body refining¡¯. Essentially you are improving your body using chi. The other is something called the ¡®Solid Base¡¯ technique. Basically, it¡¯s about strengthening the base of your cultivation so that your are much better for your level and can more easily advance to the next level.¡±


    ¡°Interesting.¡± responded Chen. ¡°Though I¡¯m not sure how some new technique would really benefit me. I¡¯m happy staying at Foundation for the rest of my life, and I have more than enough chi to do my job. As for the body one, well, I¡¯m not the best looking or strongest, but it¡¯s enough for me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not just one technique, it¡¯s a whole group of techniques in each book. Like the Five Elements techniques that they teach here, but they haven¡¯t divided them up based on Realm. If you want a copy, though, you¡¯ll need to put your name down. They are selling the copies on a first come, first serve basis, and the guards bought the first fifty copies, with the training field buying the next fifty. I signed up to buy a copy so I could read it when I¡¯m not at work and I was number 517.¡±


    To Shen, these techniques seemed quite interesting. She didn¡¯t know if she needed to refine her body, as she didn¡¯t have any particular weaknesses, but, as she was hoping to advance her cultivation quickly, being able to solidify her base more quickly would come in handy. ¡°Master Chen.¡± she said, and he looked at her. ¡°Can I have permission to go sign up?¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°Fine. But it counts as your break and if you think the line is too long you should come back immediately. I can¡¯t have you standing around for an hour just to write your name down.¡±


    Shen nodded and ran out the door.


    ---


    Two days earlier Quan Xiu stood beside a table with Master Xing and the other elders that were invited to attend. ¡°I have finished my assessment of your sect.¡± he said. ¡°Besides the insistence that your people only use their own abilities, which has strengths and weaknesses, I have identified two main flaws in your people¡¯s training which will negatively effect their ability to face Demons.


    First, and most importantly in my opinion, is the fact that the ¡®Five Elements Technique¡¯ your people cultivate is an offshoot of the ¡®Rapid Advancement¡¯ technique. While that technique is powerful, it has one serious flaw. It can only carry you as far as your talent allows. That is why your people will rapidly reach their limit but then almost stop in their cultivation, with only a few of them managing to reach one realm higher and none of them reaching two. The ¡®Rapid Advancement¡¯ technique was designed to be paired with another technique, the ¡®Solid Base¡¯ technique. When used together they allow a person to strengthen their cultivation base to the point where their bottlenecks are capable of being defeated the first time they attempt them. They never need to face a tribulation because they will be able to see exactly how strong their tribulation is and build up their foundation to the point where it isn¡¯t too much of a challenge to overcome.


    Second, I have noticed a distinct lack of body cultivation, even among the fighters who consider themselves body cultivators. When asked how they cultivated their bodies I was told about a few basic body tempering techniques which, while effective, will only help them so much. None of them, even the Elder in charge of training them, knew the first thing about refining living tissue.¡± The Elder in charge of the training looked embarrassed. ¡°I don¡¯t think this is your fault, however. Master Xing has informed me that none of the original founders of the sect were body cultivators, nor were they aware of the ¡®Solid Base¡¯ techniques. All of them were magic or soul path cultivators who had natural immortal talent and dedicated themselves to a specific element. It was that which resulted in the building of the array which protects your city, and that array is what will allow us to hold the enemy here once they advance this far.


    I can help you fix both of the issues with your techniques, however, so that you can properly face them when they arrive.¡± Quan Xiu waved his hand and two books appeared on the table, ¡®Solid Base¡¯ and ¡®Basic Body Refining¡¯. ¡°Both of these are only the most basic form of the book, but they are easily available in some parts of the continent. I will leave these two with this council so that you can look over them and review them. I suggest, however, that you make copies of these techniques as quickly as possible and make those copies available to as many of your people as you can.¡±


    --


    Five days later Shen was allowed to take a day off of work, so she made her way to the outer sect library. Unfortunately they were only able to make one hundred copies of each manual per day, so, at number six hundred and ninety three, she wouldn¡¯t be able to get her copy until tomorrow. She had paid in advance, however, so she was guaranteed to get a copy as soon as it was made.


    As she couldn¡¯t start practicing the new technique yet, she went by the talisman store long enough to get another wooden sword so that she could work on her own business. The demand for flying swords had greatly increased recently, as the sect had announced its increased support for the war, but so far she wasn¡¯t good enough to make the medium grade ones that would be sent to the front. This had resulted in her practicing her engraving technique on seven or eight Wood or other elemental metal swords per day for the last four days.


    She was able to double her production rate for two reasons. The first was that she had simply gotten faster with her tools, as she had gotten used to them, and therefore could speed up and still not make any serious mistakes. The second was the fact that she was allowed to use the entire element gathering formation she had produced and make whatever type of sword she wanted, therefore having full reserves of every element she needed when she started making the swords. This had greatly increased her skill in manipulating each element, as she never had to wait for her chi to refill, even if it wasn¡¯t the purest chi she could make.


    Five days ago, near sunset on the day she had reserved the books, the elders made an announcement. While they were not encouraging the use of relics, as they still believed them to be a handicap which limited your growth, they were now allowing all relics to be used by sect members, provided that you didn¡¯t grow to rely on them. This had caused an increase in the demand for relics in the sect and, while Shen would love to make something other than swords and talismans now that she was allowed to, Master Chen had ordered her to make the boring things.


    That didn¡¯t mean that she couldn¡¯t make them on her own, however. She realized this fact as she left the general supply store where she had refilled her bag with jars of vinegar. She made several trips back and forth to refill their supplies, as her latest flying swords could move almost as fast as her if she sprinted. She then made her way to the jeweler.


    This store hadn¡¯t really benefited from the new rules or recent shift towards greater war funding, and may have actually lost some business. After all, people didn¡¯t really have the time or money to look good after those announcements, and no one on the front line cared about such things. This had lead to the woman who ran the place trying to learn a way to make her business flourish again.


    As Shen entered the store the woman sat down the book she was reading. ¡®Relic Crafting for Beginners¡¯. She had decided that, as people were now allowed to use relics more freely, she would start turning the jewelry here into relics. ¡°How can I help you?¡± she asked Shen.


    ¡°I would like to buy two Blue or White jade bracelets. Maybe a few simple pendants too.¡± Shen responded.


    ¡°Are you and Relic Crafter?¡± she asked, recognizing the use of such materials from her own studies. While jade looked nice, most people went for the flashier silver or gold jewelry.


    ¡°Yes, I am.¡± she responded. ¡°I am actually planning on making myself a few relics to help speed up my cultivation.¡±


    ¡°Well, I hope you are better than me. I tried to copy a protection relic design last night and just destroyed the pendant.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°It can be tricky in the beginning. I actually destroyed several jade plates when I started, and ended up using dark green plates for my project, as I destroyed the good ones.¡± She told the woman about the gathering array she had made. ¡°I think I¡¯m good enough now to make a Gathering level relic, though, which is why I need blue jade.¡±


    ¡°Well, you came to the right place.¡± She lead Shen over to the area where the Jade jewelry was kept and showed her a box of bracelets. In the end, Shen bought four blue bracelets, one white, and five blue pendants. She planned on turning the pendants into protection relics for her friends once she had practiced on the bracelets. With her supplies now gathered, and it being late evening, she made her way home to start on her project.

 Chapter 17

    Shen returned home and pulled out her set of engraving tools. These weren¡¯t quite as durable, and therefore less expensive, than the ones she used at work, as they needed to engrave stone instead of metal, but the skills used with them were almost identical.


    After taking a strip of paper and drawing the design on it to make sure that her formation would fit properly on the bracelet, she took out one of the blue bracelets and started engraving five equally spaced small arrays on its outside. Each one of them would gather a specific one of the five elements and purify it.


    By the time she was finished it was almost time for Last Meal to end, so she hurried over to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Apparently everyone was talking about the new techniques. Danka had even been allowed to read the book that his guard station was given, partially as a reward for winning the contest. Apparently, it was possible to circulate chi through a specific body part in order to remove weak points and replace them with stronger material. That would let you not just strengthen your muscles, like with weight lifting, or your skin, like if you used it enough to grow calluses, but every part of your body. There were even techniques in the Body Refinement book which would allow you to regrow missing body parts or heal damaged organs. Apparently the guards were going to be teaching this last part to their people so that they could heal themselves if they were injured, though they didn¡¯t expect the guards to be better at healing than the healers.


    ¡°Speaking of the contest,¡± Shen said, ¡°Do you know what you are going to do with that beast core?¡± Shen could make good use of it in a relic, which is the main reason she joined the tournament in the first place, so if he didn¡¯t need it, maybe she could get it from him.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I specialize in Metal chi, with a bit of Earth for defense and stability. Fire really doesn¡¯t help me.¡±


    ¡°In that case, could I buy it from you?¡± she asked.


    Danka shrugged. ¡°How much are you offering?¡±


    ¡°One hundred stones?¡± She knew it was low, but hopefully he didn¡¯t.


    ¡°The merchants offered me two hundred.¡± he countered. Apparently there was some demand for it.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll pay that.¡± Shen agreed.


    ¡°I turned down that much already.¡± he said. ¡°Why would I accept it from you?¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯m your friend?¡± she said, and Danka started thinking about it. ¡°Also, you seriously hurt me and almost tore my shirt off. You can¡¯t treat girls that way.¡±


    Ponma and Mae looked at her in surprise for saying that, but Danka just looked like a radish with his face that shade of red. ¡°Fine.¡± said Danka after the normal color started to return. ¡°Two hundred and fifty.¡±


    Shen smiled and took the stones out of her storage bag. Almost all of her profits from her business was gone now, but she would be able to make something nice with this.


    Danka pulled out a small spherical gem that was red with slight streaks of black in it. ¡°There.¡± he said sliding it over to her. He was still a bit embarrassed, so he slid the stones into his bag quickly, then got up to leave.


    As soon as he was gone, Mae looked at Shen. ¡°Why would you say that?¡± she asked as if scolding her friend.


    ¡°I was just teasing him. I know he wasn¡¯t trying to do anything wrong with his attack.¡± Shen put the tiny stone in her bag, finished the rest of her rice, and got up. ¡°Well, I¡¯m going back home. I¡¯m working on a project that I need to get back to if I¡¯m going to get enough sleep and have it ready for tomorrow.¡± With that she dropped off her dirty dishes and left.


    Mae¡¯s question kept bouncing around in her head while she made her way home. Why did she say that? She knew the situation wasn¡¯t like that, and she¡¯d never been the type to tease people. Even if they were as good looking as Danka, with those muscles¡­ She shook her head, forcing herself to stop thinking like that. Obviously Mr. Cal¡¯s request and the resulting discussion with Sho about relationships had been on her mind, and she wasn¡¯t thinking clearly. She focused her mind on the formation she was making at home. That was what was important now.


    When she got home she picked up the bracelet that laid on her bed. While she was away each of the symbols had picked up a bit of chi from the environment and refined it, though, as they had nowhere to send it, it simply sat inside the various arrays. Shen would now correct that.


    Along the inside of the bracelet she created five different arrays to feed the chi into herself, then, using five copies of a formation she had also used in her plate device, she balanced their output. Each symbol would feed her the same amount of chi as the weakest one. This would lower the speed at which it would give her chi, but would guarantee that it never put her internal chi out of balance. The next version of this bracelet would instead measure how much she had of each element and feed it to her proportionally based on that information, but that was a much more complicated formation and she wasn¡¯t yet confident in her ability to create such an array. This one, however, was just a smaller but stronger version of the plates she had created, so it only required the skills she developed before getting a job and the tool skills she learned while making flying swords.


    Once all five formations were finished she connected them to the symbols on the outside of the bracelet and 8% pure chi from the five elements started circulating through the inner arrays, feeding their chi into the next element in the cycle so that all of them balance each other¡¯s strength.


    Once she saw this effect she placed the bracelet on her wrist and immediately felt stronger energy than she could create enter her body, then follow her chi pathways back to her middle dantian where it was absorbed. As she hadn¡¯t added a safety feature yet which would cut off the flow once her body couldn¡¯t absorb all of the energy, she meditated for half an hour to help purify the wood and water chi, then removed the bracelet. She just needed to purge any excess energy that spilled out of her dantian, as it was already full, and the purity increased significantly just from that small amount of cultivation. Still, she would need at least a few days straight of meditation for it to fully purify her chi if she continued, so instead, tomorrow she would try something else. If one had a glass of salt water and wanted a glass of fresh water, it didn¡¯t make sense to keep pouring in fresh water until the water was no longer salty. Instead, one only needed to pour the glass out then refill it.


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    The next day she did exactly that. While she didn¡¯t have time to restore her supply of chi before work if she dumped all of it now, as the bracelet would take around six hours to fully restore her chi, she could dump all of her chi into the swords. Which was precisely what she did when she got to work. First was the Wood sword. She fed it chi faster than she needed to on purpose. While this would allow her to produce a slightly higher grade of sword, it was extremely wasteful of chi, and so was discouraged. When Master Chen said something about it, however, she explained her reasoning, so he allowed her to continue. Once she was finished she did the same to produce a Water sword, then an Earth sword. By midday meal she was just finishing up a Metal sword, sweat pouring off of her head. This wasn¡¯t just from the hard work, but from the fact that she had almost intentionally let her chi be dominated by Fire chi at a purity she wasn¡¯t used to.


    Once she was done she asked for permission to go to the cafeteria for a meal and was allowed to do so. Despite the fact that it was almost freezing outside she only carried her coat, the cool air feeling good on her exposed skin.


    By the time she had returned her Water chi had mostly restored itself so she was no longer feeling hot. Instead, she put on her coat despite the comfortable inside temperature and started creating a Fire sword. By the time she was finished she was shivering. With all of the Fire chi missing from her body and the balance now favoring Water chi her temperature had dropped significantly. Eventually she would adapt to the imbalance, but at the moment she simply didn¡¯t have enough experience with chi of this purity.


    As she sat in front of the heater shivering she considered making a Water sword next, just to remove this feeling. While her Wood chi was the fullest, she probably had enough to make a Water sword. While the total amount of water chi was less than it was when she made her first one this morning, it had gone from 6% purity to 8% purity. This meant that she only needed three quarters as much chi as this morning to complete the sword, but as she had purposefully wasted most of the energy this morning, her current 70% full state would likely be more than enough.


    She then considered the side effects she would have if she had full reserves of Metal, Earth, and Wood chi but little to no Fire or Water chi. Metal chi tended to make one stiffer. Earth chi made one slower but stronger. Wood chi tended to give one more energy. So if she skipped ahead in the cycle and emptied her reserve of Water chi, which counteracted the stiffness of the Metal chi, she would find it difficult to move. The Earth chi would mean that she could likely force herself to move, but would be slow in doing so. And the Wood chi would make her want to move even faster, but as she couldn¡¯t, things would feel like they were going too slow, like she was watching syrup drip.


    No, doing them in order would probably be the best way to handle the situation. She grabbed another wooden sword from the rack, moved her carving table closer to the heater, and got to work. Soon, without the Wood chi feeding the Water chi, the symptoms started to go away.


    Three hours and three and a half swords later she sat the Earth sword on the rack. Today¡¯s swords were considerably better than yesterday¡¯s, especially the ones she made in the afternoon, and Master Chen complimented her on it. Shen explained about how the bracelet had helped her and offered to make him one. He turned her down, however. He had enough chi to do his job as things were, so he didn¡¯t need such a tool.


    Just as they were cleaning up the shop before closing an Elder entered the store. ¡°Greetings Elder.¡± said Master Chen with a bow. ¡°Is there anything in particular you are looking for?¡±


    ¡°Mo Shen.¡± he said, and Shen dropped her broom before coming forward to bow.


    ¡°How can I help you, Master?¡± she asked with a bow.


    ¡°I have come to talk to you about your business.¡± Shen looked at Master Chen. ¡°Not this one, your Water Blossom business. I have already sent someone to bring Gin Ponma to my master¡¯s office, but decided to come pick you up myself, as you were working.¡±


    Shen bowed again. ¡°Then I will follow you.¡± She bowed to Master Chen who motioned for her to leave, then followed the elder out of the shop.


    Soon they were in the inner city office where the Elder worked. Upon entering his office Shen saw Ponma sitting there and an older Elder sitting across the desk from him. The older man nodded and the younger one left the room. Shen sat down on a chair like Ponma was doing and the man sat down his glass of tea.


    ¡°I am the sect¡¯s quartermaster.¡± he said. ¡°I had my disciples bring the two of you here because I believe that the two of you have found a way to harness a valuable resource which the sect now needs. It recently came to my attention that you have been harvesting and pickling a type of flower known as a Water Blossom from the lake beside Fisher village.¡±


    ¡°The children of Fisher do most of the work, sir.¡± corrected Shen. ¡°We just pay them to do so.¡±


    The old man waved his hand. ¡°Close enough.¡± he said, then sighed, trying to remember where he was in his speech. ¡°The recent shift to greater war support means that the sect now has need of those flowers, as they can be refined into Water Chi pills and sent to the front or kept here to restore the chi of our own people. We recognize, however, that gathering these blossoms takes a lot of work, and therefore wish to make you an offer. The two of you will receive permission to run your own business, and therefore be counted as employed outer sect members.¡± Normally one needed to be at least an Inner Sect disciple to start a business, so this was quite unusual. ¡°The sect will also guarantee you one spirit stone or five points per jar of small blossoms or one and a half stones or seven and a half points per jar of large blossoms. I understand that this is less than the Caravan was willing to pay, however the guaranteed income and ability to sell them as they are produced should make up for the slightly decreased cost.¡±


    Ponma looked like he was thinking, so Shen pulled her chair closer to his and bent over to talk to him. She knew he was calculating costs and profit margins. ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be enough.¡± Shen whispered. ¡°With the war funding the cost of goods will increase.¡± She might not have known much about business, but she did know that if the supply of a good was less than what was demanded, the price would increase. With the sect spending so much on war funding, the cost of most common goods would rise, meaning she would have to pay the kids in Fisher more. She was already barely making a profit selling them to Dragon Village at only one stone in price.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± he said, and when she looked confused he continued. ¡°The cost of things in contribution points will increase, sure, but if we are guaranteed payment in stones I think we¡¯ll be ok.¡± Shen looked even more confused. ¡°Think about it this way. Many of the inner sect disciples are currently making stones and selling them or using them to pay rent. That way they only need to spend a few hours a day making a stone and can spend the rest training. But with so many jobs opening up, many of those that were doing that will start doing outside jobs. I heard that the number of bounties on spirit beasts has already doubled since a week ago, and that will only increase in the future as their materials and the occasional core you can harvest are very useful and the inner disciples can earn far more than a few stones per day by hunting them.


    So, the supply of stones will drop greatly, making stones worth even more points. And if that¡¯s the case, the value of the materials we need to pickle Water Blossoms, all of which are common materials, won¡¯t increase anywhere near as quickly. This could be quite lucrative.¡±


    ¡°What if that doesn¡¯t happen, though?¡± Shen asked. ¡°Right now, I¡¯d barely turn a profit at one stone per jar, and only really make money on the large blossoms.¡±


    Ponma nodded. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll negotiate a bit.¡± He informed the elder that the stated price was a bit low but if he guaranteed payment in stones they could do it for one and a half per small blossom jar and two per large blossom jar. After a few minutes of negotiation they split the difference and signed a contract to supply the sect with the flowers for one and a quarter per jar of small blossoms and one and three quarters per jar of large blossoms.


    After the contract was signed the elder pulled out a list of buildings available for rent and they picked out a warehouse in the outer city where they could store the goods and paid the rent in advance. It was in the outer section of the Wood district, and cost fifty points per month. Shen handed over the ten stones before Ponma could fish them out of his storage. ¡°So, I take it you two will be heading out tomorrow morning to set up your business?¡± The Elder asked.


    ¡°Actually,¡± said Shen. ¡°I think I would like to finish learning about arrays and relic crafting. Not only is it quite interesting, but I think it will be greatly needed in the war.¡± She pulled out her remaining sixty seven stones and handed them to Ponma. ¡°For now, please consider me a mostly silent partner. I will try to help out on my days off, but I would like to spend at least five days out of ten studying under Master Chen.¡±


    The Elder looked slightly disappointed, but Ponma nodded his head. ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll use this money to buy a cart, jars, and maybe a few magic bags to make things easier. I¡¯ve built up enough strength recently that I can haul even a full cart by myself.¡±


    With things settled they both bowed to the Elder, who bowed back, and they left. Ponma was going to be quite busy tomorrow.

 Chapter 18

    Shen went by the Library to pick up her books then returned home. That night Shen carved the outside of another bracelet before eating Last Meal, then returned to her room. Unlike last night, this bracelet would be able to help her improve her chi purity. It was based on one of the techniques in her Five Elements book. Each element within her would be fed by the one before it, improving its strength and purity. The lower her supply was, the more it would naturally increase in quantity, and as it neared the quantity of the one feeding it it would start to increase in quality. While doing this with only two elements would result in only the one which was being fed improving, the fact that she would build a copy of this circuit for each element meant that all five of them would tend to improve over time. This would be accomplished using the small amount of chi the bracelet was gathering to control its counterpart inside of her. The beauty of this design was that it was practically impossible for it to cause her to overflow with chi. As her body neared the limit she had reached through meditation it would tend more and more towards improving the quality of the chi, and once she had reached her limit 99.9% of the energy would go towards improving the quality of next element in the sequence, with the last 0.1% doing no more than making her a tiny bit sore.


    She finished soon after Mae returned to the room from the bathhouse and realized that she hadn¡¯t taken a bath in the last few days. She quickly grabbed a change of clothes, her toiletries, and her two bracelets, then went to the bathhouse. Once there she cleaned herself off and slid into the water, making sure to wear one bracelet on each wrist. There were few other girls there, as it was getting late, so she wouldn¡¯t be distracted as she closed her eyes and started feeding the energy into improving her chi pathways. She hadn¡¯t looked over the body cultivation book yet, but from what she had overheard others talking about from the book, it referred to them as meridians. Whatever you called them, though, now that she had relics to fix the quantity and quality of her chi, they were one of the few things keeping her from advancing to Foundation.


    While she could technically advance at any time, as her dantian was full of chi, she knew that there were certain things that were easier to do at different steps. As gathering chi was the main skill of the Chi Gathering stage, it was the best time to learn that skill, as once she reached Foundation she would have more important things to do. To some that sounded like she was slowing down her progress just so that she wouldn¡¯t get distracted later, but in actuality she was trying to establish the best Foundation she could before entering the Foundation stage. Essentially, once she built the shell which would end this stage and start the next, what she did here would be finalized and all of her future progress would be based on it. She wanted to make sure that there were no flaws at this level to cause her problems in the future.


    An hour and a few percent faster chi gathering later she decided to go home and got out of the water. After drying herself off she got dressed and headed home. Her new bracelet seemed to be using chi slightly faster than the old one could feed it into her, but she didn¡¯t want to take the risk of running out of chi and removed both of them before climbing into bed. While the second bracelet couldn¡¯t overfill her with chi, it could cause her reserves to fall, possibly even depleting the Gathering level of her dantian altogether. One weakness of the design was that, as the chi got above the purity of the chi it was gathering, it used exponentially more chi to further purify the chi. This would either cause the chi to be depleted as it tried to make higher quality chi or would make the chi quality stagnate at a few percent higher purity than the feeding chi if one could feed it chi fast enough, as the chi that was being fed in was diluting the purer chi within. As this last state was preferable, perhaps in a future design she would address this by only feeding chi into her normally if the level of the chi grew too low, limiting the purification to when her reserves were full. This would also allow to to wear it continuously, as the worst thing that would happen was it wasting the chi it gathered.


    The next morning she put on both bracelets and went to work. She informed Master Chen about her plans to try and work with both businesses and he agreed to change her schedule. She would now work for five days and be off for five days. For now, however, she would be starting the five days on, so he ordered her to get back to work on the swords. As she finished on an Earth blade yesterday she started on a metal today, completing all eight blades an hour before it was time to close and doing a ninth, finishing just as the store was closing and having to stay late to clean up her station.


    This continued for the next four days, always starting on the next one in the series whenever she got to work the next day, and by the last day she was able to complete ten swords per day. At night, however, she worked on a different project. As each of her friends didn¡¯t yet have a good way of defending themselves as far as she knew she spent four of the five days on making them four defensive amulets. Each one was slightly better than the last, but she would sell the weakest one in order to buy more amulets, shuffle the three remaining, and hand them out at random to avoid playing favorites. While she had wanted to imbue her own Dragon Scales ability onto the amulet, as it produced a higher quality barrier, she wasn¡¯t sure how to do that yet. She knew that bloodline traits could be given to relics, but the only way she knew of to do so currently was to use part of the body of the creature whose bloodline you wanted to use, similar to how using a Fire Core would let you use that beast¡¯s ability to harmlessly store fire chi. She, however, wasn¡¯t willing to put her own flesh into making a relic for her friends and wasn¡¯t sure that adding her blood to the item would do more than slightly improve the chi consumption rate.


    On the night of the last day she meditated. She had carried the Solid Base book to work with her for the last few days and read it while eating. From it she had learned several new ways to improve herself at her current level, and a better technique for improving her ability to gather chi. There were also tricks for growing more meridians in the Cleansing stage, but, as she was beyond that point, she would have to lower her cultivation in order to improve herself at that level. That wasn¡¯t viable at this point as she wouldn¡¯t have much time to do so before she needed to advance back to Gathering so that she could do her job. She would have to wait until she was an Inner disciple, when she no longer had a mandated work schedule and could talk with Master Chen and Ponma about taking ten or so days off to do it properly.


    After spending over six hours in meditation and greatly improving her ability to gather, expel, and manipulate chi she stood up and grabbed the things for her bath. It was getting late, but she would need to bathe tonight if she wanted to get an early start tomorrow.


    She got up early in the morning and went for a run. Normally she would have left the city and run to Fisher or maybe even the dragon village, but this time she stayed in the city. After making several laps around the outside of the city wall, Restricting her chi the entire time so that she would get more out of the exercise, she paused to catch her breath then headed to the cafeteria. Her friends arrived slightly afterwards and they gathered at their usual table. Once the pleasantries were out of the way she pulled the three amulets out of her bag and handed one to each of them. ¡°I made these for you guys.¡± she told them and they all looked surprised, with Mae looking like she was about to cry. ¡°They should be able to block a moderately powerful Gathering stage attack, but I¡¯m not sure exactly how powerful. Just feed it any type of chi. The type only really makes it slightly more effective against the element that one defeats. Water chi more easily blocking fire attacks, etcetera.¡±


    Mae climbed over the table and gave her a hug. ¡°Thank you,¡± she said, crying. The boys also thanked her, though they didn¡¯t try to hug her or cry.


    ¡°If you guys need any specific relics, I can make them for you. I can¡¯t do them for free, of course, but I¡¯ll sell them to you for the cost of raw materials just so I can get the experience.¡± The three of them agreed and Danka immediately requested that she turn his standard issue armor into a relic. ¡°I don¡¯t know how good I¡¯ll be at engraving leather, but I can do the metal bits, as I¡¯ve been making plenty of flying swords.¡± she patted the one on her waste. ¡°That said, I¡¯m not sure what I should add. I could probably add a larger, and therefore more powerful, version of the protection amulet to it. I might even be able to have it draw in chi from the environment to power itself. Give me a few days to look into it.¡± Guards were allowed to modify their armor, but if they did anything to it which violated the uniform code they would have to pay to replace the offending pieces. Thankfully, a modification like that shouldn¡¯t violate any rules.


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    After the meal was done she agreed to meet Ponma at the warehouse and set off for the jewelry store where she had bought the amulet. Upon arriving there she showed the woman the amulet and offered to sell it to her. By this point the woman had gotten good enough at relic creation and engraving to start making her own protection relics, but Shen¡¯s amulet was still better quality than hers if only slightly. She agreed to buy it from Shen in exchange for three more amulets of the same style and one of a slightly different style, as she could sell it for slightly more than four times what the non-relic version would sell for. Shen had looked through the amulets and found one that was a simple blue and white disk with a small hole in the middle. That hole was the perfect size for the Fire Core she had bought off of Danka, so she would be using it to make herself an amulet that would store excess fire chi for her later use.


    After making the trade she made her way to the warehouse. Ponma was there with two other boys from Fisher loading jars onto three hand carts. Apparently he had hired some help. ¡°Hey Shen.¡± one of the two boys said as she approached. It took her a little while to realize that it was Po, who had been part of their business from the beginning.


    ¡°Hey, Po. I wasn¡¯t expecting to see you until I got to Fisher. How has everything been?¡±


    ¡°Pretty good. With the sect picking up the demand for other goods, several fishers have taken to gathering things from the woods instead of fishing, as it earns more, so don¡¯t be surprised if fish starts to run out in town.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. So, did Ko get hired by Ponma too?¡±


    ¡°Oh, him? He¡¯s one of the worst ones to do missions instead of fishing. He actually reached Foundation a few weeks ago, just before the Caravan, and once those two books showed up he immediately bought a copy and has been practicing them every day he wasn¡¯t out hunting spirit beasts with his friends. In fact, he¡¯s out hunting a spirit beast right now. Some sort of Stone Bear that was spotted about ten li west of here. Apparently someone wanted its hide to make armor, and the alchemist wants its gall bladder and liver for some kind of pill, so he brought a cart with him so that he could haul the whole thing back.¡± The livers of certain strong creatures, like bears, could be turned into pills which would increase the rate your body naturally removed toxins from itself. Normally this wasn¡¯t an issue for cultivators, as their bodies naturally tried to remain completely toxin free, but if one was forced to eat poor food or became poisoned, they would come in handy. The fact that this was a spirit beast would just make the pill even stronger from the chi within and could make the effect last longer or even become permanent. The Gall bladder on the other hand increased your ability to process the energy in food, thereby giving you more energy from the same food. While neither were worth sending people to hunt the bear on its own, when the incredibly tough hide and delicious meat were added into the mix, it was worth it.


    ¡°Nice. Well I hope he does well on his hunt.¡± After introducing herself to the other boy, Ling, she started loading jugs as well and shoved a few more in her storage bag at the end, even carrying one on her back. ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s all we can carry for now.¡± she said, and the boys agreed. She drew her sword, dropped it on the ground, and climbed onto it. ¡°I¡¯ll fly just above the trees and follow you there.¡± she said. The boys looked slightly envious of her sword, but nodded and started pulling their carts.


    While Shen did manage to spot a few creatures from the air, none of them looked hostile and only one was an actual spirit beast. She considered capturing one of the animals and turning it into a false spirit beast, but realized that she had too much planned already to make time for such a project.


    When they arrived she landed beside the barn they had been using to store the jars and sat all of the vinegar she brought in its assigned place. Ponma had hung signs and built shelves so that everyone knew where to put things and had a place to put them. There were many children outside, pulling off flowers and throwing them in jars, but from what Shen could see they only had a few jars of vinegar left. This delivery should fix that.


    She helped the boys unload the carts, which appeared to be half filled with empty jars and half with jars of vinegar, and put all of the jars in their proper place. She then started emptying out the full jars from the barn, making sure that all of them were properly labeled with the size of the blossom inside.


    Once she was finished she noticed that the number of buds were getting low. They had many more than this to deal with the last time she was here, but with fewer fishermen working on the lake less of the plant was being harvested. She informed Ponma that she was going to go get more and grabbed a net.


    She flew over the surface of the water and, when she found a patch of flowers, dropped the net into the water. After letting it sink a bit so that it could gather more plants, she lifted up on it and tried to fly away. She couldn¡¯t lift it, though. The number of plants that had gotten tangled in the net were too many, so every time she lifted the net her sword sunk a little bit lower.


    This was a major issue. If she had brought another weapon she could cut the plants free, but unfortunately the only weapon she had was the one she was currently standing on. She could try and feed the sword more chi, but as it was a Wood flying sword it didn¡¯t specialized in power. Furthermore, she wasn¡¯t very good with Wood chi, so it was inefficient to use the sword. She was only keeping up with the current demand for chi due to wearing both of her bracelets.


    What if she used Fire chi, though? It was her best element, so she should be able to do more with it, including controlling it well enough to attack the vines without needing her hands. Once the thought solidified in her mind, though, she realized that wouldn¡¯t work. The net was wet, but not as wet as the plants, as they also had water inside of their vines and not just on their outsides. Any fire that was hot enough to burn through them would be more than enough to burn through the net, destroying it. She kept trying to come up with an answer. Metal? Not good enough, and she didn¡¯t have any on her to float a piece of metal. Earth? Same problem. If she was closer to the shore she might have been able to find a sharp rock that she could use, but she was at least two tenths of a li into the lake. She was even worse with Water and all of her Wood chi was being used to stay in the air.


    After ten minutes of thinking she remembered one trick that she had learned years ago but hadn¡¯t practiced with recently. Lightning. As it was made from Fire chi, she should have decent control of it, at least until it was converted. Furthermore, if it was targeted properly it could make the roots explode without damaging the nets, like how natural lightning could explode a tree while not touching the ones near it.


    She closed her eyes and started concentrating. She gathered a thin stream of fire chi and touched it to the worst of the vines, then used the Fire to Lightning technique to turn the Fire chi into Lightning chi. There was a loud crack as the root she targeted exploded, letting at least ten percent of the plants fall back into the water. She targeted the next point and repeated her actions, and more roots exploded and fell back into the water. After four or five lightning bolts she managed to lighten the weight enough that she could actually fly on the sword again, though the speed of her travel was slower than she would normally walk.


    She eventually made it back to the shore and, after dragging the net onto the shore, landed and laid down. While she had managed to make it back, she was almost out of Wood chi, which was making her feel like she was far more tired than she normally would be.


    While the children of the village had already cleaned the blossoms off of the ones that were already there, when they saw her arrive with more they came out and started cleaning the nets, pulling the blossoms off of the plants that they removed and throwing them into jars as they did so. By the time Shen had recovered enough to move around properly the net was almost clean.


    One of the adults from the village came over. ¡°Tried to haul back too many, huh?¡± Shen nodded. ¡°All fishermen do that at some point. Though the fact that you were on a sword at the time and not in a boat must have made it harder. How did you handle it?¡± She told him about her trick with the lightning and he nodded. ¡°I never actually learned to use lightning, but it does seem like it could work.¡± He walked down the dock and hopped into a boat. ¡°Come on, I¡¯ll show you how to haul them in properly.¡±


    Shen joined him and soon they were hauling back a net full about once an hour. While it couldn¡¯t keep up with the children on the shore, it did let them do more and therefore earn more. As the sun started to set Shen and the Villager brought in the last net and got out of the boat. Shen¡¯s legs were a bit shaky, as she had never spent that much time in a boat before, or even rode in one, as her home village didn¡¯t have a lake, but soon she was waling properly again.


    She called Ponma over and they talked with the man. With all of the fishermen and women leaving to do other things the number of people hauling Water Blossoms out of the water had greatly dropped. If they wanted to continue harvesting them to sell to the sect they would have to pay people to bring the plants in. While it was an extra expense, Ponma recognized it as a necessary one, so he agreed to do it. He asked the man to bring more people if he could tomorrow morning, and they would offer them a job.

 Chapter 19

    They hauled the carts full of Water Blossoms back to town and placed them in the warehouse before heading to the cafeteria. All of the children had been paid one point per jar, or two per large jar. The children could only fill one to two jars per day, though, and a large jar usually took at least two days to fill, as the blossoms were that much rarer. Still, it was enough to keep them happy, as they couldn¡¯t yet go out on the boats to earn points. Even many of the older children preferred it, as it paid as well as the other jobs they could choose, and was easier to do, simply being repetitive instead of difficult. While those that lived outside the towns weren¡¯t required to work at a registered job seven out of ten days like the other outer disciples were, the fact that Shen and Ponma¡¯s business was now officially sanctioned meant that they could work for this company and meet that requirement, should they choose to move to town.


    After Last Meal Shen returned to her room. She needed to get her book on common formations and reread the sections on armor and defensive formations before she started working on Danka¡¯s armor, just to make sure that she did the job properly. When she got to her room, however, she found Mae sitting at the desk between their two beds, reading by the light of a flickering candle. ¡°What are you reading?¡± she asked Mae.


    ¡°The Basic Alchemist¡¯s Compendium.¡± She responded, showing Shen the cover. ¡°It lists several hundred ingredients and dozens of common pill formulas. The sisters told me I should memorize everything in the book, and if I could pass a test on the information they would buy me the Intermediate Compendium. It costs five hundred points.¡±


    ¡°Then you have a lot of memorizing to do.¡± Shen said, opening the lower desk drawer beside her bed. She took out her Formation book and began reading.


    An hour later, however, the candle started burning out. ¡°Oh, crap.¡± said Mae, pulling another candle out of the top drawer on her side and quickly trying to light it on the quickly dwindling flame of the other candle. The end of the candle¡¯s wick got a tiny cinder on it, but the first candle went out before she managed to light it and the room went dark.


    Shen held out her hand and a tiny flame about the size of a candle flame appeared in it. Mae used that to light the candle and Shen put out the hand flame. ¡°I wish I had a better way to light the room.¡± said Mae. ¡°These things cost a point each and only last a few hours.¡±


    ¡°I could give you a few stones to buy more.¡± she said, then reached for her magic bag to grab a few. When she looked down at the bag, however, she saw her book sitting on the bed beside her and had an idea. ¡°Actually.¡± she said, ¡°I have another idea¡±.


    She reached into the top drawer on her side of the desk and pulled out her engraving kit as well as a few scrap pieces of jade tiles from when she made her first device. She held two pieces together which together were about the size as the palm of her hand and started engraving one of the basic formations from the book onto the point of one of them. Once she was finished she carved the majority of another, much larger, symbol on the two combined pieces, then separated them to finish the symbol¡¯s halves and connected the large symbol to the smaller. Once she was done she handed the two pieces to Mae. ¡°Put the two halves together.¡± she said.


    Mae did so and over the next few seconds the first symbol started to glow until it was about twice as bright as a candle without flickering. ¡°Wow. I didn¡¯t know there was a formation for lighting.¡±


    Shen smiled. ¡°It¡¯s called the Chi Light formation. I just connected it to a larger Chi Gathering array than I used on my bracelets.¡±


    Mae then thought about something. ¡°I wonder if this could be used to grow plants underground?¡± she asked. ¡°I know that spirit plants can grow anywhere that the chi is dense enough, but since most plants turn yellow without enough light, and the leaves are the needed part of many magical plants, I¡¯ll need a bright light to do that.¡±


    Shen shrugged. ¡°Sure, I can easily make it brighter.¡± She pulled out a spirit stone and sat it on the gathering array. Immediately the light got far too bright to look at, so Shen removed the stone and put it back in her bag. ¡°That could probably keep it going all day for over a week. You could then put spirit stones or their dust in the pots with the plants to give them plenty of chi to grow. I just don¡¯t know if that kind of light will work. There is another formation called ¡®Daylight Formation¡¯ which is supposed to make fake sunlight. It was specifically designed to grow plants in dark places.¡±


    Mae nodded. ¡°Won¡¯t that spirit stone be worth less than a normal one, now that you used some of its energy?¡±


    Shen shook her head. ¡°What I used was less than your hair loss if I took a single hair from your head. Besides, spirit stones have a useful property. They always have about the same amount of energy as one another. A ¡®stone¡¯ is actually a standard unit of chi in formations and relics because of that. As long as you get within a few percent of the correct amount crystallized together, the crystal will stabilize and either gain or lose chi in order to balance its energy out at the standard level. The one I used will just collect a bit from the environment and fix itself.¡±


    Mae had a thoughtful look on her face. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that,¡± she said. With that they both continued to read their books and, when both of them started to get sleepy, they agreed to call it a night.


    The next day Shen got up and hurriedly took a bath before eating and flying to Fisher. Today they had to meet with the fishermen to see if they were willing to bring the plants in for the Water Blossom business. From what Shen had seen, the lake was more overgrown than usual, but the fishermen only bothered clearing out what got in their way, resulting in the areas more than two tenths to a quarter of a li from the dock having more of the fast growing plant than they should. While this helped feed the fish, who ate their roots, it meant that the fishermen were unable to get to any of the fishing spots deeper in the lake.


    Upon arriving she found that seven men and three women had gathered near the docks. They were all wearing fishing gear, but it didn¡¯t look like any of them had been fishing yet as they were all dry. ¡°Hello.¡± she said upon landing, before making the sword float into her hand and tucking it back in the sash on her waist. ¡°My name is Shen. I work with Ponma in the Water Blossom business.¡±


    ¡°My son works for you then.¡± said one man.


    ¡°As do my two youngest.¡± said a woman. ¡°They say you¡¯re a fair boss, but that they don¡¯t see you around much.¡±


    ¡°Yes, well, I actually work in the town making talismans and relics, so I haven¡¯t had much time to actually help with this business. Now, though, I should work here about half the time.¡±


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    The adults nodded. ¡°In that case,¡± one of the men said, ¡°I¡¯d like to skip ahead to what actually matters. How much are you paying? I got a family to support, so if I can¡¯t earn as much doing this as fishing, I can¡¯t afford to do it.¡± The others nodded in agreement.


    Based on how much they had collected yesterday, you could haul back about two to two and a half jars full of flowers per boat load. So, while it would cost the business more to pay people to bring the blossoms in, it would be worth it, as it would drastically increase how many they could produce.


    The math for the product was pretty simple. One jar of water blossoms required about half a jar of vinegar and an empty jar. Vinegar was five points per jar, and a jar by itself was one point, so that was three points per jar, as they could use the vinegar jar with the second batch. Then they paid the kids one point per jar as well, bringing the cost up to four points per jar. ¡°One point per trip.¡± she said. If she offered the adults one point per trip, assuming they got two jars worth of blossoms each trip, that would put the cost at four and a half points per jar. The company would barely make any money if they sold the flowers to the sect for five points, but as Ponma had managed to negotiate for a bit more they would actually get six and a quarter per jar.


    The adults started thinking and talking among themselves. Each trip out would take a little less than an hour. That meant that they could do maybe ten per day. Which, as it took two people to haul in the nets, meant five points per day. Or about what a job in the town would pay for someone just starting out, or at least an adult. ¡°What about the fish?¡± one man asked Shen. ¡°We used to go for fish and end up with a lot of weeds in our nets, so we would just throw them out of the lake. Now that we are going for weeds, we¡¯ll probably end up with fish in the nets too.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you would keep them.¡± Shen said. ¡°I don¡¯t have any need for fish. I only ask that you bring in enough buds for at least two jars full each time you come back. Other than that, you can bring in as many fish as you want to.¡±


    They talked for a few more minutes before telling Shen what they had decided. While they would actually make slightly more points fishing, the spots near the docks were drying up, so they needed to go out further. This meant that they would have to clear out the weeds to do that. While doing that, they would no doubt bring up many fish that were in the roots of the plants, and because they were able to keep those fish, they were actually making roughly the same amount. She would have to pay them more if they had to go out further to collect them, perhaps even guaranteeing them five points each per day, plus the fish, if she wanted them to go out too far, but for now they would do it.


    She asked that they only bring in as many as the kids can process, as there was no need to waste them and that helped guarantee that the plants grew closer to the docks, then shook hands. After that Shen went to tell Ponma about the decision and waited for the first load of blossoms to come in. Just as the boats started returning the children came out to the pile and Shen spent the rest of the day, along with Ponma and the other children, pickling Water Blossoms.


    This continued for the next three days, at which point she returned to work. At night she studied her book and was now certain that she could make a good quality array on metal armor to protect the wearer, though how much protection it provided wasn¡¯t something she was certain of.


    When she got to work she informed Master Chen of her idea for further expanding the business. They could make relic armor, or at least improve the armor of the guards. At first he wasn¡¯t very enthusiastic about adding another service to their shop, but she pulled out her book and showed him a few pages she had marked. Each one included formations that could be added to armor to make it better in some way. Though none were that powerful, they were all useful.


    The first was the basic protection formation which she had been studying. It was easy to add to armor and had an expanded version for each realm, though one needed to be at least in the realm of the formation to create it, as it required an understanding of what it was doing to properly work. Next were ways to add elemental chi to the protective formation, letting it protect more against specific elements and less against others. The book hinted that there were special formations which added other elemental effects, but that would be in the Intermediate version of the book. Then there were utility formations, like the Cleansing realm Self-Cleaning formation, the Gathering realm Recharge formation, which was like Shen¡¯s bracelets and could be made to work with elemental chi, and the Foundation realm Self Repair formation, which required that the engraver understand the structure of the object, so that it could be restored to that state. There were also various health type formations, like lessening pain or stopping bleeding, but the true healing ones were in the Intermediate book as well.


    Shen then informed Master Chen about Danka¡¯s request for her to improve his armor. She suggested that she be allowed to work on it here, and that it could be used as a demonstration piece to show the other guards, who would be their biggest clients if he agreed to the idea. He asked for time to think about it, so Shen stored her book, grabbed a sword from the rack, and started making a slightly different sword. This time she would try making an uncommon Lightning sword. While it could be powered directly from Lightning chi, most people didn¡¯t know how to produce lightning chi nor had any inside their dantian. For that reason she had taken an hour off of reading the book last night to build a test device. The formation on it was a version of the Fire to Lightning technique and, while she was certain that it wasn¡¯t the best performing formation, it did work reasonably well. So, should the person be unable to produce Lightning chi, this would allow them to power it from almost twice the amount of Fire chi.


