The next day everyone worked on their assigned tasks. For some reason it was slower than normal, so Shen was able to complete two sets of custom armor for the guards before Middle Meal. Shen closed up the store so they could go eat together, leaving a sign on the door informing customers when they would be back, but when everyone returned they found several other people in the store. Shen was about to say something to them when Master Shen walked out of the back carrying a wooden crate. “Hey, you’re back from your meal.” he said. “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to the Yinza family.” He motioned to the four people in the store. There was a man and woman in their early thirties, an eleven year old boy, and a seven year old girl. “I recruited them from Black Rock City.” said Master Chen, referring to the second closest city if you followed the river. “Don’s family has run a relic crafting shop there for three generations, but another relic store moved in and, with over one hundred employees, was able to drive them out of business a little over a week ago. I convinced them to come work for me, though.”
“Don?” Shen asked.
“Right. I didn’t introduce them. This is Yinza Don.” He motioned to the man. “His wife Larl, and his two kids Lin and See.” he pointed to the women, boy and girl in turn. “They are all relic crafters, though Lin is the only actual apprentice. See just kind of helps make ink.”
“She liked drawing so I taught her a few talismans.” said the woman, Larl.
“I like making talismans too,” said Breen, kneeling down in front of the little girl. “Do you think you can draw one for me?” The girl nodded and they went over to the nearby counter where Breen pulled out her talisman making equipment.
“As for those three,” Master Chen continued, “the one with See is Breen. She mostly makes Talismans and runs the counter. The boy is Timp. He makes the utility items and practices by making low end flying swords. And she is Shen. She does the custom order armor, and has come up with a lot of new products for us to sell. She’s also basically the assistant manager right now. You know how I told you my apprentice designed the formation for the boat? That was her. In fact, she came up with a new formation that became really popular just before I left, which is why I was in a hurry to find someone else to help. We have too much work at the moment.” The three newcomers nodded.
“Well, now that introductions are out of the way, I want you two to look at this.” Chen said, then opened up the crate and pulled out six oddly shaped jade plates. Shen and Timp made sure not to say anything about it, as this was probably a test. “What can you tell me about the plates?”
Don stepped forward and ran his hand over the plates. “Five of them seem to be concentrating and purifying the elemental chi that’s nearby. Those five have decently pure elemental chi.”
Larl picked up one and looked at it, then set it down and looked at the others. “The Fire plate is at 6.4% purity, the Earth at 6.2, Metal 6.1, Water 5.7, and Wood 5.4.”
“This was made by someone with a fire affinity.” said Lin, and the adults nodded. They all seemed to notice that the plates fit together and soon they had followed the order of the elements to put the six together.
“Now that they are all together,” said Larl, “they all seem to balance out at about 6%. Something is making the purer ones less pure and the less pure ones purer.” Shen had made a few modifications to improve that while she was on break one day. Nothing said that she couldn’t improve it just because she turned it over to Chen, as it wasn’t a gift.
Don examined the lines of the device. “Somehow the device is purifying the elements using the other elements. Not sure how.”
“Also, all five are being fed to the center.” said Lin. “Not really needed if this was just for a person, so I’m guessing that they wanted to charge a core of some type with it. Probably not a spirit beast core, as feeding it anything but its element and neutral chi might damage it. Maybe something that can handle all of them, like...a neutral core? There aren’t many spirit beasts with neutral cores. Though I’ve heard of them being made artificially.”
When they weren’t able to tell anything else from the device Shen stepped forward. “Actually, I made this. It was meant to prove to Master Chen what I could do so he’d take me as an apprentice. I’ve made a few improvements to the device since then, like making the elements fix each other instead of just feeding the chi at whatever purity I could manage. Not the best way of doing it, but it works. The confusion with the center is because I knew about spirit beast cores when I made it, but not that they were usually aligned with an element, so I thought they could accept any form of chi, like a dantian. If I want to use it to charge a core, I’ll just only use the correct plate.” She pulled the fire core from her bag and put it in the middle, then disconnected all of the plates but the fire one. “I may make a better one later that just works with fire chi, so I can charge this core, but for now it’s only used when someone needs to make elemental relics, as they require the correct element and you don’t want to run out.”
“Well, we haven’t actually learned to handle elemental chi very well, so I have no experience with that.” said Don. “There wasn’t any need for it in Black Rock, as all of the items we made used neutral chi. In fact, we actually added a formation to some of our work so that any elemental chi that entered it would be neutralized, as it could disrupt the flow if the elemental balance got too far off. We’d love to learn, though.”
Chen spoke up. “Well, we can’t teach you any of the sect’s special techniques unless you actually join, but there are a few generic elemental techniques which I can teach you, like being able to identify the different types, separate them from each other, and purify them through your knowledge and willpower.”
