He Wasn't Worthy

"Interesting." Jiang Wang smiled.

"Are you going?" Ling He asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jiang Wang turned to An'an. "Your big brother's taking you out for a feast. How does that sound?"

Jiang An'an nodded her little head very seriously.

Ling He straightened his clothes and, out of habit, took his sword with him.

"Hey!" Jiang Wang stopped him. "You don't have to come along. We're not going to fight."

Meeting Ling He's gaze, Jiang Wang added, "Don't worry. The Fang Family isn't that stupid."

Ling He thought it over and decided Jiang Wang had a point. He put his sword back and sat down cross-legged. If nothing else needed his attention, he could spend all day, every day cultivating.

Cultivation held a world of its own, and he took joy in it.

On the way to Moon-Gazing Pavilion, An'an suddenly looked up and asked, "Are the Fang Family bad people?"

"Oh?" Jiang Wang looked at her with interest. "What makes you say that?"

"Even Big Brother Ling He looked like he wanted to beat them up," Jiang An'an said.

Jiang Wang laughed.

With Ling He's temperament, it really was rare for him to show hostility toward anyone.

"Then we won't go eat," Jiang An'an said.

"That won't do. We have to go, and we have to eat with style and skill." Jiang Wang deliberately said, "If we eat the bad guys into poverty, we'll be doing a good deed. Understand?"

Jiang An'an bit her thumb and gave a thoughtful little nod.

"Smack!"

"No biting your fingers!"

Wangjiang City had a Moon-Gazing Pavilion, an imposing establishment famed far and wide. Maple Forest City's similarly named Moon-Gazing Pavilion paled in comparison.

It was only three stories tall. To call it the Moon-Gazing Pavilion hardly fit, and only invited ridicule.

But the dishes served there were exceptionally good. So the restaurant had always done brisk business in Maple Forest City.

Jiang Wang carried Jiang An'an into Moon-Gazing Pavilion, where a servant from the Fang Family led them straight to a private room.

A middle-aged man with a composed bearing and a refined face rose to greet them. "Nephew!"

His gaze fell on An'an, and his smile grew even warmer. "Is this your little sister? What a darling!"

Jiang Wang had met Fang Zehou before. Back when he and Fang Pengju had been close, Fang Zehou had invited them to dinner more than once. At the time, Fang Zehou had doted on his nephew and placed great hopes in him. But after Fang Pengju died, the Fang Family had been unwilling even to step forward and bury him, because he'd died in disgrace.

Jiang Wang had no desire to be Fang Zehou's "nephew," so he greeted him instead with, "Clan Leader Fang."

"Not yet, not yet." Fang Zehou smiled, then beckoned to a servant and took a string of golden beads from him, holding them out to An'an. "It's our first time meeting, so let me give you a present, little one!"

Jiang An'an turned away and buried her little face in Jiang Wang's arms. In her small head, she had already decided this was a bad man. She wouldn't even speak to him.

As Jiang Wang settled Jiang An'an into her seat, he said, "The little one is shy around strangers. Don't take it to heart. And we'll pass on the gift. Officer Fang, why don't you get straight to the point? What did you want to see me about?"

Fang Zehou had purchased the title of Assistant Prefect, so he did hold an official rank. Calling him "Officer" wasn't out of place.

"No rush, no rush." Fang Zehou showed not the slightest embarrassment. He waved for the servant to put away the string of golden beads, then said, "First, try the house specialty: Lotus Leaf Chicken."

An'an had already decided she was going to eat the bad guy into poverty, and she was just about to dig in when Jiang Wang stopped her with a hand. He picked up his chopsticks and tasted every dish on the table, one by one. After savoring them for a moment, he chose a few and set them in front of An'an.

"Your big brother tasted them for you. These ones are the best."

An'an had meant to complain, but the fragrant smell of the Lotus Leaf Chicken was wafting straight into her nose. She had no time to complain now. Reaching out, she tore off a chicken leg and started gnawing.

Fang Zehou kept smiling warmly, as though he hadn't noticed Jiang Wang's wariness at all.

"You siblings are so close," he praised.

"I'm doing my best to raise her," Jiang Wang replied dismissively.

Jiang An'an glared at him, but her mouth was full. All she could do was bite angrily into a chicken wing.

Jiang Wang paid her no mind and continued, "May I ask what you wanted to see me about, Officer?"

Fang Zehou suddenly let out a long sigh, his expression growing heavy. "The Fang Family owes you an apology for what happened with Pengju."

Since Fang Pengju was involved, Jiang Wang couldn't help but grow serious. Whatever had happened, Fang Pengju was dead now, and their grievances had died with him. Jiang Wang didn't want to, nor did he need to, keep hounding Fang Pengju's spirit tablet after his death.

"It's all in the past," Jiang Wang said.