    An hour later she was finished, so she held it in her hand and fed a tiny bit of Lightning chi into it. The blade sparked a few times before using up the chi. She tried again, feeding far more into it, and the blade sparked much more, with small arcs of lightning jumping up and down the blade. When used in combat it would discharge into the target, stunning or burning them. As for its use as a flying sword, it only really sped up during storms. Though it sped up slightly any time there was lightning nearby, even in a storm cloud overhead, if one were to feed it more chi at such a time it could reach speeds far greater than even the burst speeds of a Fire flying sword. Some had attempted to wrap lightning around the blade or use other lightning powers to artificially create such conditions, but unless the power altered the weather the attempt always failed. For that reason Lightning swords were considered far less useful and therefore only used in rare circumstances, like when one wanted to disorient their opponent with the stun effect or when a person had a natural strong affinity with Lightning.


    When she was done she went to put it on the rack but Master Chen asked to see it. He looked at the blade, inspecting the sword, and she informed him that he could power it with Fire chi if he wanted, but it would be less efficient. He just smiled and the blade lit up with massive arcs jumping across it. When spots on the blade started to glow slightly from the heat of the discharges, he backed off on the amount of chi he was feeding it. ¡°I actually learned the Metal to Lightning ability when I was an Outer Disciple, as I have an affinity for Metal chi and was considering becoming a Smith.¡± He removed the Lightning chi and the blade returned to normal. ¡°I damaged this blade slightly from overheating it with my lightning, so you can have it.¡± he said, handing her the blade. ¡°Good job, though.¡±


    She took the blade and thanked him for it before putting it in her bag. While she didn¡¯t know much about smithing, she did know that they used Fire chi to heat the blades, then cooled them with Water chi to do something called ¡®tempering¡¯, which let the blade spring back better and hold a better edge. By heating the blade with his Lightning chi, Master Chen had damaged that tempering, and the blade would need to be retempered to be salable. That, however, would remove the chi from the formation, making it necessary to imbue the formation with chi once again. Still, the blade wasn¡¯t worthless, especially if one only wished to use it to fly. It would merely break faster than a comparable sword if used in combat.


    ¡°I¡¯ve given your idea some thought.¡± he continued. ¡°If you will give me a few days to practice the new symbols, and make sure you can make the defensive and self cleaning ones yourself, I will let you imbue your friend¡¯s armor. Furthermore, as this was your idea, you will earn an extra contribution point for each item you personally imbue. I can¡¯t pay you royalties on the ones I make, but if you want I can make imbuing armor your full time job here, and hire someone else to work on swords and talismans, as I was planning on hiring additional help anyway.¡±


    Shen agreed and was handed a scroll on the proper method to engraving leather, as it had some unique properties which metal, wood, and jade didn¡¯t have, such as its flexibility. While she had to keep making swords for the rest of the day, and was even allowed to imbue one of the medium quality swords that only Master Chen was previously allowed to work with, she was given several pieces of scrap leather to take home and practice on. She practiced on them that night and within a few hours she was able to work with the material just as well as she could with the others, even making a few pieces of glowing leather for practice. These were always on, but because the cheap leather she had been given was an inferior material to even green jade the light was dimmer, even being dimmer than a candle. They could be used continuously, however, so they could pull them out any time they wanted light and could use several of them if they wanted to read.


    The next morning she gave the two boys one of the scraps to use as a reading light, having left a few in her room for her and Mae, and took the best of them to work with her to show to Master Chen. He was interested in the design and, after cutting them into a better shape and adding a leather strap, hung them up in the shop to be sold for one stone or five points, with Shen keeping all of the money. While he could have made a slight bit of money on the artificial lights, he had decided that their true value lay in drawing in new customers who would be interested in what relics could do.

 Chapter 20

    Several months passed, with both Shen and Ponma getting a year older. Shen, now fourteen and slightly more developed, was starting to draw the attention of many of the younger men of the sect. While not outright driving them away had first started as a way to just be nice to them, she soon discovered that it was good enough to draw them to the Relic Shop.


    The store had greatly changed over the last few months. The armor improvements had brought in a huge amount of business and Master Chen had been forced to bring in two more apprentices who both showed an interest in relic crafting. The first was a girl named Breen. She was fifteen and loved the idea of single use formations like talismans. As she was a much more social person than the rest of them, she was the one who mainly worked with customers, the other three spending all of their time making items. She only made talismans when they had no customers for her to deal with, but it still resulted in them keeping the talisman stock almost full from her work alone.


    The second was a boy name Timp, twelve years old. He had seen the glowing necklaces and immediately become obsessed with the possibilities of formations. He had read several fantastical stories about moving objects which could do work, and wanted to learn relic crafting so that he could one day build golems and puppets. For now, however, he was mass producing swords like Shen once had, and occasionally making utility items like the necklaces which had drawn him in or magic pots for brewing tea when they ran low on stock. The last item used gathered chi which was converted to Fire chi to heat water, but was unable to boil it due to its low power.


    Shen and Master Chen were both working on armor, though the occasional special order for weapons work also went to the master. They had both bought a copy of the Intermediate guide and started making items from it, such as weapons that could throw their effect, similar to how Danka had thrown Sword Chi at her during the tournament. Shen, however, preferred the effect which recharged the wearer¡¯s mana. She had imbued over a dozen pieces of armor with that effect and, as such, learn much about how to improve it, as well as several safety features that could be added. This directly went into creating a new bracelet from the white jade bracelet she had purchased, one which safely fed her chi twice as fast as the other pair at an improved nine percent purity, being able to reach ten and a half if left to purify her chi long enough. They now took more than half as long to refill her reserves, though, at four hours, as she had been hard at work strengthening her cultivation base and expanding her chi reserves.


    The two bracelets which she took off were given to Danka. He seem embarrassed to accept them. It was just because he needed them the most, as his training exhausted his supply faster. At least that¡¯s what she told herself. She wasn¡¯t sure why, but recently she had been thinking of him occasionally, for some reason thinking about how well his body cultivation was going. She had no idea why.


    To keep things fair she made a copy of her bracelet for all three of them, allowing them to also recharge their chi faster. For Danka, however, who had the benefit of the armor and the other two bracelets, it wasn¡¯t needed, but he seemed to keep the other two bracelets on him, even when he wore the superior white one. Most of the time, however, they were in his bag.


    The Water Blossom business was also thriving. Now that the spring was here more children and adults were willing to work for them, and several outer disciples had transferred from jobs they disliked to working for Shen and Ponma, bringing jars back to the warehouse several times a day. All of these were sold at least twice a week to the sect, who had the large number of apprentice alchemists turn them into water chi pills, which were then shipped to the war front. The increase in sunlight, both in intensity and length, had almost doubled the Water Blossom harvest, and now the adults she had hired were bringing them in even easier.


    Occasionally Sho would show up at Fisher to collect jars of Blossoms and, while she and Shen would exchange pleasantries, they never brought up that one incident that had caused them to split apart. Shen had secretly told Ponma about Sho¡¯s real identity and that she had agreed to sell Sho jars at one stone each, and he allowed the business to continue. That trade also brought in a few rare spirit plant parts from the mountain, as many of the dragons preferred to barter instead of use money like stones, so they were able to complete a few missions for the sect as well, selling the ones that weren¡¯t being hunted for to the alchemist sisters Mae worked for.


    As the herbs outside had started to grow Mae was spending all of her time in the gardens around town tending to the spirit herbs that were grown there. While they didn¡¯t technically require an alchemist to grow properly, an alchemist was able to fine tune their growing conditions to make them grow properly and become whatever would be most useful in alchemy. This had resulted in Mae coming home late every day, usually leaving the fields shortly after sunset after double checking the growth of the nocturnal species then returning to the alchemist¡¯s shop to report in. Because of this, they had seen little of each other over the last month.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Shen asked an exhausted Mae, temporarily taking a break from her latest attempt to incorporate her Dragon Scales ability into a protection amulet. Mae looked completely exhausted.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine.¡± she said, flopping onto her bed without bothering to even remove her shoes first. ¡°We just had a harvest today. The spirit grass came in strong enough that I could do the first harvest of the year. Tomorrow I¡¯m going to spend most of the day making pills instead of working with the herbs.¡±


    ¡°Is spirit grass that useful?¡± asked Shen. ¡°I thought it was only useful for removing toxins in the Cleansing stage.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s much more than that.¡± she said, barely keeping her eyes open. It was odd to see a twelve year old that was this tired. ¡°It¡¯s used in those because it removes a wide range of impurities. But when you mix spirit plants together it creates impurities. So, you have to remove them during the Blending stage of pill creation, or the toxins will go into the person that takes them. Sure, a cultivator¡¯s body will remove them, but that could take hours, and if too many build up it will make them sick, and might even start restricting chi flow in their meridians or even blocking them altogether.¡±


    ¡°So, you mix spirit grass in so that the toxins are removed during the creation process rather than after they are consumed?¡±


    ¡°Yep. Got it right. It¡¯s not quite perfect, but you can get the pills above 90% purity pretty easily, which lets you use some tricks to make the pill even more effective.¡± For the last few sentences she had her eyes closed, so Shen took her shoes off and put her in bed properly.


    ¡°I¡¯ll let you get some sleep then,¡± she said, covering Mae up. She then turned off the light and left the room.


    Shen left the Earth district and wandered the town, looking at the various shops that were spread around. In the last few months thousands of new people had moved into the city in order to work, and to help the sect in its quest to reinforce those fighting on the front with supplies that were made here. Many new shops had sprouted throughout the city, causing the price of rent for shop space to drastically increase. As Ponma had predicted, the value of stones had increased to seven points, and there were rumors that the sect planned on increasing the price even further. Stones, after all, were useful in making talismans and other relics, as ground spirit stone was part of the formula for talisman ink. Furthermore, they could be used to rapidly restore a person¡¯s chi reserves, one stone being able to almost completely restore the energy of some early Gathering cultivators. While the energy it contained was neutral, those that were in the Foundation stage could simply rely on their dantian to turn it into the proper types of elemental chi, and those in the Gathering phase could simply learn to convert it as it was needed.


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    Though all of the goods sent to the front were given to the nations and sects for free, there was such need that the armies of the various nations which faced the demon armies competed for who would receive the supplies. The great value of these supplies also resulted in an increase of bandit activity along every road which lead into the disputed territory, resulting in thousands of escaping refugees dying daily and requiring that every shipment be protected by a large number of cultivators. For this reason, the sect had hired the Soul Blade mercenary group to protect their caravan, and many of them now stayed in the outer city at any time.


    Shen noticed a new restaurant that had opened up in the Water district near the border with the Wood district. It was advertising a new type of desert from the Lake region, though it was made locally. It was called ¡®Ice Cream¡¯ and was apparently some type of frozen milk product. She wondered what it would taste like and soon found herself sitting down at a table inside the restaurant, ordering the treat.


    As she waited she overheard one of the groups at the nearby table. The men there were complaining about the long trip they had just returned from, having just escorted one of the caravans heading to the front and only having a few days of down time before they had to leave again. Shen noticed that all of them had a tattoo of a glowing orb with a sword through it on their arm. This was the symbol of the Soul Blade group, though she had never heard of them tattooing it on themselves, only leaving it on their equipment.


    ¡°Excuse me.¡± she said, trying her best to be nice to them, but she had wanted to ask questions about the war for over a month and they would be an excellent source of information. ¡°Can you tell me what it¡¯s like on the front?¡±


    They looked at her, a bit surprised that someone had interrupted their meal, and their leader spoke up. ¡°Depends on if you can make it worth my while.¡± He eyed her up and down like he was inspecting livestock.


    Shen immediately pulled out a spirit stone and placed in on the table in front of him. He looked at her, then at the stone. ¡°Eh, I suppose you¡¯re a bit young for my tastes.¡± he said, then pocketed the stone. ¡°So, what do you want to know about the front?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the war like?¡± she asked. ¡°I heard that thousands of soldiers and hundreds of cultivators were dying every day.¡±


    The man nodded before taking a swig of ale. ¡°At least that many. It¡¯s no place for a little girl.¡±


    ¡°And the Demons? What are they like?¡±


    The man smiled. ¡°You really want to know?¡± he asked, and Shen nodded her head. He giggled. ¡°They actually look a lot like us. Some of the smarter people at the front even think they might be humans, but just twisted. Like Demonic cultivators, but with even less sympathy. I¡¯m not sure about that, but I do know that every one I¡¯ve seen looked like a normal person, except for the blue, purple, or red skin tone and the red or yellow eyes. In fact, I reckon that with a simple illusion they could be hiding among us. Who knows, I might even be a demon.¡± He looked at a concerned Shen for a few seconds before laughing loudly, his men joining in. ¡°I¡¯m just messing with you. They do look a lot like us, but from what I can tell, not many of them have the skill to use illusions, and I doubt any of them have learned proper shifting like spirit beasts do.¡±


    ¡°Not strong enough?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Hardly. Even the weakest of their soldiers is Foundation, and I¡¯m not talking about the weak version that passes for Foundation this far from the front. I¡¯m talking about the kind you get after decades of body tempering and base building. I¡¯ve seen them take on a dozen guys that were at the Foundation stage and win, and barely be winded from it. Some people have even started saying that maybe demons don¡¯t have a limit on their chi reserves. Of course, I know that ain¡¯t true, as I¡¯ve seen them get worn out, but it¡¯s hard to do that. We have them outnumbered ten to one and they are still pushing us back.¡±


    ¡°Then why wouldn¡¯t they be able to learn shifting?¡± Shen made her hair green and eyes red just to demonstrate.


    ¡°Not bad, girly, though that isn¡¯t actually shifting, so much as an illusion. To answer your question, though, they don¡¯t have the patience for it. I bet it took you weeks or months just to learn that little trick?¡± Shen nodded. ¡°Well, to them, that¡¯s a week or month that they wasted which they could have spent training. From what I can tell, their whole structure is based around the strong being able to do what they want, when they want. Though that might just be their military. In a society like that, you spend every waking moment trying to get stronger so that there are fewer people that can step on you just because they like to hear you scream.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Thank you. That is all I wanted to know.¡± She put an extra Stone on the table and went back to her table. The Mercenary nodded and pocketed the stone before going back to his drink and the large steak in front of him which was likely from some local spirit beast. After all, it was a cheap source of food when the Mission Hall was already sending people out to kill the creature.


    The waitress brought over the ice cream and Shen looked at it. It was a full bowl, with bits of dried fruit around it and with a spoon of some sort of ground nut on top, something they called ¡®nut butter¡¯, though it seemed more like nut paste. Honestly, it was too much for one person to eat, especially when they had already eaten Last Meal. Next time she would have to invite some of her friends to eat it with her. That would at least justify the one stone cost of the dish. She scooped some onto her spoon and put it in her mouth. It was sweet, but not too sweet, like a fruit almost, but far smoother. It melted on her tongue, making the experience even more unusual, but more interesting. She quickly tried it with a bit of the nut butter and found that it was even better. The fruit also gave it a good, but different, flavor. She would definitely have to return here to eat it again later. As she ate the roof of her mouth started to hurt, feeling like it was freezing, but she simply spent a few seconds cycling Fire chi through the minor meridians near that location to prevent the effect, allowing her to finish it quickly.


    Shen gave the waitress the stone and got up slowly. She had just eaten enough for at least two people, and felt like she was going to be sick. She continued her walk and, as she did, thought about what the mercenary captain had said. If demons were that strong, how would they be able to take them on? This at least explained the extremely high death counts she had heard about. If they could fight for so long while using so much chi, then the people of the sect would need to get stronger, quickly. Maybe that was why the elders had decided to change the rules and allow the use of more relics, as well as bringing in the two new books. Shen had read them both, and from what she could tell they were two different but complimentary paths to improving one¡¯s strength. Through Body Cultivation one could improve their body so that the chi which flowed through it was even more effective at increasing the cultivator¡¯s strength, endurance, reactions and perception. And by working on your base you could ensure that you had the energy to make the most of those improvements as well as the ability to last far longer in battle and make extensive use of your abilities.


    Soon Shen returned to her room. Tomorrow she would swing by the Library before going to work, getting a book on Illusions. She needed to know how they worked so she could see through them. She wasn¡¯t convinced that no demon would learn to do it. Such abilities would simply be too useful to a spy, and she couldn¡¯t think of any reason an invader wouldn¡¯t have at least a few spies.


    When she returned to her room, Mae was asleep so Shen didn¡¯t bother producing any light. Instead she sat down on her bed and started to meditate. While before she had thought that cultivating for an hour or two per day was enough, now that she heard what the demons were like, she knew that her efforts were effectively worthless. She at least had a proper goal now. She had heard similar descriptions of the Dragons, as they were also in possession of vast reserves of chi. So they would be her goal. She decided that every day she would spend at least two hours in meditation trying to reach their level, though she would spend more time whenever she had the opportunity. Besides, she was part dragon, and it wasn¡¯t unheard of for people to unlock new bloodline traits through meditation. Maybe one day she would be able to do the same.


    She pushed herself to meditate even deeper than before and started cycling chi through her meridians as quickly as she could, letting it reinforce everything it went through. Eventually she found herself getting sleepy, but she simply sent some Wood chi into her brain and cycled it through the meridians there. Soon the sleepiness went away. She knew that one couldn¡¯t completely negate the need for sleep before Foundation stage, which was one reason that was considered the point at which one became a true cultivator, but for one or two nights it would be fine.


    She didn¡¯t know how long she had been meditating until she felt a quake. She concentrated on it and realized that someone was shaking her body. Right. A body was a thing she had. She had gotten so deep into meditation that she had only been able to see her meridians, chi, and dantian. She noticed that the minor meridians were less dense than she wanted, but couldn¡¯t fix that without returning to the Cleansing stage, so she simply reinforced the ones she had instead.


    Right, body. She had let herself return to that space inside herself. She willed herself to come out of meditation and, after feeling like she was swimming to the surface after being at the bottom of a lake, she opened her eyes. Bright light came in through the window and on the desk was a note from Mae. ¡°I tried to wake you, but you seemed to be too deep in meditation. I¡¯m going to the cafeteria. Join me if you want. Mae.¡± The ink was already dry which meant that she had written this at least a few minutes ago.


    Shen changed her clothes and went to the cafeteria. The meal had just finished and they were cleaning up. That meant that she was supposed to be at work already. She Released a bit of chi into her legs and started running, making it inside a few minutes later.


    ¡°Oh, there you are.¡± said Breen. ¡°I guess you overslept.¡± She handed Shen a chalk board. ¡°Here are the armor orders for today. Master Chen is off in the Fire and Metal districts getting more weapons and armor to work on, so, for now, you won¡¯t have him looking over your shoulder.¡± With that Breen once again picked up her paint brush and started writing on the talisman paper, making yet another basic attack talisman on her grind to be the best talisman maker in the Sect.

 Chapter 21

    At lunch she went to the Library to look for a book on Illusions, intent on being able to see through them so that she wasn¡¯t caught by Demon spies. Then she remembered a book she had seen there but never purchased. ¡®The Complete Dragon Technique Guide¡¯. If she wanted to emulate the dragons, what better source book could she have?


    She paid for both, the went to the cafeteria to quickly eat something before returning to work. As she ate she read over the first chapters of the Illusion book. It described illusions as the ability to trick the mind into thinking it sensed something which it didn¡¯t. She got so caught up in the book that she barely returned to work in time.


    For the next several days she would read anytime she was eating and for two hours at night. She also spent two of the next three nights in meditation, relying on Mae to wake her up in time and skipping First Meal, instead eating field rations at work.


    Shortly after getting there she was working on a shield for one of the town guards, adding the protection array to it. The main problem she was facing when creating better formations was insufficient energy. The chi gathering arrays on her bracelet could only work as well as would be required for a medium Gathering grade barrier, though a gathering array of that size on the armor would only be able to manage an earlier Gathering grade barrier at best, if not initial due to the fact that spirit beast leather was an inferior material to jade, especially white jade. In comparison, the entire back of the armor¡¯s chest piece was covered in a gathering array and it was only able to gather slightly above the energy needed for a late Gathering barrier. A shield, which was larger than the chest piece and circular, so there was little wasted space, could be given a Peak Gathering grade barrier. The energy required by the barrier increased exponentially, while the energy gathered by the array increased proportional to the diameter, so the array needed to almost be exponentially larger to gather enough chi to power formations.


    For this reason few devices at the Foundation stage or above only used an array to power them, instead using spirit stones or crystals which could store chi for bursts of power. Her magic bag, for example, while being a Gathering phase Space element item, had spirit stones sowed into it, and only needed to draw on large amounts of chi when things entered or leaved it. Outside of those times, the natural rate at which slightly depleted spirit stones would recharge themselves was enough to keep it powered indefinitely. As this option was expensive, however, most devices at that level were powered by the chi of the user, which is why a storage ring wasn¡¯t provided to a sect member until they reached Foundation. It required Foundation levels of chi to open it so that things could be inserted or removed.


    As she finished the Chi Gathering array on the shield someone entered the store. She heard him talking to Breen at the counter, and he sounded familiar, so she set the shield down and went to the front of the shop. The man turned out to be the mercenary captain from the restaurant. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s miss money bags. You work here?¡±


    Shen nodded while dusting some metal shavings off of her shirt. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m in charge of imbuing the armor that comes in, though any Foundation level arrays have to be made by the boss.¡±


    ¡°In that case, you are probably who I need to speak with. Some of the guards I talked to mentioned that this place was the one that did the engraving on their armor, so I figured I would come by and have the same thing done to mine.¡± He opened a magic bag and pulled out a suit of armor, laying it on the counter.


    Shen picked up the chest piece. It appeared to be two pieces, a leather inner layer and a mail outer layer. ¡°Well, I can¡¯t really do much with the mail.¡± she said before folding it and putting it to the side. ¡°It¡¯s pretty much impossible to engrave. You¡¯ll need to have that imbued with some sort of essence from a monster if you want it to have special properties. I¡¯d see if any of the blacksmiths in the Metal district can do it. The leather, though is fine. Nice, thick spirit beast leather. I should be able to give it a high level Gathering grade barrier.¡±


    The Mercenary nodded. ¡°I was hoping for something in the Foundation stage, if possible. Name¡¯s Dav by the way.¡±


    ¡°Shen.¡± she said, then thought about it. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if the boss can make a Foundation level barrier formation. It¡¯s a bit tricky. I¡¯ll have to ask him.¡± She went to ask Master Chen about it, then came back to the front a few minutes later, shaking her head. ¡°He says that he¡¯s never been able to pull it off, so he won¡¯t risk ruining your armor and having to replace it. The formation is pretty tricky, though, so you would probably need experience with a Foundation level barrier technique to pull it off, so I can see why he failed. He isn¡¯t a fighter.¡±


    ¡°You are, right?¡± the man said, ¡°You seem to have a lot of muscle for a little girl.¡±


    ¡°Little girl? Weren¡¯t you hitting on me when we first met?¡± she teased.


    ¡°I was drunk and wasn¡¯t seeing clearly.¡± he quickly responded. ¡°Besides, the lighting was bad, and you looked older.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡± said Shen, clearly not accepting the pervert¡¯s excuse. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m a fighter. Never really learned the normal barrier spells, but I have a technique that does the same thing, so I can make the Gathering level barriers.¡±


    ¡°Why not the Foundation ones?¡± he asked, confused.


    ¡°Mostly because you have to understand the formation before you can make it. As I¡¯ve never been at Foundation stage, I have no understanding of the things Foundation stage techniques can do, and therefore can¡¯t defend against them. I can, however, make you a False Foundation grade barrier formation in the early level, maybe even the middle level.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the difference?¡±


    ¡°False rank barriers are basically just an overcharged version of a lower stage spell. Like this.¡± She held her hands in front of her and made a massive fire ball the size of her head, putting enough Fire chi into it to break through a simple Foundation rank barrier with brute force. After a few seconds she reabsorbed the chi. ¡°It won¡¯t be able to protect against any actual Foundation stage techniques, but since so many people just do what I did and overcharge Cleansing or Gathering stage techniques, it should be useful.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°And it would just be powered from ambient chi, like the guard armor? If so, why didn¡¯t you do that for the guards? Is it hard to do?¡±


    ¡°Kind of, but that¡¯s not the reason. It draws too much chi to be powered from a gathering array without some sort of storage, which is expensive, needing a spirit beast core.¡± She remembered that she had bought one but never used it. She should probably do something with it. ¡°I would need to power it off of the person, but if they aren¡¯t at least Foundation stage, I doubt they would be able to keep it on all day long without exhausting themselves.¡±


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    ¡°So, I¡¯d face the same issue, as I¡¯m Peak Gathering, like you?¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I might be able to work around that by making it so that the barrier isn¡¯t always on. I have two ways I can do that. The first is that it only comes on when your chi reserve is above a certain level. Assuming your chi refills quickly enough, at Peak Gathering it would probably be able to operate in standby without wearing you out too much, but would deplete your reserves while in battle. I just don¡¯t know where it would balance out, as chi restores faster the more it¡¯s depleted. If you were constantly at 70% of your full reserve, you would only be at 70% of your strength, reaction time, endurance, etcetera, and thus wouldn¡¯t be able to perform as well. Plus you would be closer to it turning off in battle because it reached the cut off point.


    The second requires a bit more effort from you. I could put a switch in it, so you could turn it off and on as you needed it. Like this.¡± She grabbed a Mark 2 light amulet from the shelf and showed it to him. ¡°If you put a tiny bit of chi into this formation here, where my finger is, it turns the light on.¡± she demonstrated and the light came on. ¡°And if you do it again, it turns off.¡± She sent another bit of chi and it turned off.


    She handed him the amulet and he turned it off and on a few times to get used to it. ¡°So I would just need to turn the armor on before battle, and off afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Yep. Of course, if you forget it could knock you out from chi depletion, but you have probably trained to withstand that and would just be stuck at the level of a mortal. I could, of course, add the low chi formation as well if you want to prevent that, say cutting it off when your pressure reaches Cleansing level, but that would cost extra.¡±


    He nodded and handed the amulet back. ¡°Speaking of that, how expensive will it be, and how long would it take?¡±


    ¡°Well, I could have it finished by the end of the day, but it will be expensive as I need to use better materials. Say, fifty stones at least, plus another five for the low chi cutoff, as that¡¯s a bit complicated to do.¡±


    He rubbed his chin for a few seconds while thinking. ¡°Honestly, fifty five stones is more than a month¡¯s wages, but if it saves my life it¡¯s worth it. Fine. Do both the switch and the cutoff, plus the strongest barrier you can make.¡±


    Shen nodded and started taking his chest piece to the back. That¡¯s when she realized she forgot the other parts of the armor. ¡°Oh, the barrier will only cover your chest, by the way. I¡¯m not sure I can make as strong of a barrier on the bracers or greaves, and they would cost fifty five each as well.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine if it¡¯s just the chest piece. Losing a limb is preferable to losing your life. Just put the standard formation on them. Ten stones each for them, right?¡± Shen nodded and grabbed the rest to take to the back.


    ¡°You need to pay half in advance.¡± she heard Breen say as she went through the curtain separating the two sections, and heard the man start to place stones on the counter. Eighty five stones was an expensive job, but Shen would gladly pay that much if it meant saving her life.


    She set the shield to the side, as she had several days to complete it, and started on the mercenary¡¯s armor, first drawing the patterns in ink so she was certain she didn¡¯t make any mistakes. The Formation consisted of several parts, all of which needed to be balanced for maximum efficiency. After all, all arrays leaked power, and the larger they were the worse the leak would be, so they needed to be as small as possible for the job they did.


    The first component was simple, the switch. It simply cut off the flow of chi through the circuit based on if it was closed or open. It was easy enough to make that even Timp could make it, though he only actually used the circuit when making the mark 2 amulets. The second component was the collection array. This one was small, as it was collecting from a person and therefore didn¡¯t need the extra size to work better. Third was the low energy cutoff. It was also small, though the size of her thumbnail instead of the pinky nail like the others. Fourth was the compression circuit. In order to project a stronger barrier it would need to bring the pressure of the chi up to the middle Foundation stage¡¯s level of pressure. It was about the size of the palm, as it require a large amount of energy to compress peak Gathering level chi into middle Foundation level chi. Last was the barrier formation. This one needed to be as big as possible to do the best job.


    That was when she ran into an issue. For the formation to work the best, she would need to put two of these on the armor, as they could overlap their effects. But if she did that she would need two collection, limit, compression, and switch arrays. If she¡¯d have thought about it before she would have asked the customer, but as she had marked up the price by quite a bit, she could still afford to do it, at least this once. She settled on making duplicates of the formations on the front and back, but with a single switch controlling both of the others, so he wouldn¡¯t have to bother with switching both. This would mean that she didn¡¯t have to run chi conduits under the arms, risking damage and leaking more chi.


    Shen ended up finishing the chest piece after the normal closing time and decided to do the other three pieces tomorrow morning.


    The next morning she arrived early and finished the other pieces. She had made enough of them that, at that size, she only took thirty minutes on each one. She then went back to the shield she was working on the day before.


    The mercenary came in around lunch time to pick up his armor and was impressed by the work. ¡°The switch is at the base of your neck on the back. It controls two other switches between your shoulder blades.¡± The gathering array was, of course, in the middle of his chest and at the bottom of his shoulder blades, where it was closest to his dantian and could therefore gather chi the quickest. ¡°I realized when I was working on it that it would be best to do two formations for the barrier, so I had to do twice as many formations.¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t going to cost me more, is it?¡± he asked, a bit concerned.


    ¡°No, it was my decision, after all, not yours. I would have been able to get it to full power without doing that, but it would have taken just as long to carve because I would have needed to make a much more complex formation. This way I was able to use only a slightly modified version of the one I normally use, which is optimized for energy use. They should use about the same amount of chi as each other, with similar performance, but this one is easier to make, so I should be able to do it faster in the future.¡± Shen didn¡¯t mention the fact that she could have combined the two to make it use half the chi if not less, but that would have taken twice as long and greatly increased the price. Maybe she would do that on a custom job or project later.


    He nodded and paid the rest of the money, putting his armor in his bag. ¡°So, how do I know it¡¯s good quality?¡±


    ¡°Put it on and activate the barrier.¡± Shen said. ¡°In fact, if you want to test it, we can go to one of the training fields and I can demonstrate.¡± He remembered the Fire ball she had made yesterday and realized that she would be able to test it properly.


    ¡°Fine.¡± he said, nodding his head, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    Shen went into the back to tell Master Chen that she was going out to demonstrate the quality of her work to a customer, and they left.


    Once they got to the field they asked the field master if they could borrow one and were allowed to borrow a sparring platform. On the field beside them Commander Kril was running the youngest guards, including Danka, through a training routine. The guards had started doing more training and fewer patrols recently. The town was a pretty peaceful place, so this hadn¡¯t significantly increased crime rates even with the mercenaries in town, as they mostly got drunk or spent time at the brothel rather than commit crimes, and as such rarely cause problems worse than a public brawl.


    After Dav came out of the changing room the trainees stopped their practice swings and came over to watch. ¡°Ok, then,¡± he said to Shen. ¡°Do I just feel out where the switch is and send some chi there?¡± Shen nodded and a few seconds later he managed to touch just the right spot with his chi, activating the field. A yellow transparent layer covered his torso and he knew that even without the mail over the armor he was far better protected than before.


    ¡°Ready?¡± Shen asked and when he nodded she put her hands in front of her and began channeling her chi into a massive fire ball. Once it reached the size of her head she hurled it at his chest. The ball impacted and exploded, sending him flying backwards by five meters before hitting the ground. He stood up just seconds later, however, and the armor wasn¡¯t even damaged, with only his hair getting a bit singed by the explosion. ¡°So, what do you think?¡±


    ¡°Definitely worth the money.¡± he said. ¡°How much chi did you put into that, anyway? It packed more of a punch than I was expecting.¡±


    ¡°About half my Fire chi, and it¡¯s at about ten percent purity right now.¡±


    Dav whistled. It wasn¡¯t common for someone at Gathering to have such pure chi.


    ¡°Quite impressive.¡± said the field master, walking over to them. ¡°I assume you are the Shen that¡¯s been imbuing the guard¡¯s armor?¡±


    ¡°Yep, that¡¯s me.¡± she said.


    The field master nodded. ¡°In that case, do you mind if I test the armor with one of my techniques? I promise to pay for your treatment and armor repairs if it breaks through.¡±


    Dav nodded. ¡°Sure, you can test it. It should be able to block at least a middle Foundation strength attack, though not a true Foundation technique.¡±


    The field Master nodded and once they were in position, drew his sword. It was a high grade Metal flying sword. He fed it Metal chi, then, once he was sure Dav was ready, pushed off the stone floor with Earth chi. He seemed to become a streak as he was at Dav¡¯s position in less than a second, then stabbed his sword at just the right time to add the energy of his movement to the stab.


    Once again Dave was knocked backwards, this time by ten meters, before rolling another five. When he got up, however, there was no blood or obvious damage to the armor. He was, however, holding his stomach. ¡°That¡¯s going to leave a bruise.¡± he said as he walked back to where he started.


    ¡°Impressive¡± said the field Master before addressing Shen. ¡°I think you underestimated the strength of your barrier, little lady. No barrier below High Foundation has ever blocked that technique, and he got off with no more than some bruises.¡±

 Chapter 22

    Before she had even returned to the store they had already received visitors who were asking about the new armor. It was only the fact that Breen had remembered that one needed to be peak Gathering for one¡¯s chi reserves to last long with the armor that prevented every member of the guard from trying to order such armor.


    Shen knew that there was research which she could do to improve the armor, increasing its protection or decreasing the cost or chi use. The chi use or protection could be improved by using the more efficient formation, and there may be different materials she can use which would lower the production cost. Improving her understanding of the effect, however, would both decrease the chi usage and improve the protection, allowing her to further decrease the chi use in order to adjust the strength of the barrier. And, of course, if she could figure out how to incorporate her Dragon Scales, or acquire materials from a magical beast with a dragon bloodline, she could improve it even further. So, rather than accept the orders immediately, she asked Master Chen for the rest of the day off, then went to the training field.


    The first thing to do was to improve her understanding of the Wall technique. It was the most basic Cleansing level form that a barrier could take, as far as she was aware, and was something she learned just so that she would be able to make her first round of protection amulets. It wasn¡¯t a formal technique, but was a fragment of one, like the Bolt or Ball forms, and any type of chi could be made into a wall in order to intercept attacks. To use it, one merely needed to put a layer of chi between themselves and the attack, like a blanket or net meant to catch the attack. It did, however, formed the basis for many further barrier techniques.


    Shen asked the field master in charge of the recent recruits for their permission to use the children for something. The Sect had switched to formal training in many basic magical techniques which anyone could attend, but only the latest group and a few children from last year¡¯s group took them up on the offer. After introducing herself to the children, some of which were only three and a half years younger than her, she stood at the end of the range in front of the target dummies. ¡°Ok, kids. I need to test a barrier. So here is what I want you to do. Throw your strongest attack at me as much as possible. If you get through my barrier, I will give you a spirit stone.¡± The best way to test a barrier, after all, was against live fire. These children would only have had a few months of practice with the technique, however, so there power shouldn¡¯t be greater than middle Gathering at best, even if a kid had begun to cultivate before coming here, like she had.


    Excited about such a large possible reward, many of the children started charging up the strongest technique they could manage, though none of them were able to beat Shen¡¯s expectation, with only a few meeting it. A few seconds later they started throwing their techniques. While the barrier stood up to the first few attacks easily, each consecutive attack was a bit harder to block. Shen started pouring more chi into the barrier, but this rapidly depleted her reserves. Even with the faster regeneration from her bracelet she was barely able to keep up. She forced herself to focus harder and find weaknesses in the barrier which can be repaired.


    After a minute or two all of the children had depleted all of their chi. Shen thought she was finished when another group of recruits came over. These children, most of which were from last year¡¯s recruits, had been practicing their physical combat in a nearby field and heard about her offer. They were about to start launching their attacks immediately, but she held up her hand. ¡°Let me refill my chi real quick while I think about how I can improve it.¡±


    She sat down on the end of the field and let her bracelet refill her chi while she meditated on how she had performed. She noticed several times she had started to lose concentration and noticed several flaws in her barrier which would weaken it. They were like runs in a piece of cloth which would let it tear more easily. She practiced making small barriers with fewer weaknesses and, while she couldn¡¯t remove all of them, her barriers now were much improved. She opened her eyes to see the kids looking bored, so she sighed and pulled out a spirit stone.


    She held it between her palms, completely wrapping her hands around it, and started absorbing it as fast as she could. At first it only refilled her slowly, but once she reduced it to less than 98% of full capacity it could no longer draw in energy to replenish itself as it naturally released it and started to collapse, releasing exponentially more chi with each second. After about thirty seconds the entire stone had been absorbed and she checked how much chi she had now. She had gotten approximately 5% of her reserve back from the stone, and was now at 17%. She sighed and grabbed another stone.


    Once she was above ninety percent full, she stood up. It had cost her 16 stones to get to that point, a ridiculous amount of money in most situations, but she couldn¡¯t waste the opportunity here and it had been useful training. ¡°Ok,¡± she said, and the kids looked at her. ¡°I¡¯m ready. Anyone that wants to can throw attacks at my barrier.¡± She held out her hands and formed a barrier with only a few lines of weakness running through it. ¡°Begin.¡±


    The older kids wasted no time in throwing attacks at her and the barrier started to weaken. She reinforced it and realized that it was using 20% less chi than it had at first. That wouldn¡¯t directly translate into a 20% decrease in her formation¡¯s chi usage, as the formation also alters the performance, but it will help. She could perhaps expect a 5-10% chi savings.


    Just as she thought that they were running out of chi, one of the older children stepped forward. He put both hands together and a solid mass of Earth chi began forming between his hands. That wasn¡¯t expected, but she was certain that her barrier could withstand it. Then she realized that it was already Late Gathering in strength and was still getting stronger.


    Shen quickly got to work fixing every flaw she could find in the barrier, but after only a few she found that her every attempt to repair the barrier introduced more flaws elsewhere. She knew that she wouldn¡¯t be able to reinforce it before he launched his attack. So, she should try something different. This was an Earth attack, so she only needed to cancel it or absorb it. Canceling would mean using Wood chi, which was her worst element, so she decided to use Metal. She quickly replaced her barrier with one made of Metal chi. By combining it with the technique that let one fuel their ability off of the feeding element, including the enemy¡¯s attack, it might be able to reinforce her barrier as it tried to break through.


    Once the boy was out of chi he hurled the ball at her. The head-sized mass of energy that looked much like a boulder slammed into the barrier, sending off a metallic ringing sound. Then the boulder started to shrink, making the metal in the barrier purer and therefore improving its strength. Five second later the boulder was gone and, when none of the other children launched an attack, Shen reabsorbed the chi. Interestingly, she actually had more chi than before he had attacked. He must have a large reserve to pour into it.


    The boy cursed. He had thought for certain that he would break through that barrier.


    Shen walked up to him. ¡°Nice attack.¡± she said. ¡°The only problem was that I had a way to counter it with another element. That, combined with the fact that it took too long let me adjust my barrier to the best way to block it.¡±


    The boy gave her a mean look. ¡°So you cheated by changing your barrier.¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t promise not to do that. But if you want to, I can let you try again later when I¡¯m using a neutral barrier. I¡¯m Shen.¡± She held out her hand.


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    He sighed. ¡°Herm.¡± he said, then shook her hand.


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll see if I can come by tomorrow, Herm.¡± With that she thanked the kids for helping her and went to the library.


    She spent the next few hours looking for books on relic crafting. Unfortunately, with the sect having discouraged their use for so many years, it was hard to find anything more than the basics. From the books they had, the only way she found to incorporate a bloodline trait into an object was to use part of the body of the creature that had that trait. She might be able to get a minor improvement by mixing in her own blood with the mana conductive fluid that filled the formation, but to get the actual Dragon Scales ability she would need body parts from a creature with the trait, preferably skin or scales as that is what dragons channeled the ability through. She had no scales of her own and there was no way she would cut off her own skin to add it to the armor, even if a healer could grow it back within hours or minutes, so she would need to find a different source.


    She briefly considered asking Sho the next time they met at Fisher, but decided against it. While Sho would have access to dragon parts and might even be willing to donate some of her own scales, Shen didn¡¯t feel right doing it. It would be like asking a human to donate their fingernail clippings, and would be weird. Maybe she could trade for them with the villagers? Or would that be even weirder? She would have to think about it.


    She did find one minor technique, the Gathering stage Barrier form. It was basically just a stronger version of Wall which wove together threads of chi to make something far stronger which was harder to unravel.


    With no other way to get the materials she needed she went to the mission hall. The sect didn¡¯t yet have a proper monster material vendor like she had heard other sects and cities had, but if she put out a mission for it she might get something.


    She went to the front counter. ¡°Hello.¡± the woman said. ¡°Here to take a mission, Shen? I hadn¡¯t heard that you were promoted to Inner Disciple and don¡¯t see you carrying any magical plants.¡± The last several times Shen was here she was handing in requests for magical plants that either the dragons had traded her or which she had found in the mountains.


    ¡°I¡¯m actually here to create a mission.¡± Shen said. ¡°In order to make better relics I need materials from a specific family of spirit beast.¡±


    The woman nodded but sighed. ¡°That might be difficult. Because spirit beasts become intelligent beings, usually when they reach Foundation, the Elders banned hunting them for sport. We can only hunt them if they are a threat to others, like we would treat bandits.¡±


    Shen scratched her head. ¡°Well, do you have any materials from anything with a dragon bloodline?¡± she asked. ¡°I¡¯m hoping to reinforce a barrier with the Dragon Scales ability, so it likely doesn¡¯t need to be that strong of a bloodline. I know that even beings that are less than 10% dragon can have the ability.¡± She still wasn¡¯t ready to tell them that she was such a being.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± the woman said. ¡°A group killed a Peak Gathering giant snake that was attacking livestock about a week ago. They said it was using some kind of barrier to make it almost impossible to cut without Foundation techniques.¡±


    ¡°That sounds like ¡®Dragon Scales¡¯.¡± said Shen, excitedly. ¡°Any chance you have any of the skin or scales left?¡±


    ¡°There weren¡¯t independent scales.¡± the woman responded. ¡°Just skin. And unfortunately we have already sold the skin to one of the leather workers that is going to make some armor from it.¡±


    ¡°Can you tell me who?¡± Shen asked.


    The woman nodded and gave her the man¡¯s address. Shen also checked on Beast Cores, but apparently they were it too high of a demand, so the mission hall was out of them. Shen couldn¡¯t really afford to buy them in bulk for above the market price, so she simply asked the woman to keep an eye out for any from dragon type beasts and contact her if she saw any, and left. One nice thing about the cores of dragons was that they refilled themselves by automatically generated elemental chi with a higher purity than their stage would suggest, which would be useful for making relics.


    She made her way to the leather worker¡¯s business in the water district. It didn¡¯t exactly smell good, but the smell wasn¡¯t as bad as she thought it would be. She went inside and knocked on the counter and a woman came to the front. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    ¡°My name is Shen.¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m from Chen¡¯s Talismans and Relics. I was told by the Mission Hall that you bought the skin of a giant snake a week ago? I was hoping to buy it.¡±


    The woman nodded and called into the back for the other person that worked there. ¡°My husband bought it, yes. But we¡¯ve already cut it up.¡± Shen looked a bit upset as the woman explained the situation to her husband.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize anyone else would want it. It¡¯s monster leather, though, so I figured it would make good armor.¡± he said.


    ¡°Did you make the armor already?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Some of it, yeah. We don¡¯t start cutting won valuable materials before we are ready to do something with it.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°In that case, can I buy the scrap?¡± No matter how you cut out the shapes from the material there were always scrap pieces left over.


    ¡°Well, some of the bigger pieces might still be useful to make boots or something, but I guess I can sell you some.¡±


    Shen nodded. When the man went to the back of the store to get the scrap she decided to ask the woman something. ¡°Have you sold all of the armor, yet?¡±


    ¡°The two we made were special orders, so yes. Why?¡±


    ¡°Well, I was thinking about buying one for myself.¡± While she already had the ability, she could turn the armor into a show piece, then give it away or sell it if she wanted. There would be some complications to adding formations to it, but Shen was confident she could find a way to add them.


    ¡°Well, we have enough left to make another custom suit, but you¡¯ll have to ask my husband about that. I¡¯m not as good of a leather worker, so I don¡¯t work on the custom orders.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡± said Shen before walking around the showroom to see what was available.


    A minute later the man came back to the front of the store carrying a box. ¡°Here is all of the scrap parts that we have made so far. We only accounted for four full suits of armor when we calculated the material cost of the armor, not this, so what are you willing to pay?¡±


    ¡°Not sure. I don¡¯t know what you paid for the skin, so I don¡¯t know what a fair price would be.¡± After a bit of talking the leather worker couple calculated that the box contained about five percent of the skin. They paid five hundred stones for the skin, so five percent of that would be 25 stones, though they calculated the cost of materials at one quarter of the skin when pricing the custom work, so this was excess material and would be pure profit. Because it was mostly small scraps that weren¡¯t useful for much else Shen managed to eventually talk them into accepting fifteen stones for it, and promised to buy the rest of the scraps at that price as well once they made the two remaining suits and assuming that it was only enough for two new suits.


    Once they finished discussions and Shen paid, she brought up the possibility of buying herself a set of armor made from it. ¡°Unfortunately I can¡¯t make a set for anyone that hasn¡¯t stopped growing yet. It¡¯s impossible to properly size if the person is still growing.¡±


    ¡°Plus,¡± added the wife, ¡°The chest size varies wildly between different women, so I¡¯ll need to measure you separately. We might be able to size you after you turn 16, but probably not before that.¡±


    ¡°Then is it possible to have a suit made it a standard size for a man so I can use it as a display piece in my shop?¡±


    The man shook his head. ¡°If this was just generic spirit beast leather, sure, but it¡¯s a special material, so I don¡¯t want to use it for something other than custom work.¡±


    With no other questions Shen thanked them for their time and left with her box of scrap leather. She got back to work just before closing and got a wooden shield with a metal band around the rim. After shoving it into her bag, the opening barely big enough to allow her to do so, she went home.


