Dispute

The ancestral rites were held as usual for the Longevity Festival, but Kang Dabao and his two brothers had all come down with a bout of laziness, and none of them wanted to make the arrangements. After discussing it, they decided to eat and drink in the Founder's Hall that day and count it as an offering to the founder.

There weren't many people, but there were plenty of dishes. Bowls, plates, pots, and saucers of every kind covered the square table from edge to edge.

Lately, though, the Chongming Sect had been short of money and couldn't afford much Spirit Cuisine.

Only a single platter of Colorful-Feathered Pheasant, braised with red peppers, sat at the center of the table to keep up appearances, lending a little color to the Double Brightness feast.

The pheasant looked quite large, but once plucked, it had little meat. Kang Dabao therefore decided to divide the wings and legs among the four children and share out the breast meat between the Dong sisters.

The three brothers rolled up their sleeves and drank and played finger-guessing games over the chicken carcass and red peppers, enjoying themselves immensely.

Once even the juices on the platter had been mixed with rice and eaten by Changsheng and Ruyi, the pheasant platter was cleared away.

The pheasant bones spread across the table didn't go to waste either. An adorably plump little white-armored tortoise crawled out of Kang Dabao's sleeve and onto the table. It was only the size of a palm.

First it sucked the scraps of meat and sinew clean off the pheasant, then swallowed a bone. Its little mouth opened and closed, crushing the hard outer bone.

The little white-armored tortoise used its tongue to lap up the marrow and juices inside. An anthropomorphic smile of satisfaction appeared on its little face as it spat out the crushed bone, then slowly crawled toward the next one.

"Senior brother, that White-Armored Land Tortoise of yours certainly knows how to eat."

Jiang Qing chuckled beside him. His sect master senior brother had raised this First-Tier Lower-Grade spirit beast for nearly ten years, yet Jiang Qing still couldn't help laughing whenever he saw it eat.

As the three chatted and laughed, they found it amusing to watch the White-Armored Land Tortoise suck on the bones, and their appetites returned.

They had no need to worry about having nothing to eat with their wine.

Yuan Jin went back to the kitchen, found four or five kinds of meat and vegetables from the mountains, and roughly chopped them up. He coated them in flour, fried them in beast fat until golden and crisp, then sprinkled them with salt and pepper. The smell alone was enticing.

Knowing Kang Dabao loved pork knuckles, Yuan Jin had cooked seven that evening. He piled them high like a little mountain in a silver basin and brought them all to the table.

Kang Dabao picked one up in both hands and took a great bite. The rich taste of fat filled his mouth, reminding him of the days when his father, who ran a restaurant, wouldn't let him eat fatty meat.

With those memories adding to the flavor, a pile of clean bones soon lay before Kang Dabao.

The White-Armored Land Tortoise kept pace with him and ate until its belly was round.

Perhaps the children were full, or perhaps the sisters were afraid the children would pick up the bad eating habits of this master and servant.

Partway through the feast, the Dong sisters rose and excused themselves, each carrying a child into Yuan Jin's quarters.

No one found it strange. After the two women left, the three fellow disciples drank more freely, while the two disciples held the wine jugs and attended them on either side.

"Senior brother, why did you bring back a gelded old donkey today? It looks like it's nearly First-Tier Middle-Grade. Spirit beasts are expensive at the market, and I don't think you'd have been willing to pay for one."

Yuan Jin took the wine jug from Han Yundao and poured Kang Dabao a cup. He gently teased the White-Armored Land Tortoise's smooth little head with a finger, then poured a shallow puddle in front of it too.

The tortoise happily bobbed its head and began to slurp it up with relish.

"Remember how I traded the Caishi Wang Household that low-grade Departing Yang Ruler you secretly saved materials to refine for a First-Tier Lower-Grade Beast-Taming Talisman?"

"Tsk, I used it on this thing."

Kang Dabao raised his cup and smacked his lips over a mouthful of wine, looking somewhat pained.

"Weren't we going to wait until we had time, then go into the mountains together and catch a Golden Crystal Tiger to guard the sect?

"They're both First-Tier Lower-Grade, but surely a tiger would be better than this donkey?!"

Yuan Jin was somewhat surprised. Jiang Qing, who had been silent all this time, also looked over curiously. He'd never heard that their sect master senior brother had a particular fondness for donkeys.

"That donkey took a wandering Daoist along to Fine Willow Village. It's a remote village with only a hundred-odd households and six or seven hundred people. No large town governs it, and it can't afford to hire a cultivator to reside there.

