All-Knowing Novice, page 5
As if every motion was a battle against himself, Gao Feng slowly stepped back into line, never once breaking eye contact with Taryn.
“What was that?” Fan Shun hissed in Taryn’s ear.
“What was what?” Taryn asked without breaking eye contact with Gao Feng.
“That, right there! What is that?” She grabbed Taryn’s face and turned it to face her, forcefully ending the staring match. “Why are you provoking a cultivator, huh? You have a death wish? Did that blow to the head remove what little sense you had, or did you forget that he could rip you in half if he wanted to?”
“No, I didn’t forget,” Taryn assured her. He cast his eyes towards Gao Feng one last time, then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t get enough sleep last night.”
“Then go home and get some sleep. I’m thinking from tomorrow onwards, we’ll do your punishments at home.”
“I’m not afraid of them,” Taryn told her, and though he hadn’t realized it before, Taryn realized that it was true; he didn’t fear the students. The logical part of him knew that he should fear them, but that part was being muffled by the much louder voice telling him to kick the pompous, pretty boy’s face in.
Fan Shun shoved Taryn’s shoulder hard enough to make him fall over. Taryn landed on his back, accidentally tossing both buckets of water into the air, then through sheer reflex pushed off with his right foot and rolled over his shoulders. He was on his feet before even he knew what transpired.
His anger skyrocketed as two buckets worth of water fell splashed onto his head, shoulders, and back.
He could hear chuckling from some of the students, which made him want to do... Something to shut them up. But he knew that if he did not do as Fan Shun commanded, it would only come back to haunt him later.
Taryn grabbed his bag and left the training field without looking back, only throwing a hand up to wave goodbye.
Taryn didn’t face any opposition on his way home, primarily due to the fact that a guard followed him from the moment he entered the noble district to the moment he entered the market district.
It was a bright, exceedingly warm day in Haven City. The hustle and bustle of the market district was always a sight to behold. With a population of just over twenty-five thousand people to support, the market district was basically required to hold a little something for everyone.
And Taryn always loved seeing it come alive with all manner of people, from simple farmers just trying to sell the produce grown on their land, to the nobles of the clans who were there more as a show of power than from any desire to buy something. After all, they couldn’t let the common rabble think they were getting weak.
Taryn found himself craving something cold to drink after standing under Rala’s harsh light for so long. He passed by one of the nicer restaurants in the city, a place known as the Winter Tiger, and decided to satisfy his craving... and maybe grab a bite to eat while he was at it. The restaurant had both an inside and an outside dining area, a rarity in Haven City. The outside dining area had a small script barrier around it, separating it from the common walkway most pedestrians used when passing through the market district.
Scripts had always fascinated Taryn. They were combinations of symbols that combined to form specific binary patterns, which acted as building blocks for fantastical effects to happen. They were everywhere, and yet very few people knew how to make them. Regardless of their attributes, scripts were designed so anyone with Eco could use them—and that is what ultimately made them so complex.
A Battle Eco technique only had to accept Battle Eco, and the same was true for almost every other style. With a little time, and a whole lot of effort, anyone could create a new technique.
But creating new scripts usually required decades of study and perseverance, just to create something simple like a food warmer.
It certainly didn’t help that most of the art was lost to the sands of time. As far as Taryn knew, no one had come up with a significant script since the founder’s age, and the number of script literate cultivators was decreasing every year.
Or so his grandmother had complained one night after a few too many drinks.
Taryn decided at that moment to just go for it. He entered the restaurant without a second thought. He’d given in to his urge for two reasons: you get a full course meal for fifteen bronze tiena, which was a great deal for someone like Taryn, who only had five bronze tiena to his name. And to top it all off, it offered one of the best views in the market district.
The place had a fairly relaxed atmosphere and allowed you to seat yourself, provided you didn’t bother the other customers. Taryn didn’t feel comfortable going all the way inside to eat, so he instead stepped to one of the outside dining tables and sat down.
It didn’t take long for a rather pretty waitress to notice him and make her way over.
Upon arriving at his side, she narrowed her eyes a fraction. Her lips pressed into a hard line for a moment, before she adopted a customer service smile and asked for his order.
Taryn ordered a bowl of Aplegon, a simple soup made from chicken stock and diced vegetables, and a cup of chilled water. It would cost him three bronze tiena for the meal, which he was all too happy to pay for such a meal.
A short while later, the waitress returned with a simple clay bowl that was half full of steaming stew and a cup of lukewarm water.
“My apologies. This is the last of the stew.”
Taryn blinked at her. He didn’t say anything, just maintained eye contact long enough to make her uncomfortable. But the waitress was surprisingly resistant to his efforts, no doubt from years of working as a waitress. “And the water?” he finally asked once it was clear that she would not be the one to cave first.
“We only have one chef who specializes in frozen Eco, and unfortunately he had to leave due to some... pressing issues at home.”
“I see,” Taryn replied after a moment. He glanced at the diners around him, many of whom had arrived after he did, and all of them had glasses of icy water sitting in front of them.
