I gasp.
Ignoring my gasp, Lin continues on unabated, “Since he’s not the best at hiding his abilities, we will use… what was it called again, Ai?”
“A cover story.”
“Right. Cover story.”
Ai takes over from this point, “His abilities are pretty far out there, as we ALL know by now. One of the other areas that can cover that is alchemy. There are potions, pills, and ingredients that can tame beasts and heal people, beyond what would be normally possible.
“You might think, why not just go for that? Because, it is only useful if you can use qi at a higher level and ultimately have a proper way of defending yourself. They work hand in hand.
“So, you need to pursue cultivation. All the books I’ve read have taught me this.”
She stands up, clearly getting into her monologue.
“The trick to all of this, to buy any type of cultivation or alchemy manual, we need a human who isn’t really known by anyone in the area. With just that though, that disqualifies Lin and I, as there is too much risk that someone could work out who we really are.”
She puts her hands on her hips and pushes her chest out. “This guy, however, is covered in mystery. So, that means we can craft a legend about him, that others can track and be deceived by. Think about it…
He appears out of nowhere and enters a shop with nothing. However, he leaves the shop with the owner begging for mercy and with a significant amount of money. The owner leaves town, selling his shop. He then grabs a beggar girl off the street, having her lead him around in the worst parts of town. He doesn’t even get touched while in these areas, where even merchants with cultivator guards should keep an eye out. All without a hint of cultivation.”
She pauses and references me, “Really though, you have no idea how lucky you were to meet Lin and not someone else. Anyone else and you would have had your throat slit… But back to the legend.
“And when he leaves the alleyways, the trail falls cold, with the beggar’s family gone and their old home abandoned. Did he take a pair of apprentices and that’s why he bought the book? Was he looking for assistants? No matter the answer, they will look into it. And run into circles.
As she speaks, a smile glows brightly from the side, showing how deeply enraptured one listener is with her idea.
Ai continues, “And why do we know that? Because Gong over here has already confirmed… we can’t find anything out on your history. She’s practically an information trader over here. If she can’t find anything from her contact, then it will be quite difficult for anyone else to.
“One of the bigger points is that it was pretty well-known that I had the Myriad Slime condition for some time. They’ll be able to see that I am completely healed. The only answer to that will be that an alchemist or a cultivator treated my symptoms or condition. Since you clearly have no qi, it would have to mean you are an alchemist or have access to one. Thus, reinforcing their internal narrative.”
Ai then sits back down. She seems proud of herself.
I think she enjoys coming up with these types of situations. Hmm… just learned something new about her.
“Okay, I can see why you chose me for that then. But how do you expect me to act this out?”
Lin jumps in excitedly, her hand waving over the webbed table, gaining our attention.
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“You won’t! That’s our job. We’ll all be covered up, but they’ll likely discover our identities quickly. Ai and I will do the actual exchange. Your job is simply to sit there and look at the other goods he has, maybe even sending us in to get the items.”
She puts a hand to her chin in thought. “You mentioned you can get an idea of things quickly? You can choose the other goods we’ll buy besides the manual. Though, try not to buy expensive ones.”
Gong interjects, “Don’t forget, we could just buy some practically dead seeds and grow them ourselves. This could be an excellent opportunity for it.”
Her mouth opens… and closes again. “Right… that’s a thing. I guess we could play it off, as if it is for an experiment.”
Turning to Ai, she adds, “We won’t be having anything that we make from those seeds, sold. They are only for ourselves and Gong to practice with.
Collective deep breath.
And silence.
I speak up, hoping to say it one last time.
“I feel it would be wrong to let it go, so I really want to stress this… I really can figure things out by concentrating on them. I’m pretty sure that if we get this manual and ingredients, I’ll be able to help us figure out how to use them properly.”
“sigh… okay, we’ll go with that then.” Ai relents, with a nod of her head and these words.
Gong just looks extremely grateful toward the two of them. And the entire group seems to be have a little less doubt regarding this ability.
I shouldn’t blame them for not believing. We can use something like this in an absurd number of ways. Having a scanning ability is overpowered, even when restricted. It is also dangerous to the extreme. Especially, when considering that cultivators can read your mind, if you have no defense.
Imagine finding someone’s cultivation method and they find out? Or discovering some cultivators secret lair, just by finding it accidentally through my scan. There’s always the possibility that the quantum mechanics ‘observer effect’ could alert cultivation monsters. But with thinking about it instead of seeing it.
In a cultivation world, if you can imagine it… it could happen.
At least with my healing abilities, I can determine who I heal and I have a decent idea on who it will affect.
I think.
Interrupting my thoughts, Ai speaks up again.
“Back to the cover though, the real benefit to this, is when we take the exam. One thing you should know about this city is that, at all times, there is someone watching. The only reason we can talk and act freely here, is because of Gong. Which is also the reason, we value her bringing us back here, so much.” Gong nods in affirmation.
Being an information expert, I’m sure she’s taken multiple measures to make sure this is a secure area. Even beyond what I’ve seen and heard about here.
Continuing, Ai speaks softer, perhaps unconsciously “When informed and influential examinees hear that you will be taking the exam, they will be cautious about you. This will help to already solidify a narrative in their heads about you. We reinforce that by ‘giving’ you three key concepts, that we want you to show.
“The first will obviously be alchemy. We need you to have a good amount of knowledge of how things work, so you need to be sure that you know the basics. Since you’ve regained some memor…excuse me, gained the power to ‘know’ things, you’ll be able to learn quickly and be able to use that to respond to prying questions. You’ll use that when you have to heal someone as well. Have ingredients that can help with wounds when you do so.
“The second is your taming ability. Are you able to use a lesser version of the taming”?
Ah, this is easy to answer. “Yes, actually. I can make it so that creatures are just more receptive and non-hostile to me. If they are hostile, I can make it so they gradually become non-hostile.”
That way also reduces the upfront mana cost, as well.
“Okay, that’s perfect then. You can still use your taming ability, but just make sure to always make it that low-powered version. That way, it will appear that you are simply skilled at interacting and taming creatures.”
That’s the same as I was thinking. Though, I am still a bit wary about it. I’ll have to do the low-powered scan on each creature I do this for. I’m sure there are creatures that are more difficult than others, which would be noticeable.
“In no circumstances, are you to ever reveal that you can ‘figure’ out spirit roots. Excessive healing, is also off the table. Alright?”
Her ‘alright’ sounded more like a threat than anything, so I quickly nodded my head.
A sigh of relief goes throughout the room. “Okay, your last one will be your ability to know. We’ll be relying you, so I hope you are sure about that.”
“With those in place… we are in a pretty good place.” Gong chimes in.
With that sorted out, Lin takes a deep breath. “So. That means all three of us will take that exam next month? What does that mean for you and me?”
“Well for us, thanks to James, we have it pretty simple. We’ll just have to take the test and assuming his spirit root determination is correct, we should become part of the inner court disciples. Having all three of us in that group, will make things massively easier. We’ll also be able to support Gong better, by combining a portion of the cultivation pills we receive.”
“Okay. With that sorted out, where is this place that we can buy the ingredients?”