Chapter 22- Silently Taking a Life

“Introductions first. You are Junior Brother Tian. We are your senior brothers Fan, Tang and Su.”

“Nice to meet you, Senior Brothers. This is my first mission, so please look out for me.” Tian bowed with his hands clasped. His seniors nodded back, laughing.

“Naturally, naturally. Now, did you go to the mission hall to get a copy of the mission?”

“Yes, Senior Brother Fan.” San was the eldest, Tian judged, as he had done almost all the talking. A lean man with high cheekbones who carried a saber on his hip. Tian knew he had a storage ring- all the senior brothers did. Yet he still chose to carry his saber.

Brother Tang had a cold face and sharply upswept eyebrows. He carried a sword on his back. It was surely a flying sword, so he was unlikely to draw it by hand, but… again, another senior brother who chose to wear their weapon.

As for Senior Brother Su, he just smiled. He seemed to always smile. Tian had the distinct impression that almost nothing could persuade Brother Su not to smile. But he didn’t have his weapon displayed, which made Tian take a particular note of him. Based on the other two seniors, that meant the weapon was hidden, not missing.

Tian handed Senior Brother Fan the slip with both hands. Fan took it casually, glanced at it, and then it flickered out of existence. Tian assumed it had been absorbed by the ring.

“Go to Shallow River Village and slay the demon. Except it’s not a demon, just some overgrown animal. Maybe a demonized animal if a Heretic has been messing around near there, but there would be way more casualties if that was the case. Pay- three spirit stones, five merit points. Your seniors will be taking the spirit stones, but you can have all five merit points. Since you are just starting out, you need all the points you can get.”

“Yes, I still owe ten points for my rope dart.” Tian frowned. This really was his senior brothers looking out for him, and it still would take two or more missions just to break even.

“God, remember those weapons we got starting out?” Fan looked over at Tang and shuddered theatrically. Tang shook his head and looked away. Apparently the memory was unbearable.

“There is nothing left in the Outer Court that we can buy with merit points that we want, need, or are bored enough to be curious about. On the other hand, we can go to Mountain Gate City, and there are lots of good things there. But they all cost spirit stones. You see?” Brother Su explained. His voice was a touch deep, and very smooth.

Tian nodded rapidly.

“Good. This mission is just nice for your level. Let’s not waste the Mission Hall’s good intentions and go get this critter. Here, put this on. You will have to tie it up a bit, I’m afraid. Nothing even close to your size in the store room.”

Brother Fan tossed him an enormous dusty black robe and a big straw hat. The hat was shaped a bit like a stool- just a solid cylinder over his head, with a few holes for his eyes. To his immense surprise, it was light, breathable and didn’t impede his vision or hearing at all.

“Specially prepared hats. Don’t ask me how they do it because I don’t know. The robes, however, are heavy cotton and if you don’t hate it already, you soon will. Here, I’ll help you tie up your sleeves. Just wear it over your normal uniform.” Brother Sui was already moving his hands, clearly expecting this problem.

“We are disguising ourselves as ascetic monks. There are thousands of these bastards running around, and a sizable fraction of them are Earthly tier cultivators in disguise. Stops the mortals from freaking out seeing immortals, or worse, forgetting their proper piety. It also keeps the monks safe, because every now and then some freak decides to kill a monk and just explodes for no reason.” Sui’s smile seemed to become extra gentle.

The party set off. Shallow River Village was only sixty miles away- not far even for Tian, let alone his seniors. Tian hadn’t learned a body lightening art, but he still ate up the miles with ease.

The countryside looked different to Tian, but he struggled to understand why. The paddies seemed unchanged- their stone walls and sluice gates controlling the life giving water. The rice stalks were green and tender, rising up to dance in the faint breeze. Peasants did some kind of peasant thing in the fields. Weeding, maybe. Tian knew nothing about farming, and wasn’t much interested in learning.

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They didn’t look at him. He was hiding from them still, but he was hiding right out in the open. And the reason he was hiding had changed. This time, he was hiding so that he didn’t hurt them.

Which led back to their disguises, and the Seniors flat out refusal to spend even one extra minute on this apparently routine job. The Seniors wanted to move faster. Much, much faster. But doing so would make their disguises pointless. A monk running down the road faster than the best racehorses was a dead giveaway. So they came up with a little trick. It was called “Strolling,” and it was sheer torture.

There was really nothing more to it than walking quickly, then returning seamlessly to a slow pace. The trick was that you could only walk quickly when no one was looking. A “simple” art, one that a mortal could master. Theoretically. Tian challenged any mortal in the world to notice when a peasant two hundred yards away and behind the rushing immortal in question turned to look at them.

“It’s too soon for you to manage that, of course, so you just focus on Brother Fan’s back. Match his speed. How easy is that?”