Chapter Text
Worse than being tied with binding cables and dangling from a tree, worse than the pain as the demonic cultivator began to break the bones in his feet with businesslike sadism, worse even than the prospect of being rendered for resentful qi to fuel evil deeds, was the shame of knowing how easily the fiend’s underhanded techniques had triumphed over Bai Zhan’s righteous swordsmanship.
Liu Chan was the strongest of that peak’s disciples. In a handful of years he’d expected to challenge Shizun for his place. This foul man’s swordsmanship was mediocre-to-poor by Bai Zhan standards. In a fair fight, Liu Chan would’ve beaten him easily!
“You only won because you cheated!” Liu Chan shouted, not for the first time.
The demonic cultivator’s wicked grin glinted in the moonlight. He paused in the act of closing pliers on another toe joint, and instead prodded Liu Chan’s cheek with the crusty head of it. “You,” he said teasingly, “wanted to act like a high and mighty young master more than you wanted to win. And now you’re gonna die mad about it.” Prod prod. “You hate me for it, don’t you? Good, good.”
“You won’t get away with it. They’ll come, they’ll hunt you down —“
“How will they even know what happened, hm?”
“Everyone back there saw me!”
The bastard threw back his head and laughed heartily. “Oh, innocence! If I had more time to break you, we could have so much fun! Not cynical like my little slave, are you? It hasn’t even — it isn’t even now occurring to you, is it?”
Tempting as sullen silence might be, he was beginning to treasure every second the pliers was being used for punctuation instead of on his toes. “What isn’t occurring to me.”
“There won’t be any witnesses, boy. That whole town is going to die, and it’s all your fault. You just had to —cshgh?” He and Liu Chan both eyed the sword point tenting the chest of his robes with confusion for the briefest moment.
Then the sword twisted, and blood flooded down as if poured from a cup. The demonic cultivator’s face went slack. He tumbled over like a sack of onions, revealing the apprentice (slave?) behind him. The boy impassively yanked the sword free and bent to wipe it on the demonic cultivator’s robes.
“You!” Liu Chan gasped.
The boy knelt and started unbuckling the man’s belt.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Getting no answer only increased Liu Chan’s outrage. “You stabbed your own master in the back, and now you’re robbing his corpse!?”
The slave-apprentice barely glanced up, lips curling into a small, derisive smile. “Are you in a position to criticize, do you think?”
“What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong. I will always speak up about dishonorable deeds.”
“Mm. And how’s that working out for you?” He held up Liu Chan’s coin purse, giving it a little waggle before tucking it into his sleeve with his master’s other posessions. “I’m taking this for damages.”
Outrageous! “What damages? You dirty thief!”
At this, the slave-apprentice sat back on his heels to tilt his head at Liu Chan like a curious dog. “All the damage you and Wu Yanze did by indiscriminately flinging sword glares and fire talismans around. You destroyed several outbuildings, a surprising amount of farmland, and one unfortunate goat.”
He went back to stripping his master of valuables. “If I hadn’t been quick enough to move your fight outside, all that damage would’ve been done to the brothel and its inhabitants, and, believe me, they know it. So I’m going to give them your purse and tell them where to find you.”
“What? No! Cut me down now!”
The boy ignored that. Once the demonic cultivator’s body was denuded of everything but robe and trousers, the boy put it in a qiankun pouch and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Liu Chan shouted. And, desperate, “Please!”
The boy stopped to glance over his shoulder, but didn’t come back. “If you don’t die here in these woods, know that it’s because prostitutes are more honorable than you.”
Liu Chan watched him walk away, unable to speak another word.
He hung there all night. With his qi blocked, he could do nothing about his injuries; they swelled and throbbed and burned in a way he’d never felt before. Even though he knew they were far from life threatening, he began to wonder if he could die from them after all. Surely thirst would get him first?
At last the sun began to rise. He watched what might be his last dawn with more wonder than he’d thought himself capable of.
It was beautiful.
When he woke in a bed in the brothel, tended by the madam herself, he knew better than to ask for his purse back. He only asked, “Where is he? That boy. The demonic cultivator’s apprentice, or slave, or whatever he is.”
“Oh, he’s long gone,” the madam smiled. She was definitely laughing at him.
“Did he say where he was going?”
“Why, so you can capture him as an escaped slave? Bring him to justice for saving your life?”
“No,” Liu Chan admitted sullenly, “I need to thank him. I was… rude. I didn’t thank him.”
“He said he was going to become a traveling doctor. If you settle here and wait a few years I’m sure you’ll see him again.”
Liu Chan huffed and buried himself to the nose in the covers. His broken foot was splinted so well it barely hurt. They’d propped it on a stack of pillows. He wanted to bite somebody.
.
Outside the Luoqiao magistrate’s office, Orochimaru weighed his purse in his hand. With the bounty from Wu Yanze and the proceeds from selling his belongings, there was just enough to start the next phase of the plan. It was earlier than he’d intended, but frankly he was tired of walking. Plodding along like a civilian was boring.
The building’s doors were wide open in the fine spring weather. The outer clerk was barely even pretending to be busy. Orochimaru gave him a big smile. “Excuse me, where would I find a listing of storefronts for rent?”