Jade Dragon Beauty

As the sun rose Shen blew on the last talisman so that it would dry faster. This might lower the quality, but they were slightly better than was strictly needed. Once it was dry enough she added it to a stack of nineteen more and wrapped it in paper to keep it from getting damaged. She then took the box of talismans to the demon man and handed them over. "There. Twenty Foundation and twenty Gathering barriers of each element, plus 20 Foundation and 60 Gathering healing talismans. That means that you owe me 680 stones and 280 talismans of material. He nodded and went to the safe, then started counting the stones. "By the way, how much would you charge for the materials to make 100 talismans?"

"Depends on the ink you want to buy." he said. "I've got the standard kind that you used to make these, blood ink of Gathering, Foundation, and Nascent level, and something called 'spirit ink' that is made from different essences and has as much chi in about a talisman's worth of ink as a spirit stone. It's just aligned to different concepts, so it can only be used to make talismans of those concepts. That's how my people normally make elemental talismans, using fire spirit ink to make fire talismans, and the like so that we don't have to understand the Fire dao to make them, but the ink is so expensive that a single Foundation level talisman has about five stones worth of chi in it. The paper is ten sheets per stone, regardless."

"Do you think I could get the materials to make a large amount of Beast Blood ink, enough for two thousand, and maybe another thousand papers, then?" There were plenty of spirit beasts around the area, and she would likely run into a few hostile ones. While Beast Blood ink was highly chi conductive, leading to higher quality talismans, it was at least partly tied to the element of the beast, so it would be better to use with the blood of beasts of the same element as your talisman or a similar one. It also contained enough chi to lower the amount required from the user by about 40%, assuming the blood and the talisman were the same quality.

"Sure, I can do that." He gave her a gourd of standard ink, enough for three hundred talismans, one thousand two hundred and eighty talisman papers, and the materials to make two thousand talismans worth of beast blood ink, plus five extra gourds, so she could store the ink after making it. She also received the five hundred or so Stones she was owed.

"Thank you." she said, waving her hand and making the materials disappear. "That should com in handy in my journey."

"Not a problem. I wasn't expecting my first customer to be a rogue cultivator, but I suppose the locals can't really afford my wares. Most of my business will be imports and exports."

"You should probably employ a few of them, then. Train them to do things that are worth a good bit of money. If nothing else, you don't need chi to farm spirit plants, it just helps."

"True. There are plenty of plants that are worth preserving and shipping back to the core of the continent." Shen had heard that the demons had built of conquered several large cities there, but she didn't know much else about it.

"Is there that much money to be made in the core?" she asked.

"Oh, yes. Many rich nobles have built homes or even cities in Plains, Lakes, and Forest regions. If I could send my goods there, I could quadruple my profits."

Shen nodded. The original portal to their world was in the Plains region, so those were the first regions conquered. "Is that where you are from?"

"Northern Forest, yes. A small city under a minor noble. But my family earns more than enough to live well. When I heard about the new lands that were opening up, though, I had to come up here. The market's a bit flooded down there."

Shen nodded. They didn't 'open up.' They were conquered. If they had just tried to start trade routes, Shen doubted anyone would have tried to kill them, outside of bandits and the occasional racist cultivator. "Well, thanks for the opportunity to earn some money. Maybe I'll have enough to open up a shop when we find a place to settle down."

"Yes, good luck with that." he said, and Shen left.

She returned to the tavern to meet the others and the five of them went shopping. Only the demon merchant she had just dealt with had any cultivation resources, so they used all of the money Shen had earned making talismans to purchase food and tools from Ponma's Father's shop. They also bought a cart from him, in case they needed to haul things with them.

After Ponma said his goodbyes to his family, they set off. They went far enough down the road to Black Rock that no one could see them, then left the main road and started up a mountain trail to get closer to the cave. On the way there they killed a Gathering level spirit boar that attacked them, as well as many normal rabbits that they came across, and some time that evening they arrived at the cave.

Shen went inside to get an empty jar, then came back and started collecting all of the blood from the boar, as it hadn't formed a core upon death. That only happened around ten percent of the time with Gathering phase spirit beasts, the exact numbers depending on how far it had progressed in that realm, so she wasn't surprised.

