Chapter 40: Annoyances and Revelations

A/N: Hey guys. Just a quick bit of bad news first, sorry. I've been sick the last couple of days, and it only seems to be getting worse. I'v

A/N: Hey guys. Just a quick bit of bad news first, sorry. I've been sick the last couple of days, and it only seems to be getting worse. I've fallen behind with my writing because of that, so I think it might be for the best if I take a short break until next Friday.

Hopefully, I can get better in that time and maybe catch back up a bit too with my backlog so the story doesn't come out rushed. I'm really sorry about this since the Patreon just started but I think it will be for the best. I hope you all understand and thank you to all of you for supporting me so far.

“Young Master Qian Zhi,” Pan Song said, breaking the short silence that had fallen between us. He gave a small bow to Qian Zhi first and then to the rest of the guy's goons. “And members of the Qian Clan.”

I bow slightly as well. Even though there was obvious antagonism between our two groups, there was no point and making ourselves out to be rude. Especially not when Foundation Establishment elders might be watching. Even if it was more likely they were ignoring anything happening on the lower deck of the ship.

At the same time, however, I couldn’t help but notice Yin Tai wasn’t here. Though perhaps it was because he’d already taken the trial before, like Lin and Jianfeng. Then again… perhaps that was because he was planning or working towards an assassination right now. One I still didn’t know anything about or could do anything about. Damn.

“Hold your tongue, bumpkin,” one of Qian Zhi's goons said. It was the same guy who’d spoken up earlier, and the guy who called Pan Song out at the Starguard Hall. Scarface was what I called him in my head, as I still hadn’t learned his name. “A charlatan like yourself is not worthy of speaking directly to the Young Master.”

Behind him, Qian Zhi didn’t even seem to be paying attention to us, acting indifferent. Instead, he was looking up at the upper decks of the ships where the Silver Star Starguards were… And apparently Xing Yaling, as well. She was easily recognizable with her snow-white hair. She hadn’t been at the meeting point in front of the Starguard Hall. Had she been here the whole time, then? It would make sense, given the amount of attention she would have gotten otherwise.

But that wasn’t important right now. So I turned my attention back down to a more immediate concern in front of me. As I did, I noticed the white fox around Qian Zhi’s neck. The stupid thing was watching us intently. It was a bit unnerving. Although perhaps that was just because of my encounter with the super-powerful fox woman from before. 

“Very well, if that’s the case, then we will depart,” Pan Song said. Seems he wanted to put an end to this tiresome situation as quickly as possible. Good, I felt the same. “Excuse us.”

With that, the two of us tried to walk off. 

But, of course, the goons weren’t going to make it that simple. They stepped closer, the five goons blocking us in. We could probably have just pushed past them, but I wasn’t sure if they wouldn’t try to claim that by doing that, we had tried to start a fight. Which left Pan Song and I stuck for now with this pointless encounter.

“Please move,” I said to the guy in front of me. He had really bushy eyebrows but a chiseled jaw. I didn’t glare at him but instead just gave him a flat stare. From this close-up, even without my Earth Sense, I could tell that this guy was only early Qi-Gathering. Two of the others were as well, while Qian Zhi and Scarface were at Mid Qi Gathering.

All together a potent force if we got into a straight-up fight. But just like us, they wouldn’t want to start anything here either, so I wasn’t afraid. 

Bushy Brows just gave me an impassive look and didn’t move his large frame. None of the other goons did either as Scarface continued to talk.

“We’ll be leaving in a moment,” Scarface said, a sneer on his face. He directed it to me for a moment before turning his attention back to Pan Song. “But first, I have a message to give to the Bumpkin.”

Pan Song frowned. “And what is that?”

“Because the Young Master is quite magnanimous,” Scarface said, sounding pompous and snooty, “he has deigned to give you one last chance. To admit to your lies here in front of so many promising young cultivators, and later back at the Starguard Square. To admit that your claims of Mastery were due to your own arrogance and ignorance. And that your pathetic attempts with the Amber Blossom Pagoda Ruins were nothing but you taking advantage of already degrading formations.”

