After the planning meeting, Muchen didn't see Zihan much. Xinyi had been serious about taking a promising student under her wing. She had also been serious about the remedial lessons Zihan would be enduring. Muchen felt a bit of jealousy, but only a bit. If anything, he was grateful that his own martial training had eased off quite a bit.

Life in the newly christened Flower Mountain Sect soon settled back into a comfortable routine. Muchen continued to cultivate diligently, using the electrical generator to fuel the Storm Dragon scripture. He was able to call enough electricity to his hand to knock out an ordinary mortal, but he was still a long way from throwing lightning bolts around. Still, the electrical grid within his dantian was growing steadily.

He had more energy when he went about his daily tasks, and his strength was improving day by day. He could pretty much lift a wine barrel with one arm. And a bit of help from his legs and back.

Chuhua worked with Yize to refine the next round of spirits. Once they had prepared enough, Yize went out on another delivery. Right now, their only steady income came from his trips to Jiaoqu Town. Muchen felt a little bad about asking Yize to take the risk, but he didn't seem to mind. And they did need the silver.

After all, while any group of cultivators could call themselves a sect, if they wanted to hold their heads high in the cultivation world they would need to gain official recognition from the Qianzhan Empire. Right now their signboard proclaiming the territory of "Flower Mountain" had a conspicuous empty space where the Empire's official seal of recognition would go.

Yize felt a little irritated every time he passed by and took note of it.

Besides, the concept of official recognition wasn't just about personal pride. Official sects could hold farmland without having to pay taxes on it. While Muchen didn't currently own any farmland, that would hardly be an obstacle to profiting from official status: the moment the Flower Mountain sect received an official seal, the citizens of Li Village would be lining up to put their land under the sect's name in exchange for a share of the tax savings.

Muchen wanted to get ahead by making customers happy, but he wasn't going to turn down cash from government incentives out of some kind of principled stand.

The easiest way to gain official recognition would be to take part in the qualifying tournament in Jiuli City. The next tournament was only a few months away. The format was actually relatively favorable to upstarts: since cultivators were only allowed to participate in the tournament once, a new sect like them enjoyed an advantage since everybody could participate.

In order to achieve official recognition they would need to have three disciples advance into the elimination rounds. Muchen still needed to do a little more research to scout out the competition, but he figured after months of Xinyi's tutelage they would at least have a pretty good chance.

The part of the tournament that wasn't so friendly to newcomers was the entry fee. After all, the Qianzhan Empire didn't want every gang of cultivators out there trying their luck in the hope of getting a tax break. Naturally, there had to be a cost to participate. It was the form of the fee that was a little tricky: 10 spirit stones.

Muchen had four spirit stones in his pocket thanks to his adventures in Jiaoqu Town. Getting his hands on the other six would take some doing.

The general rule of thumb was that one spirit stone was worth a hundred silver taels. That didn't mean that you could show up at the doors of a sect with six hundred silver taels and walk away with six spirit stones.

The genesis of the rule of thumb came from the courtesy service large sects offered their disciples: when they needed to head into the mortal world and wanted to bring along spending money, they could trade in their spirit stones for a hundred taels each. Sects weren't charities. They would hardly turn around and sell those stones to outsiders for a mere hundred taels.

The common saying in the Qianzhan Empire was that spirit stones couldn't be bought for silver alone. That wasn't true, of course. Whenever somebody told you something wasn't for sale, that just meant you weren't offering enough silver. The key to turning silver into spirit stones was finding the right seller.

Before Yize left on his latest trip to Jiaoqu Town, Muchen had asked him to take as much of his profit as possible in the form of spirit stones. He also asked him to drop by the Chen family and see if they were willing to quote them a price on the remainder of the spirit stones that they would need to pay for their entry into the tournament.

For his part, Muchen didn't want to just sit around and wait to hear if Yize had been successful. Whenever possible, he preferred not to put all of his eggs in one basket. Besides, it was past time that he went and greeted his neighbors.

Li Village was on the fringes of the populated region of the Qianzhan Empire. To their west was more or less untamed wilderness, stretching far off into the distance.

Untamed, but not uninhabited. Sects tended to make their homes in such remote areas. In this case, their closest neighbor was the Iron Bones sect, which itself was an underling of the slightly more distant Leaping Carp sect. In time, Muchen would like to open friendly relationships with all of the nearby sects.

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For the simple acquisition of spirit stones, though, there was no need to venture farther afield and trouble the Leaping Carp sect. Accordingly, Muchen made his preparations and set out on a visit to the Iron Bones sect.

He traveled light. He kept his big knife by his side and brought along a pack filled with provisions. The only extra weight was a jug of spirits that he brought with him for the purpose of social lubrication. It was fresh out of the still and had undergone even less processing than the moonshine Muchen had sold up in Jiaoqu Town. He was hoping the novelty—not to mention the high alcohol content—would be enough to see him through.

