Dao of the Deal

Muchen suspected he could be getting in a little over his head. Oh, the basic scenario made sense. Even if Heisan wasn't just some low level servant of the Long family, it would be naive to expect a highly valued servant to remain loyal in the face of disaster—besides, high level cultivators in that kind of situation were often more in the nature of hired guns than truly trusted companions. So the idea that the man wanted to profit by participating in the auction selling off valuables confiscated from the family he served wasn't that far fetched.

What Muchen had a little trouble wrapping his mind around was why the man had approached him to participate in his scheme. As a strong cultivator, he should have his own set of underlings. Well, maybe they had all been swept up in the general wave of arrests.

Muchen also wasn't sure why Heisan felt that this little scam was worth his time. A strong cultivator had many avenues available to earn wealth beyond the dreams of an ordinary merchant like Muchen. To be fair, it wasn't impossible that the Long family would have a treasure or two that was enough to rouse Heisan's greed. And perhaps he couldn't hope to win them at auction without Muchen's help.

In that case, though, Muchen had to wonder just what share of the goods he'd be able to hold onto at the end of their cooperation. Or, for that matter, how likely it was that he would live to enjoy the riches gained by working together.

After all, as far as Heisan knew Muchen was basically an ordinary mortal. The imperial capital had laws, but to a strong enough cultivator getting way with murder was more of a matter of inconvenience than anything else.

Of course, if matters came to that, it was more likely to be Muchen who ended up looting the body of his fallen enemy. He might not be a match for Heisan, but Xinyi was more than capable of taking him down given the opportunity. She might be loathe to take him on inside the capital, but Muchen figured Heisan would go along with it if he suggested they finish up their transaction somewhere with less government supervision.

The more he thought about it, the more that he thought going in together with Heisan was the right move. If he honestly wanted to work together, all well and good. Muchen was happy enough to make money off of inside information. If Heisan insisted on making it a life or death battle, though, Muchen wasn't going to go out of his way to help Heisan get out of things alive.

Not to mention the fact that he didn't have much of a choice. Heisan had decided to reveal himself to Muchen. If they didn't end up working together, would Heisan be content to let Muchen wander the streets of the capital while knowing about his secret? Muchen didn't think it would be a great idea to test his restraint.

At the Thousand Treasures Hall, Muchen went through his usual daily routine of plowing through the records in search of relevant spiritual tools. When he was done he put down a five tael deposit to secure himself a seat at the Long family auction. He wasn't willing to splash out enough money to get a private room, but even an ordinary ticket entitled him to a copy of the pamphlet detailing everything that would be up for auction.

ooOoo

Another morning, another couple dozen happy customers. Muchen was on a first name basis with a few of his regulars, and he was starting to recognize the faces of most of his customers. In an ideal world, the first batch of regulars would form the core of his marketing strategy, as word of mouth brought in a steady flow of new customers.

Things didn't work as quickly here in the Qianzhan Continent as Muchen remembered from back on Earth. There was no social media or review aggregators to get the message out there. Still, he was confident that the basic strategy was sound and would show results eventually. It was too bad that he didn't have enough of a foundation in the capital to stick around until economies of scale turned his whole operation from a loss leader to a cash cow.

Muchen was sadly contemplating the river of silver that was just out of reach as he put away his stall for the day. As expected, the cloaked figure of Heisan picked that moment to reappear.

"Have you had enough time to come to a decision?"

"I'm in," Muchen said. He pulled the auction pamphlet from beneath his robes and set it on the table. "Tell me what to buy."

Heisan kept his eyes on Muchen, only glancing down briefly at the pamphlet to identify it. "You understand what will happen if you try to cheat me?"

Muchen smiled, though he suspected it didn't reach his eyes. "My word is worth more to me than this little bit of silver."

The Qianzhan Continent wasn't the kind of place where you could judge a business partner by his credit score. Personal reputation and trust was as much of a currency as silver coins. Muchen was willing to push the line on such things from time to time—the marketplace could be a battlefield as vicious as any other. However, Muchen was fundamentally a believer in long term planning. He had been, even before he'd been reborn into a world where a lifetime could stretch out for hundreds or thousands of years.

He wasn't going to cash out an asset like his reputation for honesty for anything less than a life-altering haul. Even then, he'd hesitate. When it came to a few dozens of taels, it just wasn't worth it. Of course, if Heisan broke their bargain first, then all bets were off.

Heisan studied him for a moment before giving him a curt nod. He turned his attention to the pamphlet and quickly flipped to the back. That was where the lists of the various miscellaneous lots were tucked away, so as not to sully the eyes of the big spenders who could afford to bid on the big ticket items listed at the front of the pamphlet.

"Here," Heisan said, flipping the pamphlet around to face Muchen. "Lots seventy-five, seventy-seven, and especially lot eighty-one."

Muchen nodded. "How will you be providing your half of the silver?"

