When I woke up, the sun had just risen.
I checked my shoulder first. Blood had soaked through the bandage again, though not as badly as yesterday.
Great.
I changed it and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, waiting for the pain to settle.
When was the An family going to pay us?
Hopefully, they weren't planning to use the late delivery as an excuse to cut our pay.
I had barely finished the thought when shouting broke out somewhere outside.
I stopped.
There were too many voices for a market argument. I couldn't make out what anyone was saying, but there was panic mixed into the noise.
I pulled on a few extra layers, strapped on my sword, and stepped outside.
People were already moving toward the town center. Some looked curious.
Others didn't.
I followed at a distance until I reached the edge of the crowd gathered around the square.
It was packed.
I couldn't see what everyone was surrounding. For a moment, I thought about pushing closer.
Then I looked at the number of people crammed together and changed my mind. If something went wrong, getting trapped in the middle of a crowd with one arm barely working sounded like a terrible idea.
I stayed near the mouth of a side street.
A voice carried over the crowd.
"By decree of the Martial Temple, the Yao family has been granted full discretion in determining the An family's punishment."
The talking around me quieted.
The Yao family?
Yuansu had named them when he realized the bandits knew about the cargo.
The speaker continued.
"After careful consideration, we have decided on an appropriate payment."
There was a brief pause.
"The Martial Temple will receive all the blood in this town."
Nobody near me moved.
I stared toward the center of the crowd.
All the blood?
What the hell did that even—
Someone screamed.
Another scream followed.
Then the crowd broke.
People shoved backward all at once. Someone fell.
I only saw him for a second before the people around him swallowed him from view.
That was enough.
I turned and ran.
Behind me, people were still trying to force their way out of the square. I already had an open street in front of me.
For once, staying away from everyone had actually been useful.
I ran toward my house out of instinct. When I reached the street leading to it, I slowed for half a second.
My money was under the bed.
A scream cut off somewhere behind the houses.
I kept running.
Fuck the money.
My shoulder jolted with every step, so I caught my left arm against my body with my right hand and kept going.
Thankfully, I'd lived here for months. I knew several ways out of town, including a few routes most people rarely bothered with.
I took one of them.
The screams were spreading now. They weren't only coming from the square anymore.
That made me run faster.
When I reached the last few houses, I looked ahead.
Nobody was waiting there.
No guards.
No cultivators.
Nothing.
I ran through the gap.
For several seconds, I expected someone to shout behind me.
Nobody did.
Even after the town disappeared from view, I kept going. Only when I couldn't pull in another full breath did I finally stop.
I bent forward, breathing hard.
My shoulder felt like someone was digging a knife into it.
But I'd made it.
Then I remembered Chenyu.
Fuck.
I straightened too quickly and immediately regretted it.
Was he home?
Had he gone to the square?
Had he already gotten out?
My hand rose toward my mouth. I caught myself biting at one of my nails.
"Fuck."
I looked back toward the town.
For a moment, I actually thought about going back.
No.
That would be suicide.
I had one arm that barely worked, a wounded hand, and no idea how many cultivators the Yao family had brought with them. I'd only escaped because nobody had been blocking the route I used.
Going back wouldn't save Chenyu if they'd already found him. It would just make sure I died too.
I stayed where I was.
That didn't stop me from staring back toward the town.
Wasn't using human blood for cultivation forbidden?
The Martial Temple was supposed to be an orthodox sect. They were one of the powers responsible for banning techniques that used human blood in the first place.
So why did they want this much of it?
Maybe it wasn't for cultivation.
I had no idea.
And apparently it didn't matter.
If the Martial Temple wanted the blood, who exactly was going to tell them no?
I rubbed at my face.
Then another thought hit me.
The An family.
I tried to remember the crowd.
Winter clothes.
Ordinary townspeople.
People trying to look over one another.
I couldn't remember seeing anyone wearing the An family's colors.
Not one.
That didn't prove anything.
I'd stayed near the edge and barely seen half the crowd. They could've been somewhere else.
Still...
Yuansu had known punishment was coming.
Had the family learned what it would be before the rest of us?
I had no way to know.
And walking up to the An family while injured and asking them questions sounded like a good way to find out whether they considered me a problem.
I'd heard Yuansu name the rival families. I'd helped deliver the shipment.
Maybe they didn't care about me at all.
I'd rather keep it that way.
So much for getting paid.
I moved farther away from the route out of town and found somewhere low enough that anyone using the road hopefully wouldn't notice me.
My shoulder hurt.
My money and food were still inside.
Chenyu was still somewhere back there.
I should never have taken that fucking escort job.
Maybe I should've run the moment the bandits appeared. Let them take the cargo.
