You spoony bard!

Xiao Li didn't find fighting the regular zombies very interesting, so I had my squad of Chungi annihilate them. I was joking when I told him I was going to make him fight the zombie Big Chungus, but he was all fired up.

"Come here, Great Chun Gu Su!" he yelled and leapt at the fat zombie with his sword drawn.

I blinked and then cautioned, "Be careful; he's really strong. He can crush a regular skeleton's skull into powder." I never allowed BC to get anywhere near me when I cleared the village. But even as I said, I realised he was ultimately not a threat. He was just too slow. He was slow enough that I could have run away from him before I even started cultivating, at least for short distances.

About half of the time, Big Chungus stayed inside one of the buildings, though, so he would have been a significant threat if you walked in on him unawares. But out here in the open? Xiao Li had him decapitated in just a few moves, most of which were him testing out the zombie's strength.

"Mindless strength is useless, Wen. That's why this anomaly is allowed to be cleared by people from the pugilistic world and not actual cultivators, despite it being really quite dangerous. The danger is mainly in the environment. Yang-style anomalies are similar," Xiao Li said, sheathing his sword in one motion.

I perked up at that and made a note to ask him, but he shuddered, looking down at the corpse, "Say... how did you get the bones out? Surely not the hard way. I want the monster core, but almost not enough to go searching for it."

I chuckled and caused my wand to appear in my hand, pointed it at the corpse and said, "Avada Cadavera!" Okay, I was just channelling Harry Potter. Activating the wand didn't require any verbal components. Plus, I liked puns.

Xiao Li took a step back as the skin and meat of the corpse, thankfully including the decapitated head, almost liquefied and peeled itself. I carefully pulled each of his bones out of the mess, and found the ice stone and tossed it at Xiao Li, who caught it with a grin. As for the bones? Instead of immediately animating them, I collected them all and stored them in my hammerspace. My space wasn't large enough to store all of my Chungi, actually. Even the one I just stored used a lot of space.

However, I somewhat doubted I would be able to take my squad into a civilised city, so I'd probably have to leave them outside. 

There were things similar to Handy Haversacks and Bags of Holding in this world, but we were both too poor to own them. Small versions like the haversack could be occasionally found on especially wealthy late-stage Qi Gathering cultivators, but the nicer models with a lot more space were strictly the domain of at least Foundation Establishment people or perhaps incredibly rich scions. Xiao Li didn't count even when he was considered a genius of his clan, though.

Having one set of bones in my storage would allow me to animate a skeleton on short notice. Still, I thought I would have to focus more on incorporeal undead if I was going to be living in and around cities for the foreseeable future. I turned and asked him, "There are other anomalies besides just this yin-type? What's so dangerous about yang-type anomalies?"

"Yes, there are kinds for all five elements, as well as yin and yang, and possibly others as well," he remarked and stuffed the stone into his pocket before walking over to the Lotus that the fat man had been guarding. When he wasn't in a building, he often was guarding this flower. He hummed and said, "Yin and yang types can be the most dangerous at low levels. They usually have a danger outside their realm—mostly from the environment rather than monsters. This is an example of a dangerous yin-type environment, even though it ain't really that tough to kill the monsters."

He paused before reaching down and then asked, "Grandma Mei wants you to harvest it if you can. She thinks your yin-constitution is one of the reasons you were able to transplant them."

I hummed and nodded, pulling a pot out of my storage, "Sure." As I knelt down, I got started carefully. I found using tools killed it, so I had to use my hands to dig it out.

He finally answered my original question, "The environmental dangers in many Yang anomalies are often illnesses—contagious illnesses. Yang can be considered the energy of life, and rampant life can be as dangerous as its opposite. A yang anomaly of this level would be tended to by actual cultivators, not only because the treasures are generally better, but the risks of a contagion breaking out is a lot more dangerous than here. Here, if a zombie outbreak happened, it could be put down easily," he said as I worked, and then he nodded as I got the plant into the pot, "The Xiao family has one of our regional headquarters based around a Yang-type anomaly that we use for many types of spirit herbs, at least that's what my dad said."

I held out the plant and offered, "Want me to put it in my storage?"

"Yes, please. It would likely be at least sickly if we transported it in a bag," Grandma Mei piped up.

