Dao of the Deal

With a working agreement in place, it was time to show Junfeng where he'd be staying. He'd need time to get settled in before Muchen took him on a full tour of the sect. Not to mention he could use the time to give his arm another looking over.

Junfeng fell into step as he led the way to the dormitory. At Muchen's request, he chivvied his mentor back into his necklace. Muchen didn't break stride at the sound of spectral grumbling.

"The Iron Bones sect will be angry enough," Muchen said. "I'd rather they didn't learn about our new master alchemist for as long as possible."

If the Iron Bones sect realized that they had not just lost an outer disciple but also the services of a master alchemist, it wouldn't be a question of whether things would turn violent. The only question would be how long it would take. If enough time passed between Junfeng's departure and the appearance of a ghostly instructor in the halls of Flower Mountain, it would be that much harder to link the two events together.

They soon reached the small cluster of buildings that someday would be considered the heart of the Flower Mountain sect. Right now, it pretty much was the Flower Mountain sect.

Zihan was waiting for them at the entrance to the central courtyard. It seemed Xinyi had excused her from training when she had sensed Muchen's approach.

Muchen introduced their new disciple. Zihan was polite enough, greeting Junfeng as he gave her a polite bow. When Muchen had Junfeng settled in his quarters and exited back onto the square, he found Zihan waiting for him.

"Our new disciple is talented," Zihan said.

Muchen stopped walking and gave her a careful look. Though her words were phrased as a compliment, he could see the worry at the corner of her eyes. "Don't worry. Your position as head of security is safe."

Junfeng might be able to give her a run for her money in a fight, but it took more than fighting prowess to be a good employee. Not to mention the fact that he didn't want the job. Muchen had a feeling that once Junfeng hit the foundation building stage it would be hard to pull him away from the pill furnace.

Well, Chuhua's cooking would probably be able to do the trick.

"That's not what I'm worried about," Zihan said. "The insignia on his robes... I don't think it's from our sect."

Muchen nodded. He had come up with a logo for their products, a flower petal superimposed over the silhouette of a mountain. He hadn't yet thought about kitting out his employees as brand ambassadors, but once matters progressed to the point that he could push a uniform dress code, he intended to stick with the same design. It was humbling to think that his marketing techniques lagged behind the Iron Bones sect.

"He was a member of the Iron Bones sect," Muchen said. "An outer disciple."

"A talented outer disciple," Zihan said. "I get the feeling that if we were to fight after his injuries healed, he would not be an easy opponent."

Muchen wondered for a moment whether Zihan was more insightful than Junfeng's former peers back at the Iron Bones sect, or if he should increase his assessment of Junfeng's acting skills for maintaining a harmless facade for so long.

"You're probably right," Muchen said. He couldn't give a definite answer either way without seeing how Zihan was faring under Xinyi's instruction.

"Most sects would guard such a promising seedling," Zihan said.

Muchen nodded. He could see what she was getting at, but he didn't intend to answer until she outright asked him a question.

"Will this recruiting trip," Zihan said, "will it bring us danger from the Iron Bones sect?"

"I wouldn't say it was a recruiting trip," Muchen said, "but I see your point.""

There were a few ways to handle this kind of thing. By far the easiest and most common method was to use his status as sect leader to suppress internal dissent. Zihan was relatively high up on the sect's organizational chart, but she would still be mostly helpless in the face of the invincible argument of "because I said so."

Muchen didn't intend to do anything extreme like putting sect decisions to a vote. He was the boss who had built the sect and he intended to run it according to his own vision unless and until Xinyi put her foot down and made him change course. That said, he didn't mind explaining his thought process. After all, an open environment helped to foster good teamwork and a sense of belonging.

"Junfeng's injury is not light, and it wasn't an accident," Muchen continued. "Much of the Iron Bones sect will be happy to see him go."

