Chapter 61 - One Last Celebratory Dinner

Zou Tian had never eaten so well. Gone were the times when he had no idea when he would next find food. Instead, since being asked to move into the warehouse, he’d been given three meals a day and was allowed to eat as much as he wanted at each of them. He was even occasionally served dessert.

It was amazing.

Access to plentiful food wasn’t the only amazing thing, though. Watching the spars the previous day was one of the most fun things Zou Tian had experienced in his life. Street rats like him didn’t exactly get to go to shows. Their only form of entertainment was spectating fights between other street rats.

To be invited as a guest of a sect to observe such an event in their arena was a surreal occurrence, especially considering he sat with two Poison Claw Sect elders. He had felt so important.

And the contests themselves were so interesting. One on one spear fighting. An archery match featuring insane trick shots. Two head-to-head fights between cultivators.

Then, as if all that wasn’t enough, he learned he was to be taught cultivation and become Chao Su’s disciple. Zou Tian, the street rat, was to become Zou Tian, the cultivator. Who would have ever believed it?

And all those extraordinary changes were due to the man who was to become his new master, who he had already been directed to refer to as Master.

His first impression of Chao Su had been that he was one scary cultivator. That opinion had been slightly modified. To his disciples and people on his side, he was actually quite personable. Nice was probably a better descriptor.

Of course, unfathomable was the most apt description for him. His actions and speech and abilities frequently defied explanations. But contrary to his youthful appearance, he seemingly was actually an old monster, and that description explained all eccentricities.

Zou Tian had no idea how much of his master’s kindness was an act. He would definitely prefer not to be on Master’s bad side, though, because he was still one scary cultivator to his enemies.

Elder Pan was in charge of the Poison Claw Sect martial pavilion. There was only so much that a street rat like Zou Tian knew about sects, but that position seemed really important. Despite that high status, Elder Pan deferred to Elder Kang, meaning the latter must be even more important.

Both men showed Chao Su much face.



If those two men were as high up in one of the three major sects in the city as Zou Tian believed and they both held Master in high regard, exactly how important was Master?

Scary.

Zou Tian wasn’t an idiot. He’d recently learned that his ability to blend into his surroundings was a manifestation of shadow aspected qi, and everyone knew what task was assigned to cultivators who utilized shadow qi—assassination.

Poisoning people, slitting throats while people slept, killing people at all, wasn’t what he had wanted for his life, but he was more scared of Master than conflicted over performing such duties.

Zou Tian resolved that he would do anything and everything Master asked of him.

“Kids, time to go,” Master said.

The job required of the three disciples was to bring three of the wagons to the market in order to pick up the load of food for the village that was to be their new home.

“I want each of you to hook up an ox to a wagon and drive it. I’ll ride with Zou Tian and show him the ropes.” Master chuckled. “Literally. Because, you know, reins, right?”

The twins shared a glance.

“Master,” Yang Ru said. “One ox isn’t really enough to pull a fully loaded wagon. The sole one we had at the time really struggled pulling the wood. It would be better to use a team of at least two.”

“Oh. I guess we’re going to need yokes, then.” Master sighed. “Probably six more oxen then, too, since we’re going to be using all the wagons at once soon.”

That conversation was interesting for two reasons. One, Master apparently didn’t know to use two oxen, meaning he wasn’t as all knowing as he seemed. Two, Yang Ru had no problem correcting Master, and Master didn’t object in any way to being corrected, instead simply agreeing and taking corrective measures.

Showing any sign of not knowing something and allowing a disciple to correct them was not how Zou Tian thought cultivators acted. In fact, he was almost positive the exact opposite was true. A master always strove to appear to know everything even if he didn’t, and a disciple who dared offer correction to his master would soon find himself in deep trouble if not expelled from the sect or killed outright.

If he were to be a disciple, he needed to understand how he was expected to behave, so he filed the information away in his head.

The four of them went to get six yokes and six oxen, stopping along the way for Master to buy multiple ready-made meals at every decent street stall they passed. After the second one, Yang Xiu asked him what he was doing.

“I was thinking about how there are going to be around twenty of us traveling back to the village and figured we might not want to cook every meal. Having breakfast already prepared and not having to stop for lunch could mean we can travel an hour or two extra a day, right? And since my ring stores things essentially in stasis, I realized I could buy meals from these vendors and take them out hot and fresh when we’re ready for them. And since they’re so cheap, I figured I’d stock up.”

Another interesting fact—Master was okay with his disciples questioning him and very willing to explain his exact reasoning. Those attitudes also conflicted with how Zou Tian believed most cultivators behaved, especially those serving as a master to a disciple.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

When they reached the food market, workers piled the three wagons high with supplies, and the disciples had to stop multiple times on the way back to pick up items that spilled. Finally, though, they made it back to the warehouse. It was a bit of a logistical challenge to get all three filled wagons inside, and even the big open space inside the warehouse began to feel crowded with six huge wagons, a dozen oxen, and the camping/sleeping area they’d set up.

“Ugh,” Master said. “I’d put the animals outside if I weren’t so afraid of them being stolen.”

“Wouldn’t Master detect anyone who tried to take them?” Yang Xiu said.

“Not if I were asleep or if they were mortal. Spirit beasts and cultivators can’t hide from me, but mundane animals and people aren’t detectable at all to my spiritual sense.”

That simple statement was another divergence from how Zou Tian believed normal cultivators to behave. To announce details of your abilities or, even more strange, your weaknesses was anathema to a sect member.

Zou Tian returned his attention to the actual conversation. He actually felt he could contribute something to the conversation but still didn’t feel comfortable doing so. His face must have showed his thoughts, though.

