Chapter 356 - Ghosts of the Mine (II)
Chapter 356
Ghosts of the Mine (II)
"Three, are you done?"
"Just about, Boss."
"I told you not to call me that."
"Haah. What's wrong with calling Boss a Boss?"
"Just listen to me for once."
"Pipe down, you two. Somebody's coming," a woman's irate voice broke the tension as the six figures shuffled their gazes from the caravan to the south, where silhouettes broke through the haze. There were quite a few of them, they noted.
"Two men," the woman continued. "The rest are children."
"Should we kill them?"
"Is killing the only thing you know how to do?"
"... yes?"
"Ugh. Just shut up. The strongest among them is just at the Revolving Core Realm. They're probably a random group that left that stupid festival in the city. Cover the cargo and let me do the talking."
The five men grumbled as they quickly pulled the cloth over the cages. It was far from ordinary cloth--woven from the strands of lutich grass, it had natural properties of concealment, so much so that even Demigods struggled to see through it using Divine Sense.
She dissented from the rest of her group, feeling annoyed; though she knew Master sent her with them as a test for her Heart, she was not doing well. She would struggle mightily to put together another group of five as stupid as those were, and yet she had to endure them for an entire year.
How many times now, this month alone, did she prevent them from killing a random group of strangers just because they happened to be on the same path? Dozens? She'd long since lost the count.
What's worse, they considered doing it to a bunch of kids--the two youngest seem to be ten and even younger than that! Though she never felt herself to be particularly saintly and could be just as cruel as those morons behind her, a line had to be drawn somewhere. And, apparently, those five just never bothered to.
"Good afternoon, Fellow Daoist." The one to greet her was the more unassuming of the two men; he was neither particularly handsome nor ugly, neither tall nor short, big nor small. Average, per all aspects, as far as she could tell. He looked to be at the peak of the Spirit Manifestation Realm and looked to be in his thirties, with somewhat lengthy hair held up in a ponytail, cascading down the ordinary-looking black robes.
His smile was affable enough, and the tone of his voice was pleasant--sagely, even--reminding her of her Master's.
"Good afternoon," she greeted back, returning the half-bow with one of her own. Despite the fact that she was likely twice or thrice the man's age and that she was far, far, far stronger than he was, she was the sort to repay manners properly.
"My name is Lu," the man said. "I hope we are not inconveniencing you, as we planned to rest for a moment here before crossing the river."
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"Ah, of course not," she said, feeling a bit peeved; she'd rather they moved on, but it was perhaps better that they stayed here as she and the others moved on. "There is plenty of space for everyone."
"Thank you," he really was affable, she mused. More so than most other cultivators she'd ever met in her life. She presented herself far differently from what she was actually like--on the outside, she looked no older than late twenties, and, thanks to her Master's treasure, she was just some brat at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Yet, despite that, the man treated her graciously and without any pretentiousness. "Okay, kids. We'll set up camp here, but make sure not to bother them, alright?"
"Yes, Master!" It was a concert of agreement, and before long there stood a pitched tent with a roaring campfire in front of it where one of the kids was currently busy cooking, while the few others had taken to swimming in the lake.
The two men had gone inside, while the oldest of the kids--a young woman who looked to be in her late teens to early twenties--seemed to have been left to oversee everyone else.
She retreated to where the other five were, ensuring that the cargo was covered up properly. This was a mission of honor, and should they fail it, she would kill the five others and then herself to repay the disgrace.
Once in a while, she'd glance over at the strange newcomers, but there was nothing really untoward about them. They just seemed... ordinary.
After about an hour passed, and just as she herself was prepared to deal out the daily ratios of grain balls, a tantalizing scent of meat wafted from the south. It prompted the five morons to awake from their daze, and all looked just a second away from drooling.
"What... what is that smell?"
"It's--it's amazing!"
"Boss, let's kill them and eat the food!"
"Stupid! If we kill them, then we'll only eat once! If we enslave them, we can eat it every day!" She listened to them and felt the strings of her patience snap one by one. By the end, she turned toward the 'Boss' and glared with such venom that the man whimpered like a scared dog.
"Forget for a moment that I would wipe my sword with your heads before you crossed half the distance," she said. "Do you deliberately go out of your way to forget Master's orders?"
"..."
"Repeat them to me, One. What were Master's orders?"
"Uhm. It was... to take the cargo somewhere?"
"Good job, Boss!"
"Of course, Boss remembers! He he, that's why he's the Boss!"
"..." she took a deep breath and did three circulations of Qi just to dissipate the bubbling anger within her. If she let it explode, she'd kill all of them. "What about the part after? Where Master explicitly said, 'Do it without getting into trouble?'"
"Ah? This would be getting into trouble? But they're just some nobodies."
"And how do you know that?"
"H-huh?"
"What if they're members of a sect? What if one of them has an older sibling that's far stronger than us? What if they, too, have treasures on them that mask their actual realms? What if they are a secret group of murderers who roam the world pretending to be weak, using children to lure in morons like you, and then capture them to torture them for months before finally executing them?"
"S-scary, Boss! Those people are scary!"
"Phew! Good thing I never attacked! I don't want to die, yet!"
"That's right, Boss! That's why you're brilliant!"
"..."
God, she mumbled inwardly. Should you exist in any form, please, in the name of all that is holy, drown these morons until they are too stupid to even talk.
Alas, her prayers went unanswered, and all she could do was prevent her stomach from grumbling at the most mouthwatering scent of food she'd smelled in centuries. Should... should she walk over and beg for some? No! She could pay for some!
... just for her, of course. She'd sooner burn the stones than use them to buy anything for these morons.
Just as she was wondering how much to offer, one of the kids broke off from the group--a teenage boy with a sword scabbard hanging loosely from his waist--and walked toward them, stopping about ten feet away and bowing.
"Apologies for disturbing you," he said. "My Senior Brother accidentally made too much food, and Master is wondering whether Seniors would like to join us for a meal?"
"--yes." it wasn't One, or Two, or Three, or even Four or Five that almost immediately acquiesced to the invitation. It was Six herself, and she felt embarrassment shoot up from her soul. Yet, the boy merely smiled as a response.
"Senior Brother will be happy," the boy said. "He's just recently started learning how to cook, so, hopefully, Seniors won't be too disappointed with the meal."
... just recently? Six felt her eyebrows twitch. But it didn't matter.
They hadn't eaten anything but the grain pills for months now. A proper meal? She'd happily dip herself in a vat of vinegar and put on a dance show for them, if need be.