"Kii?" Silky stared at Yung, wide-eyed.

"What the actual fuck!" Yung exclaimed, not believing his eyes. He dropped his empathic isolation and fell to his knees.

Behind him, a shadow-like curtain fell, revealing Su Haochen’s ninja-like figure.

The creepy fox yao walked over to the bald guy and touched his head.

"Alive, but bone shards in his brain," Su Haochen stood up. He nodded at Yung, "Impressive."

That was the last straw. The tension tore at Yung's nerves like liquorice stretched to the limits, and his guts roiled over as the salty flavour in his throat overwhelmed his senses.

"Blergh!"

He collapsed on all fours and puked. Thin wisps of xinqi left thousands of ruptures in his arm, and the zhenqi in his sea of consciousness felt as though they were boiling like magma.

It was burnt, his arm and his mind.

Meanwhile, Su Haochen and Silky were left chatting. The critter sat on Yung’s nose and flicked his face with his tail. Not really worried.

"Kii!"

"He’s fine," Su Haochen said, "Needs more training. Fighting mindless beasts and hominid renyao are not the same."

"Kii." Silky nodded sagely.

"W-What are you doing here?" Yung asked, his bangle glowing softly as the xinqi burns slowly healed. He was still drowsy and had vomited out all the street food, but the burning feeling in his guts was subsiding.

"M'lady asked us to guard you," Su Haochen replied. The lower half of his face was covered with a ninja mask. He tugged it up to his nose bridge, his other hand playing with a knife. Yung could distinctly see similar silhouettes of fox yao in the background.

"Do you want me to finish the deed?" Asked the yao in black.

"Jesus, no," Yung said, struggling to get up. "You’ll listen to what I say?"

Su Haochen shrugged with disinterest, “M’lady’s orders.”

"Tie them up, then." Said Yung, wiping his mouth.

The fox in black snapped his fingers. Black snakes with fox heads slithered out of his shadow and wrapped around the three comatose criminals like bindings.

Yung checked Wang Gangbao; the poor lad was unconscious.

"Suffocated," Su Haochen said. "Alive."

Yung nodded, then checked the other woman. Her body was covered in handprints from the incident. There was a noticeable oedema behind her head, and her left arm had been twisted in the wrong direction from the elbow. She breathed erratically.

Yung took out a blanket from his storage ring and covered the girl's naked body. She stirred, but then gasped for air before calming down.

"There’s a bleeding old man," Yung’s fingers were trembling, "I can’t save him."

Su Haochen threw something, which the boy caught with clumsy hands. It was a bandage, covered in jade motifs and had a herby scent.

"Tie that up around the wound." Said the yao.

Yung ran off. The yaoguai floated in front of Su Haochen’s nose for a few seconds.

"Kii?"

"Who knows."

Silky followed Yung out.

The crowd was still there, but too afraid to make any moves. Yung turned the old man over as he kneeled beside his prone form.

"G-Gangbao." The old man snapped his eyes open and spurted out a mouthful of blood. "W-Where is…argh…" More blood, and Yung dearly hoped that there was no leak in his lungs.

"Stay still!" The madlander boy ripped apart the old man’s shirt, then grimaced. The stab was right above the lungs, and it was probably punctured.

How the hell is a bandage gonna heal internal injuries?

Yung decided to place his trust in Su Fox clan magic. He gently wrapped the bandage around the old man’s midsection, holding the elder down as he jerked in pain.

There was a rustling sound, and the scent of herbs intensified with the jade motifs softly starting to glow.

Colour returned to the old man’s face with a slow but steady exhale of noxious air. But the release of tension might have been too much. The old man’s eyes rolled over and he fainted.

Yung gently placed him on the door side, then ran back to the alley.

Su Haochen was leaning on the wall, juggling knives like they were fruit. Yung ran past him, then bandaged any visible wounds on Wang Gangbao and the girl.

He looked at the three criminals. One had his thing cut off. One had it pierced through alongside a shattered jaw. And the bald guy’s bald head had a hole.

Yung hesitated for a minute, then bandaged them up to the best of his abilities without touching the gore.

"Misplaced kindness will get you killed."

"Can you cripple their cultivation for life?" Yung asked.

Su Haochen’s eyes rounded into thin crescents. He snapped his fingers again, and the shadow snakes tying the three criminals raised their fox heads. They aimed for the three goon’s dantians, and bit down.

One of the lackeys woke up and screamed in intense pain, then fainted again with blood leaking from their orifices.

The snakes bit more all over their bodies. Shadows of liquid left their fangs and entered the ren bodies like a haze.

