“Hello, welcome to my shop. What can I get for you?” was the voice that greeted me along with the little bell ring from the door.

  I smiled and looked at the wiry man who stood behind the counter. He was tall and thin with the jet black hair that he pulled back in a tight ponytail, forgoing the usual topknot that people usually wore. He also had simple black clothes under a white apron that made him look like some sort of medieval mad scientist.

  This place was already nicer than the shop Niku worked at. It also looked a lot nicer. Probably one of the few real nice rows of shops I had seen since I came to the city. The shop had counters and glass cases that held various things the man sold. There were also shelves with supplies he sold for people to try to make their own things. Apparently, the man also taught basic alchemy if the person could pay his steep prices.

  “Hi there,” I said and smiled at him. “I’m looking for some help with my messaging crystal. I seem to have run out of, erm, messages?”

  He nodded and motioned to a spot on the counter in front of him that had a piece of velvety fabric. “By all means, let’s take a look. I might be able to help you refill it or I sell new ones.”

  I nodded and did as the man instructed. He made some ‘hm’ and ‘oh’ type noises as he inspected the crystal. He never picked it up, but I could feel him shifting the aura in the room. Manipulating it as his spirit reached out to judge how powerful the crystal was. After several minutes, he sniffed and gave a ‘tsk.’

  “No, I’m sorry. You’ll need a whole new one. You flooded and broke it with the last message you sent,” he said when he finally looked up at me and frowned.

  “I what now?”

  “It didn’t want to send a message, right? You forced your mana into it and got one last message off, correct?” he asked.

  I grinned nervously. “Uhhh, maybe?”

  He snorted and shrugged. “I don’t mind either way I make about the same amount of money. Just letting you know what ended up happening,” he said plainly.

  “Yeah, I didn’t mean to, but something kind of important happened.”

  He held his hand up to stop me. “I don’t care. It’ll be five shus for a new one and that’ll get you plenty of messages.”

  My eyes went wide, and I whistled through my teeth. “I’m also wondering about pills?”

  He nodded and then moved over to another set of glass cases. There were all sorts of pills laid out in little pillows and pieces of cloth. They all ranged in colors and I could feel the power some of them gave off. He looked up at me and smiled. “What sort of pills were you looking for?”

  “I have an ox. She’s a spirit beast and pulls my wagon. Something to help her refill her core would be great,” I explained.

  “Hm…” He thought it over and took out one of the trays the pills had sat on. He had these cases set up like a jewelry counter in the mall. “What element and how powerful is she?”

  “Electric and uhhhhhh…”

  He frowned. “You don’t know her level?”

  “Um, nooo?” I said meekly. “I know she’s the same level as I am, if that helps?”

  He gave me a flat look. “And I guess you don’t know your level, either? Somehow?”

  I gave him a nervous smile. “Wanna help me out?”

  My mind raced for an excuse as I showed how big of an idiot I was. “I think I, uh, just advanced so I can’t be sure.”

  He narrowed his gaze at me and then sighed and shook his head. “You better buy something and don’t resist me.”

  I shook my head and held my arms out in a t-pose. Just a moment later, I felt the cold shiver pass through my body as he ran his spirit through my body to get a feel for how strong I was. The longer and longer he sensed, the more shocked his face went. He eventually went pale faced and just stared at me with his mouth open in awe.

  “You’re a monster,” he said.

  I blinked and frowned as I put my hands on my hips. “Well, that’s not very nice.”

  “No, I uh, I don’t mean offense. Just you’re a long stronger than I would have thought.” He held up a placating hand.

  “So if you had to like but a name to how strong I was, it’d be….” and I trailed off, waiting for the answer. I wasn’t sure what the ranks were called in this world, so this would be nice to find out. Though since I didn’t know what any of the ranks were, it wouldn’t really tell me how high I was.

  “Um, well… It’s easy to say you’re in the spiritual realm. So, you’re already well above where most people cap out at,” he started and then I felt that cold shiver run through my body once more.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Beyond that, you’re well into the spiritual realm. I’m not sure exactly what rank I’d call you because, well… I’ve never met anyone with this power level before,” he said, still a little shocked.

  “So, you’d say I’m over 9000?” I grinned and stood with my hands by my side and made fists.

  “I.. huh? What are you talking about?”

  I shook my head and held back the stupid laugh I wanted to give. Of course, no one here got the joke. One of the few animes in my life I’ve ever watched and there was no one that would appreciate a good joke about it even though I was in fantasy Japanese land. Though, the Song Region definitely felt more like proper Xianxia land. All I needed was a farm and a chicken and I’d be perfect for a nice little cozy slice of life story.

  “Anyway, he looked over my pills. Do you need something that will act quickly, or over time?” he asked me and looked over the pills he brought out from the case.

