A server in a navy blue uniform placed another tray of drinks on her table and gave us a low bow before retreating.
“You’re officially my good luck charm!” Chen Ai shouted as she clapped me on the back. “Five hundred silver for the snakeskin and the fangs will get even more at the auction! You’ve made me rich! Rich, I say! Nothing can go wrong now!”
Though my merchant memories were proud, the street rat in me cringed at her boisterous display.
We were in a drinking house specifically for special guests, which, apparently, we were. Most of the patrons around us were either nobles or cultivators in their own curtained-off booths, and while I’m sure they were all richer than us, it felt silly to shout about money.
I hadn’t expected them to take my deal without haggling, and I’d feared I was rusty, but it was validating when an assistant came in and whispered approval to our appraiser.
Now we were relaxing, drinking on the house, and waiting for an alchemist to come and meet us to discuss the snake’s core. We weren’t sure who the alchemist would be, and though we’d asked for Ran Jun, there was no confirmation from the attendants as to his availability. So, we waited and drank.
Chen Ai continued to throw back drinks, her cheeks growing flushed despite the robust constitution provided by her Ox Bloodline. She told me stories about growing up in a lesser clan’s compound. It was a life I had no experience with, one of rigid hierarchy and repetitive routine.
I nursed a drink and listened as she got increasingly intoxicated. There was a lot of stress she was drinking away, and while I felt some myself, my caution was twofold.
-
I wasn’t sure I could actually get drunk.
-
I had no idea what might happen if I did.
So much of the way my body moved was related to my willpower, and any loss of control might come with disastrous results.
“Why’re you not drinking, senior brother?” Chen Ai asked with a particularly accusatory inflection on the words ‘senior brother’. “You think you’re better than me, huh?”
“No, I don’t think that.”
“Then why don’t you —”
“Excuse me? Honored guests?”
Chen Ai swung her head to look at the silhouette standing beyond our curtained-off booth.
“Come in,” she drawled.
Ran Jun entered with a polite bow.
“Oh, hello again,” Chen Ai said. “We’d hoped you would come.”
“Greetings,” he said. “I’m glad to see that you’re dealings were successful. I’ve been assigned as your alchemist.”
“Finally,” Chen Ai said. “We’ve been waiting forever.”
“Not forever,” I said. “Please, take a seat, Alchemist Ran.”
“Thank you. I believe you want to discuss creating a Six Strand Grass Elixir?”
Chen Ai nodded.
“Wait till you see the core!”
She produced the core from the well-worn traveling pack sitting beside her on the booth. Balanced against the leather pack was the unadorned jian she’d taken from the Flawless Blade, as well as her older, rougher-looking blade. Once our funds were transferred, we would see about getting her a spatial ring. Since we were traveling together, I saw no reason why I couldn’t take advantage of her using qi to gain a storage treasure.
Ran Jun turned the core over in his fingers.
“This is quite a marvelous specimen,” he said. “Serpent, seventy-two years old and… you said the beast could talk?”
“It could talk,” I said.
“How would you rate the intelligence?” he asked. “Could it negotiate?”
I thought back to my interaction with the snake.
“I wasn’t in the mood to bargain,” I said. “But she told me to come back next week so I could be eaten at her leisure.”
Both Ran Jun and Chen Ai guffawed at that. It wasn’t the funniest joke, but Chen Ai was drunk, and I’m pretty sure Ran Jun was just being flattering.
“Heh,” said the table. “That’s a pretty funny story.”
I smiled at the table, but didn’t take that compliment too seriously. Only fools think service staff are being sincere.
Ran Jun held the core up and did something with his qi. A soft green light pulsed out from beneath the frosted exterior.
“Predominantly wood qi, with traces of poison qi. You want to make an elixir to further your Ox Bloodline, correct?”
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“That’s correct,” Chen Ai said. “I’ve done my own research, and I need three of them if I want to break through with a Blessed Foundation.”
Ran Jun raised an eyebrow.
“Forgive me, I didn’t realize you had such ambition.”
She met his gaze seriously.
“You’re forgiven,” she said, before her eyes wandered and she picked up the last bottle to pour herself another drink.
“If you’ll allow me?” he asked as he gestured toward his forehead.
She nodded, and his eyes flashed.
The curtains rippled, and the sticky droplets on the table trembled.
“That’s kind of nice,” the table said.
I felt nothing except a slight panic. What if, in trying to sense Chen Ai, he accidentally sensed something in me? So far, I’d been lucky, but could I survive a straightforward inspection by a cultivator’s spiritual senses?
Cabbagy told me that Ran Jun moved like someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm. He did remind me a bit of the Flawless Blade, but this Alchemist didn’t radiate unhinged danger like the sword maniac.
I decided to just play it cool and sip at my drink.
Maybe if I ignored him, he would ignore me?
“You’re in the 7th Stage of Qi Condensing,” Ran Jun said as he inspected Chen Ai. “So, one elixir per stage, and then another for the breakthrough. Your Dantian is mostly grass qi — impressively high density, I must say. Though, are you sure three elixirs are enough? I mean no offense, but transitioning your mundane cultivation realm into a blessed one isn’t an easy task. The heavens are notoriously fickle in their judgments.”
We all glanced up at his words, but the only sound was that of the other patrons drinking and conversing.
“There are other steps I’ll take,” Chen Ai said, serious despite her unfocused gaze. “I just want you to understand the gravity of this negotiation.”