"Done. I suppose this will be worse than death," Su Haochen said, "Do you want to castrate the remaining one too?" He pointed at the bald guy.

"What? No!" Yung shouted, "Why the hell would I want that?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"He's the odd one out. It feels… wrong somehow," Su Haochen said, "Feels incomplete." He threw a dagger which pinned into the bald guy's short trouser-like robes. There was a wet sound of a tomato being stepped on, and the crack of duck eggs. "You do know that these fine men will be killed, right? They will be made examples of if you really want your 'reforms' to have any weight behind them."

Yung opened his mouth in shock, then closed it again. He clenched his fists and exhaled, trying to get his brain in order.

It’s fine. I saved three people. I saved three people.

Yung repeated his mantra, humming the song of life. Om in, om out.

I saved three people.

He took out the bandage, and looked at the bald guy. Then at Su Haochen, finally throwing it in the nonchalant psycho’s direction.

"I have many of these. You can take it." Su Haochen caught the bandage with his shadow tendrils.

"That’s not it." Yung stuck his thumb in the bald guy’s direction. Yeah, they’ll be executed. But let’s be humane about it. "Bandage his dick."

***

One of the neighbours, an old woman, had been nice enough to show them around the restaurant's back rooms. Yung had placed the three victims on three mattresses with the help of the kind neighbour and the Youjin guards.

The guards had, at Yung's orders, taken away the ruffians. They promised to apprehend the rest of the so-called Divine Hawk gang as soon as possible. And judging by the look on their faces, Su Haochen was probably right. If only to appease the Fox clan, the heaviest punishment possible would be enacted.

Although, in their words, the guards did not really think it would solve anything.

"Stuff like this happens all the time. We can't go picking fights with every cultivator around. Besides..." the guard had said.

"Besides?" Yung had asked.

"They’re mortals. The clan can't care too much about them. If ye want fairness, lad, then you gotta need a sharp sword and a strong shield.”

"The Su fox clan is both of those and more."

"Maybe. We can take care of these nobodies for now, yeah? But what's the clan to do if, say, some young lord from the Dawn Dragon Throne or even yer Fox clan does the same? The fancy princess can give you the sword, but she can take it away. And it'll be our Youjin clan that'll suffer when all the angry mobs we offended just to take care of some mortals decide to take their revenge."

"They won't. I won't."

"Yer a cultivator now. Listen to this old man, and start acting like one. Softness will get all of us killed now that you've forced us into yer same boat. I ain't complaining, but you gotta see the facts here."

Yung had bid the guards farewell with a hopefully polite face. But Silky said otherwise.

Wang Gangbao woke up half an hour later.

"Ding Shi!" cried the lad.

"Relax, you're safe," Yung said.

The young chef looked around frantically. "T-This is my home. You're Ziyou Yung."

"And you are Wang Gangbao."

Wang Gangbao looked confused. His eyes swam around like rubber balls. But gradually, the memories hit him. Hard. His face paled, and he threw aside the sheet to bolt off the bed. "Where's Ding Shi?! Argh!" He fell down, clutching his arm.

"Your shoulder was dislocated when the bald guy held you down," Yung said. "As for Ding Shi... you're talking about the girl with freckles?"

Wang Gangbao nodded with tears in his eyes, “M-My wife!”

"She's in the next room. Being looked over by the old lady living next door."

Yung helped Wang Gangbao up. There was a glint of gratefulness in the boy's eyes.

They went to the other room, where a wrinkly old woman put a damp cloth on the comatose girl's forehead.

"Ding Shi!" Wang Gangbao ran over and collapsed by the side of the bed. "No, no. Why?!"

The old woman sighed. Yung didn't have an answer to that question either.

"She’s still pure, Bao’er. The Yung fella got there just in time—"

"I don't care about that!" Wang Gangbao screamed, interrupting the old lady. He then jolted, looking at Yung and the woman with shame and trepidation. "I-I'm sorry, I—"

"It's fine," It wasn't fine. "After what happened, being on edge is normal." That was an understatement.

"W-Will she be okay?" Wang Gangbao asked with clenched teeth.

"A Su fox clan cultivator looked at her," Yung said. "She'll wake within the hour if all goes well. We gave her a pill."

There was a ruckus outside the door. Silky flew in like a dizzy bee followed by an old man walking with a crutch, magical bandages around his wounded midsection.

"Gangbao!" he shouted, then hugged his son in a death grip.

"F-Father. Father!" Wang Gangbao cried. They both had thunderous voices, which sounded weird to Yung's ears because their pitch was high. Or perhaps it was the trauma, and their voice was merely broken. "You're alive. I thought... I saw them stab you!"

