Yin Na weighed the benefits of killing the annoying villagers with the drawbacks of doing so and decided that it was not worth it.
His actions left a good impression here for Wayseeker Crow. It was better to leave a good impression as a stranger than to spread infamy after slaughtering an entire mortal village. Good impressions were forgotten faster, anyway!
The Jiang Hu was a place where secrets and hidden surprises always lurked in pockets of the wilderness and the most remote of villages.
What if Yin Na killing the villagers triggered the wrath of a nearby martial artist, or even worse, a cultivator who was secretly overlooking the village?
Yin Na could not risk such an occurrence.
“It is best to imitate the traditional Daoists and disappear as swiftly as I appeared.”
Yin Na took two leaps and jumped over the heads of the villagers and the house of the “granny.” Before leaving, he quickly broke into the now-emptied houses of the villagers and stole preserved meat, snacks, and a gourd of alcohol and some fresh clothing.
“I’d be damned if I left a no-name village empty-handed!” Yin Na thought to himself.
Wearing humble farmers clothing was still an upgrade from his ragged robbes. Yin Na was now wearing a short-sleeved frog-buttoned shirt.
He traced the curves of the river by the banks to enter the next village.
Once again, his one-armed, bandaged appearance inspired fear and ostracizing.
After quickly locating the village drunk, Yin Na squatted beside the man who was drinking blissfully by the road.
“Won’t anyone even tell me why this village is named ‘Three Dogs Village?’” Yin Na asked.
The drunkard said without a second’s worth of hesitation: “Give me a drink and I’ll tell you.”
Yin Na gave him the gourd of alcohol he had swiped from Ma Da Ming village.
The drunk accepted the gourd but put it behind him, as he was still finishing his current drink.
“No one knows. The local folk tales like to claim that this village was founded by three Dog demons who terrorized the countryside, but that was during the Immemorial dynasty. Others simply say that during the Fu dynasty this village was supposed to have been noted for its trading of dogs for food and hunting.”
“But what do you think?” Yin Na asked, leaning in closer to the drunkard.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m asking what you, the Village Drunk thinks.” Yin Na said.
“Why would you care about what the town drunk thinks?” The drunkard said, leaning back. He was visibly uncomfortable and seemed to have noticed Yin Na’s appearance for the first time.
“Your eyes don’t seem to have the opaqueness of someone who’s developing cataracts nor the glaziness of someone who’s lost himself in drink.”
Yin Na was gradually exuding killing intent, even letting trace of his Golden Core aura leak through his pores.
The drunk’s eyes widened in high alarm.
“You can sense my aura?” Yin Na’s eyes smiled through his bandages, and they looked like the hungry eyes of a tiger.
“It’s true that participants of the Jiang Hu cannot avoid each other,” said the drunk. “The name is Song Ye Xin, apologies if I have somehow offended senior.”
Yin Na laughed, and Song Ye Xin felt his heart tremor in fear.
“This man is incredibly dangerous! W-what was that strange aura I felt earlier?! I’ve never felt a fellow martial artist have such a domineering aura! Even though he only has one arm, he must be hiding a demon’s face underneath those bandages!”
Yin Na chuckled underneath his bandages. Whether Immortals or cultivators, mortals or martial artists, humans were the same. People respected power, like in the Soul Orb realm, it was either devour or be devoured!
“Wayseeker Crow,” Yin Na greeted, using only one hand. “Why is brother Song wasting his days in Three Dog village? Could there be some evil he is hiding away from?”
Song Ye Xin calmed his breathing and said:
“Senior Wayseeker Crow is perceptive. Ten years ago I was known as Drunken Swordsman Song, when I offended the son of a prominent official by besting him in weapons and a bare-handed bout. Since then, I’ve been besting him and getting the upper hand over every scheme he had planned for me, and his resentment had accumulated to the point of wanting my blood.”
Yin Na snorted internally.
“The Jiang Hu operates on a flimsy line between Daoism and Confucianism, it is the wilderness where human civilization is on the brink of teetering over to barbarism on the drop of a wine cup. Encounters such as this, where a fellow martial artist under disguise is suddenly exposed, have the unspoken rule where the exposed have about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn to explain themselves.
“In folktales and the common literature, these explanations are romantically portrayed as always simple and delivered straightforward with honesty from the heart of the martial artist, just as the most famous poetry are composed. But in actuality, the martial artist has to quickly pick the right morals to align with and give the performance of their lives to convince the other party of their sincerity, otherwise they would simply be placing their own head on the executioner’s block.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“By telling me this story, Song is going for the sympathy between outlaws who were driven to vagabonding out of desperation. This ‘Song Ye Xin’ does not convince me at all!”
Yin Na asked another question:
“Have you seen a Spirit Beast or a Yao Guai around these parts?”
“No.”
“Okay, Song Ye Xin. Do you think you could best me in a fight?”
Song Ye Xin’s pupils shrunk to the size of pins. He began flailing his arms before preparing to kneel and kowtow.
“Please, if I had somehow offended senior- !”
“All I want to know is why you’re really here,” said Yin Na.
Yin Na already decided that he was not going to harm this man. He did not know his real identity, and Yin Na had no desire to expose himself to the world through shedding the blood of this random fool…yet.
Rather, he was motivated by curiosity, as well as a desire to punish the martial artist for trying to lie to him.
How did Yin Na know?
