"We've done testing these," Ziyou Maque put the two sound transmission tokens Yung had created with Silky's special dim gold silk on the table. After Wang Lihou noticed their efficacy even in the Warring Twilight forest, they had removed their spiritual imprints on the artefacts and handed them to Ziyou Maque and Youjin Liu for testing.

“They send sound over the forest as though we still be in the city.” Ziyou Maque said, “None of the usual distortions. One of my men travelled all the way to the ocean, and these still work. The same range houtian 1st grade transmission tokens get outside the land bridge, as though the chaotic spaces have none the bad effects.” Yung could read the excitement in the gang leader’s Empathic link.

“So you want me to make more of them?” Yung asked. Su Nanya had gone quiet on his lap but stretched like a tired kitten with each stroke. No kissing or licking necessary for the ridiculous dual cultivation benefits, as the xinqi in Yung’s heart palace dantian was converting like salted butter in a blender.

“That we do. Lad. Ye don’t know what a game-changing thing you’ve created here.” Ziyou Maque replied with a grin, “So many good folks die in the forest because of the lack of communication. We have a rule in our fiendhunting guild to always keep at least one mate within eyesight. Always! Mostly out of sheer necessity, though it wastes so much of our hunting efficiency. But that’s our guild. Most fiendhunting teams are disorganised. A tool that can let them and us contact not only each other inside the forest, but also with the support waitin’ outside? It has the potential to flip fiendhunting on its head.”

“You’re talking about thousands, potentially hundreds of thousands of tokens here.”

“Millions, lad.” Ziyou Maque dangled the carrot. “Think of all the xinqi ye can make. An’ all the spirit stones.”

Yung angrily raised his finger, wearing the pink heart ring, “You see this? I gotta wear this now, because the xinqi by all the recent social welfare changes gets sent directly to the fortune fox totem, and that’s bloating me like a toad! Why’d I need more?”

“Well, just sayin’ is all.” Ziyou Maque said, “But ye can make enough to break through before the coming fiendhunt, yeah? Since with the sect recruitments here cancelled, we can take our time to prepare.”

There was a sudden lull in the conversation, and everyone looked at Su Nanya. The golden fox rolled over on Yung’s lap and yawned, “We, in our grace, have reconsidered our prior decree. Your humble village shall be bestowed its former status once more.”

There were sighs of relief. But Yung could see the question in their eyes, wondering what was behind this bipolar fox Yao’s erratic behaviour.

“That’s gonna make the town rowdy again.” Ziyou Maque broke the silence. But Yung read the joy in the gang leader’s Empathic link clear as day.

“If I may intrude,” An Ping said, “we are willing to pay for each artefact you refine for our mercenary team, Master Yung.” She named a price, and Yung took in a deep breath. Wowza!

Then he remembered he was Su Nanya’s gigolo and wouldn’t be short of cash in the future. Probably.

“You Dark star folks move fast, heh?” He asked with a suspicious glint in his eyes.

“The fiendhunting sphere is all about speed. There are two houtian 3rd order and eight 2nd order fiends for us to hunt here.” An Ping said with a polite nod. “Not to mention an opportunity to get acquainted with Master Yung.”

“And my sound transmission tokens.” Yung smiled. And my Nyanya. “Got it. Recovering the foxmoths is still a priority for Silky and me. I’ll see what I can do.”

An Ping showed a polite smile. While An Xing’s expression was inscrutable with his mask on, Yung read a cautious satisfaction from his link.

Yung was growing comfortable with violating this mental privacy thing. He mused at the thought, then got up, “Let’s head to the jade slip store then?”

“You will start crafting right now?” An Ping said, “It would be preferable if you could hand the artefacts over at least a few days prior to the hunt. The team can then have the time to practice our formations.”

Ziyou Maque nodded, “Us and the Youjin clan too. Usually, we do fiendhunting in smaller groups, and there are many limitations because of the absolute communication barrier. But with this,” He played with the two tokens in his hand, “we can gather armies. But that has its own weaknesses. The voidfiends might horde up if they sniff so many renyao in one place, so we gotsa prepare.”

