Chapter 14: Animal Skins (1)

Muchen had more or less put the confrontation in the village out of his mind by the time they left the cultivated fields around them behind and began the trek up the mountain. Huichen continued along at a steady pace, not bothered by the climb or the rough terrain.

Every village had its share of ne'er do wells and freeloaders. It was unfortunate that the bad apple of Li Village was so closely related to the village patriarch, but as long as the patriarch himself was a reasonable man then it wouldn't be impossible for Muchen to settle down here.

He'd been bluffing when he claimed that he was already employing Yize to do business for him, but those words could very well come true in time. Muchen enjoyed the lifestyle of a traveling merchant, but if he wanted to make it big then he would need to change his line of work.

He wanted to be so rich that even cultivators would be at his beck and call. It wasn't something he could accomplish by driving a mule cart back and forth across the Qianzhan Continent.

After all, a single cart could only carry a limited quantity of goods. That meant that he could only invest however much money it took to fill up the cart. In theory he could invest more money by picking up higher valued goods, but that could only go so far. Besides, the skills he'd developed in spotting good deals and bargaining for things like cookware and food wouldn't necessarily translate over if he tried to go into the business of shipping jewelry or valuable antiques.

He could try going the route of a high volume shipper by adding more carts to his traveling party, but that came with its own host of problems. For one thing, he'd need to hire people to drive those additional carts. He'd also be a much juicier target for bandits lurking on the road. The Qianzhan Empire had pretty good internal security, but there were still plenty of loose cultivators out there who were willing to dabble in a bit of daylight robbery.

Not to mention that just like shifting to a high value model, moving a high volume of goods required its own particular skills. Muchen wasn't bad at making individual sales, but selling massive amounts of product at one time required a network of contacts that he would be developing from scratch. Expanding his mule cart into a caravan would bring with it all the disadvantages of hiring employees and starting a new business while continuing to saddle him with the problem of being on the move all the time.

Really, the best way to make a lot of money would be to settle down somewhere and build up some kind of production line. This place seemed as good as any other. It was fairly remote, so the property values should be low and he wouldn't have to worry about corporate espionage for a while. It was also reasonably close to the Tuanliu river, so shipping goods to market wouldn't be too much trouble.

The problem was just what to produce. In theory, building a factory was a great opportunity for him to take advantage of his knowledge of modern technology. In practice, Muchen keenly felt the disadvantage of his liberal arts education as he thought about the problem. If he'd studied engineering he might know how to build advanced machinery and maybe even kick off an industrial revolution.

Or at least he'd be able to make some guns. Although in a world where the top level fighters could damage the landscape during a casual brawl, he wasn't sure how useful that would be.

As it was, he knew how to make organic hand cream from scratch. And a few other minor cosmetic products, all recipes he had picked up when he'd been working on separating his fellow students from their money. After all, college aged girls had quite a bit of disposable income and were inclined to favor that kind of handmade product.

Would such products find a fertile market on the Qianzhan Continent? He'd have to do some research to find out. While the prideful side of his brain wanted to go into heavy industry, he wasn't going to let something as ephemeral as his sense of dignity stand in the way of making a fortune. If the market was crying out for cosmetics, he might as well be the person to fill the need.

Muchen was pulled out of his musing when they arrived back at the house. Xinyi was sitting in the front yard, legs crossed beneath her as she meditated. Behind her, Chuhua was bustling about in the kitchen shed. Yize moved to help his sister. Muchen barely had time to unhitch Huichen and turn him loose to graze before Xinyi dragged him into a round of physical training.

It was immediately obvious that she had changed her approach. Instead of a nigh single minded focus on honing his mastery of the knife as quickly as possible, Xinyi led him through a flowing series of sweeping motions that felt almost meditative in themselves. It reminded Muchen of the tai chi lessons he'd sometimes seen older people working through in the park. Once he adapted to the change he found this new lesson downright soothing.

That wasn't to say that it was completely effortless. By the time Xinyi called a halt, he had worked up a pretty decent sweat. It was nothing, though, compared to the half dead state he was usually left in after weapons training.

Part of him wondered if this new approach was Xinyi's way of apologizing for pushing him too hard, before. If so, then he couldn't just let the matter pass without comment.

"I understand that the weapons training was for my own good," Muchen said. "This is a dangerous world, so I need to be able to defend myself."

"This world isn't that dangerous, relatively speaking. But you're right, it's no good to be helpless in the face of violence," Xinyi said, before her eyes narrowed as she gave him a searching look. After a moment she laughed, waving a hand dismissively. "Don't worry, we'll get back to the usual training soon enough. For now, you need to focus on recovery."

Muchen smiled, feeling a little awkward. "The usual training... but no life or death fights, right?"

"Not right away. Even if the martial path isn't your dao, you still have to work hard," Xinyi said. "Although that reminds me: how much did you manage to sell today?"

Muchen hit his forehead in frustration. "None. I forgot."

