Chương 95: Book 2 Chapter 9: Cutting Loose

"So you brought her here?" The words were not spoken aloud. Instead, Bai Ning transmitted them through her qi, letting Mo Jian know exactly what she thought of his actions. Outwardly, however, she was the picture of helpfulness.

She offered the weeping woman, who had introduced herself as Su Lianhua, a drink of water, sympathetically patted her back, and kept her aura so deeply suppressed that, if Mo Jian did not know better, he would have mistaken her for another Foundation Establishment cultivator without a second glance. The small house creaked faintly around them, the sounds of the neighborhood bleeding through the thin walls: a vendor's distant call, the clatter of a passing cart, a child laughing somewhere down the lane.

Against all of it, Su Lianhua's muffled crying felt very loud.

"It wasn't like I had a choice," Mo Jian grumbled in the same fashion, letting his qi carry the message back to Bai Ning. He was not accustomed to weeping women kowtowing before him in the street, and the situation had been such that he could not bring himself to simply walk away. So here he was, in the small three-room house he and Bai Ning had secured in the neighborhood Xiao Hua had led them to days ago. In a sense, he understood her reluctance.

Bringing trouble home was never a good idea, especially when home was filled with vulnerable cultivators and mortals who did not need a Core Formation enemy bearing down on them. On the other hand… Su Lianhua, still puffy-eyed but somewhat more composed, hiccupped as she drank slowly from the bowl Bai Ning had placed in her hands. She looked the very picture of misery: hair in disarray, tear tracks streaking her cheeks, her frame thin enough that the bones of her wrists showed plainly above her clenched fingers.

The trip from the gambling parlor had given her time to collect herself somewhat, but the desperation had not left her, it had only pulled itself inward, tamped down beneath a visible effort of will. She set the empty bowl aside. For a moment she simply stared at the floor, as if gathering courage. When she finally raised her head, her eyes moved nervously between Mo Jian and Bai Ning.

"Lord… this one knows she has already imposed too much," she said hoarsely.

"But I have nowhere else to go. Otherwise, I would never have dared trouble you." Mo Jian shifted awkwardly where he stood near the doorway. He had faced demonic beasts larger than houses and cultivators who could split mountains with a single blow, yet somehow a crying woman left him far more at a loss. Bai Ning noticed his helpless expression and suppressed a sigh.

"Drink a little more water first," she said gently.

"Then tell us what happened." Her tone was calm and patient, the voice of a quiet peer rather than someone whose cultivation far exceeded the person she was addressing. Su Lianhua seemed to take some heart from it. She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, drew a slow breath, and began.

"My son… he owes money," she whispered. Mo Jian felt Bai Ning's gaze slide toward him. He coughed lightly.

"It's not what it sounds like." Bai Ning did not bother answering that. Su Lianhua continued, the words tumbling out now that she had started.

"He went to the Golden Dice gambling hall three months ago, because we needed money for my medicine. At first it was small amounts, just ordinary spirit stones, then mid-grade ones. Initially… initially they let him win just enough." Her voice faltered.

"But after that he began to lose. And every time he lost, they told him he could win it back, if only he kept gambling. But the debt kept growing." Her fingers clenched tightly in her lap.

"Yesterday Duan Cai said that if we could not repay everything within three days, he would sell us both as indentured servants to a spirit mine." The room went still. Outside, the vendor's call drifted past again, oblivious. Mo Jian's expression hardened. Bai Ning's brows drew together.

"Slavery is forbidden within the Empire," she said slowly.

"Is this Duan Cai not afraid of drawing the city officials down on himself?" Su Lianhua laughed, a short, brittle sound.

"Slavery is illegal because the court says so," she replied, her voice raw with something beyond exhaustion.

"But then, so is gambling beyond certain limits, depending on one's cultivation realm. Yet everyone does it, even mortals, who are not permitted to gamble at all, and they get away with it. The court most of all." She shook her head.

"No, they do not call it slavery. They call it indentured servitude. They say a debtor can repay what they owe and earn their freedom back." The hollow laugh came again.

"But it never happens. It is slavery in all but name." She looked up then, desperation naked in her eyes.

"My son was foolish, I know. But he went because he wanted to buy medicine for me. He does not deserve such a fate." She drew in a deep breath, as though trying to force strength back into her voice.

"Senior, I saw you winning at that table earlier, and I thought… no one wins for long with Duan Cai. He runs a rigged game. Even other seniors lose to him, though afterward he usually returns some portion of their losses, so he does not make enemies." Her gaze flicked to Mo Jian, pleading.

"But when I saw you winning, I thought…" Her composure finally shattered.

