"You won't get me that easy," Yao Meifeng said, waving a finger at him. "If there's no room with your sect sisters, I'll ask your mother to join her. That would at least be proper. If you want me to join you in your room, you need to earn it."
"Don't be so sure my mother will take your side," Wu Ling teased. "She's been asking about grandchildren after all," he added with a wink.
With the restoration of a jovial and curious mood, Wu Ling guided the young women out of the tea house and through the twisting, winding paths of the back half of the sect. "Don't try to remember the way," he explained as they walked. "The paths are part of a disorienting formation. If you become a disciple you'll learn how to navigate the formations but for now, just take in the sights. See that building over there?" Wu Ling asked, pointing out a tall octagonal building with five floors. "That's the Onyx Treasure Tower. Let's do a little window shopping."
Inside the Onyx Treasure Tower, Yao Meifeng and Su Yao stared with wide eyes and open mouths at what resembled well appointed store that seemed to carry virtually anything that would be of interest to young Artists. Along one section of the outer wall, rows of zithers, erhu, and other instruments could be found. More amazing though was that each of the instruments present was made of rare spirit woods, set with bone or ivory from powerful spirit beasts, or displayed a level of artistic construction far beyond what commonly sold instruments would possess.
"I couldn't afford one of these if I worked in tea houses and taverns for more than a decade," Yao Meifeng whispered, her eyes sparkling as they flitted from one elegant instrument to the next. "How much are these?" she asked in a voice not much louder than a whisper.
"Each of these treasures may be redeemed with contribution points," a smooth musical voice said as a shopkeeper emerged from behind a counter to join the trio standing near the instruments. "Junior Sister Wu Ling, I heard you'd rejoined the sect as your mother's direct disciple," the woman in dark emerald silk robes said with a knowing look. "Welcome home."
"Sister Fu Xi, it's been a long time," Wu Ling said with a polite bow. "Yao Meifeng, Su Yao, this is Sister Fu Xi, she tends the first level of the Onyx Treasure Tower and if you're very nice to her, she has a stash of rare sweets that she may be willing to share."
"Ah ah ah," Fu Xi said, waggling her finger at Wu Ling. "Those sweets are for children and people who are too adorable to deny them to. You're not a child anymore and I wouldn't want to cause any discord by treating your friend Meifeng and not the rest of you, even though she is incredibly adorable," she added with a wink at the petite musician.
"Well, in that case, I'll have to invite you to tea some time to see if I can't bribe you out of a few treats that way. I'll even invite Sister Yao to bring her adorable self along to brighten the atmosphere," Wu Ling said with a smile, easily agreeing that Yao Meifeng was adorable, especially when she blushed as much as she was currently. "Do you think you could tell them about how things work in the Treasure Tower? I'm planning to bring them to the Midnight Lily Hall later."
"Of course, but only because I can't refuse you anything when you look so delectable. You were cute when you were younger but you're stunning in your own way now you know," the older woman teased. "Now, about the items here," she said, turning to the two younger women. "Take a look at this zither," she said, pointing to an elegant instrument made from Lunar Purpleheart and set with ivory from a Frozen Sea Walrus.
"This is attuned for water and ice cultivators, though people with a strong connection to Lunar Yin may also find it useful," the older woman explained. "It's among the least expensive of the instruments on this floor and can be redeemed for one thousand contribution points. The most expensive items on this floor tend to be like the Fire Drake Zither over there, made from the heartwood of an Emberwood tree and the bones of a Fire Drake. That one is fifteen thousand contribution points and it's ideally suited to a few specific manuals practiced in this half of the sect," she explained, keeping many of the details vague. "More expensive items can be found on the floors above."
"How hard is it to get contribution points?" Su Yao asked, holding her hands back from reaching out to touch the beautiful instruments despite how much she wished to.
"If you were in the Light Half of the sect, it would take forever. A normal performer's mission might reward between one and ten contribution points, depending on the nature of the client. Something like these zithers would be much like what Sister Yao Meifeng said earlier," she explained. "Years of work."
"Back here in the Dark Half of the sect," she continued. "Missions are more dangerous and more rewarding. A mission to entertain at the manor of a young lord may have requirements about gathering information about the young lord, or the layout of their manor or a number of other tasks unrelated to the performance. Those missions can reward fifty to one hundred contribution points. A mission to do harm to someone attending the banquet might reward as much as five hundred contribution points, meaning a zither-like this one could be earned in as little as a month or two of taking on relatively common missions."
"Take a look around," Wu Ling encouraged. "Sister Su Yao, you're beginning your life as a calligrapher, look at the brushes and inks that are available here. Sister Yao Meifeng, the robes and dresses designed for entertainers are made from rare materials that can both enhance your performance and your safety while wearing them. There are even elixirs to aid your cultivation that you can obtain with contribution points."
"If all of this is just on the first level, what's further up?" Su Yao asked, her eyes shining.
"You should think of each level of the tower as being appropriate for cultivators at approximately the same stage," Fu Xi explained. "Though if you were a late-stage Aesthete and you wanted something from the second story to break through it wouldn't be inappropriate to go up there. It's more of a guide than a hard rule. The prices up there begin at twice the price of the most expensive items down here," she continued. "But the missions available to second-stage cultivators tend to be more rewarding as well."
"I think I'm just going to wander around down here for a bit," Yao Meifeng said softly, her eyes bouncing from beautiful dresses to jewelry that had special properties to elixirs and supplements and back to the instruments that could be considered works of functional art. All of this represented the lowest level of the sect's wealth, and Wu Ling had brought her here to have a chance to claim it with her own efforts.
The more she looked around, the more she could see a future for herself that was very different from the life she'd managed to eke out as a wandering performer. If she'd come here while still living with her family or the wealthy Xiao clan, she might not have been so moved by the things on display here. Having spent much of the past year scraping for every tael of gold or spirit crystal, however, she could truly appreciate just how big of an opportunity this was.
Sternly, Yao Meifeng reminded herself that these things weren't free and that she might need to spy on people or even harm them to earn the treasures here. But, then again, if the missions were like the ones Wu Ling had already shown them, would it really be a bad thing to do that kind of work? To be able to live with the kind of luxury she saw here, and to be able to strike out at the kind of people who abused their power in the outer city… the combination was so tempting it was deadly!