Even through their mental link, the irritation was clear.
The boy could practically imagine the old man rolling his eyes somewhere in the depths of his consciousness.
The boy chuckled under his breath and kept walking, the hum of the marketplace washing around him again, vendors shouting, sandals scuffing against stone, the metallic clangs of a blacksmith down the road blending into the rhythm of the city.
He walked a little farther, feet finding the worn grooves of the street by habit.
Stalls blurred into one another, linen awnings, baskets of dried fish, a brazier where a woman turned skewers, and the day kept its steady, ordinary hum.
Then a sudden break in that hum: an edge of panic.
A man barreled out from a narrow alley at the back of the market, chest heaving, eyes wide.
Behind him came the shouts of the guards, clipped and urgent.
"L—let go of me!" the fleeing man stammered, voice cracking.
"Quick, don't let him run! He's infected!" someone near the vendor cried.
"What?"
"Infected!?"
People froze, then moved. The street's rhythm broke into staccato steps, merchants dropped their haggling, children stopped mid-dart; a few hands flew to mouths.
The scent of food and dust turned secondary to something else: the metallic tang of fear.
A small cluster near the food stall started to push back, forming a loose ring around the chase.
Vendors shoved goods toward the innermost part of their stall spaces; a pot rattled and people flinched.
In that world, monks who went far into the wild to seek treasure could pick up a contagion of taboo, a corruption that showed up as strange markings across the skin, erratic behavior, sudden mood swings.
It was talked about in low, nervous voices; it was feared for the speed with which it could spread.
The man had been seen just seconds before, holding out a handful of coins to a vendor.
Now he was running through the market, hands and feet flailing, the marks on his forearms flashing with each frantic motion.
"Don't let him get past the east gate!" a guard barked. "If he reaches the residential quarter, cut him down!"
"Stop! He'll infect everyone!" someone else shouted.
A vendor pushed a crate into the path of the running man to try and slow him.
The boy noticed the figure headed straight toward where he stood.
For a beat, the whole crowd seemed to funnel into that tiny corridor of space: the fleeing man, the guards, and the boy positioned between them without planning to be there.
People around him recoiled.
A woman yanked her child close; a man in a faded robe stepped sideways and bowed his head.
The crowd peeled away like someone pulling a sheet from around a figure.
He moved the same way: a small sidestep, a practiced displacement that made him half a step out of the path.
Others followed, jostling and muttering.
The market's noise fragmented into isolated sounds, shouts, the slap of feet, a dish clattering to the floor.
As the infected man darted past, something in the boy changed for an instant.
It wasn't color or glare, his eyes held the same hue, but the focus shifted, a narrowing so slight most people would never notice.
It made his face look colder by a fraction of a heartbeat, an expression that belonged more to assessment than to surprise.
And as sudden as it was.
The man stumbled.
It wasn't theatrical, no dramatic lurch or invisible hand, but a misstep: one foot caught on a raised seam of stone, a loose strip of mat, anything ordinary the street might offer.
He pitched forward, hands scrambling for purchase on the leather mat of a stall, and then he was down.
"What—!" someone cried out.
The guards reached him in two long strides. They rolled him onto his back, pinning his wrists.
Orders snapped like commands across the square: "Back! Everyone, back!" "Clear the area!" The lead guard's voice was controlled and hard; he barked for space while a second guard searched the fallen man for signs of his contamination.
The crowd took the order, some pushed forcibly, others stepped away on shaking legs.
A pair of women clutched their robes to their chests as a sharp gust moved down the street, sending ribbons and loose papers into the air.
A small scene.
A small episode...
The murmurs of the crowd didn't die down that instantly.
Rather, the news spread, and as the boy passed by several more crowds down the street, he overheard several conversations.
"These past few weeks, there had been more and more infected people"
"Alas, it can't be helped, the red tide is coming... Us mere mortals could only attach our hopes on the immortals to survive... Signs like these weren't uncommon. Some people would be desperate to find a way out for their families, rations to eat are hard to come by during the calamity... "
"Is our generation cursed? Such bad omens, Luckily I've saved enough for several years for my family."
"And that's for you to say and sigh a relief, there are those who don't and they are desperate for it."
"And by desperation, there would be many that will try the great forest... Alas, having themselves attached by what they can't see and end up... "
The voice stopped, the boy's ears pricked but only for a moment as he gave the source of the voice a peek from the corner of his eyes.
The man, whom had spoken just now simply shook his head as he was sitting on the side of the road, under the cover of an thatched umbrella.
"Death..." The boy whispered, his eyes turning back to the front and his legs never stopped walking.
Blending into the crowd, as if the commotion just now had never happened.
The chatter of the crowd, the flutter of the birds, the moving clouds up above.
The young boy eventually found himself walking in an unfamiliar area.
He was heading to his rented house after last night's auction. Especially after making sure he was safe.
Along the way within the residential area main road, there were still several stalls being set up here and there.
Usually the guards would prohibit such acts, but due to the pressing times and the absence of the City Lord from the light, most can do whatever they want as long as they don't touch and cross the line.
The boy looked around, from time to time he would exchange several words with the old man inside him.
Eventually, he was bored, took one step to the side, and decided to leave for the day.
"There's nothing interesting here either, are you sure this is the best place to escape the calamity? Feels like a place with no hope..."
"Last night's auction wasn't good evidence for you?" The old man's words sounded in his ears.
"You mean that Senior? He doesn't seem to be the type to intervene"
"And that is precisely why we are here.... Because he will surely safeguard this one piece of land, and not the whole human continent... "
"That... " The boy muttered halfway. His eyes looked up as if he was trying to make sense of that, and finally connected the dot.
Though before the connection could be established, a voice came.
Rough and raspy, joyous and old...
"Boy... Boy! What a handsome fella you are!"
The boy heard the sudden voice, his eyes subconsciously turned to the side, just to see a simple old man sitting on the side of the road with a leather skin mat and strange cards being placed on it.
Sensing that he had gained the boy's attention, the old man smiled, hurriedly gesturing, "Come come Handsome warrior, come and test your destiny!"
"I the great venerable of fate is here to guide you... "
The old man smiled, gesturing with a big smile.
And his voice was loud enough that several other passersby heard it, and shook their heads as they laughed.
One of them even turned his head, sparing a moment of his time as he regarded the boy, "Don't bother with it, fellow daoist... It's just a scammer, do not waste your time over such a silly thing"
But the boy didn't answer but simply gave him a look from the corner of his eyes, striding over to the side, and the man could only sigh and shrug, "You've met your match, whatever..."
He left, and the old man's smile simply deepened further. Patting his thighs as the young boy eventually arrived, crouching down...
"Here here... "
The old man threw a worn out pillow, flat and dry for the boy to sit...
And he did, placing the pillow under as he sat cross legged on it...
"You told me you can read my destiny?" The boy asked, his eyes didn't shine nor dim. Just a curious boy that has seen the world and had something else in his mind at the moment.