Fei Hou Tian

“Remember that time four years ago, when Sung Pin caught that Purple Tailed Manticore?” I pat junior apprentice brother Sung Pin on the shoulder. His body rocked forward and buckled, but he laughed anyway.

“Yeah, but you caught the leader of their pack, did you?” he joked back. I grabbed a flask of juice and downed it in one go, guffawing with everybody else in our circle.

“That was a good hunt!” I declared, “It’s been so long since we had that much fun!”

Isn’t life merry? Is there anything better than sitting in a circle in the middle of the night, laughing and joking with friends?

Our tight circle sat around a stormy fire. We each held a metal rod with a chunk of meat at the end. Fat dripped off the meat, adding fuel to the fire. Last time we did this, we had been camping one of the nearby forests. But this time we were camping in the middle of a city.

No, I’m not homeless.

It was a new experience for me and my buddies. We weren’t the only ones doing this. Dozens of tens were set up around us, camping in front a shop with a sign that read, “Jin’s Medicine House.” Next to that sign were two others. One read, “Troublemakers Die. One piece of medicine per person, bring a minimum of ten thousand soul shards.” The other said, “Closed.”

The name of the shop reminded me of my good friend Jin. I had met him more than a month ago, in the Blue Fire Alchemy Garden. I owed him about a thousand shards, but I could never find him to pay him back. It had become a shadow lingering over my heart.

The medicine house had only been open for four days and it had already become famous. They only took one customer at a time, and they rejected most of them. It was the middle of the night, but there was still a huge line waiting for when they opened again.

Everybody in line was either somebody with strong backing or somebody with strong personal power. The heads of huge companies and elders of small sects numbered among them. People who didn’t reach a certain power threshold didn’t dare join the line.

There was one reason they were so eager to meet buy from Grandmaster Jin. There were many people who would pay sumptuous prices for certain medicine, but there wasn’t anybody selling. He sold medicine at low rates, he even gave one out for free! Even if he didn’t have the medicine on him at the moment, there was a chance he would be willing to create one just for you! It was an unprecedented display of generosity. Nobody knew how long he would keep it up.

I didn’t care about the wait, eating and camping out with my friends was more fun than anything. More fun than cultivating, that’s for sure! We finished dinner and went to sleep with full bellies.

We woke up the next morning to cheers of joy. I crawled out of my tent saw the sign that had said “closed” had flipped to say “open”. The person first in line tentatively pushed the door open and walked in.

We saw his figure through two blurry windows. There were a total of three people in the shop, the person who had just walked in and two others who were already inside.

We waited and waited, but neither of them moved. They seemed to be talking about something. A long while later, he exited the room in tears. A small box was squeezed between his arms and chest. He held onto it as if it were more precious than his own life.

The next was one of my seniors from the Sapphire Flame Sect. She walked in and promptly left with an ugly expression on her face.

“Elder Sister, why were you kicked out so fast?” I asked her.

“Oh, it’s Young Master Fei,” she shook her head gently, “I don’t know why, he asked me a couple simple questions and told me to leave.”

The next five groups were also rejected, and none of them knew why. Finally, it was my turn. I wasn’t nervous. I was just buying medicine, there wasn’t anything to be nervous about. If I fail, I’ll have had fun. If I succeed, I’ll have had fun. Win-Win! I grabbed a suitcase of money with one hand and opened the door with the other.

My eyes swept across the empty room until they fell on the two people sitting behind a counter. One was a masked young lady wearing a black dress. The other was…

“Brother Jin?” I said.

“If it isn’t brother Hou Tian!” he smiled and winked, “you here to pay me that thousand soul shards from before?” The woman leaned and whispered something into brother Jin’s ear.

I felt tears gather at the ends of my eyes. My vision turned blurry. “I’m so sorry, brother Jin! I couldn’t find you earlier! I thought I looked everywhere. I’m sorry!”

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” He said twice. “It’s my fault, I’m the one who suddenly moved. You don’t need to pay me back.”

Joy blossomed from in heart. What a nice brother! I wiped away my tears. “Thank you.”

“Anyway, what medicine do you want? If it’s for you, I’ll give any medicine under the fourth cycle for free.”

I lifted my briefcase. “I won’t waste your time, brother. I’ll get straight to the point. How much would I have to pay for a fifth cycle Blood Life Pill?”

“Oh, this one is a pain,” he replied. “Do you know how hard it is to refine Blood Life Pills?”

I nodded.

“I have Blood Life Pills at the fourth cycle. I think I’ll be able to get one up to the fifth cycle with a bit of practice,” he looked at my briefcase. “How about this. I’ll make the pill for you, but you’ll owe me a couple big favors. Does that sound good?”

“A couple favors will be fine. Brother Jin is a good person, I can tell!” I said.

“Perfect. How fast do you need that pill?” he asked.

“It’s not very urgent. So anytime,” I said.

“Hm… come back in ten days. It was nice to see you again, I hope to see you soon,” he said.

“We will!”

“By the way… I know I haven’t given you the pill yet, but please do a small favor for me. Tell me if you see anything fishy going on in your sect. A couple of the other people who came told me about weird stuff happening in the city, and in their sects,” said Jin.

“I haven’t heard anything,” I said, “But I don’t pay much attention to my sect, so I’ll start to keep an eye out. I can’t reveal any sect secrets though.”

“That’s fine, you don’t need to reveal any secrets. Just tell me if anything odd happens.”