PtM Book 16 - Chapter 32: Trouble

3/3 last week. Sorry about the delay. Internet is getting less spotty, so I should be a little more reliable this week.

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Three months after the Grand Opening in Soaring City, Cha Ming expanded into three other cities. Three months after that, he expanded a second time, and a few competitors even popped up. He naturally did not bother with entrepreneurs and let them grow their half-competent imitations, as this was all according to plan.

Inevitably, some of the Clear Sky Center’s alchemical recipes were copied. Some of their cheaper machines were reverse engineered, and many of the common cultivation techniques were plagiarized or imitated.

Cha Ming received countless complaints from his managers, but he told them to ignore these things and press on. New ideas would ultimately prevail, he would say every time, before feeding them a few new products to give them a temporary reprieve from the competition.

Four and a half years after the start of the second phase, Cha Ming emerged from a long session of secluded meditation in which he tried and failed to break through in his River Lake Brush Art. He spent most of his time in the Clear Sky World, and as such, it didn’t matter where he based himself out of physically. His anchor point was currently the Clear Sky Center in Soaring City.

It had been several months since he’d bothered to look at the paperwork, so Cha Ming walked over to his desk where the manager had dutifully dropped off reports every month. His eyes narrowed when he looked at the figures and realized that despite his best efforts to not make any money, he was making a serious amount of currency, even for cultivators.

All his businesses were doing extremely well, and qi manipulators were popping up everywhere. Not just in the initial ten cities he’d chosen – many travelled from far away to take advantage of his schooling system and medicines and learn the beginnings of a craft before returning to their hometowns. And as instructed, his managers did nothing to prevent this.

Most of the company’s profits weren’t from its core businesses, Cha Ming noticed. Since he’d instructed his managers to keep reinvesting funds, they’d gone ahead and predicted the impact of his changes and invested in real estate and infrastructure. They’d expanded the most profitable businesses – the one that made refrigeration and heating artifacts, for instance – and even aggressively monopolized these sectors using economies of scale and advance runic knowledge.

“I guess it’s difficult not to make money when you have money,” Cha Ming muttered as he leafed through report after report. He decided then and there that these people needed raises. It was hard to find good talent regardless of location.

Eventually, he got to the bottom of the pile and noticed a request from a few of his managers. “Franchising. They do that around here?” He went ahead and approved the request and gave the ones recommending it a bonus. Franchising was the preferred option, in Cha Ming’s opinion. Not only would it reduce their operating capital and their need for investments, but it would put all of these businesses firmly in the hands of the people.

Six months later, there were Clear Sky Qi Manipulation and Body Refinement Centers in thirty more cities.

***

Time. It was both an enemy and a friend of all things. Without it, there was no improvement or growth, but with it, there was death and the things that came after. Even Cha Ming, who had so much more of it than other people, always felt that he never had enough time.

Part of this feeling was a principled objection to the lack of it. Everyone had many things to do, regardless of wealth or station. Another part, however, was due to a faint premonition he had that these peaceful times would end all too quickly.

There were many ways to train, some aggressive and focused, and others more relaxed. Cha Ming had spent almost a decade training under tenfold time acceleration doing the former, but these days, he’d begun to unwind and do more of the later.

A lot of this had to do with the state of his soul, which was constantly healing under the influx of karma he gained from every slain fiend. Surprisingly, that amount paled in comparison to what he’d been gaining from spurring the development of core formation cultivators on the Chasewind Plane.

It wasn’t just merit that his soul gained. Every other strand of merit came with something intangible but very easy to identify: an emotion, a concept, a thing that many people were without.

Hope was pouring in from all around him, and this, more than anything, mended the cracks in his broken wings and healed over the fissures in his shattered soul. Even the third pair of phantom wings received nourishment from this wonderful feeling.

Cha Ming was currently seated on the upper floor of the Clear Sky Center in Soaring City. From this vantage point, he could see everything going on in the center’s many shops, no matter how focused he was on his current piece of art, a mortal-class painting that he was painting with mortal-class ink and a mortal-class brush.

He wasn’t alone in the room. Elder Choking Tide was drinking tea beside him as he did most mornings. They were both debating the Dao and speaking about their experiences in cultivation.

Choking Tide’s Dao was something that Cha Ming would never cultivate, but he listened as he painted and responded with his own insights when appropriate. Like painting, casual conversations like this was also a form of cultivation.

