Carrot and Stick

Shen Yue, Changqin Wuming, and the other island guards stood aboard a small boat. The water of Refining Lake was perfectly still, eerily quiet.

Above them, Chen Tong hovered in midair, his robes stirring despite the absence of wind.

The pressure of a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator descended slowly, like an invisible mountain.

First, a gentle breeze brushed across the water, sending ripples outward.

Then the wind abruptly intensified. The boat lurched downward, and water sloshed over its sides, soaking everyone's shoes.

"Listen up. Starting today..."

Chen Tong wore a teasing smile as he prepared to announce the new rules he'd devised for waste-material recovery. But just as the words reached his lips, he stopped.

Although these people were ants, they were also pawns. Oppression was all well and good, but it wouldn't truly show how formidable I am.

His gaze shifted, and he continued his announcement:

"Effective immediately, there will be no minimum quota or upper limit for waste-material recovery. The system will change from the old one to one where you reap what you sow. There will be no cap on how much you can earn."

The moment he said this, all of Refining Lake erupted.

"Reap what you sow! No cap!"

Before, exceeding the quota only earned a fixed bonus, and there was a limit, so most island guards had simply gone through the motions.

But the new rules were different. As long as they worked hard, they could earn far more spirit stones!

Everyone was delighted, thinking the new steward was much better than Chen Qiaoqian.

"Thank you, Steward!"

"The Steward is wise beyond compare!"

"..."

Chen Tong looked at the crowd's excitement with satisfaction, though inwardly he sneered.

As expected, they were a bunch of yokels. Give them a few scraps of kindness, and they'd be grateful beyond measure.

But the saying went, "Benevolence and might in equal measure." He'd shown them benevolence; now it was time for might.

"Chen Qiaoqian seems to favor someone called Shen Yue. Where is he... There he is."

Chen Tong swept the area with his spiritual sense, locking onto Shen Yue's location.

"Fourth level of Qi Refining?"

He'd assumed that the person Chen Qiaoqian favored would be at least a sixth-level Qi Refining cultivator. He hadn't expected him to be nothing more than a promising seedling.

"He's too weak. Making an example of him won't have much effect."

Chen Tong spread his spiritual sense again, searching for someone to use as a warning.

"Sixth level of Qi Refining. Not bad. You'll do."

He flashed away, heading straight for Li Sheng on Clear-Turbid Island.

The streak of light vanished into the distance, and only then did the pressure weighing down on them dissipate.

"There's still a gap between me and a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator."

Shen Yue felt uneasy.

Although he was already at the fourth level of Qi Refining and had also cultivated to the second level of Breath Cultivation and developed his spiritual sense, his overall strength should surpass that of Zhou Chongwen, who was at the sixth level of Qi Refining. Still, he was nowhere near a late-stage cultivator from a cultivation clan like Chen Tong.

"Reap what you sow... This man's no pushover. But General Shen, I'll say it again: don't stick your neck out. Let someone else test these new rules first."

Changqin Wuming gave him a few words of advice and left. Shen Yue piloted the boat, filled it with waste materials, then returned to his small courtyard to sort them.

At present, recovering waste materials was no challenge for him. In five days, he could finish what used to be a month's worth of work.

As for the surplus, he naturally had no intention of handing it over.

He needed it for his own crafting, and to unlock the golden pages of the Nine Heavens Profound Mirror as well.

After setting up an isolation talisman, he took out the Green Fire Cauldron and hauled over a basket of waste materials. At last, he began crafting in earnest.

Blue flames burst from the cauldron's belly, licking its walls as heat surged toward him.

"First, I'll refine my control over the fire..."

When he immersed himself in a task, time always flew by.

By the time Shen Yue stepped out of his room, it was already dawn the next day.

"Team Leader Li and Lu Yi from Firewood Island both fell victim to Chen Tong. Two other fifth-level Qi Refining cultivators were beaten half to death and thrown out of the market."

Changqin Wuming stood at the bow, gravely telling Shen Yue how Chen Tong had used people to establish his authority.

"Benevolence and might in equal measure... Things won't be easy from now on."

Changqin Wuming found himself missing the days when Chen Qiaoqian had barely bothered to manage anything.

Most of the island guards at Refining Lake felt the same way.

The new rules were good, but the new steward, Chen Tong, was clearly no pushover.

Still, some people thought the arrangement was promising. Under a new steward and new rules, they had a better chance to distinguish themselves.

Chen Tong naturally saw everyone's reactions. That was exactly the effect he wanted.

"With my great talents, I'll surely reach Foundation Establishment one day, win the Ancestor's favor, become a pillar of the clan and the Chen Clan's public face—and perhaps even reach the Core Formation stage!"

