Chapter 94: Debts
Jin Wei had inherited very little of his father's appearance.
Yun Che had occasionally wondered where Jin Wei's easy smile, lean build and seemingly endless desire to talk had come from, because none of them were particularly visible in Jin Haoran, master of the Azure Wolf Consortium. The man sitting behind the enormous ironwood desk looked less like one of the wealthiest merchants in Goldriver and more like someone who had conquered the building and decided to keep it. He was broad enough to make the high-backed chair seem undersized, with thick arms, dark hair beginning to grey around the temples and hard red eyes that seemed permanently dissatisfied with whatever happened to be in front of them. He wore no armor now, only a dark merchant's robe trimmed discreetly in silver, but Elder Ruan remembered very well what Jin Haoran had looked like in armor. There had been a time when merchants had not been the first thing people associated with his name. In his youth, Jin Haoran had wandered across Cangyun in black armor, fighting bandits, rogue cultivators, criminal clans and occasionally people who merely had the misfortune of irritating him badly enough. The newspapers had called him the Dark Hero of Cangyun. His enemies had called him considerably less flattering things.
Then he had married a princess.
The story became much less dramatic after that.
His father had wanted him to inherit the family business, his new wife had abandoned the extraordinary luxury of a royal household to live with him, and Jin Haoran had apparently decided that if she was willing to make that sacrifice, he could at least ensure she never regretted it. He exchanged wandering for commerce with the same aggression he had once applied to battle. Under him, the Azure Wolf Consortium expanded into new cities, new industries and eventually maritime trade. People who had once feared his sword learned to fear his contracts instead.
Jin Wei stood before the desk with Elder Ruan and Elder Liang while his father finished reading the preliminary report.
He placed it down.
"You lost a carriage."
Elder Ruan nodded. "Yes."
"Four others suffered structural damage."
"Yes."
"All Mountain Chargers died."
"Yes."
"Multiple employees were injured. A portion of the shipment was destroyed. You attracted hostility from three sects, were nearly caught in a regional hunt, encountered a seventh-stage Foundation Realm wyvern, and arrived ten days behind the preferred schedule."
Elder Ruan's jaw tightened.
"Yes."
Jin Haoran's red eyes lifted from the report.
"And all of this began because you failed to control one child."
The room became very quiet.
Jin Wei opened his mouth.
Elder Liang spoke first. "That is an oversimplification."
"Is it?"
"The wyvern encounter was unrelated."
"Which is why I did not blame you for the wyvern."
Jin Haoran leaned back. "I am blaming you for allowing a member of your caravan to announce that he intended to enter a dangerous hunt, leave despite your objections, interfere with that hunt, return as a wanted man and then remain hidden among company property while sect cultivators searched for him."
Elder Ruan's expression darkened. "He was not one of my soldiers."
"He was traveling under your protection."
"He left against my order."
"Then your protection should have ended when he left."
Jin Wei immediately stepped forward. "Father."
Jin Haoran looked at him.
Jin Wei knew that expression.
He hated that expression.
"He wasn't acting normally. It was his first real journey, and the Abyss Seed was affecting him. You know what those things do. Yun Che wouldn't normally make a decision like that."
"I know."
That stopped Jin Wei.
His father picked up another page.
"I have read the medical report. I have also read Elder Liang's account of entering his mental space. The Seed explains the sudden deterioration in his judgment."
Jin Wei relaxed slightly.
Jin Haoran continued.
"It does not erase the consequences."
And there it was.
Jin Wei sighed.
Jin Haoran's eyes returned to Elder Ruan. "You made mistakes. You also prevented those mistakes from becoming considerably worse. Protecting the caravan during the stampede was well handled. Preserving four of the five remaining carriages under those circumstances was better than I would have expected."
Coming from Jin Haoran, that was almost enthusiastic praise.
"The financial loss is manageable," he continued. "More importantly, you kept most of my people alive. People can earn more money. Dead employees are considerably harder to replace."
Elder Ruan's mouth twitched.
Jin Haoran looked at Elder Liang. "Your judgment in concealing the boys until the situation could be properly heard was also correct. Had they surrendered within sect territory, I doubt we would be discussing community service tomorrow."
Jin Wei looked at his father.
"So we're helping Yun Che?"
"Of course."
Jin Wei smiled.
Jin Haoran continued calmly, "He will repay us."
The smile disappeared.
"Father."
Jin Haoran ignored him and looked at Elder Liang. "Between protection, damaged property, emergency supplies, materials purchased on credit and the legal resources we are now committing to his case, what would you consider an appropriate repayment period?"
Elder Liang stroked his beard.
"Depending upon the work—"
"Father, please don't do this."
