The sun had completely disappeared behind the horizon by the time Li Wei arrived in Tengmay Town.
He had already been to to two other villages on his travels through Pangu, but this one was much bigger than both of them. However, it was far, far quieter. Lights were on in every house, but no one was in the streets at all. Was it because it was night, or was something else the case?
Wei strolled through the empty streets, passing through the center square of the city. Wooden shop stalls were arranged around the wide stone plaza in a rough circle, their cloth signs flapping in the cold nighttime breeze. Most of the actual buildings in Tengmay looked residential, so he figured most of the commerce went down here.
As he looked for an inn to stay the night at, he walked by a small alleyway between two larger buildings.
"Admit it! You stole from us!"
Wei's gaze moved towards the source of the noise. At the end of the alleyway, a man stood in front of a woman with short-cropped auburn hair. She seemed around his age and was slumped against the wall, woozy. One of her hands was placed on her forehead, and her other was... wait. On closer inspection, the woman was missing her right arm at the elbow. She wore a loose red shirt with long sleeves, and the unneeded one was tied into a knot halfway up.
"Y'know, if you don't quiet down you'll wake the whole town up," she said. Her voice was surprisingly casual.
The man smacked her across the face. "There'll be worse than that if you don't fess up!"
As quietly as he could, Wei crept closer to the entrance to the alleyway. The man was dressed like the two cultivators he had met earlier - white and silver robes, metal arm guards - but had a blue sash tied around his waist. Usually special marks like that denoted higher position in a sect. Clearly he was another Holy Crane member, and one with a better rank, too. How much better, Wei couldn't guess, and he didn't want to find out.
The young man bit his lip. He knew he shouldn't get involved in business that wasn't his. He knew that stepping in would put him at risk of getting recognized as the trespasser from earlier, too. But he also knew he couldn't let some poor one-armed girl get beaten up.
"Is there something going on?" Wei called out to make himself known. At the sound of his voice, both the Holy Crane cultivator and the one-armed woman turned to face him. The man was more shocked than the woman, who still seemed strangely calm despite the situation.
"Nothing that concerns you," the man called back. "So beat it."
"How about you lay off on her?" Wei asked, quietly laying down the ducks he was still carrying from earlier out of the man's sight. "Clearly she isn't fighting back. If she stole anything, just cuff her and bring her in."
Sneering, the Holy Crane member stepped away from the one-armed woman and started walking up to Wei.
"How about you mind your own business? Y'know, I've never seen you around town before..."
He came to a stop only a yard away from Wei, staring him right in the eyes. Wei could feel beads of sweat form on the back of his neck. Was he caught? Damn it. He knew he shouldn't have gotten involved here!
Suddenly, a red-sleeved arm wrapped around the cultivator's neck from behind. The man gasped out for air as it squeezed, the slender vice growing tighter and tigher.
Wei stepped back in surprise, but quickly realized what had happened. With the stealth of a shadow, the one-armed woman had snuck from her spot against the wall. The cultivator grabbed at her arm with both his hands, struggling against it, but she was applying too much strength. A few more seconds and he went unconscious, face tinted blue. The woman drew her arm back to her side, letting the man flop to the street.
"Thanks for the distraction," she said, rubbing her forehead. A bruise ran across it. "He jumped me from behind while I was walking. Normally I could've handled him no sweat."
"No problem... I guess." Wei scratched his head. "What was that all about?"
"He thought I had taken some money from the Holy Crane's barracks," she explained. "I mean, I did, but like... stealing from us is their entire business. So it's even."
Wei didn't really agree with theft, but he was quickly getting the idea that the Holy Crane were little more than thugs. So he wasn't too torn up about accidentally helping a thief.
"Who are you, by the way?" The woman asked curiously, putting her lone hand on her hip. "You're not from Tengmay."
"I'm just passing through. My name's Li Wei. What's yours?"
"Hong Meirong."
"Nice to meet you. Say, you wouldn't know a good place to stay the night, would you?"
"I can help you with that. Least I can do, right?"
Meirong lead him to a crowded restaurant across town where many people were gathered drinking and playing cards. She was familiar with the owner and explained the situation to him, that Wei was a traveler looking for a place to sleep overnight. The man was happy to let him stay in the basement for a fee. Wei was low on cash, but the two ducks were sufficient payment.
"Was that your dinner?" Meirong asked as he handed the ducks over. Wei nodded. "Well hey, I was gonna eat here anyways. Want me to get you something?"
Wei didn't like taking so much help from a girl. But hey, if she was making the offer...
They took their seats at a small table in the corner. Meirong ordered bowls of rice and pork stew, along with a bottle of rice wine. She poured a small cup for Wei, then started drinking straight from the bottle herself.
"So where are you from, Wei?" she asked.
"Ah... that's a long story, actually."
Wei gave her the short version of his journey, deciding to leave in the part about his earlier run-in with the Holy Crane. She snort-laughed when he told her about how he had blinded one of the cultivators with duck blood.
"Wow," she shook her head in disbelief after he was finished. "Can't believe you got to Pangu accidentally. If only leaving were that easy..."
"The nature here is nice, so I guess I'm not complaining," Wei shrugged. "I could do without martial arts sects acting like the police, though."
"It's been like that as long as I can remember," said Meirong. She finished up the bottle of rice wine and waved at the owner to order another. "There's only six, but they're all as bad as Holy Crane. Some are even worse. But Holy Crane, they make us pay for licenses for hunting, fishing, even just bringing crops to other towns to sell, you need a license."
