A Snail's Wisdom

They had arrived at their next destination, the servant"s quarters. Kenja scanned the establishment in front of him.

The servant"s quarters consisted of several large buildings grouped together within an enclosed fence. The fence did not only designate the area of the servant"s quarters, but it also served as the boundary for servants. If they were found outside the fenced area past their curfew, they would be punished.

Many of the servants were stuck at the low-level Body Tempering while a few were on the cusp of breaking into Qi Flourishing. The curfew was not meant to restrict them but to help transition beginners into the world of cultivation.

Mortals were creatures of luxury and desire. They would grow bored of the same things in a matter of days, and this trait was unconducive to cultivation where one would have to sit in the same place for hours at a time meditating. The sect had taken it upon themselves to help future cultivators acclimate to a temperamental change by restricting the servants" freedom for part of the day.

If they could not even restrain themselves to such a simple rule, they had no business embarking on this path.

"You are the one who rushed me out of the marketplace when I was about to tell you my plans! Now that you"re ready to listen, you want me to tell you?" Kenja asked, annoyed with Snail"s mood swings.

He had finished buying everything he needed in the marketplace, and just as he was about to explain his intentions to Snail and Sakura, Snail had told him to stop wasting time and get a move on.

Kenja waited outside for some time to survey all the entrances of the buildings. He noticed one of the entrances had a greater number of servants going in and out, so he entered the building through there.

The servants wore pure white Daoist robes with no design on them other than the Flowing River insignia, and they resided in these buildings instead of their own caves. Once they were promoted to the outer-sect, they would receive new robes as well as their own cave. As long as they weren"t promoted, they had to room with other servants, and their keystones would not belong to any cave entrance.

Kenja moved through the hallways without stopping, observing the various servants and the public rooms. There was a kitchen with several dining areas, a foyer for the main entrance, as well as stairs leading to the higher floors.

On the second floor, Kenja found a common area with a couple of servants sitting in chairs speaking to each other and several other servants forming a line in front of a large counter. Behind the large counter was a timid-looking servant who, strangely enough, was at the low-level Qi Flourishing stage. Behind him was an a.s.sortment of goods from various foods to low-grade pills meant for Body Tempering cultivators.

"Found one!" thought Kenja.

He was staring at the TD sitting on the counter with glowing eyes.

Kenja found a quiet corner in the room and continued to observe the Qi Flourishing servant serve the line of people.

…

…

…

Migawari Puchi was nervous and scared.

Due to his seniority, he held the best job a servant could hold: the canteen registrar. He would handle transactions with other servants and maintain a record of the inventory. It gave him fifty credits a month, and sometimes, the vice elder rewarded him with a Calming Meditation Pill that would help him maintain a tranquil consciousness as he cultivated, which would help him solidify his cultivation.

"He"s still here…" Puchi panicked, looking at a man standing in the corner of the lounge staring at him.

The man had long black hair and wore outer-sect robes with a single sh.e.l.l hanging from his left earring. Like some sort of barbarian, he carried a rusted sword on his back.

Puchi shuddered when his eyes met the strange man"s stare, and he turned his eyes back to the customer in front of him.

"Here is the pill you paid for," Puchi said to the servant across the counter, pa.s.sing a single pill to him. He clasped his hands and left, leaving no on else in the room except for Puchi and the strange man.

Puchi gulped.

"Why is he staring at me??!" pondered Puchi.

He pulled out his pen and pretended to take inventory, trying to act natural.

The man continued to stand in the corner, turning his eyes to the left at the wall every few breaths like a mad man. His behavior was off-putting for Puchi, making him uncomfortable.

"Is he…here for me?" Puchi shuddered once more, frightened at that possibility.

Servants had two ways of being promoted to the outer-sect.

The first way involved pa.s.sing through one of the tests administered by the sect in order to evaluate the promising servants and promote the worthy ones to the outer-sect. A test was held once every five years due to the low expectations that an outstanding disciple would appear amongst the servants. While this method sounded fair, in truth, it was difficult to pa.s.s without reaching the Qi Flourishing stage.

Unlike the geniuses of the Freezing Desert that partic.i.p.ated in the sect"s annual entrance examination, the servants had little hope or talent in ascending past the Body Tempering stage. Many of the servants were already in their thirties or forties and had lost the fire that they had in their youth, cultivating more out of habit than a desire to progress.

The second and more oft-seen way was to be recommended for a promotion by a senior in the sect.

Even though servants had little hope of progressing far on their path to Immortality, the sect housed them for their other uses. The disciples would sometimes need a junior for menial tasks or extravagant labor, and the servants served that purpose, working their hardest to meet their seniors" expectations.

If a disciple was impressed with a servant, they could recommend the servant to a vice elder for promotion. Nine times out of ten, the promotion was a result of an innocent evaluation by the senior who recruited the servant for a.s.sistance, but for the remainder, the promotion came from less-than-savory origins.

