Chapter 7 — A Cripple Was Cheaper
CHAPTER 7
A Cripple Was Cheaper
“No qi?” Ma Liang asked.
“None,” Shi Feng replied.
Ma Liang pressed two fingers against Shi Feng's wrist. He wore a wolf-tooth necklace, and old claw marks covered his hands. A faint strand of qi passed into Shi Feng's arm and found nothing it could follow.
Ma Liang let go.
“You carry the baskets,” Ma Liang said. “You pick what I point at. Don't wander.”
“I want to reach Hanyin Well,” Shi Feng replied.
“We pass it,” Ma Liang said. “If you find your medicine, that's your luck.”
The other two hunters looked him over. Zhou Ping carried a crossbow. Chai Jin held a hooked spear and wore a fresh blue headband.
All three were at Qi Condensation.
“A cripple?” Chai Jin said with a laugh. “Brother Ma, you're getting cheap.”
“Can you carry three baskets?” Ma Liang asked Chai Jin.
“Of course!” Chai Jin replied.
“Then carry them,” Ma Liang said.
Chai Jin immediately stopped laughing.
Shi Feng paid three spirit stones for the route and took the lightest basket. Ma Liang didn't complain. His gaze rested on Shi Feng's bow, then moved away.
These men weren't escorting him out of kindness, Shi Feng thought. That was fine. He didn't come looking for kindness.
Beyond Yunze Town, the fields gave way to black reeds. Frogs called from shallow pools, and white flowers covered the banks of the narrow path.
Chai Jin reached for a flower.
Ma Liang struck his wrist with the end of a stick.
“Do you want to lose that hand?” Ma Liang asked.
The white petals snapped shut around the stick. Thin teeth scraped the wood.
Chai Jin's face turned pale.
“I was checking it,” Chai Jin muttered.
“With your fingers?” Zhou Ping asked.
Chai Jin hid the bitten stick behind him. Zhou Ping took it, shaved the tooth marks away with his knife, and handed it back.
“Now you can tell the wine house you killed it,” Zhou Ping said.
“Mind your own business!” Chai Jin snapped.
Ma Liang didn’t laugh. He counted the baskets again and made them move. He cared more about what they brought back than what Chai Jin boasted about over wine.
Shi Feng stepped over the flower bed. Here, even the flowers wanted meat. Meng Shou's warning suddenly seemed too short.
By afternoon, they reached a broken stone arch beside a sunken channel. Black Needle Grass grew in the cracks below it. Ma Liang crouched, touched a broad footprint, and looked into the dark channel.
His face changed for a moment.
“Old tracks,” Ma Liang said, standing up. “Shi Feng, go down and fill your basket.”
Shi Feng didn't move.
“What left them?” Shi Feng asked.
“A marsh lizard,” Ma Liang replied.
The footprint had four deep claws. The old beast boards at the town gate showed the same shape beneath a much larger skull.
Split-Maw Beast.
Shi Feng gripped his spear.
“You said we'd pass the well first,” Shi Feng said.
“The grass comes first,” Ma Liang replied. “Climb down.”
Zhou Ping lifted his crossbow. The bolt didn't point into the channel.
It pointed at Shi Feng's chest.
“You don't need to stare,” Zhou Ping said. “Do what Brother Ma says.”
Shi Feng understood. A young Split-Maw Beast hid below. They wanted someone to draw it out, and a cripple was cheaper than a bait beast.
“You won't get much grass if it eats me,” Shi Feng said.
“Then run faster,” Chai Jin replied.
Ma Liang sighed impatiently.
“Don't blame me,” Ma Liang said. “Blame yourself for coming here without strength.”
Shi Feng looked from the crossbow to the channel. Three Qi Condensation cultivators above. One hidden beast below.
There was no good choice.
“Give me the rope,” Shi Feng said.
“That's more sensible,” Ma Liang replied.
Chai Jin reached for Shi Feng's pack. Shi Feng pulled it behind his shoulder before the hunter could take it.
“I'll need the wound powder,” Shi Feng said.
“You won't have time to use it,” Chai Jin muttered.
Ma Liang gave his companion an angry look. Chai Jin laughed and stepped away.
Shi Feng tied the pack tightly against his chest. They wanted the beast distracted, not an obedient herb picker. Keeping his medicine was the only thing he could still choose.
He wasn't going to beg them.
“If I climb back up, you won't get a second payment,” Shi Feng said.
Ma Liang's smile grew wider.
“Of course,” Ma Liang replied. “We're honest men.”
Ma Liang threw down the rope. Shi Feng passed it around his waist and tested the knot before putting his weight on it.
The stone wall was wet beneath his boots. Shi Feng lowered himself slowly, his spear tied across his back. Ten feet below, a narrow shelf ran along the channel.
Something moved in the deeper darkness.
“Further!” Ma Liang called.
“There's no grass further down,” Shi Feng replied.
“Then look harder!” Ma Liang shouted.
Shi Feng took out his knife and scraped a mark beside his hand. The stone was soft under a crust of dark moss. Above him, Chai Jin leaned out and snorted.
“What's he doing?” Chai Jin asked.
“Trying not to fall,” Zhou Ping replied.
Shi Feng shifted his weight onto the shelf. His legs trembled with the strain.
“I can see your beast,” Shi Feng called.
For a breath, the hunters were silent.
Then Ma Liang laughed.
“Good eyes, Young Master Shi,” Ma Liang said. “Now make it angry.”
Shi Feng swung the knife twice. The first cut sliced the rope above his head. The second drove the blade into the soft crack beside the shelf. He hung from its handle for a breath, then let go.
His body dropped out of sight.
Zhou Ping's crossbow snapped.
The bolt struck the stone where Shi Feng's head was a moment earlier.
“He cut it!” Chai Jin shouted.
Shi Feng landed hard in a shallow pool. Pain tore through his ankle. His knife stayed wedged in the wall above him, along with the last piece of rope.
There was no way back up.
But there was a narrow drain behind the shelf, and a faint silver root grew at its entrance.
Yin Jade Root.
Shi Feng took one step towards it.
The darkness beside the root opened its mouth.
Two rows of yellow teeth spread apart. The beast crouched under the low stone ceiling, and its heavy tail blocked the passage behind it.
Shi Feng drew the short spear from his back.