PtM Book 17 - Chapter 29: Rest and Recuperation

3/3 this week!

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After a bitter year of fighting with blood cultivators, evading corpse puppeteers, and nearly being turned into a corpse puppet himself, Cha Ming returned to the Heartforge Realm for an extended recovery. And unlike the Chasewind Plane, which was in a constant state of flux, the Heartforge Realm remained relatively unchanged.

Cha Ming and Huxian spent an entire week relaxing, cooking, drinking tea, and otherwise decompressing. They ignored the flood of craftsmen and managers that came to find them for clarifications on orders, as it wouldn’t kill them to wait.They grudgingly got back to the grind after the week was over.

Cha Ming’s first order of business was aggressively expanding the Clear Sky Conglomerate in the True Blood and Puppet Lighting subregions, as well as the Hallowed Turtle Ox Region, which he’d neglected while fleeing for his life for an entire year.

Expanding storefronts meant expanding production. Production capacity soon became an issue, and Cha Ming had no choice but to expand his workshops in the Heartforge Realm and hire many more craftsmen.

Costs began to rise, and with margins so low, this threatened the stability of the entire system. Fortunately, Cha Ming had long since planned for this eventuality. Local labor was a key part of his business development plan. Now that the Painted Daoist population was sufficiently large, there was no lack of cultivators looking for work.

Cha Ming spent no small amount of effort training up local craftsmen, creating training obelisks for the various crafts, and securing mines and fields to gather and grow basic materials. Transcendent materials were difficult to grow in large numbers, and often required setting up entire ecosystems.

The Chasewind Plane had a very peculiar law makeup, but with a little help from the sects, he was able to secure a steady supply of ingredients. The goal was to make the Chasewind Plane self-sufficient. He wouldn’t always be there to help them and wanted to make sure that Painted Daoists were there to stay after the Heartforge Trials were over.

It took a month for the three regions to finally settle on a framework for the Bloodstorm Region. They held a large ceremony where gifts were exchanged, and documents were signed. Cha Ming happily handed over the keys to the Bloodstorm Mountain formation, and began making plans for his other obligations.

The next step was negotiating cross-planetary trade deals and setting up a comprehensive teleportation network. The duo acted as a go-between major sects, clans, enclaves, and tribes, setting up many larger deals that, while this was not as profitable as direct trade, required far less involvement on their part.

More trade meant more demand for transportation. Huxian got extremely busy. Fortunately, this doubled up as training for fox, so it wasn’t a complete waste of his time.

Once the trade deals were settled and the construction of teleportation formations was under way, Cha Ming made good on his promise to the Bloodstorm Region. He took in 3,000 of their most promising cultivators and took in another 3,000 demonic cultivators from the Hallowed Turtle Ox Region for good measure.

Cha Ming did not immediately set out to do battle in the blighted south. He spent many months creating the late rune carving and peak rune carving versions of his core painting talismans. He then spent the next three years refining his techniques and studying the mysteries of the unlimited Core Painting Talisman, which, thus far, he hadn’t been able to mass produce.

His breakthrough came when he gained enlightenment on the Concepts of Grafting and Amputation, then condensed a false rune for these same concepts. A balance of the five elements was the key to producing the talismans, and with the right modifications, it was possible to have five talisman artists produce a single core painting talisman that would allow one to advance all the way to the peak of law stitching.

These new talismans became all the rage on the Chasewind Plane, as they allowed for Painted Daoists to exceed the previous limit of peak rune carving. He was forced to set up several more workshops in both the Heartforge Realm and on the Chasewind Plane.

There were many who tried to copy these talismans, but their efforts came to naught. Cha Ming had applied for a karmic patent, and any who tried to copy the talismans without his license and permission would be struck by curse and pestilence and heavenly tribulation.

Cha Ming was horrified by the sheer effectiveness of the karmic enforcement. He brought it up to Godking Heavenbind during one of their training sessions. “Of course patents are effective,” the Godking said. “Why else would we bother?”

