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Chapter 38 - Shifting Fortunes
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Zhujiao’s muscles coiled as he balanced on the edge of the rooftop, eyes locked on the Red Talon member clutching the black case. The three men were pushing through the crowds roughly, shoving people out of their way. It slowed them down.
With a deep breath, he leapt.
The world seemed to slow for an instant as Zhujiao hurtled through the air, the wind whistling in his ears. He landed squarely on the man’s back, his small frame driving the enforcer to the ground with a grunt of surprise. The case clattered against the stone street as the Red Talon staggered, trying to right himself, but Zhujiao’s arms were already around it.
The other two enforcers spun toward the commotion, eyes wide, but Zhujiao wasted no time. His fingers locked around the handle of the case, and with a burst of Qi-fuelled strength, he tore it free from the man’s grip, his sudden momentum knocking the enforcer off balance.
“Stop him!” one of the men shouted, but Zhujiao was already moving. He ducked beneath a vendor’s cart, narrowly avoiding a lunging grab from one of the Red Talons, and sprinted into the alley. His feet barely touched the ground as he weaved through the narrow passageway, burning Qi to fuel his escape.
The black case thumped against his leg as he ran, and a quick glance down had him blinking in stupefied shock.
The case was plastic.
Zhujiao barely avoided smashing into the alley wall as his mind raced, struggling to reconcile the odd sensation the plastic case sent through him. Plastic? Not just some cheap, local variant either—it was real, modern plastic, complete with the rugged, injection-moulded look he hadn’t seen since the Before. For a brief moment, he faltered, nearly stumbling as the case bumped against his leg again, its sleek surface entirely out of place in this world of rough cloth and iron.
But this wasn’t the time to think about that.
Shaking off the distraction, Zhujiao forced his focus back on his immediate surroundings. The main street was too packed with people for even someone of his stature to easily navigate, even with the advantage of Qi, so he spun left instead.
The alley he raced down was tight and winding, but his size worked to his advantage as he darted through the narrow gaps between barrels and crates, never losing momentum. He could hear distant shouts growing fainter, but he knew it was only a matter of time before the Red Talons regrouped. They wouldn’t give up so easily, especially with whatever was inside this case.
He knew his best option was to ditch it – the sooner, the better. It was too distinctive, not to mention bulky and more than a little heavy. There was no way he could keep running with it, not without every pair of eyes in the slums locking onto him.
Spotting a break in the alley, Zhujiao skidded to a stop and ducked behind a stack of crates, the shadows swallowing him for a brief moment of cover. Despite the urgency of the situation, he allowed himself a moment to examine the outside of the case more closely.
This was industrial, no question about it.
On the top, a logo was embossed in silver—a neat circle with a series of interlocking lines inside it. The design was unfamiliar, strange, and out of place in this world. It was the kind of branding you’d find in a polished office building or on a shipping crate in the Before, not in the rough hands of a street gang like the Red Talons. He traced the logo for a second, wondering how they could have gotten their hands on something so... foreign.
With one last glance down the alley, ensuring the shouts of his pursuers were still distant, Zhujiao flipped the case open. The latches gave way with a sharp click, and the lid popped up easily.
Embossed on the lining, just beneath the lid, were the words “Produced in Tiecheng.” The letters were sharp, clear, made with the same kind of industrial precision as the case’s exterior. Zhujiao frowned, his fingers brushing over the letters. Tiecheng sounded vaguely familiar, but not in a way he could immediately place.
Presumably, it was a city of some kind, but one he’d never heard of before. Still, the implications were impossible to miss. This wasn’t just some random storage case or a local fabrication. It had come from somewhere else, somewhere more advanced than the city he was in. But how in the world had the Red Talons gotten their hands on something like this?
Another shout from behind, closer than before, snapped him out of his thoughts. He had been so distracted by the strange case that he had completely dismissed the contents. Looking down, his breath caught.
Gold crowns. Dozens of them, neatly stacked in rows, enough to fund… whatever the hell he wanted, really. More than enough to get him out of the city – probably even enough for him to buy a house if he really wanted.
The reality of the situation caught up to him in the next moment, and he winced. It was also too much to carry, at least discreetly. And discretion was essential here – this was more than enough money to convince even the most righteous of people to steal from a child.
Moving as quickly as he could, Zhujiao slung his bag around from where it rested against his back, ripping it open and starting to shove coins inside. His breath came in quick bursts, not from exertion but from the realisation of what he had pulled off. His recklessness had paid off in spades. This time.
Just a little more.
He was about to grab another handful when the air in the alley changed. It wasn’t the heat or the wind. No, it was subtler than that. A shift in the energy, an unnatural stillness that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. The noises of the crowd beyond had quieted. No more shouts, no more footsteps. Just silence.
His heart sank.
Slowly, Zhujiao looked up from the bag, his Qi senses belatedly flaring to life. At the entrance to the alley stood two figures clad in pale green robes that shimmered faintly in the fading light, their presence unmistakable.
Deep-grey-stone and sharp-glass-wind flickered across his perceptions for an instant.
