“Junior greets Qiang You. Junior greets senior,” I said and bowed to the man before me. Unlike most cultivators I had seen, he was not wearing a martial robe of some kind, but a large overcoat with lots of pockets. His thick glasses made him seem even more eccentric.
He walked up to me and put a hand on my head. I felt a wave of energy pass through me and then he released his hand. “You don’t ask for anything simple brat,” the eccentric man said. The fact he could call Qiang You a brat was heart stopping. That was when I noticed the symbol of the Heavenly Alliance stitched in upon his over coat.
I had been called here after a cycle of just waiting around the TripleX faction trying to work on my techniques and figuring out a business plan. I didn’t dare pester Qiang You to hurry up, since he clearly would not let me stick around and break through on the faction.
Back in the garden I had first met Qiang You in, it was clearly time for my cultivation to be fixed. I steadied my breathing to reign in my excitement.
“A challenge then. I have covered the expenses and have not lied,” Qiang You said.
“If you had, I would have left already after teaching you a lesson. I haven’t seen a cultivation system this messed up and stable for at least an era. An entirely new system and an organ to help it. You are lucky child. Out of everyone in the Forever City, I can count the cultivators on one hand that could fix your problem,” the eccentric man said.
“Thank you, seniors,” I quickly replied and bowed deeply again.
“Raise your head, let me look at you.” I obeyed quickly. “I am Cultivator Po. My titles and other achievements would make your head explode. Qiang You here did me a small favor long ago, and he has called it in to get me to take a look at you.” I glanced over at the man in question who was staring intently at me and then back at Cultivator Po. I wasn’t sure what to say.
“I understand it is a great honor and a debt that will be near impossible to repay,” I replied. Cultivator Po let out a scoff.
“At least you understand the enormity of what must be done. Your cultivation is impressive as well as your body. You have stolen the foundation of multiple beings. The monster cultivation you have undergone is formidable.” It took me a moment to process that statement. “Tell me of them.”
I began to list off everything I had used to boost my body and cultivation. Cultivator Po just listened while I went through everything. “The Astral Soul Stabilizer, inspired, but sub-par in construction. The blood reinforcement, decent but from a weak beast. At least you managed to kill it yourself. The plant combination for a pill, is far too aligned to nature. It would have been better to be from an animal. The energy vortex, is interesting but slightly unbalanced.” He cut down all my major achievements in the past.
“Please tell me there aren’t more like him?” Cultivator Po turned towards Qiang You.
“His origins have been inspected. Apparently he is a genius under the heavens,” Qiang You said with a touch of amusement.
“Heavens save us from geniuses who get ideas,” Cultivator Po muttered and then turned back towards me. “To craft you an organ that links your body and soul and will draw in power from your body core is only one part of the problem. It is by far the largest. Your foundation is incredible and impressive. But it has cracks, serious cracks.”
“Can it be done?” Qiang You asked him.
“Technically yes. Anything is possible as you know. But I will need reassurances that the breakthrough won’t happen inside the Forever City,” Cultivator Po said.
“I was thinking about using him on the outskirts to disrupt a certain faction that is entrenched against our interests,” Qiang You said, and Cultivator Po shook his head at that.
“It will exceed any safeguards we have in place. It would not be a minor incursion. So, I wouldn’t be able to turn a blind eye, even with our friendship,” Cultivator Po said.
“That is unfortunate. Very well, I will make use of him in other ways,” Qiang you replied. I didn’t dare interject or complain as these two immortal cultivators discussed me like a piece of meat in the market.
“Good. Then I can grow something useful,” Cultivator Po said and Qiang You nodded at him. The eccentric man approached me once again and placed a hand on my head and another on my sternum. I felt powerful waves of energy move through me, and my cultivation shook. He moved the hand on my head to my gut and I felt like my cultivation was going to rip apart.
“Breathe, you won’t die while you stand in front of me,” Cultivator Po said, and I breathed. The pressure got worse. I felt like my channels were being compressed. “Your cultivation is too good, which is my I must be a bit forceful here.”
After ten minutes he let go. I struggled to say on my feet. “And done. Check my work,” Cultivator Po said, and Qiang You came over and put his hands on me.
“Inspired as always. Your technique is flawless,” Qiang You replied and released me. I looked at Cultivator Po wondering what he had done. The man took pity on me and explained thankfully.
“I created an organ on the spot. I have a specialty in biomanipulation. Surgery would wreck your cultivation and create massive instability. You would have never survived such a procedure. And even if you did, you would never break through. I merely combined the leftover bits from all the other things in your body to form an organ,” Cultivator Po explained.
