A Thief

"What kind of people were they?"

Watching the siblings walk away, Fang Yuan tidied up the premium Realgar Powder and asked casually.

"They're from the Zhou family, one of the big households in the county seat. You were lucky today—you ran into Second Young Master Zhou. If it had been just that unruly young lady on her own, then it would've been..."

The shopkeeper shook his head. Clearly, he knew them all too well.

"Was he buying Red Ginseng to treat an illness? Had Lord Zhou fallen sick?"

"It's not that simple. The Zhou family has Gui Ling Sect behind them, and Lord Zhou is an officer in the sect. I heard he was injured—internally! That's why they need so many medicinal herbs to replenish his vitality. What a pity... If your ginseng root had been a hundred years old! No... even fifty years, you might've been able to try your luck by answering the notice!"

"A notice?"

Fang Yuan grew interested. "Come on, Shopkeeper, tell me about it."

"Ah... What's there to tell? Lord Zhou's been slow to recover, so the Zhou family put up a notice seeking a skilled physician. They promised to grant any condition to whoever could work a miraculous cure..."

The shopkeeper sighed. Clearly, he didn't hold out much hope for Lord Zhou's recovery.

Fang Yuan listened, then instinctively glanced at his status panel, where Medical Skill stood out in plain sight.

Anything the system chose to recognize and record had reached a certain grade.

Although Fang Yuan had mastered quite a few skills, the only ones the system had recorded were Medical Skill and Plantation, both of which Heart-Questioning Hermit had taught him.

So, compared with ordinary doctors, Fang Yuan felt he could certainly be called a skilled physician.

But he was lazy by nature, and he didn't much care for Miss Zhou's temperament. He had no intention of recommending himself.

The Zhou family belongs to Gui Ling Sect, too. Maybe they have martial arts manuals or something... But that path seems a little dangerous. Better forget it...

The Zhou siblings had been a little rude, but they were loaded and had paid generously. Fang Yuan had bought a large supply of Realgar Powder and still had money left over.

After leaving the shop, he wandered around the streets, looking this way and that, enjoying himself.

Come to think of it, this whole thing was probably one person under Gui Ling Sect acting on their own. And they don't seem to have much influence...

At noon, Fang Yuan squatted at a street corner, chewing on a rice ball he'd brought with him as he pondered.

That was good news. It meant he wouldn't have to leave home and flee in a panic just yet.

The other party had cut off his supplies, perhaps hoping to force him to leave. If he didn't take the hint, who knew what would happen next?

Maybe... I should find a martial arts manual and learn a few moves? They say Gui Ling Sect has a Martial Ancestor in charge. What's a Martial Ancestor? Is he powerful? And I wonder if the system recognizes martial arts...

The rice ball was made with Pearl Jade Crystal Rice, with a pickled plum in the middle. Its rich aroma drifted through the air.

Several beggars had gathered around him, their eyes gleaming as they swallowed hard. The scent had clearly drawn them over.

If they weren't on a busy street, they might've already rushed over and snatched it.

"Heh... Little Beggar, so this is where you were?"

Just as Fang Yuan was starting to feel overwhelmed by their pitiful stares and wondering whether to give them a few coins, a familiar voice rang out beside him.

He looked up and immediately saw Miss Zhou staring down at him with her nose in the air.

"Little Beggar? Me?"

Fang Yuan pointed at his own nose, bewildered.

"You're huddled together with beggars. If you're not a little beggar, then what are you?"

Miss Zhou giggled as she pulled out a purse embroidered with gold and silver thread. "How about letting this Eldest Daughter give you a few coins, so you can go enjoy a meal at a restaurant?"

Fang Yuan was speechless. He looked himself over, too.

What could he do? Wasn't this just how country folk looked when they came into town?

He rolled his eyes, ignored her, and continued eating his rice ball.

"Heh... Only a country bumpkin like you would treat a rice ball like a treasure. I just ate at Fugui Tower... Hm? What smells so good?"

Miss Zhou's delicate nose twitched. Suddenly, she looked at the rice ball in Fang Yuan's hand.

Each grain of Jade Crystal Rice was pearl-like and translucent, like a crystal, its pale luster offset by the red plum in the middle. It hardly looked like something a country bumpkin would eat.

But the most important thing was its pure, rich rice fragrance.

She had just eaten at Fugui Tower, and they'd served Jade Crystal Rice there, too. But this pure fragrance was simply... simply... impossible to resist!

Miss Zhou discovered, with boundless frustration, that her stomach was rumbling again, even though she'd just eaten.

No, this wasn't ordinary hunger. It was an attraction—the allure of fine food!

Her throat bobbed. The rice ball Fang Yuan was eating seemed to turn into a black hole, drawing her gaze so completely that she couldn't look away.

She couldn't take it anymore. If this went on, she'd start drooling!

Miss Zhou wisely decided to turn around and leave.

"Um... Do you want it?"

Fang Yuan happened to notice her gaze. Feeling sorry for her, he took out his last rice ball. "Here!"

