Chapter 61 - Skyfolk

Lei had already found a man offering his bodyguard services. He was tall and muscular, had spiky orange hair and carried a massive two-handed saber. 

"So, that your friend? Ready to go?" He spoke in a cocky manner, his smile was slightly provocative. 

"What rank are you?" Xin asked him directly. They were paying for his services from their loot stash, after all.

"Rank? I am not a core shitter, physical all the way through! Can lift a horse with one arm, killed five trained men during a caravan raid. What rank is this, huh?" He stuck out his chest proudly. 

"Peak rank one, I'd say. Maybe middle." Xin answered coldly. 

"Oh, maybe middle? Whatever, as long as you pay me. Three spirit stones daily, and you're safe in this city. Got it? You can conduct business, hang around any district, do whatever, I am with you. If you intentionally pull me into something stupid, I'm out. Deal?"

"Fine." Lei sighed as he pulled three spirit stones out of his bag of holding. "Xin, are you ready?"

Xin checked the jar with the yaoguai's organs. They were intact, and he modified his recipe since the tiger yaoguai killing. Should last several more weeks, as long as I add more freezing powder. 

He nodded to Lei.

"So, where to?" The bodyguard asked.

"Butcher's Rest." Lei answered. 

"Shit, who angered you? Want to place a bounty on someone? Come on, tell me, maybe I'll help you. Or are you just looking for intel?"

"We're collecting, actually. Let's get going." Xin hurried him up.

"Pff, sure, tough guy. Follow me."

Their small group traversed through several alleys, filled with drunkards and prostitutes, followed a road near a small shrine to the nomadic Earth Mother, and emerged in a wide district, filled with dilapidated one-story warehouses. The only thing that stuck out was a decently maintained tavern, with a street food stand nearby, and a diverse crowd of thugs hanging out near its entrance, drinking cheap alcohol and eating greasy snacks. 

"Oi, Orange! Turning some escaped fucktoys in, eh?" A burly bearded man said, drinking beer.

"Don't harass my customers, Black! Bad for business!" 

Xin turned to Lei, who surprisingly didn't blurt out anything stupid. Lei knew when to lay low, he just didn't like doing it, as it was rather grating. Need to leave before he snaps, Xin thought. 

The group entered the tavern. There was a scene there, with worn and tired looking women dancing in provocative clothing. Xin found some of them too old, their cheap mascara unable to obscure their fading looks, and sadly, some of them looked too young, having no hips to swing.

"Bring it, girl! Shake it! Shake it!" The crowd cheered as the bald white foreigner beat the drums with his bare hands. Xin looked around the tavern. 

Foreigners tend to stick with each other. Islanders, white people, some weird looking tanned people — all Mistborn consider themselves one thing, separate from us, and hang out in their own corner of the tavern, gambling and drinking. Bet they wouldn't be so united if they had their memories back. Identity is relative, it seems. 

"Stop staring around, I'll lead you to the second floor. That's where Aigul is." Orange said.

"A nomad?" Lei asked.

"Yep. Problems?"

"Well, don't know if you can trust them."

"He's got quite a reputation, don't worry. Just don't fuck him over, and don't lie. Your privacy will be upheld. Or so I heard, hehe. Don't worry, I don't work for him."

"Those guys, near the entrance, would they shake us up if you weren't there?" 

"You don't look like city natives, you'd get mugged twice already if you hadn't hired me. Consider yourself lucky. Or wise."

Well, and if we didn't hire you, you'd be the one robbing us. This place needs to be purged with fire, Xin thought. What a shithole.

The trio went up the ladder to the second floor. There, they were stopped by an ordinary looking man, wearing a straw hat. The only remarkable quality about him were the sleeves on his robe, covered in golden silk stripes.

"Redeem? Place? Intel?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"Well, we killed a demon, but we don't know if there was a bounty on him. We've come to check. Where's the board?" Xin asked.

"Here, you are welcome." He pointed towards a door to his side, and let Xin and Lei enter the bounty board room.

