Once his quarantine period ended, Wu Youren was sent back to the Martial Academy and returned to his little house.
For reasons he couldn't explain, catching sight of the building from a distance gave him an odd feeling of coming home.
Yet the moment he reached the doorway, a wry smile crossed his face. Sure enough, it was only an illusion; this was no home of his!
The vegetable patch behind the house had been thoroughly trashed, looking as though some wild herbivore had rampaged through it.
The door lock was broken as well. Pushing the door open, he saw that quite a few things inside were missing.
Wu Youren hadn't owned much luggage in the first place, and nobody had touched what little he had, but his pickled vegetables—including the earthenware jars—were gone without a trace.
"Just how dirt-poor do you have to be?" He shook his head in resignation.
Deep down, he knew this had little to do with being poor. Plenty of people knew he was from Jin, and taking advantage of him was an opportunity too easy to pass up.
Fortunately, no one had bothered with his clothes. They were all worn and tattered anyway, and though washed clean, no martial artist would look twice at them.
It didn't matter much regardless. This mission had dramatically improved his financial situation, so there was no need to sweat such trifles.
He headed out first to buy several sets of clothes, daily necessities, and some food. After returning, he took a bath and enjoyed a deep sleep that lasted until nightfall.
Next came meditating to digest his accumulated experience points, all while remaining alert for anyone approaching outside.
By dawn, he felt no trace of fatigue. He stepped out to the vegetable garden in back and set to work tidying the various crops.
This mission had kept him away for quite some time, accompanied by several fierce clashes.
Now that he was back at the Martial Academy, however, that chapter was closed. He had to adjust his mindset as quickly as possible.
He needed to return to his old self—keeping a low profile where necessary and easing back into these everyday routines.
The garden had truly suffered quite a beating; by the time he had finished a rough sorting, an entire day had passed.
He didn't sleep long that night, dedicating most of his time to digesting his experience points.
The following day, he continued tending the garden until it was mostly restored, though bringing it fully back to its original state would take a bit longer.
In the afternoon, the groundskeeper appeared.
In a calm, even tone, the man explained that when people came by looking for cheap pickings, he couldn't always keep an eye on things. There was nothing to be done about it; he had his own job to do.
More importantly, growing vegetables within the Martial Academy was strictly forbidden in the first place.
Had the groundskeeper intervened forcefully, it would have been tantamount to endorsing Wu Youren's actions, and he would likely have had to bear the consequences.
Finally, he asked with apparent nonchalance, "Now that you've been away for over a month, can you still get your hands on that strong liquor?"
Wu Youren understood immediately. The man had only turned a blind eye to the garden because Wu Youren had agreed to sell him two jars of strong liquor each month at a discount.
The man had never been obligated to guard the patch. The only reason nothing had gone wrong before was that Wu Youren had usually been around.
Now that he had been gone so long and even owed the liquor, wasn't it perfectly natural for the man to let things slide?
As for the vegetables being sold to the cafeteria... who was to say the groundskeeper hadn't played a part in trashing the garden in the first place?
"Don't worry about it," Wu Youren said with a natural smile. "It'll take a few days for the liquor, but I'll make sure to get last month's share to you as soon as possible."
Such an outcome made perfect sense. He didn't blame the man at all; the groundskeeper hadn't done anything wrong.
This was a foreign land to begin with. If Wu Youren had actually thought of it as his hometown, that would only prove he hadn't figured out how the world worked.
By the time the groundskeeper left, Wu Youren had already cast those emotions to the back of his mind.
Before long, he received a communication from Cynthia.
"Since you're back, why haven't you come to visit me?" she asked over the line.
He had no idea through what channel she had obtained the news.
"You're staying in the female martial artists' dormitory," Wu Youren replied. "It's not very convenient for me to drop by. Better to wait until your injuries heal."
Toward dusk, a moderate drizzle began to fall. As Wu Youren was inspecting the vegetable patch, Cynthia arrived.
She had taken a hit to the waist, and after resting for ten or so days, she still couldn't exert full force, though martial artists recovered far faster than ordinary people.
She told him that Aslan's sword had already been turned in to the academy, but they had only credited it for two thousand silver dollars—downright highway robbery.
Still, with Naimu'er confirmed dead, the two thousand was theirs to split between them.
As for the Guizu relics, an academy instructor was interested in buying them, but the offered price wasn't very fair, so she was currently shopping around.
Wu Youren told her there was no rush. Since they were both back, they wouldn't be assigned missions anytime soon, so they might as well hold out for a better offer.
After chatting idly for a while, Cynthia couldn't help asking, "Have we grown a little distant?"
Back in the cave, she had nearly given herself to him. Why did he seem... somewhat cold now?
"I'm under a bit of pressure," Wu Youren said with a soft sigh, his gaze drifting. "The future feels uncertain."
"Ah..." Cynthia sighed as well. She, too, had managed to uncover some information about the Jin youth's background.
It was supposed to be closely guarded information, but through persistent digging and sheer effort, she had managed to piece together a few threads.
She had confirmed that his noble rank wasn't extraordinarily high.
That wasn't bad news; had his status been too elevated, she wouldn't even have been worthy to match with him.
