Chin chewed on a sugar cane out in the middle of a field. The sun was hidden and the clouds were full.

“It’s going to rain soon,” he muttered.

“How’dya figure?” The farmer next to him asked.

“It just will,” Chin replied. “Get packed and clear the fields, and tell everyone to get inside. This one will be a heavy one.”

The young lad nodded and made his way to the surrounding fields. That was Chin’s doing. He had set up a messenger system. This one lad would go to a field and warn them about the weather, two from there would do the same for someone else, and so on and so forth.

That was the way it had to be done with this rainy season. The Kong Clan were arrogant bastards. The rain would come quickly and flood them all otherwise. The Void Blade Sect ruled the Empire along with the Imperial Family, and they were in charge of the weather throughout the lands. Someone had to be, otherwise most of the land would become inhospitable.

Chin had asked Mister Bill how they managed such a thing, not because he cared of course, but because the information might help with the farming. It hadn’t.

At a few points across the vast empire, someone would be sent out and they would create clouds that would then propagate all over the empire. These points were called storm points and they were strategically located to cover the entire empire in rain for a few months out of the year.

Now most clans would have the decency to spare whatever resources they had and take their time in producing these clouds, creating the proper amount of them over a certain period of time.

The Kongs did no such thing. Their rainy season would last two and a half months at most, one and a half at worst, and they would compensate for that by overproducing the necessary clouds. Every rain was a storm and every storm was a flood. They actually overproduced rain in truth. There would be five the amount of rainfall in one Kong season than in any other clan’s doing.

Flooding was a problem, as was the shortness of the season.

Chin didn’t plant much during the rainy season, few crops could grow during that time and few more could withstand the flooding. Most of the farmers and village would be busy serving the hoards of merchants that were passing through. And today was no different.

Standing from a hilltop, Chin could see the tens of thousands of pack beetles littering the place. They were large beasts capable of carrying thousands of pounds of goods, most of which were for mortals. But something was different now, there were more people and yet somehow fewer people.

The pack beetles were used by mortal traders or people of the first and second rank, transporting goods from one side of the Great Desert Strip to another. And those traders had the most to move.

Clothing, food, spices, herbs, books, and all other manners of mortal goods came through here, and they took up space. But cultivator goods like jades, spirit stones, cultivation scrolls, pills, spiritual herbs, beast parts, and weapons, were small.

One of their swords could be worth one full-third-rank spirit stone. It would be made out of a magic metal of some sort and it could slice through rocks and trees as if they were air. And there were a lot more of those types of traders coming through now.

Single cultivators on the backs of spirit beasts would come trampling through the region with a single chest or one of those storage space devices. There was a fourth rank on the back of a tiger everybody seemed to be afraid of, and a fifth rank who kept trying to talk to the maidens.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Rin Wi had smacked that one red and bloody, and the poor bastard had nearly popped.

He reminded Chin of a tomato by the end of it all.

There were more cultivators now and Chin was visibly annoyed by that. He grabbed the equipment, along with the other aids, and they all said their goodbye.

“Goodbye Mister Chin!”

“We’ll see ya tomorrow Mister Chin!”

“Make sure to stay off the fields for the night, Mister Chin!”

Chin just nodded. No one took offense to that, they all knew better.

Chin walked back to his home, where his amazing wife stood waiting for him with a plate full of food.

His amazingly stubborn wife. Three minutes later he was on his third plate. This was his punishment, he had forgotten to come in for lunch and he hadn’t finished his breakfast.

Thankfully the woman let him go after that and he went outside to fetch some water from the well to bathe with.

An hour later he was clean, full, and tired. It would have been the perfect time to go to bed.

Chin sighed. He could not. He put on his robes, the uncomfortable ones with the fancy collar and embroidered tree, and went to fetch Rin Wi.

“Rin, let’s head out,” he stated.

Rin Wi was in the kitchen, cutting up some ginseng into a pot.

“Chin,” a voice boomed.

Chin frowned.

“Rin Wi was just making some tea here, want some?”

Mister Bill sat at the table with a cup waiting expectantly. Medin sat with him, talking to him and also hounding him to eat as well.

“Chiny,” Medin stated. “Where ya heading out at this time of night?”

Chin glared at Mister Bill, who was now sipping his tea and looking in any direction other than him.

“To deal with the cultivators he brought in,” Chin stated.

“I didn’t bring them in, they came here by themselves.”

Chin kept glaring.

“You want me to kick them out?” Mister Bill asked.

He did.

Chin didn’t want to talk to cultivators. He wanted to sleep, then he wanted to farm, but because of that old bastard he now talked to some prissy guy in robes.

But he couldn’t say no. These talks would only benefit the village, not hurt them. And as the village chief, the burden of negotiation fell upon him.

“Let's go,” Chin stated looking directly at Mister Bill.

“Who me?” Bill stated, feigning a reaction.

Chin didn’t elaborate.

“Why do I have to go?” The man whined.

Chin just glared in response.

“Fine, but Rin is coming with and so is Mei.”

Chin shrugged.

“Rin, go get Mei Shan.”

Rin, the ever-silent, nodded.

Chin liked her. She had taken to cooking like he had taken to farming, and she had now become Medin’s shadow, working alongside her and sharing tea and gossip with the woman at any time.

They had clicked, like an old pair of friends. Medin often told him that Rin Wi reminded her of Chin. She said the girl talked little and cooked a lot, and that she had little tolerance for cultivators.

Chin liked that. He had started taking her to the cultivator encampments as security. A few of them had threatened Chin and a lot of them had flown off into the wind.

Rin had taken one fellow and spun him around by his legs so fast that she had started a small tornado in the place.

She had a name now, Chin had heard. A title, The Silent Guard of The Immortal Oasis Sect.

Chin just thought of her as the local police. Over the weeks, more and more people had been calling the girls in as authorities, often to mediate.

And the one with the most talent for that was Mei Shan, followed closely by Rin Wi. She had become the defacto arbitrator of any dispute within the valley. She was always fast and fair, always.

The other day Chin had been approached by two villagers, one yelling about his sickly dog claiming the other had poisoned it. Mei Shan had quickly figured out the truth, and had even cured the dog, and stated, as a punishment, the neighbor wouldn’t be allowed to have his own dog for a year.

When the perpetrator rebelled against that, stating he needed his herding dogs to make a profit, she continued to threaten to take his sheep as well. And he could use the dogs for herding, as long as he rented them from Chin. They’d go back to being his within the year and half the income would go to the grieved party while the other half would go to village income.

Both parties accepted the agreement and the culprit wallowed his way back home.

She was a good lady, a smart lady, and one capable of resolving most situations. Her presence within the village had lightened Chin’s shoulders mightly. Rin Wi was all well and right but Mei Shan was a natural leader.

Honestly, he was thinking about making her a village elder and he doubted anyone would have a problem with it. And with the sudden rise of population, they were bound to experience, Chin was slowly growing fonder of the idea.