Chương 96: 95. Farming the Rival Sect for XP

Shen Qiao considers the attack a success. He reaches this conclusion before Jun finishes submitting the final expense record.

"The delivery was completed, the customer paid in full, and Stone River exposed its position without causing any meaningful loss," he says.

"Their disciples also initiated the confrontation in front of two mortal witnesses." He sits behind the long table in the newly expanded Finance Hall, surrounded by ledgers, contract slips, and several stacks of correspondence that have appeared faster than the shelves meant to contain them. I remain across from him.

"All three injuries were minor, and the medicine required to treat them cost less than the fee Stone River demanded." He taps the delivery record.

"One of the laborers has family in Greenstone. The other has worked with three separate grain merchants. By tomorrow, more people will know that Stone River attempted to stop us and failed."

"You believe we should continue?"

"I believe stopping would surrender everything gained from the first delivery." He says it without aggression. To Shen Qiao, the conclusion is as ordinary as adding two columns. If we withdraw from the area now, Stone River will learn that a single clash is enough to make us cautious. Customers beyond Greenstone will learn the same thing. The victory on the road will become an unusual incident rather than proof that Coiling Dragon can reliably fulfill its contracts.

With my approval, Shen Qiao begins scheduling more deliveries. He does not send them all through the same road, nor does he choose only businesses already connected to Stone River. Some contracts involve preserved meat and salt. Others carry pressure cookers, medicinal supplies, tools, or small shipments of grain acquired through his expanding barter arrangements. What they share is distance: Each order travels far enough beyond Greenstone that Stone River may decide it falls under their protection.

Each gives them another opportunity to interfere, collect a fee, threaten a customer, or attempt to force Coiling Dragon away. I treat it as training. Wei Chen, Mei Lin, and Jun no longer work as a squad together. Their first victory proved that the three could function as a unit. Keeping them together would only preserve that one formation. Instead, each takes responsibility for younger disciples and workers on different routes. Jun leads two teams during the following week.

He assigns positions, chooses rest points, and makes the final decisions whenever the road becomes uncertain. Mei Lin escorts another group through the western villages, where she is responsible for protecting the wagon while teaching two younger disciples how to respond without waiting for her to solve every problem. Wei Chen takes the most physically demanding routes and discovers that leadership involves more than standing at the front and inviting people to strike him.

The first time one of the younger disciples broke formation to chase a retreating bandit, Wei Chen apparently dragged him back by the collar and lectured him for nearly half an hour. I choose not to point out how ironic the speech sounds during his report. Between deliveries, Ling'er trains them. Her definition of victory is generous only by her standards.

If three disciples manage to trap her against one of her own walls, force her to abandon a favorable corridor, or make her defend twice in succession, she declares that they have succeeded. The first group to manage it receives the ' Ling'er-sized' portions at dinner, which she redeems using her contribution points on behalf of the winning group. This improves morale more effectively than any speech I could have given.

It also creates fierce competition over who can survive Ling'er's training long enough to earn another bowl. The disciples learn to scale the earthen walls instead of stopping before them. They practice planting one foot against the surface and throwing themselves over the top before the structure finishes settling. Some learn to leap from one wall to another, using the terrain meant to restrict them as a path above the battlefield.

They pressure Ling'er the moment her foot touches the ground, forcing her to defend before she can shape the terrain. They stop treating each raised wall as a threat that must be examined and begin responding to the cultivator creating it. There are injuries, but medicine and salves are distributed immediately. No one is left to recover alone, and Ling'er reduces the force of any technique that would cause lasting harm. She does not reduce it enough to make the lessons pleasant.

By the end of the week, the disciples move differently. They no longer freeze when unfamiliar terrain rises around them. Younger cultivators follow shouted commands without first checking whether the order makes sense. Teams adjust when their strongest member is isolated. Disciples who previously relied on one practiced formation become capable of exchanging positions as the battlefield changes. Stone River's advantage in cultivation has not disappeared.

