Before Fei Rui could finish, Elder Chang slapped him away with a wide palm. Fei Rui rolled like an oversized egg and landed on his back. His legs twitched towards the sky.
Elder Chang moved the bale of hay. There was a hidden space in the bale, with random items littered inside. Paper, parchments, glass vials, half a broom, a coverall glove, two spirit stones, dried ghoul skins—
“You dumb crab.” Yu Han massaged his temples.
“The cultivator shares the spirit’s burden,” Elder Chang said to him. “If your companion steals, it is your responsibility.”
“I didn’t…” Yu Han crouched down to Fei Rui’s level. “Where did you get all these?”
“You can’t take without permission,” Yu Han said. Even though that’s the most cost-effective method, he added inwardly.
“Just because Worm Daoist Feral Spot said it’s okay doesn’t mean you can break sect rules!” Yu Han said. Damn that worm. He made sure to say the worm’s name extra loud.
“So it’s that thief again!” Elder Chang was incensed. He pushed Yu Han aside, saying, “Even if the thief tries to lead your companion astray, it’s your duty to guide them back to the proper path. Got it?”
Yu Han nodded ferociously, like he was digging with his chin.
Elder Chang berated Fei Rui, who shrank until he was the size of a teacup.
After that, Elder Chang gathered the four into the discussion chambers.
“You’ve both applied to join the night soil collectors. Good, good. I knew I didn’t misjudge you.” There was a smile on Elder Chang’s face. “At the end of the day, the greed of a cultivator overcomes any stigma they have towards waste work.”
Li Yao and Fang Zhao offered uneasy smiles.
“Your coveralls will be delivered by tonight,” Elder Chang said. “As promised before, you may use yard property in your hidden realm excursion. Take a few of the processed Filth-Eating Ghoul skins and put them in the small compartment under the cabinet where the coveralls are stored, lest they don’t get repaired.”
Wait, these coveralls are being repaired with ghoul skin? Yu Han’s hands shook. Are they made out of it, too? How does it work? Are we literally wearing the skin of our enemies?
“Four vials of pure qi assimilating elixir will be delivered too,” Elder Chang said. “The Dawn Mist Crane tribe is busy with the name change of the Unending Drizzle palace, but the delivery work inside the sect continues. Got it?”
Not really. But Yu Han nodded.
“I’ve heard from the law enforcement hall,” Elder Chang said. “Dare you still venture to the hidden realm with foes at your back?”
They had discussed this thoroughly. All four of them had agreed that with Fei Rui, their safety was not totally compromised.
“We fear no scum,” Li Yao said. “If they come, we’ll send them scampering back with fewer limbs.”
“Quit the posturing,” Elder Chang said.
Li Yao blushed. It was the first time Yu Han had seen the guy show any shame.
Elder Chang passed on four pieces of paper. “Beacon talismans. If you’re near enough to the gateway village, the law enforcement hall disciples stationed there will rush to help. Though Disciple Yu's accorded spirit beast should make such precautions superfluous.”
“Our gratitudes!” Yu Han was the first to bow, followed by the others.
“Indomitable will. Keep at it,” Elder Chang said. “In a few levels, you’ll be eligible for rewards from the medical and alchemy halls. Keep cultivating, keep fighting, and don’t listen to Disciple Wen’s cowardly philosophy. He is tired of bickering about honour with his family is all. Fang Scion, be careful not to die. Take care not to be a burden.”
With that, he was gone. The three looked at Fang Zhao, who only shook his head.
Yu Han, Li Yao, and Huang Niuniu took their pure qi assimilating elixir that night, while Fang Zhao saved his.
The first time Fang Zhao and Li Yao went out on ghoul exterminating rounds—technically their second time—Yu Han and Huang Niuniu acted as seniors to show them the ropes.
They trained in the morning, and in the afternoon, they cleaned the waste.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Yu Han’s experiments continued at night in Deep Sleep. He now had five shelves full of data—memories saved in pearls, sorted into specific categories. He would sometimes train in the crabscape, too, to see if there were any effects.
There weren’t any negative ones. His arts true qi gains were normal. No luck with Echoing Dreamscape yet, and he couldn’t project memorycast pearls.
Though he did notice some other anomalies.
“Did you hear that?” Yu Han said to Fei Rui as they passed by the Tunnel of Doom.
“Hell no!” Yu Han firmly refused. “I don’t want to be doomed.”
“We can talk about this later,” Yu Han said.
Another five days passed, leaving four until Wen Liujie’s return, according to the letter.
Fang Zhao had successfully learnt all six martial arts. With his original Steady Bull Steps, he had seven.
“It’s not fair!” Huang Niuniu pouted.
“Sister Huang…” Fang Zhao tried to placate the young woman. “It’s not that I’m more talented than you. What I learnt are elite-grade martial arts. Yours is an earth-grade one! Besides, you have the strange method of training true qi with wisps, while I can’t even level up. How can I compare to you?”
“You’re right.” Huang Niuniu grinned. “Then you better be careful.”
It disgusted Yu Han that such empty flattery worked. Was Huang Niuniu dumb or smart? Or was she just bipolar?