"I'll wait downstairs." Orange said. Lei nodded.

The pair approached the board, covered with missives and bounty hunting orders.

"Xu Weibo — looks twenty four, rank three. Terrorism, kidnapping, rape, torture. Extremely dangerous, water path user. Reward — 1500 spirit stones." The image showed a picture of a young smiling man, with a thin moustache and a unibrow, giving him a goofy expression.

"Su Qidi — real name unknown. Age unknown, looks around thirty, known to change her looks. Poison path master. Mindcontrol, assassination, torture, robbery. Rank two. Bounty — 600 spirit stones." Her picture showed her to be an unremarkably looking woman, with a wide face and rosy cheeks, her hair gathered into a bun. 

"Here!" Xin quickly skimmed over a bunch of postings until he found the one they were looking for. 

"It's him!"

"Little Mantis. Wood path master, yaoguai. Known to breed and control insect creatures. Robbery, murder, terrorism, cannibalism. Rank two. Reward — 200 spirit stones."

"No way!" Xin was amazed.

"Yeah, why so little? That fat poison girl is thrice his worth! He had an army, for fucks sake."

"Take it or leave it, kids." The man behind them said. "I am amazed a bunch of rank one bums managed to defeat him. Got any proof? Master Aigul doesn't work without evidence."

"Of course we have proof. Can we enter?"

"Yeah. Only one person enters. You, with the jar, I guess. Don't pull anything stupid, the room is a formation, just so you know. Let me look into the jar as well."

"Fine." Xin opened it. "Happy?"

"I see. Please enter."

Xin entered a room, where a man was seated on a leather chair. His desk was made out of a bluish sort of wood, and was elegantly crafted, adorned with ornaments and crystal decorations.

Spirit wood? That's some expensive furniture.

"You have no core, your physique is subpar, too." The man spoke without an accent, despite his foreign look. His eyelids were slightly inverted, his face was wide and his skin was an unusual shape of bronze. Certainly a nomad. His hair was collected into a thick ponytail, held together by golden hair braids.

"Yes. I am a mortal, master. I am here to collect a bounty on the Little Mantis."

"Ha? What? You and your fire path friend outside, killed a rank two?"

Yeah, I get it, you have sensory abilities, stop boasting. 

"Yes, me and some other friends. We took losses, but we defeated his insect army and killed him. I dealt the lethal blow, if that matters. I've got a bunch of his organs as proof."

"Organs? We collect heads here, boy. Otherwise the bounty is reduced. Simple as that. Still, can you prove that the organs are his?" He raised his eyebrow.

"You certainly have your own investigative methods, so I wouldn't be able to bullshit you, master..."

"Language, kid."

Yes, amid everything wrong with this city, the word "bullshit" is what angered you. Stupid fucking powerplay. Hate these people.

"I apologise. So, his blood and phlegm emanate a frozen rank two aura. His eyes are of a rare colour, and are also qi active. I wouldn't be able to fabricate them. Mantis yaoguai are some of the rarest, so it's not like I killed some other rank two yaoguai. Clearly, it's him. Seems like enough evidence."

"Eh, look, newbie. I am not gonna give you a hard time, you know? The only other mantis yaoguai listed is rank three, and she's a pink-eyed female who hangs out a thousand li from here. I mean, if this guy reemerges, we'll have you all killed, but for now, I'll pay off the bounty. 150 spirit stones, since you didn't bring a head, and ten percent tax deducted. One hundred and thirty five. Good? Sign here."

Xin saw his bounty dwindle by 65 spirit stones, and his heart sunk. Well, it was my fault for getting my hopes up.

"Fine." Xin signed. 

"One thing, though. The customer will want to know the story. Please tell us how it went."

"Yes, but I also want to ask some questions in return, is it fine by you, master?" 

"Well, you might grow into a proper bounty hunter one day, so I'll entertain you, I've got a few minutes."

