His admission being so adamantly refuted by the City Lord, Lan Jin can’t help but feel a little self-conscious. He had been telling the truth, he even had three people next to him that could attest to that if the City Lord would let them, yet, without even a second thought, the City Lord instantly denied any possibility that he could have found all of the natural treasures by himself. Not knowing what to do or say in this situation, Lan Jin instead chooses to remain silent as the City Lord begins looking over the four men closely.
“So, which one of you wants to be the first to tell the truth?” The City Lord asks, a tinge of impatience in his voice.
However, no one says anything. The three men surnamed Hu knew exactly how they managed to find so many natural treasures, and it was almost entirely due to Lan Jin’s contribution. Sure, without Lan, they likely would have found a few of the natural treasures on their own, but that was only a possibility and not a guarantee. In the past, they’d had trips where they’d collected decent amounts of natural treasures, and sometimes they would get unlucky and come home with nothing at all, but this was the first time they had returned to the city with such a large number of natural treasures.
Consequently, the three brothers knew exactly what the City Lord was asking for— a confession of wrongdoing. Except, in this case, the only thing they had done wrong was get caught after getting lucky.
Only Lan Jin doesn’t understand what the City Lord is asking for, and that’s because he has no clue just how many natural treasures the four of them had managed to bring back to the city. He just assumes that the City Lord thinks him incapable.
Time passes by and, when he realizes the four men have nothing to say, the City Lord says, “So be it. Hand over your weapons and I’ll check them myself.”
Lan Jin is confused by the change, but he realizes what the City Lord is suspicious of once he asked for their weapons. However, not having anything to hide, or at least nothing that handing over his newfound weapon would reveal, Lan Jin does not hesitate to hold out his saber at the same time as the other three men hold out their weapons.
Then, starting from Hu Shentian, the City Lord reaches out and grabs the spear presented to him before holding it in front of him and examining it closely.
“High-grade human-quality, no obvious defects, but the spear tip has been smeared with residue— presumably from a plant. The edges of the spear tip are also dull, but no signs of blood.”
He then hands the spear back to Hu Shentian and says, “Now, the dagger.”
However, Hu Shentian ignores the City Lord’s order with a look of defiance on his face.
After waiting a moment, the City Lord asks Hu Shentian, “Are you sure you want to go down this route?”
In response, Hu Shentian grits his teeth and says, “The dagger has nothing to do with anything!”
Looking over Hu Shentian closely, the City Lord asks, “Who?”
It takes a while for Hu Shentian to respond, and when he does, his fists are clenched tightly and his eyes are red. “My little sister… a-and her son.”
Hu Shentian’s voice sounds raw and hateful, and Lan Jin doesn’t think he had ever heard anyone sound that way before, but what surprises him most is that the City Lord ignores the comment and moves on to Hu Gongniu.
Taking Hu Gongniu’s boning knife from his hands, the City Lord takes one look at it before he reaches out and smacks Hu Gongniu upside the head. Hu Gongniu reels back, his eye wide, but before he has a chance to get his feet under him, the City Lord shouts at him.
“What in the heavens are you doing using the tool of your trade to chop through bamboo? This thing,” He says while easily lifting Hu Gongniu’s massive boning knife in one massive hand, “is your life, your experience, and your future! It is everything you have worked towards for years! Chefs capable of dealing with vicious beasts are a treasure and they have a prestigious position no matter where they go! If I ever see residue from a plant on your boning knife again, I will see to it that you never find employment as a chef. Am I understood?”
Panicked, Hu Gongniu trembles and his voice cracks as he says, “Y-yes, Ci-City Lord!”
Then, more roughly than he needs to, the City Lord shoves the flat side of the boning knife into Hu Gongniu’s chest and makes him stumble back a couple of steps before he hugs his boning knife with a defeated expression on his face.
Without another word, the City Lord moves on to Hu Qiuping and grabs his sword out of his hand before unsheathing it. Then, with a scoff, hands it back to the sour-faced Hu Qiuping who can’t help but lower his head.
