We left the estate and walked down the road. We passed a variety of shops but, as I only had twenty eight stones left, we couldn’t afford to go shopping at the moment. Maybe tomorrow, when I had received the two thousand stones Ji Bo owed me, we could return and buy a few things. I wanted to get Liza at least one dress robe, and Jiang was about her size, or was before she was pregnant, so she should be able to help me pick something the correct size. I could somewhat rely on the automatic sizing effect to shrink it for her, but if I got one that was too large I was worried that she would think that I thought she was fat. I also wanted to get some more clothes for myself, possibly even a defensive robe, but I wasn’t as picky about the size as long as I could shrink it enough.
A few minutes later we reached the beast merchant I had seen advertisements for around the city. He was haggling with a man about the price of a tiger cub, so I looked around at the pets. They seemed to have a wide variety of beasts here, all of which were at least half-bloods. The front of the cages listed what type of beast they were, and mentioned several points about their combat and utility uses.
After the man received the money for the tiger cub he was selling, we walked over to the shop keeper. “Hello.” I said. “I was wondering if you wanted to buy a few beasts.”
He shrugged. “Depends on what you have.” he responded. I pulled out the bag of bats and handed it to him. “Well, there’s a decent quantity, but most of them are weak-bloods. I’d have to sell them as live feed, so I can’t offer much. The half-bloods are worth a bit more, since they can make decent scouts, especially at night, and the strong blood is a good find, but bat’s aren’t really in demand. How about a quarter of a stone for the weaks, two stones each for the three halfs, and ten for the strong? So, thirty three stones total?”
I nodded. “Do coyotes have a better demand?”
He nodded. “Predators always sell better, as they can help in combat.” I nodded and pulled out the Coyote bag. He looked inside. “Thirty three weaks and a half. Since I can sell the weaks to some of the mortals and level ones that work the fringes, I can give you half a stone each for them, and five for the half. So, another twenty one.”
“Fifty four total, then?” he nodded, and I agreed, not wanting to bother haggling over such a small amount. Half of that, or twenty seven, would go to the men in the caravan, but I could use the other half to buy things today. “Then I accept.” He handed me the money and I transferred contracts to him. Once the transfer was complete, I was ready to buy a few things. “I was actually hoping to buy a few beasts as well.” I said. I was about to ask Jiang if she liked any of the ones he had, when my bag started to move. I felt excitement coming from Xiao, and a few seconds later he flew out of the beast bag, made a loop, then landed on my shoulder. He tweeted, and I understood why he was excited. “He says he smells spicy insects. Do you know what he’s talking about?”
The merchant nodded, and opened a basket beside him, then reached inside. “Don’t see too many Lightning Sparrows around here. Their speed makes them one of the best scouts you can get.” He pulled his hand out of the basket and a blue centipede about as big around as his thumb and twenty centimeters long was crawling on it. When Xiao saw this, he looked extremely excited. “Blue Horror Centipede. Their venom makes mammals experience extreme fear, and they like to hunt in packs, frightening their prey to death. Birds, however, are immune to it, and most of them love the taste.”
Xaio started chirping excitedly. “How much?” I asked. I did owe him a treat, after all.
“Half a stone each.” I nodded and pulled the insect training guide the demonic cultivator had out of my bag. “So you already have a copy?” The merchant said. “You hoping to breed them?”
I nodded. “I’ll need a stable food source for him when I get home, and such a large level one spirit insect would make a good choice.” I found the page that listed the Blue Horror Centipede, and made sure that it listed their breeding and living conditions. They weren’t picky eaters, though they were mostly carnivorous. I would have to throw in animal parts from time to time, but I should be able to buy animal innards and the occasional bone from the butcher store easily. “Good, all of the info is there. How about twenty of them? Say, fifteen females and five males? Plus another two males for him to eat right now.”
He nodded and I returned eleven of the stones he had just given me. After he transferred the centipedes to me, I sent the twenty I meant to breed into the beast bag, and put the other two on the ground. Xiao grew to full size, which was slightly larger than when he frightened the bandits in Mortal Valley, and immediately grabbed one and started swallowing it. It reminded me of someone slurping up noodles. The other centipede tried to crawl away, but Xiao quickly finished the first one and jumped forward to pin the second to the ground. After waiting a few seconds, he pecked at the second one and slurped it up as well. When he was done he shrunk back to a slightly larger size than normal, hopped onto my shoulder, and started rubbing up against my cheek to thank me. I could feel another strand of qi entering me, but this time I let it go where it wanted too. It ended up settling in some parts of me that I hadn’t conditioned with it before. Most likely I had missed a few places when cultivating his seed.
“If you are interested in growing food for him,” the merchant said, “How about this?” He pulled out a one gin bag that contained what looked like yellow wheat seeds. “This is Thunder Wheat. It’s the companion plant for lightning beasts.”
“Companion plant?” I asked. “The Beast Tamers guide didn’t mention those.”