    Once there she pulled the shield out of the bag. First, she added a large gathering array to the surface of it, then a gathering array to the back of it which would allow but not force the user to feed it chi. Both were tied into a compression formation that would put the chi at middle Foundation levels of pressure. Then, once she was done, she started measuring and gluing scraps of dragon-snake leather to the surface using a special chi-conductive glue made with powdered jade. Two hours later she had a leather faced shield and several small piles of much smaller scrap pieces.


    Once she was sure the glue was dry and the formations were feeding chi into the material properly, she decided to take it to the field. She shoved it back into her bag just as Mae entered the room. ¡°Hey, Mae.¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m about to head down to the training field to try out a new relic. Want to come along?¡±


    ¡°Actually, I haven¡¯t done any combat training in a while.¡± Mae responded. ¡°So sure.¡±


    They made their way to the field even though it was nighttime. The field had someone on duty all day long so that anyone could practice at any time, but few people came out there at night, so the attendant was surprised to see them. They replaced the shield on one of the training dummies with the shield Shen just finished and went back to the line they were meant to stand behind.


    Once there she and Mae threw all of the attack spells they could at it, Shen even overcharging a lightning bolt before cycling through every element just to make sure.


    Once they were done and their ears had stopped ringing from the sound of the lightning strike, Shen went to get the shield and they returned home. Upon close inspection she could see some minor damage in the tiny cracks between the pieces of scrap. They were essentially acting as the runs in her Wall shield did and letting chi from the attacks get through while lowering the efficiency of the shield¡¯s chi usage.


    She had two ways to fix the issue. The first would be to fill the gaps with the glue or another chi conductive material. This would mostly fix the efficiency issue. The second was to do like the Founders had done with the Jade when building the city and layer the material so that the gap in one layer was covered by solid material in the other. This would fix both but would double the material needed.


    After a few minutes of thought, she decided to try a compromise. She cut some of the smaller scrap pieces which she was unlikely to find another use for into long, thin strips, then glued the strips into the cracks. It took almost an hour to finish, but when she was done she could feel that the defensive ability of the shield had almost doubled. She was now ready for the next round of tests.

 Chapter 23

    The next morning she decided to go into work and work on one of the special order suits of armor. This one was from an Inner Disciple who wanted the same formation as the mercenary. Because they were an Inner Disciple, she knew that they would almost certainly be Foundation stage, and therefore didn¡¯t need the compression circuit. That meant that she could remove it and use the room to make the gathering array bigger, so they could feed chi into the formation more quickly and with less resistance. As the disciple had offered to pay sixty stones for the work instead of the stated fifty five in order to get put at the front of the line, she also used the more elaborate formations to improve the efficiency. She set the emergency cut off at the same point as the last one, the peak of Cleansing, only this customer would be able to fall below Foundation and would have the barrier follow their chi level once it did.


    She tested it to find that it used less than half as much chi as the first set, but produced a barrier that was just as strong. She added the self-cleaning formation to it as a separate circuit as an added bonus and put it in a box for delivery.


    Once she was done she informed Master Chen that she needed to test something she had made and might be late returning from her meal, then went to the training field. Once she got there she notified both sets of children and went to where she had stood yesterday. ¡°Ok, same deal as yesterday, only I have a totally new shield I want to try out.¡± She reached into her bag and pulled out the shield. ¡°In this case, a physical shield that I made last night. All of you can work together, but try to only hit the shield, not me.¡± Just to be safe, she would be keeping her own Dragon Scales up as well, but didn¡¯t tell them that.


    Once she had knelt down behind the shield, she asked them to begin and over sixty children launched their attacks almost simultaneously. About ten percent of the attacks missed her and hit the ground, but thankfully none of them hit her directly. Then a massive ball of Earth chi hit the shield and pushed her backwards slightly, though it didn¡¯t actually injure her. Obviously Herm had tried his best again.


    Once she was sure the attacks had stopped she stood up and examined the shield. It had taken no damage, so she called over to the supervisors. ¡°Hey, if you guys want to try too, you can. It was designed to be Middle Foundation in strength, so it should be able to block your attacks.¡± The field master and the two instructors looked at each other, then readied attacks.


    Shen knelt behind her shield and a few seconds later she started to feel the impact of several attacks hitting her shield. Her arm went numb from the impacts, but she couldn¡¯t let her arm move out of place or she would be hit. After a minute of bombardment the last of the attacks came in, a fireball that pushed her into the wall behind the mannequin.


    She stood up and rubbed her arm and, when the feeling returned, she examined the shield. The only damage she could see was a slight bit of discoloration on the metal rim, likely caused by a fire spell heating it up followed by a water spell rapidly cooling it.


    She walked to where everyone was waiting and thanked them for their help, then gave each of the children a silver coin for helping and the three instructors a gold coin each. Even in total it was worth less than two stones, but the kids seemed to appreciate it, even if it wouldn¡¯t be useful until Caravan day.


    Shen returned to the shop and told Master Chen about the results. After a few questions he agreed to let her sell it here in exchange for splitting the sale price, as she had used his shield. She had enough scrap leather to make another two or three shields, but they weren¡¯t sure what they should charge for the shield, so they decided to let the customer make the offer.


    ¡°One thing I don¡¯t understand,¡± said Timp, ¡°is why you were able to make a Foundation level relic when you are peak Gathering. I thought you had to be the same realm as the formation.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a common misunderstanding.¡± she replied. ¡°You have to have the understanding to produce the effect you want the formation to produce, but technically if I advanced to Foundation, learned a Foundation shield spell, then reset my cultivation I could still make Foundation level shield formations. I just couldn¡¯t improve them any further through understanding because I would lose the extra senses I gained at Foundation.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯ve never been Foundation, right? You¡¯re still an Outer Disciple?¡±


    ¡°Right, but the shield is a special case. Many, but not all, spirit beast or plant parts let you use their bloodline abilities if you provide them with chi. And because it¡¯s a bloodline ability it will improve up to a certain point even if the creature it was taken from was never at that realm. This shield was made from the skin of a giant snake with a Dragon bloodline, and it had the Dragon Scales bloodline ability strongly enough that it could produce a Foundation quality barrier even though the snake was late Gathering.¡±


    After a few more questions, he nodded and returned to his work. He wasn¡¯t bad at making flying swords now, but he wasn¡¯t good enough to make the medium grade ones yet. Shen was barely qualified to do so, in her opinion, and she was far better than him. They simply had too much to do and not enough skilled people to do it. If only they could get more employees. But that wouldn¡¯t help, as there weren¡¯t enough skilled relic crafters in the town. The few experienced ones tended to only make magic bags, storage rings, and flying swords, as they were common even before the rule change. If they wanted one they would have to recruit from a nearby sect or city. The other sects would likely get annoyed, as they would see it as trying to steal their members, but there were enough commoners in the nearby city-states and nations that were competent at relic crafting that they might be able to recruit one. Some of them were even mortals, people who couldn¡¯t use chi, as one could use a charging formation to provide the chi and the person could simply guide it. This only tended to work on the most basic Cleansing stage items, though, as without the experience with gathering chi one couldn¡¯t create arrays.


    She completed another two sets of armor with the basic defensive formation before it was time to close and presented the idea of hiring from another city to Master Chen before leaving. He wasn¡¯t sure if that would be possible, but said that he would think about it.


    That night Shen started reading the Complete Dragon Technique guide. She found many techniques that were early forms of some of the techniques she had already learned, like the techniques to guide chi through muscles to increase strength and how to guide chi through your bones to increase their strength. These two would have been part of the basis for body cultivation. It also had some interesting ideas that she hadn¡¯t come across yet. One of the most shocking was a passage on the nature of cultivation.


    ¡°Within the Laws of Reality, what some call the Heavenly Dao, there is no right or wrong. Morality is a convention of living, thinking beings, not an immutable fact of reality, and therefore reality makes no judgments on moral issues. It is up to you and your society to make such judgments. The Laws of Reality merely describe the universe. They are the basis of the universe, without which we would not exist, at least in the same form we now possess. And it is through the study of these Laws that we gain an understanding of reality and gain the power to effect reality.¡± It then went on to describe how one might go about studying various simpler concepts like the five elements while giving examples.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    She wasn¡¯t sure what she thought about that. She was certain that many people had used that statement to justify immoral acts, but she was also certain that she had no intention of doing so. Perhaps it was statements like that which resulted in the Immoral Dragon Pai Wo being referred to as a philosopher, as such questions require one to think about the nature of reality and morality.


    What was it that made one evil? From what she had learned earlier from asking about demonic cultivators and techniques, it was selfishness. They were willing to put themselves above others to the point that they saw others as a resource. As for the techniques, they were considered evil because they were addictive and harmful to the user. But many things were addictive. There were pain killers and stimulants available from any apothecary which were slightly addictive, and people became addicted to many acts, especially entertainment. There were several gambling addicts in the sect, as well as several alcoholics. Did that make gambling and alcohol evil? Shen didn¡¯t think so. Besides, most people could control themselves and not use them too much, so was it the degree of addictability that determined evil?


    Then there were harmful activities. But there were many such things that people did every day. Every time one stepped into the training field, there was a good chance you would be harmed. Every mission you took from the sect, even the low level ones like picking wild plants, came with risk. But these things weren¡¯t evil. Many were even considered good. Jumping in the way of an attack to prevent it from hitting a friend or loved one was extremely dangerous, but it was widely considered a great Good. So where was that line?


    She pondered the question until she went to sleep. For the next two days she worked half the day and tried to improve her skills in the afternoon, practicing the Barrier technique or the various Five Elements changing techniques so that she could use them better in her formations.


    The next day she started her five day off period, so she made her way to the warehouse after First Meal. Ponma had bought an extra cart, so she loaded it up and pulled it herself. When they arrived she emptied her cart and reloaded it with what Water Blossoms were in the warehouse before sitting down. None of the four carts they brought with them were full of jars, so they would simply load the jars that were being filled onto the carts as the children filled them.


    After a few minutes one of the boats returned with a load of vines to add to the pile and after offloading it the two adults came over to sit with her. ¡°Taking a break?¡± the woman asked. It was a man and woman in their late teens or early twenties, and judging by the fact that they were holding hands they were either married or in a relationship.


    ¡°Yeah, I just brought jars up here and loaded my cart, so I was trying to figure out what I should help with. Last time I joined the kids in filling jars, but that kind of takes away work from them. I also tried hauling in plants from the lake, but that seems to be taken care of as well.¡±


    The man thought for a bit. ¡°You want the best quality blossoms, right?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Sure, but they should be deeper in the lake where the boats can¡¯t get to.¡±


    ¡°Right, all of the ones past a certain point should have matured into Gathering stage by now, so if we could get them, we could get jars full of the good ones. What are you using them for anyway, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡±


    ¡°Oh, the sect is turning them into Water Chi pills and sending them to the front.¡±


    The man nodded. ¡°So why don¡¯t we use them ourselves? We certainly make enough.¡±


    Shen shrugged. ¡°Not many of us are water specialists and no one wants to risk an imbalance or to throw off the purity of their internal chi.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± said the woman, ¡°But if you empty your reserves, neither of those last two are a problem, and even if you aren¡¯t a water specialist, you can still benefit from the practice. Lots of techniques work the same regardless of which type of chi you use, at least until you get to the Foundation stage.¡±


    Shen thought about it for a few seconds. If you were constantly depleting all of your elemental reserves and only refilling them with pills you would get used to running out of chi and only havign water chi, thereby being effected less by chi depletion and such an imbalance. You wouldn¡¯t have to worry about messing up your elemental balance with the low quality chi of the pills. Then there was the fact that she could now make relics which replenished your chi slowly with good quality elemental chi, so no one would have to rely on the chi they could gather themselves. They might get behind on their ability to refine chi, but there were ways of improving chi quality through techniques that worked fine at low quantities, and you could get better at it by studying the Laws of the element even without gathering and refining it yourself.


    The issue was the cost of the pills, which went for around a quarter of a point each, even for the lowest quality ones. An array, on the other hand, wouldn¡¯t have that issue. She could make a version of her bracelet on the floor of the training field, and feed chi to all of those that were training there. The elemental balance wouldn¡¯t matter either, as they would use all of it.


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± she said after more than a minute of not speaking.


    ¡°Stuck in thought?¡± the woman asked.


    ¡°Yeah, but I think I now have a way to improve training here at the sect.¡±


    The two nodded and stood up. They had rested long enough, and would need to get back out on the lake if they wanted to earn more points.


    Normally Shen would run off to work on her latest relic idea, but this time she decided to finish her day here first. After all, she had some planning to do, and she could do that while working the boring job here, as it didn¡¯t require her to think too hard.


    She went to the warehouse and put three jars each of vinegar and three empty jars into her bag, about its limit. ¡°Hey, Ponma.¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ve got an idea of how to get better quality blossoms, so I¡¯ll be gone for a little while.¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡± he said as he loaded another jar into his cart.


    She climbed onto her sword and flew off over the lake. As she watched the plants she saw them get larger and cover more of the surface. By half a li into the lake they were just a net covering the surface. She slowed down and tried to stand on it. It sunk into the water and made her boots wet, so she used a bit of hydrokinesis, a simple Gathering level spell which used water chi to manipulate water, to dry her boots, then kept flying. Eventually she made it to the center of the lake. There the vines had started growing over the top of themselves. They were three or four layers thick and woven together so tightly that stepping on them was more like stepping on a tight rope than stepping on a net, like she had before. She landed and the vines barely flexed under her weight.


    The surface looked more like a clearing with sparse flowers than a floating plant, especially concidering the dead flowers and leaves which filled the gaps between the vines and acted as a compost for the plants. In fact, when she found this place she had wondered if it was an island before she discovered its structure.


    She pulled an empty jar out of her bag and sat it down where it wouldn¡¯t fall over, then started collecting the flowers. This area had probably not been harvested in years, possibly decades, as it was too far from the shore to ever be practical, likely seeding the area with more Water Blossom plants periodically. All of the flowers here were Late or Peak Gathering in their quality, and Shen was sure that she could negotiate for even more if she brought in jars of these instead of the Early Gathering ones from nearer to the shores.


    After an hour of gathering blossoms she noticed a patch where the flowers were significantly larger than the ¡®large¡¯ gathering phase ones which were the size of her hand. She went over to them and saw that they were all around the size of her head and, more importantly, were Early Foundation quality. From what she had read, these flowers almost never became Foundation quality. The plants they grew from must be at least five hundred years old, if it was like other spirit plants which flowered or fruited.


    Though she could see dozens of flowers, she only picked ten of them, as that was all that would fit in an empty jar, and filled the rest of the jar with vinegar. She then took out her talisman ink and brush from her bag and painted a gathering array and protection formation on the jar and lid, then put the lid on the jar, connecting the two formations and guaranteeing that no one could open it unless they were at least competent with formations.


    She put the jar into her bag and, after filling the other jars with the Gathering blossoms in the area, pouring the tiny bit of extra vinegar in her drinking gourd so she could fit a few more large blossoms in a jar, she shoved all of the jars into her bag and flew back to Fisher.


    When she returned she called Ponma over and secretly told him what she had found. He agreed that they couldn¡¯t just hand these over to the sect for the same price as the others, especially the Foundation grade blossoms, and told her to hold onto them while he negotiated with the quartermaster for a new price for the new product. If the sect didn¡¯t want them he was certain that he could get one of the alchemists to purchase them. After all, Foundation quality materials were rare and the Late and Peak Gathering quality ones were still in short supply, even if the market was flooded with Cleansing and Low to Middle quality materials.

 Chapter 24

    It took two more days for Ponma to get an audience with the quartermaster, as he was too busy with all of the imports and exports of the sect, but once he did the man quickly decided that he needed to see the merchandise. Ponma took him to the warehouse where Shen had stored the higher quality Blossoms in an area marked ¡®off limits¡¯, including all that she had managed to gather over the last two days, though she kept the jar of Foundation ones on her. While she wasn¡¯t worried about thieves, she couldn¡¯t risk someone mistaking it for a normal jar and one of the sect¡¯s people taking it away. Thankfully they hadn¡¯t bothered the jars in the ¡®off limits¡¯ section either, so that worry was likely unfounded.


    After verifying their quality, Ponma started negotiating with the man. In the end they settled on five stones per jar for the Late quality ones and ten per jar for the Peak quality ones. As for the Foundation quality ones, neither of them had any idea what they were worth, as neither hadn¡¯t seen them on the market for over two decades. The quartermaster promised to ask about it the next time he met a merchant, though. With no idea what to do with it, Shen took it home and put it in the corner of her room.


    They split the money that they got from the flowers 90/10, just as they used to when Ponma negotiated with the merchants on her behalf, as Shen had done all the work. For the next two days all Shen did after getting to Fisher was gather all of the Late and Peak stage blossoms she could.


    As the sun was going down she returned to the shore with another six jars of special blossoms and loaded them into her cart. They were all marked with a plus or double-plus sign behind the flower picture so that everyone would know they were the better quality ones. She saw the fisher couple returning and helped them offload the vines before pulling their boat ashore.


    ¡°I have a question for you two.¡± said Shen after they were done. ¡°Do you happen to have an extra boat you can sell me?¡±


    They looked at each other confused. ¡°Looking to take a boat out on your next trip?¡± the man asked. ¡°We do have a backup, in case this one springs a leak.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I was thinking about making a flying relic that wasn¡¯t a sword so I can haul people or cargo with me. I saw someone with a flying boat and thought that might work, so I decided to make one. Maybe I¡¯ll even add the Water Flying formation to it so it goes even faster over the lake.¡±


    ¡°It would certainly help you on your trips.¡± the man said. ¡°Sure, I can sell it to you. How about two stones?¡± Shen was certain that she could negotiate him lower on the price, but she accepted it and paid him. After all, even the low quality wooden flying sword she carried sold for four stones, and she could probably turn the boat into a relic worth at least ten times that.


    After the two of them brought the boat out of their shed Shen helped them load it onto her cart and tie it down. She helped the other boys finish loading their carts and they all returned to the sect town where they unloaded their carts into the warehouse, Shen unloading hers into the special area at the back. After that Shen invited the other two boys to go to the cafeteria with them, but they wanted to get back to Fisher, so they turned her down. Apparently they thought their mother¡¯s cooking was better.


    Shen and Ponma went to the cafeteria together and told the other two about their day. Once everyone was done Shen mentioned wanting desert. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± said Danka. ¡°I¡¯ve never been a fan of pastries.¡± Most of the deserts in town were basically breads filled or topped with jelly and sometimes sprinkled with sugar.


    ¡°In that case, have you ever tried ice cream?¡± she asked. None of them had ever heard of it so she invited them all to the restaurant. She had earned a lot of money by selling those special Water Blossoms, so she could afford to buy some for everyone.


    Once there they sat down and ordered two ice creams to share, Shen and Danka on one side of the table and Ponma and Mae on the other. They were all pretty full from Last Meal, so they couldn¡¯t eat one by themselves. They chatted for the next hour as they shared an ice cream with the person beside them, then said goodbye as they left, Shen leaving the stones on the table.


    Once they were back home Shen started drawing out the formations for her two ideas. The first was simple. The boat would have a chi gathering array connected to the Water Flying formation through a switch so that the user wouldn¡¯t have to provide it with chi but could, and could make it stop working when they wanted to. If this worked she would would need to upgrade the boat later, maybe adding a box under one seat once she learned to make magic storage.


    The second was basically a huge gathering array with no limits to what type of chi it would draw in, just the ability to keep them all separate so they wouldn¡¯t blend together. As the floor of the training area was stone, it would probably be mostly Earth chi, but that didn¡¯t matter. The array would then feed that chi evenly to up to twelve formations which recharged the person, creature, or item in them, only feeding a formation if it contained one of those things and needed the chi. She would connect the two parts once she got the basic shape down.


    It wouldn¡¯t need a compression circuit, as chi which was fed into a lifeform naturally became the same pressure as the lifeform¡¯s internal chi. She optimized a few parts of the formations so that they would be more efficient, then pulled apart the two halves of the chi light on the desk and laid down. Mae was already asleep, so she decided to end her work there rather than risk waking Mae up.


    The next day she went by the warehouse and picked up her boat before going to work. She told Master Chen about her plan to turn it into a flying boat, suggesting that he could use it to pick up a new recruit. It would normally take him ten hours to fly to the nearest city on a sword, but with the boat he could probably make it in eight, four if he followed the river thanks to the water formation. And because it was a boat he could fly someone back with him and not lose a lot of speed.


    He still hadn¡¯t decided if he wanted to go or not, but the boat definitely made him want to do so. After all, it would cut his trip down to two days, including the time spent recruiting, instead of the ten hours there, a day to recruit someone, and several days back if the other person couldn¡¯t use a flying sword.


    After leaving the boat in the back of the shop she added the formations to one more set of custom armor then went to the training fields. A few of them weren¡¯t currently in use, so she offered to upgrade one of the ranges. She explained her idea to the field master of the empty field, but she still wasn¡¯t convinced that it was safe to do. So Shen offered her a compromise. Shen would draw the entire thing out in chalk to prove that it would work, then if the woman and the field master elder was convinced, she would be able to make the modification permanent.


    Shen spent the next two hours drawing out the main formation, covering as much of the training field as possible, then fifteen minutes each adding the feeding formations inside of it. By the time she connected all of them the sun had started to set, but she was ready to demonstrate. She stepped inside one of the feeder formations and started throwing elemental attacks as fast as she could. Based on the rate she was using her chi the field master knew she couldn¡¯t last for more than two minutes, but five minutes later she was still going. The only change in her attack was the fact that they were getting far weaker, as the purity of the chi was extremely low, with Shen having to try and purify it as it entered her and only managing to achieve 4% purity on any element.


    That¡¯s when the chalk started to burn. The jade infused chalk that was meant for temporary formations couldn¡¯t handle the prolonged use of chi and was starting to break down. About thirty seconds after it had started the line for Earth chi burned out and she stopped receiving any. The total amount of chi the formation was feeding her dropped drastically, and she once again started to deplete her internal reserves. Still, she continued, and it took another five minutes until her internal reserves of all elements had been depleted.


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    She stepped out of the formation and walked to where a shocked field master was standing. ¡°Obviously, that amount of chi will be split between all of the trainees that are using the field, so it will decrease, but not by a factor of twelve. I should be able to collect four to six times the chi once I replace the chalk with proper Jade based paint. I could use more expensive materials, but I doubt I¡¯ll get that much of an improvement if I do, as I can use thicker lines with the Jade paint to make up the difference. At this scale, you don¡¯t need to be that precise with your lines so lines as wide as your hand are fine.¡±


    The woman nodded. ¡°And how much is this going to cost the sect?¡± she asked. In her mind something this amazing would likely bankrupt the budget she had been given for the month and likely next month too.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll do this one for free, to demonstrate the effectiveness. The next one, though, will probably cost a hundred or so stones. I¡¯ll need to buy jade dust by the bag to make enough paint, but you don¡¯t really need to be that good of a relic crafter to make it, as it¡¯s just an oversized Gathering array and a few basic Gathering realm feeder formations, and at this size you don¡¯t have to be any good at following a line as long as you take your time. Even a child could draw it, they just wouldn¡¯t have the skill to Imbue it.¡±


    One hundred stones was far less than she thought she would have to pay so she nodded. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll ask the Field Elder in the morning. Come by then and if they approve I¡¯ll give you the go ahead. After all, if it¡¯s free we can¡¯t complain about the price.¡±


    Shen nodded, thanked the woman, and left. The next day she went to work only long enough to tell Master Chen about her latest project. He complained about the armor orders getting backed up, but she assured him that if she got the job she would send Timp out to do it, as it was just basic Imbueing and painting over her lines, two things she knew he could do.


    She went to the field and talked to the elder. He also wanted to see a demonstration, so she fixed the broken line and asked him to step into one of the formations. He immediately felt a surge of chi try to enter him, but because his chi reserves were already full it just sat in the array under his feet. He gathered a bit of it, noticing the poor quality, and refined it to around seven percent with little effort. It was mostly Earth chi, so that was the element he refined. The chi in the formation beneath his feet almost immediately refilled itself. He then threw the Foundation realm Earth technique at the target, tearing it apart. The targets weren¡¯t designed for that level of attack, so he switched to a different formation with a different target and that formation also filled with chi.


    With this one he limited the power of his attack and used a gathering phase technique to attack. The target shook a bit on impact as the earth arrow struck its armored body. As the energy had already refilled itself before he had even thrown the arrow, he repeated himself, then did so again. Over and over he threw Earth Arrows at the target and other than its armor getting more and more dented with every attack nothing really changed. No matter how long he continued he couldn¡¯t use up the chi. After six minutes, though, the Earth line once again burned out and he decided to stop.


    She explained how that was actually the result of the formation being temporary and not permanent, as a permanent one would restrict itself so it didn¡¯t burn out, and he nodded. After thinking about it for a few seconds he gave her permission to make her modification. This could be useful to those that wanted to practice their techniques, after all, especially if they wanted practice at refining chi. If nothing else it would just be one of many training fields, but if it was popular enough he could have Shen do the other fields later.


    He shut down the field for three days, including today, so that she could do the job, and she thanked him. She immediately rushed to get Timp. He set the sword he was working on on the table and said goodbye to master Chen, then the two of them went to the general store. After fifteen minutes they left with all of the ingredients they would need to make the paint, including three large bags of Jade Powder that were the size of large rice bags but weighed more. Shen put everything in her magic bag and they went to the training field.


    The field master on duty let them in and Shen unloaded her bag. She poured the oil and other liquid ingredients into a bucket, filling it about half way, then Timp added ten scoops of Jade dust, enough to almost fill the bucket and make the mixture thick like porridge instead of thin like soup. She then pulled out the two long handles for paint brushes and handed him one. These were for painting fences or tall buildings, and had an area on the end of a pole to hold onto an inserted paintbrush. She handed him a paintbrush with two holes in it and two pins, and they assembled the objects. Once they were done she carefully carried the bucket of blue-green paint over to the Earth collection part of the formation and started tracing the lines of chalk, only going off of them in the small area where the line had broken itself. Timp joined her in painting over the Metal collection part and they made quick work of the formation, having to mix more paint seven more times, the last one only being a half bucket full.


    As it was time for Middle Meal when they finished the main array, they drew some water from the nearby well and filled their paint bucket, then sat their brushes in it to soak so that the paint wouldn¡¯t dry on them as they went to the cafeteria.


    After they ate they came back, dumped the water into the nearby gutter, and mixed another bucket of paint. Shen carried it to between the first and second Feeder formations and each of them got to work on a different formation. Eight and a quarter buckets later they were finished with the Feeder formations and used the last three quarters of a bucket on the less critical lines which connected the two, as these could be any thickness, simply feeding less chi if they weren¡¯t thick enough. With the small amount that was left Shen looked it over for defects and fixed a few, then they cleaned up and put away their tools.


    ¡°We¡¯re finished.¡± said Shen about the time the sun sank, ¡°But it will need to dry overnight before we can test it. We¡¯ll be back tomorrow morning to do that.¡±


    Shen thanked Timp for his help, but he thanked her in return. He was extremely bored sitting in the shop doing the same thing every day. This had got him out and let him do something new.


    They went back to the shop and told Master Chen that they were going home and would probably be an hour or two late tomorrow, then left for the day. The next morning they met at the field and the Field Elder tested the now-dry formation. It¡¯s performance was even better than before and even with him, the field master, Shen, and Timp using the gathered chi it couldn¡¯t be used fast enough to hit the array¡¯s limit.


    They left the happy customers and returned to the shop, where they spent the rest of the day doing their boring jobs, though Timp had far more energy than usual thanks to his break.


    The next day the field opened up and over the next two days it became the most popular field in the sect. The people started coming in asking if the shop could do something similar in other locations, such as the person¡¯s favorite meditation location. They hadn¡¯t known that formations could be used in that manner and now that they knew many people wanted to do so.


    The increase in business, and the request by the Field Elder for three more fields to have the new formation added to them, forced Master Chen to accept the idea of recruiting from a nearby city. He asked Shen to stay here until he returned to act as assistant manager. Once she had informed Ponma that she would be at work for the next two or three days and would be delaying when she joined him, Master Chen took the boat outside and set off into the sky, heading South down the nearby river. Apparently he had already added the formation to the boat himself. Shen had merely handed him the paper with the planned formations on it but not gotten around to doing the work yet.


    Shen assigned Breen to making more complex and rare talismans. She had reached the limit of what repeated production of the basic ones could teach her and, while she might fail, the new talismans would be good practice. She also asked Temp to switch to making Lightning swords, teaching him the Fire to Lightning technique so that he could learn to handle lightning, and sending him to the field to practice it for an hour so that he could handle Lightning well enough to succeed. As she wasn¡¯t sure if the popular field would have any openings, she sent him with the Fire tablet from her first project. If he had to he could set it on the ground and stand on it. It would only give him a trickle of fire chi instead of a stream like the special field, but it would be much purer than what that field gave him, possibly purer than what he normally used.


    The special field was indeed full, but the tablet had let him get enough practice that he was able to practice the technique while only mostly depleting his chi reserves. She let him wear her bracelet for half an hour and it completely refilled him with chi that was purer than what he was used to. It took him another hour to get used to the purer chi, but once he had he started producing Lightning flying swords.


    Two days later she had a different task for him. He was going to make a sword which burned without damaging the blade. She didn¡¯t tell him how to do it, forcing him to think about what he had learned so far. Just as Middle Meal was being served he handed her his prototype. The formations were crude, and he would need to work on them, and the efficiency was lower than it should be even without the defects, but the blade worked. He had the blade coat itself in a thin layer of water chi, then form a layer of fire chi around that. If any of the fire chi leaked near the blade or handle it would be nullified by the water chi. To power it he had added two arrays to the handle. On the left side was one which turned the user¡¯s chi into 4% water chi and on the right side was one that turned the user¡¯s chi into 3.5% fire chi. His idea was good, but he definitely needed more practice with the elements before they tried to produce these blades for sell.


    ¡°Congratulations.¡± she said, handing him the sword. ¡°You succeeded in the task.¡± She then gave him a detailed explanation of everything he needed to work on. She could tell that it felt more like a lecture than a congratulations, so she finished it early. ¡°Actually, I¡¯ll let you keep the blade. Study it, and after you eat you can try and refine your results. I know it sounds like I don¡¯t appreciate your efforts, but a lot of our work is trying to constantly improve our craft. I¡¯ve never actually made this type of blade before, so if it becomes popular I¡¯ll see if Master Chen can put you in charge of making two-element swords.¡±


    He nodded, a slight smile on his face, then ran off for the cafeteria, holding the sword in his arms like he was hugging it.

 Chapter 25

    The next day everyone worked on their assigned tasks. For some reason it was slower than normal, so Shen was able to complete two sets of custom armor for the guards before Middle Meal. Shen closed up the store so they could go eat together, leaving a sign on the door informing customers when they would be back, but when everyone returned they found several other people in the store. Shen was about to say something to them when Master Shen walked out of the back carrying a wooden crate. ¡°Hey, you¡¯re back from your meal.¡± he said. ¡°Everyone, I¡¯d like to introduce you to the Yinza family.¡± He motioned to the four people in the store. There was a man and woman in their early thirties, an eleven year old boy, and a seven year old girl. ¡°I recruited them from Black Rock City.¡± said Master Chen, referring to the second closest city if you followed the river. ¡°Don¡¯s family has run a relic crafting shop there for three generations, but another relic store moved in and, with over one hundred employees, was able to drive them out of business a little over a week ago. I convinced them to come work for me, though.¡±


    ¡°Don?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Right. I didn¡¯t introduce them. This is Yinza Don.¡± He motioned to the man. ¡°His wife Larl, and his two kids Lin and See.¡± he pointed to the women, boy and girl in turn. ¡°They are all relic crafters, though Lin is the only actual apprentice. See just kind of helps make ink.¡±


    ¡°She liked drawing so I taught her a few talismans.¡± said the woman, Larl.


    ¡°I like making talismans too,¡± said Breen, kneeling down in front of the little girl. ¡°Do you think you can draw one for me?¡± The girl nodded and they went over to the nearby counter where Breen pulled out her talisman making equipment.


    ¡°As for those three,¡± Master Chen continued, ¡°the one with See is Breen. She mostly makes Talismans and runs the counter. The boy is Timp. He makes the utility items and practices by making low end flying swords. And she is Shen. She does the custom order armor, and has come up with a lot of new products for us to sell. She¡¯s also basically the assistant manager right now. You know how I told you my apprentice designed the formation for the boat? That was her. In fact, she came up with a new formation that became really popular just before I left, which is why I was in a hurry to find someone else to help. We have too much work at the moment.¡± The three newcomers nodded.


    ¡°Well, now that introductions are out of the way, I want you two to look at this.¡± Chen said, then opened up the crate and pulled out six oddly shaped jade plates. Shen and Timp made sure not to say anything about it, as this was probably a test. ¡°What can you tell me about the plates?¡±


    Don stepped forward and ran his hand over the plates. ¡°Five of them seem to be concentrating and purifying the elemental chi that¡¯s nearby. Those five have decently pure elemental chi.¡±


    Larl picked up one and looked at it, then set it down and looked at the others. ¡°The Fire plate is at 6.4% purity, the Earth at 6.2, Metal 6.1, Water 5.7, and Wood 5.4.¡±


    ¡°This was made by someone with a fire affinity.¡± said Lin, and the adults nodded. They all seemed to notice that the plates fit together and soon they had followed the order of the elements to put the six together.


    ¡°Now that they are all together,¡± said Larl, ¡°they all seem to balance out at about 6%. Something is making the purer ones less pure and the less pure ones purer.¡± Shen had made a few modifications to improve that while she was on break one day. Nothing said that she couldn¡¯t improve it just because she turned it over to Chen, as it wasn¡¯t a gift.


    Don examined the lines of the device. ¡°Somehow the device is purifying the elements using the other elements. Not sure how.¡±


    ¡°Also, all five are being fed to the center.¡± said Lin. ¡°Not really needed if this was just for a person, so I¡¯m guessing that they wanted to charge a core of some type with it. Probably not a spirit beast core, as feeding it anything but its element and neutral chi might damage it. Maybe something that can handle all of them, like...a neutral core? There aren¡¯t many spirit beasts with neutral cores. Though I¡¯ve heard of them being made artificially.¡±


    When they weren¡¯t able to tell anything else from the device Shen stepped forward. ¡°Actually, I made this. It was meant to prove to Master Chen what I could do so he¡¯d take me as an apprentice. I¡¯ve made a few improvements to the device since then, like making the elements fix each other instead of just feeding the chi at whatever purity I could manage. Not the best way of doing it, but it works. The confusion with the center is because I knew about spirit beast cores when I made it, but not that they were usually aligned with an element, so I thought they could accept any form of chi, like a dantian. If I want to use it to charge a core, I¡¯ll just only use the correct plate.¡± She pulled the fire core from her bag and put it in the middle, then disconnected all of the plates but the fire one. ¡°I may make a better one later that just works with fire chi, so I can charge this core, but for now it¡¯s only used when someone needs to make elemental relics, as they require the correct element and you don¡¯t want to run out.¡±


    ¡°Well, we haven¡¯t actually learned to handle elemental chi very well, so I have no experience with that.¡± said Don. ¡°There wasn¡¯t any need for it in Black Rock, as all of the items we made used neutral chi. In fact, we actually added a formation to some of our work so that any elemental chi that entered it would be neutralized, as it could disrupt the flow if the elemental balance got too far off. We¡¯d love to learn, though.¡±


    Chen spoke up. ¡°Well, we can¡¯t teach you any of the sect¡¯s special techniques unless you actually join, but there are a few generic elemental techniques which I can teach you, like being able to identify the different types, separate them from each other, and purify them through your knowledge and willpower.¡±


    ¡°I could also make you a relic to help you out.¡± said Shen. ¡°I might not be able to teach you the technique, but giving you a relic that uses the technique doesn¡¯t break any rules, as you can¡¯t learn the technique from relic that well, just know the basics of it.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be expensive?¡± asked Larl. ¡°I don¡¯t want to put you out.¡±


    ¡°A few stones each, maybe. But it¡¯s fine. I actually already designed it so I could make myself a bracelet.¡± She took off her bracelet and handed it to them to examine. ¡°That one feeds me 8% chi of all five elements, but can balance and purify my internal chi up to ten or so percent. The ones I give you probably won¡¯t be that good, as I¡¯ll be using green instead of white jade, but if they work maybe it will be another relic we can add to the store.¡± Chen and Larl nodded, and Larl put on the bracelet. While Chen was thinking about the financial benefits of selling such a device, Larl was feeling a pain in her wrist as if five tiny needles of five different elements were poking her.


    ¡°It stings.¡± Larl said, and Shen nodded.


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°You just aren¡¯t used to the element at that purity. Pick one of the elements and let it slowly enter you. Cycle the chi through you, being careful not to let it merge with the rest of the chi inside you.¡± Larl tried several times, but wasn¡¯t able to keep it from dissolving into her chi for more than a few seconds.


    ¡°I just can¡¯t do it.¡± Larl said, then went to remove the bracelet.


    Shen held up a hand to stop her. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Just keep practicing for now. Cultivation requires a lot of practice some times. I¡¯ve had years to practice with elemental chi. I¡¯ll go get some bracelets and maybe rings and make you some practice equipment today before you leave.¡± Larl nodded and Shen left to get the equipment.


    Shen purchased twenty green jade rings, twenty green jade bracelets, four blue jade bracelets, and another white jade bracelet. She would turn the green ones into practice tools and put the extras on display, then turn the blue ones into practice devices for the new people. Afterwords she might have enough practice that she can make herself an even better bracelet.


    When she got back Lin was helping Timp make utility items and Don and Larl were making neutral flying swords. See was still sitting on Breen¡¯s lap making basic talismans. While See¡¯s talismans weren¡¯t good enough to sell yet, they were all technically real talismans.


    Shen sat down at her table and started making green jade bracelets which worked the same as her white jade one. They only took an hour each to make three of them, and when she was finished Shen was surprised that they each produced seven and a half percent chi of each element, though less of it than her bracelet. They could also increase the purity of the elemental chi inside their wearer to about 9%, but she wasn¡¯t sure that the new family would cultivate elemental chi, so that function might not be used.


    Just as the shop closed she handed Don, Larl, and Lin a bracelet. ¡°Here, I made you each a bracelet like mine.¡± she said. Larl took off Shen¡¯s bracelet and handed it back, and Shen immediately put it on. ¡°You should get used to the elemental chi slowly just by wearing it, but you should practice drawing it in and circulating it through your chi pathways, keeping it separate from your own chi. That way you can use it easier while making elemental relics.¡±


    ¡°Chi Pathways?¡± asked Don. ¡°You mean Meridians?¡±


    ¡°Yes. They are just called something different sometimes. I just didn¡¯t hear them called meridians until a few months ago.¡±


    Don nodded and everyone thanked her, then they got See and left. Shen put all of the bracelets except the white one in the shelf beside her table and started to leave, but Chen stopped her. ¡°You know, I just realized that you have bought a lot of stuff for the store and I haven¡¯t paid you back.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± she said and tried to leave, but Chen shook his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s not fine. I can¡¯t owe one of my employees. It makes me look like a bad boss that takes advantage of his employees. For example, I know you bought the boat so that I could use it to pick up more employees, but which of us owns it? I used your formation design to do it, and it¡¯s your boat, but I used my materials.¡±


    Shen shrugged. ¡°How about I just pay you for the materials and let you use it when you need to pick up people or cargo from somewhere outside the town.¡±


    Chen nodded. ¡°That works, but you also bought the material for the test circle at the training field, and the bracelets and rings for the new employees.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll make you, Timp, and Breen bracelets tomorrow.¡± she replied.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t complaining about not getting one. I was talking about how much you spent. How much did you spend on that stuff anyway?¡±


    Shen thought for a minute. ¡°Well, Jade Dust is five stones per bag, the oil and other paint materials were about ten stones. The bucket and paint brushes are reusable, but that¡¯s another two stones. The rings were a stone each, the bracelets five stones each for the green, twenty each for the blue, and one hundred for the white, though that is for me, not the store, so you don¡¯t have to pay for it. The cost of jade has drastically increased recently, as everyone in town that can make relics is buying up the supply from the mine.¡±


    ¡°So, I owe you two hundred stones for the jewelry, and twenty seven for the paint supplies, but only paid you back ten for the materials used in your boat?¡±


    Shen did the math in her head and nodded. ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s fine. You can pay me back later.¡±


    ¡°No, I can¡¯t. Well, technically I can, but the store only has about two hundred and fifty available for supplies right now. Giving you two hundred and seventeen of that would mean we wouldn¡¯t have enough on hand for any large purchases that came up.¡± He sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what I¡¯ll do. I¡¯ll pay you back as soon as I can, but in the mean time if you want any Foundation level relics made, you can come to me and I can do it for you at a discount.¡±


    ¡°Sells have been going really well. I assumed you would have a lot more saved up.¡±


    Chen shook his head. ¡°I spent most of it stockpiling medium and high grade weapons and armor. With the demand increasing so much, the supply was getting low and I was worried about not being able to get them. Sure, I¡¯ll earn it back easily, but I just don¡¯t have it now.¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t need any Foundation level relics for now, that I know of, but I¡¯ll think about it.¡± Chen nodded and let Shen leave.


    Shen wasn¡¯t sure what she was going to do with the rings. At most she could put a single element¡¯s formation on them. While it was technically possible to duplicate what she had done with the bracelet, the collection area would be tiny, too small to gather meaningful amounts of chi, and her engraving skill likely wasn¡¯t good enough to draw the formations that small. Maybe balancing the chi in a person? That was fueled by the gathered chi right now, but maybe she could use the person¡¯s internal chi? No, that would just deplete their reserves. If only she could use their neutral chi, which automatically refilled. Maybe if she converted it to the element, then fed it back to them? Or would the chi simply refill the lower level? She wasn¡¯t sure.


    By the time Shen got to the training field she had decided that the most she could do with her current skill was to gather, purify, and feed a single element into the user, maybe with a cutoff if they were full of that type of chi. Still, that might be too much in such a small device, so she would have to test it out the next time she was at work. Now that Master Chen was back she could take her five days off to help Ponma.


    Shen had come here to practice her barrier spell, as she still wanted to improve the performance of the armor she made, but the special field was full. Apparently the sect now charged a stone per hour to use it, but there were still people waiting on the benches inside for an opening. It was no wonder that they wanted more fields.


    Shen talked to the field master, the same woman that was there when she made the formation, and quietly informed her that they had just hired a few extra people. It would probably be a few days before they were used to elemental energy enough to work on the formation, but Shen would try to bring them over once they were ready.


    Then Shen had an idea. They had said that they often added a formation to neutralize chi to their relics. Could that work here? Normally Shen wouldn¡¯t have them help her, as their poor understanding of the elements would result in many of the elements not being properly collected, but what if she just drew in any chi that she could, neutralized it, and fed it to the people? That would be easier to make and might gather more chi overall. Most of the people here were practicing elemental attacks, so that wouldn¡¯t work in this situation, but maybe another? Shen would have to think about it.


    Rather than wait for the field to open up, Shen went to another one that the Field Elder planned to have the formation added to later and started meditating. She drew in as much chi as she could, converted it all to Earth chi, as that was the dominant type here, and created a dome shaped barrier around herself. Once it was up she started looking for flaws in her barrier. Just like last time she found several she could fix, but reached a point where repairing it was causing more flaws. Still, she kept trying, being gentle with her repairs any time she detected a flaw, and after some period of time she started feeling many small things hitting her barrier from above, each one carrying a trace of crude water chi, but purer than one would expect from a bucket of water. Maybe some of the recent recruits were splashing her barrier with weak attacks? Though they should have purer water chi by this point. Maybe one of the members of the Yinza family or another outsider? They might have been able to reach such a purity by now.


    She ignored it and kept meditating, drawing in all of the chi she could from the ground beneath her, purifying it and using it to repair or reinforce the barrier. Several times she thought she had fixed all of the flaw in the barrier, but when she took a closer look she would find more that were too small for her to see, slightly weakening the barrier.


    Some time later she felt someone lightly tapping her barrier. While she hadn¡¯t fixed all of the flaws in the barrier yet, and wasn¡¯t sure if that was possible, she had greatly improved it. She ended the meditation and opened her eyes to see a woman standing there, the sun behind her. At first she thought it was sunset, which should have happened about forty minutes after she left work, but then she realized that the woman was to the east of her. Sunrise? Surely not. Shen looked around and noticed that all of the ground outside her barrier was wet, but the inside of the barrier was dry. It must have rained last night and the barrier stopped it from entering.


    ¡°Hello.¡± said the woman. ¡°I¡¯m the daytime field master here. Did you come in early?¡± The woman¡¯s voice was slightly muffled by the barrier.


    Shen shook her head. ¡°I started meditating last night about twenty minutes before sunset. If that¡¯s sunrise behind you, I must have lost track of time and spent all night here.¡±


    ¡°That explains the dry area around you. I assumed you just used hydrokinesis to dry out a place to sit.¡±


    Shen released the barrier, then stood up and stretched. ¡°Well, thanks for waking me up. I don¡¯t need to go to work today, but I could probably use a bath.¡±


    The woman nodded and Shen went home to get her stuff. She would have to hurry at the bath house if she wanted to clean up and get to the warehouse before Ponma left. This time of the year one needed to wake up before sunrise to have enough time to bathe and eat before work.