Taryn peered out from beneath the shadows of his mask at the waitress, who maintained her customer service smile without so much as a twitch. He brought the stew to his lips and took a sip: it tasted fine, a bit bland, but it was edible. He waved the waitress off a moment later and settled in to try to enjoy his lunch.
He’d hoped that with their reputation on the line, the Winter Tiger would look past his status. I should’ve known better. Even if they treated me poorly, who would listen to my complaints? Taryn stamped down his disappointment and settled in to partake in one of his favorite hobbies. He loved watching people even if they weren’t training. He liked to come up with intriguing backstories for the many people he saw on any given day and would often mentally practice holding conversations with them.
He saw a young woman, probably around seventeen or eighteen years old, walking through the market. Her glossy black hair reflected Rala’s light in such a way that it appeared to glow. Clearly, she’d used some type of oil to give her hair that brilliant sheen. Which usually meant one of two things: she relied on her looks to make money, or she came from a well-off family.
Taryn was leaning towards the second option. She wore her teal robe modestly, and seemingly without trying to draw attention. However, her beauty alone drew the eye of most men, some of whom might’ve even been single.
Accompanying her were three intimidating men of above average height. Their robes were worn open, brazenly displaying their pectorals to the world. Broadswords hung from crimson cloth belts wrapped around their waists. Golden emblems were sewn on the end of each of their belts: a boar’s head with a pair of twin axes as a backdrop. It was the symbol of the Cai clan, and the only way you could get away with displaying the crest so openly was if you were a member of the main branch... Which would make her akin to royalty.
A well-off family, indeed, Taryn mused. He brought the bowl to his lips again, mostly to hide the grin on his face, but also to finish off his stew.
The Cai clan’s patriarch was supposed to have three children: a pair of twin boys and a younger daughter. Judging by the security following in her wake, threatening anyone who even tried to make eye contact with her, Taryn would bet that he was looking at the Cai clan’s princess.
He didn’t remember her name, but then again, he didn’t care. They lived in a world completely different from his own and he would likely never speak to her... If he could help it.
Taryn had always lived by a golden rule: stay out of the clans’ way and as far from their eyes as possible. Especially the Cai’s; The Cai clan practically ran Haven City’s underworld. It was their enforcers who kept the peace in the shadier parts of the city, and it was their laborers who maintained the many apartment buildings in the first residential district—Taryn’s included.
From his chair, Taryn could see the roof of the Ukata compound looming over the buildings surrounding it. His grandmother had once explained to him why it was considered an impenetrable fortress: guards patrolled it at all hours, and it was protected by huge stone walls that were impossible for someone not of the body refining stage to climb, to say nothing of the defensive scripts. If Rala’s light hit the compound just right, you could see the light bend in odd ways.
It was mostly for this reason that Taryn had stuck to spying on the branch families. Their security was far less... intense, sometimes only a single guard that patrolled the area around their homes at night.
A commotion from inside the restaurant reached Taryn’s ears, and his body involuntarily tensed in anticipation. A man burst through the front door of the restaurant only a moment later, his robe wrapped tight around him and his face covered by a dark cloth.
The man headed west, sprinting away from the restaurant at a speed indicative of someone trained in the use of Eco. An older man, possibly in his sixties, stumbled out after the man. “Help! Help! Guards! Someone stop that man! He robbed the restaurant!” The man’s voice was shrill, almost to the point of making Taryn’s ears ring.
Taryn watched the robber run off with a concerned expression on his face. He pulled out four bronze tiena and placed them on the table. He may have only owed three, but he felt the servant girl deserved something extra for not spitting in his food.
He knocked on his table twice to get the servant girl’s attention, then motioned to the tiena. She nodded absently, too focused on what had just happened to pay the outsider any real mind. Which suited Taryn just fine.
Taryn left the restaurant and headed west, following in the footsteps of the robber. Taryn didn’t know what was going on, but he felt something pulling him in this direction.
On the southwestern corner of a four-way intersection, he came across a mild scene of destruction. Soil and pieces of a shattered vase looked as if they’d exploded all over a blue rug covering the floor of a pottery stand
He stopped at the intersection for a moment and observed the western road. He counted no less than ten people staring in a singular direction, with most showing expressions of surprise or shock.
So that’s the direction Taryn started walking. Behind him, he could hear the shouted commands of the city guard as they arrived at the restaurant and promptly took control of the area.
Taryn knew it wouldn’t be long before they started heading in this direction, but he didn’t want to lose this. He wanted to be the one to find him... He didn’t exactly know why he wanted to find him, only that he did.
He didn’t think it was because the man had robbed the restaurant right in front of him. While Taryn liked to think of himself as a good person, the simple truth was he only really cared about two people in this accursed city—his grandmother and Yawen.
Taryn began to go over the reasons why he would be pursuing a potentially dangerous criminal. He slapped his hands over his mouth to hide the smile that appeared on his face.
Am I... excited to fight him? The idea of fighting the criminal—not for the sake of justice or glory—but just because he wanted to, sent shivers of excitement down his spine.
