Biyu hummed to herself as the cart she was in ran smoothly down the road with not a single bump to jostle it. Today had been quite enjoyable so far. She got to give Mr. Chun Ke a nice looking neck-tie, folded into a triangle. It was honestly a bit hard to make it look good with how monstrously thick his neck was, but Biyu had managed it, the entire thing giving the cute piggy an adorably rakish air. He had liked it so much he had given her kisses—and then asked politely what she could recommend for his ‘pretty wife’ in that not-speech Spirit Beasts used.

Biyu had, of course, caved immediately at the thought of a matching set, and gotten a second one in a light purple. She remembered Pi Pa from Yun Ren’s recordings, and purple seemed like it would work well on her.

They had pretty good prices in town too—it was actually slightly less expensive for the quality of silk, and the colours were all local things. Whoever made the silk brocades had good taste!

After his meeting had finished, Jin had come to find her and ask her if she was ready to leave. She was, she just had to get the prototype packed onto Jin’s cart. The man had insisted once again that she just call him Jin because Yun Ren was his good friend.

She was still getting used to being allowed to call such an honored Master their name..

“Hey, you seem a natural at this already.” Master Jin—er, just Jin, interrupted her thoughts with a smile as he ran alongside the cart. “Most people are a bit more intimidated going this fast.”

“Yun Ren carried me up to Cloudrest like this.” Biyu replied, and Jin’s smile got warmer and knowing. Biyu flushed.

That had been a fantastic trip. It had only been a day, but watching the countryside speed by and then climbing up the giant hill had been amazing. It had been a bit hard to breathe up there, but any discomfort had fallen away as she saw the curve of Pale Moon Lake and the entirety of her home city and the farmland stretching out before her.

It was then when she realised why Yun Ren loved recording things so much—but in the end, despite Yun teaching her how to use the light to take a truly spectacular recording of the landscape… she had ended up taking one of him.

His beautiful amber eyes open wide, rather than his perpetual squint. The look of wonder and exhilaration that took over his face.

It was her favourite image of him. Well, that one and the one when she had convinced him to wear a dress and she had put makeup on him. Yun made a very convincing and very pretty girl, if Biyu said so herself— and then he had slammed his hands on either side of her head and pinned her against the wall and—

Biyu shook her head vigorously and dispelled the image, her cheeks pink.

Jin laughed at her expression. “Well, it is good to see you again. Thanks for getting Chun Ke his new neckerchief. He looks good!” Biyu smiled at the complement. “Now, how have you been?”

“Busy, mostly. Master Jing pushed me on this trip because he said I needed a break! Said that eighteen hour days are too much!”

The man turned to her, his eyes suddenly devoid of any light.

“...You’ve been working eighteen hour days.”

“Yes! I wish I could work longer—this project is just so interesting!”

And so Biyu complained about her unreasonable Master forcing breaks upon her. Jin was very easy to talk to. Honestly, the big man felt just a bit like her own father, jovial and easy to make laugh. Like a big friendly dog.

Now that she really looked at him, past the giant muscles, he was kind of cute too. Those laugh lines, combined with his smile…

Well, a plan for later, anyway! She had to keep her hands busy and warmed up, lest her accuracy rust.

The cart rolled onwards, until they started slowing down as they approached a village.

“What place is this?” Biyu asked.

“Hong Yaowu.” Jin replied.

“Really? It looks so much different than the recordings.” Biyu mused. “That's Elder Hong’s house, though, that's similar…” Biyu said as she started to place the buildings. It looked a lot different. Like a completely different village, compared to the one Yun Ren had shown her. The place where he had grown up— “Wait. Yun Ren’s parents live here.”

“Yup.” Jin said cheerfully.

Biyu stared at the man as a brief moment of panic welled up in her throat, before she forced it down. She had considered the possibility…

There was little time to truly get herself ready when Jin shouted out:

“Hey, everybody! I’ve got a visitor!”

Biyu took a deep breath and let it out.

“Hello!” she shouted, her voice cracking a little bit as she stood up and waved. The villagers paused in their work, and two in particular froze up completely.

“Hey-o, Miss Biyu!” Gou Ren called, smiling brightly at her.

Yun Ren did a double take, his eyes widening comically.

“Biyu!” he shouted as his face split into a smile.

“Yun!” Biyu shouted, waving at her man.

She jumped from the top of the carriage and he caught her, swinging her around in three loops as she giggled. His arms were strong and tight around her back.

For a brief moment, there was nothing but that, until Yun Ren pulled back to get a good look at her.

“I wasn’t expecting you here, love.” he whispered.

“Master Jing told me I had to come.” she admitted.

“We should try that. Prepare yourself, Gou Ren!” a woman’s voice, loud and strong, interrupted them before Yun could say anything else.

