Chapter 5

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The collective two and a half square miles of herb fields owned by the Qing-Yun Sect reverberated with the name of a boy, of gluttony in human form: Fang Xing.

In the two months since, Fang Xing had been consuming at least ten pounds of meat every day, and this didn"t even include the amount of rice, fruits, vegetables, and wine that he would have on top of that. He would even occasionally buy some herbs and tonics to supplement his sizable diet, and thanks to him all five of the daotong in his herb field had managed to gain themselves extra layers of fat with prominent double chins and potbellies.

Despite all of this food, Fang Xing had actually become thinner than he was before; in fact, he had become so thin that he was like a piece of paper that a breeze of wind could easily send flying. However, even with his physique, his spirit was high and his eyes were s.h.i.+ning with energy.

"As I expected, [Qing-Yun"s Qi Formation] is really powerful. No wonder even with Uncle Joshu"s skills in martial arts, he was no match for that man…" With his eyes focused on the hare roasting on the bonfire as though fascinated, Fang Xing"s mind wandered off to something else.

In these two months, they"d also spent nearly all of their savings on food, and without any other options they"d had to resort to hunting. After all, Fang Xing couldn"t really ask them to sell themselves… and besides, based on their physical appearances, no one would want to buy them anyway.

It was fortunate that the sect didn"t have any restrictions on hunting for wild animals within its mountain ranges, and now that Fang Xing had grasped the basic flow of Qi, his eyes and ears had also become sharper than normal, making it a breeze for him to hunt wild hares and birds.

On one occasion, Fang Xing had even run into a wolf and battled with it. He had grabbed its tail in order to jump on the wolf"s back and then bashed it with his bare hands until the poor sucker died.

By the time Fang Xing had dragged the wolf back to their wooden cabin, w.a.n.g and the rest of the daotong were so stunned that they almost wet themselves.

It was also since then that they had finally accepted Fang Xing as their leader from the depths of their hearts. From that day onward, "Fang Xing laoda" was no longer just a name they forced themselves to address him with, but rather came honestly from their hearts.

"I finally have enough Qi to circulate one full zhou"tian[1]. I wonder if this counts as reaching the first tier of Spirit Stage?" Fang Xing thought to himself. According to the rules of the sect, once a daotong reached the first tier of Spirit Stage, they would no longer need to do any hard labor and instead would receive numerous benefits. They would become a real disciple of the Qing-Yun Sect in its outer sect.

[Qing-Yun"s Qi Formation] mentioned nothing on how to distinguish the difference between each tier, so Fang Xing was left without even knowing how close or how far he was to reaching the first.

"Laoda! We"re back with the firewood…" Freckle-Boy and w.a.n.g were smiling broadly, each carrying a bundle of firewood on their back.

Though they"d started hunting, the work at the herb field still had to continue. All five of the daotong took turns hunting with Fang Xing, and today it was Freckle-Boy and w.a.n.g; he had just asked them to pick some firewood so they could start up a fire and cook their kills for the day.

When w.a.n.g was the laoda, there had been a clear hierarchy despite there only being five of them total. w.a.n.g would bully someone and that someone would bully the next person down along his hierarchical chain, and so on. Ever since Fang Xing had become the laoda, however, everything had become much simpler; everyone had to listen to Fang Xing, there was no bullying allowed within the rest of them.

Every time w.a.n.g unconsciously wanted to order Freckle-Boy or Ghost-Face to do something, Fang Xing would kick him out of it. Within the three months, w.a.n.g had already gotten used to even was.h.i.+ng his own dirty socks.

Of course, Fang Xing"s dirty socks were washed by everyone else.

"The fire"s almost out, hurry up you two! Going to just take your time?" Fang Xing mocked, hurrying the boys over.

The supposedly simple and ascetic lifestyle of these daotong had now become quite… plentiful.

As they were portioning the already-cooked hare meat onto their plates, someone ran hurriedly over, screaming. "Laoda! There"s a s.h.i.+xiong at the herb field from one of the departments asking for you guys. They"re angry because you"re not in the fields!"

All three of them looked up to see a worried Ghost-Face, Fang Xing wondering aloud, "Isn"t the monthly inspection tomorrow? What are they doing here today?"

"I"m not sure, but apparently it"s a s.h.i.+xiong with the name Yu who just happened to pa.s.s our herb field and decided to drop by and have a look…" Hearing this, a surprised and bitter expression formed on w.a.n.g"s face.

Normally, no one would ever bother them as long as they maintained their herb field well.

Every three months, someone from the Herb Department would come and check on the daotong to make sure there was no slacking off and that everything was in order. If they managed to find something wrong or unusual during their visit, the daotong wages might be sabotaged. Depending on the actual "problem", even physical punishments might get involved and these greedy s.h.i.+xiong would often take the chance to blackmail some money out of the daotong during their visits.

None of the gang had taken the day off today. They had, however, gone out to the back mountain to hunt, potentially a rather large "problem" now that someone had come here for an early inspection.

Freckle-Boy was so scared that his complexion had become just as pale as Ghost-Face"s.

