Dao of the Deal

Muchen never would have dared to introduce this idea at an established sect. Trying to wrench the management rights away from an entrenched master-disciple relationship would lead to open revolt. Even now, with students a mere hypothetical possibility, Zihan couldn't hold back her disagreement.

"How can you teach a student if you can't tell them what to do?" she asked. "A teacher for a day, a parent for life."

"When it's time to learn, of course students will be expected to follow directions," Muchen said. "A reasonable level of homework assigned to be accomplished outside of class will be permitted as well. But when it's time to work for the sect, then all employees will be expected to work according to their manager's instructions."

Education on the Qianzhan Continent was stuck in the model of a guild or a family business. Too many people considered every scrap of knowledge related to cultivation to be a precious treasure, which meant that they refused to share it outside of a formal master-apprentice relationship. That is, rather than hiring a tutor who provided instruction in exchange for money, the standard coin was something more like personal fealty.

While Muchen could sympathize with the desire to hoard knowledge in a dangerous world, the simple fact was that it was woefully inefficient. By disseminating knowledge more broadly it could be shared, considered, refined, and improved upon. Also, expanding the pool of students beyond the few who were willing to treat their teacher as their parent would ensure that the information spread more broadly.

Of course, Muchen was far from being able to set education policy for the Qianzhan Empire, but within his own sect he could set his own priorities. That being first to make money and second to train up cultivators as quickly as possible. In order to achieve those goals he naturally had to make sure that his employees dedicated themselves to the good of the sect. While a tight bond between master and disciple was an admirable thing on an individual level, when such a thing became widespread it would lead to the formation of alternative centers of power within the sect.

It was inevitable that personal politics would come into play when it came to any collective enterprise. In time, the production and sales departments would develop their own institutional rivalry, even if they were headed up by brother and sister. As the sect diversified its product lines, the teams in charge of the individual projects would naturally strive to outdo each other. That was all well and good.

What Muchen couldn't accept was the idea of adding master-disciple relationships to an already volatile mix. While Flower Mountain was still far from being big enough to have to worry about that kind of factionalism, laying the proper foundations now should help to avoid a lot of trouble in the future.

"Flower Mountain is not a place for you to hold back secret techniques to be taught only to your personal disciples," Muchen said, meeting Zihan, Yize, and Chuhua's eyes in turn. He tactfully skipped over Xinyi, as he couldn't really control what she would get up to. "We will all need to pull together in order to make a place for ourselves on the Qianzhan Continent."

In theory that would change if anybody else caught up with Xinyi's cultivation. In practice, of course, such a thing would never happen. Muchen had only included it as a possibility because Xinyi had already flouted his proposed system and would continue to do so in the future. Instead of being forced to carve out an exception, it was better to formulate the rule to avoid the problem.

Chuhua raised her hand. "So what will we do when we take in new disciples?"

"When we take on new people, they will be assigned job duties according to their aptitudes and our needs," Muchen said. "I expect most of the first batch will work for you as we expand our production capabilities."

He could see some worry in her eyes, but Chuhua steeled herself well enough to give a steady nod. Muchen didn't intend to throw her completely in the deep end and expect her to run her team entirely on her own, but he was glad to see that she wasn't backing down from the challenge.

"Separate from that, new disciples will be enrolled in a beginning cultivation class," Muchen said, turning his attention to Zihan. "You'll be the only instructor at first. The others will pitch in once they reach the foundation establishment stage."

"In other sects, martial training is valued above all else," Muchen continued. "Here on Flower Mountain, it is merely one skill among others."

In a place like the Qianzhan Continent, where law enforcement was spotty at best, it was only common sense to learn how to defend yourself. That much Muchen agreed with.

Where he parted ways with the rest of the world's idea of "common sense" was when they took matters a step further and concluded that since might made right, the only important thing for a person to pursue was to become as mighty as possible. Muchen had no intention of turning his sect into some kind of roaming army.

"Our disciples will be expected to carry out their duties just as they would from any other employer," Muchen continued. "That said, they'll receive raises as they progress in their cultivation, with bonuses paid out as they hit major milestones."

All in all, the system wouldn't be that different from how other sects treated their outer disciples. They were expected to carry out their assigned tasks and to improve their cultivation. The difference was in the details. Instead of expecting them to fend for themselves in dog eat dog competition, the new disciples would receive clear guidance and guided along clearly defined paths.

The resulting crop of cultivators might not be quite as battle hardened as the survivors of the traditional process, but Muchen was fine with that. For one thing, he thought the higher yield that would result from a more managed process was the most important thing for a small sect trying to find its feet. For another, he didn't want a sect full of single-minded battle-scarred meatheads.

He was building up the sect in order to serve his interests and meet his needs. That meant building up a collection of powerful cultivators, yes, but Muchen didn't intend to make his mark on this world in conquest and blood. If his methods produced a cadre of talented engineers and salesmen who flinched at the sight of blood, that was perfectly fine.

Strength was important. Once the sect was strong enough not to be robbed, though, adding more strength was pointless.

Muchen took a look around the table. Xinyi was as carefree as ever. After all, these new rules wouldn't apply to her. Chuhua seemed to trust him implicitly, while Yize didn't seem invested in the idea of taking on disciples. Zihan still had some skepticism written on her face, but she at least looked willing to go along with his orders for now.

Muchen was glad that everybody seemed to be on board with his plans, but he hadn't called this meeting just to set out a vision for the future. Now that he had some basic level of buy in, it was time to turn to specifics.

