The Geared Immortal

The Jiao's: 4

/*unedited*/

The beautiful sunny day just dispels the darkness of the night as new dawn came upon the small and once lonely courtyard. Four women are happily chatting with each other as they prepare the things they needed to do for the morning. The two maidservants of Aye Muyan have already prepared breakfast with the help of Jie Ye, while Jiyi is preparing the table along with the two kids who would always play and giggle.

The atmosphere in the small compound has become harmonious full of laughter and joy ever since Shin Jiao and his group arrived. Aye Muyan, on the other hand, has begun to gain some color on her old looking face. She also began to cultivate so that she can better protect her new son.

Knock! Knock!

"Mo… mother… can I come in?" Shin Jiao asked as he knocks on the door.

He didn't want to scan the room with his spiritual sense as a respect for the person he now calls mother.

Aye Muyan slowly opens her eyes and a faint smile crept on her lips as she likes the words that Shin Jiao said and to be called 'mother' by a son. Last night they have talked a lot of things and feel the bond between them. It is not a bond of blood, but a bond of longing for a mother and a son. This was also strengthened by the oath in their hearts that night that they would treat each other as mother and child.

"Come in… son." Aye Muyan replied as her heart warmed upon saying the word.

Shin Jiao enters the small room and turns his gaze to the middle-aged looking woman on the bed. Actually with her cultivation level, even though she is already in her 40's she can still maintain her beauty just like when she was in her 20's if she could cultivate body refining to the perfect level. Just like what Shin Jiao did.

Right now, with regards to Shin Jiao's physique, since he already reached the gold core realm, even if he reaches the age of 100 his feature would still be that in his 20's. This is because of the physical cultivation technique that he practices. When practicing it, he went through the process of experiencing pain while changing his physique, but it was well worth it.

"Are you cultivating?" Shin Jiao asked when he notices that Aye Muyan is sitting in a lotus position.

"Umm…" she nodded in response.

"Mom… if you want, I can help you reach the late stages of the gold core realm." Shin Jiao suggested.

He has some ideas on how to strengthen one's cultivation and how one can break through bottlenecks, though it requires a lot of resources. He can once again construct a Qi Pod, just like the one he made when he helped Cherry Lao repair her meridians and dantian.

When Shin Jiao said that he can help her advance in cultivation, Aye Muyan's eyes immediately glistened with excitement.

She wanted to be strong so that she can help and defend her son from all enemies. Before she was not that strong, to begin with, and was overpowered by the Jiao clan people. Plus she didn't want her family to know what's happening with her as their clan is not that strong as the Jiaos. So she can only rely on herself to protect her son.

She already noticed that Shin Jiao is emitting the aura of a gold core realm cultivator, but it seems erratic. Meaning his cultivation is not yet that stable. So this made her decide to become stronger to protect him.

"Really!? But son we don't have any resources. I can barely make do with my remaining spirit stones from the income I get in my small personal trinket store." Aye Muyan said but then feel a bit dejected.

"I know, that's why I wanted to help you. Mom, if you let me… I… I will help you make that small store of yours become better." Shin Jiao said with a resolute gaze.

"Give me three days, in those three days I will try to build something and at the same time, help you improve the sales in your small store." Shin Jiao promised.

With regards to the small trinket store that Aye Muyan has. It was a part of her personal dowry when she was married to the Jiaos. Since it didn't provide enough income, the Jiao clan just gave it to her when she was kicked out of the family.

"Okay, I believe in you." Aye Muyan said feeling a bit touched.

"Let's go out and have breakfast mom." Shin Jiao said as he walks closer to Aye Muyan and took her by the hand.

His polite action and gentle demeanor made her truly appreciate the young man. But she sighs heavily within her heart; she is happy but a little worried. What if her real son comes back? What should she do then? But this fleeting feeling didn't last long as she looks at the smiling face of Shin Jiao.

"I don't care anymore. I will have two sons then." She said resolutely in her heart making her smile with contentment.

The day was not that eventful as Shin Jiao began his plan to establish his footing in this new city. He wanted to protect the person he now considers as his mother.

He began to create rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces imbued with mystic runes. Each item has each own rune spell and enhanced miniaturized energy core. They would produce different effects and would enhance its effect 2 times the current strength of the user. Except for those above gold core realm experts, the trinkets he made are very useful and a lifesaver.

For example, an energy Shield ring. This energy shield is like a physical shield with a circumference of 2 feet in diameter. One can use it by injecting his or her Qi in the ring and the shield would appear. Now, with the enhanced energy core, the defensive capability of the ring is doubled.

Shin Jiao didn't know if these things would cause a sensation, but he didn't care. He is already confident that he can protect his own people. Plus the two women under him are not pushovers either. With Jiyi's ability to control souls, though she is still unable to turn someone into her own slave as that would take her some hundreds of years to achieve, but stunning someone or a group for a couple of seconds is something she can do easily.

Though Jie Ye herself looks gentle and kind, yet once she uses her unique flame, then she can burn even a core-forming realm cultivator to dust. But due to the constraint of mana, she is still unable to last that long in battles.

After a long day of work, Shin Jiao decided to tell them his plan. He also needed many spiritual stones as he has almost all of the stones and beast cores in his reserve while in their travel and in his gears. So it's time to earn money the hard way. He can hunt some beasts, but this is the city, the forest is located a few hundreds of kilometers away. All they have here are farmlands and trading.

As he laid out his plans, he showed them the things he made.

"Son, if what you're saying is true then would it be better if we just sell these things to the famous merchant groups? That way we can bargain more with them." Aye Muyan suggested as she held one of the bracelets in her hand.

This bracelet can let her absorb 3 times the Qi in the surroundings. In her estimate, it would cost around 5 thousand or more low-grade spirit stones.

"Mom, we can do that, but those greedy merchants would begin targeting us, which would be more troublesome." Shin Jiao said.

"What I want to do is to sell this in secret. If you see someone who can afford it, then sell these things to them in secret, that way our target customer would be those with high status. And… this would lower the chance for many people in stealing our goods. Dealing with one or two clans is easy for us. But if we attract the attention of many, then that would be a problem." Shin Jiao explained.

Actually, at first, he wanted to show this to the Rock's Eye merchant group, but he changed his mind as they would be his last recourse of action. If worst comes to worst, he can just sell these things to them and be done with it.

But of course, Shin Jiao still wanted to do this to improve the life of his new mother and to show his filial piety to her as a son.

After some instruction and argument, they decided to just follow Shin Jiao's plan.

That nest day, Shin Jiao along with Aye Muyan and her two maids went to the market area and arrived at her small trinket store. The small store is not big, it's only around 10x15 in size and open shelves and hanging racks are on the wall with many different kinds of trinkets. When Shin Jiao saw this he immediately scanned the things with his spiritual sense and shook his head.

The things sold in the store are just ordinary trinkets without any effects. They are just used for decoration and accessories for mortals and ordinary cultivators.

But before they can reach the store, he noticed that there is some commotion that's happening inside.