The Price of a Meal

The stockade gates had long since fallen into ruin. The bandits met with no resistance at all and took control of the village in half a shichen.

They inventoried the valuables and provisions, rounded up the women and children, and secured the able-bodied villagers and livestock.

Gust of Wind was practiced beyond measure at such tasks, and Fifth Master Liu had everything neatly arranged in no time.

"Has everything been arranged for Mr. Zhang?!"

Fifth Master Liu spotted Lame Tang, whose delight had practically twisted him out of human shape. The fellow had decided that one child was too risky a bet for carrying on his family line, so he had found two more in the village. The grin on his face was almost overflowing.

"Mr. Zhang changed his mind. He said he didn't want a woman anymore, just that boy from before. He found a house in the village and said he wanted to bathe and change first." Lame Tang curled his lip, plainly looking down on him.

Fifth Master Liu sighed. If he had known, he would have chopped the boy down with a single stroke. How could someone like him be humiliated by a creature no better than a pig or a dog?

Forget it. There was no reason to offend Mr. Zhang now. When they returned, he would still need the man to put in a good word for him with the chief.

Fortunately, the Spirit-Intoxicating Powder was no ordinary knockout drug. Even a Blood Refining expert couldn't withstand it, so there was no fear of the boy turning the tables. He could only blame his bad luck. Of all the things he could have meddled in, he just had to poke his nose into this affair.

With nothing else to do, Fifth Master Liu called over Lame Tang, who was holding the three children, and walked down the street chatting with him.

Before long, they saw a donkey cart roll leisurely through the gates. A burly man lay in the cart, with two youths sitting beside him.

The three paid no heed to the village, thick with the stench of blood. Even the old donkey pulling the cart showed no sign of fear.

"Whoa." The honest-looking youth driving the cart stopped it in front of a lackey.

"Brother, the three of us, master and disciples, are passing through your esteemed grounds. My master heard that someone here makes excellent pork hock. Could you point us in the right direction?"

The lackey heard how naturally the youth asked for directions and looked at his honest face, then at the blood still dripping from his own saber. For a moment, he was so taken aback that he didn't know how to answer.

"I'll show your damn granny!" The lackey finally came to his senses. He was still thinking of finding a pretty village woman to have some fun with. Why should he show anyone the way?

The blood on his saber hadn't even dried yet! Did this brat have eyes or not?

His saber rose but never fell. Heat flashed through the lackey's throat, and he collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.

There were plenty of bandits nearby. Cries of alarm and curses rang out, but for the moment, none dared crowd around.

Fifth Master Liu saw it clearly. The youth's finger technique was incredibly swift. With a flick of his short, thick finger, he had shattered the lackey's throat.

"I really didn't check the almanac before going out today. You never know who you'll run into!" Fifth Master Liu exclaimed.

"If you don't know, why curse at people?" the honest-looking youth muttered. He drove the donkey cart over to another lackey nearby.

"Brother, do you know whose pork hock is good?"

That lackey was much quicker on the uptake. As soon as he heard the question, he turned to run, only for the youth to lift the reins. The old donkey pulling the cart raised a front hoof and kicked.

The hoof caught the lackey in the back and sent him flying four or five zhang. He vomited up fragments of his organs, and mouthfuls of bloody froth clogged his throat. Plainly, he wouldn't live.

"What the fuck kind of donkey is that?!" Fifth Master Liu had seen plenty of tough men trampled to death by galloping horses, but this was his first time seeing someone killed by a light kick from an old donkey.

Then the youth came toward him. Fifth Master Liu reckoned his lightness skill was good enough that a donkey cart couldn't possibly catch him.

He had just turned to leave when Lame Tang caught the hem of his robe. In that instant of distraction, the donkey cart, which had been ten zhang away, somehow appeared right in front of him.

"That's no donkey! It's a monster!" Fifth Master Liu realized. Fortunately, Lame Tang had stopped him, or he would be coughing up blood by now too.

"Brother, do you know whose pork hock is good?" The youth driving the cart had a thoroughly honest face and a genial smile.

Somehow, the sight reminded Fifth Master Liu of his nephew in the stronghold, who only dared do odd jobs and never dared touch a saber.

"This fellow's riding a monster!" Fifth Master Liu marveled again.

