Book 3: Chapter 12: Shui Sneers |
“Hmm…” Shui stared at the stall’s goods with a critical eye.
Her Qi roamed freely around her and made waves that made the poor old merchant shake in his boots. She studied every single option that was available on the rickety structure the man had his goods on. Thoroughly going through them with enough intensity that others had noticed and were giving her a wide berth in case she intended this place some evil.
It didn’t help that the merchant was as pale as a ghost, even if they were too far away to feel the rumbling Qi that threatened destruction and death.
Said old man gulped and resolved himself. He calmed his chattering teeth and leaned forward. “Y-Young mistress. How may this old man–”
Hu Shui raised her hand to silence him, much like she’d seen Yin Hu do. Then resumed glaring at the produce. Shui had scanned each one nearly a dozen times already after the heavy snow her Master caused. She could feel his Qi signature within it from the distance. Another strange phenomena he caused without even trying. That whole thing had sent the city into a frenzy for hours until it started melting faster than any ice and snow could.
The Dao feeding it had vanished and took away its source of power and sustenance.
Shui hummed again and tapped her chin.
Hmm… What did Jun say she used to make her sweets? Apples? Cucumbers? I think she mentioned chickens? Should I hunt a wild chicken or should I get one from the butcher down the road? Do cakes even use chickens?
Hu Shui didn’t trust Jun’s culinary skills one bit.
Chickens were even worse.
She looked up and stared at the trembling man. Clearly sick and fighting through the illness to come here and sell these goods. “Where are all the cake ingredients? I need some with lots of Qi in them. The more the better… actually, just give me the best you have so I can hurry up and leave–”
The man shook his head. He tried to speak, but couldn’t utter any clear words. Just broken sounds.
He must be really ill.
“You should go home, Mister. It isn’t good for your health to be sick and out here. The snow was pretty cold–”
Shui gapped as the man turned and bolted away from her and the stall. His figure disappeared into the alleyways without an ounce of hesitation. She scratched her head.
He forgot his stuff. Should I bring them back to him?
Shui picked up the stall with one hand, much to the shock of everyone around her, and hurried to follow the old man. Her reasoning was simple. If he had to come to sell goods and produce even when he was so sick, then he couldn’t afford to lose any of these items to thieves and thugs. Whether he had family and loved ones, or had no one at all, it didn’t really matter.
Being a good person was what her master wanted her to be after all.
She rounded the corner and blitzed the difference between her and the old man. Only for him to notice and scream in joy, turning left and right through the alleyways. Leading her back to his abode and shouting his gratitude from the distance.
Huh? Why’d he stop here? Is he homeless?
Hu Shui caught up and turned into the depths of the city’s alleyways to where the old man had stopped. She didn’t sense any doorways in that stretch at all.
Only to freeze when she found him on the ground, slowly crawling away from five figures that towered over him. Each one had a blade and reeked of corrupted Qi. Not quite Demonic Cultivators but the difference was marginal at best. The old man noticed her arrival and hurried toward her.
“C’mon old man. You know the rules. Enter Iron Fang territory, pay the trespassing fee,” the largest of the bunch said as he noticed her. “Or maybe we can work out… different kinds of payments.” He licked his lips.
Shui put down the stall and took a few steps toward the old man.
He clutched at her robes. “Help. They’re going to kill me! I didn’t pay last time.”
“Kill you? Why would they–”
“Hey! We aren’t that awful, little girl. Come here and maybe we can have a nice talk about why you should stay away from old men like–”
Shui raised her hand once more.
The lead thug stared with his mouth agape.
“Their cores are disgusting, Mister,” Shui said to the old man. She picked him up and set him down before her, patting his dirty robes. “You shouldn’t roll in the dirt either.”
All five of the thugs straightened up at the mention of their cores. This turned from a moment they were using for entertainment into a serious matter. They pulled out their blades and began to spread out, one even vanishing from one side of the alleyway and reappearing behind Shui to cover the only exit to the place. The old man noticed it all and whimpered.
Shui turned to the leader. “You’re cultivators right?”
The leader’s face darkened, but he nodded none the less at her statement.
“Then you should know better than to overextend and fight something you have no hope of beating. Master’s lessons in this situation would be to figure out the disparity, and if it's too vast to run toward him as fast as possible so he can protect us. Tell me, Mr. Thug,” Shui pulled deep from her Patriarch’s book and released her Qi in a thick wave. Loose bits of the walls cracked and dropped, the fog in the air fell, pressure pressed down on the men and made every single step laborious and intensive. They all paled at the simple display of power. “...do you by chance have an ancestor of incredible power to keep you alive if you so happen to encounter someone like me?”
“S-She’s nothing but a little girl!” the leader shouted and charged.
His delinquents followed as their cores roared to life. Flames erupting from their hands and covering their blades as they surged forward.
Shui sneered.
The leader arrived with fury, swinging wide and spinning to channel attacks.
Hu Shui danced between the strikes as more and more of the thugs joined their master in this grand folly they had committed to. Each one doing something more ridiculous than the other. Backflips. Frontflips. Flying quadruple kicks. Spamming swings or stabs without a shred of technique or any skill to be found at all. As though they had no one to pull them to the side and tell them how terrible everything they learned was.
They would need to restart learning from the basics just to get rid of all the mistakes and bad habits driven into them.
It didn’t take long before all five were on the ground in a heap of sweat and exhaustion.
Shui hadn’t even swung back once. She didn’t need to.
Pathetic. Master expects me not to kill these people? How?If I throw a punch they’ll die.
She huffed and turned to the slackjawed old man, growing sicker by the moment it seemed. Best she helped him out of here before he found more thugs. She picked up his stall once more and walked up to him. “Come on, old man. Let me guide you to your home.”
“H-How can I thank you?”
“Well,” Shui gave him a wide menacing smile. “You can teach me to bake a cake!”
The old man gulped, his gut instinct screaming to run away.