AIR Chapter 49-51

Chapter 49 Merchants

The merchants were an integral part of the village’s income. They would come through during the rainy season and camp out at the village for a few days at a time, and some had started to use the area as a temporary market between the two divided parts of the region.

There wasn’t much reason to use the village as a central trading post. As wide as The Great Desert Strip was, all of the merchants had some method of crossing it. Most had pack beetles, some had beasts, and many just ran across the distance over a few days.

After all, the desert lacked qi and spirit beasts, making it arguably the safest place in the region, if you discounted the baking heat. The village was generally treated like a trucker’s stop rather than a trading hub.

But this rainy season was different. This rainy season, there were rumors of a strong and ancient cultivator living in this valley and that the mortals within this region were protected under his rule.

I sighed.

I knew the sects had promised to keep their mouth shut, but I also knew leakage of this secret was inevitable. It had been a strategic play on their end from the start. They’d brought in nearly a hundred different cultivators and an entourage of servants during their little trip.

They probably had a list of heads ready to be chopped off to appease me if I brought it up with them.

Oh well, I expected that.

But Rin Wi’s smacking that one guy had also encouraged the rumors. There had been a drastic increase in the quality of behavior after that public beating and Rin Wi was now rumored to be one of the many students of the Honored Grand Master who called the forest his home.

A few cultivators had even tried to sneak into the forest, and though none of them had died, they did witness a few of the beasts clashing against one another. And though there was no death, the aura of something seven ranks beyond your own did cause an indescribable feeling of dread and insignificance.

That made me think back to Sun Wukong.

I pushed the thought away. I didn’t like thinking about the Monkey King, he scared me. Regardless of how kind he seemed to be, the man… no, the being was just too much.

I imagined that was how the cultivators who had snuck into the forest felt.

The camp was a dot under the horizon from the distance. Even a mortal’s eyes could make out the gleam of the village and camp from deep within the forest. I walked towards it, wrapping myself in common cultivator clothing.

Nothing new, just a more tight-fitting robe and a simple blade by my side. I lowered my aura to that of a third rank, before strolling into the camp.

There were tents and goods all gathered up and around one another and several large bonfires in between them. Tonight was a true night, meaning the sky was black all around, but the camp didn’t seem to know that.

Everything was lit up, and everyone seemed to be awake. There was also a whole lot more food, cold meat, and still boiling stew, stuff the merchants could serve to themselves.

Along with a lot of bargaining. Yells shouted over the campfires and angry curses were thrown around from one merchant to another. Different types of music played as well, some sang, others played an instrument, and around a few spots, there were even groups of musicians all strumming along to their different audiences.

I frowned. I didn’t frown. That was Chin’s thing, not mine.

This was new. This group, in its entirety, was over ten times larger than the regular groups that would come through this area. And more importantly, a lot of them seemed to have brought in their own food, meaning they weren’t the regular migratory merchants that would walk through this area.

I had expected that to be the case as the rumors got around, a lot of small sects and clans would surely send their groups over to investigate. There were a lot more rank threes and rank fours, even a few rank fives.

But the problem wasn’t any of that. The problem, if it could even be called a problem, was that everyone was getting along.

That might not sound like a big deal but it was. Peaceful areas where merchants could do their business untaxed and unbothered were a great draw for trade, and with trade came jobs, and with jobs came infrastructure, and with infrastructure came… a city.

This was a valley where a great immortal resided and the rumors stated he wanted nothing but to be left alone and have no conflict. There was recently a fifth-ranked cultivator who enforced that peace without losing a sweat. The immortal wouldn’t hurt you as long as you didn’t hurt anyone else and treated the mortals nicely.

Yeah, this was a great draw for most of these people, and this lively market was like a practice run made by some merchant sects to see if this type of thing would be okay with the immortal.

“Man,” I mumbled. “Chin has his work cut out for him.”

The poor bastard would have to farm harder to keep up with the soon-to-be-boosted population.

That was if he wanted the sudden growth. He could always ask me to kick them out, but I doubted the old man would say no to that much money, especially when the solution to his problem would only be for him to farm harder.

I walked through the area, navigating my way through the tents and campfires. A few merchants tried to get me to buy stuff, some of them even blatantly asking for information about the “locals and their practices.”

Subterfuge was dead with those guys.

