Dao of the Deal

The blacksmiths' district was located a short walk away from his inn. Muchen was halfway there when a woman fell into step beside him. He was startled at first before he recognized Xinyi from the mottled greens and browns of her dress. He'd caught a glimpse of her before from a distance, enough that her features looked familiar, but it was only now that he could see her up close in the light of day that he could truly appreciate her appearance.

She stood a head shorter than him, not counting the cowlick that sprang up from her forehead and added a few inches to her height. Despite that, it was obvious that she wasn't somebody to be taken lightly. Muchen couldn't put his finger on why that was, exactly, lacking the advanced senses of a real cultivator. There was something about the way that she carried herself that conveyed an absolute, well-founded confidence in her physical well-being.

Her facial features were more cute than beautiful, especially as she looked around the town with an expression of childlike curiosity. Muchen might have found her appearance heartwarming if he wasn't well aware that she was more than capable of turning all before her into smoking wreckage on a whim.

At least she seemed to be in a good mood. She was positively preening under his attention. "You weren't the only one to have gains this morning. It no longer costs any effort to hold this form."

Muchen nodded. "What was that thing, anyway?"

It hadn't looked to him like any kind of panacea. He also didn't think that a mortal restaurant would be able to hold on to a valuable healing tool for so long. That suggested that the talisman had something to do with Xinyi. Combine that with its appearance and Muchen had a vague notion of what had happened, but he was tactful enough to let Xinyi share the story at her own pace.

Her face darkened in anger. Thankfully, it wasn't directed at him.

"I thought those bastards only sought to torment me by carving away at my cultivation base. I never thought they would be so depraved as to create spiritual tools from such a thing," she said, before favoring him with a predatory smile. "They never thought I would escape. Now, when I absorb my own power back to its source, it will save me years of effort."

Muchen underlined the mental note he had made to avoid the Cloudy Peaks Sect. He didn't know if Xinyi could defeat the sect in open battle, but he knew that it wouldn't be safe to be anywhere nearby when the fight happened.

"There should be six or seven more pieces out there," she continued. "I may need to trouble you to help me find them."

Muchen raised an eyebrow. "You can't feel where they are?"

Xinyi shook her head. "Not until I'm close by. Maybe the feeling will grow stronger once I've found more of them."

"It won't be easy."

In principle, he didn't mind helping Xinyi out. She'd already helped him quite a bit. That didn't mean that he was willing to dive head first into cultivator business. For one thing, there was hardly any guarantee that he'd be much use. If the next talisman Xinyi set her eyes on happened to be fully operational, then there was no way Muchen could hope to buy such a thing.

"I won't ask you to help for free," she said, before squinting at him. "Hmm, you've already completed the first circle of the meridian opening stage."

"First circle?" Muchen asked, hardly disguising the eagerness in his voice. This was the kind of information that didn't usually get handed out until you'd joined up with a sect.

"There are twelve meridians that have to be opened before you can begin constructing a foundation," Xinyi replied. "They're arranged in four separate loops that begin and end at your dantian, your central pool of energy."

"And I've finished one loop out of four? Is that good?"

"Clearing three meridians in one day? It's not bad," Xinyi said. "I knew you'd reap some benefits from such a deep understanding of your dao. In the long run, I'm still not sure if it's good or bad."

If his dao had to do with the flow of money, then the deep understanding she was talking about had to do with the bits and pieces of wisdom from that one economics class that he'd shared with her from time to time. Muchen felt a little regret at not taking any more courses on the topic, though most of him was still trying to puzzle out how all this fit together.

"Why does understanding matter?" he asked. From his knowledge of the common sense of the world, cultivators advanced through battle, through meditation, and through fancy drugs. He'd never heard deep wisdom mentioned as a factor in anybody's progress.

"Better understanding your dao and acting in accordance with it will advance your cultivation, and your cultivation will increase your ability to act according to your dao," Xinyi explained. "It's just that, well, no matter how far you advance your cultivation, it will be difficult to match up in a fight with somebody following the dao of the sword. Or the spear. Or axe. Or any martial dao, really."

He was starting to see the shape of the problem. He could learn techniques and learn how to fight, but he wouldn't be getting the automatic boost to fighting prowess that more specialized cultivators all enjoyed. On the other hand, he'd have an easier time making money, so it wasn't all bad.

"Good thing I was never planning to fight my way across the Qianzhan Continent, then," Muchen said.

"You think your plans are that important?" Xinyi asked, then shrugged. "Well, whatever will happen will happen. I don't mind giving you the occasional pointer as long as we're working together and you manage to stay alive."

Muchen nodded. It wasn't exactly a stirring vote of confidence, but he appreciated the offer all the same.

It was true that the Qianzhan Continent was hardly a bastion of respect for property rights. In many ways, building up wealth just made you a target for people with power. That was a lot less worrisome for Muchen than it had been before he broke through three levels of the Meridian Opening realm in a single day.

