Master Qi

The southern part of Xuanwei City held almost all of its artifact-refining shops of any size. The Qi Family Old Shop sat among them, neither near the top nor the bottom, and drew little attention.

The shop's master, Master Qi, was named Qi Buxiu. In his early years, he had come from a declining sect and seemed to have been some sect leader's disciple. Later, the sect had fallen into ruin all the same, and there had been no news of its members or disciples.

He had then married into a Qi Refinement lineage surnamed Wei and learned the craft of artifact refining.

As soon as his cultivator father-in-law died, he divorced the mortal wife who had shared his lean years, reclaimed his original surname, and married a female cultivator surnamed Zhao. Together, they seized the Wei family's property.

With deeds like these to his name, even if a ranking were made among Rogue Cultivators, whose standards were already rock-bottom, Master Qi would be among the very best, leaving the rest in his dust and standing head and shoulders above them.

Afterward, his craft brought him an increasingly comfortable life, and even his Dao Path grew smoother by the day. Eventually, he managed to latch onto a female Foundation Establishment cultivator surnamed Chu, and the two entered into a murky partnership to open this artifact-refining shop.

From then on, he prospered even more. Within a few years, he had actually bought the deed to the land beneath the shop in Xuanwei City. He also maintained two or three earthfire chambers and three or four proper artifact refiners. This one holding alone was worth as much as who knew how many Chongming Sect compounds.

Fortunately, though Master Qi had a bad reputation, his standards were low too.

As long as you gave him two hundred Spirit Stones, he dared take you as an apprentice no matter what kind of monster or demon you were, without the slightest worry that someone poorly trained would go out and ruin his name.

Of course, under such circumstances, the quality of his teaching was easy enough to imagine.

Back then, if Kang Dabao had not exhausted every avenue available to him and found no one to introduce him to another artifact refiner, he would never have entrusted his short, stocky second junior brother to this man.

Luckily, Yuan Jin had good fortune. He had actually managed to learn the craft under such a master, so Kang Dabao's years of scraping by on bran and vegetables to support his apprenticeship had not been in vain.

Of course, no matter how vile Master Qi's character was, he was still the master to whom Yuan Jin had knelt and served tea, the man who had taught him his craft. It was not their place to pass judgment.

Quite the opposite: he counted as an elder to everyone in the Chongming Sect, so they naturally had to take care with their formal gift.

Fortunately, after spending time with Master Qi on several occasions over the years, Kang Dabao was especially familiar with his tastes.

It was simple and straightforward: thirty Spirit Stones, neatly arranged in a gold-trimmed redwood box. That was guaranteed to please the old fellow.

It had to be said that this was no small gift. In a bad year, even an experienced peddler like Kang Dabao could not earn that much in half a year.

In previous years, the gifts Yuan Jin had sent to Master Qi's household for the three annual festivals and the two birthday celebrations had probably come to only about ten Spirit Stones in total.

Even so, he had been considered quite respectful among the apprentices.

From this, one could see just how valuable the gift the Chongming Sect had prepared to thank Master Qi for allowing Yuan Jin to complete his apprenticeship was.

Given Master Qi's character, it was not difficult to arrange a day to present the gift. Yuan Jin returned less than half a shichen after leaving, bringing word that Kang Dabao and his two junior brothers could pay their respects at noon the next day.

By evening, Kang Dabao and Yuan Jin watched with complicated expressions as Jiang Qing left for the Wondrous Cloud Pavilion, his face perfectly calm.

There was not the slightest change of expression on the handsome young man's face. He looked as if he were doing nothing more out of the ordinary than going to a roadside eatery for a bowl of noodles.

"No wonder that brat always complains the allowance I give him isn't enough. How could it possibly be enough when he's always going to that place and spending money on social obligations?"

Kang Dabao felt that the junior brother he had raised with his own hands was no longer clean, and his heart ached for reasons he could not explain.

