As a cultivator, Chen Ai was used to waiting, but something about sitting in a booth opposite the cultivator formerly known as the Flawless Blade drove her up a wall.
“I’m going to go wait in my room,” she said.
“I’ll continue to wait here,” he said.
Chen Ai paused halfway out of her seat.
“Do you think you’re more patient than I am?”
He inclined his head in agreement.
“I once waited atop a mountain for six months for a meteor shower so that I could collect ore for the sword you took from me.”
“I once waited a year for a single blade of Luscious Symphony Singing Spirit Grass to grow!”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Did you really?”
“Of course,” she said, neglecting to tell him that she hid the grass in a cave and merely returned a year later. “Which is why you shouldn’t think you’re more patient than me!”
“Very well,” he said with a gracious nod. “However, I will continue to wait here while you go to your room.”
Chen Ai frowned. There was no judgment in his tone, but that somehow made it worse. Still, going back on her earlier announcement because of his implied challenge would only seem more childish.
Scooping up her senior brother’s gifts into her pack, she headed back up the stairs. As she made her way down the hall, she heard a crash coming from her senior brother’s room.
Finally! Something to do!
She burst through the door to his room with her hand on her jian and her qi cycling through her limbs. Any intruder would regret stepping in here!
But there was no intruder.
Instead, she found her senior brother naked and upside down underneath his open window. It was moments like this that made her wonder how he ever impressed her — let alone saved her life.
“Senior brother,” she said as she removed her hand from her jian and covered her eyes. “I see you’ve returned from your walk.”
“Yes,” he said. “I have.”
He stood and concealed himself with what looked like a soot-stained tablecloth. Despite everything he’d accomplished in the short period of time she’d known him, he made it incredibly difficult to believe he was capable of literally anything.
Her spiritual senses prickled as the Flawless Blade appeared behind her. It was creepy how easily he snuck up on her. Even with his qi levels in a state of turmoil, he retained the skills of a young genius who reached Core Formation at the age of thirty-one; that he was only a few years older than her only made him more annoying.
“Greetings, master,” he said with a bow.
“Hello,” said her senior brother as he discreetly dressed himself behind a screen in his room.
“Are you ready to open your gifts?” she asked. “We have waited for you.”
“No,” he said. “There is something I must do first.”
He sounded distracted. In fact, there was a tone to his voice that Chen Ai had never heard before, and it sent a shiver across her skin.
“What is the matter?”
He stepped out, wearing a simple set of robes. These were drab and cheap, the complete opposite of the splendid golden robes gifted by the Matriarch of the Stone Forest Trading House. It was in clothes like this, she remembered, that he ripped out his own guts to save her life.
He looked at her absently, and when she caught his eyes, she couldn’t help but flinch. Something seethed there, like fish roiling under a frozen lake. His presence had intensified in a way she’d never felt from him. If it were anyone else, she would say they were trying to suppress her with qi, but, as always, her senior brother’s qi control remained impeccable.
What would happen, she wondered, if he ever let go of that control?
“What is the matter?” she repeated. “Can we help?”
“Yes, master. We are at your disposal!”
###
I looked at Chen Ai and my disciple, and it was as though staring through thick glass. They warbled, they wavered, and though their words reached me, they didn’t touch me.
There was too much heat flushing through my body. Too much power churning in my blood, muscles, and bones.
It wasn’t the same as the wave of demonic qi that struck me when facing Ghost Fang. That energy touched my mind and the hidden mechanisms of my flesh pool and manipulation abilities. This was a raw heat that felt like swallowing coals, and as it spread through my body, I felt myself yearning for more.
Chen Ai and my disciple could be more…
I remembered Cabbagy’s words about how eating the spirit beasts would make my body stronger, but that had been unfulfilling. Now, I wondered if he hadn’t been softly leading me down this path.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Hunger and revenge warred inside me, and my memories clamored to tell me which side was right, but I didn’t need to listen.
Revenge is but a hunger for justice, and hunger is but a revenge of an empty stomach. I would have both, just as I would have Cabbagy returned to me.
Chen Ai walked toward me. Her horns, her blonde hair, her nervous smile… would she taste like beef?
She placed a hand on my shoulder, and I wondered if she could feel the heat radiating from my flesh.
“Senior brother,” she asked me. “Is your bloodline troubling you?”
My bloodline?
“No,” I said, and each word had to be dragged up from deep inside me. “Someone stole something from me.”
“What!” my disciple shouted as his qi sent cracks racing through the walls. “We must hunt down these thieves!”
Chen Ai placed her hand on her jian.
“We will help you get back what they stole,” she said. “Was it your robes?”
“Not my robes. They stole Cabbagy.”
There was a pause in the room as my companions absorbed my distressing news.
“They took the cabbage?” Chen Ai asked, and in her voice I heard how she could hardly believe someone would do something so despicable.
“Yes,” I said.
“The rotten cabbage?”
“Yes.”
My disciple stepped forward.
“It matters not what they stole,” he said. “The act alone is enough to condemn them to a thousand deaths.”
“You’re right,” Chen Ai said. “They shall rue the day they dared attack senior brother!”
Though my heart swelled at their offer, I was torn on accepting their help. Because if they came with me, I wouldn’t be able to eat the members of the Celebration Flame Sect. The fire in my guts demanded that I give it fuel.
But was I nothing but a tender to those flames?
This decision was more than accepting an offer; it was a precedent that I would follow. But it took me only a few beats of my flame filled heart before I knew what to do.
“Thank you,” I said with a bow so deep it made them uncomfortable. “The thieves are located in Flint Oak Park.”
