Ren was drinking tea and feeling rather shaken.

Flight, or ‘wind walking’ as it was more colloquially known, was oft considered one of the later traits of cultivation. One usually seen in those cultivators who had reached the lofty heights of sect master, general or city overseer.

The means and method varied, of course. While most simply lightened themselves until they could step on air itself, some used elemental techniques instead. The overseer of Ten Huo herself rode on lightning-chi, blitzing across the sky in moments, striking her foes with the force of a typhoon.

To hear her rivals within the city speak of it, the use of more involved elemental techniques provided one a substantial bonus in aerial duels, as it allowed one to move more swiftly and apply more weight to their strikes.

Which was why she could not easily dismiss that her host had flown out to meet her on wings of fire. If he had made use of lightening techniques in any way, it had not been obvious. She definitely had not imagined the way the ground itself had shaken when he hit the floor.

It was in many ways, a powerful show of force.

As was situating me in this apartment building, she thought, glancing around the spacious room she had been led to.

It was a glorious construct. Lit by enchanted globes. Warmed by fireless braziers. Possessed of a bath and sinks that could be filled with hot or cold water as easily as one might turn a hand.

They were quarters fit for, if not an Imperial Princess, then at least a sect master.

And Ren knew that for all the airs she put on, she was far from a sect master. Her position within the Jade Pavilion was secure, but at the end of the day she was merely one manager amongst many. Above most other inner disciples, yet lower than the division leaders and certainly lower than the sect elders.

Perhaps that might change in the coming years, but for now it would not do well to not forget myself, she thought.

Pride had precipitated the fall of a great many of her rivals in her time as an outer disciple and it was a constant struggle for her to not allow herself to fall victim to that selfsame sin.

Which was why, rather than be offended by the fact that these facilities she currently occupied were also occupied by mortals, she instead focused on the lesson the hidden master was clearly trying to convey by situating her here.

All are equal before me, perhaps? she thought as she sipped her tea. From mortal to cultivator?

If that were the case, then it was certainly an expensive lesson to convey. She could think of a number of Sects in Ten Huo that would be incapable of creating three dozen suites of this level without beggaring themselves.

Almost without thought, her hand moved to cup the illumination bulb by her bed. If she had still been a mortal, gripping the light might have burned her fingers, but as she was now, she felt little more than a tingle from the heat that pervaded the bulbs impossibly thin glass surface.

That was all she felt though. Not a single hint of ki was evident within the device.

She couldn’t even begin to conceive of the mastery required to create such an efficient construct. Let alone the hundreds that likely dwelled within the massive grey construct in which she now dwelled.

Perhaps it was for the best that she’d spoken only haltingly with the architect, before she’d begged rest from her long journey.

Something the hidden master had graciously accepted, instructing one of the mortals to convey her and her people to her dwelling. Her people were quartered on the same floor. Three to a room, unlike her own temporary housing, but she could feel their presence quite clearly through the walls.

Likewise, she could derive some amusement from their clear shock at the many appliances within their rooms. Though her smile dimmed somewhat as her senses moved to the two ‘guards’ at the end of the hallway. Determined but nervous would be a pretty apt description of the feelings she was picking up from them. A sensation echoed by the ten other men in the room next to them.

Ironically, she was less annoyed by the presence of the watchmen present as she was by the presumption that they would be able to achieve anything should she choose to… behave poorly.

Only the irritated presence of another cultivator a floor down served to keep her irritation from flaring into outright anger at the clear provocation being presented by such a display.

Is it provocation though? she thought. Or just more of this hidden master’s double speak?

She didn’t know – and it was driving her to distraction.

So much for my hopes that this hidden master was just some backwoods cultivator riding herd over a bunch of ignorant peasants. She collapsed back into the bed with a sigh. Whoever this Master Johansen is, he is clearly the real deal.

Still, a meeting with a male cultivator was never wasted. Odd or not, she’d be putting her best foot forward tomorrow.

With that in mind, she stood up, determined to summon her handmaidens for their aid in picking out a suitable choice of clothing for tomorrow.

Master Johansen arrived in full armor… a bold choice and one that has not been in fashion for some time. Would I be too obvious if I chose to imitate his choice of garb? Or perhaps I should show I am my own woman by choosing something more in-line with current fashions?

-----------

Jack smashed his head into the wall over and over again. Something that might have been rather painful were it not for the titanium plate reinforcing his skull.

“Go to the city. Buy food with the money I give you. Return with the food. Rinse and repeat.” He grunted. “How hard was that to do?”