Once she had gathered all of the blood, she cleaned it, left its hide on the side of the cart to dry, then started on the rabbits while Danka butchered it. After she finished with the rabbits as well, she distributed the meat and any other body parts the others thought were useful. Shoom wanted the heart as part of his meat portion, so she gave it to him as well. No one else had wanted it, after all.

It was almost nighttime by the time she finished, so she stored the blood jar in her ring, not wanting to risk producing smoke while refining it into blood steel, as they were hiding, and returned to the cave to eat something. She could turn it into decent Beast Blood Ink with a bit of time, but, as the boar was only in the early Gathering realm it wouldn't be the best material, nor did it have any elemental affinity that she could use to make elemental talismans.

She was returning to her room, to continue her meditation, when one of the other scouts ran inside. "Demons." he said, panting heavily. He had obviously ran as hard as he could if even his use of chi couldn't prevent him from being out of breath. Or maybe he was just an inner disciple that got too used to the much larger stores and wasted his limited supply of chi using Release on his legs instead of a proper movement technique. "They'll be here in a few minutes."

The people in the area started talking all at once, before starting to panic. "Relax, everyone." said a High Elder woman. Shen thought her name was Li Ta, but had never actually met her, only knowing it because someone had mentioned it. "As far as they know, we are just normal refugees. I will tell them that we are starting a village here, and they will leave us alone." This seemed to calm the people down some, as they now thought they would make it out of this. She then motioned for one of her assistants to come over. "I want you to double-check that anything tying us to the sect has been destroyed. It's too late to burn everything now, but if you find anything, throw it on the teleportation formation and activate it. Better that it ends up somewhere random than that it stays here." The man nodded, then ran off to follow her orders.

Shoom came over and laid down beside where Shen was sitting. "Do you think Aunt Ta will be able to lie good enough?" he asked Shen.

"Aunt?" she asked telepathically. While many commoners referred to middle aged women using that term, Shen had never heard of someone in the sect doing so.

"She is father's sister." he said.

"Oh, that's what you meant. I don't know. It's a good plan, but it is too uncertain for my tastes." Shen thought for a few seconds. "Hey, Shoom. Since she's your family, do you want to go live with her instead?"

Shoom shook his head, sling slobber onto her. "They weren't very close. I don't think I even saw her talking to father more than a few times." He yawned. "Besides, you're much more fun to be around, and I want to stay with you. The same way Ponma turned down moving back in with his parents to stay with you."

Shen nodded and petted his head. "Thanks, Shoom, that means a lot to me."

Shen pulled out a few pieces of talisman paper and the ink she had just bought and started making neutral barrier talismans. Many people outside the sects used them to protect their homes, and she had sold over thirty to the people of her town last night for that reason. That meant that it wouldn't be suspicious if she had any.

Three minutes later someone outside the cave called out and the high elder went to speak with them. There were three hundred demon troops there, neatly lined up in columns, with their section leaders at the head of each column. Their Commanding Officer stepped forward. "So you are the leader of this group?" He asked the Elder.

"Yes, I am the head Mistress of this group of refugees. My name is Tano Li. May I help you?"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"We are looking for escapees from the Jade Dragon Sect. Have you seen any?" The way he was looking around indicated that he suspected them, but wasn't certain.

"Not that I know of, but we don't get many visitors." she responded. Former Elder Li Ta was quite nervous right now, but was doing her best to use a relaxation meditation to not show it. A drop of sweat ran from her forehead.

"Are you certain?" he asked, making her even more nervous.

"Yes, sir. Of course." She did her best to keep the stress out of her voice, but some made it through.

"You seem nervous. What reason would you have to be nervous?"

"I apologize, sir. You simply brought so many powerful troops that I am feeling a bit intimidated by their numbers. We are but poor refugees, so any army of that size is alarming."

The Commander nodded. "In that case, do you mind if I bring in a few of my men to inspect your settlement for signs that you are harboring the enemy?"

She shook her head. "Of course not, sir."

He called one of the squadrons over and ordered them to follow him, and they followed the elder towards the cave. When they got there they found Shen putting barrier talismans in the tunnel which served as the cave entrance. "You, girl." the commander said, and Shen stopped and bowed.

