Deep into the night, so late that the summer's early morning sunrise had already brought some color to the clouded sky, a group of men, tense and terse, were gambling inside a shoddy teahouse. The clatter of dice and currency against the wooden table blended in with the incessant battering of heavy rain. Outside, on the dilapidated, empty street, the dirt road resembled a mud river.
The gamblers were greasy with sweat, their eyes deeply focused and reddened with fatigue. The hot, stuffy air clung to their skin. The windows were shut tight to muffle out the sound of the rain, but to little avail. They played in grim silence, sparing not a single word more than necessary to keep the game moving. They expressed their losses with grunts and sighs, and celebrated their victories only with bigger bets. Every once in a while, they shifted about in their chairs to relieve some of the tension in their bodies.
Their entire night was spent glued to these chairs.
Finally, at the end of one round, a man's face sunk into his hands. A light chuckle finally escaped from his compatriots, the only hint of levity any of them could recall ever since their game began.
The man had gambled away his last dime.
As the poor sod quietly wallowed in his misery, a knock came from the door. The gamblers paid it no heed. An elderly man, hunchbacked by his age, emerged from the kitchen to let the new guests inside.
A group of armed men, 4 of them in total, entered the establishment. The old man's face lit up, and he exchanged pleasantries with the mustached man leading the crew. Clearly, they were no strangers to each other.
The mustached man, whom the man referred to as brother Ru, looked over the room, smirking as he observed the gamblers.
Brother Ru nodded at them. "Nice game you've got going here. But we never got your tax for it, old Gen."
The mood had suddenly shifted. Old Gen's face turned glum and confused, the man's question putting him on the spot.
"I've paid all my dues to little Li. We had an agreement..." The old man prattled out, nervously clutching his sweaty hands.
Brother Ru's hand smacked the old man square in the mouth. The elder fell, knocking over a chair.
The attention of the gamblers was finally drawn to the entrance.
"Little Li got ran out of town weeks ago, old Gen!" Brother Ru explained, picking the man up and raising his hand again. The old man cowered at the sight, unable to muster up a word. "Big Money Yan calls the shots now. Thought you'd sneak in a little coin for yourself in all the confusion, did ya? Well, it doesn't work that way!"
Brother Ru never brought his hand down like old Gen feared. He instead gave the man a shove back into a table. "Get out of here!" He barked at the gamblers, and they all sprung to their feet without delay, grabbing what was theirs and nearly running out of the tea house.
...All except for one. That down on his luck gambler remained in his seat, his face still in his hands.
The skinniest man of the band approached him, a wooden club in hand. "You deaf? Get up!" He called out.
The absence of a response instantly dissipated what little patience the man had down to nothing. He struck the gambler across his back, a meaty thwack briefly overpowering the sound of pouring rain.
It was like the man hadn't even noticed that he had been struck. So the skinny man swung his club again. And again, and again, and again...
The second strike was already enough to provoke a response. Without a word, or so much as a grunt of discomfort, the man slowly rose from his chair even as the other continued to pepper his defenseless back with strikes. In his growing confusion, the skinny man began to aim higher, soon reaching the man's neck, and finally his head.
But when not even the blow to the back of the head had managed to faze the mysterious stranger, all courage left the man's features and he made to flee.
He was struck before he could escape. The gambler swung at him with a similar motion to what one might use to swat a bug, and sent the skinny man practically flying across the tea house, knocking over chairs and tables until he had finally slid up to a wall, groaning in pain.
Another of the gang exclaimed, "Brother Ru! It's a martial artist!"
They all stared at the man who attacked one of their own, a mix of fear and disdain in their eyes. The martial artist in question was remarkably shorter than almost all of the men present, and would have been surpassed even by old Gen in height if only the elder had been in the prime of his youth, or at the very least had shared birth years with the middle aged unlucky gambler. His black hair was cut to a very short crop, as though he had been shaved clean mere weeks ago, and a prominent widow's peak drew two waves across his forehead.
Brother Ru lowered his body. The next moment, he pounced like a wild beast, his sword unsheathed in the blink of an eye, its steel tip flying like a loosened arrow towards the gambler's neck.
There was an unsettling metallic twang as the sword came upon the skin.
Pushed forth by brother Ru's great momentum, the flexible sword bent itself into nearly half a circle. It pressed into the flesh and failed to draw even a drop of blood.
Brother Ru's eyes widened in shock.
The man's hand began to move. Before he could reach brother Ru, the latter bolted backwards in a full sprint. In his retreat, he surrendered his sword, and it bounced off the man's neck like a loaded spring, clattering heavily against the wooden floor.
The gambler's lethargic motion ceased abruptly. He made to put his hands in his pockets, and before he had even done so, brother Ru was already out the door. It took his henchmen a moment to catch up to what was happening, and it seemed insurmountably difficult for them to believe their eyes.
Finally, they screamed and ran. The skinny fellow with the club had made it to his feet, and began to limp away after his brethren as fast as he could.
The man began to walk after him, and it brought out in the skinny thug speed and endurance he never believed himself to be capable of. By the time the gambler had reached the exit, the cripple was already dredging through the dirt outside.
