Crystalized Ki

Everything is available for sale in Sumichou, including life energy, or ki, which can be condensed into a portable crystalized powder form. It's the most lucrative product available in the district and its sales make up about 70% of the income for the area. So if you hold a jar of this substance, don't drop it or you'll lose a fortune, and a suddenly appearing mob will sweep up any specks of it before you can blink.
Human laws don't cover the substance. Though, yokai laws do. Mortal police may mistake it for cocaine, but it's a much more valuable commodity and banned by all yokai courts.

Extraction and Avoiding the Penalty for Stealing Ki

by Freepik

While ki theft carries a heavy price, the demand for more power and energy for spells, healing, and extending life is ever increasing. The Akumakai found a way around the deadly result of ki theft. They extort a promise of ki from victims along with utilizing an extraction machine to collect and flash freeze the energy so it becomes a tangible solid.
Since it's 'voluntary' the ki flows naturally and the machine pays the price if anything goes wrong. Or so the sellers tell you. If you're well versed in the areas rumor mill, you may hear a few stories now and then about someone who used crystalized ki. Freezing flames quickly engulfed them and the poor schmuck collapsed on the scene, dead. Most customers for the product are repeat ones, so it rarely goes wrong. Those who rely on it say it's worth any risk.

Obtaining the Substance

Despite it being a lucrative product, crystalized ki is hard to find. If you have the right connections, you can purchase or have a kill contract put out on someone who buys it in order to get the powder at a discount. Just don't let the assassin know why you are hiring them or you won't be able to retrieve your prize. The assassin can sell it for much more than you pay!

Darker Content

Mature and content warning topics are mentioned, but not discussed in depth in this article.

Current Exchange Rate

¥203,045/gram

Characteristics

A white crystal powder with a faint blue glow. It weighs almost nothing and acts like an aerogel, in that if not in a container it can float away.

Shelf Life

Over a period of days the solid will revert to its spiritual, gas-like and ever present form. You may see a faint blue glow as sparks of it escape the crystalline structure.

Type

Metamaterial

Odor

Sickeningly sweet, like standing in a sugar cane field

Taste

Like honey

Melting / Freezing Point

Can be flash frozen in the vacuum of space. Once frozen it remains solid until a magic user contacts it.