PtM Book 14 - Chapter 31: Progress

2/5 this week!

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Following Yu Wen’s departure from Desert’s Blessing, Cha Ming made a point of checking in on other obligations he’d been neglecting. Namely, he checked in on Drezil, Clever Dusk, and Titan Thunderfist, whom he had left to their own devices to recover, cultivate, and craft talismans.

Drezil did not answer any of his communications, but Merenthal gave Cha Ming a brief rundown. “Oster has been edging closer, little by little, but he prioritizes safety, resources, and captives.”

“Captives?” Cha Ming asked, surprised.

“He likes to use ransoms to subsidize his war efforts,” Merenthal said. “That being said, he is currently amassing a sizeable force, as are we. War could erupt at any moment.”

Cha Ming asked about Drezil and was informed that the young inkborn demon had relapsed. He back to wallowing in self-destructive obsession and ignoring everything else. The other inkborn had followed in his footsteps, worsening the situation. This only provided more ammunition for Sedrannah to tear apart their clan.

Clever Dusk had even worse news to deliver. “There was a major devil attack on an important church in Holy Governance Alliance territory,” she said. “The details are scare, but from what I gather, a cardinal was killed, and an important artifact called the Pool of Heavenly Healing was stolen. For the record, it is an immortal artifact.”

“That doesn’t sound easy to steal,” Cha Ming said.

“It isn’t,” Clever Dusk agreed. “But now it’s gone, and they’re upset. Rumor is that the pool was able to bolster the life force and extend the lifespan of gold rankers. Half the problem with the pool’s disappearance is that the church’s leadership is reliant on its effects. Half of the Church of Jezeriah’s highest ranking officials will be meeting an untimely demise.”

Cha Ming took in a sharp breath. “That’s… not good.” He had taken the time to brush up on Mendin politics, and he knew that, for the most part, the churches didn’t directly participate in governing nations. Elections were held every decade, and every bronze ranker had one vote, every silver ten, and every gold ranker one hundred. It wasn’t a perfect system, but the Governing Council of each nation had executive and legislative authority over most things.

What the church did control, however, was a large army of powerful saints and the entire clergy, which provided valuable healing services and spiritual leadership. Most importantly, they controlled the geographical location of churches, where rankers were created, and rankers went to advance. This was not a problem for higher rankers, but for bronze rankers, it made things terribly inconvenient, to the point that they would need to relocate. “I hear the Church is consolidating its power and withdrawing from fringe locations,” Clever Dusk said. “I don’t think I need to spell out how much of an influence this will have.”

“I imagine Verdant Crossroads isn’t high on their priority list,” Cha Ming said.

“We’ll how Fendal responds to all this, and how much the Kerava Desert gets shaken up,” Clever Dusk said. “I imagine the geopolitical situation will be quite unstable in the following months.”

The Titan Clan was the only organization that wasn’t affected by all this. “Governments change all the time, but the demand for good weapons and sturdy armor never does. You should come over when you get a chance. I have some prototypes I’d like to go over with you.” It was a straightforward request and sorting this out earlier rather than later might actually even help Clever Dusk and Merenthal. Cha Ming decided to head over to Titanvale first.

Now aware of the changing political landscape, it was impossible to ignore certain details he’d been skipping over. The Shanara Teleportation Hub was where elements from all across Mendin gathered, which meant that all its problems were concentrated in a crowded location where everyone was irritated.

Several fights broke out as he waited in transit. Physical violence aside, he heard panicked arguments and political rhetoric wherever he went.

Upheaval and chaos were on the way, and there was no one who could avoid it.

***

Shards of rock and smoldering metal flew out at Cha Ming at breakneck speed. It was impossible to dodge the shrapnel given the distance, and even with his late muscle empowering cultivation, survival wasn’t guaranteed.

Thankfully, this wasn’t an attack, and neither was he unprotected. The shrapnel struck a clear barrier separating the test dummy from he and Patriarch Thunderfist.

“Not bad,” Cha Ming said as he watched the soke clear. “Not bad at all. The speed of your research astounds me, Patriarch.”

