Chapter 187 - 182: Artisan
That morning, Li Yuan was in his courtyard, drawing a Qi Gathering Talisman.
Two knocks sounded at the courtyard gate.
Li Yuan put down his talisman brush, stood up, and walked to the gate.
He opened the courtyard gate to find a man standing outside.
The man looked to be thirty-five or thirty-six, with a medium build, refined features, and fair skin. He didn’t look like a Loose Cultivator who was constantly exposed to the elements.
His fingertips were stained yellow, and his nails were trimmed short.
His cultivation was at the Qi Refining Seventh Level.
The visitor cupped his hands toward Li Yuan and smiled.
"Li Dao You?"
"Yes."
"My surname is Shen. Shen Yue."
He lowered his hands, his gaze sweeping across the courtyard. Spotting the talisman paper and Spiritual Ink on the table, he nodded.
"Is there something you need?"
Shen Yue didn’t answer immediately, instead peering into the courtyard.
"May we speak inside?"
Li Yuan stepped aside. Shen Yue entered the courtyard and sat on a stone stool by the table.
Li Yuan didn’t sit, leaning against the edge of the table as he watched the man.
Shen Yue rested his hands on his knees and began to speak.
"I’m a Pill Refiner and have been in Yunyang Market for over three years. I usually refine things like Qi Replenishing Pills and Replenishing Essence Pills. I have a regular stall over in the Loose Cultivator gathering area."
He gestured in the direction of the main street.
"A couple of days ago, I went to the Purple Abyss Trading Company to buy Spirit Grass and saw that Shopkeeper Han had put up a new sign with your name on it."
"I asked Shopkeeper Han about you, and he said you’re a Loose Cultivator who is also a Talisman Maker. He said your craftsmanship is excellent and that the quality of your Talismans is among the best in all of Yunyang Market."
He looked at Li Yuan.
"So I thought I’d come and introduce myself."
Li Yuan grunted noncommittally, waiting for him to continue.
Shen Yue rubbed at the traces of medicinal powder on his fingers.
"It’s not just about getting acquainted. I want to propose a partnership."
"What kind of partnership?"
"A partnership between artisans." Shen Yue leaned forward slightly.
"There are plenty of artisan Loose Cultivators in Yunyang Market—Pill Refiners, Talisman Makers, Artifact Refiners, you name it. But we all work separately, with very little interaction between us."
"When Spirit Grass gets expensive, we can’t find cheaper suppliers. When we’re short on ores, we don’t know who to ask. Sometimes we have extra materials we want to trade for something else, but we can’t find a suitable partner."
"I know an Artifact Refiner, surname Zhou, who has a small workshop on the east side of the market. He specializes in forging Tier One Magical Artifacts. His work is good, and he can make talisman brushes, too."
"The two of us have been working together for almost a year, trading materials and referring customers to each other. It’s been going very smoothly."
Shen Yue paused, then continued.
"All we’re missing is a Talisman Maker."
Li Yuan watched him.
"How would this partnership work?"
"It’s very simple, and nothing is compulsory," Shen Yue said, waving his hand dismissively.
"We just help each other out. When you need Spirit Grass or medicinal pills, you come to me for a price lower than the market rate. When I need Talismans, I’ll come to you for the same deal. It’s the same with Artifact Refiner Zhou. If you need talisman brushes or Magical Artifact components, you go to him. If he needs Talismans or pills, he comes to us."
He counted on his fingers.
"The three of us artisans getting together, we can save a lot of Spirit Stones by trading materials. We can also refer customers to one another. If someone asks me to perform Alchemy and wants to know where to find a good Talisman Maker, I’ll send them your way. The same goes in reverse."
He lowered his hands.
"No contracts, no strings attached. Anyone can back out at any time. We’re just teaming up for our mutual convenience."
Li Yuan thought for a moment.
’The terms are indeed good.’
’Talisman making requires large amounts of Spirit Grass to create herbal talisman paper. If I can get Spirit Grass from Shen Yue below market price, I can cut my material costs even further.’
’As for pills, I refine some myself, but my variety is limited. If Shen Yue has pills that I don’t know how to make, trading with him would be convenient.’
’The Artifact Refiner would be even more useful. A talisman brush is a core tool for talisman making, and good ones aren’t cheap. If I could get reasonably priced brushes from the Artifact Refiner, the long-term savings in Spirit Stones would be substantial.’
’And since it’s not binding, I can quit anytime. There’s no risk.’
"Alright." Li Yuan nodded.
The smile on Shen Yue’s face relaxed visibly.
"Let’s go, then. I’ll take you to meet Artifact Refiner Zhou. His workshop is just on the east side, about a fifteen-minute walk from here."
The two left the courtyard, followed a side alley onto the main street, and turned east.