I kept going through till eventually I reached a very distinct tent. It was a large tent, easily one of the biggest in the camp, but it was situated at the edge of the group and even separated by about a hundred feet from any other tent. Its top was colored yellow and grey and there was a distinct smell of urine and feces wafting out of the place.

I walked in, flapping past the weathered entrance and into the animal-filled den.

Inside was a man sleeping on a straw-covered floor. He was a portly fella, and his gut managed to show through his tunic and spill out of his waistline and onto the floor.

“Dai Heng.”

The man didn’t wake up.

“Dai Heng!” I yelled.

And he still didn’t move. I walked up and bent over, putting myself right next to his ear.

“DAI HENG!” I exclaimed pushing a bit of qi into my throat.

The man jumped onto his feet and spun around, qi funneling to his fist.

“WHO DARE- oh. Mister Bill, it's you!” The man said with a relieved smile on his face. “I was just having this wonderful dream about the Hidden Viper. You know they have a scion, Young Master Yu Xuefeng? Anyways I dreamed that she was trying to by a pack beetle from my uncle, but as you know we don’t sell-”

“Dai Heng,” I interrupted. “Where is your uncle?”

“Oh, my uncle? He’s out tonight, surveying the surroundings and the merchants or something. I don’t know why though. There’s never been any problems in this area, not since we’ve been using it. But we heard rumors about a secret immortal living in the woods, but who-”

I let the man ramble on while I turned to look at the animals. Dai Heng and his uncle Lee Heng were beast breeders by trade. Not spirit beasts, qi beasts. While spirit beasts had a human level of intelligence and their own understanding of the world, qi beasts were just really strong animals.

Chin had bought a few of them over the years, only a few because they were an expensive purchase for mortals, even for village chiefs, but they were a necessity, especially for this village.

Since the next village was one thousand and five hundred miles away, fast rideable qi beasts were a must in case of emergencies. The village alchemist always tried to keep enough medicine on hand at all times, but there were moments when they needed to send someone out to get materials from another village, and in those cases having pack animals that could run a hundred miles per hour for fourteen hours straight was quite literally a lifesaver.

A couple of Chin’s grandkids manned the beasts, training them and taking them out of the desert for trade trips, picking up news and rare goods along the way.

Most of Chin’s beasts had been bought directly through Lee Heng.

“Lee Heng,” I spoke. “Get in here already!”

“Ah!” Lee Heng said from outside of the tent. “Bill Ter Rance, how have you been? It’s been a while, fellow Daoist!”

Lee Heng was a skinny fellow. His clothes dangled from his stick-like frame and his fingers came together like mismatched chopsticks, the exact opposite of his nephew.

“Uncle! He was just talking about how he was looking for you before we got sidetracked discussing the rumors about the immortal! I told him I didn’t believe it but there might be some strong cultivators camped out in the forest. Some of the other people were talking about getting a strange feeling from there-”

“Mhm,” Lee Heng interrupted with a nod. “I’ve heard about that too.”

Both men looked at me in inquisition.

“What?”

“Well,” Lee Heng asked. “Is it true?”

I’d made a few cultivator acquaintances over the years and the Heng family were the ones I’d associated with the most. I’d met Lee Heng several decades ago and was surprised to find the man had connections that spanned outside of the region.

He was only at the third rank of course, but he had been full of news about the region and the grander empire as a whole. And even aside from that, Lee was a pleasant fellow and had more spine and morals than most cultivators. His technique wasn’t suitable for building a clan. It was more of a master disciple thing, passed from one master to another so a few years later, he picked up Dai and gave him his surname.

“Yes,” I answered.

Lee Heng let out a sigh and his Dai Heng audiblely gasped.

“But Mister Bill, you’ve lived here all this time? How did you not know about it all-”

“He did know,” Lee Heng interrupted.

“Then why didn’t he-”

“Probably because this immortal didn’t want him spilling his business to outsiders. Is that right Bill?” He asked frowning.

I nodded. None of what they said was wrong per se.

“Not like you’ve never lied to me before you old weasel.”

Lee Heng smiled.

“Well, call us even then,” the man muttered. “Dai Heng, fetch us some cups and clean yourself up before you do.”

“Yes master,” the boy bowed before running off into the other sectioned-off parts of the tent.

“That boy is a mess,” Lee Heng commented.

“He likes animals,” I replied. “Probably why he likes you.”

Lee Heng chuckled lightly.

