Jade Dragon Beauty

That night they flew for a few hours almost perfectly West, directly towards that thing which pulled them, and a few hours before sunrise landed outside the oasis town. Shen noticed that the temperature seemed to get extremely cold at night, unlike in the wasteland where it always seemed cold, or the towns where she could stay inside. Lu explained that it was because of the lack of vegetation. Apparently the sand lost heat very quickly, but vegetation and water held it much longer, so the desert would lose heat far faster than an area with plants because it lacked the plants and water to hold onto the heat.

Regardless of the reason, everyone but Shoom hated it, but still considered it better than the heat of the day. Maybe, if Shen had a chance, she would make them an item to deal with the cold, though she didn't have anything that could store enough of the Fire from the daytime. That just meant that she would have to get creative.

When they arrived they had to go around the wall, not being allowed to fly over the town, to the west gate, where a caravan waited. This was the only gate that the town allowed non-citizens to pass through, as it allowed them to more easily keep track of who was in the city and if they were still inside. As the guards wouldn't allow anyone inside until the sun rose, the group waited outside the town gate. Lu and Shen meditated, as she hadn't done so in several days due to all of the crafting she had been doing to earn money. The other four worked on their techniques. Shoom practiced taking human form. Ponma used half of his chi to pull moisture from the air, then bent it into various shapes. Danka turned towards the empty desert and, after a second of concentration, drew his sword, swung his sword, releasing a crescent of golden light, then sheathed it as quickly as possible. The crescents didn't go very far before dissipating, so it was obvious he was struggling with this move.

Mae drew out her two cauldrons and, after mixing a few ingredients, the majority being the spirit brush that was common in the area, she made six identical pills and placed three in each of her two cauldrons. She then sent a line of wood chi out of each hand and into the cauldron. This technique required that each of the sets of pills be independently controlled, and further increased the difficulty by refining multiple pills at the same time. Anyone that watched her could tell that she was straining to concentrate on the process, so no one dared to distract her.

She was finishing the batch as the sun rose, so the rest of the group waited for her to finish before entering the city, letting the caravan go through the gate first. Around ten minutes after the gates were open she withdrew her chi and sighed, finally letting herself relax. "Success?" asked Shen, walking over.

Mae shrugged and opened the tops of the two cauldrons and a strong stench like weeds and onions mixed with fresh compost came out, making Shen fight to not gag. Mae reached inside of them and removed three pills from each before looking them over. "Well, that one is Average grade, but those two failed, and those three are substandard. I can probably sell them, but not for much. The only one a store would buy is the Average grade."

"And what do these pills do?" Shen asked. She hadn't seen Mae make these particular pills before, after all.

"They are a combined detox and antidote pill. Some natural toxins have poison like symptoms, so many people carry these, so that they can deal with both insect stings and plant based toxins. For example, that cactus over there is an edible variety." she pointed to one near the city wall that someone had planted there. "There is, however, a type of cactus with a mild hallucinogen that looks very similar. If someone ate part of cactus, thinking it was that kind, but it was the other, they would start hallucinating. This pill can neutralize that. In fact, I heard that some traders carry these pills so that they can eat wild cacti and save on food stores without having to worry about picking the wrong variety. I wish I could find the other variety, though."

"You aren't planning on earning money by manufacturing intoxicants are you?" While it wasn't illegal, at least in the last city they had stayed in, Shen wasn't sure she wanted Mae to get involved in that, especially since their were often criminal groups who controlled such markets. Even the alcohol market was largely cactus based liquors which were made by desert bandit groups which farmed many varieties of cacti.

"No, but the flowers of the intoxicant variety have healing properties. They aren't very strong, but if I make a pill out of them they should at least be able to treat minor cuts."

Shen nodded. "Well, if we see one later, feel free to pick some flowers." Shen said, reaching the head of the line, the caravan now having fully entered. Ponma talked to the guard, as he was the closest thing to a merchant they had, and paid the entry fee.

Once they had entered the town they discussed what they should do. Ponma wanted to find someone that would purchase the ore, but Shen thought that she might be able to refine the ore herself so that they could earn more money. She had to refine all of the scrap anyway, as their cart was mostly full of it, so she would be renting a smelter, so it made sense to refine the ore too.

