Chapter 21: Chapter Twenty-One – Good Steel.

“Magistrate Bai! Magistrate Bai!” Xiulan called out at the top of her lungs.

Her guards had moved the bodies to line them up in front of the magistrate’s house. The Magistrate lived at the very top of the gorge in a well-appointed but small house. Living outside of the Bai Compound gave the illusion that he maintained impartiality from his family even though he did not.

There was not a big crowd on the street. This high up and this early in the morning there were only a few people on the street apart from Xiulan’s people. They were mostly servants and workers from the river delivering fresh milk or eggs to the wealthy district.

They had all stopped to see what the excitement was. It was not every day that bodies were brought to the magistrate’s house. Usually, the magistrate would send his men to investigate any disturbance, the disturbance would not be outside his door.

After the sound of some banging and cursing from inside a small bespectacled man cautiously poked his head out of the door. He seemed shocked at the scene outside.

Xiulan smiled at his bafflement and declared, “look at this magistrate Bai. These Sect cultivators from the capital broke into my home to kill me last night. I have never even been to the capital I do not know how I could have offended them. Is magistrate Bai familiar with this sect, can you find any clues?”

Magistrate Bai snapped, “private killings are not allowed in the city.”

Xiulan put her hands to her chest in afront, “magistrate Bai it was self-defence. I could not allow them to kill me. They were all at the sixth level of qi condensation. If we had not just purchased new weapons from master Fu, we would not even have kept our lives.”

Magistrate Bai sidled out of the house and peered at the bodies rather squeamishly. He did very little of the investigating himself and was not used to the bloody scene.

He could not allow Xiulan’s claim that these cultivators were from the capital to go unchallenged though. Too many would make the association with the Bai clan. Among cultivators assassination was considered a taboo way to kill. Even if the martial traditions of the Blue Crane Kingdom were not that strong there were still somethings that one could not publicly do.

“I see no indication that these men are from the capital. As you say if you have never been there why would the anyone in the capital hold a grudge. These are most likely common thieves after some pills or other treasure.” Magistrate Bai looked meaningfully at Zhang Ling when he said this.

It was clear that he was trying to shift the blame onto the successes of Xiulan’s lover. Xiulan smiled even harder. The main purpose of this display was to start word of mouth about Fu Jinjing’s weapons but humiliating the Bai Clan was a nice bonus.

Xiulan used a sword that she was holding to move the sleeve of one of the bodies aside. She revealed a tattoo of a black robe on the inside of the dead man’s left wrist.

“I vaguely remember that the Sects in the capital use tattoos such as these to identify themselves. I am not familiar with this one, however. Magistrate Bai must be more knowledgeable than me.” Xiulan gave the sword a twitch and cut off the hand of the corpse. The sword slid through the flesh like butter. The easy of the cut through a level six cultivator’s hand, even a dead one, made people start to speculate on the skill of this mysterious master Fu.

Xiulan gestured and one of her guards picked up the hand and lifted it up to show magistrate Bai. The magistrate was going to deny knowledge of the mark and hope that no one else saw the tattoo.

Xiulan pre-empted him, “I know the morning light is weak magistrate I examined this mark quite closely under a torch earlier it is a black robe. Do you know the symbol?”

Magistrate Bai grit his teeth. Now that the story had been heard by all these labourers it would spread all over the city. Someone would know what the symbol was.

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Magistrate Bai spat out, “I believe that this is the symbol of the Black Cloth Sect. A minor sect from the outskirts of the capital. Sects such as them get pushed out of the territory of the capital all the time. Perhaps that is why they came here.”

Xiulan knew that she could not push this too far. Speculation was one thing but if she tried to outright accuse the Bai clan there would be no benefit. This was not a trial, and she could not convict them. Powerful families such as theirs had to be uprooted.

“I am sure magistrate Bai is correct. I will leave these bodies too you for further investigation.” Xiulan finished by flourishing the sword she was holding to remove the dripping blood from the blade and then sheathing it.

The blade was elegant and seemed to shine brighter than ordinary steel would. The rising sun reflected off of it like a mirror.

The incident was the talk of the city that day. Men and woman both gossiped as they worked on the docks and chief amongst the details people used to add colour to the story was the beauty and skilful craftsmanship of the blade.

Many went to artisan row but could find nothing that matched the fine work mentioned in the tale and decided that as with many rumours, the quality of the blade had been overstated.

However later a blond woman with a bow across her back was seen having her lunch at one of the popular dockside taverns. She was wearing furs and clearly a huntress, but her cloths and cultivation placed her as a wealthy and successful one. She was cutting her sausage with a fine steel dagger. It gleamed unusually brightly, and the discerning observer would note that the blade seemed to naturally hold some qi.

Eventually a cultivator from the southern interior approached her, “Excuse me miss, but did you buy that knife in town?”

Yen Wen looked up and grunted, “yes I did.”

The man, after realising she would not elaborate further prompted, “might I ask where?”

Yen Wen waved a hand at him, “from master Fu. She has a shop somewhere at the top of this cursed vertical city.”

Word quickly spread from there and by the afternoon there was a steady stream of people who were visiting Fu Jinjing’s workshop. The workshop’s small size and out of the way position added an air of mystique to the products. Most could not afford the luxury goods.

Fu Jinjing did a good job of playing the foreign master and was mostly silent letting an assistant handle the business. Sensing a chance to market their own products better many blacksmiths from artisan row approached Fu Jinjing to ask for tips. She largely rebuffed them but as if in exasperation she finally said, “technique is technique and I will not teach you my secrets, but they only advice I can give is that raw material selection is very important. These weapons for example are made from the Zhao family’s new seam of iron ore. Many buyers just indiscriminately buy any ore that is cheap.”

By night fall a small trend was building in the city. Good steel meant Zhao steel and those in the know felt as though they had an advantage. When word reached Patriarch Zhao the next morning that people were buying Zhao ore at a higher rate and that they were specifically asking for ore from the new seam, he knew that Xiulan had made her move.

He could not decide whether he should be excited or terrified. In just a few days Long Xiulan had turned the supply chain of ore on its head. His son had chosen a capable woman unfortunately for the Zhao’s Long Xiulan was too capable.

Patriarch Zhao just hoped that his son’s obedience would hold until he left for a sect in the capital.

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