Under the steely gaze of the cultivator, one of the bandits immediately points at Ren and shouts, "He ran up and punched Ratty for no good reason!"
"I did not!" Ren says before quickly correcting himself, "Well, no, I
did punch, uh, 'Ratty', but I had a good reason!"
Ratty snorts through his broken nose from his place on the ground, his voice distorted and nasal, "Oh, yeah? Now why'd you go and do a thing like that, huh?"
Ren waves a hand at the pile of bodies, "You were digging a mass grave!"
Ratty's jaw drops, "Would you rather we just left them out to
rot?!" The rest of the bandits voice their agreement with Ratty, some of them even shooting Ren dirty looks.
"I would rather you not have killed them at all!" Ren retorts, a strange nostalgia rising in his heart. How many times did he have arguments like this with his brothers?
A heavy groan splits the air as the sound of flesh against flesh smacks out. The cultivator pulls the hand away from his face as he sighs, "No, neither I nor my men killed the miners. The tiger, which I killed, did that," he nods towards the tiger monster's corpse.
Ren shifts, lifting his hands into a ready stance, "What would you have done had the tiger not been here? Would you have killed the miners?"
The cultivator squints, "Are you stupid?"
Ren blinks, taken aback, "W-what?"
"The miners were servants of the Heavenly Star Sect," the cultivator says with a certain slow cadence, as if explaining things to a child. "It would be
stupid of us to pick a fight with a big sect like that. Not having to fight a sect is
so much easier than fighting one, you got that?" The rest of the bandits voice their agreement with their leader.
"So you wouldn't have killed the miners?" Ren repeats, struggling to keep up with the whiplash of tension.
"No," the cultivator says with flat certainty. After a moment, he shakes his head and changes the subject, "Look, you're obviously one of the more reasonable sorts of cultivators, yeah? Could've easily killed Ratty," Ratty looks a bit argumentative at that, but stays quiet, "but you didn't, which, thank you for by the way."
"I... You're welcome?"
"Seriously," the cultivator shakes his head with a heavy sigh, "do you know how hard it is to find competent minions that
don't want to betray you? It isn't easy, I'll tell you that!" The gathered bandits add their agreement in a chorus of 'yeah, boss!' and 'you said it, boss!'.
"Regardless," the cultivator continues, "you're a reasonable sort, so we can settle this without any further bloodshed, yeah?"
"I, I suppose that is a, um," Ren hesitates, stumbling through the conversation like a newborn deer, "a reasonable thing to ask, yes."
"Good," the cultivator brightens with a broad smile, metal-coated teeth gleaming in the sun, "My name is Fa Fo Lung."
"Fa Fo Lung?" Ren blinks, recognition sparking. That family name with that generation name, where has he heard it before? It's a Valleyman surname if Ren's ever heard one before, they tend to prefer names with shorter syllable counts. Fa Fo, Fa Fo, wait, that's it! "Any relation to Fa Fo Fang, Warlord of Hacksaw Island?"
Fa Fo Lung pauses, his smile dimming ever-so-slightly, "My older brother, yes."
Ah, sibling trouble, "Well, my name is Shang Rou Ren."
Lung blinks, "Shang Rou? Like Shang Rou Fang, the father of international banking?"
Ren's lips thin, "My older brother, yes."
A beat passes as Ren and Lung gaze upon each other, each with a certain new light. Lung cracks a grin first, "I'll be honest, I was considering killing you." Ren tenses, only for Lung to lift a hand in a calming gesture, "Note the usage of past tense, please. I couldn't sleep easy knowing I'd killed a fellow Fang sufferer, just wouldn't be right of me."
"But you're fine with the killing?"
Lung laughs, big and long, a proper full-belly guffaw, "Kid, you're new to being a cultivator, aren't you?" Ren's silence speaks volumes. Lung hangs his head for a moment before sighing. Taking a seat on the front step of the dormitory, he motions for one of the bandits to bring a crate over. "Alright, listen, take a seat," Ren looks to the offered seat and, seeing nothing overtly off with it, cautiously does as asked, "Being a cultivator means standing atop a mountain of corpses. When two cultivators meet, they either part on at least semi-amicable terms or not at all. Killing," Lung taps a thick finger against his plate-sized kneecap, "is just a part of being a cultivator."
Ren's lips thin, brows knitting together above his gaze. The way Lung says that, it's almost like he's reading off a script. Words he's memorized yet not his own. Or maybe Ren is just reading too much into it? Regardless, "I... I'll keep that in mind."
"Good," Lung smiles, "So, then, shall we get down to business? What's brought you to the mine?"
"Cinnabar," Ren says, causing Lung's brows to lift, "Cinnabar and paper."
"Cinnabar and paper, eh?" Lung snorts, "Seems we've more in common than just older brothers after all." Flicking fingers at two of his bandits, he says, "Toad Twitchy, grab some cinnabar from the warehouse. If you can scrounge up some paper too, that'd be great."
