Report

Waiting in the forest until the sun had risen a little, Huan Wei checked all the traps one by one. It was clear that his father would not give him money. There was nothing to eat at home either. So it was up to him to buy food. Huan Chao was probably out eating and filling his belly. He didn't even think about his son. So Huan Wei had to earn some money. The forest was home to various animals. One of them must have been caught in a trap.

He circulated his energy through his body. It felt good to have reached the Traveler stage now. There hadn't been a huge increase in his strength. Still, he was no longer in a bottleneck. Huan Liwei's pills had also helped. Even moving his body felt easier now. Perhaps the impurity that had accumulated inside him was preventing him from using his body to its full capacity? Once he got rid of it, everything became easier. The cleansing he did last night was the first cleansing he had ever done in his life. The night had been very productive as the time to overcome the bottleneck was shorter than he thought. Now he just needed to bathe.

He kept checking the traps. The first few traps were empty, but then he found two more hard fleshed moles. When the animals were caught in the traps, they struggled for a while, but bled to death. He opened the traps, picked them up and went on his way. Now at least he could earn a few copper coins.

The traps originally belonged to Huan Chao. Before Huan Wei was born, he was a hunter and used the traps often. He was the master of the forest then. He would go very deep and come back with big hunts. Sometimes he could earn in a day what Huan Wei barely earned in a month. That's why their house was a luxury. Even though it doesn't look like it now, people used to be jealous when they looked at it. Huan Chao loved his wife very much and worked hard to make her comfortable. Huan Wei's mother was not idle either. At that time she worked at the Manual Pavilion. Combining their earnings, they were quite well off, but instead of going to the rich neighborhood, they chose a more modest place. They didn't need a mansion anyway, but the dream ended when Huan Wei was born. She did not survive the birth. Huan Chao's world became too dark for him to get out of.

Since then, all he did was drink. When Huan Wei was a baby, he was taken care of by others. Fortunately, his father hadn't decided to throw him away back then. The foster mothers raised him for a while, but then he had to grow up in the same house with that man. Huan Chao felt uncomfortable even talking to him. Every time he looked at his son's face, his eyes filled with disgust. He had done nothing to make his life easier. On the contrary, he always made it harder. Huan Wei had grown up suffering for a crime he couldn't control. Sometimes he was jealous of people who spent time with his family. People supported their children and stood by them, but Huan Wei had no family. There was only a man in whose house he stayed. His fortune was cursed at birth.

He put the thoughts aside and kept walking. Such thoughts had never helped him, but every whim that remained inside him was at some point manifesting itself. He couldn't stop it. When people looked from the outside, they saw an innocent child living with a bad father, but on the inside, things were even worse. What he felt darkened Huan Wei's soul. That's why when Huan Hong apologized to him, Huan Wei told him that there were many reasons for the bottleneck. He knew it in his heart. It was caused by feelings he couldn't get rid of in his heart. Maybe that was the reason why his soul was consuming every bit of energy he saw with an endless hunger?

Huan Wei came out of the forest and into town. The streets were not empty again. With all the stench and blackness on his body, he quickly made his way home, attracting everyone's attention. Of course people would notice the smell coming from him. People covered their noses with their hands whenever he passed by.

Huan Wei thought. "I have attracted too much attention, I have tar on me. I have to do something, I can't afford a cleansing pill. People must not understand this."

The young man began to stagger. He acted as if he could hardly step on his feet. The way he was walking like he was injured, with two moles on my shoulder, caused someone to ask a question.

"Hey, young man, what's the matter with you? What happened to you?"

Huan Wei looked at the person who asked him. He was a middle-aged man. Women were disgusted to even look at him, let alone ask him a question. Huan Wei answered in a tired voice. "I was in the forest. When I was turning around, I heard a big noise. I thought it was a monster, so I started to run, but I tripped and fell into a dirty liquid."

"A monster? So close to the town?" People became agitated. There were no Divine or Corrupted Monsters in this forest, but Natural Monsters were dangerous enough. There could be casualties if this was not dealt with.

"No, no." Huan Wei calmed them down. He didn't want to draw attention to himself with an additional incident right now. "It was just a rotten tree that fell. I was scared because it made some noise. It's my fault. If the monsters had come this close, I would have been dead."

"I understand." The man left without saying anything else.

Huan Wei continued to stagger and walked home, but he also wondered why the streets were crowded. The whole marketplace couldn't have closed, could it? Or had the caravan left? He wanted to ask someone, but there was no need to. People always talked too much. He just listened a little as he walked. He listened to two women talking.

"It will be closed until then."

"What do the guards assigned to the stalls do?"

"The merchants are angry about that too. If the guards are useless, what's the point of them standing at the stalls?"

"What's Huan Fu going to do about it?"

"He's dealing with the fire and this at the same time. There's also a dead body in the burning house. It's complicated. Everyone is looking for the arsonist."

"I hope the caravan doesn't leave. I just saved the money, I need to take that pill."

Huan Wei kept walking. He was thinking at the same time. "The results will start to show. They will come for me soon. I'd better prepare what I'm going to say. I also need to have a bath."

When he got home, he opened the door and went in. Huan Chao was not home. Huan Wei put aside the moles on his shoulder and went to the bathroom to prepare the bathtub. He wanted to get rid of all the dirt. After washing his clothes and letting them dry, he cleaned himself. Then he dressed and combed his hair. His hair was down to his back. He went through all the possible scenarios he could think of and adjusted what he would say in each one. He remembered to empathize. The pressure from the merchants would hang over Huan Fu like a dark cloud. Huan Wei didn't think it would be difficult. The whole court would be in front of the public, so his job should be easier. Still, he felt a thrill of excitement. He had never been involved in such a crime before. Everything he did was secret. Now there was even a corpse.

He took the moles to the marketplace. The caravan traders had closed their stalls, but the town merchants were still open. He received 20 copper coins for the two moles. Without Huan Zhong's opportunism, he could at least earn enough money to live on. He didn't go to Huan Zhong this time because he didn't have any accessories to sell. He used the money to buy some food and headed home. He wanted to eat well.

When he got back home, he turned on the stove and started to cook something. The food he had eaten yesterday had only satisfied his hunger a little. He needed a real meal. He picked up his father's empty liquor bottles, threw them in the trash and wiped the table with a cloth. Then he put the food down and sat down to a good meal. It was the best food he had eaten in a long time. He had cooked the usual thing again, but this time neither his father was around nor he was in a bottleneck. He enjoyed every bite he put in his mouth.

He got up and put his plate away. He cleared the table again and went to his own room. The only thing that remained was when the town guards would come to get Huan Wei. Not wanting to wait idly, he picked up the piece of wood again and started practicing his sword skills. He had only swung it twice when he heard someone knocking on the door. He put the board aside and took a deep breath. He walked towards the outer door. After straightening his hair and his clothes, he opened the door. He looked surprised to see the town guards.

"Welcome, is something wrong?"

Two bodyguards had arrived. One was a well-built man and the other a short woman. The woman started talking. "Huan Wei, you are coming with us."

The young man's surprise grew. "Of course, I will, but for what?"

The big man grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out. Huan Wei staggered out of the house. If the man hadn't still been holding him, he would have fallen to the ground. "You are accused of theft," the man said. "You will stand judgment."

"What!? I didn't steal anything! This is a slander!"

The woman grabbed his other arm. "Save your objections for Huan Fu. Now start walking."