Twisted Skies, Chapter 10 - A Cultivator's Anger (Patreon)

 “Help! Someone save me!”

Although the shout wasn't loud, it still ripped through the low murmur of the crowd like a bolt of lightning. Around him, a few people looked up for a second, before they continued on with their own business. Unlike them, Thurain wasn't heartless, and had both the strength and character to save those in need.

Right away he rushed towards the scream, into one of the mixed-qi apartment complexes along the side of the road. Within one of its darkened alleys, he saw something unforgivable. Two large, dark shadows ripped and tore on the arms of a third, much smaller one. It was obvious that some villains were about to do harm to an innocent young girl! Although all the city folk around him simply ignored the shouts and continued on their evening walks, Thurain couldn't just stand by. His master had raised him into a man of great integrity. Faced with villains who oppressed the weak, he would never back down.

“Stop!” he shouted, and rushed straight into the alley. Now closer, he could see the scene of the crime. The image was just as he had expected, two crooks ganging up on a young woman. Maybe the plain girl wasn't the beautiful princess he had imagined, but she was in trouble nonetheless.

“Save me!” Somehow, the girl's desperation managed to loosen her captor's grip. Free from the restraints, she ran past Thurain and circled around him to hide behind his back. Rather than continue to rush in head first, the young cultivator stopped for just a moment to look around, and make sure no one else was waiting for him inside the alley. Sometimes, these gangsters were clever and had reinforcements ready in case something went wrong. This time however, Thurain could feel no more presences of life hidden within the narrow alley. It seemed like they were alone.

“Young master! Thank the Duo you are here! These ruffians almost killed me! They want to steal my mother's precious pearls!” the girl shouted. She shivered while her front pressed against Thurain's back. Although the modest bulge he felt on his back was a bit distracting, he was still focused on the men before him.

“Now that I'm here, there is no need to be scared.” he said, before he raised his voice for the criminals to hear. “What do you have to say for yourselves, villains?”

“Huh? What's there to say?” One of them laughed and pulled a long plank of wood off the floor. “How about this, you give me everything you have, and leave the little girl with us. Maybe then we'll leave you be.”

“Ahaha, that's your plan?” Thurain grinned. “You really think you can take me down with a piece of wood?”   

Thurain's eyes narrowed as he stared down the gangsters. All this time, he had been forced to accept this city's rules. All this time, he had been forced to hold back. Now however, he finally had the chance to let loose. This time, he was in the right, and he would exploit the privilege by blowing off some steam. So what if these gangsters were mere mortals? He would make sure they wouldn't die, but they would still pay for their crimes, and taste the results of his anger.

With a “get back” he pushed the girl away from the fight, before he made some room and took his stance. His hands combined into a ring, as he stood sideways and offered an impassive look towards the two gangsters who circled around him. As the two sources of qi combined inside his body, they began to circle through his entire system, including his arms, and created a warm feeling as his body was imbued with qi. This was one of the most basic stances of cultivation, one even the gangsters would be able to recognize.

“What the hell is this? You think you're some kind of master, you brat?” One of them sneered, and aimed his club straight for Thurain's head. However, the young cultivator didn't move an inch. Just before the club could hit him, it bounced off an invisible wall of qi, pliable but firm.   

A grim grin spread all over Thurain's face, just as the sneer of the gangsters faded. Now they realized that they had a real cultivator before them, not just a trickster. Maybe they had gotten too used to all the cheats in this city, but now they had finally met the real deal. Unless caught off guard, even low-level cultivators were invincible against conventional weapon. Not even the strongest man with the sharpest knife would break through Thurain's defense.   

At this point, the gangsters would have understood that he wasn't to be messed with. They would soon give up and run away. While one swallowed heavily, the other took half a step back and offered a wide-eyed stare together with an excuse.

“Little friend, we were too harsh just now.”

However, Thurain wouldn't just leave them like this. Today, he had seen the true face of the city. He had been scammed and tricked all day. Been cheated at the station, been shut out of the sect, been insulted by that old hag in the apartment. These guys were trying to take from him what little he had left, and it looked like this was their usual way of life. They were a blight on society. But they fit right in with the rest of the city, so they had gotten away with it until now. However, those days were over, now that he was here. It was time to serve some justice to these bastards and start cleaning up the city.