Jin Haoran finally looked at his son.
"Do what?"
"You know exactly what you're doing."
"I am conducting business."
"With my best friend."
"That does not make him exempt from debt."
"He almost died!"
"And?"
Jin Wei stared at him.
Jin Haoran's expression remained hard, but his voice lowered slightly.
"I am helping him precisely because he is your friend. Do not confuse help with charity. He borrowed resources. My people protected him. My lawyers will represent him. My influence will be used on his behalf. I expect something of equivalent value in return."
"He doesn't have money."
"I don't want his money."
That made Jin Wei suspicious.
His father had noticed Yun Che long before this journey. Not because Yun Che was the finest blacksmith in Mistforge—he wasn't—but because Jin Haoran valued profitable ideas considerably more than beautiful swords. Bicycles. Specialized armor. Mechanical designs. Strange weapons. Manufacturing concepts. Yun Che approached problems differently from local craftsmen, and Jin Haoran had wanted access to that mind for years.
"We could employ him," Elder Liang suggested.
Jin Haoran nodded.
Jin Wei groaned.
"How many years are you planning to ask for?"
His father considered it.
"That depends upon what he produces."
"Father."
"Jin Wei."
"Please don't turn saving my friend into a recruitment strategy."
Jin Haoran's eyebrow rose.
"Why would I waste a perfectly good recruitment strategy?"
Even Elder Ruan looked away to hide the beginning of a smile.
Yun Che took the news much better than Jin Wei expected.
They were eating lunch in one of the Consortium dining halls when Jin Wei finally told him. Lin Xia was elsewhere arranging her letter home, while Lei Zhenyu had disappeared into the training grounds after discovering that the Consortium employed several retired cultivators. That left the two of them with bowls of rice, roasted river fish, vegetables and a conversation Jin Wei had been postponing for nearly ten minutes.
"My father wants repayment."
Yun Che continued eating.
"Obviously."
Jin Wei blinked.
"Obviously?"
Yun Che looked at him. "Your company transported me, protected me, hid me from sect cultivators, gave me materials on credit, lost property during the journey and is now paying people to keep me out of prison."
"Well... yes."
"Why would that be free?"
Jin Wei stared.
"I thought you'd be angry."
"Why?"
"Because my father is trying to turn your disaster into a business opportunity."
Yun Che considered this while chewing.
"That part sounds familiar."
Very familiar, actually.
He had spent an entire previous life in a capitalist society. Debt being converted into labor was considerably less surprising than dragons, cultivation or butterflies capable of insulting him telepathically.
"What does he want?"
"He suggested employment."
Yun Che immediately frowned.
"Manufacturing?"
"No. He knows you'd hate that."
"Good."
"Design work. Research. Product development. Basically, he wants you in the Consortium's design division as a designer and... he called it a think tank."
Yun Che slowly lowered his chopsticks.
That was considerably more tempting.
He imagined sitting in an office again.
Then imagined meetings.
Schedules.
Reports.
Corporate management.
He felt an ancient pain awaken inside him.
"Am I really going back to a corporate job in my second life?"
Jin Wei laughed.
"It's not that bad."
"People always say that immediately before explaining why it is that bad."
"You'd have resources."
Yun Che paused.
Jin Wei knew he had him.
"Workshops."
Yun Che's expression changed slightly.
"Materials."
A little more.
"Company craftsmen."
Silence.
"Researchers."
Yun Che looked down at his food.
"And we'd be working in the same place," Jin Wei added. "At least while you're in Goldriver."
Yun Che sighed.
"I'll think about it."
That was enough for now.
The legal hearing took place that afternoon.
Goldriver's regional court was nothing like Yun Che had expected from a cultivation world. There was no elder sitting on a throne declaring justice according to personal mood. The courtroom was formal, bureaucratic and irritatingly familiar. Records had been collected. Witness testimony had been transcribed. Crystal recordings from cultivators present at the hunt had been submitted. Representatives from the Violet Lightning Hall, Gale Cloud Pavilion and Mystic Metal Dao Palace occupied one side with their legal advocates. Yun Che and Lei Zhenyu sat opposite them with Jin Wei, Elder Ruan, Elder Liang and representatives retained by the Azure Wolf Consortium.
The facts were unpleasant for almost everyone.
The Stormcrest Thunder Tiger had killed people.
Multiple settlements had suffered attacks during its movements through the region. The Nine Heavens Stormheart Pearl had been stolen from a shrine under regional protection. The tiger's increasing strength represented a legitimate danger.
Yun Che felt sick hearing it confirmed.
But the case against him was considerably weaker than the sect representatives had claimed.
The killings had not been common knowledge.
