Aurora returned to the group and looked at the men. "Why does everyone seem to be afraid of you?"
Their leader laughed. "Our gang controls this city. You're completely screwed. News travel fast around here. You won't stand a chance once you have to deal with the whole group," he said, a gruesome smirk on the corner of his mouth.
"Ignore them," Liu-Ken told Aurora. "Do you know where the doctor is? Let's keep going. We'll deal with them later," Liu-Ken said.
"We're gonna kick your ass!" the little one said. "I'm gonna start with you, little girl. I want to see what you're worth if you don’t use your black chi," he said.
Aurora pretended not to listen. She told Liu-Ken where the doctor was, ad as the man had said, the brown door was half-open. Unlike the other houses, it was a wide place, proceeded by a long, narrow corridor that led them to a square room, lit by the sun rays that reflected throughout the room and through the translucent paper panels that were on top of the right wall.
The floor was covered with the same materials seen in Liu-Ken's house, although, there, the color was even worse, yellow-roasted, fragments already loose and covered with mold underneath. There were dozens of patients and wounded scattered throughout the room, lying on a white mattress, mostly with a wet towel on their head. Nurses walked around the room, replacing them with new ones and pouring pills or liquid mixtures into their mouths.
"Wait!" a girl told them. Young, her cheeks embellished with white powder and her eyelids with a noticeably light blue tone, matching her dark brown hair with light-hair strands, "Take off your shoes. Your boots are covered with dirt. What do you want? We don't have enough room anymore. Many people have been attacked," she said.
A hubbub of laughter grew among the three men. The girl looked at them and trembled. Her thin lips slammed shut, now appearing to be just a red stripe on her face, supplemented by clear eyes and a well-defined jaw.
"We're not with them," Liu-Ken told her as if reading her thoughts. "We're here to save this boy. He is badly injured and has inner hemorrhages. I gave him an elixir, but it made almost no difference. Surely, there must be something stronger here that can heal him in a short time?"
"We have that, but how much are you willing to pay for it?" a man asked them. He turned around, his long white and gray beard, resembling sandpaper dragged across the floor, "You're not from around here, are you? No one from here would dare to arrest these three men. I need a reason to make my involvement worthwhile," he said, the hoarse voice echoing throughout the room. Some of the patients bowed their heads forward, watching what was going on. By the looks of things, it wasn't normal for the doctor to have such an ignoble attitude toward a human life at stake.
"As a doctor, aren't you supposed to help those in need?" Aurora asked him, astonished. She remembered that the doctor in her village always smiled while helping his patients. He had given her several bandages when Aurora was younger and had a terrible habit of stumbling while playing catch with her friends. He used to pat her on the shoulder and tell her to come to her senses.
"It is and I want to help. Please, don’t think I do not care. But I have all these people to protect. I’ll have to pay for my disobedience to the gang."
Liu-Ken took a gold coin out of his secret pocket and handed it to the man, "Put it to good use."
"Is this... gold? Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter who we are. Heal him," Liu said and laid the boy on the floor. His breathing was irregular, and his bruises had gotten worse—they now had a violet hue.
"Pick him up. Bring him here. I'll get something that will help him," the doctor said. He was a small man, short legs like his arms, and walked very slowly.
The brown-haired girl and another one, a brown-eyed redhead, also with whitish cheeks, carried Bo to one of the few empty mattresses. Liu-Ken released the end of the rope he was holding and looked at the men. Happiness had returned to their faces now that they were on their land. They no longer disguised their disgust and the fury that devoured them, their longing for a moment alone with both Aurora and Liu. The eyebrows arched as soon as the rope hit the ground.
"You can go," Liu-Ken said, catching Aurora as well as the others by surprise. "Your group will be here in a moment, won't it? It doesn't make much difference whether you're here or not. Go. Whatever problems you have to solve with us, you can do it outside, when we leave," he said, without even pausing between words.
The men doubted if he was serious. They took a step back, their faces still following Liu's movements.