While his enemies probably would have preferred to see Junfeng forced to go it alone as a wandering cultivator, dying alone in the woods somewhere, his recruitment into Flower Mountain wasn't something that would trouble them much. Being forced to jump ship from the Iron Bones sect to a sect that had yet to receive official recognition was already quite the humiliation. When combined with the fact that Junfeng would no longer be around to act as a constant irritant, Muchen figured that a large part of the sect had been in a downright celebratory mood when they woke up that morning.

"Much isn't all," Zihan said. "Any established sect will have different factions."

Muchen inclined his head, acknowledging the point. If Hong hadn't escalated matters to the point that Junfeng feared for his personal safety, and if Junfeng hadn't had Xiang in his corner to give him confidence to strike out on his own, then Junfeng could well have found refuge within the Iron Bones sect. Hong's grandfather might be willing to back his grandson, but even an esteemed elder would have no shortage of political opponents.

Making his life difficult by providing support for a talented young disciple would have been quite the coup. Zihan's assessment of the internal sect politics wasn't wrong, she just underestimated Junfeng's past determination to make himself a pariah.

"Fortunately, Junfeng was never pulled into a faction," Muchen said. "Well, I should say that his misfortune has turned into our good fortune, as he no longer felt safe at his old sect."

If Junfeng had been part of even a minor faction then Muchen would never have entertained the idea of poaching Junfeng to their side. Right now, those elders would at most lament the lost opportunity. If Muchen had outright stolen a young talent from their camp, there was no way they would have been willing to take it lying down.

Zihan stepped closer, lowering her voice. "It's admirable to help him get out of a dangerous situation, but now the escape is complete. Keeping him here will draw his fight to our mountain."

"What kind of sect do you think you've joined?" Muchen asked. "Is this the kind of place that bends according to the whims of the Iron Bones sect?"

"Of course not," she said, pride warring with caution in her expression, "but... a higher ranked sect might be willing to close one eye and preserve our relationship. The Iron Bones sect can't afford to look weak at all. And I don't think... well, if I learned anything on the frontier, it was how to pick my battles."

Muchen nodded. She raised a fair point. A truly weak sect might be willing to let insults go because it was incapable of retaliating, but the Iron Bones sect wasn't nearly that weak. They couldn't measure up to the Cloudy Peaks Sect or the Leaping Carp sect, but that could well make them eager to lash out in order to shore up their prestige when they were presented with an easy target.

"You or I might not be able to do much to slow down an assault from the Iron Bones sect," Muchen said, "but our defense wouldn't be relying on just you and me."

Zihan glanced towards the residence that Xinyi had retreated to for her usual late afternoon meditation. "Other sects have their hidden masters too."

"Not like ours," Muchen said. He took a step forward and gave Zihan a pat on the shoulder. "I'm glad that you're thinking about the safety of the sect, but I do have a sense of measure. I wouldn't have recruited Junfeng if I thought it would put us in danger."

Muchen did appreciate having a subordinate on hand who had a good idea of the common sense of the Qianzhan Continent. After all, he wasn't a native and Xinyi's experience all came from a very uncommon point of view. Still, that didn't mean that he needed to take Zihan's words as gospel.

She was quite right that poaching a disciple was provocative. Unfortunately, there weren't many avenues of growth available in the Qianzhan Continent that weren't provocative. This wasn't a place where people believed in win-win solutions or in growing the proverbial pie. This was a place where people jealously guarded what they had and looked with suspicion on anybody nearby who seemed to be doing well.

Muchen couldn't chart a path forward for the Flower Mountain sect that didn't involve any risk at all. What he had to do was balance the risks they faced against the potential benefits. Adding a disciple who was near the foundation building stage to be part of the sect's core going forward was a significant gain. On the other hand, for the Iron Bones sect, losing a single outer disciple wasn't much to worry about.

They might decide to make an example of him out of spite, but they could just as easily choose to pick on Flower Mountain sect for any reason or no reason, just because they felt like taking something that had caught their eye or for the sheer joy of picking on a group they felt was beneath them. Muchen didn't think he had too much to worry about.