No public notice identifying the Stormcrest Thunder Tiger as a confirmed man-eater had been properly distributed through Rivergate before the hunt. The sect coalition had known more than the independent cultivators entering the stormlands, yet had failed to establish a controlled perimeter. No exclusion zone had been maintained. No proper checkpoints had prevented outsiders from wandering into an active hunt for a dangerous criminal beast carrying a major nature artifact.
Worse, the Nine Heavens Stormheart Pearl did not belong to any of the sects.
That mattered.
Quite a lot.
One of the judges looked down at the sect representatives.
"You organized an armed operation around a dangerous Foundation Realm beast, permitted unaffiliated cultivators to enter the operational area, failed to communicate the target's history adequately and then attempted to impose sect authority upon individuals outside your jurisdiction after your formation collapsed."
The Violet Lightning Hall advocate rose.
"Honored Judge, regardless of procedural failures, the defendants knowingly assisted the target after witnessing our attempts to restrain it."
"That is why they are also being judged."
The man sat down.
The court found fault on both sides.
The sect coalition would face sanctions for mishandling the hunt and for actions committed during the subsequent pursuit. Their authority to lead another multi-faction regional hunt was suspended pending further review.
Yun Che did not escape punishment either.
Neither did Lei Zhenyu.
They had consciously interfered after seeing that an organized hunt was underway. Whatever their motives, they had released a dangerous creature from restraint and obstructed cultivators lawfully attempting to capture it. Ignorance reduced culpability.
It did not eliminate it.
Under Goldriver law, reckless interference in a sanctioned regional operation without malicious intent normally carried restitution, supervised service, or both.
But, because Yun lacked the money to satisfy full restitution, six months of supervised service was imposed.
Community service in Goldriver was assigned according to a cultivator's abilities. For six months, Yun Che and Lei Zhenyu would be required to perform whatever supervised public duties the city considered appropriate to their cultivation, skills and professions.
Yun Che almost sagged with relief.
Six months.
Work.
That was it.
No imprisonment. No cultivation restrictions. No enormous fine he could not pay. Most importantly, nobody was going to execute him.
The sect representatives were considerably less pleased.
Their advocates challenged the sentence immediately, arguing that the consequences justified harsher punishment. That proved unwise. The judges responded by revisiting the conduct of the pursuit, including attacks made after Yun Che and Lei had attempted to flee and questions regarding whether excessive force had been used against two young cultivators whose identities had already been established.
Their lawyers became much quieter after that.
By the time Yun Che walked outside, sunlight had never looked quite so pleasant.
"We're free."
Elder Liang glanced at him.
"Not exactly."
"Six months of community service compared with what I was expecting? I'm calling that free."
Elder Ruan gave him a long look.
"Do not celebrate yet."
Yun Che's smile weakened.
Jin Wei knew what was coming.
Elder Liang folded his hands behind his back.
"The judgment was fair. Obtaining a fair judgment was not automatic."
Yun Che understood immediately.
"Your father."
Jin Wei grimaced. "Partly."
"The sects arrived with influence," Elder Liang said. "So did we. Lord Shen's office had already communicated its interest in the matter, and Master Jin's people ensured the court received every record favorable to your position and every violation committed during the pursuit."
Yun Che was silent.
"So I owe him again."
"Yes."
Yun Che sighed.
His debt appeared to possess a cultivation technique of its own.
Yet something more important remained in Elder Liang's words.
Yun Che looked back at the courthouse.
In his previous world, he had known perfectly well that law did not exist separately from wealth, connections, reputation and access to competent representation. He had simply never expected his second life to teach him the same lesson so directly.
Strength was not only cultivation.
It wasn't only being able to defeat the person standing opposite you.
Lord Shen's name had protected him without Lord Shen being present. Jin Haoran's money and influence had fought for him without the former Dark Hero drawing a weapon. The Consortium's lawyers had turned evidence into protection as effectively as Bao Kun turned Ki into barriers.
Yun Che had spent years thinking about how to make stronger armor.
He had spent considerably less time thinking about what happened when the threat could not be cut.
He looked toward Goldriver beyond the courthouse steps. Ships moved between its buildings. Merchant towers rose above canals. Guilds, noble families, sect offices and commercial powers occupied entire districts.
A different battlefield.
One his sword could do very little about.
Yun Che exhaled slowly.
Six months of community service.
A mountain of debt.
A possible job.
A damaged reputation.
And absolutely no desire to resume traveling anytime soon.
Perhaps stopping in Goldriver was not merely convenient.
Perhaps it was exactly what he needed.
For the first time since leaving Mistforge, Yun Che had encountered a kind of power that could not be measured by how hard someone could hit.
And he intended to learn how it worked.