“We are quite serious,” I said, but Ran Jun avoided my eyes. My merchant memories tingled. Was he untrustworthy? “The funds from the snakeskin sale will go toward the elixir, as well as anything left over from the beast core. I understand that beast cores, once broken down, must be swiftly used. I believe it’s standard procedure for an alchemist to make a larger batch and then keep a portion as payment toward the cost of creation. At least, it’s that way where I’m from.”
“Hmm,” Ran Jun said as he passed the hefty core back to Chen Ai. “It’s a common enough payment practice. But I’m willing to offer a pretty significant… discount.”
Definitely got a merchant tingle from that one. It felt like goosebumps running up and down my arms, but combined with a strong desire to have someone pay me too much and walk away thinking I did them a favor.
Though my memories weren’t entirely clear, part of me wondered if perhaps the life I lived as a merchant wasn’t particularly… nice.
Oh, well.
“Why would you do that?” I asked.
“Because an elixir like this is potent, but of very low demand. And, besides… I’m not just a member of the Stone Forest Merchant House. I am also a member of the Ran Clan, and as a private citizen, I am far more interested in the last part of what you just said.”
The last part of what I said? What did he mean… oh. My merchant memories filled me in, while my street rat memories clarified some points.
Information.
Politics.
Damn.
My farmer memories were still a little stupefied by the gemstone grapevines dangling from the ceiling, and wondered what went into growing a stone plant.
I wondered if it would be better to just run out of the city now and avoid all complications.
No, that wouldn’t work. I’d need to get Cabbagy, and Ran Jun knew where I was staying. Hell, he was paying for my room. Besides, I doubted I could physically outrun him.
Looks like the only way out was through.
While I had my internal debate, Chen Ai finished her cup. She didn’t pick up on the subtle conversation beneath the conversation.
She leaned on the table so hard the wood creaked. We might be in a cultivator-proof establishment with furniture made from spiritual wood, but her Ox Bloodline gave her strength beyond her realm.
Also, judging by the empty cups and bottles, she was impressively drunk.
“What are you interested in?” she asked.
Ran Jun ignored her red-faced rudeness. He glanced toward me, but didn’t meet my eyes.
“Your companion,” he said with a smile.
Chen Ai’s eyes widened.
“Oh… so, it’s like that?” she said as she looked between the two of us. “And… what? You’ll give us a discount?”
“No, Chen Ai, it’s not —”
She raised her hands to cut me off.
“I know, senior brother, I know. It’s not my place to comment or interfere, but you’re both consenting adults, and if you want to… you know… then I don’t see a reason why I can’t profit at the same time?”
I stared at her and really wished I were drunk.
“No,” Ran Jun and I said simultaneously.
Surprised, our eyes met, but he turned away quickly.
Oh…
Wait…
Was it actually like that?
Chen Ai waggled her eyebrows at me as she stole the drink from my hand.
The merchant in me wailed, and the farmer was confused, but the streetrat had a level head. I was given a few moments to think as a navy-uniformed server entered our booth and replaced the empty cups and bottles with fresh ones. The rice wine we’d been given now was clearly of a better quality. Perhaps Ran Jun’s doing?
The alchemist poured out cups for the three of us.
“What exactly do you want?” I asked as I sipped the excellent wine. “Wonderful wine, by the way.”
He nodded.
“I believe that a beast core like this can produce seven of the elixirs you desire. If you let me keep one as a sample, I shall give you the rest for no monetary charge.”
“Deal!” Chen Ai shouted.
“No,” I said as I pushed her back into her seat. “No deal. You said ‘no monetary charge’, so what do you want?”
Ran Jun paused for a moment, and he looked as though he wanted to leave the table. At last, he met my eyes and held my gaze.
“I want to know who you are.”
Chen Ai abruptly stood, knocking the table hard enough to tip cups, which Ran Jun swiftly snatched before the wine could spill.
“I think I heard someone calling my name,” she said in an obvious lie as she grabbed her pack and swords. “Let me go check!”
She ducked out of the curtains, leaving behind Ran Jun, me, and an awkward silence.
I really didn’t want to be stuck alone with a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Every second that passed increased the chance of him discovering my secret. He might even already know, and was just humoring me — possibly trying to get what information he could through talk before he moved on to torture.
Even so, if I couldn’t outrun him, perhaps I could out-talk him?
“There’s not much to know about me,” I said with a shrug. “I’m a wandering cultivator, like Chen Ai.”
His eyes darted in the direction Chen Ai had left.
“Like her, huh? So you’re both working together?”
“You could say that,” I said. “We’ve teamed up recently, and she’s accompanying me on my mission.”
He leaned forward, eyes wide.
“What exactly is your mission?” he said. “Why are you in Mountain Root City? Are you working with those bastard Shen?”
I leaned back into the booth, but though the plush seat was comfortable, it offered no retreat.
“That’s a lot of questions…”
He pulled back.
“I’m sorry, but you make me very curious.”
Was he flirting? I couldn’t tell, and I almost wished I had Cabbagy by my side to help me out. Though he would probably just make things worse.
“I don’t know about any Shen Clan. As for why I’m here? I’m just passing through.”
He sighed with relief.
“So, if you don’t mind telling me… what is your mission?” he asked as he sipped more wine. “I truly am curious.”
I shrugged. There wasn’t any harm in telling him.
“I’m collecting a flower from the Howling Blossom Valley,” I said.
Ran Jun sprayed wine directly into my face.
I had a horrible flashback of the snake, but when I wiped it away, my skin was merely sticky instead of sizzling.
“What?” Ran Jun asked me hoarsely. “You’re collecting what from where?”
I went to repeat myself when I noticed that the entire drinking house had fallen completely silent. When I looked around, I saw that every single person had locked their attention onto me.
That couldn’t be good.
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