"Please," she begged, her voice hoarse once more. Her eyes swung wildly from Mo Jian to Bai Ning and back again, uncertain which of them she needed to persuade.

"I… I will do anything," she whispered.

"Please… just save my son." Mo Jian's jaw tightened. Now he understood why the woman had thrown herself at his feet in the street; it had been less an act of impulse, and more the act of someone who had already exhausted every other option. He glanced at Bai Ning, sending his thoughts across the thin thread of qi between them. See? I couldn't just ignore that. Bai Ning did not answer immediately. She studied Su Lianhua for several quiet moments, her gaze calm but piercing. Then she sighed softly. I know, Master.

It's just… you truly have a talent for dragging trouble home. Mo Jian almost looked at her incredulously. She was saying that? She? And why did it sound like she was the teacher while he was the troublesome student? But there were more pressing matters to worry about, Mo Jian admitted to himself with an internal grimace. Bai Ning picked up the empty bowl from the floor, sending it drifting to the side with a casual flick of her fingers before speaking aloud.

"None of that," she said lightly, cutting off Su Lianhua's desperate promises before they could spiral further. Then her tone softened once more, gentle but firm.

"Tell me, how much does your son owe them?" Mo Jian already had a bad feeling about the answer. Su Lianhua hesitated. Her lips parted, then pressed together again as if the number itself were too heavy to speak aloud. Her fingers twisted tightly in her lap, knuckles whitening.

"Five…" she began, voice trembling. She swallowed.

"Five hundred mid-grade spirit stones." Bai Ning closed her eyes as though in pain. Mo Jian did not. He was well past the point of shock. He didn't choke on his breath or gape in disbelief; this city had already dulled his sense of absurdity. And yet… five hundred mid-grade spirit stones? For two indentured servants? Back home, that kind of wealth could sustain an entire sect for decades. Su Lianhua mistook their silence for refusal. Panic seized her.

"Seniors, I know it is an enormous sum, far beyond the means of someone like me, but surely for great figures such as yourselves…" Her voice grew increasingly frantic, words tumbling over one another.

"If you would just show a little mercy, I… I will repay you somehow, I swear it, I can serve, I can-" Mo Jian raised a hand. She froze mid-word, mouth still open, fear stark on her face. Bai Ning, meanwhile, continued to rub her back in quiet reassurance.

"What's the point of all this," Mo Jian said slowly, "if Duan Cai can throw around that kind of money on a side scheme? Do indentured servants really sell for that much in the capital?" The question bought him time to think. He did want to help, and he knew Bai Ning would not stand by and watch something like this unfold either, despite her earlier reluctance, but this was not something he could resolve by simply walking in, winning a few games, and walking out with two lives freed.

There were too many threads tangled together. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. At his question, Su Lianhua's expression twisted into something bitter, and almost hateful.

"It's because of that cursed place: the Kanchi Spirit Jade Mine." Seeing their uncomprehending looks, she hurried to explain.

"It lies ten sectors deeper into the city. In the past, it was one of the most prosperous mines in the region. The spirit jade it produced was pure and stable, and thus, perfect for crafting. Jade boxes, storage vials, communication slips, memory jades… all of it came from there." Her voice grew quieter.

"But in recent years, the vein has begun to run dry. Digging deeper only yields spirit dust, something that corrodes the lungs, even of healthy cultivators." She took a shuddering breath, tears spilling freely now.

"My husband worked there. The pay was steady. As long as the quotas were met, life was bearable. But when the jade grew scarce… they forced the workers deeper and deeper." Her voice trembled.

"He died when their team disturbed a Jade Wyrm's nest." Silence fell.

"I grew sick not long after," she went on.

"My husband used to bring home discarded fragments of low-grade pieces the overseers didn't care about. I would polish and carve them into ornaments, sell them for a little extra income. But as the jade grew scarce, even those scraps were tainted with spirit dust." Her hands shook.

"I carved a few pieces… and ruined my lungs." She swallowed hard.

"After he died, I brought my son closer to the outer sectors of the district. I had heard there were more opportunities here." A short, hollow laugh escaped her.

"Who would have thought we would only fall deeper into hell… only to be sold back to that cursed mine?" She looked up, something breaking behind her eyes.

"No one wants to work there, seniors. That place is a graveyard. They force mortals and low-level cultivators to go, and none return. But the quotas come from the court, and no one dares to tell them they are wrong or admit failure. So the officials need people they can throw into the mine without consequence." Mo Jian's expression darkened.

"Debtors," he said quietly. Su Lianhua nodded.

"Debtors. Criminals. Anyone without backing. Anyone who can be made to disappear without consequence." She drew in a shaky breath.

