Chapter 56

  Greedy Justice (II)

  The man who so boldly called me out stood centered at the peak, facing the entrance of my house, escorted by a pair of mean-mugging kids. His face was... vaguely familiar--no, wait, isn't that the guy who contradicted Elder Qin and spoke up for wartime efforts?

  ... Hey, why the hell are you here, man?

  "E-eh? Elder Zhang...?" Xi Zhao's voice jostled a distant memory, though it took me a moment to capture its exact location--Elder Zhang... Xi Zhao's former Master.

  Oh.

  Really? You came here to shout wildly because I stole some random disciple that you probably completely forgot about?

  "... Elder Zhang," I greeted with a smile, ignoring the optics. "Why are you here? Shouting like it would be a sin to remain unheard?"

  "You know damn well why, filthy vermin," he scoffed, his voice a growl. There was something distinctly unpleasant about the man, but it could be that he seemed entirely determined to make a mess of things. "How dare you steal a disciple of mine?"

  "Disciple of yours? Who?" I pretended to be a fool.

  "Who?! Hah! Shameless bastard! Who else but that boy beside you!?"

  "Oh, him?" I eyed the old thing and silently smiled. "Uh, it could be, I suppose. What is your disciple's name, Elder Zhang?"

  "H-huh?"

  "It could be that they simply look similar," I said. "And have wholly different names. So, what is the name of yours?"

  "What is the name of yours?"

  "Nuh-uh. I asked first."

  "... are you playing with me right now, Elder Lu? What? Do you think because you won a few bets and reared a few faint cubs that you suddenly have a voice that matters? Do you believe anything would come of me wringing your neck right here and now?"

  "Well, for starters," I said. "Elder Qin would probably behead you, at the very least."

  "Ha ha ha, you think that old stooge would stand up for you?! It seems you truly have gotten bold! But I am not without mercy--I did not come here for your life, but for justice."

  "Really? Justice? And how much will this justice cost me?"

  "I am not an unreasonable man," which he most decidedly was. "Just 15,000 mid-grade Stones will do."

  "..." Well, would you look at that? Haah.

  He didn't even ask for his disciple back. Rather, he didn't even look at the kid, not once. More than his demanding all my money, his complete disregard of the kid pissed me off more. I would actually feel legitimately guilty if it turned out that he came to get the kid back or at least ensure that the kid was doing fine. I would have even given him some Spirit Stones as a recompense.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  But to think he couldn't even pretend, not for a moment...

  "Why'd you bring those two here? As an audience?"

  "Are you unwilling to pay?"

  "Hmm, so that's it," I shrugged, pulling back and patting Xi Zhao's shoulder, smiling. "Don't be afraid of anything. Go out and show the world who you are."

  "M-Master...?" The boy looked at me rather confused, guilt looming in his gaze.

  "Let us dispense with nonsense, Elder Zhang," I said dismissively. "You have two kids there, both at the Fifth Stage of the Qi Condensation. How about one last gamble?"

  "Oh? What'd you have in mind?" Wow. Unrestrained, unconcealed greed. Something is... off with this guy.

  [--do you wish to spend 60 Creation Points to take a partial look at Elder Zhang's window?]

  60 points?

  Hm?

  Isn't that a bit too much?

  ... and yet, spend I must. The system was clearly hinting that this wouldn't be an ordinary window.

  [Creator's Eyes Used]

  [Target: Elder Zhang (Taoi Su)]

  [Age: 266]

  [Current Realm: mid-Revolving Core]

  [Cultivation Method: Spirit Sword Harmony (False); Hellfire Sun Mantra, Sixth Form]

  [Martial Arts: Spirit Sword Wheel (False), Tri-Sword Concealment (False)..., Hellfire Palm (middle-Earth), Raging Inferno Annihilation (peak-Earth), ???]

  [Artifacts: Fiery Plume (low-Sky tier), ???]

  [Talent: Peak-Earth]

  [...]

  [Traits]

  [Violent (Epic) -- prone to outbursts of violence, exaggerated by the instability of the cultivation method]

  [Fire-Touched (Rare) -- partly shed plumes of fire reside within the spirit veins]

  [Hardened (Rare) -- extremely resilient to mental and physical pain due to specialized training when he was a child]

  [... other Traits are not visible]

  [...]

  [Assessing suitability]

  [...]

  [Special Spirit Root discovered: Fire Root (Common)]

  [Recommended: due to the special Spirit Root, inclination toward the fire element is central to the cultivation path. Target's innate and exacerbated violent nature, however, necessitates a milder cultivation method than their current one, namely one with opposing, counteractive force of Yin]

  [Final assessment: due to limited talent and advanced age, unlikely to progress much further; there is too much undue scarring due to the overly aggressive cultivation method. The host should not involve himself]

  Huh.

  What a twist! I think?

  I was under no illusion that there weren't any spies in the sect, but, Jesus, this guy is like second only to Elder Qin in terms of importance (at least as far as Elders in charge of daily tasks go).

  Isn't it also kind of funny that he came to pick a fight with the one guy in the sect that could nail him as a traitor? Nah, there's no way in hell the Spirit Sage bastard doesn't know. He's hidden himself so deep that it was probably like looking at a mirror. Well, whatever; it's a nice card to have in my back pocket, but I'll keep it there for now.

  If I just willy-nilly throw out an accusation like, 'Hey, one of the Sect's most respected and beloved Elders is actually a spy for our rival sect; oh? Who said that? Yes, Lu Qi, the microcosm of goodness!'... yeah, not gonna happen.

  "What? Did you suddenly get scared?" He legitimately did seem to panic a bit when I didn't respond for a while. Yeah, this was the plan all the while; he knew I wouldn't just hand over almost all of my wealth, so he came to pry it open with a bet.

  "Your two kids versus Xi Zhao," I said. "Two against one. If they win, you can have every last Spirit Stone in my possession. If I win... yes, your monthly stipend will go to me for ten years, and you'll let me into your peak's treasury so I can take half of it. What say you?"

  "..." Look, go bold and go crazy when betting. Why? Precisely because the other guy will think you're doing it out of fear and to get him to back off. So, in their mindset, they grow bolder and think I'm bluffing... but I'm not. "Hah! Fine, you have yourself a bet! You two, you heard the Elder. He thinks you can't even defeat a small kid. Isn't that just embarrassing?"

  "Master...?" On the other hand, Xi Zhao did appear a bit nervous--not in the 'gosh, I might lose this fight' nervous. He'd also broken through into the Fifth Stage, and considering he had Sword Qi, even if those two were legitimately at the peak of Qi Condensation, they still might not have won, but more that I'd bet all my wealth on him.

  "I already told you," I smiled. "Just go out and have fun. If you just so happen to chop a limb or two--no, no, they're just kids. Khm. Try not to chop anything. Maybe, uh, a few lacerations here and there. Like on the forehead--scalp bleeds a lot, and it looks scary, but it's not really that harmful. Not too deep! Don't crack their skulls or anything."

  ... yes. I heard myself just fine. Though I wish I didn't...