 Chapter 26

    She arrived just as they were finishing loading their three carts. It had taken her longer than she thought to get ready. With their help she quickly loaded her cart and they set out for Fisher.


    ¡°You know, I could probably make these things fly.¡± she said about half way up the mountain. ¡°It worked on a boat.¡±


    ¡°Probably really expensive.¡± said one of the boys.


    ¡°Probably about twenty stones.¡± she replied, ¡°But we could move faster and not have to move them by hand.¡±


    The older boy looked at her like she wasn¡¯t thinking clearly. ¡°Like he said, too expensive.¡±


    When they got to where they were going Shen asked Ponma about it. ¡°Yeah, they are right. Too expensive. Not enough benefit to justify the cost.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s not that much.¡± she replied, then thought about it. Shouldn¡¯t they have fixed up their town a bit? She didn¡¯t even see anyone with the utility items she sold at the shop, and the road wasn¡¯t even paved. Some of the houses even needed to be repainted.


    Ponma looked at her like he couldn¡¯t understand, then seemed to realize something. ¡°Oh, I get why you¡¯re saying that. You made a lot on the special blossoms, are making a bit on your investments here, and are making a stone a day making relics. That¡¯s only a few days worth of work for you. But for them, even the adults don¡¯t make a stone per day, and they make less than that.¡±


    ¡°Really? Why don¡¯t we pay them more, then?¡±


    ¡°Because then we wouldn¡¯t be able to keep the business going. With the price increases, we pay about eight points a day for the supplies, and then sell them for ten. Stones cost eight each, so with the forty or so small and ten or so large we sell per day, we earn fifteen stones per day in profit. That might sound like a lot, but we have rent, we¡¯ve been borrowing the carts, so I need to pay for them, and I¡¯m saving up to expand. I know I¡¯ll need to give them a raise soon, though, so we might only break even on the small ones before long.¡±


    ¡°Then how much more could we afford to pay them?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Maybe a point more per jar. Or a half more per haul for the adults. That would put us right at the break even point on the smalls, and we would only earn money on the larges. I was hoping to put that off until the price of stones goes up to nine each, which will probably happen in ten to fifteen days the way things are going now. That way we can still earn a point each on the jars, for about eight stones a day.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Still, I feel like we should do something. If they realize they could make more money elsewhere, they¡¯ll leave.¡±


    ¡°Well, most of them don¡¯t want to work elsewhere, but with the price of things going up, I guess we need to.¡± He thought for a minute. ¡°If you are willing to invest a bit more so that we don¡¯t have to rely on the daily profits to expand, I can probably give them that raise right now. But we really do need to expand and diversify. With only one product our business isn¡¯t stable.¡±


    Shen thought about it, then took out a bag of one hundred stones and handed it to him. ¡°I don¡¯t have much more, but if this is enough we can go ahead and do that now.¡±


    Ponma nodded and put the money away. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll go tell them. In the mean time, selling those special blossoms would help us out even more. At least, if the company actually earned money from them it would.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I didn¡¯t even think of that. From now on, I¡¯ll let you take ten percent from my cut to add to the company. After all, it¡¯s the company that¡¯s selling them.¡±


    Ponma nodded and Shen loaded her bag with jars before heading off for the center of the lake. Until she had talked to him he was worried about the business¡¯s finances. It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t want to pay people more. He knew he was paying them too little now that the cost of living had increased, but if he gave them a raise the company would be stuck selling nothing but Water Blossoms for the next several months while he saved up enough to expand into something else. Now that he had convinced Shen to take less, though, he could make this work. Maybe he could even afford to upgrade some of the equipment. He was certain that Shen could make something that would speed up the collection, but that would be expensive. Perhaps it would be too expensive to make it economically viable, but he would have to try.


    He wrote a note listing the new pay rate in red ink and posted it on the storage barn. Everyone gathered there in the evening to get paid, so they would be sure to see it when they did. Once he was done he started loading up one of the carts with jars so that it could be taken back. The cart held ten jars, so they would need to make five trips per day to haul them back. With only three carts, that meant that two of them would need to make two trips. Ponma generally loaded up the carts of his two helpers and had them take the jars to the warehouse after Middle Meal. Of course, Shen would add a cart to that, but as she used their backup cart she could haul them back herself.


    Out on the lake Shen carefully filled four jars with Late blossoms and two with Peak, as they were the same size but only about half as common. She had a tiny bit of vinegar left, but thankfully had remembered to bring an extra few drinking gourds to put the excess in. She returned to the barn around Middle Meal to unload her bag into her cart, then ate some field rations, reloaded her bag, and flew out again. She saw the sign on the barn, and nodded.


    By the end of the day she had managed to put ten jars into her cart, plus another six in her magic bag, eleven Late and five Peak in total. That would come to a sell price of one hundred and five stones. Shen agreed to only take one per jar, leaving the rest with the company for now. After all, the faster they expanded the more stable things would be and the more they would make in the long run.


    After they had unloaded all of the jars at the warehouse Shen asked Ponma about his plans for expansion. She might have brought in more than the rest of them today, but the area she was harvesting was quite small compared to the area where the smaller flowers were, so she knew that would only last a few months if they were to gather there every day. She had at least remembered to not pick all of them, leaving a few behind just like gathering wild spirit plants, so that they could grow back.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Ponma¡¯s first idea was to have someone go out and gather the flowers in Shen¡¯s area for ten or twenty days, so that they could build up some savings. Even if he paid them one stone per jar the company would still earn a huge amount of profit. The main problem with that was that it wouldn¡¯t last, so it couldn¡¯t be a main income stream.


    His second idea was to compost all of the vines that were being hauled out of the lake. When spirit plants were composted they retained most of the chi in them, turning into spirit compost, which was used to make spirit plants grow faster. He was certain that Farmer would want to buy it, but wasn¡¯t certain how much it would cost to take it there and if they could earn a profit doing so. He would have to do some research.


    The next idea was to try and farm some other aquatic spirit plants in the lake. The main problem with this was that he didn¡¯t know why their weren¡¯t any to begin with. Did the Water Blossoms get too numerous at one point and choke them out? He didn¡¯t want to plant a new crop only to have it die before harvest, as he would take a loss.


    Then there was the idea of doing the same thing with spirit fish or other aquatic spirit animals. He just wasn¡¯t sure where to get them. He knew that the fishers occasionally brought in spirit fish, so their had to be many in the lake, but wasn¡¯t sure why they weren¡¯t the dominant type of fish in the lake.


    He had other ideas, like farming some of the wild spirit plants, but that wasn¡¯t really close enough to their current business idea and would probably best be done in Farmer instead of here in Fisher.


    ¡°A lot of those are about spirit plants.¡± Shen said and he nodded. ¡°I think we need someone else¡¯s opinion. Mae would know a lot about spirit plants and growing them. Maybe we should ask her what¡¯s in demand, as that would be the biggest market.¡±


    Ponma liked that idea so they went to the cafeteria and asked Mae. She was able to tell them about the prices of certain plants and the compost, which sold for one stone per cart load. Ponma thought that they might be able to make ten trips a day to the gardens in town and maybe four to Farmer per day, so they could earn a profit doing so if they had the compost. The cost of plants varied wildly, but as she wasn¡¯t used to growing any water plants, she asked that they come by the shop some time and talk to her bosses.


    The next day they did just that. Once they were finished hauling jars up to Fisher they returned to town. Ponma didn¡¯t have a flying sword so they had to walk, and decided to bring the carts back and return with more jars when they were finished.


    Ponma and Shen arrived at the Alchemist shop ten minutes later, the trip being relatively quick as the wood district where the warehouse was located was beside the water district where the shop was. When they got to the shop they went inside and saw many bottles of pills on the shelf, but didn¡¯t see anyone working the front of the shop. ¡°Hello?¡± called Shen, and Mae stepped in from the back, holding a mortar and pestle while grinding something in it.


    ¡°Hey Shen, Ponma.¡± she said, continuing to grind. ¡°The sisters are currently working on a batch of pills, so it¡¯ll be another fifteen minutes or so before one of them can speak with you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± Shen replied. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t have to hire extra people. Master Chen has hired five new people since I started working there. Shouldn¡¯t you have someone to watch the front?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s technically my job, but I had to run into the back to grab some stuff. We¡¯ve been busy, but not enough to justify hiring someone just to watch the front.¡±


    Ponma pointed to the mortar and pestle. ¡°What you making?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Oh, this is a Water Chi pill. Just one of the cleansing stage blossoms you guys gather and some dried spirit grass.¡± She pulled the pestle out and some blue-green goop with bits of grass in it dripped off. ¡°The sisters said that I¡¯d be able to work on the Gathering stage pills once I could make one hundred of these in a day without a failure, so I¡¯m trying to get as much practice as possible.¡±


    Ponma nodded. ¡°Are you guys using the early and middle Gathering blossoms or the better ones?¡±


    ¡°Oh, the sisters managed to get a jar of those Late stage ones and are practicing with them. In fact, they are working together on a batch right now.¡±


    Ponma nodded and he and Shen started looking around the store with Mae following them to answer questions. The shop had all of the basic pills in stock, as long as they were of the Cleansing or Gathering stage. They also had a few Foundation level pills, but they were all stored behind the counter. Shen noticed that, while they had elemental pills for all five elements, the water pills were half the price of the others.


    ¡°Out of curiosity, is there a pill to speed up cultivation?¡± Shen asked.


    ¡°Depends on what¡¯s slowing you down.¡± said Mae, setting her mortar on the counter. ¡°Unlike Cleansing phase, where you just need to remove the toxins, Gathering requires you to build up the maximum level of elementally balanced chi in your dantian. This requires you to get used to purer chis of the five elements and build up the walls of your dantian and meridians so that they can withstand that purity of chi. We have pills that can help with both issues, but unless there is a specific reason that your dantian or meridians aren¡¯t letting you advance, they¡¯ll be the equivalent of giving a pain killer to someone that worked out too hard. They help with the blowback, but your hard work is really what let you advance faster.¡± Mae looked at both of them. ¡°You are already at peak, though, Shen, so those probably won¡¯t do much for you, but Ponma is still Late Gathering, so they might help him.¡± Mae was middle Gathering, so she wasn¡¯t as far behind them as Shen thought she would be.


    ¡°Actually,¡± said Shen. ¡°I¡¯ve found that, while I hit full pressure at about seven and a half percent, I can still increase the pressure I can adapt to. So far I¡¯m at about nine and a half percent, and I plan on pushing it as high as I can before advancing.¡±


    ¡°I was wondering why you hadn¡¯t advanced yet, despite being at peak for so long.¡± said Ponma. ¡°If I remember right, you are a Nascent talent, right? So you shouldn¡¯t have a major bottleneck until you try to advance to Immortal.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Shen responded. ¡°You two and Danka are Foundation, though, so I guess I¡¯ll keep advancing faster than you.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say that.¡± Mae responded. ¡°Danka hit Peak ten days ago, and I hear he¡¯s going to try and advance soon. He actually came in to ask about Late Gathering elemental pills so that he would have higher purity chi for his advancement.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I should probably talk to him, then. I had something I was wanting to make for you guys that would help him, but never got around to it.¡±


    ¡°Really? What is it?¡± asked Mae, but Shen shook her head.


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to wait and see. It won¡¯t be much of a present if I tell you what it is.¡±


    Mae nodded and two identical looking blue-haired twenty five year old women walked out of the curtain separating the front and back of the store. Shen was only able to tell them apart because one had a pony tail and the other hadn¡¯t tied up her hair. ¡°So, you are the two people that farm the Water Blossoms?¡± the one with the pony tail asked, and Shen nodded. ¡°Well, thanks for bringing in better quality ones. The Early and Middle ones weren¡¯t really challenging us any more. If there wasn¡¯t a good market for them, selling them to the sect, I would probably cut back on how many pills I made from them out of boredom.¡±


    Shen considered telling her about the Foundation stage blossoms but decided against it. If they were practicing with Late stage they likely wouldn¡¯t have any use for them.


    The woman held out her hand. ¡°I¡¯m Lin Ku.¡± the woman said and Shen and Ponma shook it.


    ¡°Lin Kyu.¡± said the woman with straight hair, also holding out her hand. Shen could tell that Ku was middle Foundation, while Kyu was late Gathering like Shen.


    After all of the introductions were out of the way, Kyu spoke. ¡°So, you guys want to know about farming spirit plants? We can answer a few questions for you, but you really should buy a few books on the subject and read them. The subject is a bit too complex to cover in one conversation.¡± She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Ponma. Shen noticed that it was much lower quality than the talisman paper the relic shop used. She knew that this was because the paper maker uses the material that isn¡¯t good enough for talismans to make note paper for people, though it only sold for a point per ten sheets, whereas talisman paper sold for a point per sheet.


    ¡°Do you need any plant in particular?¡± asked Ponma after looking over the list of books. ¡°What about spirit compost?¡±


    ¡°Well, Mae usually handles the garden, but I¡¯m sure we can use a few wagons of compost.¡± said Ku. ¡°As for the plants, we need more elemental ones, especially those outside the normal five elements and the higher quality Gathering ones. If you can get seeds for Foundation or Nascent plants we would love to buy the plants, but they tend to be really hard to properly farm, so I doubt you¡¯ll be able to grow them.¡±


    ¡°So, like Sun Orchids?¡± Shen asked, and the sisters looked surprised.


    ¡°Yes, exactly. I assume you saw some out in the woods?¡± asked Ku.


    Shen didn¡¯t want to tell her that one of the Dragons she knew grew them, so she just nodded. Unfortunately it didn¡¯t look like Shen would be able to get any bulbs from the dragons for them, so she would have to try and gather them from the woods.


    After another ten minutes they finished the conversation and said goodbye, then Shen and Ponma went to the library to buy the recommended books.

 Chapter 27

    Mae took her mortar and pestle into the back of the shop and started rolling the mixture inside into three equal sized balls. Once she was done she placed the three pills on the pill rolling tray, put the top on, and moved it back and forth until the pills were perfectly round.


    Once she was finished, she opened up her cauldron and put the three pills inside. When most people think about alchemy they think about putting a flame under the cauldron to burn out the impurities. This was only true for Fire, Earth and neutral pills, however. If one used such a method on the water pills she was attempting to make, the fire chi from the fire underneath it would enter the cauldron, and the water chi would neutralize it, being used up in the process. If, on the other hand, you were to use the element that fed water, Metal, the water chi would be slightly stronger. With water chi, however, one could remove more toxins, as more of the ones a water chi mixture would produce would dissolve in water chi. So you had to choose between making purer pills or stronger pills. One could also use both, though that was far more difficult, and beyond Mae¡¯s skill level at the moment. If she wanted to use both, she would have to use water then, when the pill was almost finished, use metal chi to improve it, splitting the difference between the two and getting about 70% of the benefits from both methods.


    Mae chose to use Water Chi this time. First she injected her chi into the cauldron and started swirling it around. This made the pills float into the middle in the shape of a triangle. She then sent a stream into each, ordering it to pick up toxins when it was in the pill and drop them when it was out of the pill. Through her chi sense she could tell that the chi was getting contaminated within the pill, but was almost pure when it reentered the pill. The sisters had taught her many other forms which the chi could take which were more efficient, like the loop form which looped the chi back and forth in the shape of infinity, but she couldn¡¯t manage three such shapes at once yet.


    After circling the chi through the pills for almost an hour she could tell that the chi wasn¡¯t any more contaminated when it came out than when it went into the pills, so she stopped circulating her chi through them and withdrew the three streams from the cauldron. She left enough chi in it that the pills continued to float and grabbed her tongs. When she opened the lid of the cauldron a fog came out of it, the water and vinegar within the ingredients having been driven out by the purification that had occurred within the pills. Synthesis, combining multiple effects into one, would also drive out the water and vinegar, but she hadn¡¯t yet learned to do synthesis.


    Mae carefully removed the three pills with the tongs and laid them on a cloth on the table beside her. Thankfully, no customers had come in to disturb her as she did this or she would either need to stop and hope she could make up the difference when she got back, getting ahead of the toxin production once more, or would have to carry the cauldron to the front and try to split her attention.


    Because that hadn¡¯t happened she was able to successfully finish three pills. She looked them over. All contained Middle Cleansing levels of Water Chi and were above 90% purity. Mae could probably get to above 95% purity with practice, but some of the toxins the pill contained required higher purity chi to extract them. Maybe chi purity should be the next thing she trained.


    --


    Shen and Ponma went by Chen¡¯s Talismans and Relics and retrieved the boat. The three new people were all meditating at Master Chen¡¯s orders, likely getting used to the elemental chi. Without actually cultivating it they would have to either learn to produce it or channel the energy directly from the bracelets into their work, so this practice would directly translate into a core job skill in the future.


    They put the boat in Shen¡¯s cart and went back up the mountain where they put the boat onto the lake. The kids there had filled several jars with blossoms, so the two of them loaded a few jars into Ponma¡¯s cart before filling her bag with empty and vinegar jars and having him climb into the boat. ¡°Ok, I¡¯m going to teach you to fly a boat so that you can teach it to the next person you send out to pick the special blossoms, though this works on flying swords too, you just have to anchor your feet to the sword.¡±


    She quickly taught him how to anchor his feet before teaching him how to control the boat. After all, this was a lesson on flying a boat, not a sword. He could practice the anchoring skill once he got a flying sword. He sent a bit of water chi into the formation on the bottom of the boat and it lifted just above the surface of the water. She told him how to issue commands through that string of chi and soon the boat went straight up by about twice the height of a house. After calming down from his mistake he focused his mind and ordered it to slowly move forward. It jerked forward and he tried it a bit more gently, and this time it only slid forward by about the length of the boat.


    She had him practice by flying in circles or patterns or by moving up or down to specific heights, then after an hour of practice, when they were too far away from the others to be seen, she told him where to find the good blossoms. Thirty minutes later he reached the place and gently sat down on the surface of the vines.


    She pulled several jars out of her storage bag and sat them in the boat, then instructed him in how to properly pick the flowers to minimize any damage. The small amount of damage the other blossoms were receiving from being drug in on the vine and not picked carefully only slightly weakened the water chi inside them, but for these superior blossoms she didn¡¯t want to risk losing even 10% of the chi, as these were worth so much.


    After she was certain that he could properly pick the Late Gathering Blossoms, she showed him where the Peak ones were, and once he had a jar of those she showed him where the Foundation level ones were. As they didn¡¯t yet have a market for these they didn¡¯t pick any, but at least she knew he could do it without damaging them. She told him to contact her if he found a buyer, as she wanted to make custom jars for the Foundation ones, and they contined picking the blossoms.


    Once all of the jars were filled they returned to the shore for more, placing the filled jars in her cart, and filling both of their bags and the boat with extra jars. They returned and, with both of them collecting blossoms, they were able to return to the dock just as the sun was setting.


    They landed the boat beside the barn and stored it inside the barn. Shen moved both of their bags and all of the ones in the boat into her cart, then Ponma¡¯s when she ran out of room. They had six jars from before, plus the nine that fit in the boat and the eleven from their bags, six in hers and five in Ponma¡¯s slightly smaller bag, though the ones in the bags only took up the space of the bag.


    While she was doing that Ponma paid all of the workers. They seemed much more excited than usual to get paid, probably because they had gotten such a large raise. Once they were finished with their jobs they quickly finished loading Ponma¡¯s cart and the other two boys walked with them down the mountain, a journey of about five li. When they got back to town Shen offered to unload the carts herself as she had delayed them, and the two boys from Fisher thanked her, then went home. After an hour she and Ponma had unloaded all of the carts, filled out the paperwork for the sect to send someone to pick it up, and locked up the warehouse. They went to the cafeteria, getting there near the end of the serving time, ate, and then said goodbye and went home.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Back at her room Shen took out the white bracelet and looked it over. She had already carved the five elemental symbols into the outside of it, taking her time so that she got the best performance out of it, but hadn¡¯t started on the inside yet. She knew that the purification method she was using wasn¡¯t as good as it could be, so she thought over how to improve it. She wasn¡¯t sure whether feeding it with its feeding element or removing the excess with its competing elements would work better. The second was more complicated, but it did allow you to theoretically reach 100%, and was likely the method used by the city in its defenses.


    She tried injecting a mixture of the four other elements into the fire chi in her Fire spirit beast core, and they quickly evaporated the chi that was there, creating a massive amount of neutral chi. She could tell that doing so stressed the crystal, as you were only supposed to inject fire or neutral chi, but the fact that they mostly neutralized each other caused most of the stress to quickly disappear.


    She was about to remove all of the chi from the crystal and refill it with fire chi when she decided to examine it more closely to get a better understanding. She started meditating and focused her mind on the crystal, searching around for the fire. At first she didn¡¯t see anything but after a few minutes of searching she felt a tiny bit of fire chi. She sent her consciousness over to investigate it and saw a tiny spark floating there. Surprisingly it was at 15% purity, rather than the 6% that was in the core before she started. She then felt something else nearby in two places and went over. In those two spots she saw a grain of sand and a speck of gold dust. Both were at 13% purity. While there was about 1% of the fire chi left, there was less than half of a percent of the Earth and Metal chi left, and with her having injected so little Earth and Metal chi to begin with the amount here was all but insignificant. As for the Water and Wood chi, the former was likely neutralized by the Fire, and the later likely fed it.


    While her use of the technique was obviously severely flawed, she could count this a success. She would need a better source of the other four elements and a better way to store the Fire that was being purified if she wanted to do this without damaging her beast core, though it could probably be used for the final storage of the Fire chi. Because the four different types of chi were separate she could remove the ones she didn¡¯t want, dissipating the Neutral into the environment and transferring the Earth and Metal into herself, though they were too little to affect her own chi.


    The obvious method to get the chi she needed would be to make a much bigger array, but she would need to find a flat area to build it. There were many such areas around the sect town, as the town was built by flattening a mountain peak, but all of the areas near the town had been seeded with grass so that they weren¡¯t barren and built up at least ten centimeters over the 500 years since it was flattened. Besides, if she only did it with a formation or array, she wouldn¡¯t get better at doing it herself, which would limit the performance of the formation.


    She decided to try it at the training field instead. Leaving the bracelet on the desk and saying goodbye to Mae, she ran to the training field she had used last night. The field didn¡¯t have a worker stationed there at night, just a sign hanging in the middle of the entrance which warned you that there wouldn¡¯t be an attendant so you would be on your own. Shen ignored the sign and went inside. She decided that she would only use an array to help her gather the energy, so she covered most of the training field in an array that was as large as the one the special field used, and placed a formation for feeding a person in the middle of it. She drew in the chi, noting that most of it was Earth chi once again, and decided she could work with this.


    She had all of the chi go into a Wall which surrounded her just so that she could store it, and took all of the Earth chi from it, forming it into a ball. She then started using tiny bits of the other elements from it and feeding it into the Earth chi, carefully removing the bits that were more like that element along with the other elemental chi, dissipating it into the air. She could tell that both elements had gotten very slightly purer during the process, though lost a bit of chi overall, but she couldn¡¯t concentrate on multiple streams at once so she had to get rid of the extra chi.


    She continued to do the same, dissipating the wall and drawing in more chi from the formation to create a new one every time the wall ran out of elemental chi other than Earth. She wanted to help prevent the Earth from shrinking by refilling it with the Earth from the formation, but she knew that would lower its purity, so she didn¡¯t do so.


    She got lost in her work and didn¡¯t notice how much time had passed until it started getting brighter outside. She stood up, a tiny ball of more than 30 percent Earth chi in her hand, and knew that she had greatly improved with the technique.


    She went to a nearby field, where the man in charge seemed to be an Earth specialist, as he wore an Earth beast core, and handed the ball to him before heading to the bath house.


    She spent the day with Ponma, collecting more of the good blossoms, then, after they had unloaded the jars into the warehouse, quickly ate Last Meal and returned to the field. This time she got there before the woman left for the night and walked over to where she had worked last night. ¡°Is this something you drew?¡± the woman asked her. ¡°We¡¯ve been wondering about it all day. We thought that we were finally going to get the upgrade, but some of the people that had worked with formations before said that it was a bit different.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, I drew it last night after you left and left before you got here, as I needed to hurry to work. Sorry about the confusion.¡±


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s fine. We mostly had people argue over who got to use it to meditate, so few people got to test their techniques and had to use a different field.¡±


    ¡°I actually made it as a place where I could meditate and work on a specific technique, so that makes sense. I was the one who did the formation at the special field, so if you want a special mediation field too, I can make one. It would basically be like the one next door, but with more spots for people to sit, as they wouldn¡¯t need to all be at a specific distance from the target. I could also purify the elements a bit before they got to the person if that would help. In fact, that¡¯s the technique I¡¯m working on here. I¡¯m trying to develop my ability to purify chi so that I can make a formation or relic that reflects that.¡±


    The woman nodded. ¡°Wow. I heard that the person that made the formation next door was an outer disciple girl, but I didn¡¯t realize she was so young.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fourteen.¡± Shen said before sitting down in the middle of the formation. The people today had been careful not to damage it, so it only needed minor repairs.


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t mean to insult you. I¡¯m 29, so you are less than half my age, so I thought you were young, that¡¯s all.¡±


    ¡°Oh, ok.¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯m Mo Shen, by the way. I work at Chen¡¯s Talismans and Relics, so if you want any work done, even for yourself, just come by and we¡¯ll see if we can do it.¡± The woman nodded and Shen started to meditate. The woman watched her for a few minutes before putting up the sign across the entrance and leaving. This time Shen gathered the Fire chi out of the chi she was being fed. It was only around half of a percent pure, and there wasn¡¯t much of it, but she was able to constantly gather the tiny amounts until she had a mass the size of her head.


    For the first step she purified it as much as she could by simply imbuing it with what she understood about fire, bringing it up to 8.4%. She knew she should study fire more, as she hadn¡¯t even come close to learning what the bracelet could teach her if that was the best she could do. Still, it took her hours to get to that point last night with the Earth chi. This step didn¡¯t actually cost her any of the chi inside the ball.


    The second step was to use tiny bits of chi of the other four elements to remove themselves from the Fire chi. The theory was that, if the five elements perfectly added up to neutral chi, then one could perfectly separate neutral chi into the five elements as well. Impure chi would therefore be chi which had more chi of one element, and less of the others. If one were to send a tiny bit of elemental chi into the one they wanted to purify, they could then force them back apart by removing any chi that looked more like the second type than the first, as they now had something to compare to. While this also relied on your ability to understand the different elements, comparing two things and separating out the things that didn¡¯t match either based on which they were more like was much easier than trying to figure out what was an impurity without the comparison.


    Eventually she hit a point where it didn¡¯t seem like any more impurities were being removed, so she gathered new chi into a wall, removed the fire chi into the environment, and then purified the wall as best she could, making the other four elements in it around 7.5 to 8% pure. When she compared these purer samples of elemental chi to the Fire in the ball the differences were much more evident, so she was able to remove far more impurities by the time the sun started to rise. She was certain that she could remove more impurities if she kept at it, but she had to go help Ponma again, so she stopped meditating and looked at the Fire chi in her hand. She wasn¡¯t familiar with chi at such a high purity, but she estimated that the marble size mass of Fire chi was between thirty and thirty five percent purity.


    She sent it into her Beast core so that she could use it later. The tiny spark of 20 odd percent Fire chi that was already in there barely lowered the purity of the marble. The core, however, started to heat up and she could feel pressure building up inside of it. She removed a bit of the chi and managed to stabilize the core, but this was a phenomenon she hadn¡¯t heard of before, so she would have to look into it. The small amount of chi that she had removed was absorbed into her slowly as she started circulating tiny but slowly increasing amounts of it through her meridians. She was in pain from the process, but she could tell that she wasn¡¯t being injured from it. It was like stretching a tight muscle or the slight burn you feel when running more than you were used to. She kept doing the exercise until she reached the bathhouse, where she put the extra chi into her dantian, purging a small amount into the water, finished circulating what was in her meridians while soaking, then got out, got dressed, and went to work.

 Chapter 28

    The Elder in charge of the training fields in the outer city was let into the office by the secretary, a Late Nascent Soul Elder still in the prime of her life at only seventy three years old, though appearing to only be thirty two. ¡°So, I¡¯m told that you have something special for me?¡± asked the bearded man behind the desk. He was by far the oldest one here, at over five hundred and eighty years old, reaching that point only because he had managed to reach Immortal over five hundred years ago.


    ¡°Yes, Master Xing.¡± the Elder said, then bowed and handed a small object to the secretary, who walked over to the desk and handed it to the sect leader.


    ¡°This is a middle Foundation Earth beast core.¡± said Master Xing. ¡°Rare enough to be sought after, but not that impressive. I have cores from many Nascent Soul beasts in my collection, and even an Immortal, though it isn¡¯t Earth.¡±


    ¡°The core itself isn¡¯t what is important, Master. It is what¡¯s inside.¡±


    Master Xing sent his senses into the core and noticed a pebble of Earth chi inside. ¡°Thirty point seven percent. Many of the Elders can purify Earth chi to such a degree, and their isn¡¯t much of it. Why should I be impressed?¡±


    ¡°Because that wasn¡¯t refined by an Elder, Master, or even an Inner Disciple, but by an Outer Disciple.¡±


    ¡°An Outer Disciple?¡± he asked in surprise. ¡°Are you certain?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Master. One of the field masters gave it to me. He says that a fourteen year old girl spent all night refining that with only a gathering formation to feed her chi, and when she finished she gave it to him and left, apparently oblivious to how important of an accomplishment that was. He, however, did realize it, and emptied the 11% chi from his beast core necklace before storing it there.¡±


    ¡°Impressive. Even if it took her all night, I was not able to reach such purity until I was Nascent Soul and twenty five years old. Even now I can barely manage 42% with a night of work. Do we know which girl it was?¡±


    ¡°Yes master. Apparently she has several minor accomplishments in the outer city, such as creating a special formation in one of the training fields which helps the disciples train faster, and adding defensive formations to the armor of several guards. She also received special dispensation to start a business with another outer disciple, as they found a valuable resource which the sect could use and were already selling it to the Caravan. By granting them special permission the sect was able to sign a contract which guarantees our own supply.¡±


    ¡°The water blossoms? I had heard a rumor that two outer disciples were harvesting them and selling them to us. She seems to have quite the gift for business.¡± Master Xing scratched his beard. ¡°I want someone to monitor her. If she really did produce this Earth Chi without the use of purifying formations, she is at least a once a century talent with Earth chi, and we can¡¯t afford to lose her. We need to make sure that she remains a part of this sect, even if we have to bribe her.¡±


    ¡°Master,¡± the Elder said, ¡°I feel I must inform you of a slight mistake in your statement. She is not talented with Earth chi. From what I have heard about her from the field master, last night she returned to the field and did the same thing, but with fire, making it even purer. I believe her main affinity is with Fire and that Earth is merely an element she is competent with.¡±


    ¡°If that¡¯s true, and she can do this without a strong affinity for the element,¡± Master Xing motioned at the beast core, ¡°Then it is even more important that we keep her here.¡±


    The Elder nodded and, as the conversation was over, bowed and left the office.


    --


    For the next two days Shen helped haul vinegar and empty jars up to Fisher, then went out with Ponma to gather the superior Blossoms. They had actually managed to bring in more than the Sect wanted for the moment, as the market wasn¡¯t large enough for that many Late and Peak quality blossoms to be sold, so every night more were put on shelves at the rear of the warehouse, waiting for a day that they might be needed.


    Every night Shen went to the training field and used the array there, working on one of the other elements. The only thing that changed about the field was that it now had a field master at night, likely because it had grown more popular thanks to her temporary formation. On those two nights she practiced purifying Metal and Wood. While she had learned more about every element while purifying the others, the one she worked on would always receive more training, and by the end of the night Water had solidified its position as her worst element.


    It started raining on the last night, but Shen didn¡¯t want to stop and couldn¡¯t spare the attention for a proper barrier, so she relied on the Wall dome above her to keep the rain off of her as she finished purifying the Wood chi.


    When she returned to work she noticed that all three of the new employees were working on a low grade elemental flying sword. It had stopped raining about fifteen minutes earlier and Shen didn¡¯t think it would start again for a few days, so she went to Master Chen¡¯s office. ¡°Hey, boss. Do you mind if I borrow Timp and the three new people?¡±


    ¡°You want to leave me alone here with Breen?¡± he asked.


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t my goal, though I guess it would be a result of doing that. Actually, I figured I¡¯d show them how to do the special field formations, as the customer asked for them a while ago.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re behind on all of the special orders. I¡¯ve actually been making some of the armor for you, as some of the orders are more than fifteen days old.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t think about that. What if we do the special field formations in the mornings, then come back after lunch where I do the armor? At least two sets per day until I¡¯ve caught up?¡±


    Master Chen sighed. ¡°Fine. But only because those formations are super popular and have a higher profit margin than the armor. If they can be trained to do them, that would bring in a lot more stones.¡± Shen figured out how many stones the supplies would be for each field, and Chen gave her enough to buy what she needed, having not spent much over the last few days just in case he needed the money. They needed three extra paint brushes and handles along with two more buckets, but those were basically one time expenses, assuming people cleaned out their brushes properly.


    When they got to the field Shen had been using for practice she greeted the woman on duty and informed her why they were there. She put up the sign over the entrance to keep people out, and Shen showed the plans for the array to the others. She had slightly modified it to purify the elements to some degree and make them available separately to the user, and had the other four each choose their best element from the list. Larl picked Water, Don picked Earth, Lin picked Fire, Timp picked his second best element Wood, and Shen took Metal. After Shen used a bit of Hydrokinesis to dry the field and Geokinesis to remove what was left of the chalk, they laid out the basic circle of the array in chalk and each of them drew their element¡¯s purification formation on the circle. These formations imbued the chi with a specific purity of a specific element, rather than purifying the chi that was gathered, so they were more efficient than the alternative. Shen also added the main gathering array to the center of the formation so that their arrays would have something to amplify.


    Once everyone was finished, Shen double-checked each of their work, correcting a small mistake in both Timp and Lin¡¯s formations, then showed them how to mix the paint. Once it was ready, everyone took their brushes and started painting in their symbols. While they shared buckets Shen took one for herself and painted both the main array and the Metal symbol.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Once everyone was done, Shen gave them a copy of the feeder formation and each of them drew three of them on the ground, as this field had fifteen spots to stand, then checked them for errors. As no one had made any mistakes, they painted over the symbols, then connected each of the feeder formations to the outside circle of the main formation.


    When they connected the formations they could feel chi entering the feeder formations, then start to stabilize. The main array was now dry enough to start working, but not dry enough to work at full power. They couldn¡¯t use it until it was completely dry, however, as having chi run through it could cause the paint to dry unevenly and cause problems, such as the Water formation taking longer to dry, the Fire formation drying too quickly, and the Earth formation hardening but not drying.


    As it was now almost time for Middle Meal, they cleaned their brushes and buckets, told the field master not to let anyone use it until it was completely dry, and went to eat, returning to the shop when they finished.


    Once they finished eating they returned to the shop where Shen managed to complete the formations on two more sets of armor before they closed. This time, however, Shen felt that the main thing restricting the performance of the barrier was the material. This was similar to why she improved the quality of the jade she was using on the bracelets as she increased their performance, as lower quality materials limited how good you could make the relic. In this case the leather and steel wasn¡¯t a good enough material, so the higher quality work only slightly improved the performance. If she wanted to make better armor, she would need to find better materials for the leatherworkers and smiths. Though, even with the poor materials the armor, which would normally only have a middle Gathering barrier effect, now had a Peak Gathering effect due to the improved efficiency.


    She took three of the green jade bracelets home so that she could make them for Breen, Timp, and Master Chen, like she promised. After Last Meal she made the three bracelets, taking thirty minutes each instead of the twenty it would normally take her, as she wanted to make them as good as possible. She realized when she made them that, while all of the elements improved in quality, Water had barely improved, but all of the others had made large improvements. Still, with the limit of the material, she was only able to make around 9% balanced chi to inject into the user in larger quantities than before, as green jade couldn¡¯t handle the much higher purity of four of the elements and therefore contaminated it. Still, as the Water chi was the only chi below 9% purity, the higher purity meant that they were able to more easily improve the water chi, allowing the bracelet to use little chi to do so and therefore give more to the wearer.


    She wasn¡¯t sure how to create a formation to mimic her now-preferred method of chi purification, as she didn¡¯t have a good way of selecting bits of chi for being closer to certain elements, so she decided to practice a bit more with it, hoping that the idea of how to do so would come to her as she practiced the technique. She went to the field where they painted the formation earlier today and went inside. There was a field master on duty, as well as two people using it for practice, so she checked to verify that the paint was dry then talked to the field master. ¡°Any issues with the formation so far?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Actually, I did have one complaint.¡± said the man in charge. ¡°The Metal is too pure.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t higher purity better?¡±


    ¡°Not really.¡± he said. ¡°Most of the chis are between four and five percent pure, what you would expect from the middle Cleansing phase, so everyone can handle it. Wood is about 6%, so peak Cleansing or initial Gathering. Most people in the outer sect can handle it. Then there¡¯s the Metal chi, which is at 9.2%. That is initial Nascent levels of purity. Most people can¡¯t handle it, so when they try to use Metal techniques, it hurts them to use the array¡¯s chi.¡±


    ¡°They can easily get used to it.¡± she said, holding out her bracelet. ¡°This has my internal chi at 10.5% in all elements, and I got used to it after a few days.¡±


    ¡°Sure, they can, but most people can¡¯t use it as it is. They came here expecting the purities to be low enough to be useful, but have to either avoid or treat Metal differently. After all, this is the Outer City training field, so only Outer disciples tend to use it.¡±


    Shen nodded. It was essentially doing too good of a job, so the people were having trouble using it. Like giving the best tools to a novice, they can¡¯t properly use them and the tools may even hinder their training. ¡°In that case, for now, I¡¯ll lower the metal to 6%. That should make the people better able to use it.¡± The man nodded and, after notifying the two that were practicing what she was going to do, she went to fix it. As neither of them were going to practice with metal due to the purity issue, she could start immediately.


    She quickly blocked the chi leaving the metal purification symbol by placing a barrier in the middle of the line and injected Fire into it to destroy the Metal chi which enforced the effect of the symbol. She didn¡¯t have to do so long before the quality of the Metal chi it produced dropped drastically. When it reached 6.1% she stopped adding Fire chi and the drop slowed down, eventually stopping at 5.9% when the paint cooled down. She then removed the chi barrier she put in the line and let the chi flow again. After letting it flow for a few seconds she told the two that were practicing that the metal should be more to their liking now. One of them pulled out a throwing knife and drew some of the chi from the formation into it. They looked like they were able to control it properly now, so Shen wasn¡¯t surprised when the teen used the chi to guide the knife to the center of the target, then retrieve it for another throw.


    Now that it was adjusted she sat down on one of the feeder formations and started drawing in the chi, duplicating what she did last night, but this time with water. Now that she had an unlimited supply of all the elements at a descent purity she made much quicker progress than normal, and was able to get the water to above thirty percent in a matter of hours. She wanted to keep going, as she knew she could do better, but throughout the exercise she had been distracted multiple times but the issue of the people here not liking higher percentage elemental chi. While she would have welcomed it, as it helped her understanding and could be used to improve her meridians and, at lower levels, improve her cultivation level, for some reason most people didn¡¯t want such high purity chi. If only she could give them a choice.


    Shen opened her eyes and dropped the barrier before throwing the fist sized Water ball in her hand at the target, blowing some of the wood off of it from the pressure. There was a way she could do that, and it would help with her issue with the bracelets as well. All she needed to do was mix the purer chi with neutral chi to lower the purity. In the field version she could even let the user adjust the amount somehow, changing the purity to full purity with no neutral added, or lower purity with more chi added. She would have to make sure that all of the gathering arrays for the various elements were creating it at the same purity, otherwise the user would have to adjust it between every element, but that could be adjusted after the formations were created, and it would only require a minor change to the feeder formation to mix the five elements to create neutral chi, then inject it into the pure stream.


    She left the field around midnight, going home to draw out the new plan before going to bed. The next morning she swung by a carpenters to purchase several wooden staffs before heading in. Ideally these would be made out of jade, not wood, but as long as they conducted chi that didn¡¯t really matter.


    Once she was at work she handed out the three bracelets and showed the other four that worked on the formation the new design. Both the main Array and the feeder formations had an outer ring added to them, though the feeder formation had a break in the line. There were small symbols between the inner and outer rings of the main array, which would mix all of the elements together to make neutral chi, then the chi was fed into the outer ring, which would naturally reach the same pressure as the inner ring of separated elements. This would be connected to the outer ring of the feeder formation, and, by using a chi conductive material to connect the inner and outer rings at different locations, a different amount of neutral chi would be injected into the formation along with the elemental chi, thus letting a user select the purity they wanted by simply moving the conductive material.


    Larl suggested a minor change. The mixing formation didn¡¯t guarantee that the chi was perfectly neutral, and would fail if the chi became too imbalanced, such as if most of the people only practiced with a single element. Furthermore, it was very complex and more difficult for them to understand. So, instead, she suggested that they replace the symbol with the much simpler to draw and understand Neutralization symbol, which turned all elemental chi into neutral chi. That way, no matter what the mix of elements was in the main formation, the outer ring would always be purely neutral.


    Shen agreed and, after changing the plan and, along with Timp, learning the new symbol, they went to the store to buy more supplies and then to the new field to add the formation. While they had slightly more work than the day before, they had done most of it before, so they finished at about the same time. Shen informed the Field Master that she would come by that night to adjust the formation and teach them to use it once it dried, and they cleaned up before going to eat.


    After eating Shen took out the wooden staffs she had bought and cut them into quarters so that they were about as long as her forearm, then mixed up a little of the formation paint and painted all of the sticks, creating sixteen of them, which she propped up behind the shop to dry. The formation they made today also had fifteen feeder formations, like the last one, so they would get an extra one.


    As she worked on the two sets of armor, going a bit faster than normal, as slightly poorer work would barely effect the performance, she thought about the rings and what else could help the guards. Could she make some kind of body cultivation ring? Maybe, but at the size of the ring it would only be able to work on one part of the body at a time, so that wasn¡¯t the best unless they wanted to wear multiple rings for multiple body parts. She needed something which would improve their performance no matter what their cultivation level. She had considered making rings which would grow additional minor meridians, but that was only really useful if they were in the Cleansing stage, as your body wouldn¡¯t really use any that were created after one advanced to Gathering, as the breakthrough stabilized the body below that point.


    She thought about what training they did outside of that and had an idea. When she finished the armor about an hour before closing, rather than start on another set of armor she grabbed several rings and started carving a gathering array and another technique on them. She made five of the one she thought would be best, plus one each of the Body Cultivation rings which would improve the Bones, Muscles, Tendons, Skin, and Nerves of the people, making ten rings in total. When it was time to leave she put all five of the body cultivation rings on her fingers and started feeling pain, but it wasn¡¯t enough to keep her from functioning.


    She said goodbye and went to the new Formation Field, bringing the sixteen rods with her. When she got there she went to each of the purification arrays and imbued them with her own understanding of the elements, taking her time and bringing most of them into the 10% range. She went to the water one, which was only at nine percent and fed it metal chi until it was at 10.5%, then went to the others to improve them as well.


    Once she was done she pulled the sixteen rods out of her storage bag and showed the field master how to use the formation. If one laid one of the painted rods at the beginning of the outer ring, the same amount of neutral and elemental chi would enter the formation, making the purity in the feeder formation 5.25%. If one laid it at the end, very little neutral chi would enter it, putting the purity at 10%. If one didn¡¯t use the rod, no neutral chi would be fed into the elemental chi, and they would receive 10.5% chi. This way the user could adjust the purity to a point they were comfortable with, allowing those at the lower level or those that just wanted to practice their techniques to set it low and those that wanted to improve their own purity of chi to set it to a higher purity than they possessed.

 Chapter 29

    Shen used the new formation field without a rod to practice purifying water chi until midnight, reaching an understanding of water that was just slightly worse than her understanding of Wood, then went home to sleep. The pain from the body cultivation rings was starting to increase, and she knew that she would need to sleep to heal more quickly from what they were doing to her, as they were essentially giving her the effects of intense exercise without the need to actually exercise.


    The next morning she woke up sore, but felt a bit stronger than normal. She was just a bit more flexible, strong, and durable than when she went to bed and suspected that she had better reaction times as well. She put on one of the five extra rings she created and ran from her house to the main gate, getting exhausted by doing so. She then did her best to run around the outside of the wall, but had to stop several times to recover. That proved that the rings were working.


    As she reentered the gate, panting for breath, she saw several guards standing there, waiting for the end of their shift. ¡°You look exhausted.¡± said the captain on duty, walking over to her. ¡°How many laps did you just do? 10? 20? More?¡± This is what Shen was hoping would happen.


    ¡°One.¡± she replied between heavy breaths, ¡°But I had to stop several times while doing so.¡±


    ¡°But you are Peak Gathering, and don¡¯t look out of shape.¡± he said confused.


