After eating, Shen went to the field to test the swords. She didn’t have to return to work immediately, so she spent a few minutes testing each of the new swords. The Aura one sent several bolts of electricity into the training dummy when hitting it, and she hit it thirteen times before the Core was depleted. As the Sunder sword would only have one good attack in it, she swung as hard as she could into an armored dummy while only using around 1% of the stone’s chi, and barely scratched it. Without the effect it likely wouldn’t have done anything to the armor, but such an attack barely did as much as simply sharpening the blade. Then she swung it lightly while using the stone’s full charge. Her blade went from the shoulder of the dummy all the way to the center of its chest before stopping. She pulled as hard as she could, but the sword was stuck in the armor, so she fed her own Fire chi into it, converted into Lightning chi, and the sword slid the rest of the way through the dummy with little effort.
The final sword didn’t have a formation on it yet, so she simply swung at what was left of the dummy a few times to test the quality of the sword before returning it to her ring. She returned to the Workshop and removed two technique books from her ring, Flash Step and Sunder, and opened the first to start reading.
It was just after Second Meal when someone knocked on the door and entered the workshop. Shen was about to tell the overweight man that they didn’t actually sell anything there when she realized that she had met him before. “Mister Quan?” she asked. It was Quan Xiu, the talismonger who, one year ago, had sold them the formulas for several new talismans as well as a book on formations.
“Lady Mo,” he said, bowing his head slightly. “I hear you have been quite productive.”
Shen nodded her head. “Just after the Caravan left the sect changed a few rules and started selling two new books. I used them to make a few useful items, which helped the shop, and started really studying formations. In fact, I was just working on a sword which would allow one to use Flash Steps.”
The man smiled. “Yes, I heard about the new techniques.” he said, not revealing that it was in fact he who gave the techniques to the sect. “As you are interested in improving your skills even further, I have just the thing for you.” He waved his hand over the table Shen was sitting at and several books appeared. They contained ‘Advanced Formations’, ‘Advanced Materials Guide’ and ‘Intermediate Body Cultivation’, as well as eight others.
“I went by the shop and your Master Chen told me that you would be here, and might be interested in some of these books.” Shen nodded and started reading the first page of the numerous books. Of the eleven books, the three whose titles had drawn her attention seemed to be the most useful. There were also books on a few useful techniques, including a Space elemental movement technique which allowed one to teleport a few heights at a time, but the rest were things that she had seen at the sect library.
The first book, ‘Advanced Formations’ didn’t include as many diagrams for different formations as the beginner and intermediate versions, but went into more theory about how formations functioned and how to optimize them. At that level there were too many possible techniques to list them, so the text was more concerned with teaching you how to convert techniques you learned into formations, then optimizing those formations so that they could function more efficiently or be simpler to produce.
The second book, ‘Advanced Materials Guide’, listed hundreds of materials one might find across the continent, as well as the physical and spiritual properties of those materials and the refinement methods. With this Shen would be able to drastically improve both the quality and quantity of the materials she used in making relics.
The third book, ‘Intermediate Body Cultivation’, was like the first Body Cultivation book, but contained even more complex versions of the techniques. While the techniques within the first one could be used at any level of cultivation, as they only improved your body in ways that physical or mental training could, this book contained techniques which required that one be at either the Gathering or Foundation level to use. The Gathering realm ones usually taught one to integrate elemental chi into their body to improve the performance beyond what was normally possible. The performance of these even went beyond the normal chi enhanced performance one got by holding chi within themselves or circulating it. The Foundation ones were about integrating outside materials into the body in order share some of the properties of that material or integrating the spiritual properties of other materials into ones body.
The very last enhancements, however, covered the basics of something called a Core. Apparently it was possible to artificially do what spirit beasts do upon death, but while still alive. It required that one be at the peak of Foundation, as the Chi pressure needed to be extremely high to succeed. The technique also required that one know their own body and mind to a degree that was only really possible if one had fully developed their Divine Sense. By compressing a fragment of your Vital Chi and mind into your dantian it was possible to create a ball which, through interaction with your chi, would slowly solidify and grow. This ‘Golden Core’, named for the color it took on when created by a human, would drastically increase your capacity to store chi, as well as automatically cultivate or perform other techniques at your command, as if you had a small servant living inside your body. While it was possible to produce multiples of them, each one taxed your mind, making you less mentally stable. That, combined with the exponential growth in the performance of the Golden Core as you developed it, in storage capacity, performance, and complexity of the techniques it can use, meant that almost everyone who used the technique only produced one.
