Deng’s eyes widened. “A Bronze slaver? By WiFu’s whiskers, how did you even survive?”
Cai Gen chuckled, clapping Alex’s powerful armored shoulder. “We lucked upon this clever fellow!”
Deng whistled. “A Ruidian gem master as an escort. Lucky fellow you are, Cai Gen.” He furrowed his brow. “Perhaps I should turn around and hire a few more guards, even if that kills our profit this year.”
Cai Gen shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. It would be a shame not to see you next year at the auctions.”
The man snorted. “Outbid me, you mean.” He gave a shrug. “Well, thanks to your lucky find of a guard, the world’s down a dozen bastards, and my clan’s up two more warriors. Both of my daughters found strong husbands who know their way around a spear. One even managed to clear his first meridian!”
Cai Gen gave an impressed nod. “Soon you’ll have cultivators in your bloodline. Well done, Deng. I’m surprised the temple didn’t grab him.”
Deng grinned. “And the boy can fight! He wasn’t interested in the temple, especially when my youngest made it clear there were sweeter ways to gain enlightenment than by spending all his days reading musty tomes and fasting on mountaintops for weeks on end, or whatever it is those monks do. If he had been just a bit stronger, he might have made it into the Imperial Army, just like his father. He’s still young, though, and just might clear a second, maybe even a third gateway! I even agreed to let him spend his mornings cultivating, since he’s forgoing the temple, though I think my daughter has other plans for him,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m betting I’m a grandfather in less than a year!”
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised,” Cai Gen agreed as their wagon trains separated. “But even with two young bucks eager to prove themselves to their new father-in-law, best keep your crossbows at the ready, and your spear tips sharp!”
Alex gazed back at the departing wagons, earning a few nods in return, one young woman even flashing him a speculative grin that grew all the wider when he felt his cheeks burn.
“It’s the oddest thing,” he said with a puzzled shake of his head.
“What would that be, lad?”
“It seemed like your acquaintance was almost envious when he thought you had a Ruidian by your side.”
Cai Gen shrugged. “Why wouldn’t he be? Ruidian gem masters are hard to find. Most of them live in communes so remote that you’re lucky to catch sight of any Ruidians at all, except when they’re bringing their goods to market once or twice a year. Only exception is the occasional wandering trader or the young buck or lass eager to prove themselves, or try their hand at mercenary work. And even if your race is by and large made of slender, somewhat fragile folk, no offense, lad...”
“None taken,” said a smiling Alex.
“… Anyone that can hurtle ribbons of flame at charging spirit wolves or slavers is more than welcome in any farming commune or small village, though they rarely settle down, even when they accept mercenary contracts for coin.”
“Why is that?”
“Sadly, their gifts don’t breed true. Not that they’re sterile, mind you. My niece married a handsome gem master a handful of years ago. Gave him the prettiest little babies you ever did see, smart as whips and twice as quick, but not a one of them could wear one of those fancy jewels.” He sighed and shook his head. “Eventually, her husband left. To his credit, he did leave her a fortune in gold and silver rings, which helped us build up and fortify our clan holdings considerably, a godsend when the last spirit beast wave hit. But he still broke poor Bai Bai’s heart. All because he insisted it was his familial duty to breed strong heirs worthy of his gift.” The farmer sighed, giving an angry shake of his head. “Damn fool.”
“I agree,” Alex said. “When you love someone, you’re there for them. You don’t just abandon them because they don’t live up to some imaginary ideal in your head. Not when you’ve given them your heart. Not when you’ve given them life.” Alex stole a quick glance at the beautiful pair of girls who had come far closer to stealing his virtue last night than he wanted to let on, even to himself. “I couldn’t imagine abandoning my wife and child, especially not in this dangerous world. And I wouldn’t give a damn whether or not my sons or daughters had my power, so long as they had my love.”
Alex blinked and flushed, realizing he had been speaking from his heart, and hadn’t thought to moderate his words at all.
