"Hello."
Jin Bao looked at him, visibly confused. "Why are you spending so much time here? You can only access the first floor for free as a new Inner Court member, and I'd have thought your Master would've given you some kind of privilege — access to manuals most people never get to see."
Mo Xuan offered a small smile. "Master says he doesn't show favouritism. Apart from his own personal collection, if it belongs to the sect, I follow the same process as everyone else."
Jin Bao paused for a moment, clearly not expecting that answer, before switching tracks entirely. "Did I tell you," he said, puffing his chest out with pride, "that I was so impressive during the Inner Court advancement trials that they had to actually change the rules because of me? No one will ever be able to reproduce my style of passing again. It's uniquely mine forever."
Mo Xuan looked at him evenly. "I don't think that's what you ran all the way here to tell me, is it?"
"Ah — right, yes." Jin Bao's expression sobered slightly, some of his usual bravado fading. "Some people have been looking for you. They want to spar with you, and they've been coming around bothering me for the past three days straight, so much that I've barely had a moment's peace. To get them to back off, I might have..." He trailed off, suddenly finding it difficult to meet Mo Xuan's eyes.
"Well, it's like this," he continued, forcing the words out a little faster than necessary. "To get them to back off, I told them anyone wanting to challenge you first needs to pay a fee in spirit stones. If they don't have that, they can turn around and go right back where they came from."
Mo Xuan regarded him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. "And what amount, exactly, are we talking about here?"
Jin Bao grinned sheepishly. "Not much. Just a hundred lower-grade spirit stones. Or, if they don't have spirit stones on hand, they can use ten contribution points instead."
The old keeper, who hadn't so much as glanced their way since Mo Xuan's arrival, cracked one eye open at the mention of spirit stones — something in his expression suggesting he found the whole scheme mildly entertaining. He studied the two of them for a moment before speaking up unprompted.
"So people don't try to scam you two," he said, his tone settling into the easy confidence of someone finalising a plan he'd already half-worked out in his head, "you can use my name. Tell them Elder Kui will personally oversee the battle, for as many challengers as want to take part." He paused, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "But a hundred spirit stones is far too small a number. Let me think..."
He continued stroking his beard for another moment before nodding to himself, satisfied. "We'll do it like this. Two hundred spirit stones, or twenty-five contribution points. Level 40, Soul King realm, will be the upper limit for anyone seeking to challenge. And I'll charge you two little ones a modest fee for the arrangement, naturally."
Mo Xuan and Jin Bao both turned to stare at the old man, stunned into silence.
The old keeper caught their expressions and snorted. "What are you two staring at me like idiots for? If you're going to do something, you might as well go big. Otherwise, what exactly is the point?"
Jin Bao, apparently without meaning to, blurted out, "Old man, I thought I liked money more than anyone I knew, but you're even more ruthless than I am." He cupped his hands toward the elder with genuine, if slightly wounded, respect. "I've been taught."
The old keeper let out a hearty laugh, stroking his long white beard with obvious satisfaction. "Not bad... not bad." The wrinkles around his eyes deepened as his gaze shifted between the two boys standing in front of him. "One of you knows how to earn." His attention settled briefly on Mo Xuan. "The other knows how to learn." He shook his head slightly, still chuckling. "That's a combination that usually ends in trouble."
Jin Bao immediately straightened his posture, looking pleased. "Senior has good eyes."
The old man snorted. "I've lived long enough that even blind eyes eventually become good ones." He waved a hand lazily toward the path leading away from the pavilion. "Go spread the news."
Then he paused, something occurring to him. "Oh. One more thing." He fixed his gaze directly on Mo Xuan. "If someone breaks anything during these matches..." He pointed a single finger squarely at Jin Bao. "I'll be charging him for it."
Jin Bao's smile froze in place. "Why me?"
The old man raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Whose business venture is this, exactly?"
"Ours," Jin Bao answered automatically, "since you're the one collecting a fee out of it—"
The old keeper's eyes shifted, and though Mo Xuan felt nothing, Jin Bao suddenly found it difficult to breathe as an invisible weight crashed onto his shoulders.