Pan Song gave Scarface a look of incredulity when he was done. And I couldn’t blame him. Seriously? They were still going on about this? Did they really think they could intimidate us like this? Given how annoying they’d been, and even the amount of effort they took to try and sabotage Pan Song—sabotage that he was sure could have killed him if he’d missed it—it seemed absurd that they felt like they could get him to back down like this.

Especially here during the trial. With Foundation Establishment Masters watching over everything, the worst they could do to us would be to force us to fail the trial. That was hardly enough to make me back down. And Pan Song seemed to think the same.

“I’ll have to reject the Young Master magna… magni—generosity,” Pan Song said through gritted teeth. “Since he is still wrong about his assumptions. Something that others have noted now as well.”

Scarface’s face scrunched up in anger at that, and from behind him, Qian Zhi turned to give Pan Song a narrowed-eyed gaze. The rest of the goons bristled as well.

Pan Song tensed up at that, and I did too. For a moment, it felt like things might devolve into a fight despite where we were. But then Qian Zhi let out a snort and shook his head. 

“Some people just don’t know what’s good for them,” Qian Zhi said before dismissing us again and looking back up at the upper decks. His next words were said very quietly. So much so that I had to strain to hear him. “Or understand the dangers they are in… After all, despite the precautions for the trials, there have been deaths before. You would do well to remember that, in case the rules are what makes you feel so safe.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Was that an idle threat or not? And why was he so focused on the upper decks? 

I turned to go look at the upper decks again, trying to see what he might be focusing on. Was he just focused on Xing Yaling or something? Then I noticed something that made a cold feeling start to rise up in my gut. One of the Silver Star Starguards, who were here to ensure the rules were followed and no one died, was wearing Qian Clan robes. 

But that couldn’t be what he was relying on, could it? I’ve heard a lot about how strict the Starguard were when it came to policing their trials and violence in their halls. Someone having an inside man shouldn’t be new or an unknown, right? They should have ways to prevent something like that.

I looked back to Qian Zhi, just in time to meet his eyes. He seemed to have noticed what I’d been looking at as he smirked. Then he let out a small laugh before shaking his head and turning around. 

“Come on, men,” he said, drawing the attention of all his goons. “No need to waste time with them anymore. We can resolve things in the trial. After that, they won’t be problems any longer.“

Scarface gave us one last glare before turning to follow Qian Zhi as he left. The rest of the goons did the same, and soon we were watching their backs as they left. Though for some reason that damned fox kept its gaze locked onto us until they disappeared behind another group of people.

I turned to Pan Song when they were finally out of sight. Worry filled me as I couldn’t help but think about my realization.

Pan Song's eyes widened when he caught sight of the look on my face. “What’s wrong? I’m sure that comment was just his last attempt to get under our skin. I’ve asked around a lot about the trial, and there's no way they’ll manage to do anything but take us out of the trial.”

“Even if one of the overseers is part of the Qian Clan?” I asked softly, gesturing with my head to the upper deck.

Pan Song frowned and turned to look. When he saw what I was seeing, his frown deepened. Then, to my surprise, he shook his head.

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Pan Song said. “I’ve asked around a lot about the trial, and even asked Young Miss Sun Xia about it as well, given Qian Zhi's threats. Everyone seemed quite sure that we had nothing to worry about. That Qian Clan member shouldn’t have gone unnoticed by everyone else either, and none of them mentioned it.”

I nodded slowly as I considered that. “You’re probably right. He’s just trying to scare us cause there’s nothing left he can do. Even if he knocks us out of the trial, that just means a month delay for our entrance into the Starguard.”

Still, despite saying that, I couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. Even more so when I notice Qian Zhi moving towards the stairs to the upper deck. His goons waited at the base of the stairs as he went up. 

All the while, something seemed to be tugging at the back of my mind. Something was wrong. Something familiar though…

Oh! Wait a minute. What the hell?

