Huo Ye swaggered empty-handed into the smithy with all the confidence in the world. He had just closed a deal which would bring money into his pocket with minimal effort. His primary target had been to secure Shaluyu as a customer, but it had the added benefit of roping them onto his side. They’d gone from enemies to allies in just a couple of minutes. Proving how valuable he was to them would make them less likely to interfere in his other businesses. If they had any issues, they’d have to take it up with his customers directly.
Peng Gao raised his head, his vision blurred from the steam in the smithy. He pulled a shiny axe head from the bath and turned to look at Huo Ye. “You’re back so soon?”
“I had business in town. It seems like you’re done?”
Peng Gao blushed furiously as he looked down. “I was struck by inspiration.”
He’d only planned on playing around with the rock a bit, but was shocked to find that smelting the rock was far more difficult than any of his strongest alloys. He’d crushed the rock down to a fine powder and mixed it with the best metals he had to offer. Because he was just a local blacksmith, he didn’t have access to steel, but iron was good enough.
Huo Ye moved closer to admire his new tool. “Good, this will do. I’ll leave your payment in the corner. I’ll drop by with the other one later.”
He pulled the remaining melon sized rock which was still placed on his cart into a corner, then grabbed all the little rocks and tossed them back onto the cart.
“Have a great day.”
Huo Ye made a move to leave the shop only to find Peng Gao in his path. Most villagers with meridians did not find it necessary to cultivate as it required a huge investment of time. However, the handful who did a lot of strenuous work would study basic techniques to bolster their strength. Though, they practised these techniques, they were unable to achieve even the basic state of Body refining. This was probably because the lacked teachers or talent. Huo Ye didn’t have much of a leg to stand on on this topic because he couldn’t even attempt to begin cultivation. With the density of spiritual energy around his home, he could have broken through to Nascent soul at least, if he were lucky enough.
Huo Ye stared dumbly at Peng Gao who had just rushed into his path.
“What…” “You can’t go.” “Why not?” “I need the rocks for my work.”
Huo Ye turned pensive, opened his mouth and shut it as though he was thinking really hard about something.
“Spit it out already!”
“If I recall correctly, our agreement said that you’d receive three of that type of rock”, he said pointing to the large rock. “I never said anything about giving you these.”
Peng Gao’s face turned red in anger. “How do you expect me to work if I can’t even grind the material?” he roared.
“You should have brought that up earlier.” The light in Huo Ye’s eyes faded rapidly as he quit with his act. “In exchange for these rocks, I get a permanent discount of twenty percent when commissioning or purchasing new tools. All repairs come free as well. In the event that I happen to find another of the Grade C rocks, I’ll sell to you at a cheap price of five silver. You can also get the accompanying grinding stones for free.”
Peng Gao shook his head, as if in a daze. “Wha- What’s a Grade C rock?” Huo Ye had just decided to name the rocks. It was too much of an inconvenience to refer to them by size. What would happen if he gets rocks of different quality in the same size? He decided to borrow the very common system of ranking, from Grade F through to Grade A, then Grade S, in an ascending order. He hadn’t ventured into the more dense areas when he made his initial search.
From the looks of things, inanimate objects had their original properties strengthened by the spiritual energy, hence the variation. Collecting different types of rocks from different locations was sure to give him a lot of results. Assuming that his strongest rock was only average in the forest, he’d decided to assign it a rank of C. If he were to find any other rocks which were better, he’d just have to add them to higher ranks. If I ever max out the Grade S rating I can just add a on a couple more Ss, SS, SSS, SSSS, ……SSSSS. Where am I going with this?
Huo Ye stopped his daydreaming an explained the ranking system. After a bit of haggling, he managed to get the deal, but only if he decided to bring in large Grade D rocks as well as a handful of smaller Grade C rocks.
Huo Ye left beaming with another contract in hand, his new axe head on his cart behind him. He hadn’t been able to get Shao Zihan to sign a contract, but it was only a matter of time.
He laughed silently to himself as he thought of his life as Huo Ye. It had always been difficult for him to close a deal because he thought of the customer as pitiful. Swindling an old woman living on her pension had never felt right to him. He’d been mocked by colleagues so often that he developed a form of immunity. That was until they decided to take it up a notch, going out to celebrate each time he bagged a customer as though it were a rare occasion.
Huo Ye snapped out of his reverie, breathing in the fresh air of a new world.
Hah! ... Being a salesman is easy when your customers’ chances of living depended on whatever you’re offering.
Huo Ye swung by Shaluyu’s headquarters to pick up his shovel and money, making sure to count every single coin, fumbling a bit and having to start from the top each time he got distracted. Satisfied, he gave a perfunctory nod and headed to the most important place he would head today, the market.
The layout of the village was rather odd. Even though there was a lot of land available, all shops and residences were clustered towards the front of the village, the houses in two rows and the shops in a single row.
For typical villages, the community would be arranged in a manner that minimises disturbances. Butchers would he hidden in one corner because of the smell. Carpenters and smiths in another corner because of the noise. Tailors, food stalls and farms would be closer to the entrance to welcome a visitor. The inns could be found there as well. Houses would usually be sited towards the centre about a square where announcements were made.
Shengu was unlike other villages because of the forest. The villagers, who were not cultivators, were unable to live so close to the forest, hence the change in planning. Huo Ye was able to stroll from the blacksmith who was at the end of the row, past the carpenter, past the tailor, past the miller, skip through the square and finally lay his eyes on what he had been craving for.