"That old donkey had gained human understanding, and a mind to harm people as well.

"It found a wandering Daoist and forced him to fool the villagers, telling them it was the earth god of Cold Crow Mountain and had to eat five pairs of young boys and girls every year, or everyone in the village would die a violent death.

"If I hadn't run out of provisions and gone to the village looking for food, I'd have nearly let that beast get away with it!

"I killed the wandering Daoist. Killing this beast for its meat would have been letting it off too easily, so I brought it back to plow the fields and haul goods until it drops dead from exhaustion."

Kang Dabao cursed harshly.

The old donkey in the courtyard heard him and was so frightened that, regardless of whether the people in the room could see it, it dropped to its front knees and kowtowed repeatedly, smashing a large patch of the perfectly good bluestone paving.

The three adults paid it no mind, but the two youths, Han Yundao and Duan Anle, couldn't resist peering outside to see the curious sight.

"Great demons harm people in Cold Crow Mountain every year. We fellow disciples have little ability and can't deal with them all, but naturally we should deal with the ones we can when we encounter them.

"You did right, senior brother. We can't let that beast off easily!"

Yuan Jin raised his cup to Kang Dabao, and Jiang Qing nodded in agreement.

After chatting for a while, they came to current events. Yuan Jin had spent years away learning his craft and knew quite a bit.

He said, "The times are getting worse. The Shi Household was wiped out the day before yesterday by a gang of ruthless bandits that came out of who knows where.

"The whole city's buzzing about it. That's the fourth well-known cultivation Lineage to be wiped out this year.

"I hear the Dingnan Niu Household has invited the heads of more than ten powers with Foundation Establishment cultivators in Xuanwei City and is preparing to set up another guard force specifically to protect the area within fifty li outside the city."

The city he meant wasn't a mortal town like Pingrong County, but Xuanwei City, a cultivation city built by the Dingnan Niu Household, a major cultivation Lineage nearby.

Several thousand cultivators and a million mortals lived in the city, and it was exceedingly prosperous. Yuan Jin's artifact-refining master ran an unremarkable little shop there.

Kang Dabao frowned. "As I recall, the Shi Household had quite a few cultivators, nearly thirty. Its head seemed to be at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining."

A cultivation Lineage like that was about as strong as the Chongming Sect had been before their master died, and considerably stronger than the sect was now. Yet it had been wiped out too.

If such ruthless bandits set their sights on the Chongming Sect, then...

"The Shi Household's old head started out as the study attendant of a Foundation Establishment elder of the Niu Household. When he passed away, that elder attended and said in front of a courtyard full of guests that he would certainly look after the Shi Household. And yet..."

Yuan Jin shook his head and sighed as well.

"We still have to rely on ourselves." Jiang Qing was a quiet man. Ever since sitting down, he had listened to his two senior brothers speak, and only now did he put in a word.

"Third brother is right!" Kang Dabao naturally wouldn't call his junior brother Little Sanzi in front of the younger generation.

"Second brother will finish his apprenticeship this year, and in a few more years he'll be able to return to the sect.

"Third brother, your aptitude with three Spirit Roots is far better than ours, and you're cultivating the high-grade Hong-rank Three Yang Scripture, the strongest technique passed down in our sect.

"I can still hold things together like a paperhanger for a few decades, patching things up and taking care of odd jobs for you.

"Once these youngsters of the next generation grow up, the sect will surely keep getting better."

Kang Dabao recalled the daydream he'd had that day, and a surge of bold spirit rose in his chest. He slapped the table and drained his cup in one gulp.

"Sect master senior brother, eldest brother of the He Household sent word last month that he had a job to go on, and I could come along."

Jiang Qing had rehearsed the words in his mind for a long time. Seeing that his senior brother was in a somewhat better mood, he finally spoke, his eyes darting away.

"Mm." Kang Dabao's face suddenly darkened, and he said nothing. Seeing his expression, Yuan Jin didn't dare speak either, and the atmosphere at the table grew much more tense in an instant.

Han Yundao and Duan Anle didn't understand why the mood at their elders' table had taken such a sudden plunge. They grew even more nervous, drawing in their necks like quails.

Then Jiang Qing continued, "It's only a trip to the Wang Household Military Fort. I can earn forty-eight Spirit Stones in two months.