“I just never expected the enforcement to be so cruel,” Cha Ming said. “I saw a man get hit by a flying ship and bounce into a zoo, where he was mauled to death!”

“You need to be cruel if you want to enforce your intellectual property,” Godking Heavenbind said. “But if you feel guilty, go ahead and apply for a dissolution.” Theoretically, Cha Ming was all for that, but practically, it wasn’t a good idea.

Godking Heavenbind was a go-getter. He was always trying out new ideas and training regimes. He’d been quite impressed by Cha Ming’s adventures in the Bloodstorm Region and had decided to implement puppet lightning into his training routine to see if it would have any effect.

Cha Ming was currently visiting the Godking’s office, but he’d arrived at a bad time. Godking Heavenbind had him sit down as he completed a kettle-bell workout, followed by a series of suspension-training exercises that electrified the Godking with immortal-king-grade puppet lightning at random intervals to increase the difficulty.

The Godking expressed disappointment at the end of his workout. “The lightning hasn’t been working out as well as I’d hoped. They say no pain, no gain, but why am I not gaining after going through so much?”

“Sometimes, it’s just difficult to advance,” Cha Ming said. “At least you’re still improving. I’m short on immortal jades, so my cultivation is stuck. I don’t know how to go about improving my inner world either.”

“At least your problem can be solved with money,” said the Godking.

“Most transcendents don’t have a single immortal jade, and I need hundreds,” Cha Ming said.

“It’s pocket change to me, but I’m afraid I can’t help you,” the Godking said. “Rules being rules and all. But I can give you some pointers on growing your inner world.”

“Please do so,” Cha Ming said. “I’m at my wits end. No matter what I try, it doesn’t work.”

“What you need is primal chaos energy - the stuff that worlds are built of,” Godking Heavenbind said. “It’s relatively slow, so most true gods absorb material planes directly. But for someone like you, slow is ideal.”

“Where would I even find primal chaos energy?” Cha Ming asked.

Godking Heavenbind gave Cha Ming a strange look. “The void, obviously. You just fly around. There are pockets of it everywhere.”

“That seems very risky at my realm,” Cha Ming said.

“At your realm yes, but once you reach the Shell Marking Realm? Not at all,” Godking Heavenbind said. “With a foundation like yours, you’ll have monstrous defenses. You’ll be able to completely ignore weaker void turbulence and void fissures.”

“Maybe there’s a technique I can rely on until then,” Cha Ming said. “I’ll talk to Immortal Heartlock. Even so, I’m still in a bind. I can’t advance my body cultivation without advancing my law cultivation.”

“Why are you in a hurry?” Godking Heavenbind said. “You’re still improving. You’re now a violet-gold body cultivator, and you’re making great progress on breaking down your techniques and making them your own.”

“How am I ever going to solve my money problem if I don’t start now?” Cha Ming said.

“I wish I could help you, Clear Sky, but the rules are the rules,” said the God king.

“That’s why I was hoping you could take a look at these,” Cha Ming said. He took out a core-painting talisman and placed it on his desk. “Didn’t you want to talk to me about these? You said immortal kings and Godkings wanted to purchase some.”

“This…” The Godking shook his head. “There’s interest, Clear Sky, but I don’t think you’ll make a huge fortune. There are tens of thousands of alternative cultivation techniques out there. I’m sure you’ve noticed them popping up in your realm by now.”

Indeed, a few had. Cao Wenluan had tried pushing into the Bloodstorm Region not too long ago and had discovered how painful it was to try and hold land when every tenth person in the region was a cultivator.

Cao Wenluan was a very adaptable individual. He’d directly purchased a berserker cultivation method for his people using a large number of points and had every mortal that could raise a weapon start cultivating it.

Berserker cultivation arts were violent, but anyone could practice them. All that was required for a mortal to become a cultivator was killing, killing, and more killing. With enough slaughter energy, they could become transcendent cultivators, and even rise to become gods. Their combat potential was much higher than Cha Ming’s painted Daoists.

