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Chapter 30 - A Moment's Respite

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Being a fugitive was hard work.

It sounded obvious, but being as Zhujiao had never really thought about it, he was still unpleasantly surprised to find out exactly how hard it actually was.

The Red Talons were more prevalent in the slums than he had realised – everywhere he looked, it felt like another enforcer popped up. After he’d managed to slip away from the initial pursuers by hiding in the crowds, he had slowly made his way back towards the edge of the slums, hoping to be able to slip through to safety.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. He wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or just bad luck, but every time he thought he had the space to make a break for it, another group of people wearing red armbands would wander past, and he was forced to slip back into the crowds.

Worse, the crowds were starting to thin out. The early morning rush was slowing to a trickle; those lucky enough to have work elsewhere in the city were already gone. What was left were people running errands, or the jobless and homeless few who wandered the streets for lack of anything better to do.

Them, and the gang members, of course. Couldn’t forget them.

Zhujiao bit back a curse as he ducked around the corner of a nearby building, watching as a group of laughing youths wearing armbands sauntered across the street ahead of him.

This was the closest he’d managed to get to the edge of the slums, and though the temptation was there to make a break for it, he held himself back with a grimace. Qi or not, even these younger members had longer legs than he did, and without a crowd to slow them down, they would doubtlessly catch up in short order.

Not to mention that his Qi reserves were looking a little lower than he would like. The pill had well and truly run its course, and while it had been an incredible boost, he had also burned through quite a bit of it during his escape.

He sighed, sparing a final longing glance down the street towards the merchant district before forcing himself to turn and walk away. Staying in the slums long-term was obviously not an option, but with a bit of luck, he would be safe enough for the next few hours.

Hopefully, he would have a better opportunity to escape during the late afternoon crowds when everyone was going home. If it came down to it, he would at least have better chances of outrunning anyone during that time.

For now, though, he needed to find a place to lie low. Somewhere quiet, ideally, far enough away from other people for him to have plenty of warning if the Red Talons caught up to him.

It was a little counter-intuitive, but Zhujiao angled deeper into the slums, making his way through the winding streets and alleyways. The further he went, the quieter it became, the bustling sounds of the more populated parts of the slums gradually fading into the distance.

The slums were an odd patchwork, a chaotic sprawl that reflected the desperation of its inhabitants. Those who could afford it, or who were simply determined enough, tended to cluster around the edges, closer to the parts of the city where opportunities - however sparse - might be found.

The closer you were to the border of the merchant district, the more likely you were to find work, food, and perhaps even a way out of the slums altogether. But the deeper you ventured, the less likely you were to encounter anyone at all, save for the few who had long since given up on escaping their circumstances.

The perfect place to disappear for a while.

A few minutes of walking later the buildings were little more than husks, their interiors gutted by time and misuse. People tended to avoid these parts, driven away by the stories of collapse or simply the fear of being too far from any possible help.

Zhujiao had never actually been this deep in the slums before. Lao Yi’s clinic was around the halfway mark between the edge of the merchant district and where the slums started getting really bad.

Even the orphanage was technically part of the slums, though it straddled the line of the nicer areas.

He spared a brief thought for Madame Liu, who had gotten him the opportunity to work for Lao Yi in the first place. He wondered if she had known who the old man really was, or if she would be just as surprised as he had been.

Zhujiao shook his head, refocusing. There would be time to think about things like that later, once he was out of the reach of the Red Talons. He was all too aware that the pile of things he was ‘going to deal with later’ was getting rather large, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

Ironically, he would have to deal with that later.

After a few more minutes of searching, steadily making his way deeper into the slums and further away from the larger gatherings of people, he found a suitable place. The house in question was squashed between two larger buildings that almost loomed over it, and the doorway was hidden in deep shadow.

Stolen novel; please report.

The door had long since fallen off its hinges, leaving a dark, yawning gap that led into the interior. Zhujiao hesitated only for a moment before stepping inside, his eyes quickly adjusting to the dim light filtering through the cracks in the walls.

The interior was as expected—empty, with little more than the remnants of old furniture scattered about. A broken table, a few splintered chairs, and a pile of rags that might once have been a bedroll. It was clear that no one had been here in some time, which suited him just fine. He moved further into the building, finding a small room at the back that still had most of its walls intact. The roof overhead was cracked but not completely breached, and there was only a faint draft rather than a full-blown breeze.

Zhujiao set his bag down and sank to the floor with a sigh. His muscles ached from the constant running, and he was starting to get both thirsty and hungry. Hopefully he wouldn’t be stuck in the slums for long enough for that to become a problem, because he couldn’t imagine getting a hold of supplies would be easy.

For that matter, it wouldn’t be easy outside the slums either, but at least it would be less dangerous.

Speaking of supplies, he realised he had yet to properly take stock of what he had managed to snag from the clinic. Zhujiao began carefully laying out his spoils on the dusty floor, spreading them in a neat line so he could take stock of his meagre supplies.