"I've heard… the one who oversees the mine is also the ruler of the entire district. Everything flows through him; the mine, the gambling dens, the debts." Mo Jian felt it then, that creeping, familiar sense of something far larger than it first appeared. Beside Su Lianhua, Bai Ning's gaze met his as she arrived at the same conclusion.

"It's the Nascent Soul elder in charge," Su Lianhua whispered. She hesitated for only a fraction of a second before speaking the name.

"Elder Wei Shentong." A heavy silence fell over the room. Mo Jian turned away, pacing a few steps, his gaze distant as the pieces arranged themselves in his mind. This was… Su Lianhua mistook it for refusal. She lurched forward, her forehead striking the floor in a desperate kowtow.

"Senior, please, I beg you, my son…" Bai Ning was already moving. She caught the woman by the shoulders and gently pulled her upright, her expression warm and reassuring.

"Don't worry," she said softly.

"We will help. Right now, Mo Jian and I need to discuss a few details. Why don't you watch over Miantiao for me for a while?" As she spoke, she gave her sleeve a light shake. A tiny, translucent, snake-like figure slipped free and landed neatly in Su Lianhua's lap. The woman looked down, and went utterly rigid. Coiled there was a finger-thick wyrm, delicate and faintly luminous, its form shimmering like morning mist caught in still water. But its tiny horns were unmistakable, as were its whiskers.

Equally unmistakable was the faint, regal quality of its bearing, even at this size. A dragon, small, but entirely, unmistakably real. Su Lianhua let out a faint, strangled sound. Bai Ning nodded in satisfaction.

"I'm glad you find him cute." Completely ignoring, or perhaps simply oblivious to the woman's pleading eyes, which clearly begged not to be left alone with a dragon she absolutely did not find cute, Bai Ning turned and walked toward the other side of the room. With a flick of her hand, a soft barrier of green qi spread outward, enclosing both herself and Mo Jian in a translucent sphere. Her expression shifted the moment they were alone.

"Couldn't you be a little more thoughtful, Master?" she said, folding her arms.

"The poor woman thought you were about to throw her out. I had to leave Miantiao behind to calm her down." Mo Jian, still turning the problem over in his mind, blinked and looked at her. Then he leaned slightly to the side, peering past the thin veil of qi. Outside, Su Lianhua sat very straight, hands folded in her lap with the careful rigidity of someone who had decided that any sudden movement might be unwise. Miantiao, coiled serenely against her thigh, appeared to be napping.

A complicated feeling moved through Mo Jian's chest. He wisely chose not to comment. The poor woman had courage, he would give her that. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too badly frightened. Besides, when it came to matters like this, Bai Ning possessed a remarkable talent for cheerful, deliberate obliviousness. Mo Jian let it go. Instead, he focused on the matter at hand.

"We could hide her," he began, only half-serious. Bai Ning was already shaking her head.

"It wouldn't work, and you know it." There was no heat in her voice; she understood he was simply laying out the obvious to start the discussion. Sometimes, it helped to say things aloud. Mo Jian nodded.

"If we go and try to win the amount from Duan Cai…" He spoke slowly, thinking as he went.

"I doubt it will be as simple as walking in and walking out. If they're willing to go to such lengths over a woman and her son, then either there's something else at play we're not seeing… or they're desperate enough that they won't let go of the people they've already ensnared."

"And who knows how many others there are," Bai Ning added quietly, no doubt thinking of the other gambling halls, and how many lives it would take to keep a dying mine running. Mo Jian hesitated. For a fleeting moment, the thought of stepping back crossed his mind. Of simply letting this pass. It was not a noble thought, but it was a practical one. They had larger goals. Picking a fight with a Nascent Soul elder, especially one who was also a high-ranking civil official, was almost guaranteed to end poorly.

This was not the Thousand Shattered Islands, where he could force compliance through strength and reputation. And if it came to the final option… a "suspicious death" would draw attention of its own. Bai Ning caught enough of that hesitation from his expression. Her own hardened immediately.

"They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this," she said, anger threading through her voice.

"I'm getting very tired of Nascent Soul cultivators who think they can act without consequences." Mo Jian gave a faint, wry smile.

"And those below us likely feel the same about Core Formation seniors," he replied.

"And those below them about Foundation Establishment cultivators. It's a cycle. Power just determines who gets to stand at the top." Philosophical musings aside, however, he did not disagree with her. Bai Ning shot him a look that made it abundantly clear what she thought of that entire line of reasoning, but she let it pass.

"The real question," she said, "is how we even get in. If we show up with Su Lianhua, this Duan Cai might not even entertain us. And it's not as if we can simply gather five hundred mid-grade spirit stones elsewhere and force the issue. This clearly isn't just about money." She paused, thinking.

