I continue practicing writing the characters from the cultivation manual for another three hours before I’m finally too strained to do anymore work. It sounds impressive, and in a sense, sure, it might be, but very little work was actually accomplished in the last three hours.

Knowing that I didn’t have enough soul energy to continuously attempt drawing the characters, I decided to pace myself. By pacing, I mean I drew a character, waited fifteen minutes while watching random videos on the internet about optimizing soul energy usage while drawing talismans— I figured there would be a lot of overlap seeing as the only significant difference between what I’m doing and drawing talismans is that talisman masters use their soul energy and vicious beast blood to form their work while I use soul energy and ink.

I gained a lot of information, but I’m not really able to put much of it into use due to relatively dismal levels of soul energy. Sure, I have a lot of control over what I can do, but it isn’t perfect and it’s too little to continuously practice with it.

So, at the end of three hours of ‘work’, I only drew another seven characters. The first few times went smoothly as could be expected— the characters looked horrible but there was obvious progress. After that, my soul energy took longer and longer to regenerate and I finally gave up when I was making more mistakes than progress.

Of course, after I finished I found that I could barely focus on anything so I went to my cultivation room for all of fifteen minutes to greet Physician Bing, absorb a bit of qi, and then went straight to bed.

Waking up in the morning is much the same as the night prior with the exception that it is in reverse— cultivation first followed by writing practice— and that I grab a meal in between the two.

I want to spend more time focusing on understanding the basics of the elemental Daos, but I also don’t want to get so wrapped up in cultivating that I let another several hours pass.

I decide to head toward the clothing store a little early, but thankfully it isn’t so early that I’ll stand around twiddling my thumbs for who-knows-how-long because I slept in a little bit after the several hours of effort put into my practice last night.

Without trying to rush, I have a decent speed heading toward the clothing store but I can already tell that I’ll probably have added on another twenty to thirty minutes from my time yesterday. It doesn’t really bother me, but it does frustrate me a little bit because I’d much rather be cultivating than getting clothes.

When I arrive at the clothing store I find that the entry room is being staffed by a woman instead of the grumpy old man from yesterday.

“Welcome!” She announces cheerfully as I walk in the door so I smile at her in return.

“Hi,” I reply happily. “How’s your day?”

She blinks twice, rapidly, before replying, “My day is wonderful, I thank you for asking. Are you here to speak with my father-in-law?”

“…” I pause and remember that this place is family-run, but it doesn’t seem like she has the old man’s attitude so I push off my random thoughts and say, “No. I just want to complete a purchase for an order I made yesterday. I’m a little early, but I was hoping my clothes might be ready.”

The woman doesn’t reply immediately and instead pulls out a scroll from the desk. Presumably, she’s referencing what I’ve said with what’s written down inside.

She reads through the scroll for several seconds before saying, “Sir, I’m terribly sorry, but could I have your name?”

“It’s Lan Jin,” I reply. I begin to hope that the old man didn’t screw me over, but then I remember that I never actually gave him my name so I tell the woman, “I don’t think I ever told the old man who was working here yesterday my name.”

The woman nods her head and looks through the scroll again, but a look of confusion and minor frustration arises between her brows as she still doesn’t seem to find anything.

“May I ask what you purchased,” she asks.

“I ordered three sets of clothing; pants, underwear, and robes,” I reply. “I think I paid one gold and five small silver for them yesterday with the remainder to be paid today.”

Finally, it seems as though the woman has found my order. Unfortunately, she seems even more confused by it.

“Er…” she pauses and looks up at me hesitantly. “Did you, perchance, order blue robes?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “Oh, but before you say anything, I’m certain,” I say as her look goes from hesitant to disbelief. “Believe it or not, I look good in blue.”

“Ah…” The woman looks back at her scroll and says, “Well, I believe they are ready, it’s just…”

“It’s just?” I ask.

The woman shakes her head and says, “I’m sorry, it’s just a little unusual for a man to wear such clothing. The clothes have been made, but I’m certain I could convince my father-in-law to use a different material if you’d like?”

She tries to convince me despite my assurance, but I know for a fact that I look good in blue so I say, “Alright, how about this. I’ll try the clothes on and if you think the color looks bad on me I will go with a different fabric. Does that sound good?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She looks even more hesitant as she slowly nods her head, but she does let it go as she says, “Very well. I will be right back with your clothes. If you’d just wait a moment.”

I nod my head as she heads back through the door leading into the room with the many types of fabric and, presumably, to wherever they keep the completed clothes.

Returning a few moments later, she carries one blue robe and a matching sash with her. I think it is a bit off that she wouldn’t bring my the pants along with them, even if she didn’t bring me the underwear while I am just trying them on, but I write it off as being solid business sense since she’s probably pretty certain I won’t like it.

Handing the robe and sash to me, she leads me back through the very same door she just walked through moments prior and I find myself confused as to why she wouldn’t just have me come along with her in the first place.

Regardless, she takes me through another door, one I haven’t been through before, and leads me through a hallway to a small dressing room. She says she’ll wait outside the dressing room while I change, so I quickly enter and pull off the robe I’m wearing and replace it with the newer one.

