Chapter 714 — Calling Tally 1,107

CHAPTER 714

Calling Tally 1,107

Huangfu Lie didn’t get down from the centre stone.

He stood there in his violet robe while two household servants carried his opponent away on a board. He was broad and hard as a beam, with eyebrows that slanted up like a pair of knives. Faint purple sparks still crawled over the fingers of his right hand.

A younger disciple in Thunder Abyss violet ran up to the platform’s edge and said something to him in a low voice.

Huangfu Lie’s head turned. His eyes went across the yard, past fifty platforms, and stopped on the attendants’ bench by platform sixty-three.

“The Willow Ford furnace,” Huangfu Lie said. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried. “He’s here? With a tally?”

“Yes, Senior Brother,” the disciple said. “Tally one thousand one hundred and seven. He’s won two.”

Huangfu Lie laughed once, sharply.

Huangfu Lie crossed the yard toward Ke Lianshu. Candidates cleared a path in front of him. Shi Feng watched from the bench as the violet-robed young master stopped at the chief steward’s register.

“Huangfu Lie, tally ninety-nine, Thunder Abyss Valley,” Huangfu Lie said, and set his tally on the open page. “I call tally one thousand one hundred and seven.”

Ke Lianshu bowed deeply.

“Young Master Huangfu stakes his own tally?” Ke Lianshu asked politely.

“I stake it,” Huangfu Lie said.

Ke Lianshu wrote it down without any expression at all. Then he turned to the yard.

“A called bout,” Ke Lianshu announced. “Tally ninety-nine against tally one thousand one hundred and seven. The centre platform, tomorrow at noon. Both tallies at stake.”

The whole yard turned to look at the attendants’ bench.

Shi Feng was sitting with Ji Yuanhe’s gourd in one hand. He raised it politely in Huangfu Lie’s direction.

Near the hall steps, someone had a fresh copy of the Tianji Mansion’s issue. A dozen candidates crowded round it at once.

“Huangfu Lie. Ninety-fourth on the Tianxing. Late Deity Transformation.”

“And tally one thousand one hundred and seven?”

“Shi Feng, 4 Mark, no sponsor. It’s not on the list.”

“Wait, there’s a Shi Feng here. Ninety-eighth.”

“That’s some fighter. Shi’s a common surname.”

“Ninety-fourth against nobody! Ninety-eighth, maybe!”

The surrounding candidates laughed, expecting the better-known fighter to win. Shi Feng listened without answering. Their uncertainty about the ninety-eighth name showed how little of his record mattered beside Huangfu Lie’s rank and sect.

Huangfu Lie didn’t laugh. He looked across at Shi Feng for a long moment.

“I told the old woman at your gate,” Huangfu Lie said. “The princess’s contest first, then you. I’ve decided I don’t want to wait.”

“The old woman’s name is Auntie Niu,” Shi Feng said. “She sells buns, and she’s been scrubbing at your palm print for two days. You owe her a new gate.”

Some of the laughter faltered.

“If you beat me, I’ll buy her two,” Huangfu Lie said coldly. “Noon tomorrow. Don’t make me come and fetch you.”

He walked away. The violet sparks on his fingers crackled once and went out.

Deacon Lei Zhenhai came to Willow Ford after dark.

This time there was no violet carriage, no escort and no Captain Dong. Lei came on foot, alone, and knocked on the gate politely. When Ji Yuanhe opened it, he bowed to the old man first.

Shi Feng was sitting in the courtyard by the brazier. He didn’t get up.

“Deacon Lei,” Shi Feng said. “Tea?”

“Thank you, no,” Lei Zhenhai said. He stood by the gate with his hands in his sleeves. “I won’t take much of Master Shi’s time. I came to make you a kind offer.”

“Your last kind offer was ten years with no leave,” Shi Feng said.

Lei Zhenhai smiled faintly.

“This one is cheaper,” Lei Zhenhai said. “Tomorrow at noon, you lose. Step off the stone at the third coil, or the fourth. Nobody will think less of a mid Deity Transformation alchemist for losing to the ninety-fourth Tianxing. And in return, the Valley forgets what happened to Captain Dong in this lane.”

“And if I don’t step off?” Shi Feng asked.

“Then Young Master Huangfu will not stop at the fourth coil,” Lei Zhenhai said gently. “And the Valley will remember Captain Dong for a very long time.”

Lei Zhenhai wasn’t offering friendship; he was offering a defeat the Valley would accept. Shi Feng considered how little either choice would leave him.

Shi Feng put another piece of charcoal on the brazier and watched it catch.

“I need the tally, Deacon Lei,” Shi Feng said. “Losing deliberately closes the only way to the prize I came for. And I won’t accept blame for defending my gate. If your Valley wants a result tomorrow, it can watch the bout.”

Lei Zhenhai looked at him for a while. Then he bowed slightly.

“A man who won’t listen to good advice suffers in front of his own eyes,” Lei Zhenhai said. “Good night, Master Shi.”

He let himself out. Ji Yuanhe closed the gate behind him and dropped the bar.

Within the hour, one of Madam Liu Su’s runners came down the lane with a strip of red paper and pasted it beside Auntie Niu’s stall. The lane came out to read it by lamplight.

“Tally ninety-nine against tally one thousand one hundred and seven,” Niu Tiezhu read aloud, very slowly. “Nine to one.”

“Nine to one against Young Master Shi?” the water-seller said. “She had him at fifty yesterday.”

“She’s seen him fight twice since then,” Auntie Niu said. “Even Madam Liu can learn.”

Shi Feng stood in the courtyard gateway and looked at his gate.

The scorch remained low on the right-hand gate leaf. Auntie Niu’s scrubbing had raised the grain around it without fading the black spiral. Shi Feng checked the clean centre again. Huangfu Lie had left him a small example of tomorrow’s problem.

That was the first coil. Tomorrow there would be eight more.