Settled

After five days of rest, the shoulder He Liu had injured in the eagle's talons could move normally again.

He worked harder than before, and his handwriting in the ledger had grown neater. When he occasionally ran into Ye An in the Medicine Field, he greeted him first, his tone a little more natural than it used to be.

Ye An could sense the subtle change. Perhaps because Ye An had saved him, there was less wariness in He Liu's eyes when he looked at him, and more of something Ye An could not quite name.

But Ye An did not let that make him any less watchful of He Liu.

The Medicine Field ledger looked the same as ever. The losses recorded each month were small, but Ye An no longer needed to consult it.

He Liu was secretly harvesting herbs, though not much. Zhao Yin and Qian Hu were running the operation; He Liu merely did the work for them.

"Last month's amount was short by twenty percent. You think we can't count?" Zhao Yin spoke slowly, but every word had a barb, driving into the wood like nails one by one. It was as though he had long been ready to put He Liu in his place at the start of the new month.

He Liu said nothing.

Qian Hu added from beside him, "You know what's due at the end of the month. If you don't think you can do it, say so. We've got plenty of other people."

The shed fell quiet for a moment. Then He Liu's trembling voice came: "I can make up the amount before the end of the month."

Zhao Yin laughed, as if he had heard a joke that was not particularly funny. It was a soft sound, but it rang unusually clear through the empty shed. "Make it up? With what? You fell so far short last month. What are you planning to use to cover it this month?"

His voice dropped a notch. "Do you think your life's gotten harder to snuff out, or do you think someone's protecting you now, so you can get away with doing less work?"

He Liu hurried to answer, "No. Senior Brother Ye doesn't know anything."

Zhao Yin did not reply at once. He let He Liu's words hang there for a while.

"Not a bit less than what's owed, by the end of the month. If you can't manage that, you know what happens."

Footsteps moved toward the door. A shovel was knocked over and set upright again, and then Zhao Yin and Qian Hu pushed the door open and came out.

Zhao Yin led the way at an unhurried pace. Qian Hu followed him, glancing back toward Ye An as he walked. He did not slow down, and soon they rounded the corner of the tool shed and disappeared.

Ye An no longer lacked resources for cultivation.

Not long after he agreed to Liu Ruyan's request, she had someone deliver enough resources to sustain his cultivation in the Meridian Opening Realm. There were enough Meridian Opening Pills for him to use; at least until he reached Mid-Meridian Opening, he would not run short.

What he lacked had never been pills. It was time. He had nearly completed half the circulation path of the Meridian Opening Formula's First Layer, and the force behind his Star-Shattering Finger grew more solid by the day. Given enough time, he could reach Qi Condensation.

The matter of the Medicine Field was only a bend in the road. Once he rounded it, he could keep moving forward.

[Meridian Opening Formula (First Layer): 30/100]

[Star-Shattering Finger (Initial Glance): 48/100]

[Rosy Cloud Sword Technique (Initial Glance): 21/100]

Three days before the end of the month, Ye An went to the Inner Sect Management Office.

When he knocked and entered, Lu Yun was sitting at his desk, leafing through a ledger. Once Ye An had closed the door, Lu Yun spoke.

"We found it."

Lu Yun kept his voice low. He took two sheets of paper from a drawer and pushed them across the desk.

"Zhao Yin's and Qian Hu's Medicine Fields have reported low yields for six months straight. We traced the surplus herbs through a middleman to an herb shop in Cangwu Prefectural City. The person receiving them is surnamed Song, from a collateral branch of the Song Family."

Ye An did not ask for more details. He simply gave Lu Yun the time and place of the next transaction. "The last day of the month. The abandoned stone house in the wild woods north of the wall. The buyer will be there."

After hearing him out, Lu Yun put the two sheets back in the drawer. "I'll handle Zhao Yin and Qian Hu. You handle He Liu."

Ye An nodded, rose, and left.

After returning to the Medicine Field, he did not go to the tool shed or seek out He Liu. He made his rounds as usual, signed the ledger, and returned to his room.

At dusk on the last day of the month, He Liu sharpened a short hoe in the tool shed, then put it back.

He sat inside for a long time. Only when night had fallen completely did he rise, sling an old cloth bag over his shoulder, and slip through the wooden fence on the east side of the Medicine Field.