The gambler closed the door to keep out the rain.
Old Gen observed the entire affair, speechless. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Sir... Sir!" He finally called out to the man, who seemed intent on walking back to his table. "I am grateful for your help, but you need to get out of here. Ru's gang has many martial artists. Big Money Yan is notoriously cruel and violent! There was no need for you to do all this, truly..."
The martial artist stopped and gave him a sideways glare.
Old Gen recoiled upon a new realization, clutching at what few gray hairs remained on his head. "Oh, goodness! I need to escape, too! My old wife doesn't know I'm doing all this, what was I thinking, getting involved with those criminals? It just might stress her to death!"
"I'm not going anywhere," The gambler suddenly barked. "And neither are you, old man!"
Old Gen, startled, began to pale.
The man continued to yell at him. "Go cook me a meal! I'll eat until they've arrived."
"Y-Y-You wish to wait until they come?" Old Gen stuttered in reply. "And what then?"
The gambler, having apparently had enough, turned to face the old man, fury marring his face. "Only way you're getting out of this alive is if you do as I say! Now get to it!"
Old Gen fled into the kitchen, and with shaking hands, warmed up some roasted chicken he had prepared for the night. He returned to the sight of the mysterious martial artist sat back at the gambling table, twirling his dice between his fingers.
"M-May I know the esteemed expert's honorable name? Mao Lian brought you to this game, didn't he?" The old man asked as he set down the tray.
"Tao Geming."
The name meant nothing to old Gen. With the exception of the ruling Royal Sect, his knowledge of the martial arts world had not extended past his neighborhood.
"I wonder how he came to make your acquaintance..." Old Gen muttered.
Tao Geming dove into the small chicken with his bare hands. Within the minute, nothing but bones were left.
"Bring out more!" He barked again. "I haven't eaten in hours."
And so, as the rain died down, as the sun continued to climb, Tao Geming's feast continued in silence.
Whenever the strange guest was preoccupied with eating and had had no use for him, Old Gen nervously paced around the stuffy room, not daring to so much as open the windows to let in some much needed cool air. He was even afraid to stand too near to them.
Finally, they heard a voice from outside.
"Old Gen! Come on out! And bring your friend!"
The old man clutched his hair again. "Ah, it's all over! They're here! They're going to kill us both!"
Tao Geming spat out a fishbone, his chair scraping against the floor as he stood up.
The old man dared not follow him outside; he observed the affair through a thin gap in the door.
By then, the gray clouds had parted, letting through morning sunlight. The dirt road had had just enough time to dry up a little after the rain, the street no longer sharing form and function with a swamp.
A rough crowd had gathered outside, too many to count at a glance, maybe 40, 50 men, all wielding a chaotic assortment of weapons, of wood and steel that came in just about every variety imaginable.
Brother Ru was in the crowd, and he pointed Tao Geming out to the tallest among them, a bald man resting a long club spiked with iron studs on his wide shoulders. "Big brother Yan, that's the guy!"
"You gave my brothers a scare, little man." Big Money Yan's voice boomed with heavy bass. "But since you didn't kill nobody, we can still be friends. How about you work for me?"
Tao Geming kept his hands in his pockets as he approached. "You're not embarrassed at all? Pleading for your life like this in front of all your subordinates?"
The henchmen jeered at Tao Geming. The big man frowned as he heaved his weapon off his shoulders and gripped it with his sausage-like fingers. "If you don't wanna pay with your skills, you'll pay with your life!"
A sharp crack pierced the air as the mountain of meat named Yan took off with frightening speed and brought the heavy weapon down onto the shorter man's head. There was a thud as it made contact, and Tao Geming's feet sunk into the soft earth.
Big Money Yan's face scrunched up. He cringed, having never heard such a disappointing sound in his life, a sound that was missing that exhilarating, that all-too-important crunch of the bone that motivated his martial arts. It felt like he had struck a lump of iron.
As he attempted to lift up his club, he had found himself incapable of the feat. He saw Tao Geming's fingers wrapped around it, and as Yan applied more force in an effort to pull back, he was drawn forward instead.
A pair of fingers flashed in his peripheral vision, jabbing him squarely in the stomach. Big Money Yan, feeling nothing but slight discomfort, thought nothing of the attack as Tao Geming pulled back his hand. Figuring that the man had fumbled his technique and missed a vital pressure point, he once again pulled his weapon...
...Only to find his fingers slipping off the handle, his hands grasping at nothing but air.
As Yan stared in confusion, he began to walk back. Almost immediately he realized that he was doing so involuntarily, and even to the onlookers his gait looked unnatural, as if he was being pulled back by invisible strings.
Some in the crowd called out to their boss. Their voices grew louder as the man's face twisted in pain. His mouth was open, yet no sound came from within. Something beneath the skin began to wiggle and bulge as if trying to escape.
Interrupting a concerned shout, Big Money Yan's back burst open like a water balloon, the blood spilling out in the thinnest of showers, almost like a mist. Miniscule fragments of bone flew out like shrapnel, injuring many.
Four limbs and a head, all that remained of the man, crumbled to the ground. Even the organs were nowhere to be seen.
