On the day I died, rain turned the city into a sheet of broken glass. I chased the debtor over the roofline—slick slate, rusted gutters, neon smeared by storm—and my shoes lost grip. The man glanced back, a twenty-yuan umbrella defying a million-yuan fear, and shouted, "I'll pay you next week!"
The wind answered before I did. It tore the words apart as I fell.
Gravity collected first.
I don't remember the impact. Just a bright blank, then a weightless drift through darkness. In it, a book opened—no, not paper. It was a ledger made of light, its pages linked by red strings that threaded through the void like veins. I thought I heard a stamp. It struck with the authority of a judge's gavel.
Then the world slammed back in.
Pain. Not shattering, but deep and wet, like bruises layered on bruises. Straw against my cheek. The stink of old sweat and medicinal herbs that couldn't afford potency. Voices—young, jeering.
"Ren Yi, you actually dared show your face?" A wet snort. "No wonder your body smells like a dead dog. You begged Senior Brother Bao for a loan and now you want to pretend you don't owe?"
Ren Yi. The name bounced in my skull and settled. Memory followed—like a crate knocked open, its contents everywhere. An outer disciple of Azure Cloud Sect, fifteen years old, stuck at second stage Body Tempering for three years. Trash, by sect standards. The kind the sect fed crumbs to, waiting to see if hunger would make him either excuse himself or turn wolf.
I opened my eyes. A crooked ceiling beam stared back. The dorm was a long barracks of splintered bunks and threadbare blankets. In front of me stood three boys in faded blue robes with Azure Cloud's cloud insignia barely recognizable. They had the puffed cheeks and lazy menace of local tyrants. The one in the middle—Bao Lei—had a belly that pushed against his belt like a proud, hostile child. His knuckles were thick. So were his eyebrows.
And over his head, faint in the air, I saw a line. A red thread. It ran from his chest to… me.
The golden ledger hovered in the corner of my vision.
— Heav— no, that wasn't quite right. It didn't have a voice so much as a shape that made meaning in my mind.
Heavenly Ledger Online.
Current Identity: Ren Yi (Outer Disciple, Azure Cloud Sect)
Debtors Linked: 3
Example:
Bao Lei — Minor Karmic Debt (Borrowed 3 Low-Grade Spirit Stones; Verbal Promise "Tomorrow" x 7). Status: Past Due.
Collection Reward Preview (First Occurrence): +1 Basic Movement Skill (Silent Step) OR +1 Low-Grade Spirit Stone OR 2% Body Tempering efficiency boost for 3 days.
My breath hitched. The red strings wavered like spider silk in a breeze.
"Hey! Trash!" Bao Lei snapped his fingers in my face. "Senior Brother asked you a question. Where are my stones?"
Memory slotted into place. The original Ren Yi had borrowed three stones from Bao Lei for a Body Tempering tonic. The tonic was fake. Bao Lei knew. He knew, and he lent anyway, expecting interest he could enforce with fists. Ren Yi had run out of time, got sick for a week, missed a work assignment in the herb garden, got fined, fell further behind. A familiar loop: the poor spending tomorrow to survive today.
"What?" I said. My voice came out hoarse. "You lent me… stones."
Bao Lei grinned. "You do remember. Good. Then hand them over with seven days' interest. Four stones."
"You lent me three," I said, "and then promised to let me pay tomorrow. Then you promised again. And again."
A flicker passed through Bao Lei's eyes, gone too quickly for anyone but a collector to catch. That tiny panic when a shape from your ledger appears in someone else's hand.
The ledger pulsed.
Debtor acknowledges repeated verbal promises. Minor Karmic Debt confirmed.
Optional Action: Issue Notice of Collection?
Effect: Establish a Contract of Recognition. Debtor's Luck is temporarily tethered. Collection may proceed with increased success chance.
I didn't think. Instinct moved my thought like a stamp dropping on paper.
Issue.
The air didn't ripple. The world didn't turn dramatic. Bao Lei just shifted, subtly, as if the floor had tilted under his feet and he didn't want to show it. The red string tightened, humming. He tried to scratch his neck and missed.
"Four stones," he repeated, louder, trying to drown out his own unease. "Or we throw your bedding in the latrine again."