"Fine. So, we were a caravan of the Five Elements Transition school, and we were ambushed by a woman, probably a granny, leading a squad of plant monsters. We lost our outrider, and I had to replace him."

"Wait, was it Riversong manor? Moss Bush demoness took credit for that massacre. She's also under bounty, by the way. 120 spirit stones."

"I hope I collect it one day." Xin sighed. "So, one of our mortals broke through during combat, but me and Lei, the guy outside your room, managed to injure her and forced her to retreat."

"Did you have any rank two masters with you?"

"Yeah, master Taowei, he did the heavy lifting in that fight. He then perished fighting the Little Mantis. In the demoness fight, he was caught without qi, though. We were just done fighting a swarm of grasshoppers, and he expended most of his qi there."

"Oh, you had it bad. What next?"

"I led the squad through the Yellow Pine forest, towards the mine passage, we fought some ghouls there, and while we were qi drained, the mantis yaoguai ambushed us. We retreated into the mines, but master Taowei was seriously injured. He managed to barricade us inside the caves, but lost his core."

"My missive claims that this guy had a giant mantis made out of pure iron with him, how did your squad defeat it? How did you defeat the master himself, if your rank two master lost his cultivation?"

"Some good ideas. Some people broke through while we were in hiding. Alchemy. Traps. Tactics. Good cohesion. We exploited the iron mantis' lack of intelligence and the yaoguai's weak martial foundation. Everyone fought really well, we lost a teammate and master Taowei sacrificed himself, but we won. End of story."

"That... sounds unrealistic. Is that iron mantis thing dead?"

"Do you guarantee privacy?" Xin asked. 

"That's my job, Aigul equals privacy, youngster. Don't you dare imply otherwise." He felt a hint of friendliness in his snark. He was certainly impressed by their squad.

"Well, we still have the mantis comatose and decapitated in our bag of holding. We'll deliver it to the sect. We also have methods of melting it instantly through a formation if something bad happens to us." Xin bluffed, but it was worth trying. Shouldn't have mentioned the mantis in the first place, curses.

"Heh. Fine, if you want it sold, I can connect you with the right people."

"I'll be selling the yaoguai's organs, but not the iron mantis. That's already decided. Sorry."

"I see. Well, I'll keep the yaoguai's eyes. Proof for the customer, eh? You can keep everything else. Deal?"

"Fine." Xin made a small concession. Probably lost several more spirit stones. "Another question, please."

"Shoot it."

"Moss Bush Demoness, what do you know about her?" 

"She belongs to the demonic faction, but mostly works alone. Found a wood path inheritance and cultivated in seclusion for forty years. Only reached rank two, and her breakthrough was probably shit, so she relies on controlling other creatures. Still, she's wild and elusive, and has some stealth methods. Been two years since that bounty was posted."

"Fine, I'll contribute my intel." Xin added everything about how she refined the bodies to feed the plants, her hiding and combat methods, her battle tactics and the capabilities of her plant soldiers.

"Well. Thanks, this might help a bounty hunter one day." Aigul smirked. He didn't want to reward Xin for this information, even if courtesy demanded at least a symbolic gift. 

"I might collect it myself later." Xin said again in a calm voice.

Aigul raised his eyebrow. This guy is a mortal, that's certain. His demeanour is very prideful. He seems smart and good-looking, is his self-confidence warranted? Every hero was once a youngster who chose to become special, after all. Still, destiny is often ruthless, and he saw many aspiring heroes, just like Xin, perish in their early twenties.

"Well, is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

"Yeah. How do we get back to the sect safely? Any advice?"

"Good question. Join a big mortal caravan, they're departing tomorrow. Northern gates, tell them I sent you. Anything else?"

"What's that 'right person' that you were talking about? I need to sell the organs."

"Kaitun. She runs a company up the street, tell her I sent you."

"Thank you, sir. Is she also a nomad?"

"Call us Skyfolk, kid. Do I look nomadic to you, with my meaty bum on that thirty spirit stones chair?"

"Forgive me, master. Skyfolk it is."