Destiny in Cinders

”I didn’t think that paying them off once was enough to get them hooked. They started bringing their goods once every few days and forced me to buy it!” Shen Mubai dragged out a box of goods from the house, annoyed.

An Jing was surprised to see some grains and northern-frontier nutrient staples like sour pomegranate and pickled vegetables. ”Oh, the food’s actually decent. I thought they’d just give a box of dried rations and stones. Getting actual food isn’t that bad, right?”

”Sigh... Do you know how much this costs? Thirty liang!”

The price stunned both An Jing and Bai Qinghan.

”Thirty liang?!” He looked at the food that could last someone two to three days at most, furrowing his brow. ”Just for this? One or two liang would already be unreasonable! It’s not like trade routes are completely cut off due to the snow calamity... Thirty liang!”

Even the demonic cult wouldn’t stoop that low.

”One can buy jadedew with that kind of money,” Bai Qinghan said softly. ”A whole bottle of jadedew is only thirty-five liang and is enough to live off for ten whole days.”

”I know, right?” Shen Mubai shook her head. Then, she heard footsteps approaching once more and scratched her head with a troubled look. ”They’re here again. Son, I know you don’t lack any money, but you can’t waste it like this either. Can you get them to stop? We’ll leave this place soon anyway.”

”No problem.” There’s no way he would say no to his mother’s request.

Outside the gate was a squad of impatient martialists in thick, blue cotton vests. One of the older ones among them said, ”Brother, there’s no need to go this far, is there? There’s a martialist in this household. I can tell from his resonant voice that he’s probably at the Tide Aura Stage. It’s not like not collecting payment from one household will affect us much.”

”Stop trying to get smart on me!” said the somewhat plump leader. ”It doesn’t matter if there’s a martialist or not. They still need to eat all the same! Either they get out of the city or pay up! If they can’t afford it, they can simply mortgage the house. We need to make room for our fellow brothers in the guild, after all. The locals that plague this city will all be driven away eventually.”

He didn’t speak that loudly and wasn’t worried about being overheard due to the raging blizzard, not that he cared about hiding their intentions in the slightest. They were so arrogant that they didn’t bother to even put up a pretense. The Bejeweled Traders Guild simply didn’t need one. They controlled all the supply channels in Riverside and monopolized a key commodity for survival, after all. The payment collectors’ actual mission was to sweep up all the property deeds of that crucial street in the city to pave the way for the guild’s future operations anyway. The top brass didn’t say anything about collecting payment, so the money that these collectors took all went into their own pockets instead. There was no way they would just walk away empty handed.

”This is one arrogant household indeed,” the leader said, tapping his leg furiously. ”I hope they don’t think we’ll leave just like that.”

He raised his hand and waved two martialists over. ”Ope—”

The gate swung open all of a sudden, pushing a wave of air out that blew the two martialists backward a dozen steps. The leader raised his arms to guard his head reflexively.

An Jing stepped out of the gate and ignored the furious, grumbling martialists. Instead, he looked around the street and saw two other squads of collectors. They seemed like they were extorting payment rather than simply collecting it. It was true that the guild provided food and fuel, but they charged an exorbitant price that few households would actually be able to afford. Yet, not paying wasn’t an option either as nobody else in the city was allowed to sell those commodities.

”How can you feed your family if you can’t afford it? Oh well, we’re not demons, after all. Just sign this contract.”

”Your house? You can continue to stay here, of course. But you’ll have to move out once the snow calamity is over.”

An Jing heard pieces of the conversation unfolding at a nearby house. Some people actually sold their houses and received quite a huge supply of food in boxes far larger than the one his mother had shown him. It looked sufficient to last a family through the beast tide, but it definitely wasn’t worth nearly as much as the house.

An Jing turned back to the martialists from the guild and applied a formless pressure that caused the grumbling ones to quiet down subconsciously.

”You want thirty liang for something like that?” An Jing said with a half-smile. ”You’d already be making massive profits by charging two or three liang, right?”

”Take it or leave it! No haggling!” said the leader as he marched over angrily, causing his double chin to jiggle. ”Also, you’re not just paying for food. You’re also paying for the protection that Bejeweled offers! Look over there!”

The martialist turned to a pile of rubble at the other end of the street. ”The city’s been quite chaotic recently. Lots of bandits and robbers sneak in and cause trouble. If you don’t want your house to burn down at night out of nowhere, you better pay up! We’re providing a service here! It’s no charity!”

Faced with that barely veiled threat, An Jing wasn’t mad in the slightest. In fact, he felt a wave of nostalgia. ”Sometimes, I think to myself that people this stupid can’t possibly exist in this world. But from another point of view, you guys are quite smart and capable. It’s no wonder you’re able to make so much money. You just keep winning, don’t you? Then again, there’s no such thing as a never-ending streak. There’ll come a day when you’ll lose it all.”

An Jing raised his arm and swept it across the air without waiting for a reply, causing a formless ripple to slam into the squad of martialists. The next moment, they were sent flying like plates and bowls on a table that just had its tablecloth pulled out from under it, arcing beautifully across the air before landing a few streets away.

”Someone made a move!”

”Quick! Notify headquarters!”

The other two squads on the same street noticed something and immediately retreated as quickly as they could. ”We need backup! There’s a Fortification martia—”

An Jing raised a finger and pointed it in the direction of the two squads, causing them to fall down to the snowy ground and twitch uncontrollably. His Minor Yang Sword Art had stimulated the vitality in their muscles, causing them to lose motor control. An Jing had gone easy on them. Otherwise, all of them would lose an appendage or two at least.

”Qinghan,” he said without turning back, signalling for her to protect his mother.

”Jing’er, what are you going to do?” Shen Mubai asked, peeking out from the gate. Though she felt a rush of delight at seeing her son send those martialists flying, she found it weird that he didn’t come right back in. ”Should we start packing up and leave?”

”No, Mom. I have to deal with something first.” An Jing’s initial plan was to leave Riverside as soon as possible to go to Brokeblade Mountain for Yvelbane’s fragment. However, his interest had been piqued. ”The guild’s ’fellow brothers’ are going to come here, huh? Is Bejeweled going to move all their employees here? What’s so special about Riverside?”

He didn’t have anything concrete to base his suspicions on, but he had a feeling that some machinations were playing out behind the scenes in Riverside. It must have something to do with heavenly fiends and Grand Chen. He wouldn’t give up on a chance like that and planned to go to Xu Tai to see what the situation there was like.

Hearing what her son just said, Shen Mubai knew that there was no stopping him once he put his mind to it, just like when he had decided to sell himself to the demonic cult to save her. No amount of respect for his mother could stop him from going through with what he wanted to do.

”Then, I’ll find a place to hide,” Shen Mubai said with a sigh. ”Stay safe!”

”I will. Take care, Mom.” An Jing smiled. Then, his figure trembled and vanished before their eyes.