The gap simply matters less when three opponents act together and theirs do not. The deliveries continue. Stone River interferes twice more. The first group demands payment but withdraws after Coiling Dragon's escort refuses and several villagers begin watching from nearby fields. The second attempts to block a narrow crossing, only to find that Mei Lin's team has already left the road and guided the wagon through a shallow stretch beside it. Neither confrontation becomes another full battle.

Every attempt to discourage us makes the next team more prepared. Every obstruction gives Shen Qiao another account to share with merchants already unhappy with Stone River's fees. What they intend as pressure becomes proof that Coiling Dragon is willing to return. The message is simple.

'We are not leaving because you told us to.' I do not send Ling'er. The thought occurs to me more than once. A single appearance would likely end the road disputes immediately. Stone River could send every outer disciple and elder they have and the result would remain the same. That is precisely why she stays. A sect cannot call itself self-reliant if every local dispute is solved by releasing the hidden monster living on its mountain. Ling'er accepts the decision without complaint. She has enough to occupy her.

When she is not training the disciples, she continues refining the strange state of qi she calls beyond liquid. According to her, the process is progressing steadily. I have learned that Ling'er's definition of 'steadily' may include developments that would cause an elder from a major sect to abandon cultivation and become a hermit. I leave her to it. She has also begun spending more time with the formation manuals and alchemical texts in the library.

"Our formations are too simple," she tells me.

"And we depend on outside alchemists for too much medicine." Both observations are correct. The sect's growth has exposed the weakness more clearly. More disciples mean more injuries, more pills, more storage formations, more defensive arrays, and more demand for people capable of maintaining all of them. Ling'er calls it the current bottleneck. I give her permission to leave the sect temporarily and visit the larger cities nearby, provided she tells me where she is going before disappearing.

She agrees with suspicious ease. Several days later, she departs with a bag of spirit stones, a list of formation texts, and my storage ring to purchase whatever manuals she considers useful. One week after the first delivery, Wei Zheng completes the weapons. The three disciples arrive before I do. Mei Lin stands nearest the central workbench, her attention fixed on three wrapped objects laid across its surface. Jun remains a step behind her.

Wei Chen has positioned himself close enough that Wei Zheng repeatedly looks toward his hands.

"Touch one before I finish speaking," the craftsman says, "and I will give yours to someone else." Wei Chen moves both hands behind his back. Shen Qiao sourced the materials. The steel is of a higher quality than anything our disciples currently carry. Spirit-treated hardwood forms the grips. The fittings contain small quantities of refined metal chosen for balance rather than decoration. Wei Zheng removes the first cloth. Mei Lin's sword is narrow and slightly longer than her current weapon.

Its profile tapers cleanly toward the point, while the balance rests farther forward along the blade.

"It will carry momentum through continuous movement," Wei Zheng explains.

"Your technique loses efficiency whenever you stop the sword and begin again. This is balanced to help one motion flow into the next." Water Reflecting Blade - Grade: Medium Type: Weapon (Sword) Effect: Its forward balance and narrow profile preserve momentum through linked cuts, reducing the effort required to redirect the blade during continuous sword forms. When used by a cultivator accustomed to flowing movements, qi infusion spreads smoothly along the edge and remains stable through rapid changes in direction.

Verdict: Forged from high-quality spirit-treated steel and balanced specifically for Mei Lin's technique. The thinner blade favors speed, redirection, and sustained combinations over forceful collisions. A refined weapon created for a developing style rather than an accomplished swordsman. Mei Lin accepts it with both hands. She tests the weight carefully, allowing the blade to describe a slow arc before redirecting it into a second cut. The transition is smoother than it was with her old sword.

The forward balance draws the weapon through the motion without forcing her wrist to create all the momentum. Wei Zheng unwraps Jun's next. His blade appears simpler. Straight, narrow, and built around a diamond-shaped cross-section, it possesses a rigid point and little unnecessary width. Seeking Edge Sword - Grade: Medium Type: Weapon (Sword) Effect: Its rigid diamond cross-section concentrates force toward the point and resists lateral bending during qi-infused thrusts.