"Anyone else hate that hunting and fishing are two separate licenses?" A man at the table next to them decided to chime in. "Those could just be one! Fishing is just hunting for fish!"
"It's criminal." Meirong laughed. "And those licenses come on top of the taxes they already make us pay. But there's not much we can really do."
"Nobody's ever tried to fight back against them?" Wei asked.
"We all do, in our own little ways. Stealing from them, hunting under their noses. But we can't just round up an army and fight them. They've got more men and more swords than we could feasibly deal with. They're all trained cultivators too, they have these special jade tiles in their temple that they meditate on. Those things are crazy for training qi quickly. Plus, even if we took them out somehow, then Rolling Thunder or Blood Mask would move in, pitch their tent and we'd just have the same problem."
"Well, you managed to take that guy out pretty fast, qi training regardless," said Wei. Meirong smiled slightly at the mention of her accomplishment, taking a drink from a new bottle of wine the server brought over. "Are you a cultivator?" he asked more quietly.
Meirong nodded. "I was. When I was younger. I try to train my qi now through meditation, but it's slow without any sort of aid. I have to rely on my skill whenever a Holy Crane picks a fight," she said. "You said you beat up two of them, so, are you?"
"Yeah. My father belonged to the Plum Orchard Sect, and I was a member too, only for a few months. Not long enough to pick up any special techniques, but enough to train up my qi a little. We both decided to leave."
The girl's eyes widened at the mention of the Plum Orchard Sect. Wei understood why. They were easily one of the most prestigious in the empire, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. They weren't the kind to just accept anybody.
"Why would you leave?"
"They just changed. It used to be about connecting with nature. Practicing martial arts was just a way to reach oneness with the trees and the valleys... but then the elders just became so focused on gaining power and prestige. They cut down half a forest just to expand the temple. If the emperor wasn't around to keep the sects in check, I'd say they'd end up just like Holy Crane in a few years."
"I see," Meirong nodded. "Yeah, I guess the whole 'oneness with the universe' part of cultivation has been forgotten, huh? Though I was never really into any of that religious crap."
She paused, then tacked on a few more words.
"Y'know, not that there's anything wrong with being into that religious crap."
Wei laughed softly to let her know she hadn't offended him. "Yeah, I'm not really religious either. But I just feel so much more at home in the forest."
Meirong turned back to her drink. "I guess I don't mind a stroll in the woods either. As long as there aren't any mosquitos out..."
The two traded stories for a few more hours. Wei learned that Meirong was a drifter like him and had traveled all over Pangu. She was from the south, but found the cold weather up north to be more agreeable, so she eventually settled down in Tengmay. Most of the time she worked fixing up boats and carts, but sometimes she'd hunt or fish and sell what she caught. She'd really just do whatever odd job that let her afford the small apartment she rented out.
"Holy Crane Sect owns the building where I live," she said. "They own a few pieces of property around here."
"Really? Aren't you concerned you'll get evicted for knocking that guy out?" Wei had asked. She laughed loudly, maybe a bit too loud. She was on her fourth bottle of wine by then and was starting to show it.
"Song Yuan, admit he was beaten up by a girl with one arm? Yeah, that'll happen!"
Meirong also told him about the other martial arts sects in Pangu, and tried to sum up how they felt about one another, but it was too complicated for her to explain very well. She said all he needed to know was that they all hated each other, but Holy Crane, Blood Mask, and Rolling Thunder - the three in the north - hated each other less. They had a loose alliance, which meant they'd work together against the southern sects but still bickered and tried to take land from one another whenever possible.
"It's all about land. Land, land, land." She downed the last bit of wine in her fifth bottle. "It's all a big dick measuring contest if you ask me."
Wei told him a little more about himself too, and the mainland. She was very curious about that. Apparently the education about the larger empire in Pangu was lacking. He tried to answer whatever she asked the best he could, though she had some strange questions.
"Have you ever seen a camel?"
"A camel?" Wei held back a laugh.
"Yeah, the horses with lumps on their back," she said. "I saw a sketch of one in a book once. Are they even real?"
"Yep. They live in the desert and spit a lot. But aside from that... they're pretty much just weird-looking horses with lumps on their back."
Meirong smiled. "You know, I think even if you never told me, I could tell you aren't from Pangu."
"How so?"
"You're way too polite. Everyone here is an asshole. Seriously, you haven't even asked about the arm yet."
Wei waved her off. "I mean I won't lie, I've been wondering."
"I'd tell you... if it weren't so late." Meirong yawned, then rose from her chair. "It was nice meeting you, Li Wei."
"Need me to walk you home? You had a lot to drink."
She eyed him suspiciously.
"A lot to drink? I only had six bottles of rice wine. On a normal night I have way more than that!"
They shared a last laugh, then Meirong took off. Wei watched her walk to the door. She paid the owner on the way, and waved goodbye to him as she stepped outside. He waved back.
She was right. It was late. Wei turned in soon after she left. The mattress in the resturant's basement was stuffed with itchy hay, but he managed to make himself comfortable enough. Above him, he could hear more and more people end their card games and head home. Soon the place was almost silent.
As he tried to fall alseep, he thought about his dad. He wondered what he would think of the Holy Crane Sect, of all the sects in Pangu. Clearly something along the line had gone horribly wrong to turn organizations based around finding inner peace into what were basically just gangs of trumped-up criminals.
If only he could start a sect of his own, Wei thought. One that could hold up those old ideals. One that could try and make the world a better place, not just make money.
But he couldn't just do that.
Could he?