As the crowd beheld the horrific sight, it was evident that most of them could hardly even understand what it was that their senses had just been assailed by, the scene so stupefying that the shock alone could kill, so thoroughly defiant of common sense that it did not feel appropriate even for one's worst nightmares.
"That's the Invincible Blood Sea!" One of the men screamed at the top of his lungs. The rest of them, too, began to shriek in terror, and parted like a sea of their own, fleeing in every direction.
Tao Geming looked at his handiwork with cold-blooded indifference. Not a drop of gore fell upon his gray tunic. By the time he lifted his eyes up, he couldn't see a soul left on the streets.
Even so, he called out.
"I am the King of Jianghu. Run!"
An enormous internal energy carried his soft voice a vast distance. For every one of the fleeing gangsters, it felt like he was hot on their heels, whispering right into to their ear, and so they ran with renewed vigor, not daring to throw even the briefest of glances behind them.
A piece of gold had fallen from the mangled corpse. After plucking it out of the dirt, Tao Geming put his hands back in his pockets and walked away.
...
Out in the wilderness, during that same morning, a young man was scaling a sheer cliff with a large boulder tied to his back.
Halfway to the top, as the end still remained far out of his reach, he began to slow until he had stalled entirely.
"Master," He pleaded. "I can't climb any higher than this..."
Down below, as she leaned against the cliff, a golden haired woman turned her head up.
"If you try to go down with that rock on your back, you'll fall." She said.
"I'm serious, I can't go any higher! And it's so slippery after the rain!" Bai Guo groaned as he hugged the rocky surface with his body. "If I fall, you'll catch me, right, master?!"
The woman's golden eyes glinted with cunning. "Is that why you're half-assing this? Because you think I'm going to catch you if you drop?"
"I'm not half-assing it! I'm at the end of my rope here...!" Bai Guo shouted.
He felt a sudden gust of wind as something white flickered by his eye. As he lifted his eyes up to the top of the cliff, he caught just a glimpse of a woman's sandaled ankle beneath a fluttering white robe.
She twirled around and sat by the very precipice, staring down at him with her golden eyes. Resting her chin on her hand, she spoke with utter boredom. "See, how can I catch you now? So put your back into it."
Bai Guo pressed his forehead against the cliff in frustration, before a sudden realization struck him. "Sir Shen is still down there, he'll catch me if I fall! Right, sir Shen?!"
As he called out, he was greeted only by his own echo.
"I told Cui Shen to take a hike so I can train my disciple in private."
Bai Guo pressed his face back into the cliff and yelled, his voice muffled by stone.
"Hurry up. I want to get to a town soon." The Golden Witch stared at her nails.
After Bai Guo took some time to vent, he upturned his head with newfound determination and continued the agonizing ascent.
Eventually, he reached the precipice, and crawled onto solid ground. He seemed content to keep his face in the dirt as the boulder pressed into his back. "Get it off me please." His muffled voice came out again.
Although he never got the chance to see it for himself, the Golden Witch undid the knots on the weight with a small, proud smile on her face.
With the rock gone, Bai Guo rolled onto his back, breathing heavily. "Master... How come in these past few months, you've had me do nothing but run, swim, climb, and lift weights? When do I get to learn some real martial arts?"
"Your body isn't strong enough yet. You've hardly trained at all before you met me, so there's a lot to catch up on. And on the road, we have to improvise."
"I trained almost every day back home!" Bai Guo protested. "And besides, I've never seen you do a single physical exercise yourself, master! Clearly there's more to it than that. Like that internal energy thing you talk about from time to time!"
"I don't know what you were doing back home, but it certainly doesn't pass for training. As for me, I'm long past the need for physical exercise." The Golden Witch turned away her golden eyes, and brushed a hand through her long hair.
"And all those old fart masters, none of them look like they exercise either..." Bai Guo continued to grumble.
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The woman's face wrinkled with annoyance. She stared at her own hair for a time, seemingly unable to think of a response. "Physical fitness and internal energy go hand in hand. For a novice like you, someone who can't even make full use of their muscles, dabbling with the meridians would just be a waste of time."
"But how does that work? I just don't understand..." Bai Guo stared into the cloudy sky, basking in the cool wind. As the disciple relaxed, the master's frustration was mounting. She simply couldn't figure out a way to explain.
After a while, she stood up and dusted herself off. "Let's climb down and find a town."
Bai Guo pressed the back of his head into the earth and groaned.
The young man's master quickly alleviated his concerns. "Forget about the rock. You can climb down without it." Instantly, the disciple's face lit up with relief, and he carried on with the task.
"I'd like to sleep in a house today." The Golden Witch stepped over the edge. She plummeted down to the bottom instantly, and yet landed as softly as a blade of grass drifting in the wind, soundlessly, gently, as though she had merely taken a step over flat ground.
Bai Guo, startled at first by her master's sudden attempted suicide, stared in wonder at the unbelievable outcome. "Physical fitness can't do that..." He grumbled some more as he began his descent. He made swift work of the cliff this time around, but the young man could hardly force himself to take pride in it when faced with the capabilities of his eccentric master.