Precise attacks require less correction after contact, allowing the wielder to exploit narrow openings without committing to a prolonged exchange. Verdict: A restrained and carefully balanced thrusting sword suited to Jun's preference for timing, mobility, and decisive intervention. It sacrifices cutting breadth and defensive weight to improve structural stability and accuracy. Jun draws the weapon only far enough to examine the point and the four planes running back from it.

Its construction favors precise thrusts and short interventions rather than wide cuts. He bows to Wei Zheng with more seriousness than Wei Chen has displayed all morning. The final cloth comes away. Wei Chen's weapon is shorter than the sword he currently carries. The blade is broad without becoming clumsy, its spine reinforced from the base through most of its length. A heavy pommel balances the additional metal and gives him another striking surface at close range. Nothing about it is delicate.

Mountain Breaking Blade - Grade: High Type: Weapon (Sword) Effect: The reinforced spine withstands unusually forceful qi infusion and allows the wielder to channel power into heavy strikes without destabilizing the blade. Its shortened reach improves control at close distance, while the weighted pommel supports abrupt changes between cutting, striking, and bodily techniques. When wielded by Wei Chen, the weapon tolerates the excessive force and imperfect transitions that would gradually damage an ordinary sword.

Verdict: Constructed from materials comparable to the other two weapons, but forged with an unusually complete understanding of its intended wielder. The reinforced spine, shorter blade, broad cutting body, and heavy pommel transform Wei Chen's crude habits into a coherent close-range style. Its quality exceeds what the materials alone should permit. Wei Chen stares.

"You made it shorter."

"You repeatedly allow opponents inside the useful range of your sword so you can throw a punch," Wei Zheng says.

"A longer blade only gives them more leverage against you." His eyes fall back to the weapon. He reaches for it, and the grip settles naturally into his hand. When he raises the blade, the heavier pommel prevents the reinforced front from dragging his wrist down. He tests a diagonal strike, then stops and drives the pommel backward as though striking someone behind him. Wei Zheng grunts.

"At least you learned something in the workshop." All three weapons are visibly superior to the mismatched swords the disciples carried before. Yet when I read the Gaze's analysis, the difference becomes clearer. I read the final line twice. The materials are comparable. The time spent forging each weapon was similar. Yet Wei Chen's sword is a full grade higher. Wei Chen notices none of this. He is too busy testing how quickly he can reverse the blade and strike with the pommel.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I look toward Wei Zheng. The craftsman's expression is harsher when he watches Wei Chen than when he watches the others, but his attention also lingers longer. He spent days criticizing the boy's stance, correcting his grip, and arguing with him about every habit that could not be removed without rebuilding his entire approach to combat.

'Perhaps that is the answer.' Tool-Heart does not respond only to technical understanding. Wei Zheng knew Mei Lin's movements and Jun's preferences well enough to create excellent weapons for both of them. With Wei Chen, maybe he felt something more; the stubborn desire to make a weapon capable of surviving the person who would use it. The sword is better because the forging meant more to him.

I cannot prove it yet, but if emotion deepens the connection between Wei Zheng, the tool, and its intended owner, then restoring Frostbite may require more than recovering his skill. For now, the three disciples have weapons better suited to the people they are becoming. Shen Qiao gives them an opportunity to test that improvement two days later. The next delivery travels closer to Stone River than any of the previous contracts.

Its destination is a small trading post serving three villages east of Greenstone, less than half a day from Stone River's mountain. The order itself is unremarkable: preserved meat, salt, several pressure cookers, and replacement tools requested by the post's owner. The route is not. According to Shen Qiao, Stone River patrols the area frequently enough that direct interference is more likely than previous deliveries. He presents this information with the same tone he might use to describe expected rainfall.

"We have completed enough deliveries along the outer roads that they can no longer rely on warnings," he explains.

"This route passes close enough to their sect that allowing us through without challenge may be interpreted as surrendering influence." The escort consists of Mei Lin, Wei Chen, and Song Li. Song Li is younger than either of them and lacks Jun's experience directing a team, but that is part of the purpose. Mei Lin takes responsibility for the route and the workers. Wei Chen anchors the formation if a fight begins.

