“Clement,” I said as I rose to greet him.

As with most Elves, it was hard to tell his age. He appeared as young as Yvonne or me. He came across as a man in his twenties brimming with vitality. But his eyes had a weight to them, a sadness that spoke to the passage of years. What was striking was the hint of amusement that managed to manifest within those same eyes.

“Jai,” he replied with a slight nod as he moved to take a seat across from her. He was a well-respected Elder and had long passed the point where he needed to bow to a Qi Gathering cultivator, even one that was a Baroness residing and ruling within her capital city.

“Straight to business,” he continued as I poured tea and motioned to the food tray that had been made available. “The Sect has agreed, in total, to the requests you have made concerning the Mystic Rift and how it will be taxed.

“We tallied the treasures and resources the members of House Myche and the Dojo extracted and set that as the average as the base for what should be expected. The tax has been charged at five percent of those totals gathered for the Body Refinement Realm, ten percent for the Qi Gathering realm, and twenty percent at the Nascent Soul Realm.

“Our figures, which have yet to be verified by the Sect, amount to ten spirit stones per Body Refinement entrant, twenty spirit stones for Qi Gathering, and forty spirit stones for Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.

“Each entrant can pay in spirit stones or items attained from the Mystic Realm. You also have the first right to purchase or refuse any treasures, resources, skill books, or scrolls that a person may wish to sell or trade.

“Herbs, fruit, seeds, and metal, all ice aspected, have been gathered in great numbers. There were a few outlier treasures that were found, some jade that we will need to study, and a few artifacts that have interesting properties we might be able to reverse engineer.”

“Isn’t a twenty percent tax a bit steep?” I asked.

“For those in the Body Refinement Realm, probably,” Clement agreed, “but you have to remember this Mystic Realm allows those at the Qi Gathering Realm and Nascent Soul Realm to enter.

“The Nascent Soul cultivators are certainly going to be gaining more resources, but there is no way of knowing how much. Forty spirit stones might only amount to one or two percent for those lucky enough or resourceful enough to gather more than expected.

“There is one other method we could use next time,” Clement admitted. “You could confiscate all spatial devices. If you assign spatial artifacts to each person entering the Rift, it will make it easy to determine what they procure and how to tax it.

“The problem with that method is the ill feelings you will generate from some of the Cultivators, Cultivators that are stronger than you. It’s safer, less time-consuming, and while perhaps not as profitable, certainly profitable enough to simply set an entrance fee.

“Especially if you double the number of people allowed to enter next time.”

“What grade spirit stone are we asking for?”

“Low for Body Refinement, Medium for Qi Gathering, and High for Nascent Soul.”

If I doubled the cultivators given access, that would come to a bit over one hundred thousand spirit stones. That is a considerable amount. Some of the larger cities would be hard-pressed to gain that many stones at one time. The only drawback was the frequency with which the Mystic Realm would open.

“Have the experts determined how often the Mystic Realm would open?” I asked, hoping it wasn’t one of the rare rifts that would open only once every five hundred years.

“They have, they sent a prospectus that gauged the strength of the rift, the interval for opening, and the duration of each opening. The Realm will open every forty-two years and will stay open for one-hundred sixty-eight days. The number of days it stays open exactly four times the number of years between openings.”

“Can we trust those numbers?”

“You will need to hire your own experts to validate the findings the Sect has shared, but I wouldn’t expect them to be too far off. The Sect knows that you will verify the information, so there is no point in not giving an honest evaluation.”

I wondered if the Hindel had an expert that I might be able to work with. Delph Island was too isolated to have a deep pool of talent to draw from. If I had to, I would contact the mainland to get an expert, but if I could save those costs and build upon the relationship I had formed with Alpha, the better it would be.

“I have two other topics to touch on,” Clement said, having helped himself to one of the cakes and after he’d given me time to consider what he’d said.

“First, I’d like to offer my services to House Myche. I believe I would make an effective Seneschal to help oversee and govern your territory. I have reached the Immortal Realm with my cultivation and have a familiarity with politics, the Empire, and negotiating that would be beneficial to your House.

“My Dao is based on balance and efficiency. The reason I have devoted so much of my time and energy as a facilitator and mediator is that I have found that the instances of understanding, the epiphanies I find as I swim the waters of politics and contracts, give me greater chances for insights into furthering that Dao.”

I managed to hide my surprise at his offer, an offer that would elevate my Fief from a backward, isolated territory to one of note. It would be a boon to my territory. His level as a cultivator, his reputation, and his abilities was beyond reproach. All of it would have an impact on how the territory was run and how the Empire at large would treat me.

“Why would you want to serve as Seneschal for my barely established Fief when you could claim your own territory?” I asked. “Wouldn’t organizing and establishing a flourishing territory of your own allow you an even greater chance for furthering your Dao?”

There was nothing I could offer that would entice him to leave the Four Element Sect. I had managed to snag some of the staff and servants that worked at Contribution Hall but had never even considered the idea of asking him.

His offer to join my House would serve as a warning and elevate my House from one just newly established to a House to treat with caution and respect. Because that was what accepting him as Seneschal would be, his reputation and connections would give a cache to my Fief that would take me centuries to earn on my own.

“I have found over the centuries that my skills, my Dao, work best if I work in service to others. If I were to establish my own territory, I would slow and stall my development.

“Further, I have found that if I have an emotional connection to the person I offer my services to, I progress noticeably faster. Even in the short time we have worked together, I have come to respect you. I find myself often thinking of you as a favored niece.

“There were words exchanged, demands made by certain people when you were exploring the Mystic Realm that had me consider what I could do to help protect you and your House against the trolls and vultures that would see you stripped of the Heavenly opportunities you have encountered.

“Joining your House and serving as your Seneschal provides you with the protection you might need and me with the opportunity to advance my Dao.”

I would want to discuss in greater detail what had conspired to have him take this step. It seemed likely that some of the Cultivators that had gathered for Patriarch Umbra’s event had taken umbrage at my good fortune.

Perhaps, even the Prince and Empire.

I would be an idiot to turn down Clement’s offer. He was right. Once adopted into House Myche, he would serve as a sword and shield. He was powerful, but not so powerful that he was close to withdrawing from the world to enter closed-door cultivation before attempting to ascend and break the barrier between this dimension and the next.