“I noticed you’ve been going more the abstract route of late,” Choking Tide observed. “Less colors, more contrast, broader strokes with little detail. I do admire that you can do such a thing, you know. Paint with actual skill and originally instead of simply copying what’s out there.”

Cha Ming continued painting in silence for a while before replying. He finished off what he saw as a painting of a dragon, but that objectively looked more like an ‘S’ with a big arm breathing fire. “I don’t know if I’d call myself skilled, Choking Tide. And I’m not intentionally seeking the abstract. I’m just… trying to break free.”

“Many artists put it that way,” Elder Choking Tide said, nodding sagely. “Musicians and architects in our sect say much the same thing in their old age. Not that you’re old or anything. I was just speaking to your relative experience and- “

“There’s no need to flatter me,” Cha Ming said. “I know it looks terrible. But I suppose I’m trying to do more with less. Perhaps in this way, I’ll be able to break through my bottleneck and complete my River Lake Brush Art.” He sighed. “There I go, speaking about training. The whole point of training with mortal paints is to forget that you’re doing it.” He put away the canvas and turned his attention to the shop floor.

The Clear Sky Center was still just as booming as ever. The floor was crawling with qi manipulators and body refiners – people called them that now instead of the derogatory term, marital artists. He had a host of employees not only manning these shops, but workshops across the city and in many other cities, and thousands of fields growing the crops that fed the rapidly growing business behemoth.

These qi manipulators and body refiners came here to purchase premium quality training medicines. Some also came to look through their large selection of techniques and qi cultivation methods as well.

The Clear Sky Center had training facilities, including cultivation chambers, breakthrough chambers, and insight chambers. There were sparring facilities as well as solo sparring facilities with golems. And for every type of training, their were coaches.

“Not that I don’t mind the company in my old age, but I must ask – are you waiting for something, Clear Sky?” Elder Choking Tide said. “I always get that feeling whenever I come by.”

“I am waiting,” Cha Ming said.

“For what, pray tell?” Choking Tide asked.

“For the inevitable, of course,” Cha Ming said. “A storm after a long spell without rain.”

“You’ve hired many members of our sect to guard your businesses from other cultivators, and at great expense,” Choking Tide said. “I hardly see why you’re needed.”

“I mean no offence by my words,” Cha Ming said. “And the cultivators your sect has posted are more than sufficient for normal interference. But I’m not expecting normal interference, and your cultivators simply aren’t equipped to send the message I want to send.”

“If you say so,” Elder Choking Tide said. “Tea?”

“Why not?” Cha Ming said. The elder took out a box, which Cha Ming intercepted and opened. The roasted tea leaves floated out, and Cha Ming summoned the Clear Sky Brush and painted all of them with five strokes. In the past, it would have taken him fifty.

He then painted a stream of boiling water and sent the two flying together. After a few seconds of contact, he separated the two, creating tea that poured into painted cups.

“It’s not the cups or the water that get me but the fact that you can paint alchemical changes onto tea leaves,” Choking Tide said. He grabbed one of the cups and took a sip.

“It’s part alchemy, part talisman artistry, and part spiritual painting,” Cha Ming said. “I could teach you if you like, though it might not be the most useful way to spend your time. Especially when you’re so close to break through, I should add. Congratulations in advance.”

The elder’s eyes brightened. “I knew I couldn’t hide it from you. I made great strides the other day. Perhaps a decade more and I’ll be ready.” He took another sip of tea. “By the way, the nostalgia this tea generates is simply marvelous. By drinking it, I remember my mortal days. Both the good ones and the bitter ones.”

“Memory is a bittersweet thing,” Cha Ming said. “Ironically, it’s the painful memories that help you most when you remember them.”

“That’s something I can definitely relate to,” Elder Choking Tide said. “A thousand years of memories certainly weighs down on the soul.”

Cha Ming smiled. “Some cultivators aren’t haunted by their memories, while others are crippled by them.”

“I wonder if there’s a shortcut,” Elder Choking Tide said. “A way to avoid all those pitfalls and mental suffering.”