Sweat trickled down Puchi"s neck as he thought about it.

One of his elder servant brothers had gotten promoted through a senior"s recommendation, but what his brother had to do for the promotion…was not something one would talk about in public.

Puchi pinched his b.u.t.t cheeks, his legs trembling from the pressure he exerted on them.

"I can"t, I can"t, I CAN"T!"

Puchi covertly glanced at the man from the corner of a shelf he was pretending to look through. The man was looking at the wall to his left again.

"Why does he keep looking at the wall like that? Is there something special about it?"

The next second, the man turned his eyes back to Puchi, causing Puchi to hide behind the shelf again.

"I like girls! I don"t want my first time to be with a man!!!"

Puchi continued to skim through the shelves, trying to forget about the creepy man and praying someone else would come to purchase something. His eyes pa.s.sed by the Limber Moltslug Lotion.

Puchi remembered speaking with that elder brother a while after the promotion happened. He had asked him if he had any regrets about his promotion, and he could never forget what he said: "...No regrets, but if I could go back, I would have brought some lotion."

Puchi"s b.u.t.t cheeks clenched even tighter than before, his knees almost buckling from the pressure and anxiety.

"I don"t want to be ravished by a man! Why a man? Why can"t a senior sister wish to play with me?!" he implored the heavens.

Puchi closed his eyes, conversing with himself in his head.

"No, no, I can"t be like this! This is my chance! If becoming an Immortal was so easy, everyone would do it!" he rationalized.

Puchi glanced at the man once more, and he smiled back and waved his hand at him. Puchi turned his head again and closed his eyes.

"He doesn"t look that bad either. Not too bulky or big, and his smile was gentle. I can do this!" he psyched himself up.

"Excuse me, do you have a moment?" he heard a voice from over the counter.

Puchi made a small jump in surprise before turning around to see the man had approached his counter.

"Yes, senior brother, how may I be of a.s.sistance?" Puchi replied in a polite tone, swallowing his saliva.

"I wish to employ your services," the man said in a professional tone.

"Ok, senior brother, but please…be gentle," Puchi squeaked out tilting his eyes away from the man"s eyes with a slight blush on his cheeks.

The man knitted his brows at the response. He followed it up with a cough before continuing, "Have no fear. I don"t plan on making you handle more than what you can, but I plan on working you hard for some time."

Puchi tried to swallow some more saliva, but his throat ran dry.

"How long does he need me for…?" Puchi held back his tears.

It was every servant"s dream to become part of the outer-sect, and most of them would do anything for the opportunity. All the other servants would do anything for that promotion, short of killing themselves.

"First, when can you close the shop?"

"He wants me now? Curse my charm!"

Puchi was five and a half chi tall, and he had short brown hair with freckles. With a wimpy disposition befitting a servant, he smiled at the man with his crooked teeth.

"Senior brother, the shop never closes unless the inventory has run dry before it is time to restock."

The shop was one of several that servants frequented for food or cultivation aids. It was restocked at the end of the month, so it had never closed early.

"Very well, I will buy the rest of your inventory for you. This way you will be free to work for me."

The man placed his keystone into the TD. Puchi was about to laugh at the outer-sect disciple"s joke when his eyes boggled at the dial.

"He has enough to buy everything, and he will do it just for me?"

Puchi"s heart was touched. Even though he had no desire for men, this particular man was very good at sweeping him off his feet. Perhaps this memory won"t be one he would regret.

Puchi had walked over to the Limber Moltslug Lotion to place it in his pocket when the man spoke out again.

"You don"t need to bring the items to me. I plan on having you work here."

"...Right here?" Puchi"s forehead and armpits began sweating. Puchi wasn"t sure if he could handle the work out in the open where servants could come by at any time.

"Yes, I plan on having you sell my items to the servants."

Surprise.

Disappointment.

Anger.

Bitterness.

Relief.

A wave of emotions ran through Puchi that he couldn"t quite control. He knitted his brows and turned to face the man.

"Sell your items?"

"Yes. I will pay you a thousand credits a day as long as you work diligently."

…

…

…

All of Puchi"s feelings were washed away by a single one: Love.

Working for a month at the shop gave him only fifty credits, and yet this man was going to pay him a thousand credits each day for the same activity. He would kiss and lick his feet for half that salary.

"A thousand credits?" he asked, worshipping this man who had decided to bless him with such favor.

"Un. Just be sure to follow my orders, and I will give you the credits before the start of each day," the man affirmed.

"Yes, oh yes, senior brother! I swear I will, or else my name isn"t Migawara Puchi!" Puchi declared with tears filling his determined eyes. They shone with a gleaming adoration for the man in front of him.

The man nodded in approval at Puchi"s fervor.

"Senior brother, this humble servant wishes to know the name of his benefactor."

The man blinked at him several times before smiling at him.

"My name is Kitamura Bolo."