"We need a way to force the situation in our favor." Mo Jian cleared his throat.

"That part may be easier than you think," he said.

"I left… something of an impression on the man. I'd wager that if I show up, he'll agree to play." He paused, his expression turning more serious.

"But that's not my main concern. Even if we win-when we win," he corrected calmly, "what happens when his backers get involved? His father, or this elder, Wei Shentong." The name hung between them, heavy with implication.

"We can't afford to lose sight of the bigger picture," Mo Jian continued.

"If this escalates and affects the Imperial Examination…" Bai Ning crossed her arms, tossing her hair back with quiet, unshakable confidence.

"That won't happen," she said firmly.

"Everything we've heard points to the Keju being untouchable. Its sanctity is the foundation of the entire system." Her eyes sharpened slightly.

"And in that sense, this may actually work in our favor. Two unaffiliated cultivators can be pressured, threatened, or made to disappear." A faint, knowing smile touched her lips.

"But two future civil officials?" She tilted her head.

"That's a much riskier gamble." Mo Jian did not share her confidence. But for all his words of caution, he found he did not want to let a certain tragedy unfold on the hope it might lead to some better, uncertain future. He had chosen his path. He had chosen to walk the road that Ye Chen might have walked, in a future that no longer existed. In some ways, that demanded clear-eyed calculation. In others…

If I can't even do this much, out of fear for how it might affect my plans, what will I do when the time comes to stand before the Emperor? When I have to face the Immortal of Slaughter? It demanded resolve. He wasn't a hero, he would admit that even now. But a man didn't need to be a hero to do what was right. He exhaled slowly. Besides, it wasn't as though he had no other options. They just weren't good ones.

If all else failed, he could step into the Nascent Soul Realm immediately and challenge Wei Shentong to a sanctioned duel. He hadn't heard a whisper of such a thing since arriving in the capital – it was not a practice the court encouraged – but he knew it was possible. He knew because he had read about it.

In the book, Ye Chen had once returned to the Imperial Capital after his time in the Thousand Shattered Islands, albeit for very different reasons than Mo Jian's, and had gotten into a fight on the street with a young master. Unfortunately for him, that young master had been the scion of a powerful noble clan. The city guards, drawn by the commotion, had sided against Ye Chen at once. He had been declared guilty on the spot and thrown into jail.

However, as someone born and raised in the capital, Ye Chen had known of a provision set into law by the First Emperor himself: sanctioned duels between cultivators of the same realm. Though the court discouraged such contests and looked down on them in the present day, no one possessed the authority to revoke them outright. So he had issued a challenge. Arrogantly, the young master accepted. What followed had been entirely predictable. Ye Chen beat him soundly, yet spared his life in the end.

That young master, Wang Fugui, would later become his ally, the very connection through which Ye Chen gained entry into the Imperial Palace. It was a plotline Mo Jian remembered vividly. Wang Fugui had remained one of Ye Chen's followers throughout much of the Tianxia arc, and later became a quiet, but steady supporter of Princess Xiang Muxue. In fact, when Mo Jian had first planned his journey to the capital, he had considered seeking the man out and forging a relationship of his own.

Only timing, and the knowledge that his meeting with Ye Chen in the original story had been pure coincidence (or, a stroke of protagonist luck, as one might put it) had stopped him. Which brought him back to the present. If things truly went awry, Mo Jian could challenge Wei Shentong to a duel to the death. True, he couldn't force the matter, since both participants had to agree, but it remained an option. As did something else he had already considered: making the man disappear, should he prove a genuine threat.

Mo Jian did not want to become that kind of person. But he had known from the very beginning, even before stepping foot off the Thousand Shattered Islands, that the court would demand a different kind of resolve. This was not the court. But it was a prelude to it. Bai Ning caught the shift in his expression, the way hesitation gave way to reluctant acceptance, and smiled.

"Good," she said, clapping her hands together with a wolfish grin.

"Then let's make an entrance in style and rescue both Su Lianhua and her son. And if we happen to step on Wei Shentong's toes in the process…" She trailed off, leaving the rest pleasantly unsaid. Mo Jian sighed, shaking his head, partly in exasperation and partly in fondness. He supposed he, too, was growing tired of moving through this city as though he were still a Qi Condensation cultivator, careful at every step, strength held in constant check.

Bai Ning's attitude was not surprising; tragedies like this played out everywhere. But back home, they had both the power and the freedom to act on what they saw. Here, caution was the right approach, but … He couldn't deny it. The thought of cutting loose, even a little, for a just cause- The appeal… He couldn't deny it at all.