I nodded, causing it to disappear. I sighed and said, "Well, let me get anything more of value and then we can head out." With a lot of bags, all my Chungi could carry a lot. And they were quite fast, perhaps not as fast as this Xiao Li could run, but they were faster than me. They wouldn't slow us down.

Xiao's grandma was quite interested in the Major Illusion I had cast on the basement and asked me about it. I hummed, not really hiding anything, "Besides Necromancy, Illusion is the area of magic spells that I have the highest attainment."

"Do those include illusions where you bewitch the mind of a target?" Mrs Mei asked curiously.

I paused before nodding, "Yes, although those are much more likely to be included in a different school called Enchantment. My dad is an expert in Enchantment. But some Illusions only affect the mind. Most are kind of like this, though..."

I cast a Minor Illusion of a Big Chungus right in front of Xiao Li, who, rather than jumping in fright as I expected, immediately tried beheading it. He frowned and then put his hand through it before saying, "This is just a visual illusion."

"Precisely. The one over the secret door was an all-sense illusion, though. You could even have touched it," I said, nodding.

Mrs Mei had already asked me if I could teach Xiao Li anything, and I replied that it would be a bit difficult. He had the potential to learn, I felt, but Wizardry built on a lot of theoretical knowledge. It would be like trying to teach University-level physics and chemistry to someone who had never completed middle school. Maybe when I knew more about Qi, I could create similar cultivator spells based on Wizardry. 

Besides, I liked being the only one to know this type of magic. But... I might be willing to consider teaching him an abbreviated course of what he would need to know to cast a few cantrips and one or two spells in the future. I was actually interested to see how both fire and lightning cantrips would work with him, as both were considered very yang-type energies here.

Cantrips were a big advantage for me, although I couldn't actually cast them continuously, forever, like in the game. Even before I started using Qi, they could cause magical exhaustion. That was one of the ways Merildwen's world was different from the tabletop. For example, I could cast the Light cantrip continuously, creating new lights each time, but eventually, it would cause me to exhaust myself. 

Now, they used a little bit of true Qi, although from what I could tell, it was way less than equivalent low-level "Daoist spells." That didn't surprise me because it seemed like Wizards were a bit more efficient in utilising energy.

She accepted as much, for now, but asked, "If you don't mind, when we take rests, you should cast the bewitching spells on Little Li."

I blinked, "Huh?"

"Those types of spells are quite insidious, and it's difficult to really build up a resistance without being repeatedly exposed," she said, which caused Xiao Li to frown before nodding, seeing the logic.

I hummed and considered which spells would be appropriate. I had the Friends and Mind Sliver cantrips, Charm Person...

Charm Person would work, and it would give him a chance to fight the enchantment. I couldn't just keep casting Mind Sliver at him, though, or his brains would leak out of his ears after the tenth time. It dealt a small amount of psychic damage with each cast.

I chuckled when I realised two perfect ones: Sleep and Hideous Laughter. The latter would be the most amusing to me, I thought, so I would pick that.

I'd save most of my spell slots in case we found danger on our trip, but one first-level spell was worth it to see this. I grinned and asked, "I have one in mind. How about now?"

Xiao Li looked a little uneasy now, but Mrs Mei sounded enthusiastic.

I grinned and cast the spell.

While Xiao Li was incapacitated, it occurred to me that my low-level damage-dealing spells weren't that much to brag about, especially once we got a little higher levels of cultivation, but the utility and control spells had the capability to hit far above their weight class. If I was duelling a swordsman, and he ran at me—if I cast Sleep or Hideous Laughter like this, he'd be basically defenceless. The latter generally had a better chance to take effect, I thought.

The way Xiao Li squirmed on the ground, laughing uproariously while futilely trying to stop, made me laugh quite a bit as well. Laughter was contagious, after all.

---xxxxxx---

As we travelled, Xiao Li told me a bit about where we were headed. The area we were in was kind of the equivalent to a rural nowheresville. There were some places in this realm where practically everybody cultivated, at least a little. This was on the other end of the spectrum, to the point where it would likely be more at home in a lower realm.

Cultivators, what few exist, were kind of hidden here, away from the secular world. Individual wandering "loose cultivators"—us, in other words—tried to mostly blend in. Those in the so-called "pugilistic world", like the two men Xiao Li intended to kill, lived with a kind of a foot in both worlds. They were strictly Martial Artists, although the strongest of them could sometimes rival cultivators towards the end of the Qi Gathering realm.

