章節 39: So much to learn, so little time
Chún was carefully examining the latest batch of finished 'Jina' ceramic that the Mountain had placed on the shelves of the drying pit, from the firing started two nights ago. This included the figurine of the Crystal Lord, the elaborate clay frieze of the waterfall as well as the experimental pots, cups and bowls that he had made purely through Essence manipulation.
Some of the very thin attempts had failed. It appeared even with Essence sculpting and reinforcement in use, very thin clay tented to crumble, melt or shatter at various stages of the process. These were thrown into the old mud pit to be shattered into powder for later reuse.
There were some great successes though. A number of the bowls - all of which were much thinner than the ones he had made by hand previously - had not been damaged and had come out unbreakable as well as translucent.
The reason he knew they were unbreakable is because he dropped a couple and they bounced instead of shattering.
Close examination revealed that bowls with active and Dao patterns resisted damage. The failed attempts had no active Dao patterns and shattered like ordinary bowls.
"Some of these turned out to be very beautiful," marvelled Chún as he held up a bowl up against the sky and looked at the warm glow of the Golden Crow that lit the ceramic through the almost translucent material.
The material was pure white, like clouds or snow and chimed when he flicked his finger against it. In his Essence Sense, Dao patterns danced around the bowl in bands, faint energies crossing between them. With his eyes he only saw for bands of seemingly still patterns glazed into the bowl - one at the base, one around the middle and one around the rim of the bowl.
"This one is too good to be used to hold Essence Herbs. I might keep it and others like it and just use the not so good Dao pottery to plant herbs in," he said thoughtfully.
"The more powerful or delicate the herb, the more support they require," warned the Mountain. "The halfway decent pots are OK for keeping halfway decent plants alive - but if you want to sell decent goods, you will need to use the more perfect pots."
Chún stopped and put the pot back on the shelf. "Friend…" he asked slowly, "should we be doing this?"
"What do you mean?" asked his locus. "Did you not want to find a way to keep the plants from dying before you could sell them?"
Chún frowned. "Yes. But… if I go to the village with lots of rare plants, planted in special pots that keep them alive, people will notice. The people who eventually buy those herbs will be Consumers and they will definitely notice… are we not supposed to be keeping a low profile? These things - will definitely attract notice."
"Hmm, I do not think so," responded the mountain. "At least… not unless they are supposed to."
The young teen leaned against the wall of the drying pit. "OK, I know there is that whole Dao aspect - people will find their way here if they are meant to, but if we put large signs out saying 'Secret Dao Treasures' here, people are going to come regardless of whether they should."
"Firstly, you are looking through the eyes of someone who has gotten used to living, seeing and hearing and breathing natural Dao. Here is a question for you," his locus paused, "If you had seen that pot with an Essence Herb in the village before you met the old man, what would you have thought about it?"
Chún shrugged. "A very nice pot. Waste of expensive pottery to make an ordinary plant pot out of it."
The Mountain laughed down the link. "Anything else?"
"How much money I could make off the pot and the herb?" Chún frowned. "But I was not a Consumer… they will start looking for where the herbs come from… maybe even the pots if they recognise them as Treasures."
"They are not Treasures - at least not as Consumers consider treasures - they are not weapons, do not help directly in cultivation, are not defense, do not make you stronger, faster, invisible or help you escape battle… The majority of Consumers will dismiss them as curious relics of some forgotten sect, probably focused on growing Essence herbs," his Mountain listed out matter-of-factly, "that is how most of them think - if it does not make them stronger - it is not of use. I doubt any of them would even lower their noses to examine a plant pot!"
The Mountain paused. "That is the first point. The second is that there are unlikely to be any Consumers at a small village market out at the edge of the wilderness. Even if a Consumer does notice that the pots collect Essence inside their confines, it will not be until the pots have changed at least one hand and probably more."
"The third point…" his locus paused. "Did you not already say it is difficult for you to see the Dao patterns in the pots?"
"Yes…" admitted Chún slowly.
"Hardly any Consumers are attuned to natural Dao as closely as you. Their constructed Dao's overwhelm their ability to see or feel natural Dao patterns. By the time the average Consumer notices anything, even if they are the first purchaser, the people they bought it from will be long gone."
"Finally," said the Mountain, "for almost any Consumer, the first thing they will do if they think they have discovered a treasure is to make sure no one else knows about it. More discoveries are lost because of all the fights over people trying to keep treasures to themselves than you would think."
The Mountain sent a pulse of reassurance through the link, "I truly think that the chance of attracting the wrong sort of attention is low.But if you do not want to establish an identity as a relic hunter so that you can easily obtain goods and items you cannot obtain here, like the dòufu beans, we can just not do this."
Chún hesitated. "What about the herbs? If we bring down items that are too valuable…"
"I will let you know of anything that is off limits," reassured his friend.
"OK, it will be as you say. I will move the artworks into the cave and organise the pots by grade. What else needs to be done?" asked the young teen.
"The water from the hot spring has boiled away. There is salt, sulphur and a few other minerals there. Not much - but it works. If I make the pan larger and deeper, you might get enough to sell," explained his locus, "there is eleven days left before Market day."