    Shen lifted her left hand, putting a lot of effort into doing so because of her exhaustion. ¡°This ring uses Restrict on me. As long as I wear it, I get no benefit from my cultivation, so I¡¯m basically a mortal while exercising.¡±


    ¡°So that you can get more out of your workout, yes? I admit that I ask my men to use Restrict when we do training, but it hasn¡¯t had much of an effect.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s because they are cheating.¡± said Shen, sitting down so that it was easier to catch her breath. ¡°Not that they are necessarily doing it on purpose. They just instinctively loosen the Restriction when they start to get tired, making it do less. I designed these rings to make sure that wasn¡¯t an option. Without the cheating, only their own body can help them, not their chi.¡±


    The captain nodded. ¡°So you¡¯re a relic crafter?¡±


    Shen nodded and told him where she worked. ¡°I also made these rings, which automatically cultivate your body as you wear them, they cover Muscles, Bones, Tendons, Skin, and Nerves.¡± She pointed to each one as she named it. ¡°You just need to wear the rings for Bones, Muscles, and Tendons together or you risk injuring yourself if you get too strong. I haven¡¯t done much testing with them, but if you want to try them out, you can. I¡¯ll come by tomorrow morning to retrieve them.¡±


    The Captain thought for a few seconds before agreeing, at which point Shen took off her six rings and handed him the extra four, so that he could test the rings using many of his men at once. After receiving them he put the Body cultivation rings on and felt that they were doing something. A few minutes later, just as Shen was getting up to bathe and eat before work the replacement captain showed up and Shen also gave him the sales pitch. He asked for the five Restrict rings and would give them to the first five of his men to show up, to use in their morning run. That way he would be able to tell how much his men were cheating. By the time they all arrived Shen had already left, but the Captain lead them on a few laps around the outside wall. It quickly became obvious which ones were using the rings because, while all of the town guards were in much better shape than Shen, they were already breathing heavily by the end of the first lap, while the ones that didn¡¯t have the ring were barely feeling anything from the run. The Captain knew that he needed to buy at least enough rings so that every member of his team could use them during morning exercise.


    As none of the field painting team from yesterday had made any mistakes with yesterday¡¯s formation, Shen sent the four of them out to do the next two fields by themselves. Shen would adjust the purity of the first one tonight after work and the purity of the second one tomorrow morning before coming in. The shop had received several more orders for Field Formations since the first one, so she was certain that even at two per day they would be busy for at least the next five days.


    That day she managed to complete five sets of armor and, with the last thirty minutes, Shen made a Recovery ring which simply circulated wood chi through the main meridians, numbing pain and helping people recover from minor injuries. She was certain there were much better healing techniques out there, but she didn¡¯t know any. She told Master Chen about the rings she had taken and loaned to the town guard, and explained that she thought they might be a new in-demand product before leaving and heading to the field. They had made no mistakes on it, so she adjusted the purity of all of the Refinement formations. The others had made the poles as well, and Shen saw sixteen of them propped against the field office. After testing one of the feeder formations to make sure that everything worked properly, Shen went home.


    Once home she brought her bracelet out of the drawer and carefully added the balancing formation before going to eat, and the Feeder formations after she was done. The purity was only 12.1%, as she hadn¡¯t known that much about the various elements when she was making it before, so she added purification arrays to the beginning to get them up to a better purity before they were further purified by feeding them into each other. She took extra time making sure that the initial stage was all the same purity, as any mismatch here would greatly lower the performance.


    When she was done she sensed the chi inside of it. 23.1% purity. This was more than double what the last bracelet could do, and almost double what it would eventually reach when she wore it. Unsure if she could stand to wear it by itself, she left the other one on as she slipped it over her arm. She was immediately filled with multiple weird sensations. She was both too hot and too cold, while being stiff but also flexible. She tried to circulate some of the chi, but every time she tried to grip the chi with her mind only the smallest amount obeyed her will.


    She removed the bracelet and saw that the purity of the chi inside her dantian had increased by several percent. She removed the first bracelet as well and cycled the chi inside her, adjusting her meridians to it. Once she was out of chi she wore the first one while only wearing the second one for a few seconds. This way she controlled the purity of the chi inside her. She slowly increased the purity of her internal chi while wearing the Recovery ring to help adjust faster, and when the sun rose the next morning she could constantly wear both of them, her internal chi purity at around 17%, as the new bracelet was much faster at feeding chi. Tonight she would fully acclimate herself to the new bracelet, but for now she would let the Recovery ring work, as her meridians were extremely stressed from her efforts last night, like a muscle that burned from too much exercise.


    Shen got up before sunrise and, after quickly eating and bathing went to the training field to adjust the purification arrays. It was harder than the day before, as she now had to be careful not to make the chi in the array too pure. Whereas yesterday she could just put the chi from her dantian directly into it and make some minor adjustments, today she had to purposefully lessen the purity of the chi she injected so that she could inject it without overpowering what was there, as she wasn¡¯t good at working with tiny trickles of chi. When making relics she usually just let the relic take as much as it wanted. It only took her a few minutes to finish the work, so she was a bit earlier to the gate than yesterday.


    Both Captains were already there, though, and they thanked her for allowing them to test the rings. The Restrict rings had been the most useful ones, as they men could switch who was wearing them after every lap and all of them got a decent amount of exercise from it, but they wanted to get as many as possible so that they at least had one for every training guard to use during the training. The Body Cultivation rings had gathered some interest, but they seemed to work too slowly, as the Captain didn¡¯t even start to feel the effects until he had worn them for four hours. Still, when they asked for the price and was told that the rings would only cost five stones each, the guard captains put in an order for 100 of the Restrict rings, paying for twenty of them in advance. Shen wrote down the order and thanked them, allowing them to keep the first five as part of the order and hold onto the Body Cultivation rings for now.


    Rings came in seven different sizes, Child, Small Women¡¯s, Small Men¡¯s, Medium Women¡¯s, Medium Men¡¯s, Large Women¡¯s, and Large Men¡¯s. All of the rings Shen had provided them were Medium Women¡¯s, as that was what fit her, so they were all wearing the rings on their smallest finger. This was fine for a single restrict ring, but not for the Body Cultivation rings. The Captain actually had the Muscle, Tendon, and Bone rings on his right hand and the Skin and Nerve rings on his left for that exact reason. She would need to make a replacement set for him so that he could ignore the rings. Maybe she could even add a Recovery ring to the set so that he could wear them continuously?


    Before going to work she went to the jewelry store and bought every blank jade ring in green or blue that they had that was at least Medium Women¡¯s in size. They had 78 green jade and 29 blue jade. The green ones cost one stone each and the blue ones two stones each, bringing the total to 136 stones. Shen used the one hundred stones they got as an advance and thirty six of her own, but pocketed 18 of the blue ones so that the shop got exactly as many as they had paid for so far. She would probably end up keeping some of the Medium Women¡¯s and Men¡¯s rings, but would give the store the rest of them once they were needed.


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    She went to work and found out that the others had already left for the next field, then told Master Chen about selling the rings. After making two sets of armor, which made the oldest order only five days old, she started working on rings, making fifteen before it was time to close. After leaving she swung by the guard house to give them the last of the rings that they prepaid for, then ate and went home.


    That night she kept the newest bracelet on, removing the older bracelet occasionally to increase her chi purity above the average. Every time it had a slight increase she would cycle the chi through her meridians until she had become accustomed to it, then would increase the purity a bit more. By sunrise, though, she had only increased the purity of the chi in her dantian to around 20%.


    At work she adjusted the two formations from yesterday, completed two sets of armor, then made another twenty Restrict rings before heading home.


    That night she barely managed to reach the 23.1% purity of her bracelet, though she couldn¡¯t wear it on its own, as doing so would cause it to increase the purity of her internal chi to above that point. It took her the last two days of work to adjust to where she could wear it by itself and not remove it, but knew that she was hitting a bottleneck in her cultivation. She guessed that the now 24.5% purity of her chi when it fully purified her internal chi was almost her limit, and that she wouldn¡¯t be able to go much beyond 26% before she couldn¡¯t adapt to the purity any further.


    As she had the next five days off, she spent twenty minutes turning one of the blue rings in her storage into a Restrict ring and another twenty making a blue Recovery ring. With both rings on she skipped the bath and ran to the warehouse. Thanks to the two Recovery rings she was wearing she managed to make it there without wearing herself out. She loaded her cart and followed them up the mountain. She was pretty tired from the journey, but only needed a minute or so to rest to fully recover. Once she was there she pulled Ponma to the side.


    ¡°Listen, I¡¯ll be a bit limited in what I can do for the next few days.¡± she said. ¡°In fact, I might even take tomorrow off.¡±


    ¡°Are you finally going to break through to Foundation?¡± he asked. ¡°You seem to have been ready for a while now.¡±


    ¡°Actually, the exact opposite. I am going to break my cultivation and try to expand my minor meridians. I hit a bottleneck in my progress at Gathering phase, so I figure I might as well try to optimize my cultivation at Cleansing before I return to Gathering and work my way back up to where I can break through to Foundation. I figure that it shouldn¡¯t take more than a few days to do that, but it will make me a lot stronger.¡±


    ¡°Well, I should be fine for the next few days.¡± Ponma said. ¡°I know you¡¯ve been working two jobs for a while now, so taking a few days off should be fine. You just won¡¯t get paid for your time here.¡±


    Shen nodded her head. ¡°Thanks.¡± she said, then thought of something. ¡°Oh, now that I have a new bracelet, how about I let you borrow this?¡± She pulled out her old chi gathering bracelet and handed it to him.


    ¡°I¡¯m not much for accessories.¡± he responded, looking at it.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not just for looks. It should feed you about 10% pure chi of every element, then improve your internal chi until it¡¯s around 12%.¡±


    Ponma looked like he was in shock. ¡°Are you sure about those percentages? That¡¯s around Nascent to Immortal levels of purity.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yeah, I¡¯m sure.¡± she showed him the one on her arm. ¡°This one gets me up to about 24.5%, and I¡¯ve adapted to it. The problem is that I¡¯m pretty sure that I won¡¯t be able to adapt to anything above 26%, except maybe fire, as it¡¯s always faster to adapt to. You just need to make sure you cycle the chi enough that you adapt to it. If it gets too pure, remove the bracelet and mix in some less pure stuff from the environment. You could also try the new Formation Fields the shop is making, but I hear they are usually busy. They go from around 5% to 10.5% in all the elements.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Ponma paused for a few seconds to think over what he was going to say. ¡°That¡¯s both amazing and a little terrifying, that you could make something so amazing.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Yeah. They aren¡¯t available to the public yet, though, so make sure you don¡¯t lose it or advertise what it can do. I doubt many people in the sect would try to steal it, but there are plenty of outsiders in town these days.¡±


    Ponma nodded and they went back to work. Shen took out the boat and after two trips returned with a cart load of Late and Peak Gathering blossoms. Once she was finished she helped move jars onto the other carts so that everyone else can preserve as many as possible. She even took back both extra loads of carts herself.


    That night she went by Formation Fields for today. The second one wasn¡¯t quite dry yet, so she would have to adjust it tomorrow morning if she could, but even without it the outer ring now had eleven Formation Fields, including the first one which didn¡¯t purify the chi and the second which only had low purity chi. While they were extremely popular at first, having lines of people waiting to use them, there were now enough fields that only ten to twelve spots were in use most of the time, and no more than five or six at night.


    After eating, Shen returned to her room, removed her bracelet and rings, as she didn¡¯t know how they would affect someone at Cleansing phase, and sat on her bed, meditating. She looked at the layer she had built around her dantian¡¯s lowest level to advance to Gathering several years ago, and saw many flaws in how she had done it. It should look like a perfect ball of string, even smoothing out its own surface with time, but this one was was lopsided, had gaps in it, and several of the strings seemed frayed. All of those flaws would make her cultivation less stable. It was obvious that she had made many mistakes thanks to her own inexperience. Thankfully, this would give her an opportunity to correct that issue.


    So slowly started to break the strings and unravel the ball. After only five minutes she could tell that it was starting to unravel on its own, and after another five it was collapsing faster than she could dismantle it, so she let it finish on its own. As it collapsed, all of the elemental chi in her outer layer was released, but because it mixed with the strings from the shell its purity was low enough that it didn¡¯t damage anything in her room badly enough that it wouldn¡¯t recover once the chi dissipated. She would have to careful in the future, as she could have burned and/or frozen the room from the release of Fire and Water chi.


    Once the shell had finished collapsing Shen looked at the chi inside her, her vision seeming a bit less clear than it was. Everything there was perfectly neutral. She slipped on her bracelet to see what would happen and watched as all of the high-purity chi that entered her was completely neutralized within seconds. As her dantian was full of chi, she removed it, as it wasn¡¯t needed, then put on the Recovery rings. They seemed to work like normal and in only a few seconds all of the stiffness of sitting in one place disappeared. She removed them and tried the last ring. As soon as it was on her hand she felt all of the chi leave her body and go back into her dantian, where it started to slowly expand from the natural chi generation within her.


    Rather than let it build up and expand her chi capacity, she spent the rest of the night pushing chi into special locations along her main meridians. They were like the segments in some vine plants or earth worms, or like the eye on a potato. If one could find them and push chi against the wall in those points it would start to grow a minor meridian in that location. They would slowly expand as long as you pushed chi into the end of the minor meridian and they hadn¡¯t hit their own maximum length, though that length was a type of bottleneck for Cleansing phase cultivators.


    By the time the sun started to rise she had grown out all of the minor meridians she could find, though she was certain that she had missed many of them, if not most of them, judging by the descriptions she had read in the Dragon Guide, as it mentioned that humans should have thousands, whereas she had only grown around one hundred and fifty. Maybe when she reached Gathering again her senses would be enhanced again and she could start all of the ones she found, then break her cultivation again and finish them.


    She came out of meditation she smelled like the worst body odor she had ever smelled and was extremely greasy. Unlike when she cleared her main meridians, the toxins weren¡¯t a black, sticky goo, but if anything this smelled worse. She collected her sheets and took them to the laundry area, where other outer disciples would come to take them for cleaning, and then went to the bath house. While one had to wash their own clothing, things like curtains, sheets, and rugs could be put in the laundry area to be cleaned, though there was no guarantee that the replacement you received would be your own, just the same.


    Once she was done bathing and dressed, she ate something and returned to her room, where she put more sheets on her bed. She thought about sitting on the bed again, as it was more comfortable, but decided against it. There was no use making things harder on the outer disciples that were working on laundry duty.


    She sat in the middle of the stone floor and started again. This time she created much stronger and higher quality strings out of her chi than last time and started wrapping it. About half way through, though, she realized that her dantian was starting to hurt, and removed the Restrict ring, immediately relieving the pain. Apparently it wasn¡¯t good to use Restrict while breaking through. She wrapped the string of chi around her dantian for the next thirty minutes or so before it started drawing in the neutral chi on its own to fill in the gaps in the layers. Another ten minutes later the layer stabilized and Shen¡¯s senses returned to their superior form as she was once again at Gathering phase.


    Shen quickly started searching through her main meridians and found more than ten times the number of branch points that she had seen before. She pushed a little of the neutral chi from her lowest level into the wall in every one of those spots, making it an indent that would be easy to see, then took a break for Middle Meal. She had started to get a bit greasy and smelly, but she didn¡¯t immediately take a bath, instead breaking her cultivation once more so that she could work on those points. She was easily able to find all of them now that they were made obvious, and expanded about half of them before Mae returned and complained about the smell. She was sitting in a puddle of stinky grease, so she cleaned it up and they went to the bathhouse together. After returning, however, Shen sat down in the same spot, throwing her dirty clothes in the laundry box and closing the lid to limit the smell, then started clearing even more.


    Mae woke up around midnight complaining about the smell, and Shen went to take one more bath and cleaned up one more stinking puddle before returning and finishing the job by three in the morning. She put on the bracelet so that her dantian would rapidly refill, then once again built the barrier around her dantian. This time her performance was the best of all. With over two thousand cleared meridians she had extremely fine control over her own chi, and it only took her five minutes to build a near-perfect shell and advance to Gathering once more.


    Out of curiosity she looked at her main meridians again and saw several hundred more branch points. She briefly considered marking them and repeating the cycle, but she had only told Ponma that she needed a day off, so she didn¡¯t want to take two days off. She had increased her control of chi at least ten-fold during this day, anyway, so that would be good enough for now.


    She put her bracelet back on and immediately felt burning, freezing, hardening, and other sensations she couldn¡¯t really describe in her minor meridians, the last two belonging to Wood and Metal chi. She knew that this was because she hadn¡¯t adapted them to the purer energy, so she went to the training field and started using it at its lowest setting, increasing the purity as she adapted to the chi. Once she reached the 10.5% maximum of the field she started briefly putting on her bracelet to improve the quality of her internal chi, then removing it, slowly improving the purity. By the time the sun was rising she was able to wear the bracelet most of the time, so she spent the next few hours fully adapting before setting out for the warehouse.

 Chapter 30

    By the time she arrived at the warehouse they had already left for Fisher. Shen didn¡¯t have a copy of the key, so she drew her wooden sword and flew to there. It took far less concentration than the last time she did that, and by the time she arrived there she had forgotten that she was using chi. She floated over to Ponma and greeted him while wondering why Ponma was so short. She was about to ask him when he spoke up.


    ¡°So, are you planning on heading out to the lake on that or are you going to take the boat like normal?¡±


    Shen looked down and realized that she was, in fact, standing on a flying sword. ¡°Oh, sorry. Forgot I was flying.¡± She landed and returned the sword to her belt. Normally she would have realized that she was using chi, even if it didn¡¯t take much concentration, but as her bracelet was refilling her chi faster than she was using it, she never felt the loss.


    The Late and Peak quality blossoms were starting to run out due to how many they had gathered, so Ponma wasn¡¯t gathering them during the days she wasn¡¯t here. Before long he would need to limit the gathering to once or twice per five days, only increasing the amount when the spring arrived. While the temperature wasn¡¯t an issue on the lake, due to the volcanic activity at its bottom, the lack of sunlight meant that the plants couldn¡¯t grow as quickly during the winter. During the summer they might be able to harvest the plants every day or every other day depending on the quality, as the quality depended on the age of the plant, not the age of the flower, but for now once every five days was about the limit.


    After filling a wagon with the better blossoms she borrowed the key from Ponma and returned the special flowers to warehouse, then returned for a load of normal blossoms. No one complained about her hauling carts of flowers all day, so she continued to do so, and when the day ended they only had a single cart of flowers left to bring back, the last one that was loaded for the day. Ponma paid everyone, and they returned the wagons to the warehouse, where Shen returned the key to Ponma.


    When Shen returned home she realized that, despite using the Restrict ring to limit her strength all day, the Recovery rings had allowed her to keep going. She felt her arms and stomach and realized that they were much stronger than they were yesterday. She should now be at about where a Guard recruit needed to be to join the Town Guard, though she could do better. All she needed to do to improve further was a bit of body cultivation.


    She ate and returned home, then spent twenty minutes each making rings for the cultivation of Skin, Nerves, Muscles, Tendons, Bones, and Brains. She considered making more for each of her senses, but those would increase when she increased in cultivation realms, so it wasn¡¯t critical. She put on the six rings and her fingers were almost full, but she would try this out for a day before she considered advancing.


    As there wasn¡¯t much more she could do to improve her chi purity, having neared her bottleneck and returned to Peak Foundation by adapting all of her meridians to the energy, she should probably go ahead and break through to Foundation. She had also learned just about all of the effects she wanted to use at this level, and once she advanced she could start learning the many interesting techniques for Foundation realm.


    Thinking about it, she went to sleep. Before sunrise, however, she woke up screaming in intense pain. At first she thought that maybe she had worn the Body Cultivation rings too much, and they had started to harm her. While she was hurting across her whole body, this pain felt like someone had driven a spike through her forehead, chest, and abdomen. More accurately, it felt like her dantians were about to rupture. She quickly fought through the pain to remove the Restrict ring from her finger. She then removed her bracelet and formed several balls of various elements before ordering them to dissipate into the air in order to relieve the pressure.


    A few seconds later the pain started to subside and a few seconds after that she returned to her senses enough to realize that Mae was standing over her, trying to get her attention. ¡°Sorry.¡± she said, still gritting her teeth from the pain. ¡°I forgot that I had a Restrict ring on and an item that restored my chi. My dantian couldn¡¯t release the energy the bracelet was feeding me, so it kept building up pressure. Not sure why, though. The bracelet is supposed to stop feeding when I¡¯m full.¡±


    ¡°If your dantian was expanding, it wouldn¡¯t ever get full, though, would it?¡± Mae asked. ¡°After all, expanding by one percent would mean that you were only 99% full, and it would refill that extra amount.¡±


    Shen thought about it and nodded. ¡°Does that mean that my dantian is at its maximum size?¡± She didn¡¯t want to start trying to expand it again until she was sure she had recovered, but now that she thought about it, she didn¡¯t want to advance without maximizing the size of this level of her dantian. After all, the larger it got, the more capacity future layers would have to store chi. Continuing to expand now would likely lead to dantian rupture which not only would remove all cultivation progress while putting enough toxins in her body to drop her back to the middle of the Cleansing realm, but would require weeks of treatment, then possibly months of meditation to recover from. It would also be excruciatingly painful, and that would likely mean that she was unconscious for most of the weeks long treatment if not longer.


    ¡°Most likely. You can probably try again once you recover, just in case you aren¡¯t at your limit, but for now I¡¯m taking the ring.¡± Mae grabbed the Restrict ring and gathering bracelet from the table and put them in her pocket.


    ¡°Wait, why are you taking them?¡± Shen asked while gritting her teeth from the pain. ¡°If you want to use them while I recover, that¡¯s fine, but I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to handle the bracelet without a good bit of practice. You¡¯ll need to go to one of the Formation Fields and adapt to the full purity of the chi at the very least before you put that on, or you could end up worse off than me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not taking them to use them, though they do sound useful. I¡¯m taking them so that you aren¡¯t tempted to use them again before I verify that you have fully recovered. Even then I¡¯m going to make sure you take them off every night, at least the Restrict ring.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Shen said, the worst of the pain now gone. ¡°Thanks. In that case, I loaned Ponma my other recharge bracelet, but I¡¯ll make one for you once I get better so that you can train as well.¡±


    Mae smiled. ¡°You don¡¯t need to repay me. I¡¯m just helping out a friend. But if you really want to, something in between the two purities would be good, so I can adapt more easily. After all, higher purity elemental chi means I can make purer pills.¡± Shen nodded and Mae continued. ¡°Now, let¡¯s talk about those other rings.¡±


    Shen explained what the other rings did to Mae, and she nodded. ¡°Well, it looks like the recovery rings are keeping up with it for now, but I¡¯d prefer if you used something better just in case.¡± Mae pulled a book out of a drawer on her side of the desk and handed it to Shen. ¡°This lists several other healing techniques, including some Gathering phase ones, which should be better than the Cleansing phase one you are using. While you are recovering, you should learn these as best you can, and once you¡¯re better you should make one of them into a ring so that you don¡¯t risk seriously hurting yourself with body cultivation.¡± Because the Recovery rings needed to do so much work to repair her dantian, Mae had Shen remove the Body Cultivation rings. She didn¡¯t take them, however, as they didn¡¯t seem as dangerous. Shen went to sleep an hour later, after the pain lessened enough from the two rings dedicating their entire effect on fixing the issue to allow her to sleep.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    When Mae left the house Shen was still asleep, so she left a note on the desk and told Ponma at First Meal that Shen might not be in today, then returned to work. Shen woke up hungry and realized that it was two hours past when she needed to be at work. She was about the get dressed and head to Fisher when she saw the note from Mae, telling her that she would notify Ponma of what had happened and that she should take the day off to recover.


    Shen¡¯s dantians were still hurting, but she thought she would be able to function as long as she didn¡¯t need to use chi. For now, she just wanted to rest so that she would recover more quickly, and there wasn¡¯t a better place to do so than the bath.


    She gathered her things and headed over. After scrubbing herself clean and rinsing off she slid into the water and closed her eyes. While she wasn¡¯t going to cultivate, in case that aggravated the injury, she could look at the damage. Her dantian looked like one of those fruits that had gotten overripe and started to tear, only the damage looked more like stretch marks than tears. If she had kept the ring on for another few minutes, she knew it would have torn and she would have crippled herself.


    She felt someone else slip into the water beside herself. She wasn¡¯t going to talk to the person until the woman spoke to her. ¡°Mo Shen, is that you?¡± the woman asked.


    Shen opened her eyes and realized that she knew the woman there. It was the woman who tested her for physiques and bloodlines. ¡°Sister Wuxan?¡± she asked. She noticed that the woman had fine white hair on her skin and had brushed her hair back to reveal her pointed white furred cat ears. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you in years.¡±


    ¡°Most of the children don¡¯t, since my job is just to test them and register them with the sect. Or they don¡¯t remember me when they do, since I only see them once. I haven¡¯t seen you in the bath before, and I come here around this time most days. Just decide to sleep in?¡±


    Shen shook her head. ¡°Not really. I actually hurt myself from a stupid training mistake, so I had to take a day off to recover.¡±


    Wuxan looked at her confused. ¡°You don¡¯t look injured.¡± she said. ¡°Torn muscle or something like that?¡±


    ¡°Kind of.¡± said Shen. ¡°I almost burst my dantian.¡± Wuxan looked surprised at that and Shen explained how the two relics had worked together to cause the pressure to build up and how she had been awakened by the pain just before it ruptured.


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you caught it in time.¡± said Wuxan. ¡°I knew someone that tore her dantian when I was a teenager. She took three months to recover and lost a good bit of chi capacity, as she wasn¡¯t able to expand it afterwards.


    ¡°Wait? I could have lost chi capacity?¡± asked Shen in surprise. ¡°I didn¡¯t know that. Is there any way I can tell if I lost any?¡±


    Wuxan nodded. ¡°I can tell you, if you don¡¯t mind me probing your dantian. I¡¯ll need to touch near it for the best results, though.¡±


    Shen nodded, remembering the rumors about Wuxan¡¯s actions with several Inner Sect members, both men and women. She didn have medical training, though. ¡°As long as it¡¯s a medical thing and not something inappropriate.¡± she said.


    Wuxan giggled. ¡°Relax. I¡¯m that much of a pervert, so you are way too young for my tastes.¡± She reached out and put her hand in the middle of Shen¡¯s chest before extending her divine sense into Shen¡¯s body.


    Shen felt something moving inside of her and squirmed a bit from how uncomfortable it was. Normally you wouldn¡¯t be able to sense someone else¡¯s divine sense when still in the Gathering realm, but because Wuxan was touching her meridians and dantian Shen was able to tell where Wuxan touched, if not get any details. ¡°That feels really weird.¡± Shen said.


    Wuxan nodded and opened her eyes, withdrawing her divine sense and hand. ¡°I apologize for the discomfort.¡± she said before taking a breath and continuing. ¡°Well, the good news is that it will heal fine. It only had some minor tears, and they should heal fully. Bad news is that with that much damage, you¡¯ll need to recondition it after you recover. You could be at the Initial Gathering stage when it finishes healing itself, though I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ll be Early, maybe Middle. As for your capacity, you currently have over 500 units in there, and it¡¯s leaking, so you can likely hold far more.¡±


    ¡°Five hundred units? Chi has a unit associated with it?¡± Shen had never heard of this.


    ¡°Oh, most people don¡¯t bother studying it. You know how, when you were evaluated, they also said a number? Do you remember what it was?¡±


    Shen closed her eyes and thought about it for a little while. ¡°Nascent 17, I think. Why?¡±


    Wuxan looked impressed for some reason. ¡°Seventeen is really high for a recruit, and Nascent potential on top of that? Interesting.¡± She thought for a few seconds, then remembered she was talking to someone. ¡°Oh, sorry about that. People with your stats are just rare. As for why I asked, I assume you know that the ¡®nascent¡¯ part of that means that you have the potential to reach Nascent Soul before facing a serious bottleneck or tribulation?¡± Shen nodded. ¡°Well, the seventeen was something called your ¡®chi multiplier¡¯. It¡¯s basically how much chi you can store in each layer of a dantian when it¡¯s full. Training it increases that number, but that is where each new layer starts.¡±


    ¡°Then shouldn¡¯t I have fifty chi in my dantian after expanding it, not five hundred?¡± Shen asked, confused.


    ¡°It¡¯s multiplicative, not additive. Basically, you multiply the size of the layers together and that¡¯s the maximum you can hold. No idea why.¡±


    Shen remembered something else from that day. ¡°Wait. I have a friend that received a rating of ¡®Foundation 3¡¯. Does that mean that he¡¯ll only have nine points now that he¡¯s at Late Gathering? I guess it explains why he rarely uses chi and runs out quickly.¡±


    ¡°It just means that he starts out there. He can always train it to be higher, though, which he should probably do. Most humans have a maximum of around 17 to 23, so they tend to have around 400 at most during Gathering. My max is 27, as spirit beasts have higher limits, and I inherited a bit of that. And due to your unique circumstances you might have a higher limit too.¡±


    ¡°You mean my Dragon blood?¡± Shen asked, and Wuxan looked around to see that the other women that were there seemed to either not hear or not care.


    ¡°Yes.¡± said Wuxan. ¡°Though I¡¯m not allowed to bring it up in public due to privacy concerns, the fact that you are okay with me doing so means that I can verify that. Dragons tend to have much higher limits than humans. According to some people, some dragons have a limit of over 100, or even no limit. I suspect that you are in the high twenties like me or the low thirties. Your bloodline is a lot weaker than mine, so you probably won¡¯t get as much of a bonus from it. But seventeen natural level means that that when you reach Foundation Initial you¡¯ll have a limit of seventeen times as much chi as you do now.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± said Shen, sitting up a bit in the water. ¡°I have a relic that can refill my chi in about three hours. Does that mean it will take closer to two and a half days to refill my chi?¡±


    Wuxan shrugged. ¡°Technically, but if you stick to the same techniques it will still refill at the same rate, so you won¡¯t notice it. It will only come up if you learn techniques that use a lot more chi, though there are several of those at Foundation. It¡¯s like a large storage jar verses a drinking gourd. As long as you drink the same amount of water every day, you don¡¯t notice the size as much, but if you start watering your garden with it, it becomes noticeable.¡±


    Shen nodded and changed the topic, as she had learned all she could on that one. An hour later she was ready to leave the bath, and Wuxan advised that she read a specific book on bloodlines and bloodline cultivation. Shen thanked her, dried off, got dressed, and headed for the cafeteria, as it was now open for Middle Meal.


    After eating she went back to her room and started reading the book Mae loaned her. Inside were several healing techniques in both the Cleansing and Gathering stages. Shen studied the techniques for the next several hours, testing the ones that seemed the most useful, before realizing that the pain in her dantian was completely gone.


    She looked inside herself to find that all of the damage had gone away, though there were several darker spots on the walls of her dantian where the damage had been. She could also tell that her pressure had lowered to the Early level of Gathering, and assumed that the weird dark spots had something to do with it.


    She used a bit of her chi to scrub the dark spot but only a tiny bit of the toxin dissolved. Still, she worked at it for two hours, but when she was finished she realized that she had made little progress. Compared to the first time she conditioned the wall of her dantian, it was like the difference between washing dirt from your hair versus washing tree sap from your hair. While the procedure was the same, the sap took much more work to get out.


    She knew that she would need as much control of her chi as she could get, so she marked all of the minor meridians in her body and started lowering her cultivation once more. This time she had even found a few branch points within the minor meridians, so she marked those as well. Mae reentered the room a few hours later and felt Shen¡¯s shell finish collapsing.


    ¡°So you¡¯re re-cultivating again?¡± Mae asked. ¡°So soon after the injury?¡±


    ¡°The injury is fixed, thanks to the rings. I just need to recondition my meridian, so I figured I¡¯d do the best I could.¡± She had to split her concentration to talk, but thankfully she hadn¡¯t used so much concentration to talk that she had lost control of the meridian expansion technique, just slowed it¡¯s effect.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to go eat, if you want to join me.¡± said Mae. ¡°Just make sure you clean up that weird gunk before going to bed. I don¡¯t want the room to stink.¡±


    Shen nodded and climbed off of her bed to the floor, then continued her cultivation. Mae returned her items and left a little while later, and they didn¡¯t talk for the rest of the night. Shen, however, put on the two items and continued, skipping her nighttime meal. After all, the lowest layer of her dantian wasn¡¯t fully expanded, so she could still advance there.

 Chapter 31

    Over the next twelve days Shen slowly advanced her cultivation back to where it was before. As the full purity chi inside her was painful to use, the previously damaged walls being limited in what they could handle, she had visited the Formation field the first night. It cost one stone per hour to use the field, but she paid for ten hours in advance and immediately started meditating. By sunrise she was using the formation at its maximum purity, so she stood and asked about the time. As she had been there for eleven and a half hours, she gave them an extra two stones and left without getting her change. She was running low on funds, but thankfully it didn¡¯t cost anything to meet your basic needs in the sect.


    She had spent the next day hauling carts while still at the Cleansing stage, as which stage she was in didn¡¯t matter when using the Restrict ring, and by midnight she had maximized the size of her dantian¡¯s Cleansing level. With the lowest level of her dantian now fully expanded she was able to advance to Gathering once again and have a 20% larger pool of chi to use to condition her dantian. By working at it until she had depleted her chi every night before sleeping she was able to quickly return to a perfectly conditioned dantian while only having been slightly weaker than normal for one full work period at the shop.


    One thing that helped her return so quickly was the purity of her chi. Apparently, while most people would use neutral chi to condition the dantian, if one used elemental chi above five percent purity it worked just as well. And because her chi was over four times as pure as that, she got over sixteen times the effect, cutting a job that would take most people most of a year if not the whole year down to an eleven day task.


    She had purchased the book that Sister Wuxan recommended and read through it. Apparently, all living beings had something called ¡®genes¡¯. As could be seen by the immortals who had complete control of their bodies even below the cellular level, there were 13 sets of them in humans, though the number varied in other lifeforms. When two people of the same race had a child, each would give one half of each set to their child. The genes of humans and spirit beasts didn¡¯t mix, though. While a person that was half spirit beast, including dragons, was conceived, they would have the complete genes of the spirit beast parent but only half those of the human parent. The human genes wouldn¡¯t be able to make a functional body, though, so the spirit beast genes would have to reveal themselves to make up for this. If they didn¡¯t, the person would die before birth, which resulted in a lower birth rate but everyone being born having spirit beast traits. Every time such a hybrid had a child, they would pass on the full spirit beast gene set to their children, plus half the human genes they had.


    If the other person had a spirit beast gene set as well, that would also be passed to the child, and both sets would partially express themselves to fill in the gaps in the hybrid¡¯s genes. In Shen¡¯s case, seven of her eight great grandparents were fully human, and one was half dragon, so she had 12 complete sets of human genes and an extra one which had to make up its missing pieces with a few dragon genes. If she were to have a child with a full human, there is a 50% chance that the child would have the dragon genes, but they would never express themselves, and a 50% chance that they would be like her, with only a small amount of dragon genes being expressed.


    One interesting thing about this was the idea that one could cultivate a bloodline similar to how one could cultivate the body or chi, and make the bloodline express certain traits, overriding the normal human traits, like giving herself scales. This could be used to unlock all of the bloodline abilities or, at the extreme end, become a dragon. Shen knew that she would want to do this eventually, but for now she would remain human.


    The morning after she finished conditioning her dantian she was considering advancing to Foundation as well. She had learned the healing techniques Mae had wanted her to learn, or at least the ones that seemed like they would be useful as a relic, and created blue rings for all of her friends with the best one she could use, a more advanced Wood technique which she also fed with Water chi. She had even made body cultivation rings for the boys and a Restrict ring for Ponma, as he needed to expand his reserves and Danka already got one from being a city guard.


    She was sitting at the table with the others, trying to think of anything she might have missed before advancing when Ponma spoke up. ¡°Hey, did you guys hear about the White Ice Spirit sect? Apparently, they were conquered by the demons and many of them fled to the north.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of them.¡± said Shen. ¡°How did you find this out?¡±


    ¡°Some of them showed up last night as refugees. Though I found out about them due to them being the largest customer for the Water Blossoms, as they study both Ice and Water chi techniques.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they Spirit summoners?¡± asked Mae. ¡°Surely they could fight off the demons using superior numbers.¡±


    ¡°They also have a Spirit Realm.¡± said Danka. ¡°Even if they couldn¡¯t beat them, they should have been able to hide in there.¡± If Shen remembered correctly, Spirit Realms were created by people that were at least in the Nascent Soul realm by gathering souls and fragments of souls and having them circle a region they wanted to protect. They could then set conditions of who they wanted to let enter it, and the area would be protected from the outside by the spirits, as those below Nascent Soul rarely had ways to fight spirits and those at or above that level could usually be overwhelmed with numbers.


    ¡°Apparently it only allowed those in the Gathering Realm and below to enter it. That means that only their outer disciples could hide, and those numbers were limited by the fact that the inside is constantly frozen, with only three hot springs available to keep people warm.¡± Ponma said, then took another sip of water. ¡°That means that they are trapped inside while freezing, and it¡¯s only a matter of time before the demons manage to break in. They would be dead already if the demons had any soldiers lower than Foundation, but for now its a good thing that they don¡¯t.¡±


    Ponma went on to explain that the White Ice Spirit Sect was only around 500 li south of here and the demons had apparently brought over ten thousand troops to conquer them. It was only a matter of time before they advanced this far north and attacked the Jade Dragon Sect.


    That solidified Shen¡¯s resolve. She had to advance as quickly as possible, and help the other Sect members do so as well. For that reason she quickly made four more rings when she got to the shop. The first cycled the chi through your body until all of the toxins were removed. The second searched for minor meridian branch points, using the Gathering phase method for greater effect, and grew a minor meridian if it found a branch point. The third cycled chi through your meridians, including the minor ones. The fourth conditioned the dantian by cycling chi through it as well. Now, along with the bracelet, which would keep your chi purity at the maximum level, one could use a ring to rapidly advance to the peak of Gathering. She considered making one for each level of shell that needed to be constructed, but as those were things that only needed to be done once, they would be better done as a talisman.


    She talked to Master Chen about the new rings, but was harshly scolded by him for the first time since she began working here. The sect had been afraid of people being reliant on relics, which is what had gotten most of them banned in the first place. And now she wanted to make rings that would let them cultivate while learning nothing of their new abilities? That would only create worthless cultivators with no skill in chi manipulation or any other area, cultivators which would lead to the downfall of the sect.


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    After an hour of scolding he took the rings from her and destroyed them, then sent her back to her bench to work on new relics. As they were out of armor, she returned to making bracelets. The new design functioned much like the Formation Fields. It gathered Neutral chi and purified a bit of it into whatever element one needed before feeding it to the wearer. One could even, with a bit of effort, change the purity of the chi it was feeding you so that you could adapt to more pure chi. When she had suggested the new design Master Chen had feared that it would stop people from learning how to purify the chi on their own. Shen, however, had written a pamphlet on how to learn as much as possible from a high-purity chi source, and they had them printed so that one could be given to the customer with the purchase of each bracelet, thus making the bracelet a piece of training equipment and therefore appeasing the Elder that reviewed it. With the latest set of rings, however, she couldn¡¯t hide behind a technicality any more, and if they were released to the public they could have gotten the shop sanctioned by the sect, something that they couldn¡¯t afford and which would hinder the development of the sect as a whole.


    After making several green bracelets, which maxed out at 10.5% purity, the same as the Formation Fields, she started making blue ones which maxed out at 16% purity. She had created the prototype of that design as a way to pay back Mae, but had shown the new design to Master Chen, which had convinced him to allow her to make them. Some of the preliminary work, like the Neutral gathering formation and the purity adjustment slider, were done by Larl and Don, but Shen had to make the purification formations, as she was the only one here that understood chi at such a high purity.


    There was also a white jade version available, but Shen had an additional step with those, as she couldn¡¯t directly imbue 23% purity onto the chi. Instead, she had to build a formation which could take it directly from the 21% she could make to the higher purity, lowering the working speed of the bracelet, though it was still slightly faster than the one she wore. All three bracelets made the shop large amounts of money, which were being used to bring in more materials and to save up to expand and hire more employees, though none had applied yet. At this rate, Master Chen might have to travel to another city to find recruits, though the refugees might have some skill.


    Timp and Lin were working on rings when they weren¡¯t busy making enough flying swords to keep up with the demand. Even with the rate of people advancing to Inner Sect tripling since she created the formation fields, and therefore earning a storage ring and flying sword, they hadn¡¯t needed to make that many to keep up with demand. After all, the free sword was medium grade with a Foundation realm effect, and therefore Master Chen was the only one that could make it. Once Shen advanced, however, she could learn that formation as well as the one for storage rings and start producing them for the sect.


    Still, there was enough demand for the Restrict, Body Cultivation, and Recovery rings in both Cleansing and Gathering realm for them to stay busy. Shen ended up making blue Gathering realm versions of all of the rings, but only the Recovery ones had any real demand, as the green Body Cultivation ones could get you to the level of the guards, which people saw as good enough, and the blue Restrict rings were only needed by those above Foundation, which few people were.


    Shen ended up making herself a blue bracelet that included Tendons, Bones, Skin, Brains, Nerves, and Gathering Recovery effects, leaving out the Muscles one because she was already more toned than looked good on a woman her age and she didn¡¯t want to overdo it. The rest of the changes, though, would still help her, so she continued to wear the bracelet for the next twenty days until it no longer had any effect, at which point she let Mae borrow it.


    Before handing the bracelet over, though, she spent one of her nights after working at Fisher advancing to Foundation Realm. This time she also had to construct a shell, but because she was aware of many more ways in which her cultivation could be effected, she had to shield against those with this shell as well. With all of the times she had lowered her cultivation and reconstructed the first shell, however, she was able to make one that was high quality using only 70% of the chi inside her dantian. One couldn¡¯t wear a chi recovery bracelet while advancing because it could only fill the outermost level of the dantian, and would therefore constantly try to poke holes in the shell to fill the depleted level which was neither full nor completely sealed off. Once she was done, however, she was able to put the bracelet back on and guide the chi into the second layer so that it would also be full.


    Three hours later it had been refilled and she could start working on the Foundation layer. She put on her Restrict ring and got up just before the sun rise to take a bath. She was starting to feel things outside her normal senses, or was able to use this new sense to extend the range of her senses, she wasn¡¯t sure which. This was what was called ¡®divine sense¡¯ and, when fully developed, could allow you to see the ants in the soil from several li away. What she had now, however, would take a bit of getting used to. By the time she left her room the ability only allowed her feel Mae from a few heights away. She would need to develop this new sense the best she could if she wanted to make the most of her Foundation Realm, as it was the key to being able to sense inside herself with high precision, as well as being able to affect the world around her, and was what most Foundation level techniques relied on for targeting.


    Ten minutes later she sat in the bath, slowly spreading her divine sense to the area around her. She was only able to extend it an arm¡¯s length away at the moment, but this allowed her to feel everything within that distance of her. She felt something vaguely rod-shaped behind her and opened her eyes and turned around to see that a woman had just walked behind her. Apparently, what she sensed was a leg. She sat there for another hour before getting out of the water. She had extended her range to two arm lengths with the accuracy to detect objects about the width of her finger, but she knew that her progress would slow as she developed it. She was also getting a headache from how mentally taxing using the ability was, so she relaxed and stopped consciously controlling it.


    She got dressed and went to the cafeteria to eat. Danka was the first person to notice her new level, as he was trained to stay alert to his surroundings, and soon all of her friends were congratulating her. She didn¡¯t see it as that important, though. At the moment, she was no stronger than she was at peak Gathering other than her larger pool of chi, and was unable to properly use her divine sense. She would be sure to remedy that as quickly as possible.


    After eating she went by the library, but because it was in the outer city it didn¡¯t have any technique books beyond Gathering. After all, any sect member that could use techniques above that level would be able to go to the inner city library. She made a note to visit the library after work and left for the shop. Once there she told Master Chen what had happened and, after everyone congratulated her, he gave her a book with the basic Foundation formations she would need to learn.


    The first one she learned was a defensive ability. While the actual technique would be listed on the next page, because the formations mimicked techniques she could learn the basics of a technique from the formations. This one took the woven chi fabric technique of the Gathering phase Barrier and put several of them together, weaving them together between layers so that it couldn¡¯t be penetrated and so that the minor flaws didn¡¯t leave gaps. While she wasn¡¯t sure of the specifics, it could also block divine sense, thus allowing it to prevent most Foundation abilities from penetrating it. On the next page, however, she found the technique and, after a few minutes of practice, was able to fully understand how the effect worked.


    Next was the improved flying sword. This one used the divine sense to control the sword anywhere within range, so one could easily control it from far away. It also improved the efficiency and performance of the sword, so that one could use less chi to travel at the same speed as a Gathering quality sword or could travel faster. Shen would have to practice more with her divine sense to make this one work properly, but just the technique was able to teach her more about the divine sense. It also required a greater understanding of the various types of kinesis it order to move the sword, but Shen had practiced those enough that it wouldn¡¯t be a problem.


    The third was an ability called ¡®aura¡¯ which let one wrap an element around the blade so that it did additional damage to enemies that it hit. The associated technique was dangerous to practice with some elements, but it coated the body of the user with a specific type of elemental chi, adding elemental damage to unarmed strikes and amplifying elemental powers of the same element while weakening powers of the canceled element. So, if she used this with Water chi, she would barely be able to use fire attacks and if she used the technique with Fire chi, assuming she had tempered her skin enough that it didn¡¯t burn her, she would have a hard time using metal attacks.


    While the last one seemed interesting, she knew the first two abilities would be the most common. After finishing the book she got one of the sets of backup armor Master Chen had purchased and, after verifying that she was allowed to use it, started adding the Foundation realm defenses to it. While she didn¡¯t make any mistakes in her engravings, it took her three attempts to properly imbue the effect onto the armor, and even then it would protect less than her Gathering armor unless one was facing a Foundation realm attack.


    She practiced the new Barrier technique, keeping it up during lunch to get used to the technique and, when she got back to the shop, even though she was tired, she cleared the imbued effect and added it again. This time the armor was a proper set of Early Foundation armor, though she could tell that, with these materials, it would be difficult to get the performance up to Middle Foundation levels.