"What are you all afraid of? I"ll go have a look!" Fang Xing broke in and said, spitting out the gra.s.sroot that he had been chewing on before ordering w.a.n.g to wrap up their cooked hare meat in bamboo leaves.

In front of their C-Ranked herb field, three blue-faced Taoists stared coldly at the three of them following behind Ghost-Face as they arrived.

"It"s him?" Fang Xing smirked to himself as he saw who the leader of the pack was: a stubby man with squinty eyes who clearly looked like he was up to no good.

The stubby man was the very same plump Taoist that Fang Xing had ridiculed in front of hundreds and thousands of people during the Recruiting Ceremony: an outer court disciple named Yu Sanliang. The other two following close behind him were two daotong Yu had asked to be there with him to improve his image.

"Hah! Caught red-handed! This is during work hours; what are you all doing slacking off! If I go and report this to the Herb Department, they will beat the h.e.l.l out of all of your a.s.ses!" When he saw Fang Xing from afar, the fat on his face even wobbled in excitement. "Oh, and especially you! You"ve only been here for how many days? How dare you violate the rules; do you want to be thrown out of the sect so soon?"

The plump Taoist Yu did not belong to the Herb Department but actually worked at the Miscellaneous Department. This Miscellaneous Department -- as its name implied -- looked after all the menial matters in the Qing-Yun Sect; in other words, they pretty much just ran errands for every other department.

Yu had only decided to drop by the herb fields because he was asked to sort something out at another field. Remembering the little monkey that he had sent to a nearby field three months ago, he"d decided to drop by to see if he"d been fixed up by the older daotong... but who would have thought that when he arrived at the field, Fang Xing was nowhere to be seen? There was no better chance to have some sweet revenge for what had been said about him three months ago.

"Isn"t this s.h.i.+xiong Zhu[2]? How rare for you to visit! Please, please take a seat." Fang Xing grinned broadly, pretending to order the others to find a seat for him.

"Zhu your face! My name is Yu!" The fat on his face rolled again as he loudly cursed.

Fang Xing smiled even more widely; it seemed that Yu did not realize that he had just been mocked. Suddenly, a random paragraph appeared across his mind:

"Spirit Stage. Tier one. Physically weak. Amount of Qi contained in its meridians are…"

It was all information about Yu"s cultivation tier and stage; there was even information about his shortcomings.

"Wait, was that… that book can do appraisals on people, too?" Surprised, even Fang Xing couldn"t control the muscles on his face.

Watching Fang Xing"s expression change, the plump Taoist was convinced that his words must have sent the boy into a shock of horror. Satisfied and proud of himself, he gave a cold laugh. "Scared, huh? Then drop down to your knees. If I feel satisfied after that, I may just forgive you this time…"

Fang Xing began to circle the plump Taoist in thought, catching the latter"s interest.

Not knowing what the monkey could be planning in his head, Plump Taoist Yu began to yell, "What are you looking at, you little brat! I"ll kick you flying again if you keep on looking at me like--"

"Are you from the Herb Department?" Fang Xing suddenly interrupted.

"No, but so?"

"Did a s.h.i.+xiong from the Herb Department ask you to come here for inspection?" Fang Xing continued.

"No. I was pa.s.sing by, so I thought I"d check on all of you to make sure no one was slacking off…"

"Slacking off your mom!" Fang Xing -- being only ten years old -- was not very tall in comparison to a fully grown man like the plump Taoist, but he was still able to reach his face with a swift jump to land a loud smack on his cheeks. A clear palm mark was left on the Taoist"s right cheek, blood beginning to ooze from his nostrils.

"You little son of a-- ! How dare you?" Disoriented by the slap, it took Yu a few seconds before he fully realized what had just happened, and before he had been able to even finish his sentence his leg was bent at the knee from a powerful kick. Unable to find his balance, the Taoist fell flat on the ground face-first with Fang Xing stepping right over him.

"No, how dare you! Someone from the Miscellaneous Department coming to interfere with our Herb Department?" Fang Xing landed another punch to Yu"s face before continuing, "Yes, I"m beating you up. You know, you really deserve a good beating for thinking you have any authority here!"

Soon, the crying man came to his senses; though he had only achieved tier one in the first Spirit Stage, he was still a cultivator. Utilizing his Qi, he tried to fend Fang Xing off.

Who would have imagined that Fang Xing had also reached the Spirit Stage by now and used his own Qi to counteract Yu"s. He then continued to land punches and kicks all over the plump man"s body, all of the daotong watching on in terror.

Notes

[1] zhou"tian: 周天, translating into "circle of the sky/heavens". It is the name given to the concept of circulating something through the meridians starting and ending in the lower abdominal area (Dantian)

[2] Zhu: it"s a play on words between 朱 (p.r.o.nounced zhū, a popular Chinese surname) and 猪 (also p.r.o.nounced zhū, meaning pig). Fang Xing here intentionally called Yu as "s.h.i.+xiong Pig", but Yu thought he had merely remembered his name incorrectly.

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