What she was uncertain about was his financial standing, but even that wasn't an issue.
Both of them had reaped enormous gains from this mission, more than enough to propel them to the knight rank.
The sole lingering worry was that as a scion of Jin nobility under Great Liang's watchful eye, his prospects were genuinely precarious.
After a moment of silence, Cynthia ventured tentatively, "Do you want to escape back to Jin?"
"Escape back..." Hearing those words, Wu Youren knew his identity was no longer a secret to her.
Yet this was within his expectations. Could there truly be any secrets in this world?
Far too many people knew of the hostages' existence; for word to reach her only now was already remarkably slow in his eyes.
He fell quiet for a second before giving a wry shake of his head. "Impossible."
Yet a concrete answer wasn't what the female martial artist was looking for. She sighed softly. "So... you really do want to go back."
Was this a matter of wanting to go back or not? Wu Youren was speechless. *Do you have any idea how hostile Liang is toward me?*
He shook his head. "You know my ambition. I only want to eradicate the Guizu. I have no interest in fighting fellow humans."
"You can kill Guizu just the same in Great Liang," Cynthia countered, though a trace of doubt lingered in her heart.
Back at the outpost, the youth from Jin hadn't shown the slightest hesitation when striking down human knights.
"I know," Wu Youren acknowledged with a slight nod. "I just don't want to be cannon fodder... like on our patrol mission."
Cynthia started to object, wanting to argue that everyone fulfilled their own duties on the battlefield and that no one was mere cannon fodder.
Yet hearing his final words, she swallowed her response back down.
Three apprentice knights holding out while surrounded by a cloud of Guizu aura, cut off from any reinforcement.
Even retreating had required them to find their own way out. What was that if not cannon fodder?
And yet, would things really be any different in Jin? She didn't think so.
War claimed lives, and someone always had to shoulder the most grueling burdens!
Still, hearing the clear resentment in his voice, she didn't want to make him any unhappier.
After a pause, Wu Youren sighed gently. "This rain isn't going to let up anytime soon. Your wound hasn't fully healed; don't let it get wet."
Cynthia departed in silence, while his mood remained slightly turbulent.
Only after roughly an hour did he return to his room to resume meditating.
Around midnight, as he sat in meditation, his eyes snapped open. After a brief hesitation, he lay down on the bed slowly and without a sound.
A moment later, a soft knock came at the door, sounding strikingly sharp against the rustling patter of the rain.
Wu Youren rose to answer it, muttering softly under his breath, "Thanks for that. At least you know to spare my feelings."
"Quite the big shot now, aren't you?" A burly man stepped inside—the very same man from the Life-and-Death Knot.
He remarked casually, "A perfect mission rating. Color me impressed."
"Just dumb luck," Wu Youren replied. He had no illusions about actually being an important figure; the man's words were thick with mockery.
"At least you have some self-awareness." The burly man plopped down onto a wooden stool, rainwater dripping steadily from the hem of his coat onto the floor. "Did you know that Aslan's family is looking to demand justice from you?"
*Cynthia already split the money with me!* Wu Youren felt a wave of disgust. These people truly seized every opening, spinning lies the moment they found an excuse.
Then again, for someone in his line of work, stopping at nothing was par for the course.
Keeping his expression neutral, Wu Youren said, "I was carrying out the Red Pine mission. Not only had that man turned into a Guizu creature, but I wasn't even the one who killed him."
He had only severed one of Aslan's arms; the fatal blow had been delivered by Cynthia.
The burly man gave an ambiguous smirk. "You really think people like that will reason with you?"
It might work for a student of Liang, but for a hostage from Jin to think that way was pure wishful thinking.
Wu Youren had no doubt that even if the family behind Aslan had no intention of pursuing the matter, these people would do everything they could to stir the pot.
So long as it put sufficient pressure on him, they would stoop to anything.
Thinking it over, his performance this time around... had indeed drawn a bit too much attention!
He shook his head. "I'm under the protection of the Life-and-Death Knot, aren't I?"
"That only means we hold back and don't cause trouble for you ourselves," the burly man replied with shameless ease, sounding entirely justified. "If you want us to step in and mediate, that can be arranged too... I heard you hauled in quite a bounty this time—both sabers and swords, was it?"
"I told you before, sixty percent of my gains go to Hong Da," Wu Youren answered evenly.
With that, he pulled out his new warrant. "Hong Da was very pleased and granted me a six-month extension."
There was no reason to conceal this news.
He might have liked to slap the man's face with a dramatic reveal, but doing so would only make him look foolish; Instructor Hong was already in contact with the guards at Hostage Manor anyway.
"Tsk." The burly man reached out to take the warrant, but after glancing at his soaked sleeves, he thought better of it.
He scrutinized it closely before letting out a soft grunt. "Well, well. You really have become an important figure."
It turned out that knocking on the door upon arrival and opening with snide remarks had indeed been rooted in a healthy respect for Hong Yan.
Hong Da knew the youth was a hostage from Jin, but everyone was well aware that with her temperament, she had no patience for underhanded schemes.
Hong Yan would never betray Great Liang, but she was a relatively pure martial artist.
More to the point, Wu Youren's recent performance had undeniably turned more than a few heads.
Chapter 80