"It's fine, Sister Hua," Fang Lin said. He knew that he'd made the most complaints about their living conditions while they traveled but after seeing the brutality of the Pit, he saw the value in a place that was out of the way where they would be left alone. "As long as it's safe, that's what matters most. I can even add a few formations once we get there."
"That would be very welcome," Wu Ling said, gently touching the young scholar's shoulder with the tips of his fingers and flashing him a warm smile. "You've worked hard to keep us safe for much of this trip, I'm sorry to make it harder by attracting trouble."
"No, it's fine," Fang Lin said, his face heating as he looked away from Wu Ling's enchanting visage. He had to remind himself, yet again, that the face he saw was just the result of Wu Ling's artistry and talents at makeup and that 'Sister' Hua was really 'Brother' Wu. He shouldn't feel so flustered just because another man had touched his shoulder!
"Sister Hua," Yu Jinqi asked while they navigated the tunnels of Bufa City toward the safehouse Wu Ling had chosen. "Why did you offer healing totems to the Mountain's Bones gang? Won't that make them even stronger and help them prey on others? Why not strike an even greater blow today and deprive them of another of their Soldiers?"
"If I did that, it would only make things worse," Wu Ling said with a shake of his head. "They've already suffered a loss from me once, and again from Sister Xiang. We might be able to topple Gao's part of the gang, but then what? They still have at least three more Soldiers that I know about, and their boss is a Warrior. The more we make them lose, the more they'll need to put a stop to us."
"That's not all of it though, is it Sister Hua?" Zhang Buyan added. "You felt confident in challenging their fortress even before your breakthrough. You weren't wrong to point out that we now have almost as many cultivators at the second stage as they do. You had other reasons for doing what you did."
"Don't make her say it," Xiong Dahuo said from the side. "She's being polite, just accept her kindness and let matters stand as they are."
"But, I don't understand," Fang Lin said, looking at the complicated expressions on the faces of Zhang Buyan, Xiong Dahuo, and Jin Wuya. Clearly, this was something that the martial cultivators understood that he and Yu Jinqi didn't. "How is she being polite? What isn't she saying?"
"Sister Hua and Sister Su can stand up to their Soldiers," Jin Wuya explained gently. "But the rest of us can't. When they attacked Sister Su to get at Sister Hua, they showed that they would attack the weaker members of our group to get at the stronger ones. She, she's doing this to shield us."
"You don't have to think of it like that," Wu Ling offered, having a difficult time meeting the gazes of the others. "I'm also planning to place several of my totems up for auction in a few days. The house mistress of my sect is willing to help us handle the logistics of placing our items for auction so we only need to attend if we wish to bid. Now that people have seen Sister Xiang use one of my totems and I've even used some to barter for peace with the Mountain's Bones gang, more people will be interested in them."
"So you see," Wu Ling said. "If I can put a stop to our feud and help advertise a bit, we stand to profit more and we can spend those gains on things that help us complete our expedition. As to strengthening their gang," Wu Ling added, trying to change the topic. "I'm not overly worried about it."
"For the most part, the Mountain's Bones gang preys on the pilgrims trying to reach the Paragon Sword Sect," Wu Ling explained. "They don't often come into conflict with the sects of Silver Sword City. The totems are best for people like us, who face spirit beasts who are less intelligent and inflict more small wounds. Against the pilgrims on the trail, the totem isn't powerful enough to turn the tide of a battle."
"At best, it can help them recover from a close call. It gives them a little bit of strength, but it's nothing they couldn't accomplish from spending a little more money on a competent alchemist like Brother Yu," Wu Ling concluded. "If it keeps us out of conflict, then it's worth giving up a small portion of bone and a few days of my time to make a pair of totems."
"How did you know that Gao would accept your offer?" Yu Jinqi asked, still hoping to better understand Wu Ling's planning. After all, if Wu Ling could wield that kind of power with a healing totem, there was no reason Yu Jinqi couldn't have done the same with his alchemy.
"Because Gao is a coward," Wu Ling explained. "He was trapped between two fears. He's afraid of me and he's afraid of his boss. That's why he asked for a second totem. By gaining a powerful tool for his boss and one for himself, he can claim to have won something by hunting me. At the same time, by depriving me of totems I could have sold at auction, he can claim to have forced me to suffer a loss."
"In order for this to end," Wu Ling continued. "We both needed to win and we both needed to lose. Their gang lost people but they won a valuable set of totems. We won a truce but we lost time and materials. We can argue all day about who won or lost more, but if the scales only held losses for them and wins for us, this would never end. That's what Gao was most afraid of. That without a win to show his boss, he'd either lose his life fighting me or lose his life reporting his failure."
"So the totem itself wasn't the important part," Yu Jinqi realized. "The important part was delivering them a victory."
"Exactly so, Brother Yu," Wu Ling said with a radiant smile. "Keep learning lessons like this, I'll make a chess player of you yet!"