Wei Longshen was another early adopter, but instead of Cao Wenluan’s aggressive approach, he purchased a method that was compatible with his Joss Smoke Region. The cultivators of his region already placed heavy emphasis on ancestral spirits and death qi. He didn’t even have to convince them that training shamanic cultivators was a good idea. To them, it was simple common sense.

“I know that it’s one cultivation method among many,” Cha Ming said. “But I’d wager that it has advantages that the others don’t. You did approach me about it.”

“It’s a very versatile cultivation method,” the Godking admitted. “It will adapt to most cultivators and most environments, and it can mimic the three great paths – immortal, divine, and demonic cultivation.”

“But…” Cha Ming said.

“But so what?” the Godking asked. “Your patent is only good for a thousand years. They’ll copy it once the patent expires. It’s only worth so much. At most, gods could use these talismans to strengthen their inner world. It won’t even give them any permanent gains.”

“I understand,” Cha Ming said. “Talismans like this isn’t worth much, because it’s just an external treasure. It can’t affect the core of their inner universe.”

The Godking nodded. “It’s good that you know it. Ultimately, these core painting talismans are cheap tools. They’re about as useful as any other weapon.”

“But what if I had this?” Cha Ming asked. He summoned a clear talisman from his spiritual sea and placed it on the table.

The Godking picked up the talisman with great skepticism. “This…” he said. Then his eyes widened. “This is trouble. Wait here.”

A field of divine energy wrapped around Heavenbind’s office like a bubble. It was the single most powerful use of energy Cha Ming had ever witnessed. Barely a moment passed before Godking Heavenbind reappeared with Cha Ming’s law instructor, Immortal White.

“This had better be worth my time, because you just interrupted a very crucial… oh?” Immortal White saw the Dao Origins Talisman, grabbed it, and inspected it with great interest. “Isn’t this like those new core painting talismans?” His eyes flickered between Godking Heavenbind and Cha Ming. “I see what’s going on.”

Immortal White flicked the talisman towards Cha Ming. It twirled around him before landing gently in his palm like an adorable puppy. “Yes. It’s definitely yours.”

“Which should be impossible,” Godking Heavenbind said.

“Well it’s here in front of us, so we can’t say that anymore,” Immortal White said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “But first things first: Clear Sky, do you have any idea how risky it was to show us this talisman?”

“I-“

“No, don’t answer that. You clearly didn’t,” Immortal White said. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have done so with twice your courage.”

Cha Ming scratched his head nervously. “I brought this out, instructors, because I’m in great need immortal jades. The formation inside my residence isn’t good enough. I figure this talisman is pretty valuable. Perhaps it even has research potential?”

Immortal White sighed. “Of course it’s about money. It’s always about money.” He inspected the talisman with a bemused expression. “What has this world come to? A mere transcendent takes out a talisman worth a fortune, and all he’s looking for are least-quality immortal jades.”

“I thought it was pretty funny too,” Godking Heavenbind said. “He probably doesn’t even know what it is.”

“From what I understand, this talisman can be used to communicate with the Dao Origins of a realm,” Cha Ming said. Immortal White and Godking Heavenbind exchanged a look, then burst out laughing. “What’s so funny?” Cha Ming asked. “I did it once. I’m pretty sure that’s what it does.”

“That is only the most superficial use of this talisman, Clear Sky,” Immortal White said. “Your realm is too limited, so you couldn’t possibly understand the complexity of this object. Even if it is your intrinsic, soul-bound talisman.”

“Then what does it do?” Cha Ming asked.

“It’s clearly a Dao Origin Blueprint,” Godking Heavenbind said.

Cha Ming blinked. “What does that even mean?”

Immortal White didn’t answer immediately. He first walked up to Godking Heavenbind’s desk, where Cha Ming had laid out the many variations of his Core Painting Talismans. He inspected them one by one, starting from weakest version and working his way up to the universal core painting talisman.

