Yang Qing wasn’t sure how it happened, only that it happened fast; that one soft gulp quickly turned into him emptying the entire wine gourd in a single sip... at least it felt like a single sip, because his lips never left that gourd until nothing was flowing from it, filling him with all kinds of exhilaration and happiness as it completed its pilgrimage.

Yang Qing shook the wine gourd from side to side to examine whether it was truly empty, going as far as sticking his eye to the opening to confirm when it failed the swishing sound test.

Mmh, it is really empty, Yang Qing softly murmured in surprise, giving the gourd another once over before accepting the results with a casual, unbothered shrug as he reached for another, whistling joyfully as he did. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"I have thirty-five thousand lesser dragon jade crystals... I have thirty-five thousand jade crystals... I have thirty-five thousand jade crystals... I am protected from all the fiends," Yang Qing sang in his off-key, off-beat voice; the whistling wasn’t any better as he sauntered over to the jade table with the wines.

"I have thirty fi—" Yang Qing paused mid song as though he’d been petrified, his outstretched hand freezing over the wine collection. He remained that way for five seconds, bearing the expression of a man about to make a life-changing decision.

"This won’t do," Yang Qing murmured with a firm expression as he pulled his hand back, and as he did, an ivory white calabash with supple branches along its body appeared in the hand he was withdrawing.

"This is more like it," Yang Qing muttered in satisfaction, licking his lips and grinning widely as his gaze settled excitedly on what was arguably the most expensive thing he owned.

Smiling widely and clearly pleased with himself, if that swaggering duck walk was anything to go by, Yang Qing moved back to his seat... his now favorite seat, to admire one of the most beautiful sights he had ever laid his eyes on.

"Those pillars are truly a work of art... likely the work of a seasoned gold grade craftsman... no, no, must have been a purple grade one," Yang Qing said, shaking his head briefly as he narrowed his eyes to examine those pillars, wearing the expression of a seasoned appraiser who knew his pillars and his craftsmanship. "Yes, must have been a purple grade craftsman. That dragon is way too lifelike and domineering in presence for it not to have come from the hands of a purple-grade craftsman. Look at that glare... and those whiskers," Yang Qing murmured in amazement as he leaned ever closer to the window to get a better look.

He really did look like a seasoned appraiser, if one ignored the wide grin that occasionally burst into unrestrained laughter with a certain... unstable quality to it.

"I have thirty-five thousand crystals and no dangerous stalkers in my immediate future." After his very thorough but brief stint as a craftsmanship appraiser, Yang Qing went back to his singing, whistling, and drinking, his laughter growing more untamed as he sang and drank.

"Vast Blue Merchant House, truly a beautiful place," Yang Qing murmured wistfully in between sips. "Li Gang," he continued, standing up as he raised his wine gourd to the air with a very respectful expression. "This toast is for you, the most noble merchant I have ever met. Smile away, Li Gang, this lowly one bows in utter awe and admiration of your craft," Yang Qing said seriously, bowing his head slightly as he did.

After his toast of respect, he took a gentlemanly, honoring sip of his wine before quickly dropping back to his seat when he saw Li Gang bring out the next silver ice-tea guava.

At this point, Yang Qing didn’t want for much. His heart and sense of satisfaction had reached the levels of a seasoned ascetic monk long accustomed to being wholly satisfied with little. His present state of mind was such that if given only a dew-sized drop from some random grass to quench his thirst, he would treat that single drop as something precious, fallen from the heavens itself.

If that silver ice tear guava currently cupped in Li Gang’s hands went for a thousand high-grade spirit stones, he wouldn’t be dissatisfied at all. Why would he, when he had thirty-five thousand lesser dragon jade crystals about to burn a hole in his storage ring? He couldn’t wait to slam those crystals over the countertop at the reception hall of the Formation Hall.

Yang Qing’s eyes beamed with excitement at the thought. He had not had the best of experiences with that hall. He couldn’t wait to get back. He wasn’t one for petty vengeance, but that hall had made life difficult for him long enough. They deserved the comeuppance he had planned for them..