Despite being low-key, there would generally always be a number of businesses that catered to cultivators in cities the size we were headed to. Sometimes, they were owned by organised groups of cultivators, but often, they were owned and operated by single cultivators in the Qi Gathering realm who more or less gave up and were just living an excellent life with a family.

What Xiao Li had called an "immortal cave" was really just a rented villa with security features as well as a Qi gathering formation suitable to create an area for someone of his level to cultivate in. The term came from mountains with heightened levels of Qi, where a lot of cultivators actually lived in and rented out caves.

There was a lot less capex on a cave, I thought, so that sounded like a good scam if you controlled the spiritual mountain!

As we jogged through the forest, I asked, "So what's the plan after you get your revenge, refine your pill, and what have you?"

Xiao Li ran beside me, continually clapping his hands every couple of seconds. He said, "Well, I figure that we could kind of just tour the world for a period of time while cultivating. There's really no better way to immerse yourself in the culture and not seem weird." He hummed while clapping, "In twelve months, I intend to go to the Silver Serenity Sword Academy, which is about two countries to the east, as they are going to be accepting new disciples." 

He rubbed the back of his neck, smiling good-naturedly, "I intend to try out. You're welcome to come with me if you like; either way, I propose we slowly head in that direction." He had already told me that he didn't intend to return to his family until he was at least in the middle of the Foundation Establishment realm so that he could wipe away the label of "trash" definitively.

He finally asked desperately, "Can I stop clapping now, Wen?"

I asked slyly, giving him a side eye, "I don't know... can you?" We had started a habit where before we set off in the morning, I spent ten minutes casting Suggestion on him as a ritual so I wouldn't waste the second-level spell slot in case of emergencies. Suggestion lasted up to eight hours, and you could give, while not quite a command, but a recommendation that the target had to follow so long as it wasn't entirely unreasonable. I suggested that he clap continuously today.

If the spell worked, they'd have to do the activity continuously for as long as concentration was maintained or eight hours. This was actually amazing practice for me, too, for keeping a spellform that required concentration going continuously while also running and dealing with other things which might tend to distract me all day.

By the "rules" of the spell, it was impossible to break out of. You just had the first saving throw, but it obviously didn't work that way. I could notice him getting better at resisting the "urge" to clap, and the time between each clap was getting longer, so both me and Mrs Mei thought it was good training. Honestly, I would like to do the same training myself, but I was still determining how I would be able to.

We had started running faster than my squad of Chungi. I had originally underestimated how fast I could run without tiring, so the skeletons became the bottleneck. We'd do this to build up a bit of distance between us and use that to pause and have lunch. The skeletons were capable enough of following me even if we were kilometres away, so eventually, they'd catch up. This way, we didn't waste any time eating during the day.

We had just started our "sprint leg", as I thought of it, but I frowned as I looked ahead of me. It looked like Xiao Li had already noticed it, too, as he sighed, saying, "Looks like bandits of some kind."

We slowed down so that we approached the potential enemies more leisurely and gave our skeletons a chance to catch up if they were needed.

As we got closer, I frowned. I really hoped we didn't have to kill these people. They looked like farmers, and most didn't even have proper weapons. The leader looked like he might have been a soldier once upon a time. Xiao Li had said that wars were incredibly common in the "mortal" nations, so much so that he didn't even know if one was going on at the moment in the current nation we were in. I suppose if there was a war, there would be deserters.

The man held out his hand as we approached and said, "Ho, there, rich-looking gentleman and beautiful young lady. I'm afraid there is a toll on this road, and it's one-third of your valuables."

I was kind of expecting the common bandit trope of lewd comments and thinly veiled rape threats. Perhaps this was a more gentlemanly sort of highwayman? It wasn't that uncommon for Meril and her parents to occasionally get stopped by highwaymen, too. Usually, they realised their mistake and let them by, but Meril's dad had a tendency to go murder-crazy if they made lewd comments about his daughter.

Xiao Li shook his head, frowned and pulled out his sword, continuing the clap every few seconds against the side of the hilt. I sighed. He was a bit single-minded. Was that how it was if you were a "sword cultivator"? Like you had a hammer, and every problem looked like a nail?