That night, she successfully learnt the Spiral Dance of the Willow and the Wisp too. It was beautiful, fireflies surrounding her as the deadly whips sliced through the air.
They celebrated, and she cooked meat stew. The smell somehow overpowered the musky odour of the compost pits.
“I don’t think it’s supposed to look like this.” Li Yao poked the floating meat, which looked like a drowned, washed-up corpse. “Cow-Girl, you followed the recipe, right? Just spices, sauces, and meat?”
“Shut up and eat, you brute,” she commanded. “I tried to combine it with Vitality Spite. I think it didn’t work?”
“It smells like it did.” Li Yao remained doubtful.
“Eat!” Huang Niuniu said.
The stew tasted fine to Yu Han. After all, he was used to eating the Spites. The others would have to acquire the taste, or they wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate Huang Niuniu’s cooking skills.
Fei Rui leapt down from a beam on the ceiling.
“Good heavens!” Li Yao shouted. “Scared the shit outta me. Can’t you—”
“Don’t yell at him!” Huang Niuniu shouted back.
“Where is he?” Yu Han asked the crab. Finally, after ten days of no activity, the Mad Bloodhounds had come to spy on them.
The fence by the hot spring?
Yu Han explained the situation to the others.
“I-it’s a pervert!” Huang Niuniu was horrified. She enjoyed taking baths in the hot springs. The monkeys were good company, and on the female side of the partition, only female monkeys were allowed.
Sometimes a Dawn Mist Crane would join her.
“There are three monkeys there, according to Fei Rui. None of them noticed,” Yu Han said.
“What do we do now?” Li Yao asked. There was a deadly gleam in his eyes. Fang Zhao cracked his knuckles.
“Fei Rui, can you knock him out?” Yu Han said. “Without being detected?”
The crab spun for a minute as if to think, then nodded with his eyestalks. Fei Rui’s camouflage activated.
“What if he dies, though?” Yu Han asked. Loss of consciousness through random head blows was only a movie myth. Well, it did happen. But the chances of permanent head trauma were too high for Yu Han to risk it now. When it came to Fei Rui’s crab hammer, loss of structural integrity of the cranium was also probable.
Yu Han wanted more finesse.
He consulted with the others, and Li Yao had a solution.
He pointed at a certain spot on his neck. “Here. Choke it for a bit, and he’ll pass out, ’cause he won’t be able to breathe, and blood won’t go to his head.”
“Is it dangerous?” Yu Han asked. He didn’t mind if the stalker died. Just not in an inconvenient location. TPO and all that.
“Better than a head bam. As long as the crab don’t break his neck. Or windpipe. Or anything else for that matter.”
After Yu Han’s translation, Fei Rui ran up and down the corridor. He practised with the wooden pillar and said,
Murdering a fellow disciple was a serious crime. But they couldn’t live in fear. If they were coming for Huang Niuniu, Yu Han would rather strike first. If Fei Rui messed up, so be it. They’d brand the guy a pervert. It’s not the worst that could happen to a slaver.
They walked to the changing areas while talking loudly, pretending as if they would use the hot springs. A few minutes later, there was a soft thud from outside.
Fei Rui shouted.
They left the main compound and saw Fei Rui hanging an unconscious young man from a tree with some vines. The peeper’s neck was swollen. But there was breath.
“We can throw him in the pits,” Li Yao said. He played with his swords. “Tell Feral Spot to be quiet. He’ll be part of the sect in a few months.”
“That’s a joke, right?” Yu Han asked.
“Maybe.” Li Yao grinned. He proceeded to loot the unconscious young man. Some papers with strange characters on them, a brush with a spirit stone attached. A sword, a dagger, some spirit stones and monster cores, and two vials with black liquid. A ring. And of course, all the clothes. They decided to keep everything in Fang Zhao’s storage ring.
“Fei Rui, go into his dream,” Yu Han said. “Remember the pearls I showed you before? The ones where we are acting out the play?” Yu Han paused. “And the ones with big meanie Sima Yan and his gang of bad guys. Take them and project them in his dreams. Can you do that?”
“We don’t eat them,” Yu Han said. “If you want food, we can buy it for you from the marketplace.”
“Sure.”
Fei Rui completed the assignment.
The unconscious guy was squirming and muttering nonsense about fucking up nobles.
Only the crab knew how successful their attempt was, but Yu Han decided to trust in the process.
“Throw him in the ditch by the Grotto of Three Old Frogs,” Yu Han said.
“You think this will work?” Li Yao said.
“If it does, our enemies will fight each other,” Yu Han said. “If it doesn’t, it’ll at least buy us some time.”
The Mad Bloodhounds didn’t make any moves for the two days, though they did hear that a commoner courtyard had beaten up a few noble disciples so badly that the law enforcement hall had to get involved. The Mad Bloodhounds were the prime suspects, and because of the nagging from a certain inner sect disciple with the surname Sima, they were under investigation.
“Evil fucking genius!” Li Yao clapped Yu Han’s shoulder.
The next day, Yu Han reached his true qi cap, and his trial appeared before his eyes.
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