This was the first time he'd gone on such a long trip by himself. He had debated with himself for quite a while before deciding against inviting Xinyi along. For one thing, she had her own matters to attend to, now, a disciple to teach. He also thought it was a good habit to get into to leave one heavy hitter back at the sect, just in case. Not that they were likely to face any kind of bandit raid just yet, but better safe than sorry.

Most importantly, Muchen thought that he was ready to try working without a safety net. He was making steady progress through the foundation establishment stage of cultivation, and he'd grown comfortable with life and death situations. Not that he wanted to turn his friendly visit into a fight, but at his stage of cultivation he should be more than capable of handling any dangers that popped up along the way.

He'd also need to get used to handling matters for himself sooner or later. Xinyi's presence was something of a safety blanket, a trump card that could bail him out of an emergency situation. She wouldn't be around to act as his personal protector forever. If he couldn't handle something simple like establishing friendly relations with the neighbors without Xinyi looking over his shoulder, he couldn't call himself much of a sect leader.

Muchen set out on foot. In part because Yize had taken his mule along with the sect's only cart, but also because he wanted to make a good first impression. It wasn't entirely logical, but a cultivator wandering through the wilderness with nothing but a jug of booze and his weapon cut a more impressive figure than a cultivator driving a mule cart.

Muchen left civilization behind after the first full day of travel. Fortunately, the weather held, the first tinge of autumn cool not enough to make him uncomfortable sleeping out under the stars. Thanks to the wonders of cultivation, he woke up the next morning with a spring in his step and no lingering aches from sleeping on the ground as he continued his journey.

The wilderness was untamed, but hardly trackless. Muchen made his way in a generally westerly direction along a dirt path. It wasn't something he would have wanted to steer his cart along, but at least he wasn't just wandering aimlessly through the forest.

Something about the forest did feel different than the wilds near Flower Mountain. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. The air tasted just a bit fresher, his surroundings felt just a bit more alive. It reminded him a little bit of his journey into the northern wastes, the oddity of it, though the feeling was different. He didn't get any of that hair-raising, skin-crawling sensation.

He did his usual bit of meditation after settling in for the next night. Even if he could no longer advance his cultivation outside of a lightning-charged environment, he could still replenish his energy after a long day of walking. When he opened himself up to the surrounding spiritual energy, it flowed towards him with an alacrity that he'd never felt before. He finished his meditation in half the usual time, feeling refreshed and recharged.

Maybe there was a reason most sects set up out in the middle of nowhere.

Muchen ate some dry food for dinner and turned in early. He could feel the surrounding wildlife, but none of it dared disturb his slumber.

The surrounding forest grew even wilder as he continued on, though nothing disturbed him as he continued along the forest trails. Part of him was disappointed that he didn't get a chance to test out his strength now that he'd advanced his cultivation. A larger part of him was alarmed that his subconscious would entertain such a bloodthirsty thought.

He made good time. After another night of peaceful slumber under the stars, he reached the Iron Bones sect shortly after noon the next day. The sect itself wasn't particularly imposing. A gateway had been set up, with a sign overhead declaring the presence of the Iron Bones sect. Muchen noticed the Qianzhan Empire's official endorsement fixed to the sign with a pang of jealousy. There was no wall surrounding the sect's territory. Muchen wasn't sure if the gate was only for show or if there was perhaps some kind of defensive formation set up.

Either way, he was here as a visitor, not some kind of spy, so he made his way directly towards the disciple standing guard by the front gate.

Calling him a guard might have been an exaggeration. Though the teenager had clearly been assigned to gate duty, his attention was turned inward. Just inside of the sect's gate was a large cleared area. It could be used as a parade ground or gathering place, perhaps, but at the moment it was serving quite well as the stage for a sparring match.

Two boys who didn't look to have reached their teenage years were exchanging blows. Neither was using a weapon, and both were comporting themselves with a level of discipline and skill that Muchen would be hard pressed to match. As Muchen watched, the larger of the two closed the distance, absorbing a punch to the chest in exchange for delivering a hard strike to his opponent's stomach.

The smaller boy fought on, but the outcome of the match was obvious. Muchen turned his attention away from the fight and called out to the gate guard, now that he had nearly reached the gate itself.

"Hello there!"

The guard jumped, whirling around and reaching for the sword tied at his belt. He calmed down before drawing the weapon. Now that Muchen got a better look at his face the boy looked to be fourteen or fifteen years old, most likely still in the early stages of the meridian opening realm.

"What business do you have with the Iron Bones sect?"

Muchen straightened up his own posture. There was a time to be personable, but right now he was on official sect business.

"I'm a visitor from the Flower Mountain sect," Muchen said.

The guard just looked at him.

"I'm here to establish friendly relations," Muchen continued.

"I have never heard of this Flower Mountain sect," the guard replied.

"I won't hold your ignorance against you," Muchen said, "but I'd rather you stop wasting my time."