AIR 151-152

Chapter 151

Food was in many ways, one of the key unifiers in life. Everyone ate at some point and most things kept eating, if not for necessity than for pleasure.

Beasts, insects, and men ate, even plants ate the rays from the sun. And giving food was one of the most primitive signs of friendship, or at least a sign of non aggression.

That was why I was hosting a feast, one cooked by Rin Wi and Medin.

I felt a little bad intruding on them, but Rin did most of the cooking while Medin insisted on helping, even though they still had the merchant camp to feed.

But they had cooked up a decent amount in advance for that.

And now, here we were. It was in the middle of the afternoon right outside my house and there were tables full of food and seats full of people.

Chin was here, slightly frowning in the corner, clothes still dirty, rice hat still on, and getting an earful from Medin about presenting nicely.

He made the obvious argument of, “Well Bill doesn’t care how I dress.”

She rebutted with, “You're the village chief, you should care how you dress.”

Moments later he was pulled into my house and dropped with a slightly oversized robe from my closet.

He had also been bathed rather quickly but had managed to keep his rice hat through it all.

He glared at me.

I smiled and shrugged.

“Nothing I could do buddy.”

Then he walked off to the food table and took out his anger on some ribs.

Cai was here as well, salivating over the food made by Rin Wi. It was rich in both qi and flavor, and while Rin had long since surpassed Medin in the art of cooking, Medin’s food gathered just as much attention.

Medin’s food lacked the rich qi but still held the same overwhelming aroma. Medin knew everyone’s favorite dish and exactly how they liked it as well, so she had prepared a display of different foods, each one tailor made to appeal.

Rin’s food tasted better, Medin’s food was everyone’s favorite.

The end result was no leftovers and a lot of weight gain.

I knew everybody here, and there were most of the elites from the village.

Light Master Renk, Old Doctor Tift, Captain Mitz Jha, The Maidens, Known artists of the village as well as the village's official merchants.

They were men and women who took up a qi beast and made the journey across the Great Desert Strip to sell and buy on behalf of the village and outside of Renk, were one of the responsible forces to bring in the necessities to the village.

Salt, spices, medicinal plants, metals, they were responsible for buying all of them. And suddenly, they had gotten a lot more popular than they had ever dreamed of being.

There was also a gathering of people whom I wasn’t affiliated with, but were generally friendly with me. There was Barlo Hew, whom the Fisherman had stated would one day reach the rank of God King, and the scion of the Hidden Viper Sect, Rou Xin standing to the left of him.

They had some strange rivalry going on that I didn’t bother to look into.

I wanted that Barlo Hew kid to get out of here and initially, he seemed like he would. He was related to a celestial sect, one that was mostly like beyond my strength. I had no idea what he was doing here and had no plans to reveal myself in front of him. I had been hoping that he’d pack up and leave the realm sometime soon on some empire trading ship, but he seemed to like it here for some reason.

It wasn’t the Hidden Viper boy, they weren’t romantically involved, that much I could tell.

I sighed and got a plate.

I had dulled my presence so that only Chin would notice me. The attention would focus on me as soon as I appeared and I didn’t want that just yet.

There were also a host of different representatives from the Great Five Sects here, but they mainly stuck to themselves at one table. Some of them scoffed at the mortals, others just gave a blank smile at anyone they deemed lesser than.

They tried to talk to Gai Jin every now and again, or the Maidens, but a man raised in a cave didn’t have the subtle understanding of sect politics that these people communicated with. And when one tried to flirt with Xi Lu, he came back pale faced when she went and hooked her arm around Po Pen’s.

Several cultivators stared at the two, some sizing up Po Pen, others talking to him with over-developed stories about pebbles mixing in with spirit stones.

Po Pen just nodded uncaringly and Xi Lu gleaned in a threatening way that made them stumble back in fear.

One man challenged Po Pen to a friendly spar, which Po Pen refused shamelessly.

A lot of other fellows tried to flirt with the Maidens, getting subtly pushed back at every turn. Men and women pined for them, but they all politely refused.

