Chapter 3

"Young master!" Ming An panted as she ran after Bai Xue. "Young master!!"

Bai Xue paused to wait for her and watched blankly as she fussed at him to wear his coat.

Shrugging it on, he pulled his long hair from behind the lapel and said. "Speak."

"Should you have left like that young master?" Ming An blurted out.

"Why shouldn't I have?" He said, turning around to walk through the darkened streets.

"He helped you!" She insisted.

"And he refused the compensation I offered." Bai Xue replied.

"Guh." Ming An choked, her footsteps slowing as she tried to think of a rebuttal.

"Keep up." Bai Xue reminded her.

She jolted and ran after him, still going on about proper courtesy and all that garbage.

He had more important things to worry about.

Bai Xue lifted a hand as he walked, watching as a pebble of ice materialized in his palm before shattering into pieces.

He narrowed his eyes.

He'd successfully stepped onto the path of cultivation.

Now how was he supposed going to use it to escape Sui Daiyu?

---

The guards stared mockingly at Bai Xue as he approached the estate gates. He'd been ill for a while so they couldn't have their usual fun.

One of them opened his mouth to insult Bai Xue but immediately clamped it shut. The glacial, emotionless look on Bai Xue was far worse than any expression they'd ever seen on him.

Before it'd been anger or shame. But now it was a feeling of him not caring at all. Like they didn't even exist. Bai Xue passed between them, and they both shivered even though it was already freezing outside.

Ming An and Bai Xue walked to their courtyard silently, white snow crunching under their feet. Ming An glanced at him from the corner of her eye, shifting restlessly. She wanted to ask him something.

"...Young mas--!"

Bai Xue stopped abruptly and dashed behind a tree, pulling Ming An behind him. She looked up at him in alarm. He lifted a finger to his lips and pointed toward the courtyard.

Two house servants approached their hut with bamboo poles that were sharpened on each side.

"Shit, why do we have to carry them all the way over here?" One servant complained, dropping them at the side of the hut.

"If they aren't right here, they won't be able to quickly bar the windows. So, if mistress Sui feeds that Xue brat and he tries to run away; the blame will be on us." The other servant sighed.

"I guess... but don't you think doing it two days after is strange? He did just wake up." The servant questioned.

"No, I thought it was strange as well, but the brat probably pissed the mistress off or something." The other servant grumbled, placing the disorganized poles into a neat pile. "Not that it matters anyway."

"He'll rot here until the mistress is done with him."

The two servants walked away laughing and agreed to go get drinks together.

...It was incredible how jovial a person could be after laughing at another's misfortune.

Bai Xue suddenly registered the hand bunched up in the back of his coat. He turned his head to witness Ming An crying, her pain inaudible. She tilted her head up to meet his eyes, a fire burning in her gaze.

"They don't knowanything, young master!" She hissed. "The only reason they're mocking you like this is because they know they'll never have a chance to mock another genius like you in their lives!"

Bai Xue regarded his furious maid blankly. Then he smirked.

"You're right." He acknowledged. "They don't know anything, since I already found who will get us out."

"Y-you do?" Ming An sputtered, blinking tears out of her eyes.

"Inside." He stated, walking toward the courtyard.

Ming An hurried after him. When they entered the hut, she hurried to start a fire. Bai Xue shook off his thin coat and threaded his fingers through his hair with an exhale. A comfortable silence filled the room.

"So what are we going to do?" She whispered, poking at the crock.

"Rest." Bai Xue replied as he went to lie on the bed.

Ming An whipped her head around, shocked. "B-But..."

"Sleep."

"Urgh...! Fine." She sighed and despondingly laid down on her futon.

The harsh winds of the winter slammed against the door as the fire crackled, quietly blanketing the room in a soft warmth.

Bai Xue shut his eyes, a slight ache behind his eyes. He was being monitored. He didn't know how but Sui Daiyu had seen him enter the smithy, and now she was suspicious. That's why she moved the date up to poison him so quickly without warning.

Bai Xue exhaled heavily; a bone-deep exhaustion had settled in his body.