Shen wanted to purchase the Space book as well, but after asking about the price she realized that she didn’t even have enough left in the Workshop’s budget to cover the cost of the first three, which she wanted even more. The cost of information increased exponentially with Realm, as those that required them had far more stones and the information was much more useful, and all three of those books were uncommon or rare Foundation realm books. She explained the situation to him and he nodded. Because it would help her so much and she wanted them so much, he would be willing to give her a slight discount, allowing her to purchase the first three books but not the last one. She offered him relics in exchange for the last one, as it would also be a valuable resource, but he didn’t want any of the things she had produced so far, as he had seen them all in other cities or sects and already decided not to buy them. He may have been able to turn a profit by selling them elsewhere, but as he didn’t deal in relics he didn’t want to try doing such a thing.
After their business was concluded, he nodded and left. Shen returned to the half finished sword she was working on. She wanted to start reading those books immediately, but the Flash Step sword needed to be completed first, otherwise it wouldn’t even be fit to sell.
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Fei Hua threw the object in his hand at the ground only to see the metal and jade disk bounce. Realizing what he had done he quickly picked it and checked it for damage. Thankfully the communication relic hadn’t been seriously damaged by his emotional outburst.
Thirty minutes ago he had been preparing to spend some time around town and with the refugees to help establish his cover, maybe even engage in some alone time with one of the ladies in the entertainment district. Then he had received a call from his superior. The man had instructed Fei Hua to obtain the city’s defense plan and, even after Hua informed him that someone in town had detected his Core and might suspect his cover story of being false, the man insisted that he complete the mission. Hua knew he had no option but to complete the mission or die trying. His superior was in the lower Nascent realm after all, and one of the first things you learned as a child growing up in the Empire of Tralk was that you should never disobey someone who is stronger than you, even if obedience would kill you. After all, there were worse things than death.
For now, he would just have to create a solid plan so that he had a chance at success. He spent the rest of the night going over everything he had learned about the layout of the city, its people, and its security. Something as important as the city’s defense plans would need to be restricted to only the most powerful and influential people in its government, which meant that they would be somewhere in the Core area of the city. Unfortunately, no one except the highest ranked Elders and the Sect Master were allowed to freely enter the area, so it would be almost impossible to enter through a gate. That meant he would have to sneak in. That also meant that he had only the most basic information about the layout of the core city or the buildings, so he would have to either find a way to get such information or go in without knowing where he was going.
He made multiple backup plans for every stage of the operation, including multiple ways in which he could find the likely location of the plans, ways to enter the building, ways to find what he was looking for once inside the building, ways to hide his presence, and ways to escape. He had completely lost track of the time when he heard someone ringing the bell on the front of his tent. As their was nothing to knock on with a fabric building and no one wanted to risk entering another person’s tent unannounced, in case something personal was occurring inside, the refugees had started hanging small bells from the pole above the tent’s door.
“Yes?,” he asked, assuming that one of the others wanted to speak with him before going to bed. He quickly stored all of the materials in a special storage ring. It contained two compartments for storage, one on the top which acted as a common storage ring but with only two jars of storage area, and a hidden one at the bottom which was concealed by a tiny array which blocked all senses from detecting it, including most divine senses. That way it was unlikely anyone could find it without knowing it was there. It was in the second, hidden compartment where he stored his notes.
“Brother Hua? I apologize if I woke you up. They were starting to put away what was left of First Meal and, since I hadn’t seen you yet today I thought you might have slept in. So I brought you some porridge. If you have a friend over, though, I can bring her something too.” Hua had gotten a reputation for meeting strange women every time they entered a city, even if most of the time it was an excuse so that he could engage in espionage, so many of the people likely assumed he had brought a woman back to his tent.
“Uh, sorry.” he said, groaning like he was in pain. “I went out drinking last night and got in late.” He opened the tent flap and immediately recoiled from the light. “Ah. I didn’t realize it was so bright.” The sun had come up about an hour ago, and pretending to have a hangover was a good excuse for wanting to stay inside. While his infiltration skills might need some work, he was an excellent actor.
