“Whoa, what a—” Li Yao started to say.
“Shush, man,” Yu Han interrupted him. He turned to Fang Zhao. “Why?”
“Let’s talk inside,” Fang Zhao replied.
Yu Han moved aside, and the four of them entered his hut. Huang Niuniu put the fire on in the brazier and placed some tea in the pot. It was cheap stuff that needed to be boiled rather than brewed, bought alongside other herbs at the Marketplace.
“Is she your wife or what?” Li Yao said. “Didn’t think Tubs would be the first one to find a girl.”
Huang Niuniu used the fire-poking stick to fling a burning piece of firewood towards Li Yao.
“Whoa, crazy bitch!” Li Yao yelped.
“My hut! My hut’s gonna burn, you idiot!” Yu Han shouted.
“Sister Huang, calm. Calm! Take a deep breath.” Fang Zhao said, sweating.
“I’m sorry,” Li Yao said, and she finally relented.
She picked up a broom and swept away the ash and char. “I’ll get you a new mat,” she muttered, glaring murderously at Li Yao with bloodshot eyes.
“It’s fine! Just a mat. You can reduce my tab.” Yu Han wiped his forehead. This girl had some random triggers.
The interlude passed, and they sat down with warm cups of tea, drinking in silence. Li Yao looked nervously at Huang Niuniu, who in turn sat quietly next to Yu Han.
Fang Zhao put his cup down. “I’m from the Trueforge Fang Clan.”
“It’s a big clan from the Divine Xia Capital!” Fang Zhao insisted.
Three heads tilted in confusion.
“It’s far stronger than the Stormy Reef Sect. We have our own Province! That’s like a hundred of your White Lotus or Martial Eagle Kingdoms put together. I’m telling you, our patriarch—”
“We get it, geez. So you’re a big shot. Then why do you want to go into the Hidden Realm, and why with us?” Li Yao asked. He had composed himself, and his questions were important, though Yu Han would have liked it if Fang Zhao could give more information about himself.
A cripple. Large clan. And wasn’t there something about his engagement being broken?
“I worked as a porter, but the Courtyard I affiliated with let me go,” Fang Zhao said.
“You were kicked out?” Huang Niuniu asked.
Fang Zhao smiled helplessly. “I didn’t take any spirit stones or cores, not even meat and bones. All I needed was the blood.”
“So why were you let go?” Huang Niuniu asked. “Even though you’re from such an impressive family? Young masters are treated well anywhere, aren’t they?”
She bit her lip. Li Yao and Yu Han knew her history, but Fang Zhao didn’t. Yu Han hoped he wouldn’t unknowingly trigger her.
“It’s exactly because of that. I… didn’t leave the family on the best terms. I wasn’t supposed to even be in the Stormy Reef Sect. And I’m not the only person from the Divine Capital here. A Core Disciple summoned the leader of our Courtyard, and… well, I’m ashamed to admit that my behavior in the capital wasn’t up to par.” Although he said that, there was no shame or guilt on his face. Ɽ
“Core Disciple, huh?” Li Yao said. “They’re all monsters who reached Foundation Building before the age of fifty. No wonder—a puny Courtyard boss in the Outer Sect wouldn’t dare go against him.” He thought for a bit, then continued, “But you’re asking Tubs, who is far weaker than that Courtyard boss, to do exactly that.”
Huang Niuniu’s eyes widened, as if she’d just realised it. “I knew it. You young masters are always—”
“Huang Niuniu,” Yu Han interrupted, trying the trick she used against Song Yinuo and Shi Miao.
“Then tell me what your trait is—”
“Not here.” Huang Niuniu covered his mouth. “I promise, I will. Not here.”
Li Yao rolled his eyes at their antics, but turned back to Fang Zhao. “As it happens, Tubs, Cow Girl, and I plan on going to the Hidden Realm soon.”
“People always go ‘missing’ in the Hidden Realms, if you know what I mean. Why would we take the risk to bring you, who’s got Core Disciples on your back? Not to mention, didn’t you say you’re a cripple?”
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“That’s…” Fang Zhao hesitated.
“Why?” Li Yao pressed. “Are you going to be dead weight? We’re small-time folks here, just some bumpkins from a countryside kingdom—nothing grand like whatever Divine Capital.”
Fang Zhao looked down, his face shrouded in thought. Li Yao took the chance to gesture at Yu Han.
Yu Han nodded. He wished he could say he didn’t care about offending the Core Disciple by befriending Fang Zhao. After all, Fang Zhao didn’t care when Yu Han offended Sima Yan, or rather, his Inner Sect cousin. If he said that, though, it would be a lie. But he still wanted to give Fang Zhao a chance.
A connection of goodwill, no matter how small, must be nurtured.
“Brother Fang, what can you offer?” Yu Han asked. “And what do you need in return?”
“How can we trust you?” Huang Niuniu added, her hostility towards Fang Zhao clear as day.
Time passed. It started raining, then stopped again. When Yu Han finished his third cup of tea, Fang Zhao finally looked up.
“I’ll tell you, then. About my past,” he said. “What I need is blood, and in return, the only thing I can offer is a debt of gratitude.”
Fang Zhao awakened his spirit root when he was ten. His first days of cultivation were fast, with his clan’s full backing. Within a week, he filled his True Qi at level 0 and saw the tribulation.
That was when things went wrong.
On the eighth day, his True Qi returned to 0 / 110.
“How?” Li Yao said. “I’ve never heard of True Qi going down—”
“Don’t interrupt,” Huang Niuniu warned. She was oddly invested in the story.
