— The Emperor's Imperial Record, Entry No. 41 —
I ran through the forest.
Not taking any mind to whatever animals might be around me. 'I'm so foolish.' I thought.
I should have asked for advice before agreeing to a deal with that pig bastard, Wan Cheng. Been more skeptical of a person willing to make such a quick deal with someone he'd just met.
My temper welled, it was at myself. How many more times would I have to cower to someone else just because they were more powerful? Merely because they were above me?
First overseer Liang, now Wan Cheng, if it kept going like this, I'd be someone's slave before I was any sort of cultivator.
*Bam*
I struck my leg against a rock and tumbled, rolling for a few metres, before crashing through the branches of a few thin trees and slamming against the ground.
When I came to a stop, I was breathing heavily. Lying there, cut and bleeding on the leafy ground, with no one around me. I smacked my fist against the land beside me. 'Damn it!' I wanted to cry. To shout. To scream. What was this all for?
I've fought a spirit beast. I've won.'
But even with all that, I still couldn't win against normal people.
And not only was I weak, but I was too slow.
To actually become a cultivator, I'd have to move faster. I would need more power. More strength.
In my mind, there was only one thought, 'There has to be a way.'
***
Azul
Azul drooped as he walked away from the house. He had been kicked out. This was the fifth time this had happened, and the sixth time this week.
He was looking for someone to take up the hunting mission for the pelts that the noble lady, Vespara, had given him. All his hunters had welcomed him at first.
And why not? He guaranteed good, high-paying jobs and had a good reputation. At least when it came to his work, but as soon as they heard what he wanted them to do, they kicked him out.
Especially if they had wives or children. No one wanted to die for a few extra silver. It didn't matter how much it would change their life.
A few days ago, Lady Vespara's butler came to his house again, asking if he had found anybody willing to take up the task of hunting the Celestial Mirror Leopard. When he'd said no, the butler informed him that he only had a week left to find somebody.
The Lady was running out of patience.
Azul had tried to beg for some more time, but the order had already been given: find a hunter or deal with the Lady.
Right now, he had one last hunter in mind that he thought he could choose, his name was Qing Mu.
Azul knocked on the door loudly.
In only two minutes, Qing Mu was at the door. He wore a thick fur coat over dark blue robes. A scarf covered his head and shoulders.
"Azul," he stared at him with dark brown, almost pitch black, deeply-set eyes, "you…need something?"
He had a speech impediment.
"Yes, I—can you allow me inside?" Azul tried to warm himself by rubbing his crossed hands rapidly on the sides of his arms.
Qing Mu opened the door wider, "Come."
Azul let himself in, immediately going to sit by an already lit hearth in the middle of the house and helping himself to some meat buns.
The hunter came and sat down next to him, one arm underneath the table, ready for anything. Azul wolfed down two more buns before the cold stare of a hunter like Qing Mu got to him.
Ahem, mmm, "Yes, of course," he put the bun he was about to eat back on the table. "I have a good job for you. It pays well and all that. With your skill, you should be done fairly quickly. What do you say?"
The lines around Qing Mu's mouth deepened, giving him a more gaunt look. "What job?"
Azul coughed some more, "Aaah, nothing to worry about too much…" he put an arm awkwardly around the hunter, "...My friend, I just want you to get me something for a noble lady." Then he leaned in, putting his hand to his mouth and looking around from side to side, as if he was about to tell a secret, "It's for Lady Vespara of Liu Hong manor."
Qing Mu did not move one bit, only blinking. Azul took his hand off.
"What. Job?"
Azul scratched his neck, then looked around, trying to lay his gaze on anything but the hunter in front of him. Ahem, "I want you to get me a leopard."
Qing Mu kept quiet, waiting for him to speak again. Azul gave it a few more minutes and nearly all the remaining meat buns before continuing again. "It's…I want you to get me a Celestial Mirror Leopard."
The hunter looked at him, from head to toe, trying to make out whether he was using this time to have a laugh with him. He had never made jokes with him before. It had always been carcass and money between them. Qing Mu didn't understand.
"You…make joke?" He squinted, and Azul suddenly felt his robes get tighter. Especially around his neck. Qing Mu had a way of being…forceful.
Azul gave an awkward laugh, "No, no, I just got the command from Lady Vespara, and I came straight here. Thought of you first."
"Celestial leopard. No hunt. Stalk. Can't see."
"It will be a lot of money—"
"No."
"What? After all the money I've paid you over the years? How–"
"Get out."
"I refuse. How dare you? Do you forget who I am?"
Qing Mu got up off his chair, and straight away, Azul recoiled, dragging his chair back over the hard, wooden floor. He had forgotten how big the hunter was as they were sitting down.
The hunter stared down at him. Eyes hard as steel, "I no ask again."
Azul gazed up at the man, debating whether he should do as he said or stand his ground. In the end, he swallowed down his pride and got up to leave. "Are you sure about this? I can negotiate. Is it the coins?" He clenched his teeth, worried about the coins he was about to lose. "How much do you want?"
All the while he said this, he walked back towards the door.
"Wait, please, I beg you. I cannot fulfill her order without—"
Qing Mu picked Azul up by the sides of his shoulders and carried him out. Dropping him on the damp, slightly frozen earth. Then closed the door.
From the outside, Azul could hear the plank being plopped down onto the wooden brackets on the sides.
He had been locked out.
Just about now, people had started to gather, and as they saw this strange, dark man being hefted out of the hunter's place, whispers erupted. A chuckle here, another there.
