Xiulan placed her hand on Yen Wen’s shoulder and asked, “what do you want to do with him?”
At their feet was a whimpering man in tribal furs. It was the chief of Yen Wen’s old village. The village had been almost on their way to Elder Xin’s mineral deposit. So, Yen Wen had decided to stop in.
As soon as they had entered the village, they had seen the chief whipping the skin off a man’s back. His ‘crime’ had been that he had resisted when the chief came for his daughter.
As soon as Yen Wen realised the situation, she had approached the chief and with a simple kick, broken his leg at the knee joint. To prevent a pointless fight Xiulan had flared her cultivation to warn off the rest of the chief’s warriors.
Yen Wen calmed down a little when she felt Yen Wen’s hand on her shoulder. “To survive up here they still need someone with cultivation. It is too hard to hunt otherwise. Especially if the Qi in the atmosphere is going to become increasingly dense.”
Xiulan thought for a moment, “maybe they join up with the Golden Hand. The mountains are going to be their staging ground anyway. They can bring the other tribes with them to prevent disaster. We also have the Combine now which can teach them basic cultivation.”
Yen Wen nodded and relaxed, “we have come a long way since I left. Now I really have something to offer them.”
Yen Wen kicked the chief in the face. Snapping his neck and instantly killing him. There other warriors shuddered at the brutal display.
As Yen Wen went off to offer options to the other tribe members Xiulan looked around. It was surprising that her quest to make as much money as possible had led her back here. In the traditions of the Kingdom this was considered a backwards wasteland for cultivation.
After a few minutes of conversation Yen Wen had convinced the tribe to head to Temple Gorge and the Combine branch there. From there they would go wherever in Xiulan’s little ecosystem fit them best.
Leaving the village, they walked northwest into the mountains. Yanlin was guiding their part through valleys and up cliff faces. Eventually they reached what looked like want once had been an archway. Elder Xin sighed and said, “this was once the entrance to the Thunder sect.”
He looked melancholy while he took in its ruination by the slow reclaiming of nature. There were a number of other crumbling structures that they passed on their way to the quarry. “The outer Sect buildings,” informed Elder Xin.
Suddenly the system blurted in Xiulan’s head, “alert! Money making opportunity detected.”
Xiulan’s sight was overlaid by a massive network of yellow highlights. The party rounded a corner and Elder Xin said, “here it is, the living stone quarry.”
The highlighted object was a massive pillar of glass-like black stone. The network that Xiulan could see appeared to almost look like a root network. Xiulan appraised the stone:
Living Stone – this stone is Qi sensitive like no other known substance. The stone absorbs Qi and uses it to grow larger and harder. The substance is often used to build training facilities that measure the effectiveness of Qi based combat techniques. The stone begins as transparent but then slowly changes colours depending on its Qi saturation. When the stone turns black it will no longer absorb Qi and it’s so hard that it can no longer be mined by conventional means.
Xiulan sucked in a breath. “Well, I can see why that would sell well on the mainland. What did you do to make it full saturated. There must be tones of the stone here and running all throughout the ground.”
Elder Xin winced but answered, “do you know about dragon veins?”
Xiulan did not but the Princess did, and she said, “they produce an abundance of Qi. They are natural Qi veins that vent Qi into the environment. The coast is as Qi rich as it is because of the dragon veins in the ocean.”
Elder Xin nodded and continued, “this used to be the sight of dragon a vein. That is why the Sect settled here. The whole interior was enriched by the Qi it gave off. But then we discovered a small deposit of living stone. At first, we were content to just sell of the little we had found but then after we realised how lucrative it was, we started to use Qi to grow more. The process was slow though and Qi expensive. Then we thought of the dragon vein and…”
Elder Xin trailed off. Xiulan groaned and said, “your sect touched the living stone directly to the vein, didn’t you?”
Elder Xin smiled whirly, “The whole vein was consumed in seconds.”
Xiulan grimaced and more to herself than the group said, “that must be what the network of roots is. The living stone moved to consume the entire dragon vein network.”
Meirong looked horrified but still asked the Elder curiously, “so your sect destroyed the natural Qi in the interior but why did you not harvest the living stone that you had created?”
Elder Xin huffed, “we tried but this black stone is harder than diamonds. We could not work out a way to harvest it. So, we just, left. There was no point sticking around here once the dragon vein and the living stone were gone.”
Xiulan sighed, “and how are we supposed to harvest the stone like this?”
Elder Xin shrugged, “it is the only resource I could think of that the mainland might want from the Kingdom. Besides difficulty does not seem to stop you from earning a profit usually.”
Xiulan settled down on the ground to stare at the black pillar. This was going to require some thinking and strategic planning. She knew what she had to do. At least she had the beginnings of a plan. It would just require her to do something she really did not what to do again. She was going to have to buy from the system shop on credit.
SmithJuly Thank you for reading. If you want five advanced chapters and bonus chapter check out my Patreon.