Unfortunately, as soon as I’m wearing it I meet my nemesis: tying the damned sash! I really should look up how to tie these damned things!

I take a few looks at the sash, shrug my shoulders, and simply wrap it loosely around my waist before tying it in a simple knot. It looks bad and my robe is open— as usual— but I honestly can’t be bothered with the damned thing. Why the fuck would people want to wear s0mething so complicated to tie correctly anyways?

With my clothes on, for the most part, I leave the room and get the attention of the woman standing idly by.

She takes one good look at me and I can see her face show all of the emotions between skepticism and exasperation at once.

“Sir…” she begins, “I truly don’t mean to insult your preferences, but such colors are more suited for women. You do have a good skin tone, but…”

She pauses, not certain what to say.

I cut in during the silence and explain, “Look, I get that you just want me to go home with nice clothes and as a happy customer, but I’m serious! Blue clothes look good on me!”

The woman obviously doesn’t agree with me so I ask, “Do you have any problems with people who look different from the people you’re used to?”

From the looks of her, she doesn’t even seem to comprehend my question. That, or she’s affronted. Either one would probably suit her right now.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand your question,” she says.

“Look, the reason why I’m wearing my hat is because I look a little different. It’s nothing bad, but it’s pretty obvious. So if you have no problem with me looking different, I’ll show you why blue looks good on me. You just have to agree not to make a big deal out of it. Alright?”

She hesitates for several seconds before sighing. “Sir,” she says, “I have no problem with people who might have… unusual appearances. I judge people based on their character with their appearances only suitable for judging their their family status. Regardless of what characteristics you might be hiding, I will not seek to offend and I promise I will not be disturbed.”

‘Why does it sound like she thinks I’m disfigured?’ I wonder to myself, but I don’t voice the words.

“Alright,” I finally say as I nod my head and take off my hat to reveal my face and hair.

“See?” I ask as her mouth drops open and she stares at me. “I know I might look a bit odd to you, but blue clothes just go well with blond hair. And they match my eyes, so it just works. Now do you understand?”

Several seconds pass before she nods her head slowly, her eyes drifting between my face, eyes, and hair freely as she seems to temporarily lack the capacity to speak at the moment.

“So do you agree that I look good in blue?” I ask and she hesitates, but ultimately she nods.

I return my hat to my head so I can fish through my pockets for the remaining money that I owe the store and casually hand it to her while she collects herself.

“Alright, well I’d like to finish my purchase, please!”

***

In another room in the store sit three women as well as the older man who took Lan Jin’s order the day prior. They had been discussing the different fabrics in the main display room moments prior, but due to the arrival of a male guest the old man collected samples of several of the better fabrics and brought the women with him into a private room so they wouldn’t be disturbed.

Two of the women were teenagers dressed in blue and red and would be recognized as Qiang Yu and Hong Cuirou, respectively. The other woman is more mature and is also wearing red, but the style of her dress is more sophisticated and daring than the younger woman’s.

While the two teenagers happily look through the best fabrics the store has to offer while chatting about their qualities, the older woman uses her spiritual awareness to watch Lan Jin in another part of the store.

Her face has a bemused smile, but she says nothing as she calmly sips her tea while paying half a mind to the events inside the room and the other half to the boy being walked to a dressing room to try on clothes that no man in their right mind would ever think to wear.

She diverts her attention briefly so he can change, but keeps it focused on the hallway in front of the dressing room. When he comes out, she watches him trying to explain his circumstances to the young woman and can’t help but shake her head at his persistence.

She thinks to herself, ‘It is good for men to be confident in their actions, but they must temper their confidence with knowledge and self-awareness lest they merely play the part of a fool in the end.’

She even shakes her head as she wonders what characteristics the boy might have that could possibly make him think wearing clothes made of that fabric is acceptable, but she soon finds her answer as he takes off his hat and she spits out a mouthful of tea.

This, of course, draws the attention of everyone else in the room. Her daughter runs up to her to check on her condition, but she waves off everyone’s attention explaining, “Everything is fine, I was merely distracted and tickled my throat with the tea.”

The younger women immediately accept her words as they go back to looking through the fabrics, but the old man gives her a curious look before beginning to extend his own spiritual awareness.

The mature woman shakes her head slightly while looking the old man in the eyes and he immediately pulls back his spiritual awareness with a look of chagrin on his face.

Ignoring this, the mature woman turns her attention back to the young man returning his hat to his head and thinks to herself, ‘That boy must not be someone from the Shi Empire, but with his hair color, he also shouldn’t have any relation to the Bing Clan. It should be that the old geezer is watching him for someone, but who? And why?

The old geezer wouldn’t risk involving the innocent, even if it meant receiving favors, so it shouldn’t be for any dangerous reasons… Perhaps that Lan Jin boy is the disciple of someone close to the geezer and that person is temporarily unable to watch over his own disciple?’

Many thoughts go through the woman’s head, but ultimately she decides, ‘It should be nothing of any great concern, and he doesn’t resemble anyone I know of that might cause problems for his being here. Nor does he seem to have characteristics common in demonic path cultivators or the barbarian tribes, so there is no harm in not digging into his background. I will wait for the old geezer to finish his cultivation before discussing it with him personally.’