In the world they lived in, no one would ever offer them a chance like that. Most likely they would be already dead and yet they had survived and were now being released. They retreated under the scrutiny of Aurora's gaze.
"Are you sure this is the right decision?" the girl asked her mentor.
"There are no right decisions. There are good choices, less than good and bad ones. A bad choice is not always the wrong one, you know? This will buy us some time."
"What do you mean?" Aurora asked, watching them walk down the long corridor, almost at the door.
"The gang to which they belong would come in here, without any respect for the patients or the doctor's work. They would kill everyone if they had to. But they know what we're capable of and they’ll tell all of them. They won't want to face us in such a tight space. They will wait until we leave. That way, they'll be able to surround us and stomp on us like an avalanche from which we can't escape," Liu-Ken explained.
"He's right," the doctor said, coming back with a jar containing a blue goo with shiny nuggets, "They won't have mercy on you. You disrespected their gang and the punishment for that offense is death," he added, while the girls took off the injured boy's clothes.
"We did what we had to do to save him," Aurora replied, her voice rising as she pointed to Bo.
"Won’t the city governor stop them? Liu-Ken asked. "You'd think he'd want to keep a city of merchants under control."
The brown-haired girl looked at the doctor and he nodded.
"It's a woman. The true profit of the city is on the black market, on what happens inside a secret building all day long. Alcohol, food, and battles, the deals that are made there, and the contracts that are closed. At the Jianghu. Her guards don’t act because whoever controls it keeps paying her," she said. The doctor put the bottle down beside her and opened it. She was the first to bury two fingers in the goo. She pulled a portion of it out and started rubbing it on the worst parts of Bo's body.
"Jianghu? I've heard that word somewhere before," Aurora replied.
"It refers to the clandestine world of martial arts. It is where thieves, criminals, prostitutes, black market traders, among other low-level citizens meet. Most of the merchant cities have a place like that," Liu-Ken said. "Unfortunately, that is where we have to go. That's where we'll find who can help us," he said.
"I didn't know you were interested in hanging out with those kinds of people. Don't they go against the ideals you defend?" Aurora asked, trying to figure out what kind of people could help them to get to the Mizu School.
"Sometimes you have to embrace reality. Just because I don't agree with what they do doesn't mean that our goals aren't the same or at least similar. Besides, he's an old friend," Liu-Ken said. He was going to continue, but he was interrupted by the doctor.
"This is incredible. Even though it is the most powerful elixir we have, produced by the best alchemist in our city, it is unusual for a boy to heal himself so quickly," he said.
"His strong chi is working together with the elixir. His mind is still asleep. The body is working alone and absorbing the surrounding mana. Not that there's much around here but it's enough for him to stay afloat," Liu-Ken explained, and all the eyes in the room turned to him, "You don't get many visits from cultivators, do you?"
"Aren't we supposed to keep our identity a secret?" Aurora said, poking the mentor.
"We should. But after your little prank in the forest, I don't think our disguise
will last long. As soon as the boy gets better, we'll take him to the orphanage and get out of here," he said.
"What about the gang?" Aurora fired back.
"You should think better of me. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," Liu-Ken replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry... Don't get us wrong," the doctor started. "a lot of people here have only heard of cultivators in the immortal or heroic legends. They have never seen a cultivator in person. They stopped showing up regularly when the governor started paying them a percentage of the profits to pretend to be blind to what was happening here. They're all corrupt," he said.
"I see. Cultivators of the Kaji School, I presume."
"Yes, that's right. Three of them usually come to town once a month to receive their profits, but they go straight to her castle," the doctor explained. "if I may be so bold, did you say that this kid has a strong chi? Are you sure? Him?"
"Yes, him. I can feel it. But why? Do you know him?" Liu-Ken asked, his eyes dropping down to the kid, his wounds healing, his swelling diminishing, his pallor giving way to a rosy color.