Song Li is expected to follow their instructions, protect the wagon, and learn how an experienced team adjusts under pressure. Ling'er is still away acquiring manuals. That fact changes the atmosphere around their departure. No hidden presence follows them through the trees. No impossible cultivator waits beyond ordinary perception, prepared to intervene if the mission turns disastrous. I know it most of all. They gather near the gate shortly after sunrise.

Mei Lin checks the ropes securing the cargo while Song Li repeats the route from memory. Wei Chen tests Mountain Breaking Blade for the fourth time, drawing it halfway before returning it to the sheath. The two senior disciples have recovered from their injuries. Their equipment is sound. They have spent days preparing for Stone River's techniques, and the chance of encountering anyone beyond their ability to escape should be extremely low. Stone River has no reason to send an elder against a delivery wagon.

Its strongest disciples cannot patrol every road. Even if a larger group appears, Mei Lin has instructions to withdraw rather than protect the contract at the cost of lives. The risks are controlled. That does not make them disappear. A beast could wander down from the mountains. A patrol could contain someone stronger than expected. A technique could land badly. One of the laborers could panic and overturn the wagon at the wrong moment.

Every mission contains some small possibility that the people leaving through the gate will not return. Until now, I have understood that as a fact of sect management. Watching the three of them prepare to depart makes it feel less like management and more like a decision I have made on their behalf. Wei Chen notices me watching.

"We'll complete the delivery, Sect Leader. Believe it!" I nod. There is no warning I can give them that they have not already heard. Repeating those warnings now would only tell them that I lack faith.

"Return safely," I say.

"The contract comes after that." Mei Lin bows. Wei Chen and Song Li follow. The wagon leaves through the gates. I watch until the road bends and the last edge of its canvas covering disappears between the trees. The job of a sect leader is apparently to prepare people for danger, send them toward it, and then remain behind pretending that preparation has made waiting easy. For the rest of the morning, I fail to accomplish anything useful.

I inspect the construction near the training hall, I visit the kitchen, I open three reports in my quarters and read the first page of each without retaining a single figure. By noon, I have calculated when the wagon should reach the disputed roads. By mid-afternoon, I begin calculating how long a confrontation might delay them. As evening approaches, I abandon the reports and walk toward the main gate. Faith in one's disciples would be easier if it did not involve so much standing around.

The wagon returns shortly before sunset. It approaches quickly but without the disorder of a retreat. Both horses remain under control. The laborers sit upright on the bench, unharmed. Mei Lin walks at the front with Water Reflecting Blade at her side, while Song Li remains beside the wagon and continues looking back toward Wei Chen. Wei Chen follows behind them carrying a torn piece of brown-and-grey cloth tied around the sheath of Mountain Breaking Blade. His grin tells me the result before anyone speaks.

The workers near the gate begin gathering as the wagon enters. Mei Lin bows once they reach the courtyard.

"The delivery was completed. Stone River intercepted us on the return route."

"How many?"

"Four disciples. Two at the Fifth Stage and two at the Fourth." Her own cultivation matches the stronger pair. Wei Chen's does as well. Song Li remains below all four. I examine them more carefully. There is dirt along Mei Lin's robes and a shallow cut beneath one sleeve. Song Li has developed swelling around his left cheek. Wei Chen appears unharmed except for a split across one knuckle. The injuries are lighter than those from the first confrontation.

"They attempted the same strategy?" I ask.

"A variation of it," Mei Lin says.

"They tried to raise two walls around the wagon while the other pair approached from the front. Song Li pressured the cultivator shaping the rear wall before it settled. Wei Chen crossed over the first and forced the two in front to turn." Song Li looks pleased at being mentioned, though he keeps his expression controlled.

"We didn't allow them to divide us," Wei Chen says.

"The two at our stage tried to engage us directly after their walls failed." His hand settles on Mountain Breaking Blade.

"The new sword worked! I knocked out a disciple's teeth with the pommel." Mei Lin gives him a brief look before continuing the report herself. No one lost control. No blade went somewhere it could not be recalled. The entire confrontation ended before the laborers had time to unhitch the horses. Wei Chen draws Mountain Breaking Blade far enough to reveal the reinforced spine.

