Chapter 20: Opportunity
Bandit’s Home, Jade Empire
The skies, contrary to the time of day, darkened as Grunt shepherded Kai to confinement. He lifted his head and squinted at the sky. Grey clouds progressively enveloped the clear skies and cottony clouds, dimming the morning sun.
“Looks like it’s going to rain”, Grunt determined. “Because I like you boy, I’ll give you the cell with a ceiling.”
Kai silently nodded Grunt’s show of grace, to which he smirked.
“You don’t say much do you boy?”
He silently nodded once more; Grunt laughed shortly.
“Guess I should have expected that answer”
The path was relatively brief and in no time, they left behind the countless bandit houses, entering a nearly empty grass field. Four cells were distinctly isolated in the center of the grass field and placed in a neat square formation
Jagged stone bars outlined the sides of the cells while the floors were left vacant. The ceilings were barred as well except for a single one. Grunt brought Kai to the particular cell with the flat ceiling but as they approached, a grimy hand lunged out in an instant from a neighboring cell.
“Please… water…”, a hoarse deep voice pleaded from the cell.
Grunt apathetically stared at the hand, then at the disheveled man it belonged to. The man was unkempt and dressed in ragged garbs, struggling to maintain his shaky hand in the air.
“Don’t worry, do you not see the sky? You’ll have all the water you could ever want very soon”, he sneered.
“Please…”
The man continued to plead but Grunt ignored him. Unhinging the lock and opening the cell, he placed a firm grip on Kai’s shoulder, guiding him inside. The contents of the cell consisted of two stone ankle braces, each chained to a bar on opposite sides. Grunt stretched out his hands at the braces and with a glow of brown light, they expanded.
“Step into them.”
Kai obediently stepped into the widened circles. The braces proceeded to shrink and securely fastened themselves around his ankles.
Grunt nodded approvingly at his cooperation. “Smart boy. You’re probably the easiest person I’ve ever put into any of these cells. Sigh. I remember that beast of a man, almost bit my fingers off that freak did. Speaking of beasts, that rabid dog was even more of a pain in my…”
Catching himself amidst his rambling, he shook his head and met Kai’s eyes.
“Anyway, if you keep behaving, maybe I’ll bring you a blanket”, he finished with a wink.
He closed off the cell and left without another word, eventually disappearing behind the mass of houses. Kai carefully moved his arms, disregarding the constant throbbing pain.
Fortunately my arms are cleanly broken otherwise these splinters would be of no help. I wonder how long they will take to recover…
Setting aside the problem for the time being, his eyes zoomed about, thoroughly examining and processing his surroundings.
The pleading man went silent the moment Grunt disappeared from view and grew eerily listless. Leaving the sad man to himself, he gazed at the remaining empty cells, then at the stone pillared wall in the distance. A slight gap stood in the middle of his view along with two men, each lazily leaning against a pillar.
They’re either extremely confident or foolishly ignorant to leave an escape route right across from their captivity. Roughly… a hundred meters or so, not too difficult. Those guards don’t look too attentive, if I get the chance I can still escape…
Kai thought of possible getaway scenarios in his mind but immediately ran into a problem.
What about Teresa and the rest… if I escape, will they be okay? Will the bandit’s leave them alone?... No. It’s too risky. Unless an opportunity shows itself, it’s best to listen to them for now…
He lowered himself to the ground and attempted to fold his legs but the ankle braces proved to be annoyingly obstructing. Abandoning the typical cross legged position, he laid himself flat against the ground and mindlessly stared at the blank ceiling. Tapping into his sense of touch, he felt the clothes against his body, the knife against his side, the beast core in his pocket, and the paper against his waste.
Luckily they did not bother to check my body. The knife and beast core would’ve been difficult to explain much less the cryptic paper. The paper…
Thinking of the paper, his thoughts wandered to the incident in the previous day. The intense fight with the wolf, the discovery of a new technique, then the encounter with an unusual and mysterious man. Now he fought five Novices and a Baron, only to be ultimately apprehended and blackmailed.
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Things have escalated so quickly…
Mulling briefly over the sudden chain of events, he transitioned his thoughts to cultivation.
This might not be that bad, if anything I will have seven days to cultivate without being interrupted.
He casually closed his eyes. Laying on his back made no difference to his Sixth and he easily sensed the Qi and Ki around him. The energies softly entered his body, as Essence, and gathered in his dantian. A tingling sensation traveled to the throbbing pain in his broken arms.
What?
Concentrating on the sensation, he realized some of the Essence uncontrollably strayed from his dantian and traveled to his arms. Keeping calm, he formulated a theory and left the energy to its own devices, patiently waiting for the results.
I don’t believe Essence would harm me so it is most likely mending my broken bones.
The tingling sensation transitioned to a refreshingly comfortable feeling as he lost track of time.
*Drip* *Drop*
Several raindrops softly impacted the swaying blades of grass. The raindrops quickly multiplied as the sky darkened, developing into a healthy rainfall. Stormy winds blew the rain past the gaps of the bars, proving the ceiling somewhat useless as the wetness conclusively reached Kai’s body. Kai, however, was too deep into his cultivation to be bothered by simple rain.
It’s almost done…
After cultivating for hours, Kai lightly raised his arms and felt that they were nearly fully healed.
Still not strong enough to apply force but this speed is so unbelievably fast! It hasn’t even been a full day yet… This world is truly marvelous, this recovery rate would’ve been completely impossible in my past life.
