Druidic Cultivation | Forty-Four

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After descending the stairs, Feng Jiao found himself in a familiar environment. He had a feeling from the way his bedroom looked when he woke up but he could now confirm he was once again in the Crow and Sun. The building was only four stories tall, not including the basement where food was cooked, and was a higher-end establishment in the city. Floor one was the common area, the second floor was private rooms and balconies, so only the top two floors had rooms for rent. That is to say, the room he’d been left in for nearly a week was very expensive. 

After descending the stairs onto the second floor, the smell of exoticly spiced meats wafted into Feng Jiao’s nose, reminding him that he’d likely not had anything solid in his stomach for six days. The private rooms on the second floor had closed doors and dividers so he continued down to the first floor with his two friends in tow. If Elder Nufang had meant for them to join her in a private dining area, she should have mentioned it.

The three of them managed to get a table easily because of their ‘patronage’ renting a room and ordered a large dinner. The strange looks the waiter gave Jiao, along with the dim lighting coming in the windows and plethora of breakfast foods on other patron’s tables, let him know that it was currently morning and his meal of choice was several hours early. He ordered three scrambled egg bowls on the side when he realized the time of day which only further puzzled the waiter. Nodding, he took their order and walked away. 

The three of them continued to look around the restaurant in an attempt to find Elder Nufang and, naturally, she ended up showing up just as the food they ordered was placed on the table to eat. Cao and Jing were seated on the bench across from Jiao so, as the food was placed down, the matured Nufang Mudan pushed Jiao over with her hips and sat in front of his food. She began picking away at the scrambled egg dish while Jiao looked at her incredulously, astonished by her timing. He was convinced she had the ability to turn invisible and used it solely to ambush children after their food showed up.

“Good morning, sleepy head. Took you long enough,” Seemigly satisfied with her barebones greeting, Elder Nufang Mudan proceeded to work her way through Feng Jiao’s breakfast while he looked on with a horrified look on his face. 

“Elder Nu-”

“I told you, I don’t like being called Elder, Junior Apprentice Jiao. It makes me feel old. Do I look like an elder to you?” 

“Sorry. Senior Nufang, you said you had something you wanted to talk to me about when we were upstairs. Did you want to elaborate on that maybe?”

“Mmm. Was going to tell you that we are leaving the city at noon today. You’ve already delayed us long enough so get your last minute purchases out of the way before we head out. Spend your coins, they wont have too much use in the sect. Almost everything there runs on merit points or essense stones, they’ll explain it when you get there. Be at the east gate when the sun is directly overhead. Don’t keep me waiting again. We’ll talk about your performance when we are somewhere more private.

“Oh! One of your other friends will be there too. I’m sure they are going to be very excited to see you.” Elder Nufang Mudan picked up the rest of Jiao’s scrambled egg dish and walked away with it, leaving Jiao annoyed and puzzled at the same time. One of his other friends? He had two friends in this world and both of them were seated across from him at that moment. Naturally, the food thief was out of sight before he could shout and ask who she meant.

Jiao was slightly annoyed at the loss of food but choose not to say anything, that is, until Duan Cao portioned half of her eggs out to him. His father had already warned him that most sects functioned on a merit point system, doling out missions or jobs in exchange for a credit that could be spent at sect-owned stores. For this reason, Jiao had left most of his earnings with his two little sisters and was comfortable spending the rest at expensive restaurants for him and his friends to eat. 

He decided to not let the elder ruin his meal and quickly finished up his meal before setting out with the two girls. From what he gathered over their breakfast talk, Wang Jing had explored the city plenty over the last few days but Duan Cao had stayed by Jiao’s bedside the entire time. Considering the fact that they’d not likely be in Willow Mountain again for a long time, Jiao felt it was his duty to allow Cao to explore and see the sights. Her previously exhausted appearance lightened considerably after breakfast so they set out.

In the past, their stops were limited to food locations almost exclusively. This time, Jiao allowed Jing to navigate them through the winding streets toward the marketplace. The Crow and Sun, the restaurant/exclusive Inn that Jiao had slept in for the last six days, was located on commerce street. Not knowing any better, Jiao had assumed that would be the marketplace but he was quickly corrected of that train of thought.

The commerce street was a more high-end area of town, close to the center of the city, where large shops were rented out and catered to wealthy patrons. That is where you would find the ‘reputable’ blacksmiths or alchemists. The marketplace, however, was in a seedier area of town. Something that was made apparent by the influx of guard patrols as they got closer as well as the ever-darkening color of the pavement and buildings around them.