"Yes, my lord?" she asked.

"What are you doing, trying to seal the cave? Do you think you can keep us out if we want to enter?"

"Of course not, my lord. Some of the hunters fought a spirit boar this evening." She pointed to the hide that was hanging on the cart by the entrance. "I was merely warding against their return."

He checked the talismans, and saw that all of them were in the middle Gathering realm at best. "Very well, then. Carry on."

They continued inside and the Elder lead them on a tour of the cave. She showed them all of the public areas, including the library, attempting to buy as much time as possible for her assistants by wasting their time without looking like she was doing so.

Shen, on the other hand, continued placing talismans on the wall. What many people didn't know is that the barrier didn't need to come out of the side of the talisman with writing on it. That meant that she could place a much more powerful Foundation level talisman on the back of the talisman and have it project from the opposite side of the page. Of course, the first ones she put up were just ordinary Gathering barrier talismans like common people used, as she knew that they would be seen. Now that they had been seen, and were verified to be harmless, she could put up the real ones in her ring. Still, she couldn't be sure that none of the demons were watching her, so she continued to reach into her magic bag on her waist, something few refugees had, and conjure the Foundation talisman into her hand while it looked like she was pulling the proper ones out of the bag.

Thirty minutes later, over a hundred Foundation and another fifty Gathering level talismans were scattered around the entrance tunnel. She had also added twenty to reinforce the rock face to prevent cave-ins. This many was overkill, of course, as there wasn't enough chi in the air to activate even half of them at full power, but as long as you only activated a few at a time it would be fine.

After that she went around the cave placing rock reinforcement talismans around the cavern in any place that might have a cave-in. This was much like how non-cultivators would place wooden beams in dangerous areas. Each of these talismans secretly had an explosion formation on the back of them, though they had been modified so that, without knowing the structure of the formation, they couldn't be triggered. This would essentially give Shen a secret weapon with which to fight the demons, should they raid the place.

The Elder, or perhaps Head Mistress, might be trying to trick them into thinking this was merely an attempt to build a village, but Shen wanted a safety feature in case that failed, just like she had been adding to her relics. Both the demons and high purity chi were too dangerous to deal with without safety features.

Shen returned to her room and started making Fire Explosion talismans at the Gathering level, still not certain that she wasn't being watched. After all, if she made them at the Foundation level they might learn that she used to be at the Foundation level. She did, however, remember to lock the door in case someone invisible had followed her. Perhaps no longer having a Divine Sense had made her paranoid, but when you were being hunted a bit of paranoia was a good thing.

She made a simple light charm and placed it near her door. If she was being watched she hoped it merely looked like a way to light the room. It had a special feature, though. It had a false divine sense, and would turn the slightly redder the closer a Core got to it. It was still glowing bright white, so she was fairly confident that, if a demon was hiding nearby, it wasn't one of the stronger ones.

She went back to making talismans, though didn't put any chi into them just yet. If the demons detected that she was using such pure Fire Chi, they would suspect her, if not the rest of the people here. Even as a Fire cultivator, she shouldn't have Fire chi more than a few percent above the normal levels. She hadn't run into this problem with the barriers near the entrance, as they were neutral, but with elemental chi it would be obvious.

Once she had sixty of them laying out to dry she started doing martial arts, moving at random around her quarters. Maybe if they were hiding in here, she would 'accidentally' bump into them?

When that hadn't found anything after a few minutes, she decided that it was unlikely that someone else was in the room with her. Still, she needed to keep an eye out for spies. She left her room, locked the door, and walked back into the main room. She heard the Demon Commander speaking to the Head Mistress. "Then explain to me why you would have a teleportation room?"

The Head Mistress looked like she couldn't think of an excuse, so Shen decided to try and explain. "We actually found this cave a week ago, and scratched out the targeting so that no one could come here. We were thinking about completely destroying it and using that as a storeroom, but…"

"And how did you know what the targeting looked like?"

Shen tried to think quickly. "I'm a formation master and talismonger." she responded. "I saw something similar to the formation in a book once, but had to sell the book."

"You, who isn't even an adult yet, is a formation master?"

