During the next year there were always guards within sight wherever Wen Zixin went in the city. Too many times to count he would walk past a squad of them raiding a store of home with comments from the bystanders indicating whoever was inside had criticized the Cao Clan or supported the Bai Clan too loudly. More than once, with Cheng’s words hanging over Wen Zixin’s head, he had to call guards to the store to take someone away who said the wrong thing. Whenever anyone talked to him about it, especially the guards, Wen Zixin would firmly state that he sided with the Cao Clan. Conversations at the Inn were subdued during the year with no one wanting to say anything that might offend the Cao Clan. After the year was over the guard's presence started to slowly withdraw. The Cao Clan seemed sure of their hold over the city and thus stopped wasting their time and money on mortals. When the guards were completely gone things returned to normal with only the name of the ruling clan having changed. With things calming down, Wen Zixin asked Cheng for certain days off. While discussing it Wen Zixin learned that the calendar in this world was based on the five elements. With the year split into five phases that start with a governing element day and followed by two months. The months had three weeks in them and each week lasted twelve days. He ended up settling with the last day of the week off without pay.

On his days off Wen Zixin took his time exploring the city and investigating the local political factions. Besides the Five Mountain Sword Sect, the Cao and Bai Clans there wasn’t anyone else of note. Apparently, this area was considered desolate because of a low level of environmental qi which caused any group with real power to be uninterested in controlling the area. If you travelled east, west, or south you find the qi levels in the environment rising and correspondingly stronger forces. Although the north had no environmental qi at all. It was titled The Wastes and without qi only mortals lived there. With the problems of the past year over and done with, Wen Zixin having a set routine, and a free moment on one of his days, he sat down to look over his Status Menu and plan his future.

Personal Cultivation

Wen Zixin

Mortal (no cultivation)

Techniques:

Skills:

Mortal Skills:

LOCKED

Herbology

Medicine

Stealth

Hunter’s Instinct

Sentry’s Sleep

Leaf On the Wind

Then he looked up his current xp and compared it to the spirit root and cultivation method he had found interesting last time.

User has 476 xp

Primal Chaos Spirit Root (5000xp):

User can convert any free Qi to Primal Chaos Qi, Cultivate anywhere without restriction, and can use all Methods, Techniques, and Skills.

Unbound Primal Chaos Rules Over All Method (5000xp):

Any Techniques and Skills with requirements have said requirements ignored and there are no bottlenecks. Gain 5xp per 1 day of Cultivation.

With how dangerous the world was he couldn’t ignore the Menus and the power they offered. He didn’t want to simply accumulate enough xp to buy both and then not have any xp left over for what might be unlocked and emergencies. Considering that he was earning xp fast enough and the city seemed like it would be semi-safe, despite the recent troubles, for a while. He would stay here until he got fifteen thousand and head out into The Waste to make his selection. He didn’t know if selecting a Spirit Root and a Cultivation Method would be put on a show or be noticeable by cultivators so it would be better to do the selection where there were no cultivators. With this bare bones plan in place, he settled into his routine to wait until he accumulated the xp he wanted.

During the next couple of months, the only thing of note was that a couple of kids from the neighborhood turned twelve. They weren't the only ones, but they ended up having Spirit Roots. Apparently, that was the age when, if someone had it, their Spirit Root could be sensed and assessed by a cultivator. When a kid turns twelve their parents usually take them to a local power in the hopes that they have a Spirit Root. Supposedly, only one in a thousand had a Spirit Root and it was thought that you couldn’t cultivate without one. If a child had a Spirit Root their whole family was lifted up into the world of cultivators. Usually, the child would begin onto the road to cultivation and their family would work as live-in servants for the young cultivator. It didn’t really seem like a good deal for the family by Wen Zixin, but those uplifted didn’t have to worry about starving or homelessness. So, for the mortals around him it was like winning the lottery. Some Spirit Roots are more valuable than others. The Spirit Roots related to the various Daos seemed to be more desirable than Spirit Roots related to the elements and those were more valued than a Yin/Yang Spirit Root. Though Wen Zixin’s system seems to value the Elemental Spirit Roots more than the Dao Spirit Roots, he couldn’t get enough information to figure out why. According to the rumors going around after the kids joined the Cao Clan, the first kid had an Earth Spirit Root and the second had a Saber Spirit Root. When Wen Zixin was asking around to learn more after hearing the rumors, he started getting some weird looks over his ignorance. He explained it away as he grew up in a village on the edge of The Waste. A few months after that a supply caravan showed up just outside the city. The caravan shows up every five or six months and it had come again. Cheng closed up the shop and took Wen Zixin to meet up with his contact in the caravan to get some supplies he ordered the last time they showed up. Just outside the city walls the caravan was a hive of activity. The caravanners unloading boxes for local shops and reloading boxes with local goods. Cheng spotted his contact amongst the crowd and he and Wen Zixin went over to greet him. Just before they got over to Cheng’s contact he turned to Wen Zixin.

