Chapter 5

Help you?

To take a charm pearl, someone versed in the art had to cut it out with a secret technique, then set up an array to bind it to a new master.

The binding also required half the vital blood in my body.

Had I not been born with nine tails, able to sacrifice them to extend my life, I would already be dead.

Those who practiced the Way were meant to cultivate blessings and good fortune.

Yet for his own gain, he’d treated another creature’s life as worthless. He had thoroughly earned his present fate.

Crouching before him, I slowly leaned forward and gave him an unsettling smile.

“All right. I’ll help you.”

After all, you had to give me back what was mine.

When the Daoist woke, I was sitting at the battered little table in his battered shack.

I’d taken the appearance of a young man before leaving the Eastern Palace. Seeing me, he managed to say,

“Thank you for saving me, young brother…”

He tried to push himself upright, but his injuries left him scarcely able to move.

He could only lie back down. “As you can see… I have so little left. I have nothing to repay you with…”

I chuckled. “That won’t do.”

He stared.

I pointed at a tiny medicine bottle on the table and rested my chin in my hand, regarding him at leisure.

“One pill costs a fortune, and I gave you two to save your life. You think saying you have nothing to repay me with settles the matter?”

“You’re a cultivator. If you have no money, you must have some useful skills. A secret cultivation manual would do, at a pinch.”

He stammered, “Judging by your dress, your speech, and such miraculous medicine, you must come from an exceptional family. How could my meager skills interest you…?”

He gave a bitter smile. “If I really had any ability, would I have fallen this far?”

I nodded. “Fair point.”

I picked up the medicine bottle and rose to leave.

“If you’d had something to trade, I’d have accepted a little loss and left you this bottle.”

“Your meridians are completely severed. With this medicine, I can’t promise a full recovery, but at least you could move freely and be spared the pain of your cut tendons. With proper care and enough time, you might even regain a little strength in your fists and feet.”

“But since you’re so poor, I’m afraid this is all I can do.”

“Oh, by the way. When I carried you back, the men who robbed you were still lurking nearby.”

I looked back with a smile. “Do take care when you go out, Master.”

Just before my final step across the threshold, he cried hoarsely,

“Benefactor, wait!”