Chapter 15

Xin strode towards the Artefact pavillion, a big luxurious hall inside of the 

main school building. It was adorned in painted tapestries, all displaying hieroglyphs

or alchemical symbols.

Xin was mesmerised by the look of this hall, split into many sectors, workshops and storage rooms, with almost a hundred people fluttering around.

An internal disciple approached him, leaving his administrative stand.

"Disciple Xin, right? Saw you in the tryouts. What are you looking for?"

"I need to consult an artificer, or a lore expert, I don't really know. I've got a niche thing that I want to find out more about."

"Gotcha. Follow me."

He led him into one of the workshops, where an old man in his seventies (at least by the looks) was cutting a gem engraved into the hilt of a jian sword. Xin looked at the weapon with astonishment. The ornaments, the emanating metal qi aura, the red gem in the hilt, this visage was breathtaking for a young martial arts enthusiast!

"Pick up your jaw. What do you need, kid?"

"I... I am Xin. The disciple told me to consult you. Master." - Xin was anxious again, no longer on a high horse after the training humiliation.

"Show me what you have."

Xin produced a wooden trinket. The man took it into his hands and poked it with a small lightning zap, emanating from his long nail.

"A totem. I am not a totem expert, though. What kind of advice do you need?"

"How do I activate it? How do I tame its power? Where do I read about this stuff?"

"The library, of course! Look, everyone here will only tell you the rumours. Totems are hard to come by, and even harder to tame, unless you have an animal path affinity. It's a tiger totem, it won't recognize you easily. Still, I know that some people in the Fist sect cultivate Tiger style martial arts, they might be interested. I'll gladly take it from you, and give you something in exchange."

Xin felt uneasy. No, this is a scam, I can feel it in my bones.

Meanwhile, a balding man Lei was talking to earlier, Feng Chonglin, entered the workshop. 

"Am I interrupting anything?"

"You are a master, he is a kid. It's fine, master Chonglin."

"I'll just wait here, then."

"What do you propose, master?" - Xin asked the artificer.

"I don't know, what do you want? You're a mortal, right? Some materials, maybe you need help awakening an element?"

"No need. I've got a double element bloodline, and I have the breakthrough materials as well. What else can you offer?"

"What are your elements, kid?"

"Metal and wood, mostly metal."

"How about this Mercury Circle bowl? It feeds your metal element, and has some enchantments that help you tone down the resonance during the breakthrough. It will significantly boost your chances."

"How much does it cost?"

"Twenty spirit stones, I value your totem at fifteen. I can make some profit trading it, but you can't, you don't know the right people. It's a nice deal, kid. Take it."

Xin looked back at the man behind him. He was pale and detached, and he felt uneasy around him. For a moment, their gazes met, and Xin saw a subtle muscle twitch on the side of the man's face. He then scratched his temple, but also knocked his finger on it slightly. Huh? Xin turned to the master. Did this bald man try to signal that I shouldn't take the deal?

And was this man trying to avoid the artificer's ire by doing it so subtly?

"Sorry, master, I need some time to think. I am not sure yet, I need to visit the library to do my own research."

"Kid, are you questioning my competence? I am saving you time." - The old master raised an eyebrow.

"I'd never. I am just hesitant, it's a flaw I have. But it's my burden to carry, and I have to deal with it my way. Forgive me, master. I might repay you for your guidance one day. Thank you."

Xin quickly left the building. He tried being humble and making his retreat elegant, but he felt like it didn't work. Still, there was something else he wanted to do, even if he would be late to dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Xin saw Feng Chonglin come out of the workshop.

"Master, did I understand you correctly?"

"What do you mean? I just stood there. Did you wait for me this whole time?"

"You know what I mean, you signalled to not take the deal." - Xin ignored his question. 

"Did I? Or were you looking for an excuse to bail out, and found a pretense in me scratching my temple?"

"You know the exact moment I am talking about, though. Means I am right."

"Hehe, kid. It was the only moment our gazes met, wasn't hard to deduce what you mean." - He said "hehe" in the most hoarse voice Xin had ever heard. Is this man a walking corpse?

"Whatever. Forget it. Sorry, master."

"Relax, I am fucking with you. This totem is good. You probably cut it out of a yaoguai's entrails. If so, nice job."

"You... know about this stuff?"

"Twenty five years in the steppe. You see stuff. People experiment. Nomads love their totems, and they make powerful fighters, I tell you that."

"Can... you help me awaken mine?"

"What's in it for me, huh?"

"I... what's your job here in the sect?" - Maybe this man needs an apprentice? Could kill two birds with one stone. Still, he is probably a former demon, should be careful.

"I am starting an assignment tomorrow, Alchemy pavilion. Frankly, I am not too happy. They'll probably squeeze my dry for my knowledge, that's why they accepted me in the first place."

"Lei told me about you, you are that poison path Foundation stage master. Saw you all bloody at the tournament. Could we cooperate somehow?"