Fang Zhao gave her a faint smile, then continued speaking.
His family tried everything, from having him slay monsters to feeding him treasured pills and elixirs valuable enough to buy kingdoms. Nothing worked. Even if he filled up his Pure Qi reserves, they would deplete too.
As for his Arts, his family had very strict rules regarding them. The Fang Clan cultivated a special lineage of earth-related traits. Gems, jewels, orbs. At level 1, they would awaken special bloodline Traits, and it was forbidden to cultivate any Art that didn’t fall into one of the clan’s cultivation plans.
So he never learned any Arts either. Day after day, month after month, he toiled away. But no matter what he did, his True Qi and Pure Qi would always revert back to zero.
When he was fifteen, his parents went to find an elusive cure in a dangerous Hidden Realm.
“Did they return?” Yu Han asked, clenching his fist. Missing parents!
Fang Zhao shook his head. “I’ve come to terms with their passing. The clan didn’t give up on me though, even after that. My grandfather, the patriarch, still…” He sighed. “But I—”
He lost hope. In grief, he indulged—wine, women, gambling.
“I knew it, you young masters are all the same!” Huang Niuniu said, looking disgusted as Fang Zhao continued his story.
But again, there was no shame in his face or voice. “I know. I’m disgusting. My fiancée broke off our engagement.”
“I agree,” Fang Zhao said. “If it were me, I’d be disappointed too.”
Fang Zhao didn’t care back then. His bad behaviors continued. For how much he couldn’t excel in cultivation, he excelled in bedding women, losing clan money, and throwing lavish, unspeakable parties.
“Holy hell, man, can you invite me next time—Ouch!” Li Yao shut his mouth after a kick from Huang Niuniu.
“I didn’t really care about the engagement. I feel sorry that the Fang Clan lost face. But what really hurt was when my best friend abandoned me.”
A scion of a clan just as prestigious as the Fang. The man had apparently stuck with him even as the clan retracted their support.
“But I messed up,” Fang Zhao admitted. That was the first time he showed guilt. He crossed a line he shouldn’t have.
“What did you do?” Yu Han asked.
“I slapped his fiancée’s butt.”
“…Dude,” Yu Han said. Li Yao facepalmed. Huang Niuniu looked like she was about to slap someone.
“I know, I know. I regret it! I was drunk, I was pissed off at his high expectations. Why was he the only one not disappointed in me? I wanted to see if I could push and push and—well, yeah. His fiancée beat me up and strung me from the city gates. If it wasn’t for him, she would have killed me then and there. An imperial princess—even the patriarch couldn’t complain.”
“Yeah, if he did, I’d slap his butt,” Huang Niuniu muttered. “Wait, no. That came out wrong! What I mean is, I’m angry at you. Why are you looking at me like that?” She pushed Yu Han’s face away.
Li Yao laughed. The mood lightened.
“He told me to never show my face in front of him. My grandfather… he didn’t exile me. Not until I took the Bloodline Awakening Elixir.”
“Wait, didn’t you say your clan naturally awakens a Trait at Level 1?”
Fang Zhao nodded. “Taking the Elixir would awaken a completely different Trait. And I did. I’m glad that I at least get to keep the Fang name. But the clan has disowned me otherwise.”
“Why would you take the risk?”
“I needed a Trait that could help me cultivate True Qi.”
After his best friend severed all connection, his life took its lowest turn. Not even his other debaucherous friends joined him in parties. He was the butt of all jokes, even among the courtesans. That was fine. He didn’t drink, didn’t eat, didn’t indulge.
“I don’t know what happened. I was looking at the sky one day, and it was like I woke up from a dream.”
“Atta man, brother,” Li Yao praised.
“Easy to say without proof,” Huang Niuniu countered.
“I needed to cultivate. Somehow, anyhow, no matter the cost. So I awakened the Trait, Red Fiend Ancestry, from an elixir made out of the True Blood of a powerful Red Fiend—a monster that could rival the Sect Leader in strength.”
“Where’d you get the money?”
“My parents had left me some funds in case of emergencies.” He touched his ring. It wasn’t the golden one on his left ring finger, but a nondescript stone one on his right index.
The Trait gave him the Bloodline Art called Cyclic Lifeblood Conversion. He could use the blood of others to heal. At Level 0, the effect was so minor it wasn’t even worth mentioning. But the other perk was what mattered. He would drink the blood of beasts, and gain True Qi. The Trait apparently helped him conserve some True Qi too.
“I have… more control over True Qi now. I can preserve 2 True Qi for a night, without it depleting the next day. I need more blood to train the trait too,” Fang Zhao said. “I need to go to the Hidden Realm.”
“Not monster cores?” Huang Niuniu asked.
“The Bloodline Refining Elixirs, a special family of elixirs made from monster cores and blood, can work too, but most other elixirs won’t work.”
“And so you want to join us,” Li Yao said. “Wow. What a story. You were fucking trash.”
“Finally, you said something good,” Huang Niuniu agreed.
Fang Zhao could only smile. He placed a pouch in front of him, then bowed.
“As a Level 0, I can’t take any Hidden Realm missions. But Brother Yu, as a Night Alchemist, you can take me. Take this unworthy Fang Zhao with you. This pouch has a thousand spirit stones, the last in my possession, but the debt will not be paid back. Just give me time, and I’ll—”
“Where did you get that ring?” Yu Han interrupted. “The golden one, with the cat engravings.”