It said a lot about how relaxed Lin had become around him that rather than be concerned by his behaviour, she seemed quite happy to snicker as she sat on his sofa, casually buttering a scone.

The pair of them were in his ‘inner sanctum’.

Which was really just fancy speak to describe his ‘man cave’.

Say what you would about the Omni-Corps, when they stranded a man on another planet for months on end, they gave him the tools required to keep himself entertained during that time.

Or at least, keep him from going insane, he thought.

Which was why the room they were in had a rather nice sofa. A big ass holographic projector. A number of different gaming consoles. A small kitchen. And a pool table.

God, he loved that pool table.

Lin for her part, had no idea what to make of any of it, but was quite happy to make use of the things she did know how to use. Like his kitchen and his sofa.

“I told you to send An with them,” she pointed out.

“And I told you that I need An here to keep riding herd on our militia while they figured out how guns worked.”

Sure, they’d taken down a spirit beast without her help recently, but until they could do it consistently, he was leery of sending An anywhere far from the town.

It wouldn’t do for all his efforts to train up a bunch of country bumpkins be undone by an ornery turtle that had somehow magically learned the ability to breathe fire because of mystic chi mumbo jumbo.

…Then he’d have to start all over again.

Which would be even harder, because the non-spirit beast variants of animals had been steadily upping their own game. They’d gone from simply being rabid animals to… something else. The other day the militia had brought in the corpse of a wolf the size of a pony – with six eyes and barbed teeth.

Jack shuddered just thinking about it.

Were it not for the fact that he’d tested twice, he’d have been tempted to say that this ‘instinctive chi corruption’ was just rampant radiation. Of the comic book variety. The kind that gave you superpowers rather than cancerous tumors.

So yeah, it was in everyone’s best interests to keep An exactly where she was.

…Even if part of him hadn’t been entirely sure his little food convoy would make it back as a result.

Lin glanced up at him. “And I told you that the solution to that problem was either going with them yourself, or sending An while you guarded the militia.”

Jack slumped. He had no excuse there. At the time, his focus had been on getting his crude oil refinery up and running so that he could finally start producing plastics. Something he’d been loathe to put on hold while he sat up on the surface watching a bunch of guys run in circles.

At least An could do her meditation stuff while she played sheep dog.

Plus, food had yet to become an urgent problem. A looming one, but nothing that couldn’t be put off for another month or two. His convoy had been intended to be more of a test thing. To see if they could make it to the city and back.

A little callous on his part, but he’d never pretended to be a particularly moral person. More to the point, the militia were an asset to be utilized. The town needed food. His small army was in a position to provide it. He did no one any favors by not making use of those assets he had available to him for the purposes of solving problems.

Unfortunately, his small army had not just died an ignoble death to wild roaming beasts - afraid and far from home. They had succeeded in their task – for a given value of the word – and in the process, they’d brought back a tag along with them.

A cultivator. One who was in An’s own words, stronger than her. Although, apparently, not by much.

Which was something of a relief.

Dangerous as An might have been, he was recently confident that if things ever came down to blows, his suit would give him enough of an edge to best her. Primarily because her glaive would shatter long before it managed to slice into his suit. At which point he’d just need to get a hold of her somehow and… squeeze.

He shook his head, feeling a little green just thinking about it.

“Do you think she’ll be trouble?” he asked finally.

Lin shrugged. “I think all cultivators are trouble.” She glanced at him. “Even fake ones.”

“Helpful.”

She just shrugged again. “You heard what she said before she ‘requested an opportunity to rest’. She’s here because she was interested in our gold reserves and is hoping to make a deal. I imagine that interest has only grown since our people took her to the Apart Ment. I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to acquire some ‘mystic items’ from you while she was here too.”

Jack nodded. That at least made sense to him. “You think she’s telling the truth?”

Part of him was worried that the woman was just the scouting party for an army of pissed off punch wizards who knew he wasn’t one of them.

“In part.” Lin allowed. “I think the second reason she’s here is because of you.”

Jack’s heart skipped a beat and he found his hands… squeezing. “You think she might know I’m not actually a cultivator?”

Lin turned to stare at him. “No, you dolt.. well actually, I suppose that’s possible. But no, given she didn’t try to kill you when you met and just take what she wanted - and An doesn’t have a clue - I figure your cover’s intact. No, the other reason she’d be here is because one of our militia – I’d bet on that loudmouth Xinya – likely gave away the fact that they were working for a cultivator.” She eyed him. “A male cultivator.”