“I could also make you a relic to help you out.” said Shen. “I might not be able to teach you the technique, but giving you a relic that uses the technique doesn’t break any rules, as you can’t learn the technique from relic that well, just know the basics of it.”
“Wouldn’t that be expensive?” asked Larl. “I don’t want to put you out.”
“A few stones each, maybe. But it’s fine. I actually already designed it so I could make myself a bracelet.” She took off her bracelet and handed it to them to examine. “That one feeds me 8% chi of all five elements, but can balance and purify my internal chi up to ten or so percent. The ones I give you probably won’t be that good, as I’ll be using green instead of white jade, but if they work maybe it will be another relic we can add to the store.” Chen and Larl nodded, and Larl put on the bracelet. While Chen was thinking about the financial benefits of selling such a device, Larl was feeling a pain in her wrist as if five tiny needles of five different elements were poking her.
“It stings.” Larl said, and Shen nodded.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You just aren’t used to the element at that purity. Pick one of the elements and let it slowly enter you. Cycle the chi through you, being careful not to let it merge with the rest of the chi inside you.” Larl tried several times, but wasn’t able to keep it from dissolving into her chi for more than a few seconds.
“I just can’t do it.” Larl said, then went to remove the bracelet.
Shen held up a hand to stop her. “It’s fine. Just keep practicing for now. Cultivation requires a lot of practice some times. I’ve had years to practice with elemental chi. I’ll go get some bracelets and maybe rings and make you some practice equipment today before you leave.” Larl nodded and Shen left to get the equipment.
Shen purchased twenty green jade rings, twenty green jade bracelets, four blue jade bracelets, and another white jade bracelet. She would turn the green ones into practice tools and put the extras on display, then turn the blue ones into practice devices for the new people. Afterwords she might have enough practice that she can make herself an even better bracelet.
When she got back Lin was helping Timp make utility items and Don and Larl were making neutral flying swords. See was still sitting on Breen’s lap making basic talismans. While See’s talismans weren’t good enough to sell yet, they were all technically real talismans.
Shen sat down at her table and started making green jade bracelets which worked the same as her white jade one. They only took an hour each to make three of them, and when she was finished Shen was surprised that they each produced seven and a half percent chi of each element, though less of it than her bracelet. They could also increase the purity of the elemental chi inside their wearer to about 9%, but she wasn’t sure that the new family would cultivate elemental chi, so that function might not be used.
Just as the shop closed she handed Don, Larl, and Lin a bracelet. “Here, I made you each a bracelet like mine.” she said. Larl took off Shen’s bracelet and handed it back, and Shen immediately put it on. “You should get used to the elemental chi slowly just by wearing it, but you should practice drawing it in and circulating it through your chi pathways, keeping it separate from your own chi. That way you can use it easier while making elemental relics.”
“Chi Pathways?” asked Don. “You mean Meridians?”
“Yes. They are just called something different sometimes. I just didn’t hear them called meridians until a few months ago.”
Don nodded and everyone thanked her, then they got See and left. Shen put all of the bracelets except the white one in the shelf beside her table and started to leave, but Chen stopped her. “You know, I just realized that you have bought a lot of stuff for the store and I haven’t paid you back.”
“It’s fine.” she said and tried to leave, but Chen shook his head.
“It’s not fine. I can’t owe one of my employees. It makes me look like a bad boss that takes advantage of his employees. For example, I know you bought the boat so that I could use it to pick up more employees, but which of us owns it? I used your formation design to do it, and it’s your boat, but I used my materials.”
Shen shrugged. “How about I just pay you for the materials and let you use it when you need to pick up people or cargo from somewhere outside the town.”
Chen nodded. “That works, but you also bought the material for the test circle at the training field, and the bracelets and rings for the new employees.”
“I’ll make you, Timp, and Breen bracelets tomorrow.” she replied.
“I wasn’t complaining about not getting one. I was talking about how much you spent. How much did you spend on that stuff anyway?”
Shen thought for a minute. “Well, Jade Dust is five stones per bag, the oil and other paint materials were about ten stones. The bucket and paint brushes are reusable, but that’s another two stones. The rings were a stone each, the bracelets five stones each for the green, twenty each for the blue, and one hundred for the white, though that is for me, not the store, so you don’t have to pay for it. The cost of jade has drastically increased recently, as everyone in town that can make relics is buying up the supply from the mine.”
“So, I owe you two hundred stones for the jewelry, and twenty seven for the paint supplies, but only paid you back ten for the materials used in your boat?”
Shen did the math in her head and nodded. “Yeah, but it’s fine. You can pay me back later.”
