Dao of the Deal

Muchen spent a moment admiring the beautifully deadly weaponry on display. It was a pity that he had to focus on more practical ways to make money. He shook his head before making his way to the counter. "I'd like to take a look at your cookware."

The old man nodded before disappearing into the back room. Weapons and armor were the show pieces that smithies relied on to impress customers with their ability, but most of the metal by weight would be used on more practical things.

It didn't take long for Muchen to pick out the items he liked: a cooking pot and chef's knife. Both were kitchen work horses. He wouldn't be able to sell them for much in the capital, as such basic items hardly lived up to the sophisticated tastes of the upper crust. There was an awful lot of rural territory between Heshan Town and the capital, though.

Each little village on the way had a hundred households and each of those households had their own kitchen. Villagers didn't have a ton of spending money, but what they did have would go towards life's necessities. It was just a matter of finding the families that were looking to replace their own cookware with something sturdy and new.

They went back and forth for a while over the price. Muchen wasn't able to squeeze out quite as much of a bulk discount as he'd been hoping for, but he was able to pick up a hundred pots for two hundred and fifty wen each and another hundred cooking knives for a hundred wen apiece. He had some hard work ahead of him convincing rural villagers to splash out enough money to make his trip profitable, but most of those little hamlets rarely saw ironwork of this quality.

Once they'd settled on the price and the man went back to arrange the bulk goods, Xinyi gave Muchen a significant look. "You should pick out a weapon as well."

Muchen raised an eyebrow. "I'm more of a businessman than a fighter."

The large knife that he kept in the cart for miscellaneous tasks was the closest thing he had to a self defense weapon. Muchen was a little reluctant to pick up anything more deadly. Bandits robbed unarmed merchants. Merchants who fought back tended to get themselves killed.

"If you mean to cultivate, you'll need to be both," Xinyi replied. "Even if it's not your dao, martial training is one of the best ways to build up your spirit energy."

Muchen nodded, acknowledging the point. She was the expert, after all. "What should I buy?"

"Whatever calls out to you," Xinyi said. "The most important thing is that it should be a good fit."

Muchen took a closer look at the weapons mounted on the wall. He could admire the craftsmanship that had gone into their production. He could estimate how much he'd be able to sell them for in a big city like the provincial capital. He couldn't really picture himself wielding any of them, though.

As cool as it sounded to wander the battlefield without care, sword in hand, that really wasn't who he was. Muchen took calculated risks. He tried to earn the most profit with the least danger. It was hard to picture himself carving through an enemy army. Actually, when he tried to imagine himself carving up anything, there was only one thing that came to mind.

"Could I use the big knife I already have?" Muchen asked.

Xinyi gave him a skeptical look. After a moment's study she seemed willing to believe that he wasn't just trying to save money. She nodded, then reached up and took a sword down from its wall mount.

"Also, buy this for me."

Muchen took a look at the sword. It was long and narrow. Not to an absurd degree—the edge could still be used to cut at an unwary opponent—but enough so that it had clearly sacrificed some amount of power and robustness for agility. It was also quite reasonably priced at only two taels.

"You don't want one of the store's treasures?" Muchen asked, glancing at the wall behind the counter where the most expensive weapons were locked in display cases.

Xinyi scoffed. "It's all trash. The size and shape of this one is about right, that's all."

Muchen gave her a wry grin. Sometimes Xinyi's attitude could be grating, but for anybody who had walked such a long way down the path of immortality to be shopping for swords at a mortal blacksmith had to be very frustrating. She was also volunteering to provide instruction that was something that money couldn't buy. He wouldn't begrudge her a little grumbling.

With the addition of her sword, Muchen had to fish thirty-seven taels of silver out of his purse in order to cover his entire order. It felt like a bit of a letdown after the excitement of splashing out his life savings for spirit rice, but the point of the upcoming trip wasn't to make a killing. He just needed to keep following his dao and pick up a little extra spending money by the way.

Since they were buying ready made products he just had to fetch his cart from the inn and bring it by to be loaded up. Once that was done they were ready to be on their way. Muchen stopped by a general store to pick up some basic supplies and he and Xinyi were on the road out of town by early afternoon.

He'd already seen that the Plum Blossom Kitchen was willing to resort to violence in order to secure their monopoly on spirit rice. Now that the deal was done there wouldn't be any purpose in striking out against him, but Muchen didn't want to rely on their personal restraint to secure his safety. Better to be out of town before they decided to lash out in revenge.