It was bad luck that we ran into these guys in the very short time we were travelling along a road. We had just been cutting through the wilderness for the most part. The lead bandit held out a hand and said, "Hey, hey, now... there's twenty of us, young man! You don't have to die here today! ... Also, why are you clapping?" He glanced left and right, almost as if he wanted to see where the hidden camera was.

"The one who will—" I tapped him on the shoulder and shook my head. He frowned and paused, and I quickly sent a Message, <Just stall. The skeletons are barely a minute behind us. These bunch of peasants. There is no way they will be up for scrap when see them.>

Comprehension lit his face, and he nodded, sending back, <Sorry. I'm used to being by myself. Usually, I have beat up at least two or three of them.>

I snorted and said aloud, "I don't think you really want to fight us." I could have ended this encounter with Charm Person, and he'd consider us friends and happily let us pass, but this was more amusing.

"Why would you think... that..." he said, slowly trailing off as my squad of Chungi approached at a fast run.

"I didn't sign up to fight no skellingtons!" one of the peasants armed with only a farming implement yelled, backing up. That seemed to be the general consensus, with most of the bandits looking about ready to turn tail and run.

The bandit leader laughed forcedly and said, "Ahahah... of course, you already paid last time! I just didn't recognise you at first! Let them through, boys... BOYS, LET THEM THROUGH!" he hollered the last desperately.

Everyone got out of our way, and we glanced at each other before shrugging and running through their roadblock. I heard as I passed one peasant say in a hushed whisper, "Claps to keep dem tortured souls in dem bones, he does! It tricks dem bones into thinking they still have a heartbeat!"

I snorted, as I was pretty sure that was how necromancy worked in The Dresden Files. I didn't want to just kill people that I didn't have to, although it was a bit of a shame that I wouldn't be getting any souls to give the Yama King or new Shadows.

I hadn't contacted Judge Wu at all. I had decided to wait until I had all three souls just to limit the amount of times I needed to interact with the unknown factor. I still had a contract, and I was pretty sure my new familiar was a tormented soul that Judge Wu temporarily let out of Hell to serve in that capacity. Really, it seemed incredibly stoked to be a raven, just enjoying a bird life, and it looked like it might cry raven tears whenever I had to dismiss it for some reason.

That made me feel a little bit bad when I had to do so, but Mrs Mei told me that I shouldn't feel bad for it even if it went back to Hell when unsummoned. She said that only sinners went to hell and only temporarily at that. It wasn't eternal damnation, like the hell I grew up with, neither. 

If you had a lot of sin, enough that you were sentenced to hell, you were released to reincarnate once the sin dissipated—suffering expiated sin here.

So long as I wasn't sending an unbaptised baby back to hell, I supposed, it was fine.

---xxxxxx---

We stopped a few hours from the city in another wilderness area. There was one thing about this world, and that it was mostly wilderness. That was because the wilderness was usually dangerous enough that it wasn't profitable to tame, but also because many resources couldn't be cultivated by tame land.

My skeletons sat down all of the stuff they were hauling. We'd be able to carry it the last stretch, but it would be a pain in the butt. Xiao Li asked, "What are you going to do with these guys? You said they remain animated but will become murderous when your spell wears off. We can't just leave them to roam."

I nodded. I definitely agreed with that. If they roamed, not only would they probably kill people, but I wouldn't be able to find them again. 

I had hopes that, eventually, I could figure out a way to cast a long-term Major Image, centred on each skeleton, to make them appear to be some sort of automaton or, alternatively, very quiet servants. It wouldn't fool any strong cultivator that had a spiritual sense, but it would make it less likely for people to run for the hills if I took them into the city as pack mules. 

Perhaps I could carve runes into their bones? I had one set, and I could practice. If I could combine that with some way to make my control over undead last significantly longer, I could post long-term guards on a location without having to worry that they'll go rabid and murder every living thing that moved if I had an epiphany and spend several days in seclusion or something. 

Both Xiao Li and Mrs Mei said that sudden bouts of enlightenment did happen for cultivators, although never as often as a cultivator wanted. That made the undead's inherent murderousness a real downside, let me tell you. I knew it was possible, even with straight wizardry, as that was what Meril's mom's wards accomplished with Hector the Spectre, but I was far away from such mastery.