 Chapter 32

    After work she went to the inner city library. They, however, required at least an Inner Sect identification from the person to sell to them, so Shen left and went to the registration office. They were open late, in case any newly advanced disciples needed to come by after work, so Shen walked inside. After the worker verified her identity and had her touch her divine sense to a testing stone, just to prove she wasn¡¯t artificially increasing her chi pressure, she was registered as an Inner disciple and lead to an armory room. Inside were dozens of swords of every element, and she was told to take any of them that she wanted.


    There were a few of unusual elements, like a Lightning one, an Ice one, and one which used Sword chi, but Shen went to the Fire section, as that was her best element. There were swords there from Early to Late Foundation in quality, and Shen could see Master Chen¡¯s maker¡¯s mark on most of them. She smiled and the registration woman came over.


    ¡°See something you like?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Oh, yes, but I was smiling at the fact that my master made most of these.¡±


    ¡°Oh, you are a student of Master Chen?¡± the woman asked, then realized something. ¡°Oh, are you the one that made the formation fields in the outer city?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Well, I designed it, but most of the time other employees paint it these days.¡± Shen responded.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s fine. I knew one of his apprentices did it, as my son and grandson told me that they talked to one of the ones that were painting it one day. They visit the field almost every day to compete against each other.¡± The woman looked to be in her early forties at most, but with cultivators that wasn¡¯t the most reliable way of telling someone¡¯s age. After all, Shen only continued to age normally because she wasn¡¯t fully mature yet. Sometime around sixteen or eighteen years old her own aging would drop to a quarter of the rate, or an eighth if she manage to reach Nascent by then.


    ¡°Your grandson is the same rank as his father?¡± Shen asked. That was unusual, but perhaps the father lacked the talent his son had.


    ¡°Oh, no. My oldest son is Middle Foundation and works here in the inner city. My youngest is the one he¡¯s competing with. His uncle is only 22, and he¡¯s 18, so they have been more like brothers growing up than Uncle and Nephew.¡±


    Shen nodded and looked back at the swords. One of them was a standard straight design, but late Foundation in quality, so Shen picked it up, along with its scabbard, and put it in her belt. The woman nodded and took a box out of a shelf, at which point she pulled out a Medium Female ring and handed it to Shen along with an instruction manual for how to use a storage ring. Shen thanked her and the woman offered to help her find a better home in the Inner City. Shen turned her down for now, as Mae would have to take on a different room mate if she moved out, and the woman said that she could come by at any time if she changed her mind.


    Once the conversation was over, Shen said goodbye, then returned to the Library. As they would close soon, Shen didn¡¯t have much time to shop. Still, she found a book on Divine Sense, one on better materials, so that she might be able to make better relics, and a movement technique called ¡®Explosive Steps¡¯ which basically just let you move more quickly in bursts by creating small explosions under one¡¯s feet with Fire chi to push off of the ground. She paid the twenty stones each for the basic books and left just as the woman was locking up.


    Shen went to the cafeteria and showed everyone her new ID, then ordered a round of Spirit Juice for everyone. While most people would celebrate with alcohol, none of them were sixteen yet and therefore weren¡¯t allowed to drink. Instead she bought them the juice of a type of spirit fruit which contained enough neutral chi to completely refill the dantian of an average Gathering phase cultivator, as well as caffeine, and would release it over the next hour. As they now had too much energy and needed to burn it, they went to the nearest Formation Field and Shen rented them all a spot for the next hour, after which they competed to see who could do the most impressive trick with their chi.


    While Ponma was able to throw five water balls at once with enough force to damage the steel armored dummy at the end of the field, Shen was able to throw eight fire balls with even greater force, and Mae was able to target all of the most sensitive areas on a person thanks to her medical training, Danka was the best at the game by far. He drew his sword and, with a series of movements that looked more like a dance than a fighting style, threw over two dozen Sword Chi strikes at the target, cutting it deeply with every swing.


    When they were out of time they all decided to compete with weapons, as Danka had already done so, and moved to a different field where the weapon training happened. Shen used the Chi Throwing technique she had learned for swords, but the others called her out for doing so. After all, this was a weapon contest, not a chi contest. If that counted as a weapon skill, then Danka¡¯s impressive sword technique from earlier did as well, and they had already agreed to count it as a chi technique for this contest. Shen nodded and drew her new sword, but because she and Danka were the only ones with real weapons the other two insisted on practice weapons.


    So, she and Danka grabbed wooden swords while Mae grabbed darts made of Spirit Hedgehog quills and Ponma grabbed a bow. The first two charged their target and managed to dent the armor greatly, but then Mae and Ponma stepped up to their firing line. Ponma fired several arrows and Mae threw several darts for each arrow he shot. With each dart, however, Mae hit close to a critical point on the dummy while Ponma managed to hit the dummy in several openings in its armor. Shen and Danka were both surprised and tried to use both weapons, but, while they did manage to hit the target with the bow a few times, they were only good enough to get a few darts to stick to the target, and those barely stuck.


    Both Mae and Ponma had been coming to the practice field occasionally to practice their combat skill, which gave Shen an idea. ¡°Hey, I¡¯ve got an idea.¡± said Shen after they were tired. ¡°What if we form a party and go hunt a spirit beast?¡±


    ¡°I think you forgot that we aren¡¯t allowed to do that kind of quest.¡± said Danka from where he sat beside Shen.


    ¡°Actually,¡± said Ponma. ¡°Shen is right. We only technically need an Inner Disciple on the team to accept and turn in the mission. There isn¡¯t a rule about having Outer Disciples on the team. In fact, most of the teams these days will occasionally hire mercenaries to fight with them, and they aren¡¯t even members. They just have one or two Inner Sect disciples to handle the missions and the teams can do more missions with less sect members. That practice allow the sect double the number of teams it can send out, and has allowed the mercenaries to find work here.¡±


    Mae nodded. ¡°In that case, what roles are we doing? Traditionally, the roles are Frontline, Defense, Ranged, Healer, and Stealth. Danka is clearly the front line fighter. I would be the Healer, though as I¡¯m not Foundation yet I can¡¯t heal without touching you yet. With his Archery skills, Ponma is ranged. So what are you going to be, Shen?¡±


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    Shen thought about it for a little while. ¡°I can fill the Frontline, Defense, or Ranged roles, so I guess I¡¯ll do whatever needs to be done.¡±


    ¡°In that case, I¡¯ve got a suggestion.¡± said Danka. ¡°Do you remember that awesome shield you made for that mercenary? Well, I¡¯ve been practicing with a shield recently in the Guard. Do you think you can make one of those for me?¡±


    ¡°I think we charged something like fifty stones for it.¡± Shen said. ¡°Can you afford that?¡± Danka nodded, so Shen agreed to take his order. She had already done his armor, so he removed it from his backpack and she reimbued the symbols, improving it to Late Gathering quality.


    Ponma didn¡¯t own a bow but Shen didn¡¯t know any effects for one, so that didn¡¯t matter. She would look over the formations she could do and see if she could make him arrows or a bow. If not, he would have to use one with no special effects.


    Both Danka and Mae had a day off in seven days, so they agreed to go on the mission then. It was getting late, though, so they said goodbye and Shen and Mae returned home, with the boys presumably doing the same.


    The next day Shen had reached the end of the usefulness of the Body Cultivation bracelet she had made and gave it to Mae before heading into work. There she asked her boss about making shields and, after getting permission, she used one of the round shields to make one for Danka. It had the defensive capacity of a Middle Foundation barrier, but was the best that Shen thought she could do using the materials she had.


    Master Chen had no formations for bows, so Shen asked for permission to go buy one and went to the inner city library. She spent an hour looking for bow or arrow formations and was considering creating her own formations from bow techniques when she found a single book that covered formations for various ranged weapons. She also got a book on basic space formations, which included the formations for storage rings and magic bags, as she wanted to make storage rings and boxes, and the Foundation level talisman book. The sect had few other books on formations, but she made a mental note to return when she could to buy all of them, just in case there was something useful in them.


    She returned to the shop and read the Ranged Formations book for the next hour before it was time to eat. After eating she asked for permission to leave again and went to the training field where she learned the ¡®Power Shot¡¯ technique which accelerated an arrow after it left the bow and the ¡®Accurate shot¡¯ technique which let one guide arrows to a target. The second one was Foundation, as it required Divine Sense to target the arrow, but by using the part of the Gathering phase Flying Sword formation which let you control a nearby sword with chi she could make arrows which could be guided up to five or ten human-heights away. That would be good enough until Ponma reached Foundation and could use the Foundation realm ones.


    After practicing the techniques for an hour she bought a bow which was meant for disciples in the Middle Gathering phase, thirty arrows, and a quiver. She returned to work and immediately added the Power Shot technique to the bow before starting to modify the Accurate Shot formation, unsure whether she should put it on the bow or the arrows, as it would work on both. The modification proved more difficult than normal, so she didn¡¯t finish by the time work ended.


    That night at Last Meal she explained to them what she had done. Danka¡¯s shield was done, and had turned out well. She was working on Ponma¡¯s bow and arrows, but she wasn¡¯t finished yet. She wasn¡¯t sure if she could make a weapon or armor for Mae, but decided that, if she had to, she could add at least an Early or Middle Gathering quality barrier to a robe for Mae to wear. Mae¡¯s weapon of choice was thrown needles, after all, and they were too small for most formations. At best Shen could add the arrow formations to them, though they might be too small for that too.


    Mae mentioned how expensive pills were, so Shen gave her twenty of the last thirty stones she had. Mae complained at first, thinking that Shen was paying for her share of the equipment, but Shen explained herself. ¡°Like relic crafting, the cost of pills is more labor than materials, due to it being harder to do and having a risk of failure. I¡¯m just paying for the materials. If you do the work to refine them, then you have put more towards the cost than I have. Also, the pills are team supplies, as you will be using them on us, so it makes sense for us to contribute as well.¡± Mae accepted the argument and said that she would ask the sisters about borrowing their backup cauldron when she went to work tomorrow.


    The next day, when she arrived at work, Shen was surprised to find two other people there talking to Master Chen. They were teenagers. Master Chen introduced them as former apprentice Artifact Crafters of the White Ice Spirit Sect. Artifact Crafters made relics from more mundane objects, but they also had the ability to create objects out of rarer materials. This allowed them to have higher quality goods and, in some cases, use the abilities inside the material. They had come here as refugees and he had decided to hire them. Of course, the shop here was too crowded, so he had decided to buy a workshop in the Metal district where they would make armor, weapons, and other objects so that they could be turned into relics there. This shop would only handle some of the business, such as the talisman creation and making the formation fields, and other than that would return to just being a shop.


    He then surprised Shen by offering her the position of manager of the workshop, as she was the second best crafter there, even surpassing him in some ways. Shen wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to be in charge of people, as she much preferred inventing and making relics, so she asked if she could appoint an assistant manager to handle the personnel. Master Chen agreed, and Shen became the manager of a workshop, with Don acting as assistant manager. Either of the other two adults could have done the job, but Larl was more used to dealing with customers from their old shop, and needed to watch See during the day. Don, on the other hand, had made most of the relics they sold, so he was a better fit for the workshop.


    Shen stayed at the shop until Middle Meal while Master Chen took the two new people out to look for a workshop. Just as she and the others were finishing their meal he returned and took everyone except Breen and Larl to the new building. Apparently the sect had several abandoned workshops in the area due to people leaving to work other jobs and the less skilled shops merging into the ones with more skill, so they quickly brought out the paperwork for Master Chen to sign.


    This building used to be a smith¡¯s shop, so it already had the forging equipment needed. Shen talked to the two newcomers. The two boys were named Lao and Su. They were twin brothers, nineteen years old, and had been working in their previous shop for five years.


    Once all of the work stations were finished they returned to the shop to collect all of the materials they would need to run the workshop, and by the time the sun was setting they had finished moving everything over. Tomorrow they would start making all of the goods they could, now without being distracted by the customers, and would be able to accomplish more.


    That night Shen read over the Materials book she had purchased. Now that she knew someone that could make items for her out of the new materials, she would be able to use the materials inside of it, whereas before she would have had to find someone else to do the work, making it cost more.


    The next morning she opened the shop and greeted everyone that had arrived. The two twins were there so, as they brought the forge up to temperature to deal with the small amount of scrap iron that was left behind by the shop¡¯s previous renter, Shen watched them to make sure they knew what they were doing. They were going to use it to make a few small objects which they would then imbue and, after seeing Su make an iron ring, Shen left them. She started to work on the armor and Don, Timp, and Lin started modifying large numbers of bracelets so that she could finish the formations later.


    By the end of the day they had turned all of the scrap iron into jewelry, and had even added protection formations to some of the pieces. The next day Shen use some of the money which they had been given for supplies to purchase a wagon load of iron ore and a wagon load of charcoal. Shen was surprised that they still needed to use charcoal in the forge, and couldn¡¯t just use fire chi, but they explained that, while that worked on the small scale, a full scale furnace required too much heat to gather it from the air.


    ¡°So, have any of you ever worked with exotic materials before?¡± Shen asked them after they had started the smelter and were taking a break while it heated up.


    ¡°You mean rare minerals or beast parts?¡± asked Lao. ¡°I¡¯ve done both, but mostly spirit beast parts.¡±


    ¡°How about refining monster parts?¡± Shen asked, and pulled out her book on materials. ¡°This book lists several metals that can be refined from various spirit beast parts, like Blood Iron, Blood Steel, Dragonscale Steel, and Ironbone.¡±


    Su shrugged his shoulders. ¡°I¡¯ve worked with Blood Iron before. It works well with some effects, like Life and Death, is neutral with most, and is terrible for anything that uses Wood chi.¡±


    ¡°I was thinking of making some.¡± Shen said. Blood Iron was refined from the blood of spirit beasts and could even store small amounts of chi depending on the realm of the beast the blood came from and how well it was made. This made it quite valuable in any situation where you wanted a relic to store its own chi. ¡°If you guys can use it, I¡¯ll go buy the supplies right now.¡± The two agreed, so Shen left for the mission hall.


    The hall had about half a jar of blood from various Gathering realm spirit beasts whose corpses had been brought in, as it could be used to make certain special types of talisman ink, but most of the teams slaughtered the beasts in the field so that they would only need to carry back the useful parts, and didn¡¯t gather it, so there wasn¡¯t much. Shen bought the blood, however, and some of the internal organs of the beasts that would just be sold as spirit-beast food. She also asked that they save the rest of the blood for her, divided based on both minor and major realm. As it was just an extra stream of income for the butcher, they agreed.


    Shen then went to one of the supply stores and bought a basic cauldron. While it didn¡¯t require the same amount of skill as pill refining, the production process for Blood Iron was technically alchemy. Thankfully, though, the Materials book contained a basic technique for refining most of the materials which could be turned into metals.

 Chapter 33

    When Shen returned she saw that a tiny blue ball of light was flying around the two new guys, blowing cool air on their heads as they emptied the smelter. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Shen asked, as she had never seen such a thing before.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s an ice spirit.¡± Lao said, not taking his attention from the work. Shen knew nothing about spirits, but she waited a few seconds for him to finish pouring the ingots out while his brother cleaned the slag out of the smelter.


    Once they were finished they explained to Shen that a Spirit was just a ball of energy that could follow instructions. At Gathering phase they could only make an artificial mind that only understood simple commands and a basic body for it, but that was enough for what they used it for. Like relics, spirits could also be given abilities, but the spirit would decide when to use them based on the mind that was controlling it. At Foundation they could give the artificial mind some reasoning capability, letting it make simple decisions, and at Nascent Soul they would be able to give it a soul fragment so that it could actually have a personality and might even have an elemental alignment, but for now they were stuck at Gathering.


    Shen nodded her head. They just seemed like more complicated relics to her, though the fact that they didn¡¯t need a body could have some advantage. She would have to look into making spirit weapons at some point, merging a spirit and a weapon, so that her relics could also obey commands.


    After their explanation was finished Shen brought out the cauldron, blood, and organs. ¡°Well, I do have something else I want you to make.¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m going to produce Blood Iron, and I want you to make it into a few sample weapons.¡±


    ¡°And what are the organs for?¡± asked Lao.


    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s for making Blood Steel. I need to refine the flesh of spirit beasts to charcoal and mix it with Blood Iron to make it. I¡¯ll try to turn most of the Blood Iron into Blood Steel, but I doubt I¡¯ve bought enough to turn all of it.¡±


    Shen started on the organs, flooding the vessel with Fire chi and swirling it around through the material so that everything except the carbon was swept away. As she worked she could feel the coal absorbing some of the fire chi and after an hour she sent her divine sense in, where she saw a red glowing chunk of coal inside in the shape of the organs. She knew that if she opened it now the coal would catch on fire and be destroyed, so she left it closed until the coal cooled down. Once it had she opened the jar and let out the massive amount of black smoke. She removed the organs and noticed that they all contained a good bit of fire chi, even seeming to be warm despite being the same temperature as the outside air.


    She made another batch of coal and ate some field rations, having missed the cafeteria window, and started on the blood. This time she used metal chi, as it helped purify the metal more, and three hours later removed a mass of metal powder the size of a fist from the bottom of the cauldron. She still had half of the blood to refine, but locked up the shop and went home.


    The next day was supposed to be a day where she worked with Ponma, but as she had notified everyone of her new position, he knew she would need to skip the next five days of work, not including the one where they were going out on a mission.


    The next morning she opened the shop and started on her next batch of Blood Iron. With all of it being mixed together the material only came out Early Gathering in quality, but it would be better than using normal steel. She gave today¡¯s batch of Blood Iron powder to the twins and returned her last batch to the cauldron along with some of the coal. She spent until lunch trying to merge the two materials, but seemed to hit a limit when they were 80% combined. After letting it cool she removed the ball of material from the cauldron, broke the slag off the outside of it, and removed a small, irregular ball of Initial Gathering Blood steel. The slag was returned to the cauldron so that she could continue trying to merge the two after eating and went to pick up lunch for everyone.


    Many of the production workers had been missing meals recently, so the cafeterias started allowing people to pick up food for colleagues so that they could still eat. Tomorrow she would ask Don to send someone for their food but for today she wanted to do it herself so that she would have time to think.


    By the time she returned she had realized that the two different energies used in the refinement might be interfering with each other. After all, metal was destroyed by fire, so while those were the ideal elements for those materials, they would negatively effect each other when mixed due to the conflict within them.


    She emptied the slag and returned some of the special coal to the cauldron, then refined it again with metal chi. As the twins hadn¡¯t used all of their Blood Iron powder, she took a small amount of it, mixed it with a small amount the metal elemental coal, then merged the two. This time the process was 95% efficient, and when she opened the cauldron she found a tiny ball of Middle Gathering quality Blood Steel. She would have to use that method in the future.


    ¡°So, what do you want us to make with this material?¡± the twins asked after she had refined all of it. ¡°It might be enough for a sword, but just barely.¡±


    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m heading out with some friends in a few days to go on a mission, so I was hoping we could test a few prototypes in the real world.¡± Shen responded.


    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s possible.¡± Su said. ¡°What do you need.¡±


    ¡°Arrow heads, and if you think you can pull it off, acupuncture needles. One of them likes to throw them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m guessing the team healer. There were a few in our sect that used them as darts.¡± Shen nodded. ¡°Well, we¡¯ll need the Blood Steel for that. I doubt they¡¯ll be big enough to add a formation to, but the material will make them difficult to damage and their ability to store chi should make them channel attacks easier.¡± With that they got to work.


    Shen got to work on the Bow, further refining the Power Shot ability to use chi from either the user or the environment. After that she brought out a few arrows she had purchased and started adding the formations to them. For something like an arrow, you couldn¡¯t make large formations on the shaft due to their size. There was a different technique for cylindrical objects, but it only worked with formations where each circle fed into the next, limiting the complexity of the formation. In this case, she had a gathering array at the back of the arrow to take chi from the user, then fed it into a formation which imbued it with an element, then fed that into the formation for the Aura ability, so that the arrow would be coated in chi of the chosen element. Every circle had the symbols added to the side closest to the arrow head so that they would be on the ¡®outside¡¯ of the formation. She made five Fire arrows by painting the formations on with talisman paint before the brothers finished the five Blood Iron arrow heads and were ready to try and make the needles.


    Shen wanted to learn to forge things as well, but they told here that this wouldn¡¯t be the right time. ¡°Special materials like Blood Iron require special skill to work with. If you forge it incorrectly you can destroy its special properties, turning it into normal iron.¡± They would have to teach her using iron, steel, and bronze later.


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    Shen fit the fire arrowheads onto the arrows and put them into the quiver, then went to the training field to test them. At one of the archery ranges she nocked an arrow, and, after charging the arrow, drew the string back and fired. Her only experience with a bow had been her father giving her a few lessons when she was five, just before he died, and the few times she practiced the techniques so that she could use them with relics. For that reason she missed the target, hitting the wall behind it. The arrow exploded on impact, but as it had hit stone it didn¡¯t cause much damage. On the third shot she did hit the target and when the arrow exploded it blew a hole the size of a head into the dummy, then set it on fire. Shen ran over to put the straw dummy out, them collected the three arrow heads, which didn¡¯t seem damaged at all, before returning to work.


    ¡°They work really well.¡± she said to the brothers, one of which had made another five arrow head and the other which was almost finished with a needle. ¡°They tend to explode, though, so they are single use. I¡¯ll have to note that.¡±


    ¡°Probably because you are putting too much, or too pure chi into them. Releasing it all at once overloads them. You should probably look for better quality materials to make them out of.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye out for some. Feathers should be easy to get, as there are plenty of spirit birds in the forest, but I don¡¯t think there are many spirit trees.¡± She knew that spirit wood was useful in relic crafting but hadn¡¯t seen any yet, just heard of it.


    The boys nodded and everyone returned to work. When the end of day approached Shen asked Don about how they did wages. Master Chen had paid at the end of each day, but Don said that in the cities you usually get paid every ten days, so he would synchronize that with Shen¡¯s schedule to make it easier on her, paying them on the last day of her time there. Because they had started on that day this pay period would include the half day they worked yesterday. Shen agreed to this and verified that everyone¡¯s time was written down properly before closing up for the day.


    Things continued that way until the day the friends were planning to go on a mission together. That morning they all met at the cafeteria. After they were done eating Shen started pulling the relics she had made for them from her magic bag. Danka got a shield. She had gotten it up to Middle Foundation, so any attacks he intercepted would need either be from a higher realm or higher pressure to make it through. The shield itself or the shield formation effect would break if the attack did too much damage, though, so they couldn¡¯t go after any spirit beast that was too powerful, but it would be more than enough when facing most of the beasts the sect might let them accept a mission against.


    Mae got a set of six acupuncture needles. They were made of Blood Steel so that they could maintain an effect that was placed on them, but the only formation Shen had managed to add due to their size was the Gathering phase version of Accurate Shot. They could maintain that effect for around five seconds after they left Mae¡¯s hand, so while Mae wouldn¡¯t be able to feed it energy after it left her, she could still control it. Shen had attempted to add an array to recharge the spent chi, but the dart was too small for her to do so with her current engraving or painting ability.


    Ponma got a short bow. While it used a fairly common type of wood in its construction, as well as having a string made of the guts of Cleansing phase spirit beasts, Shen had managed to put a middle Gathering level formation for the Power Shot technique on it. Despite its small size and fairly light draw weight, the bow would draw on the chi of the user to fire any arrow shot from it with over twice the power of a mortal war bow, allowing it to penetrate the hide of most beasts in the Gathering Realm and even some of the weaker Foundation realm beasts. She also gave him a quiver containing five arrows for each of the five elements and five with the Accurate Shot formation. All of them had Blood Iron arrow heads and feathers from spirit beasts, but the elemental ones were still single use items, as she hadn¡¯t fixed the overload issue yet. Those twenty five arrows would explode when they hit the target, dealing a large amount of damage of their specific element. The other five would listen to his commands for two to three seconds at most, long enough for him to redirect them into a sensitive area on the target. The shorter time compared to Mae¡¯s needles was due to the lower quality of Blood Iron compared to Blood Steel.


    Shen hadn¡¯t made a weapon for herself, as she already had a flying sword, but as she lacked armor she had spent most of her remaining money on a robe made of the cocoons of spirit butterflies and painted a protection array on it. The array was only Initial Formation level, but it would allow her to fight without spending chi to activate her Dragon Scales unless there was a serious threat, making her chi reserves last even longer. Of course, if she needed the her reserves to last longer the group would be in a very bad situation, as she estimated she had around twenty times the chi of any of the others simply because she was in the Foundation stage while they were still in the Gathering stage.


    They went to the Mission Hall near the outer wall. There was one in the Outer Fire district which had more dangerous missions for sect members, where combat was guaranteed, as well as one in the Inner Water district where the ones which only Inner Disciples and above could take, but they went to the one in the Outer Water district, where anyone, including those that weren¡¯t sect members, could go. Inside the building were multiple mercenaries. It seemed that every team had at least one, with several teams being only mercenaries with a single Inner Disciple there to accept and turn in missions.


    The other three people in Shen¡¯s group got a seat and checked their gear while Shen went over to the mission board. She was hoping for something combat related, so that they could all test out their new equipment, but all of the combat missions seemed to be missing. With so many mercenaries around which specialized in such jobs that fact wasn¡¯t surprising, but Shen had hoped that there would be one left behind.


    She looked over what was left, hoping to find something interesting, when she found an interesting one. On the surface it looked boring. About five li to the west, inside a mountain valley, were Moon Lilies. These flowers had multiple uses, but were usually used to make illusion pills or to enhance the Darkness element within pills and elixirs. The reason it interested Shen, however, was that there was an abandoned mine in that valley, which also had a mission on the board. It had been part of a pair at some point, as there were marks in the corner of the page which indicated that it was part two, but part one was missing. This was most likely because the mine was infested with monsters and the mercenaries which went to exterminate them didn¡¯t want to waste time mining. This second mission asked that for them to gather Star Ore and Spirit Copper ore from the mine, about a jar of each, and return it to the mission hall. Shen¡¯s ring could only hold a single jar of material, but she also had her magic bag which had five bags worth of free space in it. Once she was there she could gather more of the materials than was required and keep the excess for the workshop or her own projects.


    Spirit copper was similar to Blood Iron in that it could store chi, but it could store three or four times as much as Blood Iron while being too soft for weapons. It would be an ideal material to make jewelry from, but almost worthless for weapons. Star Ore were pieces of meteorites which crashed to the ground long ago. According to some stories, two immortals had a battle in that valley around five thousand years ago, and one summoned meteors from space to land on his enemy. Shen wasn¡¯t sure if that was accurate, but did know that the valley was almost perfectly circular, likely meaning that it was the impact sight of a large meteor at one point, which left fragments behind. The mine had found a layer of fragments from that impact and tapped into it, but hadn¡¯t managed to gather all of them before the spirit beasts were drawn to the area and they were forced to abandon the mine. Star Ore had the interesting property of being able to increase the chi reserves of those that consumed it by increasing the size of their dantian, an effect which drew spirit beast to it instinctively. The material would act as a poison if one injested too much, however, due to the second effect it had. It reinforced Space elemental effects. Or as some sects put it, it contained part of the Space dao and naturally produced Space chi.


    Shen had been looking into how the Storage effects on magic bags and storage rings worked the last two days so that she could produce them for the shop and found that both of them were Space elemental effects which relied on the creator¡¯s understanding of the Space dao to work. While magic bags contained the Gathering level version of the technique and storage rings contained the Foundation level version, both could be enhanced if one used Star Ore to craft them. While a magic bag went from the size of a jar inside to the size of five to ten jars inside depending on the skill of the relic crafter, and storage rings went from an inside area the size of a pebble to one or two jars in size, both could either have their volume expanded several times over or, in the case of the magic bag which relied on spirit stones to maintain the space, could be made the same size with no energy input needed. These things weren¡¯t usually done because the material was so rare, but if she could get her hands on some she might be able to do so.


    Shen took both of the notices and, after explaining both missions to her friends and getting approval, went to the counter to accept them. The person at the counter was surprised to see her, as she used to bring in various spirit plants from the area but hadn¡¯t in years. When she explained that she got a job and was an Inner Disciple now, though, they realized that she had simply had other things to do. They signed her up for both jobs and thanked her for taking both. Normally you would need a good reputation to accept two at the same time, but Shen had once done a good job on missions and these two were beside each other. Also, the mining job was twenty three days old, so they were somewhat desperate to have it done.


    The team left for the store, where they purchased mining equipment and jars for storing things in. They also went by Master Chen¡¯s shop while they were in the area. Ponma had some extra money so he looked over the talismans as Shen looked at the flying swords. Danka had gotten one when he joined the Guards and Shen had one for becoming an Inner Disciple, but Mae and Ponma didn¡¯t have one. Normally Shen would just ask if she could borrow the boat and fly them there in it, but they didn¡¯t have a storage item it could fit in and she didn¡¯t want to leave it laying in a field while they entered the mines. So, after buying Ponma a Water sword and Mae a Wood sword for four stones each Shen quickly taught Mae how to fly on one and they set off.

 Chapter 34

    ¡°So, I was thinking.¡± said Mae, floating over to Shen. ¡°Isn¡¯t the formation on my needles and the sword the same?¡± Mae had gotten used to flying on a sword over the last thirty minutes and now that they approached the field she had finally relaxed enough and gotten used to it enough to fly while having a conversation.


    ¡°Well, they are really similar. I¡¯m not sure which one was created first, but the two are close enough that I was able to use the Flying Sword formation I was familiar with to modify the Accurate Shot formation. The difference is that the Flying Sword formation has an extra circle to make you stick to it if you want, so you don¡¯t fall off. In the Accurate Shot formation this circle is removed and another is added to make your control work at much greater range.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t the Accurate Shot come first, as it is useful in combat? I could see people developing combat uses, then making it a way to travel.¡±


    ¡°Maybe.¡± Shen said, thinking about it. ¡°You can actually control your chi after it leaves your body, but it works much better when there¡¯s a solid object inside it. That¡¯s the basis of the Kinesis techniques, which those two formations are based on. I could see people realizing that and going from hard to curve chi bolts to easier to curve rocks or arrows, then working their way up to both flying dagger attacks and flying sword transportation.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you can curve chi bolts?¡± Mae asked. She hadn¡¯t practiced magic that much, but she had never heard of that.


    ¡°Yeah, someone told me one time that you just have to want it to curve to make it do so, but I¡¯ve also heard that you should imagine a rope coming from the target to it to pull it in. It¡¯s not really complicated enough to call that a technique, but it¡¯s not something everyone seems to know.¡±


    They entered the valley at that time and Shen lead them to the part of the field where the Moon Lilies were most common. After landing Shen and Mae explained to the boys what they were looking for. Shen had learned about them when researching which spirit plants were native to this region years ago and Mae had learned about them from a book on plant based alchemical ingredients. After explaining the proper way to pick them, they all set out to look for them. Shen had made sure to tell them to try and sense the chi inside the flower. There were similar non-spirit flowers in this valley, but all of the Moon Lilies should have dark chi inside of them. If in doubt, though, any spirit flower would likely be worth gathering in small amounts, assuming it was gathered properly. If they happened to get any special plants, Mae was certain that the Sisters she worked for would be willing to pay something for them if only to expand what they had available.


    After an hour they all met up at the spot where they had landed to compare what they found. Mae noted that many of the Moon Lilies looked like someone had gathered them before. ¡°I wonder if someone else took this mission as well, and just didn¡¯t do so officially. Or maybe it¡¯s a recurring quest.¡±


    Shen looked at some of the grass nearby and noticed that several of the stalks on it had been cut off near the ground. She noticed that this was true for many of the nearby flowers, including the Moon Lilies. She looked carefully at the plant but couldn¡¯t tell if it had been cut or broken, so she touched her divine sense to it. She quickly realized what had happened. ¡°It wasn¡¯t harvested. It was eaten. There is saliva on the stalk that looks cut. Probably something with sharp teeth.¡±


    ¡°Do you know which kind of animal?¡± asked Danka. Some of the larger herbivores in the area could be dangerous, and sometimes wild boar liked to eat plants as well.


    Shen shook her head. ¡°Unfortunately I don¡¯t really have a way to figure that out. My divine sense is still really weak, and I don¡¯t have any special sense techniques, so I¡¯m limited to extending my own senses slightly. I just know it was saliva from a spirit beast because my divine sense lets me smell it and detect the small amount of chi in it.¡±


    They nodded. None of them had tracking skills, so it would be difficult to figure out which of the animal tracks in the field matched the animal that ate these, even with the ground being a bit muddy due to all of the snow melt entering the valley from it being slightly warmer here than outside the valley.


    They checked on the other plants they had found as well. Shen found a Fire Fern. It was only Middle Cleansing realm currently, but she had dug it up rather than removing the fronds so that Mae could replant it and hopefully keep it as a house plant. Danka had found Sword grass. This grass had sharp edges and contained a tiny amount of sword chi which further enhanced this sharpness. He had to use his own sword chi to cut it down, as trying to pull the blades from the plant would have cut him. Ponma found Snow moss and Earth Root. The first was like normal moss, only it could grow even in snow. It contained little Ice chi, as it essentially used what it could for body cultivation, increasing its own cold tolerance. It could be eaten to temporarily make a person more cold resistant as well. The second was an edible root that contained Earth chi. He had gathered several of them, from early Cleansing to Early Gathering in strength. The roots weren¡¯t really used in pills other than to enhance the chi levels, but they were delicious and filling. Mae had seen a few other spirit plants, but as none were properly mature yet she didn¡¯t pick them.


    Now that they had more than enough Moon Lilies to fill the mission, the got back on their swords and flew to the mines. There they lined up according to their role on the team. Shen and Danka would be in the front, as both could fight with a sword, and Ponma and Mae would stay at the back, as Ponma was using arrows and Mae would be avoiding most of the combat so that their healer didn¡¯t need healing themselves. At least Mae had one of Shen¡¯s better quality recovery rings on, so she could recover from minor injuries quickly enough, but serious injuries would mean that no one would know how to treat her. All of them had removed what Body Cultivation bracelets and rings they had, but not the chi recovery bracelets, so their body¡¯s stress shouldn¡¯t be slowing their recovery rates. Shen had forgotten to make everyone Recovery rings, but if they got even a small amount of Spirit Copper she would be able to make better ones, so they just needed to finish this mission and she could provide them with better equipment.


    They entered the cave and Shen held out her hand to produce a light. Next time they would need to remember to bring cheap chi lights so that they could see. The necklaces could be bought for a stone each at the shop, and would be very useful in this situation.


    Any time they reached an intersection, Shen spent a minute drawing a small chi light formation on the walls in chalk followed by an arrow pointing towards the exit. It barely produced any light, but it would be enough to show them the way back if they got lost. For now, all of them knew how to make a light bolt, so they did so.


    Ten minutes later they were traveling down one of the branching tunnels. They had gotten bored and stopped paying attention to their surroundings, which is why they suddenly found over a dozen rats the size of small dogs jumping on them, biting them. They immediately started trying to kill the rats or knock them loose. Shen and Danka were only annoyed by the rats, as the rats were unable to penetrate their shields, but Mae and Ponma were getting bitten every few seconds.


    Not trusting that her sword skills were good enough to not hit her friends, Shen ran over to Ponma, as he was the closest, and started grabbing rats before throwing them at the wall. With her strength there was a sicking crack followed by the squeals of death every time one impacted, but both sides ignored the sounds. When Ponma looked clean Shen moved to help Mae, but Danka had just finished the last one off. Apparently he had learned to send out sword chi to the area near him, targeting anything he wanted it to hit within that area. This had allowed him to cut the rats without needing to swing a weapon near Mae.


    Once Mae managed to calm down she sat down, closed her eyes, and started meditating. A few seconds later she opened her eyes. ¡°No venom, but a few diseases. I also stopped the bleeding, but I can¡¯t do that with another person.¡± While Mae handed an anti-biotic pill to Ponma and started bandaging their wounds, Shen pulled out her paintbrush and a few pieces of paper. She quickly started placing arrays on them to gather the ambient chi and create light. All but one of them were placed in her pocket, where she would occasionally pull out one and throw it on the ground to light their way. These simple relics should stay lit until they were damaged, and as dry as it was down here that would likely mean that a rat or some other beast had damaged them.


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    Danka started collecting rat corpses. ¡°Seventeen.¡± he said after counting them. ¡°Some of them look a bit different, though. They are solid black.¡±


    Shen looked them over. She wasn¡¯t an expert on spirit beasts, but she had never heard of this variation of rat type spirit beast. ¡°Anyone know anything about these?¡± Shen asked. ¡°They don¡¯t seem to be normal spirit beasts. For one thing, they should normally have chi in their blood. Only the black ones do, and it¡¯s weak Dark chi. Also, I suppose it isn¡¯t conclusive since they aren¡¯t common in Cleansing phase beasts, but none of them have beast cores.¡±


    There was a few seconds of silence before Mae spoke up. ¡°Maybe they are False Spirit Beasts?¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Ponma as she wrapped his arm.


    ¡°Well, you can give any beast some of the traits of spirit beasts by forcing them to cultivate.¡±


    ¡°But how would you do that?¡± asked Danka. ¡°They aren¡¯t intelligent enough to use the technique and they don¡¯t have the instinct to do so like spirit beasts. Did someone use mind control magic on them?¡±


    ¡°I suppose you might be able to do it that way, but no. I read in a book that if you fed any animal cleansing pills it would purge the toxins from their body. If you did that until no more toxins could be removed, then gave them a Gathering phase Breakthrough pill they might become Gathering phase, and you could use them like a trained spirit beast. This is somewhat popular among nobles in some kingdoms, but not popular around here, as the herbs needed to make Breakthrough pills don¡¯t naturally grow in the Mountain region.¡±


    ¡°So, someone fed them cleansing pills? Did an alchemist or other cultivator drop some and the rats found them?¡± Danka wasn¡¯t too sure about that theory.


    ¡°Maybe. But maybe they ate Spirit Grass out in the plain.¡±


    ¡°There is a lot of it out there.¡± said Shen. ¡°We just overlooked it because it isn¡¯t worth picking at this time of the year.¡±


    Mae nodded. ¡°It would also explain why some of them are black. They are the ones that ate the Moon Lilies out in the field.¡± The others looked confused. ¡°The lilies contain Dark element, right? Well, if they ate too much of it they would need to either adjust to it or learn to use it, or it would kill them. It doesn¡¯t really work that way with humans, but spirit beasts tend to look like their element if they have one. So a black rat might be a rat that can use the Dark element.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I get what you are saying.¡± said Ponma. ¡°That might also explain why they could ambush us. Other than how dark it is down here, I mean. Dark element is good at hiding, especially in shadows. And the whole cave is basically a shadow.¡±


    Danka nodded. ¡°In that case, we need to keep the area lit to make them easier to see.¡±


    ¡°Not sure if we can.¡± said Shen. ¡°I only have so much paint and talisman paper on me, and both are kind of expensive. I could try doing it in chalk, but the array will need to be big and I¡¯m not sure there are enough flat areas available to make them very often.¡± She handed two self-lighting talismans to each of the others so that they could use one to light their way and keep one as a backup. The bundle of talismans she had briefly made barely put out more light than one of them due to how much of the ambient chi they used, so every one she handed out made the area brighter. Now the cave looked like a room with low light, not a dark area with only a few bits of light in it.


    After a minute they noticed that their lights were getting dimmer. Suspecting that something was interfering with the chi in the air, Shen stretched her divine sense out a few heights in front of her, about the width of her bedroom. She could go a bit further if she wanted, but even at the current distance she could only feel things the width of her hand or bigger, and didn¡¯t want to risk missing an enemy because she couldn¡¯t feel it. The actual distance she could see with her eyes was only arm length, but she could see the slight glow of the other¡¯s talismans so she could at least tell where they were.


    She barely had time to react as she felt something rapidly move towards her. She stabbed her sword towards the object and it suddenly got heavy. The area got brighter, but not as bright as it should be, and Shen saw a rat the size of a large dog pinned on the end of her sword, dead. The rat was pitch black except for its eyes, and she could feel its chi start to move towards its chest as it stopped breathing.


    ¡°Shadow Rats.¡± she said. ¡°Be on guard.¡±


    Suspecting that the rats were running at the group from the front, Ponma drew a fire arrow and shot it down the pathway ahead of them. There was an explosion ten heights ahead of them which briefly lit up the corridor, showing at least six rats before setting two of them on fire. As he couldn¡¯t see well and wouldn¡¯t know where the enemy was coming from, however, he knew that it would be dangerous to fire exploding arrows in this situation. He put his bow away and drew his flying sword.


    Now that their cover was blown the rats rushed at them. Danka knew that unintelligent rats should have been frightened by the explosion and at least partially scattered, so these rats must be more intelligent than normal. That meant that they were likely Spirit Beasts benefiting from the intelligence increasing effects of chi.


    Seeing how effective fire seemed to be Shen threw several fire balls down the corridor. They exploded, killing a few rats and lighting three more on fire. The shade effects the Shadow Rats relied on to ambush their prey was mostly gone as few of them could concentrate, and through the light of the fire Shen could see several more rats running in from behind the first group.


    Danka managed to throw three sword strikes down the passage before they were close enough that he had to use his shield to block them. Shen swung her sword at the incoming rats and Ponma and Mae added in attacks of their own whenever they saw an opening, either a chi blast from Ponma or a flying needle from Mae, which would immediately return to her hand, usually after hitting something sensitive.


    It took five minutes of continuous combat before the last of the rats fell to one of Danka¡¯s sword strikes. ¡°Is everyone okay?¡± he asked, and everyone responded that they were fine.


    Shen threw several light talismans around the area, careful not to drop them in blood, as that could stop them from working. She could tell that several of the rats had all of their chi gathering in the center of their chest, rather then spreading through their body. She went back to the corpse of the first rat she had killed and pulled a jar from her magic bag. ¡°Hey, Danka, can you help me drain their blood? You¡¯re taller than me, so you can lift it higher without flying.¡± she asked. The ceiling was about two heights high in this area, but carrying something while on a sword was difficult, as it threw off your balance.


    ¡°You want their blood?¡± he asked, walking over. He was tired from the combat, but thanks to his chi he could keep going.


    ¡°Making more talisman ink?¡± asked Ponma as Shen slit the beast¡¯s throat while Danka held it over the jar. Shen was surprised that he asked it, but he explained. ¡°One of the merchants in town told me that he saw you leaving the mission hall with a jar of Beast Blood. His best guess was that it was to make talisman ink.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Shen said. ¡°Well, there are versions of talisman ink that use it, and it¡¯s possible to use it like it is. In fact¡­¡± She stuck her finger in the blood and started drawing on a fairly smooth section of the ceiling. She drew a large version of the light formation, dipping her finger in the blood several more times, and when she finished it the area lit up like there was a lantern hanging there. ¡°That should last until the blood dries completely and the chi it draws it starts damaging it. Maybe two or three days.¡± By the time she finished with the formation the rat was drained and she went to the next one, having Danka lift it as well. ¡°I need as much spirit beast blood as I can get to make Blood Iron and Blood Steel.¡± She looked at Mae and Ponma who were shocked that she would just put her hands in blood like that. ¡°We can take a break here, if you guys want. I¡¯m going to be draining blood for a while, and you can probably make decent leather armor from their hides if you want to skin some of them. Just start with the ones that have been drained.¡±


    The two younger people looked at each other and Ponma shrugged. He wasn¡¯t opposed to cleaning animals, but had never done so before, so he let Mae, who had some medical training, show him how to do it. Medical training might not have taught her how to remove skin, but it did mean that she knew far more about where they should cut.


    As they worked on the first one Mae noticed something was off about it. ¡°Hey, Shen, this one has almost no chi in its body.¡±


    Shen paused and sent her divine sense into the blood in the jar. ¡°You¡¯re right. The blood from the one I¡¯m draining now has a good bit, but the blood in the jar has a lot less.¡± She then remembered the weird feeling she got from it when she killed it. ¡°Hey, can you check the center of its chest, right behind the rib cage?¡±


    ¡°Where its middle dantian would be if it were a human?¡± asked Mae.


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    Mae nodded and cut open the meat under the sternum, then stuck her hand in. After feeling around for a few minutes she pulled out a small black marble. ¡°Is that a beast core?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Exactly.¡± Shen responded again. ¡°No idea why, but they formed when some of the rats died.¡± She walked over to Mae and held out her hand, and Mae handed it over. ¡°Early Gathering.¡± she said after touching it with her divine sense. ¡°At least if I compare it to the Fire one I bought.¡± She moved her hand and it moved from her ring into her hand. The one from the rat was smaller and a different color, but other than that they looked very similar. ¡°The fire one is Middle Gathering, but this is almost as good. Not sure how much they are worth, though. Probably more than the hides, and definitely more than the blood.¡± Shen went to the other corpses and felt inside their chests with her divine sense. The three that felt like they had a stone in their chest were thrown into a pile. She checked to see how much chi their bodies contained and found that they were almost completely depleted. ¡°Those have cores, if you two want to harvest them. I won¡¯t be draining them, because the blood needs to have as much chi as possible to make good Blood Iron.¡±


    They worked for another hour before Shen had gathered almost two jars of blood from the rats. Theoretically, their entire bodies could be refined into useful materials, but she didn¡¯t know how to do that, so she only took a few extra organs from the strongest rat so that she would have the charcoal to turn all of the blood into Blood Steel.


    Mae and Shen had gathered the three other beast cores and all of the pelts, minus the ones on the drained rats. Shen wasn¡¯t sure if the hide would still work as armor, but didn¡¯t want to waste time gathering them unless she knew they were worth taking. After they finished with their job Ponma gathered some water from the air and used it to wash his and Mae¡¯s arms. Shen did the same for her and Danka when she was finished draining the rats and they stored everything before heading deeper into the cave.