“I’m not just a pretty face,” the large man said in his booming voice. His grinning, rock-chipped face was anything but handsome. “Now be quiet while I look over this data.”

The shrapnel, which had settled back to the floor of the test facility, began to move towards the center of the room. The pieces, which had not actually been destroyed, began to latch onto each other and reassemble into their original form, a test golem.

There was nothing left of the arrow that had struck it. The arrow had been fired by a mechanical contraption since directly firing it via bow would require exposing oneself to the resulting explosion.

Streams of blue light surged throughout the testing facility’s walls during the reassembly. This place wasn’t just built to protect, but to collecting precious data. “The key to making this prototype work was getting my mind off of metals,” Titan Thunderfist explained. “Minerals are just as capable of storing a great deal of power in solid form.”

“I see,” Cha Ming said. He was strictly an observer during this demonstration. In fact, he was a little bored as Titan Thunderfist pressed buttons and turned dials and toggled screen projections. “I always wondered how you’d forge the metal without detonating the stored energy that’s needed to mimic God-Slaying Talismans.”

“It was a puzzle that consumed countless hours of our best craftsmen’s time,” Titan Thunderfist admitted. “He tossed two vials to Cha Ming. “Try melting those.” One vial contained metal and the other a sort of gray powder.

Cha Ming summoned his Iridescent Grandmist flames. He increased the temperature uniformly for both vials and noticed the metal melted first. He wasn’t able to melt the crystals until his flames reached da much higher temperature. “I’ve got it. The melting point difference allows you to incorporate the powder into the alloy without changing its structure.”

“It’s a delicate process,” Titan Thunderfist said.

“Why do I feel there’s more to this powder than stored energy?” Cha Ming said, eyeing the substance. He felt familiar fluctuations from it. Then it struck him. “These aren’t normal minerals. They’re tiny void crystals, the type you’d use to make cheap storage rings.” His amazement turned into a horrified expression as he immediately banished his flames, tossed the vial into the testing facility through an opening, then shut the door. No explosion came, but Titan Thunderfist laughed.

“Come, follow me,” Titan Thunderfist said. He motioned for Cha Ming to come over to a nearby work bench, where an object that was more harpoon than arrow lay. The object’s shaft was three fingers thick and covered in runic patterns.

Cha Ming inspecting the arrow for several minutes before speaking. “Tricky. You use only a single speck of spatial dust to create a storage dimension then use a formation to overlay the storage dimension with the outside world. This temporary overlap releases the reagents stored inside.”

“Wrong!” Titan Thunderfist said. “The overlap compresses the reagents and forcefully detonates them under high pressure. A much more potent mechanism. This way, we don’t need to give up on sharpness or heaviness. We can forge the weapon independently, and we can tweak how much impact it takes to trigger the explosion. Best of all, the detonation of a spatial fragment results in spatial rifts and spatial turbulence, both of which are very effective and crushing gold-ranked resistances.”

“My main concern is storage,” Cha Ming said. “Most storage items can’t accommodate other storage items.”

“I can’t tell you all my secrets,” Titan Thunderfist said.

“And I take it this is all still affordable?” Cha Ming asked.

“Um… well… about that…” Titan Thunderfist said, scratching his neck. “For friends, we can price them at two hundred high grade inkwell jades each. What are your thoughts on that figure?”

Cha Ming was currently selling God Slaying Talismans for half the price, but then again, arrows were much easier to use. “I think it’s fine,” he said. “But we’ll need to do something about the strength requirements for firing those bows.”

Relief washed over Titan Thunderfist when Cha Ming didn’t balk at this new price. “That’s fine. We’ll supply bows that even weak humans can use with every purchase of ten arrows.” Given that these were consumables, the margins were probably very high and far outstripped the cost of a good bow. Just like his God-Slaying Talismans.

“You’ve outdone yourself, Patriarch,” Cha Ming said.

“It’s only one product, but it’s something,” Titan Thunderfist said. “No daggers yet, and no siege crossbow bolts. As for production, I think we can produce a few hundred of these a month if need be. We could scale to a few thousand with a large enough order.”

