One Week Later…

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With a huff, Ken pulls on the rope he is holding. Sweat beads on his forehead, his strain plainly evident for everyone to see.

'Why is this so hard? I'm a cultivator damn it! I should be as strong as an adult man despite my size'

The answer for that question is actually quite simple.

Levers.

Archimedes once said 'Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.' It is a famous saying from Earth and its meaning is simple. The longer the lever, the more force that you can exert.

In Kenki's case, the very bones in his body act as the levers. His humerus, ulna and radius are significantly shorter than those of an adult, hence even with his superhuman muscles he still cannot quite reach that strength.

Not that he knows that yet. But why would he need such power at the moment anyways?

'Was installing a pulley on this well too much of an ask? Did it get stolen one too many times!?' He grips the rope harder. With a final burst of strength he pulls the bucket full of water the rest of the way up.

'Bloody hell' he pants out an inaudible curse.

Cheers and clapping resound from behind him once he's finished.

"The boy wonder does it again!" The next man in line calls out. Nudging Ken away from the well, he throws his own bucket down.

"If only my son was as dependable as you, child" the woman that is second in line says, Ken sees a couple of the people behind her nod.

'At this point I don't know if they're being sarcastic or genuine with their praise' he shakes his head, bucket in hand he moves out of the way to make space for the others.

Why not go to the river and get water from there?

Well, are you sure you want to get water from there when everyone in the city treats it as their collective dump?

After resting for a while Ken stashes the rope that had been attached to the handle of the bucket. 'Now for the journey back' Placing the bucket on his shoulder he heads back to Shina's inn.

His time in the city of Ornthar had been interesting, a whole lot more entertaining than Northern River's Village that's for sure. The people here are just plain chaotic. Their personalities, most of the time, are a wild card between asshole, stoic guy, weirdo and normal. And as if to mirror the people, the structure of the city is just as chaotic, with random buildings scattered here and there without any prior planning. That smithy? It's a thirty minute walk from the nearest smeltery.

Getting lost is incredibly easy.

This early in the morning most of the men and women here are headed to their jobs. A large portion of them are smiths, smelters and miners, since there's an iron mine within walking distance of the city. Apart from that there are weavers, tailors, stonemasons and a whole lot of other more minor jobs.

Moving through the busy morning streets, Ken makes sure to stay far away from the buildings, lest someone drop their night's 'work' on his head. Keeping to the center of the road is just fine for him

"Hn…?" Confusion crosses the boy's features when he spots the unusually large crowd in front of him. Unlike the rest, they don't seem to be headed anywhere. Instead standing in place with their backs turned on him. It doesn't take long for him to figure out what's happening

'Some sort of a commotion?' He hears the chatter but is too far away to actually make out what is being said. With a big question mark above his head Ken decides to go check it out.

Deftly weaving through everyone, he makes his way to the front of the crowd. With how short he is he has no choice but to get the front row seat if he wants to see anything. And what he sees are a couple of the city's guards 'taking care' of some of the local 'street rats'.

Street rat is, of course, slang describing boys and girls that are down on their luck. Homeless, dirty, and willing to perform any kind of petty crime in order to survive. Be it pickpocketing, swindling or straight up thieving.

Most of them have only had their wrists tied up. Although visibly reluctant, they follow after the guards. Allowing themselves to be led forwards.

"Finally! Cleaning this trash off the streets for good." He hears the blonde woman next to him say in disdain.

"What do you mean 'for good'?" Ken asks her. His question seems to take her by surprise as she recoils away "Sorry, didn't see you down there" she laughs to herself, mildly embarrassed.

"What do you mean 'for good'?"Ken asks her for a second time.

"What I mean is that they're moving them out of these streets for good" she shrugs in front of Ken's raised eyebrow "I don't know what they do with them exactly. Every seven or eight years the guards capture all the street rats in the city and cart them out to somewhere, I don't know where to, though" She glances at him with a critical eye.

"Why, was one of your friends in that group"

Ken shakes his head "No, but that could have very easily been me" he tells her.

Both the woman's and Ken's attention is redirected back to the public spectacle when they hear shouting.

"Let me go you pig-bellied, smelly piece of shit!" The shouting is coming from one of the street rats, a lanky girl that has had her entire body tied down with ropes, from her neck down to her feet. Yet despite her predicament she continues to struggle with all her might, wiggling as much as her bindings allow her to. Her shoulder-blade length dark brown hair swings wildly left and right like it belongs to some metal head.

The guard who's holding her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes lets out a malicious laugh. "How bout ye shut yer trap, girlie? Where yer going yer gonna have loads a time to think about the consequences of yer actions"

The girl lets out an inhuman screech of rage that is just plain painful on the ears. She redoubles her struggles, gaining a sudden burst of strength. "Calm yer focken horses" the guard with a very prominent beer-belly has trouble keeping her on his shoulder

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And, somehow, even as bound as she is, the girl manages to reach around and bite into his ear.

