Chapter 10: The Unwilling Customer
News traveled fast in the countryside, carried on the relieved sighs of farmers and the hopeful whispers of hunters. The tale of the Fallow Willow Village and the celestial shopkeeper who slew their monster when the city turned its back spread like summer fire through dry grass. It was a story told not with the awe reserved for immortal masters, but with the gritty gratitude of common folk.
This new reputation arrived at the Celestial Vault not in the form of spirit stones, but in produce. A basket of perfect spirit-peaches, their skin glowing with faint qi, appeared by the door one morning. The next day, a haunch of expertly smoked Silver-Horn Stag meat was left as an offering. The villagers had no stones, but they paid their debt in the only currency they had: gratitude and the finest fruits of their land.
Li Wei accepted it all with a quiet nod. The System analyzed each gift, labeling them as 'Tribute' and adding them to a new, non-monetary ledger. The boycott within the city walls held firm, but a new, silent network of support was growing outside of it.
It was this very network that delivered the Vault's next, most unlikely customer.
A sleek, expensive carriage, marked with the sigil of the Alchemist Guild, raced down the rural road, its driver whipping the spirit-horses into a froth. Inside, Madam Luo clutched a sealed jade box to her chest, her face pale, her usual composure shattered. Her mission was one of desperate, secretive urgency.
The carriage shuddered violently. There was a deafening SNAP as an axle, strained by the brutal pace, broke on a rut in the road. The carriage lurched and crashed onto its side, sliding into the ditch with a groan of splintering wood.
Madam Luo was thrown against the wall, the jade box flying from her grasp. She scrambled for it, her heart in her throat, just as a low, menacing growl echoed from the treeline.
A pack of Shadow Weavers emerged from the gloom. They were wolf-like, but larger, their fur the color of charcoal and ash, seeming to drink the light around them. Their eyes glowed with a faint purple malevolence. They were low-level spirit beasts, but a pack of them was a death sentence for a core-forming alchemist without her protective entourage.
Her guards, thrown from the driver's seat, were already fending off two of the beasts, their shouts of alarm cut short. She was alone.
Trembling, she drew a dagger from her robe—a beautiful, useless thing meant for cutting herbs, not flesh. The lead Shadow Weaver stalked toward her, saliva dripping from its fangs.
This was it. The end of everything. Her status, her wealth, her guild—none of it mattered here in the dirt.
Then she remembered the story. The village elder's testimony, repeated by her own servants. The shop that helped when the city would not.
With a final, desperate prayer, she focused her will and screamed a name into the twilight air, not knowing if it would work, if it was even real.
"CELESTIAL VAULT! I SEEK A CONTRACT!"
The air in front of her shimmered.
The lead Shadow Weaver pounced.
And was met in mid-air by a silent, descending fist of dark iron.
The Iron Sentinel landed between her and the beasts with a impact that shook the ground. It moved with brutal, efficient grace. It did not wield its halberd. It didn't need to. Its plated fist shot out, caving in the skull of the first beast. It backhanded another, the force of the blow snapping its spine. The remaining Weavers, sensing a power so far beyond them, whimpered and fled into the shadows.
In five seconds, it was over. The Sentinel stood amidst the carnage, its runes glowing softly, utterly untouched by blood or gore.
Madam Luo stared, her breath caught in her throat, her herb-dagger hanging uselessly from her hand. The stories had not done it justice. This was not a cultivator. This was a force of nature.
The Sentinel turned its blank helmet toward her. It did not offer a hand. It simply waited.
A familiar, glowing contract appeared in the air before her.
[ Emergency Defense Contract Offered. ] [ Threat: Shadow Weaver Pack. Status: Neutralized. ] [ Service Fee: 200 Low-Grade Spirit Stones. ] [ Do you accept? Y/N ]
She stared at the text. Two hundred stones. It was a pittance for her life, but the humiliation was a pill more bitter than any she had ever concocted. To be saved by the very entity she was trying to destroy. To owe it a debt.
A low growl from the woods reminded her that the danger was not entirely past. Her fingers shaking, she infused her qi into the contract, sealing it.
The Sentinel gave a single, curt nod. Then it bent down, picked up her fallen jade box, and handed it to her with an almost polite delicacy that was more unnerving than its violence. Its task complete, it vanished as silently as it had arrived.
Madam Luo was left alone in the ditch with the wreckage of her carriage, the bodies of the spirit beasts, and the crushing weight of her debt.
She arrived at the Celestial Vault an hour later, on foot, her fine robes torn and smudged with dirt. She looked nothing like the powerful guild master. She looked like a lost, tired woman.
She walked through the obsidian door without a word, marched up to the counter where Li Wei stood, and slammed a pouch of spirit stones down. It contained far more than two hundred.
"The fee," she said, her voice tight, refusing to meet his eyes.
Li Wei willed the system to take the exact amount. The rest remained on the counter.
"I do not require tips, Madam Luo," he said, his voice neutral. "The contract was for two hundred. The balance is yours."
The courtesy was a deeper insult than any overcharge. It stated that her money was no different than anyone else's. That she was just another customer.
She finally looked at him, her eyes blazing with a mixture of fury, shame, and reluctant awe. "This changes nothing between our organizations," she hissed.
"Of course not," Li Wei replied calmly. "This was merely a transaction. The Celestial Vault is happy to serve all customers, regardless of their personal feelings. Would you like to pre-purchase a subscription for future emergency services? I offer a discount for bulk purchases."
The offer was so absurd, so utterly mercenary, that it stole the anger from her. She could only stare at him. He wasn't gloating. He wasn't threatening. He was just... doing business. It was terrifying.
Without another word, she turned on her heel and fled the shop, the memory of the iron fist and the polite, monstrous shopkeeper burned into her mind.
Back inside, a new notification glowed with a sense of deep satisfaction.
[ Boycott Broken. ] [ High-Profile Customer Acquired: Madam Luo (Alchemist Guild Master). ] [ Quest 'Break the Boycott' Complete. ] [ Reward: 'Discreet Delivery' Service Unlocked. Customers can now summon a Guardian for item retrieval/delivery for a 10% fee, bypassing public scrutiny. ]
Li Wei allowed himself a small, cold smile. The guilds had tried to strangle him with rules and social pressure. In return, he had not just broken their boycott; he had turned one of their leaders into a reluctant, paying customer. The irony was more valuable than any spirit stone.
The foundation of their alliance was now cracked. And Madam Luo had to live with the knowledge that her life was worth two hundred stones and a contract with the man she despised.