Cha Ming whistled. These arrows might be a bit weaker than his talismans, but his big problem was quantity; he alone could only produce twenty-five talismans per week at most. That might be enough for a smaller entity like the Frost Lotus Sect, which only occupied a portion of a smaller city, but it wasn’t nearly enough for use by an army.

Thinking of war, Cha Ming couldn’t help but let out a sigh. “What’s eating at you lad?” Titan Thunderfist said.

“It’s nothing,” Cha Ming said.

Titan Thunderfist eyed him carefully. “You look like you could use a drink. Follow me.” The large man wandered over to the door, and Cha Ming could only follow.

Titan Thunderfist was a very meticulous individual. He wasn’t at all like Daoist Three Lives and would beat anyone that dared to bring food or beverages into a workshop within an inch of his life. Then ban him for good measure

He led Cha Ming over to a small coffee room where a few Titan Clansmen were chatting between shifts. One of the tables had a couple of shorter stools that were reserved for smaller guests like Cha Ming. Even the smallest Titan Clansmen were two and a half to three meters tall and ten times heavier than a human mortal.

“Here, try this stuff,” Titan Thunderfist said, pulling out a couple of bottles of strong liquor. It was strong stuff that even Cha Ming had to drink slowly – it had to be to be effective on someone like Titan Thunderfist and his strong primordial bloodline.

For a while, they didn’t speak. Both of them drank and thought of fond memories. “When I was young, I wanted nothing more than to live a peaceful life,” Cha Ming finally said. “I wanted to shake off any attachments and be free to choose my own fate. I resented getting tugged around and having decisions made for me.

“These days, I feel like I have the power to chose. No one can dictate my fate, at least to my knowledge. Funnily enough, I can’t stop myself from choosing sides and laying down roots again, and getting dragged into things I would rather not do.” He took in a deep breath and sighed. “Like war. I hate war. I hate conflict. I hate fighting. Isn’t it funny? I’m craftsman, and I could do so many things with my talents, but every time, I find myself making weapons. Good weapons. And now, I’m outsourcing and scaling up the process because I just can’t make enough of them.”

Titan Thunderfist snorted. “So it’s like that.”

“Do you think me naïve?” Cha Ming asked.

Titan Thunderfist answered the question by taking a swig from his own liquor bottle. He drank directly from the bottle, and not form a small glass. “It’s something every craftsman needs to come to terms with, I think. We live in a world where might makes right, and only the weakest of people can avoid violence.”

“I could seclude myself,” Cha Ming countered.

“It’s an option,” Titan Thunderfist. “I considered it myself. But… that’s only an option if you hate people.” It was a counterintuitive statement, but Cha Ming would see where he took it. “The reason is simple. Alone, you have no attachments. No one can drag you into a war. If you truly don’t care about anyone else, you can turn your head the other way as an army of devilspawn runs down a crowd of helpless refugees.

“Only uncaring, unfeeling people can do this. Only devils can ignore such a situation, and only certain types, because they all have their own emotional failings and attachments.

“Even the Buddhists, who try to cut off all attachments from the mortal world, have this weakness. They cannot avert their eyes when there is suffering. Do you begin to see the problem then?”

Cha Ming nodded slowly. “To be attached means to get involved.”

“And in this world, getting involved often means getting dragged into violence,” Titan Thunderfist said. “This is not a peaceful world. Many weaker civilians might not see war in their lifetimes, but cultivators will. Moreover, cultivators are strong. People lean on them for support. If disaster strikes, it is truly difficult to avoid it when you are a cultivator.

“If you like people, you will get involved. If you have friends, you will get pulled into their conflicts. If you have desires, you will need resources to obtain them, and to obtain them, you must produce. As craftsmen, we produce many things, but weapons are among them.”

“There must be another way,” Cha Ming said.

“There isn’t,” Titan Thunderfist said, shaking his head. “And the more you analyze the situation, the more you’ll realize that even mortals get involved in the fighting. Each side cannot survive without the support at the lowest echelons, the food they produce, and the cultivators they supply. Builders of bridges and roads contribute to the logistics that facilitate war, and even entertainers are used either to motivate and unify, or to dissent and sow chaos and opposition. Ironically, these so-called peaceful professions, the arts, are the most warmongering of all. For these emotional people, there is no middle ground.”

