Chapter 10: New Clothes
It was the third lunar month, so the weather was starting to get warmer. However, it was still cold. To someone who just emerged from a forbidden region, that level of cold wasn’t even noticeable. But after staying outside in it for long enough, it would slowly cause frigidness to seep into the bones. Of course, the nights were icier.
However, Xu Qing didn’t let the frigid wind slow him down. He just wrapped his leather jerkin around himself a bit tighter. He still had a matter to attend to, and thus, he moved carefully through the shadows of the basecamp.
He ran into occasional stray dogs that bared their teeth at him, but upon seeing the bloodthirsty look in his eyes, they scurried away. Xu Qing didn’t bother them after they fled.
Eventually, he reached a cabin in the middle ring. Crouching in the darkness across from it, he sat unmoving and watched.
A fizzling bonfire let up a few wisps of smoke.
Xu Qing hadn’t forgotten what Horsefour left to do when parting ways with Fatmountain. So for now, he was just planning to wait for Fatmountain to come back out.
Icy wind bit into him, but he remained as unmoving as a stone, waiting patiently.
Behind him was a building with a prominent roof, atop which crouched Master Seventh and his servant. Looking down at Xu Qing, Master Seventh smiled.
“Just as I predicted. The little wolf pup is on a killing spree. Now I’m very curious to see how he performs when he goes into the nearby forbidden region.”
Time slipped by. About an hour later, Xu Qing frowned. After some thinking, he turned around and slipped back into the night like a specter. He didn’t immediately return to Sergeant Thunder’s residence. Instead, he circled around it to make sure the coast was clear.
Only then did he enter, quietly passing through the courtyard and into his cabin.
Taking a deep breath, he rubbed his hands together to drive the cold from his body. Wiping himself clean of blood, he sat down cross-legged on the bed to think.
Scavengers come and go randomly whenever they get work, and that Horsefour is obviously a lecher. It will take a bit of time before anyone realizes he’s missing. During that time, Fatmountain won’t be on guard. To wrap this matter up properly, I need to get rid of Fatmountain.
It was the same as when he’d killed Cruel Ox without hesitation. Having been raised in the slums, he simply couldn’t allow threats to his own life to exist around him. He’d killed Horsefour, not only because the man stole from him, but also because he was a threat. And he needed to get rid of Fatmountain for the same reason.
After mulling the matter over, he dumped Horsefour’s items out onto the bed in front of him and looked through them.
They were all random things. For instance, there was a palm-sized chunk of iron that somewhat resembled a box. It seemed to be nothing more than a crafting material. There were also about seventy spirit coins, which was quite a haul for Xu Qing.
After taking stock. Xu Qing compared the white boluses that Horsefour had taken with the ones he’d already possessed. All of them were in poor condition. Because of that, his trust in the shopkeeper’s words increased a bit.
After more consideration, Xu Qing consumed one of the pills, then closed his eyes to experience the effects. He felt something warm flowing through him and eventually gathering at the mutation blotches on his left arm. It was a pleasant sensation. Sometime later, the feeling faded. Xu Qing opened his eyes and looked at his arm. The two mutation blotches looked lighter in color, and they didn’t hurt as much.
It worked, he thought, looking pleased.
He took out a second pill. The same feeling filled him, and when it faded away, it took all of the pain with it. He felt cleansed and comfortable, as though his flesh and blood had been purged. Furthermore, he felt even stronger and faster than before.
He didn’t consume any more of the white boluses, but instead packed them away into his bag. Then he closed his eyes to work on his cultivation.
The night passed without incident.
The next morning, he opened his eyes and prepared to face the day.
Out in the courtyard, he could see that Sergeant Thunder was in his cabin, sitting cross-legged and doing breathing exercises. Xu Qing didn’t bother him. Quietly opening the main gate of the courtyard, he stepped out, closed it behind him, and headed off into the camp.
The wind seemed even colder than the night before, hitting Xu Qing so hard that he shivered. Even the stray dogs were hiding in their holes.
There was also a thick fog, which brought up bad memories of life in the slums.
He hated the cold.
To street urchins, a cold wind was like a catastrophe that you had to struggle against just to survive.
Because of that, as Xu Qing made his way through the cold wind and happened to pass a clothing shop, he stopped walking and looked over. Inside that shop were stacks of clean, freshly folded new clothes.
Patting his bulging bag, he turned and walked in. There weren’t many other customers, so he felt comfortable taking his time examining the garments for sale.
The shopkeeper behind the counter glanced at him, then looked at the salesgirl and said, “Go into the back and straighten up a bit. If there are any custom orders that haven’t been picked up for a month, bring them out to sell.”
“What if the people who put the order in come back?” the salesgirl asked.
“Come back? People go missing in this camp all the time. Some die in the forbidden region, others just up and vanish. Nobody will come back for those clothes other than ghosts. Hurry up.”
