Chapter 161 - Last Chore

  Meiqi tried to wipe the snot and sweat from Hao’s face. “Just a bite burned my mouth. It felt worse breathing it in.” She stayed close to his back as they walked towards the door. “Do you know what it was?”

  Hao shook his head. He was hoping she had more insight than he did. The only use he got out of random herbs was turning them in at the mission hall for sect points. The few he knew he used for numbing and healing wounds.

  It was a waste, really. The number of herbs he had to turn in to get something of value was astronomical, and all this time, one random plant had such a use. He flexed his fingers and forearm, feeling World Energy rushing in him.

  He had piles of random junk herbs. Some he found on his own, though most were taken in the Mid-Summer cave. He was fresh, too. The ones growing because of the Vital Crystals inside a Spirit-Holding bag. A banquet of bad ideas filled his head. He might’ve started burning and huffing if Meiqi hadn’t pulled the door open.

  Meiqi took a deep breath when she stepped outside. She didn’t bother to mention the people on the ground squirming on the snow-covered tiles.

  “Ahh! I can breathe again!” The one closest to the house crawled backwards until his foot hit the well.

  The smell was fine outside. Not overbearingly acrid like when it struck Hao in the face, and knocked him on his ass—of course, a few mortal servants would curl to the ground at a little whiff.

  “You handled it better than them,” Hao whispered in her ear as he stepped out at her side.

  Meiqi pulled her hood down and covered her mouth with a sleeve as she chuckled. “I guess I did, perhaps because I tried a bite beforehand—the masked help I'm sure.”

  She tried to suppress her laughter, but it was clear to Hao’s ears. She wasn’t an evil woman, but there were few things less funny to her than the misfortune of others, especially when it seemed so exaggerated.

  They flipped and flopped. Their body heat melted fresh snow, leaving little worm-like trails.

  “Breathe slowly!” Hao called out to them. His voice echoed around the little three-sided bowl of a valley around them.

  Those who listened quickly recovered. They found their feet, unaware of the lesson they had just received. The rest opted to ignore him.

  Hao went and grabbed one of the buckets around the well. He sent the bucket down a few times until the thin surface ice broke. Once he got a full bucket, he went to those still on the ground and threw some water on the back of their necks. That made them gasp.

  Their breathing returned to normal after that initial massive breath. All of them were able to rise. Instead of gratitude, the only thing he received was a few glares that were less than kind.

  Hao ignored the looks. He sent down a few more buckets so they had water in case it got any colder. He left most of the buckets there, only taking two with him back towards Meiqi. Her laughter was no longer suppressed.

  “The way they—” she pointed, her words cut off by a shout.

  “You’re trying to kill us. If not with poison, then cold!”

  Meiqi’s laughter froze.

  Hao kept forward; they were just words, nothing unexpected, now that he knew the nature of most of those still outside. He could have let them pass out. Their natural breathing pattern would have returned once they were unconscious. The unconscious snore of a dog is better than the panicked breath of cattle dragged towards slaughter.

  It was a sad realization. The human body was more efficient in an unconscious state than when dragged around by its owners, who refused to learn. Heavens, is this how Pao Taoyi thinks?

  He stopped before stepping onto the veranda, scratching his neck between a high and low sigh. His mind went towards pity for them. An awful thing, their minds had created the stagnation their bodies were limited by; perhaps a few of those his age had a chance to change. But none of them were cursing in the cold.

  “Bunch of wet dogs. You should bow in thanks and beg for forgiveness.” Meiqi walked to the edge of the veranda and pointed at them.

  “You think you can get away with poisoning us?” One man said, pointing back, and four heads nodded with him.

  Meiqi smirked and shrugged her shoulders. “What are you going to do? Report a Cultivator?” She swung around her finger and pointed up at the sky, before landing back on them.

  Hao shook his head and lifted one foot to the veranda. He was about to take a step when the grinding of teeth turned into the sound of someone spitting. That divided the group. A few of them walked back, already jumping onto walkways and hurrying to their doors.

  “So what if ‘Lord Cultivator’ doesn’t get punished? Do you think you can get away, you vile old bitch?”

  Hao stopped. He half turned his head, the face already in his view was as pale as the snow around them, and all of them were ghosts. One fell back to the ground. They just got their ability to breathe back, but just as quickly had forgotten it.

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  The one who spoke out of line froze still.

  Hao stared at him. It looked like the fool was being torn apart, a giant hand, tentacles, a scaled tail. He wasn’t sure what the man was seeing.

  “In a firepit?” Hao muttered, taking his foot back off the veranda. The giant pit where he burned Ax’s body to ash and bone was just a thirty-second walk from where he stood. He was getting good at starting fires. It would be a good chance to show his skills to Meiqi.

  The Sect wouldn’t care. Just another missing servant. He wondered if the Sect would even notice.

  The servant in question fell to his knees. He dug his head down into the shallow snow, “Please! I’m sorry.” He repeated it a hundred times. Each time he came up, he got louder, and each time he went down, there was less snow to block the impact of his shiny forehead on the concrete.

  Hao looked at Meiqi, whose face was sour. That was all; no harm came to her. Yet she stared as if she was going to stab him herself.