"Well, as much as I can be just learning for books. If you would like me to prove it, my lord, I can show you." she said with a slight bow. He nodded and she reached into her enormous bag and pulled out a piece of formation chalk. She then drew an Artificial Sun symbol on the floor and activated it, lighting the room with a false sunlight. "I know a few more, but nothing too impressive. One for making a flame for cooking with, for example, or one to make an ice box. I've been learning to make flying swords, too, if you want me to show you."

He smirked and shrugged, deciding that she wasn't anything special. "No, I believe you. Not bad for learning from a book, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a master if that was all I could do." The Demon General smiled and said something to his men in their native tongue. "Well, it looks like I need to go. Good luck on building your village, Headmistress."

The former elder bowed and he and his men walked directly towards the entrance, then left. The Head Mistress sighed and seemed to relax, but to Shen it seemed too easy. Maybe it was because she had spared with dragons so many times, or maybe because she had fought so many demons to the death, but she didn't rust an easy victory.

Once they left, Shen started imbuing her talismans with normal purity fire chi, then started mass producing the light charm she had placed in her room. After making sixty of them, she started placing them around the cave system, in the library, mess hall, hall ways, and even the baths and toilets. Everywhere that she had access to, including her friend's rooms, got one.

When she was done with that batch she returned to her room. She hadn't seen evidence of a demon, and so was fairly certain that she wasn't being spied on, so she quickly modified the fire talismans, adding the Foundation section and imbuing them with her full purity of chi. If they did show up, with this she could fight them. When she was finished she put them in her ring and started making more light talismans. It was hard to have too many of them, and she could always find a place to put them.

Several hours later many people were eating last meal, carrying their food to wherever they could find a seat as the mess hall here wasn't big enough for all of them. Shen had talked to her friends and they had agreed to eat together outside. They watched the sun set and talked for over an hour before Shen decided to return her dishes and then return to her room. If the demons returned, they would need some way to deal with them, and being in a higher realm would help.

After returning them she walked through the main room, the light from the setting sun shading everything with a dull orange. Shen paused. That didn't make sense. They had just watched the sun set. She looked at the nearest light talisman and saw that it glowed orange instead of bright white. She closed her eyes and sighed. She had been right. Though she wished she hadn't been. After verifying that Shoom wasn't anywhere nearby, just in case, Shen started trying to think of a way to find the invisible demon.

"Boy, I'm sure glad those demons were idiots." said a teenage boy sitting nearby.

"They're demons." responded another teen. "They probably all have brain damage from fighting. Not that they'd be smart even without it." The others in the group laughed and Shen hoped they would shut up. The light on the wall started to get brighter and white, and the one on the opposite wall, in the general direction of the boys, started turning more orange.

'Just shut up and don't speak.' Shen thought, but knowing that she would cause alarm if she said so, even telepathically.

She pulled out three remaining light talismans, and looked around. Based on the color of the lights she could estimate how far they from each, but would need at least one more to figure out the exact location.

"Honestly," said one of the boys. "How could they not know we are from a sect?"

'Don't say it.' thought Shen, but knew that this boy's stupidity and false bravery was about to cause serious issues.

"I bet the only way it could have been noticed by those idiots." said one of his friends. "Is if we put up signs saying 'Welcome to what's left of the Jade Dragon Sect, you invading dung heap.'"

Shen saw the lights near the back shift towards white and the ones near the exit start to get redder. She knew the demon was fleeing back towards he people to tell them. "You guys are idiots." Shen said, then pulled out her last three light talismans. She threw them at where she thought the woman was, an area with no other people, and one was dark red when it lit up. Shen threw three fire bolts at that area, and one of them struck something.

A person appeared and immediately fell to the floor, rolling to try and put the fire out. It was a girl around Shen's age with purple skin. When she stopped rolling he got up, realized she was caught. She stood up to run, but Shen ran over and kicked her. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave." she said, drawing her Dragon sword. "Now surrender or…"

The girl quickly lifted her necklace and started speaking into it. Needing to stop her as quickly as possible, Shen swung at her arm, only remembering at the last minute to activate Deep Freeze so that there wasn't a spray of blood.

The girls hand flew off, ice sealing the veins so that she didn't bleed and Shen put the sword to her throat. "Now tell us what you just said to them."