Except for Rin Wi who threatened to cook the next person who approached her.

Gai Jin sat with Lui Yong in one corner. The Monk and the prostitute had a lot to catch up on. But their sibling bond seemed to have reawoken as I saw him steal bits of her food off her plate when he was done with his. And she had responded with genuine rage, hitting him with the full force of a fourth rank cultivator and he took on with a smile.

Cai and his sister also sat in the corner, both drooling over Rin Wi’s food. Xaio Wang talked to Cai, but her eyes drifted towards the food, then to the Maidens, then to Gai Jin and finally back to the food.

The girl had seen immortals before. She was from the Raging River Sect and they hosted Immortal Merchants all the time, but this was different.

Gai Jin had a conversation with Chin, during which Chin asked him how good his farming skills were and if he’d like to help out with the fields, and Xaio Wang's eyes almost left her skull.

Gai Jin laughed it off, but when Chin just returned a blank stare he said something about the day after tomorrow at around noon.

Chin nodded and went on to ask any other powerful cultivators before they could leave.

Xaio Wang watched in horror as Chin used Gai Jin’s promise to gather a small group of power cultivators to discuss something.

Using Gai Jin, Rin’s cooking, and his own unflinching face, Chin asked them all for help tomorrow.

“You need aid? Of course, of course, what can we do for the people of the Oasis Sect?”

This was said, along with various other questions like it. Eager, social climbing, power hungry men and women listened to Chin’s words.

Most of their faces held still, while some of them frowned visibly. But when Chin mentioned that Gai Jin would be there, as would the Maidens and Rin Wi’s cooking, they all collectively changed.

It took a lot to break a sect elder’s poker face. They talked with lies and deceit, often scuttling away behind each other’s back and currying favor with each other through corruption and moral failings.

But Chin managed to turn the young and old faces of these people into an open jawed gaping one.

“Gai Jin’s probably going to be digging out our new sewers, and the girls will be helping get the stones and building material from the forest. But the rest of us will be plowing for the next season and building silos and storage as well. The critters will be there too, gathering nuts and forest herbs, I think. We’ll have enough work to go around for everyone.”

He could probably till the whole region with Gai Jin alone.

One of the elders asked Gai Jin if he really was doing this. They hadn’t dared to listen into any of Gai Jin’s conversations for fear of his retaliation.

When Gai Jin nodded, they all collectively accepted and asked if they could be assigned to the sewers as well.

“We don’t shit that much, do we Po Pen?” Chin asked.

Po Pen shook his head.

Xaio Wang’s face was left open and hanging throughout the whole thing.

I shook my head and turned.

Better them than me.

Chapter 152

I let things go on for a few more minutes, letting Chin drag as many people into his chore list as he could.

Thirty minutes later, he had a collection of forces that could farm the whole region.

Most of them still didn’t believe they would be farming. Murmurs of an event known as Chore Day would be tossed around among the elites of the region later that day. And few would know what it meant.

I walked back into my house, and then walked back out.

There was silence, murmurs, respectful nods, and all other types of approving looks.

A few particularly good looking men and women from each sect looked to me seductively. I ignored them.

“We are gathered here today to recognize the official existence of the Oasis Sect,” I said loudly.

“Isn’t it the Immortal Oasis Sect?” Chin asked.

“Are you an Immortal?” I replied.

“No.”

“But you’re in the sect, right?”

“Well, I-”

Medin gave him a look before he could finish that sentence.

“Yes,” Chin replied.

“Well, then we’re just the Oasis Sect. We can’t go around calling ourselves immortal if we only have one immortal amongst us, right.”

Chin looked at Rin Wi, frowned and then turned to Gai Jin.

“What about him?”

“He’s got his own sect, Chin.”

Chin looked at him with doubt but then nodded and sat back down.

I sighed.

“Alright, well I have nothing big to say. You know me and you know my rules. But there will be one major change, and that is trade.”

The area quilted down significantly.