After the unpleasantness with Goudan, he'd been so focused on getting home safely and protecting Yize from any future complications that he'd forgotten that he had his own wares to sell. The only consolation was that he hadn't missed out on much: in a small place like Li Village he'd be lucky to sell more than one or two pots in a day.

"That's no good," Xinyi said. "Your dao offers you a path forward that doesn't rely on violence, but you have to be diligent every day. You can't afford to ignore even a little bit of profit."

Muchen shook his head, bemused by her change in attitude. It was only a few days ago that she'd been deriding his attempts to earn money as a waste of time. Now that she'd swung so completely in the other direction, he couldn't help but feel that he'd created a monster.

"I won't forget again," he said.

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"Good," she said, before giving him an appraising look. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't feel any lingering effects from my injuries," Muchen said. "The medicine you made was very effective."

"Of course," she said. "I could hardly let you waste weeks recuperating from such basic injuries."

Sometimes Muchen thought that Xinyi was at her most unnerving when she was trying to be comforting. Well, hopefully he'd never experience what she would consider to be serious injuries. He did his best to put the thought out of his mind as he changed the subject.

"What do you think of Yize?" he asked.

"The boy who meddled in your training?" Xinyi asked. "I've not thought much about him, to be honest."

"Do you think he has any potential as a cultivator?" he asked.

She looked back towards the house, then shrugged. "He's not completely hopeless."

"He was willing to risk his own life to save mine," Muchen said. "I'd like to do him a favor in return."

He also wanted to cultivate a potential subordinate. After all, if he wanted to expand his business then he would need trustworthy employees working underneath him. Yize was diligent, hard-working, and not particularly greedy for money. Everything Muchen was looking for in a new hire.

He didn't mention it to Xinyi because he wasn't sure how much she cared about his long term plans. Despite her newfound enthusiasm for his capitalistic pursuits, he didn't think she particularly cared about anything but his immediate efforts. Thus, it was better to frame the matter in terms of gratitude and fate, both topics she was more interested in than Muchen's long term rate of return on investment.

"You were never in any danger," Xinyi said.

Muchen still wasn't entirely convinced on that point, but he was willing to let it go for now. "He didn't know that."

He could see that she was wavering. "I'm not saying to take him on as a disciple. If you could just give him a little push along the path, I think it would go a long way."

"Fine," Xinyi said. "I suppose he can't have any less potential than you do."

Muchen felt a great deal of tension leave him at Xinyi's pronouncement. While he didn't appreciate the dig at his own abilities and someday hoped he would earn a favorable comparison for once, he'd long since gotten used to shrugging off Xinyi's evaluations of his cultivation. More importantly, giving Yize a boost would kill three birds with one stone. Advancing his cultivation would make it more likely that Yize would survive and thrive until Muchen had a chance to return to Li Village. It would make him that much more efficient as an employee in the future. And, of course, it would earn a bit of gratitude that would make Yize that much more likely to sign on the bottom line when given the opportunity.

The next morning as they were saying their farewells, Muchen couldn't help but note that Yize had an extra spring in his step. He hoped that boded well for his future as a cultivator. For his own part, Muchen had been pleasantly surprised when his own cultivation had not been impeded by much due to his failure to sell anything. It seemed that while his dao, strictly speaking, didn't lie in assisting others, helping somebody else to sell his wares was worth at least partial credit as far as cultivation went.

When they headed out towards the capital, Xinyi insisted that they start the trip by heading to Li Village for Muchen to peddle his wares. He didn't make much silver, but the heavens rewarded his efforts. At least as far as following his dao to cultivate was concerned, it was the effort that counted.

As they made their way to the Tuanliu river and then down to the capital, they continued to stop by almost every little village that they passed. Muchen was able to sell off most of the cookware that he had bought, and he was rewarded for his efforts by great gains in his cultivation. He managed to clear out his sixth meridian the day before they reached the capital.

Reaching the halfway point in the Meridian Opening stage didn't come with any great fanfare or massive increases in power, but Muchen considered it an important milestone nonetheless. He was halfway to the Foundation Building stage, the point in a cultivator's journey when most sects would be willing to take him on as an outer disciple by virtue of his cultivation base alone.

Not that he had any intention of joining a sect, of course. He didn't want to bring any scrutiny to the link between himself and Xinyi, for one thing. For another, he doubted a sect would be willing to do much to accommodate his unique dao. And that wasn't even counting his own temperament. Muchen had never been much of a joiner, and the rules imposed on sect disciples were more stringent than any employment arrangements he'd ever heard of back on Earth, outside of the military.

The night before they entered the capital, Muchen dug the old man's memorial tablet out of the back of the cart. He unwrapped the tablet carefully and set up an incense burner next to it as a sort of impromptu shrine. The incense he had on hand wasn't anything special, but the old man had bought it himself, so Muchen figured his spirit wouldn't have anything to complain about if he was watching.

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