“The marketplace isn’t like the commerce street. It’s somewhere where anybody can set up a stall and sell whatever they want to. All sorts of trinkets and goods are sold there, some authentic but a lot of them are counterfeit. Whether or not you make a good deal is up to your own perception and luck.” In her six days of exploring, Wang Jing had only enjoyed the time she spent wandering around the marketplace and watching people barter. Something about the gambling nature of purchasing something that could be worthless was thrilling for her to watch.

Feng Jiao had to admit that the more he heard about the place, the more charm he could see in it. Although Jiao was running low on money, having spent much of on expensive meals a the Crow and Sun, he was more than willing to go window shopping. The three of them had a few hours to kill before they needed to be at the gate anyways and Jiao wasn’t in the mood to meditate. Since he woke up he’d felt that his dantian felt sort of sluggish and figured he needed to give it a rest. 

Whatever the issue was, he was sure Aideen would visit him in his dreams that night and try to explain it, although she could only communicate emotions and images while in bird form. For the upteenth time in the last six months, Jiao found himself wishing it was the summer solstice already. Until he figured out how to proceed with granting Aideen her independence from her prison of martial spiritism, the summer solstice was the only time he’d be able to communicate with her in a verbal manner. Or at least, that is what he thought.

The marketplace was just as Jing described it to them, a never ending crowd hustling and bustling back and forth between a seemingly infinite number of stalls. At first appearance, there seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the layout of the place, with carts set up anywhere they could find space and several vendors having no cart at all, either hawking their wares from where they hung on the inside of their robes or on carpets laid out on the ground. The entire place was just one huge ball of chaos. Jiao was not surprised at all that the mischievous Jing had spent most of her week there.

The three children were quickly absorbed into the throng of shoppers and had a confusingly easy time navigating the crowd. After being assimilated, there appeared to be a pattern to the madness which Jiao picked up on quickly, navigating the chaotic current of bodies and fluttering from stall to stall. Jiao was able to find medicinal pills that smelled genuine, herbs that looked vibrant, and magnificent looking weapons for sale. Naturally, each and every one of them was a forgery or of much lower quality than what was advertised. 

“Why does the city let so many scam artists set up within their walls? I don’t see how this could possibly be good for business.” Cao, the innocent little girl that she was, didn’t see the appeal of gambling at all. As far as she was concerned, each of these peddlers was a thief stealing the food out of the mouths of children. Jiao figured it out though, and Jing confirmed it.

“Each of the stands is required to sell at least one legitimate item per day at a steep discount, at least 40% under market value. So long as they do that, the city won’t bother them. Of course, once they item is sold for the day they can just restock it with a counterfeit. That’s why the place is so busy when the sun has just barely risen. The early birds get the worm, or at least that’s what they think.” Jing explained with a scholarly look on her face.

“But why?” Cao still didn’t understand why the city let merchants prey on unsuspecting citizens. Even if they wanted to gamble in order to make money, the ones most likely to be doing such a risky strategy would be people who didn’t have too much money to start with.

This time, it was Jiao who answered the question. 

“Money. Taxes, specifically.” Cao furrowed her brows as she thought about how selfish the city would have to be to allow such predatory business practices just to earn money from taxes. At the same time, Cao understood the allure of tax money. With the scammers making such large profits on their counterfeit goods, they were able to contribute more to the city in taxes. Taxes on an actual sale might be around 2% but on bad goods, the city could pocket at least 20% of the profit and nobody would blink.

After wandering around for an hour, the group of three was deposited from the crowd in front of a stall that had nobody perusing the goods, something that was very strange. In a massive crowd, this was the first merchant that they found with no customers. Sitting on the mat was an old man with a bald head, covered in wrinkles and liver spots. He sat in the middle of a dingy rug, covered in holes and dirt, twisting his long white mustache around his finger and staring at nothing. A second later, Feng Jiao realized that the old man was blind. 

Each one of these things stacked up to build his curiosity further and further. Just as he was about to step forward, he heard a whisper in the crowd.

“Is that him?” 

“Shh, but yeah. That’s the Willow Tree’s famous Scam Guru. Nobody has every figured out what he sells that is legitimate. Everyone says that the guard just doesn’t arrest him because he is blind and old and that he has never sold a real good in his life.”

If the blind man heard the gossipers, his face did not show it. His jaded eyes just gazed off into the distance while he had a calming smile on his face. Jiao stopped to ponder what he was hearing and, as he did, the old man frowned. His blind eyes turned toward Jiao and stared right into his face. The gentle smile returned to the decrepit old geezer’s face and Jiao decided to browse his wares after all.