Dao of the Deal

It took a few days of travel before he began to recognize the hills and valleys surrounding Li Village. The landscape looked different in winter, but something about it still felt comfortable to Muchen. He wasn't an official resident yet, but this was a place he'd be willing to make his home.

They bypassed the village proper to head for the cabin on the mountainside, arriving just as the sun was beginning to set. Muchen felt a bit of guilt at showing up unannounced, but he hadn't had much of a choice. A rural town like this barely enjoyed postal service, let alone the convenience of email or text messaging that Muchen had been accustomed to in his previous life.

Contrary to his fears, both Yize and Chuhua seemed downright eager to see the two of them once more. Yize went so far as to welcome them to his home by taking a deep, submissive bow.

"Benefactors," he said, "I'm relieved to have the chance to express my gratitude."

Muchen stepped forward and took Yize by the shoulder, guiding him to stand up straight. Standing so close, he could feel a certain energy about Yize that hadn't been present before. "No need for thanks between friends."

"Even so, I-" Yize began, before Muchen interrupted.

"If you must thank us, then please let us stay at your house for a while," Muchen said.

"Of course," Yize said. "You can stay here as long as you like."

Muchen smiled, grateful for the easy agreement. Of course, he wouldn't let Yize and Chuhua lose out. He knew that getting them to accept silver would be difficult, but they could hardly stop him from providing his fair share—and perhaps a bit more—of the daily necessities.

Yize escorted the two of them inside. Chuhua had just started preparing dinner, and was happy enough to add two additional plates. The hardest part of the whole process was convincing them to take a sack of rice from Muchen's cart. Muchen prevailed in the end, weathering Chuhua's pout as she carried the ingredients over to the kitchen to cook.

With the immediate business taken care of, Muchen took a moment to look Yize over. It wasn't just his intuition telling him Yize had changed. Before, the teenager had been nothing but lean muscle, wiry to the point of looking unhealthy. Now, while he was still obviously in good shape, his body had filled out. His face was rounder and looked more his age. Chuhua too, now that Muchen thought about it, had put on some healthy weight in the time they'd been apart.

"You're looking well," Muchen said.

"It's thanks to your teachings," Yize said, offering another grateful bow towards Xinyi.

She accepted it as though it were only natural. "Three meridians? I suppose you haven't slacked off too badly."

Muchen raised an eyebrow. To be able to advance so far after a single lesson, Yize could have joined a sect by now. Maybe not one of the hegemon sects, but plenty of respected sects should have been willing to take him in.

Of course, whether they would have been willing to provide for his younger sister was another question. At least it looked like Yize was using his abilities to make both of their lives more comfortable already.

"Hunting has been easier?" Muchen asked. So far his own personal benefits from cultivation had been limited to quicker loading and unloading of his cart. It made sense that it have a larger impact on somebody in a life-threatening occupation. He didn't know how much of a difference three open meridians would make.

"I can roam this mountain as I please," Yize replied. "I've even been able to venture further west a few times."

"What's out there?" Muchen asked. He had come into Li Village the first time from the south and the second time from the north. He knew there were other small towns to the east, growing larger as one approached the capital, but as far as he knew there was only untamed wilderness to the west. Maybe that made for a better hunting ground.

"The Iron Bones sect is about a week's journey away," Yize said. Seeing Muchen's confusion, he continued his explanation. "They are lackeys of the Leaping Carp sect, a guardian sect under the Profound River sect."

Muchen nodded in understanding. He had heard of the Profound River sect, as they were one of the five hegemons who ruled the Qianzhan Continent. As a direct vassal and a guardian sect in their own right, the Leaping Carp sect wouldn't be anybody to trifle with. Even the Iron Bones sect, to be honest, wasn't an organization that Muchen would casually offend.

He frowned as a thought occurred to him. "There wouldn't be any spirit beasts nearby, would there?"

Cultivators congregated in regions that enjoyed a high concentration of spiritual energy. So did spiritual beasts. Or perhaps high concentrations of spiritual energy turned ordinary animals into spiritual beasts. Muchen wasn't entirely sure about the causation—the correlation was more than enough for him to know the best course of action was to stay far away from such things. A responsible organization like the Cloudy Peak sect would assign its disciples to keep spiritual beasts from rampaging among the mortal population. A place like the Iron Bones sect would probably claim to do the same, but Muchen would hardly want to stake his life on their ability to follow through.

Yize was a capable hunter. He had to be, in order to survive for so long. He was no doubt even more formidable having stepped on the road of cultivation. Even so, he'd be risking his life if he jumped into battle with a spiritual beast.

"No, not this far out," Yize said, shaking his head. "The ordinary animals have been nurtured by spiritual energy, more so the farther west you travel. It improves their fur and their meat."

"And their fighting ability," Muchen said, his hand drifting to where his knife would usually rest by his side as he recalled his near death experience in the face of a small wolf pack.

"Not that much," Yize said. "They're stronger and faster, but still just animals."

Muchen gave him a skeptical look. He doubted the situation was quite as simple as Yize claimed. Otherwise the western forest would be crawling with hunters in pursuit of such valuable game. In the end, though, he wasn't Yize's father. He was capable of making his own decisions, and by all appearances he had been making good decisions since they'd been separated.

