“Moving on, all of us are free to leave this property as long as one of us is still here to guard it. So don’t run off and leave this place unguarded. I’ll almost always be here, so you two will be able to leave most of the time. One last rule: you may not leave for more than five days at a time.”

I pushed five boxes across the table. Two of them went to Hui Ming and three went to Jing. “Crush the yellow boxes at your feet and a shell will appear to protect you.”

I pointed at the only box that wasn’t yellow, the one in front of Jing. “Crush this blue box and a Twentytacle Trap you can control will appear. You girls should only use these in times of emergency. I’ll sense it if they’re used and rush over to help, although I won’t be able to sense where you are.”

They accepted the boxes.

“You girls know where I stashed the money. Take the amounts that I said earlier. You’re free to go.”

Jing jumped to give me a hug. “Thank you father!” She ran out the door like a happy dog let outside. Hui Ming stayed behind.

“I said you may leave.”

Her hands plucked at her dress. “Do you need me to go? I can still help with… things.”

“I don’t need help right now.” She shrunk at my words. “But remember what I told you earlier today? Watch Jing and tell me how she does. Give her help if she needs it.”

“I will. May I have some incense to cultivate with?” she asked.

“Look on the Treefather later today, I’ll have some growing there. Also come by later and I’ll give you more pills. Maybe we can get you to the eighth stage in another month.”

“Thank you master Jin,” she bowed and left.

I closed my eyes. I had a lot to take care of. I reestablished my connection with my plants. I could feel everything in my yard, but I couldn’t process it all at once. I felt around with my connection and found a piece of my garden that I hadn’t seen before.

A chunk of my garden had been transformed. A thick wooden wall surrounded it. Three words were written on the wall. “Jing’s Secret Workshop.”

I decided to respect her privacy and retract my connection from her workshop. I felt Jing’s feet against the grass, running to the edge of my garden. Hui Ming sprinted after her. Jing felt me watching her. She rearranged a bundle of vines to say, “Bye father! I’ll be back by sundown.”

I fixed them to say, “Ok, see you then.” She continued jogging.

I spent two days refining pills. Hui Ming and Jing visited twice a day. They helped me with the garden and alchemy. After the two days, I reopened Jin’s Medicine House.

I opened the back door to my shop. A thin film of dust had developed on the floor and counter. I sat on the stool behind the counter and used Control to flip the sign outside from “closed” to “open”. The door cracked open. Cheers from people waiting for days shook my shop, shaking the dust from the floor.

Most people who came in were people I found off putting. I hoped for better people this time.

Before I could finish my train of thought, the first person walked in. It was Hou Tian, who looked as if he was attending his mother’s funeral. “Brother Jin, you were right about the weird things happening in our city.”

“Oh? What are they?”

“I looked into the internal affairs of my sect. I found at least one senior who had betrayed us recently. He revealed that other seniors were also working under somebody else’s influence. A suspicious person I’d never seen began offering me expensive gifts. Then there were those attacks from the last few days.”

“What attacks?” I asked.

“You haven’t heard?”

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“No?”

“It started five days ago. A group of people launched attacks on high value sites. They all wear a black symbol of an eye on their clothes. Carts of rare medicine and weapons shops were robbed when their guards were down. There was that incident where somebody broke into an alchemy greenhouse. But they didn’t steal anything except a power rod. That was odd.”

I had to pat myself on the back for that one. I was still waiting for the news to get out that it was me.

“But they’ve gotten more brazen over time. They invaded the Sapphire Fire Sect’s major trade branches. We lost tens of millions of shards. Then all the major black market branches in this area were taken down by a pair of women,” his eyebrows creased.

“Wait a second. Can you repeat that last part, that part on those two girls?” I said.

“Two women destroyed the black market syndicates in this region. They’re from the same organization as the others,” he said.

My face paled. “Can you describe them for me?”

“I wasn’t there. I heard one of them was at least at the sixth stage. The other relied solely on her body and didn’t use any martial arts. She only used brute force and she was already powerful. They were both masked,” he said. “Do you know them?”

Yep, those two were Jing and Hui Ming. I laughed nervously. I’ll have to ask Jing and Hui Ming what they were up to. “Anyhow, anything else?”

He bit his thumbnail. “I don’t know. A couple of my friends are behaving oddly. Seniors betraying the sect has almost never happened. Whatever is behind this has control over many powerful subordinates.”

I reached underneath the counter and pulled out two large mugs, a knife, and a giant orange. I cut a slit in the orange and squeezed juice in both of the mugs. I tapped the mug on the wooden counter, making two hollow thuds. “Here, have some orange juice.”

