“So, you want to be a tailor?” I asked.

“Yes.” The teen in front of me said, heated.

“And why are you here by yourself?” I asked.

“My parents forbid me from coming, so I ran away.” He told me proudly.

“And why don't they want you to work for me?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“They don't want me to waste my talents by working for you. They told me I should join a powerful clan or sect instead.” He explained.

“So you’re already a cultivator?” I asked, ignoring the fact that my business was the equivalent of a powerful clan around here.

“Yes. I am.” He said.

“Your parents aren't wrong, you know.” I started. “Established organisations will serve you better regardless of what you want to do.”

“But joining them is hard, and advancing in them even harder.” He contradicted.

I smiled.

“You know I do not plan to create a sect or clan, do you? My business will mainly focus on producing clothes, and selling them to all willing to buy our products. And from what I managed to gather until now, that will create some powerful enemies.” I said.

“I always wanted to follow my parents in their trade.” The body said. “But awakening as a cultivator put a stop to those plans, they won't teach me a thing, and you’re the next best thing I could find.”

Wait, what? How come he suddenly had different reasons for joining? That didn't make any sense! And it really wasn't like I needed another apprentice, especially one that obviously wouldn't accept being taught by my older apprentices, regardless of their talent and experience.

“I can always use more cultivators in my employ, but working for me as a cultivator needs certain concessions from said cultivator.” I said, regardless of my musings. “All cultivators that want to work for me need to swear an heavenly oath. An oath whose exact wording I will supply.”

The teen recoiled, and a little fear entered his eyes. How interesting. Perhaps there was more to him than met the eye? While I had never seen him before today that didn't mean much - the town grew with every day, hell, I’d even go so far as calling it a small city by now. True, the town lacked the wall needed to be called city, but the mayor probably wanted the town to grow in power before even trying to call it a city.

“A heavenly oath? Are you mad?” He yelled at me.

“I have some serious secrets in need of protection, so of course I will need a heavenly oath. I force no one to work for me, it's all voluntary.” I explained with a small, hidden grin.

“I will need to think about it, can I hear the exact wording?” He asked.

“Sadly that is not possible.” I said.

“I will return then.” The young man said.

I sighed. The young man didn't give me his name, despite claiming to be a cultivator. Which was quite strange, because that alone was rude enough that most would refuse teaching them anything at all. Secondly, he’d been the third such person coming here in the last month.

A young human, spouting strange reasons why they wished to work for me, oftentimes contradicting themselves in wishes and reasoning. And all three were absolutely horrified at the heavenly oath I demanded, wanting to hear the exact wording and excusing themselves after I denied.

Quite suspicious, especially because that never happened before. Sure, some of my employees - by now all cultivators - didn't like the fact they’d have to keep my secret, but all agreed to do so regardless, to keep working for me. And to be a cultivator. Though, sadly cultivators such as this were useless.

They lacked the inherent drive, the drive to better themselves, to grow stronger, that all real cultivators had. For them, reaching the first realm was enough. Well it was enough for me too, they would keep my secrets regardless of what they made of my gift.

I sighed again, and put the boy out of my mind, turning my attention to a different problem. While a part of me surveyed the building, looking at all the stored up clothes rotting in the basements, and the three dozen cultivators working at making more on the first floor, another stood up.

I rarely made clothes myself by now, leaving everything to my older apprentices while I ran the business itself. Still, I liked to show myself every once in a while, to answer any questions that may have come up and let them see me.

As I left the room, one of the guards fell in behind me, and both of us made our way up.

“Everything is going fine I hope? Any questions?” I asked.

“None Miss Triss. We have everything under control.” Trisa said.

I really liked the girl, she was the only one that didn't take me up on the offer to forcefully awaken her, instead doing it the old fashioned way. With only a little help on my part she managed to ascend into the second realm by herself. Her diligence, drive and skill made her my second in command easily enough, and made her the one to train my newer apprentices.

“I see. Keep up the good work. I will probably have to go on a larger trip soon enough, so make sure to prepare for that.” I said.

“A long trip?”

“We produce too much robes for the town. We need new customers, so I plan to expand into the nearby towns, maybe even the city.” I explained.

“We do? Perhaps we should stop hiring so many new apprentices then?” She wondered.

“No need. I don't intent to hire new tailors or seamstresses, but we will need even more guards if we want to expand, to guard our caravans.” I said.

“I'm sure you're going to find more than enough people willing to work for you, even under that oath, by now everyone with half a brain should have noticed that all real cultivators working for you cultivate significantly faster than anyone else.” She answered.

“True enough. It’s a real good recruitment pitch too.” I said.

“Yes. So, how do you plan to plan your trip?” She asked.

“How do I plan to plan it? Well, first I'm going to be visiting a friend or two.” I said.

“You have friends?” She asked, completely taken by surprise.

“Of course I do!” I answered.

“But they never visit!”

“They don't want the attention.” I lied. Well half lied.

Lady Chela, my combat ‘instructor’ really didn't want the attention, but the fox really just was too lazy to visit me.

Before Trisa had a chance to reply I burnt some qi, using gravity to bend light to move around my body.

“How does she even do that all the time? She cultivates gravity for heaven’s sake.” Trisa grumbled, before turning around. “Back to work, never seen a cultivator turn invisible before or what?” She yelled.

I chuckled silently, and walked up into my rooms, jumping out of a big window. My knees bend lightly, absorbing the impact as I walked forwards, using my aura to see where I was going. Really, the only problem about this invisibility was the blindness that came with it. But while floating eyes would intimidate some people, seeing simply wasn't all that necessary for me anymore.