Jack paused. “You think she’s-”

“I think she wants to bone you, yes.” Lin smirked. “Just like An.”

Jack sighed, pressing his head once more against the wall.

-------------

Ren made a point of taking in all the sights she could from her rickshaw it trundled down the road. She and her servants followed just behind the hidden master and his procession of militia guards, as they gradually made their way towards the town’s warehouses.

Her eyes were not on the man himself, but on her surroundings.

For all that the guards she had spoken to on her trip out to the town had described the place as a small mining town, the structures around her would not look too out of place in the more affluent parts of Ten Huo.

Though I am being a bit generous there, Ren thought as she regarded the squat gray structures around her.

For all that the local buildings were made of the sort of materials one might expect to see in the high district, the architectural style left much to be desired. The best that could be said of many of the homes she could now see was that they were stridently functional.

Though Ren could well admit that looks could be deceiving. For all that the Apart Ment itself was a veritable treasure trove of luxuries, from the exterior it appeared to be little more than another formless gray block. The only real stand out features the building could boast was that it was of a very impressive height.

Her surveying was interrupted as their small procession was forced to come to a halt. It seemed that a child had chased a ball out it into the road, only coming to a stop when the girl realized she had almost bumped into one of Ren’s own people.

“You dare impede Lady Ren’s path?” her man shouted, unsheathing his blade at the girl – who seemed to have frozen in terror. “You court death with your foolishness.”

She didn’t actually.

Alonso wouldn’t kill the girl. Simply give her a painful whack with the back of his sword for her stupidity. Her people knew her preferences when it came to such things.

Her eyes had already begun to roam once more when a surprising clang rang out.

Alonso’s sword had been stopped cold, held almost contemptfully in the hand of the Master Johansen.

“That’s enough of that,” The hidden master said slowly, his voice distorted by the helm he wore. “I think she’s learned her lesson.”

The girl behind him had actually fallen over in her fright. Still, she quickly recovered from her seeming paralysis as Master Johansen casually kicked the ball back to her with his heel, his gaze never once moving from Alonso.

For his part, Alonso was frozen with terror. Which was not at all surprising. All of the servants she had brought with her were mortals. Her ‘guards’ were more for show than anything else.

For her part, Ren was feeling a little nervous herself, and more than a little indignant.

“I assume you have no issue with leaving the matter as it is?” Master Johansen asked, turning his gaze up to her.

Relieved, Ren nodded slowly. “It is your town, Overseer. I am content that the child will have learned from this experience.”

Nodding, the man let go of Alonso’s sword – who seemed to slump in place. That done, he turned to the girl and with surprising deftness picked her up, shoved the ball into her arms and none too gently shoved her back in the direction of the group of children she was playing with.

“Keep your eyes open next time.” The man called. “And thank Lady Ren for her patience.”

The girl did so, hesitantly, echoed by what was clearly the girl’s mother, who seemed to have become aware of the danger her child was in at some point during the short altercation that had occurred.

“My thanks, Lady Ren, Lord Overseer, for your patience with my unruly child.”

The man just nodded, waving it away. For her part, Ren saw little choice but to accept. At least some of her irritation had dissipated at the Overseer’s attempt to give her face.

From there, the procession rolled onward.

—----------

Soon enough Ren found herself inside a large brick warehouse. A brick warehouse filled with stacks upon stacks of iron ingots. Held in strange metal crates, hundreds of boxes seemed to stretch all the way to the ceiling itself.

The dog-woman deliberately pinched herself, not entirely sure what she was seeing wasn’t some kind of illusion.

It wasn’t.

It was real. All of it.

Which, frankly, beggared belief. Doing some quick mental math, she was reasonably sure that what she was looking at here was easily the equal of all the iron that moved into and out of Ten Huo in a year.

And it was just sitting here, in a warehouse.

“May… may I touch one to verify its authenticity?” she asked finally.

She knew it was a bit of a risk to ask. Some customers in the past had rankled at what they saw as a questioning of their trustworthiness.

“Sure.” Master Johansen said.

Not sure why she wasn’t surprised, Ren gestured for one of her people to pick a bar. She was pleased when the young man deliberately went for one that was from a crate near the back of the room. It paid to make sure that when sampling a product at random, that you truly did pick one at random, rather than that which was simply closest at hand.

