Most of the people who could open shops in the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion were no ordinary folk.
According to the Demon Subduing Bureau's regulations, only those who had reached the sixth rank or higher in a particular Path could apply for a shop in the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion.
In other words, if you wanted to open a pill shop, you had to be at least sixth rank in the Medical Path.
If you wanted to open a shop selling weapons and armor, you had to be at least sixth rank in the Artifact Forging Path.
The same went for puppet shopkeepers. Among the three thousand Great Paths, the Puppet Path was not actually all that obscure.
When working the fields or transporting goods, ordinary people often used Wooden Oxen and Flowing Horses to lend a hand. These things were made by puppeteers.
The Puppet Path was, in fact, a relatively new Great Path. It had originated from the Carpenter Path.
Later generations had struck out in a new direction, devoting themselves to the field of puppetry. In just over three hundred years, they had established it as a new discipline, laying the foundations for a style and tradition of its own.
Thus, the Puppet Path had completely broken free of the Carpenter Path, at last developing its own schools and methods of cultivation.
Puppeteers in the past had needed to use iron wires, copper threads, and similar materials as conduits to control their puppets. But these days, the ways of controlling puppets had become varied and endless.
As a result, many puppets were sold as goods and found their way among the common people, becoming helpers in their daily labor.
After wandering around the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion, Ning Xiu finally spotted a puppet shop that was exceptionally quiet.
When he entered, no shop assistant came over to greet him. Instead, a woman sitting behind the counter was busy with something or other.
She did not even raise her head, much less spare him a glance.
Curious, Ning Xiu immediately went closer, intending to see what she was tinkering with.
The woman looked mature, perhaps twenty-six or twenty-seven. Her hair was loosely tied into a braid that rested over her shoulder.
Looking down at her, Ning Xiu saw her high nose bridge and cool, clear eyes. Every feature was exquisitely shaped; she was a naturally aloof beauty.
She kept changing tools as she worked on a wooden figurine about three feet tall on the table. Slowly, without any obvious trick, the little wooden figure began dancing on its own.
The woman smiled, pleased. Even making such an unremarkable little thing brought her genuine joy.
So this must be the spirit of a craftsman, Ning Xiu thought, quietly impressed.
Seeing that she had stopped working, apparently finished, Ning Xiu finally asked, "Are you the shopkeeper here?"
The woman looked up at him and nodded. "I am. My name is Nie Ying. What would you like to buy?"
"Here's the thing. I'd like you to make me a puppet based on my Weng Jin Hammer, one that can store the hammer inside its body. It needs to be durable, move quickly, be easy to control, and look lifelike."
Ning Xiu raised the Startling Thunder Hammer in his hand, then explained his requirements for the custom puppet.
Nie Ying remained expressionless, showing no surprise at all. After listening to Ning Xiu's request, she fetched a soft measuring tape and came out from behind the counter.
She began professionally measuring every dimension of Ning Xiu's Startling Thunder Hammer.
"How heavy is your weapon?"
"Exactly three hundred and twenty jin."
After measuring the Startling Thunder Hammer from every angle, Nie Ying put away the tape and asked, "Custom puppets aren't especially difficult to make, and they're usually not very expensive. But two of your requirements call for custom materials, which will have to be costly if the puppet is to be durable and move quickly. Can you accept that?"
Ning Xiu asked, "Roughly how many taels of silver would it cost?"
"To be conservative, at least one hundred taels of gold." Nie Ying considered it, then held up three slender fingers.
At her quote, Ning Xiu nearly choked on the spot.
When Huang You bought this Startling Thunder Hammer, it had cost only four thousand taels of silver.
Under Great Shang's exchange system, one tael of gold was worth ten taels of silver.
He had only wanted a scabbard for his Startling Thunder Hammer, yet he would have to spend another thousand. Money really was easy to make.
"Shopkeeper, is there anything special about a thousand-tael puppet? Could you tell me about it so I can understand?"
"Of course. When I make puppets for others, most are made of wood. It's cheap, lightweight, and durable. The people who buy them mainly use them to move cargo and carry goods.
"If you put those puppets into a fight against Evil Spirits or other people, they'd usually shatter at the slightest touch. So when we puppeteers make combat puppets, we generally use iron, bronze, and other mineral materials.
"But those materials have a drawback: the puppets don't move very quickly. If you're in a hurry to travel, they might even slow you down.
"To address this, we puppeteers have come up with many solutions. The main one is to use special materials that are both lightweight and hard when making the puppets.
"But good things usually have one drawback: they're expensive. If you want a puppet that's both durable and fast, there's no getting around spending more.
"The special materials most often used are Silver Radiance Meteor Iron from Nanjiang Province and Heavenly Vine Dragon Wood from Daliang Province. They fear neither fire nor water, and can withstand force of around three thousand jin.
"They're both excellent materials—lightweight and hard—but the price speaks for itself. They're both very expensive."