"Now that I see him up close and without blood and swelling, yes. He is one of the kids that live at the orphanage. It's with great pity that I can't help them, you know? They live in precarious conditions, eating the leftovers they are given to them or what they get on the street. Nobody cares about them. The gang mistreats them, uses them as boot bags, and then still uses them for tasks they don't have the patience to do," the man explained. "This boy must have tried to run away," he said.
"I see. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do. We have to continue our journey," Liu-Ken said, coldness prevailing at that moment.
Aurora looked at him, "What is the point of having saved the boy if we leave him here to deal with the consequences?"
"Girl, we didn't save him. You saved him. I warned you not to. What's at stake is much bigger than that. I promise you, whatever you do here, it won't have any major impact. Even if we knock off this gang, maybe it won't pass a month before another gang shows up and collects what the previous gang lost," he said.
"So, what's the point of all this? Why are we doing this?"
"Because you can become the person who might change the world," Liu-Ken said. He had been careless. The little infirmary was stuck at that moment. Nobody moved. Everyone was listening to their conversation, "Let's stop here. We're attracting a lot of attention," he said.
"If my father couldn't do it, why could I?" Aurora whispered.
"Your potential is greater than..." Liu said when a man broke through the door, flying across the air, landing on his knees, his face in between.
When he got up, blood flowed through the cuts on the ground-covered clothes. He was an old man, the skin under his eyes already made of yellow layers. He leaned against the wall, sobbing, the words coming out as if a ghost were trying to convey a phrase from beyond and the meaning was getting lost on the way.
The redheaded girl ran to him and, by placing one of his hands around her neck, carried him until she sat him down on the platform. He said something in her ear and her eyes widened in shock.
"What's going on?" the doctor asked her. He curled the corner of his mustache and scratched his beard, keeping it straight and undoing the snails.
"The gang is here. He says there are thirty or forty, all armed with knives, swords, spears and even some with axes," she said, breathless, "They said that if they didn't leave in five minutes they would come in here and kill anyone who got in their way,"
Panic set in. Some of the patients, although wounded, their bodies scarred, some without a finger or a toe, struggled to get up, but ignored the pain, and tried to do so. Fear had absolute control over their bodies now. They were death's puppets and she played with them to her pleasure.
"Quiet," Liu-Ken said, for the first-time shouting, his voice making the walls tremble, throwing the most fragile bodies to the ground, "Aurora, get up. Let's go out,"
"What about him?" Aurora said, looking at the boy. She noticed that the redheaded girl was staring at one of her black tattoos and hid her arm behind her back.
"We'll come back for him. Now, it's time to face the consequences of your actions. You will stand behind me and in no moment will you act, are we clear? Don't get mad. Don't succumb to anger," he ordered. It was not the same person that Aurora had gotten used to. His features tightened, his breathing soothing, strong, a transparent blue film covering his body. Some of the flowery vases that decorated the place cracked due to the high pressure of the chi that he emanated. He took another gold coin out of his pocket and threw it to the doctor. It flipped over several times before falling into the man's hand, "save it. Don't show them that. Use it to buy new pills and elixirs," he said.
He grabbed Aurora by the collar and jerked him forward. From his back, he pulled out the flying sword. The gossipy voices increased. They were witnessing a unique event, one of those that gets jammed into their memories and is shared from parent to child. No one said anything to them except for the brown-haired girl who wished them good luck. Aurora thanked her.
Chapter 24
As they moved further on, the metallic tip of Liu-Ken's sword was dragged across the ground, and earth and sand mixed and swirled around, stretching the length of it.
"I'm a little rusty," Liu-Ken said. "but I should have no problem facing dozens of idiots," he added. The purple ring sparkled; Kagu showing that he was there and wouldn't hesitate to help if he was summoned.
Aurora could hear her own heart from so loud that it was racing. She did not doubt that if it had a chance, the bloody organ would have abandoned her by now. Liu-Ken opened the door and a gust of sandy wind forced them to cover their eyes.
