Chapter 160 - Gifts Come in Disguises

  The crowd clapped as they walked from the arena. Half of the disciples stayed behind, lingering on the sun-bleached stones.

  Hao walked backwards, relying on the crowd to direct his steps while staring up. He watched the last of the Elders leave. It was the Sixth Elder, blind and without a tongue. The Medicine Hall Leader Liang Wan Li helped the old man up.

  Zhengqi has mentioned her a few times before. Hao could easily recognize the lanky woman from the description of a medicine master he had heard. Pale skin and long black hair that reached the bottom of her torso. Long legs and gray eyes. She was tall and beautiful, but he was more interested in the stories behind the tortured old man whose hair was like a frayed ball of wool. They soon vanished into the sky.

  The heat and weight of the crowd suddenly faltered. Winter's cold gripped Hao's skin like he was once again standing in a cloud, and around him, disciples and servants ran home. Winter was not for everyone.

  The few that lingered in the arena talked excitedly about the new training they were going to try and the goals they would reach before next summer. Old disciples with no potential threw sour faces at the young. Young disciples with more potential than sense looked around, ready to make challenges.

  Hao caught a few glances. He ignored most of them as he navigated through the people and made it back to the Old Servants Courtyard. There, he found disciples and servants were the same.

  Some of the servants were still outside. They shiver with their arms crossed, yet look at him with unfounded pride.

  People are people, no matter how high or low. Hao thought as he passed by them. Eyeing two cocky white robed men in their thirties as they meandered near his home. They were salivating and gulping at the smell of smoked meat trailing from the house.

  “I could drag you back to Taoyi.” Hao looked at them over his shoulder as he lifted his foot onto the veranda. All those prideful eyes found new interest in the stones he walked on. They have no reason to approach his home. No one had business there, blocking Zhengqi on her way to work or in the graveyard behind it.

  Not even an Elder.

  Inside Meiqi was doing a dozen things at once. In the time that Hao knew her, he found she loved nothing more than to keep her mind occupied.

  It was hard not to notice the tent around the fire pit first. He could guess from the smell outside that she was smoking meat to preserve it for the coming winter. The way she went about it was new to him.

  “Oh, you’re back already, boy?” She said, looking up at him through the damp cloth wrapped around her face.

  If she’s calling me boy, that means Zhengqi is already off. Hopefully, those bastards outside didn’t bother her. I should have stopped by the medicine hall to check. Hao stepped around the wet tent, waving smoke out of his face.

  “You sure have a way with words when no one else is around,” he said, finding her bed and sitting on it as it was closer to her and the fire.

  Meiqi pulled the wet cloth further up her face. She gripped a mixture of wood chips and red-grass, throwing them into the fire under the damp tent. “I would do it in one of the other buildings, but they are full. No smoke shed here.” She came back out, smoke chasing her as she pulled her makeshift mask off her eyes.

  “Be careful of breathing the red grass, it will hurt your lungs, and burn your eyes too.” Meiqi stood and walked over, sitting down next to him. “Strange way to find me, but at least you didn’t walk in while I was dancing in the bath again.” Her words broke with choked laughter.

  Hao felt the sting in his lungs that she was talking about. “Does burning herbs help? What about Demonic Beast meat?”

  “Mhm,” She nodded, “It helps a bit, makes it last longer. But you would probably need something harsher for a stronger meat. I’m not an expert, aren’t you?”

  Hao raised his eyebrows as he leaned forward to touch the makeshift smoking tent. “I can take a beast apart… You already know how good a cook I am.”

  “Stick to killing,” she whispered.

  Hao ignored the remark. He had plenty of herbs that could be considered harsher in the Spirit-Holding bag. Fresh and still growing. Others that were old, ancient things taken from other people who left them to shrivel and go stale.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He took out a handful.

  “Are you sure you want to burn things like that?” Meiqi asked, touching them.

  “I’m curious,” Hao looked over at her, “They might have an interesting effect. I can’t do alchemy, so I don’t have much use for them in this condition. No one would buy them like this.” Hao didn’t need to be an expert in herbs to know a lot of these had lost all their potency.

  Meiqi shrugged her shoulders and took a handful from him. She probably knew herbs better than he did. Zhengqi would know them better than both of them. She placed one in her mouth and nibbled on the tip of a white root.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  The herbs were safe, that much he knew; nothing he took out was poison. Even the most gentle healing herbs were rough when consumed raw.