“Hello old man.” I said, entering the only shop I still personally visited.

As always when entering his shop, my qi cloak vanished into thin air. How did he even do that? Well, he was just an old man, obviously, so he wasn't responsible.

“Ah, Triss my young customer, how can I help you today?” He asked.

“I need some advice. Someone as old as you surely travelled his fair bit.” I said.

“Ask away young one. Though I am not well travelled by any means, I will do my best to advise you.” He lied.

“Sure. So, I need some information on the surrounding towns. And maybe the city.” I started. “I need to expand my business, and wanted to ask you if you knew of any bigger towns that are in need of cultivator made robes.”

“I see. Well, you do have a lot of people working for you, true. But you are not yet ready to enter the battlefield that is the city. I’d advise you to just send a caravan to tour the surrounding towns, not set up a new shop yet.” He said.

“I see, that's a good idea. Thank you.” I said.

“Don't worry about it, I always like to help the younger generation.” He answered. “Now shoo, there are some real customers coming soon, and you have a few others to talk to too. And a caravan to organize.”

“Bye.” I said, leaving the still empty shop. Pah, real customers, the old man didn't have any customers other than me.

As I left my qi cloak snapped back into place, hiding my leaving from his shop. I burnt a little more qi, and suddenly fell upwards before leveling out just above the treeline, shooting towards the middle of the forest. After flying for about half an hour, I landed somewhere in the forest.

“Hello, Mr. Fox, you there?” I yelled.

Moment later a certain fox appeared out of nowhere. I still couldn't replicate or even perceive his strange way of ‘stepping’ through the world. Sure, he told me you needed to be a fourth realm cultivator for that, but cultivation usually was more fluid than this.

The only thing that changed in the fourth realm was depended on the soul, meaning I spend a few hours a day trying to use my soul in any way. With no success so far. I could sense it a little, thanks to my ever expanding meridian network and my dantian, but I simply lacked any kind of direct control.

Perhaps a matter of qi? Expanding your core to the size of a marble took a long time - even with my completely ridiculous cultivation speed, sucking up enough qi per hour to forcefully ascend two thousand mortals, my core only grew slowly. It had started as a small seed, about a millimeter in diameter, and I had since tripled that radius, but sadly the volume of a sphere grew cubically when compared to its radius, and I still had to quintuple my core’s radius. Which meant I needed one hundred twenty five times the qi I had now.

That did explain why you needed to ascend into the fourth realm when you did - to ascend via qi again would take a truly ridiculous amount of both time and qi, far more time than even a third realm cultivator had.

“Welcome back Triss. What do you want to do today?” He asked.

“I wanted to ask you about the humans always entering into your forest, and if you perhaps know if a similar forest nearby where you’d like to have them better.”

“Well, they are humans. Like you. Some are female, some male, all are cultivators. Not like you though. They are normal cultivators that don't have enough insights in the world to make an immortal green with envy.” He grumbled.

“Hey, it’s not my problem you all don't know the next thing about how the world works.” I defended myself. “And that you don't share with each other. Do you know how far this world could be if all cultivators shared their knowledge, and didn't hoard it like dragons do gold?”

“You are doing to same.” He stated, amused.

“I do not!” I protested loudly. “My apprentices all know more about qi than I did at first. They’re just lazy and unimaginative.”

“And all the other cultivators?”

“They’re pawns. I will publish a book on basic qi theories when I reach immortality, outlining some of the things I discovered about cultivation. People can do whatever they want with that.” I said.

“Why only when you reach immortality?”

“Because those in power don't like the status quo changing, and such a book surely will cause a lot of waves. Anyways, about my question?” I asked.

“Well, I do know a few annoying beasts around here. I wouldn't mind a few more humans going in and disturbing their peace.” He said.

“They’re both in the north, if you follow my forest line. There’s the eternal forest, the other eternal forest, and the endless forest. All within two months from here, if you’re a slow human.” He said.

“I see, thank you. But two eternal forests?” I asked.

“Well, we beasts really don't get along with each other. I thought about naming my forest eternal forest too, but couldn't be bothered in the end. The two lords controlling them always fight with each other, and fighting is bothersome.” He explained.

“So they don't get along?”

“They are best friends actually. And are still competing who of them gets to keep the name. I don't think one really wants to win too, they’re fine with the status quo.” He explained.

“I see. Now, I have a business trip to plan, and to travel, so I’ll be gone for a while.” I said. “See you later.”

“Good luck. Don't come back too fast.” He answered, vanishing

A silent “Bye.” sounding in the wind.

With that, I flew back home, once again invisible to the naked eye. Any cultivator could still easily find me with their aura - any cultivator of the same realm at least. And if they had developed their aura at all. I was still young, but accomplished enough work and experimentation for at least three years in the last year alone, all thanks to multitasking.

So, north. Not that I could go south, or east really, with a huge forest and the ocean in my way.

With three magical forests or however these things were called to expand my business to I should be able to have more demand than supply, something every business that wanted to make profit wanted to have. After all, I could raise my prices when I had less product than customers, with meant more possible work, more cultivators working for me, and more power to deter any clans that didn't want me messing with their heirs.

Now I just had to hire a new guard, prepare several of my workers for my absence, and see about expanding my market. As I touched down on my living room floor, and light appeared around me again, I noticed my heart was beating a little faster than normal.

I was looking forwards to something for the first time in a while. It was going to be great!