The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday. Isaac returned to the gate and spent a few hours robbing disciples. However, he finished a little earlier than yesterday and went home.

'If I can steal resources from others, resources can also be stolen from me. The only thing other disciples can't steal is my cultivation base. It's best if I stop now and visit the market before it closes; then I can sell most of this loot, buy some Basic Qi Pills and finish cultivating them as soon as possible before people try robbing me.'

With that thought, Isaac filled a sack with some of the animal bits. He threw in a pelt, noses, and 2 sets of bear, wolf and fox claws. He had more wolf and fox claws, but he didn't have enough bear claws to make another set, so he left the other wolf and fox claws in his new hiding spot.

Yesterday, Isaac had realised that underneath his mattress wasn't a great hiding place. He'd briefly thought about better spots and had decided to create a draw with a false bottom.

The first thing he'd done this morning before going to the training grounds was find some unused planks left out in the street. Then Isaac had chopped up the planks and fitted them in one of his cupboard draws. Since everything here was made from pine wood, the planks looked like they were the bottom of the draw when in reality they could be taken out to reveal a secret compartment beneath them. This compartment was the real bottom of the draw, hence why the planks were called a 'false bottom'.

He wasn't a master carpenter so it was easy to spot if you looked closely, but it should keep things hidden from someone doing a rushed or careless search. It was quite useful for hiding small objects and Isaac put the remaining claws inside before replacing the planks.

Then he grabbed a second sack and put 2 wolf pelts in it. Holding both sacks, Isaac left his house and headed to the market.

He found suitable buyers for all 3 pelts and his collection of noses, earning just over 1 reward point. Then he went to visit the alchemy disciple.

The alchemy shop was near the edge of the market in a less expensive plot of land. It seemed that instead of purchasing a great location, the owner had spent all their money on building the store itself.

It had the slightly odd store name, 'Herbal Fumes' was written in bold letters across the front of the store, with a row of ornate wooden carvings above and below the name. The large double doors beneath the name were wide-open as if inviting customers in, and Isaac could tell the alchemy disciple had spotted him standing outside since she was smiling at him.

Isaac walked in and greeted her,

"Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon to you too," she replied in a happy but not overly cheerful tone.

"I remembered the offer you made last time and hoped you were still interested in buying animal claws."

"Hmm..." the woman seemed slightly hesitant to talk about this topic, "I am still looking to buy some, but I can't offer the same prices as before. Your friend's already had a few transactions with me so I have less of a need for them now, I can only offer you 1 reward point and 3 iron pieces for a set of claws."

This was a dip from the previous 1 reward point and 5 pieces, but it was still slightly above market price. Trying to negotiate got Isaac nowhere since both he and the disciple knew he'd struggle to find a better price elsewhere. Therefore, he sold both sets of claws for 2 reward points and 6 iron pieces, leaving him with 2 empty bags but pockets full of money.

Instead of using that money to buy something, Isaac checked he wasn't being followed and left the market. He returned home to retrieve his last wolf pelt as well as the two fox corpses, then headed back to the market.

He had long since removed the claws from these wolves and was ready to sell them. In fact, he'd removed the eyes and noses as well. Nobody needed an entire wolf corpse, so he could earn more by selling it in separate parts. The only unfortunate thing was that he couldn't skin them to sell the pelt and meat separately; instead, he sold the main bodies to a butcher who planned to skin them, put the meat in his shop and sell the pelts to a friend.

Then Isaac sold the eyes, noses and other parts to the same buyers who'd purchased his goods earlier.

When he was done peddling his wares, Isaac finally paid a visit to the Sect Exchange Centre.

He walked inside and joined the queue for one of the desks. When it was his turn, he handed the vendor at the desk 2 wooden tokens and 20 iron pieces, each about the size of his thumbnail. In return, he received 4 milky white pills.

Isaac quickly pocketed the pills and left. However, he saw he was being followed again – it seemed people always waited near the exchange centre and targeted those who came out.

This time, Isaac didn't try to slip away unnoticed. This kind of thing would continue happening until he proved he wasn't an easy target, so he decided to teach his follower a lesson.

He kept walking while pretending he hadn't seen the hooded stalker, taking an easy-to-follow route into some empty backstreets. As soon as he left the market and entered the residential district, Isaac immediately took a left turn.

He stopped walking and pushed his body flat against the wall, waiting for his tail to walk around the corner.

Sure enough, the person followed Isaac into this street. A momentary look of confusion clouded their face when they realised Isaac was gone, nowhere to be seen. However, that confusion was replaced by pain as Isaac stepped out of the shadowy corner, grabbed their head, and pulled it downwards for a violent introduction to his knee.

After Isaac kneed them in the face, the hooded figure was seeing stars. Their hood fell back, revealing a beautiful feminine face, but that didn't even cause Isaac to hesitate as he swung his fist towards the side of her head. The punch connected with a hollow thud, sending the woman tumbling to the floor. Then Isaac proceeded to kick the living daylights out of her while she curled up in the foetal position.

When he was done kicking, he rummaged through the woman's coat pockets and took the 2 iron pieces she had with her. Then he stood up, cast a single glance towards her twitching, curled-up body, and silently left.

He went back to his house and slept.

The next morning, Isaac woke up early and didn't eat breakfast so he could use the first Basic Qi Pill. He steeled himself for a long period of boredom and entered meditation.

*************************

Meanwhile, other events were occurring elsewhere in the sect. At midday, a freckle-faced woman came through the sect gates with 2 wolf pelts. She stood by the gates for a while and looked around, then she walked towards a nearby street and took several twists and turns until she arrived at her destination.

She stopped and put the pelts on the floor. Then she leant against a wall and started getting food and a water bottle out of a bag. She tried to look as careless as possible, inviting someone to steal her pelts, but she was actually very vigilant. So were the other 5 people watching from the shadows – they closely observed the direction the woman had come from to see if anyone was following her.

However, nobody came. After a while, the woman put her food and drink back in the bag with a look of frustration on her face. She turned to the group in the shadows and said,

"Where is he?! You told me this was sure to work: we catch the guy who's been stealing people's kills, then we force him to hand over the loot he's accumulated. That sounds great and all, but he's not here! How do we catch a guy who isn't here?!"

"Relax, there's no way he can resist a target as easy as this," spoke one of the shadows, "he probably doesn't come to the gate this early, so he might not have seen you. Let's go back and try it again."

The woman stood up reluctantly and made her way back to the gates. She left the sect and waited outside for about half an hour before asking to be let back in.

The guards were confused and a little irritated at her actions, but they opened the gates anyway and the woman entered the sect like she'd just come back from hunting.

With the 2 wolf pelts and a sack of supplies in her hand, she repeated the same actions as before. She looked around the square for a bit, then walked into the same alleyway as before and took the exact same turns. Then she reached the street where the group of 5 was hiding, put down the pelts and started eating in the middle of the street, trying to look as defenceless as possible.

However, nothing happened even after waiting for a while.

"He's not coming, thanks for wasting my time."

"Wait! Let's try again tomorrow, he must not be here today. Think about how much we'll earn if we catch him, it'll be well worth the effort..."

The woman didn't seem entirely convinced, but she agreed anyway,

"Fine. But if he doesn't come, I still get to keep these wolf pelts like we agreed."

Then she picked up the wolf pelts and left on her own.