Given the rather rushed nature of his looting – and he would have to come up with a term that didn’t make him feel like a thief – he had only grabbed the things that he recognised and knew would be helpful no matter the situation.

As such, the first items were some tightly rolled bandages, which he ended up placing on top of his bag to keep them clean and off the floor. Next were several small jars filled with various ointments and creams. He unscrewed the lid of one and sniffed it cautiously – as far as he could tell, this was used to prevent infection on open wounds.

Zhujiao pursed his lips as he set the jar gently on the floor. Lao Yi’s lack of a proper sorting system had really come back to bite him here – he was relying on having seen his master use these in various situations instead of being able to read the names off a label.

It meant there was a chance that if he was injured he could use the wrong medicine, and while doing so probably wouldn’t kill him, it certainly wouldn’t help.

Still, nothing to be done about it now besides trying to avoid getting injured in the first place, which was really just good general life advice.

There were also a few small vials filled with liquid, which were at least more easily recognised as simple tinctures to provide pain relief and help with fevers. He wasn’t entirely sure of the potency of each one, but anything that could keep him functioning if he got injured again was worth having.

Lastly, he pulled out the weathered pouch of silver coins he had found, the weight of it a small comfort. The six silver Marks contained within constituted both more money than he had ever seen in this life and simultaneously not nearly enough money. Without a way to replenish his funds, every copper was precious, but also the very definition of a finite resource.

Zhujiao leaned back against the wall, rolling the coins around in his palms. Now that the immediate situation was handled – or, at least, he wasn’t actively being chased – he had an opportunity to try and figure out his next steps.

Lao Yi suddenly ditching him like this was unsurprisingly not something he had expected, so he didn’t know where to begin.

For starters, he was homeless. He had sort of vaguely known that already – if for no other reason than the Red Talons knew where he lived – but he hadn’t quite connected the dots that Lao Yi had been the one paying for his accommodation. Without that, and without a job, there was no way he could possibly afford another place.

The chances of him being able to continue his healer’s apprenticeship were… slim, to say the least. He had spent a total of about three weeks learning under Lao Yi, and the man’s methods were odd, to say the least. It made sense in hindsight, now that he knew the man was a cultivator and all, but Zhujiao somewhat doubted a prospective teacher would care.

It was a bit of a blow to realise that he would probably never get to be a proper healer, but in fairness, it had hardly been his life-long ambition. He had appreciated it for the distraction and financial freedom it represented in the wake of his mother’s death more than anything else.

Really, after considering the facts of the matter, Zhujiao couldn’t help but arrive at one conclusion; he was going to have to leave the city.

The situation with the Red Talons was not going to be resolved any time soon, he had no house, no work, and no family or friends. There was nothing holding him down.

Some people may have found that depressing, and while Zhujiao hardly wanted the situation to turn out like it had, he found the idea of being able to do whatever he wanted rather freeing.

His brief time spent learning from Lao Yi had surprisingly set him up relatively well, in that he had a clear path to follow when it came to cultivation. Well, enough of a path to get him to the Third Realm, at any rate. Sure, there was quite a bit that he didn’t know, and the process of actually advancing was no doubt going to be more difficult than he expected, but for the first time, he felt like he was starting to get a solid foundation.

Zhujiao glanced at the corner of the room, where a weak beam of light filtered through a crack in the wall. Outside, the sun was climbing steadily toward its peak. He had a few hours before the late-afternoon crowds would provide him with another chance to escape the slums. He needed to make the most of that time.

Returning the supplies to his bag, he settled back against the wall and closed his eyes, focusing inward. So far, the only thing that had kept him out of the hands of the Red Talons was his Qi, so making sure he didn’t run out was a priority.

His thoughts on Lao Yi were mostly a confusing mass of conflicting feelings right now, but to the man’s credit, the cycling technique he had developed for Zhujiao seemed to work pretty well.

The hours slipped by unnoticed as he worked, the dim light filtering through the cracks in the walls gradually fading. The sound of distant footsteps and muffled voices outside the building barely registered as Zhujiao lost himself in the rhythm of cultivation. Each completed cycle brought a small but noticeable increase in the amount of Qi he had available. It wasn’t enough to completely replenish what he had used in his escape, but if he had to guess, his reserves were hovering around the three-quarters mark.

Better than he had hoped, really. As he familiarised himself with the cycling technique, it seemed to get quicker and more efficient, though he could already feel diminishing returns on that front.

Finally, Zhujiao opened his eyes, feeling a sense of calm settle over him. The light coming from the crack had crawled up the wall as the day progressed, and judging by the faint bustle of movement he could hear, the afternoon crowds were beginning to return home.

Something about the situation seemed a little off, but Zhujiao shrugged the notion off in favour of double-checking his bag was packed and ready. Outside, there was a sudden hush, and his head snapped up as the realisation hit him.

He shouldn’t be able to hear the crowds from this deep in the slums. There shouldn’t be anyone out here in those numbers, unless…

Moving as quietly as he could, he shuffled over to the crack in the wall, pressing his eye against it.

Outside, dozens of men prowled the streets, each and every one of them wearing a red armband.