v7c11: The Cultivating Business

After the discussion on accommodations and travel plans with the Lord Magistrate were complete, Master Jin invited them back to his home so they could view some of the plants he had grown over the winter from their efforts… though after they met with some newcomers to the area.

Master Jin was truly a great patron, introducing them to new customers.

She had expected that Chun Ke would be pulling them along again in his cart.

Instead, Guan Chyou was riding a dragon.

Her red hair had slipped free from its bun, the wind in her face sending it trailing behind her. The great, majestic beast’s body snaked along the landscape, travelling faster than Chyou thought possible.

The dragon roared, its voice shaking the heavens and proclaiming dominance over the earth. Fire and smoke belched from its maw, its blazing heart clear for all to see.

The Azure Express was stunning. It was beautiful. It truly deserved the name, the Iron Dragon.

Chyou knew she looked like a fool, her mouth open in a wide smile, but she was not alone. Her brother was similarly dumbfounded.

It was mind-bending to hear that this was not some heavens-shaking artifact. Young Master Bowu had explained it to largely be—aside from the formation within it—a mortal artifact.

It was impossible, and yet it was here. She had seen the plans before, the sketches of parts and the outlines. She had nodded along as they were explained, not entirely getting it.

She got it now.

Already she could see lines of track criss-crossing the province. She could see a hundred, no, a thousand Iron Dragons pulling vast carts of goods. A fleet, with the symbol of Prosperous Mist alongside the Azure Jade—

There was a sudden shriek and the Iron Dragon lurched, rattling from side to side. Chyou’s heart leapt into her throat, reality invading her daydream, and her knuckles went white on the edge of the cart’s railing.

The Iron Dragon spluttered to a stop.

“I know what that is this time!” Young Master Bowu exclaimed from the front of the Iron Dragon. “Come on, let’s go, let’s go! An hour, tops!”

Bowu leapt off the Iron Dragon, followed closely by a freckly young woman who had a pack of tools slung over her shoulder. She had quite big arms for a woman, and her hair was mostly hidden under a kerchief. What was visible was tied into two braids. A bunch of other blacksmiths jumped off the steam locomotive, swarming around the great steam furnace. The clanging of hammers filled the air.

Chyou let out a breath.

“He’s getting better at diagnosing the problems,” Master Jin praised, looking out the window at the young man with a smile before turning to Chyou and Bo. “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it is,” she whispered before composing herself. “Master Jin, is there any way the Azure Jade Trading Company can assist with this?”

“Well, one of our production bottlenecks is iron…” the man said leadingly.

Her brother pulled out some paper and began writing things down.

It ended up taking an hour and a half to get moving again… but Chyou’s enthusiasm for the Iron Dragon was undiminished.

Lady Biyu had already fundamentally changed hauling cargo with her Partial Storage Array—only for another connected to Master Jin to do it again.

There were still a thousand issues to sort out—wear on the tracks, Spirit Beast attacks, derailing locomotives… but all of these things could be solved and mitigated.

And even if they couldn’t, the ability to pump water out of mines alone would make investing in this venture worth it.

They arrived at Smoky River and Chyou hurriedly combed her hair back in time to meet with the new village chief.

“Master Jin!” a stunningly beautiful blonde woman greeted them. She was wearing a tribal coat, and her blonde hair was tied up with a blue band. Her eyes were locked in what looked like a perpetual squint. She looked more like a noblewoman than most village chiefs, and there was something about her… the ease in which she effortlessly moved, the perfection of her skin—this woman was a cultivator.

“Nezuhua! These are the ones I told you about, the Azure Jade Trading Company!” Master Jin introduced them.

Both she and her brother bowed.

“Any friend of Master Jin is a friend of the Azure Jade Trading Company!” Bo declared.

As it turned out, the woman had a rather large list of things they needed that were impossible to get this far north. Nothing that was urgent, apparently, but everything was recorded. They would be transmitting the list back to Pale Moon Lake as soon as they could so they could get a start on fulfilling the order.

Smart cultivators knew the value of reliable servants—and Lady Nezuhua was, from Chyou’s brief interactions with her, a very smart woman.

After their business was concluded, however, they got a tour of the quickly growing village. It was a bit of a shock to see the ears and the tails on some of the people, but Chyou had long since mastered the ability to not stare.

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Her brother, however, had not, though thankfully the Su Clan didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they welcomed the questions about their ears and tails. Chyou listened politely, but something caught her nose and then her eye.

There was another familiar face in the village.

“Lord Wa Shi,” Chyou greeted, walking over to the trough of water that had been erected for the fish. “That smells delicious!”

“Ah, Sister Chyou!” the fish said, actually said instead of using Qi Speech, turning to beam at her. He pointed with a fin at the food that was cooking. “Come, take a bowl! This is a dish from the Howling Fang Mountains, and it is quite delicious!”

Chyou eagerly complied. The fish had never fed her anything less than delicious. The two fox people who were cooking for him seemed very amused.

And indeed it was… but something was missing… “Ah, I think some potatoes would go very well with this,” she suggested.

The fish eagerly slapped his fins against the trough and beamed at her.

“Exactly as I was thinking!” he exclaimed, “Sister Chyou has good taste!”