Bab 62: Chapter 62 - White Tiger?
"Lady Kaitun, right?" Xin asked a middle-aged woman standing counter on a first floor of a spacious store. It was a big warehouse, filled with alchemical wonders that left Xin wide-eyed. Limbs of rare qi active beasts, jars with glowing liquids — some of these materials were used for rank three recipes! Expensive instruments, supportive reagents of the highest quality — this store made him and Feng Chonglin look like children.
"Nah, I am her apprentice. Welcome, customer. How can I help you?"
"Aigul sent me. It's about an expensive good sale."
"If this is true, I'll lead you upstairs."
"It's true. You know me, they are legit." Orange nodded to her.
"Fine, Orange. Let's give you face." She led the trio upstairs.
"Who are these?" A woman in her fifties asked. She was wearing a traditional Clay Folk styled dress, with geometric ornaments and flowery patterns. Nothing nomadic about her, except a small pin in her hair, that looked to be made of whitened bone.
"Customers, master Kaitun. Say they brought some goods for sale. They come from Aigul."
"I see. You, thug, wait outside. You boys, want some tea?"
The bodyguard felt humiliated, all his training and street status, but reduced to a simple thug by a rich grandma, and there was nothing he could do about it! He nodded politely and left.
"I'm fine, thanks." Xin responded. We need to get to business.
"Would be nice. But I add sugar to my tea. Do you mind?" Lei asked.
"It's disgusting and kills the complex development of the fragrance, and numbs the aftertaste. A good tea is a musical composition, opening up in phases. It seems that you drink tea like a jerk, but be it your way."
Lei chuckled, he didn't expect her to be so vulgar.
"Sorry, lady Kaitun. I'll drink tea the way you want me to, just don't call me that bad word again, please. I have feelings, you know?" His eyes were those of a sad puppy.
"Oh, how many girls had their feelings hurt by those playful blue eyes, am I right? Wait, one isn't even blue, is it grey? Weird." She approached Wu Lei and stared into his eye intently.
"Does it mean anything, by the way? Different alchemists told me different things about it. Some said I'm cursed, some said I need a cosmetic intervention, some said it's harmless. What do you think?"
"Think you are looking for your eyes to mean something. As an alchemist, I work with excesses and deficiencies. You seem to have excess pain, and lack identity."
"Oi! Where did that come from?" Lei smiled a bit nervously. "I didn't come here to get roasted, with all respect. Let's make business?"
"Yeah, yeah. Let me make the tea first. Wait here." She pointed them toward a long table, probably reserved for special clients coming upstairs, and left into a separate room.
"What a weird woman." Said Xin.
"Seems fun. You're just jealous she paid you no attention. Don't worry, your turn will come."
"Think her words meant anything? Did they resonate with you in any way?"
"Resonate? Hm, you know, I didn't feel any disagreement, I just felt nothing. Weird. You're jealous, though. Admit it, you were waiting for a chance to start boasting your alchemy skills, and are irritated that she gave me more attention."
"Yeah, it would be nice to chat with a colleague. Whatever, we aren't here for that. We're leaving the city soon."
"I hate business trips. They suck. You come to a new city, and it feels like a separate world. You meet new people, see new landmarks, it's like a carrot dangled in front of you. Then you just leave, and feel hollow afterwards, you know? Your heart was open to new experiences, but you were reduced to a function of being a certain guy in a certain place. That sucks."
"I don't remember asking." Xin looked at Lei with a blank face. For a moment, Wu Lei scowled in confusion. "Nah, I am fucking with you, I know exactly what you feel."
"Did I hear a bad word? Only I am allowed to say them here." The woman was already bringing a tray with tea and cookies for her clients to snack on. That was fast, did she use alchemical materials to speed up the process?
"Forgive me, lady Kaitun. So, should we finish drinking tea before we discuss business?" Xin asked.
"Your call." She took a small, polite sip from a gold adorned porcelain cup.
"Hope no one here is too squeamish, don't want to ruin the appetite." Xin procured an organ jar from his bag again.
Instead of looking at the jar, lady Kaitun froze and pointed at Xin:
"You have a totem!" She reached for a thin rope on his neck, used to carry the totem, and pulled the figurine from below his armour. "A tiger, even! And it's awake, too! What a curious mortal you are."
"Me and my brother Lei fought a tiger yaoguai. I found this in his intestines. Recently, we killed another yaoguai, this time a mantis. Little Mantis, have you heard about him?"
"Oh, that chump. One ballsy demon, he actually lived in this city, but it wasn't meant to be." Her eyes betraid a light confusion — these low ranked chumps killed a rank two?
"Could you tell us more?"
"Well, he came here, had a scramble with some local criminals, was forced to leave the city, then turned to his bandit ways. Given his bounty, you can piece together what happened next."
Xin scratched his temple. So, was he a psychopath, or did society push him away? How guilty was he? He wasn't properly explained what being human means, was discriminated against and abused, and turned to a life of killing and cannibalism, as it was the only thing he knew from his insect days.
Most would turn evil in such conditions. Doesn't absolve one of guilt, but it's still tragic, Xin thought. The yaoguai are certainly human, we just like to pretend they aren't. Our definition of "human" is loaded with garbage, anyway.
"Well, he killed my master and got my squad mate killed. Here are his organs." Xin kept his thoughts to himself and opened the jar.
"Let me see." She procured a wooden bowl and caught out a bunch of his organs with her alchemical pincers. Lei struggled to keep drinking his tea, his nostrils assaulted by pungent smell.
"Aigul has the eyes, if you're interested." Xin took another sip.