  But he was the one with a say. “No one let him into a room tonight. If you do, you will join him.” His words were calm and quiet. The silence made it possible to hear the sigh of the wood as he stepped on the veranda. He stretched his shoulders and shook water off his fingers, waiting for any more words. Of course, they came.

  “No—no, you can’t do this. I’ll die in the cold, my clothes are wet! I have people to take care of.” The man shouted, his tongue scraping chapped lips.

  “Don’t we all,” Hao said, “You shouldn’t worry too much. You have time to get ready, dry your clothes, and pray to your gods. Do you believe in the Lord of Water? If he doesn’t keep your fingers and toes intact, the sect will still provide medicine.”

  Hao was just about to crack the door open and head back inside when it came again.

  “No. No! Please!”

  Hao turned sharply. “Are you as dim as the snow is bright? I just told you to prepare instead of begging if you’re that worried. You have hours, don’t you?”

  He couldn’t help but scratch his neck. How many times would he have died in the Secret Realm if he had spent all his time on his knees, smacking his head on the ground?

  The silence came again and was true this time. More fools went down to their knees after a shuffle.

  Hao squeezed his brow. Are you kneeling in fear or respect? Do you have a reason? Fools… He opened the door, holding out a hand to Meiqi. He ushered her inside and let the door close behind him.

  That night, when Zhengqi came, she had a long, hard laugh, hiding her face in her soup bowl. They were able to laugh together, but Hao moved the conversation along.

  He took out the herbs. Not just the white root, but everything he took out earlier.

  “Hmm. You keep showing me new things, Young Master.” Zhengqi mumbled, “I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but when major operations happen in the Medicine Hall, I’m one of the first they request—but I work with mortal medicine, not Immortal magic,” so she said. It was quickly becoming her catchphrase before she lost herself in the work.

  She took the scroll and notes Hao had from his early days at the Mission Hall. Some were fresh, but he knew they were accurate. Cultivation had just as strong an effect on memory as it did on the body.

  “These can numb, right?” Zhengqi lifted a handful of red and green leaves that still had stems and berries attached.

  “Yes…” Hao answered, as he had done a few times now. “I became rather fond of it after a few injuries I got in the Mid-Summer Cave.” It was one of the few he grew in the bag.

  “You should try boiling and reducing it into a concentrated liquid. If that works, you can mix it with tallow to make a sort of salve.” Zhengqi pushed the notes away for now. Dark circles under her eyes demanded she return to dinner before she fell asleep in it.

  Hao leaned back against his bed and slid his bowl towards the flames. The night was done; now there was one last thing on the agenda, and he expected a scolding.

  “Did you guys know that the announcement would be a tournament?” he looked at the ceiling, waiting for demands that he avoid it.

  “We only knew what others speculated,” Meiqi answered, sweeping up ash that escaped the cloth above the fire. “The idea was near unanimous, even when it was just a rumor. What other reason would there be for a large announcement like that unless it was recruitment time?”

  Hao looked forward and watched her as she swept. “I have to win,” he whispered.

  Meiqi put the broom against the bath basin and picked up large volcanic stones. “You sound certain.” She threw them to him, going back for more, until she was back to the broom. “If that's the case, then go out and heat these stones until they're glowing red so I can take a warm bath… It will be the last chore you do until this tournament is over.”

  “Okay…” Hao stood, taking any of the stones he missed. He walked towards the door. Meiqi swept ashes at him as he left.

  Night was quick to come, and fire sputtered against the falling snow. But it was hot and bright enough to make the servant whom he had banned from the house burn with jealousy. The stones went from black to a bright red. He took them inside and ran them to the basin.

  “So much for your bath.” The two were out cold asleep.

  Hao threw half the stones into the fire pit, covered with the wet tent, and went back out. He ignored the servant who stole his fire. It was fair to take and steal what was left behind; he would have done the same.

  He went to the grave behind the house with the red stones in his hand. Found some of the white herb in his bag.

  “This is stupid,” he told himself, but did it anyway. His fingers crushed the herb to dust and sprinkled it on the stone. As soon as it touched him, he put the rest of the herb away.

  The sweats came instantly, then he forgot what it was to breathe. He forced himself to remember a dozen breathing techniques. When the discomfort faded, he repeated it until the stones went cold.

  When he was done, the amount of smoke he could take multiplied, and the ease of breath seemed unreal. Before he knew it, he was sitting in silence, feeling World Energy flow through him like he was a fish in a spring.

  The sun rose, and the day came to a start. The man he punished hurried inside once Hao nodded him away.

  Standing under the sun, he took a breath. Double, is that double the intake already?

  The disciples who escorted the Servants up the hill yesterday watched him as he laughed madly in the courtyard, taking deep breaths of wood smoke and cold air. They hurried today, escorting the servants back down the hill for some reason.

  The hawkish woman bowed as she escorted the last group of servants away.

  It was just them on the mountain again. Hao would be leaving too.

  When the day was clear, quiet, and normal, he said his farewell, eager to push this training further. He shuffled away on melting ice, leaving them with a, “If there is an emergency, you can come bursting into my Cultivation Cave.”