“This is very interesting work,” Immortal White said, tapping the universal core painting talisman, the type that only Cha Ming could create. “Interesting because it is perfect. Even as an immortal, I cannot find any flaws in the design of this universal and unlimited core painting talisman. That rarely happens, by the way, because even after thousands of improvements, a product is rarely perfect. And this, judging by the karmic patent imprint, is clearly a new invention.”

He then pointed to the other lesser talismans. “Normally, the lesser version is built first. It is improved upon until finally, a greater version is created. But in this case, the opposite clearly happened. This perfect talisman came first, and these lesser versions were derived from it.”

“Here’s another interesting point – the Dao Origins blueprint and this core painting talisman are very much related. Instead of enabling a single cultivator to cultivate the path of the Painted Daoist, it allows all beings on a plane to do so, assuming it is branded with the Dao Origins in this template.

“Like the core painting talisman, it seems very complete and flawless, which is even more unusual for a Dao Origin blueprint. Godkings can spend hundreds of thousands of years refining a Dao Origin. They would never bother perfecting one to this extent.

“But this Dao Origin talisman is clearly soul bound to you. This can only happen if you built it yourself, or at least participated in this creation. The situation is so abnormal, that few immortal kings and Godkings and even immortal emperors would pass up the chance to study it.”

Cha Ming shivered. “You aren’t going to capture and study me, are you?”

Immortal White chuckled. “Luckily for you, we likeyou.”

“Also, there are confidentiality clauses and other things in our contracts protecting you,” Godking Heavenbind said. “Though if we were committed enough, we could probably break free of them and making a killing.”

Their honesty was a relief to Cha Ming. He’d thought the talisman was somewhat valuable, but he hadn’t expected so much trouble. “So you’re telling me I can’t monetize this then?”

“It’s not impossible,” Immortal White said. “You just have to be careful. You could technically sell a perfect copy of this blueprint through the Greenwind Pavilion and make enough immortal jades to crush a rank-and-file immortal to death, but I would advise against that.”

“Why would selling through the Greenwind Pavilion be a problem?” Cha Ming asked. “Information protection can be purchased from Immortal Zhong.”

“There are ways to circumvent his protection,” said Immortal White. “A decent karmic accountant could connect the dots and find the missing money. But relax. If say there’s a way, there’s a way. We’re your teachers. We’ll help you as much as we can.”

“Directly selling is impossible for a few reasons. The first reason I already explained, but the second might be news to you. It relates to the rules of the Heartforge Realm. There is a limit on non-soul-bound immortal items a transcendent cultivator can transact, export, and possess.”

Cha Ming frowned. “Why have I never heard of these rules?”

“Most people haven’t,” Immortal White said. “But it’s a real rule, and it’s there for a reason. Think about it – what would happen if us immortal and gods could just give away treasures willy-nilly. How much chaos would this cause in the lower planes? All native organizations would be suppressed by immortal organizations. Entire planes would get destroyed because of disagreements among immortals.”

“The limit for members of the Heartforge Realm is a net worth of 500 immortal jades, excluding soul bound treasures. Your talisman is worth more, but it’s part of the excluded category. Information doesn’t count either. You can take away any number of immortal techniques, barring physical copies.”

“It’s also why immortal techniques are so rare in the lower realms,” Godking Heavenbind chimed in. “The system obviously isn’t perfect. For example, if a transcendent cultivator happened to pick up a few immortal artifacts in their home realm, no one would do anything about it. But if that same cultivator happened upon a treasure drove and decided to dominate the realm for generations using said treasures…”

“I understand,” Cha Ming said. “But that’s all the more worrisome. Just getting to the peak of rune gathering will take 32 immortal jades. It’ll take almost 500 to get me to the middle of the law stitching realm, and probably 1500 more to get me to the peak of transcendence. Of course, I’m just extrapolating based on my experience. It’s quite possible that the resources required for me to grow will be even more onerous.”