Waving his hand, the shopkeeper shooed the salesgirl into the back.
Xu Qing kept browsing, but didn’t find anything he liked. Around that time, the salesgirl returned with an armful of clothes that she started arranging for display. Looking over, Xu Qing’s eyes flashed when he saw a dark fur overcoat among the items.
After enough time had passed for an incense stick to burn, Xu Qing walked out of the shop wearing the overcoat. It wasn’t very heavy, and did a great job of keeping out the cold. At the very least, he felt a lot warmer than he had with the other coat. That said, the large overcoat didn’t quite fit his small frame, so it looked a little odd.
Xu Qing didn’t care. In fact, he was so happy about the new overcoat that he went out of his way to avoid any mud in the street as he walked.
His first inclination was to go find Fatmountain, until he noticed some sort of commotion on the periphery of the camp. In fact, many scavengers were heading in that direction.
Xu Qing looked over.
Beneath the rays of the rising sun, he saw a dozen or so horse carriages majestically approaching.
The people riding on the outside of the carriages seemed to be nothing more than drivers and guards, but they were dressed lavishly. They had ruddy faces and sparkling eyes, and all of them radiated astonishing spirit power fluctuations. It was impossible to tell who was inside the carriages, but Xu Qing had to guess that they were important.
He had heard Sergeant Thunder mention that caravans like this would often come to the basecamp. Usually, they were merchants who dealt in seven-leaf clover, which was used to create white boluses.
Fatmountain was in the crowd who’d assembled to look at the carriages. After noticing him, Xu Qing didn’t pay any attention to the newcomers, and instead narrowed his eyes and started following the rotund man.
The arrival of the carriages threw the entire camp into high gear. It turned into a market day, and thanks to the commotion, Xu Qing didn’t find any opportunities to deal with Fatmountain. Late that night, he could only watch as Fatmountain went back into his cabin. Tucking his dagger into his sleeve, Xu Qing left.
He hadn’t found his chance, but he was a patient person. Returning to his cabin, he sat down in his new overcoat to meditate. Later, he fell asleep with the overcoat on.
It wasn’t until the next morning at dawn that he actually took the coat off. As he prepared to go out into the camp, he put on his old, ratty jerkin from the ruined city. Looking at his new overcoat laying there on the bed, he wondered if he’d been too impulsive the day before.
Clad in the old threadbare garment, he headed into the basecamp, browsing market stalls and peering at the area where the horse carriages were stationed. Of course, the reality was that he was looking for Fatmountain.
Off in the distance, Master Seventh sat on a rooftop yawning. Looking at the carriages, then Xu Qing, he asked his servant, “Did you send the invitation to Grandmaster Bai?”
“Yes, Master Seventh. He replied that he fell ill recently....”
“Fell ill? He’s a doctor! Isn’t that... wait.” Looking surprised, Master Seventh said, “The Kid was wearing new clothes yesterday. Why did he change back to the old outfit?”
Even as Master Seventh puzzled over the matter, down in the crowd, Xu Qing caught sight of Fatmountain and started following him.
And that was how the day passed.
As night arrived, just when Xu Qing was thinking Fatmountain would return to his cabin, he instead found the man was heading toward the outer ring of the camp. Relatively speaking, it was a remote location.
Did he notice me?
Frowning, Xu Qing looked into the fog through narrowed eyes. Instead of following, he glanced around to make sure he himself wasn’t being followed, then took a different route that got him to the outer ring before Fatmountain.
After making sure he wasn’t being led into some sort of ambush, he found a shadowy area to conceal himself.
A moment later, Fatmountain arrived. He stopped walking.
“I realized yesterday that you were following me, whoreson,” he called out. “Step out into the open. This place is remote enough that it’s easy to get rid of bodies here. If you don’t face me now, then next time, I’ll come after you with friends. You might have Sergeant Thunder watching out for you, but Squad Bloodshadow has ways to deal with you regardless.”
Given the man’s words, Xu Qing saw no reason to keep hiding. He stepped out.
Fatmountain looked at him. “Horsefour didn’t accept some secret job. You killed him, didn’t you? I guess I underestimated you.” Smiling wickedly, he took a step in Xu Qing’s direction. “That’s fine. I never liked Horsefour. If you hadn’t killed him, I would have done it myself sooner or later. Therefore, I should be thanking you. I couldn’t care less that he’s dead, except, I happen to know his sack had something really amazing in it. And now you have it.”
Fatmountain eyed the sack at Xu Qing’s waist, his eyes glittering with greed. Not even waiting for a response, he lunged forward, his rotund frame exploding with speed that surpassed the second level of Qi Condensation. Intense spirit power fluctuations rolled out of him, making a stream of magic that swept ice-like air toward Xu Qing.