He nodded. “It’s not exactly basic knowledge, so a simple first level occupation manual wouldn’t have it. Companion plants are plants that help to enhance the cultivation of beasts of a certain type. Those beasts love to eat it and sometimes the plant can even unlock bloodline traits within the beast. That’s why those of the Stone Monkey lineage love Stone Fruit. It’s also why I keep Horse Mane radishes in stock, as horse type beasts go nuts for them and most of the people in town with spirit horses buy from me.” He pulled a radish plant from a nearby crate. While the radish looked relatively normal, the stalk of the plant looked like it was covered in fine blonde hairs.
“Anything for Dragons, then?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I wish. The few people with dragon type beasts tend to be rich.” I looked at Jiang and she looked a bit disappointed that we couldn’t get a treat for the flood dragon.
“How about Rocs?”
He shook his head again. “The plants aren’t that uncommon, but there’s no demand. The closest I have in stock are the Thunder Berries, which lightning type beasts like, but which is technically one of seven known Roc companion plants, just the weakest. The only Roc bloodline beasts I’ve heard of are found in hidden realms, and usually die before reproducing, so they are generally thought to be extinct. They are powerful if they manage to grow up, but weaker than most beasts at low levels, as they mostly focus on speed at low levels, not power.”
I nodded. “Phoenix, then?”
He smiled. “That I actually do have.” He opened a crate and pulled out a dried fern. “Phoenix fern. There are only two beasts with phoenix bloodlines in the city, but these plants can be crushed and rubbed into a seriously wounded spirit beast’s wounds to slow or stop bleeding, prevent infection, and give them the strength to continue. Most people buy it for that purpose.”
I nodded. “How much do those cost?” We worked out a deal for the wheat, ten Thunder berries, two radishes and two ferns as well as the spores to plant more, paying him another five stones for everything. While the ferns might make good medical supplies, the radishes were for the horse that brought me here and a gift for Ben to give his horse, as they only cost a quarter stone each.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
After paying, we started asking about the pets. Jiang wanted a serpent type, and she wanted a large number of similar pets for her family, so no one would complain. She had another idea for Five’s pet though. “So, how much do you want for the tiger?” It was a half blood shadow tiger, good at sneaking, and we had seen him pay five stones for it, so we could probably get a good deal.
He thought for a minute. “If you are willing to do the contract, then I’ll sell it for six, seven if I have to do it, since I only have the initial price in it.” I nodded and he pulled it out of the cage to hand it to me. I gave him the six stones, then handed it to Jiang before performing a quick servant contract technique. It was a bit reluctant to serve her, but when she started to pet it the bond stabilized.
“Good,” I said. “Now, what do you have in snakes?” He had three to choose from, a Strong blood newborn Rainbow snake, that specialized in illusion, a half blood Acid Cobra, and a strong blood Blade Constrictor, who’s scales could be flared to cut into its victims at low level and which could generate sword intent starting near the end of level two. The first were common for illusion cultivators, the second for poison cultivators, and the third for sword or weapon cultivators.
After thinking for a little while, she settled on the rainbow snake. While it was a strong blood, it was actually the cheapest, as it only hatched a few days earlier and wasn’t in the best of health. He let it go for only five stones. I used Taking Pulse on it and saw that, not only was it a bit malnourished, it had a birth defect in its digestive system, essentially a hole in its stomach. I took it from Jiang and, after she gave it a level one organ pill, I started meditating on closing the hole. Fifteen minutes later the hole had been closed, and I handed it back to her, where it wrapped around her left wrist, so she now had a snake on each. I bought a few baby snow mice for it, only a tenth of a stone each, and it ate one before going to sleep.
“I just realized she doesn’t have a beast bag.” I said, noticing when I tried to give her the nine extra mice. The merchant, of course, had several in stock, and I bought her a cheap five stone one, having spent more than my share of the sold beasts already. After teaching her the beast storage variation of the shrinking technique, I did the swarm version of the technique on the mice just so they wouldn’t escape and the Companion version on the snake, as it now liked her enough from feeding it and giving it the pill it thought had cured it.
She stored all of the mice and the tiger, then explained the situation with her family and that she wanted a cheap pet for each of them to the merchant. He thought for a few seconds, then seemed to think of something. “Actually, I might have the perfect pet. Do you like canines?” She nodded. “I bought a pregnant half blood Ice Wolf in the late level one stage, but only realized after buying her that her pups are half normal timber wolf, so they’ll most likely be born weak bloods. That means I’ll be stuck with a group of pups I can’t sell for at least two months before I can sell her, then I won’t know what to do with them. But in your case, they should be born a week or two after your baby is, so they’ll fit into the family really well.”
She nodded. “I assume that means it will cost me more?”
He shook his head. “No, actually. Since you’ll be taking a problem off of my hands, I’ll sell her to you for the same thing I paid for her, ten stones.”