“As some of you might have noticed, the Great Desert Strip is no longer a desert. That is my doing. The land of the village will slowly expand and turn into fertile land. By the end of next year, I believe it will mostly be green earth.”

“Is that allowed?” A voice asked. “Was this approved by the Empire?”

“The Void Blade Empire doesn’t concern itself with any changes to small pieces of land like this one, but yes. I did send out an official notice to Mo Whe, the governor of this region and many others and he has no problems with it.”

Small murmurs erupted.

“As for the trade, we will be bringing many resources to the region over the coming months, and what sect we accomplish this with will be entirely decided by their behaviors and how well they hold themselves to our standards.”

There was a bit of abrupt noise. Most of the time, political intrigue like this was done under the guise of kindness and reason.

But I had just spelled it out.

Do as I say and you get some benefits, oppose me and you get none.

In the world of politics, to be direct was to be rude. No one likes to be threatened and no one likes demands either. So even if you were lying, layering the truth with a respectable lie was considered respectful.

This was an open declaration.

The murmurs quieted down after a minute.

A woman stood up, pale skinned with bright red lips. She was Lai Xin of the Hidden Viper, one of the representatives I had met earlier in the year.

“And what are those standards?” She asked.

“You already know them. Avoid violence as much as you can and leave the mortals alone.”

She pressed her lips together as if she had expected it, and then she nodded and bowed.

“Now,” I said, raising a cup of tea. “To our future cooperation.”

False applause was given in reply and everyone raised their cups to their mouth for a drink.

When I thought about the current threats I faced, there were only a few but none that really brought me much danger.

There was Barlo Hew and whatever group he was associated with, but he seemed to be alone, not that I could spot a God-King’s presence, but I had asked the Tome and it had told me that there was no one watching him. That information came at a price though, it cut away at the debt the Tome owed me.

The Tome treated every bit of knowledge it had gained from me as a transaction. It currently owed me and everything I learned from it would chop down at that debt. As far as I knew, I still had some information left to gain from it.

But certain information it would refuse to give me, either due to it being too costly or the Tome believing it would harm me.

I talked some more while barely thinking about my words. Empty platitudes, congratulations to Gai Jin, a small announcement of my disciples, which now include The Maidens, Chin, Cai, Medin, and Po.

There were a lot of stares and speculations, but after that, I turned away and sat down at a table with a single chair. The smart ones understood that I wasn’t in the mood to talk and the prideful ones understood that as well, but made an attempt to talk to me anyway.

I politely waved them down.

Eventually Mei Shan came in and started talking to them in my stead. She was adept at politics and verbal jousts and took them all on with a smile.

I could feel something changing.

It was small and barely noticeable, but I could feel it nonetheless.

Here were people I had helped and people I had ignored.

Sect elders, some okay, some horrendously evil. I could end them. I could spare everybody a lot of pain and rule by force.

I could take their sects and declare myself the ruler of this entire realm.

But that would be justice, not peace.

My peace wouldn’t invade. It would be welcomed, it would be begged to enter.

But there was a need for force.

I looked at Yai.

Most sects were cohesive. They had one goal, a similar dao, and shared a belief system. Justice, righteousness, hatred, love. It was rarely a mix of concepts.

This one would be different.

If I could tolerate evil, I could tolerate good.

Peace wasn’t an annihilation of evil, but a limiter of it. It was the end expression of the peaks and canyons of life.

It was the sunset on a hard day’s worth of work.

It was the pain of losing a parent and the joy of gaining a child.

I didn’t fight evil, because I knew no matter how hard I tried I could never get rid of it.

Hell was a real place after all.

A place of endless torment and pain existed out there and I couldn’t quench it, not right not, maybe not ever.

But even if people had to suffer, even if life had to involve struggle, I could at least make sure that it came to an end.

Something settled within me and my dao shifted to the next rank.

An oasis was a place of water in a desert. A spot of quenching water in a dry and burning hell.

“It’s a good enough name,” I whispered.