"This humble one doesn't know," Fifth Master Liu answered honestly. Beside him, Lame Tang hugged the three children and nodded vigorously.

"You really don't know? My old donkey has a bad temper." The youth was still smiling.

The smile made Fifth Master Liu's hair stand on end. I'm only here to rob people of their money and women, not to attend a feast. How would I know who makes good pork hock?

But if he said he didn't know again, who could say whether the old donkey would raise its hoof the next moment?

"Someone knows! Someone knows! I'll take you to him right away, young master." Watching a puff of white vapor emerge from the old donkey's nostrils, Lame Tang broke out in enough cold sweat to fill two liang.

Lame Tang led the donkey cart to the old man in the scholar's headscarf. The bandits were forcing him to inventory the money and grain, so Mr. Zhang had given him an antidote.

His face was black and blue, though. It looked as if he had suffered quite a bit.

"Pork hock?" The old man's face filled with grief and indignation. Could these bandits really have come for Mancang's wife's pork hock?

"Old sir, the three of us came here just for that pork hock."

"Mancang's wife used to make it well. I just don't know if she's still alive now," the old man said irritably.

The honest-looking youth gave the bandits a meaningful look, then said, "Sorry for the trouble, old sir, but please get in and show us the way."

He helped the old man into the donkey cart. The old man wiped away his tears and, with a belly full of questions, gave him directions.

None of the bandits thought they could outrun the old donkey, so they obediently followed behind the cart.

The old man directed the cart straight to a house with a blue-brick well in its courtyard.

Lame Tang's heart gave a thump, and he hurriedly gave Fifth Master Liu a look. Fifth Master Liu understood and sighed. Why is Mr. Zhang everywhere we go?

Before the cart reached the courtyard gate, they heard a shrill voice cursing.

"You whore! I told you to heat some water, and you've taken a whole shichen! Believe it or not, I'll skin you alive! Damn it!"

"Mancang's wife!" The old man saw what was happening in the courtyard.

A dark, coarse-featured woman was curled up on the ground while Mr. Zhang, filthy from head to toe, whipped her with a cane. Her long hemp skirt was covered in blood and grime, and it was impossible to tell skin from clothing.

"Village head! It hurts!" Seeing the old man, the woman kept sobbing softly.

"Young master, please save her, save her! If she dies, no one will be able to make pork hock well." Tears streamed down the old man's face as he knelt and pleaded.

"Of course!" The other handsome youth, who had not yet spoken, suddenly stood up. He sprang forward, snatched the cane from Mr. Zhang's hand, and brought it down. Mr. Zhang didn't even have time to whimper before he was whipped to death.

The bandits fell silent as cicadas in winter, Fifth Master Liu among them. The youth had struck so quickly that Fifth Master Liu hadn't even had a chance to call out before Mr. Zhang was whipped to death. Was he a Martial Ancestor? Or... an immortal?!

A deathly silence fell over the scene. Only the woman remained on the ground, sobbing. "Village head! It hurts... it hurts..."

"Couldn't stand it anymore?" The burly man, who had been lying in the donkey cart with his eyes closed in feigned sleep, finally spoke.

"I couldn't!" the handsome youth replied.

"Anle can endure more than you," the burly man said with a derisive laugh.

"Anle couldn't stand it long ago. He was the one who killed first," the handsome youth retorted.

"Master, Yundao is right." The honest-looking youth's smile had vanished too. There was no trace of warmth in the eyes he turned on the surrounding bandits.

"In Pingrong County, in Cloud Horn Prefecture, in the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty, scenes like this are beyond counting. Places a hundred times more cruel are beyond counting! You can't stand it already? Can you deal with them all?" The man sat up and first gave his two disciples a scolding.

Then he turned to Fifth Master Liu. "Don't be afraid. I've only come for a meal."

Fifth Master Liu was as frightened as a quail, wishing he could pull his head back into his belly. How would he dare make a sound?

"Ma'am, sorry to trouble you, but please cook us a pork hock." The man entered the courtyard and helped the woman up.

With a wave of his hand, he scattered a wisp of pure Qi over her. Moments later, the bloody wounds all over her body had scabbed over.

The woman had yet to react, but the old man cried out in shock and delight, "That's an Immortal Method!" Suddenly remembering something, he dashed into the house to find the youth in white.