 Chapter 35

    For the next hour they ran into the occasional rat, but no more than three at a time. Every time they did, however, Shen would draw the Light formation on the ceiling in their blood then drain the blood from any that didn¡¯t form cores. They had gathered two more cores by the time they had found their first patch of ore, leaving not-yet-full jars under any rats that were being drained and hanging them as best they could from the wall, as they didn¡¯t want to take the time to drain them properly.


    This deposit was Spirit Copper. The blue-green crystals shimmered strangely in the light, a result of having absorbed chi and grown harder. While it could gather chi on its own, the process was slow, and if they were to draw the chi from this deposit it would likely take years to recover. Otherwise people would use Spirit Copper in relics instead of gathering arrays. Still, it could rapidly absorb the chi that was fed to it, so it had some use.


    Shen passed out jars and picks and they started working, a light talisman on the ground beside each of them. They worked for almost two hours, filling seven and a half jars with ore during that time. Three times during their work individual rats came to bother them, but none of them formed cores so they were all hanging over the entrance the rats had used, slowly draining into jars. Maybe seeing the bodies of their tribe members would scare them away, Shen thought as she swung the pick.


    When they were done she put most of the jars in her bag, and the rest in Ponma¡¯s. With all of the blood she had gathered she only had one more jar left, and most of the free space was taken up in their bags. She dumped the half jar of ore into her bag, filling in the gaps between the jars, and put the now empty jar in Ponma¡¯s bag. Now, when they found the Star Ore deposit they could take two jars back with them.


    They continued down the passage until they entered a room with a ramp leading down. Shen threw a talisman down the ramp, using the Accurate Shot technique to make it go further than it should, and when it landed they saw dozens of rats standing around or sleeping. In the middle was a large female rat, the size of a horse and nursing a dozen medium dog sized black rats. The rats also saw her, though, and the female squealed.


    Shen immediately started throwing fire balls into the room, aiming the first of them at the female rat. Ponma added in the four fire arrows he had left, then added in the Earth and metal arrows. Every one exploded on impact, the earth and metal ones tearing apart the ones that were too near. Several of the rats made it through the barrage and started running up the ramp, and Danka and Mae sent attacks down the ramp until the rats got too close. Danka then switched to blocking them with a shield while swinging at those he could hit with a sword.


    After they stopped seeing movement below Shen and Ponma went over to the ramp where all of the rats had gathered. Shen joined Danka in swinging a sword, and Ponma joined Mae in attacking from range, this time using the Accurate Shot arrows. He wasn¡¯t able to recover all of them the way Mae was with her darts, so he only fired twelve shots before he had lost them all and had to resort to throwing chi bolts.


    A few minute later the last of the rats were dead. There were a few pained screams at the lower level, so they left the smokey area at the top of the cave and headed down. A few of the rats tried to make a last stand, but Shen or Danka quickly finished them off.


    When the grizzly work was done, they gathered the corpses in the middle of the room. They could see well in here thanks to the ten or so light formations that Shen had drawn on the walls as they gathered the bodies, so they had no trouble finding all of them. Mae and Ponma removed the stones from the ones that had them, including the Mother Rat, then everyone grabbed a pick. There were several black rocks poking out of the wall, and they carefully dug around each one they found before throwing the rocks into one of the two jars they had saved for that purpose. Shen tried to send her divine sense into one of the rocks, but as soon as it touched the stone it felt like it was stretched and pulled apart. This must be an effect of the Space chi,¡¯ she thought, then went back to mining.


    Digging out all of the rocks took another two hours, but when they finished they had filled two full jars plus all of the free space in Ponma¡¯s bag and her ring. They followed their marks back out of the cave and into the valley. The sun had already went behind the mountain, leaving the area in darkness, but the sky was just starting to turn orange, so they knew it wasn¡¯t yet night. They quickly hopped on their swords and flew back to the sect.


    Once they were there Shen went to the counter of the mission hall to turn in the three jars of Spirit Copper Ore and one jar of Star Ore, as well as the jar of Moon Blossoms. After receiving the pay for the jars she decided to bring up something that she had been thinking of on the way back. ¡°You know.¡± she said to the receptionist, ¡°The mine was full of rats. Probably a hundred or more. I thought the mission to clear it was finished recently.¡±


    The receptionist woman looked surprised and called over the elder that oversaw them. She had Shen repeat herself, and Shen told them the full story of what had happened. She also showed them the eleven beast cores they had gotten from the rats. As often as they formed in Gathering phase animals there would need to be around a hundred of them minimum to produce that many. The Elder looked angry, but excused himself. He stepped outside and before the door closed Shen saw him throw his flying sword down and hop on it. Apparently he was going to verify what she had said. Shen was almost certain that the previous group had lied about clearing the mine for some easy money, and would be in trouble once they got caught.


    Shen returned to the table where her friends were waiting. They had all ordered something to eat, and as they waited they discussed how to distribute their gains. The stones and points they had gotten could be easily divided, but if they wanted to keep the other things they would need to figure out how they needed to be divided. Shen wanted all of the ores, and had gathered the blood for herself, so they were happy to give all of it to her. The hides, however, would need to be processed. They would make good armor if Ponma or Mae wanted a set, probably early Gathering phase in strength. Shen would be able add arrays and formations to the armor if they did. They just didn¡¯t know if they wanted such armor.


    The one thing they could agree on was to let Mae see if her bosses wanted the alchemy ingredients. They would probably buy them all, but if they didn¡¯t want them they would try other alchemists. After they ate Shen asked if she could buy the ore and cores. Five of the cores were initial Gathering, five Early Gathering, and one Late Gathering. The Initials would be worth about twenty stones each if they were sold to the mission hall, the Early would be worth about fifty, and the Late about four hundred and fifty. Shen didn¡¯t have the stones on hand to pay for everything now but if they would agree to sell her the stones for that price and the ore for half of what the mission hall just paid them, she would use it to make them equipment worth their share of the price. She would even let them keep all of the equipment she had made for them free of charge. Technically it was prototype equipment that she was going to let them buy at cost, but if she could get a good discount on the material to make even better equipment, she was certain she could convince Master Chen to gave it to them. At almost eleven hundred stones for the material she owed each of them equipment worth almost three hundred.


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    They agreed, Ponma stipulating that she replace the arrows that he couldn¡¯t recover, and, after distributing the stones from the mission equally, Shen took all of the ore, blood, and organs to the workshop. She then returned home and gathered her bath supplies. With all of the blood she had gotten on her and her clothes today, she wanted to properly clean herself before going to bed.


    After three more days of work she managed to reach a point where she could take time to read a book. It was called ¡°Another Place, Another Time: A Complete guide to the Daos of Space and Time.¡± This manual tried to teach people at the Foundation level about the Space Dao, but it was confusing Shen. While it started off explaining basic concepts using examples people could wrap their head around, it got far too detailed, but confusingly so, like the author wasn¡¯t used to explaining things. It went from explaining that space and time could stretch and shrink, to pages of math. She could add, subtract, multiply, and divide, and had even started learning algebra from Ponma, but the author seemed to only know how to describe things with math problems. She could see how a space could be bigger on the inside than the outside because she had experience with her magic bag and ring. She couldn¡¯t see how a page of equations and fancy words explained it, though.


    She had spent the last three days refining the new materials. The first day she made all of the blood into Blood Iron, then Blood Steel. It ranged from Middle to Late Gathering in quality. She was certain that she could have gotten Peak Gathering or even Initial Foundation quality material from the mother rat, but as she had formed a core her blood wouldn¡¯t have had enough chi left in it to produce even Initial Gathering material.


    On the second day Shen refined the Spirit Copper. It also ranged from Middle to Late Gathering in quality, but that was because Shen wasn¡¯t used to working with it. She and the twins had found that, while you could theoretically make it higher quality in a cauldron, the furnace here was high enough quality that they could just smelt it normally.


    Today she had refined the Star Metal. Shen wasn¡¯t willing to risk the material in the furnace, so she refined it herself using every element she knew about on a small batch to test which would purify it the best. Interestingly, Metal was only second best. Darkness seemed to work the best, with Space, even as impure as she could make it, in third place. Shen used what chi was in the beast cores to refine a small amount at Middle Foundation quality, but without understanding Darkness enough to properly refill them she had to fill them with neutral chi and was waiting on them to slowly purify it. That was one of the features of beast cores that made them popular with non-elemental cultivators. You could cycle chi into beast cores and remove it later to get fairly pure elemental chi. The best ones were, of course, Dragon Cores, which drew in chi to refill themselves and produced better purity chi than the other cores, but as dragons were all intelligent beings, only the ones from dragon/beast hybrids were available from reputable vendors.


    Shen got up and closed the book, ready to take a break. She had studied the formations for the Magic Bags and Storage Rings while she was running the smelter yesterday, as it doesn¡¯t require as much concentration as using the cauldron, but without improving her understanding of Space she wasn¡¯t sure she could make a functional storage item. It was a very complex and advanced Dao, far more so than the elements or even the more complex Sword chi Danka used. Maybe she should study more complex ones so that she got use to them? She wasn¡¯t sure if such practice would help, but she could at least try.


    Needing a break from studying she got an ingot of Spirit Copper from the stack and started fashioning bracelets. They were the same size as the jade one she was wearing, and also just as chi conductive as white jade. Their ability to gather and store chi could make them more useful than Jade in many situations.


    Shen remembered her past lessons in illusion spells, which she could only use to change her hair and eye color. With the help of a Shadow core, however, she could do even better. Darkness was an interesting element with many uses. It could be added to illusion spells, which were often Light based, its opposite, to allow it to alter perception. This also let it be used for stealth. It could also be used as an attack. There were techniques which let it mimic Ice or Death chi, and could even be used to put people to sleep. It was also good at absorbing other forms of chi. All of these abilities came with one major setback. It was difficult to understand. While Fire and the other basic five elements could be seen, one of the core properties of Darkness is that it can¡¯t be seen. This made it more difficult to study. Maybe studying it despite that complexity would help her be able to study Space as well.


    All of this made her want to make a relic from it. If Shen was better at illusions she might choose that effect, but it would be a waste of a valuable material to make a relic that merely slightly changes your looks. Instead, she would need to find a different effect to use.


    She lacked techniques which would make proper use of the cores, so she decided to go to the library. The others were all working on their assigned tasks, so she didn¡¯t need to do much managing at the moment. That gave her the opportunity to expand her knowledge so that she could make a larger variety of relics.


    At the library she looked around for useful books. Thirty minutes later she returned to work. Once there she put her purchases on the table. The first was a Space movement technique called ¡°Warp Step¡±. It allowed you to move a large distance with each step, far greater than your own stride. This was the only technique she could find for Space at the Foundation level, other than the technique form of the storage formations. She also purchased two Darkness techniques, Shadow Hide and Sleep Bolt, both Gathering phase techniques. There were far more techniques available, but this would let her test the abilities. She also purchase the introductory and intermediate books on the Darkness Dao, as well as ¡°Introduction to Space¡±, which looked to be a far better written book on Space Dao.


    Now that she possessed materials which might actually be able to teach her something she could start improving. She read the introductory Darkness and Shadow Hide techniques that night and the next day she came in and immediately grabbed one of the bracelets she had made before. She added a trigger formation so that it wasn¡¯t always active, then the Shadow Hide formation and a Gathering formation which would collect Darkness from the environment. Darkness chi was interesting in that it existed everywhere, but the darker the area the purer the chi. For that reason some people that used Darkness chi would meditate in pitch black rooms, and relics which used Dark chi would be stored in solid boxes.


    After all of the formations were added she added a holder to the top of it and placed the weakest of the cores in the holder. The bracelet started to feed Dark chi into the core and Shen quickly put it in a drawer to prevent the light from getting near it and ruining the purity of its chi. Normally she would test the equipment the same way it would be used, but placing it in a dark area to recharge was simple enough that it would probably be very common.


    She took out the intermediate Darkness book and began reading it as she waited for it to refill. There were other things she could be working on, but with these new materials she wanted to learn what she needed to in order to use them properly.


    As she was about half way through the book Lin knocked on her door. ¡°Hey, Shen.¡± he said, and she looked up.


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°I gathered the wood you wanted.¡± he said. Shen had asked him to go into the nearby woods and look for spirit wood. At first his father didn¡¯t want him to go, but when Shen offered to loan him a flying sword and teach him to use, as well as give him several talismans for defense, they agreed that would be safe enough as long as he stayed close. She sent him to a grove of young trees two li away and had him gather small trees and small logs. She needed wood which naturally contained chi so that she could make arrows and bows from them.


    Shen, however, wasn¡¯t a carpenter, nor was she a bowyer. She didn¡¯t know how to make those things, so she talked with one of their neighbors who were a bowyer. He agreed that if she could get him Spirit Wood, he would make them bows and arrow shafts out of the material. ¡°Take it down to Mr. Qing¡¯s place. If he¡¯ll let you, see if you can learn to make the arrow shafts yourself.¡± He nodded and ran off, wooden flying sword on his back.

 Chapter 36

    Lin was gone the next day, as he was learning from the bowyer, so Shen wasn¡¯t able to send him on errands. Still, the shop kept going the way it had before, with Shen working on developing new products and the twins making various items from the new materials. Shen had asked if it was possible to make some sort of item to summon a spirit, thinking that they could be useful, and got a strange answer. Technically it was possible, but because the artificial mind required complex information to form properly they would need to include jade in the design. This would let them give the relic the information it needed to produce identical minds each time. The user wouldn¡¯t be able to alter that information, but they might be able to alter the body and abilities of the spirit. Unfortunately it was an extremely complex technique, so it was unlikely that one could place it on something as small as a bracelet. Armor or a shield would be big enough, and they might get it working on a sword, but nothing smaller would work at their current skill level.


    Shen considered asking them to teach her to summon spirits, as she was a much better relic crafter, but she already had several other techniques she was trying to learn, so she decided to leave it up the them. Instead, she went back to her studies of Space and Dark. She had read much of the book on space last night and learned much about it. If she could finish it today she should be able to attempt to make a storage item tomorrow.


    The day after that, after a night reading, she showed up at work and brought out a small amount of spirit copper. She spent the next hour making a ring that was the right size for her finger. She left the top of it much larger than a ring would normally be, closer in size to a signet ring that a noble or rich merchant would have. She carefully made it so that the top could be removed and the center hollowed out. This would be the ¡®internal space¡¯ which the formation would expand.


    Within this space she carefully carved two tiny formations. She used a holder for the ring and her engraving tool to help guarantee that her hand didn¡¯t shake during the operation due to the intense concentration needed. Both the bottom of the chamber and the top of the ring which would seal it off had the formation added to them. Either one could technically make the effect work, but by using two of them you guarantee that if one of them is damaged or flawed the ring still works, but has less storage space.


    She added a chi gathering array to the outside of the ring, and the copper in the ring started to build up a charge. She hadn¡¯t realized that, due to the material becoming filled with chi, the formations which expanded space had become active, drawing the chi from the ring. Within a few seconds the area which could only hold a pebble was now big enough to contain the ring. She stared at it for a few seconds as it expanded, studying the effect, before poking the expanded area with her engraving tool. Her hand shifted slightly to the side when she did so, and the tool was cut in half. She realized that it could cause problems if left open like this, and quickly scratched one of the lines of the gathering array. The space started to shrink again and, when it was about the length of a finger across, the end of the engraving tool fell out of the space.


    That was an effect that was either annoying or welcome depending on who you asked, as damaged or destroyed storage items would dump the objects inside of them out as the space shrunk. This was often used by bandits when they found a storage ring, as they could simply hit the ring with a rock hard enough that it would drop the items it contains.


    Eventually the effect faded away and the Copper lost all of its chi. Shen should have designed it so that the area didn¡¯t start expanding until she was finished, but hadn¡¯t realized that would happen. Next time she would put the top of the ring back together before she activated it. She put some powdered Spirit Copper around the edge where the two parts would meet then pushed the two together. It was a tight fit, but she managed to get them together with a bit of strength. After that was done she created a ball of Fire Chi around the ring. This heated the powder until it started to melt and let her push them together slightly more, permanently sealing the two together.


    After the Copper cooled down she carved the formation for moving things into and out of it into the top of the ring and cleaned up the weld. She chose to use the Gathering version of the formation, as she hoped to sell these to Outer disciples. Unlike the Foundation version, which let you move your divine sense into the item to look at what it contained and select things to be removed, the Gathering version only let you reach inside to feel around, and you had to find what you wanted without seeing it. She at least made it so that the opening had to be opened and closed with a command from the user, so that you couldn¡¯t dump things out like with a magic bag, but the downside of that version was inherent in the nature of the formation and couldn¡¯t be removed without using a different technique.


    Once she was done she fixed the formation she had damaged and waited a few seconds before opening up the container. Air rushed in as the space expanded and a minute later the size seemed to stabilize, as no more air rushed in. She started putting things in it, starting with a sword that was nearby. The opening was only about the size of a fist, so it couldn¡¯t accept large objects, but she was able to put many things inside of it. She estimated it could hold almost one jar worth of objects, but was actually wide and shallow, the same shape as what the cavity was. Her own ring could hold about two jars worth of objects, but the storage space was roughly spherical, making it difficult to put in an object like a sword. Thankfully the expanded space has a slight amount of give to it, and her sword is shorter than normal, or a ring the size of hers wouldn¡¯t be able to fit.


    Encouraged by the success, she made one more ring before going home late. This one had a slightly larger compartment to expand, and she was careful to take her time on all of the engravings and not complete the gathering array until the ring was sealed. She even made the opening a bit bigger so that she could add larger objects like jars or backpacks. After it was done she tested it and found that it could now hold about two jars worth of materials. It was now as large as what the sect gave its members, but she could make two per day for only a small amount of a fairly common metal. She was starting to suspect that the sect was getting ripped off on the rings they were importing. It may be worth talking to one of the quartermaster elders to see if she could provide them instead.


    Several months passed and it was time for the caravan to arrive once more. They had been slightly delayed due to having to take a different route to get here, and would have less variety in their goods, both of these facts being caused by the demons advancing to a distance of only three hundred li to the south. The sect had now started sending people directly to the front, which had resulted in many of the inner disciples and elders leaving, resulting in a shortage of people at the mission hall and the businesses hiring more outsiders. In response to this the sect had started to allow some mercenaries to accept and turn in quests, allowing mercenary teams to continue working here instead of forcing them to leave for the front due to an inability to work.


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    Those that left were well equipped, however. Shen¡¯s workshop had been expanded and now the shop was one of the most popular in the sect. Many outer sect disciples had been hired as both smiths and apprentice relic crafters, and Shen lead the relic crafters in creating the new relics, while the twins lead the smiths and Don lead the talisman makers and the painting teams. Those teams had a lot of work over the last few months, as most of the training fields in both the inner and outer city had been given the formation, but now the work mostly consisted of repair work or the occasional creation of a meditation area.


    Now the shop carried a wide variety of weapons, including bows and arrows, with a wide variety of effects. With the spirit wood she had been able to solve the overload issue and made reusable arrows, but some people still purchased the single-use explosive version due to the lower cost. They also had talismans of most of the basic techniques, with others available as special order, as well as armor, chi gathering bracelets, body cultivation bracelets and rings, rings and bracelets with techniques, and even a few storage items, though Shen never seemed to be able to keep the later in stock.


    One of the relic shops in the inner city was now an affiliate shop, and they sold most of the storage rings Shen could make, as well as a variety of Foundation level equipment, the one in the outer city mostly limiting itself to Cleansing and Gathering stage equipment. Shen had managed to improve the ring to the point where it could store ten jars worth of material through the use of Star Metal, and this had made it an in-demand item for every inner disciple and elder in the city. She now had two versions of the ring, one with the sect¡¯s symbol, which was sold to the sect and given to everyone that advanced to Foundation, and one without, which was sold in the store.


    This increase in demand meant that the sect now had a permanent presence at the mine where the metal to make the items was being mined. They had picked all of the spirit plants near the mine before starting, but a small town was starting to be built up there, so Mae was slightly worried that the locals would kill the local plant life and destroy the renewable resource. Thankfully, so far the mission hall had convinced the elder in control of the mine¡¯s defense to limit the destruction of the area, but no one knew how long that would last.


    Shen had posted many ongoing jobs with the mission hall, including the gathering of beast cores, but there was never a large enough supply of them to meet all of the demand. For that reason, special order items which needed them could often only be made if the one to place the order could provide the core in question. All of the shadow cores they had originally gathered from the mine had been sold off, except for the four strongest, which Shen had turned into Shadow Hide bracelets and supplied to her team.


    Unfortunately, they hadn¡¯t been able to go on another mission together. The demand for relics meant that Shen was always busy, to the point that she couldn¡¯t even help Ponma at the lake. The Water Blossom business had greatly improved, though. Due to the increased use of relics and the drastic decrease in cost for some of them due to the use of the formation paint instead of proper engravings, flying boats were now fairly popular in Fisher, and the company owned ten of them. Instead of destroying the plants, if they were far enough that they didn¡¯t interfere with the fish the workers just picked the flowers off of the plants directly, placing them in a jar that already had approximately the right amount of vinegar in it. This let them fill more jars per day and, while it increased the cost of production slightly due to the need for flying boats, the business¡¯s profits had increased greatly while keeping the workers happy.


    The business still produced some spirit compost, but not as much as they had expected to. They did, however, start branches in other areas around the sect, especially Farmer, which produced other elemental plants. This had resulted in elemental pills being common on the market and, while people in the sect tended to use Shen¡¯s chi gathering bracelets to refill their chi and study the energy, these pills were also said to be very useful in that study.


    Shen had noticed something similar when trying to further refine the energy she gathered. The energy which she imbued her understanding onto seemed to not be able to improve as much as the energy she gathered through an array like those at the training fields. Those started off with a small percentage, but could theoretically be purified all the way to 100% with certain techniques. The reason was simple, but difficult to explain to others. When Shen had first learned this, she went back to Teacher to ask about it, as he seemed to be the most knowledgeable person she knew. He explained it to her with an analogy.


    ¡°Not all chi of the same percent is equal. Imagine you know how to make the left half of a gold coin. That is fifty percent of the coin. But no matter how many left halves you created you would never be able to put them together to make a full coin. Now imagine someone was taking coins and cutting them into 100 pieces. Some of those coin parts are given out everywhere, so they are common. Some are only given out a few places, so they are uncommon. This continues, with every piece being slightly less common than the one before it. You have learned to reproduce twenty or thirty of those, but that is all that you can produce. No matter how many of those you produce, you can¡¯t make the ones you don¡¯t know about.


    Sometimes when you gather the fragments of chi, though, you feed a proper element into it, and the ones that only occur a fraction of a percent of the time duplicate themselves, letting you notice and gather them. That lets you improve them. That too has a limit, but it is better than only grabbing the common ones. To actually improve it you will need to gather a huge amount of chi and sort through every bit of it to find the rare ones. You may even need to find different versions of the same chi. The ones that are common may be the same in all of the samples, but the rare ones might be a bit less rare in another source of the element.¡±


    He continued the analogy with certain coins being needed for certain techniques, but overall it made a lot of sense. She would need to study the elements more in order to find those rarer bits of elemental chi, which contained properties that she didn¡¯t know about. Only then could she improve her understanding. Her limited senses had been the reason that she had hit a limit with her ability to purify the chi past the thirty or so percent she had managed a few times. After reading the books she had tried to do something similar with Dark and Space chi, but she could barely get them to ten percent purity, and was only able to imbue them to eight percent at best. This had limited the performance of the equipment she was making, but at the moment she didn¡¯t have the time to study those Dao further.


    One thing she could do, however, was improve her Divine Sense. The more she could improve it the more she could compress the chi inside of her, which would increase her cultivation. The improved senses would also let her improve her understanding of the various Dao by letting her extend her chi sense and see that chi with greater detail, so improving it would be very useful.


    To this purpose she had made herself a chakram. She had made the core out of Spirit Copper, then bent a layer of Blood Steel over the edge before sharpening it. Due to its circular shape it was easy to add formations to so she added three. The first simply gathered chi from the environment. The second made the edge sharper. The third was a variation of the Flying Sword and Accurate Shot formations from the Foundation realm. It would allow her to use her Divine Sense to control the weapon anywhere within her range, and would let the weapon easily change directions and accelerate thanks to the Flying Sword elements.


    She used this weapon to practice every few days, any time she had a chance. With how busy things had gotten at the shop she found it difficult to find a few hours to go to the range and practice, but there were several in the inner city where she could be free from distractions. But tonight, the night before the Caravan arrived, she had managed to make the time. During her practice Shen had managed to spin her blade without touching it and control its flight even at the other end of the field, cutting the target in half. She still didn¡¯t have all of the detailed control she had when it was close, as the distance was near the edge of her Divine Sense¡¯s range, but she could still control it well enough for it to be an effective weapon.


    She was just leaving when she sensed a familiar presence. It was a person that was trying to contact her via telepathy, a skill she hadn¡¯t practiced with in over a year. Recognizing the person, she quickly hung the weapon on her side and made her way to the gate which lead to the outer city. When she arrived she spotted the woman she thought she had felt.


    ¡°Hello, sister.¡± said Sho. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you again.¡±

 Chapter 37

    Shen ran over and hugged her friend. ¡°It¡¯s great to see you again.¡± she said.


    Sho hugged her back. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s been a little while, at least on human time scales.¡±


    Shen finished the hug and let her go. ¡°So I assume you are here for the caravan?¡±


    ¡°Well, there is one more reason. I came here early because I need to talk to you about something.¡±


    Shen remembered the reason she had to stop visiting Dragon Town, and nodded. ¡°I think we should go some place private. Come on, I¡¯ll show you where I live.¡± Shen lead Sho to the room she shared with Mae. Mae was inside studying, and Shen introduced them to each other, unsure if they had met before.


    ¡°Right, you¡¯re her Dragon friend. Nice to meet you.¡± Mae held out her hand and shook.


    ¡°So, you wanted to speak with me?¡± asked Shen after introductions were over.


    ¡°Yes. First of all, congratulations on reaching Foundation. I was over fifty before I reached it, but you¡¯re more talented than me. Now, dragons don¡¯t celebrate birthdays, but we do celebrate Breakthroughs, so here.¡± Sho waved her hand and a book appeared, which she handed to Shen. Shen could see that she was wearing one of the Space Metal storage rings that Shen made to sell to the outside. ¡°This book contains a better shapeshifting technique than the ancestors taught in there.¡± She pointed to Shen¡¯s copy of ¡®The Complete Dragon Technique Guide¡¯. ¡°We¡¯ve learned a lot since then. In fact, in a decade or so you should be able to look like a dragon.¡±


    Shen looked a bit sad, but took the book and stored it. ¡°I take it your father wants you to teach me that so I fit in better?¡±


    Sho looked confused. ¡°No, that¡¯s just the book I learned it from after reaching Foundation. He did send me though, to give you something and deliver a message.¡± She looked at Mae. ¡°Is it okay if I talk in front of her?¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°I told her the whole story. Go ahead.¡±


    Sho nodded in response and pulled out a long box from her ring. She opened it and inside was a katana with an added blue beast core where a pommel would be on other swords. The handle and sheath were white. Shen removed it from the case and pulled it slightly out of the sheath to show the light blue metal of the blade.


    ¡°So, I take it this is a wedding present?¡± Shen asked with a sigh.


    Sho shook her head. ¡°No, it¡¯s an apology. He apologizes for putting you in this horrible situation. He didn¡¯t understand human culture or their mental and physical development, and so he made a request which was inappropriate. He deeply apologizes for his mistake and offers you this gift in hopes that you will forgive him. He forged the blade from one of his own scales, made the handle and sheath of spirit wood, and covered them in the skin of a draconic eel. The core at the base comes from a Foundation level Ice Wolf which attacked me as a child, and was killed by my father. The blade can, if you wish, use the Deep Freeze technique on anyone it cuts, allowing it to do far more damage than a standard sword.


    He now considers the request he made to be withdrawn, though if you wish to continue this discussion he will be willing to do so once you reach the age of adulthood.¡± Sho shrugged. ¡°He made me add that last part to the apology. I did, however, already notify the elders that he is withdrawing the request.¡±


    Shen looked at the sword in thought for a few minutes before speaking. ¡°Is it dragon tradition to bribe people into forgiving you?¡±


    Sho smiled and shrugged. ¡°Pretty much. Dragons like nice things. Giving a person something important to you that they might also treasure is a common way of showing that you mean it when you ask for forgiveness.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Giving me something he had made from his own scale and a core of a beast with memories of your childhood seems important to him, and I would treasure it.¡±


    ¡°That he made from his own scale.¡± Sho corrected. ¡°Father¡¯s also a smith, and thought it was interesting when he learned you were a relic crafter, and recently started doing a bit of smithing as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± said Shen. ¡°Well, please tell him that I accept his apology. I¡¯m not sure what I¡¯ll do when I¡¯m older, but for now I can¡¯t consider his offer seriously.¡±


    Sho nodded and stood up. During this conversation Shen had sat down on her bed and Sho had knelt on the floor. ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s why I came here, so I¡¯ll go find a place to stay for the night.¡±


    Shen stood up as well. ¡°Actually, I have an idea. Can dragons eat milk products?¡±


    Sho nodded. ¡°As long as they are cultivators, they can. We can¡¯t digest it properly, but the health benefits of cultivation mean that we won¡¯t be sick from it. Why?¡±


    ¡°Well, have you ever heard of Ice Cream?¡±


    While waiting on their icecream Shen decided to practice with her divine sense. She wanted to fight in the contest tomorrow, but her sense was less developed than she would like. She knew that, because she was now an inner disciple, she would be competing against other inner disciples, and most of them would have far more experience with their divine senses. When her Divine Sense touched Sho, though, it seemed to sink into her.


    ¡°That¡¯s strange.¡± said Shen.


    ¡°What is?¡± said Sho.


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    ¡°Oh, well it feels like you have about thirty times as large of reserve of chi as me, about 28% water chi, though we are at the same level. I¡¯ve also never heard of divine sense allowing you to assess another person¡¯s chi reserves.¡± Sho was actually in the middle of the Foundation realm, but the chi quantities should be similar in humans, assuming they had both expanded their capacity to the limit.


    ¡°Well, there are techniques that will allow you to do it, they just aren¡¯t common. It is interesting that you can do that, though, as it¡¯s a dragon bloodline trait.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I thought I only had the scales. Or technically the barrier technique which reinforces them.¡±


    ¡°Me too. It¡¯s really rare for anyone that¡¯s less than a quarter dragon to have that ability. If you had learned a technique to do something similar and the trait made it easy to learn or use it might make sense, but this is quite unusual.¡±


    Their ice cream arrived and they paused their conversation. When the waitress had left Shen resumed. ¡°So, why would that be a dragon bloodline trait? It doesn¡¯t seem to fit with what I know about dragons.¡±


    Sho swallowed what she was eating and thought for a few seconds. ¡°Well, I guess to explain it, you need to learn a little history. About ten million years ago dragons were the only intelligent beings on the world. There weren¡¯t many of us, though, as we were extremely territorial. They often kept other, lesser beings as pets, but other than family and an occasional mate, they wouldn¡¯t allow others to enter their territory. This lead to many fights, but eventually the surviving dragons became really good at figuring out if the other dragon was stronger than them, and in many cases this trait was so strong that it could be passed on to their children.


    After that, society changed. The strongest dragons subjugated the weaker ones, forming something like kingdoms. There were dozens of elemental types for dragons back then, but the weaker one all quickly learned to sense who was stronger and not challenge them. This continued for a few million years until a few of the weaker dragon groups started overthrowing their rulers and killing them. Back then dragons hadn¡¯t yet learned to cultivate, so the strong were still mortals that were only a few times stronger, but more skilled in combat. There was some experimentation with different forms of government for a few million years, but eventually our independent nature took over and we started hating governments. We figured that we didn¡¯t need other people telling us how to live, but still wanted communities, so families would join together to form small communities. We remembered the past, though, so we did our best not to fight amongst ourselves, afraid that a war might result in the kingdoms of old.


    Then about a million years ago, humans first appeared. You were primitive, but had the intelligence to learn. We ignored you for the first few hundred thousand years, then Pai Wo was born. He heard the old stories of how Dragons came from the heavens but took mortal form, and sought a way to return to that. Or maybe he wanted to improve the lives of others, and developed cultivation to do that. Or maybe he just wanted to study the chi that we could feel but had never studied, and cultivation was a way to do that. There are three different stories about why he developed cultivation, and no one is sure which is the truth. Personally I think it was one of the last two, or some combination of the two, since he never showed any interest in trying to develop the technique to reach the Ascended realm. In fact, no dragon did back then, and very few do now. Something about it just doesn¡¯t seem to sit well with us. When I think about the idea of losing my corporeal body and starting over, it seems like a really dumb idea.


    Not that I¡¯m saying humans that do so are dumb. I don¡¯t want to discourage you. I just know that few dragons choose to do so, and the ones that do are rarely full blooded. Something inside of us just doesn¡¯t like the idea of not having a body.¡±


    Shen had finished her ice cream by the time Sho had finished her history lesson. ¡°I do have a few questions.¡± she said, and Sho nodded.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡± She scooped out a dried fruit and put it in her mouth.


    ¡°First of all, are you saying that Earthly dragons are descended from Heavenly dragons?¡±


    Sho shrugged. ¡°That is the most common interpretation of the legend that dragons descended from the heavens, but I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s true.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°In that case, you said there are dozens of different elemental dragons? But I¡¯ve only heard of nine types. Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, Light, Dark, and Life, with some rumors that the Death type were killed off by ancient sects.¡±


    ¡°In modern times, those are the only pure dragon bloodlines that remain. Most of the others only remain as partial bloodlines within the main elemental bloodlines, and some of them died off. That story was from millions of years ago, so a lot of time has passed since they existed. I suppose there could be a few beings out there with a partial bloodline, though, like the poison wyrms. They are part dragon, and many think that they have the Poison elemental bloodline, even if the last pure blooded poison dragon died about one hundred thousand years ago, hunted by ancient sects the same way the Death types were.¡±


    They spent the next two hours talking. It started out with Shen learning history, but eventually shifted to what had happened to the two of them in the last year as well as what had happened in the dragon town. Eventually, the two of them were tired, so they said goodbye and made their way back to their rooms. The sect had several inns in the outer city for travelers to stay in, so Shen was certain that Sho would be able to find a place to stay.


    Shen had the next day off due to the Caravan festival. She would be participating in the tournament like last time, but due to her position she would have to participate in the Inner City bracket, where none of her friends would be able to watch. This meant that she would be on her own. Luckily that also means that she wouldn¡¯t have to fight any of them.


    Shen went to the baths to relax, but they were far more busy than they normally were. Apparently, most of the people from out of town considered it a luxury to be able to take a proper bath, so they would be making use of the baths while in town. The crowd made it difficult to relax, so Shen decided to get out early. She did notice that Sho was there as well, but she also left quickly. Presumably the fact that Dragon Town had multiple hot springs, including the main lake, meant that she wasn¡¯t willing to put up with the crowd either.


    After that Shen went by the library, as she had several hours before she needed to be at the field for the tournament. She wanted to see if they had anything on developing her Divine Sense. That was still a weakness, and was the core skill of the Foundation realm, so she would need to develop it if she wanted to advance to Nascent as quickly as possible.


    ---


    A group of travelers entered the city. While not technically a part of the caravan, many independent traders chose to come to the sect town on Caravan day, often following the caravan there. One of those people was a man by the name of Fei Hua. Hua was a refugee from the Lakes region who had fled the demon invasion all the way north. Unlike most of the others, however, he was in the Peak Foundation realm. Most travelers and refugees cultivated to some degree, as it would allow them to carry more weight, walk further, be healthier, and even go for longer without eating. Hua, however, had taken it much further than the others. This had allowed him to fight off several of the bandit, beast, and spirit beast groups that had attacked his group and come out uninjured. This had also allowed him to gather several rare materials and the best of the bandit¡¯s loot, making him the richest member of his refugee group and their default leader, despite only being in his twenties.


    ¡°Mr. Fei.¡± said an old man from the group. He was a carpenter that had joined them a week ago. ¡°Do you know where we can set up our camp?¡± Normally, they would just set up where ever they wanted, but as they were in town there might be specific areas set aside for that.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go ask.¡± Hua said, before walking over to one of the guards. He quickly got directions to the camping area that was set up outside the outer wall, and thanked the guard before advising his people of the location.


    It only took them a few hours to set up their entire camp, and, after eating a basic meal of flatbread, the refugees entered the town for a second time. By then the Caravan stalls had all been set up, and Hua had instructed the refugees about the rules of setting up their own stalls. Many of the refugees had gathered useful materials on the way to the sect town, and would be selling them in order to raise money to continue their journey. Hua would also be selling things, but instead of medicinal and spiritual herbs and mushrooms like the others had he would be offloading all of the equipment the bandits had on them to one of the caravan merchants.


    While everything that the refugees could use, including much of the armor and many of the weapons, had been distributed to the refugees that could fight, everything else was given to him, as he killed more than half of the bandits in every engagement. Several of the bandits had even been equipped with spacial storage items, such as the spacial backpack he was currently wearing, which allowed the refugees to carry everything without becoming overburdened. After all, if the bag was ten times as large as normal on the inside, the weight would also be reduced by a factor of ten. This meant that he could carry several tons of extra armor, weapons, and other loot, while only feeling like he was carrying a person.  At the Foundation realm, even the weakest person would be able to carry another person with little effort.


    Hua found a merchant that was selling combat equipment and managed to unload most of the loot. The man hadn¡¯t given him as much as he had hoped, but the lower quality weapons and armor that were left after distributing the good things to the refugees would mostly need to be repaired, and in some cases reworked entirely, before they could be sold.


    With that out of the way Hua decided that he would sell the rest of the items later and started touring the outer city. It was quite an interesting layout. In fact, it was almost as if the entire city was a massive defensive formation. Most interesting.

 Chapter 38

    Shen made her way to the Fire district of the inner city, where she signed up for the tournament. Unlike last time, where she was stronger than most of the other outer disciples, she had barely made it into the early Foundation. The only thing that she thought might help her out is the fact that her foundation was much more solid than the other inner disciples, as most of them hadn¡¯t tried to be the best they could be before advancing to inner disciple. On the other hand, they would all have superior combat experience, as most inner disciples spent their time going on missions. She wasn¡¯t sure if her better foundation would be strong enough to deal with their superior skills, but wanted to at least try her best.


    She stood in line for a few minutes before signing up. The rules for this tournament were slightly different than the last. As everyone here was practiced in combat, they allowed you to use all of your equipment. You weren¡¯t allowed to send attacks outside the combat field, which had a formation on it which put a barrier around it to protect those outside, and weren¡¯t allowed to kill your opponent, but other than that almost all attacks were allowed.


    Shen went over to the waiting area and sat down on the ground before taking out the book she had bought. It discussed the various things that could be done with the divine sense, like sending your other techniques through it, though didn¡¯t actually contain any new techniques. Shen sent her divine sense around to a few of the other people in the area, often bumping into their divine senses as well. Many of them spread it in an area around them so that they could extend their normal senses, after all, which made bumping into other divine senses inevitable.


    An hour later the first of the fighters were called onto the stage. Today 117 fighters had signed up, so the 11 highest ranked from the previous year had been allowed to skip the qualifying round. None of them had managed to break through to Nascent in the last year, though several had went from Late Foundation to Peak Foundation during that time. The fact that only around one in a thousand people with Foundation potential also had Nascent potential meant that advancement to Nascent was quite rare, even for a sect with tens of thousands of members.


    As Shen hadn¡¯t fought in last year¡¯s Inner Sect tournament she was ranked at the bottom, so she had to face another disciple in the ring. He was a sixteen year old boy that was also in the Early Foundation realm, but had been taking missions since he advanced a year ago, just before the tournament. His loss in the first round of last year¡¯s tournament put him at the bottom of the rankings as well. He seemed to favor Metal, as when the field master signaled the start of the battle he immediately threw two knives coated in Metal energy. She could have thrown up a fire shield to block them, as Fire destroys Metal, but the blade itself would likely make it through the barrier, so instead she grabbed a chakram from her waist and used it to parry them.


    The blades he used seemed familiar, and when he waved his hand to call them back she realized that it was a pair she had created around a month ago from Blood Iron. They shouldn¡¯t have more than a simple recall formation, derived from the Accurate Shot formation, as well as the ability to coat their edges in an element, in this case Metal. That type of weapon had been mass produced so that she could practice. They weren¡¯t the best weapons available in the sect, but were far from the worst.


    She threw the chakram in her hand at him, forcing him to block it with his newly returned blades, then charged him, using the Explosive Steps technique she had learned but rarely used to boost herself forward on a series of explosions. Just as she reached him he managed to throw her first weapon to the side, having it push into his block for the last several seconds at Shen¡¯s command. He moved to swing at her but she knelt and slid the last two meters, bringing a fire coated fist up into his stomach.


    He dropped his blades and grabbed his stomach before collapsing on the ground. ¡°Winner, Shen.¡± the field master announced. It seemed that the boy had spent all of his time fighting spirit beasts and beasts instead of bandits. While beasts were good at forceful attacks, few knew how to properly exploit an opponent¡¯s weakness that way humans could. That, combined with her use of Body Cultivation to enhance her muscles meant that she was able to do enough damage to take him out of the fight by exploiting a single gap in his defenses.


    Shen cleared the field and returned to her book, relying on her bracelet to recharge her chi. The book suggested that you could create Bolt type attacks anywhere the divine sense touched, so Shen decided to test that in the next round. After all, it shouldn¡¯t be that difficult of a fight, as they had you fight someone similar to you in the rankings.


    The next opponent was a woman who favored fire, just like Shen. When the match started she opened by sending several fireballs at Shen. Shen threw up a Water barrier and saw the attacks sizzle out. The woman seemed surprised at this, likely because Shen had only used Fire in the previous battle. In actuality, Shen wasn¡¯t that good at using most elements outside of fire, but had learned to do so in order to make items with such effects. Creating a barrier from elemental energy was easy enough that she could manage, though.


    The woman used Explosive Steps to get closer while moving a bit sideways to try and get around the barrier. It wasn¡¯t a bad strategy, Shen had to admit. If she could get close enough even a single Explosive Step might take her far enough to the side that she could send an attack beside the shield, but if Shen wasn¡¯t good at moving barriers she might not even need to get close to bypass it.


    The woman continued to move to Shen¡¯s right while throwing Fire bolts to test the barrier, but Shen knew that once the barrier was far enough to the right the woman would jump to her right, leaving the barrier in completely the wrong position. It worked well against lower ranked spirit beasts who couldn¡¯t see through the ploy, but wasn¡¯t that good against humans that could unless they weren¡¯t that intelligent. Shen had two ways to deal with this. She could continue to play defense and simply create a second barrier in the way when the woman shifted. Or she could let the attack through, relying on her armor to block the attack, and counterattack.


    Shen chose the second. The woman shifted her weight to jump left and Shen readied an Earth bolt to fly at the woman when she arrived. It would absorb the Fire chi in the woman¡¯s ready Fire Ball and become much stronger before hitting her. The woman jumped and Shen threw the bolt, but instead of throwing her own Fireball at Shen, the woman shifted her weight and jumped upwards, using Explosive Jump to send herself half a dozen heights in the air. Shen hadn¡¯t thought of such a possibility, and was hit with a Fire Ball, which knocked her off her feet and caused her to lose concentration on her barrier, which quickly dissipated.


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    The woman charged her, drawing a dagger, and Shen threw a chakram as she stood up. The woman parried it and swung at Shen who hadn¡¯t quite stood yet, but Shen brought up an arm to block the attack, relying on the Formation barrier of the armor to block the swing. The woman simply drew another dagger and swung it with her other hand, which Shen had to block with her other arm.


    Shen knew that if she remained on defense this woman would be able to beat her. Luckily Shen hadn¡¯t lost her concentration on the Chakram, and ordered it to return. The woman was in between Shen and her weapon, however, so the weapon slammed into the woman¡¯s back. There was a flash as a barrier around the woman collapsed, and the Chakram fell to the ground. The woman was probably using one of Shen¡¯s barrier rings for a bit of extra protection, and the chakram hitting her wouldn¡¯t have caused enough damage to do more than break such a barrier.


    Shen knew that the ring¡¯s barrier would reestablish itself within seconds, though weakly, so while the woman was distracted and taking a bit of pressure off of her arms Shen crouched and kicked at the woman¡¯s legs. This sent the woman onto her back at which point Shen forward rolled behind her and put her in a sleeper hold. The woman used her dagger to stab at Shen¡¯s arm, but when the barrier blocked it she started aiming for Shen¡¯s unprotected face. Shen was forced to move her head to the side several times before the woman started getting weak enough that she couldn¡¯t continue and soon passed out.


    ¡°Winner, Shen.¡± the field master called out, and Shen released the unconscious woman. If the woman had been mortal that move would have taken her out instantly, but cultivators could hold on for a lot longer. Still, the woman wouldn¡¯t face any serious problems from the attack, just a headache, especially considering her own accelerated healing rate as a result of cultivation. For a mortal it would be a much more dangerous attack.


    Shen left the stage. She hadn¡¯t gotten to use her Divine Sense to remotely attack the woman in that match, so she would have to try again in the next round.


    Around twenty minutes passed before the thirty two remaining people were told that they would soon begin the proper tournament.