"And I'd be a goner too if it wasn't for this fine young lad," Wang Gangbao's father said.

He pushed his son aside gently, then looked Yung straight in the eye. Yung felt uncomfortable. He didn't like such eyes. He didn't like such a world.

The old man collapsed on his knees, then knocked his head on the floor hard enough to rock the wood. "This Wang Gangliu pays gives his eternal gratitude to you. If you hadn't arrived, me, my son, and my daughter-in-law would have been killed. Or suffered a fate worse than that. I know there ain't a good way to ever repay this big a debt, but as long as blood flows in my veins and my legs are strong, I swear to the heavens to give—"

"Enough!" Yung said. He had shouted, even though he didn’t mean to. "That bandage was expensive. It just healed you, and now you want to crack your skull open."

"This old man—"

"Stand, or you give me no face." Yung politely used the worst xianxia rhetoric he had in his repertoire.

Wang Gangliu stood up. His forehead was bruised, but his smile was sincere, if a little broken.

"And you," Yung pointed at Wang Gangbao, "Don't you dare kneel." Yung could feel the pure xinqi coming into his dantian from the worship. From the gratitude. He would have enjoyed it far more if he could appreciate such Shen cultivation from a distance. Away from bad things happening to hapless people.

"I must give you my thanks. I am no ungrateful scoundrel. I have to repay this debt!" Wang Gangbao said.

I know you aren't. Yung waved his hand. "Free food if I ever drop by, okay? Now tell me what happened. I asked the crowd a bit, but no one could answer clearly."

"I-I don't know." Wang Gangbao's muscles strained to contain fury. Or was it despair? "They came around earlier and ate all they could without paying a single coin. They left. But then, after we had closed up for the night and were washing the plates and dishes, one of them came in after kicking the door open. I think it was around the third bell in the deep morn."

About 3AM, then…

"He was dead drunk. It was the tall one. He came for more wine. We gave him, b-but then. Curse it all; it's my fault." Wang Gangbao said, punching the floor. "I-If only I'd be the one to send him the wine. I was in the back, marinating the meat for tomorrow. Ding Shi thought the man would go away if we gave him the wine like before. A-And yet—" The boy stopped, taking deep breaths. He was starting to hyperventilate.

Yung could guess what happened. He brought out a waterskin and gave it to the boy, who took it gratefully and drank in large gulps.

"That man, he said there wasn't no wine without women," Wang Gangbao cried. He clasped his teeth so hard that Yung worried if they would break. "By the time I ran over, Father was bleeding on the doorstep. I didn't know what to do. I-I-I couldn't think. I couldn't even... I heard Ding Shi's scream coming from the alley. I... ran on instinct. And when I saw what they were doing, I—" Wang Gangbao stopped. "I don't remember."

"This Divine Hawk gang, didn’t they offer you to join them?" Yung asked.

"I had no plans of joining. They were bandits! The filthy sons of shrews!" Wang Gangbao replied. "I remember... That bald bastard. He said that since we would be brothers, I should prove my loyalty by sharing." Wang Gangbao punched the floor again with his wounded hand. But the boy didn't feel the pain this time, only red rage. "How could they? Why would they? I don't get it!”

"They're cultivators, my son." Wang Gangliu said. "Can't argue with an earthquake, can't reason with a cultivator. It's our lot in life for being born with trash physiques and worse spirit roots." The old man turned towards Yung again and bowed, "I know not all cultivators are like'em. You're a nice fella. But you're one in a million. No, a billion! Most would've left or turned a blind eye."

“Do you dislike the Youjin clan?” Yung asked, “You don’t have to answer that.”

Wang Gangliu shook his head, "No, I can see where you're going. No, the clan's been fine to us. But I've seen stuff like this happen to honest townsfolk 'bout a hundred times since I was a babe. If a cultivator does it, all they gotta do is pay the damage. The clan only goes after'em if they can't. They do better than most places. But then again, that's what I've heard from the peddlers. Haven't left the city to see for meself."

“By the way,” Yung changed the topic. He needed Wang Gangbao to stop punching the floor. It was getting tiring to watch. “Don’t you wanna know how I took care of them? Those Divine Hawk Creeps.”

Wang Gangbao, his father, and even the old lady all gave confused nods.

“I cut it off,” Yung snipped with his fingers. “Their thingy. Snip snip, all three of them.”

That was the first time Yung had seen the father and son smile. They would probably not smile again for days, weeks, and months to come. But this smile was involuntary, coming out from deep within their souls, for cruelty returned a hundredfold, the bestial gratification that was revenge served hot.