“Do you have something to add, Zou Tian?” Master said.



“This lowly one feels uncomfortable offering a suggestion, Master.”

“It’s fine. Even if I don’t like the idea, I won’t get mad at you.”

Zou Tian suspected that statement to be true, but it still felt weird to him to, in a way, correct such a powerful man. “This lowly one, as a street rat in this city, would not even consider touching the Esteemed Master Cultivator’s animals or anything else in or around this warehouse. This lowly one believes the local gangs will feel the same.”

“What? I thought they had greed in their eyes or however you put it even after we killed those cultivators. Did something change?”

“This lowly one would never dare interfere with the business of one who wears a token denoting them a friend of any of the three sects represented in the city, Master. In the past, sects have taken such interference … badly. There have been … purges, Master.”

“Ah. These tokens are a bit more significant than I thought,” Master said. “You really believe the oxen will be safe?”

“This lowly one believes the only people who would dare touch them is a cultivator from a rival sect.”

“And the chances of that are small because what would their motivation be for such a petty act? Okay. Let’s move them outside, then.”

It was something of a challenge to maneuver all the oxen outside and get them tied up, but the disciples eventually managed. As soon as the door closed, Master stored the excess food in his ring, leaving the wagon tops flat.

Another factoid—Master went to great lengths to hide how much material his ring holds even if he didn’t do a great job for anyone truly paying attention.

That quirk at least made sense. Zou Tian didn’t know much about spatial rings, but it was common knowledge that the amount of storage space was one of the determinants of value. If Master’s ring had an outrageously big storage space, that quality becoming known might ignite avarice that would be troublesome to deal with.

All four of them spent the next day at the Poison Claw Sect, Senior Brother and Sister using the cultivation rooms. Master had asked Elder Kang if Zou Tian could explore on his own, but the elder said it wasn’t entirely safe for a mortal to walk the sect grounds unescorted, especially since mortals couldn’t be given the token that indicated they were a friend to the sect.

Zou Tian didn’t mind, though. For one thing, the thought of navigating the sect without protection was terrifying, but mostly, he found Master interesting. Besides, Zou Tian had never thought he’d be able to visit a sect library. His only access to reading material was when someone might throw away a scroll or a book that street trash like him happened to run across.

That night, they all dressed in their best robes, and Master got them a table at the best restaurant in the city. Apparently, the cultivation room had been a great success because both Senior Brother and Sister advanced to minor realm seven, which Master treated as a big accomplishment.

Zou Tian couldn’t wait until he was allowed to start cultivating. Maybe he’d start to feel less out of place among the three cultivators.

The next two days, he spent either at the sect watching Senior Brother and Sister training and sparring or following Master around buying mass quantities of meals from street vendors. He did buy one other thing that seemed strange, a piece of something he called quartz that had been shaped into a sphere roughly four inches in diameter.

Zou Tian was still too intimidated to ask why the object was important, and Master hadn’t volunteered the information.

The morning after, Master woke up excited. “Get all your sightseeing done today and tomorrow, kids, because the day after that, we’re finally getting back on the road toward the village.”

Senior Brother and Sister had nothing they wanted to see in the city itself and opted to spend more time at the sect. Master chose Zou Tian to accompany him to take a wagon to pick up a load of herbs. This time, the cargo didn’t overflow the bottom, so the trip back was much easier.

Zou Tian, after thinking and rethinking about how Senior Brother and Sister interacted with Master, asked him what the purpose of the herbs was.

“Points, my little man. Points.”

Zou Tian was none the wiser from the response, but he felt glad his conclusion regarding Master’s attitude toward the question was correct.

The next morning, Master woke up happy again.

“The spears should be ready today!” Master said. “I know I should give them till at least afternoon before I check, but it’s going to be hard to wait.”

Contrary to his words, it didn’t seem like he had all that much difficulty killing time. With Zou Tian trailing behind, Master spent the morning going from food vendor to food vendor buying whatever meals they had ready.



“I wonder how much I’ve spent on food like this,” Master said.

Zou Tian wasn’t sure if the question was supposed to be rhetorical or not, but he answered anyway. “Just shy of two thousand silver taels if my calculations are correct, Master.”

“It’s amazing that you knew that. And how many meals did I purchase for that astronomical amount?”

“Just over six thousand, Master.”

“I think you are going to be a very useful addition to our team.”

Zou Tian was grateful his master had that sentiment, but he didn’t see why his master had suddenly stated it. There was no one nearby who looked like a target for his master to assassinate.

Finally, his master deemed it time to take a wagon to the blacksmith who held the finished spears. The man allowed Shi Long to present the first one to Master.

The wood of the eight-foot-long shaft, instead of being its natural orangish shade, had turned a deep red, and the bluish metal attached to one end tapered to what looked like a wickedly sharp point.

Master hefted the spear. “Nice weight. Good balance. I like it. I like it a lot.” The weapon disappeared into his storage ring.

“Between the natural hardening process employed by the master woodworker and the alchemical treatment,” the blacksmith said, “the spear should withstand sword strikes from an enemy at the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm without taking any damage, and both the wood and the metal are designed to transmit qi with little resistance or loss. It is a formidable weapon. If this one were to put it up for auction, this one would set the reserve at one thousand seven hundred fifty taels.”

Master said each one cost six hundred ten. Over a thousand taels profit per spear wasn’t bad. Not that Master was planning on selling the weapons. Zou Tian didn’t know what Master wanted them for, but he seemed to value them more than as just a commodity.

That night, the five, including Shi Long, had one last celebratory dinner before going to bed early. They were meeting the rest of their traveling group at dawn.