“I think he likes talking to the beasts more than he likes people.”

“Maybe it’s because they listen better,” I replied.

“I doubt it,” Lee Heng commented with a shake of his head. “I think he talks so much because he doesn’t know what to say. But he doesn’t have to worry about that with the beasts.”

“Mhm. Does that still bother him?”

“Yes,” Lee Heng.

“Well he is just a kid,” I muttered.

“He’s twenty-five.”

“Still just a kid,” I replied.

“Maybe to us, but he’s a man by mortal standards. I think it’s time he acts like one.”

I looked towards the separating curtains in the tent. I could see Dai Heng’s shadows waving through the cloth walls as he scrubbed his body clean in a bathing troth, singing loudly as he did so. The boy was socially troubled, which wouldn’t be a big deal in any other trade, but being a merchant required a knack for that sort of thing.

“It just takes time is all,” I replied. “And you’ve got a lot of that.”

“I suppose,” Dai Heng said with a sigh. “Now, about that immortal.”

Chapter 50 Merchents Part 2

“Has he been here all this time?” Lee Heng asked.

“As long as I’ve been here.”

“Damn,” Lee Heng muttered. “All this time. All this time we were dancing in front of a tiger’s den.”

Dai Heng came in dressed in a long tunic and pants, hair still wet from bathing. He handed each a cup before running back to the other room to finish his business.

Lee Heng reached into his robe and dug out an old wine sack, one made from the aged leather of a spirit beast. He poured some liquor into each cup. We both raised our glasses towards one another and downed the contents of the spirit wine.

Dai Heng groaned lightly as the qi-infused spirit burned down his throat.

“Still the iron stomach?”

“Still the lightweight?”

“Hm.”

There was a moment of silence as Lee Heng collected himself.

“Is he as strong as they say,” Lee Heng asked.

“If not stronger.”

Lee Heng nodded.

“What about his kindness? They called him a gracious cultivator, protecting the mortals and his land the best he can.”

I frowned.

“No. If he were a gracious man, he’d unite the lands and rule them like a gracious king. Or he’d at least fight off injustice where he could. He’s just another powerful old bastard who wants to be left alone,” I replied.

Lee Heng stared at me.

“Are you sure you should be speaking those words out loud?”

“He doesn’t care. A few mortals have even cursed him at times. He’s unbothered by words, for the most part, only actions.”

“What a strange man,” Lee replied.

I shrugged.

“What about the fifth ranks? I heard there were a few fifth-rank women seen around the area. They say one of them almost beat Fatty Peng to death.”

“His companions,” I replied.

Lee Heng nodded, though I think he got a different meaning from that word than I did.

“Platonic,” I added.

“Really?” The man asked.

I nodded.

“And what about you then?”

“Huh? What about me?”

“What’s your connection with the Immortal?”

“I am the Immortal.”

Lee Heng snorted.

“And I’m Sun Wu Kong,” he replied.

I frowned, reaching for the man’s wine sack and pouring myself another drink.

“Don’t joke about that,” I muttered before downing the whole cup.

“Then give me a good answer.”

“I’m… amicable towards him. Neutral really. Just don’t hurt the mortals and make sure to go directly through them before you do anything in this valley and you’ll be fine. He’s a real docile guy Lee, boring really.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Lee Heng took the wine sack from my hand before I could pour myself another drink.

“Hey!”

“I need a sober man tonight Bill, and either the answers you’re giving me are honest or you’ve really lost your iron stomach.”

“I’m sober,” I replied.

Lee Heng stared at me intensely for a moment, even sending some of his sense to sweep over my aura.

Well, I guess I had given the man some reason to doubt my sobriety. From his perspective, everything I’ve said thus far must sound like the ramblings of a drunk shithead.

He’s known me for decades and as far as he knew I was a third rank cultivator, just like him. And no third-rank cultivator would insult an immortal, claim to be the immortal, and then call him boring.

Lee squinted.

“Have you been poisoned-”

“Noo. I’m fine and well, I’m just telling you how it is. Leave him be and keep to the law and he’ll leave you be. Also, don’t fight anywhere within the Desert Strip, he can sense it.”

Lee still looked at me, untrusting.

“I swear it. Haven’t you wondered why it’s always so peaceful here? You’ve never noticed the few cultivators that go missing in the night sometimes, always the violent ones. Remember Do Lang? What do you think happened to him?”