I held a hand up, "Don't worry, I don't want that either."

I tested the ground, making sure it wasn't too rocky. I couldn't cast Shape Stone after all, but the cantrip Mold Earth? I could do that a lot before I got tired. It took about six castings per skeleton, but I entombed them and then created a distinctive X of stones marking the spot. As I was about to leave it at that, Xiao Li paused, "Uhh... this is pretty distinctive. Some people might tend to dig this area up just out of curiosity."

That... was a good point. I hummed and then grabbed one of the stones and cast Magic Mouth, speaking the message, "There are dangerous undead skeleton monsters buried here. They have the physical strength of a third-level Qi gathering disciple and will attack anything living. Dig up at your own peril."

The condition for playing the message was someone digging in the vicinity. There. Now, if someone continued after hearing that, it would be on their own head.

As we approached the guard post to enter the city proper, we didn't have to stay in line too long. Someone approached and let us aside, bypassing the line for the normal people, asking, "Welcome, Fellow Daoists. Do you have anything to declare?"

We did. Governments hadn't invented the income tax yet, and there likely was no reliable way to track a person's income in any event, so most taxes were still tariff and fee-based. We claimed we explored a set of ruins, which explained the rag-tag bags of loot that we had. Not even really a lie. Naturally, we absolutely agreed to abuse my storage space to hold the most valuable items in order to evade most of the tariffs.

Still, I had to pay ten per cent of the value of the items we had, and the fact that I didn't have any recognisable money was a problem. Only officially struck coinage was accepted, but the low-level cultivator who acted as a captain of the guards here was more than willing to act as an impromptu money changer, charging an usurious twenty-five per cent based on the weight of my coins.

My money situation was incredibly good if all I wanted was to start a new, mundane life. I had lowballed the buying power of both gold and silver here. It was worth a lot more. But, it was worth very little to other cultivators.

The basic unit of currency for cultivators was something called a spirit stone, which was crystallised Qi of varying grades and sizes. Spirit stones were finite in the sense that they only came from a limited number of places but had infinite regeneration potential. If you mined them, they came back. You could never completely deplete a spirit stone mine, although occasionally, they did move. The mines just had varying levels of purity and varying rates at which they refreshed themselves.

I had an epiphany when Mrs Mei and Xiao Li were telling me about this currency. Spirit stones could be used as energy sources in magic, even better than my ice stones, and basically, all cultivators used them. It was basically equivalent to a type of petrodollar economy, where the currency was also a unit of energy, without even the prospects of ever running out.

It explained why I thought the cultivator-based economy was so basic compared to even the mundane precious metal economy. They didn't need to be too sophisticated because people with spirit stone mines were the equivalent of Saudi Arabia without the need to ever worry about running the pumps dry.

We sold all of the miscellaneous junk first at the first blacksmith we saw, and Xiao Li said, "Alright, let me take you to my secret cave."

I snorted, "Please never tell a female that again." That caused him to flush, and I waved a hand, "Your targets won't see us if we head to your place first?"

He shook his head, "The pugilistic and cultivation worlds are different enough that I am sure they didn't really know where I stayed. I'm putting on a mask now, though, as the city streets are a different matter."

I nodded, "Alright... take me to your secret cave. I have a present for you." I said mysteriously.

He eyed me cautiously as if he expected my present would be a swift kick in the nads or something. I frowned, offended, but stayed silent.

The villa was kind of nice. Apparently, he rented for three months just for a few low-grade spirit stones, although it would have cost more if it had included servants along with it.

I sat down in one of the chairs and decided I would spend several hours repeatedly casting Unseen Servant as the place looked like it hadn't been dusted since Christopher Columbus was an ensign. I definitely considered myself too senior to pilot a swab myself these days, though, but I figured that's why they invented magic.

I held out my hands, and two rolled scrolls appeared, and I handed them to him. "I have been working on these for the past few days. Normally, you actually have to have some attainment in the mystic arts to activate magic scrolls, but I reworked these enough that you should be able to activate both of these by just inserting Qi into the scroll."

He blinked, "Ah, talismans. What do they do?"

"Talismans?" I asked curiously.

