Chapter 4 A Price On His Head

"Well, well well... If it isn't 'Ricky the genius Young Master? Why are you here? A servant could have run this errand. Oh, that's right. I forgot. You're now the Loser Ricky, the waste of blood, who has no servant at all. Ha ha!" The handsome guy sneered at Ricky and laughed loudly the moment he saw him.

"Ha ha! Ricky the waste of blood!" The woman laughed at Ricky as well, covering her mouth with her hand. She wore a disgusted look on her face.

Neither the young man nor the young woman bothered to hide their expressions. How they felt was how they felt, and the waste of blood before them wasn't worthy of any kind of respect, either feigned or not.

Ricky glanced at the two and quickened his pace as he just wanted to leave the Miraculous Medicine Pavilion.

"Avery! Young master! Help!" Avery looked around, and saw two strong men from the Miraculous Medicine Pavilion. They were bumping into each other, sometimes almost falling. They were also being quite loud about it. They were headed his way.

Both of them spoke quickly, words spilling out of their mouths faster than they could think. They gave their account of how Ricky grabbed the Body Refining Pill against the rules of the Nan Clan.

"Idiots! You can't even handle a waste of blood with no spiritual meridian!" Avery pushed one of the men away, and kicked the other one. He strode up to Ricky and stood in front of him, blocking his way.

Avery was Nate's cousin, and had a one-star top-grade spiritual meridian. He was also at the peak of the third grade of the Skin Refining Level.

"Loser! You broke the rules of our clan! You should die for robbing from the Miraculous Medicine Pavilion," Avery said to Ricky arrogantly. He gave Ricky a cold smile and continued, "Besides, the Dominant Top Elder has ordered everyone lower than the third grade of the Skin Refinement to the mine. Head there now and report for work!"

Avery had accused Ricky of the two most unforgivable crimes of disobeying the rules of the clan and the order from the Dominant Top Elder.

"You used to have talent, but you lost your spiritual meridian. So hand over the Body Refining Pill, and go to the mine to atone. Since you and Nate were close friends, I'm sure he might make you the overseer," the woman said, pointing at Ricky's nose. She wiggled her slim waist charmingly, laughing at him.

She was Inge—her father was one of the head servants. When Ricky was on top, Inge followed him around like a lost puppy and told everyone she was Ricky's concubine.

Now the situation had changed, so the woman threw herself at Nate. But Nate wasn't interested, so she moved on to his cousin Avery.

"They say your bark is worse than your bite. Problem is, you can't even bark properly!" Ricky spoke coldly, regarding the two of them with an icy stare.

"Go to hell!" Avery had enough. Furious, he struck at Ricky with the Whiz Fist, and everyone could hear what sounded like the roar of a tiger.

"Hum!" Ricky sneered and fought back with the same move, Whiz Fist. When in doubt, fight fire with fire.

Ricky's maneuver, however, sounded fiercer than Avery's. His sound was like a real tiger roaring, shocking everyone.

And that threw off Avery completely. How could a loser make his punch roar like that?

He only had a split second to think about it. He was imagining what kind of pain he would inflict on Ricky, maybe even break his arm and knock him to the ground.

Bang! On the first pass, Avery and Ricky were locked in a fierce battle. Energy scattered in all directions, as their blows connected.

"Ahhh!"

A crowd had gathered to watch the fight. As expected, they heard one of the fighters cry out in pain. One of them flew backwards with the force of the blow, and landed on the ground heavily.

But soon every person there shook in fright, shocked. Especially Inge. They remained still for a while staring in disbelief at the fighter rolling on the ground. It was not Ricky, but Avery.

The only one standing was Ricky, the so-called 'waste of blood.' He didn't even look hurt.

"What the hell? How did you break through the third grade of Skin Refinement with no spiritual meridian! ?" Avery asked, left hand covering his nearly broken right arm.

So a young man with no spiritual meridian had bested someone of Avery's considerable skill.

Though Avery was technically more powerful, he knew the score. He had improved himself with pills and elixirs, rather than actual skill. There was no way he'd beat a fighter at the same level.

Of course he fell to Ricky's fist.

Bang! Avery had scarcely finished his sentence before a foot caught him in the face and knocked him to the ground. Then Ricky stomped on his head harshly. His once handsome face was now covered with dust and blood.

"You said I was a waste of blood. How about you? See what a waste of blood can do!" Ricky said to him coldly, foot resting on Avery's head. Then Ricky kicked him again, catching Avery full in the chest. Avery flew into a tree near him and passed out.

Of course, Ricky wasn't going to kill Avery—at least, not yet. For one thing, his father was still held captive by the Nan Clan. Another reason was that he did not have the time. If some more powerful members of the Clan heard about this and showed up, he wouldn't stand a chance.

In a moment, Ricky turned and walked over to Inge. His black eyes glared at her with a sharp murderous intent, just like that of a hunting hawk.

"What... what do you want?" Inge asked, terrified. She wanted to back up, but she was too frightened. All she could do was standing there, paralyzed. She could sense he was intent on mayhem. Inge slumped to the ground with a glassy-eyed look.

"You cheesy slut! I wouldn't dirty my hands killing you!" Ricky said with an icy look, "I just wanted to tell you all that I'm back!" While he said this, his eyes swept the other members of the Nan Clan, who wore the same expression as Inge.

"You can tell Nate and Gilbert I'm taking everything! Whether it belongs to me or not!"

After finishing his speech, Ricky ran off. He returned to his own small hut quickly, and gathered up some clothing and a few copper coins. Then, he climbed over the wall, leaving the Nan Clan behind.

Ricky did not head to the gates of Stone City, as that would have been quite a distance to cover. After the powerful cultivators of the Nan Clan found out what had happened in the Miraculous Medicine Pavilion, the city gates wouldn't be safe. They'd be waiting for him there.

As he expected, in less than an hour there was a warrant out for his arrest in Stone City.

One of the three largest martial arts clans in the city, the Nan Clan, of course, had massive power and influence. Once the arrest warrant was announced, all the warriors, except the ones of the other two clans, started to chase down Ricky. It was license to kill him.

After all, Ricky was only a waste of blood without any spiritual meridian. They could easily catch up to him. The fact that these hunters had the backing of the Nan Clan didn't hurt either. Anybody who joined in the chase would score brownie points with the clan.

Two days went by, and they still had not captured him. And they had no idea where Ricky even was.

This enraged the Nan Clan and a reward was added to the arrest warrant. Anyone who ratted him out would be rewarded two hundred silver coins. Ricky had a price on his head.

All the warriors were excited to hear it. Even many members of other powerful clans joined the chase.

Because two hundred silver coins was a large fortune, equivalent to twenty thousand copper coins. A warrior at medium-level of the Skin Refinement, hunting wild beasts for two years, could only bring in two hundred silver at the most. They figured this was easy money.

...

Unbeknownst to anyone, Ricky hid in an abandoned well in the western part of Stone City.

This land belonged to the Wang Clan. And they guarded it jealously from the other clans. He wouldn't run into any bounty hunters here.

He was safe for a full five days and nights.

But danger finally found him on the sixth day. He was secretly followed by two furtive figures and they did not show themselves until he came to the well. He'd been found out!