Merchants looking to ship large or valuable cargo from Heshan Town to the capital would make use of the Dahuang River. A simple barge was enough to float your goods southeast to the sea. From there, one would need to find an ocean-going vessel to sail north along the coast until you reached the mouth of the Tuanliu river. From there, one could choose from any number of firms who specialized in shipping goods upriver to the capital itself.

The water route was more convenient than going over land, especially for bulk goods. For a single cart, though, it was a much shorter trip if you set out overland. It was impossible to cover the whole distance in a straight line, of course, as the road meandered around forests and mountains, but it was still less than half the distance compared to the sea route.

Most importantly, traveling overland didn't require him to shell out any silver to rent out a boat. Maybe if he ever got ahold of another load of spirit rice then he would pay for a fancier mode of travel. For now, Huichen's efforts pulling his cart would have to do.

They set off from Heshan on the road leading to the northeast. It would be a four week journey, give or take, and they wouldn't be seeing another big city until they made it to the Tuanliu river and neared the capital.

The countryside was much like what they had passed on the way to Heshan from the sect. Small villages, each a small cluster of houses surrounded by rice paddies. Muchen didn't stop and try to make any sales. For one thing, they were still close to the production center at Heshan, driving down what the villagers would be willing to pay for iron products. For another, he just wanted to cover as much ground as possible on the first day, with the aim of getting out of range of the Plum Blossom Kitchen's agents as soon as possible.

They stopped when they passed a decent campsite just as the sun started to reach the horizon. Muchen thought with some fondness of the heated baths he'd enjoyed back in the inn at Heshan, but there was no helping it. He'd known when he planned out this route that they'd be roughing it more often than not.

Besides saving money on inn fees, camping out in the middle of nowhere offered privacy for martial training. Xinyi pulled Muchen into the middle of the clearing after dinner.

Her demeanor shifted as she went into teaching mode. Her usual cavalier attitude was nowhere to be seen as she gave Muchen an examining look.

"That knife of yours can be considered a small saber," Xinyi said. "Do you know the difference between a saber and a sword?"

Muchen had to focus to avoid fidgeting under her evaluating gaze. Fortunately, he could compare the weapons they were holding and come to a conclusion readily enough. "There's only one cutting edge."

Her sword tapered to a tip, with both sides deadly sharp. By contrast, his knife had been designed to carve through undergrowth. Only one side was sharpened, and while the tip of the blade could still do damage, it wasn't meant to impale people.

"The sword is the king of weapons, with unparallelled versatility," Xinyi said. "A bewildering array of options, a battle can be a contest of minds as much as physical skill."

She twirled the sword as she moved through a short mock fight. Even without any obvious displays of supernatural might, it was mesmerizing. Muchen didn't know if it was a trick of the light or some deep application of talent, but the tip of the sword seemed like a living thing, darting about unpredictably as it weaved a deadly net in the air. Even standing a few feet away, he could tell that he would have no chance to defend himself if they were fighting in earnest.

"By contrast, the saber is used for one thing," she said.

She sheathed her sword and gestured to him. Muchen followed the instruction and tossed his saber over. She caught it and spun in one smooth motion. The air itself screamed in pain as she whipped the saber forward in a brutal chop. A boulder at the edge of the clearing cracked and split into two.

Muchen swallowed. The boulder had been in the path of her strike, but over twenty strides away from where she stood. It was easy to forget, sometimes, just how many options cultivators had available to kill anybody who annoyed them.

Xinyi walked over to return his weapon. She'd made it halfway when she staggered slightly, perhaps tripping over uneven ground. Muchen looked at her as he took the knife back. It may have been a trick of the light, but her skin looked a bit paler than usual.

Before he could get a close look, his vision was obscured by a flash of light and he found himself being instructed by a turtle.

"It's probably for the best to keep things simple," she said. "Show me a strike."

Muchen nodded, then planted his feet and swiped his knife at an imaginary target. He made sure to draw power from his core. It felt like he was swinging a baseball bat as the knife sliced through the air. He was no expert, but he thought that anybody standing in his way would have been hurt by the attack, at least. He looked at Xinyi to see what she thought.

He'd never seen a turtle with a disappointed expression on its face before.

"Again!" she said. "Remember, a sword is flexible. A saber is domineering. Strike with conviction!"

Muchen gritted his teeth and tried again. As he was coached to the same chopping motion over and over again, it soon became clear that her description of the saber as only having one purpose was no mere rhetorical fillip. By the time she called a halt, he was covered in sweat and could barely feel his arm. He managed to stagger over to a nearby stream and rinse himself reasonably clean. He was only vaguely aware of Xinyi's pep talk as he changed and got ready for bed.

Maybe in the future there would be great gains to reap from such arduous practice. The only immediate payoff he enjoyed from his first day of training was that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.