"You heard me," the waiter said, shaking his head. "Ox Hand got himself locked up."
"WHAT!?" the trio exclaimed in unison, their eyes practically popping out of their sockets.
"How did he end up in jail?" Han Yu asked, feeling like all his plans had just been thrown into a giant, steaming dung heap.
"He beat up some people and broke their bones," the waiter stated, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. "What else was gonna happen?"
"But Ox Hand never gets into trouble this easily. He always gets away with it," Dan Hu said, scratching his head in confusion.
"Normally, yeah. But this time, he decided to do it right when a couple of guards walked in for their meal," the waiter answered with a smirk.
Hearing that, Dan Hu was the first to burst out laughing.
Fat Kui followed suit, clutching his belly as he cackled. "Hah! That guy finally got what was coming to him!"
But Han Yu was anything but amused.
"Fuck..." he muttered under his breath.
His two companions noticed his expression and slowly came to the same realization.
"Wait... if he's in jail, then Han Yu can't..." Dan Hu murmured.
"Can't get the pill..." Fat Kui finished the sentence with dawning horror.
The two of them watched as Han Yu stumbled out of the inn, looking like a man who had just seen his entire future go up in flames. He stopped in the middle of the street, eyes wild.
"WHY!? WHY, HEAVENS, WHY!?" he wailed, throwing his arms to the sky. "OF ALL DAYS, YOU HAD TO SEND HIM TO JAIL, AND YOU PICKED TODAY!? WHO WAS IT!? WHOSE PRAYER DID YOU DECIDE TO ANSWER!? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?"
Passersby stopped to stare at the boy having an existential breakdown in broad daylight.
"Mommy, it's that weird boy again," a little girl whispered, pointing at Han Yu.
"Ssh! Don't point, don't look! If you stare too long, you might turn out like him," her mother whispered urgently, shielding her child's eyes and quickly ushering her away.
Meanwhile, Dan Hu and Fat Kui were feeling deeply embarrassed. But as much as they wanted to pretend they didn't know him, they couldn't leave him here . With a resigned sigh, they grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him into a nearby alley.
"How did this happen..." Han Yu muttered, staring at the ground as though hoping it would open up and swallow him whole.
"I never would've expected this," Dan Hu admitted, shaking his head.
"Isn't Ox Hand unlucky?" Fat Kui mused. "First, he lost all his money, then he got arrested. It's like the heavens finally decided to smite him."
"He did have it coming," Dan Hu agreed, "but it came at the worst possible time for Han Yu. Now getting the pill is going to be way harder."
"Can't we just go visit him in jail, like how Han Yu visited us?" Fat Kui suggested innocently.
Han Yu turned to look at him as if he were the dumbest creature in existence. "You think the guards are just going to let us waltz in and have a nice little chat with Ox Hand? Last time was already pure luck. Guard Shen barely let me see you two, and you guys are harmless compared to Ox Hand. There is no way in hell they're letting me near him."
"Then what do we do now?" Fat Kui wondered aloud.
"We wait," Dan Hu replied. "Ox Hand won't be in there for too long anyway. This is Ox Hand we're talking about; I'm sure one of his buddies will post bail soon."
Han Yu's ears perked up at that.
"Yeah... he won't be in there for more than a couple of days," he said, a glimmer of hope returning to his face.
"That's right! You still got time," Dan Hu encouraged.
"Yeah, now we got time. Let's go find another fool to scam for some money," Fat Kui suggested, rubbing his hands together.
"No!" Han Yu snapped. "I need to use this time to train!" And with that, he suddenly bolted away.
"Han Yu!" his friends called after him, but he didn't slow down. Within seconds, he had vanished into the distance.
Han Yu sprinted straight into the forest, his mind set.
'I don't have much time. I need to get as strong as I can, even if I don't have the pill yet,' he thought, determination burning in his chest.
A short while later, he arrived at his usual training spot and met the Ghostly Man, who raised an eyebrow at his sudden appearance.
"You're here already?" the Ghostly Man asked. "Didn't you say you weren't coming today?"
"Things... didn't go according to plan," Han Yu admitted.
The Ghostly Man scoffed. "Like I said before, you dream too much."
Han Yu sighed. "Just train me, alright?"
The Ghostly Man crossed his arms. "Where's my wine?"
"Here," Han Yu said, pulling out a bottle and tossing it to him.
"Good," the Ghostly Man said, taking a deep swig. "Alright, begin."
"Yes!" Han Yu immediately launched into his Bolt God Fist training, all his focus narrowed onto perfecting the technique.
The force of his punches stirred the air, sending leaves fluttering from the trees. Han Yu's eyes lit up.
"I did it again!" he exclaimed. But instead of celebrating, he gritted his teeth and punched forward again.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
Each punch sent another gust of wind through the clearing. His progress was undeniable, his movements sharper, faster.
The Ghostly Man smirked as he watched. 'Not bad, kid.'
Meanwhile, back in the city, a new figure had arrived. A strikingly beautiful woman dressed in elegant robes, wearing an eight-pointed star bracelet, strolled into town.
She had a frown on her face as she stepped into the town.
'To think it would take me the entire day in that one town and the city and still have no success.' Xu Qing groaned. 'And here I thought I'd be able to wrap it all in one day. But I still have this Oak Head town left for today.' She felt exhausted already.