"Even if you say that, my Fang Family can't leave it at that." Fang Zehou pushed a small box across the table. "There are a hundred taels of Red Gold in here, as a token of our apology."

"Fang Pengju already paid for what he did." Jiang Wang had no patience for beating around the bush anymore. He didn't so much as glance at the box of gold. "Just tell me what you want."

Fang Zehou nodded. "Pengju was once the hope of our Fang Family, with a boundless future ahead of him. He was killed by you in a deathmatch. Though he brought it on himself, my Fang Family never came after you over it. Isn't that right?"

"That's right." It was the truth, and Jiang Wang had no reason to deny it.

"Now, your uncle has a favor to ask of you."

Jiang Wang looked at him, inviting him to continue.

Fang Zehou said, "After Pengju died, Heling was the only promising young person left in the next generation of our Fang Family. All I could do was gather up my grief and pour all the care I'd once given Pengju into Heling. He's been doing his best, too. He's worked hard at cultivation, and his cultivation has even surpassed yours. But..."

Jiang Wang raised an eyebrow, knowing that the real show was about to begin.

"After his fight with you, his confidence was shattered. He fell apart completely and shut himself in his room, drowning his sorrows in alcohol every day. If this goes on, I'm afraid he'll... become a useless man." Even the old fox Fang Zehou's voice trembled a little as he said this.

After all, Heling was his only legitimate son.

"So?" Jiang Wang asked.

"This is difficult to say," Fang Zehou replied. "But I'll swallow my pride and ask you to apologize to Heling. Tell him you used... used underhanded methods in your duel. Help him regain his confidence."

Jiang Wang could hardly keep from laughing. "How am I supposed to apologize for something I never did?"

"I won't ask you to do it for nothing, I won't!" Fang Zehou hurriedly said. "When it's done, I'll give you another hundred taels of Red Gold on top of what's in that box! All you have to do is pretend to bow your head once..."

Jiang Wang tapped the box of gold with a bent finger, and this time he really did laugh. "The Fang Family has produced cultivators before. If I remember correctly, Old Master Fang was a cultivator in the Eighth-Rank Circulation Realm, wasn't he? What meaning do these so-called riches have for cultivators?"

He pressed a finger against the little box and gently pushed it back.

Fang Zehou immediately took a small brocade box from his robes. He opened it carefully and placed it before Jiang Wang.

The Dao Essence fluctuations inside the box caught Jiang Wang's attention almost at once.

"This is a Dao Essence Stone. I think you'll agree it has meaning for a cultivator." Fang Zehou looked utterly sincere. "All you have to do is bow your head a little, and it's yours."

Of course a Dao Essence Stone had meaning! Compared with ordinary gold and silver, Dao Essence Stones were the hard currency of cultivators. They could help with cultivation and replenish one's reserves whenever needed. And the Dao Essence Stone in front of him had never been used. It was whole and intact, containing a full hundred units of Dao Essence.

For Jiang Wang, absorbing this Dao Essence Stone would bring him almost to the threshold for establishing his foundation immediately!

He finally understood why Fang Heling had been able to establish his foundation so quickly, and why he was already close to completing the Lesser Celestial Circuit.

But Jiang Wang merely closed the box gently. "Perhaps you're right. Maybe my bowing my head is worth nothing."

He pushed the brocade box back as well. "But Fang Heling isn't worth it."

He had been the one provoked, and he had been the one forced to fight. Why should he be the one to apologize? If Heling had lost and fallen apart, who was to blame? Did being weak make someone righteous by nature? Did being weak mean you were always in the right?

The Dao Essence Stone mattered, but what was right mattered more.

"Think of your little sister, if not yourself," Fang Zehou said slowly. "She's still studying at the village school, isn't she?"

At that moment, Jiang An'an was busy eating, both hands flying as she gnawed away, her mouth slick with grease. She had no idea what the adults were talking about.

Jiang Wang's gaze suddenly sharpened. For the first time, his killing intent was so clear and utterly unrestrained.

Fang Zehou forced himself to meet his eyes, and felt an urge to leap out the window and run. Only then did he realize that the boy before him was nothing like his son. He wasn't some frail seedling raised in a hothouse. He was a young beast that had weathered storms and struggled to survive!

"Hahahaha." Jiang Wang suddenly laughed a few times, then stood and swept Jiang An'an into his arms. "We're done eating. Let's go home."

No matter what he was thinking, he wouldn't brawl in front of Jiang An'an or put her in danger.

"Mm... mm..." Jiang An'an struggled to swallow the meat in her mouth. She was already in Jiang Wang's arms, but her eyes were still fixed on the dishes on the table.

"I'm... begging you!" Fang Zehou said behind them.

But Jiang Wang had already carried his little sister out the door. He didn't stop.