He said, "Talismans are a single-use spell embedded on and painted onto, usually, paper. They're made by talisman artists, which is a type of professional occupation cultivators can have, similar to alchemists, spiritual doctors, formation masters, and the like."

I blinked. Was there a systematic way to accomplish this? While both Merildwen's parents tried to teach her some of their professions, namely alchemy and magic device artificing, she had somewhat limited success. But she had pretty good success as a magical scroll scribe. 

Speaking of alchemy... I made a mental note to talk Mrs Mei and Xiao Li through the basic alchemical recipe for a healing potion. I even had some of, but not all, of the ingredients with me. 

It was common for at least mid-level rogues and assassins to have the ability to use magical devices, and that included scrolls, so she made really good gold, making a lot of copies of certain spells, usually Invisibility.

I made a note to find out how to learn talisman artistry and formations. Mrs Mei had already talked about formations a little bit, as she had thought that my continuous Major Image ritual was a formation. It seemed the closest thing to straight wizardry that I had heard about, so I had a definite interest.

I decided to answer him, "The first one is Disguise Self. Inject Qi into it while mentally imagining a person you want to look like. It can only be ten per cent taller or shorter than your body, but otherwise, you can go crazy. Even can be different species, so long as they are bipedal. The illusion lasts an hour."

He widened his eyes and said, "This will be very useful!"

I nodded, "The other one is Invisibility. You've seen me use it; it also lasts an hour."

I paused for a moment before asking, "These two guys are bad men, yeah?"

"Yes," replied Mrs Mei, without giving Xiao Li a chance to dispute her.

I nodded, "If you can, try to bring them back alive. But only if it is convenient. I owe one of the assistant judges in the Netherworld Kingdom three souls, and I figure waste not, want not, right?"

Xiao Li coughed, "How did you even meet one of the officials of the Netherworld Kingdom, much less owe him as much as the souls of three mortals? Why would they even want the souls of mortals? Aren't they surrounded by the souls of the dead at all times anyway?"

I sighed, "It's a long story; I'd rather not talk about it."

He considered that for a moment before he nodded, "Okay. No promises, but I'll see what I can do."

"If you can't, it's not a big deal. This world is definitely not short of terrible people who I don't care what happens to," I said as I held up my hands, "Don't take risks for it."

I only wanted to offer Judge Wu bad guys because I had no idea what he wanted these souls for. In fact, he might not want them at all and might have been obligated to accept the terms of the agreement between Meril and Oreilla. I just didn't know, but I didn't think there was an eternal Blood War here, so they couldn't be new recruits.

After he left, I began a chain ritual casting of Unseen Servant and telling them to clean.

By the time they started to make some pretty good progress, the door opened with a thunk and an invisible man walked into the room, closing the door. Just as I thought he was empty-handed, a man was dumped on the ground, unconscious. It was the man Xiao Li called Old Gu.

Xiao Li suddenly appeared out of nowhere and gave me a thumbs up, "Got 'em. Apparently, Old Gu didn't want to share with Chen either, so he's dead already."

I snorted and asked curiously, "That was quick. Well, is there anything else you want to say to him?" Did we have to wait until he woke up?

"Nah. Let it be a surprise," he said with a smirk.

I shrugged, and my shadow seemed to dart a tendril out, elongating almost the entire room like my surname was Nara. When it touched the unconscious man, the entire Shadow appeared to drain out of mine like a liquid, wrapping around Old Gu and squeezing the man's body as if it were an intangible anaconda. I had the urge to say, "Shadow Binding Jutsu... success." But I kept my mouth shut.

"Holy fuck," Xiao Li said and took a step back.

I made my dagger appear in my hand and said, "The shadow eats the person's spirit. That's basically the outside coating of your soul if you didn't know. It can't digest a soul, so it spits it out, and the soul usually comes out of the body with some velocity. I hope I can catch it."

I waited, but I didn't have to wait for long. I snaked my hand out in an arcane gesture, capturing the fleeing soul in the soul jar of my dagger, humming in satisfaction, "Well, one is better than none." I glanced down at the body and asked, "So, what should we do with him?"

"Uhh... how deep can you go with that spell you used with the skeletons? The dirt in the courtyard is pretty soft," he offered, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Deep enough, I suspect," I said with a nod. We'd have to wait a while before my new Shadow would pop out, though. I supposed I better start making sure it couldn't flee. Although they almost never did, that I was aware of, I wouldn't want to be surprised.