Jiang and I talked about it. With her being fully grown and pregnant, ten stones wouldn’t be an unreasonable amount to pay for her, but it was a bit more than he had expected to pay. Still, it matched her demand really well. The problem was that if they tried to negotiate him down, it would appear like they wanted him to lose money on the trade, as he had stated that he was selling the wolf for what he paid for her. After another minute, we agreed and he transferred her contract to Jiang. I wasn’t sure what we should feed her, but as this man had essentially gotten back all of the money he gave me while getting rid of the worst creatures he had in stock, I decided to go somewhere else to ask about it.
“One more question then, before we take our leave. I want to buy some honey bees and silk worms. Is there a place in town to buy them?”
The man nodded. “I don’t deal with livestock, so I don’t mind telling you about them. Sure, I occasionally have a horse, and carry the radishes to sell to people, but that’s a mount, not a farm animal.” He told us where there was a livestock merchant nearby. They had both mortal and spirit beasts, so they would be where he looked for things like that. I thanked him and we left.
Once we got there I was informed that in order to properly raise the two insects, I should buy the Insect Farmer’s guide, which normally cost one hundred stones but which they could sell me a copy of for eighty. I only had sixteen after taking out the twenty seven for the others, so I said that I would think about it and left. If there were level two occupational books, like this one appeared to be, I wanted to get jades of all of them as well, but would need the two thousand I was owed in order to afford them.
We bought a common dog food from a butcher shop, sheep innards, for a single tael, and went back to my room in the estate. They weren’t from spirit sheep, so the food wouldn’t help the mother wolf’s cultivation, but it would let her fill her stomach.
Once she had fed the wolf and tiger with the innards, Jiang started brewing tea. “Ideally you should use all medicines before the critical times so that you will know about possible issues with them.” She explained. “So I’m going to try the Crimson Marrow tea and get used to the effect. That way I’ll know I’m not going to have a strange result when I drink it during child birth.” I nodded.
After the tea was finished she gave me a glass as well. It had a much nuttier taste than I thought it was, tasting almost like peanuts mixed with mint. I felt myself loosen up a bit. I noticed that Jiang was doing the hand seals for the Taiji Refinement Art, and her movement seemed incredibly smooth, so I started doing the hand signs for a few Daoist Magic techniques I had recently started studying. My movements seemed much more accurate and smoother than the last time I tried to practice them. “This is actually a pretty useful effect. It could really help with my martial arts training.” I said. “You should give some to Ding, One, and Two when you get back, and see if it will help them as well.”
She nodded. “Unfortunately I don’t have any martial arts to test that with. The trip here had shown me that I really need to learn to defend myself, but I can’t practice any kind of high impact technique while pregnant, or I risk harming my baby.”
I nodded. “Then would you like me to teach you a low impact martial arts technique?”
She looked at me confused. “How can a martial arts technique be low impact? Isn’t the point to prepare you for combat?”
I nodded. “That is what they were originally designed for, but when I was in the outsider base I picked up a version that was designed for other purposes. It’s called Tai Chi, and, while there is a combat version that is designed around dodges, parries, and accupressure strikes, the form I learned is a mortal grade martial art which helps muscle refinement, endurance, and qi flow. It focuses on slow, precise movements which develop the body without risking injury. In fact, it is so safe that on their world elderly mortals actually practice it as a way to get exercise despite their advanced age.”
She nodded. “That sounds like it could be useful in my situation, then. Could you teach me?” I nodded and went over to the desk, where several jade slips were stacked. At three slips for a stone, they were the more expensive version of note paper, and had the advantage that other cultivators could quickly read your notes. The quality was the same as the slips that Petty and Low grade techniques were stored on, but as Tai Chi was a mortal grade martial art, that shouldn’t be a problem. I took one and touched it to my head, then transferred all of my technical knowledge about Tai Chi to it, as well as several notes about common mistakes one might make and some other training tips.
I handed her the slip and she used it. When she finished I drank the last of my tea and stood up again. “Now, let me walk you through a few of the basic stances to make sure you don’t have any major flaws in your technique, then I’m going to retire early. I need to spend the night meditating.”
“But it isn’t supper time yet,” she said, finishing her tea before standing.
“I’ll take a satiation pill if I get hungry. I really want to try and iron out some of the flaws in my foundation so that I can advance more rapidly and not hit any bottlenecks before I’m ready to advance to level four.”
She nodded. “I’ll probably do that in a few weeks.” she said. I knew that pregnancy and especially giving birth could both damage your foundation by causing hidden injuries, being taught essentially that in middle school sex ed classes, though not in those terms. As she had done so seven times each, and was about to give birth an eighth time, she likely had several hidden injuries that she would need to repair if she wanted to advance quickly.
She did two of the exercises without needing any pointers, and with the third I only needed to push on her arms in order to increase the resistance and help the muscles in her arms get used to it. Once I was certain that she didn’t need my help, I thanked her for the tea and she left, leaving what was left in the pot for me in case I needed it for training. I went through the same exercises she had just performed, but many more times, feeling my qi respond to my movements. Two hour later, when the effects of the tea had worn off, I sat down on the meditation cushion, activated the room’s array, and started going over my body one cubic centimeter at a time, looking for anything that might limit qi flow.
