The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

Chapter 182: Pressing Concerns

Troubled by Li Lang’s flimsy reply, Wei Ping continued.

“If i-it’ll be an issue with your plans, I can stay.”

“No. I was the one saying we should focus on our cultivation. If you feel that taking a trip is what you need, then it’s not fair for me to stop you.”

“But don’t y-you need help with the start of another round of testing?” Wei Ping said with eyes turned to the children they had recruited.

“It’ll mostly be cultivation techniques, not administering an untested drug. I’ll manage, so don’t worry.”

The trio soon finished their discussion, and Wei Ping returned inside the Skyrunner. He found the children merrily chatting among the little cliques they had formed. Underneath his mask, he smiled at the scene, but that quickly changed to a frown when he saw one of the kids sitting alone in the corner.

It was inevitable that not all the children got along with each other. Cliques naturally formed, centered around the more outgoing, charismatic, or knowledgeable among them. In turn, it was inevitable there were outcasts, too.

Seeing this, Wei Ping strode over and sat by the lonely boy.

“H-hey, did you enjoy the trip?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Haha, there’s n-no need to forcefully say yes. It’s n-normal for people to enjoy different things.” The boy awkwardly glanced down without a word, so Wei Ping continued. ”One day you’ll be a-able to get your own Skyrunner, and you’ll be able to make these trips yourself. Then y-you’ll be able to control where you go.”

Once again, the boy didn’t reply, but glitters could be seen in his eyes. He finally revealed a smile as he nodded toward Wei Ping to show his appreciation.

The scene made Wei Ping thoughtful, and the two shared a moment of silence while the spirited chatter continued all around them.

Eventually, the group made it back to Emberglow City after some time. They had to use their old Skyrunner to carry so many people, so it took them some time.

They landed on one of the open squares within the city and navigated through the streets with ease. With the city being their place of residence, they naturally were familiar with its layout. They didn’t need to ask anyone for directions and arrived at one of many inns in the city.

As they had yet to find a more permanent place to stay, they would be temporarily staying in inns.

After the long journey home, all of them were exhausted. The children were separated into four people per room, and today, they didn’t even fight for the beds before they all fell asleep together.

Only the trio, who were now proper adults in this world, managed to stay awake.

Both Long Yi and Wei Ping were hard at work, cultivating and practicing their various techniques. One had to prepare to face a major breakthrough while the other prepared for his journey. In a sense, they were both life and death matters. Neither of them could afford to slack off.

Meanwhile, Li Lang naturally was playing with his Weave Press.

Now that he had completed this artifact, it was time to put it to good use. Despite having earned a large sum from betting, he knew he couldn’t rely solely on it. He needed a stable source of income, especially having taken in a dozen kids.

At the same time, he didn’t forget to record the occasional talisman produced as well. He wanted to observe how his artifact did, searching for any variance between talismans. There was also the matter of the artifact spirit he created. Unfortunately, he didn’t have another Mortal-grade artifact to compare to.

Within one night, he gathered a cache of useful data to plan out the nascent talisman empire he was building. He recorded that the Weave Press could print out approximately three hundred talismans per hour. However, it needed to take a two-hour break every hour. He couldn’t figure out the exact reason why, so he went to visit the only spirit he could converse with at the moment.

“Ruby, do artifact spirits ever feel fatigued?”

“Master, I think it’s possible, but high-performance spirits like me have the energy to work for years without a break!”

“I thought you guys were fine as long as there’s enough ambient energy to power you. Isn’t that how the three controlling the Crucible work?”

“Hmm, I’m not exactly sure of the underlying reason, but I don’t think Master should compare a Spirit-grade artifact with a Mortal-grade one.”

“Then does that mean a Mortal-grade one, like the one controlling the Weave Press, can only operate for an hour continuously? No, it should be unique to each artifact and its functions. Otherwise, it would make no sense for weapons to only work for an hour.”

It wasn’t time for Li Lang to dwell on such details, so he quickly moved on. Three hundred talisman per hour was plenty. It was speed that made it hard for him to keep up with the materials. The final products also had issues with their quality.

Having to use Li Lang’s rediscovered method of using mono-elemental inks due to the limitation, the performance of the final product paled in comparison with handmade ones. Practically all talismans in modern times used the multi-elemental ink for good reason. It was an overall improvement, an advancement in brushweaving technology.

“I doubt talismans working at half the efficiency would fetch a good price, but I have the advantage in quantity. There should be numerous merchants at the very least who would rejoice at an economical way to travel.”

“Master, you can also try training the artifact spirit to handle using the normal ink. Blue, Orange, and Green would likely know more about the specific method with their big library.”

“As excited as I am to do that. I’ll save it for another time. I have to start finding stores to sell our talismans tomorrow, find a place to settle in, and come up with an education plan for the kids. It’s not so easy if Wei Ping is leaving. I’ll need to set up a system for them to report to me their results.”

The large workload had gotten Li Lang to stay in his artifact realm for longer periods of time. He liked having someone to converse with while he worked, and Ruby served in that role.

“Let’s see. As much as I want what’s good for the kids, I’ll want to rush them along, so they can help explore how to reach the Foundation Establishment realm for me. That means I’ll have to sacrifice their martial arts and Qi arts training in exchange for cultivation speed.”

“Isn’t that fine, Master? None of your opponents so far practiced too many techniques so far. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to the basics.”

“It still feels wrong. The three of us trained for years inside the pocket realm, honing our moves. Forcing them to advance so quickly without the skills to exert their power shouldn’t be something that’s good for them.”

Left with that uneasiness, Li Lang soon completed collecting what he needed for the next day and quickly fell asleep.

The next day, he found Wei Ping and Long Yi already gone, likely to take care of the children and start their classes as planned. As for him, he went out to begin negotiating with the talisman stores in town.

Looking for business partners that could sell the large quantities he could produce, he naturally went to a store belonging to a fellow member of The Orchid Covenant. The storefront wasn’t only large, but it also had multiple stores throughout the city and beyond.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

It belonged to Elder Mei, who he previously visited in search of a brushweaving teacher.

He flashed his token, identifying himself as someone from the same organization to the store clerk. A moment later, an elderly man walked out.

“Apologies, Sir. Master Mei is not here right now. Would you like to leave a message?”

“That’s fine. I’m actually here to discuss if your stores are willing to sell some of my talismans. I happen to have a large quantity of Warding Talismans I can regularly provide at low prices.”

“I’m afraid we only sell works we’ve produced in-house. You may want to try other stores if selling is your goal.”

Li Lang only took a moment to deliberate before nodding. He had seen numerous disciples under the tutelage of Elder Mei before. He remembered they had a sizable workforce dedicated to producing talismans, so it wasn’t surprising they only sold their own work.

With no other choice, he exited the stores and began scouring the streets for other talisman stores. As a vibrant city with a large population, Emberglow City had dozens of other stores.

“Excuse me, can I please speak to your manager?”

He used this line dozens of times throughout the day, but never received a positive reply. None of the stores were willing to carry such a large quantity of subpar products, as they each had their suppliers already sorted out. It was just more profitable for most businesses to produce themselves or deal with higher-grade items with larger profit margins.

Do I really have to start my own store already? A store that only sells one type of talisman, or maybe a few more, but they’ll still be all Mortal-grade. If only the Weave Press was an Earth-grade artifact. Then maybe the stores would be more receptive to Earth-grade talismans.