Yung shook his head, saying, "I don't have that much time. I gotta cultivate too," He wasn't talking about cuddling with Su Nanya, but practising with his artefacts and empathic abilities. And he had a particular project in mind. If it worked, he'd never have to care about xinqi and spirit stones again. He would spend his days merrily basking in his own self-righteousness on his throne of armchair philanthropy. "Gather everyone who can carve jade slips. We'll make a franchise deal."

They seemed to grasp Yung’s plan intuitively at the mention of other jade carvers, but tilted their heads nonetheless. They agreed, and after a short meal, the group came out of the hotel and headed for the jade slip store.

Yung found Wang Lihou, as usual, tinkering with his void jades and spirit stones.

“Brother Lihou! They say you’re a prodigy.” Yung clapped the guy on his shoulder and praised.

“T-Thank you?”

The usually jovial boy was on his feet, nervous in the presence of many important people. Not only were there two houtian 3rd realm mercenaries giving off a threatening aura, but so were Ziyou Maque, Youjin Liu, and the two foundation building Youjin elders in charge of the clan’s magic formations and artefact crafting.

Yung handed him a dumpling wrapped in paper, and Wang Lihou was game, his nervousness a thing of the past.

Yung then took out a spool of silk and put it on the table.

“How many tokens can be made with this much?” He asked the experts.

The elder in charge of crafting took the spool up, scrutinised it with her magnifying glass-like tool, and then gently placed it on the scale. She passed it to the elder in charge of formations after weighing it, who also held the spool in his hands and carefully looked at it from all sides; the lingqi between his fingers passed through the silk with precision. He answered, “Each token takes about a foot’s length in dim gold silk. This spool can make about five hundred to six hundred tokens, I would say, taking failures into consideration.”

Yung nodded.

“You wish to hand the production over to us?” Said Youjin Liu from the side. The good patriarch looked at Yung as though he was a sack of spirit stone potatoes.

“Yeah. You and Ziyou Maque and anyone else interested.”

“I would suggest not sharing the secret technique to craft the special sound transmission token with other parties.” Youjin Liu said, “Though I fear other powerful factions might wish to take it from you forcefully, as you have the Su fox clan behind you, few will ever dare.”

Yung thought it over and floofed Su Nanya secretly. The golden fox chirped. But her coat wasn't as fluffy as Floofy's, so it wasn't the same, even though the zhenqi cultivation was far faster with the princess.

He noticed the jolted audience and stopped before coughing.

“T-There is no secret technique. You’ll only need this silk.”

“Surely that is a jest?” The crafting elder said with a frown. “I am aware of the test results. While these special tokens are nearly identical to the normal ones in appearance, their efficacy and functionality vary in incomparable amounts. Without a far more refined and efficient rune array, a mere increase in material quality cannot grant such an amazing result.” She held up the spool of silk, “While this is amazing quality silk, houtian 1st grade epic class I would suggest. It’s not enough—”

“That Silky’s silk, by the way.”

“By the heaven’s, Lord yaoguai can—Oh, I do remember it attacking the patriarch quite vigorously with silk before.”

“The one and the same.”

“That…” The elder went quiet. “This one has not worked with yaoguai parts before. So I cannot say.”

“Holy hell, this isn’t a yaoguai part,” Yung gaped at the sudden turn to grimdark. “Silky can spew them naturally, as long as you give him enough treasured fruits and herbs. The higher the natural qi content, the better. And grapes are the best.”

Young signalled the critter, who flew up joyfully from Su Xiya’s snout and landed on his palm. He passed it a grape, and Silky devoured it in seconds.

“Kii. Kyum. Kiiiii!”

In his link sight, he could see the foxmoth yaoguai also assimilating many null threads with each pulse of his xinqi.

Yung held up a small wooden stick-like piece from the workbench, the part the silk would be spooled around.

“Kyu!”

Silky got to work, taking a deep foxmoth breath and flapping his cute foxmoth wings, spitting fibre with strong gusts of qi.

“Woof!” Floofy cheered him on, and Su Nanya looked at the spectacle with utter amusement.

In less than five minutes, another spool of silk was created.

“Fascinating. Lord yaoguai is many times tinier than a normal foxmoth. Does his smaller output of silk depend on his size, or the amount of xinqi you share?” The formation elder asked.

