Dao of the Deal

While Muchen kept plugging away at his cultivation, the hired hands from Li Village moved on to further construction projects on top of the mountain. After another few weeks of effort and another dent in Muchen's silver stockpile, their little compound at the waist of the mountain had been transformed.

The rammed earth buildings were gone. In their place were a trio of brick houses. One for Yize and Chuhua, one for Muchen and Xinyi, and a third left vacant for their new student. While their design was relatively simple, the brick construction offered a reassuring solidity to them, and overall their compound was starting to look somewhat sect-like.

That appearance would soon be subject to outside scrutiny. A week after the buildings were finished, a month after the completion of the electrical mill, Yize returned from his sales trip. He brought with them their first officially recruited sect cultivator. Chuhua had spotted them while they were still some distance away and called Muchen out to welcome their wandering disciples home.

Huichen plodded up the slope at the same pace that he always did. The change in driver had not had any visible effect on the old mule. Muchen wondered sometimes if he even needed anybody in the driver's seat.

Yize looked as relaxed as ever as he drove the cart to its final destination. Next to him, Zihan was peering around with obvious curiosity. She was mindful enough to fix her attention on Muchen once the cart came to a stop, at least.

From what Muchen could see as the cart approached their courtyard, it at least looked like Yize and Zihan were getting along. He would have liked to have a bit more time to get the sect presentable before letting Zihan get a look at it, but it was probably for the best that she had met up with Yize and hitched a ride. At the very least, she was no doubt in a better mood for not having had to wander through the wilderness looking for their sect.

"Welcome home," Muchen said.

"Good to be back," Yize said, before straightening up under Chuhua's glare. "Sect leader."

There was a flash of surprise in Zihan's eye for just a moment before she offered him a formal bow. "Sect leader."

"I'm glad you arrived safely," Muchen said, gesturing for her to straighten up. "I apologize for the deception. I prefer to keep a low profile."

Zihan didn't reply right away, instead taking another look around their little courtyard. "I see."

He could well imagine her shock. First of all, it had to be disquieting that he had misrepresented his position. Such things weren't unheard of, but it still would have put her a little off balance. Second, the physical structure of their sect. While a set of brick buildings was a substantial upgrade over what had been there before, Zihan naturally wouldn't compare her new sect to the earthen buildings used by the peasantry.

Compared to the lavish construction of one of the hegemon sects, or even the prosperous appearance of their primary lackeys, Flower Mountain obviously fell far behind. There were no spiritual treasures on display, no obviously spiritual materials used in the construction of the sect, and even mortal ornamentation like gold or jade was conspicuous in its absence.

"Our sect focuses on personal improvement," Muchen said. "On the long road of immortal cultivation, there's no need to be distracted by material things."

While most of the sects in the Qianzhan Continent didn't actually practice any sort of asceticism, most of them at least paid lip service to the prospect. With any luck, Zihan would buy Muchen's line that Flower Mountain was just particularly picky about remaining free from material obsessions.

Muchen knew that his deception regarding the sect's origins was a thin reed at best. The only reason there was any chance of pulling it off was the fact that Xinyi's strength would discourage Zihan from asking any probing questions.

Strictly speaking, he didn't need her to buy into the cover story as long as she stuck around and followed Xinyi's directions. Still, he'd be happier if he could inspire a bit of respect for the sect and, by the way, for his position as sect leader.

"I see," Zihan said, her voice even.

"I'm going to head in," Yize said. "The refined wine all sold well at Jiaoqu Town. I was only able to move six boxes of perfume. After picking up a few barrels of wine for refinement, we netted a profit of two hundred and ten taels."

Muchen kept a professional smile on his face, although he could feel it getting a bit strained as Yize handed over a heavy purse. It was welcome to add the silver to their coffers—their business had seen an awful lot of cash outflow into capital investment, so it was nice to see some silver coming back the other way as income—but his timing was a bit off.

"Our sect puts an emphasis on productivity as well," Muchen said. "After all, it's our duty to improve the world around us when we can."

"By making money?" Zihan asked.

Muchen smiled, feeling a bit of relief. It wasn't an easy question, exactly, but thanks to his discussions with Xinyi he'd had plenty of practice translating general economic principles into something that could be accepted on the Qianzhan Continent.

"It's difficult to measure our effects on the world around us," Muchen said. "Perhaps at some legendary level of cultivation it's possible to see such things at a glance, but for the rest of us it's not so easy."

He did his best to adopt the posture of a distinguished teacher. It was made more difficult by the fact that he and Zihan were around the same age, but his title of sect leader added some gravitas. He hoped.

"When somebody pays five silver taels for a box of perfume," Muchen said, "what does that tell you?"

Zihan wrinkled her nose. "That they put too much stock in frivolous things."

"Well, perhaps," Muchen said. Life on the frontier hadn't given Zihan much cause to value life's finer things. "But specifically, do they want the five taels more or the perfume more?"

She cocked her head to the side. "The perfume."

"Exactly!" Muchen said. "So by making and then parting with the perfume, we've made their lives at least five taels better off, by their own estimation."

"Isn't their estimation wrong?" Zihan asked.

"Each person has their own approach to life," Muchen said, "just as we each follow our own dao. The important thing is that we help people increase their own personal satisfaction."

"So you don't care about making money?" Zihan asked. She sounded skeptical.

"We need our daily necessities, and I do prefer to obtain such things through purchase rather than by force," Muchen said, "but really, the weight of the silver in our storehouse is most important as a measure of how much happiness we've brought to the people around us."

She was still giving him a dubious look, but at least she didn't voice an immediate objection.

