Ji Kang watched the two cultivators’ fight devolve into what could generously be described as fisticuffs before the city guards finally stepped in and escorted the two of them away, separately. It was one of the most absurd things he had ever seen.

So many people back at the sect had warned him about starting fights inside cities and the dire consequences of doing so. These two had caused so much destruction and collateral damage but they were allowed to finish their fight and then brought away by the guards?

“I ask everyone else to disperse. We will handle matters from here.” The guard captain addressed the circle of cultivators.

“Well… that was anticlimactic. Shall we go meet up with Lu Wu and Jin Xun? I saw them watching from over there.” Yu Shuren’s voice broke Ji Kang’s reverie.

“What? Oh yes, let’s join back up with them.” Ji Kang agreed.

The two of them started picking their way across the field of tumbled masonry, attempting to catch Jin Xun and Lu Wu’s attention. Those two were absorbed in their conversation with one of the other spectators who had observed the fight and didn’t notice Ji Kang and Yu Shuren until they joined the conversation.

The young man Lu Wu and Jin Xun were speaking to was around the same age as the four boys and dressed in the same type of Gu master outfit the two opponents were wearing, but it was in paler shades of green.

“I heard the woman in green was Yan Xiulan, eldest daughter of Yan Rong! To think I would have a chance to witness Fairy Yan’s abilities personally! She only recently came out of secluded cultivation to break through to Rank four. Her opponent was Xiong Chen, a friend of Zhu Bai Ping, so you see that this was actually a skirmish between two of the factions vying for the throne.” The young man nodded sagely like he had unraveled a mystery.

“Ah! There you two are. I was worried you might have been swept up in the destruction.” Lu Wu took the brief pause in the young man’s monologue to escape the conversation. “Allow me to introduce you two to Cui Kun, he has been most helpful in regaling us with the identities and backgrounds of the fighters, but I know he will now excuse us since we are called away on urgent business. I’m terribly sorry, until next time.”

Lu Wu immediately started walking away without waiting for a response. Ji Kang, Yu Shuren and Jin Xun exchanged glances before making hurried farewells to Cui Kun and following Lu Wu.

“Hurry you fools! The blithering idiot hasn’t stopped talking once since we first met him. He gave his own, inexpert and often incorrect, running commentary on the fight. If he hadn’t mentioned he was part of the Yan family’s forces I would have given him a beating!” Lu Wu whispered angrily to Ji Kang, Yu Shuren, and Jin Xun.

“Hahaha, as much as he bothered you, he was very helpful in giving us information about the fighters. Now we know this was simply one of the first precursors to the conflict between the princes and princesses factions.” Jin Xun pointed out.

“Who needs him for that!? We could have just sent these two off to listen in taverns tomorrow, all of the talk of the city will be about this. We could learn everything we need to know without being forced to endure that fool’s drivel.” Lu Wu sneered and turned his nose up.

Jin Xun wisely chose to not continue arguing with Lu Wu while he was unwilling to listen to reason. The four boys walked through the rest of the deserted market in silence.

Stepping out onto one of the main streets, Ji Kang finally broke the silence.

“Were you two able to complete your goals in the cultivation materials section of the market?”

“In a way yes, but really no.” Jin Xun answered. “We did unobtrusively leave the mark on the wall specified in our instructions, however, that wall is no more. That block of destroyed buildings is all that is left of that section of the market. I somehow doubt our contact will see our mark.”

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Ji Kang tried to look around them without drawing attention, seeing if anyone was close enough to listen to Jin Xun’s indiscreet answer. There didn’t seem to be anyone within earshot, unless that woman sitting dispiritedly on a stoop possessed enhanced hearing.

“Yes, I’m afraid that plan is out the window. We’ll deliver the letter to the Mo family residence in the loudest way possible and hope our contact can find us on their own.” Lu Wu carried on the conversation without a care.

Ji Kang considered asking them to behave with an iota of discretion before deciding it was in his own best interests that they should continue to not do so. He decided to at least shift the conversation away from their, supposedly secret, mission.

“Do we know what sparked the fight back in the market? I know Cui Kun said they were part of two different factions competing for the throne, but surely the situation hasn’t deteriorated so far that people are fighting in the streets on sight?”

“Oh, no it hasn’t, though after this I’d say tensions will be much higher. No, I believe this started as an argument over the price of some Gu that Yan Xiulan wanted to buy. It is of little importance.” Lu Wu waved his hand vaguely.

“Yan Xiulan was attempting to purchase a rare Gu from a shop when Xiong Chin recognized her and pulled some strings to raise the price to extortionate levels. She found out he was doing this, they argued, and then it came to blows. I expect they were both eager for a fight in order to see the results of Yan Xiulan’s seclusion.” Jin Xun explained more thoroughly.

“I see. Thank you for enlightening me.” Ji Kang thanked them both. “What faction is Yan Xiulan a part of? I heard that Xiong Chin is Prince Zhu Bai Ping’s subordinate but I don’t remember her affiliation being mentioned.”

“The Yan family is backing Zhu Lei Chin, everyone knows that.” Lu Wu answered while rolling his eyes at Ji Kang’s ignorance of the political factions.

“Of course, please forgive my incompetence.” Ji Kang apologized.

Seeing that it was getting late in the day and taking into consideration that they were hoping to give the spy time to contact them, Ji Kang suggested they find an inn to stay in rather than delivering the letter immediately. The others agreed.

Finding an inn that was fairly close to the noble quarter of the city wasn’t difficult. Lu Wu picked a respectable establishment that wouldn’t be too expensive for their traveling funds and they booked a single large room.

Once inside their room, Ji Kang sat down on his bed to meditate. He wasn’t cultivating because it was too late to do a noon session and too early to do a midnight session. He just thought about Yan Xiulan and Xiong Chin’s fight.

The whole affair was absurd. They argued over price gouging and as a result innocent people were dead, a city block was destroyed, and the guards had stood by and allowed it to happen.

What was the point of the city guards if it wasn’t to stop this exact thing from happening? This seemed to confirm Ji Kang’s long held belief that the rule of law was only a tool for the powerful to maintain that power, so of course the laws didn’t apply to the powerful.

He hated that he lived in a world where his most pessimistic beliefs were validated. At the same time he felt satisfied at his own ability to pierce the veil of polite fiction and understand the truth. The only natural law was the dominance of strength. The only true sin was weakness.

Because Xiong Chin and Yan Xiulan had backing they didn’t face repercussions for their actions. Because Lu Wu had backing Ji Kang didn’t dare to murder him in his sleep.

This was the reality he lived in. Now he just needed to accept it and navigate it until he was strong enough to break through the stifling oppression of the ruling caste. There was a minimum cultivation threshold, beyond which he too could do whatever he wanted.

Ji Kang was neither altruistic enough nor so naive as to pretend that he would change the system to be more just once he was at the top. He hated that he lived in an unjust world, but once it was unjust in his favor he knew he wasn’t going to play the role of saint and attempt to impose his own ideas of right and wrong on the world.

In his most honest moments he admitted to himself that a world shaped by his whims would probably be a good deal worse than the one he lived in now. He didn’t think he was good enough to deserve to have power over others, he would absolutely abuse it.

Whether or not he deserved to have power was entirely irrelevant to his actions going forward however. Only privileged fools worried about whether they should pursue power, everyone else knew that without it they would be nothing.

Ji Kang chuckled to himself wryly, tonight continued his nightly streak of uplifting and cheerful lines of thought just before he tried to sleep.