I looked away from Qian Zhi and down at my robes. With narrowed eyes, I focused on the feeling that I’d just realized was much more real than I thought. It was coming from a spot on the bottom of my robes. And while I couldn’t see anything regardless of how much I looked, I was definitely feeling something. 

Something I’d gotten even more familiar with over the last couple of days. Foxfire.

If what I was feeling was right, there was a trace of foxfire on my robes. Invisible to sight and most of my senses. But not to my sensitivity to the flames quite similar but far weaker to what was roiling around near my stomach. And it was pretty damned obvious where it had come from.

I looked up again, back at Qian Zhi, and saw that he was talking to the Qian Clan member. But my focus wasn’t on him. It was on the mangy little white rat settled over his shoulder. Damned foxes. Was this some kind of insidious attack?

I looked back down at the foxfire and probed at it gently. I didn’t want to alert the owner to what I was doing, but I needed to figure out what was going on. If it was trying to seep into me, then this was potentially something rather serious. 

However, the more I probed it, the more I realized that it seemed inert. It just clung to the edge of my robe, and it seemed to be doing its best to hide from notice. So much so that it shied away from touching me in any way.

So, it was likely not a stealthy attack. Instead… it was more likely a tracker of some kind. Given my ability to feel foxfire despite how far it was from me—except for that little bit that fox woman had taken, which still worried me—it was likely the fox could do the same. 

So the bastard had marked me…

Or maybe us.

I turned to look at Pan Song, moving closer to try and feel if there was anything similar on him.

“What’s wrong?” Pan Song asked, noticing me. 

“Give me a sec,” I said, trying not to draw any attention to what I was doing. My sense for other forms of foxfire wasn’t that strong, but I was pretty sure that I could feel it if—yes! There it was.

Fucking prick.

“The asshole marked us,” I hissed quietly, making Pan Song's eyes widen.

“How?”

“That fox of his,” I said, turning back to look at Qian Zhi. Only to see now that he and the Qian Clan Elder had walked over to Xing Yaling and Elder Shen Di. “It used a barely noticeable type of foxfire to cling to our robes.”

“Are you sure that’s all it does,” Pan Song asked urgently from beside me. “And not like what was implanted in you before?”

“Pretty sure,” I said after a moment, watching Qian Zhi talking to Xing Yaling. Something felt off about the sight. And it wasn’t just jealousy that made it feel like that. I mean, it wasn’t jealousy at all. “I can sense it quite well cause of my cultivation.”

Pan Song and I had trained together a few times over the last couple of days. We were more focused on our own improvements but still took the time to make sure we could work as a team. Which meant I needed to tell him a bit about what I could do, including foxfire. He’d also heard the story about what happened with the first foxfire scare after I’d been deemed free of any hidden troubles after the encounter with the fox lady.

So, despite the worry in his voice, he seemed to trust my judgment on what the foxfire was doing.

“So what should we do?” Pan Song asked. “Do we report it to the Trial Overseers?”

I took a moment to ponder that as I continued to watch Qian Zhi try to chat up Xing Yaling. She didn’t look particularly interested, but the bastard seemed to want to draw things out. At the same time, the fox on his shoulder seemed to be quite interested in the Ice Fairy as well… Something about that seemed off to me. 

“I’m not sure if it would be worth it,” I said, frowning as I tried to also figure out what else was wrong with what I was seeing. “I doubt it would even be enough to get him kicked out of the trial. It's not an attack or anything, just a bit of cheating. In fact, we might be able to use this to our advantage.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure if we just cut off the part of our robes the foxfire is attached to, we can leave it behind. Depending on how things go, we might be able to mislead them using that and make sure that they end up far away from us. If we don’t reveal things and do that, then they won’t even think to try another method to find us until it's too late.”

“That could work…” Pan Song said. Then he shook his head. “Still, it seems he really is out to get us. So much so that he wants to ensure he can find us.”

“Yeah…” I said, watching as Xing Yaling seemed to dismiss Qian Zhi. But I couldn’t feel happy about that because he didn't look deterred at all. Instead, he just turned away and walked off. When I saw his face again as he walked down the stairs, I couldn't help but notice how triumphant he looked as he petted his fox. 