Only when it calmed down could they see what awaited them on the other side; dozens and dozens of men, mostly fat men with filthy mustaches, dense fingers around their weapons, wearing dark and grimy clothes, rejoicing in the sunlight and in alcohol, longing for the bloodbath in which they would get drenched and feast.
Liu-Ken took a step forward. With the edge of the sword, he drew a line in the sand, two meters ahead of him.
"It was them! Let's show them who's in charge here!" the smaller one shouted, hidden amongst a dozen of them, the shrill voice difficult not to recognize.
A tidal wave of murmurs, victory roars and saliva being spat onto the ground swept across the main square. The gang had them surrounded on a half-moon. Merchants and citizens parked to see what was going on. From the buzz, Liu-Ken quickly realized that it was unusual for the gang to work in large numbers. After all, if they split up, their range would be bigger, as would their spoils.
"Who's first?" Liu-Ken asked. "I dare you to cross this line," he said and tapped the sword's sharp end on the ground. Rocks and sand still swirled around it.
"The first? Do you think this is one of the battles between cultivators where honor prevails? Here, at the end of the world, there is no such thing. Each one fights as he can and survives in the only way possible; killing the opponent. Advance!" One of the front-row men said. His muscled abs glowed in the sunlight, the V in his body well defined. He carried a metal-tipped wooden spear in his right hand and still had a small dagger under his brown leather belt. He was younger than most. The red hair up to his shoulders fluttered from side to side.
The moment stood still. The atmosphere had become heavy, the air difficult to breathe, even greasy. Liu-Ken imposed tremendous pressure. None of the men had ever faced a cultivator.
"What are you waiting for? Kill him. He can't beat us all," the red-haired guy shouted again.
Seven men rushed towards Liu-Ken, all armed with mere wooden sticks. The mentor did not move. Aurora was still behind him. She wanted to help him, to feel that she was being useful instead of standing there, being no more than a burden. Liu stepped back and jerked Mizumi, hitting the ground with the edge three times. Within seconds, a dust shield arose before them and, amid the fuss, agonizing screams and cries for help came from loud, harsh
voices.
When the dust had settled, the seven men were on the ground, clinging to their arms and legs, complaining of the pain, blood flowing down their skin and into the ground. They had dozens of slashes on their bodies, ranging from superficial to deep.
"No one else needs to be hurt," Liu-Ken said, his voice reverberating across the street. "Let's end this."
"What happened?" Aurora whispered, trying to figure out what had just happened. Even though she was now a cultivator, she was not yet able to keep up with the movements and techniques of her mentor.
"Pay attention," Liu-Ken told her, as some of the gang members chatted in groups, deciding what to do. "Look at the tip of the sword. I used the accumulated sand to distract them and the stones did the rest of the work. You have to follow the mana. It's like when we fought. If you feel its movements, you'll know what's going on," he said.
"This is harder than it looks," Aurora said. She kept her mask on, concealing that within herself a hubbub of anger was brewing. However, this time it was different. She was not angry with someone, not disgusted or repulsed, she was disappointed with herself. She now felt that all the effort she had put in during the nine days of training had served no purpose. Even though she could already control her black chi, she had not achieved much more than that. Yes, she had raised a dead man, but she wondered what it would be like to do it in a single moment of action, whether she would keep her emotions in check before they owned her once again.
Even that illusion trick and demonstration of power were not enough to scare the gang away. Several men had left their lines and were now carrying the wounded. Others had stepped into the front row to complete the siege that kept progressing, step by step, closing off the exit possibilities tightly. The men walked, shoulder to shoulder, weapons boasted, grunting until the sound drowned out their doubts and fears.
"Do not be afraid! They have nowhere to run!" the red-haired man, leader of the gang, according to what Liu noticed, shouted again. Beside him, two tall men seemed no more than mere dwarves when compared to his stature. He was wearing sandals with a string of compressed rice separating his big toe from the rest.
Awakening: (The Necromancer's Legacy Book 1) Page 12