They reunited with Cui Shen, whose black attire seemed to meld into the shade of the tree he was resting under even as his sickly pale face practically glowed against the morning sunlight.
A short walk brought them before a large settlement, a town called Jiuqin.
"Look, Bai Guo, you won't have to wash my clothes today! Aren't you happy?" The Golden Witch exclaimed, smiling.
Bai Guo went beet red. "Could you please not speak about that matter in public? It's bad enough that you make me do it, but please don't go around letting other people know, master!"
"I still don't get what the big deal is..." She replied.
"It's just inappropriate!" Bai Guo hissed. "And let's leave it at that!"
"If it really bothers you so much, I could stop making you do it..."
"Then what would I do as your disciple? What would be my contributions? You don't charge me with any other tasks! I'd just be an ungrateful, unfilial little freeloader!"
"Well then." She stared directly at him. "Aren't you happy that we're staying in a town tonight?" She repeated herself with a straight face, but it quickly gave way to another smile.
"Yes..." Bai Guo turned away from her and stubbornly shuffled his tired feet into the city.
As they wandered through the busy city streets in search of lodgings, the Golden Witch had abruptly stopped, the tip of her nose darting towards the sky. "Do you smell that?" She asked, sniffing at the air repeatedly.
Her two compatriots exchanged confused glances. The woman took a sudden turn in a different direction, and after following her for a time, Cui Shen spoke up. "Now I do."
His ordinarily gloomy expression turned even graver.
They walked upon a street that had seemingly been bathed in blood, littered with curious bystanders who kept a healthy distance. Even Bai Guo's nose was now assailed by the metallic odor.
In his shock, Bai Guo blurted out, "Did someone slaughter a cow in here? Maybe it's someone's idea of a prank?" He then clarified, "I see a lot of footprints, but recently a cart rode up to only one edge of the pool there, so maybe there was only one carcass to pick up."
Cui Shen said, "Maybe there were several bodies close together."
Bai Guo argued back. "The bloodstain goes out pretty far, and the mud doesn't look like any bodies have been dragged through it."
Cui Shen seemed to agree, and grew silent.
As Bai Guo turned to his master, he found her golden eyes wide, staring in something resembling wonder. He could almost hear the gears turning in her head, and correctly surmised that his idle chatter fell on deaf ears. She noticed him staring, and, after a moment, snapped out of it.
"What if a martial art did this?" She asked, and had done so almost innocuously. But Bai Guo did not buy her forced nonchalance for even a second.
"You mean to a single man?" It took everything the young man had to not shudder at her suggestion. The thought of her being right, and the thought that the person capable of using such a martial art was currently in the same city as them filled him with dread.
But he also saw a rare opportunity to prove himself. He turned to Cui Shen. "Sir Shen, how about we ask the locals about what happened here?"
"I don't see the point." Cui Shen hadn't been intrigued much at all. "Even if it was a fight between martial artists, it's no concern of ours."
"On the contrary, sir Shen, I think it's prudent that we keep an eye on the local affairs, so that we best know how to avoid trouble." As he spoke, Bai Guo glanced twice in the direction of his master.
Cui Shen seemed to catch on to the meaning of his gesture. "I'll accompany you."
It did not take them long to learn that the remains of a man had been moved to a nearby cart, its grisly contents draped over by a dirty sheet. According to the townspeople, the grave keeper was supposed to ferry it away, but had wandered off for one reason or another.
The three of them cast aside the cover and peered within. Immediately, Bai Guo's face turned a shade of green, as what awaited them in the cart was not so much a corpse, but a bundle of skin, some limbs and a head. He turned away and gripped his knees. As curious onlookers peeked into the now uncovered cart, they, too, reacted with regret.
"Well, it's definitely a martial art..." Bai Guo mumbled in a strange voice as he fought the urge to empty his stomach. "Nothing else is going to do that to a man."
The other two were like steel. Cui Shen strained to hide his disgust, and had done so perfectly, with iron-clad resolve; the Golden Witch struggled to hide her fascination, and had done a stellar job of it as well.
"Where are his organs?" The woman asked, her eyes of amber scanning the pool of blood and turning up nothing.
They heard Bai Guo's strained voice behind them. "There were lots of people stomping around in the mud here recently, so why's there only one corpse? This much blood couldn't have come from just one man, right?"
After a break, Bai Guo continued to question the people. He found them either unknowing or uncooperative, until he entered a tea house directly in front of the scene, and spoke with old Gen.
"Oh yes, I saw it all. Let me tell you, young man, nothing good can come out of sticking your nose into this affair. Decent folk like you would do well to keep as far enough away as you-" The old man had suddenly found himself flabbergasted as he watched a golden haired woman step into his establishment, so tall that she had almost bumped her head on the upper end of the doorway.
It took a few moments for Old Gen to come out of his daze. He had, for some reason, suddenly changed his tune. "...A powerful martial artist came through here and got in trouble with a local gang. I knew little Yan since he was just a little boy playing around in the neighborhood, and sure, he may have grown up to be a good-for-nothing criminal, but to die in such a gruesome way, my heart still weeps for him... At least the others got away..."
Bai Guo asked, "Did the gentleman in question introduce himself?"