He hurriedly dismissed Yuan Jin, who still had more to say, and told him to supervise Han Yundao and Duan Anle as they finished their evening lessons. Then he went to cultivate in the bedroom that had been prepared for him.

The minor bottleneck at the Qi Refinement Fourth Layer had held him back for who knew how many years. If he did not work harder, he might really never break through to Late Qi Refinement in this lifetime.

As for the greatest pleasures of the mortal world? He would wait until this busy spell was over to enjoy them. If he worked a little harder, might he not even become a Golden Core ancestor in this lifetime?

At noon the next day, Kang Dabao felt that if the three heads of the Chongming Sect went to see Master Qi in a donkey-drawn cart again, it would cost the sect some of the little dignity it had left. So he had Yuan Jin hire a Cloud-Traveling Beast carriage.

Before long, they arrived at Master Qi's residence, which was far beyond comparison with the little courtyard Yuan Jin rented.

In Xuanwei City, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, Qi Buxiu, as a somewhat renowned artifact refiner, had a residence that occupied a full five mu.

The burly men in black standing guard at the entrance were ten mortal martial grandmasters, lined up in perfect order and equipped with "divine weapons" forged from the scraps left over from artifact refining.

Even an ordinary Low-Level Qi Refinement cultivator with somewhat weaker fighting skills could not be sure of defeating such men if he ran into them alone.

If they were willing to return to certain prefectures and counties, it would be no difficult thing for them to become local tyrants in the countryside, bullying men and preying on women.

Yet now they were used only to guard the gate. Master Qi really did put on quite a show.

Kang Dabao tipped the Qi Household's mortal attendant who had come to guide them two Spirit Stone fragments. Beaming like a chrysanthemum, the man accepted their calling card and bowed as he led the three brothers through the thirty-foot-high vermilion gates. The sight that met them beyond was even more remarkable.

Huge blocks of bluestone, lightly refined with spirit fire, had been fitted seamlessly together to form the towering courtyard walls. Restrictions covered them, and spirit patterns flashed and traveled along the walls from time to time. At a glance, they were clearly not to be trifled with.

Even with Kang Dabao's limited knowledge, he could vaguely make out several formations laid out in the courtyard, to say nothing of those he could not recognize.

Among them, guards made up of cultivators patrolled the grounds, leading fierce birds and savage beasts. Every one of them was at least at Middle Qi Refinement, and their leader had even reached Late Qi Refinement.

Compared with all this, the carved beams and painted rafters, the ornamental hills and flowing water, hardly seemed worth mentioning.

Beyond the front courtyard was a magnificent reception hall. Even the imperial throne hall Kang Dabao had seen in his previous life could not match such splendor. The floor was made of solid gold! How many down payments would that be worth?!

Master Qi was quite capable, but presumably a minor Qi Refinement cultivator like him could not have afforded to live in such a lavish residence. In the end, his skill at artifact refining was nowhere near as formidable as his skill at coaxing women.

Master Qi and his second son, Qi Duoluo, rose to greet them with smiles. Father and son looked as though they had been carved from the same mold, both with sinister features that made them look like anything but good men.

"My two worthy nephews, it has been a long time. Worthy nephew Kang has even taken another step along the Great Dao. What happy news, congratulations! Duoluo, quickly, serve your two elder brothers some fine tea."

Master Qi accepted the gift box and secretly swept it with his spiritual sense. The smile on his face grew broader still. He was almost as pleased with Yuan Jin as he could possibly be.

The boy was honest, quick-witted, and efficient at his work, and his family was so willing to spend money on him. Where else could he find an apprentice like that?

"You flatter me, Master Qi. My younger brother has a wayward disposition. Whatever he has accomplished today is entirely thanks to Master Qi's generous instruction over the years. As the unworthy sect leader of the Chongming Sect, I naturally had to come in person to express my thanks."

Kang Dabao spoke with a serious expression. Today he wore the sect leader's Daoist robes he seldom put on, and as he spoke, he looked dignified, open, and radiant, utterly unlike his usual mercenary self.