The Crimson Blood Ginseng lay wrapped at the bottom of the bag, beneath several stalks of Azure Spirit Grass.

After walking some distance from the Medicine Field, he glanced back toward it.

Once he finished this delivery, he did not intend to return to the Four Symbols Sect.

He had already sensed that something was wrong. The way Zhao Yin and Qian Hu looked at him had changed lately, and their voices had grown colder. It was as though they had begun to suspect him.

After this transaction, he planned to bypass the Medicine Field and head south through the wild woods. He could reach the official road before dawn, then catch a ride on a passing merchant wagon out of Cangwu Prefecture.

Besides the herbs, the bag held several bottles of Body Tempering Pills and a dozen or so taels in loose silver that he had saved over half a year. He was ready to run.

A faint firelight shone through the stone house's doorway.

He Liu paused at the entrance, then lowered his head and walked in.

"The goods?"

"They're all here."

The bag rustled as the buyer searched through it. He pulled out the Crimson Blood Ginseng and examined it, then set the bag in a corner.

He Liu stood where he was and waited for the man to finish counting, waited for him to say, "You can go." But the man said nothing. After a brief silence, he asked, "Has anyone over at the Medicine Field asked you anything lately?"

"No," He Liu answered.

The man grunted, as though he accepted the answer—or perhaps had not believed it at all. After another pause, he asked, "I heard an eagle injured you a while back. Was it that new Inner Sect disciple who saved you?"

He Liu did not deny it, but he offered no further explanation. "Yes."

The man asked nothing more.

He tied the bag shut, then stood, ready to end the transaction.

He Liu let out a breath of relief and edged one step toward the door, preparing to leave.

"Have you turned on us?"

Before He Liu could react, a cold flash plunged into his chest, as quick as a breath. His mouth opened as if to speak, but no sound came out.

"Come out, whoever you are."

The man spoke toward the darkness outside the stone house, as though he had known all along that someone was there.

Ye An stood in the moonlight, holding his sword across his body with its tip angled down. He did not rush to attack. He watched the man pull his blade from He Liu's chest and give it a flick.

The man raised his eyes to Ye An. His face showed little expression, but his tone was anything but polite. "Why not pretend you saw nothing and leave?"

Ye An gave no answer. Without a moment's pause, his sword moved.

His first stroke swept toward the man's face. The man tilted his head aside, slid his blade down along Ye An's sword, then twisted his wrist and slashed across Ye An's waist. Ye An slipped aside without breaking the flow of his attack. His second stroke rose immediately from below, the sword tip tracing up the back of the man's blade. It paused at the hilt guard, then pulled outward, dragging the blade off course. The slash missed.

The man retreated half a step. He no longer looked as composed as before. He studied Ye An anew, breathing a little harder. "Stop! We can still talk. There's no need to settle this with blades."

Ye An showed no sign of stopping.

The man gritted his teeth and added, "I'm a member of the Song Family! If you touch me, the Song Family won't let you go!"

The Song Family. Again.

First the Beast Arena, and now the Medicine Garden. The two matters were like fruit growing on the same vine, bound by a thread he could not pull apart.

Ye An gave him no opening. His third stroke followed at once, without holding back. The swordlight traced an arc through the moonlight, too fast for a blink.

The man retreated and raised his blade to block. At the last instant, Ye An's sword tip shifted half an inch, slipped through a gap in his defense, and pierced his throat.

The man from the Song Family looked at Ye An one last time, as though he could not understand why Ye An had not stopped even after hearing the Song Family's name.

His lips moved as if he still wanted to say something, but only a muffled rasp escaped his throat. Then his body went limp. He fell backward, struck the stone house floor, and lay still.

Ye An sheathed his sword without looking at him again.

Then he walked to the stone house entrance. Moonlight fell across the floor, revealing He Liu lying on his side in the dirt and the Crimson Blood Ginseng beside his hand.

Ye An picked up the Crimson Blood Ginseng and wrapped it again. Then he crouched to check He Liu's pulse. It had stopped.

He waited for Lu Yun to arrive with his people, then briefly told him what had happened.

Lu Yun looked at the man on the ground, then at He Liu. He asked no further questions. "I'll handle the rest. Go back and get some rest."