Jian had spent most of his time in the weeks since the welcome banquet tinkering away on possible weapons ideas. He had started by sketching out a comprehensive list of the formations that he knew how to make. Then he worked through each one, trying to figure out how he might turn it into a weapon.

Now that he had condensed his spiritual energy into liquid form, he could provide a decent amount of power to whatever devices he built. Ideally, he would be able to fight without exerting himself by simply pushing that power out into his weapon.

He had experienced great commercial success with heating formations, but none of the ideas he came up with offered him much use as a weapon. Hitting somebody with a flaming sword was more impressive than hitting them with an ordinary sword, but in practical terms it didn't do that much more damage. Besides, Jian's whole problem would be landing a strike on his adversary to begin with.

Similarly, the cooling formation he had derived from working on Tingfeng's repair project didn't offer Jian much when he tried figuring out how to incorporate it into a weapon. Sure, a Heavenly Sword Sect elder could push enough power through such a formation to freeze their opponent's blood in their veins, but Jian was far from that level. Swinging around a frozen sword wouldn't even look any more impressive than an ordinary sword.

Jian had a lot of experience carving up formations for illumination. Spirit lamps were a steady seller at the Guo family store, and making them had fallen to him as the most junior craftsman available. He could practically draw up the formation for it in his sleep. Shining a light in an opponent's eyes could be useful, but it seemed to him that such a thing would be more of a handy trick than a primary weapon. Momentarily blinding an opponent was all well and good, but only if you could follow up with a devastating attack of some kind. He'd put together a few small devices that could produce a blinding flash on demand, but he wanted something more substantial to serve as his primary weapon.

The other major category of formations that Jian had available involved the application of force. At first they hadn't looked much better than the heating formations. Jian's initial designs followed tradition, being meant to be applied to a warhammer or meteor hammer so as to discharge at the moment of impact and greatly magnify the force of a hit. Jian was unlikely to get a hit in the first place, especially considering his inexperience with those sorts of weapons. Accordingly, he had set his first few designs to the side.

He came back to the force generating formations after taking a brief detour through archery. Jian had entertained the thought that he might be able to strike down his opponents from a distance, perhaps before they even knew he was there. Unfortunately, that idea too foundered upon his own lack of ability.

Jian had studied the bow in enough detail that he could fire one without embarrassing himself. He might be able to hunt down game in the wild and add some meat to the pot, but he didn't know any of the advanced techniques that made the bow such a fearsome weapon in the hand of specialized cultivators. Also, considering the fact that he spent most of his time within a city, any combat he faced was likely to take place at a shorter range than was ideal for a bow.

On the other hand, the basic idea of a useful projectile weapon stuck with him. Jian turned the thought over in his head while he skimmed over his list of available formations. The idea of launching flaming crossbow bolts at his enemies had a certain appeal, but on reflection he wasn't sure how much more damage the fire would really add to the impact of the bolt itself.

Now, the formations for applying force presented some intriguing possibilities. Putting the formations on the bolt in order to amplify its impact might be worthwhile. The easiest way to use the formations, though, would be to apply force to the bolt itself. In effect, Jian could make a crossbow that fired using spiritual energy. Instead of needing to draw back the string for each shot he would simply have to load a new bolt in place and supply the spiritual energy to send it at its target.

Jian started to sketch out his spiritual crossbow, the drawing helping him to picture the finished product in his mind. Mere physical force wouldn't be enough to stop a cultivator of Shan's level, let alone Meirong, but a rapid-fire crossbow would go a long way to cover over Jian's vulnerability to Essence Gathering thugs that might trouble him.

He was about halfway through the sketch when Shan breezed into the room. Jian looked up with irritation, ready to lay into his friend for the interruption, but bit back his critical words when he saw the tray of food in Shan's hands. It seemed he had been working clear through to meal time. Now that he spared a thought for it, his stomach didn't hesitate to remind him of the importance of being well fed.

"Thank you," Jian said, remembering his courtesies as he took his share of the food from Shan.

"It's nothing," Shan said. "It's to be expected that the mind of a great artist won't dwell on ordinary concerns like lunch and dinner."

Jian waved away the jibe. He would have said something in reply, but his mouth was full. The simple but hearty food perfectly hit the spot. There had been trouble in his first few days in the compound as the kitchens insisted on preparing elaborate, beautiful, but not particularly filling meals for the great Master Zhou. Eventually Shan had been able to straighten them out, convincing them that part of the way of an artist was to avoid luxury in all its forms so as not to develop worldly attachments.

Jian wasn't quite sure what kind of image they had of him down in the kitchens, but as long as the food tasted good he wouldn't complain. He and Shan settled into an easy silence as both of them turned their attention to their meals. A few minutes later, once the food had disappeared, Shan let out a satisfied belch.

"Ah, that hit the spot," he said, before leaning forward with a grin. "Oh, you'll love this."

"What?" Jian asked. That particular expression had rarely boded well for him in the past.

"The Huang family wants to invite you to dinner," Shan said. "It seems they'd like to commission a piece by the great artist."

Jian tilted his head as he thought. Naturally, he welcomed any insight he could get into the workings of the Huang family. Their feud with the Li family that was led by the city lord was the stuff of legends. It was the most plausible motive that Jian could identify that might lead somebody to consort with extraplanar entities. Speculating from a distance could only get him so far. Speaking with members of the family, or at least listening to them speak, would be much more informative.

Of course, he couldn't actually let them commission a piece of art. He was running a scam by posing as a master artist, but he didn't intend to actually defraud anybody. Taking money in exchange for something that he would never deliver was a step too far. Not only did it offend Jian's morals, but the victims of a swindler would likely prove more dogged in tracking him down than the targets of a secret investigation.

"Do you think you can handle it?" Jian asked.

In any conversation with the Huang family, it would fall to Shan to carry the load. Jian's youthful voice would give his lie away if he spoke out loud, which was why he had established the whole facade of a vow of silence. The problem was that one of the two of them had to speak, and trusting anything to Shan's business savvy was almost as frightening as facing down a demonic beast.

"Of course!" Shan said, patting his chest. "I've been studying how you operate, you know."

"Is that right?" Jian asked. He hadn't realized that he was acting as a role model.

"Although," Shan said, cocking his head, "it will be a little different, since I won't be trying to squeeze them for spirit stones."

"Very funny," Jian said. "Well, if you're that confident, then go ahead and set up the meeting."

Worst come to worst, Jian could always write an apologetic letter that blamed everything on Shan's youthful foolishness. It was certainly a believable excuse, for anybody who knew Shan.