Yet Cai Gen was flashing Alex an approving smile. “Well said, lad. Well said indeed.”
Alex grinned. “Of course, I never chose their Elementalist classes, vulnerable as they are, so I’m not too worried about their hang-ups.”
Cai Gen’s gaze widened.
Alex winced, having forgotten himself for a moment.
But the elder just shrugged. “You would know your people better than I, Alex.” He gave Alex a considering glance in between watching the road. “You might not have a jewel on your forehead, but you’ve definitely done something out of the ordinary. The way you tore through those bastards… if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a cultivator!”
Alex grinned. “Imagine that.”
The men were quiet for a time as the wagon train made its way across the vast, majestic lake, passing a couple more wagon trains going the opposite way, exchanging friendly nods, gossip and warning, and not once did anyone flinch or look askance when they caught sight of the blue eyed, blond haired stranger sitting by Elder Cai Gen’s side.
The old man’s life experiences might have been limited compared to the most worldly of citizens, but the elder was no fool. “I take it your experiences in whichever sacred city you once called home were not exactly filled with kindness and warmth?”
Alex’s eyes widened. He swallowed, at a momentary loss for wards. “How could you tell?” he asked, genuinely curious.
The older man flashed a sympathetic smile. “You flinch whenever you see a new face, but not like a broken man. Rather, like a warrior girding himself for battle. As if you expect derision or discord whenever any stranger so much as catches your gaze.” He gave a soft chuckle. “Even when we were bowing with gratitude before the hero who saved all our lives, you felt it vitally important to point out your Ruidian features, as if that meant anything compared to the marvel of knowing my granddaughters would survive yet another day unmolested by monsters.”
Alex felt his cheeks burn, but didn’t turn away, giving a slow nod. “Whenever we encounter a new wagon, I expect to see men glaring in my direction, if not outright spoiling for a fight, eager to blame all the woes of their lives on my back, just because I happen to look like one of a band of raiders defeated over a thousand years ago.”
The elder nodded sagely. “I’ve heard rumors of how life was in the sacred cities, at least for Ruidians of pure blood who couldn’t pass, according to Bai Bai’s former husband. For all that his tribe occasionally gets hostile glares in Erjizhen from angry merchants fearing a hotheaded Ruby Master will set buildings ablaze in a drunken frenzy, for the most part Ruidians are left to their own devices and treated like everyone else. What’s more, those who fill contracts and spirit beast quotas quickly earn prestige and respect. More than a few have even become officers in the city guard, and no one disrespects them, I can tell you that!”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Really? Ruidians are actually welcomed into the local power structure here?”
Cai Gen shrugged. “Why not? Lord Wan Duan’s a prudent sort. What matters to him above all else is efficiency and trade. So long as the flow of grain, produce, and manufactured goods arrives at Baidushi’s ports and markets, Cui Zhe, the sovereign princess of Cuijing Principality, is content to let Lord Wan rule as he sees fit, permitting him the illusion of sovereignty over this miniature city, demanding no more than token gifts. But should the flow of food and trade be hindered for any reason...”
Cold eyes gazed into Alex’s own. “Death would follow for Lord Wan and his entire clan. The princess would appoint a new lord of the city out
of the most efficient administrators in the principality, and then it would be their turn to rule as they saw fit, living in prestige and wealth only for so long as Erjizhen was able to entice merchants, farmers, and traders to continue to funnel their wares to the twenty million souls calling Baidushi, the capital of this entire principality, their home.”
Alex furrowed his brow. “You seem awfully savvy for a farmer, if you don’t mind me saying so.”
Cai Gen chuckled softly. “You’re assuming I was always a farmer. Perhaps I did master a different skillset, once upon a time, and perhaps I thought it not worth the gold eagles I was earning, knowing a single bad year could cost me and our entire department their heads.”
Alex blinked. “That sounds… excessive.”
