Destiny in Cinders

The former city administration’s twelve-story office building was occupied by the Bejeweled Traders Guild. Two martialists stood guard outside.

”Where do you hail from, friend?” one of them asked when he saw that Xu Tai seemed intent on entering. He could tell that this burly man was no pushover, so he used an amicable tone. ”The guild isn’t open to just anyone from the public to walk in. If you have any business here, let us know and we’ll make a report on your behalf.”

”I’m the chief wayguard of Hanlang Wayguard Logistics,” Xu Tai said, getting straight to the point. ”The goods we were shipping here got intercepted by the True Fiend Cult. Some of their members hid among the diversionary squads and attacked our convoy, even using fiendspawns. I’m here to warn you guys about it.”

”True Fiend Cult?” The martialists seemed ignorant about the matter and found the claim rather dumbfounding. Subconsciously, he began to deflect responsibility. ”If your cargo got intercepted, that’s your issue. We can’t be blamed for everyone out there that disguises themselves as diversionary squads, can we? It’s your duty to get the cargo here safely, and you were the ones who failed to carry it out.”

”That’s right,” said the other guard with a tone of warning. ”Don’t think you can scare us just by mentioning the True Fiend Cult or heavenly fiends. Stop spouting nonsense.”

Xu Tai felt a headache forming. His younger self who had not been used to hearing deflectionary statements like that would’ve lost patience and flipped out long ago, but he patiently emphasized, ”I will naturally make it up to the request giver for losing the cargo. However, I figured that the True Fiend Cult and heavenly fiends were pressing enough of an issue to warn you about it.”

”Alright, sure,” said the guard. ”We got it. We’ll pass it along.”

Xu Tai knew that the guard wasn’t taking this the least bit seriously. He was completely speechless, though he did expect this turn of events and simply turned to leave.

”Brother Xu, wait!” someone called out from within the building. Xu Tai turned around and saw a butler rushing toward him. ”What was that about the True Fiend Cult?! Tell me the details!”

The butler noticed Xu Tai’s expression and immediately turned around to slap the guards on the face. ”Are you blind?! This is none other than Hanlang’s Good as Gold! His good reputation goes back more than ten years! How dare you doubt him?!”

The butler saluted Xu Tai respectfully. ”Brother Xu, please come in!”

Xu Tai didn’t feel particularly overjoyed about this. Instead, he put his guard up. There’s no way that this is a mere traders guild...

The butler was no mere layfolk. In fact, he was a rather powerful Fortification martialist. A traders guild like Bejeweled that had influence across all three circuits of Hanhai was more than capable of hiring someone like him. In fact, their headquarters was defended by three Clearing adepts.

Yet, when the butler slapped the guards earlier, he did so smoothly without a hint of hesitation. The martialist who got struck also stood straight without even attempting to back away. He didn’t even seem unhappy about being slapped in the slightest as if it was the most natural thing in the world. This kind of discipline was something that only martial academies were able to foster. Those punished would feel pain without suffering any significant injury.

Do they have a military background? Xu Tai hid his suspicions, but a few guesses did surface in his mind. Even so, he followed the butler into the building. The butler took him to a reception room and served some tea before asking for more details about the True Fiend Cult and the fiendspawn attack. From the straightforwardness of the conversation, Xu Tai was even more convinced of the man’s military background. Oddly, he did see a few people in the building who moved about at a lax pace. Were there some among them who weren’t former soldiers, after all? Xu Tai made sure to use the device An Jing had given him to record the conversations.

Soon, the butler made his concluding remarks and thanked him. ”I really appreciate that you came all this way to report the matter to us. I will make sure to take the infiltration of the True Fiend Cult seriously. It seems that your agency can’t be blamed for losing the cargo. We are at fault for not knowing better and should have doubled down on our intelligence efforts. Please wait here a moment. I will get you a letter that absolves you of the blame and also make it up to you for the trouble. I can’t let you walk out empty handed after you went all the way here to inform us about this problem.” He then left the room, leaving Xu Tai there alone.

”Interesting.” Xu Tai felt that the butler was a decent sort that handled matters fairly. If not for the fact that he had seen Bejeweled forcing sales on the defenseless layfolk on the way to the building, he probably would’ve actually bought that whole shtick and viewed them fondly. Perhaps the reason he got this kind of treatment was because he was at the brink of breaking through to the Clearing Realm (he struggled to take the next step as soul wonders were rather rare and hard to come by), not to mention his reputation. They probably figured it was better to keep him on their good side.

It didn’t take long before the butler brought him the promised letter. The speed at which the official letter was issued was enough to convince Xu Tai that some of the guild’s management had definitely been replaced by military personnel. Normal merchants didn’t have this kind of efficiency, which raised the question of why soldiers were posted here in the first place. Were they blind to the chaos unfolding throughout the city? Or did they have a higher-priority mission that they could afford to ignore everything else?

Xu Tai had made the visit to assess whether they were really working with the True Fiend Cult. From what he saw, the butler seemed to be vaguely aware of it, but had no idea that the True Fiend Cult were even able to control fiendspawns to attack people. The butler probably wanted to get Xu Tai’s testimony and gather some evidence to chew out their collaborator and get them to rein the True Fiend Cult’s madmen in. Fiendspawns shouldn’t be something to be casually thrown around.

They’re probably going to kill me or buy my silence, he thought, eyes closed as he gathered his focus and waited. He didn’t drink a single drop of the tea offered to him and was prepared to call An Jing to save him at any moment. He could also use the thunder beads in his canteen to force his way out.

Though he was fully prepared to go into combat, Bejeweled actually didn’t intend to silence him at all, not even with money. The butler with a soldier-like air returned with some news. Xu Tai wasn’t sure if it was good or bad.

”The young master wants to see you,” the butler said with a helpless and frustrated look, as if there was nothing he could do to restrain the young master. ”Please come upstairs, Brother Xu. Forgive me in advance, however. Our young master is rather... eccentric.”

”Young master, huh?” Xu Tai narrowed his eyes. Based on the attitude of the butler, he had a rough idea who really called the shots in Riverside’s guild branch. Smiling, he said, ”Alright, then. He’s a young master. Surely it can’t be that bad.”

Xu Tai soon learned how wrong he had been. The first thing that the young master said when he saw him was, ”So, this is the chief wayguard that lost my clan’s cargo, huh?”