Cha Ming couldn’t help but chuckle. “I didn’t take you for a Buddhist, Elder Choking Tide, but if you decide that’s the route you want to go, I know some people.” Then he sighed. “Karma. For every sowing, there’s a reaping. I knew the moment I started this business what would happen.” The karmic web above them tightened, including tiny crimson threads he’d noticed long ago. They were the reason why he’d waited here of all places. “What a coincidence that this would happen during your visit.”

No sooner had he spoken did a group of cultivators barge through the front door, knocking back the qi manipulators guarding the entrance. “Trash!” the leader of these cultivators said. He was an initial rune gathering cultivator. “A bunch of trash, daring to call yourselves cultivators.”

The manager of the store, a peak core formation qi manipulator, came running out from his office. “Esteemed immortals, we would never call ourselves cultivators,” the manager said with practiced eloquence. “We prefer the term qi manipulators and body refiners, aspirants who hope to one day become cultivators, if we are so lucky.”

“How bold, thinking you can speak to us as equals!” one of the rune-carving cultivators said. He flicked his sleeve and sent the shop manager flying.

It happened so quickly that the rune carving cultivators on duty from the Raging Tide Sect barely managed to catch the man while another two of his sect members stepped between the rune gathering cultivator and the shop manager “Fellow Daoists, please leave,” he said. “This venue is under the protection of the Raging Tide Sect.”

The leader of the intruder scoffed when he heard these words. “Oh? I thought this was a mortal enterprise. I didn’t think the Raging Tide Sect would dare to so openly break the rules.”

“This is a mortal-class enterprise and is therefore managed by mortals and guarded by mortals,” the cultivator said evenly. “But our Choking Tide Sect has accepted a protection contract from the proprietor of this establishment to prevent cultivators like yourself from causing problems.

“Please give us face, fellow Daoists. It would be most embarrassing to our sect if these mortals came to harm under our watch. We would be forced to report this matter to Elder Choking Tide, who is currently in seclusion.”

“He’s a very good speaking,” Cha Ming said. “Look at how well he lies.”

Elder Choking Tide let out an embarrassed cough. “It’s not called lying, it’s called being polite. There’s a difference.”

The aggressive cultivator did not take kindly to the Raging Tide Sect cultivator’s warning. He unleashed a hint of his cultivation and sent his opponent flying. Quite a few mortals were also thrown back by the shockwaves.

“These people are looking to die,” Cha Ming said to Elder Choking Tide. He quickly spread out his domain and caught the wave of energy before it could spread out too far. The building was damaged, but the staff were safe. “This is why I chose to stay here, Choking Tide. This is a probe by unhappy cultivators, and how I respond will dictate how this situation develops.”

The rune gathering cultivator was no fool. He was being overbearing on purpose, and had done so to bait out none other than Cha Ming. “Will fellow cultivator not reveal himself?” he called out. “Or will you continue hiding as you so openly flout regulations?”

Cha Ming sighed and teleported amidst the rubble. The rune gathering cultivator’s expression fluctuated at the clear show of power, and his eyes flickered briefly towards the cuts Cha Ming had purposefully suffered during his teleportation hop, but which were already healing. “I see. So it’s a powerful rune gathering senior who is the real power behind this illegal business and not the Raging Tide Sect.”

“Oh?” Cha Ming said. “I wonder how this building is illegal in any way.”

“Cultivators should not meddle in mortal affairs,” the cultivator said. “You have clearly done so, so your actions are illegal.”

“And I suppose that neither you nor anyone you know owns any property in a city? Or that you’ve never walked any city streets or ever interacted with mortals in any way?” Cha Ming asked. “Or that you’ve never eaten mortal bread in your life after practicing cultivation or spoken a single word to a mortal relative?”

“You’re inverting black and white, fellow Daoist,” the cultivator said. “These are all normal things. The scale which we’re talking about is vastly different.”

“I have never supplied more than mortal-grade resources and mortal-grade funding to this business,” Cha Ming said. “I have never provided anything more than mortal-grade instruction, and the protection contract with the Raging Tide Sect is well within the norm. Tell me who sent you, and I’ll consider letting you off. Otherwise, leave and arm and a leg and we’ll consider this matter settled.”

“What will you do? Attack a much weaker cultivator?” the man countered. “I didn’t think such a powerful senior would be so shameless.”

“It’s about as shameless as your attacking the mortals in my establishment with lethal intent,” Cha Ming said. “Now reveal your affiliations or call out the one protecting you, or I will string all six of you up. I will give you three seconds. One.”

