Ch18 Qi Gathering Pills

The wood chopping once the sun rises again is far slower than usual. When Zhou Kang appears walking up the mountain trail, she has only two piles of wood to present at dusk.

–

“I don’t care if he didn’t chop wood all day, worry about your own work! Just because you made Li Hao work harder doesn’t mean you get to slack off! Whiny servants like you are the worst!” Zhou Kang yells, slapping Xu Hong across the face many times over for only chopping two full bins’ worth of firewood today.

When he comes up the dirt road to me, he collects my two piles and looks at my sweat-covered shirt with a satisfied grin.

“Good work today. You’re humble and smart enough to know your place.” He tosses me a spirit fragment and walks off, already having vented enough of his pent-up anger on my neighbor.

I hear the sound of wood slowly being chopped nearby as the sun sets and make my way through the forest, cracking my own knuckles to make sure that doesn’t happen.

“I challenge you to another duel! You still have the nerve to rat on me? So, I don’t think our rematch was enough to settle the winner. Best out of three is only fair, right?” I call out while approaching.

Then, proceed to give Xu Hong another beating as the sun fully sets.

–

Over the next few days, this cycle repeats.

I collect spirit fragments, upgrade them to spirit stones, and store them away in my system storage.

Finally, after five beatings in a row, one from Zhou Kang, followed by an even worse one from me after he leaves, this brute finally hesitates to speak when our steward arrives.

She does not say anything about my lack of chopping wood all day. She only apologizes for not meeting the three-and-a-half-bin quota.

In response, I do not visit her hut today.

The next few days are very peaceful.

Xu Hong meets her quota and avoids a beating. I meet my own newly raised quota and appease our steward’s wishes as well, gaining my neutral favor back. He even smiles at me a few times as he leaves.

During this time of repairing my reputation, I’ve only cultivated with a few spirit stones. I’ve managed to save up five full stones and devised the exact words I’ll say to get what I need.

My meridians have constricted back to their completely natural thin state, and the bottleneck at the peak of the first level of qi refining has become more and more daunting.

So, just as Zhou Kang turns to leave after collecting slightly more than average wood from me, I take a deep breath and clasp my hands.

“Senior Zhou, this humble servant has a request.”

He stops in place and turns back around with a sadistic grin. “Don’t think your little stunt, beating your fellow servant to gain my favor back, wasn’t noticed. You must have lucked out with that pill I granted you to be able to wield any qi at all. Speak carefully, young one.”

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My heart beats loud in my ears, and I shove my hands in my pockets to shield the fact that I’m pulling five full spirit stones out of my storage.

I raise them above my head and kneel.

“This servant has stumbled upon another blessing in the back mountain stream. I wish for as many pills as you will grant me. Anything to progress my cultivation. For indeed, the marrow-cleansing pill you previously granted has loosened the shackles of my poor meridians, yet circulating any qi through them is still difficult…”

I keep my head bowed, lying through my teeth, then feel the stones snatched from my hands.

There is a long moment of silence between us, but finally Zhou Kang speaks.

“I’ll get you a batch of Qi Gathering Pills, but it’s going to take a few days. It’s what helped me break into the first level of qi refining when I was young. You remind me of myself when I was a servant. You will do anything to survive in this world. I respect it.”

Despite his kind words, my senses pick up a sharp aura emanating from the old man, one I have not felt from anything but the serpent when it was trying to kill me mid-battle…

My stomach churns with an ominous premonition, but I do not react to it.