“I know the place,” Chen Ai said with a nod. “Let’s go.”
We left the inn and raced through the streets. I filled Chen Ai and my disciple in on what happened, and their expressions only grew more grim. The three of us must have looked a sight as we charged toward Flint Oak Park.
Everyone hurried out of our way. I remembered what it was like to be a mortal facing cultivators on a mission, and while I felt sympathy for the fright on the faces in the crowd, I couldn’t help but think of how frightened Cabbagy must be right now.
###
Dai Hang took off his small red hat and ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair. Not since the entrance tournament to the Celebration Flame Sect had he felt such stress. Even the heavy shadows of the flint oak trees in the park did little to cool down his racing heart.
His fellow disciples sat beside him, equally flushed and breathing heavily. They were the four chosen to attend the auctions in Mountain Root City. It was a simple mission, and a chance for them to earn easy contribution points in the sect. They even had senior brother Jiang Jian to mind them and ensure no trouble developed.
But it had all gone wrong!
Though they searched all through the merchant district and threw around the name of their mighty and righteous sect, they could find no accommodation when they arrived in the city.
At last, they heard of an inn that was never full, the Vermillion Ibex, but right as they were about to snatch up the last rooms, a beggar seized them by promising outrageous acts of service. Even though the beggar had a cultivation level so low that Dai Hang coudln’t even detect it, as an honorable member of the Celebration Flame Sect, he could only respect the agreement made before them. A cultivator without coin must pay with courage, and such actions should be respected in case one of them finds themselves in such a position.
Thus, they left the inns of the Merchant District and made their way to Flint Oak Park and joined the other merchants and travelers unable to find accommodation. A city of tents had sprung up in the sea of soft grass that was the park. Flint oaks stood like pale towers, casting their shade across the bustling people. Though inside the city, the park was large. The titular oak trees were formed of pale limestone, with their acorns as specks of darker flint within their branches. Like all the trees growing on the Great Northern Mountain, they possessed a dreamlike beauty, and all members of the Celebration Flame Sect found their cultivation advancing from the natural qi filling the area. What was a setback had become a serendipitous boon, and they believed that it was an omen for the coming auctions.
But then, not even a full day later, they saw the deceiver.
The man who begged in tattered robes and forced their honor now strode through the streets in resplendent robes of golden silk. He smiled without a care in the world, and carried on his back a sack of treasure as he strolled through the richest neighborhood in the lower city.
Dai Hang was many things, but he was not forgiving enough to let such an insult slide. Gathering the members of his sect, he challenged the man. Then, though he believed there could be no further insult, the man denied ever having met them.
Dai Hang’s anger boiled over, and he attacked.
But the deceiver had not yet revealed the depths of his lies.
He fought like a savage, using techniques that Dai Hang had never even heard of. When they drew his blood, those injuries became weapons. He slipped past them, ignoring the obfuscating effect of the Blinding Celebration Smoke, and mauled Cao Wu. He was so terrifying that Dai Hang almost thought he might be a demonic cultivator — if he hadn’t known that the Hidden Lotus had been uprooted a century ago.
Had it not been for Jian Jiang stepping in to fight, Cao Wu would have died.
Fortunately, his senior brother took command of the fight and gave his juniors a chance to retreat. Stealing the deceiver’s treasure was a small comfort, given that they had to spend all their restorative treasures on stabilizing the injured Cao Wu.
So, now, they sat in the relative privacy of their camping spot amongst the limestone roots of a tall flint oak. Their breathing was as heavy as their mood.
He Yan paced, his muscles strained against his robes, but he constantly glanced down at Cao Wu’s dao amongst the roots, as though he might see it in the hands of their laughing companion. Ye Bin, by contrast, sat completely still. Blood had dried in spots on her robes, but she left it there as she tried to recover her qi after stabilizing Cao Wu’s injuries.
The smell of blood haunted their campsite. The absence of Jiang Jian’s supervision and Cao Wu’s smile weighed upon them. They were all drained, but Dai Hang refused to let them treat this like a loss.
“Hey,” he said. “Do you all forget who we are?”
They looked at him listlessly, but he forced himself to continue.
“We are members of the Celebration Flame Sect. In the face of despair, we smile and celebrate the victories we snatch from defeat!”
“What are you talking about?” He Yan asked.
Dai Hang placed the stolen sack in the middle of their small circle.
“I’m talking about the treasure we stole.”
Despite their exhaustion, his companions lit up and came closer.
“Do you think it’s money?” He Yan asked.
“I hope it’s pills,” Ye Bin said softly.
“You saw his clothes,” Dai Hang said. “You saw how he fought to get this back. Whatever it is, it must be an incredible treasure!”
Having built up the moment until his cultivation stirred, he ripped open the sack. They all gasped as a brown, slimy, stinking cabbage tumbled out onto the grass.
“What… what…” He Yan muttered.
“I don’t understand,” Ye Bin said. “Did he swap bags on us somehow? Did we pick up the trash instead of his sack?”
“No,” Dai Hang said. “I know this is what he was carrying, but… why?”
They stared down at the cabbage.
“Is it…?” He Yan trailed off.
“What is it?” Dai Hang asked.
“No,” He Yan said with a shake of his head. “No, it’s nothing.”
Dai Hang’s heartbeat rose at the tone of his companion. He’d thought the fear was behind them. That Jiang Jian had rescued them from the nightmare, but now…
“Speak!” he demanded.
He Yan flinched.
“Does it feel like the cabbage is looking at you?” he asked.