Gritting his teeth against the sensation, Jin Bao forced the rest of the sentence out. "We're only paying for the use of the venue. It's only fair we cover any damages that happen because of it."
The instant the pressure lifted, Jin Bao didn't waste another second — he turned and hurried them both away from the pavilion, muttering under his breath the whole way. "I almost peed myself, I swear."
The moment they'd put enough distance between themselves and the Martial Pavilion, Jin Bao slapped his own thigh triumphantly. "Brother Mo, this is going to make us rich. All of it, riding on you."
Mo Xuan looked at him with the particular helplessness of someone who'd long since stopped being surprised by his friend's schemes.
Jin Bao raised a single finger, adopting the tone of someone about to explain a particularly profound piece of cultivation theory. "First, you create scarcity." He raised a second finger. "Second, you increase the price." A third finger joined the first two. "Third, you let impatient people compete for the privilege of challenging you."
Mo Xuan simply stared at him. "Have you ever considered becoming a merchant instead of a cultivator?"
Jin Bao went quiet for a moment, visibly turning the idea over in his head with far more seriousness than the question probably deserved.
By sunset that same day, word of the arrangement had already begun spreading through the Inner Court. At first, the reaction was mostly laughter.
"Two hundred spirit stones? Has Jin Bao completely lost his mind?"
"Twenty-five contribution points, just to challenge someone?"
But then a second rumour followed close behind the first—and that changed everything. The Martial Pavilion Keeper himself would personally oversee every single duel.
The old keeper, it turned out, was no ordinary librarian dozing his years away among dusty shelves. His true name was Elder Kui, though among the Inner Court disciples who'd been around long enough to know better, he carried a different title entirely — the Miser of the Pavilion.
He rarely left the Martial Pavilion grounds. He rarely accepted disciples of his own. He rarely spoke to anyone who didn't specifically seek him out. But anyone who'd spent enough time in the sect knew one simple, unshakeable truth: if Elder Kui personally agreed to oversee something, no one — absolutely no one — dared cause trouble under his watch.
Within a single evening, the number of interested challengers had doubled from what it had been that morning; curiosity about facing Mo Xuan had become inseparable from the chance to watch the notoriously reclusive elder step out from behind his books.
The following morning, Jin Bao somehow produced a wooden table from seemingly nowhere. Then a chair. Then a brush. Then a proper accounting ledger, its pages already ruled into neat columns as though he'd been planning this for weeks rather than scrambling it together overnight.
Mo Xuan, for his part, chose not to get too involved in the logistics, opting instead to keep expanding his knowledge at the pavilion whenever he could, pushing Jin Bao's whole business venture to the back of his mind as background noise he'd deal with only when necessary.
Jin Bao set everything up beneath an enormous, ancient tree standing just beside the Martial Pavilion's entrance, arranging the table and chair with a care that suggested he took this considerably more seriously than his usual antics. He carefully placed a wooden sign atop the table, its handwriting surprisingly elegant for someone who so rarely seemed to take anything seriously.
Challenge Registration
Challenger Requirements:
Upper limit: Level 40 Soul King realm.
200 Lower Spirit Stones, or 25 Contribution Points.
Venue: Martial Duelling area. Elder Kui supervising.
Below that, in noticeably smaller characters, as though added almost as an afterthought—
No refunds.
The first day, nobody came. The second day passed the same way, the wooden table sitting largely ignored beneath its tree while Jin Bao alternated between checking his ledger and glaring suspiciously at anyone who so much as glanced in his direction without stopping. By then, word of the arrangement had travelled far enough that even the Sect Master, Han Long, and the rest of the sect's elders were fully aware of what was unfolding near the Martial Pavilion, though none of them intervened.
On the evening of the second day, Elder Kui finally sought out Jin Bao, and the two of them spoke privately for some time, heads bent together over the ledger. The following morning, the sign had changed.