As someone who had sparred mentally with the best in the Cultivation world, with his ventures producing plenty of experience and insight, Yin Na could pick apart Song Ye Xin’s stiff, wooden delivery of the synopsis of his life like a school teacher chiding a student’s classwork.
“Amateur!” Yin Na could only scoff inside his head.
Song Ye Xin should have realized right away from Yin Na’s personality that he was aligned with Demonic values. He also should have simply come clean, instead of trying to try his luck in angering someone clearly much stronger than him.
There were so many possibilities as to why a random figure of the Jiang Hu was wasting time in a remote village such as this one. Was he guarding treasure that was buried somewhere within the village? Was he waiting for the arrival of someone else?
“Just like the world of cultivation, anything is possible down here in the mortal Jiang Hu realm. For example, what if this ‘drunkard’ is really the clone of some Immortal in disguise?”
Yin Na thought all of this in silence, standing with a calm, hungry confidence which crushed Song Ye Xin’s trembling figure with anxiety and panic.
“Okay, okay, I’ll tell the truth!” Song Ye Xin cried through snot and tears. “This…this lowly wretch is on the run from an official because he slept with one of his wives! My name is actually Song Yu Ying, I’m really a bad martial artist, I actually can’t fight my way out of a paper bag!”
Yin Na sighed; he felt the panic and sincerity in this confession and was disgusted with the simplicity of it.
It’s better to be cautious than trusting. It’s not just Demonic sect martial artists who enjoy concealing things such as traps and poison weapons. Sometimes, a lot of martial artists are just hiding the fact that they are losers; wretched degenerates of society.
But he was also glad. That ‘simplicity’ of Song Yu Ying’s unremarkable identity and background spared the martial artist any further harm.
“Alright,” Yin Na laughed kindly, which came out as ragged wheezes through his bandages. “Get up, get up.”
Song Yu Ying got up, trembling as he felt Yin Na’s one left hand bring him up by his arm.
“I’m quite tired from my wandering,” Yin Na simply said.
Song Yu Ying instantly said: “I know the innkeeper here! I’ll pay for your room tonight!”
Yin Na smiled, “Oh please, that would be troubling you, wouldn’t it?”
Song Yu Ying saw Yin Na’s eyes grinning behind the bandages and his heart beat faster.
“I’ll…I’ll also pay for your dinner! And your lodgings for the rest of your stay here!”
Yin Na gave up on trying to cup with just one hand, and imitated the blade-palm gesture that Buddhist monks frequently used, as he said, “Then I’ll accept your courtesy!”
Just to make Song Yu Ying suffer more, Yin Na ordered everything on the inn menu that night.
“Cheh, this so-called ‘drunkard’ had been accumulating wealth somewhere. I wonder how he’s been acquiring silver if he’s been just lounging around in the village in his pathetic disguise all these years.”
“Song Yu Ying!” Yin Na called in between mouthfuls of steamed duck.
“Y-yes?” Song Yu Ying cried, as he was temporarily lost in melancholic introspection over his misfortune the entire time Yin Na was stuffing his face. He hadn’t touched a bite of the food that he ordered on Yin Na’s behalf, despite Yin Na repeatedly offering food to his face.
“Answer me one last question before I go to bed,” Yin Na said. “How have you been getting your money if you’ve just been a ‘drunk beggar’ in Three Dog village?”
Song Yu Ying wanted to cry at being asked this question. Coming from this man, it was a question loaded with mean intent. He knew this terrifying Jiang Hu wanderer meant to take something else from him, something of far greater value than the pocket savings he had on him tonight.
But “Senior Wayseeker Crow” had already made a deep impression on his mind. He no longer dared to lie or risk courting death.
“I-I have been engaging in the village’s trading routes.”
“Oh, are you starting an honest business as a caravan? Are you turning to banditry on the caravans that pass through here?” Yin Na asked as he cleaned a skewer of seasoned kebab meat and vegetables.
“None, I simply disguise myself as representatives of the village. I’ve been engaging in trade on their behalf for the past ten years.”
“Oh?” Yin Na stopped eating.
He was actually a little impressed! Song Yu Ying was a thief, but he was a thief that turned his craft into passive income, in a far more civilized, effective manner than that of a lowly bandit while managing to keep out of sight and trouble like a parasite.
Song Yu Ying further explained how he would adopt the identity of the village elders’ family members, dressed in different clothing and using different mannerisms everytime during his interception of trading merchants on the way to Three Dog village. He did his job so well that within ten years, the elders who ran the village completely forgot their obligations to take charge of external interactions with other neighboring villages.
But Song Yu Ying was not a total leech on the village. On the contrary, it didn’t take long for him to actually identify with the village personally. By putting the economic health of Three Dogs Village in his hands, he began viewing himself as the owner, if not caretaker of the village. He began to acquire goods and make skillful exchanges with the desire to actually benefit the well-being of Three Dog village, which in turn improved his standard of living overall.
Yin Na thought the situation would have made an interesting poem: Jiang Hu martial artist disguised as the town drunk, the true master behind the scenes of Three Dog Village!
“I did not intend to take any followers this early in my Jiang Hu adventure,” Yin Na thought. “But this martial artist has the capability to use the Dao of Benefits!”
Yin Na burped loudly.
“Okay, I lied.” Yin Na smiled. “I have one more request to ask of you. Why not share a bed with me tonight, Song Yu Ying? It’ll be better than sleeping outside with only the stars as the roof!”
Song Yu Ying almost whimpered, as he was unable to squeeze a word of refusal.