  I took a second to think about it. “Over time, would be best, I think. They don’t need to be that powerful since she can go for a while anyway, but every bit helps. I plan to only use it in emergency situations.” I explained.

  Or if the load is hot and we gotta get it to the final stop as soon as possible, I thought, but didn’t say. He nodded his head and looked at them. He finally picked one up and handed it to me.

  “This is my only one of these, but I suggest you carry at least one. It’s expensive, but it’ll really give your ox the zoomies,” he said.

  I took the pill and looked it over. It glowed a soft red and had what looked like black glitter running through it. I put it to my nose and smelled a deep raspberry smell along with… I blinked and looked at him. It was blood. I cocked an eyebrow, and he smiled.

  “I could get a spirit crystal from a blood elemented beast. I extracted the mana and used some of it for the pill. The blood essence will help protect your ox from any damage and heal its channels as it recharges. This will help make sure the creature doesn’t hurt itself-”

  “Herself,” I interjected.

  He blinked. “Herself? An ox?”

  I nodded.

  “Uh, okay…” The man took a minute and then composed himself and went back to his explanation. “It’ll help make sure she doesn’t hurt herself or her channels as she works the mana in her system to run as fast as she can. I’m guessing it’s quite fast since she’s electric?”

  I grinned and nodded my head. “Oh yeah, quite fast. Wait though, there’s a blood element?” That was the most surprising thing to me.

  The man just looked insulted. “How are you as powerful as you are and not know about Masahiro? He’s the divine healer. God of healing and blood kami.”

  I upturned my lip a little and then shrugged. “Alright, have anything a bit cheaper I can give her and save this for extreme situations?”

  He nodded his head and then reached and grabbed a plain brown box. From it he pulled a pill that looked like what Niku gave Betsy outside of the clay factory. Clay yard? Whatever it was called. “These are much cheaper than that and will help, albeit much slower than that.”

  I nodded and looked at the spooky pill in my hand and then the yellow ones. “How much for a crystal, five of those and this pill?”

  He cleared his throat. “Ten shu, three jin, and two dou,” he said with a shrewd smile.

  I staggered and had to hold myself up by grabbing the glass counter. My knees went weak when I heard the amount of money the man wanted for all the pills. It’d take all the money I had to buy the lot, and I still had to pay for the new wagon. Regretfully, I handed him the blood pill.

  “Five shu, three jin,” the man sighed and put the red pill back on the little tray and then put the tray back in the case. His disappointment was clear, but he concealed it well.

  I handed him the money, and he handed me the crystal and the pills in a small glass bottle. We said our goodbyes, and I left the shop. I stared inside the window of the clothing shop for a moment, but I guess that would have to wait as well. I had money coming in from the current clay job, but I needed everything I could get for the wagon. New robes could wait. The ones I was wearing were fine, they just needed a little wash.

  I gripped the crystal in my hand as I walked back around the building and worked on pushing my mana into it and thinking of a message to send to Norimoro and Amber. I made it short and simple since I knew longer messages could shorten the life of the crystal. I just told them I had made it to the arena, and the clay was getting offloaded now. Then I also asked them where they were and how much longer they thought they’d be.

  The little glowing blue butterfly was just taking off when one came towards me and I stared at it. After I poked it, the glitter exploded and formed the words.

  How the hell did you guys move so fast? You’re going to need to move fast now, I hope you’ve made it to the city. One of my contacts there has been messaging me and has another rush job for you if you’re up for it. We’re almost to the arena, I’ll fill you in when I get there.

  “Another rush job, huh?” I grinned. Rush jobs meant more money. Then I yelled a curse. A rush job probably meant I wasn’t going to be able to stay and watch any of the sumo tournament. God dammit. The one time I get to finally watch one and I won’t be able to. This shit was turning into actual trucking back home.

  I walked back around and thanked the door guards again for the tip of where to find an alchemist shop before I went in and found Betsy. She was still laying on her side and looked like she had just woken up.

  “Mrr…”

  I grinned. “Good morning sleepy. How ya feelin?”

  Another soft bellow.

  “I think I have another job lined up. We’ll have to hurry like this one though. How’s the core?” I asked and reached out to her with my spirit. Through our link I saw she was about half full and was recovering nicely.

  In the middle of our conversation, the foreman walked up to us. “Happy to tell ya we’re all finished. We also kinda need you to move so we can get to work building.”

  Betsy gave a low rumble of annoyance at her rest break being interrupted, but she got up and went towards the wagon.

  “That’s a good girl,” I said and looked at the foreman. “We’ll head right out.”

  While I was clasping and strapping her in, I realized I also had to message Hisai. “Maybe we can get our new wagon on the way with this cargo. That’ll be neat.”

  Betsy nodded her head and once she was locked and loaded, I hopped on my bench and we started down the long hallway. After I called out the door, cultivators opened the door and we headed out. I said my farewells and wondered where we’d go when another butterfly came fluttering towards me.

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