“I do remember him. His clan says they lost track of him nearly a decade ago and still don’t know where he went. Most of their members were celebrating his loss rather than mourning it though. The man was a known… oh. Oh, I see. Did he try to hurt a mortal?”

“He tried to take one,” I answered. “And he got taken instead.”

Lee took a moment and stroked his beard in thought.

“Are you able to get in contact with him?”

“Nope.”

“You’re lying.”

“I refuse to get involved with a bunch of greedy merchants and their negotiations. You should go ask the mortals instead-”

“Bill, this is personal.”

Now that took me by surprise. The man's anxiety had been rising this whole time, but I thought that was due to the topic. But now that I focused in on his aura, there was something more there, something more than business worries.

There was fear, genuine fear.

“Over the years, I’d like to think we’ve become friends-”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I cut in. “Aquantices maybe, but you’ve ripped me off plenty of times.”

The man sighed in partial defeat.

“But go on,” I added.

Lee Heng took a deep breath before speaking.

“I would like to think that I know what kind of man you are. I think, like me, you feel a disdain towards the evil of this world. I believe you're a man of noble fiber and have a gracious soul-”

“I’m about to say no,” I interrupted.

“Fine!” The man yelled. “I think you’re a lazy and lucky man who sits around and does nothing all day, but I do believe you care about right and wrong, even if to the smallest degree. And I’d like to think you’d do the right thing at a minor cost to your own sloth.”

There was a moment of tension as Lee wondered if he had lost any chance of getting my aid, and me being me, I held it for as long as possible. His aura twisted up in anxiety at every passing millisecond, working itself into a Gordian knot, and just when he was about to give up all hope, I replied.

“Maaaaayyybbbeee,” I answered. “How minor of a cost would it be?”

Lee’s aura loosened

“Just come with me and listen, then you’ll know everything.”

Lee turned to walk through the curtains and out of the tent, and I followed. We worked our way around the campsite, walking around barters and parties. A few people glanced at us, at me specifically. Word must have gotten around of the one cultivator who was known to live here before the immortal had been revealed. They must have seen me the same way Lee did, as a possible connection to the immortal who lived in this land.

Shit.

I wasn’t exactly a secret to them, but now I was known and being watched.

Rin Wi, I said telepathically. Can you flex some Immortal Aura around here, and make it similar to the one I was emitting with the sects?

I got a telepathic nod in response and suddenly everyone, including Lee Heng, had their senses focused towards the back of the camp. Rin Wi’s qi left as soon as it came, blipping right out and leaving everyone confounded.

I took the opportunity to hide myself from all but Lee.

If the merchants saw me, they wouldn’t want to hurt me or steal from me, they’d want to talk to me, which was definitively worse from my perspective. I could always snap away a murder hobo, but that option wasn’t available with a diplomat.

All the negotiations would be Chin’s problem, not mine. At worst, he could have Rin Wi growl at them from a distance. That seemed to get them in line pretty quickly.

Eventually, we arrived at a heavily occupied tent, one that was almost the size of a circus and had two floors to it. The second floor was a wooden platform, one that had been assembled before the tent was put up.

There was a lot of foot traffic in the area. Men and women of all ages walked in and out of the place eagerly. Some of them were smiling while others were trying to hide their face. Their auras radiated all types of emotion, shame, guilt, joy, and lust.

I looked at Lee Heng.

“A brothel?” I asked.

The man didn’t speak and just went inside. I sighed and did the same, undoing my stealth as I entered.

Unsurprisingly, the inside of the tent was cramped with thin fabrics separating the area into different rooms. The fabrics themselves were enchanted to not let any sound or light pass through them and the area seemed to have a cleaning array floating through it, making sure no stench would bother the customers.

The cloth walls were painted with menageries of beautiful half-naked men and women, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of qi-infused perfumes and stringed instruments.

Finally, at the open center of the area, we saw the nearly naked band of men strumming and singing their instruments in harmony. One of the women looked up and smiled at me, and I politely shook my head. Then the man did the same and I shook my head again.

They both frowned a little and went back to their music.

In the center of the area was a front desk, manned by a large and burly woman, a half-dwarf, meaning she had the height of a human with the proportions of a dwarf. Her wrists were as thick as a neck and her hands were the size of dinner plates.  She was at the peak of the fourth rank and talked to all the customers that came in. Her job seemed to be a bursar type, collecting money from the clients and guiding them to their awaited rooms. She had an imposing frame and most of the clients were weaker than her, making everyone very calm and respectful in her presence.

