Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

Liu Zhu explained the reason he came while Feng Jun listened, seemingly intrigued. After hearing him out there was a short pause before Feng Jun replied. "I have some business in Green City so while I am interested, I'm not able to leave right now. There's a lot going on in Border City and I was hoping to get acquainted with some major figure during all of this. It's probably a long shot, but I won't be able to leave for at least a week because of that. It will also take some time to form a decently strong group. Still, as I said, I am interested. So... give me a week, a week and a half, and then we can head out. Is that fine?"

Liu Zhu grinned, glad that he had been able to work something out. If he went alone there would be some risk involved, but if Blood and Viscera Tempering and possibly Meridian Opening cultivators accompanied him, most of it would be gone. "That's fine with me, I can wait a while. Still, I do have a question before I leave- exactly what are you talking about? I just got back here, so while I noticed that it's crowded, I don't know why."

"Eh, it's a lot. It's late in the busiest season for gathering herbs so a massive caravan came into the city with much of this year's harvest. Apparently they found a few rare items which made certain major figures come here in person in hopes of purchasing them, but I can't confirm those rumors. This wouldn't cause much of a stir by itself, but a couple of other things happened at the same time. About a month ago an old refining expert came out of seclusion in the wilderness. He announced that he'd be taking forging requests from anyone who could pay enough or had an interesting idea until the first of next month. This already raised quite the frenzy, but then he added that he would be holding a competition to search for a direct disciple on the first of next month. The competition to become his disciple will be open to anyone who under 20 and who has 'basic knowledge' in the field, so hundreds upon hundreds of hopeful refiners have flooded into the city recently. Lastly, an... anomaly recently appeared in the city's arena. He's a teenager with a cultivation at Late Bone and Marrow Tempering, but he has a winstreak of 20 matches against Blood and Viscera Tempering cultivators. People are estimating that his strength is just below a Late Blood and Viscera cultivator. Once it became clear that the Five Families weren't going to lay claim to him, some of the major families sent out envoys trying to recruit him. At the same time even more juniors came to the city to challenge him, and... you see where this is leading, right?"

Liu Zhu nodded as Feng Jun left off with a question. "Once enough attention is drawn here then everyone talks about it and you'd come here as an excuse to mingle with others even if you didn't have business here before. The first of the month is about a week away, so... I guess Border City will be this crowded until then?" Feng Jun shrugged as he responded. "Roughly." At this point the conversation drew to a close and the two exchanged some pleasantries before Liu Zhu got up to leave. "I'll see you later then Senior Brother Feng. You can leave a message at my inn when the group is put together." "Mmhm, I'll see you later then."

After departing from Feng Jun's home Liu Zhu made his way to the city's market. Given the ridiculous volume of trade passing through Border City there was a good chance he'd find something interesting. Even if he didn't he needed to sell his latest batch of herbs grown from his blood, so the trip would be worth it either way.

Border City's market was actually an entire district in the city. On the outer edges of this district even more street stalls were propped up than in the rest of the city, but as one went deeper into it, the street stalls disappeared completely, replaced by neat and orderly shops. At the center of the market were a few governmental buildings, a merchant's guild, some trading associations, and an auction house. Liu Zhu didn't have any use for these but was planning to make a large transaction, so he went past the street stalls and into the well-maintained shops. He split the sales of his latest batch of herbs among a few shops, buying more plants to grow with his blood as he did so. Once he was done he took a look in his coinpurse, calculating how much he had available.

"Combining the money I have from this latest sale of plants and the other two after I handed over most of my funds to Dai He to invest, there's 523 gold coins. It'd be stupid to spend all of that, but I could definitely make a few needed purchases with that..." After gleefully noting that he had more than enough money saved up, Liu Zhu wandered around the market, examining whatever took his fancy. After a few stops he narrowed down what he was searching for. There was no need to get a better weapon given his level of cultivation, and even if he wanted a new one he might not be able to find or afford it, so looking at weapons was meaningless. As for armor, speed was already his limiting factor and his defenses were exceptional for his cultivation. Buying armor would be a waste of money. This led him to look through pill shops and stores selling battle techniques. Given that the Liu Clan was only a minor family he hadn't used many pills before, but increasing one's cultivation was always useful, and his variety of attacks was... lacking at best. Both pills and battle techniques could quickly add to his strength.

Liu Zhu spent an hour wandering through the market before spending a sizable sum on a variety of pills and a polearm technique that struck his fancy. He wasn't particularly knowledgeable in regards to pills, but he could vaguely recall hearing of this or that cultivator belonging to a larger family using what he had bought around his cultivation, so after checking with the shopkeepers he decided to purchase them. After all, he didn't need to be an expert to take them. All you had to do to use a pill was absorb the energy and use it to temper your body, right? As for the polearm technique, it was part sneak attack and part finishing blow which the creator simply named the "Extended Blow". It would allow the user to attack the enemy, discretely dislocate one of their shoulders mid-attack, and extend the range and power of their strike slightly. This tactic wasn't necessarily impossible without the jade slip containing the technique, but the technique taught the user how to strike out, dislocate the joint, and then pop it back in one fluid motion. Without it this gamble would be far, far riskier. The Extended Blow wasn't particularly powerful, but it would serve as a valuable tool to trick an opponent and end a battle that was dragging on.

Once Liu Zhu was done shopping, he was left at a bit of a loss at what to do. "I suppose I could hole myself up reading and cultivating, but that seems a bit of a waste given everything that's going on. On the first of the month I should join that 'expert refiner's' competition if only to see how I stand compared to other juniors, but that won't be for a while. Hm... well, I suppose for the time being I'll head to the arena. Maybe I could learn something from watching this 'anomaly' who's tearing up the arena in action." Having decided on a course of action Liu Zhu headed towards the arena, curious about the exceptional fighter Feng Jun had mentioned.