"Oh yes. His name was Tao Geming."
Cui Shen's languid eyes flew wide open. "Tao Geming? The Invincible Blood Sea? He's real?"
The old man nodded. "Certainly. He introduced himself to me by his given name, and then one of the gangsters referred to him by that title when they fought."
The Golden Witch and Bai Guo both stared at Cui Shen. Evidently, neither the man's given name nor his sobriquet told them anything.
Cui Shen began to explain. "I've heard stories about a villain who goes around the world killing and stealing as he pleases. He is called Invincible because it is said that he has never once been injured, and they call him the Blood Sea..." He turned back to the crimson street. "...because that is all he leaves in his wake."
Old Gen shuddered. The Golden Witch asked of the old proprietor, "Perhaps you witnessed the technique he used to cause all of that?"
"I don't know. I truly don't." The man replied. "I saw no weapon. Little Yan struck Tao Geming on the head, and then, suddenly, little Yan just... He just..." Old Gen shook his head over and over.
The Golden Witch, realizing that nothing useful would be gleaned from this conversation, turned away. Bai Guo asked about Tao Geming's whereabouts, but the old man had little to say in that regard.
Bai Guo then questioned the man on Tao Geming's appearance, but old Gen hemmed and hawed until the young man had had enough, and ultimately, the only descriptors of worth he had managed to extract out of the proprietor was the color of the man's tunic and the miniscule length of his hair.
As they were about to leave, old Gen called out to them. "You masters are not with the Royal School, are you?"
The three stopped, and Bai Guo asked, "The Royal School?"
"The Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School. I can see you are not from around these parts, so I must insist on my previous advice - for you to stay out of this matter. The Royal School is looking into this matter as well, because, this Tao Geming, he uttered a great taboo..."
The Golden Witch lifted a brow. "What did he say?"
"Oh I dare not repeat it aloud, and I'm sure you'll find no one else that will. But it is something that the king does not abide by, and his Royal School will no doubt be seeking retribution for the things that were said. When it comes to dealing with the Royal School, it is of the essence to stay out of their way. They keep the peace, but they... well... Just remember this old man's advice, okay? I wish good luck to the lady and her attendants." Old Gen bowed.
Bai Guo hastily returned the bow before they parted ways.
As they once again stared at the mayhem outside, the young disciple pondered aloud. "I wonder why the old man was so taciturn when it came to the details of his appearance. I didn't get the impression that he didn't get a good look at Tao Geming, and, not to be rude, but he seemed quite sharp for his age..."
Cui Shen closed his eyes as he spoke. "Now that I think about it, I've never heard a description of the man either. Maybe in the same way that certain people are unforgettable after a single glance, others can be uniquely nondescript."
"Or maybe the old man is scared." Bai Guo supposed.
"Scared of what exactly?" Cui Shen glanced at him. "He already shared far more information than he was obliged to."
"Maybe there's no good way to describe the man without it coming off as an insult. Like, for example, if he's really ugly. And if word spreads that the old man called him that, he might come back..."
Cui Shen pondered his words in silence.
"It doesn't really matter." The Golden Witch suddenly spoke up, her eyes still peeled to the pool of blood. "I've been thinking how I might go about achieving something like this myself, and while I have a few ideas, they all involve..." Her speech trailed off; her neck began to slowly tilt, her mouth slightly agape. "...Perhaps..." She mumbled. A few moments later, she seemed to catch herself lolling off and regained her wits. "Well, it would require a great deal of mastery over internal energy. So if we come anywhere near the man, I would sense him instantly."
Bai Guo found no joy in those news. With an awkward chuckle, he said. "One of these days you should teach me how to sense internal energy just like you do, master." So that I can do the opposite of what you do and avoid all these murderous psychopaths, he thought.
The woman's brows furrowed, still only half-present mentally in the conversation. "I can't teach you that any more than I can teach a deaf man to hear. Even my father couldn't do it."
Cui Shen's interest was piqued by the sudden change of topic. "So it was not something that you were taught, and from the way you describe it, neither was it something that you had to learn on your own? It was just something you could do?"
"...Hm? Right, like smelling with your eyes or seeing with your nose." She muttered, jumbling up her words.
Cui Shen sighed. "Bai Guo, would you be so kind as to pry your master away so that we may set about securing our accommodations for the night?"
Bai Guo carefully approached. "Master..."
The Golden Witch waved her long sleeve. "I'm going, I'm going..."
She had gotten dragged away.
...
Tao Geming wandered the cruddy streets, his face contorted into a perpetual scowl. As he came across a lone beggar, the intensity of his expression loosened slightly. The man was sat on the ground, his muddy clothes still not completely dry after the night's downpour, and his face covered by a wide straw hat.
Tao Geming, with a flick of his fingers, sent the golden tael in his pocket into the man's empty begging bowl. Its heavy weight nearly toppled the clay bowl over. As Tao Geming made to leave, he heard a gruff voice emerge from beneath the straw hat.
"That smells more like iron than gold. Just how much blood did you spill to get this, mister?"
Tao Geming stopped dead in his tracks. He turned back to the beggar.