Letting a shadow get free in the middle of a densely packed city full of regular people would probably not do my karmic sin and merit balance any good now that I knew such a thing existed. They could reproduce exponentially in a packed city.

After the shadow was subdued and Old Gu was buried, Xiao Li said he had to go into seclusion for up to a week to both refine the pill he was counting on and then take it, "You can explore the city if you want, it's mostly pretty safe. If you want to sell the rest of your lotuses, then the best bet is probably The Frolics of the Lunar Bunny; it poses as a mortal business, but a pretty old sect is behind them. Grandma Mei said they were even still in business in her time a thousand years ago."

I blinked, as that name seemed a bit playful and evocative for most businesses, and asked, "What kind of business is it?" I wasn't an entirely ignorant hillbilly in my last life; if I remembered correctly, the Moon Rabbit was supposed to be the companion of a Chinese goddess, although I couldn't remember which one. It was also why the dark spot on the moon looked like a rabbit from the angle in Asia.

"Uhh... I think they sell alcohol, and you can pay for pretty entertainers to dance and sing for you," he said, blushing furiously. He coughed into his hand and continued, "They're the best bet for yin-type plants. Grandma Mei said they'll pay at least half and again the amount that you'll get in other places. They're also the least likely to try to take advantage of us low-level Qi-gathering cultivators. Grandma Mei says I should avoid going in for other reasons, but you'd probably be safe."

I grinned. That sounded like a brothel. The name made a lot more sense now. Yes, I'd definitely visit, if just to see the pretty ladies. The last point was very important, too. I had returned to the first level of Qi Gathering again, and I felt I was very close to the second, which was incredible progress. 

That wasn't that unusual, though; you tended to recultivate pretty fast if you dissipated your cultivation base. Still, although I had the magic to hit above my weight class, I still had the aura of a weakling in this world. The flowers were also valuable but not earth-shattering. I supposed that an organisation that was backed by some power that could last thousands of years wasn't too interested in the small treasures of us paupers.

I handed him his potted plant and nodded. I was pretty sure I could survive an unusual city I'd never been to before. I'd done it in the Navy enough times, although port calls were a lot less frequent when I became a submariner. Then, it was just months under the sea at a stretch.

I hummed. We'd been running flat out these last few days, so I ought to secure from flank speed and launch the gig to make arrangements. Nodding, I summoned my raven, Crow, and he appeared with a happy caw. I told him, "Feel free to look around the neighbourhood. We'll be here for a week or two. Come find me if you find something of significant interest."

Crow flapped its wings at me before flying out the window.

My first stop before seeing some of the cultivator places, like the Moon Rabbit place, was a mundane bank. After they verified the purity of both my coins and silver bars, they handed local coinage back—which were actually square-shaped. This was unusual and interesting, kind of like if you bought bullion back on Earth. 

As near as I could tell, a tael of silver or gold was close enough to a troy ounce that I couldn't really tell the difference with my calibrated hand, especially not since I had gotten stronger recently.

They had given me about ninety-two per cent of the value back, and I wasn't surprised. Anyone who minted coins was going to make money through seigniorage, especially if their coins had some official mandate as legal tender, which these did.

The unusual thing was that the bank wasn't a state enterprise, and it spanned multiple countries. That told me that it also was backed by someone with more power than the nation we were in because no King, Potentate or Emperor gave up the monopoly to strike coins easily.

I walked the streets towards my next destination. I slowed to admire the sights. It was quite clean and clearly had a functioning sewage system due to the lack of offensive odours that would have been common in primitive cities. The architecture reminded me of photographs of The Forbidden City and other Ming Dynasty-style buildings.

From my modern perspective, or even Merildwen's, it was exotic and beautiful. I suppose I had the eyes of a looky-loo lost in her own world, which might have been the reason I was accosted when I meandered into a less busy street.

I was actually surprised because the dirty man who attacked me didn't even demand anything; he merely tried to stab me. I reflexively cast the cantrip Silvery Barbs, which was a mental cantrip that distracted people. Especially people who were in the midst of attacking you. I saw him fumble with his knife and took the initiative to punch him in the throat.