"It's a complicated topic, and I'm always happy to answer your questions," Muchen said. It wasn't just for the purpose of keeping her convinced of the profound nature of the Flower Mountain sect. Cultivators tended to turn to violence to solve their problems, and he expected a cultivator raised on the border with the northern wastes would be even more prone to such thinking. Muchen would be glad for any chance he could get to turn Zihan towards his own, more practical leanings. "Once you get settled in I'll show you our cultivation room."

Zihan grabbed a pair of cloth bundles out of the back of the cart. She had packed light, for a person traveling halfway across the continent. It was the work of a moment to lead her towards the open building that was to be her residence. She dropped the bundles in the middle of the room in lieu of unpacking.

Muchen wasn't sure if she was just excited to start to learn the secrets of cultivating her foundation, or if she just wasn't quite ready to commit to a long term stay at Flower Mountain. For now, he decided to focus on the positive.

She did seem curious as he led her to the back mountain. While Xinyi would be in charge of Zihan's actual instruction, Muchen figured that her first actual training session would get off to a better start if she had some idea of what to expect.

The lonely watermill didn't look too impressive, sitting by itself alongside the small river. Part of Muchen wanted to do something to jazz it up a little, to give it an appearance commensurate with its importance. It was, after all, Qianzhan Continent's first electrical generator, as well as an important cultivation resource.

Unfortunately, he couldn't think of anything to tack on to the outside that would give the look he was looking for. At least, nothing within an acceptable price range. Besides, reasonably speaking, it was probably better to be low key. Looking rich was the first step down the road to being robbed.

Maybe someday if they ever established themselves as a major force he could come back and clad the outside with precious materials. Although, by that time, the simple and unadorned look would probably be considered a treasured tradition.

Well, maybe the simple design had a sort of understated elegance to it. Or beauty in simplicity, something like that. Muchen would have to see which pitch went over the best with his disciples. Maybe someday they could give the building a cool name, at least.

He put those irrelevant thoughts to one side as he led Zihan inside. She studied the waterwheel for a moment before following him.

"We cultivate in a mill?" she asked. She sounded a little confused, but willing to go along with it. Maybe she thought it was there as some kind of psychological support. Or background noise.

"Not just any mill," Muchen said, leading the way inside. "Our sect's cultivation scripture focuses on the mastery of lightning energy."

Muchen wasn't qualified to explain electricity to someone from such a backwards tech base. He probably wasn't qualified to explain electricity to anybody, to be honest. On the bright side, it wasn't like Zihan needed to learn how to wire up a home or build her own electric generator. It was worth trying to at least teach her enough to deepen her ability to use the Storm Dragon scripture.

He threw the switch that connected the water wheel to the generator. A moment later, the circle of flicker sparks leapt to life with a satisfying cacophony of cracks. Muchen glanced at his audience, happy to finally see a properly impressed expression on her face.

"A lightning bolt is a great release of lightning energy, stretching from the heavens to the earth in an instant," Muchen continued, "but it is not the only form of lightning energy. Here you can see it harnessed on a smaller scale."

Zihan stepped closer to the circle of sparks, taking note of the meditation mat before turning her attention back to the flickering sparks. "These are each bolts of lightning?"

"Lightning in miniature," Muchen said. "This much isn't enough to knock down a tree or kill a cultivator, but it is enough to purify the surrounding spiritual energy. Soon enough the meditation mat will be surrounded solely by lightning aspected spiritual energy."

She nodded, still entranced by the flickering sparks.

"You can see how the lightning energy travels along the copper wires until it's given a chance to leap through the air," Muchen said. "In theory we could use a grid of wires, criss-crossing the entire Qianzhan Continent, to provide easy access to the lightning energy."

Zihan tore her attention away from the sparks to fix him with a curious gaze. "Why?"

"Just as the water pushing the waterwheel can be turned into lightning energy," Muchen said, "lightning energy could be used to drive a wheel. Not to mention whatever machinery that wheel could be attached to."

He paused for a moment, both to let Zihan process the information, and to organize his own thoughts. Trying to explain the full extent of modern technology was hopeless. Even telling her about the idea of an electric motor was a stretch. Muchen didn't know how to build one and he doubted anybody would put together a practical use for an electrical grid in his lifetime.

Well, within an ordinary mortal lifetime.

"You'll learn more about the sect's scripture when you begin your formal training under Xinyi," he said, "but I suppose it won't hurt to tell you this much in advance."

Zihan nodded, the confusion on her face replaced with an eager expression. Even in a different world, a nervous student could hardly resist the allure of advance information she could use to impress her new teacher.

"You will have to visualize the power of lightning energy," Muchen said. "The most powerful thing that you can think of. For most people, that would be a bolt of lightning."

Zihan thought for a moment. Muchen held his silence. The best lessons were what a student could put together for herself.

"This, this electric wheel and wiring," Zihan said, "is it more powerful than a bolt of lightning?"

"Not as it is now," Muchen said. "But it could be. Lightning can kill an animal or split a tree, but can it divert the course of a river?"

Zihan shook her head.

"Then when all the power of a river is converted into lightning energy," Muchen said, "won't it be stronger than a lightning bolt?"

Zihan cocked her head in thought, then nodded again.

"You'll have time to consider it," Muchen said.

Xinyi hadn't come to him to share her lesson plan, but she had related the gist of it. Namely, that Zihan wouldn't be allowed to start on the foundation building section of the Storm Dragon scripture until she had properly relearned the basics of both cultivation and combat.

Muchen had a few reasons to give her a chance to ponder difficult metaphysical questions now. For one thing, he thought it fit the image of a high level sect to make its new disciples ponder difficult questions. For another, he really did want to give her a bit of a leg up on her new scripture, and maybe use her as a test dummy for the changes he wanted to make. Fundamentally, though, he thought the sneak peek at what she would be learning would keep her motivated as she was subjected to the harsh reality of Xinyi's idea of appropriate remedial lessons over the coming weeks.