“Mr. Wen while I'm talking to my friend about what I need in the next shipment I’ll need you to double check the current supplies. Make sure that they have been properly stored, that they’re still viable, and all that I ordered is there.”

Cheng handed over a scroll as they reached his contact.

“Hello Puyi, how are you doing? How was the road?”

Puyi was half a head taller than Cheng, half a head smaller than Wen Zixin, with a long narrow beard, and a large belly showing a life of loving food. Puyi smiled at Cheng and bowed to him.

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“I’m doing well, and the road is always quiet around this area.”

Cheng bowed back with a smile.

“That’s good to hear. I’ll have my assistant check over the supplies while we talk about what I need in the next shipment.”

As they chatted Cheng handed Wen Zixin a scroll and Puyi pointed to a pile of crates off to one side. Wen Zixin took the scroll and went over to the supplies. Looking over the list and looking into a random crate he found the supplies were animal parts. He quickly went through the Mortal Skills Menu to find what he needed.

Zootherapy:

You are able to identify and harvest different animal parts that can be used in creating salves, tonics, and medicine that can be used on mortals.

Feeling the rush of knowledge, he took a moment to adjust before starting to go through the crates. Checking the items against the scroll Cheng gave him, looking over the seals, and ensuring the ingredients hadn’t spoiled took until lunch. While Cheng and Puyi continued to talk Wen Zixin was directed to take the supplies back to the shop. With the number of supplies, it took him until midafternoon to do that by himself. Cheng finally concluded his talks with Puyi and returned with Wen Zixin back to the shop. When they got back both of them started to put away the supplies and they finished just before dinner.

The next year was quiet and had little of note except for two instances. The first happened as Wen Zixin was about to head out to dinner. A small person strode into the store with such a presence that Wen Zixin moved out of his way without thinking. Surprised by his involuntary action, Wen Zixin stood there and studied the new arrival. He wasn’t sure what to make of the person. They weren’t local, he had been at the store long enough to get a feel for how locals acted, and the person’s clothes looked like silk but moved like the leather armor the guards wore. While the individual was about as tall as a fourteen-year-old with a matching face he was proportioned to be more like a full-grown adult in their thirties who went to the gym every couple of days. As Wen Zixin stood there trying to understand what he was looking at the man-child reached the counter and addressed Cheng.

“Mortal I require these herbs.”

With that short sentence he tossed a scroll to Cheng and waited. Cheng quickly looked over the scroll, bowed so low that his nose touched the counter, laid out a clean cloth, and started to pull out herbs from the cubbies and placing them on the cloth. When he finished, he turned to the customer and repeated his bow.

“Esteemed cultivator here is your order. It has been my honor to be patronized by one such as yourself. The price is forty coppers.”

The apparent cultivator’s face turned a little red and started yelling at Cheng.

“Greedy snake are you trying to cheat me?! These aren’t Qi Plants they are only weeds you mortals use to make yourselves feel better!”

Cheng shrank back trying to look smaller and held out his hands in a calming gesture.

“Never esteemed cultivator, never! It’s simply the price for the herbs, but I’m willing to go as low as twenty coppers for one such as yourself.”

With a huff of irritation, the assumed cultivator waved his hand and twenty coppers appeared on the counter as the herbs disappeared. Wen Zixin noticed when the money appeared, and the herbs disappeared, a ring on the cultivator's hand flashed. The cultivator turned and walked out of the store without another word. Wen Zixin frowned in confusion as he walked over to Cheng.

“Shopkeeper Cheng, I have seen other cultivators, but they didn’t look different from mortals. How can you tell a cultivator from a mortal and why did that one look so different?”

Cheng Gave Wen Zixin a sharp look before comprehension fell across his face.

“I keep forgetting you grew up in The Waste Mr. Wen. You can always tell a cultivator from a mortal by their faces. The lower their cultivation and the later they started the harder it is to notice, but cultivators always have less wrinkles and smoother complexions than mortals. As to why he looked different, he must be from the Five Mountain Sword Sect. They always start everyone cultivating around five if they can. Nobody knows if they have a Spirit Root until twelve but if you do you can start to cultivate whenever you want.”

“Why do sects train people earlier than the clans?”

“For someone to start to cultivate you would need a Cultivation Method first and no group in power would entrust a method to people who couldn’t cultivate and might sell the method to the group's rivals. For them it would be better to wait to see who could cultivate and nurture those individuals. Sects stay isolated from the outside and only full-fledged members can explore the outside world, so the Sects don’t have to worry about anyone leaving and selling their secrets. They can afford to teach a method to all their five-year-olds, because they will either become full-fledged members or they will never leave the sect.”