Taryn knew none of these feelings were real. They were simply the product of whatever the Mourner’s journal was doing to him, and the smart thing to do would be to turn around and head back to the restaurant and tell the guards what he’d seen.
But would they even listen to him?
The answer, Taryn realized, was no.
Passing the Long family’s smithy, Taryn found himself absently looking for signs.
The infuriated mother of a child sitting on the ground, crying over a fallen, scarlet-colored sweet.
Turn left.
A squashed jade ground melon with an obvious shoe print on top of it.
Hang a right.
Finally, Taryn arrived at the mouth of an alley and noted a piece of black cloth caught between the planks of a wooden fence. The path he’d followed had led him deep into the seedier side of Haven, onto a road that was just wide enough for two people to walk abreast.
The robber had fled the lively market district in favor of a darker, more desperate place: the buildings had fallen into a state of extreme disrepair, some leaving huge chunks of rubble lying in the street. That’s to say nothing of the garbage that added a noxious odor to the place.
Taryn had never traveled to this part of the city before, nor had he really felt the need to. Even now there was a sense of danger in the air, a charge he had never felt before. He could feel unseen eyes on his back, which only added to his desire to leave and never come back.
That feeling irked Taryn, and something inside him railed against his fear, replacing it with determination.
He deftly leapt over the five-foot-high fence separating the alley from the common walkway, landing in a crouch on the other side. However, the moment his feet touched down, he remembered a rather important detail about his current situation.
In all the excitement, he had forgotten that he had neither the means nor the authority to catch the robber, on the off chance he did find him.
The alley was relatively dark, especially considering which hour Rala was in. The shadows of the surrounding buildings cast this portion of the city in darkness.
Most people would have no reason to venture this way. Which, Taryn realized, also meant it was unlikely the city guard would either. Even if the guards discovered the same clues he had, they might not bother tracking him this far.
Taryn clenched his fists to steady his nerves and reduce the trembling in his knees. He stuck close to the wall as he moved deeper into the alley. Each step was slow, measured, and sent adrenaline coursing through his body.
After arriving at the end of the wall he’d been following, he took a deep breath, then carefully peeked around the corner... And promptly let out a sigh of relief. There wasn’t a robber in sight. Indeed, the only thing Taryn could see was the rear entrance to a building.
Suppose he could be inside, Taryn thought. However, he had no intention of just walking into the building without first knowing what he was getting himself into.
He retraced his steps down the alley and hopped back over the fence at the end. From there, he walked around the corner of the street and made a mental note of which building was most likely the right one. A gambling hall? He wondered at the flashy looking sign hanging above the door, which read: Uncle Bo’s game hall. Family owned and operated for seven hundred years.
Taryn quirked an eyebrow at the sign’s claim. If it was true, then it was easily one of the oldest establishments in the city... And likely owned by the Cai clan.
“Terrific.” Taryn grumbled almost too loudly. A tingle ran up his spine. He could feel eyes on him again, but try as he might, he knew he wouldn’t be able to locate the owner without making it obvious. The only thing he could do was pretend not to notice and hope they went away.
To that end, Taryn opened his bag and quickly scanned what was available to him. He didn’t have any weapons, not after his grandmother had confiscated all of the tools he’d carried around with him, even going as far as taking his pen. The only items inside his bag were his lantern, the journal, and his blanket. The moment his eyes landed on the blanket, something clicked inside his mind. Hundreds of images flashed before his eyes, all of them relaying ways he could use a blanket in combat.
One stood out to him as the most promising for his current needs. He looked around for a good place to sit down but didn’t see any obvious places nearby.
He made his way back around to the alley and once again hopped the fence. After settling in on the hardpacked dirt, he grabbed an end of the blanket and ripped downwards. Taryn continued tearing at the blanket until he had three equal lengths of fabric, each about six feet in length, then stuffed the rest back into his bag.
He tied the lengths together, each additional strip adding to the length of his makeshift weapon. Once all three strips of cloth were connected, Taryn pulled the sleeve of his robe up and wrapped the now eighteen-foot-long rope around his right arm. Once done, he let down his sleeve to partially conceal the rope from view. He predicted they might notice something wrong with that arm but hoped they either wouldn’t care or would attribute it to some kind of deformity.
In his, admittedly meager level of experience. Most cultivators preferred to fight head on, entrusting their combat prowess to see them through. Taryn couldn’t rely on that... Yet. So, he was forced to resort to more underhanded methods in order to survive.
He shook his arm a few times as a test and grimaced at the odd feeling. He adjusted how tightly it was wrapped several times before he was satisfied.
With that done, he climbed over the fence and made his way around to the front of the building... again. Along the way, he stopped at a pile of rocks that had fallen off one of the buildings and picked out a nice fist-sized stone, which he then wrapped up nice and tightly with his rope. He spun the rope a few times to ensure the stone would not move, then smirked in satisfaction as the rope held strong. He rewrapped the rope around his arm and secured the stone to the inside of his elbow with a loose knot that he could easily undo with a single hand.