Finally, standing in front of Lan Jin, the City Lord grabs his saber and raises an eye at it. Then, turning his gaze to Lan Jin again, he asks, “Do you want to explain this one?”
Lan Jin, not understanding what the City Lord is asking, admits to that fact.
“I don’t know what you mean, sir.”
The City Lord looks at Lan Jin impassively, the index finger of his right hand tapping against the handle of Lan Jin’s saber in a steady rhythm.
“Do you want to change your mind?”
Lan Jin gulps, his eyes flickering down to the saber as he wonders what the City Lord is asking for. Then, as his eyes alight on the blade of his saber, he realizes that there are dirty brown spots on it. He immediately recognizes them as the dried blood of the giant echidna, but, unfortunately, it is too little too late and, as his eyes return to look at the City Lord, he realizes he shouldn’t have looked away just as a big hand smacks him on the side of his head.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Lan Jin winces, more shocked than hurt after being struck, but though he wants to retaliate against the enormous man in front of him, he knows that it would be a terrible idea so he grits his teeth and buries his frustration in his heart.
“Last chance. Where is the blood from?”
Standing so close, the City Lord easily looms over him. But despite being afraid, his anger from being struck allows him to reply smoothly.
“It’s from a vicious beast.”
Raising an eyebrow, the City Lord looks down at the saber again before handing it to Lan Jin who grabs it by the hilt and holds it by his side.
Walking away from Lan Jin, the City Lord says, “Unless you’ve lost the weapon, I don’t believe any of you killed to get these things. So, the question is left unanswered. How did you collect all of these natural treasures?”
Having already answered once, and truthfully at that, Lan Jin chooses to stay silent. What’s more, unless specifically spoken to, he has no intention to speak to the City Lord again.
Hu Gongniu, however, recovers from being struck by the City Lord and says, “City Lord, Lan Jin was telling the truth. With the exception of the first natural treasure, he really did locate the rest of them.”
“Really?” The City Lord asks, disbelief evident in his tone. “A third-level Qi Gathering brat managed to find fifteen boxes worth of natural treasures? Fifteen full boxes,” he emphasizes while staring at Hu Gongniu who swallows nervously. “Would you like to take back what you just said?”
After a second, Hu Gongniu says, “N-no, City Lord. I’m speaking the truth.”
Silence fills the air as the City Lord watches Hu Gongniu closely, but after Hu Gongniu fails to retract his stance, he shifts his gaze to look at Hu Shentian and Hu Qiuping instead.
“Well?” He asks. “Are the chef and that foreign brat telling the truth?”
“Yes, City Lord” The two of them answer together.
All of a sudden, the City Lord lets out a whistle.
“If that really is true, that’s impressive.”
Walking back over to Lan Jin, the City Lord says, “If you brats are telling the truth, then I might owe you an apology.”
After examining Lan Jin once again, he asks, “So? How did you do it?”
Without missing a beat, Lan Jin replies, “I just noticed the natural treasures before they did.”
“That’s it?” The City Lord asks. “You have no explanation other than it just happened?”
Silence falls again as the City Lord scrutinizes Lan Jin closely. However, even as time passes, he seems unsatisfied with what he sees.
Finally, after standing over Lan Jin for a few minutes, the City Lord speaks again.
“I’m going to give you a little test. If you pass, I will believe that you found all of those natural treasures on your own and the four of you can go about your days— I’ll even give this brat permission to enter the city and purchase a residence. But if you fail, you will be staying with the Immovable Legion until I have time to figure out how you brats managed to collect so many natural treasures.”
Walking away from Lan Jin, he sits down in his chair and a rock appears in his hand out of nowhere.
“This,” he says while looking at the rock that is about the size of Lan Jin’s fingertip, “is a low-grade spirit stone. It is almost entirely drained of Qi, but it still has more Qi than those Serpent’s Tail leaves you brats found. I am going to throw it, and that brat who claimed he could notice the natural treasures faster than the rest of you is going to look for it.”
