Elsewhere, the bearish cultivator was slumped in a rather plush wagon. The bench he was slumped into was made of fine leather and was plush. He could feel something helping him relax and bracing him from the bumps in the road. His head was leaning against a closed window, bracing and he was almost asleep with his hammer leaning against the opposite bench.

  “So, my name is William. I’m originally from the Iron Claw Sect,” the man said.

  Silas barely looked at his wagon partner before he closed his eyes and tried to nap. He saw that the man was pale, with red spiked hair. It seemed like something from that particular sect, where they didn’t much care for the long hair everyone else had. Or well, most of the other people in the empire. Silas couldn’t say much. He was going bald early and just decided to keep his head shaved and smooth. William also had an accent about him. Not one from The Northern Reaches, but it was sharp and quick. The cultivator was definitely originally from the Island Kingdoms. Or whatever they were calling themselves anymore.

  The Island Kingdoms were a collection of smaller and larger islands to the northwest of the continent that made up the Sasuke Empire. People who had migrated over from the Northern Reaches Silas always suspected but he didn’t know the history for sure. There were a few different kingdoms, each with its own island, and they banded together to make a force that could compete globally with the Sasuke Empire in trade and economic affairs.

  “Yeah, I’m Silas Zhao,” Silas responded gruffly, not opening his eyes.

  “Aye, I know. Friend of my sect mate Kio.”

  Silas heard the grin in the man’s voice. This made Silas pause and open his eyes to look over at William. “What does that mean? You joined the Jade Mountain Sect?”

  “Nay, she’s not really part of them either,” William said. The man was in fact, as Silas had thought, wearing a shit-eating grin.

  Silas huffed and closed his eyes again before he leaned his head once more against the closed window. “Alright friend. How about you let me take a nap so I can deal with the nonsense you’re saying?”

  “Don’t ye think it’s a bit funny? How we wound up in the same wagon. How Kio knew me,” William pressed.

  Silas shrugged. “Kio knows a lot of people. She travels a lot for the sect.”

  “Aye, the jade beauty of the Jade Mountains, I know what they say. The only thing is I was kicked from the Iron Claw sect sometime ago. You got one of those fancy gadgets? Send a message to Fang Min and ask him. He’s probably still around here somewhere. He was down in your village, you know? Checking it out,” the pale guy talked quickly. He was trying to get whatever his point was before Silas pounded him. Silas was sure of it.

  Silas just huffed. “No, I don’t have anything besides my hammer and a few things from home I took. Nothing that good.”

  He left some things of serious value behind in his workshop and below his home. He wondered if anyone found the mithril below his house. Ah well, let them have it if they found it, he thought. I don’t need it anymore. I probably couldn’t work mithril if I tried anymore.

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  “Oh. Well, that’s a shame. That hammer is a nice relic, though. Made it yourself, didn’t ya?”

  Silas growled. “Yes.”

  William nodded his head and chuckled a bit. “Well, anyway. Me and Kio are sect mates. She’s uh, in a more secretive sect than the Sect of the Jade Mountains or whatever it’s called.”

  Silas grunted. “Oh, yeah?”

  “Aye. You know what the Beggars are, yeah?”

  The large cultivator once more opened his eyes, but he did so just to make sure William saw him roll his eyes. Then Silas closed his eyes once more and leaned back down. “Sure.”

  “Come on, lad, I wouldn’t lie to ya would I?”

  “Do you know what happened in Toyo? Or what’s going on with me?”

  Silas felt the cold tingle of someone inspecting his spirit, and the anvil saint allowed it. It didn’t last long, and it went right to Silas’s core after a quick sweep of his channels. The man heard Silas hum and haw as he felt around inside of Silas’s spirit until finally he spoke.

  “Um, nope. Outside of my wheelhouse, I’m afraid. I’m just a fighter. I don’t know much more than that,” William said, though he did sound regretful.

  “Well, if Elder Masaka from the Order of the Dawnpetal didn’t know, I suppose a so-called beggar wouldn’t know either,” Silas grumped.

  “Aye, true.”

  “You know, you don’t look too much like a beggar. Nice robes. Are those spirit silk?” Silas asked. He didn’t inspect the man’s robes too closely when he first got in the wagon. He just saw William wearing deep gray and black robes that didn’t belong to any particular sect.

  “Ah, yeah, not too many of us are actual beggars,Illian, I’m afraid. There’s the one, but he was sent to the west. Illian, I think. He’s a rough sort, used to living on the streets. Think he kind of likes it if I’m being honest with you,” William said as he tried to explain.

  “You’re nervous.”

  “Aye, yeah. Not every day ya meet someone with a fancy family name and a title and everything,” William confessed.

  Silas breathed heavily out of his nose. His damn name. It followed him no matter where he went. “William, I don’t care if you think you’re a beggar. I don’t care if you really are a beggar. All I care about is finding my wife, apprentice, and the rest of the people from that village and getting everyone home.”

  William nodded and leaned back in his chair. “Aye, I get that, and that’s a respectable cause. Wouldn’t expect anything less from Silas Zhao, The Anvil Saint.”

  “But,” Silas interrupted.

  William gave a nervous chuckle. “But you can barely swing that hammer of yours. How are you going to fight and save anyone?”

  “That’s why I’m going to the Order’s base on the continent, and maybe see my father, unfortunately.” Silas said as he lamented his current lot in life.

  “Aye, that’s a good plan, but, uh, what if they don’t know? My elder doesn’t know, and he knows quite a bit. Has his fingers on the pulse of a lot of things,” William explained.

  Silas shrugged. “Please shut up.”

  William drummed his hands on his knees and stared at the large brute of a man he was seated next to. There was more for him to say, more he could say about everything. He was here to try to recruit Silas into his sect, into his order. Eventually, William just sighed and nodded his head. “Alright then, lad, sorry. Get some rest. Try and feel better, yeah?”

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