Silas walked down the street and trusted because Reiko would not forget to wipe down and sweep behind the small, rarely used counter in the foundry. The master walked through the medium-sized village. At the moment he was in the heart of the town on the main road. This road led to the docks and then to the road that would eventually get to the Emperor’s Road. Some side streets would lead to various houses of the people who lived here. Near the outskirts of the town were the farmers of the village.

The road early in the morning and later in the evening was clogged by the farmers heading to the main shopping area or away from at the end of the day. Now, though, the road was wide open and the village docks were empty for the time being. The only place he wanted to stop was this little old man who sold dumplings and wandered around with a cart he pushed. When asked why the man didn’t get a horse or even a donkey, the man would just laugh and say this was the secret of his long life, pushing his cart.

Silas could find him just before he turned down the path that led to the village elders’ homes. He stood there in the corner without sign and not shouting. Everyone knew what the man sold. When Silas walked up, the little old man grinned a grin that showed only two teeth on bottom and one on top.

“Ah Master Silas, Master Silas! Always a pleasure when you come greet my cart. I know I’ll make some decent coin!” The dumpling man said with a jovial laugh and patted the broad Silas on the shoulder. His eyes went wide as he did, and he took a second to feel Silas’s arms. “You, uh, are quite beefy, aren’t you?”

Silas laughed along with him and nodded his head. “Yes, lots of years of training and practice. That’s why I need so many dumplings. They help me grow like this,” Silas explained.

The Dumpling Man had no name and whenever someone new would ask him his name, he would just point to the simple drawing of a dumpling on the cart. Silas couldn’t even tell how old the man was. He was bald and sun spotted with freckles and moles. Before he spoke another word, he pushed himself off the cart, which he leaned on, and pulled through drawers and assemble his wok on a traveling burner he had. There was also a pot and a steamer he had installed on the cart. It was just a simple farmer’s cart, so since he had all of this installed always impressed Silas.

“What’ll it be today then, Master Cultivator?” He asked as he opened some of the straw and wooden containers that sat next to the cooking things he had. “You came early enough, so I have pork, fish, and chicken today still and they haven’t gotten gluey yet,” he lamented. “If only I could stop that for the customers who come later.”

Silas grinned and shrugged. He wasn’t much of a cook, and Hikari was usually busy in her gardens. He loved when he found this man’s cart because not only were the dumplings some of the best mortal food he ever had, but it made dinner a simple affair.

“Give me half a dozen of each?” He asked finally as he looked over The Dumpling Man’s selection. Silas looked them over hungrily. The little pillowy pockets of meat and sauce and aromatics. The smell hit him while the dumpling man gathered all the dumplings Silas wanted while he chuckled at the number he ordered.

“Going to have me sell out before the rush,” he explained as he laughed.

” Sorry,” Silas said sheepishly.

The man laughed harder at this and waved a free hand. “No, no, it’s great. Means I might get home a little earlier.”

Silas blinked and rubbed at his bald head. The man laughed once more. “You thought I was homeless?”

Silas looked back and forth between the man and his cart as his mouth stumbled for words.

“Haha, well, I have a wife. She’s the one who runs the little shop of sewn things. We live just outside of town at the base of the mountains. Not the nicest place, mind you, but it suits us,” he explained. “Hey, did you want these fried or steamed?”

Silas was relieved for the change of topic as he looked between the wok and the pot. “Can you do a little mix?”

The man nodded his head. “I’d prefer it to be honest with ya, otherwise I’ll be working on your order all day,” he said and already he moved quickly.

The man might have been well aged, but when he was working, Silas could swear the man was almost as fast as he was. The oil in the wok crackled and popped and dumplings were thrown in. Silas watched him use his spatula and turn and toss the dumplings, making sure they get a nice even crust on them. The dumpling basket was placed over the pot filled with the rest of Silas’s order.

“Sauce?” The dumpling man jarred Silas from his thoughts and Silas could only nod dumbly.