“What about you?” Cha Ming asked.

“Me?” Titan Thunderfist asked. He put his hand to his chest. “I’ve fought for peace my whole life, Clear Sky. I just want us to live out my days and protecting my clan without fighting. Unfortunately, people are greedy for our gifts. Moreover, we must eat, so we must produce, and by producing, we compete.” He smiled wryly. “That’s life, Clear Sky.”

It was an answer. It was good answer, but not the one he was looking for. Even so, it was an answer, and probably the only answer he would ever find.

That was the thing about answers. They didn’t care about your needs or what you wished them to be. Answers were the result of questions. They were cold and merciless things that cared not for people or reasons or dreams.

The answer was not what Cha Ming was looking for, but it lightened his mood. Somewhat. They were able to begin discussing potential research directions now that a prototype had been made. Arrows were good and all, but there were ways to defend against them, and they needed skillful marksmen.

They negotiated for a good half hour – Titan Thunderfist drove a hard bargain and had hundreds of years of experience dealing with the business end of things, despite his main occupation as a crafter.

Alas, was too much to ask for. Disaster struck again. The door burst open, revealing a man that looked not unlike Titan Shatterstorm, an equally tall man, and a woman on a stretcher. She was also of the Titan Clan.

Cha Ming expected chaos, but those in the coffee room seemed to have experienced many such situations. They expertly pushed aside tables without a care for what was on them, including Cha Ming’s half-finished bottle of alcohol.

“Father, it’s Silverbraid!” Titan Clansman said. Cha Ming recognized the man as Titan Shatterstorm.

“I’m not blind,” Patriarch Thunderfist growled. The deceptively nimble patriarch vanished from his seat and appeared beside the young woman. “Apologies, Clear Sky, but I must take care of this.”

As an outsider, Cha Ming had no idea what was happening. It was clearly an emergency medical situation, but which kind, he wasn’t sure. Moreover, they were used to it. His intuition said that was important.

The stretcher was blocking off the door, so Cha Ming could only stand to the side and watch. He was very good at watching, however, and his sharp eyes began peeling away layers of clothes and flesh to scan the woman’s internal structure.

Her flesh is falling a part, Cha Ming noticed. The symptoms look physical, but the root of it is spiritual. She was like a demon, in that her soul was fused to her body. Just like Huxian’s. Just like Silver Fish’s, after we sowed them together.

The physical symptoms did not seem to serious. Neither did the spiritual ones, for that matter. Right now, her soul was shivering, not from any sort of damage, but from an excess of energy.

Cha Ming had a few tools that might help. The Ninesky Seals and their Demon Subduing Intent might be useful, since the source of this excess energy seemed to be none other than the woman’s bloodline. Her Skyforge Titan bloodline was stronger than her body and soul could handle.

But why? He wondered. A cursory inspection revealed that the woman’s cultivation was unstable. She’d recently broken through. This complicated the situation, because if he used something like his Demon Subduing Intent to repress the surging energy, her cultivation might drop. It could affect or even destroy her foundation.

Titan Thunderfist seemed to have an answer to the problem, however, so Cha Ming continued to observe. He first kneeled beside his daughter, Silverbraid and reassured her. “There now, little silver,” the patriarch reassured. “Breathe. Breathe.”

He took out a box, and inside that box was a medicinal herb. Merely opening the box filled the room with valuable soul energy. Cha Ming held his breath lest he accidentally take away any energy meant for her, and so did the other Titan Clansmen in the room.

Silverbraid took several short, shallow breaths. She drew the medicinal potency into her body through her lungs. It took about ten breaths for her to calm down. The spiritual energy had an immediate effect; Cha Ming could see the tiny particles being absorbed by her fused body and soul that reconciled their differences.

“Take her back to her room and keep an eye on her for three days and three nights,” Titan Thunderfist instructed. “If anything happens, come find me, no matter what I’m busy with.”

“Yes Patriarch!” the two Titan Clansmen that had carried the stretcher said.