After asking a few of the locals they found a blacksmith and Shen asked if he would be willing to rent her the use of his smelter. "You a smith?" he asked.

"Relic crafter. But I've refined a good bit of metal and have a lot of scrap to refine."

"Relic crafter?" he asked, looking a bit more interested in her occupation than the possibility of renting a smelter. "I assume that means you work with formations and not enchantments." Enchantment based items were usually called Artifacts, but not always. Shen nodded. The smith looked at their cart. Most smiths, including the mortal ones, could refine the common ores which didn't require chi to refine, like spirit iron, and would use them to make tools due to their superior quality over normal metals. "Looks like a lot of scrap. None of it looks very usable, though, so I doubt it came from bandits. Ruins, maybe?" Shen shrugged. "Whatever. Not a lot of ruins in the area with anything worth salvaging left, but where you got the stuff doesn't effect me. Sure, you can rent it. Ten stones a day, and I'll provide the fuel. Though, since you are used to working with formations I have another possible way for you to pay. He pointed at the main forge which had a red stone on the front, with a blue ice icon to the left of the stone and a red fire icon to the right. "My forge is broken. Think you can tell me what is wrong with it?"

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Shen nodded and looked over the outside parts of the formation, though much of it was on the inside, buried under the coals and ash, so she would have to clean it out if she wanted to see those. He hadn't fired up any of his equipment yet, so she could clean it out if she had to, but it would take a while and be dirty work. She could immediately tell a few basic things about the formation, and after fifteen seconds she could understand the outside portion. "It's meant to adjust the temperature of the forge. The Fire beast core in the middle provides the chi, so that you don't have to be a cultivator to use it. Looks like a middle Foundation rank core." She pointed to the core on her bracelet. "At least based on how big it is compared to this. The cool side probably drains Fire chi from the coal bed to cool it, and the hot side sends fire chi into it to increase the temperature. The ice and fire icons can take a trace of chi from the user to activate it in one of the directions. Not sure what is broke, though. Want me to figure it out?"

The smith shook his head. "Nah, I can tell you. The cool side barely works. I'm supposed to be able to adjust the temperature two to three lik either side of the middle, but for some reason the cool side only lowers it by half a lik or so, while the heat side still raises it by just over three if I really push it." Shen nodded. She knew that a lik was a unit of temperature equal to the difference between boiling water and melting ice, but never had much use for it. In fact, few people outside the smithing industry used it to measure the temperature, most people usually using lok, which were equal to one tenth of a lik.

She looked over the formation again. "Well, it looks like all of the important parts of the formation are on the outside of the furnace, so it probably isn't because something is broken on the inside part. It seems like the only part that is on the inside is the one that injects or removes chi from the coals. How many days worth of furnace rental can I get for fixing this, though?"

"Well, as near as I can tell, it will take a little under two days to smelt everything you have, so how does two days sound?"

Shen shrugged. "How about three? I've got some things I want to make with this metal, and was hoping to use it for that before selling what I don't need." She hadn't actually planned anything yet, but she could easily think of some useful things as she worked. Maybe a heat protecting array? Maybe a better way to collect water? Actually, based on the furnace, she could probably make something that would automatically draw in or inject heat from a person to keep them at a constant temperature.

The smith thought for a few seconds then nodded. "Yeah, three days is fine. My name's Kan by the way. Shizu Kan."

Shen shook his hand. "Mo Shen. I'll get started right away."

Seeing that she was going to be busy for a while, the others left to rent a room somewhere. There were several caravans in town, so the inn could only rent them one large room with multiple beds. After that they looked at the shops, then went to the room to get some sleep. Shoom stayed beside Mae, as she was the only girl there, so that the boys didn't go near her. She doubted that they would, but knew that she would need to get used to doing this, as men would be more drawn to her the more she advanced in her cultivation.

Shen examined the formation again, in more detail this time, and found that some of the lines on the back of the forge were damaged. It looked like someone had hit them with a blade of some kind, then failed to repair them properly, just putting it back together so that it looked right but not so that it worked. Shen heated the Flame Steel of the formation with her Fire chi and moved the metal with a bit more chi, and soon everything was back together properly.