  In silence, Meiqi quickly chewed, her face turning red. She downed it and shook her head, her tongue hanging from her mouth as she glanced at Hao. “You could have warned me!”

  “Sorry. I thought you were familiar with them.” Hao chuckled and took out more of the same dried-up white roots. “They are good for soup. I had to eat a few in the secret realm when I was tired of meat and fruit. This would work well on beast flesh with dense World Energy.”

  Meiqi let out a sigh. She broke the root in her hand into small shreds. Her mortal hands were surprisingly delicate with the dried fibrous plant.

  “Zhengqi still went to the Medicine Hall?” Hao asked.

  “Mhm. Don’t worry about the servants out there bothering her. She can be rather scary on her own, but she likes to save lives.” Meiqi nodded with a distant stare as she took long, quiet breaths to cool her tongue.

  “You didn’t have to use the weapons I left for you did’ya?” he asked jokingly.

  Meiqi pulled the wet cloth back up to her face, covering her nose, mouth, and eyes.

  “Ha! Did you see any blood in the snow?” She laughed, leaning towards the smoky tent over the fire pit in the middle of the house.

  The smell of meat and red grass was pleasant. The herbs in her hand had a less enticing smell. That didn’t stop her from throwing the crushed-up root in the coals.

  Hao was instantly overwhelmed with an acrid smell. It tingled on his nose and made his lungs itch.

  “Breath slowly!” Hao called out, leaping in front of Meiqi to pull the smoke tent down.

  He pushed her back away from the fire. The small cloud of gray that escaped seemed to crawl more slowly than the rest of the smoke. It made him itch. Needles were poking at all his pores, and when they entered his nose, his body refused to breathe anymore.

  “Hao!” Meiqi shouted as he lifted her.

  “Don’t…” He stopped trying to speak, pushing her shoulders until she was on the far side of the room.

  Meiqi coughed a few times but found her breath over near Zhengqi’s bed.

  Hao wasn’t so lucky. Not only were his lungs freezing, but it was affecting his connection to the World Energy. That feeling of being connected to the world was being pulled away from him. It was like wanting to feel the sun, but more and more layers of mud were blocking the rays from touching his skin.

  Shouts were coming from outside. “Poision! There is poison in the air!”

  He could hear the squeak of snow and crack of concrete as they fell to their knees outside. It seemed like a scene outside. Voice all trying to help one person.

  Hao could envision it as he was falling the same way. One knee hit the floor of the house. Meiqi came forward a second time and grabbed his shoulders.

  He gasped and gasped until he could speak. “Help me…Into lotus position.” his voice was a wheeze just like the voices of those collapsing outside.

  Meiqi assisted instantly. Never letting that mask on her face fall below the bridge of her nose.

  Hao closed his eyes to those sea-foam green eyes of concern. He locked the world out as he slipped deep into meditation, trying not to focus on the sensation of boiling clay in his pores.

  He went through a dozen breathing techniques until he felt one that hit right. Once again, he found ‘useless’ techniques were the most important in these moments of stupidity. His clogged pores synced with his burning breath.

  World Energy broke through, entering his skin. The stinging sensation dissipated rapidly. Clear enough that Hao nearly got lost in his meditations with the stirring gone.

  The thing that pulled him out was the shouting from outside. Meiqi hitting his back like he was a little boy with some food stuck in his throat didn’t go unnoticed either.

  Hao exhaled a long, hot breath, falling back until his head was in the woman’s lap.

  Meiqi pulled the mask down to reveal a relieved smile.

  Hao would never admit it, but he would appreciate a story and a nap. One about a hero who defeats evil for righteous reasons. The opposite of Li Tuzai’s tales and moral dilemmas.

  “What was that?” Meiqi’s smile turned to a frown in an instant as she smacked his chest.

  Hao sat up. “Don’t stand yet.” The crawling gray cloud was gone. All the rest of the smoke was plain boring wood and red grass. He took a deep breath just to check. He didn’t notice anything bad, but something rather strange.

  Hao couldn’t really explain it if he wanted to, but where the smoke touched him, World Energy flowed into him faster.

  “Either it was something foolish or a gift in disguise,” he said, reaching down to help Meiqi stand up.

  She shot him a strange look.