“Shatterstorm, go reassure your mother,” Titan Thunderfist instructed. The young man raced off to do as instructed.

Everything had happened too quickly. The room was a mess, and several tables and chairs had been broken. Titan Thunderfist and those that had been resting in the coffee room began picking up the tables and cleaning up.

Cha Ming helped them as well, and once everything was back to normal, they sat down again. This time, it was Titan Thunderfist who needed a drink.

He took several swigs of his liquor bottle before speaking. “I remember you asking for that soul gathering grass the first time we met,” the Patriarch said.

“I can see why you didn’t want to trade it,” Cha Ming said. There was still a bit of residual soul nurturing vapor in the room, so he muttered a few words and using the Concepts of Assembly and Accumulation to gather them and press them into a pill bottle. He handed the bottle to Titan Thunderfist. “This should be useful for minor cases.”

Titan Thunderfist did not reject him and stowed away the vial. “We’ve tried many things have spoken to many alchemists. We’ve even consulted with peak gold rankers, peak fusion realm demons, and peak law stitching experts. A thousand years ago, we paid the Church of Jezeriah to use their Pool of Heavenly Healing. It had no effect either.

“It was the Verdant Thread Seer who suggested a legendary spirit herb might buy us time. I personally journeyed into the deepest most dangerous parts of this realm, where creatures that could crush me with impunity resided. I was able to use my Skyforge Titan Bloodline to somehow make it back alive. I was only able to obtain three stalks of the herb, and this is the last one.”

“No wonder she knew you had it,” Cha Ming said.

Titan Thunderfist grunted. “She also knew we wouldn’t trade it away no matter what. I have no idea why her apprentice would mention it in the first place.”

Cha Ming shrugged. “Maybe she thinks I should know about it. Maybe she thinks I can help you with your problem, however unlikely that might seem.”

“Maybe,” Titan Thunderfist said, unconvinced. He sighed again. “So. Back to business.”

“I’ll mention these new weapons to the Frozen Lotus Sect, Verdant Crossroads, and my brother in the Shanara Mountain Range. Just give me your pricing, availability, and a private means of communication.”

“I have no problems supplying any of these parties,” Titan Thunderfist said. “Unfortunately, it will take a while to scale up. There’s quality testing to perform and arming our own forces with the first prototypes. I’m sure you understand that with items like these, we need to arm our own forces first.”

“I think these God-Slaying Arrows will be a great success,” Cha Ming said. “Titan Thunderfist frowned. “What?”

“That won’t do.”

“What won’t do?”

“The name.”

“The name?” Cha Ming asked, confused.

“Yes, why do you get to name our arrow?” Titan Thunderfist said. “It’s our arrow. Our design.”

“… consistency?” Cha Ming said weakly.

Titan Thunderfist scowled. “Fine. It could be worse. Better than demon slaying arrow or ranker slaying arrow. I think Immortal Slaying Arrow might be better though.”

“If that’s what it takes…” Cha Ming said, not sure why this was so important.

“Bah. Whatever.” Thunderfist said. “God-Slaying Arrow it is. And congratulations on your recent promotion.”

“… Promotion?” Cha Ming asked.

Titan Thunderfist patted him on the shoulder. “Previously you were just an arms manufacturer,” Titan Thunderfist said. “The devastation you could cause was rather limited. Now, you’re a legitimate arms dealer. Once you inform the others about our products, that is.”

Cha Ming wasn’t too pleased about the concept, but it was what it was. That being said… “I need a commission,” he said, taking a leaf out of Yu Wen’s book. This time, it was Titan Thunderfist who was taken by surprise. “I’m going to be putting in a lot of leg work, Patriarch. I should get something for my time. Plus, the concept was mine to begin with. I think I should get rewarded for my intellectual property.”

“… Fine,” Titan Thunderfist said. “Talk to whoever’s in charge of finances these days. I can’t remember. I’m a blacksmith, not a businessman.”

Cha Ming did so, and surprisingly, he wasn’t the first to negotiate such an agreement. He walked out of the room with a royalty agreement for two percent of gross proceeds and managed to negotiated a three percent commission for clients he introduced.

Times were changing.