“Lee Heng? What are you doing back so soon?” The woman asked.

“I’m here to speak with the Madam,” Lee answered.

The half-dwarf looked at him, then at me and her eyes seemed to carry some understanding.

“Go ahead then,” she said.

Lee Heng nodded and guided us into another hallway. This hallway was short and unoccupied by customers and lacked the sound-numbing enchantings that the other fabrics did. Here there were muffled whispers and light snoring.

This was probably the staff’s quarters. Brothels never closed after all.

Finally, we stopped at one set of curtains that seemed to lead to another large area.

“Madam, may we come in?” Lee asked through the curtain.

“Oh Lee Heng, you’re back already?” A voice responded.

“Apparently he couldn’t get enough,” I quipped.

“And you’ve brought someone with you?” The voice asked.

“Yes,” Lee said with a sigh. “Someone who can help.”

Again, there was another moment of unspoken understanding.

“I see. Well, do come in then. “

Lee nodded, parted the curtains, and entered. I followed.

Inside was a room filled with books and scrolls and jade pieces. At the center was a desk clattered with organized spirit stones and jade pieces. The books and scrolls were set up in an organized pile at one end and a big enchanted box full of spirit stones sat at the other.

The person sitting at the desk was at the fourth rank. Her aura radiated from her body with strength and seduction and her skin gleamed brightly even with the small amount of lantern light within the room. She had brown maple-colored skin and straight fire-red hair that fell gently down her shoulders.

She got up from the desk and walked to greet us. Even the most useless action was meant to draw eyes. Lust and desire wafted off of her soul and into the minds of anyone who could want it. Her hips seemed to speak and her eyes seemed to beckon with every blink.

A succubus, I thought. That was rare.

She raised her hand out to mine, clearly expecting me to take it.

“Madam Rose,” She said firmly.

She was expecting a kiss, or maybe even a bow I think.

I shook her hand.

“Bill Terrance,” I replied.

She watched me for a minute, smiled, then laughed a beautiful laugh.

“I see. Please don’t take my actions as an insult. I meant nothing by it I assure you.”

She had a charm to her, one that all beauty and seduction cultivators naturally had. I hadn’t fallen for it of course. I couldn’t fall for this type of charm, not unless the person executing it was at the fifteenth rank, and even there I still might not fall for it. I was incapable of romantic love or lust.

People who were resistant to her charm tended to have a certain belief about succubi and their practices.

“You’re a succubus,” I replied. “You can’t help it.”

“Indeed,” she answered, turning herself to greet Lee.

“Lee, my darling, is there any news that you need to give me so quickly?”

“Your problem Madam. I believe this man can aid you with it.”

Chapter 51 Madam Rose Part 1

Succubi weren’t a race of people. That was just a myth, but they did love to fuck a lot.

‘Dual cultivation,’ as some would call it, was their main thing. Except, instead of sticking to one partner, they would get freaky with as many people as they could find.

They were, technically, demonic path cultivators. Demonic path cultivators were defined as those who take from others, and succubi did take from others, but most of them were harmless unless you were talking about the siren variants. And most realms had their share of succubi, even the holy realms in the heavens of the multiverse had their own variation of the idea.

The definition was partial bullshit of course. The ‘taking from’ part only applied if you were taking something good away from a person. Monks would tell you that succubi took the ‘pride’ or ‘virtue’ from a man or woman, and the succubi would argue that they took the lust and yearnings that held people down.

It was one of the most controversial things in the multiverse, whoring.

But I had no qualms with it. It seemed to me that nothing was taken as much as given, and two consenting adults could do whatever they pleased, minding a few circumstances.

“You like men?” Madam Rose asked.

“Not more than I like women,” I replied.

“Impotent?” She asked.

“Apathetic,” I answered.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“How unfortunate. And here I was hoping a good night’s rest and woman’s warmth would help smooth our talks.”

“Madam,” Lee interrupted.

“I’m joking Lee, and he doesn’t mind the jokes, do you Bill Ter Ance.”

I winced at her pronunciation.

“Just Bill is fine. And no I don’t, but I’d like to know what all this is about.”

“You haven’t told him?”

“I didn’t have the time. I found him just after I left Madam. I assumed you’d want to tell him yourself,” Lee replied.