They followed the main street east for a while, then turned into a narrow alley. At the end of the alley stood a modest stone house with a wooden sign hanging by the door, bearing the name "Zhou’s Shop."
The door to the stone house was ajar, and from within came the CLANG CLANG of hammering, along with a scorching, metallic scent.
Shen Yue called out from the doorway.
"Old Zhou, I brought him."
The hammering stopped.
A burly man in his forties emerged from the stone house. He had extremely broad shoulders, brawny arms, and palms that were nearly a full size larger than Li Yuan’s.
He wore a sleeveless, coarse-cloth tunic, its front covered in metal filings and ore dust.
Qi Refining Sixth Level.
Artifact Refiner Zhou wiped his hands on his apron and sized up Li Yuan.
"So you’re the Talisman Maker from the Purple Abyss Trading Company?"
"Li Yuan."
"Old Zhou. Zhou Tie." He extended a hand, and Li Yuan shook it. His palm was coarse and scorching hot, as if he had just stepped away from the furnace.
Zhou Tie jutted his chin toward the inside of the stone house.
"Come in, have a seat."
The stone house was larger on the inside than it appeared. Against one wall stood an artifact refining furnace half the height of a man, its opening still radiating heat.
Various hammers, tongs, and files hung on the walls. On the floor were several crates of ore and half-finished Magical Artifact components.
Two newly crafted talisman brushes rested on a table. Their shafts had not yet been lacquered, the bare wood revealing a fine grain.
Zhou Tie brought over two stools from a corner, and the three men sat down around the table.
Shen Yue explained the partnership proposal again. Zhou Tie listened, then nodded without wasting words.
"Alright. One more person means one more path."
He picked up a talisman brush from the table and handed it to Li Yuan.
"Take a look at this. Spirit Wood shaft, and the bristles are from the whiskers of a Tier One Middle Grade Demon Beast. The workmanship is decent. It would sell for about twenty Spirit Stones on the market. For you, fifteen."
Li Yuan took the talisman brush and tested its weight in his hand. The shaft felt solid, the wood warm. When he channeled Spiritual Power from his fingertips into it, the energy conducted smoothly, with no obvious loss.
’Good quality,’ he thought. ’A cut above what they sell at the Loose Cultivator stalls.’
"I’ll take it."
Li Yuan placed fifteen Spirit Stones on the table and put the talisman brush into his storage bag.
The three men chatted for a while longer about their respective situations.
Shen Yue’s Alchemy focused mainly on Qi Replenishing Pills and Replenishing Essence Pills, though he occasionally refined Antitoxic Pills and Strengthening Pills. Zhou Tie primarily made Tier One Magical Artifacts and talisman brushes, and sometimes took on repair jobs for Magical Artifacts.
Their customer bases had some overlap but were also complementary. Many of Shen Yue’s pill customers needed Talismans, and many of Zhou Tie’s Magical Artifact customers also needed pills. By referring customers to each other, they could all drum up more business.
After they finished talking, Li Yuan and Shen Yue left Zhou Tie’s workshop together.
"From now on, just come find me directly if you need anything," Shen Yue said, cupping his hands toward Li Yuan at the mouth of the alley. "My stall is in the third row, on the east side of the Loose Cultivator gathering area. I’m there every morning."
Li Yuan nodded, and the two parted ways.
He returned to his courtyard and closed the gate.
Li Yuan sat on his bed board and took an Iron Wall Pill from his storage bag.
’Only two left.’
As he swallowed the pill, a scorching heat erupted in his stomach, surging up his spine and into the bones of his limbs. The tempering of his marrow amplified the pill’s efficacy by thirty percent, and the catalytic effect of the Spirit Liquid added another thirty percent on top of that.
He began to circulate the Iron Wall Body Refining Skill.
Spiritual Power poured into the depths of his muscles, following the paths of the Cultivation Technique. At the Mastery stage, his absorption channels had already been permanently widened, allowing Spiritual Power to permeate much faster than it did at the Proficient stage.
The dual cultivation of spirit and blood, an effect of the Blood Coagulation Pill, caused his Qi Blood to flow in sync. The two forces surged through his muscle fibers in alternating waves.
One cycle, two cycles, three cycles.
His mastery over the Iron Wall Body Refining Skill climbed steadily.
When the pill’s effects faded, Li Yuan ended the circulation and switched back to the Spirit-Introducing Skill to continue his cultivation.
Spiritual Qi surged into his body. The pure Spiritual Power purged impurities before condensing and sinking into his Dantian.
Outside the courtyard walls, Yunyang Market gradually fell quiet. From the distant main street came the faint sounds of stalls being packed up, and the footsteps of the Inspector General’s changing patrol passed the mouth of the alley.
Li Yuan’s eyes were closed, his breathing even. Spiritual Power and Qi Blood flowed through his body in a ceaseless cycle.