‘Damn it!’ He cursed himself silently. Distracted again, just like when he was watching them earlier. His Qi had been flaring wildly, and once again, he hadn’t noticed in time to control it. He was growing too careless, too focused on the coins, on the strange case.
Behind the cultivators, the crowd that had been milling about at the alley’s edge now stood frozen, their eyes locked on him—or rather, on the open case of gold at his feet. Zhujiao could see the hunger in their expressions, a mix of greed and desperation that made the hair on his arms stand on end. Their fear of the cultivators held them in place for now, but that fear was thinning by the second, struggling against the pull of the gleaming wealth in front of them.
Zhujiao’s pulse quickened. He had a few seconds, maybe less, before things got out of control.
The taller of the two cultivators, sharp-glass-wind, tilted his head slightly, his lips curling into a thin smile as his eyes flicked between the case, the gold, and Zhujiao’s bag. “You’ve been busy,” the man said, his voice cool and unnervingly calm.
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Zhujiao didn’t miss how the man’s hand twitched towards the hilt of his sword, and he realised that he had been instinctively cycling Qi in preparation for… something. They stared at each other in a frozen standoff for a long moment before the other cultivator – deep-grey-stone – coughed politely into his fist and stepped forward.
“We have been charged by Elder Yan Ling of the Blooming Lotus Sect to bring you to her. Will you come peacefully?”
Zhujiao tensed further. He didn’t know much about the specifics of hierarchy in Sects, but he did know that Elders were pretty high up on the chain. There was no good reason for him to have caught one’s attention unless it had something to do with his physical cultivation, which… wasn’t ideal.
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s in my best interest right now,” he said cautiously, trying to figure out how to escape the situation. “But thanks for the offer; I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”
Sharp-glass-wind’s eyes flashed, and he took an aggressive step forward. “When an Elder of the Blooming Lotus Sect commands something, it is done,” he hissed.
“Not my Elder, not my problem,” Zhujiao pointed out, well aware that it would hardly deescalate things.
Deep-grey-stone sighed, resigned. “Well, it was worth a shot,” he muttered.
Zhujiao’s pulse raced as the tension between them thickened, the air humming with barely restrained energy.
His mind worked quickly, searching for a way out, an edge he could use. He knew he was outmatched. The two cultivators had him boxed in, and even with his Qi reserves topped up, a direct fight would end badly. But he didn’t need to beat them. He just needed to slip away.
His gaze flicked to the case.
An idea sparked.
He moved.
Not to attack the cultivators, which was suicide. Not to run away, either – against two cultivators like this, he wouldn’t get far. Instead, Zhujiao’s foot shot out, slamming into the side of the open case. The heavy box flipped, gold crowns spilling out in all directions, glittering like liquid sunlight as they tumbled through the air.
The cultivators hesitated for a split second, their eyes widening in surprise as the coins scattered across the alley. The movement wasn’t what they had expected, and Zhujiao could see the confusion flicker across their faces. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
Behind them, the crowd’s thin restraint snapped.
The sight of the gold was too much. In an instant, the quiet tension in the alley exploded into chaos. The desperate, hungry crowd surged forward, lunging for the coins with outstretched hands. Shouts of greed and excitement filled the air as bodies collided, pushing and shoving to get to the scattered wealth.
The two cultivators, caught in the middle of the frenzy, jerked back in surprise as the mass of people closed in around them, scrambling for the coins that now littered the ground. Zhujiao didn’t waste the opening.
He spun on his heel and darted for the closest corner he could see. As long as he could break line of sight, he was in with a chance. The shouts of the crowd and the confused curses of the cultivators faded behind him as he turned sharply down another alley, his breath coming fast. He didn’t look back. There wasn’t time to see if they were following. He just had to keep moving.
A wild grin tugged at his lips as he darted into the shadows.
***
Gao Shen stood behind his heavy wooden desk, back to his open window where the last traces of twilight were fading into the night. His fists were clenched, the veins on his neck bulging as he fought to contain his fury.
The only reason he wasn’t throwing things around the room was that everything close enough to grab was incredibly expensive.
“You lost the case,” he hissed, voice low but seething with barely contained rage. His eyes gleamed dangerously in the dim light, flicking to the lieutenant standing awkwardly a few feet away. “How, by all the ancestors, did you LOSE THE CASE!”
The lieutenant shifted uncomfortably, sweat beading on his brow. He was a big man, broad-shouldered and hardened from years of working the streets, but right now, he looked small. He knew this was bad—worse than anything he’d dealt with before.
“It wasn’t my fault!” Rong blurted, desperate to shift the blame. His voice was strained, and he took a small step forward, his hands gesturing wildly as if the movements could make up for his failure. “There were two cultivators that came sniffing around, looking for a kid. I knew that the case was important, so I gave it to my best men to get it back to you as quickly as possible!”
Gao snatched at the heaviest thing on his desk – a jade statue worth a dozen gold crowns – and hurled it at his subordinate’s head. The man ducked, which didn’t help Gao’s temper.
“THEY DIDN’T CARE ABOUT THE CASE!” he bellowed, “IF THEY WANTED SOME KID, WE COULD HAVE GIVEN THEM A DOZEN!”