“Can’t know.” Yung wouldn’t share the details of null threads. He changed the topic, “I’d like you to see if this is workable, or if only I, as Silky’s contracted, can handle it.”

They didn’t need another reminder.

The two elders sat on the central workbench reserved for the grumpy old man managing the shop. The croon was standing by a side wall with the other apprentices, trying to make himself as small as possible.

Wang Lihou, who was the magical formation elder’s apprentice, also took a seat. As did Yung.

They took out their toolkits. The elders had ones with far higher quality. But they did something strange.

They channelled their lingqi, and twenty jade carving blades shot up in the air like flying swords, each with different types of tips and functionalities.

Wang Lihou also did the same, and he controlled three.

Yung squinted at the void jade in one hand and the blade in his other. He put them away and concentrated on speculating the show with a low grumble.

“Do not feel inadequate, oh dearest new servant.” Su Nanya consoled him in her own strange way, “Your talents lie with your tongue, not in runes and crafting.”

There was a cough, a crash, and several screams, followed by sharp intakes of air. Wang Lihou lost control of his blades, and the void jade he worked on smashed to pieces.

“She means my words! My eloquent oratory skills.” Yung hurriedly explained, and the chaos stopped.

The jade carvers tried again for round two.

The tones of the elders' magical chants reverberated off the walls as their aged hands formed intricate symbols, resembling Mudras used in Yoga.

Yung watched intently as a dozen shimmering blades hovered above a line of jade stones and hummed to life.

Wang Lihou clenched his teeth, sweat dampening his neck and armpits, but his gaze remained fixed in intense concentration. The blades moved at lightning-fast speed, precise scalpel-like edges creating streaks of light from the solidified lingqi. In less than ten minutes, Wang Lihou had finished engraving his three jades with far greater accuracy than Yung could hope for.

The same amount of time saw the Elders go through three sets of ten jades without pause. The formation elder handed seven of his to Wang Lihou, who observed them with critical eyes and then returned them.

Ah, Yung figured it out. This was a show meant for the Westmoon grand princess and, more likely, for Su Nanya.

It was a talent showcase.

And Wang Lihou didn’t disappoint.

Necessary lengths of silk were cut from the pool and dissolved in the alchemic liquid on the workbench slots. Wang Lihou and the elders put their hands on the input groves of the formation circuit and injected their qi in an intense yet steadfast fashion.

The room was silent except for the sound of the magic.

The liquid in all the slots vanished gradually, absorbed by the tokens. Finally, the alchemic process was completed with a last grunt of effort, and the sixty-three tokens were made.

The elders checked them out, “You are getting sloppy,” The crafting elder told the formation elder, who had failed with two. The old man laughed in good humour.

Wang Lihou succeeded with his three. And Yung realised this was what an absolute prodigy was.

No cheats in the form of link sight powers, no mysterious soul contract with a mythical land god, nor an extravagant and sexy golden thigh to hug. Wang Lihou showed actual results for honest work.

The comparison created a complicated feeling in Yung’s heart. But he noticed the shame and let it go. “Check if they work. You can’t use one of the new ones to exchange spiritual imprints with a normal token.”

They did work. Far better than the original two Yung had created.

“This much should be enough for the hunt? You can make more scene or light transmission tokens as necessary. After paying me, whatever you do with the silk is no longer my problem, as long as you stamp the fortune fox totem somewhere.”

Ziyou Maque and Youjin Liu affirmed. The Dark Star mercenary leader smiled. She and her companion were currently the strongest force in the city, discounting Nyanya. So there was no need to keep them waiting. The faster they could adapt their strategies to the new equipment, the safer it would be for Yung when he recovered the foxmoths and, by extension, Su Nanya’s occultic foxball.

“Since Brother Lihou and the two good elders worked, we’ll split the spirit stones. Each merchant party both upstream and downstream will get a percentage cut of the profits.” Yung proposed a cut division, which felt fair to his modern senses.

“How can that be?” Youjin Liu said, astonished. “This would not be possible without the special dim gold silk, which you monopolise. How can we be shameless enough to greed after that large a portion when you do this to benefit our Youjin clan!?”

“That’s that, and this is this. Proper labour will have proper wages.” Yung was adamant on this point.