Her fingers closed around the cool surface of the metal as her servant carefully handed it off to her, before he soundlessly retreated backward. Not that Ren really noticed. Her entire focus was on what her sensory techniques were telling her about the piece in her hand.

It was pure. At least ninety eight percent.

Which she knew wasn’t the ideal form for forge work or construction - though it did have applications in alchemy. For most tasks thought, pure iron was rather soft. For real hardness, instead needed to be mixed with a number of other materials.

For transportation though…

“I would gladly pay twenty gold a crate for this.” Ren said, turning her gaze back toward Master Johansen.

She tried hard not to show just how excited she was – and curious as to what technique the man across from her had used to acquire such large quantities of the valuable material in her hands.

Though she found herself further surprised, when rather than the man himself speaking, or even what was clearly his student, it was instead the mortal woman that had accompanied them that spoke. “Twenty gold? A fine jest, young mistress? But surely a material as fine as this deserves at least forty?”

It actually took the dog-woman a few seconds to reorientate – and she had to visibly clamp down on the desire to snap at the audacity of this mortal for speaking to her so casually.

Clearly this was a test, and she would not be so easily fooled. If the hidden master wanted to see if she would be thrown off by having to speak to a mortal, he would be disappointed. As a merchant, she was often called upon to speak to mortal merchants – though none at all spoke to her with the audacity of the woman in front of her.

“I’m sorry,” Ren smiled. “I do not believe this young mistress has caught your name.”

“This lowly one is Lin, great one.” The young woman bowed as she spoke.

Well, at least she has some manners, Ren thought.

“Well Lin, I think you’ll find that twenty gold is a more than fair price.” She handed off the ingot to her servant. “Certainly, if we were closer to Ten Huo it would be worth more, but as it stands, I will be incurring a significant cost transporting these materials back to the city.”

That wasn’t even untrue. Ren wasn’t so foolish as to try to significantly lowball a hidden master. The price she was giving was only slightly under what she believed the real value would be once transport costs were included.

Rather than accept that reasoning though, the girl simply smiled. “Well, if that is an issue, my master’s people are quite happy to transport the goods ourselves. We will after all, be making trips to city ourselves.”

Ren was not at all surprised to hear that. The shipment of food she had brought with her had been well received, but it clearly wouldn’t feed a population this size for long.

And while it was an odd thought for a rural town to buy food from the city, it made more sense than one thought. The city was a hub. Farmers came from across the territory to sell their goods there. It was thus easier to buy in bulk at Ten Huo itself rather than make multiple trips to a number of disparate farming communities.

She also clamped down on the urge to point out just how well the local’s last attempts to buy food from the city had gone.

Instead, she implied it. “Without cultivator protection? Or will Lady Guo be making the trip regularly?”

The dog-woman might have been irritated by that talkative young guards chattiness on the trip up from Ten Huo, but she had still been canny enough to exploit it.

The woman in question scowled at the mention of her name. Which wasn’t too odd. She’d been scowling at Ren from pretty much the moment she’d come into eyeshot. It wasn’t hard to understand why.

Her master was male and Ren was competition. Prior to her arrival, the young woman had had the hidden master entirely to herself. Not that she seemed to have done anything with such an advantage, if Ren’s nose did not deceive her.

Still, that wasn’t pertinent to the merchant’s current interests. That would come later. For now, her only goal was profit.

However, rather than become defensive at Ren’s statement, Lin simply smiled. “Recent advances in our militia have made our people quite capable of defending against animal, bandit or spirit beast.”

Ren’s resisted the urge to laugh at the mortal girl’s words. “That’s an… interesting boast.”

“One that is not without substance.” Master Johansen finally spoke. “And in the interest of proving that we are not all hot air, I’d be willing to make an exhibition of the militia in action.”

A bit surprised by the addition by the thus far silent man, Ren could only nod. “I would be interested to see that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mortal triumph over a spirit beast before – nor heard of it.”

Which was about as close as she was willing to get to saying that she thought the man was delusional.

Rather than speak, the man simply nodded, and Lin once more spoke. “So, with that in mind, shall we continue our negotiations on the assumption that our people can provide safe transport for your goods?”

“Of course.” Ren smiled.

The merchant continued through the act of bargaining, but it was half hearted. She knew it would all become redundant when she proved that without cultivator protection, the transports would not be adequately protected. Which meant she would need to contract cultivators. Who would not be cheap, especially when so many had gone north to fight the Instinctive incursion.

Still, it was worth humoring the hidden master. Especially if that left him positively disposed enough to her to allow her a… private conversation later.