“Also, Shopkeeper Cheng, why would any cultivator shop for mortal herbs? Wouldn’t be better to go up to the shops on the sky bridges and buy Qi Herbs?”

“It would be more useful for a cultivator to shop on the sky bridge, but only if they had Qi Stones. That’s the currency used by cultivators. That cultivator came here because he didn’t have any Qi Stones, but more than likely has a small mountain of coppers and silvers in his storage ring.”

“Is that how he made the money appear and the herbs disappear, a storage ring?”

“Yes, he had a ring on his hand cultivators manipulate their Qi to use such rings and they can hold various amounts of items.”

Looking over the list of herbs the cultivator left, Wen Zixin noticed they should have cost over a silver. Given the cultivators reaction to the discounted price of forty coppers Wen Zixin realized why Cheng hadn’t charged the correct amount in the first place. PRIDCFULPRICK!

The second instance of note during the year happened when Wen Zixin was opening the store one day. As he was putting the open sign up, he heard footsteps above him. Looking up he saw a man hoping down from the sky bridge above and using the building like a staircase to get to the ground. Though it was obvious the man was a cultivator Wen Zixin looked for the signs Cheng had mentioned when the last cultivator had shown up. The cultivator was of average height at five and half feet or so, with a skinny body of some fifty-year-old, and a face that was smooth and young enough to belong to a forty-year-old. Wen Zixin was glad that since the other cultivator visited the store, he had studied the cultivators going through the main gate whenever he went to harvest herbs. He was starting to be able to spot cultivators at a glance even when they weren’t doing anything superhuman. The current cultivator made it to the street and looked around. He saw he was closest to Cheng’s and came over. Mindful of how most of the cultivators seemed to act, Wen Zixin held the door open for him and bowed as he passed. He wasn’t sure if the cultivator noticed him or not. He followed the cultivator in and quickly got behind the counter. While doing so he observed the cultivator focusing on and examining the cubbies behind the counter. Bowing once again, Wen Zixin addressed the cultivator.

“Honored cultivator, how can I help you today?”

The cultivator looked over to him and blinked, almost like he hadn’t even noticed Wen Zixin till then.

“Right, I need these herbs. I'll want to inspect them so lay them out.”

As the cultivator talked, he handed over a scroll. Wen Zixin laid out a white cloth, looked over the list, and began to pull the listed herbs out. The list wasn’t long, and all the herbs were for external injuries like scrapes and cuts. With another bow Wen Zixin laid out the herbs and spaced them out for easy inspection. The cultivator started carefully observing the herbs the moment Wen Zixin placed them on the cloth. He would spend up to half a minute or so looking at each individual herb before nodding or asking for a replacement. Wen Zixin couldn’t tell what was wrong with the herbs he had to replace and given the laid-back attitude of the cultivator found himself speaking up.

“Honored cultivator, if I may ask, what are you looking for in the herbs?”

Without shifting his attention from the herbs, the cultivator replied.

“I’m looking for herbs without any qi in them. Being a mortal, you wouldn’t notice but the low amount of environmental qi leads to fewer qi plants or qi beasts. So, my master, myself, … not this herb... and my fellow apprentices must order ingredients from other cities like the trade city Shichang west of here. I'm trying to see if I can use local mortal herbs to help mitigate this... not this herb... bottleneck. The resulting pills should be less effective, but it would still allow me to practice alchemy more often.”

Noticing the apprentice alchemist wasn’t overly hostile, Wen Zixin decided to see if he could learn more from him while he was still inspecting the herbs.

“Honored cultivator, forgive my ignorance but what is the difference between mortal medicines and what one such as yourself produce?”

“Hmmm, oh alchemists only make pills. Cultivators might bind wounds, but we only use … not this herb... pills to cure anything. It’s a waste of qi and supplies to make other things. With a pill it is guaranteed that all the qi and medical benefits go to the individual, whether they use them or not, without risk of any residue being left behind and lost to the environment. Not to … not this herb... mention the ease of transportation vs other types of medicine.”

“Thank you for enlightening me on the practical benefits of pills. But honored cultivator are there any other benefits to pills?”

“I suppose mortals wouldn’t … not this herb... know but pills can, beyond cure ailments and close … not this herb... wounds, enhance all aspects of cultivation and advance cultivators … not this herb... to higher stages of cultivation. These herbs are all acceptable, how much?”

“The price for these herbs is fifty coppers, honored cultivator.”

The apprentice alchemist waved his hand over the herbs, replacing them with the money as a ring on his hand flashed. With that he promptly left without another word or glance. Wen Zixin heard footsteps going up on the outside of the building and that was that. Thinking of the encounter he couldn’t help but think how much more pleasant an alchemist seemed to other cultivators.