The man nodded his head and poured the dumplings out into a small container. The pan sizzled once more than he threw garlic in and tossed it, followed by green onion. The smells hit Silas’s nostrils, and he drooled. Dark sauces were poured in, soy, fish and some thicker sauce that Silas wasn’t sure the name of, but was a thicker and stickier. Everything was tossed and then some mirin was added and then a white powder that the man pulled from a sack that was labeled ‘flavor enhancer.’ Once the sauce was finished, he poured it into another much smaller container and set that one in with the dumplings.

While the man cooked, Silas set a red gem the size of a baby’s fist where he’d be able to see it. Inside the gem was a swirling red light that looked miniature red fireflies drifting around. The gem also radiated power, and the man paused a moment to look at it with a wide mouth.

“Nah sir, that’s too much to pay for the amount of dumplings you’re getting,” he said and shook his head. He went quickly back to working the steamed dumplings. He collected them and covered them up.

Silas just shrugged. “You’re a good man, and this will keep the fire for your wok burning for a long while I think. I got it from the beast who roamed through the other night,” he explained.

The man sighed and handed the containers over to Silas. “You’re next order is on me as well, Master Cultivator. Thank you so much, you are correct. My setup does not use much power,” he said as he sent Silas on his way.

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It didn’t take him long as he moved through the village to where the village elders’ homes were. The houses were built on the side of the Jade Mountains. The magistrate lived higher than the rest of them and Silas was at the bottom. He had to be close anyway, to defend from any beasts or bandits or whatever else.

With their position at the bottom of the mountain under the school, they got more their fair share of beast attacks. The beasts who had developed a core were scared to attack the school directly. The village at the bottom of the mountain, though? That looked like a buffet. It was too bad for them that Silas and his small team were the gatekeepers to the buffet. There hadn’t been a significant attack since Silas moved down into the village. Even minor attacks were rare once Reiko’s father made good on his promise.

When he reached the little plot of land that was his own he turned his back to push open the gate that sectioned it off. He looked across the village and up a little and he saw his favorite spot in the town. It was a large hill that was just tall enough to overlook the village and also gave a beautiful view of the ocean behind it. Silas liked to go up there to do his morning cultivation with his wife. There was a cherry blossom tree there, and it was quite peaceful and beautiful when it was blooming.

He walked through the small pathway through his wife’s gardens to the front door and once turned to open the front door. As soon as he stepped foot into the house, he heard the voices of two women laughing and talking. Silas cocked a brow and used a foot to close the door behind him and kicked off the canvas shoes he wore.

He made his way past the sunken living room and into the side room that acted as their dining room. It was a fairly standard dining room. Square wooden table with four seats around it even though only two were ever used. A lamp hung from the ceiling and was currently lit so they’d still have some light with sunset approaching. To the side of the dining area was a small quant kitchen that they only kept the bare essential groceries in.

“May the Kami help us,” he groaned when he saw the second female at the table with his wife.

Hikari stood and grinned as she moved to help Silas when the containers of dumplings he got. “Yeah look what I found under my tomato bush,” she said as she carried them to the counter.

Silas walked to his old friend and kissed her on the cheek. “Hello Kio,” he said and smiled fondly. She was his oldest friend. The first friend he made when he came to The Sect of the Green Mountains and in fact, she joined the same day he did.

Kio gave her greeting which included a small hug and looked at all the containers of rice. “How did you know I was coming already?”

Silas looked at the ceiling “uh,” he mumbled.

Hikari laughed and grabbed plates and chopsticks and put them in front of the three places on the table. “Silas is a big fan of the dumplings the old man sells. Whenever he sees him he gets them,” she explained to their friend.

Kio laughed and poked Silas’s gut playfully before he sat down. The gut was big, but it was rock hard like the rest of him.

“We can send you to the capital and have you join one of those sumo stables, or we could have if they got along with cultivators and that incident,” Kio said and grabbed a few of the dumplings with the chopsticks and set them on her plate.