    Shen gathered on the stage with the other thirty one inner sect members. She was sure that she had been lucky to get this far, as she was among the weakest in terms of realm. She looked around at the other inner sect disciples. She was the youngest one there, as she wasn¡¯t quite fifteen yet, but there were three others that looked to be only slightly older than her. The first two were related to elders within the sect, a daughter and grandson, and so likely had been given better resources. It was likely that only Shen¡¯s inventions had allowed her to reach Foundation at a younger age than them.


    The last person, however, was someone she knew. Danka. She hadn¡¯t known that he had advanced to Foundation, but saw one of her space rings on his finger. The sect had been handing them out to the elders who wanted one, and last week had started giving them to newly advanced inner sect disciples. That meant that he had advanced in the last week, and managed to keep his level hidden from her, likely by using Restrict any time he was near her, like at meals. She sent her divine sense out to touch him and saw that he was at Initial Foundation realm, with less chi than her, about half as much.


    An elder was giving a speech, which she knew had nothing to do with the tournament, so she wasn¡¯t paying attention. Instead she was sending her divine sense out into the crowd in order to practice. All but a few of them were Foundation, with all but three of the remaining ones being elders in the Nascent realm. The three that were left all sat with an Elder. Master Xing wouldn¡¯t be attending, so the two elders who brought family with them were the most powerful one there.


    Well, there might be an exception to that rule. One of the Foundation people she sent her divine sense into was Peak Foundation, judging by his chi pressure, but seemed to have a chi reserve five times as great as hers. At first she assumed that he had simply trained his base more than her and perhaps had the bonus of being part spirit beast. After all, he only needed a chi multiplier roughly 130% larger than her¡¯s to have reserves that size. Then she touched his dantian and noticed that it was linked to something else inside of him. It felt much like a Beast Core, which reinforced her idea that he must be at least part spirit beast, but that didn¡¯t quite seem to fit.


    First, the core didn¡¯t have an element. Beast cores almost always had an elemental affinity related to the type of beast. This was even true for Dragon Cores, which were similar to beast cores but not identical. When she had sensed Sho¡¯s chi she had found a Dragon Core which put out Water chi. This wasn¡¯t what the man had, however, which meant that he likely wasn¡¯t a Dragon in disguise.


    The second was something that she had never seen before. Beast Cores formed upon the death of a spirit beast. She had once asked Master Chen where they came from and he explained that the formation of a beast core was a survival mechanism. When a spirit beast started to die it instinctively drew all of the life force in its body, what some called True Chi, into its dantian. This would help preserve its memories and experience. If it survived, that true chi could then be reabsorbed by the body, or if the beast died it could be eaten by a member of its race, usually a close relative, as they were less likely to die or be injured by doing so. This would pass on much of its knowledge to its pack, insuring that they didn¡¯t completely lose its knowledge.


    When the Life Force mixed with the chi left in the dantian it would start to crystallize. If it had long enough to do so before the beast died, it would turn solid enough to remain behind after death. This was a beast core, and because it contained the life essence of a creature with a strong elemental affinity it would continue to have that elemental affinity, as well as what chi was left in the dantian and some of the memories of the beast. If the man had managed to do that while still alive it would have required a rare technique at best, though she didn¡¯t think that is what he did, just something similar.


    As she watched the man she felt something shift inside of him. His own divine sense entered his body and she quickly pulled hers out of him. That¡¯s when she opened her eyes and noticed that the other disciples had started to leave the stage. She would have to investigate the strange disciple later. She saw Danka near the stairs and ran over to where he was.


    ¡°Hey, Danka. I didn¡¯t know you had advanced.¡± she said to him.


    ¡°Uh, yeah, I wanted it to be a surprise.¡± he said, a bit embarrassed. ¡°I asked Commander Kril for help advancing and he¡¯s been training me for the last month. I managed to succeed three nights ago, but used a stealth technique to keep you from knowing.¡±


    ---


    Fei Hua forced himself to slow his breathing, entering an almost meditative state to do so. One of the contestants in the field, the youngest one there, had used her divine sense on him, and he had sensed it. Normally he wouldn¡¯t react to that. While it was considered rude by most people to enter another person¡¯s body with your divine sense, many people, especially those in security positions, ignored that social issue. What had caused him to react this time was that she touched his core.


    This had happened before, of course, but he always had a ready excuse. After all, his shape shifting ability was among the best his people had to offer, so if anyone pushed the issue he would simply tell them he was half dragon. If they wanted proof he could just partially shift while claiming to be ¡®returning to normal¡¯. If they asked about the fact that he didn¡¯t have an elemental affinity, that was because he was half human and hadn¡¯t inherited his mother¡¯s element, which would lead to an acted out sob story about being kicked out of his Earth dragon village at a young age and adopted by a poor trader. The discomfort this caused was enough to make everyone stop asking questions.


    Something about the way she had felt his core, however, told him that that excuse wouldn¡¯t work. She had spent too long with it to be fooled by such a story. Anyone who had encountered real Dragon cores would be able to tell the difference between his Core and one from a Dragon, and with a Dragon village so close to this sect it was likely that the girl had encountered a real Dragon Core before. This was even more likely, given that he had seen her talking to a disguised Dragon last night at one of the town¡¯s restaurants. He could hope that she didn¡¯t know the true identity of her friend, but that was unlikely in his opinion.


    He briefly considered leaving before the tournament, but decided against it. He knew when he sneaked into the Inner city, pretending to be a disciple using stolen robes and ring, that he would face risk. But he wouldn¡¯t abandoned his mission this easily. His people needed information on the strength of the people of this sect, and Foundation ranked members were always the main fighting force. He would just need to be careful after this. If he was caught here he could just claim that he had won a bet to get the items and sneaked in for the entertainment. Plenty of people had tried to do the same, as the Inner City tournament was always better than the Outer City tournament.

 Chapter 39

    Shen stepped onto the stage to face a very large and angry woman in her mid thirties. Shen had asked Danka about the woman before the match so that she would know what kind of opponent she would be facing. He knew more people in town than she did, after all. The woman¡¯s name was Li Tan, and Danka knew her from the two times he had helped in her arrest over the last year.


    The first time was at the outer city Mission Hall. She had returned from a mission, when one of the mercenaries had decided it would be a good idea to sexually harass the woman by grabbing one of her oversized breasts. Normally, if she had simply punched the man the guard would have ignored it, but by the time they got there she was sitting on the man¡¯s chest, her weight stopping him from breathing, while she used his face as a punching bag. The man was already unconscious long ago and when the guards managed to drag her off of the man they had to take him to the nearby clinic where the healer had to put the bones of his face back into place before healing seventeen fractures in his jaw and skull. It was only the fact that the mercenary asked for them to go easy on her that got her charged with excessive assault instead of attempted murder.


    The second time was after Shen had started selling Body Cultivation items. This woman had bought the best version Shen produced and used it to its limit, making her large but softer muscles far more dense. One of the people on her team had a disagreement of some sort with her concerning how they should split the payment for a job, and to settle it they decided to have an arm wrestling competition. A few minutes later the clinic was forced to reattach a severed limb, but no one involved was willing to tell the guards the details of what happened, so no charges stuck and they had to release her.


    In short, she was the type of woman that had muscles between her ears instead of brains. It was that fact that stopped her from being able to break through to the next realm, as she wasn¡¯t smart enough to figure out the weakness of her own divine sense, nor patient enough to practice until she got better. Shen knew she would have to win this fight by outsmarting the woman, not in a contest of strength. If Shen tried to choke her out like she had the last woman she would likely either laugh or get so angry that she would throw Shen into the stage¡¯s barrier.


    The field master signaled the start of the fight and the woman ran at Shen, shoulders lowered for a tackle. Shen jumped out of the way at the last moment, but underestimated the woman¡¯s speed, their legs briefly colliding, sending Shen into a bit of a spin. She landed and slid to a stop and the woman struggled to do the same. Shen could tell from just that impact that, despite having far more chi than the other woman, she only had a quarter of the woman¡¯s physical strength. The woman had both far larger and far denser muscles, after all, as she had been willing to take her body cultivation of muscles to its limit rather than stopping at a comfortable level like Shen.


    Ignoring the pain in her leg from the impact, Shen decided to use her divine sense to target the woman. She could even use it to attack the woman¡¯s insides. While that would normally be an extremely dangerous attack, more than was generally allowed in competitions, she knew that with the woman¡¯s durability it would do no more than slightly overheat her organs, causing pain and slightly impeding their function, but not causing serious harm. She sent a four height long string into the woman¡¯s abdomen and sent a surge of Fire chi down it, trying to form a fireball inside the woman¡¯s stomach.


    A large explosion appeared in front of the woman, making her stumble backwards slightly from where she was facing Shen for a second charge. Shen instantly knew why the attack had failed. The woman had a Formation Barrier item, likely a ring. It most likely wasn¡¯t one Shen had made, as she had only created seven, but Master Chen and the other relic crafters in the city had produced hundreds as a result of the demand her Gathering Barrier rings had caused. At the Formation level a barrier could block divine sense and divine sense based attacks from passing through it. The person that made this barrier item had likely went with the easier form which only blocked Formation attacks but not the sense itself. That would cut costs and let them produce the rings at least thirty percent faster.


    Shen noticed the woman¡¯s fist in her peripheral vision and rolled sideways from where she was crouched. She had gotten distracted from thinking about her craft and almost left herself open for attack. The woman seemed a bit upset from missing, but Shen wouldn¡¯t let her land a blow just to be nice. Doing so would likely result in several broken bones if it didn¡¯t cost her the match.


    The woman lunged at Shen and she moved the string of divine sense to the woman¡¯s face before firing off another Fireball. This distracted the woman enough that Shen was able to get some distance from her. The barrier seemed to have only been slightly weakened by the attack, and Shen knew that it would take most of her Fire Chi to get through it just with fire balls.


    While she didn¡¯t have a formal technique to do so, Shen did have the various Kinesis abilities for moving elements, and could make her next idea work. When the woman charged Shen grabbed cones of stone from the platform and pushed them out of the ground before flipping them over and setting them onto their former holes. She knew this was far from the proper ¡®stone spike¡¯ ability, but hoped it would work. Also, the fact that it used Earth chi instead of Fire meant that she wouldn¡¯t use her best type on a technique that might not work.


    The woman ran through the spike field, stumbling a bit, but didn¡¯t look particularly injured. At most Shen had caused her some foot pain. Shen ran to another section of the field beside the barrier and the woman took the opportunity to pull a few tiny rocks out of her bare feet. She charged at Shen again and this time Shen threw Water chi at the ground before causing it to freeze. While it wasn¡¯t strong enough to cause moisture to come out of the air and form actual ice, the chi could mimic the effect well enough.


    The woman hit the slick chi and slid into the barrier. Though she took only slight damage from the impact, Shen targeted the ground under her feet and sent most of her Fire chi into it. ¡°Infernal Tornado¡± she called as a vortex of fire swirled around the woman. The woman called out from the pain and tried to leave the tornado, but Shen put a barrier around it, made of Metal and Earth chi. Without the ability to build up momentum, Li Tan was forced to punch and kick the barrier rather than slam into it.


    Shen saw several large cracks form on the barrier and knew the woman would break through it in a few seconds. This hadn¡¯t been an elegant solution, she realized. She was basically just trying to overload the woman and her shield with a massive amount of chi, beating her with the strength of her chi the same way the woman tried to beat her with the strength of her body. It might be working for now, but if the woman broke out she would almost certainly win.


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    And to make it worse, maintaining two techniques at once was taxing Shen¡¯s brain, even with it¡¯s superior performance from body cultivation. The situation made it obvious why most cultivators stuck to using one technique at a time. Still, Shen couldn¡¯t risk letting the woman break through before taking serious injury, so she dumped the rest of her Wood and Fire chi into the inferno. It rapidly grew twice as hot and more dense and Shen could see the woman¡¯s barrier start to dissolve, letting the fire touch her directly instead of just the heat it put off. As second degree burns started to form on the woman¡¯s skin Shen noticed that the woman was gasping for breath and started to collapse. Not wanting to kill the woman, Shen ended the two techniques, letting the chi dissipate into the environment.


    The Field Master declared Shen the winner as two people from the medical staff ran over to check her out. Shen heard one of them say something about ¡®burnt lungs¡¯ and start to channel Wood chi into the woman to start healing her. Shen knew she should have realized what would happen. She expected the woman to just get her skin burnt and either surrender or pass out. Few people could keep going after receiving third degree burns, after all. But the woman had tried to breathe while her barrier was down. That had caused her to breath in superheated air, which burnt the inside of her lungs.


    Shen was about to volunteer to give the medics some of her Wood Chi to heal the woman, but realized that she had used all of it to do that to the woman. Shen watched for a few seconds, not bothering to leave the field, before the woman started being able to breathe well enough for the medics to take her to the clinic. Again, Shen wanted to do something to help, like helping carry her, but with as little chi as she had left in her dantian she was currently physically weaker that before she started making the Body Cultivation devices during the Gathering realm.


    Shen walked off the stage and returned to the waiting room. There weren¡¯t many cheers from the stands. Most of the people there knew how dangerous her actions had been despite how impressive of a display it was.


    ¡°You okay, Shen?¡± asked Danka. ¡°I saw the fight. Quite an impressive finishing move.¡±


    ¡°Quite a dangerous one.¡± Shen corrected. ¡°She burnt her lungs trying to breath in there, and I almost killed her.¡±


    ¡°There were medics on sight to fix her, and she should have just held her breath.¡± he responded. Anyone at Foundation would know that a Foundation level cultivator can hold their breath for an hour or more, as long as they had chi left, as their body would just recycle the air that was used. Shen wasn¡¯t sure of the science behind it, as few cultivators studied such things, preferring alchemy to chemistry, but she knew that if you held your breath for more than fifteen minutes or so you would start to exhale or spit out soot once you started breathing again. If the woman had just held her breath she wouldn¡¯t have been injured like that, but she wanted to scream in pain, and that had emptied the air out of her lungs, forcing her to breathe again.


    Shen nodded at his comment, then started meditating. She had used so much chi in that last battle that it was unlikely she could fully restore it before her next match, and would barely gather any if she relied on her bracelet. She stretched out her divine sense as far as it could go from her and ordered all of the chi around her to come to her. A few seconds later the chi started to flow into her. She didn¡¯t bother checking the elemental balance. She had only a small amount of Earth and Metal left, and a large amount of Water, so any chi she got could be useful. Her second dantian layer and bracelet could balance out the types for her.


    She heard Danka be called into the field, but didn¡¯t bother stopping to watch his match. He was a competent fighter, winning the Outer Disciple match last year, so she wasn¡¯t worried. A few minutes later she heard cheering and soon Danka returned to her side, inside her divine sense where she could almost see him. Her divine sense got slightly better during this time, but she barely noticed it, only using the improvement to expand the size of the field around her so she could gather chi slightly faster.


    Danka moved just outside her range and she could feel that the chi density in the direction he went was slightly lower than the other directions. He was likely refilling his chi reserves, but as his divine sense was weaker than hers his field of effect was much smaller.


    Almost an hour later all of the other contestants had finished their rounds with half of them being defeated but not required to leave the waiting room. Shen had completely refilled her reserves of Water and Earth chi, and mostly refilled the others when an announcement was made. ¡°Next fight: Mo Shen and Din Danka.¡± They weren¡¯t as pure as she would like, but they would have to do.


    Shen ended her meditation and brought in her divine sense. This much use of it, plus the mental strain of using two Formation techniques at the same time had left her mentally exhausted, but she would still try her best in the next fight.


    She nodded to Danka and the two of them walked onto stage together, both taking their starting position and drawing a sword. The field master signaled the start and both of them ran forward and swung their swords.


    Shen quickly realized that she was outclassed. While she had been practicing relic crafting he had been practicing his swordsmanship, and was at least as good at it as she was with a relic crafting. She threw several fireballs at his feet to force him to step back, then changed weapons. If she couldn¡¯t win the fight with superior skill, she would win it with superior equipment. The Fire flying sword returned to her storage ring and a different sword appeared in its place, one with a white Draconic Serpent hide scabbard. She put the scabbard in her belt and drew the blue blade. There was a murmur from the crowd as several people there realized the quality of the sword.


    ¡°Nice blade.¡± said Danka. ¡°Did you make it?¡±


    Shen smirked and shook her head. ¡°It was a gift. But hopefully I can make one like it soon.¡± She remembered the Fire beast core she had bought off of Danka a year ago and hadn¡¯t done much with. She could make a Blood Steel sword of the same design as this one and put a nice Fire technique on it with that core. Maybe she would start on it tomorrow.


    Danka nodded, then ran at her. They both swung their swords, but Shen appeared to be concentrating on defense rather than offense, letting her hold him off. This showed Danka just how much better his swordsmanship was than hers and encouraged him to push even harder. Shen continued to back up, but after thirty seconds and dozens of blows Danka started to feel like something was off. It only took him a few seconds and a few more swings before he realized that she was blocking by hitting the same part of his blade almost every time. As the blades clashed he looked at that part of the blade to figure out why, and noticed that, while the edge was severely damaged from the multiple edge-on impacts, her blade was undamaged. It must have been made of something far stronger than steel. Was she trying to ruin the edge of his blade? Surely she didn¡¯t think she could cut through it.


    A few more swings later and he realized that the sound of clashing blades was off. That part of the blade had lost most of its flexibility and, when he looked, he noticed that a crack had started to form. Had she been slowly freezing the blade to make it brittle? That was an Ice, and therefore Water attack. He would have expected her to heat it and make it weak instead, as Fire was her best element. He swung again, this time aiming for her legs instead of her body to try and throw off her blocking technique, and she seemed to swing much harder, like using Release to boost her strength. She jump backwards as the end of her sword hit the middle of his sword on the side, where it had been frozen, and the blade snapped in half.


    Shen and Danka jumped away from each other and he swung the remaining half of his sword several times, sending out waves of yellow energy that she was forced to dodge. She recognized this as Sword Chi from the previous competition and knew that it was likely strong enough to get through both her armor¡¯s barrier and her Dragon Scales.


    Shen responded by throwing several fire balls back at him, followed by Earth and Metal bolts. He managed to dodge or parry all of the bolts, but as the last fire ball exploded from his cut a blade swung at his face. He knew that she had aimed to cut open his cheek and not his throat, and was grateful for the consideration, but was able to dodge it. Seeing that Shen had overextended herself with that swing he grabbed her wrist and twisted, making her release her grip on the sword and almost breaking her arm.


    He threw her on the ground and she yelled in anger, running at him with a punch. He had been trained in hand to hand combat as well as sword combat, though, and dodged, countering with an uppercut. She staggered backwards and he launched a kick at her stomach, throwing her into the barrier.


    Shen got up and staggered a bit before realizing that she couldn¡¯t focus, then a few seconds later everything went dark as she collapsed onto the field.

 Chapter 40

    Shen awoke in a bed inside the field¡¯s clinic. She looked around to see if Danka was there, but only saw Li Tan, laying in the bed beside hers. Of course, Danka had won their match so he would still be at the competition.


    ¡°Hey, kid.¡± said Tan, looking over at her. ¡°Congratulations on the victory. I wasn¡¯t expecting you to be such a strong Mage.¡± She turned her head to look back at the ceiling. ¡°I figured you were just a normal kid with maybe a few tricks. Your Chi purity seems to be way stronger than mine, though.¡±


    Shen was surprised by the woman saying that. ¡°Wait, you realized that?¡±


    The woman smiled. ¡°When you¡¯ve fought as many people as me, you learn to feel the difference between purities. I may be a meathead, but I have been fighting since before you were born.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°Sorry about burning your lungs.¡± she said.


    Tan shrugged, then winced from the pain as she was reminded of the fact that her external burns hadn¡¯t been fully healed. ¡°I inhaled instead of holding my breath. I should have realized what would happen, but sometimes when I get too caught up in battle, I forget about things like that. Call it an anger issue if you want.¡±


    Shen nodded, and noticed she was a bit light headed when her head seemed to want to keep moving. She tried to figure out why that might be, but couldn¡¯t seem to focus. ¡°Any idea how bad my injuries were?¡± she asked after a few minutes.


    ¡°From what I heard the doctors saying, you had four broken ribs, internal bleeding, a concussion, and some minor skin lacerations. Are you finding it hard to focus right now?¡± Shen nodded, her head swimming again at the movement. ¡°That¡¯s because there is too much water chi in your brain. Earth and Metal were used to fix your bones, but soft tissue is better with Water techniques. Of course, Wood or the Life chi they can make from it is better, but they exhausted their Wood supply on me, and even used a bit of Water on my skin. The doctors are off meditating right now because of that.¡±


    ¡°Is there no fire healing?¡± Shen asked, trying to pull the Water residue from her brain, but feeling like she couldn¡¯t grab onto it. Even her divine sense felt like it didn¡¯t want to do what she told it to. She looked at Tan, but before Shen opened her mouth Tan smiled.


    ¡°Fire just accelerates natural healing and other bodily processes. Trying to remove the residue? Hard to do without being able to concentrate. You can try to put tiny bits of other elements in your brain to balance it out and get rid of the side effects, or you can just wait if you don¡¯t want to risk it. Your dantian should absorb it all in thirty minutes or so, as coherent as you are.¡±


    Shen nodded and started trying to think. She could put Fire in her brain, right? That would neutralize the water. She was about to do that when something inside of her told her not to try, so she sighed and closed her eyes, trying to sleep.


    When she woke up Tan was missing from the bed beside her and she could focus again. ¡°Ready to leave already?¡± a doctor said from across the room. The woman had probably been watching with her Divine Sense.


    ¡°Yeah, my friend is still fighting, and I want to see his match.¡±


    The woman nodded and helped Shen up, then lead her in the opposite direction of the door. Shen was about to ask her why when the woman stopped at one of the beds Shen couldn¡¯t see from her own. In it was Danka, staring at the ceiling. ¡°Danka?¡± she asked. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Oh, Shen,¡± he said with a giant smile on his face. ¡°When did you get all pretty and shiny?¡± She blushed at his comment before realizing the he had just called her shiny.


    ¡°We had to use a lot of water chi to fix his brain, so he¡¯ll take a few hours to return to normal.¡± the doctor said. ¡°I¡¯m actually watching the patients because I ran out and need to recharge.¡± The doctor held up her wrist and showed that she was wearing one of the Spirit Copper bracelets Shen had made to gather and purify chi. That model was altered a bit to refill the wearer first, then work on purity, so it should only take an hour or so for the woman¡¯s chi to be refilled, though it would only be at about 11% purity, taking at least six hours to hit its maximum of around 23%. That was more than most people in the sect could gather on their own, but compared to what Shen or others that focused on purity could do it wasn¡¯t pure enough.


    ¡°That should definitely help you refill, but if you can meditate on your chi, I can show you how to improve your purity. The bracelet only does 11%.¡±


    The doctor nodded and smiled. ¡°You are probably one of the few Inner Disciples that thinks 11% is low purity. Until a year ago, only the Elders and Master Xing could expect better purity than that, but now everyone can get that purity in their chi, especially if they have one of these bracelets.¡± Shen nodded, and the woman smiled again. ¡°I take it that means you are the one that made the bracelets? Or for that matter, all of the nice relics that have been popping up over the last year?¡±


    Shen shrugged. ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t say All of the relics. Some of the other relic crafters have made some useful items. I just developed those bracelets and the body cultivation jewelry, and have recently been working on weapons and storage rings. I also made some armor and a few utility items. Oh, and the practice fields, though someone else paints those now.¡±


    ¡°That is actually most of the new items, but I guess ¡®most¡¯ and ¡®all¡¯ aren¡¯t the same thing.¡± The doctor said.


    ¡°Well, any technique can be turned into a formation, and any formation can be added to any item, you just have to match the items and the techniques up properly. Most of the items are also available in other sects and towns, so all I really did was bring them to this sect after the ban was lifted. That makes me more of a business woman than a skilled relic crafter.¡±


    The doctor shook her head. ¡°Trust me, I¡¯ve been to other sect towns and mortal cities. Some of your things, like the bracelets and body cultivation rings, aren¡¯t available there either.¡± Not wanting to continue receiving praise, Shen shrugged and the doctor sighed. ¡°So you were going to teach me to purify the chi better?¡±


    Shen nodded and they both sat down on the floor inside special arrays that would feed them ambient chi. They looked relatively new and Shen suspected that they had been painted by her coworkers. She had suggested that some of the businesses in the sect could benefit from the formations as well, but didn¡¯t know that Master Chen had actually followed through on her suggestion.


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    Once they had both started to meditate Shen extended her divine sense into the doctor¡¯s dantian. Her reserves of Earth, Metal, and Fire chi were full, but she was only about half full of Water and Wood chi, which were also at the 11% purity of the bracelet.


    Shen felt the woman twitch at the feeling of someone else touching her dantian and sent a branch of the divine sense into the woman¡¯s brain so that she could more easily use Telepathy. ¡°Sorry about startling you. I wanted to see what state your chi was in.¡± The woman seemed a bit surprised by the voice, so Shen quickly explained. ¡°I¡¯ve connected us telepathically.¡± She told the woman. ¡°You only need to intend to tell me something and I¡¯ll hear it. Don¡¯t worry, I can¡¯t hear any thought you don¡¯t intend to say. I¡¯m not deep enough, nor am I certain my skill would allow me to read those thoughts.¡±


    ¡°Like this?¡± the woman thought-said, Shen hearing her properly.


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s how you do it. Now, here is a modified technique for purifying chi.¡± She lead the woman through a modified version of the chi purification technique she had added to the bracelet. This one required greater concentration, but was more efficient with the chi, as it only removed the parts that were over-represented and replaced them with copies of parts that the other person knew about or that they detected in the outside source. By the time the doctor¡¯s chi had refilled it was up to 18% purity, though with another hour she could probably get it up to 20 or so percent. One problem with the technique was that it quickly hit a limit with its purity, as you would need to be able to analyze all of the incoming chi for new patterns and concepts in order to make further improvement. The technique which used the natural incoming chi like the bracelet used may be wasteful, but it would automatically introduce new concepts at something close to the correct rate, thus allowing it to go further.


    After the Doctor had refilled her reserves they got up. ¡°Well, I¡¯d better return to the fields.¡± the doctor thought, and Shen nodded, withdrawing her threads and ending her telepathy.


    ¡°No problem. I know other techniques that can let you reach much higher purity, but they waste a lot of chi so I decided not to use them here. If you want to learn them, though, I can teach you.¡±


    ¡°Okay, then. I¡¯ll think about it.¡± the woman said, and Shen nodded. Danka was still acting intoxicated, so she left to go watch the match. Maybe she would see that mysterious guy there, and could learn more about him.


    By the time Shen returned the other viewers were starting to leave. Someone that Shen hadn¡¯t heard of had won the tournament and gotten a Soul Awakening pill and Foundation level beast core, the pill being used to make the soul easier to detect, thus allowing a person to reach Peak Foundation faster. These pills were fairly expensive, as they had to be imported due to the fact that the needed herbs didn¡¯t grow in the Mountain region.


    Shen quickly looked around but didn¡¯t see the unusual man, so she had no choice but to give up. Perhaps she would see him around town if she looked around. She walked the streets, occasionally looking at the stalls on the side of the path, but didn¡¯t buy anything other than a bit of food. The stalls in this area didn¡¯t sell materials or Beast Cores, nor did any of the techniques she saw interest her. She had seen similar things in the Inner City library but not bought them. Most of these were either duplicates of those techniques or inferior copies.


    She opened a door and stepped inside a building, only to realize that she had returned to her workshop. She had gotten so used to going to work that she had walked there without thinking about it. Did that mean she should take a break? Shen shook her head. Why would she need a break? She wasn¡¯t tired, after all. She went to her workbench and pulled her new sword from her storage ring, thinking about her earlier idea of trying to make a sword from her Fire Beast Core. Maybe by studying the superior sword she could learn more about sword making.


    She remained in her shop long after the sun had set. Everywhere she looked at the weapon she could see areas where it was superior to her weapons, places where she could improve. After learning what she could for now from the blade for now, she went to her forge. Sho¡¯s father had only used materials which contained Water chi or had an alignment to water when crafting that sword so that their wouldn¡¯t be any restriction to the flow or purity of the chi. Shen didn¡¯t have any material that contained the Fire element, and would ruin any materials she did have if she tried to use them, but she did have several materials of the Metal element. She would prepare it to hold a beast core of that element in case she could find one, but for now she needed to decide what formation to integrate into the blade. Perhaps Sunder, a technique for piercing armor and slicing strong materials? She didn¡¯t know the technique yet, just a basic form of the formation from one of the relic crafting books she had read, but could buy the book for it at the Library. Maybe she could use Metal to Lightning to convert Aura into a lightning coating for the blade?


    As she thought about it she took out the various metals she had and started making swords. By the time the sun rose she was polishing the third one, having gotten so caught up in her work that she had lost track of time. With the forge being outside, however, she couldn¡¯t ignore sunrise and got up, placing the three swords inside her ring. The first contained a version of Aura that surrounded the blade in lightning. The second contained the basic form of Sunder. The third didn¡¯t yet have a technique, but was prepared to have one added to it.


    Shen had seen an inferior version of the Flash Step Lightning technique yesterday when wandering around the city, and the idea of moving at the speed of lightning kept entering her head while making it. While actually merging with an element enough to travel as that element was a Nascent realm technique, at the Foundation realm one could merge enough of the element into their body to temporarily take on some of the properties of that element. The Flash Step technique of the Foundation realm, therefore, infused Lightning elemental chi into your body to allow you to move quickly as long as the energy remained. Though not actually as fast as lightning, one could easily outrun any animal, including any spirit beast without a comparable technique, or even an arrow. It was widely seen as the fastest of the elemental movement techniques, and was far faster than the Explosive Steps technique Shen had used during the tournament.


    The pommel of each sword contained a fake beast core which would produce Lightning chi, produced by Shen because she didn¡¯t have real cores to place there. The Aura sword¡¯s pommel was the Fire beast core, but Shen had placed a ring around it which used the Fire to Lightning technique to make it function as a weaker Lightning beast core. The Sunder sword contained a spirit stone with a similar shell which would convert the neutral chi of the stone into Lightning chi. Due to the properties of Spirit stones, one could only use a few percent of the stone¡¯s chi to activate the technique, and then had to wait for it to restore the chi from the environment, or the stone would start to collapse, releasing all of its chi. This made spirit stones a poor choice for such uses, and meant that Shen would only get one powerful use of the effect if she used the sword. The last sword contained a Star Ore sphere which acted as a storage device to hold all of the Spirit copper and most of the Spirit Steel Shen had available. The material inside could be charged with Metal chi and, by allowing a slight connection between the outside and inside of the storage device, like running a wire out the top of a magic bag, one could draw on that chi. Even with all of the expense and material used, however, it could only store about twice what her Fire core could store in Fire chi, though at a higher purity.


    While the economic prospects of the last item were dubious, using seven hundred stones worth of material to only store as much as a six hundred stone Beast Core, it was at least possible to mass produce them without farming spirit beasts as some countries and sects did.


    Shen went home to grab a new change of clothes and take a bath. An hour later she met her friends at First Meal and showed them the three swords, and discussed what had happened yesterday. Apparently, Danka had lost in the round after the one in which he beat her, his challenger a much better Spearman than Danka was a Swordsman. This had resulted in him being stabbed several times, then punched in the face. His opponent seemed to have anger issues as well, though not as much as Li Tan, as Danka had taunted him for over a minute before he attacked Danka out of anger.


    Everyone would have to return to work today, so Shen said goodbye to them, stored the swords, and went to the Library to buy the superior quality movement technique. She checked a few of the stalls near the outer wall as well, but only found a few small pieces of material that could be used to make relics, some of it from a stall set up by a group of refugees who appeared to had fled all of the way here while fleeing the advancing Demon army. While finishing up the transaction with the third such booth she felt like she had sensed danger for a second, but it quickly disappeared. She looked around for a few seconds but, seeing nothing, thanked the woman running the stand and returned to work. With these materials she might be able to make an even better sword than the had last night.


    --


    Fei Hua Restricted his chi and hid behind an empty crate which someone had left outside the wall. He had seen that girl again, the one who detected him and his Core at the tournament. Had she followed him here? No, that didn¡¯t seem to be the case. She was shopping, buying materials for relic crafting and smithing. Or was that a front?


    As he thought about it he decided that couldn¡¯t be the case. After all, she had detected his own divine sense as well as the killing intent it had contained, and done nothing but look around. It would take a particularly incompetent spy or a master spy to not react with hostility in that situation, but she hadn¡¯t reacted with more than curiosity. That mean that she was most likely exactly what she appeared to be, a curious teenager who had seen something new at the tournament and taken a look, not realizing the truth behind what she found.


    He sighed, releasing his stress. Perhaps when this assignment was over Fei Hua would ask for some time off. After all, there were many interesting human women in the nearby cities which he could get to know better, and he had even developed a liking for the human drink known as ¡®ale¡¯. Yes. He could use an ale right now.

 Chapter 41

    After eating, Shen went to the field to test the swords. She didn¡¯t have to return to work immediately, so she spent a few minutes testing each of the new swords. The Aura one sent several bolts of electricity into the training dummy when hitting it, and she hit it thirteen times before the Core was depleted. As the Sunder sword would only have one good attack in it, she swung as hard as she could into an armored dummy while only using around 1% of the stone¡¯s chi, and barely scratched it. Without the effect it likely wouldn¡¯t have done anything to the armor, but such an attack barely did as much as simply sharpening the blade. Then she swung it lightly while using the stone¡¯s full charge. Her blade went from the shoulder of the dummy all the way to the center of its chest before stopping. She pulled as hard as she could, but the sword was stuck in the armor, so she fed her own Fire chi into it, converted into Lightning chi, and the sword slid the rest of the way through the dummy with little effort.


    The final sword didn¡¯t have a formation on it yet, so she simply swung at what was left of the dummy a few times to test the quality of the sword before returning it to her ring. She returned to the Workshop and removed two technique books from her ring, Flash Step and Sunder, and opened the first to start reading.


    It was just after Second Meal when someone knocked on the door and entered the workshop. Shen was about to tell the overweight man that they didn¡¯t actually sell anything there when she realized that she had met him before. ¡°Mister Quan?¡± she asked. It was Quan Xiu, the talismonger who, one year ago, had sold them the formulas for several new talismans as well as a book on formations.


    ¡°Lady Mo,¡± he said, bowing his head slightly. ¡°I hear you have been quite productive.¡±


    Shen nodded her head. ¡°Just after the Caravan left the sect changed a few rules and started selling two new books. I used them to make a few useful items, which helped the shop, and started really studying formations. In fact, I was just working on a sword which would allow one to use Flash Steps.¡±


    The man smiled. ¡°Yes, I heard about the new techniques.¡± he said, not revealing that it was in fact he who gave the techniques to the sect. ¡°As you are interested in improving your skills even further, I have just the thing for you.¡± He waved his hand over the table Shen was sitting at and several books appeared. They contained ¡®Advanced Formations¡¯, ¡®Advanced Materials Guide¡¯ and ¡®Intermediate Body Cultivation¡¯, as well as eight others.


    ¡°I went by the shop and your Master Chen told me that you would be here, and might be interested in some of these books.¡± Shen nodded and started reading the first page of the numerous books. Of the eleven books, the three whose titles had drawn her attention seemed to be the most useful. There were also books on a few useful techniques, including a Space elemental movement technique which allowed one to teleport a few heights at a time, but the rest were things that she had seen at the sect library.


    The first book, ¡®Advanced Formations¡¯ didn¡¯t include as many diagrams for different formations as the beginner and intermediate versions, but went into more theory about how formations functioned and how to optimize them. At that level there were too many possible techniques to list them, so the text was more concerned with teaching you how to convert techniques you learned into formations, then optimizing those formations so that they could function more efficiently or be simpler to produce.


    The second book, ¡®Advanced Materials Guide¡¯, listed hundreds of materials one might find across the continent, as well as the physical and spiritual properties of those materials and the refinement methods. With this Shen would be able to drastically improve both the quality and quantity of the materials she used in making relics.


    The third book, ¡®Intermediate Body Cultivation¡¯, was like the first Body Cultivation book, but contained even more complex versions of the techniques. While the techniques within the first one could be used at any level of cultivation, as they only improved your body in ways that physical or mental training could, this book contained techniques which required that one be at either the Gathering or Foundation level to use. The Gathering realm ones usually taught one to integrate elemental chi into their body to improve the performance beyond what was normally possible. The performance of these even went beyond the normal chi enhanced performance one got by holding chi within themselves or circulating it. The Foundation ones were about integrating outside materials into the body in order share some of the properties of that material or integrating the spiritual properties of other materials into ones body.


    The very last enhancements, however, covered the basics of something called a Core. Apparently it was possible to artificially do what spirit beasts do upon death, but while still alive. It required that one be at the peak of Foundation, as the Chi pressure needed to be extremely high to succeed. The technique also required that one know their own body and mind to a degree that was only really possible if one had fully developed their Divine Sense. By compressing a fragment of your Vital Chi and mind into your dantian it was possible to create a ball which, through interaction with your chi, would slowly solidify and grow. This ¡®Golden Core¡¯, named for the color it took on when created by a human, would drastically increase your capacity to store chi, as well as automatically cultivate or perform other techniques at your command, as if you had a small servant living inside your body. While it was possible to produce multiples of them, each one taxed your mind, making you less mentally stable. That, combined with the exponential growth in the performance of the Golden Core as you developed it, in storage capacity, performance, and complexity of the techniques it can use, meant that almost everyone who used the technique only produced one.


    Shen wanted to purchase the Space book as well, but after asking about the price she realized that she didn¡¯t even have enough left in the Workshop¡¯s budget to cover the cost of the first three, which she wanted even more. The cost of information increased exponentially with Realm, as those that required them had far more stones and the information was much more useful, and all three of those books were uncommon or rare Foundation realm books. She explained the situation to him and he nodded. Because it would help her so much and she wanted them so much, he would be willing to give her a slight discount, allowing her to purchase the first three books but not the last one. She offered him relics in exchange for the last one, as it would also be a valuable resource, but he didn¡¯t want any of the things she had produced so far, as he had seen them all in other cities or sects and already decided not to buy them. He may have been able to turn a profit by selling them elsewhere, but as he didn¡¯t deal in relics he didn¡¯t want to try doing such a thing.


    After their business was concluded, he nodded and left. Shen returned to the half finished sword she was working on. She wanted to start reading those books immediately, but the Flash Step sword needed to be completed first, otherwise it wouldn¡¯t even be fit to sell.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    --


    Fei Hua threw the object in his hand at the ground only to see the metal and jade disk bounce. Realizing what he had done he quickly picked it and checked it for damage. Thankfully the communication relic hadn¡¯t been seriously damaged by his emotional outburst.


    Thirty minutes ago he had been preparing to spend some time around town and with the refugees to help establish his cover, maybe even engage in some alone time with one of the ladies in the entertainment district. Then he had received a call from his superior. The man had instructed Fei Hua to obtain the city¡¯s defense plan and, even after Hua informed him that someone in town had detected his Core and might suspect his cover story of being false, the man insisted that he complete the mission. Hua knew he had no option but to complete the mission or die trying. His superior was in the lower Nascent realm after all, and one of the first things you learned as a child growing up in the Empire of Tralk was that you should never disobey someone who is stronger than you, even if obedience would kill you. After all, there were worse things than death.


    For now, he would just have to create a solid plan so that he had a chance at success. He spent the rest of the night going over everything he had learned about the layout of the city, its people, and its security. Something as important as the city¡¯s defense plans would need to be restricted to only the most powerful and influential people in its government, which meant that they would be somewhere in the Core area of the city. Unfortunately, no one except the highest ranked Elders and the Sect Master were allowed to freely enter the area, so it would be almost impossible to enter through a gate. That meant he would have to sneak in. That also meant that he had only the most basic information about the layout of the core city or the buildings, so he would have to either find a way to get such information or go in without knowing where he was going.


    He made multiple backup plans for every stage of the operation, including multiple ways in which he could find the likely location of the plans, ways to enter the building, ways to find what he was looking for once inside the building, ways to hide his presence, and ways to escape. He had completely lost track of the time when he heard someone ringing the bell on the front of his tent. As their was nothing to knock on with a fabric building and no one wanted to risk entering another person¡¯s tent unannounced, in case something personal was occurring inside, the refugees had started hanging small bells from the pole above the tent¡¯s door.


    ¡°Yes?,¡± he asked, assuming that one of the others wanted to speak with him before going to bed. He quickly stored all of the materials in a special storage ring. It contained two compartments for storage, one on the top which acted as a common storage ring but with only two jars of storage area, and a hidden one at the bottom which was concealed by a tiny array which blocked all senses from detecting it, including most divine senses. That way it was unlikely anyone could find it without knowing it was there. It was in the second, hidden compartment where he stored his notes.


    ¡°Brother Hua? I apologize if I woke you up. They were starting to put away what was left of First Meal and, since I hadn¡¯t seen you yet today I thought you might have slept in. So I brought you some porridge. If you have a friend over, though, I can bring her something too.¡± Hua had gotten a reputation for meeting strange women every time they entered a city, even if most of the time it was an excuse so that he could engage in espionage, so many of the people likely assumed he had brought a woman back to his tent.


    ¡°Uh, sorry.¡± he said, groaning like he was in pain. ¡°I went out drinking last night and got in late.¡± He opened the tent flap and immediately recoiled from the light. ¡°Ah. I didn¡¯t realize it was so bright.¡± The sun had come up about an hour ago, and pretending to have a hangover was a good excuse for wanting to stay inside. While his infiltration skills might need some work, he was an excellent actor.


    ¡°I apologize. I didn¡¯t think that you might have been out drinking.¡± The man handed him the bowl and a drinking gourd full of water. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll let you get back to sleeping. Just put the dishes outside when you are done and I¡¯ll have someone pick them up.¡±


    They might start thinking he was a drunk now, but at least it was better than everyone thinking that he was wasting money at the brothel, yet wasn¡¯t interested in the other refugee women. Of course, there was a simple reason for that. No method of preventing pregnancy at the Foundation level worked 100% of the time, and if he produced a child with one of the women of the camp there was a chance that the child would be born with his natural skin color, ruining his disguise. Better to risk such a thing with a promiscuous woman in a random town. That way, even if she did get pregnant, she wouldn¡¯t know who the child¡¯s true father was, and his disguise would remain intact.


    He took the porridge and returned to his tent. How had he lost so much time planning that he had missed most of a day? He still needed to gather information about the core of the city while not raising suspicion, and gather everything he needed in order to carry out the mission tonight. After all, this would be the last Caravan day for the city, and if he wanted to maintain his cover by having the group travel with the caravan, as any other refugee group would, he would need to leave in the morning when the Caravan left.


    He waited a few hours so that no one would be suspicious of him leaving with a hangover, then came out with a rolled up shirt tied over his eyes. ¡°Hey Rik.¡± he said to the man outside who had brought him food, then left his tent, ¡°I¡¯m going to an apothecary¡¯s shop to get something for a hangover, so I¡¯ll be out for a while.¡±


    The man didn¡¯t bother asking how he could get around without his sight as anyone in the Foundation realm could use their divine sense to navigate, even if those in the initial stage would barely be able to ¡®see¡¯ an arm¡¯s length in front of them. ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll keep an eye on things here.¡± he said and Hua nodded before heading into town.


    --


    Shen entered the shop where Mae worked. She had been up all night going over the new Formation book she had bought yesterday. Compared to what she had been doing, it was like a chef going from grilling meat over a campfire with a bit of salt and a meal in a proper restaurant. The techniques the book described weren¡¯t up to the level of gourmet food yet, but they were certainly up to the quality of a favorite dish.


    Once inside she called out to Mae, who opened the curtain into the back of the store. Behind her was a human shaped object which appeared to be grinding something in a mortar and pestle. Shen pointed at the object. ¡°Uh, what¡¯s that?¡± she asked. She could guess that it had to be some form of relic, but hadn¡¯t seen anything like it in the Advanced Formations book. Maybe she should get a book specifically about the common types of relics.


    ¡°Oh, that? It¡¯s a Puppet. Sister Kyu bought it from one of the merchants to help in the shop.¡± Mae grabbed a wooden box off the shelf and set it on the counter. In front of Shen were six light green jade disks. ¡°These contain the lists of instructions it can do, and came with it. Five are how to mix the ingredients for five common pills. That way we only need to refine the materials, something the Puppet can¡¯t do. One makes it follow you and carry whatever you give it to hold, and the last one just makes it follow instructions you speak to it. Though it can¡¯t do anything too complex. It only has sight and hearing, and the instruction list can¡¯t be too long.¡±


    Shen nodded. ¡°What if you want it to do something else, though?¡±


    Mae grabbed a book and set it on the counter beside the box. ¡°It came with a book on how to create new lists of instructions. I tried to read it, but it¡¯s pretty confusing.¡±


    Shen flipped through the book as well, but instead of confusion she was simply impressed. She had no idea that formations could be used to make something that complex. Mae cleared her throat and Shen looked up, only to realize that she had come here to talk to Mae about something work related. She had already forgotten to ask at First Meal and didn¡¯t want to forget again. ¡°Oh, right.¡± she said, closing the book but intending to get back to reading it later, ¡°I actually came here because I wanted your help with a few projects.¡±


    Mae seemed a bit confused. ¡°I¡¯m not a relic crafter, though. Is this about refining materials? You did tell me that you had bought a cauldron and were refining Blood Iron and Blood Steel with it. Did you discover another material you can make with it?¡±


    ¡°No, actually.¡± Shen said. Technically, the materials book had list materials that could be refined in a cauldron, but none of them were things Shen had an easily available supply of. ¡°I did learn about several new materials, though, some of which are plant based, and thought I would come in to see if you have any of them.¡± If anyone knew about special spirit plants which could be used in crafting, it would probably be an alchemist.