— The Emperor’s Imperial Record, Entry No. 20 —

  I woke up to the sight of legs shuffling all around me. I could hear voices.

  ‘Where am I?’ I could barely see. I tried to sit up, clawing at whatever was covering my face, but I hit my head against something. I didn’t know what. The room fell quiet immediately.

  Then some more shuffling of feet, as a person wearing a long, ankle-length pleated skirt walked up to me.

  They raised whatever was covering my head off, and I was finally able to see who it was—Yao Po.

  I was about to say something when she slapped me across the cheek. ‘Is this something healers commonly do?’ “Foolish child, did I not warn you? Take a look at your arm.” I don't know what it was, but something that day told me not to disobey.

  So I looked down at my arm, the left one, before I heard her voice again– “The right one.”

  I turned my head to the right to see what damage I had done. I would have gasped in horror if I hadn't already seen it before, but in order not to anger Yao Po more, I put a shocked look on my face.

  “Don’t try to play with me, young man, do you know what you’ve done!?” She wagged her finger in my face, hand on her hip, knees bent.

  Finally, she raised her hands in surrender, “I should never have given you that information, what was I thinking? If Azul hadn’t called for help right away, you’d be dead!”

  Right at that moment, Azul chimed in with a loud sound, it was the clearing of his throat, “Eh-he-hem…mmmh, I did not call for help right away…. I had my apprentices do it.” The glare from the healer stopped him from commenting anymore, though it seemed I was going to take all the fire for this. Which I didn’t mind.

  “Do you realize how much work was required to allow your body to stop bleeding by itself? Then to make sure the wound regrew the torn flesh, and…..” She started talking about all these medical terms and practices, so I zoned out, all I knew about medicine was just enough to keep me from dying till I could get help.

  In this case, mission accomplished. “...and then I had to get a healing elixir—”

  ‘Wait, healing elixir? Like the things cultivators make?’ I interrupted her immediately. “You said healing elixir?”

  “Yes, and not only that, I had to use…”

  “No, no, you got a healing elixir!” I felt like a starving child who had finally been offered food.

  She tried to keep on talking, then noticed my fixation on the elixir, before reluctantly giving in.

  A sigh, “Yes, yes, healing elixir. Do you know how expensive those things are? Luckily, you had enough coin to be able to pay for the…”

  ‘Coin? I had enough coins? Since when?’ All the coins I had were stashed away. If you didn't know where it was, you’d have to be some sort of mole or termite to find it. What was she talking about?

  “Forgive me, Yao Po, for interrupting you, “ I said this because at this point I could see she was rapidly getting annoyed with me, not a position I wanted to be in with the person who was keeping me alive, “but what money are you talking about?”

  She looked at me, confused. “You didn’t know?” Then turned to Azul, a suspicious look in her eye, before rapidly walking up to the man. Yao Po was by no means intimidating, especially with her stature, but she managed to look every bit the aggressor with her long, thin, and wrinkled finger in Azul’s face. Not a sight I minded too much, though.

  “You didn't tell the boy?” Her voice had risen an octave.

  Azul raised his hands up to the side of his head, palms facing outwards. “What? No, no. He fainted before I could get more than a few words out of him.”

  She eyeballed him some more before deciding he was telling the truth. Why was she able to intimidate him so easily? It seemed almost all the people here in the Mudfoot district respected Yao Po a lot

  Azul turned to me, still wary of Yao Po’s gaze. “The spirit beast you captured,” for some reason he wasn’t looking me in the eye, “it's worth at least one gold.”

  ‘One gold!’

  I didn’t think I’d ever seen more than a few hundred silver in my life. One gold!?

  Rich. I was rich! I could do so many things with that money, I could buy a new house, maybe move into a better part of the Mudfoot district, I could…

  ‘Could I bribe a cultivator with that kind of money?’ I shook my head.

  Silliness.

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  ‘That would take at least two gold.’

  As I daydreamed about the money, a faraway look in my eyes, Yao Po, noticed and shook me out of it with a flick to the forehead, “Pay attention. You almost died for this, didn’t you?”

  ‘Well, no, I almost died for my notions of honor and bravery.’ But I wasn’t going to say that while she was looking at me like a mother hen.

  I stared at Azul, motioning for him to continue, “Yes, well, spirit beasts are usually paid for in qi stones—”

  “Qi stones!” I didn't know what that was, but I could guess.

  Yao Po didn’t glare at me this time but bent down to pick up her straw sandal from her foot, then looked at me, straight in the eye.

  I got the message.

  “Yes, but, well, cultivators have this rule about not giving qi stones to non-cultivators, so they pay us in gold instead. Worthless to them, but a lot to us.”

  I nodded my head as he explained, soaking up the information. Cultivators! It had been months since I had even seen one. ‘Are they finally noticing me?’