Fatmountain definitely wasn’t in the second level of Qi Condensation, but rather, the third. Because of that, and because of the item in Horsefour’s bag, he wanted to take out Xu Qing by himself.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed. This was his first time facing a cultivator in battle, and his first time seeing someone externalize their spirit power flows. However, he had faith in his own strength and speed.
Even as Fatmountain started moving, Xu Qing lunged forward explosively.
In the blink of an eye, he evaded Fatmountain’s attack, leaving the rotund man visibly surprised. Then Xu Qing spun behind his opponent, clenched his right hand into a fist, and launched a blow.
Xu Qing had never unleashed his full strength in a fight.
His fist slammed into Fatmountain, releasing a huge cracking sound. A massive tremor passed through Fatmountain, and his external energy flow shattered. At the same time, his internal organs shivered, and a great glob of blood exploded from his mouth.
The killing intent in Xu Qing’s eyes grew stronger.
Next, he pulled out his iron skewer and jumped toward the retreating Fatmountain, aiming the skewer toward his head.
However, right at that moment, Xu Qing’s face fell, and he immediately lunged in the opposite direction.
At the same time, a vicious gleam appeared in Fatmountain’s eyes.
Two black streaks of light shot out from his ears, screaming through the air toward Xu Qing, one after the other. The two black streaks were winged centipedes that moved with incredible speed. As they neared, Xu Qing slashed out with his dagger, chopping them in half. Even still, one of them got within about seven inches of his face, and the danger of the situation caused his killing intent to grow even stronger.
Because Xu Qing was forced to back up, Fatmountain had a moment to stabilize his internal organs.
Falling back even further, he performed a double-handed incantation gesture, which made his face turn red. Then he exhaled sharply, spitting out a huge cloud of poison gas. [1] [2]
The gas roiled out into a cloud that shot toward Xu Qing, accompanied by sharp hissing sounds.
Afterward, Fatmountain’s face was pale white, and he even seemed less fat than before. He took another step back, his eyes containing both fear and hatred.
Xu Qing was obviously a lot stronger than he’d anticipated.
Fatmountain had never considered that, given he was in the third level of Qi Condensation and had numerous poison-related attacks, he would actually be threatened by someone like this. That poison gas was a trump card of his. If he didn’t finish the fight quickly, then he would have to call for help. That was how dangerous this opponent was.
Hanging over all of this was the fact that if he cried out for help, he wouldn’t get Horsefour’s stash.
He did have one taboo item left, a piece of amber that he pulled out, just in case. However, he hesitated to use it, and instead peered at Xu Qing as the cloud of gas roiled around him.
To his shock, the gas suddenly parted, and Xu Qing shot out from inside.
He moved so quickly that Fatmountain saw nothing but a blur. Heart pounding, he made to smash the piece of amber and took in a breath to let out a shout. But he was too slow.
A pitch-black iron skewer stabbed into his head, piercing his skull like a hot knife cutting through butter. Blood sprayed out onto Xu Qing.
Fatmountain went stiff, then slowly dropped to the ground.
Ignoring the corpse, Xu Qing looked around, gasping for breath. They were in a remote part of the camp, but that didn’t guarantee that no one had noticed the sounds of fighting. Not seeing anyone around, he hurried to Fatmountain and grabbed his bag.
He was about to dispose of the corpse with his severed snake head when he noticed something in Fatmountain’s hand. Pulling the fingers straight, he found a half-crushed piece of amber. It didn’t look particularly special, other than the scorpion tail inside.
Xu Qing carefully picked up the piece of amber. Then he turned the corpse into a pool of blood like he’d done with the others. Afterward, he sped off into the night. Behind him, the blood soaked into the ground, leaving behind no trace of what had occurred.
***
Master Seventh and his servant stepped out from the darkness.
Master Seventh watched Xu Qing go. He had been there observing the fight the entire time, and looked like he had just realized something.
“I get it. The Kid didn’t want to get blood on his new clothes. He’s been traumatized by living in poverty, and can’t bear to ruin his new outfit.”
His servant sighed.
Master Seventh had been pondering this issue for the entire day, trying to determine why Xu Qing didn’t wear his new clothes. Now he had his answer, and could stop wondering.
1. I sometimes see people ask why I use ‘incantation gesture’ instead of something simple like ‘hand sign.’ The simple reason is that Chinese has a word for ‘hand sign’ and this is not that word. Furthermore, most C-E dictionaries mention the English word ‘incantation’ in the definition of this term. ☜
2. Since this is the first chapter that goes into “poison” attacks, I would like to point out that I’m aware of the nuances of the words poison, toxin, venom, etc. in English. In Chinese, all of these words can be described using one character, and that’s a character frequently used in fantasy novels. As a result, I am going to use the general word “poison” in virtually all instances, regardless of whether a substance would more precisely be a toxin rather than a poison. I’ll occasionally use “venom” when it makes sense. ☜