Hikari sat across from her and left Silas in the middle seat. “Incident?”

Silas watched Kio finish the bite of dumpling and she held back the groan of pleasure from the flavor of the pork.

“You got these from the Dumpling Man, didn’t you?” Kio asked and pointed her chopsticks at Silas accusingly. “I know him, he comes up to the school sometimes. He’s almost as good as the Chen’s,” he said before she finished the dumpling.

“What incident?” Silas asked. Living here, away from the school and since he turned his back to the entire world of cultivation he was out of the loop. For something to be called an incident by Kio, a teacher at the sect it must have really been something.

Kio grinned. “It’s a cultivator thing, simple, humble like yourselves probably….”

“Tell us,” they both groaned before Kio could get out the rest of her statement.

Kio laughed and put down her chopsticks. “Well, uh,” she paused and looked for the words to explain. ”Do either of you actually pay any attention to sumo?”

Hikari gave a shrug. “Sometimes they’ll come here in between their tournaments and do some exhibition matches and hang out and such. We’ll go watch if we don’t have anything else planned. It’s always good to show support to the mortals who are so devout to one of the Kami.”

“Yeah,” Kio grinned. “It turned out one of the Oyakatas or stablemasters or whatever they call them was in fact Kentaro himself,” she explained and picked up another dumpling.

Silas and Hikari both just started at Kio.

“It was like their biggest tournament of the year, even the emperor was there. Kentaro revealed himself and then well…” Kio trailed off and shrugged.

Himari asked questions while Silas just sat there and thought. How did a kami pretend to be a sumo master? How did no one notice? Well, no, if it was Kentaro the kami could easily hide himself among mortals.

Kio waved off the questions from Hikari and shrugged once more. “I’ve told you all I know. I guess the Emperor sent his own people to look into it, but I haven’t heard anything. All I know is there was a sumo head guy up there who showed signs of going a little crazy and then on the second or third day of their tournament Kentaro rushed the ring and all hell broke loose. His assistant was a cultivator and came in and fought with some homeless beggar that was also a cultivator?”

Kio's face screwed up at the end and she shook her head. “I don’t know, apparently he saved some boy from getting trampled,” she said finally and took another dumpling.

“So…” Silas finally spoke up, but he wasn’t sure what to say. He just left the word hanging in the air.

Hikari stood and made her way back to the kitchen and grabbed some mugs and sake. “I think after that bombshell, we need a drink,” she said as she returned and put the cups down with the opened bottle.

Silas nodded his head and poured each of them a glass. He drained his entire pour before he finally dove in on some dumplings. The three ate in relative silence and drank their sake as they thought over the news that Kio brought them. Silas restrained himself on the dumplings to make sure Kio got her fill as she was the guest and also because with the news, he wasn’t as hungry as he had been.

In the end though, after a few drinks of the hard spiritual rice wine Silas figured the Heavens would do as they liked as they always had. The mortals would just be there to deal with the fallout. There wasn’t really anything he could do. He looked over at Kio and grinned.

“What?” she asked and stared at him with her eyes glazed over.

Silas nodded his head maintaining the grin and Kio drew back. “Silas, no. I appreciate the off….”

Silas’s eyes grew wide and Hikari started belly laughing. “No!” he stopped Kio from finishing her statement.

This made Kio laugh as well, and she put a palm up as Silas looked at both of the women with a frown as he blushed.

“What is it?” she finally asked after she laughed a little more.

“You’re going to help me. You’ve already come to help train my apprentice in his martial ability. Now we’re going to grow his core,” Silas said and grew serious once more.

Kio looked at him and shrugged. “Sure, I don’t see why not,” she said simply before she took another sip of her wine.

“I’ll arrange everything tomorrow and then at sunrise the next we’ll do it,” Silas decided with a nod. “He’s grown all the channels he can, and he’s been working hard.”