Ji Kang was bursting with excitement, all his life he’d despaired over his inability to change his destiny and now he had the opportunity to walk unfettered in this world.
Among mortals, there was the saying that two fists could never rival four palms, but the same didn’t hold true for cultivators. A single cultivator could have the power to annihilate a city, or turn a mountain into a valley. If he seized this chance and had some success in cultivation he would have the power to determine his own destiny.
Of course there was the slight problem of the contract.
Ji Kang brought out the scroll he had brought out and started to read it more thoroughly. The contract was very short and had only six clauses and some legal preamble.
1: Ji Kang must obey any orders given by Lu Wu. 2: Ji Kang must not harm Lu Wu. 3: Ji Kang must protect Lu Wu with his life. 4: Any attempt by Ji Kang to subvert or nullify this contract will be viewed as defaulting and punished accordingly. 5: Clause number 1 shall take priority over all other clauses. 6: This contract will take effect starting immediately upon signing and last as long as they both shall live, or until such a time as Lu Wu should choose to nullify it of his own free will.
Ji Kang noted the conspicuous absence of any allowances for if an order from Lu Wu should endanger his own life without surprise. Clearly they intended Ji Kang to eventually give his life to protect their precious Young Master.
Clause number four seemed to be intended to prevent Ji Kang refusing to follow orders under the pretext that doing so might conceivably bring about harm to Lu Wu, but Ji Kang was already imagining ways to get that fool to order him to do things against Lu Wu’s best interests.
A predatory smile slowly crept over Ji Kang’s face, but he quickly tried to adopt a neutral expression. He didn’t know if the Lu family had sent anyone to watch him and he knew that his only chance of escaping this contract was if Lu Wu had no idea what his intentions were.
Ji Kang’s first priority must be to masquerade as someone who would never consider breaking this contract, and his second would be to discover what relation the middle aged man had to Lu Wu. The middle aged man was clearly a cultivator from the sect they would be joining and although was confident in his ability to manipulate his peer Lu Wu, he doubted his ability to remain unsuspected by someone of the older generation should they take an interest.
While considering all of this, Ji Kang had long since arrived back at his parent’s house. They lived not far from Lu Manor, and the Lu family were their landlords. The Lu family required all of their staff to live in housing they owned in order to recoup much of what they paid them in the form of rent. Ji Kang’s father often grumbled that they would be much better off if they were allowed to live in the cheaper neighborhoods near the docks, and when he was in his cups he would do worse than grumble.
Neither of his parents had finished work for the day, and in fact had Ji Kang followed his usual routine of working as a messenger he wouldn’t be home yet either so he had the house to himself and plenty of time to plan and practice looking sufficiently henchman-like. It would be a disaster if he gave away his intentions before he had even become a cultivator.
The next morning, Ji Kang left home before dawn carrying all his worldly possessions in a small bag slung over his shoulder. His father had been largely indifferent when he heard about the opportunity Ji Kang was being given, and only gave him one piece of advice.
“Keep your head down.”
His mother had tried her best to conceal her resentful envy behind protestations of how proud she was of him. Ji Kang was once again impressed with her acting ability, if he hadn’t seen daily evidence of her petty and jealous nature he might have been convinced that she truly wished him well. Her smile was entirely natural with no stiffness or awkwardness, even while her eyes shone with a cold and calculating light.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
She ‘kindly’ let him know many times that he was always welcome to come back home should he fail. Ji Kang smiled and thanked her for her kindness while internally swearing that he’d rather slit his own throat than return a broken down failure to live out the rest of his life on the very bottom rung of society, festering with bitterness and unfulfilled potential like her.
On his way to the Lu residence, Ji Kang dwelled on dark thoughts of what awaited him should he be deemed treacherous by Lu Wu, or what would happen if he was determined to be entirely lacking in talent after all. These maudlin thoughts steeled his determination to seize this chance with both hands and never let go.
The Lu household servants were already hard at work by the time Ji Kang arrived, so he was easily let in and told to wait in the courtyard. There he found Yu Shuren, one of the other children who was in line with him.
Yu Shuren was two years older than Ji Kang and large for any age. He seemed to have been built more on the scale of a bear than a man, with massive shoulders, wrists as thick as Ji Kang’s biceps and an impressively full beard for a young man. Ji Kang had always been leaner than other boys his age, but standing next to Yu Shuren the whipcord muscles Ji Kang had developed running messages around the city looked twig-like, and his slightly above average height was only enough to come up to Yu Shuren’s chin. The only feature they shared was the short cut hair that all children of their station had.
Ji Kang had seen Yu Shuren several times, and they knew each other well enough to nod in passing but they had never spoken one on one before. In short, Ji Kang didn’t know him nearly well enough to guess how he felt about the contract they’d both been strong-armed into signing, and it was for the best that Ji Kang kept his own thoughts private. After all, two people could keep a secret only if one of them was dead.
Yu Shuren nodded to Ji Kang in greeting, but neither of them broke the silence. The two of them leaned up against the artificial mountain in the courtyard as the sky started to lighten.
Soon enough, a handsome young man dressed in elegant light blue robes sauntered into the courtyard, trailed by an old servant Ji Kang recognized as the one who had shown him out following his audience yesterday. This was obviously Lu Wu, so both boys immediately straightened up and bowed.
“Greetings, Young Master Lu!”
“Ji kang greets Young Master Lu!”
Lu Wu was obviously pleased with this show of subservience, and looked over Ji Kang and Yu Shuren with an inquisitive eye, assessing his two new bodyguards. He seemed more impressed by Yu Shuren and even dismissive of Ji Kang, but Ji Kang didn’t mind being overlooked. The less time Lu Wu spent thinking about him the better.
“Very good, you two will do nicely.” Lu Wu nodded and then looked around the courtyard. “Where is Second Uncle?”
“He should be coming soon, Young Master.” Said the old servant. “I beg you to be patient.”
Lu Wu seemed annoyed for a moment, before quickly schooling his expression to one of nonchalance. Ji Kang watched all this closely while appearing to do no such thing, he was eager to gain an understanding of Lu Wu’s intelligence and character as soon as possible. The old man slipped away after determining that Lu Wu didn’t intend to kick up a fuss.
As the gold and pinks that colored the dawn faded from the sky, the middle aged man who seemed to be Lu Wu’s uncle arrived without warning in the middle of the courtyard.
“Lu Wu, are you all ready to leave?” The man’s eyes glinted with a cold, uncaring light as he looked the three boys over.
“Yes, Second Uncle.” Lu Wu bowed in greeting, along with Ji Kang and Yu Shuren.
“Then let us not delay, the boat will not wait for us indefinitely.”
Senior Lu led them onto a closed carriage pulled behind four horses that was waiting for them on the street in front of Lu Manor. As they all settled in, Ji Kang hid his disappointment that they would be taking such a mundane form of transportation rather than a flying sword or some other form of mystical travel.
Arriving at the dock, they swiftly boarded an unremarkable looking river boat after Senior Lu talked with the captain for a moment. As the boat pulled away from the docks, Ji Kang looked back at the fetid, dirty, sprawl that was the city of Jidong where he spent his entire life up to this point. As they gained distance from the dark alleys, stinking sewers, and miserable inhabitants, the city took on an unexpected beauty in the early morning light. The innumerable wispy columns of smoke from cooking fires drifted skyward, each catching their own slice of the light against the backdrop of the western sky, still slightly dark. Although Ji Kang thought of himself as a cynic, something very much like hope swelled in his chest at the prospect of his future.