"He was at the same stage as me," he says.

"I thought it would be harder."

"That is because you spent the previous week fighting Ling'er," Mei Lin replies.

"Most Fifth Stage cultivators do not move like her." The difference is not merely the new weapons. Ling'er drilled Stone River's habits into them until recognition became instinct. They understand that breaking a formation does not always require overpowering the people inside it. Sometimes one disciple moving at the wrong angle is enough to make the entire arrangement useless. Teamwork has not erased the difference in cultivation. It has made cultivation only one part of the fight. The next reports confirm it.

Jun leads Song Li and another younger disciple through the northern route three days later. Three Stone River disciples attempt to stop them. Jun avoids the strongest opponent entirely, directs his juniors against the edges of the formation, and turns the encounter into a series of brief exchanges that the patrol cannot coordinate. They return with one sprained ankle and another completed contract. Mei Lin escorts two different disciples on the next mission.

When Stone River attempts to seal a bridge with earth walls, her team leaves the road, crosses along the stone supports beneath it, and climbs back onto the far side before the patrol understands where they have gone. Wei Chen's next group does not avoid the confrontation. According to the report, he gives the younger disciples enough room to execute the tactics themselves and intervenes only when one Stone River cultivator attempts to break through toward the wagon.

The patrol retreats after two of its members are disarmed. One report follows another. Victory. Victory. Victory. The word begins appearing so frequently in conversation that I worry the disciples are becoming careless. The caution surrounding the early missions changes first into confidence, then into competition. Deliveries near Stone River territory offer additional contribution points because of the risk. Soon, disciples begin asking Shen Qiao when the next one will become available.

Some volunteer in groups before the contracts are even posted. They compare which patrols they have faced, how many walls they forced Stone River to raise, and whether anyone managed to complete a mission without allowing the wagon to stop. Younger disciples who once dreaded being assigned outside the mountain now argue over who will accompany Jun, Mei Lin, or Wei Chen next. Ling'er's training has done something important beyond teaching them how to fight one sect.

She defeated them so thoroughly and so repeatedly that ordinary opponents have become reassuring. After spending mornings being buried, cornered, thrown across the training yard, and attacked from positions they did not know existed, encountering Stone River disciples on a public road begins to feel manageable. It reminds me of finding the perfect farming area in a game. The enemies are dangerous enough to provide experience, predictable enough to prepare for, and close enough that the rewards justify returning.

Once the pattern becomes familiar, what was originally a threat turns into a resource. The benefits extend beyond training. Each wagon travels with mortal workers, merchants, or representatives of the customer. They watch Coiling Dragon refuse excessive fees. They see our disciples protect cargo without threatening bystanders and complete deliveries after confrontations. The stories travel faster than the wagons. Orders increase.

Several businesses that previously relied on Stone River begin asking whether Coiling Dragon offers regular protection contracts. A group of grain merchants requests escorts for a route Stone River has managed for years. Two villages ask Shen Qiao what it would cost for our disciples to patrol nearby roads during the winter beast migrations. More silver and spirit stones enter the Finance Hall. More importantly, reputation does. Jun brings the clearest report near the end of the second week.

He places a list of names on my desk.

"These merchants have stopped contributing to Stone River's patrol fund," he says.

"Some only suspended payment. Others told the collectors that they would reconsider after the road dispute is settled." I read through the list. None is individually important. Together, they represent a visible weakening of Stone River's authority.

"They believe we can replace them?"

"Some do. Others may only be using us to demand better terms." Jun pauses before adding, "But the repeated defeats matter. People have begun asking why they should pay Stone River for protection from dangers that Stone River's disciples cannot handle themselves." That is the problem with authority built through custom. Once people stop treating it as natural, every payment becomes a question. Stone River notices. Their patrols grow larger. The disciples sent to intercept us become older and more experienced.