There was one of those small silences of understanding before Madam Rose nodded and walked back to her chair. With a wave of her hand, two small earthen stumps grew out of the floor.

“Well, have a seat then Bill. This will be quite an earful.”

I sat down and Lee followed suit. The earth morphed beneath me, extending to back support and crawling up my back like a sentient cushion.

“It all started about five centuries ago…”

********

Whoring wasn’t something Li Jin had wanted to do.

It wasn’t stable, and contrary to her client’s beliefs, it wasn’t pleasant either. She had started young, just sixteen at first and while there were other options open to her, none of them could feed two growing orphans half as well as she would like. It was a job she had turned to in necessity, not passion.

Her younger brother Gai Fang and another estranged orphan they had befriended Liu Yong all lived together in a small room down in the Begger’s District. All things considered, it wasn’t an awful place to be.

Strong Fist City laid at the base of the Monk’s Mountain, originally functioning as a resource point for the Bloody Fist Sect, but blossoming into its own full-grown city within the past few decades. Most of the shops and resources revolved around the needs of the Sect, as did any other city.

People, like cultivators, used spirit stones for trade. The small dull shiny rocks weighed twice as much as they should have and had a sheen, almost metallic texture to them. Mortals never got a charged spirit stone, of course, only the spent-up remains of the Sects, but they could still tell a stone’s grade by its color and shine.

Li Jin walked quickly, gathering her cloak around her and hiding the bag at her waist.

There wasn’t much criminal activity around here, if any. The monks saw to that. But whoring itself was

Spirit stones were uniform in nature, each shaped exactly like the other. They were like large eggs, smooth and oval on the outside and rainbow-colored on the inside.

But one spirit stone was too much to be spent alone. She’d have to take them to the cutters, who would then cut the spirit stones into ten silvers, taking one of the butt ends as payment.

Li Jin clutched her cloak as a group of monks came by. Cultivators. The Monks of the Bloody Fist Sect kept a pretty tight watch around here. They’d beaten away the criminals and slavers in the area, but they’d also cut down brothels and gambling dens. Even a few social clubs had been burnt down to the ground after being accused of vulgarity.

Li Jin quickened her pace. They had driven out all the elves and dwarves in the area, and even the leaflings were forced from their territory. And the neighboring land was ruled by the Hollow Echo Sect, an even worse group of tyrants.

The majority of the fairy folk had taken to living in the forests or fleeing downward, past the Hollow Echo and towards the Hidden Viper. Li Jin herself wished to make that journey, but that would be a treacherous thing for a mortal. Even with a mount, crossing through the Echo’s region would be disastrous for her.

Li Jin sighed, finally seeing her home around the corner. She walked swiftly and grabbed the door, yet before she could even knock, the door pushed open and two children leaped into her arms.

“Li Jin! Li Jin! What took you so long Li Jin?” Gai Fend squealed.

“We haven’t seen you since sunrise Li Jin!” Liu Yong stated.

She smiled.

Li Jin hated it when they jumped upon her like that. Her job was dirty and tasking and even though she cleaned up before she left work for this specific reason, they should still be cautious and wait for her to change into something new.

But they didn’t care, they loved her and would jump into her arms every time she came home, and she loved that.

Li Jin laughed and turned, twisting the two children around for as long as her arms would let her. And the two children screamed in her arms and laughed. Then she slipped and fell with the two of them piled on top of her.

They laughed again, all three of them not bothering to get up and just content with each other at the moment.

“You did take a long time though,” Lui Yong asked. “Was something wrong?”

“No,” Li Jin answered. “Nothing was wrong, I just had a tough customer is all.”

“Was he mean?” Lui Yong asked.

“He thought he was,” Li Jin answered. “But I Li Jin, brought him down to his knees and made him beg for mercy!”

Lui Yong snorted in laughter. The children didn’t know what she did. She couldn’t risk them telling anyone one of their friends about it. The brothel doubled as an acupuncture shop and that’s what she told her neighbors when inquired, and that was what the children believed.

“I want to be a merchant when I grow up,” Lui Yong stated. “So you can quit working and we can all become filthy rich!”

“I want to be a dwarf!” Gai Fang replied. “So I can drink all day!”

“Gai Fang, have some ambition!” Lui Yong replied.

“You have enough ambition for the both of us Lui, I want to be fat and drink!”