Finished with his astonishment, he prepared to return to cultivating until he heard a small crowd of light footsteps heading his way.
Strange… why would anyone visit the cells during this time and weather? It’s nearly nightfall and it’s raining…
Kai heightened his hearing and concentrated on the footsteps.
One… two… three people…
As the footsteps grew louder, soft hushed voices became audible.
“... Why can’t we wait for the next day again? The rain is coming down hard”, a male voice whispered.
“Yeah. My clothes are getting soaked”, another male voice complained.
“The rain will wash away the blood so just man up and take it!”, a third male voice scolded, his tone straining to go as high as it could while whispering.
“Hey, who says you get to yell us?”
“Yeah.”
“How can I be yelling if we’re all whispering?”, the man gnashed, his aggravation growing by the seconds.
“Oh yeah…”, the two men dumbly acknowledged.
“...How the hell are you two buffoons even alive.”
“Hey, now that’s uncalled for.”
A unrestrained sigh penetrated the near silence of the night.
“You two can stop arguing now, we’re here.”
The footsteps halted and Kai heard the hinge on the cell door being lifted. As the door opened, he sat up and stared at the men. They were still visible in the remaining light of the day. Taking a good look, he saw no noticeable differences between them.
“May I help you?”, Kai casually asked.
“You look real calm boy. Do you know why we’re here?”, a man sneered.
“...Revenge?”, he guessed.
“H-how did he know?”, another man stuttered.
Two of the men took a step back and gazed at Kai in awe. The man who initially answered Kai slapped them on the back of the heads.
“Why do you two buffoons look so scared? All he did was guess correctly.”
“Hey! Want to fight?”, a man countered as he rubbed the back of his head.
“Yeah!”
They exchanged a battle of glares before the initial man sighed.
“Alright, I’m sorry. Now we can get back to business? Remember, we’re here for the boy not to pointlessly argue.”
The two angry men pacified as they recalled their true intentions. Turning their heads, they all returned their attention back on Kai.
“You shouldn’t have hurt my brother”, a man conveyed while cracking his knuckles.
“Or broke my cousin’s arm.”
“But it looks like you got what you deserved”, a man followed up with a sneer, his eyes wandering to the splinters on Kai’s arms.
These men are too foolish to be sent by Boss or the chiefs.
“Does the Boss know about this?”, Kai questioned.
“Who says you can so casually name our Boss?”
“So I’m assuming not.”
“W-well-”
“We don’t have to explain ourselves with you!”, another man raged with a glare.
“I don’t believe he will be too happy about this”, Kai calmly reasoned.
“Please, who do you think you are boy? Why would Boss care about us teaching you a little lesson?”
“He stopped Mian from hurting me, why would you three be different?
“...”
“He’s right. Didn’t Boss stop Mian from hurting him?”, a man whispered worriedly to his companions.
“... No, he only stopped Mian from killing him. There’s nothing wrong with hurting him. Why else does he have broken arms?”
The men nodded in agreement to the man’s revised analysis.
These idiots can’t be reasoned with…
Kai turned to peer at the exit and saw that the guards were gone.
The guards either left because of the rain or they called them away, how troublesome.
Judging the positions of their bodies, Kai knew they were intent on attacking him so he indifferently rose to his feet.
The moment Kai erected himself, one of the men lunged at him with a closed fist. Bending to the side and lowering the center of his body, he easily avoided the fist. Placing his foot forward, he invaded the man’s center of balance, causing the man to tumble over Kai’s body. He tripped forward and pathetically fell onto the grass.
“Ha!”, a man jeered, his finger pointing at his fallen companion. He roared in laughter. “You missed and fell over his body. Ha!”
The fallen man propped himself up and turned to glare, not at his companion, but at Kai. With a desire for redemption, he lunged at Kai once more as Ki protruded from his body. Nearing him, he drew his leg back and threw a kick. Instead of retreating, Kai stepped forward and lifted his foot, dragging the chain along with it. The chain caught the brunt of the kick and the man comedically fell backwards.
The previous laughing man clutched in stomach in uncontrollable laughter and the inactive man besides him smirked. Kai, however, was immediately interested in the chains. Examining the area where the man kicked, he saw small cracks on the surface!
… An opportunity!
“My turn now.”
The inactive man rushed at Kai, channeling Ki on the way, and lifted his feet into the air, performing a drop kick. Kai pivoted and perfectly placed the weakened chain where his body was. The drop kick viciously descended onto the ground.
-Crack-
Blinking in surprise, the man blankly peered at the victim of his kick, the other man ceased laughing, and the fallen man dumbly sat up. Pieces of the stone chain were visibly scattered on the grass. He raised his head and Kai innocently met his gaze.
“Y-you…”
Kai tilted his head, feigning naivete. Not buying his show of innocence, the man twisted his body and diagonally kicked at his body. With only a single chain binding him, he easily spun around and lifted his chained feet above his head. The man accurately struck the chain but lacked the strength needed to thoroughly break it, resulting in a rebound. He stumbled backwards in a flurry of steps.
-Snap-
Placing his feet back on the ground, Kai gave a hard nudge with his foot the last, now cracked, chain cleanly broke off. The three men’s eyes bulged; what originally began as a painful lesson turned to an unexpected breakout.
“Thanks”, Kai nodded with a slight smile.