Bai Aijuan. That unbearable past of his. Which sect he would choose once he got out.

He would deal with it all tomorrow.

- - -

A vivid scene of shoddily dressed aunts and uncles calling out into a crowded street. The oily smell of steamed meat buns and piping hot noodles.

A conspicuous pair of a young man and woman walked leisurely through it all.

Bai Xue and Ming An traveled in the crowd of the slum market, greeting whoever greeted them. Though Bai Xue mostly hummed in reply, which most of the vendors reacted laughingly to.

In a way, the slums were a second home to Ming An and Bai Xue. It was the one place in Xuqiu where Sui Daiyu had zero control. In the novel, people from the slums were the most devastated about Bai Xue's death. They were the last dredges of the people who still yearned for the old Xuqiu and when he died, that dream was destroyed.

Bai Xue wouldn't let that happen this time.

"Young master! Young master Bai!" An aunt called, waving him over with a meaty hand.

"Yes, Aunt." He returned, walking toward her.

He had responded to most of the callings from the elder vendors hear with little to no complaint. He wouldn't disrespect the last of the people who believed in him.

"How have you been? You've gotten skinnier, I bet that snake was starving you. Tell me what she did, and I promise I'll rough her up! Also have you..." Bai Xue listened to her ramble, nodded, thanked her, and continued walking.

As Ming An attempted to follow after her young master the aunt grabbed her arm, holding her back from leaving.

"What happened?" The aunt asked with a frown.

Ming An looked down and then toward Bai Xue and grimaced. "Sui Daiyu increased the dosage... so young master has been in a forced coma for a few days.

The aunt breathed in heavily and placed her hand over her eyes. "Go over to Old Xie's before you leave and get some medicine. He used to be a very talented Earth herbalist." Then she looked up at Ming An, a serious glint in her eye. "Keep the young master safe, alright? You know we all can't do without him."

Ming An nodded solemnly and ran after Bai Xue, who was slowly disappearing into the crowd.

"What did she say?" He questioned, still facing forward.

"Nothing!" She replied with a sweet smile.

"...You've gotten bold, haven't you? Lying right to my face." Bai Xue sneered.

"It was only small talk, really!" She insisted as she walked behind him. "Where are we heading by the way?"

"The backends." He said curtly.

Ming An froze and stared at him as if he was crazy. The backends were essentially Xuqiu Town's black market. People went there either because they had nowhere else to go or they were after something the law didn't permit.

"T-The backends? Um! Are you sure about that young master, we haven't really been over there?" Ming An squeaked.

"You haven't been over there." Bai Xue retorted, emphasizing the you.

Continuing the rest of the walk in silence, they eventually stopped at a darkened entrance where the sunlight cut off. Like a world separate from the bright hustle of the slums.

"Young master Bai." A tall, muscular man stepped out from the shadowed entryway.

"Mn." Bai Xue hummed nonchalantly.

The man paused for a moment before nodding and stepping to the side to let them through. Ming An looked nervously at the man before bowing and hurrying after her Bai Xue.

"So you did know him...?" Ming An murmured.

"I did say you haven't been here. I have." He smirked, radiating with a smug air.

Almost like a dark shadow of the market, people dressed in threadbare robes wandered the makeshift halls of the wooden huts, shrouded by the thick canopy that spanned across all of the houses.

"Young master, is this... where our benefactor lives?" Ming An mumbled, her demeanor shrinking under the dreary atmosphere.

"The most intelligent people live where it needs to be used most." He replied in lieu of a real answer.

Then with a confidence of someone who knew the area, he went down the planes of barren houses. Heading straight for the singular hovel toward the end.

As they neared, the area became more and more isolated until it was just them and the lone house.

"Are you sure this is it, young master..?" Ming An didn't even get to finish speaking before Bai Xue knocked on the door.

The knock echoed loudly throughout the otherwise undisturbed silence. Ming An gulped.

With a heavy creak the door opened, a small head peeking out.

It was a little girl dressed in hanfu that was slowly discoloring. Thick bangs covered her eyes and spilled over the top of her nose. The two sides both started at each other with curiosity.