"Chuhua," he said.

She sat up straight in her chair. "Yes!"

"You'll be in charge of production," he said.

"Yes?" she said, some uncertainty creeping into her voice.

"How has the perfume making been going?" he asked.

She seemed relieved to be on more solid ground. "This week, I've finished eighty boxes. Once we sell all of them, it will be worth four hundred taels."

Muchen smiled. She'd been working hard, at least. He hoped she was right to be so confident that every box would be sold.

"You'll want to learn how to make liquor as well," Muchen said. "I can show you the ropes, if your brother doesn't have the time."

At first, Muchen had wanted to shield Chuhua from the alcoholic side of the business. After all, she was far too young to drink the stuff herself. If Yize was going to be gone for long stretches of time making deliveries, though, it just wouldn't be practical to expect him to run their nascent distillery as well. Besides, it didn't make sense for half of their production to be in the hands of the sales department.

Chuhua nodded. "All right."

"Also, start thinking about how many employees you'll want under you once we open up recruitment," Muchen said. "Make sure to cover all aspects of production. Gathering raw materials, processing them, even planting flowers."

Chuhua thought for a moment, tapping a finger idly on the table. "How much more do you want to make?"

"We can add people first to make your job easier," Muchen said. Having one person shoulder as much as he'd asked Chuhua to take on was something you could do during the heady days of starting up a new business, but asking too much of his employees for too long would only lead to burnout. "We'll want to expand too, eventually. Think about how many people you would need to double production, and how many more to double it again."

Chuhua nodded. Muchen turned his attention to her brother.

"You'll be in charge of sales," Muchen said, before adding after a moment's thought. "Also delivery."

Someday he might be able to separate out those two departments, but for now Flower Mountain was firmly on the traveling salesman model of customer service. Rather than putting up artificial barriers, it made sense to have his salesman handling deliveries to regular customers while also trying to dig up new buyers.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to sell twice as much," Yize said.

"Not with that kind of attitude," Muchen said, before shaking his head. "For now, I'm not too worried about the numbers. It's more about building up brand awareness."

As he'd told Yize before, making sales was like going out on a hunt. You couldn't guarantee how much you'd bring back. What was important was to go about things the right way to give yourself the best chance to succeed.

"We need to make more people aware of what we have to sell," Muchen said. "And we need to make it as convenient as possible for the people who want our products to buy them."

Yize nodded.

"You can think about the specifics," Muchen said. "For the first expansion, I think picking up one or two people to follow you and learn how you do things would be best."

What he was suggesting was not entirely unlike the relationship between a master and disciple. The difference was that the relationship would be that of a boss and an employee. Yize would have a great deal of control over how his underlings went about their work, which was only right and proper. What he wouldn't be getting was the excess of loyalty and control over personal decisions that came along with picking up a disciple.

It was a subtle distinction, but an important one.

"If you'd rather do things differently," Muchen added, "just let me know."

Muchen had spent some time thinking about the structure of the sect. He wasn't open to discussion on any matters of core principle. First because they were after all core principles, and second because he had to establish a certain amount of authority and prestige as a sect leader.

That said, he wasn't a tyrant. The whole point of delegating work to other people was so that he didn't have to worry about it. Once he'd delineated everybody's responsibilities, how they went about taking care of business was their problem.

Yize didn't seem to have any strong feelings one way or the other. He just nodded. It wasn't entirely clear whether he agreed with Muchen's plan or he intended to present his own. Either way, the matter was settled for now.

"Zihan," Muchen said, turning to the latest addition to their sect. To her credit, she had been paying close attention throughout the meeting. He'd been half expecting her to take a nap after such a hard day of training, but the fact that she was allowed to sit at the table as the future of the sect was decided had been enough to hold her interest. "You'll be responsible for security. Also, as I said, we'll be counting on you to provide the bulk of the training for the first batch of new disciples."

Zihan squared her shoulders, giving him a serious look. "Those are both heavy responsibilities."

"For an established sect, yes," Muchen said. "We have only three buildings to guard and will most likely be welcoming less than a dozen new disciples."

He was essentially lumping together the major sect activities that didn't make money and dumping them on Zihan's shoulders. As she had said, though, that didn't mean that what he was asking her to do wasn't important. Teaching new disciples alone could occupy a whole team of cultivators. Not to mention that for an ordinary sect—functioning as the next best thing to a private military corporation—the highest battle commander was second only to the sect leader in importance.

Neither role was particularly prominent for Flower Mountain at the moment. They would be taking in only a tiny trickle of new cultivators. They didn't have any major enemies that needed defending against. And even in terms of defending against random aggression, their sect wasn't harboring the sort of treasures that would prompt a major bandit raid.

"Our teacher will have to at least be in the foundation building stage in order to maintain the dignity of the sect," Muchen continued. "As for security... while we aren't facing any imminent danger at the moment, I still feel more comfortable handing the job over to somebody with experience in real combat."

While Zihan often came across as rather impulsive and free-spirited, she had put in her time in hunting parties ranging into the Northern Wastes. He could see a hint of that battle hardened fighter in her assessing gaze.

"I'll do my best," she said.

"Good," Muchen replied. "As long as we all do our parts, the Flower Mountain sect will have a bright future."

With his employees working hard to secure the sect's income stream, Muchen would be free to tend to his own duties as sect leader. The first item on his personal to do list was to plan out his sect's path to official recognition by the Qianzhan Empire.