  “You have to go through an intermediary, someone who is close enough with cultivators to trade with them but not powerful enough to overlook us mortal folk. But in return, you give them a cut.”

  “How much of a cut?”

  “Let me put it like this, you were supposed to get 3 gold… You only get one.”

  I gasped, “That's robbery!”

  He flinched at my outburst. “It's just business, if the cultivators don't know you and you try to trade with them, they might just take everything you have.”

  “But cultivators… they’re supposed to be righteous.”

  This time he looked at me with a deadpan expression, as if saying, “You should know better than to believe that.”

  “Of course.” I nodded my head, not wanting to seem more like a village boy.

  He continued, “Also, the little spirit beast kin, those can be sold for about 30 silver each, about 70 if we were talking to the cultivators ourselves, but…”

  I interjected, “I understand, but then I should at least have one gold and one hundred fifty silver? I’m rich!” I almost jumped for joy.

  Yao Po knocked loudly on a wooden door frame. “Have you forgotten about the healing elixir I used on you? How much do you think that is?

  My face went blank. ‘What?’

  ‘No!’

  This couldn’t be.

  Surely the kindhearted Yao Po would not be willing to take advantage of this poor, young, sick child’s situation.

  I turned to look at her, ready to carry out a negotiation, but the stone wall that was her face revealed there would be no arguments.

  She raised her hand out to Azul, making a come here gesture, and Azul took out a brown pouch filled with what I could sense was my money, and gave it to her.

  My heart ached. “Are you sure, Yao Po? Honourable Yao Po? Surely this is too mu-”

  She cut me off, “Do you know how much these things cost? I’m giving you a serious discount here, only nobles and well-known merchants are able to get their hands on this kind of thing,” then pointed to a red-tinted bottle on her desk, “look at that! Half of it, gone! On one man”

  Azul chirped in, “ She is doing you a favor here.” he raised his hands up to signify he wasn’t lying. “Healer Yao Po worked through the night and even used that potion of hers, she hasn’t used it in years, not since that incident with Huo Feng and his father.”

  I sighed in defeat and bowed my head, “Thank you, Healer Po.”

  “Hmmph, at least the younger generation still knows how to show some respect, back in my day….”

  I had to bear that for at least the time it took for an incense stick to burn before she quieted down.

  Through the corner of my eye, I could see Azul trying to back his way out of the door. Slowly.

  I tried to get up, my right hand useless, and the wound on my chest searing in pain. I had forgotten about that.

  “What are you doing? You are supposed to be resting for at least the next few weeks. The potion is powerful, but not the type that real cultivators use. This is just the dregs that they sell to mortals like us.”

  I was getting up, mostly to leave but also to thank her again. By this time, Azul had already made his exit, unnoticed by Healer Po.

  After a few seconds of excruciating pain, I was on my feet, my head dizzy but otherwise fine.

  I bowed as low as I could, “Let me thank you again, Healer Yao Po, I might not be here if not for you and Azul’s help.”

  The harsh look on her face suddenly softened, before turning back to stone again, “Hmmph, if you think that's going to be enough to get you out of here, you better think again. Get back on that bed.”

  “I understand, Yao Po, but being here doing nothing will only make me restless. If I can not hunt, then I want to at least find something to do.

  “Like what? Any strenuous activity is banned for you for the next month. Not only that, have you talked to Huo Qianlei? Did he even know you went on an expedition to kill yourself?”

  I froze at that. I was thinking of going to Big Randy, if I couldn’t hunt, then at least I could do something else to make money, but I had completely forgotten about Huo Qianlei and his family.

  “No, I haven't told him about my expedition.”

  “What?” she shrieked. It reminded me of the spirit beast. ‘Was he really worried abou–’

  “You must go talk to him now, you’ve been here for the past 3 days! When he first heard you were here, he rushed over immediately, even his little girls were crying to come see you.”

  Healer Po put an exasperated arm on her forehead, “You mean to tell me you didn't tell them?”

  I shook my head a little sheepishly, “I’ll go talk to them right now,” I lied. I didn't want to talk to him. I was expecting not to come back, so I didn't really give much thought to telling him about leaving, what use would there have been?

  “You better. Here,” She threw some hard biscuits at me, “eat this, and remember to find something filling, come back in the evening so I can check on you.”

  I nodded my head and left the small hut that served as a clinic. I was still going to the smithy, I was trying to hide from Huo Qianlei for now.

  Having to deal with the emotion that came with confronting him was not something I wanted to face.

  I didn’t tell Huo Qianlei I was leaving because I expected to die. But now that I’d survived… ‘What if he never forgives me?’

  Not only that, but what about the supervisor? I had made sure to provide him with the beavers by the end of the first week of hunting. What if he heard about the spirit beasts and wanted another cut?