“No, I can’t. Well, technically I can, but the store only has about two hundred and fifty available for supplies right now. Giving you two hundred and seventeen of that would mean we wouldn’t have enough on hand for any large purchases that came up.” He sighed. “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll pay you back as soon as I can, but in the mean time if you want any Foundation level relics made, you can come to me and I can do it for you at a discount.”
“Sells have been going really well. I assumed you would have a lot more saved up.”
Chen shook his head. “I spent most of it stockpiling medium and high grade weapons and armor. With the demand increasing so much, the supply was getting low and I was worried about not being able to get them. Sure, I’ll earn it back easily, but I just don’t have it now.”
“Well, I don’t need any Foundation level relics for now, that I know of, but I’ll think about it.” Chen nodded and let Shen leave.
Shen wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the rings. At most she could put a single element’s formation on them. While it was technically possible to duplicate what she had done with the bracelet, the collection area would be tiny, too small to gather meaningful amounts of chi, and her engraving skill likely wasn’t good enough to draw the formations that small. Maybe balancing the chi in a person? That was fueled by the gathered chi right now, but maybe she could use the person’s internal chi? No, that would just deplete their reserves. If only she could use their neutral chi, which automatically refilled. Maybe if she converted it to the element, then fed it back to them? Or would the chi simply refill the lower level? She wasn’t sure.
By the time Shen got to the training field she had decided that the most she could do with her current skill was to gather, purify, and feed a single element into the user, maybe with a cutoff if they were full of that type of chi. Still, that might be too much in such a small device, so she would have to test it out the next time she was at work. Now that Master Chen was back she could take her five days off to help Ponma.
Shen had come here to practice her barrier spell, as she still wanted to improve the performance of the armor she made, but the special field was full. Apparently the sect now charged a stone per hour to use it, but there were still people waiting on the benches inside for an opening. It was no wonder that they wanted more fields.
Shen talked to the field master, the same woman that was there when she made the formation, and quietly informed her that they had just hired a few extra people. It would probably be a few days before they were used to elemental energy enough to work on the formation, but Shen would try to bring them over once they were ready.
Then Shen had an idea. They had said that they often added a formation to neutralize chi to their relics. Could that work here? Normally Shen wouldn’t have them help her, as their poor understanding of the elements would result in many of the elements not being properly collected, but what if she just drew in any chi that she could, neutralized it, and fed it to the people? That would be easier to make and might gather more chi overall. Most of the people here were practicing elemental attacks, so that wouldn’t work in this situation, but maybe another? Shen would have to think about it.
Rather than wait for the field to open up, Shen went to another one that the Field Elder planned to have the formation added to later and started meditating. She drew in as much chi as she could, converted it all to Earth chi, as that was the dominant type here, and created a dome shaped barrier around herself. Once it was up she started looking for flaws in her barrier. Just like last time she found several she could fix, but reached a point where repairing it was causing more flaws. Still, she kept trying, being gentle with her repairs any time she detected a flaw, and after some period of time she started feeling many small things hitting her barrier from above, each one carrying a trace of crude water chi, but purer than one would expect from a bucket of water. Maybe some of the recent recruits were splashing her barrier with weak attacks? Though they should have purer water chi by this point. Maybe one of the members of the Yinza family or another outsider? They might have been able to reach such a purity by now.
She ignored it and kept meditating, drawing in all of the chi she could from the ground beneath her, purifying it and using it to repair or reinforce the barrier. Several times she thought she had fixed all of the flaw in the barrier, but when she took a closer look she would find more that were too small for her to see, slightly weakening the barrier.
Some time later she felt someone lightly tapping her barrier. While she hadn’t fixed all of the flaws in the barrier yet, and wasn’t sure if that was possible, she had greatly improved it. She ended the meditation and opened her eyes to see a woman standing there, the sun behind her. At first she thought it was sunset, which should have happened about forty minutes after she left work, but then she realized that the woman was to the east of her. Sunrise? Surely not. Shen looked around and noticed that all of the ground outside her barrier was wet, but the inside of the barrier was dry. It must have rained last night and the barrier stopped it from entering.
“Hello.” said the woman. “I’m the daytime field master here. Did you come in early?” The woman’s voice was slightly muffled by the barrier.
Shen shook her head. “I started meditating last night about twenty minutes before sunset. If that’s sunrise behind you, I must have lost track of time and spent all night here.”
“That explains the dry area around you. I assumed you just used hydrokinesis to dry out a place to sit.”
Shen released the barrier, then stood up and stretched. “Well, thanks for waking me up. I don’t need to go to work today, but I could probably use a bath.”
The woman nodded and Shen went home to get her stuff. She would have to hurry at the bath house if she wanted to clean up and get to the warehouse before Ponma left. This time of the year one needed to wake up before sunrise to have enough time to bathe and eat before work.