"I'm glad everything has worked out so well for you," Muchen said.

Chuhua picked that moment to come inside with dinner, almost staggering under the weight of the serving bowl she was carrying. Muchen stood and took it from her, freeing her up to set the table as he carried the bowl to pride of place in the center of the table. It was simple fare, a meat stew of some kind accompanied by rice. What it lacked in impressive presentation, though, it more than made up for with its appetizing aroma.

If this was the result of hunting in the western forests, then Muchen could understand why Yize took the risk.

"Thank you for the meal," he said, favoring Chuhua with a smile. She ducked her head in acknowledgement before turning her attention to dishing up everybody's individual portions.

For a while conversation was put on hold as everybody busied themselves with eating. Muchen had never been particularly strict on the etiquette of staying silent during meals, but in the face of good cooking he felt that the food deserved his undivided attention. Maybe it was because the memory of trying to cook last night's dinner over a campfire was so fresh, but Muchen thought he would rate this stew well ahead of anything he'd eaten in the capital.

All too soon, he had finished off his second bowl and discovered that there was no more stew to be had. He spared an irritated glare for an unrepentant Xinyi, who had taken seconds even though she didn't have to eat.

Muchen sat back and patted his stomach. It was hard to muster up any real anger when he had such a comfortably full belly. A moment later, he realized one thing was missing. He manfully repressed a groan as he levered himself out of his chair. It was the work of a moment to retrieve a jug of good wine from the back of his cart.

He smiled as he set the jug down on the table. He poured out four small cups, serving Xinyi, Chuhua, and Yize before taking the final mug for himself. "To a happy reunion."

The four of them touched their cups together before taking a sip of wine. The wine proved worth every wen Muchen had paid. It went down easy, despite the fact that Muchen hadn't had a drop of alcohol since he'd arrived in the Qianzhan Continent. Chuhua made a face after taking a small sip, while Yize polished off the entire cup in one go.

"That's good," Yize said.

Muchen smiled. "Stick with me and this is the cheapest wine you'll ever drink."

"What do you mean?" Yize asked.

"We didn't come back here just to visit," Muchen said. "I have plans. To start, I'll be buying this mountain."

Although Yize and his sister lived on the mountain, it was technically common property of Li Village. Any villager had the right to harvest the mountain's bounty, even if practically speaking only the two of them ever exercised that right.

"You and Chuhua will of course be welcome to stay," Muchen continued. "I need somewhere spacious to build a production facility. I need it to be close to useful natural resources, and I need it to be convenient to ship my products to big cities. Most importantly, I need people I trust."

Muchen wouldn't have bothered coming to Li Village if the natural conditions didn't set up well for the factory that he had in mind, but that last point was the most important. After all, he wouldn't get much of a benefit out of setting up a factory if he was the only one working in it. Taking another step back, he also didn't want to spend all day supervising an assembly line. His technical knowledge from the modern world offered him a competitive advantage, but no business could truly thrive without capable subordinates.

"When I build up my business, I will take everybody with me to get rich," Muchen said. "What we make here will sell to every corner of the Qianzhan Continent."

He could see that Yize and Chuhua were both skeptical, even if they were too polite to say anything. That was understandable. It was hard to imagine that four people could build a business that would stretch to all corners of the continent, but everything had to start somewhere. Besides, it wasn't like the four of them were just any random people.

"I almost forgot," Muchen said, "Chuhua, you could try cultivating yourself."

Muchen wanted to encourage her for two reasons. First of all, he didn't want brother and sister to drift apart because one of them cultivated and the other didn't. More importantly, to build the greatest business the Qianzhan Continent had ever seen he would need everybody working for him to reach their full potential.

Chuhua mostly focused on working around the house right now, but she approached every task with a diligent, serious attitude. Given time, Muchen was confident that she would excel at more profit-oriented activities.

Chuhua looked startled at the suggestion. "I don't like to fight."

"What does that matter?" Muchen asked. "Cultivation improves health and longevity... really, being able to fight better is a small part of it."

Both Yize and Chuhua looked dubious, while Xinyi's expression was difficult to decipher. Muchen couldn't help but feel a flare of irritation. Sure, the most obvious thing you could do after cultivating was beat people up to assert dominance and take their stuff, but to behave as though that was all there was to it was to take a very cramped view of the potential of superhuman capabilities.

"Are you planning to start a sect?" Yize asked.

"Not at all," Muchen said. "I'm starting a business."

"What's the difference?" Yize asked.

"I want to make money. Helping people cultivate will help me make more money," Muchen said. "Sects want to cultivate. They might try and make money, but only so they can cultivate better."

As the scope of his business grew, of course, he wouldn't be looking solely to earn silver. There were plenty of other valuable resources that he would need to accumulate. And in the end Muchen did want to progress in his cultivation. He needed to do it for his personal safety, not to mention the increased life span. He had his priorities straight, though: where the cultivators he knew of wanted to progress in their cultivation so they could hit harder and fight better, Muchen didn't have any interest in fighting for its own sake.

He knew it would take some time to talk the others around to his point of view. That was fine. Seeing the silver start pouring in would be more persuasive than anything he had to say.