Over the next two days Xiao Yun refined his process. He was no alchemist, but he applied the logic of his past life’s chemistry. He used a repurposed alchemy cauldron and carefully controlled the temperature. He painstakingly filtered the caustic ash water and used a mix of high-quality beast tallow and fragrant oils. His masterstroke was infusing the final product with essential oils he bought for cheap from various shops. The resulting bars were smooth, pearlescent and smelled of jasmine and osmanthus.

  He wrapped them in simple oiled paper and presented a crate of fifty to Fatty Wang. Everything was ready, it was time to put the plan into action.

  “Now Fatty, go forth and conquer!” Xiao Yun slapped Wang Jun’s back.

  Fatty Wang, filled with a sense of purpose he hadn't felt since he'd won a bun eating contest at the age of eleven, embarked on his mission. He was the picture of inconspicuousness, if your idea of inconspicuous was a large and well-dressed young man sweating profusely and trying to act casual while hugging a crate.

  His first stop was the Drunken Pheonix Pavilion/brothel. He didn't ask for a ‘companion’ like he usually would but instead for the proprietress herself, Madam Yue. She was a good looking woman in her mid-forties, all dolled up, wearing slightly excessive makeup and a revealing dress. He presented her with a small brocaded box.

  "Please accept this humble gift Madam Yue." he said, bowing slightly. "A trifle for you and your lovely flowers to try. A new cleansing balm from a reclusive master."

  Madam Yue was a woman of rich experience, who could smell a scheme from a mile away. Looking at Wang Jun’s round smiling face then at the brocade box, she raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. She knew that Fatty was up to something but the fragrance wafting from the box was pleasant enough. Additionally, she knew Wang Jun well. He was a longtime customer, a bit of a buffoon maybe but he shouldn’t have any nefarious intentions. She accepted with a slight smile. "You are too kind Young Master Wang."

  Next, he found the laundress, Old Auntie Chen and pressed a few bars into her hands along with a hefty pouch of silver taels. "Here auntie, a gift for your hard work. And maybe you could pass one to your cousin at the City Lord's mansion? Say it's a new tribute from a lesser-known sect, very exclusive." Speaking in low whisper, Wang Jun’s small eyes shone with cunning.

  He repeated this process across the city, giving bars to the grooms at the main post-house, the dishwashers at the most popular restaurants and the attendants at the bathhouse. He was clumsy, obvious and his stories changed with every telling but one constant was the undeniable quality of the soap.

  The first ripple appeared three days later. Xiao Lian cornered Xiao Yun in the courtyard. She didn't say anything but simply threw a small pouch at him. It jingled with the sound of spirit stones.

  "What's this for?" he asked in a surprised tone.

  "For more of the... cleansing bars." she said refusing to meet his eyes. "Get me the pale yellow one. The jasmine one. My skin... feels better. And the scar doesn't itch after I sweat." She turned on her heel and marched away before he could see the faint flush on her cheeks.

  Xiao Yun grinned. The beta test was a resounding success. He opened up the pouch. There were 5 oval shaped smooth white stones, with what looked like small pieces of blue ore stuck inside the core. It had a faint glow.

  “Holy shit, she gave me five low grade spirit stones! That’s an exorbitant price for a few bars of soap isn’t it?” Thinking for a little while he realized that she most likely wanted to thank him for his help with her heart demon as well and maybe help him push his business forward. Which was unnecessary from his perspective, but he still gladly accepted. These stones would go to his future investment fund.

  From his days researching in the library, Xiao Yun had learned even the lowest grade spirit stone was worth a fortune from an ordinary person’s perspective. An ordinary mortal peasant in this world would make less than twenty bronze taels each month. One silver tael was worth ten bronze, and one gold tael was worth ten silver. Even the lowest quality spirit stone is worth about three or four gold taels, meaning more than a year’s income for an ordinary peasant. And cultivators treated them like batteries, someone at the peak of Qi gathering stage like Xiao Lian could easily absorb these five spirit stones per month, which would both help replenish any lost spiritual energy and advance her cultivation.

  While the poor had to resort to using their own cultivation techniques to absorb Qi from the world around them, which was twenty to thirty times less effective than directly absorbing Qi from a spirit stone, depending on one’s talent. If it took someone 5 days to fully absorb the energy from a spirit stone, it would take about three months to absorb the same amount of energy from the world around them. It looked like being wealthy did indeed give one an unfair advantage no matter which world you were from.

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  Soon, other ripples followed. At the Drunken Phoenix Pavilion, the ladies discovered the soap lathered into a rich, fragrant foam that left their skin feeling silky and soft, a world away from the harsh lye soaps and herbal concoctions they secretly used. Clients started noticing. "Peony, you smell heavenly today and your skin is so smooth. Your hair is shining! What has happened to you, did you take a beautifying pill or something?" The courtesan only giggled and refused to give a straight answer. “Oh it’s just my natural beauty shining through, why, are you saying I wasn’t as pretty before~?” She said with feigned hurt feelings. “No, no! Ah, what am I saying, you’re as pretty as you’ve always been.” Said the lecherous customer, which elicited some giggles from Peony.