“You’ve never had a drop of alcohol in your life!”

“I don’t care! It must taste good if that’s what the dwarves do all day!”

Li Jin chuckled.

“Dwarves don’t just sit around and drink alcohol all day Gai, they work much more than they drink. They only drink on special occasions, actually.”

“Really?” Gai Fang asked. “Then why do I always see them going into the pub?”

“It’s probably a different group of dwarves each night Gai.”

Gai nodded. “They do always have those beards on them. I wonder why their wives don’t make them shave.”

Li Jin didn’t have the heart to tell the boy that even female dwarves had beards.

“All dwarves have beards,” Lui Yong answered.

“What? Even the women?”

“Even the children.”

“THE CHILDREN?”

“That’s what Pyer told me. He says humans look like tall and hairless dwarves to them. He says we look scary and strange.”

“What? He’s a dwarf! He’s the short and creepy one!”

Li Jin laughed at the sight, her stress and worries eroding under the absurdness.

“I’m going to the stone cutter,” She told them.

“Aww, but you just got home!” Gai Fang replied.

“Well, I need to get some silvers and go to the market to get dinner. Unless you want to eat rice and potato stew tonight?”

“Can we come with you?” Gai Fang asked.

“If you can get dressed quickly enough-”

The boy didn’t wait for her to finish and instantly went to the closet, rummaging through tunics and making a mess in his haste. Lui Yong was no better, crawling over his mess to quickly make her own.

Li Fang smiled. Children were a chore in many ways but a blessing where it counted. She had taken care of Lui and Gai ever since she was ten, and while the burden was hard, it was rewarding.

She watched as they argued about the weather and what the proper clothes would be for this time of year. Li Fang remembered when they had no choice in clothing, wearing the same coat and pants at all times of the year. She remembered their hunger in the streets and worrying about having shelter for the night.

But now that was no more.

“Alright, alright,” Li Fang interrupted. “I’m leaving in two minutes so if you’re not dressed by then both of you will have to stay home.”

The children looked at each other rushed to either side of the room and pulled on their proper clothing.

Li Fang smiled, heading off to her room to do the same.

They were all out the door five minutes later, each child holding onto either side of her hand and walking along with Li Fang. The stone cutter that she went to was a normal man, a half-dwarf she suspected. He was the cutter that everyone in the brothel went to.

The man was known not to ask questions, but he did take both buds of the spirit stones in return.

But she had no choice in the matter. A whole spirit stone, even drained of qi and at the first rank, was still far too much wealth to be used in any one purchase. Her rent was only three and a half stones and all their other needs brought their monthly expenses to four and a half.

So to spend her money wisely, she, like most other mortals, went to a stone cutter. A man who would cut your stones to fifths, tenths, and even twentieths in some cases. The cut pieces were silvers and much easier to use in the market than whole stones could ever be.

She had about four tenth-silvers remaining right now, and about five stones in her purse. She’d save three stones for rent, and the other two would come to one and sixth tenth-silvers, which should last them all quite a while.

The rest of what she had would be given to the Moneykeepers. They were the most reliable bank within the empire after all, if not throughout the content.

They made their way through the town, navigating around groups of monks and merchants. The city was a few decades old, young by cultivator standards, but it was starting to bloom. The Bloody Fist Sect had started to distribute more spirit stones in return for material goods, mainly iron and strong clay from what Li Fang had heard.

She didn’t know why they bought these things, but it hardly mattered in the long run. The only ways to get spirit stones were to mine deep beneath the ground or to have cultivators make it, and the Bloody Fist Sect seemed to have chosen the latter method.

They had pushed out an absurd amount of spirit stones lately, producing more than a thousand first-rank spirit stones a day. She caught a lot of gossip in her line of work, and some of the merchants who’d visited her often mumbled about how ragged the Bloody Fist Sect’s disciples must have been, laboring their qi into these spirit stones all day.

But strangely enough, Li Fang didn’t think that was the case either, because as unvirtuous as she was, she’d still find a monk or two in her clientele list. They wore disguises to be sure, but the tan marks of kasaya were hard to hide in bed. She’d found more of them recently. In the brothels, the streets, the back alleys, they were loitering on almost every block.

As a matter of fact, it seemed like the disciples were being displaced from the mines, though she didn’t know why. And it was none of her business anyway. She should keep her head down and not wonder. That was the best way to live, she knew.