Kan saw her fixing the damage and nodded when she used Fire chi. He didn't talk to her until she was finished, however, as he understood how much trouble interrupting a working craftsman could cause. "So, it was damaged somewhere I didn't notice?" he asked.

"Yeah, the lines were cut cleanly through, in a good sized piece of a section that is only needed by the cooling function. Whoever damaged it pushed the parts back together, so it was letting a small amount of chi flow, but not nearly enough for it to work properly. I fixed the lines, though, so it should work properly now."

Kan sighed. "One of my apprentices, probably. They both want to be fighters instead of smiths, so they'll play around with the weapons at night instead of working like they are supposed to. Probably hit the line while sparring and, instead of telling me, fixed it as best they could." He shook his head. "I thought trying to teach them a proper cultivation technique would teach them hard work and patience, but it just isn't working."

"Cultivation technique?" Shen asked, and Kan nodded, going inside to grab it. When he returned he showed her a book titled Dao of the Forge.

"Combined Fire and Metal path technique specializing in smithing. After working, though, they don't want to read about smithing, they want to read about fighting, or better yet actually fight."

Shen nodded. "Understood." she said. "Most people don't have the patience for a production job, so they get bored. Honestly, if I had a copy of the Dao of the Militia I'd loan it to you, but all I have are a few Demon training manuals."

"Yeah, I've seen copies of them, but don't want to encourage them by buying actual martial manuals."

Shen thought for a few seconds about how to fix this, then had an idea. "Tell me, how strong is their pride?"

Kan looked confused, then realized what she was thinking. "You think seeing a, what, fourteen year old girl, outperform them would wound their pride enough to motivate them? Worth a try."

"I'll be fifteen in two days, but yes, that was my plan. You said they work at night. If you think that would work, I can come back at sunset and use my time on the forge then."

Kan nodded. "Well they are seventeen and nineteen, and work on smelting the materials and making the basic stock at night, so that sounds like a plan. In fact, if you can get them to straighten out their act, I'll give you some materials I can't really use as a reward."

Shen nodded. "In that case, I'll see you tonight." Shen moved the cart from where it was left on the side of the street and into a small shed behind the forge, then went to find Mae.

When she met Mae she was carrying a bucket of water from the nearest well. The town had public baths, but they cost five stones to use, as water was so expensive here, so they wouldn't be using them. Instead they would have to wipe off with a cloth and a bucket of water, which cost one stone per bucket. Ponma suggested sharing so that they could save money, but Mae wasn't willing to go after someone else, as the water would be dirty. So she bought a second bucket for her and Shen to share. If they bathed together they could use the water at the same time, so it wouldn't be dirty for either of them.

After being lead back to the room, the girls waited until the boys were done bathing then kicked them out of the room so that they could use it to do so. Shoom had bathed with them as well, so their water was particularly dirty.

After the guys left they quickly washed themselves and started on their clothes. After scrubbing them one of the boys started knocking on the door, so they got dressed in some backup clothes then, after a bit of rushing, let everyone in. Normally one wouldn't hang their undergarments to dry where other people could see, but the boys had done so already. Mae was trying to decide whether to do that or just ring them out the best she could, when Shen offered to dry them with a bit of Fire chi. There was more than enough in the area, so it wouldn't exhaust her. Mae thanked her and, after the boys knocked on the door for a third time, getting extremely impatient, they stored the now dry undergarments in their rings and let the boys in. After they put the dirty water bucket beside the room's toilet so that it could be flushed without having to buy clean water, they closed the windows and went to bed, having Shoom keep the room cool with his abilities. He hadn't yet learned to cool a large area automatically, so this would be good practice for him.

The room actually only had three beds, so Mae and Shen had to share one, Lu and Ponma share another, and Danka take the last one, with Shoom sleeping on the floor. Danka seemed to have a problem with sharing a bed with another man, so he had already said that he wasn't going to sleep until there was an open bed. Lu and Ponma didn't have a problem with it, though, so they were willing to share so that he could have a bed to himself. Shoom, after all, preferred sleeping on the floor like he had done his whole life.