“What is this?” he asked.

“It’s a drink, try it,” I said.

“Is there anything special about it?” he asked.

“It’s juice. Nothing special,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said, he moved towards me to take the mug. He took a sip, and leaned across the table for a hug. I hesitated before embracing him. I pat him on the back, his silk robes wrinkled robes smoothed under my touch.

I let go. “You think your friends have also betrayed your sect?”

“It’s possible…”

“What are you going to do if they did?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t know.” He wore a tortured expression, torn with indecision.

“If it’s any comfort to you, the two girls you spoke about are my subordinates. I don’t know why they’re wearing that symbol, but I’m sure they didn’t betray me.”

“Why did you have them attack the black markets?”

“I didn’t. I told them they could do anything they wanted for the time being. I’ve never liked the black markets anyway, so good riddance,” I smiled with him.

“You’re lucky to have subordinates you can trust that much,” he said, “I trust my friends, and I’d never betray them. I know some of them aren't as trustworthy as others. How did you find people that you know you can trust?”

“It was all circumstance. You’ve seen one of them, the one that follows me everywhere. Don’t worry about her. I trust her more than I trust myself,” I said.

“How is it possible to trust somebody more than you trust yourself?” he said, “or was that a figure of speech?”

“It’s not a figure of speech. I can always trust her to do what’s best for me, but I can’t say the same for myself. I can rarely trust me to do what’s best for myself,” I explained. “An old friend once told me: the best friends are the ones you can trust more than you can trust yourself. Xiao Li isn’t exactly a friend, but she’s close enough.”

“My friends aren’t like that, although I feel that’s a bit extreme,” he said.

“Of course it is. Finding anybody like that would be a gift from god,” I winked, “That old friend was one such gift from god, so they do exist.”

“I hope so…” he replied.

“You can always to come here for shelter if you find yourself in trouble,” I said. “But you should come here anyway. Tell me if worse things happen in your sect, or just come here for fun.”

“Thank you, brother Jin,” he said, “I should leave. I don’t have anything else to say, and there are people waiting outside.”

“You forgot something.” I tossed him a fifth cycle Blood Life Pill. He caught it and stared at it in his palm.

“Wow...I actually forgot about this,” he said.

“Understandable, have a nice day,” I waved and he walked away.

Running the medicine house was not a happy affair. The most desperate people in the city made it to my doorstep. I helped the ones I could help. I hardly ever moved from my spot in the chair, but it was still an exhausting business.

I closed the shop when it was nearing sundown. With the lighting fading from the sky, I walked back to the house.

Somebody else was walking in front of me, dragging a cart of heaven knows what across my yard.

I froze. How the hell did this guy slip past my detection system?

I could feel my yard through my plants, but doing it 24/7 was impossible. I set up Programs to alert me if any of the thousands of alerts I set up were triggered. It was impossible for anybody to slip through.

I readied my plants and walked up to him. “Hello,” I said coldly.

He saw me and dropped the rope to his cart. I thought he was going to run but he bowed instead. “G-Grandmaster Jin! What are you doing here?”

“Motherf- I live here!” Seeing he wasn’t a threat, I took a closer look at him. He stood up from his bow. A rough symbol was sewn into his robes. A sideways oval, with two pointy things sticking out the top.

It was one of the kitty brothers, the first customers to my medicine house. I had given them a third cycle pill for free.

“Y-you live here? That can’t be.”

“What’s in that cart,” I glared. There were times for kindness, and this was not one of them. He had snuck on my property.

“I don’t understand.”

“What. Is. In. That. Cart.”

He gulped. “I can’t show you sir! I’m not allowed to! She’ll-”

The cart was a box on four wheels. The box had a lid, which was locked. I punched the lock and it shattered. I pried the lid open. It was filled with dried clumps of green. I stuck my hand in and felt as deep into the box as I could.

The kitty brother got on his knees. “Please don’t ruin it!”

It was dried buds of weed. All of it. “I won’t.” A seed in my hand turned into a long blade with a handle. It looked like I summoned a blade out of thin air. I held it to his throat. “Who gave you this.”

“A woman named Jing. She offered us a job, and we took it, thinking we could pay you back. She led us to an estate near your shop and told us to work there. I didn’t realize she had led us to your property, sir. I’m sorry. I really didn’t know!” he cried.

I dropped the blade and grunted. “Huh. I know that girl you’re talking about. You’re not in trouble, although she is. She has a lot of explaining to do.”