"Never seen a picky beggar before." He spat. The beggar shook his head, the straw hat atop it angling back to reveal his bearded, broad, tired face. The two stared each other down.
"If a guy like me gets seen carrying gold, who knows what might happen?" The beggar complained.
"If you don't want it, throw it away."
Unabated, the beggar continued. "If you're in the mood to make some amends, surely someone like you could think of a better way than offloading your ill-gotten gains on strangers? Or maybe you'd like to hear a few suggestions?"
"I've got nothing to make amends for. Save your little sermon for when it might make a difference."
"When could it possibly make a bigger difference than now?" The beggar asked. "Wouldn't you say that it's people like you that turned the world into what it is now?"
"What in the blazes are you yapping about, you bum?"
"It's because you and every other fellow with a lick of strength in them proclaim themselves king that things have gotten so bad."
Tao Geming chuckled. "So you watched me fight. Just where do you find the courage to talk back after that, old bum? Had enough of your shitty life?"
The beggar continued. "Mountains of corpses cannot be used to purchase legitimacy, not even in an age as depraved as this. Keep sailing up the river of blood, and you'll eventually find yourself drowning in it."
"Ha! Who do you think you're bullshitting, beggar? If you had even a lick of strength of your own, you'd be out there fighting and killing for the good life just like all the rest of us. Listen well - there will be no retribution for anything I've done. Karma exists only in the bitter dreams of the downtrodden. I've wandered the world twice over and found not a single man that could be my match. So spare yourself the mental anguish and get those naive thoughts out of your head. The next man you mouth off to might not be so magnanimous as to let you off the hook."
"You say that, but aren't you forced to wander because you aren't welcome anywhere? So how are you better than me?"
"I go where I please and take what I want. That's what it means to be king!" Tao Geming swelled up with pride. The beggar just wrinkled his nose.
"I, too, go where I please, and for anything I need, I beg. But it seems to me that neither of us has got anything to truly call our own. People are never happy to have me around, and I'm guessing the same goes for you, too. But even so, I'd wager folks would rather have me around than you."
Tao Geming burst into laughter. "You've certainly earned that gold, beggar. If you throw your lot in as a jester, you just might joke your way into a decent life."
Tao Geming waved him off and walked away. The beggar watched him leave, a sullen look in his eye, and then covered his face with his hat.
But little did the poor man know that his nap would last hardly an hour before a long shadow hid the sun from him once more.
...
While the Golden Witch and Cui Shen explored the market stalls, Bai Guo was charged with getting them all rooms at a nearby inn. He had accomplished the task uneventfully, and took his time as he began to leave, taking in the wafting scents of roasted meats and captivating spices, the lavish decor, and even the colorful garments of the refined clientele.
"Uncle Zhong could learn a thing or two from this place..." Just as the thought crossed his mind, his heavy feet got tangled up with each other, and Bai Guo ended up plunging face-first into the floor. His hands desperately spread out for something to latch onto. He was fortunate enough to grasp a table, only to find it coming down together with him, dragging along its many contents.
The commotion caused by the falling boy and the deafening clatter of silver was overwhelmed by a frustrated scream. "Oh, for the love of...!"
Before Bai Guo had the chance to get back on his feet, he found himself getting pulled up by his clothing.
"Look at what you've done!" A young man around his age shouted at him indignantly. His attire of yellow-and-red was soiled by a sharp-smelling beverage. Right beside him, a young woman wearing an identical uniform stared at the spilled drinks and dishes in shock, her mouth covered with her hands.
"Senior martial brother!" She wailed. "Now the whole day is ruined!"
Bai Guo bowed his head low. "My apologies! I tripped."
The young man turned up his nose. "An apology isn't good enough! Do you see this? I am Hou Wencheng, the apprentice of a third rank expert!" Bai Guo lifted his head to find the martial artist pointing at some emblems emblazoned on his shoulder. He saw the symbol for "Qin", and the number one.
"I don't know what that means..." He freely admitted, to the continued shock of the young man and his female companion.
"It means I am a member of the Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School, you nincompoop! What backwater did you crawl out of that you didn't even know that? Who let you into this place?" The young man shot his cuffs. "What it means is that you're in a world of trouble if you don't recompense me for my uniform and my order immediately!"
Bai Guo, having had just give his lone gold tael to the proprietor, had nothing to give. He lowered his head again. "I don't have any money on me now, but if you just let me go fetch my master, you'll be compensated."
"A likely story!" Hou Wencheng scoffed, and continued to press. "Who's your master?"
"The Golden Witch is my master."
After a pause, he heard laughter. "You're a real riot! Oh, oh, let me guess. Your senior martial brother must be the Silver Sorcerer. And you yourself must be the Copperless Conman! Shall I wait for the Money Fairy to leave the compensation under my pillow?"
His companion giggled. The observing patrons, too, derived a chuckle out of his words.
It was only then that Bai Guo began to feel frustrated. Ridiculing him for a blunder that he had truly made was one thing, but what the disciple of the Qin was saying now could very well constitute an insult against his master.
"You don't have money, but you've got a sword. Give it to me, I can pawn it off." The young man suddenly demanded.
"This is my father's sword..."