It reminded me of the look he gave us before he left. After he’d marked us with foxfire…

But why would he mark Xing Yaling? Given what I heard about her, and the fact that she was at the late stage of Qi-Gathering, I doubted they could try to mess with her in the trial even if they were inclined to do that. And if she found them annoying enough, she could just knock them out of the trial. So what would be the point? She didn’t seem that interested in hearing whatever he had to say.

Unless…

I couldn’t help but think back to five days ago. Back at the ruins, when I’d overheard Yin Tai speaking with those other people of the Qian Clan. About how they found a way in, and they were trying to kill a powerful female cultivator. One that they had to be very careful with taking out, and how they wanted to attract the attention of her sect.

My first thought back then had been that they were talking about Xing Yaling. But I’d dismissed the idea since it seemed far-fetched, and they never referred to the girl they were talking to by name. But seeing Qian Zhi's interest in her and possibly marking her like he did us. And his threats about death earlier, implying he could kill us.

If those weren’t just idle threats… Then was it possible that this was what they meant? They had a way of infiltrating the trial and killing someone? Which might mean that they were going to try to kill Xing Yaling in the trial. And more importantly, that meant they actually might be trying to kill us here, too!

Shit.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Pan Song asked, breaking me from my spiraling thoughts. 

I took a second to take a breath and calm myself down. I was making a lot of assumptions. Buying into Qian Zhi’s threats. And given the amount of attention Xing Yaling seemed to gather, there were plenty of far less sinister reasons for Qian Zhi to try and talk to her. Still, he had looked like he got exactly what he wanted despite being sent away…

However, that might not mean that the assassination attempt would happen at the trial. Perhaps he was just taking the opportunity to mark her now for later. Yet that was still a problem, and I still couldn’t help but think of the worst-case scenario.

“We might have a problem,” I said after a moment as Pan Song continued to give me a worried look. Then I went on to explain what I thought after making sure no one else was close enough to overhear.

Pan Song seemed more than a little skeptical about my thoughts. But given the frown on his face, he couldn’t quite dismiss it either. The only question left now was, what would we do about this?

“Do you think we should tell one of the Trial Overseers?” I asked after giving him time to think things through.

Pan Song’s frown deepened, then he shook his head and sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. It would be our word against theirs. And you can just dismiss your foxfire whenever you want. If they can do that too, and we aren’t discreet or fast enough, then all our proof will just disappear. Then we’ll have to deal with seeming like we are trying to slander an important member of the Qian Clan publicly. We also don’t even know for a fact any of this is true. We could just be making assumptions.“

I grimaced. He wasn’t wrong about that. But then what would we do? Could we afford to assume I was wrong? Qian Zhi's group was enough to overwhelm Pan Song and I if we weren’t careful. That wasn’t as big of a deal back when there wasn’t a chance they could kill us. But now? If they really had something planned to let them get away with murder, then it was a whole lot worse.

Then there was Xing Yaling to consider. If my assumption was right, could I just stand by and let her be killed? She was a lot stronger than me and could probably handle herself. But as annoying as the Qian Clan people are, I couldn’t afford to assume they were stupid. If she was the target they had been referring to, they clearly knew she would be hard to deal with, but they still thought they could do it.

It was safer to assume they could, which meant that at the very least, I had to warn her. At least that way, if I was right, she might not be taken by surprise.

For a moment, I considered just going up to the upper decks and doing it now. But I doubted I could reach her without proof. And even if I was quiet about it, there was a Foundation Establishment Qian Clan member up there. Trying to warn her when they were so close by was probably a bad idea.

Fucking great…

I brooded over this problem the whole rest of the ride, no longer able to enjoy the sight of the sea flying past around us. Or the several more times the ship easily killed off large aquatic spirit beasts that wanted to see if we were an easy meal. 

Instead, all I could think about was just what we should do if I was right about Qian Zhi and his plans.