"If there is enough to season food with, that is enough to start with," replied the teen, considering, "I have two large pots and another coming in today's firing, so you can triple the size of the boiling surface, but I do not really want to carry more catties of water than that each day, from the spring." He straightened up away from the wall, "If you can tell me the different types of minerals I will harvest them into some of the small pots that did not work so well - if we get a lot I suppose we could make some large pots with lids…I could bring them down to sell to the apothecary…"
"Regarding the apothecary, it might be more efficient to sell elixirs and unguents rather than herbs," suggested the Mountain, "I know all the properties of every herb, plant, moss, fungi, wood, rock, gem, crystal and animal part, even the ones that alchemists know nothing about - the materials are part of me after all."
"I know nothing about refining medicine," pointed out Chún.
"I on the other hand am part of a planet that has seen every alchemist technique ever. I can show it to you. Unlike most Alchemists, for you, access to the materials is not an issue."
"We do not have a cauldron." Chún held up his hand to forestall his locus' rejoinder that he could sense in the link, "Yes, with what we have learned making Dao Pottery, we could eventually make one - but, I have barely started learning to cultivate, I know almost nothing about being a True Cultivator, I know hardly any Martial or Dao techniques… and you are advising me to pick up another very complex and difficult profession?"
The Mountain was silent for a moment. Eventually it responded seriously. "When you get hurt, how will you treat yourself? Do you even know if Consumer medicine will work for you? I can tell you that many times it will not have the same effect. You will need to start learning this." There was a moment's pause and it continued. "As for techniques, you have already developed several and studied Monkey Movement. There are other animals you can learn from out there - more Dao patterns to study."
The young true cultivator threw up his hands, "Fine. So now I have to manage my garden, hunt for food, dig for clay, process it, make pottery, search for herbs and plants to transplant to sell, learn to fight and move from watching animals, fetch water to make salt, study Essence and Dao patterns to learn techniques, learn alchemy and medicine making… have I missed anything?"
"You should keep sparing with the Crystal Lord," replied his friend flatly, "You need to continue assisting in Essence Ignitions, cleaning wild Essence and creating Manifestations, you have promised the World Tree a visit, you have to help heal any hurt creatures that request it and help defend me from attack."
The Mountain paused, then started again a trifle sheepishly. "I also need to teach you more about Creating. Here, you have woken me and are helping me go stronger, but a True Cultivator needs to be able to strengthen the Dao and Essence of the world wherever they go."
Chún rubbed his forehead. "That is… it sounds like what I am already doing? Do you not think this is too much?"
"I have been teaching you on a small scale with the clay and the rock flower and a few other small things, yes. Eventually you will be able - must be able - to do that on a larger scale," explained his locus.
"I need to create a schedule," said the young teen slumping down into a squatting position, "it is too much to keep track of."
"I will do it," replied the Mountain eagerly. "I will tell you every day when you get up what needs to be done. There is still most of today left - it is still a shi before the time you usually eat. You have already done your chores in the clearing, but you need to go hunting for food and gathering herbs. Bring some of the completed Dao pots with you, so you can transplant any good ones we find, then..."
"Stop!" Shouted Chún. "I agree to the schedule idea, but you have to organise this schedule so I have time to rest and recover. Base it on the amount of time I usually need - and I will tell you if I can keep working when you remind me - or let you know if I am too tired."
"OK," agreed the Mountain, sending reassurance down the link. "First, take a few of the ordinary pots to gather the salt and other minerals. Then we can add more water to the salt pan - you can take the pottery you want to keep into the cave while you fill the pot with water as well."
Chún wandered over to the dry salt pan. He could see six separate small piles organised on the surface. He recognised salt and sulphur was recognisable due to the brilliant yellow, but the others were all varying shades of white or silver.
Going back to the drying pit, he picked up six of the less successful pots and took them back to the collection. "I recognise salt and sulphur - what is this one?" he asked pointing at a powdery white pile.
"You would think of it as pure sand," lectured his locus. "That silvery yellow one one over there is calcium - it helps with bones and teeth strength. That pile is Magnesium - it helps with nerves, skin softness and blood energy. This one is Potassium - it is good for the heart and removing toxins."
Using his Essence Manipulation, Chún floated the various piles into separate pots. "It will take awhile before I need anything larger," he said. "I will take these back to the cave."
"Better to keep them here - I will make a cupboard in the drying pit for them," his friend advised, "the cave is too moist, they would end up becoming wet again."
"Oh. Well - here," he placed the pots with the small amounts of powders on an empty shelf in the drying pit. "I will start carrying the rest of the art back to the cave - I will be back with the water and be ready to go hunting and transplanting after that.
"And then, after that we can start learning how to make 'treasures' and 'inheritances'. Do not worry - we will start off small - maybe just a small hermit's grotto with a couple of ancient jade slips…" The Mountain's excited 'voice' in the link trailed off into pulses of thoughtful consideration.
Chún focused, lifting all the art, pots, cups, bowls and the statuette with his Essence. "Care to explain that last part?"
"Oh! Well... you know how your Teacher explained to you, that Consumers would have run out of 'Ancient Fortunate Encounters' a long time ago, if True Cultivators did not keep making 'new' ones?"
"Not in so many words," replied Chún in a dry tone of voice, "but yes, he did mention something like that."
"Right, so… that is Creating! We need to, well actually - you - need to start practising making that sort of…"
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WheeledWriter
WheeledWriter Apologies for the delay in publishing this chapter. Some real life got in the way. Like Chun, I often don't have as much time as I need to get everything done
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