He had the final backstop of Xinyi's presence of course, but even if she weren't available he thought it was a reasonable, calculated risk. The Iron Bones sect had other things to worry about that could actually influence the sect's future. A single disciple, especially one who wasn't particularly well liked, just wasn't that big of a deal.

Of course, Xiang's presence radically altered that calculation. If the Iron Bones sect had had the slightest inkling of his existence, they never would have let Junfeng walk out of the infirmary under his own power. Adding an experienced alchemist, even an incorporeal one, was worth all of the risk that Muchen was taking and plenty more besides.

Even if Zihan didn't have the full story, she seemed willing to trust his judgment. Or else she figured she had pushed her luck far enough in questioning the sect leader. She nodded in acquiescence to his decision and headed for the dorm to check on her newest junior brother and see how he was settling in.

Muchen was left to ponder the sect's situation. While adding a talented alchemist was great news for the future, Muchen still had plenty of immediate problems. Most obviously, he needed to get his hands on six more spirit stones somehow. If he wanted to buy them from the Iron Bones sect, he'd need to come up with over a thousand taels of silver. If he wanted to try to get ahold of the spirit stones directly, it would mean taking a personal risk.

He could sign up for another hunting party, but it didn't hold much appeal for him. He didn't think it was appropriate for a sect leader to go haring off on personal expeditions and putting himself in danger, and it went against all of his own personal principles to put his own life on the line in the pursuit of profits. If his dao could be summed up in two words, it would be: "steady profits."

Gambling could bring in immense profit once or twice, if you were lucky, but eventually the odds would catch up with you. Not to mention that his previous expedition had been quite lucky and quite lucrative, by local standards, and he'd only ended up with four spirit tones to show for it. If he wanted to pick up all ten spirit stones that way, he'd probably need to go on more than one trip.

Although, now that he thought about it, he didn't necessarily have to go himself. Junfeng at least was experienced with a sect where outer disciples were sent to risk their own lives in exchange for the sect's profit. The idea of sending him out to do so on behalf of Flower Mountain felt a little scummy, though, especially after he'd put so much effort into convincing Junfeng that they were a different type of sect. Not to mention that he still needed time to recover from his energy.

Zihan might be willing to go, but if she had wanted to pursue hunting as a vocation then there was no need for her to join up with a sect. Muchen was a little worried that if he tried to put her to work in that fashion then she might just never come back to Flower Mountain.

Well, he could table that idea. Maybe put out a few feelers and see if he could wrangle any volunteers without having to issue any unpleasant orders. In the meantime, he needed to try and make strides down a more orthodox path and figure out how to increase Flower Mountain's income.

Right now they had two lines of business: hard alcohol and women's perfume. They were linked together by some commonalities in the method of production, but there wasn't a whole lot of overlap in the target markets. He didn't hold out any hope for benefits from cross promotion, at least.

The hard alcohol business was doing quite well. They were moving just about all the product that they could make. They would need to secure more customers if they wanted to expand production significantly, but the real bottleneck to overcome was on the input side. Buying cheap rice wine was fine while they were operating on a small scale, but to expand their production to match Muchen's vision would require more rice wine was readily available in Jiulu City.

The best method would be to buy excess rice and brew up his own wine. Setting up a brewery would take money and time, not to mention the need to pay the local villagers to expand their production of rice.

And, of course, making more liquor would require more stills, which would take money and time to acquire.

It all came down to money and time. In some places money could be used as a substitute for time, but really in order to grow a business, it always took time. It was going to be hard to get any expansion done in time to reap the rewards and use them to pay for the entry fee.

It was particularly annoying because getting that official recognition would itself be a huge boost to their business. The direct profit from the tax exemption would practically pay for the entry fee by itself, but the larger ramifications in terms of opening up new markets and warding off underhanded business practices was where the real value lay. It was frustrating, knowing that in order to get the key to massive profits he would first have to bring in massive profits.

As much as he turned it over in his mind, he kept coming to the same conclusion. If Flower Mountain was going to be able to afford the entry fee for this year's tournament, they were going to need a lucky break of some kind.