“It is small but will grow over the next couple of cycles. I would wait at least five before breaking through. When you do, your body core will implode directly onto the organ and draw in the energy, forcing it to link with your astral soul. It has no name, since it has not been done. There are long term issues though.” I listened intently to the next portion that he would explain.
“What I have done is to smooth out your breakthrough and your next portion of cultivation. But reaching immortality with such an organ, will pose difficulties. You walk the path of physical force. A solid and dependable path, but the organ I created does not support such a path.” I didn’t understand and he let out a small sigh, clearly sensing my confusion.
“A regular cultivator follows the path of the Dao, which sounds repetitive, but it is not. The idea is to connect to a concept and become that concept in part by attuning one’s soul to the cosmic energy of the astral plane. Drawing power and energy from there. That organ bypasses that connection. You will draw in immense amounts of energy and filter it for use. But to breakthrough to immortality, you will not follow a Dao to attune yourself. Speak,” he said to me.
“Senior Cultivator Po, couldn’t I just gather more and more energy to break through to immortality?” I asked.
“For others yes. For you no. The energy gathering method focuses on processing the energy into one’s body as a whole. And while that happens slightly with our cultivation system, it is not the focus. You will never be able to reach that kind of density. Cultivators of our system focus on throughput, not on one’s reserves. But your connection is now regulated by the organ I have created,” Cultivator Po said.
“Senior Cultivator Po, couldn’t I improve or replace it?” I asked.
“Improve, no. Replace, anything is possible. But unlikely. You will need to find a new way to breakthrough to immortality. That is what it means to develop a new system, which is what you are doing. If I had to use my considerable experience to guess, your next stage would be Energy Filtering. Where you mentally construct the processes to draw in and filter energy. Then Energy Gathering, to fill yourself up. After that, no idea. No idea how it will impact your lifespan. I can say that the organ I have given you, will last longer than you,” Cultivator Po said.
“Thank you, Senior Cultivator Po,” I said with a bow.
“That’s what I am being paid for. Qiang You, that concludes things, unless there is something else?” Cultivator Po asked.
“That is all. Thank you for your time my friend,” Qiang You said and bowed his head.
“Cheeky brat. At least you bothered me for something slightly interesting. If he makes it to immortality, I would be curious to see what the outcome is,” Cultivator Po replied.
“If he lives that long, I will let you know,” Qiang You said and then the eccentric Cultivator Po just disappeared with a slight swirl of the air. I hadn’t noticed before, but the birds hadn’t been tweeting in harmony in the garden. Now they started up again.
“You will not understand Yuan Zhou, but that was one of the great powers of this city. Cultivator Po’s generosity was immense,” Qiang You said as he went to his stone seat and sat down.
“Thank you Vice Leader Qiang You for helping me,” I replied and bowed deeply.
“Sit. Let us drink tea and talk,” he said. The Head Servant quickly brought out tea and served both of us. He didn’t even complain or say anything as he poured us both a cup and then left. I drank first as the guest to show trust. Not that there was anything I could do if Qiang You decided to squish me.
“Those few moments of his time, cost fifty million credits on top of a minor favor,” Qiang You said. I nodded slowly at that.
“Thank you for telling me,” I replied. I had been hoping it was cheaper if anything.
“I can see your face, that you would think that such a small thing to the man would be cheap. It is not. The minor favor was to just arrange a discrete visit by him. The credits are for the energy and karmic ties he created. At a higher level, one can increase their strength through the application of credits,” Qiang You said. While Bones had never explicitly said this, it wasn’t a huge leap in logic. I nodded at this statement.
“I suspected as much Vice leader,” I replied.
“Others it would have been less, but with Cultivator Po, it is better to overpay for his services to sever any kind of karmic debt. He is easily offended. It is good that you did not misstep. To owe such a man a favor, is quite burdensome. And the favor I used was not spent, since I paid. It just means he will continue to be fond of me, until I am desperate. It is primarily used as an excuse for him to visit,” Qiang You said. I didn’t think he would share something like that with me.
“Now, you have been poking about the faction asking questions. If I did not know better, I would say you are a spy. But I suspect you are looking to start a business and earn credits. After looking into your history, you do have some business acumen, and your time in the Forever City shows common sense. Tell me of your ideas,” Qiang You demanded.