Nie Ying's explanation was extremely thorough. Ning Xiu now understood perfectly why this custom puppet was worth a thousand taels.
After hearing her out, Ning Xiu couldn't help feeling tempted. If it was as she said, it would be a perfect container for storing the Startling Thunder Hammer.
But Ning Xiu had only just joined the Demon Subduing Bureau, and his pockets were a little light.
The only money he had was the three hundred taels in banknotes he had found on the Three-Faced Demon.
Thinking of that, Ning Xiu asked, "Shopkeeper, could I pay you a three-hundred-tael deposit first, then give you the remaining seven hundred taels once the puppet is finished?"
Nie Ying waved her hand. "No problem. I'll get started on it, then."
"Sorry for the trouble." Ning Xiu nodded. After discussing his preferences for the puppet's appearance in more detail with Nie Ying, he left the shop.
Besides the three hundred taels in banknotes, he had also found two bottles of unknown pills and three skull-shaped flying darts on the Three-Faced Demon.
Ning Xiu had been meaning to sell all these things, but he hadn't had a chance.
Now that he finally had some free time and was in a place of trade like the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion, he naturally wasn't going to miss the opportunity.
Demon Subduing Captains often went out to investigate cases. Besides encountering Evil Spirits, they also frequently discovered Demon People and fought them.
Anything they scavenged from Demon People, they either used themselves if they could, or took to the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion to sell for silver.
Ning Xiu decided to sell the pills first, so he went into a pill shop on the same street.
The business there was much livelier than at Nie Ying's puppet shop. A pleasant fragrance of spices filled the shop, making people want to take several more sniffs.
"Sorry to trouble you. Could you take a look at these two bottles of pills for me?" Ning Xiu said, setting the pills he had brought with him on the counter.
The alchemist, who had a goatee, took them from him and pulled out the stoppers. After giving them a gentle sniff, a look of surprise immediately appeared on his face.
"Dragon Tiger Potency Pills! And they're rare, top-quality ones, too. One pill can take you from night to day. One moment you see the sun set in the evening, the next you see dawn break. You won't feel the slightest bit tired, and you'll only grow more vigorous and powerful as you go!"
The alchemist gave a thumbs-up and asked, "Little brother, these are really high quality. I wonder where you got them. Could you give me the address?"
His words were a little roundabout, but Ning Xiu understood what he meant.
He'd thought the bottles contained something impressive, but it turned out they were nothing decent at all.
He never would have guessed that Demon People were into this sort of thing, too.
Ning Xiu could only ask, "I came by these two bottles by chance, and I don't know who the alchemist was. Will you buy them?"
"Buy them? Of course! It's rare to come across Dragon Tiger Potency Pills of such high quality. I definitely want them. How about this: I'll give you one hundred taels of silver for both bottles."
Ning Xiu looked at him with a faint, knowing smile but said nothing.
He didn't know the market value of Dragon Tiger Potency Pills, but when he'd gone drinking at Spring Full Pavilion with Lu Hao and the others, Lu Hao had mentioned the things used by princes and nobles. They could extend a man's vigor by an hour or two, and a bottle usually cost more than fifty taels.
If pills that lasted an hour or two sold for more than fifty taels, then these "one moment you see the sun set in the evening, the next you see dawn break" pills—contraband that defied the body's natural workings—couldn't possibly be worth only a hundred taels for two bottles.
How much of a kickback was this fellow trying to pocket? What a crook. An outright crook.
"Come on, tell me the truth. If you tell me the truth, we can still do business."
Ning Xiu patted his chest, then raised a finger. "I have a friend who goes all the way. He used to be a regular at Spring Full Pavilion and ate these like candy every day. I've helped him buy them several times, so I know the prices inside out. Don't see that I'm new around here and try to take me for a ride."
"This..." The alchemist hesitated.
Seeing that, Ning Xiu grabbed the two bottles and turned to leave, completely unruffled. In a city as huge as Chaotian Capital, surely he could find somewhere else to sell Dragon Tiger Potency Pills.
"Three hundred taels a bottle! I'll give you that!" The alchemist panicked and hurriedly called out.
That price was about what Ning Xiu had expected. He figured they probably wouldn't go for much more, so he turned around and put the bottles back on the counter. "Now that's more like it. You're a straightforward fellow. If I get anything similar again, I'll bring it here to sell."
After taking six hundred taels in banknotes from the alchemist, Ning Xiu hefted his Startling Thunder Hammer and left the pill shop.
Now the only things he had left to deal with were the three skull-shaped flying darts. He figured he could sell them for a bit of money, enough to cover the seven-hundred-tael balance for the custom puppet.
After Ning Xiu left, the alchemist took the Dragon Tiger Potency Pills out of one of the bottles and counted them. There were seven pills in all.
The alchemist immediately grinned with delight. "At this quality, I can easily sell them to those princes and nobles for fifty taels apiece if I find the right channels. Once I've sold everything in both bottles, I'll still make a tidy profit."
Before you continue