"I'll bring it to you after the auction," Heisan said.

Muchen raised an eyebrow. The chances of this whole thing being a murderous scam had just gone up by quite a bit. Although, the fact that Heisan couldn't be bothered to front even a tael of silver in order to bolster his credibility was so outrageous that it almost made him seem more honest.

"And the division of the items?" Muchen said. "Since, as you say, these are lots that contain secret treasures, I can hardly let you pick and choose what to keep."

The auction lots that Heisan had selected were all miscellaneous assortments of jewelry. Nothing in the description made them seem particularly valuable, but then that was the whole point. Muchen didn't expect Heisan to spill the secret of the true treasures lurking within those unassuming lots, but he was curious to see if the man could offer any plan that didn't sound like an obvious prelude to murder.

"We can take turns," Heisan said, "picking one item each."

Muchen didn't reply.

"Once you've got your hands on them and you know there's something special, it won't be hard to figure out what's what," Heisan continued. "We're only getting a chance to buy them up cheap because the Long family had so many treasures to appraise that some were bound to slip through the cracks."

It was almost a good enough sales pitch that Muchen would have gone along with it even if he didn't have a trump card backing him up. He still would have tried to stay away on general principles, but thanks to Xinyi he was willing to brave what he figured was roughly a one in three chance that matters would devolve into violence.

"Fair enough," Muchen said. "We probably shouldn't meet again before the auction if you're trying to keep a low profile."

Heisan nodded.

"I'm planning to leave the capital and head west after the auction," Muchen said. "There's an inn, the Qilin's Nest."

"I know it," Heisan said.

"Good," Muchen replied. "I'll see you there."

Heisan nodded once more, then turned and walked away. Muchen watched him carefully but found that he had lost track of him before he reached the end of the block.

Muchen felt a chill at the back of his neck. It was one thing to read about or even witness great feats of martial prowess. The sneakier applications of spiritual energy were even more unsettling. Somehow the idea that an invisible assassin could be lurking nearby was more unsettling than the fact that the country was run by a group of superhuman combatants.

Well, hopefully it wouldn't come to that. And failing that, hopefully his own trump card would come through for him. The fact that Heisan hadn't so much as glanced at the turtle shell hiding in plain sight was a good sign that Xinyi held the upper hand when it came to concealment techniques.

Muchen shook his head and finished packing up his cart. He couldn't contribute much in a fight, but that didn't mean he could just sit back and relax. If he could figure out what Heisan was getting out of this, perhaps unravel his underlying motivation, then he could tilt this whole transaction in his favor without the need for violence.

Considering the situation, he'd be happy so long as there wasn't too much need for violence.

When he reached the Thousand Treasures Hall, Muchen took a break from his research for Xinyi to take a closer look at the lots that Heisan had insisted he buy. He couldn't look at the lots themselves, of course. They were safely under lock and key until the night of the auction. What he could do, though, was review the more detailed catalog that was kept in the Thousand Treasures Hall.

The pamphlet he was given was accurate enough, of course, but it was ultimately intended to be more of a guide and a schedule of events rather than an exhaustive listing of every single item that would be put up for sale. The comprehensive list was kept at the Thousand Treasures hall, collected in a book that was large enough to make a pretty good doorstop. Or weapon, in a pinch.

Unfortunately, even the more detailed listing didn't shed any further light on what about the lots had caught Heisan's eye. Not only were they listings of miscellaneous jewelry, but they seemed like the sort of moderately valuable jewelry that would be given to a young lady who wasn't quite ready to deck herself out in big ticket items.

Lot eighty-one, for example, consisted of a pair of silver earrings, an amber paperweight, a jade bracelet, a carved wooden necklace, and other jewelry of a similar nature. The jade bracelet might have been intriguing, if it hadn't been specifically noted to be made of flawed, low-quality material. Just the sort of thing you'd give a girl to let her get used to wearing jade without worrying that she might break something valuable.

Well, it wouldn't be inside information if Muchen could dig it up just by flipping through the publicly available catalog. Still, he couldn't help but feel some concern. Not that he would end up buying something worthless—Heisan didn't seem like the kind of guy who would waste his time with that sort of game—but that he might actually be getting in over his head.

The only theory he could come up with was that one or more of these pieces of jewelry were somehow related to the cultivation world.A spiritual tool, a cultivation focus, or an anchor point for some kind of formation... something like that would elevate otherwise ordinary materials into a priceless treasure. Well, not priceless, but well beyond Muchen's ability to buy. If he was going to be walking out of the auction house with that kind of treasure in his pocket, Heisan wasn't the only danger he'd have to worry about.

He broached the subject once he was driving his cart home. "If there were a spiritual tool up for auction, you could sense it, right?"

"Once I saw it," Xinyi said.

Muchen nodded. At least he wouldn't be caught completely off guard. He'd still feel better if he had some idea of what Heisan's angle was.