Chapter 29- Hero

The cultivators cheered for Martial Uncle Ku when he entered the Depot. Tian could see everyone pouring out of the buildings, the True Disciples flying up on their swords or flying clouds. People clasped their hands and bowed in gratitude or just threw decorum to the desert winds and yelled, waving their fists in the air.

Martial Uncle Ku had come back in glory. He rode in on the back of a giant mutated wasteland horror, holding a severed head. It had been a long time since the Depot had such good news. The tension was released all at once, the compressed spring of emotion leaping into the air with a joyful sound. The cultivators of the Ancient Crane Monastery rejoiced.

With two small exceptions.

Tian shook his head and went back inside the hospital. He could hear the patients chattering, talking about how wonderful the news was and speculating on whose head was brought back. Even the doctors were getting in on it.

“It’s Heartbreak Worm Zhu, Martial Uncle.”

“Eh? What makes you say that, Junior?”

“Because I was on the mission where Martial Uncle found the beast and started battling Zhu. I didn’t watch it, I was hiding, but when Zhu raced off, Martial Uncle chased him.”

“Fortunate child! Ah, how I envy you! To have been there, to have seen such a thing! Are you sure the heretic was called Zhu?”

“I will never forget.” Tian nodded firmly. “Martial Uncle called him Heartbreak Worm Zhu.”

Tian truly would never forget it. He was buried under the sand, but Martial Uncle Ku’s voice came through clear as the temple bell. “Twenty two Level Ten disciples in exchange for the head of Heartbreak Worm Zhu? They didn’t die in vain.”

“Good, good, good! You have been a very diligent worker the last few months. Here!” The doctor shoved some spirit crystals and pills into Tian’s hands. “Consider it a bonus.”

“Doctor Pei, please-”

“Nonsense! I said take it so you take it! Ah, I swear I hear the singing of meadowlarks.” Doctor Pei strode off laughing. Tian looked down. Fifty spirit crystals and two bottles of pills. One was marked Jade Spring, the other Golden Dew. One healed injuries to flesh and skin, the other was a wonderful recuperative medicine that could speed recovery once a patient had been stabilized. Both were Heavenly Person realm medicines, though they could be used by an Earthly Realm cultivator willing to waste piles of money.

Tian didn’t know how much they cost, exactly, beyond a lot. He had never seen them listed for sale in the sect. They weren’t medicines someone at his level was expected to come in contact with.

“Orderly, did you say you were there when Martial Uncle Ku killed Heartbreak Worm Zhu? Could you tell us about it?” One of the patients asked, her half ruined face coming alive with excitement.

“Yes, yes, tell us the story!” A martial brother who might never walk again joined in.

Tian looked around. What could he tell them? What could he even say?

“When it looked like everyone would die, he charged in and battled Zhu. I was hiding, so I didn’t see the details of the fight, but I heard a sound like falling rain and after the battle the ground was covered in small holes. Whatever he did, Zhu wasn’t his match. I heard the heretic break and run less than a minute, maybe even less than half a minute, after Martial Uncle Ku arrived. The heretic… tried to shake his heart with his words. He did not succeed. Forgive me, seniors, I must get back to work.”

Tian fled the room, but he couldn’t escape the hospital. Word that their orderly had been there to witness the colossal, earth shaking battle between the vile demon Heartbreak Worm Zu and Hero Ku spread like the plague through the wards. Somehow, to Tian’s bewilderment, some of the great man’s halo spread over him. Simply by virtue of having been there, he too was a hero. A much smaller, much less important hero, but every flower needs leaves to support it. The green-looking Tian would fit the part nicely.

“Hong must be catching hell. I can’t even imagine. Maybe she found a way to help her family with this. Expand those big city connections.” Tian desperately mopped the halls, trying to keep out of the wards as best he could. Tian knew damn well that Hong Liren wished he had left her to smother to death under the desert sands right now. But maybe she found a way to turn it around.

He wanted to scream. Who at, he didn’t know. He just wanted to scream “It wasn’t like that! It wasn’t heroic! I was terrified! Hong was in a coma! And Martial Uncle Ku waited until the giant monster had been pulled out of the ground and half tamed before making his move! He never made a move to heal the wounded. The only time he made a move at all was to make sure the ambush took place. Is this a hero? Is this really a hero?!”

Tian kept his mouth firmly shut. He was socially inept, not stupid. He knew that today was not the day to voice a contrary opinion. He could be an adornment for the hero, or he could be an unsightly blemish to be pruned away. Not killed or any nonsense like that. Simply shunned. And then all that good will he had been steadily building up would vanish like water in the wasteland.

Nobody wanted to hear about the dead nobodies. The hero’s golden aura couldn’t be tarnished. Not today. Not while the whole sect needed a hero.

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Besides, they might agree with Martial Uncle Ku. “Twenty two Level Ten disciples in exchange for the head of Heartbreak Worm Zhu? They didn’t die in vain.” Tian didn’t think his heart could stand it if he heard them say that.

He endured, barely, until the end of his shift, then ran over to Auntie Wu’s place, avoiding everyone he could. Auntie Wu was in her office, unruffled but smiling. Even she was cheered up by the news, though her smile dimmed as she took in the state of Tian.

“Sit. What have you told your well wishers?”

“What they wanted to hear, I think.”