Gao’s fist hovered in the air for a second after hurling the jade statue, his chest heaving with the effort of keeping his rage in check. Then, without warning, he slammed his palm down onto the desk, making everything on it rattle. His sharp gaze fixed on Rong, eyes gleaming with a dangerous calm that slowly seeped over his face.
“You’ve put us in an interesting position,” he said, his voice low and icy, a stark contrast to the fury that had just consumed him. “You don’t even understand, do you?”
Rong blinked, taking a cautious step backward. “I—I can fix it, boss. We’ll track the kid down, get the gold back. It’s not—”
“Shut up,” Gao interrupted, his tone soft but cutting, each word precise. “The case wasn’t locked for a reason. The contents? They were valuable, yes, but that was never the point.” He paused, letting his words sink in before continuing. “That case was a test, Rong. A test to see if the Red Talons could handle something a little... more complicated than shaking down merchants and running the streets. And now, because of your failure, we owe a debt. A debt that goes far beyond just money.”
Rong swallowed hard, his throat bobbing as he struggled to comprehend. “A... debt?” he repeated, as if testing the word out, not sure he wanted to understand its full weight.
Gao moved slowly around the desk, his hands clasped behind his back, every movement controlled, deliberate. “The organisation that trusted us with that case—they don’t care about excuses. They care about results. We were supposed to prove our competence by keeping it secure. But now? Now, thanks to your incompetence, we’ve failed. We’ve embarrassed them.” He stopped, his back to Rong, staring out the window at the fading twilight. “And I despise being embarrassed.”
Rong’s face turned ashen, his heart thundering in his chest. “Boss, I—I’ll make it right. I’ll get the men together, and we’ll—”
“You will do nothing,” Gao said coldly, turning around. “You’ve caused enough damage already. Do you have any idea what kind of inconvenience you’ve caused? They’ll be expecting compensation. Not just for the loss of the case, but for the loss of face.” His lips curled into a bitter smile. “We don’t have time for failure, Rong. Especially not failure like this.”
The room fell silent, the tension thickening with every passing second. Rong opened his mouth, desperate to say something that could salvage the situation, but nothing came.
“Not to mention that we haven’t even made any progress on their other task for us,” Goa muttered, mostly to himself, “who knew one blasted woman could be so hard to find?”
Gao’s eyes flicked to his lieutenant, sizing him up, the air between them crackling with unspoken threat. He moved back to his desk, settling into the heavy chair behind it with a calm that was almost worse than his earlier rage. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” Gao said, his voice nearly a whisper now. “You are going to meet with their representative. You will explain the nature of your failure, and then you will offer them the opportunity to take your life, with my blessing. You will do this, or I will ensure that your suffering is legendary.”
Gao’s cold smile deepened as he watched the realisation sink into Rong’s face. The lieutenant staggered backward, his legs trembling beneath him. His mouth opened, closed, then opened again, words failing to form as his mind raced to process the command.
“B-boss… Please…” Rong stammered, his voice barely above a whisper, eyes wide with disbelief.
“There are no alternatives,” Gao said, his voice as smooth as silk. “No second chances.” His eyes flicked over Rong’s form, a dangerous glint in their depths. “Your incompetence has cost us more than just the gold, more than just the case. It has cost us trust. And that… I cannot afford.”
Rong dropped to his knees, his breath coming in ragged gasps. “I’ll make it right,” he pleaded, his voice breaking. “I swear. Please—just give me another chance, I’ll do whatever it takes—”
“You’ll do exactly what I told you,” Gao cut in, his tone flat and emotionless. “You’ll meet with them, and you’ll offer your life. That’s the price for failure on this scale. I’m offering you a way out that doesn’t involve you screaming in agony for hours.” His eyes darkened, and he leaned forward slightly. “Or do you prefer that instead?”
“I—” Rong croaked, his hands trembling. He thought of running, disappearing into the shadows of the city, but he knew there was nowhere to go that Gao wouldn’t find him. His fate was sealed.
Gao watched the pitiful display with a faint smirk. “You’ve wasted enough of my time,” he said, dismissively waving his hand. “Go. You have until morning to arrange the meeting.”
Rong scrambled to his feet, his body moving on instinct. He stumbled toward the door, the weight of the command crushing him from all sides.
“Rong.” Gao’s voice halted him just as he reached for the door.
The lieutenant turned slowly, his face pale and sweat-slicked.
“Do not run,” Gao said softly, almost kindly. “I would hate for your suffering to be worse than it needs to be.”
For a moment, Gao simply sat in silence, staring at the now-empty space where Rong had stood. He allowed himself a small, satisfied smile before turning his attention back to the papers on his desk. This inconvenience would set them back, but it wasn’t insurmountable.
The boy that had stolen from them… well, Gao could almost admire the gumption. Almost. An example would have to be made of the child, not to mention the rest of the rats that had taken advantage of the situation to palm some gold, but that matter shouldn’t be too complicated to arrange.
He reached for the bottle of finely aged liquor that rested in a silver decanter beside him, pouring himself a glass. As he raised it to his lips, the cold smile never left his face. This was just another step in the game.
And Gao always won.