I wasn’t mentally ready for a business presentation, but it was clear that Qiang You wanted to sort things out with me all at once, now that I was being focused on. “Yes Vice Leader. My first idea, would be to create a more efficient method for vehicle routing.” Qiang You held up a hand.
“I will stop you there. That is the domain of the Heavenly Alliance. They set the traffic patterns in the Forever City, we have no say. Next idea,” he said.
“Small scale industrialization. Sell portable processors to factions, so they can replenish supplies as the progress in a conflict,” I said. Qiang You was silent at this and poured himself some more tea. I was silent as well as he considered the idea.
“You have intrigued me. That idea has been attempted before, but fell out of favor due to the lower costs of mass manufacturing and transporting goods. For small scale conflicts it isn’t useful, but for larger ones, such a device would shine. Very well, you will be given a chance,” Qiang You said.
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I felt my heart speed up at this. “You will be given a budget of ten million from your line of credit and floor 19,521 of this tower. You will be allowed to access the first tier of historical records and construction methods. And you will be responsible for developing the sales and distribution of your product.”
“Thank you Vice Leader Qiang You,” I said.
“I doubt that you will succeed, but it is possible. I know you don’t wish to fight,” he said, and my heart froze at that. “While you keep your thoughts to yourself, I have been alive for far too long to allow my gaze to be diverted. I will not sabotage you, but I will not go out of my way to help you. Once you fail, then I will have you complete more dangerous tasks.”
Qiang You wanted to crush my spirit. The old man was evil incarnate. A floor and ten million credits to use was immense. But beyond creating a product, the hard part would be selling it. He was also shameless enough to admit to his plan as well. The Forever City peddled nothing but death and destruction.
It wasn’t the only two things they peddled, that was unfair. There was also misery and hopelessness. Qiang You wanted to give me enough space to fail. And then he would extend more control over me. Also, by showing he knew exactly what I was up to was a power play all on its own. He was saying, ‘Don’t try and mess with me, or else.’
One did not live a very long life and become a Vice Leader of faction by being stupid or letting their subordinates get away with things. I had no doubt that Qiang You had an eye on everyone in the tower and what they were doing. While he didn’t need to know everything, he clearly knew enough that I had no chance of concealing anything from him.
The difference in power was seen by the ease with which he handled things. He fixed my cultivation and gave me an opportunity to generate revenue. The real issue would be the taxes imposed by the faction. For an entire level of the tower, I would be expected to pay half my earnings in taxes for external sales. That was revenue, not profit.
Reading through the entire internal faction book had been brain numbingly boring, but also incredibly necessary to know what was expected of me and the pitfalls waiting.
“Thank you for taking my preferences into account Vice Leader,” I said, and he nodded at this. I felt a twinge through my body and had to resist moving my hand up towards my gut. Whatever Cultivator Po had done, I was starting to feel it.
“Here. Use this for business expenses so they can be tracked,” he pulled out a credit card and placed it on the table. I picked it up. “I have arranged for your funds to be on there. I look forward to being impressed with your business acumen.”
There were no free lunches here in the Forever City. But now that I had funds and a space to work from, I could begin testing out my ideas for various products. Seeing how far I could get the cost down and working out the distribution and sales.
“For now you can go. When it is time for you to breakthrough, I will call upon you once again,” Qiang You said. I thanked him again and left.
More pain hit my gut. I could sense something pushing on my insides. After a day of rest, it went away thankfully. Occasionally I would experience some pain again, but it would quickly go away afterwards.
After resting, the next thing I did was visit the tower quartermaster. This was a different position than the faction quartermaster. They handled internal production and requests, while the faction quartermaster handled trade between the entire faction. It was one way the faction kept an eye on the various towers it owned, seeing where the supplies and the credits flowed.
The first and most important request was for an individual to manage my floor. While I was interested in running a business, I also needed people to help run it for me. The trick was to create passive income.
The floor had already been cleared out and was completely empty. I was looking around, thinking on how to lay things out when Ting Rong showed up. “Greetings senior Yuan Zhou,” she said and bowed deeply. That was the first time anyone had bowed towards me in a long time.
“Ting Rong, welcome. Thank you for agreeing to help me manage this floor,” I said. She nodded and glanced about before focusing back on me.
“It seems there is much work to do, to get this place productive,” she said.
“Yes.” I then pulled out a table and put the sample I had made on top of it. “This is a materializer. Junk goes in this compartment, and you can select from several products to make. A great way to process goods during an extended battle, or to sell elsewhere,” I said. She walked over and looked at it.
