Next day.
Xin was working in a lab. His skills improved day by day, and he finished his assignments early. Good, finally some time to focus on my own interests, he thought to himself.
"You three, take an afternoon break. And don't bother me."
The worker trio disliked being bossed around, but a break was good news, so they left without complaining.
Xin went to his workstation and grabbed the materials he prepared yesterday.
Gelatine, two chicken eggs, a spirit stone, cannibal crab shell dirt, lingzhi powder, salt and neutral animal glue. Good, everything is in order.
Xin boiled some water, picked up an egg and sliced it in half with a sharp razor. He removed the yolk and most of the egg white, replacing it with a spirit stone, and glued the egg back together. He removed the yolk from the second egg, too, but kept the egg white and didn't glue it together. He then covered the first egg in a mix of salt and crab shell dirt, and boiled both eggs until ready.
He could feel the water become qi active, but the energy quickly escaped it. Both eggs shook as they cracked, and Xin put them into cold water, then took them out.
There was no sight of a spirit stone in the first egg, it was completely dissolved. The eggshell was barren and unpleasant to the touch. The second egg was still vibrating, as it drained some energy from the first egg into its boiled egg white. Still, it's eggshell was also ruined, albeit less.
Good. One egg lost its energy, the second one drained some away, creating alchemical resonance between the two. Xin scraped both eggshells for egg white and put it into a boiling flask. He then added gelatine, lingzhi powder and the remnants of shell dirt and salt together.
The mix of different egg whites and the ingredients created an unremarkably looking paste, which Xin cooled using cheap ice element materials. Xin then took out his totem and coated it in the resulting ointment.
It should create a subtle qi drain, not strong enough to damage the totem, but enough to make it hungry. Once he applied the paste, Xin felt a tingle in his wrist vein. The first reaction the totem ever displayed! It squirmed, but was too weak to do anything! Now he just needed to wait for it to initiate contact, and then he could finally put his totem knowledge to use.
The door chimes jingled again, and someone walked in.
"Oh, inspector. Good afternoon, what brings you here?" - Xin could hear Feng Chonglin ask.
"It's urgent, could we go for a walk?"
"If you promise that it's actually a walk."
"You have my word."
"Hey, Xin! I'll leave for some time, man the counter while I am gone!" - Xin was upset about not being able to use the remnants of his afternoon break, but he complied.
As Xin went downstairs, Lei also entered the shop, locking the door behind himself. He looked irritated.
"Gaffer went for a walk with our new friend, asked me to stay inside."
"Sure. I made a qi drain potion I told you about, by the way."
"Cool. I don't care." - Lei turned away from Xin and started playing with his knife.
"Very mature. A future cultivation legend, I see. All that sulking will get you far."
"Oh, fuck off, you scumbag. You are breaking our agreement and trying to take away my
part of the business, that I built with my own blood and sweat! And then you mock me for
not being interested in your stupid fucking ointment?"
"I am trying to get a fair compensation for my effort, too. Can't you see this?"
"See what? We had an agreement, which you are breaking, extorting us in the middle of a crisis, saying shit like 'I could work worse or make more mistakes'. Shit, I spent years preparing for this scenario, Feng Chonglin spent decades in the steppe cities, too. Don't you think we invested more, by far?"
"And who is working the most, out of us three, now? We are all contributing, I have no complaints about how you guys conduct yourselves, I just deserve to be recognized more. I am not breaking our agreement, I am just trying to renegotiate now that I am on my feet. Did you think I am yours forever when you gave me this shitty deal?"
"Shitty deal? I got you two salaries, you fucking retard, and now you act like you're a victim because I'll earn more out of this than you will? And Chonglin is upholding his deal, teaching you and all that!"
"I brought you this whole opportunity, by the way. The guild's salary doubling is my dealing with them, and unrelated to our business arrangement. They will still expect things from me in the future, it's not like it's free. And it's not like you didn't want me in the sect. I owe you my help, I remember this. I am not willing to be your property, slaving away for no benefit, though. You call this friendship?"
"Oh, are you pulling this card now? You liked our agreement first, then you went into debt willingly to make it up to me, because you LIED, which I forgave you for, and now when there is a sale on the horizon you suddenly want a piece of cake. The audacity, you act like the world owes you things. Maybe you got away with this so far, but it won't last you forever. And it was me who vouched for you with the guild, don't pretend it's unrelated. You're too used to things being handed to you, mate."
"Shit, what are you talking about? What did I even get for free? I am a fucking orphan, supplying myself with my own work. All I inherited was a small hut I had to repair for months."
"Poor you, taught by ma and pa, living in your own place, hunting and reading books in the library. Such a hard life!"
"The fuck? So, it's my fault that I had parents? My mother left me, for fucks sake, and my father died. This has nothing to do with the business! And my town got levelled, did you forget this?"
"Yeah, sure, what a sob story. Really makes me want to give you twenty percent of my share. Go cry elsewhere."
Xin was furious.
"You are the one who's retarded here! Again, you are my friend. We saved each other's lives. Right now, you are the closest person I have in life. But I deserve to be recognized for my contributions, so I want compensation! Did I not spend years preparing for this moment, too? Maybe if you tried studying, you'd understand how hard that is. None of that prodigy bullshit, please, do you know how many times I'd rather trained than bothered with the manuals? Fuck, I'd rather be training in arms now! I haven't been to arms training once this month!"
"And you think I have? We are all making an equal sacrifice, as per the initial agreement, what grounds do you have to demand more?"
