Second Patriarch: Rise Of The Liu Clan

"Sure." Liu Zhu answered quickly, as he had little reason to refuse. He didn't see any major benefits coming from the trip, but it wouldn't cost him anything either. It's not like he had any other plans for his time in the Northern Wastes, so he may as well take the chance to explore with someone he was already acquainted with. "When are we leaving?" "There will be a group heading out tomorrow morning. If we lag behind them there's even less of a chance we'll get anything out of this." Liu Zhu nodded in acknowledgement as he turned to leave. "See you at dawn then. Guess I'll go enjoy the festivities." Feng Jun simply grunted in response as Liu Zhu returned to the village.

As Liu Zhu navigated through the rapidly darkening street, he weaved past small crowds of cultivators and civilians. Most of them were in a good mood, and happy conversation and the cries of villagers trying to sell food and drink from hastily erected street stalls filled the air. While returning to the tavern his squad was at, Liu Zhu saw a familiar face scattered among the crowd. Heading into a sidestreet, a wide grin on his face, was the man who had abandoned Liu Zhu and the rest of his squad when they were attacked by vicious beasts before the beast horde began. He was currently slowly walking down the street, happily glancing at shops and taverns while lovingly c.a.r.e.s.sing his small coinpurse.

Liu Zhu followed the man, his previously neutral expression replaced with a slight smile. He'd decided not to waste time searching for the man, but if he came across him by coincidence, then he wasn't just going to pretend that nothing had happened. The two had no great enmity or life-or-death grudge, and Liu Zhu didn't enjoy hurting others, so any sort of violent revenge was off the table. He simply wanted to teach the coward a lesson about common decency, and he didn't need to break any bones to do that.

While trailing the man down the street, Liu Zhu went through his options for a bit of petty revenge. Since violence was out of the question, that left two methods of retaliation. The first would be to humiliate the man, but after thinking about it for a few seconds this option was also discarded. As far as Liu Zhu could tell that coward didn't care about face at all, and so while he might be angered in the moment, he wouldn't care at all after leaving Wolfden Village. Liu Zhu had recently found out that his reputation was already fairly bad, so what would one small incident do to worsen it? This left one last method of revenge- taking something he cared about. In this case, his money. Every cultivator would care about funds, and this was even more important for wandering cultivators. Changing his gains from this battle into a net loss would teach him a lesson that he'd remember in the coming months at least.

As the middle-aged man walked down the street, he felt someone grab him by the shoulder. He turned around, confused, and was greeted by the sight of Liu Zhu behind him, still tightly gripping his shoulder. "I was never able to get a hold of you after we went scouting in the woods? What happened?" Liu Zhu smiled as he said this, temporarily feigning ignorance of the situation while keeping a firm grip on the man's shoulder. The man scowled upon hearing this. "I left. I didn't ask for your help in the battle, so it's fine." The man tried to shake off Liu Zhu's grip as he said this, but it stayed on his shoulder like an iron vice. Liu Zhu had the raw strength of someone at Late Bone and Marrow Tempering, so it was a joke for someone at Early Flesh Tempering to try to shake off his grip.

The man's impatient scowl changed slightly as he realized that he wouldn't be able to immediately leave, and his eyes began rapidly shifting about as he looked for a way out of the situation. Before he could do so, Liu Zhu continued their chat. "Look, I'm not that angry about you leaving us out to dry. Still, it's only fair that you take responsibility for your actions. Right?" The man didn't respond to this, still hurriedly looking about. Seeing that he wouldn't get anything out the man until he finished speaking, Liu Zhu continued. "To be frank, you should pay us compensation. You made four people risk their lives fighting savage beasts and reduced our squad's fighting strength during the beast horde. I went over the losses and they were relatively sizable, but for you, I'm willing to make a deal. Give me your coinpurse and we'll call it even."

As Liu Zhu made his request he split into a wide grin. Upon seeing this the man across from him finally spoke again. "Who the f.u.c.k do you think you are you little brat?! I don't owe you shit. I can leave a fight if I want to leave, we didn't sign any contract. F.u.c.k you!" This outburst drew a few stares by cultivators walking past, but no one intervened. It just looked like a minor squabble, and no one cared much about either side. It'd be a different situation if the man who had previously joined Liu Zhu's squad had a good reputation among the hired cultivators here, but any bridges he'd had were burned long ago. In response to this Liu Zhu sighed and tightened his grip again, leaving a mark on the man's shoulder. He didn't want to injure him, but if a little reminder of his strength would help finish the confrontation, he wasn't opposed. A similar policy went for threats- he'd never carry them out, but if they worked they worked. "Remember what kind of place the Northern Wastes is. If we don't finish this now, I can finish it later."

The man loudly swore before taking his coinpurse and throwing it at Liu Zhu with his free arm. The coinpurse was easily caught by Liu Zhu and after checking that it actually had money in it he let the man go. He immediately began running after being freed, and Liu Zhu resumed his journey back to the tavern. Upon arriving he saw that his squad was still there, waiting for him and chatting, and sat down with them. After sitting down he split the money inside the coinpurse into three portions. "I ran into that asshole who abandoned us in the woods the other day. Here's some compensation from him."

Liu Zhu grabbed the few gold coins in each pile and handed to them to the three members who were with him that day. As he did so he gave a short explanation to the other two. "Sorry, this is to settle an incident, it's not a bonus. So..." As he trailed off the member who joined shortly before the battle spoke. "It's fine, I'm not going to be jealous. They mentioned what happened while we were chatting, they deserve it. Anyways, let's not dwell on stuff like that, today's a time to celebrate." With that said everyone launched into a new conversation, eating and drinking without a care and enjoying the fruits of their victory.