Chapter 414
A Song of Jade (V)
Chapter 414
A Song of Jade (V)
I never thought I'd eat something so intimately familiar in this world--eggs and bacon. No, seriously, that was precisely what I was served at the inn's little kitchen area (it was too small to be called a restaurant).
Now, to be fair, according to the woman who served it to me, it was jain bird's eggs and kui beast meat, and it was not fried but soaked and boiled, but it looked like eggs and bacon, and that was good enough for me.
I mean, it tasted nothing like it--it was closer to boiled lamb than anything--but the ability to trick the brain is really useful at times like these.
Regardless, as soon as I washed it down with some nice jasmine tea, I went out to look for Long Tao--only to find him standing near the staircase leading up to our rooms. As soon as he saw me, he beelined up, which meant that he had something to talk with me about, too.
I could hazard a guess or two, as I very much doubt someone like Long Tao wasn't insanely curious. A new avenue of knowledge was suddenly opened up to him; I know that if I were in his shoes, at least, I'd have more than just a few questions.
This works out, though, as by giving him a few flimsy, high-school-level answers to the questions without answers, he might just agree to sell my 'grandfather's long-lost art' at some black market in the city.
"Why do some things fall faster than the others? Does that mean gravity is stronger on lighter objects?" I'd barely stepped into the room when he bombarded me with the question.
I paused, uncertain myself; as I recall, in a pure vacuum, there's no difference. All things are acted upon just the same. The reason why certain things appear to fall slower is purely because of air resistance.
... but I have zero, zilch, nada, nothing, absolutely no clue about air resistance. I just know it's a thing that exists and 'resists' movement and such, but that's about it. If I introduce him to it, he'll have questions. Questions that I won't have even high-school-level answers to.
And yet, I don't want to lie or make something up. May as well just be completely honest.
"That's not because of gravity," I said.
"It's... not?"
"That's because of air."
"...!!!" His eyes suddenly lit up like freakin' lanterns at a festival as he exclaimed further, "Right! Of course! Those wind-obsessed morons were actually onto something! No... wait." He suddenly turned toward me, looking at me oddly. "Wouldn't that mean that air is stronger than gravity?"
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... I don't think so? I mulled over it for a moment, offering my best assumption.
"No," I said. "That's why things fall back down, despite there being air."
"Oh, right. Of course," he nodded. "In that scenario, combining the two and inverting them could potentially be world-altering," he started mumbling out loud, seemingly more so to himself than me. "So, something like a domain with two forces, where the one is pressing down and the other is resisting, and everyone caught in it is turned into a flat smudge of meat."
"..."
"Even flight can be reexamined," he continued mumbling. "Instead of using Qi to push against the force, maybe somehow matching Qi form with gravity and inverting it would allow for natural flight without energy expenditure? No, no--I imagine that the conversion rate, even if better than using raw Qi, would still be rather energy-intensive. Master."
"Hm? Yes?"
"Per chance," oh no. "Do you know all this because you inherited martial arts from your extensive family?"
"..." Right, there it is, that look of greed in his eyes. But, this time around, it was actually further reinforced by a look of obsession.
I mean, I get it--newfound knowledge and all. Still doesn't mean it's not quite terrifying to see him acting this way.
"... I may have," I replied vaguely. "It depends."
"On what?" his eyes turned into slits.
"Our resident alchemist requires some expensive ingredients to stabilize a pill all of us will find useful," I said. "However, those ingredients cost... well, too much. I had an idea to dig into my family's inheritance for an art or two to sell, and I was wondering if your family's extensive knowledge of the world might know what to look for so that we aren't hunted down like heretics after the fact."
"And if my great aunt's knowledge is pertinent to your cause, you may bother to look for those arts?"
"I may bother."
"Hmm."
"Hmm."
"... movement arts are always yearned for, especially outside the sects," he said. "Even if you have the stones, you can't necessarily buy them, as they all tend to be closely guarded secrets. Let's see... per my great aunt, a Heaven-tier movement art with relatively loose restrictions would run for about 300,000 high-grade stones in these here parts. Would that be enough to buy these mysterious ingredients?"
"It may be," I said, squinting. "Won't an art of such high grade elicit a... response?"
"Luckily, my father taught me of a place and a way to sell it without such a thing occurring."
"Luckily."
"Hm."
"... I should be able to find the movement art by tomorrow," I said. "As for the others... it may take a while."
"The teleportation array to the mountain is set to activate for the last time this season in thirteen days," he said. "If there is anything else that you need bought or sold, it's best you prepare it all."
Those were his parting words as he left, leaving me a bit stumped. Was he implying that I should make more arts and give them to him to sell? I mean, yeah, that's one way to make money that I was always cognizant of, but the reason I was also always hesitant is that it's a slippery slope. It takes one person figuring out who's behind them, and neither I nor the kids will live another day of peace.
And if there was a sudden surge of relatively high-grade arts circulating outside the Holy Lands, I've no doubt in my mind they'd send out dozens of hounds to investigate. One-offs or even two-offs could be explained by someone lucking out in some secret realm or a tomb, but a constant stream of them?
Yeah.
That would raise the questions I did not want raised.
Haah.
No, no. For now, let's just create the one and see if the sale of it goes smoothly or if his 'father's' teachings are severely outdated.
Okay. So, a movement art of at least heaven-tier with minimal restrictions. That's actually fairly easy, and though I did recently have a massive point expenditure, I still have over five thousand. One-off art won't really change that much, if at all. Especially if I can convert it into almost half a mil high-grade stones.
It's settled, then.
Let's get down to business.
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