Xiulan placed her hand on Yen Wen’s shoulder and asked, “what do you want to do with him?”
At their feet was a whimpering man in tribal furs. It was the chief of Yen Wen’s old village. The village had been almost on their way to Elder Xin’s mineral deposit. So, Yen Wen had decided to stop in.
As soon as they had entered the village, they had seen the chief whipping the skin off a man’s back. His ‘crime’ had been that he had resisted when the chief came for his daughter.
As soon as Yen Wen realised the situation, she had approached the chief and with a simple kick, broken his leg at the knee joint. To prevent a pointless fight Xiulan had flared her cultivation to warn off the rest of the chief’s warriors.
Yen Wen calmed down a little when she felt Yen Wen’s hand on her shoulder. “To survive up here they still need someone with cultivation. It is too hard to hunt otherwise. Especially if the Qi in the atmosphere is going to become increasingly dense.”
Xiulan thought for a moment, “maybe they join up with the Golden Hand. The mountains are going to be their staging ground anyway. They can bring the other tribes with them to prevent disaster. We also have the Combine now which can teach them basic cultivation.”
Yen Wen nodded and relaxed, “we have come a long way since I left. Now I really have something to offer them.”
Yen Wen kicked the chief in the face. Snapping his neck and instantly killing him. There other warriors shuddered at the brutal display.
As Yen Wen went off to offer options to the other tribe members Xiulan looked around. It was surprising that her quest to make as much money as possible had led her back here. In the traditions of the Kingdom this was considered a backwards wasteland for cultivation.
After a few minutes of conversation Yen Wen had convinced the tribe to head to Temple Gorge and the Combine branch there. From there they would go wherever in Xiulan’s little ecosystem fit them best.
Leaving the village, they walked northwest into the mountains. Yanlin was guiding their part through valleys and up cliff faces. Eventually they reached what looked like want once had been an archway. Elder Xin sighed and said, “this was once the entrance to the Thunder sect.”
He looked melancholy while he took in its ruination by the slow reclaiming of nature. There were a number of other crumbling structures that they passed on their way to the quarry. “The outer Sect buildings,” informed Elder Xin.
Suddenly the system blurted in Xiulan’s head, “alert! Money making opportunity detected.”
Xiulan’s sight was overlaid by a massive network of yellow highlights. The party rounded a corner and Elder Xin said, “here it is, the living stone quarry.”
The highlighted object was a massive pillar of glass-like black stone. The network that Xiulan could see appeared to almost look like a root network. Xiulan appraised the stone:
Living Stone – this stone is Qi sensitive like no other known substance. The stone absorbs Qi and uses it to grow larger and harder. The substance is often used to build training facilities that measure the effectiveness of Qi based combat techniques. The stone begins as transparent but then slowly changes colours depending on its Qi saturation. When the stone turns black it will no longer absorb Qi and it’s so hard that it can no longer be mined by conventional means.
Xiulan sucked in a breath. “Well, I can see why that would sell well on the mainland. What did you do to make it full saturated. There must be tones of the stone here and running all throughout the ground.”
Elder Xin winced but answered, “do you know about dragon veins?”
Xiulan did not but the Princess did, and she said, “they produce an abundance of Qi. They are natural Qi veins that vent Qi into the environment. The coast is as Qi rich as it is because of the dragon veins in the ocean.”
Elder Xin nodded and continued, “this used to be the sight of dragon a vein. That is why the Sect settled here. The whole interior was enriched by the Qi it gave off. But then we discovered a small deposit of living stone. At first, we were content to just sell of the little we had found but then after we realised how lucrative it was, we started to use Qi to grow more. The process was slow though and Qi expensive. Then we thought of the dragon vein and…”
Elder Xin trailed off. Xiulan groaned and said, “your sect touched the living stone directly to the vein, didn’t you?”
Elder Xin smiled whirly, “The whole vein was consumed in seconds.”
Xiulan grimaced and more to herself than the group said, “that must be what the network of roots is. The living stone moved to consume the entire dragon vein network.”
Meirong looked horrified but still asked the Elder curiously, “so your sect destroyed the natural Qi in the interior but why did you not harvest the living stone that you had created?”
Elder Xin huffed, “we tried but this black stone is harder than diamonds. We could not work out a way to harvest it. So, we just, left. There was no point sticking around here once the dragon vein and the living stone were gone.”
Xiulan sighed, “and how are we supposed to harvest the stone like this?”
Elder Xin shrugged, “it is the only resource I could think of that the mainland might want from the Kingdom. Besides difficulty does not seem to stop you from earning a profit usually.”
Xiulan settled down on the ground to stare at the black pillar. This was going to require some thinking and strategic planning. She knew what she had to do. At least she had the beginnings of a plan. It would just require her to do something she really did not what to do again. She was going to have to buy from the system shop on credit.
SmithJuly Thank you for reading. If you want five advanced chapters and bonus chapter check out my Patreon.