“He’s bluffing. He wouldn’t dare attacking us without knowing who we are,” one of them said.

“Two.”

“I came here under the protection of a law-stitching cultivator,” the initial rune gathering cultivator said. “Would you really dare attack me?”

“Three.” Cha Ming did not have to physically attack them. He simply lashed out with his Savage Deity Aura. While it would not cause them any actual damage, it nearly frightened them to death and caused them to soil themselves.

Cha Ming summoned the Clear Sky Brush and painted eight strokes. A set of sixteen chains appeared and bound them before floating them out of the shop. Cha Ming followed them out, and as he did, he painted eight obelisks using only eighteen strokes. Each obelisk had a hook and was covered in glyphs that would cause anyone touching them extreme suffering.

As a finishing touch, he painted relatively low-grade qi restraining collars on each of the offenders. These took three strokes of his brush. They were temporary, but as long as he held maintaind his Sky Canvas Domain, they would remain.

“Don’t you think you’ve gone a little overboard, fellow Daoist?” a voice suddenly called out. A law-stitching cultivator walked appeared above the square. He stood in the air as though it were solid flooring; his movements were sharp and precise, and had clearly been honed in battle.

“I don’t think I went overboard at all,” Cha Ming said. “They tried to kill my people.”

“They tried to kill mortals,” the elder said.

“Still my people,” Cha Ming said.

The elder glanced upward as Elder Choking Tide flew out. “I see that the upper levels of the Raging Tide Sect are complicit in this illegal scheme. How interesting.”

Choking Tide did not take the bait. “We are but one of many business partners in Daoist Clear Sky’s endeavors,” he said. “All of our dealings are perfectly in accordance with the rules and are open and above board. And while you might come form a Tier 2 Sect, Elder Flashing Blade, this is not your Soaring Blade Sect’s territory. Don’t act like you have any authority here.”

“I have every right to protest this Daoist’s behavior,” Elder Flashing Blade said evenly. “He is meddling with the power structure in the area under our protection, however indirectly.”

“Ah, so it’s an elder from the Soaring Blade Sect,” Cha Ming said. “I remember now. Not only did you refuse my good intension, therefore putting your sect in a worse position when fighting the fiend waves from the south, but you even pressured two other sects to do the same. I find it hilarious that you comment on my personal business as illegal, however; your sect clearly used its influence in the government to shut down one of our franchise partners.”

“Our involvement was perfectly justified,” the elder said. “It is our solemn duty to prevent cultivators from interfering in the lives of mortals.”

“I’m sure the mortals in your city appreciate your hard work, Elder,” Cha Ming said. “Though now that I think about it, we get shiploads of mortals immigrating from your territory every day looking for brighter prospects. I wonder what would happen if some of them get home sickone day and bring back dangerous ideas and dangerous mortal qi manipulation techniques back to your territory. Will you still treat them as mortals, or as unapproved cultivators, I wonder? The distinction is so arbitrary, after all, as is your enforcement?”

“Mortals remain mortals, so we will naturally do nothing to interfere with normal business activities,” the Elder said. “Which your business is not.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a threat to any who chose to practice qi manipulation,” Cha Ming said. “You’d best be careful with our words – you might be a mighty elder in a tier 2 sect, but even your sect master won’t be able to bear the consequences if a single mortal is harmed as a result of your rhetoric.”

Elder Flashing Blade sneered. “You might have powerful friends, but we are, after all, a Tier 2 sect. Infringing upon our honor is infringing upon the honor of the Azure Tempest Sect.”

Elder Choking Tide coughed lightly at that. “I may be an elder from a lowly Tier 3 sect, but I believe the Azure Tempest Sect would have mentioned something by now if they disapproved of anything Daoist Clear Sky was doing.”

“So you say,” Elder Flashing Blade said. “Yet they have remained aloof and silent as they always do. No judgement has been passed on this issue, and I’m certain they will maintain their silence as we enforce our solemn vows.”

The three powerful cultivators remained in position. They all spoke harsh words, but neither of them actually wanted to cross blades. Doing so in a densely populated area would be disastrous. Elder Flashing Blade was not in his territory, and Cha Ming did not want an all-out sect war to break out when fiend outbreaks were on a suspicious downward trend and likely heading for an outbreak.