“I apologize. I didn’t think that you might have been out drinking.” The man handed him the bowl and a drinking gourd full of water. “In that case, I’ll let you get back to sleeping. Just put the dishes outside when you are done and I’ll have someone pick them up.”
They might start thinking he was a drunk now, but at least it was better than everyone thinking that he was wasting money at the brothel, yet wasn’t interested in the other refugee women. Of course, there was a simple reason for that. No method of preventing pregnancy at the Foundation level worked 100% of the time, and if he produced a child with one of the women of the camp there was a chance that the child would be born with his natural skin color, ruining his disguise. Better to risk such a thing with a promiscuous woman in a random town. That way, even if she did get pregnant, she wouldn’t know who the child’s true father was, and his disguise would remain intact.
He took the porridge and returned to his tent. How had he lost so much time planning that he had missed most of a day? He still needed to gather information about the core of the city while not raising suspicion, and gather everything he needed in order to carry out the mission tonight. After all, this would be the last Caravan day for the city, and if he wanted to maintain his cover by having the group travel with the caravan, as any other refugee group would, he would need to leave in the morning when the Caravan left.
He waited a few hours so that no one would be suspicious of him leaving with a hangover, then came out with a rolled up shirt tied over his eyes. “Hey Rik.” he said to the man outside who had brought him food, then left his tent, “I’m going to an apothecary’s shop to get something for a hangover, so I’ll be out for a while.”
The man didn’t bother asking how he could get around without his sight as anyone in the Foundation realm could use their divine sense to navigate, even if those in the initial stage would barely be able to ‘see’ an arm’s length in front of them. “Sure, I’ll keep an eye on things here.” he said and Hua nodded before heading into town.
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Shen entered the shop where Mae worked. She had been up all night going over the new Formation book she had bought yesterday. Compared to what she had been doing, it was like a chef going from grilling meat over a campfire with a bit of salt and a meal in a proper restaurant. The techniques the book described weren’t up to the level of gourmet food yet, but they were certainly up to the quality of a favorite dish.
Once inside she called out to Mae, who opened the curtain into the back of the store. Behind her was a human shaped object which appeared to be grinding something in a mortar and pestle. Shen pointed at the object. “Uh, what’s that?” she asked. She could guess that it had to be some form of relic, but hadn’t seen anything like it in the Advanced Formations book. Maybe she should get a book specifically about the common types of relics.
“Oh, that? It’s a Puppet. Sister Kyu bought it from one of the merchants to help in the shop.” Mae grabbed a wooden box off the shelf and set it on the counter. In front of Shen were six light green jade disks. “These contain the lists of instructions it can do, and came with it. Five are how to mix the ingredients for five common pills. That way we only need to refine the materials, something the Puppet can’t do. One makes it follow you and carry whatever you give it to hold, and the last one just makes it follow instructions you speak to it. Though it can’t do anything too complex. It only has sight and hearing, and the instruction list can’t be too long.”
Shen nodded. “What if you want it to do something else, though?”
Mae grabbed a book and set it on the counter beside the box. “It came with a book on how to create new lists of instructions. I tried to read it, but it’s pretty confusing.”
Shen flipped through the book as well, but instead of confusion she was simply impressed. She had no idea that formations could be used to make something that complex. Mae cleared her throat and Shen looked up, only to realize that she had come here to talk to Mae about something work related. She had already forgotten to ask at First Meal and didn’t want to forget again. “Oh, right.” she said, closing the book but intending to get back to reading it later, “I actually came here because I wanted your help with a few projects.”
Mae seemed a bit confused. “I’m not a relic crafter, though. Is this about refining materials? You did tell me that you had bought a cauldron and were refining Blood Iron and Blood Steel with it. Did you discover another material you can make with it?”
“No, actually.” Shen said. Technically, the materials book had list materials that could be refined in a cauldron, but none of them were things Shen had an easily available supply of. “I did learn about several new materials, though, some of which are plant based, and thought I would come in to see if you have any of them.” If anyone knew about special spirit plants which could be used in crafting, it would probably be an alchemist.