Immortal White shook his head. “I’m afraid I can only solve part of your problems, Clear Sky. Five hundred immortal jades is possible though.” He motioned to the Dao Origin. “May I?”

Cha Ming over the Dao Origins talisman. It tried to escape Immortal White’s grasp, but Cha Ming used his soul connection to calm it down.

Immortal White took many minutes to review the talisman. Runes began appearing in Godking Heavenbind’s office, most of them far beyond Cha Ming’s ability to comprehend.

This continued for a whole hour before Immortal White called it quits. He was a mighty immortal, but even he was exhausted. “That should be good enough,” Immortal White said. He flicked his sleeve, and a tenth of the framework disappeared. “I could probably generate something like this from your talisman in five hundred years.” He flicked his sleeve again. Another tenth of the lines vanished, leaving only a shadow of the core framework. “This is something that I could develop in about 3 years if I was so inclined.

“So you’re saying…”

“My proposal is this, Clear Sky,” Immortal White said. “Wait three years. I will ‘analyze’ your core painting talisman and put the information up for sale in the Greendwind pavilion. The Greenwind Pavilion will take a 30% cut. Patriarch Heartforge will take a 20% cut, as per my contract with him.”

“Wait, he only takes 20%?!” Godking Heavenbind exclaimed. “He takes thirty from me!”

Immortal White pretended he hadn’t heard him. “I will take 40% of the royalties, Clear Sky, leaving you with 10%. I don’t expect all of this to make a fortune, maybe ten thousand immortal jades, which would leave you with about a thousand for patent rights on the original talisman. It’s the standard rate for this sort of thing.”

“But you can only give me 500 immortal jades,” Cha Ming said.

“I can give you the full ten percent, but that depends – do you want to wait for all that revenue to trickle in over the next century?”

“So you’re saying you’ll give me 500 immortal jades in lieu of the ten percent,” Cha Ming said.

“Exactly,” Immortal White said.

Cha Ming became even more depressed. “Ten percent is pretty cheap, and now I’m left with five?”

“Compared to what your Dao Blueprint is worth, its not a negligible amount,” Immortal White admitted. “But if I give you more, you won’t have a smokescreen. That would be very dangerous. Moreover, most of these immortal jades wouldn’t become available to you until you ascend to the immortal realms. No matter how much of a cut you try to give Elder Zhong, he’s quite inflexible on trade policies.”

“I think you’re forgetting someone, Old White,” Godking Heaven Bind said. “I brought you this opportunity, and this is how you repay me?”

Immortal White rolled his eyes. “Fine. Whatever. Take 20%, and I’ll take 20%, and we’ll call it a collaboration. We’ll shrink the time-frame down to two years. The main point is that we can use this scheme to provide Clear Sky with enough immortal jades to get him to the middle of law stitching without him attracting too much attention.”

Cha Ming couldn’t help but feel disappointed, and Immortal White picked up on this. “Cheer up, lad,” he said. “I’m not trying to gouge you. It’s just that you’re too weak. If I tried to give you any more, not only would I get in trouble, but the Greenwind Pavilion would suspect something. And their main business is information.

“Let’s say we tried to get around these rules and regulations. We gave you that extra 40% under the table, for example. All it would take is a single Daoist spell by a karmic accountant to expose the truth of the matter. Then we’d be in even greater trouble.”

Cha Ming was indignant, but he had no alternatives. “Let’s just do as you say. I don’t have a solution for the later stages of law stitching, but I can always figure it out later.”

“You’ve made the right decision,” Immortal White said. “And since I’m benefiting so much from this transaction, feel free to consult whenever you like. Godking Heavenbind will also help you out as much as he can.”

“Hey, I didn’t agree to anything,” Godking Heavenbind said.

“Fine, I’ll take the whole 40%,” Immortal White said.

“On second thought, I can’t be seen taking advantage of a junior,” Godking Heavenbind said. “In the future, if you need any help, my door will always be open.