"The grounds are that you are all being dragged into some serious shit, that can threaten your lives, and my life, too. I can just return to sect, become an alchemist's assistant, do a teaching gig, and still have time to train and cultivate. I have options, and I want to pick you. Incentivize me."
"What a snake cunt you are. 'I've got your back', backstabs me in the crucial moment. Fuck off, let's just wait for Feng Chonglin."
"You'll see my perspective eventually." - Xin filled the ledger.
Twenty minutes later, Feng Chonglin returned.
"Things are bad, I told the workers to take another break." - He looked pretty grim.
"Shit, what happened, granpa?" - Lei was already upset, but this made him even more irritated.
"You happened, kid. The inspector is sure our instruments are from uncle Ti's shop."
Xin gulped nervously. It was the loudest sound in the shop.
"How could this happen? Didn't we establish that uncle Ti never went to the city guard?" - He asked.
"Apparently, he made a guess after hearing some rumours, and he used some of the investigative powers he has to confirm it. He isn't explaining it in more detail, but it is likely that he can backtrack it to Lei. He never claimed it was him who performed the robbery, though."
"Fuck. If he can prove I've done that, it's over. I'll spend a fortune on lawyers and bribes just to avoid prison, and my sect career will be over, too. Before I even broke through, that is. Our business, though..."
"Is absolutely fucked. They'll confiscate the goods, we'll have two rank one masters on our asses, a criminal case and a huge loss of reputation. We are done for." - Xin concluded.
"Not so fast." - Feng Chonglin intervened. "Can't you see that he came to talk to me first? There is still no Xuanwu clan offer. Truth be told, he plays a game of his own. He's saying he'll hold this information, if he is compensated."
"So, the corrupt guardsman isn't just taking the Xuanwu clan money, but is also extorting us on top of it? That wins us some time. A consolation prize, if there is one." - Xin's mind already raced. A complication, but also an opportunity, an opening. How could this be turned to our advantage?
"A pump and dump scheme, if you want." - Lei added. "Even if we pay him, there is nothing stopping him from just handing the evidence to Xuanwu clan later. He'll squeeze us dry, and for a time, our business will be able to function, but in the end, Xuanwu clan will find other ways to drop our value.
"So, should we sell now?"
"No, how can we? Now that he can just sabotage the sale, he has all the cards. And on top of it, Xuanwu clan is still waiting for the investigation to conclude, if we just approach them, they might suspect something and start lowballing us."
"Correct, boys." - Feng Chonglin scratched his cheek, his voice as hoarse as ever. "We are driven into a hopeless situation, no need to curse the heavens. We've been given a shit hand, how do we play it to our advantage?"
Feng Chonglin's way of asking questions never failed to engage Xin's mind.
"Master." - His voice was quiet, and he started into a small crack in the wall, focusing on it intensely.
"Speak." - Feng Chonglin understood - Xin is entering his flow state, this should be encouraged. He raised his finger and gave Lei a side glance, as if saying "Do not interrupt".
"Hypothetically speaking, of course. The best option would be to remove the inspector from the equation, putting us back at square one, allowing us to complete the sale."
"Uh-huh. Yes." - No need to add anything, Feng Chonglin understood. Xin will debate himself, I just need to nod to keep him engaged.
"Let's say we blackmail the inspector. This is the best option, but the best case scenario would still be a mutually assured destruction, which is suboptimal. Intimidating him sounds great, but how would we do it? Not an option, for now. Another thing is, there are two strong cultivators
living next door. If he decides to drop his extortion thing, he can just draw their ire onto us. This would be a good idea, if he wasn't a corrupt guardsman, but served the Xuanwu clan dutifully. But he is holding his cards, means he is genuinely trying to extort us, it's not a trick." - Xin sighed out. He felt like he reached a conclusion, but it wasn't his, it was generated by a part of his mind he didn't have a direct control over.
"Say it." - Lei sounded confident and determined.
"In this case, he needs to be killed."
Feng Chonglin just stared at Xin, but then asked:
"Is that it?"
"No, master. I am trying to come up with some other way, but they all sound suboptimal. Killing him is also a bad option, for obvious reasons. What if we could weave a cover-up narrative? Maybe he provoked someone else, and this could be utilised somehow, so that the suspicion doesn't fall on us?" - What the fuck am I saying? Am I crazy? Murder an inspector?
"Weak logic. What does the Xuanwu clan do once he dies?"
"They double their efforts against us, and there is a second investigation, which is even more thorough. The problem of uncle Ti is not removed, as well as the risks of losing face. The lab instruments are still a problem. We're back to square one, but clan Xuanwu is much angrier."
"Uncle Ti, the inspector, the instruments. How do you overcome this obstacle?"
Lei was annoyed. These questions sounded like Feng Chonglin already knew the answer. Just say it, then! This felt too tense. A side glance from his master was enough to shut him down.
Xin continued:
"Wait. Hm. Right. There are only two people who could confirm these instruments as belonging to uncle Ti's sister - her and her brother. If they also died, and there was nothing that traced it to us, this thread would be cut off. Wait, can I think for a moment?"
Lei exhaled. Holy fuck, he thought. Xin's mind is dark. Hypothetical scenario, he says?
Xin started at the wall for twenty long breaths, discussed something with himself, mumbling after his nose, and scratched his face nervously.
"I know. There is a plan that has no downsides, but it's extremely complex. It takes everything we discussed into an account."
"Speak."