Biyu blinked as she looked at the tall woman who was standing beside Gou Ren. Biyu recognised her. She did, after all, have a Liu Xianghua doll. It was probably the best one Heavenly Delights had produced last year, coming with an accessory without an extra charge. It was a good move, in Biyu’s opinion, but as always the quality of Heavenly Delights left something to be desired. Biyu had, of course, carved a better furnace accessory herself after examining the images Yun had shown her.

Gou Ren started scratching his chin. “Okay, but how many spins?” he asked Xianghua, whose eyes widened. She too began thinking.

“Three seems an optimal number, but we shall test many variations.” the woman decided.

“Speed and angle as well?” Gou Ren asked.

“But of course!” the stately woman decreed, before her eyes turned to Biyu. “Greetings, Sister-in-Law!” She boomed.

And then the pretty cultivator marched up and gave Biyu a hug just shy of bone cracking.

“Uh… nice to meet you too?” Biyu wheezed out, absolutely confused.

“Indeed! It is an Honour to meet my Brother’s woman! But first, you have to meet Honoured Mother and Honoured Father, and receive their blessings!”

With that, Biyu was released and Xianghua marched right up to a middle-aged couple. Both of them opened their own arms to receive the same hug as the cultivator whispered in their ears.

Biyu tentatively trailed behind her, but paused when the woman who could only be Yun Ren’s mother looked at her… and sighed.

“How the Hells do our boys keep pullin’ girls so beyond them?” the woman asked her husband.

“Oh, I think it runs in the family.” The monkey-looking man replied with a grin.

The fox-faced woman flushed slightly. “Dumbass.” The words were without heat, and her squinted eyes opened fully.

They were the same beautiful amber that Yun Ren had.

============================================

It was late in the afternoon when they finally got to Jin’s home, not that Biyu minded it. Hu Li and Ten Ren were both quite laid back and easy to get along with. Hells, even Xianghua, who insisted on calling Biyu Sister, was nice, if a bit strange.

She got the feeling that Xianghua was being completely serious in calling the two middle-aged mortals Honoured Mother and Honoured Father, and treating them like they were her own parents—and Hu Li and Ten Ren treated her like she was their daughter.

Jin had just looked on, finding the whole thing amusing.

Then, they had gone to Jin’s house—where she had met Meiling, who insisted on being called Meimei, and the rest of the cute creatures. She had gotten to hug Yin and Ri Zu again, and Mrs. Pi Pa had complimented her colour choice for the cloth tied around Mr. Chun Ke’s neck. Mr. Huo Ten was doing well for himself as well, and said that he had good news for her Master, as well as his, on the origins of their founders.

Honestly, it was easier to process everything since she had already seen most of it through Yun Ren’s recordings and stories.

All in all, aside from the talking animals, and the fact that the fish had popped and turned into a dragon, everything seemed… well, it seemed like it was going well.

The only thing she could say was odd was the nice guards who all looked incredibly pale, and seemed to be trying to keep themselves on the other side of Jin from Meimei.

But now… now she was ready for the real reason why she was here! Yun Ren helped her set up. He had looked a bit confused on why she needed a box full of rocks, be he had helped her out anyway.

Biyu took a deep breath and let it out, then turned to her audience. She recognised everybody except for the old man lounging on the couch and using Mr. Chun Ke as a foot rest.

…Probably Jin’s grdanfather. The presentation was originally supposed to be for Yun Ren and Jin only, but, well, there was surely no harm in the expanded audience, especially family.

Two hands on the box, Biyu kept her eyes closed and focused. Then, snapping open the box and retrieving the recording crystal, Biyu launched into her presentation.

“Honoured Customers and friends of Menge’s Crystal Emporium, this representative of the Master Carvers thanks you for your time today! This Biyu shall be giving Honoured Customer Yun Ren and Honoured Customer Jin an update upon the storage crystals that Honoured Customer Yun Ren saw fit to entrust to us as recognition for both of your special relationship with Mengde’s Crystal Emporium.”

Jin, on account that he was apparently trusted by the suppliers of most of their crystals, and Yun Ren because he had been the one to bring them the crystal.

“As you can see from these images, we have completed our preliminary assessment and moved on to the cutting process…”

She flipped through the images as she spoke, the light projected onto the wall showing the armatures and chisels they were using, as well as the first cuts they had accomplished. The old man had actually sat up slightly at that, going from looking bored to at least paying attention, while most of the others, Tigu especially, seemed interested in exactly how one went about carving such a rare and valuable crystal.

The short answer was very careful observation… and then sometimes things happened very very fast.