“May I?” she asked, and I nodded. She began looking it over. “The formation work is impressive, but an older standard.” That was what I had learned from working with Bones. “Its speed is fairly slow, five minutes at least, probably ten with anything irregular that is picked up. Its capacity is also low. No repair functionality for the goods produced either.”
“It is meant to recycle things into usable combat options, or to turn raw materials into resource cubes for easier transport. Get a bunch of these set up, you can have a mobile processing facility for scrap when a force moves through. The turnaround time is much faster. And by turning items into raw materials, they can be used in more specialized repair stations that a faction brings along,” I pointed out.
“Looking at this, it would cost about 10 credits to manufacture just from the raw goods?” Ting Rong asked.
“A bit less. It is cheaply made. There is no durability to the materials. One hit and they will break. But the cost is only 5 credits,” I explained. She walked over and pinched various portions of the recycling device I had made.
“It is cheaply made. How good is the material extraction efficiency?” she asked.
“Only eighty percent at worst, closer to ninety percent. But it separates the stuff it can’t process is separated out. Set one of these up on a cart, and just roll it around processing goods that are captured,” I explained.
“Well it can be made with a material cost of around four credits and a labor cost of around two credits. If this entire floor is dedicated to the process, then one of these could be produced a day,” Ting Rong said.
“And set up cost?” I asked.
“About half a million credits. To build the machines to make this recycler. That is how much each production line will cost to build them from scratch. We could set up four production lines in total if you prefer. But I suggest setting up one, allowing me to sort out any issues, and then they can be manufactured. We can scale up as needed,” Ting Rong explained.
“Why that much for making them?” I asked with a frown.
“Honored senior, while you can freely manipulate energy, tools will be required for us lowly individuals to do so. If artisans are created instead, the material cost would be the same, the labor cost would be 10 credits, and the set-up cost would only be around 50,000 credits.”
That was 450,000 credits difference. If we sold these recyclers for wholesale around 15 credits each with the high investment option, then it would take 55,555 units to be sold to break even. With the artisan option it would take 50,000 units to break even as well. But the first option would see more money generated long term. This excluded the taxes I would be subject to as well.
Cultivators thought long term, very long term. That was why they would take the first option and throw money at the problem. This was why I had asked for Ting Rong to work with me. She was incredibly knowledgeable about setting up production floors. Now the question was, which option did I want to pursue.
“I am guessing the equipment can’t be repurposed?” I asked and she shook her head.
“It would be specialized to produce the parts only for your recycler. The artisans can be reassigned to other projects,” she answered.
“Let’s start with the artisans. They can produce the recyclers, and I can look for buyers. Any suggestions on that end?” I asked.
“I am sorry senior, but I have only been trained in production methodologies,” Ting Rong said. Very little creativity. That was the biggest issue with vat grown humans. They were good at what they did but struggled going outside their area of expertise. This wasn’t always true but held in most cases. Occasionally you got someone like Rhiza who charted their own path in life.
“Any issues with security?” I asked her.
“That will be part of the set-up process,” Ting Rong said, and I nodded at that.
“How long would it take to set up?” I asked. She took a moment to answer that question while looking over the prototype I had made.
“A single cycle. It can be done sooner, but that would greatly increase the price,” she replied.
“That long?” I asked.
“It will take that long to produce the artisans needed and arrange for raw material shipments,” she explained.
“That is fine. Any ideas on improvements that can be made to the recycler?” I asked.
“Streamlining using the TripleX standard formation system. Minor improvements to the layout and construction methodology. But that would require a professional craftsperson,” she explained.
“How much would that be?” I asked.
“That would have to be requested of another cultivator. There is an in-faction job board that can be used. Our you could hire externally,” she said, and I shook my head at that. Hiring outside the faction would look bad for someone so new to it.
“I guess that means I will be working on improving this. When would the design need to be finalized?” I asked.
“If we are going with artisans, then it needs to be ready when they are, in one cycle. You do know, there are other products like this out there senior?” Ting Rong asked, and I nodded.
“Yes, but the trick is to make the construction cheap, but the processing high quality. These pieces of equipment aren’t meant to be used in a combat situation. They aren’t weapons. And unless a cultivator or person using them is incompetent, they won’t get damaged that easily. Other models cost around 20 credits for the low end. But our market is the mid-end, which is around 50 credits,” I explained.
It was honestly surprising no one had done this, but it wasn’t an improvement. Just another way to handle a situation by creating something that was an incremental improvement and could come in at a lower price point. The plan was to sell these for 30 credits each, wholesale.