The man shrugged. “Rank was based purely on merit. We even had Ruidians without a lick of gem-craft, but a good head for mathematics, working alongside a handful of clever Basic cultivators making far more balancing ledgers than they ever would trying to advance at the monastery with their limited talents. And never did we have to worry about taxes acting as a deterrent to the flow of trade. But the cost of failure… ah, lad. The minute I made department head after the death of my former supervisor, I decided taking up my father’s old trade was definitely the life for me!”
Alex blinked. “They let you go that easily?”
Cai Gen snorted, thoughtfully chewing on a stalk of grass. “What you have to understand, lad, is that there are many sources of power and precedent in this word. A cultivator’s power and an army’s spears are just two of them. But in an empire as hungry as our own, where every independent city and town is left to its own devices, so long as a steady stream of food is delivered without fail to the billions of citizens living in the major cities? Every man and woman, even former criminals, are allowed to swear binding oaths and start their lives anew as farmers, should they be brave enough to found a new settlement deep in the wilds, rich in woodland Qi and peril both, where bumper harvests will assure a rich profit, assuming the perils of farming near the Deepwoods don’t destroy your entire clan.”
Alex frowned at those words. He remembered the earlier fear he had seen beneath the twin girls’ smiles. “How safe is your clan, really?” he asked.
His host seemed a bit taken aback by the bluntness of Alex’s question. A look of consternation turned to a rueful smile. “Normally, such a direct question is never asked. All of us farmers know we are embracing the most perilous of gambles. But I can tell you were raised in a sacred city, and have suffered greatly for it.”
He gazed at the clouds thoughtfully for a time. “Most new farming communities fail within the first three years. Those that learn the way of the land, sense the flow of spiritual energy and the needs and demands of the forests and fields they would claim? Those are the ones that truly prosper with bountiful crops and minimal sacrifices in blood and sorrow.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Sadly, familiarity all too often breeds contempt, and farming communities that reach equilibrium with the land occasionally become so arrogant when the old generation is replaced by the new that they think themselves invulnerable, cutting down the forest and planting with abandon, as if they were its master.”
He sighed, shaking his head. “Normally, it’s the second or third generation that attempts such gross expansion, and a good portion of those communities fail as well. One has to grow large enough that slavers and bandits don’t consider you an easy target, yet remain small enough that the forest continues to accept you as a useful part of the whole, not an invasive growth that must be destroyed.”
Alex nodded. “So, to set up a successful farming community, you want to somehow commune with the land, reach some sort of equilibrium or… spiritual agreement? I’ve never heard of anything like that at the Academy,” Alex admitted, before wincing, realizing he was saying far more than he should.
The elder chuckled. “That’s because academy cultivators see the entire world through their own experiences. As if everything was settled by one’s personal ability to cycle Qi. As if there weren’t other ways to accrue wisdom, ways that allow even a humble mortal to sense the vital flow of Heaven and Earth energies all around us and reach an accord with the powers protecting the land that is our home. And really, what would your academy fellows know about anything save accruing power through cultivation, killing, or politics? I doubt you know a single one who even bothers tending a garden, save, perhaps, for a handful of herbs needed for cultivation pills.”
Alex chuckled softly at that, really looking at the craggy-faced, yet still powerfully-built farmer before him. Cai Gen’s gregarious voice spoke of warmth and bonhomie and a farmer’s simple, if profound, take on life. But if any aphorism was true in this world, then the eyes really were windows to the soul.
“I don’t doubt a word you’re saying,” Alex grinned. “But you’re as much a typical mortal farmer as this is a perfectly natural road.”
Cai Gen barked with laughter at that. “And you can read a man’s soul, can you? Tell me, boy, what do you sense about my own?”
And that was what truly confused Alex. Cai Gen’s soul was as muted as any mortal passerby, and wouldn’t be looked at twice by any academy cultivator. It was a disdain Alex realized to his chagrin he had begun to pick up himself, even if he was never directly rude to anyone’s face. Unless in combat, he never even bothered using Soul Sight or Find Weakness on anyone who didn’t ping with a cultivator’s power, assuming them to be slow, weak mortals, and every time before, he had been right.
