Heart of Cultivation 66. Digging Deeper (Patreon)

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Jian fell into a comfortable routine that he was able to maintain for two weeks and three days. His spiritual crossbow had advanced to the point that it would be mildly dangerous to a mortal. His bones were perhaps a third of the way to being properly refined, though it was hard to be precise about such things. Shan was spending every morning nursing a hangover.

While Shan hadn't provided any helpful information yet, he was confident that he had worked his way into Huiling's confidence. Prying out his secrets was only a matter of time.

All in all, Jian was enjoying a peaceful afternoon when the maidservant who had delivered their lunch closed the door to the workshop and locked it. He looked up, shocked that a servant would behave with such temerity in front of the great Master Zhou, only to be shocked anew when he recognized that he was not facing just any maidservant, but Meirong's friend Jinghua.

Shan was just as surprised, and unable to contain himself. "How?"

She smiled. "A simple art that reduces my presence."

Jian rubbed his forehead, warding off the impending headache. He'd long suspected that Jinghua was the more dangerous of Meirong's companions. Jingfei was volatile, but she was the sort who would come after you in the open. Jinghua was the knife in the dark. It was still disconcerting to discover for certain that if he ever angered her he would never even know how he died.

He finally sighed. "What brings you to honor us with a visit?"

She took a seat, perfectly at ease in the workshop. "I have finished my initial surveillance of the Grave of Dreams. As expected, the Huang family is up to something. However, there was a problem."

Jian nodded. Of course there was a problem. People didn't seem to come to him with good news.

"I couldn't see any direct evidence of treasonous activity," she admitted. "There were formations scattered all around that roused my suspicions, but I can't be sure of what they do."

Jian ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach and tried to avoid coming to the obvious conclusion. "You need to borrow the scroll Meirong gave me?"

She pursed her lips and shook her head. "I'm afraid it wouldn't do me much good. I don't have much of a head for formations."

That struck Jian as a lie. Or at least, as an exaggeration. Somebody as obviously talented as Jinghua, and highly favored by the Heavenly Sword Sect, had to have at least a basic grasp on the subject.

"You're sure?" he asked, probing her intentions.

"At least, I don't understand them well enough to evaluate a formation in the field from a distance," she said. "I'm afraid I have need for your talents."

Jian sighed. "That won't be easy."

That was an understatement. Jinghua might be able to make her way through the Verdant Doom without issue, sneaking past any demonic beasts that she couldn't fight off, but he wasn't so lucky. His cultivation was nearing the middle stages of Body Refining, but his actual fighting ability lagged badly behind because of his defective mechanical heart.

Eventually he hoped to close the gap with devices like his spiritual crossbow, but as it was the weapon would only be able to tickle a demonic beast at best. If he were to enter the jungle, he'd be coming back only as fertilizer.

"I can extend the benefit of my art to one other person at a time," Jinghua said. "It would be quite safe."

"Even so," Jian said, courteous reflex demanding that he keep the skepticism out of his voice, "I have responsibilities."

He wasn't actually spending hours sculpting marble every day. However, it was important that the city lord at least believe that he was hard at work. Master Zhou was too high profile to disappear on a whim, but not quite powerful enough to simply come and go as he pleased.

"Don't great artists go into seclusion?" Jinghua asked. "Master Zhou seems the type to be struck by inspiration."

Jian tapped his fingers on his leg, agitated by the way that Jinghua kept shooting down his perfectly reasonable objections. He had accepted this task from Meirong because it was relatively unlikely to lead to his death, and she had given him a great reward paid in advance. He didn't like the feeling of new risks being piled onto him after he had already accepted the deal.

"Are you sure you need me for this?" Jian asked.

"Unless you know another formations expert I could use," she replied. "I believe understanding these formations could be the key to unraveling the mystery behind the expansion of the blood mists."

The problem was that she was probably right. It wasn't that there were no good reasons to use formations in the Verdant Doom. If the Huang family intended a long term occupation of the Graveyard of Dreams, then establishing formations would almost be mandatory in order to protect the safety of the members of the expedition.

Those safety formations would also involve manipulating the spiritual energy that was tied to the blood mists. It wouldn't be wrong to describe them as a cousin of the formations that would be needed to strengthen the blood mists by weakening the defenses of their home plane. It truly wasn't unreasonable for Jinghua to be unable to tell the difference.

"Even if it's important," Jian said, "it's not like the formations are going anywhere. Give me a day to think it over."

She bowed in both acceptance and farewell, then almost seemed to fade from Jian's vision. When the door to the workshop opened and closed for no apparent reason, it jarred him out of his reverie.

"She's terrifying," Shan said.

Jian nodded.

"You can't seriously be considering a trip to the Verdant Doom," Shan continued.

Jian shrugged.

He didn't want to venture into the jungle. He didn't like courting death. What he needed to decide was whether this was the only way forward or if it was merely faster than his other options.

"You need to press Huiling tonight," he said.

Shan winced. "I've been trying, but it's hard to insist on anything as the new guy."

Jian didn't feel that much sympathy for him. After all, Jian was the one who was contemplating a trip into one of the Empire's forbidden zones under the dubious protection of a member of the sect whose disciples had already tried to kill him once.

"Sometimes we have to do things even if it's difficult," he said. "Get some information, get an invitation, get something."

Shan saw that he wasn't going to bend. "All right. I'll try."

That evening, Shan left the compound after dinner, as had been his habit. While Jian often just called it a night and went to bed early, this night he stayed up to hear back from his friend. He kept himself busy trying to refine the spiritual crossbow.

The problem with it was that he couldn't get the bolt going fast enough to threaten anything with more than mortal defenses. After the first week of tinkering he had sat down to do the math and confirmed that he wasn't losing energy anywhere along the way. He just wasn't providing enough energy to drive a bolt through a cultivator's skin.

He'd looked into increasing the amount of energy that the crossbow could handle. It could be done, but it would get tricky fast. He was already pushing close to the limits of what he could accomplish with the material that he had on hand. Spiritual materials that were capable of handling high energy loads naturally carried high prices. And that was assuming they were put up for auction. Many such materials were of the sort that you couldn't buy just because you had the money.

Still, he kept trying different things in the hopes of achieving a breakthrough. The evening proved to be unfortunately breakthrough-free, and Jian was in the midst of cleaning up after himself when Shan came staggering in through the door.

"Success!" Shan announced, before stepping inside and closing the door. "Well, kind of."

Jian raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"He's invited me along on his next trip to the Verdant Doom," Shan said. "It's a great chance to get combat experience, pick up some precious materials, and build our friendship."

Jian nodded. "He might even take you to his family's camp on the Grave of Dreams."

"Exactly!" Shan said, pointing triumphantly in the air for a moment, before drooping. "But, I don't know anything about formations either."

Jian sighed. He should have seen that coming. It was a little too much to hope that Shan would be able to chivvy a confession out of Huiling on command. Getting an invitation to see what the Huang was up to was already doing very well... but it didn't solve the underlying problem. They needed an expert to evaluate the formations the Huang family was using, and Jian was the closest thing to an expert that they had available.

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