“Is it running correctly?” I asked Toi.

I had asked her to watch over the spirit array for the rest of the day to ensure nothing went wrong. It would be a minor problem if it stopped working and I had to redo all of my work, but if it somehow worsened the situation?

I could do without a demon tide assaulting my city and territory because we had not been diligent. Even with the eight trigrams formation functional and in optimal working condition, I didn’t think the city could withstand a constant bombardment of demonic attacks.

“There was a slight deviation, but it self-corrected. That is normal for a spirit array. These types of arrays gather soul energy and come as close to emulating the living and how they operate as possible.

“My people learned to build self-correcting procedures into the formation. The ability to adjust the formation workings proved to be necessary. Over time, as the demonic energy decreases, that energy becomes more concentrated.

“By adjusting to the conditions inside the formation, the array is able to focus on containing the energies until the area is completely cleared,” Toi explained, educating those that were gathered near and were listening.

I had Zui find a few people that were interested in learning Toi’s methodology. They had met me at the cleared gravesite where Toi had been monitoring the efficacy of the spirit array I had created.

“Will I need to return at some point and turn the array off or dismantle it?” I wondered.

“No,” Toi assured me. “Spirit arrays are created using the aether found in the spirit realm as an anchor. Without a task to fulfill, the formation will go into standby mode. You can dismantle it, but there is no reason to. It will continue to monitor the area, and if demonic energies or cultist activities are again identified, it will reactivate and begin purifying that soul energy.

“It can actually work as a warning beacon. You will always maintain a connection to it, so you will notice once it has finished and gone into standby mode. If it activates again, you will know and can investigate to trace the new source that has triggered that activation.

“Jai,” my Father said, gaining my attention. He had waited patiently, standing sentinel as I entered the spirit realm yesterday. Now that I was back and in a domain where he could speak with me, he didn’t mind interrupting. “What are you going to do with this field of Golden Lodoicea?”

“The cores will be used for Fief improvement. Infrastructure, skill and professional training, and technique can be purchased with the lion’s share of it. Some of it will be used to provide funds for people to borrow to establish new businesses or expand existing ones with Xiwang.

“The pod, leaves, and flowers will be harvested and turned over to the Alchemists to experiment with. I am hoping we devise a pill that will remove impurities that form within a cultivator's body that build up from ingesting other pills.

“I’d also like to see if adding the plant to existing pill formulas will improve their efficacy and help remove those impurities during pill creation. It will be a real boon to Cultivators if impurities aren’t allowed to build up in the first place.

“Why?” I asked after detailing what I hoped to accomplish.

“A number of reasons, the most important, is that your mother wants to experiment with the plants. She thinks she might be able to develop a potion that will help in the fight against diseases, infections, venom, and poisons.

“She’s also interested in experimenting to see if a paste can be developed. One that could be applied to wounds to help in healing and mitigate the chance of infection.”

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“Not a bad idea, but is there any immediacy for that type of experimentation?” I asked.

“I think you forget something. It’s something that happens to most Cultivators,” my Father replied in disappointment. “Take a good look at your territory and tell me the ratio of Cultivators to non-cultivators. If there is one in a thousand, I would be surprised.

“If funding expansion and improvement for your Fief is your goal, then you should be focusing on developing products that reach and can be used by the most people. There may be hundreds of millions of cultivators, but if there are, there are trillions of non-cultivators.

“It is not only practical but sound business to focus on the many instead of the few or the one,” Father pointed out.

I agreed.

I agreed so fervently that I wasn’t sure why I’d asked such a dismissive and out-of-character question. I knew the importance of creating a more equitable society. A caste system society could work, even work effectively, but without some parity of equality, resentment festered until people rose up and revolted. Once that happened, the masses would riot and destroy whatever they could in protest of those societal injustices.

“I will have a section of each harvest set aside for mother or anyone other non-cultivator that would like to experiment with the plant to use. Except for the cores, those are earmarked for territory improvements and wages,” I replied after giving some thought to what my Father had said.

I could only attribute my out-of-character derision of my Father’s request to my interaction with the demonic energies. I would spend some extra time in meditation this evening, scouring my Qi channels and Dharmic body for any lingering traces of Demonic presence.

“If mother manages to develop a potion or unguent, I’ll fund the factory to mass produce her formula,” I promised.

“How much of the profits can your mother expect to keep if she’s successful?” My Father asked. Mother always lamented that Father wasn’t as gifted at business as she was, but he had his moments. There were times when he seemed to experience an epiphany and acted with foresight and judgment that had protected the family’s investments and garnered us a unique opportunity.

“I’ll let mother and Clement figure that out,” I answered, laughing at him. “There is no way I am getting into a bargaining session with you and mother concerning business. The both of you would own the entire Fief if I had to deal with you while fending off her mercantile proclivities.”

I still hadn’t found out why Clement had set up shop in the Dojo. He had requested a meeting with me, one that was scheduled for early the following day, but his opening an office in the Dojo was already a fait accompli. Zui had heard distributing rumors concerning a rift that had developed between him and the Sect, but there had been nothing substantive.

I would find out from him what was going on, but if he were tying his fortune to my Barony, House, and Clan, then I would undoubtedly make use of his abilities to fend off the piranhas. When it came to fighting sharks in the water, my mother was relentless, fighting over the scraps of business proceeds that could strip a body of flesh in seconds.

“I want to make clear that the factories that I am willing to have built if Mother is successful in creating a potion are not free. Mom will be required to sign a loan agreement for the cost and set up a schedule for repayment.

“This isn’t like the house, shop, and garden that I gifted you. A place to live and do business was a gift from a daughter to her parents. A business enterprise large enough to provide potions and unguents across the Empire is another matter.”

“How many plants are you going to be able to get from this acre of land?” Dad asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said, looking across the neatly furrowed rows waiting to be planted. “I would think they give at least the same yield as corn, so maybe fifteen to twenty thousand plants?”

“Have you thought about how that many plant cores will affect the economy?” Father asked, his voice hinting that there was something I needed to consider.

“No, why?” I replied. While Mother was more vested in microeconomics, able to contend with customers and running a shop, Father was more focused on macro, and if he was about to make a point, I needed to make sure I took it seriously.

“Twenty thousand cores from this small plot of land are a goodly amount. I’m sure you have other fields where you are growing at least this amount, probably more. If you only plant ten acres of land, that would be two hundred thousand cores you can produce seasonally.

“Imagine if every city, town, Sect, Dojo, and House in your territory decides to grow their own crop. The influx from that number of cores will have a tangible impact on the global economy. The value of cores will plummet unless there is a new and growing market to absorb the sudden influx of so much wealth.

“The Empire and the Emperor are certainly going to take the economic impact of a devalued core into account. You might want to do the same. Either create something that requires a large number of those cores to be used or be ready to adjust market prices to keep the value of cores from becoming worthless.

"You need to think of an industry to use the extra cores that are going to be available soon."