  At the City Lord's mansion the head valet, a man of immense and subtle power within the servant hierarchy tried the bar his niece had given him. He was astonished. It washed away the grime and horse-smell from his hands in seconds, leaving a faint floral scent. He immediately confiscated the rest of his niece's supply for his own personal use, deciding it was too good for the lower servants.

  The whispers started as murmurs then grew into a steady current of gossip. No one knew what to call it. "The Fragrant Jade Bar." "The Alchemist's Cleansing Paste." "That magical washing thing from Young Master Wang."

  The rumors became more and more fantastical.

  "I heard it's not made, it's condensed." one merchant whispered to another over tea. "A fourth-grade alchemist condenses morning dew and the essence of a thousand flowers into a solid form."

  "Nonsense!" his companion replied haughtily. "My wife’s seamstress heard from a bathhouse attendant that it’s refined from the spiritual marrow of a Moon-Gazing Beast. It not only cleanses the skin but slightly purifies the meridians with each use!"

  The name that finally stuck was "Mystic Cleansing Jade." It was elegant, mysterious and sounded expensive. Soon requests began to trickle back to their source. Madam Yue sent a polite message to Fatty Wang asking if his "reclusive master" had any more "trifles" for sale. The head valet from the City Lord's mansion dispatched a junior servant to discreetly inquire at the shops for a "cleansing paste that was tribute-quality." The shopkeepers of course had never heard of it.

  The tipping point came a week later. Wang Shu, patriarch of the Wang family and father of Fatty Wang was meeting with an important client, a steward from the influential Soaring Sword Sect. Wang Shu looked like an older, but no less skinny version of Wang Jun. He was currently talking to an elegantly dressed man with an imposing demeanor.

  "And finally Steward Peng." Wang Shu said with a practiced smile. "Is there anything else our humble shops can provide for you?"

  The stern-faced steward stroked his beard thoughtfully. "There is one thing. The young mistress has heard a rumor of a new local specialty. Something called... a 'Mystic Cleansing Jade'. It is said to be a miraculous cleansing treasure, favored by the ladies of the City Lord's own household. Would you happen to have some?"

  Wang Shu's smile froze. He had built his small empire on knowing every product, every trend and every whisper of commerce in Fallen Star City. That’s how he was able to stay competitive and not get crushed by larger merchants. And he had never even heard of the product. It was a humiliating admission.

  "I... am not familiar with that particular treasure Steward Peng." he managed to blurt, his face flushing. "A new item you say? Perhaps from a traveling merchant?"

  "No, the rumors say it is the work of a local master alchemist." the steward said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "A pity. The young mistress was most insistent. Well, no matter. I should check other shops, maybe they’ll have it." Those words struck Wang Shu like a dagger through the heart.

  After the steward left, Wang Shu's face was thunderous. A new and high-demand luxury item appearing in his city right under his nose? Without him knowing anything about it!? Unacceptable! He summoned his chief accountant.

  "Find out what this 'Mystic Cleansing Jade' is and who is making it! I want to know everything!" he roared.

  The accountant, a man who survived by being exceptionally well-informed, paled slightly. "Patriarch I have been hearing the whispers myself. The source seems... elusive. However, all the initial gifts seem to have been distributed by... by the Third Young Master." He added hesitantly.

  Wang Shu stopped cold. His brow furrowed in disbelief, which slowly morphed into a complex expression of incandescent rage and dawning and eventually into avaricious comprehension. He thought of his useless wastrel third son who was always pestering him about some new, worthless scheme or some extra allowance. He thought of the smelly, lumpy bar his son had tried to show him just a few weeks ago.

  "Find. My. Son! Send everyone you can. I don’t care which brothel you have to drag him out of, bring him here!" Wang Shu growled, the words grinding out between his teeth. "This instant!"

  A sudden manhunt was underway, and its only target was cheerfully oblivious.

  Across the city in Xiao Yun’s courtyard, he and Fatty Wang were counting a small pile of spirit stones, Xiao Lian’s payment and the proceeds from a few secret sales Fatty Wang had made to desperate acquaintances.

  "It's working Brother Yun! It's actually working!" Fatty Wang cheered enthusiastically, his entire body jiggling with excitement.

  Xiao Yun showed a small satisfied smile. "Phase one is complete Fatty. Now we wait for the big fish to bite."

  He had no idea that at that very moment, the so-called big fish in the city's merchant sea was dispatching hunters, and his dear old friend was about to be summoned for the most terrifying business/family meeting of his life.