"D...Does this gege need something?" She mumbled, her voice barely audible.

"Yes. I'm here to talk to the information dealer." Bai Xue explained after a slight pause.

The girl visibly hesitated as she looked at him, then with a glance inside, the door slowly opened.

"P-Please follow me." The little girl whispered, waiting until they both entered to shut the door behind them.

She quickly shuffled in front and led them to a small inner room where in the middle a low sitting table was placed.

A tall shelf of books was placed on the left side of the room and a drawer that had scrolls spilling off the top of it was tucked in the right corner.

Two still-steaming cups of tea had been placed on the table. Bai Xue narrowed his eyes as he kneeled on the cushions under it, Ming An settling behind him shortly after.

"Wait here for a m-moment, please, I'll go get the Master." The little girl bowed before dashing through a pair of sliding doors.

He stared at her fleeing back before shifting his gaze to the steaming liquid in his cup.

"Have you had your fun, dealer?" Bai Xue said suddenly.

The room was soundless for a moment before bright child-like laughter rang from behind the door.

A small hand gripped the side of the pane as it opened.

"You know young master, you're among the very few who realized it that quickly." The little girl walked back into the room, pulling her hair back from her face.

Su Jing. The future empress of the underground information network. It was said that the only beings who knew more than her were the immortals themselves. Bai Xue remembered her since she was one of the most powerful factors in the demon v. human war in the novel.

But before being an empress, she was just a small-time information dealer in the dirty backends of Xuqiu Town.

He was going to take advantage of that.

"Of course, I would know who I'm speaking to." Bai Xue huffed.

"Oh?" Hair now in a disheveled ponytail, she placed the cushions on top of each other and flopped down. "And what business does our young master have with me?"

"I want you to help me escape Xuqiu." Bai Xue said directly, since it was likely she knew anyway.

Unsurprisingly, Su Jing just looked annoyed.

"You do know that awakening into the qi refining stage does nothing to Sui Daiyu," She responded flatly. "It's like an ant challenging a molehill."

He could feel Ming An's building animosity without even looking behind him. Su Jing looked to the right and he got to witness as her mood visibly switched.

"Don't look at me like that, jiejie! I'm also awakened so I can see his stage." She said giggling.

"Your maid is much more fun than you." She whispered as she leaned forward.

"Get to the point."

"There is no point," Su Jing laughed. "Not to belittle you, young master, but do you think you can fight off two nascent soul bodyguards?"

Bai Xue remained silent. He couldn't.

"I thought so. Apologies, young master, but I work in deals, not miracles." She snorted and stood up from the table.

"I know where your father is." He said to her turning back.

Su Jing stilled. She turned to him with her gaze sharpened, piercing into the side of his face. "And just how exactly does the young master know that?" There was an underlying threat in her words as she questioned him.

In the novel, there was one thing the 18-year-old Su Jing could never find out. Where her father disappeared to. No matter how many of her hounds she sent after him, nothing came up.

So like that, a man left his ailing wife and young daughter to agonize over where he'd gone.

It was like he disappeared off the face of the earth.

Luckily, Bai Xue was a bastard who read the book, so he was almost certain he knew where he was.

"...Sui Daiyu has humiliated me, loath as I am to admit it. But I am still Xuqiu's young master." He retorted, resting his cheek on his fist. "Of course, I know about my people."

Su Jing scrutinized him for a moment longer before plopping back down onto the cushion.

"Fine. Let's go with that." She scoffed. "But just because you say you know where he is doesn't mean anything. I honestly think you're playing up your bravado because you're desperate."

"Don't get too overconfident." Bai Xue sneered.

"Really? You of all people, are calling me overconfident?" Su Jing let a sharp laugh loose.

"You heard me." He curled his lip.

The two young cultivators glared at each other, every line in their bodies tense. Bai Xue pulled back first and rolled his eyes long-sufferingly— as if he was the more mature one in this situation.

"Even though you are severely egotistical, you are intelligent. Which is why you're still here." He relented.

"I am beginning to regret doing so." Su Jing hissed.