Stealing from a cultivator wasn't something done lightly, after all. Even if Muchen couldn't fight quite as well as the martial specialists at the same cultivation level, the fact that he could fight at all would deter petty thieves. As for the more powerful thieves, well, he had a long way to go before he'd be rich enough to draw their interest.

By the time he was that rich, he'd have options. If nothing else, cultivators needed to earn money just like anybody else. Hiring guards was just a matter of having the right currency on hand. They disdained silver, but spirit stones were another matter. Hiring mercenaries who wouldn't turn on him and rob him blind would be a little tricky, of course, but that was something he could worry about in the future.

He was in a good mood all the way to the blacksmiths' district. Heshan Town was located close to a rich vein of iron ore. It was also by the river, making it the natural portal through which iron would pass on its way to other markets. As a result, it had developed a rich local industry of blacksmiths, who had in turn been organized by the local government into their own section of town in a noble effort to allow most citizens a good night's sleep.

Muchen stopped for a moment in front of the first major smithy. Future glory was all well and good, but he needed to keep his focus on the here and now. If he took his eye off the ball and let himself be fleeced, he wouldn't just be losing his money: he'd be crippling his cultivation progress.

He stepped inside to find himself in a small display room. A counter at the back of the room blocked the way through another door to the forge itself. Muchen could feel the heat pouring through from where he was standing, along with the muffled shouts and ringing of metal on metal. The old man standing behind the counter gave them a glance as they walked in before turning his attention back to the book in his hands.

Muchen didn't mind. He wasn't going to decide where to do business based on their customer service attitude. He was more interested in finding quality goods at reasonable prices.

Judging from the pieces on display, this place at least did quality work. There were an assortment of gleaming swords mounted on the wall behind the counter, each of which looked more than capable of carving someone limb from limb. A display rack in the corner showed off a suit of armor that was exactly what Muchen would want if he were to go into battle for some reason.

Xinyi was not impressed. She walked alongside him, a scowl etched on her face as she studied the wares on display.

"Such shoddy craftsmanship," she said, before glancing at Muchen. "I suppose it could be useful for mortal warriors."

Muchen shook his head. "To gather the information you want, we have to go to the capital."

Muchen had heard of a few of the famous spiritual tools scattered around the Qianzhan Continent. None of those legendary weapons had any turtle-shell-like characteristics, not as far as he knew. In order to narrow down their search, he needed to find a list describing lesser known spiritual tools.

Ideally he would be able to browse the library of the Cloudy Peaks Sect, or of one of the other five hegemons. The big sects kept track of everything related to cultivation, especially anything that might give them an edge in a fight. Even the archives of one of the smaller sects in thrall to one of the big five would be a better bet than any merely mortal source of information.

Unfortunately, sect archives weren't made open to just anybody who wanted to visit. Even sect disciples were only given limited access, usually conditional on their contribution to the sect. The Qianzhan Continent was still hundreds of years away from the era of free information.

Xinyi might have some way to wring information out of the sects, but such things always carried a risk. She had been imprisoned by the Cloudy Peaks Sect for centuries, after all. As enthusiastic as she was to get her revenge, Muchen was pretty sure that she wasn't ready to take on a major sect head on. A minor sect, maybe—but tangling with a minor sect was a good way to get dragged into a fight with a major sect.

Leaving cultivators to the side, the capital represented the greatest treasure trove of information that Muchen could think of. The Qianzhan Empire might ultimately be controlled by the five major sects, but the imperial palace still handled the day to day business of government. It was only natural that goods, money, and information all flowed toward the seat of power.

Accordingly, Muchen figured that the best thing to do was to go to the capital and see what he could find, either from merchants dabbling in the information business or just by tracking down stories and legends. He might not be able to dig up any specifics about where the talismans were hidden, but he was confident that he could at least find some clues about where to look.

Visiting the capital would also let him take care of one last errand on behalf of the original Muchen. After he took care of his adoptive father's funeral he had been forced by necessity to carry his memorial tablet around in the back of his cart. While the old man wouldn't necessarily have minded continuing his life on the road, Muchen thought it would be better to try and find his tablet a more permanent resting place.

Of course, there was a right way and a wrong way to go about it.

"Driving a wagon full of weapons into the capital without a license is a good way to get yourself killed," Muchen continued.

The Qianzhan Empire was a puppet of the five major sects that had no right to speak when it came to major cultivation resources. However, from the perspective of an ordinary citizen, the Emperor had a firm grip on power. The sects wouldn't interfere with the Emperor's decisions as long as their share of mortal goods kept flowing their way. And the Emperor was very big on peace and stability.

Anything that risked creating a rebellion—and bringing a bunch of weapons into the capital would certainly qualify—would not just see the offender killed, but also his entire family. Not that Muchen had any family left in this world, but he still preferred to keep his own head attached to his shoulders.

"Why are we here, then?" Xinyi asked.

Muchen smiled. "Thanks to its location, everything made out of iron is cheaper here than it would be almost anywhere else."

The trip to the capital was long, and would take them through all sorts of environments. The safest bet to ensure a profitable trip was to load up on durable goods that had a near universal market.