"Cooperate? If you can propose an equal exchange, I might consider helping you with this totem."

"Fine, I know a lot about alchemy. I've read a lot. Concocted the basic stuff. Know Wuxing and Feng Shui, even some of the more advanced stuff."

"You sound like someone who'll die to an explosion two weeks in. Low foundation, high self-esteem. Hold your horses, squirt. So, this assignment, I am actually looking to bail out. But I need your help."

"Hmph. What do you need?" - So he insults my competence and offers cooperation right afterwards?

"That kid, Wu Lei. And you, too. They let me skim through the profiles of the disciples to look for potential helpers. Wu Lei was a bodyguard, and he applied through the merchant guild of Clay Nest. You don't have to explain it twice, it's pretty obvious the guy has some useful connections. And both of you don't look like regular fruits." - Xin nodded. Indeed, he felt like a pretty special "fruit".

"Can you get to the thing that you want to propose?" 

"Slow down. I am teaching you how to think." - He smiled with a creepy grin. "Idea is, this Wu Lei, he helps me set up a workshop. I know some guys who can deliver cheap materials, but without the sect, we'll never manage to legalise the shipments. Still, the people here will eat us alive. Trust me, I probed the waters. 

So, I need an assistant alchemist, and several lab workers. It's also a good job for you two, you have to find employment before they force you into logistics or similar tedious shit.

Talk to Lei, see if he is interested, we can start a decent pharmacy together."

"And what would we produce?" - Xin felt uneasy. Looks like an opportunity, but this guy is the definition of suspicious.

"Legal painkillers. Cosmetics. Teeth whitening, anti-balding ointments. Some qi infused stuff. A good, legal business. We can turn a good margin with the supplier I have, we can make a good sum until we are shut down."

"Why would we be shut down?"

"Envy, boy. We can keep a low profile, and we can earn the sect some money, but once they realise that three outsiders are having a good, productive time, they'll extort us with new rules. Suddenly, I have new assignments, you are failing your exams and Lei is punished much more severely for his retarded hijinks. The only way for us to survive is to give up our suppliers and client base, involve a higher up in this business, and share even more profits. 

Once they have the knowledge and people to replace us, they force us to leave the business, directly or through intrigue, overtake it and slowly run it into the ground through incompetence."

"And.. Knowing that, why do you want to start it?" - Xin raised his eyebrows.

"It's still a good plan. And you have to start somewhere, right?" 

This phrase persuaded Xin. This man seemed to be telling things as they are.

"I'll talk to Lei. If he agrees, we'll come to you with an offer."

Later, in the privacy of one of the smaller gardens outside of the main building, Xin told Lei about this encounter.

"Mate, you skipped dinner. The Artefact pavilion, what were you doing there?"

"I am planning my own trump card. You'll like it, but it will take some time" - Xin was still anxious about not telling Lei about the totem. Once he realizes its true worth, he might think he was cheated.

Xin "opened up" to him, and that was enough to make him pay for his food and lodgings for several weeks, but he was still hiding things from him? This embarrassed the young hunter.

"Gotcha. I noticed you skipped dinner, so I grabbed some deep fried rice balls with ground beef inside. Here." - He took a wrapping with food out of his bag of holding.

"Mate, you didn't have to! But thanks." - Xin could feel his stomach gurgle. He longed for some good food, the sect rations were inferior to what he ate as a hunter. - "You bought this for me?"

"I decided to start buying extra food, need it to train, and once I'm assigned a job, I'll have less free time. Can you imagine, they told me they don't want me doing caravan guarding gigs! These fuckers."

"Why wouldn't they? That's bullshit."

"They said I've got to spend more time around the sect, so that I can actually attend most of the classes. And they say having no arm makes me 'suboptimal'. I can kick most of their internal disciples' asses! By the way, have you noticed?"

"No, what?"

"Their own disciples, they kind of suck at fighting. I sparred with some, I watched them train. These guys are mostly trained in qi control, not martial arts, and use ranged techniques."

"That makes sense from the sect standpoint. You need a huge qi pool to donate to the Five Elements Transition formation, and ranged techniques can compensate for the lack of martial talent, that's like giving peasants crossbows."

"I get it, smartass, but this approach also hinders the personal development of the best fighters here! I talked to some insiders, we outsiders are even trained differently. They call our training 'hardcore'. They are raising us as soldiers, while the insiders are made into work drones, producing money for the sect. I can see the logic of it, but it's also fucking oppressive. No wonder why we have no resource points, who'll fight for them, the mercs? Very unreliable."

"This training, this whole tryouts thing, looks like they are forced to reimagine their niche. Still, I like this place more than the Fist sect."

"You didn't have to say it, it's obvious. Rumours are, they are now pushing into Tealstone, surrounding it with outposts to claim it. Not many survived the attack. The cultivators that defeated the boar were mostly people who teleported from the capital, but some Border Guardians and people from our sect also participated. Still,after looting the beast, they abandoned the city."