"What would a bandit need with cinnabar?" Ren asks with narrowed eyes.
"The Big Chief," 'Big Chief'? So, Lung isn't the one in charge, more a lieutenant, perhaps? "got herself a talisman expert. 's why I'm here, in fact, to buy cinnabar from the miners. Course, that fell through with the whole tiger monster thing." Lung hums as he scratches at his forearm, "You know, there've been a lot more monsters about recently. You know anything about that?"
"...No."
Lung squints, holding Ren's gaze for a long time before shrugging as Toad and Twitchy come back with two boxes in hand. "Ah, well, I don't really care either way."
Accepting the boxes from the minions, Ren cracks one open to find it full of cinnabar crystals. Red and shiny, the light catches them just so as Ren gently closes the lid. The other box is much the same way, though this one contains paper rather than crystals.
As Ren examines the boxes, he considers Lung's words. Lung said that this Big Chief has a talisman expert, and Ren has a talisman that needs copying. Seems a problem just found a solution.
"Would this talisman expert be accepting commissions?" Ren idly asks as he takes the boxes under arm.
Lung scratches his chin, "Dunno, but the Chief would probably let him if you asked nicely. And paid, of course," he laughs, "but that's just a given."
"Right, right... Could you give me directions to the Big Chief?"
Lung scoffs, a chuckle slipping through his lips, "I'm not that stupid, kid. I'll go talk to the Chief, put a good word in for yah, see if she's feeling like making a deal. If she's open to the idea, then we'll be back tomorrow. If she isn't, then we won't show and you can assume the offer was denied."
"And what happens if
I don't show up?" Ren asks with narrowing eyes.
Lung shrugs, "Well, nothing if we don't show, I guess. But, if we
do show and you
don't," his eyes harden as he leans in, voice deathly serious. "Making the Chief waste her day is a surefire way of winding up dead, you got that?"
"Fair enough, I guess," Ren answers around a swallow, finding himself unconsciously leaning back.
The mood having soured, Ren reckons it's as good a time as any to take his leave. Bidding the bandits farewell, Ren moves towards the forest, and towards Yuanding.
As he leaves, however, the voice of one of the bandits catches his ear on the way out, "Guy needs to take a damn shower, smells like fox brains."
The walk back to the grotto was done in silence, a silence broken only as Ren and Yuanding step through the stone archway and into the safety of the talisman.
"Shang Rou Ren," three words, yet said in such a way to make the hairs on Ren's neck stand on end, "do you know what you have done?"
Ren pauses, meeting Yuanding's glare with a look of confusion. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean?"
Yuanding folds his arms, his bow slung across his back, "How do you intend to get this so-called 'talisman expert' to copy the talisman?"
Ren opens his mouth to answer, only to close it as realization strikes like a thunderbolt. "Shit," Ren curses with a scowl, "maybe I
am stupid..."
In order for the talisman expert to make a copy, he will have to actually
see the talisman. That means that either Ren will have to bring the talisman to the meeting, and therefore rob the gingko of its protection, or bring a bunch of bandits
into the grotto and thereby rob the gingko of its secrecy. A lose-lose situation.
To make matters worse, Ren didn't even have to put them in it! But he just
had to open his big mouth and ask a question, just like he always does. This always happens, failure after failure. Damn his impulsiveness and damn
him.
And it's not like they even
have anything to pay this 'Big Chief' wi- Wait, hold on a second. Ren's brows furrow as he grasps the passing idea with both hands, holding on for dear life.
"There is a silver lining to all of this," Ren eventually says as Yuanding scoffs.
"And what silver is there to be made in this mess? Do tell, I'm eager to listen."
"We do actually have something to pay the bandits with, two things actually," Ren says as Yuanding frowns. "The fox's core of yang and," Yuanding's eyes widen as his jaw drops, "access to the gingko."
A vein pulses on Yuanding's brow, his bow drawn and aimed in the space between heartbeats. A long-feathered arrow gleams in the sunlight, its iron broadhead aimed directly at Ren's face. "You have one chance to explain yourself, make it count."
Sweat beads on Ren's brow as he freezes, hands splayed wide in surrender. As a cultivator, Ren shouldn't fear Yuanding's threat, yet with his wounds, the distance between them, and the speed of Yuanding's draw... There is a reason the Heavenly Star Sect picked a mortal to guard a treasure like the gingko, and Ren just found it.
"If we have to bring the bandits here anyways," Ren forces through clenching jaw, "then we might as well get as much as possible out of it."
Yuanding's stare holds firm even as his aim wavers ever so slightly. Eventually, he scowls and releases tension on the string, a sigh leaving his lips as age finally catches up with him, "Fine, but... Just, just fine."
Yuanding trudges off to his hut, the door slamming in his wake. Ren stands alone in the grotto, the sway of the gingko his only companion.
0~0~0
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