"Mmm. Let me guess. He's the Iron Soothsayer?"
Laughter picked up again at his joke. Bai Guo raised his head, resentment on his face. The Qin disciple placed one arm behind his back and put the other one forward, waving the young man forward with just his fingers.
"Hand it over, or I'll take it myself."
As the ultimatum was declared, the inn turned silent. Anyone with any amount of martial aptitude in the room recognized that the disciple had taken up a fighting stance.
Neither of them was willing to budge on this matter. As their staredown continued, tension grew.
Finally, Bai Guo lunged forward with great alacrity.
Hou Wencheng's eyes widened, his body moving desperately to counter.
Unexpectedly, Bai Guo slipped on the drinks he himself had spilled, and ended up barreling towards his opponent's legs. Hou Wencheng's punch, aimed at where the young man's head would have been, had missed the mark entirely, and he found himself tumbling to the floor in tow with his foe.
They both tangled with the other. Back and forth they rolled, exchanging curses but hardly a single blow, each trying to wrestle back the initiative.
The scuffle soon ended in Bai Guo's favor as he secured his place at the top, his fist lifted high into the air.
But once again he had found himself being dragged about by his clothing, something pulling him by the collar of his shirt so fiercely that he was nearly suffocating.
Bai Guo heard the grumbling voice of an older man. "They'll let anyone into the Clear Essence Pavilion these days..."
Hou Wencheng, watching his opponent getting slid along the floor, shouted, "Master Kang Shi!" His female companion echoed his words, and they both bowed respectfully.
No matter how much he struggled, Bai Guo could not get free, the man's fingers like a steel vice. Soon, they were right by the entrance. They briefly halted by the closed door, though Bai Guo suspected that this was not quite the end of the road for him. As the man opened it, to the young man's surprise, his transit was halted completely.
"Oh my!" The man dragging him along exclaimed. Bai Guo contorted his body - Hou Wencheng's master still refused to let go of his collar - and peered past his sleeves.
"Master!" Bai Guo was greatly relieved to see the peerlessly tall figure of the Golden Witch tilting over to peek through the doorway.
"Would you, perhaps, care to explain what you're doing to my disciple?" She asked.
The man chuckled. "Your disciple? Your disciple has caused a great deal of trouble, and I was just about to toss him out."
"Really? What did he do?"
"He spilled my disciple's food and, when pressed for compensation, started a fight with him." The man explained.
"Did he win?" Her next question caught him off-guard. He laughed.
"Of course not! As if some country bumpkin could beat a member of the Royal School."
"So are you, perhaps, cleaning up after your disciple?"
Kang Shi found this question far less amusing than the last. There were several implications contained within, all of them insulting to his reputation and dignity.
He forced out a smile. "Why don't we stop disrupting the guests here and continue this conversation outside? You call yourself a martial artist, don't you? While we're at it, if you would be so kind, how about giving me some pointers? What was your esteemed name again...?"
The Golden Witch turned away, suddenly speaking to someone out of sight. "What does that phrase mean? To give some pointers?"
"...It means he wants to fight you." Cui Shen's glum voice came from the side.
Bai Guo, still stuck on the floor, sweated profusely.
"That's fine, then." The blonde woman replied lightly, stepping away. As her grandiose figure ceased looming over the entrance, the other master followed, and the three disciples as well as most of the patrons came rushing out to watch the show.
The townspeople seemed to immediately recognize the situation for what it was, steering clear of the two martial artists. Foot traffic had immediately grown sparse.
Kang Shi's long dark hair had begun to gray around his temples, but the man's complexion was healthy and ruddy, only a scant few thin wrinkles around his forehead. Bai Guo's eyes were drawn to the number three emblazoned on his shoulder. Kang Shi crossed his arms behind his back as he stared down his amber eyed foe from a few meters away.
"Well?" He broke the thick silence. "Shall I make the first move?" He sarcastically added, "Care to grace us with your renowned name before we begin?"
"Go ahead." She replied. Kang Shi felt a pang of frustration prod at his heart as the woman repeatedly refused to name herself.
The distance between them was gone in the space of a single breath. The observers gasped at his dexterity.
Kang Shi struck at her midsection with a kick. His leg whipped like a lunging snake, but had been caught by the Golden Witch's hand. The man dug his heel in and pulled his leg back with a great deal of strength, but no matter how much he heaved and struggled, he could not pry himself out of her grip.
The master seemed to give up on it and snorted. "Amusing ourselves, are we?"
The corner of the woman's mouth jerked ever so subtly upwards. The older man sprang into action again, hopping off with his remaining foot and spinning himself around for yet another kick, this one aimed at her head.
It had struck the other palm of the Golden Witch with a loud clap, and another limb had been caught into her steely grasp. The upper body of the man continued to soar through the air, briefly suspended by the fierce momentum of his second attack. He leaned forward, thrusting out his palm towards the woman's now defenseless torso.
The Golden Witch straightened out her arms upwards and swung the man over her shoulder like he was a sack of rice. She threw him roughly to the ground, and the man struck the dirt hard with his rear.
He swiftly began the efforts to regain his footing, but ceased his attempts after just a few scant twitches. His face turned stark red and sweat began to run down his face. He remained lying there to the confusion of the crowd.