Why did they have to put countless surveillance arrays in his courtroom? Wasn’t one enough? But no, the Formation Hall, ever the overachievers, had to go and inscribe a hundred and fifteen of them; and not only that, those insidious overachievers had to go and intricately hide them behind countless layers of other arrays that masked their true function.

If you planted one hundred and fifteen surveillance arrays in someone’s work area, didn’t courtesy, decency, and decorum demand that you inform said person? That there were one hundred and fifteen arrays in his courtroom, so he would know well enough not to host a banquet of one in there, or take a well needed two or three hour break to sla— meditate, and ensure he was in the best condition possible; after all, his hands held the fate of many, and it would not do if his mind wasn’t at its most optimum.

He would have appreciated a word beforehand from his colleagues at the Formation Hall, giving him notice about those arrays so he knew well enough what not to say in that courtroom; sparing him the indignity of being left exposed before his superiors over mutinous thoughts and desires he had been harboring, which said superiors went on to punish him for, and severely at that, even if they were just thoughts.

In his book, those at the Formation Hall were also deserving of retribution.

And for cultivators who showed themselves to be quite the overachievers when it came to laying down arrays detrimental to their colleague’s emotional and mental well-being, they became quite the slackers and underachievers when that same colleague came to them for a discount on minor improvements to the arrays in his abode.

And yet the moment he asked them to put that same expertise to use, to lay down maybe one, three or four at most of those surveillance arrays in his abode, so he would be alerted whenever his gluttonous adopted bird daughter came to steal from him, or to see if his fiendish boss spied on him while he slept, because for a couple of nights there, especially during his off days, he had definitely felt a presence observing him... all of a sudden those ’masters’ from the Formation Hall would cite all manner of difficulties:

"Oh, Yang Qing, we would love to do it, but we are currently swamped. Our numbers are not that many and the duties assigned to us are many. We are stretched to our souls, Yang Qing, I hope you understand. And uhm, on the matter of the discount, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t charge you a single spirit stone. But I am just a lowly worker in this cog. I have no voice in the charges. You know how things are. It’s the Order. I would love to give you a discount, but it is difficult. My superior has to agree, and her superior has to agree, and then the superior of her superior has to agree, and the Spirit Council has to be convened, and they have to deliberate, and then the three Vice Presidents have to weigh in on the matter.

"It’s a never-ending path of approvals and deliberations, and who knows when the approval will come, if it even comes. It’s the Order, you know how they are when it comes to resources. But if it were up to me, Yang Qing, I would do it for no charge at all. Alas, since it’s not up to me, you’ll have to come up with the full amount. If you do, I promise I will handle the laying myself. There will be no scheduling or wait line; I will drop everything and do it."

Yang Qing often found himself wondering: where was that deliberation and never ending chain of approval when they were inscribing one hundred and fifteen surveillance arrays? Where was the delay? They didn’t seem particularly mindful of resources either, because if they were, he wouldn’t be sitting with one hundred and fifteen surveillance arrays in his courtroom.

The person who gave him that reply didn’t even have the decency to put some effort into his lie. Since when did making minor improvements to a low-tier blue grade array, changes that would only, only just elevate it to a middle-tier blue grade array, all of a sudden require the Spirit Council to weigh in? And as if that wasn’t enough, even the three Vice Presidents had a part in the approval process. If borrowing an ascendant grade artifact required only the approval of Old Lei or one of the old leisurely judges from the Judicial Review Committee, then how did one or two monarch grade materials all of a sudden require not only a never ending list of Formation Hall superiors, rising all the way to the Spirit Council, before stopping at the hands of the three Vice Presidents.

Four surveillance arrays requiring that level of approval and deliberation had better be able to tell the future of his abode by a few thousand years.

That figure could have just said he wasn’t willing to offer a discount rather than come out with such an obvious lie. For someone who put great consideration and effort into his excuses, it was safe to say Yang Qing felt thoroughly offended by the level of thought that had gone into the execution of that particular one.