"Hmph... he's in the wind capital, Beishan." Bai Xue admitted, running a finger over the polished wood of the table.

"...You've never stepped a foot out of this town. How could you possibly know that?" She said, unconvinced.

"I couldn't. But my parents could."

Su Jing pressed her lips together and turned, trying to hide how her eyes were shaking.

"You know how enthusiastic they were about making a community for the cultivators. Why would they not know your father?" He reasoned.

She flinched and turned to him, her lip pressed between her teeth.

"Just when did they speak about him?" She asked, her voice hushed.

"I overheard them talking about him during dinner so I asked. They informed me that, that was his hometown." Bai Xue explained.

"…You sure do keep some useless information in that head of yours." Su Jing snorted.

He looked at Su Jing indifferently and he could clearly see this was her last ditch effort to keep her composure. He knew that. But a small part twitched in his chest, reminding him of his own past as well as Bai Aijuan's.

"You would also reserve every small memory you had if you'd been robbed of everything else." He quietly replied.

"…Fine." She frowned, looking anywhere but his face.

Bai Xue shrugged. He took a sip of the tea and made a face, it was extremely bitter.

"I'll send out a disturbance early in the morning. That's when you leave." Su Jing reported as she suddenly stood to go rummage around her drawers. "If you're smart enough about it, you can sneak through the streets and I'll find a way to keep the guards busy."

He blinked, watching Su Jing intently. Was she...?

"When you reach the slums, someone will take you to an alley and your guide will be there. Don't miss him or you're finished. After that, everything else will be up to you." She detailed, pulling out a piece of paper that seemed to shimmer slightly.

She quickly scribbled something and threw it on the table. "Sign that."

Bai Xue slowly rose an eyebrow and leaned forward to examine the paper. As long as she was on board. A second later his temple jumped. This damned demon child...!

"Um, young master. I don't know about this..." Ming An, who had been silent for the most part finally spoke, peering nervously over his shoulder.

"What's wrong, young master? Scared to sign your soul away?" Su Jing smiled, saccharine sweet.

It was a binding contract. The terms listed on the paper were to find Su Shaiming, father of Su Jing in the time period of two years. The most infuriating part of it all though was the fucking consequence of breaking the contract!

'If conditions are not met in the specified time, the contractor will automatically lose one level of cultivation.'

Su Jing was a cultivator herself so she knew that one level of cultivation could mean years of effort. So, she was basically giving him a death sentence. Bai Xue stared at the binding contract for a moment longer before sighing.

"If I am going to die, I would rather it be on the fields outside." He stated, picking up the pen and writing his name. He felt an immediate drain to his energy and sagged.

"Y-Young master!" Ming An shouted in alarm.

"He'll be fine," Su Jing picked up the paper, waving her hand. "Since he's only at his first layer in Qi refining he's not used to spreading spiritual energy."

"Very nice.." She nodded, admiring her work. "Where are you going to go when you leave here anyway?"

Bai Xue blinked sluggishly and replied, "...The Xuedi sect."

"Oho? That waste of the six great sects and the singular one that focuses heavily on ice spiritual roots. It's perfect for you." Su Jing snickered.

She rolled the paper up and tucked it into one of her drawer's chests and sauntered over, her gait uncomfortably sure for someone with the body of a 12-year-old child. She loomed over his crumpled body and grinned.

"Maybe you know how to use that brain after all… even if it's an obvious solution to a simple problem." She snorted. "Now, get out of my house."

Ming An tried to pull him up from under his arms but he shook her off. Then as he stood up on shaking legs, he went over to the rotting door unstably. Ming An hovering behind him nervously the entire time.

The moment they stepped out, a thin stream of light hit Bai Xue on his left eye. He peered at the gap between the canopies and half turned his neck to meet gazes with Su Jing.

"Two years, young master, you better remember it!" She warned, smirking wickedly before she shut the door.

Bai Xue stood on trembling legs before awkwardly storming off with a scowl on his face.

"Wha-- wait for me young master!" Ming An shouted, scrambling after her furious little young master.