Chapter 29 — His Son Died Standing

CHAPTER 29

His Son Died Standing

“Master Wei Renshan is here!” Zheng Bao shouted.

Shi Feng looked up from his pack. The potter ran through the yard, nearly knocked over a rack of bowls, and caught it with both hands before remembering why he was running.

“He's flying!” Zheng Bao said. “On a sword! A real sword!”

“You’ve seen flying swords before,” Shi Feng said.

“Not stopping above my roof!” Zheng Bao replied.

His voice cracked. Shi Feng took his pack out of the way before the man could knock it over too.

“Where?” Shi Feng asked.

“Above the main road,” Zheng Bao replied. “He's going to his house.”

Shi Feng tied the pack shut.

So the father was back. The two retainers in the customs lane wouldn't be delivering their news, but someone else would. Yunze Town had enough loose tongues to fill the empty shops.

He rolled his bedding and tucked it beneath the strap. His shoulder pulled painfully when he lifted the bundle, so he shifted the weight to the other side.

Zheng Bao watched with a pale face.

“You're leaving now?” Zheng Bao asked.

“That's what a departure seal is for,” Shi Feng said.

“But you paid for three days!” Zheng Bao said.

“You can keep the rest,” Shi Feng replied.

For a moment, Zheng Bao looked pleased. Then he remembered who was flying above the road, and the pleasure disappeared.

“Don't tell him I hid you,” Zheng Bao said.

“You rented me a corner of a broken kiln,” Shi Feng replied. “You didn't hide anything.”

The potter looked miserable. Shi Feng left him holding the bowl rack.

Outside, people crowded at the lane's mouth. A broad sword floated above the main street, carrying a man in dark blue. His face was narrow, and two long gray strands fell from his temples. Every shopkeeper below him bowed or found a reason to look at the ground.

Early Foundation Establishment.

In Yunze Town, that was enough to make a noisy street fall silent.

Wei Renshan didn't look at the broken houses. He swept past them toward his family's courtyard. His sword left a pale line above the roofs.

“That's real cultivation!” someone whispered.

“If he came yesterday, the market wouldn't look like this.”

“Keep your voice down! Do you want him to hear?”

“…”

Shi Feng stepped away from the crowd and took the western lane. There was no need to announce his departure beneath the man's flying sword.

He stopped at the public well and filled his flask. The woman ahead of him needed help lifting her bucket over the stone rim. He lifted it with his good hand and set it beside her feet. She thanked him, then hurried back toward the damaged houses. He corked the flask and continued west.

He wasn't afraid of Wei Renshan's realm. A Foundation Establishment cultivator stood one major realm above him, but Shi Feng knew how much force his body could carry now. The problem was the street full of people.

A public fight would reveal more than he wanted to show. He'd rather leave quietly. If Wei Renshan insisted on following, they could speak where no one needed to bow.

The Wei courtyard held two covered bodies.

Wei Renshan landed beside them and stepped off his sword. A household servant fell to his knees before he reached the first cloth.

“Master, we searched for you!” Gao An cried. “The roads were cut off. We couldn't send anyone through!”

Wei Renshan pulled the cloth aside.

Wei Kuo lay beneath it. The young master's face was gray, and the cleaned robe couldn't hide the wound that killed him. The second body belonged to Luo San, his Qi Condensation servant.

Wei Renshan's expression darkened.

“Where?” Wei Renshan asked.

“Outside town,” Gao An said. “Hunters brought them back before the beast tide.”

“Who was with them?” Wei Renshan asked.

“Only Luo San went out with the young master,” Gao An said, his voice shaking as smoke still drifted from the ruined eastern storehouse where the Split-Maw mother had torn down three walls to get her eggs back. “And half an hour ago, Clerk Wen at the customs shed sent word that the suspect took a west-road permit—Wei Song and Du Heng tried to take him in the baggage lane beside the shed.”

“Where are they?” Wei Renshan asked coldly.