"Sect Leader He certainly raised a fine disciple." Qi Buxiu's eyes narrowed with his smile as he listened to Kang Dabao. Beneath the polite words was a measure of genuine praise.

In his decades of cultivation, he had seen who knew how many small sects decline into wretched states through infighting after their leaders died. Quite a few had been better established than the Chongming Sect, but there were few like Kang Dabao who could keep a sect standing.

The Chongming Sect might seem little different from fifteen years ago, still just three kittens.

But Jiang Qing had good aptitude and was a sword cultivator. Rarer still, he most likely had a real prospect of reaching Foundation Establishment. One day, he might become one of the exceptional figures rarely seen in Cloud Horn Prefecture.

His own apprentice had considerable talent in artifact refining. To be honest, all Yuan Jin lacked now was a little experience.

Apart from the few skills he kept at the bottom of the chest and could not bear to bring out, Qi Buxiu had nothing more to teach him.

Given time, Yuan Jin's skill would certainly surpass his own.

It was a pity he could squeeze only another two years of work out of him. After that, he could only watch helplessly as Yuan Jin became the Chongming Sect's money tree.

Apart from the founding ancestor's generation, when had the Chongming Sect ever had an artifact refiner?

Then there was Kang Dabao. A sect leader of sorts, he was willing to swallow his pride and travel the surrounding market towns like a peddler to earn money. Unlike most wastrel heirs, he had not sold off the sect's foundations to get by.

Then again, the Chongming Sect did not seem to have had much left to sell at the time.

What was rarest of all, though, was his clear head.

When their sects fell into decline, how many sect leaders liked to recruit supposedly "reliable" and "clean" Rogue Cultivators as Attendants to bolster their standing, only to have a flock of outsiders take over the nest and strip it bare?

Kang Dabao, however, never did such a thing.

He was willing to let his own cultivation fall behind, yet spared no effort supporting his two junior brothers in their cultivation and training. As a result, the Chongming Sect remained clean and untainted, with elder brothers caring for their juniors and juniors respecting their elders.

Qi Buxiu had heard that Kang Dabao had been among the people caught in the attack on the Jiang Household Trading Company a few years ago, yet had actually come back with every hair intact. He probably had some real skills of his own.

Perhaps the Chongming Sect really could flourish again under him and become one of the foremost Foundation Establishment sects in the surrounding area once more.

All in all, given time, the previous Chongming Sect leader's three disciples would probably all amount to something.

At that thought, Qi Buxiu turned to look at his own second son, and anger came surging up from nowhere.

I've had eighty-three sons and daughters in my life, and the only one with a Spirit Root has spent all these years learning nothing but kidnapping and pimping. This wealth and standing will be hard to hold on to.

Then he thought of how he had been "involved" with that senior for years, yet they still had no children.

Given her perverse temper, he could still coax her while he was alive, but if he were gone, which member of the Qi Household would be able to get a word in with her?

After he died, if she paid no heed to their old affection and found herself a better man, would the property he had spent most of his life amassing while enduring every kind of abuse end up in the newcomer's hands?

Would the hundreds of people in the Qi Household still have anything to eat then?

No, I need to start making arrangements for a way out. Otherwise, once I'm buried, I might not even receive incense and food offerings from my descendants. Qi Buxiu looked at Yuan Jin thoughtfully, a plan forming in his mind.

Once host and guests were seated, they exchanged a few stretches of idle talk, nothing more than Qi Buxiu praising the Chongming Sect for the affection and respect between its brothers, and Kang Dabao lauding Qi Buxiu's lofty virtue and the blessings it bestowed on his descendants.

The host asked them to stay for a meal, and the guests deferred to his wishes. After another round of cheerful talk and laughter at the table, both sides had finished their respective formalities, and Kang Dabao took his two junior brothers and bade their hosts farewell.

"Second brother, I think you and your junior brother Yuan might do well to spend more time together."

Haha, thanks to @米汤大哥老哥 for following the story and for the valuable feedback.