Ready to run, both gangsters dropped their weapons. The dull thud of the wood on the stone floor made Thurain spring into action. Strength entered his legs and he rushed forward like lightning. Before the first unarmed gangster could even react, Thurain had already reached a crouched position beneath his head, close to his torso. As he solved the circle of his hands, power rushed into Thurain's right fist and concentrated into solid energy. A punch released the force and threw the gangster away like a rag doll. When Thurain turned to look at the gangster's little friend, he tried to turn and run. Yet the coward tripped over his own feet and fell.

No coordination, no courage, he thought in derision. Trash.

What good were these people in the grand scheme of things? Wasn't the world better off without them? These were Thurain's thoughts as he lunged towards his second victim. He pinned his opponent to the ground and began to take him apart with surgical punches. Without pause, his attacks Vained down, one after another. By the time Thurain was done, the gangster had long stopped trying to resist. In fact, he had even stopped moving. Without a care for the gangster's well-being, Thurain stood back up, as the blood of his enemies pearled off the qi field around his body and dripped onto the floor.

With his work done, he turned back to look after the girl.

“There, you're safe,” he said, but the one who had asked for his protection before now stumbled back with a pale face. Only at this point did Thurain realize what he had done. He reached for her from a distance and made one ,more step, but before he could say 'wait', the girl had already turned and run for the main road.   

For a moment, he was unsure what to do, until he realized that there was nothing to do at all. In the end, what was the point in rushing after her? As an ordinary person, she wasn't used to the violence of the cultivation world, so it was no surprise that she had been horrified by his actions. No matter what, she would consider him a violent criminal due to his actions, just like the scum who tried to attack her. Of course, a normal person could never understand the cruel reality of cultivators. A shame, since he was hoping that the grateful girl would provide him with some shelter for the night, and maybe even a free meal and a warm bed.

“It's all your fault,” he mumbled, and gave the gangster to his feet a limp kick, eliciting a pained moan. After a bit of thought, he decided to leave the place before guards showed up. He didn't know whether or not the girl would call for the city's defenses after seeing such a violent display.

The entire ordeal had wasted so much time that by now, Thurain could even see the stars in the sky. Well, in truth, he could only see the north and south stars, and not much else. The green smog of the city had hidden all other stars behind its blanket.  

Although he had wanted to save some money by walking all the way to the city's outskirts to rent a cheap apartment, he decided to bite the bitter fruit and get a room somewhere close by, at least for the night. By the time he would have walked all the way back to the edge of the city for a room, it would be near morning already. In truth, he had no idea if hotels in the city would even stay open throughout the night, so he would take what he could get at this point, even if it cost him much of what he had left.

After he had walked for a while, he found another apartment building that looked somewhat respectable and advertised rooms for rent on the outside. Yet when he grabbed for his money bag, he came up empty-handed. With a frown, he searched through his robes and his entire backpack. Only then did he realize that the last of his money was gone.

Maybe I dropped it in the fight?

He returned to the dark alley and found it empty, his money nowhere to be found. Both gangsters were long gone, and he had no idea where they had disappeared to, so there was no one to ask about his coins either. Although it was possible that they had found his bag and taken it away when they ran, something felt off to Thurain.

With a calm head, he replayed the events from before. The girl who pressed up against him from behind, the way she looked terrified after he had beaten up her attackers, the way she ran as fast as she could when he came towards her.

You're kidding me.

Dumbfounded, Thurain just stood in the same spot he had been baffled in before, as it dawned on him that he had been robbed. The realization came only hours too late. He didn't know if the girl had just taken the chance when he had turned his defenseless back on her, or if she had been in cahoots with the gangsters from the start and had baited him into this alley to rob him, but it didn't matter. The girl was gone, and he was broke.   

Now, he couldn't get one of the overpriced rooms nearby even if he wanted to. Despondent, he took a seat in the alley, hidden behind a large wooden barrel. From within his backpack, he took a thin blanket that had served as his bedding throughout his journeys beyond his home mountain.