Hu Shentian, Hu Qiuping, and Hu Gongniu all widen their eyes when they look at the transparent stone resting on the City Lord’s palm. But Lan Jin can’t help narrowing his eyes as he looks at the massive amount of Qi inside of it. Compared to the more-than-seventy Serpent’s Tail leaves they found, this nearly-depleted spirit stone had about fifty percent more Qi than all of the leaves combined. It was so much Qi that Lan Jin couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if he introduced the spirit stone to the Auspicious Tri-Colored Flame.
Unfortunately, Lan Jin knows he won’t be getting that chance right now, so he holds himself in check and doesn’t start imagining things that would only get him in trouble to carry out.
A few seconds later, the City Lord asks Lan Jin, “Do you have any questions before you begin?”
Looking at the spirit stone, Lan Jin simply says, “No.”
“Good.” Then, the City Lord tosses the spirit stone into the air, and everyone but Lan Jin quickly loses track of the tiny object. However, to Lan Jin, it is like watching a ball of light being tosses into the air. Though the afternoon sun doesn’t make it easy, he’s still able to follow the trajectory of the light as it flies up and then falls down in a large arc, disappearing somewhere among the tents hundreds of feet away.
Turning back to the City Lord, Lan Jin asks, “Can I go grab it?”
With a chuckle, the City Lord says, “If you can find it.”
Not bothering to say anything else, Lan Jin walks in the direction the spirit stone had been thrown. However, what he doesn’t notice is that, behind him, Hu Shentian has a strange look on his face that no one notices.
When Lan Jin arrives in the general area where he had seen the spirit stone fall, he looks around for the glowing light and quickly locates it at the base of one of the tents. Several soldiers eye him suspiciously, but noticing that he came from the direction of the City Lord, they pretend to ignore him while watching him closely out of the corners of their eyes.
Not bothering to waste time, Lan Jin grabs the spirit stone and heads back to the City Lord. Before the City Lord can say anything, Lan Jin holds the spirit stone out to him with a blank expression on his face.
On his part, the City Lord looks surprised as he takes the spirit stone from Lan Jin. He even looks at Lan Jin again and regards him more closely as he tries to figure out how he had managed to find the spirit stone so quickly.
“I’m impressed,” the City Lord says plainly. “It turns out you weren’t lying.”
Turning his attention back to the spirit stone in his hand, the City Lord examines it before putting it disappears again.
“Then can we go?” Lan Jin asks.
Raising an eye at Lan Jin, the City Lord shrugs his shoulders.
“You can go, but I want you to head to the Inner City and register as a cultivator before you do anything else. After that, I don’t care what you do so long as you follow the laws of my city.”
Turning his back on Lan Jin, the City Lord walks off leaving the four men standing around dumbfounded. Though the three brothers realize they had just been given permission to leave, it felt too sudden for any of them to wrap their minds around it. Lan Jin, on the other hand, walks over to Hu Gongniu’s pack and the boxes laying on the ground.
“How should we pack these?” He asks over his shoulder, not wanting to stay in the camp any longer than he strictly had to.
“I will help!” Hu Gongniu announces and quickly joins Lan Jin next to the pack and the two of them work together to pack everything away neatly.
Hu Qiuping, on the other hand, turns his head and gives Hu Shentian a glance before asking, “What was with your face earlier? Did you notice something?”
Shaking his head, Hu Shentian replies, “It’s not that I noticed something, it’s that I thought of something.”
“What’s that?” Hu Qiuping asks.
However, Hu Shentian doesn’t answer. Instead, he looks at Lan Jin and sighs. “Forget it. It was just a thought and I shouldn’t say it out loud after Lan Jin helped us out.”
Though Hu Qiuping narrows his eyes in thought, he decides not to pursue the topic and Hu Shentian chooses to stand in silence as he waits for Hu Gongniu and Lan Jin to finish packing.