He wheezed, gasped at his throat and fell like a sack of potatoes... no, a sack of rice. I hadn't seen any potatoes here yet, which was a real tragedy. I casually kicked the man's knife away, which clattered across the alley.

I glanced down at him and sighed. I seem to have punched him a bit too strongly. I hadn't intended to, but he actually surprised me while I was being a stupid tourist. 

I glanced around, left and right, and casually produced my ritual dagger and held it above his body as he gurgled his last, snatching his soul while it was still somewhat firmly attached to his body with the soul jar's suction force. The expression on the mugger's face was a combination of unwillingness and exasperated anger—as if I had tricked him.

I couldn't say I felt bad. A thief who went straight to murder... there was no way he hadn't killed a lot of people before. Well, at least I had enough souls to pay the piper now, I supposed. They just walked into my arms!

I quickly stepped over his body and walked away with prudent haste before someone noticed the body, and the constabulary questioned me.

---xxxxxx---

I arrived at the Frolics looking like a new woman. After the unfortunate mugging attempt, I switched to walking the main roads and found a nice clothing store. It was high-scale enough that I was initially denied entry. I made sure that my robes stayed in good repair, but they weren't actually that high class even in Merildwen's world.

Five taels of gold later, I had an entire wardrobe's worth of outfits bought and delivered to Xiao Li's house, and I wore one out of the store with me. They were gowns in silk, coloured in icy whites and blues, which I thought was nice.

The Frolics of the Lunar Bunny was a large building, too. Apparently, not only did they serve as a bar with optional entertainment, but the culture very much favoured private rooms or at least small cubbies. Only the uncouth would, apparently, drink their liquor amongst the rabble, I supposed. I had the opinion that the nature of some of the optional entertainment also probably necessitated privacy, as well.

A bouncy young woman in her early twenties acted as the hostess, and if she was surprised a young woman was visiting their establishment by herself, she didn't show it, "Young Miss, how can we at the Frolics service you today?"

My mouth twitched. Double entendres and innuendo seemed to be a little bit more difficult in this language, but that might also be because I hadn't grown up around it with all the cultural referents I should have. Still, the hostess managed to find a way to make it seem classy.

"I've come to sell a few Cool Yin Pseudo-Lotuses I have in my possession," I told her while struggling to keep my eyes on hers. While I didn't really have any plans to partake in their obvious entertainments whilst I was here this time, I did have eyes, okay?

The expression on her face shifted from pretty to pretty and surprised, but before she could say anything, another pretty girl arrived, moving like flowing water. This one was a cultivator, and she was two stages stronger than me. 

She smiled at the hostess and said, "I'll take care of this client, Xue'er. Young Miss, finding someone who can assist you may take a while. For now... would you like a private booth? Our Liu Ruxue is about to begin playing the zither, and she's famous across three nations."

I blinked and then inclined my head. She led me to not so much as a private room but a booth overlooking the main stage. It was kind of like an opera house in this part of the building, and I could feel the faint organised Qi that might be a formation on the walls of the booth. I sniffed, trying to get a sense of what the magic did, and decided it was probably soundproofing. It was designed to still the air as it approached the exterior of the booth, but it was only in one direction, so you could still hear the performance.

Already on the stage, an incredibly beautiful woman was setting up an instrument. She appeared to be in her thirties and had a mature, cougar-like figure that I used to be quite fond of as a young petty officer.

Again, my mouth twitched a little bit as I wondered exactly what must go on in these booths sometimes for soundproofing to be necessary. Well, as long as they thoroughly clean them, I didn't mind.

The young woman asked, "Would you like something to eat or drink while you wait?"

That did sound kind of nice. I wasn't super hungry, but I was a bit peckish, so I nodded, "Perhaps some fruits, cheeses... Or whatever you have available for a small snack."

"Of course, of course," she said before leaving the booth.

The performance below started, and I blinked several times. The very sound carried Qi, but after a quick jolt, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't an attack. However, I thought it was designed to both relax, and calm and create a low-level happy-contended feeling.

I thought it was pretty obvious why they offered me a booth now. If you were going to negotiate a price for a salable good, it'd be useful if your counterparty was relaxed and chill. I suppose it was on the same level of offering free wine, so I wasn't that offended. People probably paid pretty good money to hear this performance.

Also, I grinned. I had found my first bard!