Master Jin had always said there was no luck to their craft, as she switched to the recording of three Crystal Masters and Biyu carefully adjusting the angle on several chisels. There was a light tap and then the crystal cracked completely in half, exactly as they had predicted.

The crystal would actually be three rings, such was the amount of material Biyu had been gifted with. It was still strange knowing Yun Ren and Nezan had thought that was an appropriate gift—and to her of all people. Storage Crystals were near non-existent in the Azure Hills!

But there was no point in hand-wringing or what ifs. They had decided that she was worthy of such things—and she would prove their trust right. She would give it her all—for her craft and for Yun Ren as well. The Storage Crystals would surpass the quality of those created a thousand years ago!

“And this concludes the presentation on the Storage Ring. The Master Carvers invite Xong Yun Ren to take his pick from the three rings. They anticipate the first to be done in five years time, barring any unforeseen circumstances.”

There was a murmur of interest from the watchers.

“We also have one more thing.” Biyu continued as she reached into the crate and pulled out the prototype. It was a relatively unassuming wooden frame that could be adjusted in size, with shards of crustal just visible in the corners of the frame.

Of course, during their work, small bits of crystal were inevitably sacrificed. They tried to remove as little as possible, but there was always some spot that needed to be shaved down.

And so while Biyu did get to sit in on the Masters as they carved the main crystal, and got to help… her true mission was to find a use for the little chunks that otherwise would likely be useless.

Perhaps a powerful cultivator could repurpose them and meld them back into a smaller mass, or perhaps just wave his hand and transmute the crystal into a ring wholesale.

But that was just rumour and what ifs. They needed a more practical solution.

And indeed, Biyu had found something, in the tiny, chiseled off pieces of crystal as they refined the shape of the rings. Eight months of experimentation and research. Sixteen hour days. Little shards of crystal, with a formula so small it was invisible to the unaided eye.

Biyu set up the wooden frame with crystals embedded in it around a box filled with stones.

The effects of this would be subtle, but… well, hopefully useful!

Biyu touched her fingers to the edge of the frame.

Like frost crawling over a window, a thin, shimmering film of blue light began to crawl across the box.

The Partial Storage Array… or at least thats what Biyu was calling it!

“...what does it do?” Jin asked, staring intrigued at the box that didn’t actually look any different.

“While a Storage Ring pulls whatever object the user desires inside of it, the Partial Storage Array, as we’re calling it, tries to do the same. But it can't. So instead, whatever is inside when it activates is… partly here and partly there. Just slightly out of phase. They’re still solid, and you can touch them, but as to the practical effect? While they're within the field they weigh a quarter of the amount, relative to whatever is outside the array.”

Biyu then took a step forwards, pressing herself into the thin, shimmery film, which allowed her access. It didn’t feel bad, and out of all the rats they had tested it on none of them had suffered any adverse effects. Neither had any of the volunteers.

“While you’re inside it, though, it will weigh the same to you as if the field wasn’t active.” She knew from experience her voice would sound stretched and high pitched to the people outside.

She reached into the box and pulled out one of the rocks. “But while its heavy to me…” She dropped the rock. It looked like it fell as fast as it should but instead of slamming into the ground, it settled with a dull thud.

Her demonstration complete, Biyu pushed her way out of the field and back into Jin’s house.

There was silence as they all stared at the slightly glowing frame.

“And… um… that's the prototype!” Biyu chirped nervously. “It still needs a lot of refinement, but the Masters said I should show you both.”

Biyu scratched at her cheek.

In the end, what those little dregs of crystal could do would probably be useless for a cultivator’s purposes. But that was just it. Worthless for a cultivator… and not their mortal servants.

Like the Still-Image Recording Crystal was a worse version of a Recording Crystal… so too was the Partial Storage Array a worse version of a Storage Ring. After all, the Crystal Emporium also brought information about their valued customers—and it had been pretty obvious the whole expedition Miss Guan was heading was for Jin.

After a moment, everybody was on their feet, looking at the space that was just slightly out of sync with itself.

“I know several techniques that would produce the same effect.” the old man mused, and Biyu felt her heart fall slightly. Well, it was probably inevitable… “But as far as novel uses for such small pieces of crystal go, it's quite interesting. You truly use every scrap you can find in this province. It's certainly more useful than just throwing it out, or feeding it to some experiment.”

“How many of these can you make?” Jin asked as he turned to her.

“Out of the crystal we received? If our calculations are correct… about sixty more. If something goes catastrophically wrong and we break one of the rings… well, several hundred, probably.” Biyu replied.

“And what happens if this field fails?”

“It just reverts to its normal weight.”

“How big can this field get?”

“About half the size of this room, but the bigger you make it, the less effective it is at reducing weight.”

Jin stared at it for a couple more moments.

“So… you guys take orders for these?” He asked.