"There's no great danger. Eldest brother of the He Household said he's traveled that road several times, and he knows plenty of the friends who make their living along the trade route. There definitely won't be any danger."

"Even Lu Zhen of the Lu Household went with eldest brother of the He Household recently, and with his abilities..."

"If you're short of Spirit Stones, I still have some here. Take them and use them for now.

"Three or four guards are killed or injured in eldest brother of the He Household's caravan every year. It's not suitable." Before Jiang Qing could finish, Kang Dabao took a drink and waved him silent, still refusing to budge.

"Eldest brother of the He Household's caravan is already one of the safer ones in Cloud Horn Prefecture, and it pays its hired guards quite well."

"We can be back in two months, and this time we're taking the main road, not the old trails through Cold Crow Mountain. It's much safer.

"For more than ten years, the sect has depended entirely on you to support it, senior brother."

At this, even Yuan Jin lowered his head awkwardly and rubbed the wine cup in his hands. Kang Dabao had even let him draw the Spirit Stones for taking a wife and having a son from the sect's common funds.

"Wait a little longer." Kang Dabao still shook his head.

"Sect master senior brother!"

Smash! The carved green jade wine cup shattered to pieces.

The two youngsters watching from the side turned deathly pale with fright, needless to say. Even Kang Dabao's two junior brothers could hardly remember the last time he had been so furious.

The White-Armored Land Tortoise tucked in its little head, abandoned the spirit wine still in front of it, and slowly retreated into Kang Dabao's sleeve. It certainly knew how to stay out of the way.

"You two go wait for me in the courtyard. I'll test you on your lessons later." Han Yundao and Duan Anle felt as though they had been granted a full pardon. They hurriedly bowed and withdrew.

"You think Spirit Stones earned by risking your life are that easy to get?!" Having sent the two youngsters away, Kang Dabao stood and slapped the table, his face dark.

"What way of earning money haven't I tried all these years?! You think I want to be a traveling merchant, haggling like a woman with people every day over a few Spirit Stone fragments?!

"Have you seen cultivators surrounded and attacked by a pack of Demon Beasts in the Cold Crow Mountain Range? How many have been gutted alive when they ran into them, dying like pigs and dogs?!

"Three times! I nearly died three times! The closest was when the teeth of a First-Tier Supreme-Grade Purple Flame Jackal were only three inches from my neck, if I'd had one!"

"The force of the wind nearly cut my neck off!

"Do you know what a caravan looks like after Evil Cultivators have raided it?

"Everyone in the caravan, mortals and cultivators alike, has their tendons torn out and skin flayed, and their blood refined into pills! Their three hun and six po are seized and put in a Soul-Refining Banner to serve as Chang Ghosts!"

"The youngest child I saw wasn't even as old as Changsheng and Ruyi. I still remember how he woke up in the warm carriage and chased after his mother, asking for milk!

"You're the only genius here! Are you such a genius that the heavens gave you an extra life?!

"Taking the main road instead of the old trails, perfectly safe!

"The eldest son of the He Household only knows how to use those pretty words to fool young people like you who don't know any better!"

"Ye Mingbin of the Ye Household and Xue Ruyun of the Xue Household listened to his lies and went ten years ago. Did they come back?

"Their families couldn't even get their bodies back. How many people cried themselves to death at their empty graves? Did that He fellow ever do anything about it?!

"Even if he did, can a few dozen or a hundred Spirit Stones buy a human life?!

"Are we so hard up that we can't go on living?! Do we have to risk our lives for that money?!"

Yuan Jin and Jiang Qing didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Rice has to be eaten one mouthful at a time. I ran into Evil Cultivators just once, and more than half of what the old man left me was gone. That's why life has been so hard for the three of us."

This time Kang Dabao couldn't be bothered to pour more wine. He simply took Jiang Qing's cup and drained it in one gulp.

Yuan Jin's face fell. He was just about to speak when he saw the resolute look on Jiang Qing's face.

Jiang Qing's handsome face was full of conflict, but in the end he shook his head firmly and said, "Senior brother, I can't become a sword cultivator just by shutting myself away and cultivating."

Kang Dabao's expression softened a little at that. He took a bite of food and chewed for a long while without swallowing.

He watched the flame flicker on the oil lamp and said nothing for a long time.

Only the White-Armored Land Tortoise's mood was largely unaffected. Seeing that the three men had stopped talking, he thought the dispute was over.

Oblivious once more, he poked out his little head and gazed at an untouched pork knuckle on the table, drool running from his mouth.