"Well," The man suddenly blurted out, crossing his arms behind his head. He leisurely leaned back into the dirt. "If you're not going to be taking this seriously, then neither shall I."
He suddenly closed his eyes. As the middle aged man lounged on the ground like he was trying to plunge into a nap, the crowd exchanged confused glances. The Golden Witch stared at him with her mouth slightly agape as if she was about to say something, but after a time, seemed to decide against it. She turned around and began to walk away, only to stop a step and a half later and turn right back around.
"Which sect did you say you were from?" She asked.
Kang Shi snorted. "Vagabonds you may be, but to not even know whose lands you're treading through is simply ridiculous. It is the Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School."
"Would you, perhaps, tell me where your sect is located?"
The man snorted again. "Perhaps you'd like me to walk you there, too? Ridiculous!"
The Golden Witch's brows creased like she just ate something sour. She walked away.
Bai Guo ran up behind her, hoping to dispel his confusions. "Master, what happened?"
"I don't know." She replied. "I think he hurt himself when he fell and can't get up anymore. And when he started acting like that, I... I don't know... It was just embarrassing to be near him, so I'd rather go do something else."
"Why don't you press the issue? What if the crowd ends up thinking that you're conceding?"
"I don't care what they think." She waved her long sleeve to dismiss the issue.
Meanwhile, the old master remained lying there. His two disciples approached, no less confused than everybody else. Hou Wencheng had suddenly found himself getting pulled towards the ground by the ear, whimpering at the mistreatment. Kang Shi hissed at him with venomous whispers.
"Foolish disciple, what good are you? Going around picking fights with everybody and anybody, not knowing how high the sky is, not knowing who you're even fighting! You are nothing but a burden! It took every last drop of my wit to salvage our school's reputation, and to spare all of us from humiliation and death. Now I am wracked by terrible pain every time I try to stand. Let's see how you'll enjoy your day off now! Keep the commoners away from me until night falls, then we'll be leaving this place under the cover of darkness, so that no one can see me in my disgraceful state!"
Kang Shi threw his disciple back. The young man began the watch duty as his ear still burned.
With their accommodations for the night secured, the Golden Witch continued to roam the city streets with her disciple in tow. Nearly around every corner she would find a confectionary or a souvenir to acquire, which would require her disciple to intervene and prevent her from obscenely overpaying in gold, and then again to stop her from simply stealing whatever it was that caught the fancy of her yellow eye. Despite Bai Guo's constant meddling, the young woman seemed to be enjoying herself.
"By the way, master, I've been meaning to ask... How many taels do you have left in your possession?" Bai Guo asked.
"About two."
"Only two?!" Her answer frightened him. It was not as if a golden tael, let alone two, was by any stretch of imagination a small sum of money. But it was always a struggle to exchange it for smaller currencies on the road, and thus it was inevitable that they would have to overspend everywhere they went. They spent an absurd amount during their travels, and they had done so with such levity that Bai Guo had never even suspected the problem to creep up on them this way.
It was certainly a problem unique to the laughably wealthy.
Bai Guo seemed on the verge of panic. "Master, we can't keep spending like this! If we run out of money, what are we going to do? Get a job? Doing what exactly? Would you please let me have the last two taels so that I could try to ration our money out a little better?"
The Golden Witch fluttered her sleeve and procured the two remaining pieces of gold. She seemed to think absolutely nothing of her wealth, or the impeding absence of it, and dispensed with it as freely as she did with words.
Bai Guo felt uneasy as he put the two heavy pieces into his pockets. He was always nervous carrying even just one of them around to make menial purchases, and now, in their scarcity, they felt heavier than ever.
As the young man's mind dwelled on the economical, his master's eyes were drawn elsewhere.
"Say," She began. "The two of you have heard of the Beggar's Sect, right?"
Bai Guo shook his head. "What is that? What sect would call itself that?"
Cui Shen raised an eyebrow. "I've heard of that story. Why do you ask?"
"Story?" She repeated.
"The old folk's tale about a secret gang of beggars who use martial arts to protect the common people. Or did you mean something else?" Cui Shen asked.
"They're not real?" She seemed genuinely surprised to hear that.
"Of course they're not real..." Cui Shen closed his eyes. "Anyone with the skills to lead their own martial arts sect would not be out begging on the streets. It's just a legend that people tell their children."
The Golden Witch pursed her lips in contemplation. "Well, that can't be right..." She muttered.
With that subject seemingly settled, Bai Guo consulted with Cui Shen on how to get the most value out of their gold. As they asked the locals for directions to one thing or another, the Golden Witch had suddenly wandered off.
Bai Guo was struck with panic when he noticed her absence, and he felt like quite the fool for losing track of what may have been the most visible person in the whole wide world. To his relief, he easily spotted her blonde head poking out above the crowd and made his way towards her.
He found her standing over a straw hatted beggar, a peculiar smile creeping onto her face. The beggar flicked his hat away from his weary eyes, and was instantly bewildered by what he had seen.
"Senior," The woman before him spoke. "Would you care to give me some pointers?"
...