So far, everyone has maintained restraint. Stone River's disciples have attacked, but they have not attempted to kill. Ours have won, but they have allowed defeated opponents to retreat. Injuries are treated as the consequence of sect competition rather than debts requiring vengeance. That balance cannot last indefinitely. One disciple will eventually lose control. A sword will enter flesh more deeply than intended.

Someone humiliated by repeated defeat will use a technique meant for killing rather than forcing surrender. Stone River has already lost enough outer-disciple encounters that sending more of the same will only worsen the embarrassment.

'Their next answer may be a peak Qi Condensation disciple. After that comes an elder. The classic trope of escalation.' A commercial rivalry can survive bruises and broken contracts. It may not survive a corpse. I summon Shen Qiao and tell him to pause every delivery likely to cross Stone River territory. He looks up from the schedule.

"We have six pending."

"Delay them. Offer compensation if necessary and continue fulfilling orders through routes outside the disputed area."

"Stone River may interpret the pause as retreat."

"Let them. I intend to resolve this before one of our disciples is killed over preserved meat." That is an outcome even Shen Qiao cannot make profitable. He understands and closes the schedule. I place my hand on my chin, pondering. Local sect custom offers several possibilities. Arbitration requires a neutral power both sides respect, which does not currently exist nearby.

A direct commercial agreement would be ideal, but Stone River has little reason to negotiate while it still believes pressure will force us away. A wager dispute is less peaceful, but more controlled. The rules are recognized throughout the prefecture. Both sides define the matter under dispute, select formal representatives, and submit to witnessed matches. The result becomes a public settlement rather than another roadside confrontation. I spend the evening drafting the letter.

It begins by acknowledging Stone River's history in the region and its years protecting nearby villages and trade routes. I make no claim that their influence is invented. Then I list the contracts they have obstructed, the roads on which their disciples demanded unannounced fees, and the customers pressured after entering agreements with Coiling Dragon. The proposed settlement is simple. Four disciple matches, one sect leader match, held only if the disciple matches do not already determine the majority.

The sect winning the majority receives recognized access to the disputed roads and the right to accept contracts throughout the affected villages without interference. The losing sect ends all obstruction, withdraws its claims to exclusive fees, and publicly acknowledges the settlement before merchants and village representatives. The matches will forbid lethal techniques and continue only until surrender, incapacitation, or intervention by the witnesses. I read the finished letter twice. It is polite.

Respectful, even. It is also an insult carefully arranged in formal language. Coiling Dragon remains ranked well below Stone River for decades. Our sect has fewer disciples, less history, and no established claim over most of these roads. Guo Jian stands three stages above me at the Eighth Stage of Foundation Establishment. Stone River's senior disciples are older and, on paper, superior to ours. They will read the challenge as arrogance, and that is part of the bait.

After losing repeatedly on the roads, refusing formal matches against a weaker sect would look like fear. Accepting allows them to believe they can end the embarrassment in front of witnesses and restore everything through one decisive victory. I send the letter. Stone River's response arrives two days later. Their seal is pressed so deeply into the wax that it nearly breaks through the folded paper. Guo Jian accepts every major condition.

The contest will be held in Greenstone, where merchants, village heads, and representatives from several neighboring sects may attend as neutral witnesses. Each side will submit the names of its disciples before the first match. The sect-leader bout will take place only if required to decide the majority. I sit behind my desk and read that clause again. Only if required. Three disciple victories would end the dispute before either sect leader enters the field. That is possible.

Jun, Mei Lin, and Wei Chen have already defeated stronger opponents. Ling'er has trained the sect specifically against Stone River's methods. Wei Zheng has equipped them with weapons suited to their styles. Everything has proceeded according to plan. Unfortunately, plans become less impressive when they end with the possibility of publicly fighting a Foundation Establishment Eighth Stage sect leader. I place the acceptance letter on the desk.

When I proposed the sect-leader match, it seemed like an effective way to make the challenge impossible to refuse. Now it seems like evidence that confidence and intelligence are not always related. There is still a straightforward solution. Our disciples only need to win three of their matches. I look toward the training yard, where the distant sound of something heavy striking the ground carries across the sect. Three victories against Stone River's strongest disciples.

'We'll be okay. Right?'