He looked around, blood on his elbows and sprayed across his robes and lips. Heat rushed to his face, then, Azul rushed to the door, banging on it intensely. "Damn it, Qing Mu! Don't expect any more orders from me. You understand? Huh?...Qing Mu?"
'Curses. What am I to do now?' He started trotting back to his tannery, with his robes brought up to cover the lower half of his face.
'Damn that noble lady and her house for a thousand generations.' Azul clutched his robes, almost tearing them out. This was a cultivator's task, and the noble lady had asked him to find mortals who would do it.
Could it be done? Yes. Would it be done? Azul groaned in despair. He would have needed at least two people to get the job done. All of them would be his most highly skilled hunters. If only he could think of one—
Azul stopped right in front of his tannery and wiped his lip with the back of his hand. Sitting just there was a nailed-up beaver skin. The boy's pelt.
He remembered that he was still on bad terms with him.
The last time they had talked was in Healer Po's apothecary. There was no way, absolutely no way that the boy would agree to such a thing.
Azul shook his head, trying to get the boy's name out of his mind. But it wouldn't leave him.
As a peasant, to accept a noble's task and then to be unable to fulfill it, no matter who Azul was, or how many influential people he knew, he would have his head to hang.
He didn't want to do it, but with everyone else having kicked him out, Azul turned and set out to look for the boy.
— Khan —
I sat in Big Randy's shop, drinking a mug of hot tea as Big Randy's wife, Michelle, tried to stuff me with freshly made pastries.
I had just come from Wan Cheng's camp and wanted to speak to him. I needed to find a way to get out of the deal Wan Chang and I had.
But Big Randy was still occupied with teaching an apprentice, and his wife had caught me.
Michelle forced another pastry into my mouth, burning my tongue, but I didn't dare tell her it was too hot.
The door creaked, and I stopped my train of thought.
"Big Randy," I was half standing before she smacked my hand away and pushed me back down. "Don't be silly, child, he can do without some greeting from his business partner."
She took another light green pastry, "Here, try this one," and shoved it in my mouth.
Big Randy laughed at seeing me and sat down on his chair. "What did you come here for?"
"I need to get out of the deal with Wan Cheng."
Big Randy's face immediately turned serious, and he looked at his wife. "My sweet tofu bun, please leave us."
She stared at him, then stared at me, "Hmph," and got up, "just make sure you tell him to see me before he leaves, I still have some new recipes I'm trying out."
"Of course, my honey pot," then they wiggled their noses at each other, and she left.
Ahem, Ahem, "What happened?"
'It doesn't matter what happened,' I had to get out of Wan Cheng's control. If it kept going like this, he'd send me to my death, and I'd just be another little village boy who died without knowing his place.
'No, not me.' I still had a promise to keep.
"Wan Cheng is exactly as you described him. If I keep working for him, I'm not sure what will happen."
I made sure not to tell him about how I was kicked out of the camp, I still had to keep my pride as a man. Additionally, what I needed was strength. 'Even a lion cub is not shown respect by the gazelle.'
"I want a way to gain strength. What's the point of having all this coin, but anyone can take it from me?"
Big Randy raised his eyebrows, "Ahh, so did Wan Cheng bully you?"
He laughed, "Khan, didn't I tell you before? There is no getting out of this. Sometimes the terms of a deal aren't the words that are spoken. If you make a deal with a swindler, what sort of goods should you expect?"
"I know, but that's why I want strength, I'll get my revenge on that man, all I need is—"
"Don't be so rash. My advice is to weather this storm. Find a way to have him not want you as a courier. Or just leave the area. You and I know that unless you suddenly gain levels in cultivation, or spend decades building up the kind of influence and power that boar has, you're never getting revenge."
I tilted my head back onto the seat. He was right, without a few decades or some sort of healing in my ethereal bridges, I was never going to beat Wan Cheng.
It was the truth, but it tormented me every single day. With my deformed ethereal bridges and a half-lifespan, I was barely moving during a race. After every deal I made, I'd only get that little fraction of a step closer to cultivation. I needed something. Anything. Or my time would run out before I could get anywhere.
Not only that, but I was starting to rely on Big Randy far too much; he couldn't give me the answers I needed. I would have to find a way to do this on my own.
"What if–" I put my head back to speak, but then suddenly I heard a knock on the door.
Big Randy answered, "Come in."
It was Azul.
He was dirty, and he had blood all over his robes.
Big Randy immediately quipped with a slight scowl, "Well, well, I haven't seen you in a while, tanner."
He turned towards me, gritted his teeth, and looked down, "I need your help."
"Hoh?" I was confused, since when did Azul himself want help? "I thought a man like you didn't need a Fan–" I almost said the word. That same insult he had used to describe me when I first decided to hunt for the beavers.
'Was this what I was coming to? All talk and no action? Throwing insults at tanners? I sounded like a gossip.' I clenched my fists. Lately, all I'd done was talk with Big Randy and deliver messages. The best I had done for my goals was to sell goods to the soldiers in Camp Yi.
If I kept going like this, I'd start to think of myself as the very thing I didn't want to be. I turned to look at Big Randy, who was staring at Azul with a tinge of animosity.
'Even with all the help he's giving me, my goals are my goals. My dreams are my dreams. He won't go out and accomplish them for me.'
I looked at Azul, "What do you want?"
Azul looked at me, surprised that I still wanted to talk with him, but he got straight to the heart of the matter: "If I don't get this done, Khan, I'll lose my head."
He took a deep breath.
"I want you to hunt a Celestial Mirror Leopard."
Big Randy piped up, "Madness. Do you wish to kill the boy?"