Gao An swallowed hard. “Both dead in the lane, Master. Along with the broker Tang Jiu. The carters say the boy broke Wei Song’s chest with one hand and walked out the west gate.”

Wei Renshan’s eyes turned colder than the steel at his side. His eastern storehouse was rubble, his son lay under a white cloth with his purse and knife missing, and now two more retainers were laid out in front of the town’s carters.

“Which road did he take?” Wei Renshan asked.

“The western quarry road toward Shuanghe Ferry, Master!” a breathless runner called from the gate.

Wei Renshan didn’t wait another breath. He stepped back onto his flying sword and shot into the western sky.

Shi Feng walked past the last houses and climbed the low road beside the old quarry.

A cart passed in the other direction with a woman sitting on rolled bedding. She slept with her mouth open while the driver kept talking to her. He didn't seem to notice she wasn't answering.

The carter had pulled up at the trough below the cutting to let his mule drink. He was still looking back up the road when the pale line of a flying sword went down behind the ridge, and no line rose again. He waited with the bucket in his hand. Nothing came up. The woman on the bedding slept through it, and the mule drank until he pulled its head up.

Beyond them, the road was empty.

Shi Feng stopped near a dry cutting in the hillside. Workers used to take clay and stone from it. Now thorn bushes filled the narrow tracks, and rain left shallow pools at the bottom.

He loosened his pack strap.

A shadow crossed the road.

Wei Renshan landed twenty paces ahead, the broad sword floating at his shoulder. The old man's eyes went first to the knife at Shi Feng's belt. Shi Feng set his pack on a flat stone.

“That's my son's,” Wei Renshan said.

“It was,” Shi Feng replied.

Wei Renshan's expression changed. He expected excuses, a denial, perhaps a youth begging for the chance to explain. Shi Feng gave him none of those.

“You killed him,” Wei Renshan said.

“He tried to kill me,” Shi Feng replied.

“And Luo San?” Wei Renshan asked.

“The same,” Shi Feng said.

The flying sword turned. Its point aimed at Shi Feng's throat.

Pressure spread across the road. Loose dust stirred around Wei Renshan's shoes, and the nearest thorn branches bent away from him.

Shi Feng kept his qi within his body. He stood with his feet apart, not kneeling and not drawing a weapon.

“Do you know who you're speaking to?” Wei Renshan demanded.

“A father who taught his son badly,” Shi Feng said.

The sword gave a sharp cry.

Wei Renshan raised a hand, then stopped. His gaze passed over the shoulder binding and the splinted wrist. The youth looked wounded, but his breathing hadn't changed under the pressure.

Rare medicine. Some body-strengthening treasure. There had to be a reason.

Wei Renshan wanted that reason before he broke the boy's neck.

“Kneel,” Wei Renshan said coldly. “Tell me where you found the medicine. Then you can explain why my son shouldn't have taken it.”

Shi Feng thought: the son wanted my prize, and the father wants everything left. They really are family.

He pointed toward the dry quarry cutting.

“If you want to fight, come down there,” Shi Feng said. “The road's narrow.”

“You think you can choose where you die?” Wei Renshan asked.

“I'd rather not block the carts,” Shi Feng replied.

He picked up his pack and walked down the short slope. The old man followed above the ground, his flying sword moving beside him.

At the bottom, Shi Feng laid the pack beyond the pools and turned. Rock walls enclosed three sides. No houses overlooked them, and no traveler could see below the road's edge.

Wei Renshan landed opposite him.

“One last chance,” Wei Renshan said. “Kneel! My son isn't someone a cripple can touch!”

Shi Feng loosened his good hand.

“Your son died standing,” Shi Feng said. “You can do the same.”

Far above the cutting, Gao An crawled behind a thorn bush. He had followed his master's sword on foot and arrived breathless. He could see Wei Renshan facing Shi Feng below. He dared not call out or move closer. If the master wanted a witness, he would ask for one.