The Zhang Brothers had reached a meadow, a massive plains with pretty flowers all over it. The sun was just rising up, the soft pale blue of the early morning mixing in with the red streaks of the new day.
"lets rest here. I think we are far enough now." Zhang Feng said and promptly collapsed to his knees, he slid the bag of shoulders and began rummaging through it. "What are you looking for?" Zhang Jian sat down cross-legged on the grass. "My tea supplies, why? do you want some?"
Zhang Jian laughed "sure, sure, why not? But how are you going to boil it out here?" Zhang Feng looked up from his bag, and then around them "Uhh, could you get some firewood please? And a few rocks to prop up the container?"
Zhang Jian laughed even louder, and got to his feet. "You should have told me earlier, I would have collected it when we were in the forest." and went searching in the woods.
Meanwhile, Grandfather was at home peacefully enjoying his morning tea. Recounting the events of yesterday "He will send a letter containing the location of the body once he's gotten far enough from the village... huhu, he doesn't know just how far the Spirit birds can see!" he spoke to himself while stroking his long beard before taking a sip of his tea.
He then threw the cup.
He was blackmailed for 100 Yin, far better than the original blackmail proposed. But for what reason? The reputation of the Zhang family was low, it would not recover if such an incident got out.
Which is why they needed to report this to the elders, but how would they confirm a mans death if there is no body? Zhang Jian proposed that he and his brother get ample time to leave the village and then send a note containing the location.
"HHHHUUUUUUUUUUHHHHH!" The cup broke and the tea splattered across the garden wall. He now clutched his beard, his eyes nearly popping out with rage and denial. The realization seemed to hit him like a boulder. "WHY DO I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THAT DUMB CHILD? AND WHY DID I PAY HIM AT ALL?"
The way Zhang Jian talks to people, its like when he offers you something its a damn necessity. Zhang Jian's words are drank like liquor for how intoxicating it is just listening to him.
The truth is there was a way Grandfather could have just not paid the 100 Yin, but the way the entire conversation and deal flowed, it just "Felt natural." This, this is what happens when you cannot see the clarity of words. Many people are coerced into bad deals just like this every day, its just something Zhang Jian got good at.
Outraged, Grandfather assembled the servants to search for the body. He expected to find it in less than a week, this backfired thoroughly.
"Grandfather's probably assembling the servants to look for the body behind my back" Zhang Jian took a sip from his cup "the fool wont know what hit him!"
The gruesome, gory site. The stench of the dead body, it would make you puke. This spread rumors from servant to servant, eventually reaching every household in the village. "Zhang Qian is dead! Did you hear? His son killed him!" "Which one?" "Obviously that menace Zhang Jian, I heard he fled the village with his brother." "But how?"
By the evening of that day, the clan head summoned the Zhang Family and demanded an explanation. "What is the meaning of this?" Madam Zhang and Grandfather bowed before him before explaining what happened.
"Well you see, my son told my husband that he got an A grade but he refused to believe it..." "He trudged into my office covered in blood and declared his father dead, he blackmailed me into..." "Where were you at the time of the murder?"
"My son told me to leave the room as this was a matter between the two of them, the servants were in their quarters..." "I was with my other grandson in my office.."
"So you mean to tell me, that not only did Zhang Jian murder his father on the day that he awakened as a Spirit master, his father being a Rank 2 Spirit master, was found headless. You mean to tell me this child bashed Zhang Qian's head into a rock till it split!?"
"I find it hard to believe as well, but if he is an A grade then-" A elder than stepped in to confirm that Zhang Jian was F grade, like his father, not an A or a B or any such Grade.
"Wait a second, so he blackmailed you without actually being an A grade. When you are a C grade Spirit master?" The clan head turned back to Grandfather, oh boy was he in for it now.
"How far is the nearest city?" Zhang Jian said while wiping his sweat off his face, Zhang Feng pulled out a map. "Uhh, where are we?" The Brothers looked around them, both of them were from the concrete jungles of earth, and as such did not know how to use a map. "I think we should move north, you know like a right angle from where the sun rises?" These two were on the adventure of a lifetime.
"And what about the guards? Were they just sleeping when the boys left the village?" The Clan head spoke to a few of his underlings, before turning to Madam Zhang "Miss, don't worry. We will find justice for your husband and bring your sons home." It seems as though the clan head has misunderstood the situation.
"thank you, if only we knew where they were headed..." Li Rou had instructed them to go the capital city of the Qinglong Empire, Qingyun city. But she was worried that they would not know how to get there in the first place, in the end all Li Rou could do was hope and pray for her sons safety.
The Guards were interrogated, eventually after a brutal beating and being locked up for several days they admitted to being bribed and faked out by the cunning Zhang Jian. They were executed before sundown on that day.
During this week, multiple Spirit birds were sent out in all directions to search for the boys. This would prove ineffective as they had reached Qingyun by the end of the week, successfully escaping the Lan Tian clan, for now at least.
"What a sight! I've never seen so many people in one place, would you like to get something to drink?" Zhang Jian offered, the two of them stood at the town square. The place was bustling with merchants and sellers. The two found an inn and sat by the corner, their robes indicated high status as Spirit masters, bringing the attention of one waiter.
"Both of us will have sweet rice wine thank you." And Zhang Jian sent the waiter off, Zhang Feng did not like Zhang Jian ordering for the both of them. "Hey! why did you do that?"
"do what?" "I didn't even see the menu!"
"What menu? They don't have those on this planet, at least not for the lower class."
It was at this moment the two of them realized that they had outed themselves.