'She's going to get the daylight beaten out of her' Ken cringes, knowing what's coming.

The guard screams out in pain, throwing the rabid dog of a girl down. Though, that only has the added effect of fully tearing a part of his ear out. He shouts out an insult as he kicks her in the stomach. Once, twice, thrice, he doesn't stop at just that. They're weak kicks, relatively speaking, obviously a far cry from his full strength. They're meant to cause pain and there's a whole lot of them. Had he seriously attacked he would have problem broken half the bones in her body

"Nice new scar, Ingram! Just don't forget that we need them alive and with no permanent injuries. Or do you want to spend the next week in the dungeons" One of the passing guards teases him. Even as he continues to beat the girl up.

"Shut the hell up, I know!" The beer-bellied man angrily snaps back, sending out one final kick.

The young lass has at this point curled into herself, waiting for the beating to stop. Bean sized tears form in her eyes, dropping to the muddy ground below. Her gaze wanders around desperately and she makes brief eye contact with Kenki.

She squeaks out in pain when the guard grabs her hair and lifts her up.

"Listen ere you wild animal" he gets real close, until their heads are a foot away from each other. "Ye heard him, didn't ya? One week, that's how much yer life is worth." He pulls out a dagger and makes sure that she sees it. "Quite honestly, yer not even worth the trouble, but if ye try yer bullshit again I'll have no trouble sinking this into yer kidney and letting ya bleed to death. Remember, it's only a week of my back. Now, are ye going to cooperate or not?" he moves the dagger dangerously close to her stomach as he speaks.

With a sniff, she nods her head. The movement is barely perceptible when you consider how her hair is the only thing holding her up, but it is perceptible nevertheless.

"Good" the guard sheathes the dagger back. His ear still bleeding, he hauls her back up on his shoulder.

'That's what you get for fighting with the city guard, nobody made her bite his ear off.' Ken disapprovingly looks at the girl as her and the guard disappear in the crowd. Having grown up in a bad neighborhood in America, he's more than aware of the danger that fighting the police poses.

In his opinion. The girl was in the wrong.

'Welp. I've got three more buckets that I need to haul back. This is just the first one.' He perks up almost immediately, heading back to the inn.

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"Yes, yes. That's him, he works here. He's just out getting water from the well." In the lobby/bar of the inn, Shina's voice resounds. Going by her body language and the tenseness in her voice she is obviously nervous.

In front of her there are a total of nine city guards, all of them heavily armored.

One of the guards is holding a piece of paper that has a sketch of Kenki on it, one so intricate and well drawn that it looks like a photo. On the back of the paper there are a couple of his characteristics written down. His height, his hair and eye color, the color of his skin and so forth.

The doors of the inn are opened as the boy in question makes his entrance, his eyes immediately narrowing when he spots the guards.

All of them turn around to face him, pulling out their swords. "Are you Kaito?" The one with a slightly fancier set of armor asks. Ken deliberates just throwing the bucket on his shoulder down and running away, but the idea is quashed as soon as it forms.

'Is there a need for all of you to pull out your swords like that? Damn, I nearly bolted out of here because of how intimidating you lot look…'

"I am" the bucket is calmly placed down as Ken answers.

'They know.' He concludes 'No way in hell is anyone sane going to send such a large group for just a single kid. One of them would have been enough, let alone nine. It's difficult to make out their emotions through their armor but are they… nervous?'

The guards silently exchange glances with each other before one of them walks up, sheathing his sword. He takes out an object that had been strapped to his hip. It has a metallic sheen and Ken is to make out a barely visible inscription carved on its surface.

"Extend one of your arms out, please" Ken had doubts about the guards' nervousness before, but with how the one in front of him is acting, he no longer does. The shaking hands are evidence enough.

Doing as instructed, Ken extends his left arm forwards, and the guard wastes no time clasping the metal object on his wrist. Immediately, he feels the Qi in his dantian become as hard diamonds. He's sure that it would be impossible to move it through his body if he tried.

'Right. A Qi sealing manacle or whatever the hell this is called. Of course'

"Check him for any weapons" one of the men in the back says.

"I have a knife strapped to my right leg." Ken relays, making the guard slightly jump. The man gives him a quick patdown that feels more like theatrics than something actually meant to find weapons. He still gets the knife though.

Ken throws one last glance at Shina as the guards lead him out of the building.

What follows is a sight that is all too familiar to him, considering that it happened only a couple of minutes ago with a different group of people. The only difference is that now he's the center of attention instead of an onlooker.

Except, an even larger crowd gathers. Nine heavily armored men for just one boy is definitely an odd sight.