Let someone else deal with it.
Too late now.
I needed to figure out what I was doing next.
If I could find work somewhere else, fine.
If not...
Once everyone had left the town, I could go back. My belongings might still be there.
If they weren't, there would probably be things left in other houses.
I didn't like the idea.
But pride wasn't going to feed me.
I sat there and watched.
After a while, smoke began rising above the town.
One column.
Then another.
"They're burning it too."
I tried to work out which part of town the smoke was coming from.
I couldn't.
The roofs overlapped too much from here. For all I knew, my house was already on fire.
Or Chenyu's.
The Yao family.
The Martial Temple.
In the end, how different were they from bandits?
At least bandits didn't bother pretending they were noble.
My stomach growled.
I pressed a hand against it.
I hadn't eaten since before going to sleep.
Perfect.
Nothing I could do about that either.
So I kept waiting.
---
Rain started some time later.
At first, it was light. Then it settled into a steady fall.
It soaked through my clothes and turned the ground beneath me to mud.
I shifted around when I needed to, but I stayed where I could still see the main road.
Eventually, the smoke began thinning.
Then I saw riders.
A group of people left the town on horseback and started down the road.
I stayed low and watched until they disappeared.
No wagons.
No carts.
Just riders.
I waited longer.
There could still be people inside. There could be another group leaving from somewhere I couldn't see.
Nothing happened.
Eventually, waiting another few minutes stopped feeling useful and started feeling like I was just afraid to move.
I stood.
Time to go back.
Most of the fires had gone out by the time I reached the edge of town. Smoke still rose from the wet ruins, but the rain had kept the flames from spreading as far as they might have.
I stopped before entering the first street.
A body lay beside a broken doorway.
Farther ahead, there were two more.
I listened.
Rain dripping from roofs.
Loose wood knocking somewhere in the wind.
Nothing else.
I moved forward.
Several houses had collapsed completely. Others had been torn open.
Doors were broken.
Walls had been smashed apart.
It looked like they'd searched the buildings before setting them on fire.
I passed another body.
Then stopped.
Something was wrong.
There was no blood.
I looked back at the others.
The rain could have washed the street clean. That wasn't strange.
But the body beside the doorway was partly sheltered beneath what remained of the roof. Its clothes were clean too.
No blood.
I looked down at my own left sleeve. Even after days, the dried blood had left parts of it stiff and dark.
These people had nothing.
They'd really taken it.
All of it.
I had no idea how.
A sound came from farther down the street.
My right hand went to my sword.
I froze.
Water spilled from part of a broken roof and splashed against the road.
I waited another few seconds.
Nothing.
I kept moving.
My house came first.
I'd be quick.
Most of the roof had collapsed. Thankfully, the worst of it had fallen toward the far side of the room.
I could still reach the bed.
I stepped inside carefully.
Ash covered the floor, and rainwater had collected in several puddles.
"Fuck."
My food was probably ruined.
I crouched beside the bed and reached underneath.
The coins were still there.
A few dozen copper.
Maybe two weeks of food if I spent almost nothing on anything else.
Better than nothing.
Then I found the bread.
Wet.
Of course.
I stared at it.
My stomach growled again.
"Fuck it."
Food was food.
I brushed off as much ash as I could and took a bite. The taste spread across my tongue immediately.
I grimaced.
I already hated the food in this world, and now I had to eat it soaked in rainwater and ash too.
What else was I supposed to do?
I forced the rest down.
Then I got up.
Chenyu.
I'd already wasted enough time.
I left the house and started toward his.
I checked every body I passed.
Not him.
Another one.
Not him.
I kept going.
The riders had left without wagons.
That thought came back for a moment.
An entire town's blood.
Where the hell had they put it?
I had no idea.
Later.
Chenyu first.
I rounded another corner.
"Chenyu?"
My voice came out quieter than I'd intended.
No answer.
I kept walking.
The closer I got to his house, the worse the street looked. Part of a wall had collapsed into the road.
One building had burned almost completely down.
Then I saw his.
Or what was left of it.
Most of the roof had collapsed. The walls were blackened, and part of the front had burned away.
The door was still there, though barely.
I stopped.
For the entire walk over, some part of me had apparently expected it to open.
Chenyu would be standing there.
Probably annoyed that I'd taken this long.
Maybe he'd ask whether I'd brought food.
Nothing moved.
"Chenyu."
Louder this time.
Still nothing.
I walked toward the door.
My hopes of finding him alive had already been low.
Now...
I looked at the burned house and swallowed.
He might not have been here. He might have heard the shouting and run.
There was still a chance.
At this point, the best thing I could hope for was not finding him at all.