The shop owner was actually wrong. The boar didn't run away, it was chased out of the city and killed a few li after, Xin found out a day later. Many rank two and three masters of different sects participated in this joint operation.

Xin hated being reminded of these events, it felt like a distant memory, even if that wasn't too long ago.

"I... Look, the Fist sect, the boar, the army being stretched thin by all the shit happening, I heard the rumours. The southern undead, the cataclysms… Whatever, enough about that. I met Feng Chonglin." 

"That dude? He is funny, I like him."

"In what way is he funny? He is the antipode of funny."

"The antidote! Hehe, get it? Poison path."

"Well, you said a similar word, it still doesn't make it a good joke, you fool" - Xin said this, but 

smiled. - "Will you shut up and let me get to the fucking business?"

"Sure. Shoot it."

"So, Feng Chonglin is looking for a way to bail out of the job assignment. Me and you, probably too. He has a unique supplier of goods, probably some steppe traders. He wants to open a workshop, and he needs me as an alchemist, along with your merchant guild connections."

"I'd never guess you are such an entrepreneur! Nice one, let's do this!"

"You aren't going to analyse or ask me more questions?"

"You are a terrific overthinker, I think you'll do the heavy lifting here. What do you need from me?" - Lei looked elevated, even playful.

"Well, first, we need a place to set up the workshop in. Probably outside the city. Then, we need to find where we could push the goods. Then, we need the lab equipment. After we figure out the legal stuff, which might take some time, we need someone to do the promotion. Oh, also the logistics. Delivery, ingredients, moving the cart around, this sort of stuff. And we need to split the profits, and make this work within our schedules. It still takes around forty minutes to get to the city from the sect, less if we catch a cart."

Lei grinned. He then stared into Xin's eyes.

"Yeah... yeah..." - he whispered, looking pumped up, almost aroused.

"What's that with you, weirdo?"

"I am so fucking overwhelmed! I can actually solve each of these problems! I have some ideas, listen!"

Xin was moved. He was preparing himself for long, exhaustive preparations, having to grind for a long time, plan and negotiate, carefully overcoming obstacles at every step. Instead, could this be avoided? Lei opened his bag of holding, and pulled some instruments out.

"Look. Alchemy instruments. Also got some flasks and vials. Plenty of alchemy equipment. Have some spare money to invest, too. That's the lab thing. It's trivial.

Now, for the placement and selling. Instead of finding the distributor, how about we push instead? No-no, fuck off, don't interrupt me just yet. There is this old street, called the Appendix, it's special."

"How so? Also, what's with the name?"

"There was an undercover doctor that worked there, he healed everyone, no matter their status. Was pretty beloved, and treated those who couldn't afford it for free. Patched me up several times, too. He gave the street its name, it's situated on the edge of the district, and it had its "air supply" choked out by a new road, so now it's just kinda there. Useless. An appendix. Still, we could open there."

"What's the benefit?"

"So, this place is poor and barely has any traffic. It is 'roofed' by the gang I'll be able to deal with. The guards barely go there, and are easy to bribe. We'll be able to do alchemy inside the city walls, unless we stink too much. And there is an empty house we could just squat in, if you catch my drift. Just need to claim it legally. Not a big deal, can be done through the merchant's guild. Abandoned buildings can be claimed, as long as you pay rent to the city, after all."

Xin was impressed. He was truly lucky to have met and befriended Lei.

"But, how are you going to push stuff there?"

"I'll make sure the street is safe, we hire some barkers, make this place look at least somewhat presentable, make the prices affordable - boom, the business functions, people may not like the placement, but it's near the road, they'll come if you and the baldie do a good job."

"Right. It makes sense, the placement is not perfect, but it's better than selling to the supplier and operating outside of the city. Laboratory AND a shop, killing two birds with one stone. This advantage should cover most disadvantages we get this way. What happened to the doctor, by the way? You said 'was'."

"He's gone. One of the gangs wanted him to heal them exclusively, he resisted, got stabbed. That's it."

"Brutal." - Xin frowned.

"Right, it sucks. Let me conclude. Placement? Done, but we'll have to spend some effort making the place usable. Equipment? Almost done. Legal stuff? Hou Meng Yun will consult us. Hiring new workers? He will provide people, but it will cost us for some time. As far as I know, he takes a percentage off their first three salaries, the greedy fuck.

Getting in and out of the city? I can get us cheap post coupons, it's a guild subscription, we'll travel for free as long as we have these. And we won't pay the bridge toll, being sect members. Best of both worlds, haha! So, we just need to figure out how to split the profits, and who are Feng Chonglin's suppliers, and we can begin. Still, you and Feng Chonglin need to brace yourselves, we'll probably have to shed blood. The gangs can be brutal."

"No other way to earn such profits, man. Still, with a Foundation stage master on our side, regular goons shouldn't be an issue."

Lei smiled, his eyes gleaming with insidious sparks.

"Let's meet the man."