"If you can't provide eight taels then scram. How can you call yourself a man when you can't even provide this much?" another guard said. There were altogether three guards standing at the front of the gate. The third guard who had not said anything yet seemed to be the guard with the highest position amongst the three. He walked up to Neif and father and asked, "What is it you came to Thousand Crane city for this time?"
Neif's father who was already looking a bit dejected saw a ray of hope and immediately knelt down and kowtowed to the third guard and pleaded, "Please, my son is supposed to take the academy exams, and we are from a very poor village, I cannot repay you but please help this old man."
The people at the back of the line had already gathered around to watch this scene unfold. Someone snickered at Neif's father and said, "Hey, old man, you're not the first to play such tricks, these are already old tricks that my grandfather don't even dare use, hurry and scurry away." But his head never left the ground. Through all this, Neif never said a word, just silently observing with an innocent expression on his face.
Back in the village, people used to say he was too smart for his own good and that the world would easily eat him up. However, they were unaware that he was a lot smarter than they thought and just made sure to appear smart on an accepting level. He looked around and memorized the faces of some people who were mocking his father while also silently observing the head guard.
"Sigh" the head guard sighed and said, "I understand your situation. However, you have to understand mine as well, if I were to let you in for free, these people outside would want to demand fairness. How about this, I can let the little boy in but you would have to stay out?"
Neif's father raised his head and rushed to the feet of the head guard. "Thank you, thank you." The head guard was stunned, he had expected that the man would decide that leaving the son alone would be too dangerous and would ultimately decline his offer, but it seemed that was not the case. Well, he would just pretend he had no ties with the kid and if something were to happen, he would avoid the karma.
The people after them on the queue paid their tally and gradually and orderly moved into the city while Neif's father took him to a corner to address him. "This is as much as I can do for you. How far you go will now depend on your fate and hard work. I know you can make it, so put in your effort, do not make your mother and I regret our decisions."
"Uhm" Neif nodded. "And remember, when you have a chance, come visit your mother and me. I will find some work to do so I can earn enough to hire an escort back to the village. Take this horse and sell it, use the money to take care of yourself these few days." Neif nodded again, before his father urged him on. He walked through the long archway and into the city.
It was around noon, and the city was bustling. Neif remembered his father's words before he came into the city. He was to find a safe place to stay, and stay there till the day of the exams, when he would promptly move out to join the crowds and get tested. On a very normal day, Thousand Crow city could be said to be underpopulated, after all, it was situated at a very remote location, so hardly anyone came here, and traders rarely came through. However, being one of the cities the examiners always visited, it became more populated over the years, especially every five years when the exams were approaching. At that time, the city could be said to be bursting with life.
Neif walked around a little and found a low-end inn that wasn't receiving too many customers. He walked in and saw a middle-aged man serving a few guests. The man was quickly done and came up to him. "Little boy, where are your parents? Do they know where you are?" he asked with a kind gaze. Neif didn't answer but kept looking straight at him. "Are you lost? Don't be scared, I won't harm you" he said as he approached Neif.
Neif who hadn't said anything until now, suddenly revealed a ferocious gaze. He immediately crunched up his stomach, while pushing his left foot backwards and tensed up his fingers on both hands and directed his hands to face each other. An unknown force was gathered in between his hands, and he suddenly released it forwards by opening his palms and pushing them towards the middle-aged man.
A huge explosion occurred as bursts of fire were seen everywhere. The middle-aged man did not have any time to react and was actually blasted backwards and crashed right through the wall of the establishment. All of this took place in the span of less than two seconds and no one there could react in time.
Neif looked at his hard work and smirked. "You should be quite the strong one. I put all I could into that move, and you still managed to have an intact corpse. You should be honored that this king had personally come to deal with the likes of you. "Now, for the rest of you..." he turned to face the customers in the hall. There were about 5 men and 2 women, a total of seven people in this hall. "If you bow and confess your crimes, I may see fit to let you live for now." By now, all the people in the room had their faces covered in deep frowns.
"Impetuous! You dare!" The man closest to Neif shouted, bursting forth with an inhumane momentum as he drew his sword and aimed at Neif's neck. He was going to finish this battle in a single move. Since this little lad used magic just now, he was most likely a magic cultivator, and magic cultivators' greatest weakness was close combat, so he had every right to be assured of his victory.