'Ah, I see now. This explains why there isn't an orphanage in the city. I really wondered why one didn't exist considering how many kids there were on the streets. Turns out they're just getting farmed by the city's guardian' A wry smile graces his features, one that seems to make the guards around him nervous.

"Why didn't we tie him up?" he overhears one of them ask.

"Idiot! Do you think ropes will do anything against a cultivator? Don't underestimate how powerful they are, even if he's been sealed he still has the strength of a hundred men. Just count your blessings and be glad that he's cooperative."

Ken wonders if it's Heaven's interference that is causing their fear to spike.

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Iron bars slam behind Kenki. There's the audible turning of a lock and the steady sound of footsteps growing more distant.

Ken looks at the thin ropes binding his arms, not very certain of what he should think. The heavily armored guards had handed him over to someone who obviously had no knowledge of his status as a cultivator or what the manacle looking thing on his wrist meant.

The warden had wasted no time in tying his hands up and sending him to the dungeons.

"It's you!"

Ken's eyes snap to the dark corner of the jail cell when he hears someone's voice. It would appear that he's going to be sharing this place with someone else. He isn't quite able to make out the silhouette in the darkness, but the voice sounds familiar

"Me?" He points to himself.

"Yes, you! You're the pretty boy with the bucket!" Ken hears the rattling of chains. The hands of his cellmate are bound to the walls.

'Pretty boy with the bucket? Oh, now I recognise that voice.'

"Weren't you the girl who bit that guard's ear off"

"Hah hah hah" a maniacal laugh spreads through the jail cell. "I'm glad that I made an impression" with his eyes now more attuned to the darkness Ken is able to make out the girl's features.

Most notably the rapidly swelling bruises all over her body.

"Yeah. You made an impression as to how much of a moron you were" Ken tells her straight, his words maybe coming a tad bit more antagonistic than he wanted them to.

"Huuh!?" The girl chokes on her own spit in shock. "Who are you calling a moron you horse-tail haired bastard!" She pulls on the chains, shouting at him at the top of her lungs "You're lucky that I have my arms bound or else I would have weaved your hair into a rope and strangled you with it!"

Ken just looks at her, unimpressed.

'She's not very bright, is she?' He examines the iron chains holding her in place 'She's the one that's stuck to the wall, not me. Isn't she afraid that I'll beat her up for threatening me? Or worse, kill her?' Exasperation fills his soul, he's getting angry on her behalf.

'Whatever.' He focuses on the rope binding his wrists, completely ignoring the ranting and raving of his unwelcoming companion. The ropes are thin, roughly the thickness of his pinky, and they're even torn in a couple of places, some strands of the material sticking out.

'Seriously? Even if I weren't a cultivator I'd be able to get out of these.' Kenki flexes his arms and is happy to find out the guards were not spreading falsities among themselves. He really did get to keep his physical strength.

There is a very audible ripping sound that shuts the girl right up. Wide eyed, she looks at Kenki as the remains of the flimsy ropes are dropped on the floor.

"Uhm.." her heartbeat sharply spikes the moment the two of them make eye contact. In her mind right now Ken looks like the scariest person in existence. "Hey, listen. I didn't mean any of that, okay? I just got angry because you called me a moron. Can we consider it all water under the bridge, please?"

She breaks into a cold sweat when he starts walking towards her. She closes her eyes when he's within arms reach, curling into herself and preparing for a hit.

"Do you realize why I called you a moron?" Instead of a fist, she is presented with a question. A thud is heard as the boy unceremoniously sits down in front of her

"Eh?" Her eyes snap open, cautiously peering at Kenki. It appears that he has no intention of harming her. "Because I'm a moron?"

"It's because you don't think. Look at yourself" he points to her shackled limbs "You're chained and barely able to move, beaten up and borderline anorexic..."

The girl has no time to think about what the word 'anorexic' means. Some fancy desk job word, she reckons.

"...and yet you have the audacity to give me sass? Even if I wasn't as strong as I am I still would have been able to beat your ass until you shat all over the place, why so scared only now? Your position has barely changed"

"Well…" she moves her gaze to the side, trying to get the graphic scene that had been described to her out of her mind. This nice looking big brother is really scary!

Ken heaves a tired sigh.

'I might as well make a friend, emperor knows how long we're going to be here. And then there's going to be an unbearably long cart ride to one of the five sect compounds.'

He reaches for his waist and the bag full of smoked meat that is strapped to it. The armored guards hadn't dared to remove it while the warden hadn't cared enough to search him.

"My name's Kaito, what's yours"

"Naoe, my name is Naoe…" her eyes drift to the bag in Ken's hands. She can smell the meat that is inside.

"Well then, Naoe. I managed to smuggle this in, how about we share it between ourselves?" He opens the bag, taking a piece and throwing it in his mouth "Maybe we can trade some stories, it's going to get real boring here really fast"

"That…" Naoe's stomach audibly gurgles at the sight. "I'd really like that"