“You are unrepentant, in the end,” Elder Flashing Blade said. “Our sect will submit a petition to the Azure Tempest Sect and request that you be punished.” He looked to the six cultivators still hanging on obelisks and writing in pain. “As for these juniors, they have learned their lessons. I will be taking them.”

“About that,” Cha Ming said. “I agree that they have been punished, but they have caused much physical and emotional damage to the mortal shop down below. I can accept you taking them away, but not before they offer restitution for damages.”

“A wealthy man like you surely doesn’t mind such a small expense,” Elder Flashing Blade said. “But since you insist, here you are.” He threw out a mid-grade rune carving sword. “That should be worth more than that shop and all their pathetic lives.”

Cha Ming caught the blade with his bare hands, then clenched his fist. The sword shattered, and as it fell, its fragments turned to metal dust. “This is sect currency, Flashing Blade. The shop needs silver and gold, not treasures they don’t know what to do with.”

The elder snorted as he tossed him a small bag of holding. It was filled with a small mountain of silver. “There. Is that sufficient?”

“That will do,” Cha Ming said with a pleased smile. With but a thought, his painting faded, and the ink returned to the Clear Sky World through his domain. It automatically separated into its component inks, which were stored in ten thousand ponds in the white expanse of the Clear Sky World. “I won’t see you off.”

The elder shot him one final glare before grabbing his juniors. He summoned a flying ship and few out of the city. Ten kilometers out, it was joined by a few more flying ships. The elder had clearly come with reinforcements; they weren’t ignorant, as they’d pretended, and knew exactly who they were dealing with.

Sect Master Raging Tide appeared beside Cha Ming once the ships were gone, as did one of the elders of the local overloads, the Tier 2 Xuan Dao Sect. “It seems your actions have attracted much trouble, Clear Sky,” the Xuan Dao Sect Elder said.

“Alas, this is only the beginning,” Cha Ming replied. He looked off in the distance, at the extreme limit of his vision and spotted a very tiny ship. It quickly grew in size as it crossed dozens of kilometers in mere seconds, revealing a corvette class ship bearing a rarely seen azure crest on varnished cloudwood. “An Azure Tempest Sect ship, as expected.

A cultivator flew out from the heavily fortified ship once it arrived. It was a man in azure robes. He had crimson hair and the aura of an early law-stitching cultivator. In a Tier 2 Sect, he’d be worthy of the sect master position, but in the Tier 1 Azure Tempest Sect, he merely qualified as an elder.

The elder floated out with dignity and decorum, then proceeded to unfurl a long scroll. “Daoist Clear Sky has been invited to the Azure Tempest Sect to clarify allegations against his name as lodged by no less then ten Tier 3 sects and three Tier 2 sects. This humble messenger invites Daoist Clear Sky aboard his ship for a speedy journey to the Azure Tempest Sect so that we may lay this matter to rest.”

Elder Choking Tide gulped. “Daoist Clear Sky, I think you may have bitten off more than you can chew.”

“Perhaps you should have been more conservative in your actions?” the elder from the Xuan Dao sect commented.

“Discretion is for those who’ve done something wrong,” Cha Ming said. “Which I haven’t. Besides, haven’t you noticed that the wording is quite polite given the fact that I’ve been summoned for judgement?” He nodded to the two elders and the sect master and flew up towards the messenger.

“Greetings, Elder…” Cha Ming said.

“Elder Crimson Tempest,” the azure-robed man said.

“Since Elder Crimson Tempest has come in person to summon this Daoist, I will of course accompany you back to the Azure Tempest Sect,” Cha Ming said. “Would you permit me to quickly pass on some items and briefly settle an embarrassing matter? The Soaring Blade Sect recently assaulted our mortal staff members and caused damage. They left moments before your arrival but left silver in compensation for the mental trauma and inconvenience, and I wish for them to have it.”

The elder gave him a polite nod, and Cha Ming flew down, reassured his staff, then passed on a year’s worth of silver to the branch. He highly suspected that Elder Flashing Blade had no idea what silver was worth.

He then said his goodbyes to the elders before stepping back onto the ship. “I’m ready,” he said.

“Hold on tight,” Elder Crimson Tempest said. “This ship will likely be faster than anything you’ve ever flown on.”