"Nah, it's fine. If only you kept him alive, I'd pay you 150 spirit stones. Now, only forty five."
"Can we talk privately for a minute?" Xin asked. Lei seemed confused by this, and Xin expected him to ask something like "got anything to hide?", but his friend just leaned back on his chair, acting detached. It was Xin's business, after all, would be unwise to disrupt his scheme, whatever it was.
"Yes, of course." She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Lei again. What are they plotting?
They went into a separate room.
"Lady Kaitun, thing is, I am the only one in my caravan who can evaluate the organs, and we both know that 45 spirit stones is not enough." Xin pretended to be on her side, and carefully weaved his lie. Step one — lie about splitting the reward with his squadmates. Step two — use a simple "we both know" manipulation to plant a thesis into a conversation to obtain more control. "So, I think that we could come to a mutual understanding, if you know what I mean."
Lady Kaitun looked into Xin's eyes, trying to gauge his intentions. He smiled lightly with a corner of his lips, as if saying "it's your turn to speak".
"Please stop saying that I gave you an unfair price, junior. But I see your point, there can be an exchange of favours to smoothen the deal." From her perspective, Xin was splitting his profits with the whole caravan, and it would be more profitable to bribe him directly instead of raising the price for everyone. In exchange, he'd tell the squad that the price she gave him was reasonable.
"I am glad that you understand. You've noticed my totem, and I've noticed that you belong to Skyfolk. Certainly not an equal display of perception, but this gave me an idea."
"Speak." She looked him in the eyes, no longer friendly, playful or intimidating. Her gaze was completely cold and unbothered — she understood what kind of person was standing in front of her, and went into full focus. Underestimating someone like him because of his age or rank would be stupid.
"Well, this totem, it was a hassle to awaken and feed it. As I am still a mortal, my soul foundation isn't strong enough to utilise it properly. So, I am looking for materials and inheritances to help me optimise my totemic foundation. You seem like you could help."
"Well, I see. So, how about 45 spirit stones for your squad, and I write you a detailed guide on the specifics of working with tiger totems? I'll add a soul foundation training method as well, free of charge."
Xin thought for a bit. He could find both of these himself, but it's not just the source material that's valuable, but an expert's interpretation. Think. Look for an opening.
"I don't know, doesn't sound too attractive to me. Can master tell if my problems are related to my element?" It was a loaded question. What it truly meant was "please guess my element if you are so competent, let's see the value of your advice".
"Well, the way I see it..." Her pupils dilated, she bit his bait willingly, ready to crush him with her experience. "You're just a mortal, and the tiger's fire nature counters your metallic energy. This creates an obvious incompatibility. But your eyes are weirdly green. Could be nothing, could be... Probably not.
Guess the problem is that you aren't Yang enough for the tiger, and he'll shatter your soul if he manifests fully, unless you make certain precautions. And, given your incompatibility, even the minor aspects you invoke would strain your soul foundation too hard, limiting your dao shard choice. Correct?" She looked at him with pride, in her view, she read the whole situation from just a few hints!
"I am amazed, the master almost cracked the case!" Xin gave her face, but poked the fact that she didn't figure out his dual nature back at her. "Thing is, I also have wood element in my bloodline, and it is weakened by the metal element. And yes, the metal element conflicts with the tiger's fire nature, but my wood element feeds it. Still, the effect is weakened since my wood qi is repressed. This whole situation is quite complex, and my internal alchemy methods are limited because of it."
"So, why not just sell the totem? It doesn't fit you, that's all. Maybe you could exchange it for another one?"
"I think you might know an alternative method that could help me." Xin spread his hands.
"That's a bold assumption. I don't think so..." She squinted her eyes and looked at him again. "Unless?"
"Unless?" Xin's heart jumped.
"Refinement, do you understand it? You are certainly an alchemist of your group, otherwise they would send an actual master in your place. I assume you were the one to preserve the organs, correct?"
"Correct. Yes, I understand refinement in theory. I am decent at alchemy and have a good understanding of xiandao principles, why are you asking?"
"So, xiandao, shendao, physical cultivation. Totemism. Formations. Alchemy. Artefact crafting, shard refinement. Qigong, Feng Shui. Why am I naming these things?"
"They intertwine." Xin made a gesture portraying roots intertwining with his fingers. "We made these lines for convenience, but we forget to remove them when inconvenient. There's only Dao, after all, and even Dao is also redundant. There is only 'Is'."
"I wouldn't make a deal with you if you didn't understand this. I see how you killed this mantis yaoguai, despite the difference in ranks. Something tells me you were crucial in that battle, am I right?"
"Lady flatters me, I only finished him off." Xin boasted as he displayed "humbleness".
"Good. So, I know how to remove an elemental conflict from your totem, make you compatible with it, and reduce the soul foundation usage of its totemic abilities. But it's dangerous, hard to execute and somewhat expensive. Still, this satisfies all of your requirements. Does it work as a payment?"
"Yes, of course. How dangerous?"
"I'd say your probability of going crazy is twice as high compared to cultivating a normal tiger totem. Is this too much? Your call. Do we have a deal?"
"Do you promise that it'll work as described?"
"You have my word. I've got a reputation to uphold, I'm not ruining it by getting some mortal chum killed."
"We have a deal." Xin nodded.
"Fine. I'll give you some copies of the sources in my library, as well as direct you to some other obscure works. Your sect should have some of these, and Clay Nest's Xuanwu clan should, too, in their paid library. You're from FETS, right?"
"Yes, I am. So, what's the method?"
"Totem refinement. We'll refine your totem into a White Tiger of the West, Baihu."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone