The nice thing about Jian having established himself as nearly mute was that he could delegate a great deal of tiresome work to Shan. For example, one of them needed to befriend Huiliang, or at least make him a close acquaintance, so as to hear more tales of the Huang family expedition. Other than his use as a source of information, Huiliang was a thoroughly unpleasant person to spend time with. He was petty, boastful, and a mopey drunk.

So, it was with an apologetic expression on his face that Jian clapped Shan on the shoulder. "You always like making new friends, right?"

Shan made a face. "That useless silkpants?"

"He's not useless, remember," Jian said. "If he can point us toward the evidence we need, then I could be rid of this engagement and we could be happily back in Bianjing Town by the end of the month."

"If I must," Shan said, shaking his head. "At least he'll have expensive wine."

Jian thought about reminding Shan of what had happened the last time he drank to excess, but decided against it. If Shan decided to incapacitate himself, Jian would just have to provide him with a visual reminder.

Shan wasn't the only one who would suffer while he carried out his mission. With his translator gone, Jian would be severely limited in his ability to interact with the household servants who had been assigned to see to his daily needs. Fortunately, they had proven to be remarkably capable, and should be able to at least provide him with all of their ordinary services without the need for verbal prompting.

At worst, he might be forced to miss a meal. At Jian's level of cultivation that was only a mild hardship, but he suspected he wouldn't find a sympathetic ear in Shan should he complain about it later. Ah, well, each of them had to play their part according to their own role and capabilities.

With Shan off to do his duty, Jian turned his attention to the project that had been occupying much of his time lately. His spiritual crossbow was starting to come together. He thought that one good session of work without interruption would be enough to at least reach the testing stage.

Actually, he'd need to come up with a different name. A proper spiritual crossbow shot bolts of spiritual energy that posed a danger even to high level cultivators. They were prized weapons for the defense of the Empire's borders against spiritual beasts. If somebody heard him calling his little toy a spiritual crossbow he would become a laughingstock.

A spirit-powered crossbow, then. It didn't look much like a conventional crossbow. In weapon design as in so much else, form followed function. A traditional crossbow was designed so that pulling back the string would draw back the arms under tension, storing up energy that was released when the trigger was pulled. Jian's device didn't take advantage of any such mechanical advantages.

Instead, Jian had designed a simple tube. In order to apply force to the crossbow bolt without worrying about sending it off course, the simplest method was to have the force come from all directions. To the extent that any of the force was skewed to the side, it should be canceled out by the force being applied in the opposite direction. In an extreme, the walls of the tube would keep the bolt from going too terribly off target.

The final design looked simple on the surface, but it had taken hours of painstaking work before Jian was satisfied. Inscribing the formations all up and down the length of the tube hadn't been complicated, but it certainly hadn't been easy. Jian felt his fingers ache just thinking back on it. Fortunately, all that was left to do was to check the formations one last time and then seal the two halves of the tube together.

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Jian bent over his project without paying attention to the passage of time. When he finished and sat up straight, an ache in his back let him know that he was reaching his limit. He'd do some stretching exercises later to take care of it. For now, he admired the completed tube in front of him for a moment before taking it in hand.

It was time to test the fruits of his labors. The bolt he loaded into the crossbow had been the easier half of the design. The only formations inscribed on it were a small ring near the butt of the thing, designed to allow the formations in the tube to apply force to the bolt as efficiently as possible. The tube was about as long as Jian's forearm. The bolt was about half that.

He'd tried working through the math as to what kind of speed he could expect the bolt to reach. Depending on his assumptions, though, it might barely make it to the end of the tube or it might be launched so quickly as to burn up in the air before reaching its destination. As always, the best way to see what it would do was to test it out.

Jian backed up until he was standing near the wall of his studio. He aimed his spiritual crossbow at the giant block of marble that was still waiting for the first touch of his sculptor's chisel. From this distance, he could hardly miss. Once he had a bead on the target, he took a deep breath and sent his spiritual energy surging into the trigger mechanism.

There was a soft whuff of displaced air. A moment later there was a soft thud, then a clatter. Jian looked at the bolt sitting innocuously on the ground, frowning as he tried to figure out where he had gone wrong.

The bolt had gotten out of the tube, at least, but it had barely managed to make it to the marble block. Judging by the sound of the impact and the fact that the bolt was still intact, it was far from being a lethal weapon. Even used against a mortal, the best he could hope for was to leave a bruise. It was disappointing.

Jian retrieved the bolt and examined the formation inscribed into it. After studying it multiple times from multiple angles, he couldn't see any mistakes. It was possible that the spirit powered crossbow just wouldn't be practical if he couldn't supply it with even more spiritual power. It was also possible that there was something wrong with the weapon rather than the ammunition.

Jian looked at the firing tube. The interior was lined with an intricate array of interlocking formations. They were meant to compound on each other, adding force on top of force until the bolt was fired with enough force to at least threaten a cultivator who was still at the Essence Gathering stage. In order to diagnose a problem, he would have to open up the tube and test each formation individually. Then he would have to test how they interacted with each other.

It wouldn't be fun, but it was something that he'd have to do. Eventually.

For now, Jian tidied up his workshop. He made sure that all of the formations crafting materials were out of sight, just in case any curious servants from the city lord overstepped themselves and entered his inner sanctum. That done, he stepped outside.

The fresh air was invigorating. As much as Jian enjoyed tinkering away on new designs and new applications of formations, he did like to get outdoors every now and then. All the trips into the wilderness around Linshi Town were perhaps a bit more time spent outside than he usually preferred, but even he could start feeling oppressed if he spent too much time cooped up inside.

He strolled along slowly, but with purpose. He wasn't just taking a walk for his health. He'd heard that the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples had returned from their recent expedition. He wanted to report back what he had learned about the Huang family and see what they made of it. He also wanted to fill in the gaps in his own knowledge.

When he arrived at their courtyard, it was silent and still. He pulled at the cord to ring the bell that would let them know that a visitor was outside, then waited.

The courtyard assigned to Meirong and her friends carried through with the estate's general design as an artfully presented fortress, guarded by a gate made of delicately shaped metal reinforced by formations that would prevent it from being destroyed by even the strongest of invaders.

Jian, of course, had no intention of breaking in if he wasn't going to be welcomed inside. He was about to give up on his trip and plan to visit again the next day when he saw a slender figure approaching on the garden path. A moment later he could see that it was Jinghua, welcoming him with a gentle smile.