That would leave 15 credits after the faction tax. With production costs at 14 credits using artisans, I would make 1 credit per unit sold. But it was part of an entire product line. I then pulled out a much larger device I had constructed and set it next to the table. While the recycler was about the size of two large microwaves, the divider was about the size of two stoves stack on top of each other.
“This is a divider, another product. The idea is people toss in stuff into the top portion, and it is divided up into the lower portion’s containers. These containers are then slotted into the recyclers,” I pointed out. Ting Rong moved in and took a closer look.
The entire idea behind the divider, was that people clearing out floors, could just toss everything into it and it would be split up quickly into standard sized containers, which would then be taken out and placed into the recyclers. That way things didn’t have to be divided and sorted by hand.
The recyclers would churn out material cubes, which were more easily handled. The specialty waste would also be separated for more high-end recyclers to handle. But it would greatly reduce the movement of goods and time needed to process a floor.
One thing cultivators liked was more upfront investment to save a few credits over the long term. That was what my recycler and divider combo idea was all about. The divider would also compact stuff down as much as possible into the container that would be moved over to the recycler. Set up one divider and ten recyclers on a floor, and it could be cleared out incredibly quickly.
It would screw over scavengers, but there was no loyalty there. It was a job I had worked at long ago. Also, by quickly processing materials on site, then the risk of an enemy force retrieving them was low.
The divider would be priced at 100 credits, with Ting Rong estimating the production cost being 20 credits for the materials and another 15 credits for the labor. After the tax, that would give me 15 credits of profit per divider. Thankfully the same artisans could be used, but they would only be able to produce one recycler per day or one divider over two days. Dedicated production equipment would have run about 1 million credits and reduce the labor to 2 credits.
While tempting to go all out, better to have more flexibility in case I needed to pivot to other product ideas. The idea would be to sell bundles at the start. One divider and ten recyclers as a whole, for 400 credits. The hard part would be selling them in volume. Out of those 400 credits, I would only be making 25 credits of profit for myself.
It would take a lot of sales for this business to become profitable. The tax was the real killer. Otherwise, my profit would have been 225 credits per batch sold. Just to earn 50,000 credits, the difference was between 222 batches sold versus 2,000. It was a huge difference. But the faction tax was not something that could be worked around.
Since they provided protection and backing for production. That was the security guarantee. It was also why most businesses were individual service providers working for the tower master. They didn’t have to pay taxes to themselves, and the faction portion of the tax was only twenty five percent, which was much more manageable.
The entire system was incredibly frustrating, and I disliked how much I had to kick up to Qiang You. But opposing him was a fantasy. While I had planned to ask him for a floor, I had been waiting until I broke through. The fact he had given me a floor to set up a business showed how well informed he was about me. It made sense since I was such a large investment.
That was also why I wanted to verify what I was told. I used my granted access to the faction records, to look up anything about Cultivator Po. TripleX had an extensive database on factions and individuals from the information it had collected. Cultivator Po was a senior member of the Heavenly Alliance who specialized in biomanipulation.
That was it. There was nothing more listed about him. But it did confirm what I had been told and witnessed. While Qiang You could have tampered with the records, it was unlikely. I even visited another tower owned by the TripleX faction just to double check and got the same information. That was enough for me to put aside my fears.
And while I had considered running away, I was much more interested in starting up a business and working as a cog within the system. Trying to go my own way had led to nothing but hardship. While I had been free and independent that came with a cost of its own. After experiencing both sides, I was content with the deal I had made with Qiang You.
That didn’t mean I liked it, or thought the deal was fair. Just that it was better than living out of stairwells and going to shady merchants who would carve me up. All it cost me was crippling debt and putting my life into the hands of Qiang You and his whims. But that debt was also my shield. It would keep me alive. The more I earned, the less inclined he would be to sacrifice me using one of his favors.
The more thought I put into the matter, that was probably why he had given me this business opportunity before my breakthrough. He wanted to see if I could actually earn credits to pay him back. I was too weak to fight, which meant that my only value was my ability to conduct business. A deadline of five cycles had already been given.
It would take one cycle to grow the artisans. Which meant I needed to look at scaling up. Having one batch grown for 50,000 credits wasn’t enough. I had Ting Rong put in an order for four groups of artisans, which was the most my floor could handle. That would cost 200,000 credits, but I needed to go into this with a mindset of success.
My life was on the line based on how well I did. I would also need to come up with other products to develop a catalogue.