Under the new rules, some island guards charged ahead with all their might, while others kept a low profile.

Aside from his daily recovery work, Shen Yue steadily cultivated and practiced crafting.

"I'm about to break through to the fifth level of Qi Refining. Then I'll be able to take you to Clear-Turbid Island, General Shen. As for crafting, you should give it up. Neither of us has the talent for it," Changqin Wuming advised.

"Congratulations, Your Highness." Shen Yue didn't bother to explain.

Changqin Wuming tried to talk him out of it again before finally leaving.

When Shen Yue returned to his quarters, a graceful figure suddenly appeared.

"Why have you come?" Changqin Wuming asked, surprised, as he looked at Changqin Wuxuan.

His imperial younger sister was exceptionally gifted and had long since become a crafting master. Usually, he was the one who went to see her; she rarely visited his humble courtyard.

"Is Shen Yue learning crafting?" Changqin Wuxuan wore a white dress, her dark hair falling behind her shoulders. Her nose was high-bridged, almost severe.

"Yes. He's about to succeed."

"Succeed?" Changqin Wuxuan gave a cold laugh, tossed him a bottle of pills, and left.

She was gifted at crafting, yet even she had suffered countless hardships to get where she was.

A waste-material collector at Refining Lake, with no resources and no inheritance, wanted to learn crafting?

If it were that easy, everyone would be a crafting master.

Still, it had little to do with her. She'd only asked in passing.

If Changqin Wuming hadn't gone to visit her in a while and made her worry something had happened, she wouldn't have come at all.

Time flew like an arrow, and the sun and moon raced by.

Two months passed under the new rules, and Shen Yue spent those two months crafting.

"Careful material selection, precise proportions, pure smelting, steady shaping, hard tempering, tough retempering, and flowing inscription patterns..."

He hammered a glowing-red blade, murmuring to himself.

The Heavenly Cauldron True Fire Hundred Refinement Scripture divided basic crafting into seven major steps. He had now reached the final one: inscribing the patterns.

But the instructions in the jade slip for this step had him stumped.

"Inscribing patterns..."

During this time, Shen Yue had asked around about the crafting methods used by the Chen Clan's crafters. The earlier steps were much the same, but their final method of completing a weapon was "infusing it with spirit," not "inscribing patterns."

What did it mean to inscribe patterns?

According to the Heavenly Cauldron True Fire Hundred Refinement Scripture, carving an array into a spiritual weapon was called inscribing patterns.

"Arrays..."

Shen Yue looked at the hundreds or thousands of interconnected points, lines, and planes in the jade slip. They might as well have been a heavenly text.

He didn't know the first thing about arrays.

"So, if I want to craft a true spiritual weapon, I have to learn arrays too?"

If crafting was materials engineering and thermodynamics, arrays were higher mathematics. The threshold was just as high.

"Learn it sooner or later; either way, I'll have to learn it."

With the Nine Heavens Profound Mirror, Shen Yue had already planned to master all four great cultivation arts: alchemy, crafting, arrays, and talismans.

"Brother Zhou seems to know an array master..."

Half a day later.

"You want to learn arrays?" Zhou Chongwen asked, feigning surprise.

He'd expected Shen Yue's crafting efforts not to last, but he hadn't expected that even after failing at crafting, Shen Yue would still dare to try his hand at arrays, which had just as high a barrier to entry.

Martial arts for mortals... crafting... arrays... He was straying further and further down the wrong path.

But wasn't that how everyone started?

He sighed inwardly, then said, "I do know an array master. He's at the Mystic Array Pavilion on the market's East Street. If you want to learn, just go there and give them my name."

"Thank you, Brother Zhou."

The next morning, Shen Yue arrived at the Mystic Array Pavilion early.

The sign above the entrance was old, its paint mottled, but the brushstrokes were sharp as knife cuts.

He went inside. The front hall wasn't large, and array diagrams covered all four walls. A long table stood in the center, set with jade, array flags, jade tallies, and other items.

Shen Yue looked around but saw no one. He was about to speak when he heard a curtain part, and a small face peeked through.

It was a girl just over ten years old, with delicate features, though she looked as if she'd just woken up.

"Who are you looking for?" she asked.

Shen Yue cupped his hands in greeting. "I'm Shen Yue. Senior Zhou Chongwen recommended me. I've come to pay my respects to the master of the Mystic Array Pavilion and seek instruction in the art of arrays."

"Master's not here. He went to deal with the demons," the girl said, rubbing her eyes.

"Demons?"

Shen Yue's brow twitched. Could demonic cultivators have invaded the market?