Seeing that he was still unconscious and his clothes were intact, the old man finally felt relieved. He hurried back out and told the woman to light the fire and cook.

Though her wounds had plainly all scabbed over, her eyes remained vacant. She clutched the village head's sleeve tightly with one hand, murmuring "It hurts" from time to time.

What good dish could a village woman frightened out of her wits make? She put the pork hock, its bristles not even fully shaved, into a pot of boiling water without oil or salt, then took it out and served it after simmering it for the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

No matter how far the old man kept from the kitchen, as a gentleman should, he knew it wasn't cooked. How could he serve that to an honored guest who could use Immortal Methods?

The man, however, carried the pork hock to the table himself. In no time, he had gobbled it down, blood and meat together, leaving only a tableful of bones.

He wiped his great mouth, smeared with blood and grease, and praised it. "Delicious, delicious! I've never eaten pork hock so full of blood and tears."

Then he turned to his two disciples. "We brought no gold or silver with us, but we must pay for this meal."

He beckoned Fifth Master Liu over. "Today, I must trouble you to pay for our meal!"

Fifth Master Liu still dared not speak. Trembling, he pulled out handfuls of silver ingots and gold nuggets. The old man had never seen so much money in his life.

"None of that. We need only borrow the heads on your shoulders!" the man said harshly. With a small hammer, he smashed Fifth Master Liu's head to pulp.

The two youths, who could no longer contain the anger in their hearts, moved like ghosts. Barehanded, they slaughtered every bandit in the village in moments.

Dragging his lame leg, Lame Tang ran the fastest of them all, but how could he escape? His eyes wide, his corpse fell heavily onto its back. Even as he died, he still clutched the three children tightly.

"Feel better?" Kang Dabao asked his two disciples teasingly.

"We do." The two ten-year-olds hadn't even wiped the blood and grime from their bodies, but both nodded.

"Today it was only ordinary bandits oppressing the innocent. You couldn't bear to watch, so of course you could kill them all. What if they'd been Martial Ancestors? Perhaps you could still have done it, merely at some cost. But what if they'd been cultivators? Foundation Establishment cultivators? Or Golden Core and Nascent Soul patriarchs from the great sects? If you couldn't bear to watch, what could you do?"

Kang Dabao's tone was calm.

"..." The two disciples lowered their heads without speaking.

"Get down on your knees, of course. What else could you do? How much do you think your heads are worth in their eyes?" Kang Dabao changed tack.

"But for now, you can kill bandits. When you're cultivators, you can kill Martial Ancestors. At Golden Core, you can kill those at Foundation Establishment. At Nascent Soul, you can kill those at Golden Core. How much you can meddle depends on how capable you are. If you truly can't bear to stand by, then cultivate diligently. With a higher realm, you'll be able to save more lives in the end. Just remember to be clever about it, or you'll end up like that boy in the inner room, who nearly sacrificed his own hide."

Kang Dabao shook his head as he looked at his two thoughtful disciples. By nature, he wasn't very inclined to meddle in such affairs.

After so many years, he had long grown accustomed to scenes like this. But his two disciples still had the hearts of children, and he couldn't very well dampen their sincerity.

After lecturing his disciples, he went into the inner room.

Because the factory where Lao Bai works starts its holiday tomorrow afternoon, and Lao Bai has to catch a flight back to his hometown as soon as he gets off work, there might not be an update tomorrow. So I'm posting a little more today.

For the same reason, although I feel the pacing of the last few chapters has been rather slow and wanted to revise them properly, I haven't had time. Please bear with me.

Recently, a few more readers have started following, voting, commenting, and showing their support. Quite a few came over from Old Qi's place.

First, thank you all for testing the waters and encouraging me.

Lao Bai's writing skills are modest. I wouldn't dare compare myself to The Sect Master's Path; I didn't even pass yesterday's cross-review for a contract o(╥﹏╥)o.

But I'll still do my best to write it. I want to try submitting it myself after another hundred thousand characters, and I hope I can bring you all a story worth continuing to read.

Finally, as of last night, the recommendation votes have passed one hundred. Here, on Kang Dabao's behalf, Lao Bai thanks you all.

Thanks(ω)