Chapter 23 — The Basket
CHAPTER 23
The Basket
The tray tipped, and three black pellets rolled into the street. Qian Rui grabbed the apprentice by the collar before the rest followed. A puff of smoke rose between their faces.
“Look what you've done!” Qian Rui shouted.
“I told you the tray was hot!” Yu An shouted back.
The apprentice dropped it onto the doorstep. Dark lumps bounced across the stones. One came to rest beside Shi Feng's boot.
He stepped around it.
A young hunter reached for one of the scorched pellets until Qian Rui slapped his broom handle down in front of the man’s fingers, barking that a failed batch would have him coughing blood before sunset. While Yu An swept the black lumps into a waste jar, Shi Feng stepped to the front shelf, bought a twelve-stone bone-strengthening tonic after Yu An confirmed it was three days fresh, and left master and apprentice arguing over the broom.
Near the east gate, Deng Hu’s nephew was unloading fish baskets from Qingshi Town. He handed Shi Feng a tied pouch containing twenty spirit stones and a gruff four-word slip from Physician Meng Shou: Root lived. Don’t die.
Shi Feng pocketed the twenty stones with a faint smile. That closed his last small account with Qingshi Town.
He unfolded the slip once more before putting it away. Meng Shou's impatient handwriting crowded the narrow paper. The old physician had taken the living shoot seriously enough to pay for it, instead of dismissing the strange marsh root because his books had no certain answer.
Shi Feng hoped the sample would prove useful. He could picture Meng Shou bending over the mineral block, scolding an assistant for letting the reeds dry.
At the medicine shop, Qian Rui had promised that the tonic would help strengthen his bones. Shi Feng hadn't bought the promise. He had bought one measured bottle to test. If it worked poorly, he would know before wasting stones on a whole course.
An hour up a rocky gully in the western hills, Shi Feng found a Stoneback Spirit Crab in the upper pool. Its shell looked like a broad slab of wet rock. Two claws rose from beneath it when his shadow crossed the water.
He put his pack on the bank, out of reach of the pool, and drew his sword.
The crab lunged sideways. Shi Feng stepped outside its larger claw and struck the smaller one's joint. The blade caught between the hard plates, cutting deeply enough to stop the limb closing.
The larger claw snapped at his knee.
He moved onto the flat stone behind it. The crab turned after him, exposing the pale underside where its legs joined the shell. Shi Feng thrust into that gap and released a short burst of qi.
The creature's legs folded. He waited until the last claw stopped twitching before pulling the sword free.
Qian Rui's tonic tasted bitter enough to deserve its reputation. Shi Feng swallowed it and sat beside his pack, guiding its warmth into the bones he was currently refining. The gain was real, but small. Even after the bottle's force settled, the work had moved forward only a little.
Then he laid his palm against his kill.
The crab's vitality did more in ten breaths than the tonic had managed through the whole cultivation session. He stopped the flow once to let the denser warmth settle, then continued. Deng Hu's supposed border medicine would have dragged him along; his own power still answered his choice.
Shi Feng looked at the empty bottle. A town tonic could help an ordinary cultivator patiently strengthen a few bones. It wasn't enough for the resources his complete refinement would demand.
He would still check better medicines when he found them. One poor result didn't make every shop useless.
After cultivation, Shi Feng washed at the stream and ate the bread he'd brought. A faded trail marker stood on the opposite bank. Somebody had added a warning beneath the town's painted directions: don't wash wounds downstream of the tanners.
He checked the clear water, then returned to his pack strap. The thread held after a little repair. He tested it, packed the empty shell for sale, and headed toward town before dark.
On the road, a group of hunters passed carrying a covered basket between two poles. They were laughing too loudly for men carrying anything light.
“Careful with it!” Ge Lu called from the front. “Drop one and I'll break your legs!”
A younger hunter slipped. The basket lurched. Something heavy and oval knocked against the wicker from within, followed by a faint, sharp clicking.
Shi Feng stopped at the roadside. A sour, mineral stench escaped beneath the oiled cloth—the exact nest-scent of the Split-Maw Beast from Heilu Marsh. His gaze narrowed.
“You took Split-Maw eggs from a live nest?” Shi Feng asked.
“Shut your mouth, cripple!” Ge Lu sneered, though he glanced nervously back toward the marsh road. “Master Wei Renshan posted a hundred-stone bounty for a live clutch to send to the capital. By the time the mother notices the mud’s cold, these will be locked in the Wei storehouse!”
The others laughed. One shoved the cover into place where it had slipped.
The cloth was wet around its lower edge. A hunter wrinkled his nose and wiped his hand against his trousers. Whatever they had used to wash the basket hadn't removed the nest-scent. The sour smell clung to the carrying poles as well.
“Cover it properly,” Ge Lu snapped. “The storekeeper won't take cracked eggs.”
The younger hunter tightened the rope without laughing this time. Beyond the bend, the marsh road lay empty. Ge Lu looked back at it again before ordering the group onward.
Shi Feng watched them choose the town track. They were counting the reward before delivering the clutch. He couldn't tell how far away the mother was, or whether it had already found the raided nest. He knew the covering hadn't made the cargo scentless.
Shi Feng kept walking.
He didn't care what strangers were taking to market. They hadn't attacked him, and he wasn't about to follow a basket because its owner had poor manners. By the time he reached his inn, the hunters were drinking in the courtyard behind a locked shed.
Their basket sat inside.
Shi Feng ordered supper, carried it upstairs, and shut his door against the noise.