"Gulp!"

Miss Zhou swallowed. Her jade-white face flushed crimson. Her fingers trembled as she struggled between reaching for it and holding back. At last, a fierce aura burst out of her. "W-What are you talking about? I, Zhou Wenxin, the dignified Eldest Daughter of the Zhou family, would never... would never..."

As she spoke, her feet moved forward of their own accord.

"Oh, you don't want it?"

Fang Yuan figured he understood. He handed the rice ball to a little beggar beside him. "Here, eat this!"

"Thank you, sir!" "Thank you, sir!"

The little beggar had been drooling over Fang Yuan's food for a while. Now that it had fallen into his lap, he thanked Fang Yuan over and over, then happily began to eat.

The little beggar's filthy hand left a clear print on the rice ball as soon as he grabbed it. Even Zhou Wenxin couldn't help feeling that such a treasure was being wasted.

"Mmm... Delicious... So delicious!"

The little beggar wolfed it down, finishing the rice ball in just a few bites. He even picked off the grains stuck to the corners of his mouth and in his hair. When he was done, he licked his lips and fingers, still savoring every last bit.

"You..."

Zhou Wenxin froze. Her face turned from white to red, then from red to white. Suddenly, she burst into tears. "You're bullying me! Boohoo..."

She didn't know why, but she felt terribly wronged. She turned and ran.

The people nearby who knew her all cast admiring looks at Fang Yuan.

He'd actually managed to make Zhou Family Little Chili cry? This young man was more than meets the eye! He had a bright future ahead of him!

"This..."

Fang Yuan scratched his head, feeling completely innocent. She'd started crying on her own—what did that have to do with him? It had to be said: intelligence didn't always come with social skills.

But no matter how bad his social skills were, he knew that if he didn't run now, he'd be trapped once the people who wanted to stand up for her arrived.

He immediately turned into a side street and made his escape.

Fang Yuan's premonition proved absolutely right.

Before long, a group of furious servants came rushing over. They were just short of sealing off the Four Gates and searching the whole city.

Fortunately, by then he'd already left the city at a leisurely pace and was on his way back to the mountain.

And how many people in the whole county seat knew this stranger, let alone where he lived?

After Zhou Wenxin, the Eldest Daughter of the Zhou family, made a huge fuss without even learning the little rascal's name, she could only leave in a sulk. Meanwhile, the rumors spread farther and farther. After passing through the mouths of gossipmongers and busybodies, the story eventually became that the unruly Zhou family young lady had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a poor kid from the mountains. The tale grew ever more entertaining—and ever more unspeakable—until Zhou Wenxin was so furious she could practically breathe fire, with nowhere to vent her anger.

"Mm... So a Martial Ancestor is a realm among martial artists. They awaken their inner force and can take on a hundred opponents alone, unstoppable by ten thousand... The entire Gui Ling Sect has only one..."

Fang Yuan was reading with great interest from a book he'd bought from a street stall for a few copper coins.

It seemed to be a scholar's notes, filled with all kinds of things he'd seen and heard. The author must've loved traveling. The book included a description of a Martial Ancestor, and Fang Yuan had been so intrigued that he'd bought it on the spot.

"And the mountain range where I live is called Qingling Mountain. This is Qinghe Commandery, and the county seat I just left is Qingye City..."

Fang Yuan was delighted to find that, by studying the travelogue, he'd learned a little about the nearby region and even the world he lived in.

"This continent seems enormous. Even the country I live in is only a small one. Compared with the whole continent, it's nothing at all. Of course, to ordinary people, it's still vast beyond measure..."

From the travelogue, Fang Yuan learned that the outside world was vast and full of wonders.

"Even a Martial Ancestor can only dominate for a time within a hundred li of here. And besides martial arts, there must be other systems as well..."

Fang Yuan tucked the notebook into his bamboo basket and stood up to continue his journey.

"What a pity. I can't even get my hands on the most basic martial arts manual, so there's no point thinking about anything else..."

As soon as he returned to Hidden Valley, he felt a wave of comfort wash over him.

"Nothing beats my own little doghouse..."

He hadn't been away for long, but Fang Yuan couldn't help feeling like a wanderer returning home.

After putting his things down, he hurried to the Plantation.

"Hm?"

But the moment he reached the entrance, his expression changed. "These footprints... Did animals get into the crops?"

Deep in the mountains, animal attacks were a major problem for any Plantation. Fortunately, Heart-Questioning Hermit had been an expert in this field and knew how to make Beast-Repelling Powder.

Fierce beasts like tigers and Fierce Wolves marked their territory with urine, keeping all other animals away. Beast-Repelling Powder worked on the same principle. In practice, medicinal ingredients were used to make something similar, which was then scattered around the area. Other animals would get the impression that a "lord" had claimed the territory and wouldn't dare approach.

As for the few creatures that weren't picky about their food, a handful of traps and snares were enough to deal with them.

But now, all the traps in the Plantation had been wrecked. The bait inside had vanished without a trace, as if the thief had left behind a silent taunt.