“All I see before me is a powerfully-built mortal in the peak of health,” Alex admitted.
Cai Gen nodded. “Of course. And I claim to be no more than that, even if my past is perhaps a bit more exciting than most other souls making their living at the forest’s sufferance. It all amounts to the same thing, even if I do know a bit more about how the world works than your typical farmer or herbalist.” He gave a curious tilt to his head. “I won’t even ask how a Ruidian managed to ingratiate himself into a cultivation academy in a divine city, or why. If there was ever a place where Ruidians were actively despised, it would be there.”
Alex couldn’t help chuckling ruefully at that. “Tell me about it. I’m just… honestly, I’m still blown away that people don’t hate me on sight, here in the country.”
Cai Gen sighed. “That’s because we’re not all fools. Considering that less than half of all farming communities make it past two generations, only an idiot would turn away able-bodied men who could spell the difference between survival and death.”
Alex nodded, appreciating the fact that practicality won out against prejudice even here, if the situation warranted. But more so, what really blew him away, was that at least with this humble group of farmers, he felt truly welcomed.
Perhaps for the first time since coming to this world.
Save, of course, for Hao Chan and Liu Li. Two girls that couldn’t be more different, yet they had both managed to touch his heart.
And he couldn’t help wondering at that moment, even as their wagon train reached the far shore of the magnificent shimmering lake and they approached the impressive walls of the free city itself, if he’d ever get the chance to see either of them again. Or if life would conspire once more to send him in directions ever farther away from the women who had left such a profound mark upon his soul.
12
“Cai Gen! Good to see you, old coot! Qiu Ping’s in desperate need of sageroot, and any other spirit herbs you might have. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s willing to pay a 30% markup from last year. It seems old Deng got snatched up by a competitor,” said a smiling guard wearing legionnaire armor much like Alex’s own, including a bronze open-faced helm, lamellar armor made of laminated rawhide plates no doubt near rock-hard after being boiled in water and glue, along with thick, reinforced leather boots, assuring that his whole body was protected. He was armed with a dao at his belt and a steel-tipped spear within easy reach, leaning against t
he city wall.
The guard, completely at ease for all that he was well equipped for battle, was sturdily built with salt and pepper whiskers, and radiated a Basic cultivator’s strength. With a friendly wave to Cai Gen, he pulled them casually to the side of the small handful of wagon trains waiting to get in as a group of guards quickly performed inspections, giving the farmers ivory chips before waving them through the arched entrance.
The toothy maw of a portcullis that could spring shut like a steel trap seemed to welcome the carefree farmers like a dragon’s maw.
Cai Gen gave an appreciative chuckle, coins exchanging with a clasped handshake before the guard stepped back once more. “Thank you for the tip, Shi Hong. Anything interesting happening in the city we should know about?”
The guard rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Most of the warehouses are full up, though a couple more should be opening on the expanded harbor next year. The stables you prefer have gone up a bit in rental costs, but since almost all the inns are now perpetually full, the stablemaster will let you all sleep with your wagons as part of the fee increase, though he’ll kick you out if you make a muck of his outhouse like the last band of drunken fools.”
The farmer nodded. “A useful tip. I didn’t realize things had become that crowded. Good for commerce, at least.”
The guard nodded. “Our master knows better than to cut down the forest for expansion, so he actually hired some architects and cultivators from Baidushi. We might see buildings rising well above the city walls in a generation or two. Can you believe it?”
Cai Gen chuckled softly, gazing at the thirty-foot-high city walls comprised entirely, it seemed, of quarried stone. “That I can, my friend. That I can.”
The guard favored Alex with a curious eye before turning back to Cai Gen. “I don’t see too many Ruidians wearing legionnaire armor as opposed to a proper changshan or the tunics and pants most of his kind favor. Did you hire a gem master for your trip?”
Silver Fox & The Western Hero: Warrior's Oath: A LitRPG/Wuxia Novel - Book 4 Page 17