"You'll get paid," I said. Of course I said that. Collectors learn to buy time, then spend it like it's the last thing that can't be taken. "But not in stones."
Bao Lei blinked. "What?"
"In apology." I let the word sit between us. "In front of everyone here. Admit you lent knowing the tonic was fake, that you squeezed outer disciples for fun. Say it. That's one debt settled."
The boys behind him laughed. It sounded like choking.
Bao Lei's face curdled. "You want me to apologize, trash?" He raised his hand to slap.
The ledger chimed like a coin on porcelain.
Micro-Quest Generated: First Collection.
Request: Collect any one form of repayment from Bao Lei (stones, apology, equal-value favor).
Reward: Choose one (Silent Step / Spirit Stone x1 / 2% Body Tempering boost for 3 days)
Failure: None. Opportunity Cost only.
My body was slow, my bones heavy—as if someone had filled me with wet clay. Second stage trash. But I'd spent a life dodging debts that couldn't be paid and collecting from men who thought a promise was a bridge they could burn behind them. You don't block a slap. You move before the thought completes.
I let my knees give. The slap whistled over my head. My shoulder hit straw. I rolled under the bunk, knocking my forehead on a slat hard enough to see stars. Bao Lei lunged to grab my ankle.
Outside, the morning bell thudded through the barracks—one, two, three times. Disciples groaned, the room woke, and shame stirred with it. Nobody in a sect wanted to be the ones seen choking their own in front of a patrol.
"Later," Bao Lei hissed, breath hot, fingers grazing my trouser cuff. He yanked his hand back like he'd touched a thorn. The red string hummed, tighter.
"Before the bell's ninth ring," I said. "You come back with an apology, and I'll ignore the stones."
His face twisted so hard it seemed to crumble and rebuild itself around rage. "You think too highly of yourself."
Behind him, someone muttered, "Patrol's coming." Another: "Elder He walked by earlier."
Fear changes the math. Even to bullies. Reputation with elders was a currency you couldn't refill with petty terror.
Bao Lei spat on the straw. It barely missed my cheek. "Ninth ring," he said. "Don't run, trash."
They left. The barracks exhaled.
I rolled out and sat up slowly. My ribs complained. My head throbbed where slat met skull. The ledger hovered, patient as a clerk whose overtime is the sun.
I eyed the rewards. Silent Step tempted me. Stones weren't nothing, but movement kept bones intact. The 2% boost was… fine, over time.
"You're real," I whispered, not sure if I was speaking to the ledger, the world, or my luck. "And you collect."
It gave me silence. But the red strings glowed faintly in the gray light filtering through the cracked shutters. I looked and saw them everywhere—fine, nearly invisible filaments connecting disciple to disciple, disciple to bunk, disciple to the hut where a frail old woman mended robes for copper. Not all were red. Some were white, some gold. The red ones were overdue. The gold were heavy—promises fulfilled. The whites were neutrals, causality waiting to turn.
Three debtors linked to me. I focused, and the ledger flipped.
Debtors Linked (3):
Bao Lei — Minor Karmic Debt (Past Due): 3 Spirit Stones + 7 PromisesZhu Hao — Minor Favor Debt: Labor promised (fetching water), unfulfilled x3Elder-in-Training Ma Long — Hidden Karmic Imbalance: Heavy "Rent" extracted from outer disciples. Note: Not directly owed to Ren Yi. Collectible via Proxy.
The third string gleamed faintly, like wire under sunlight. Ma Long. Inner disciple. Twenty-one. Favorite of someone with silver hair and old grudges. He came once a week to "collect rent" from the outer quarters—stones, pills, small faces turned downward. He'd never looked at me, which was its own tax.
A different pain pressed against my memory. The original Ren Yi's mother. Not here. A face lined by wind, hands cracked by cold river water, a smile too bright for a life fitted to scarcity. She had been at the foot of the mountain, waiting. Ren Yi had intended to send her two stones after the tonic helped him break through.
I clenched my jaw until the ache steadied me. New life, old debts. They tangled in my chest. I sorted the threads. First: survive. Second: collect. Third: climb.
The morning rolled through routine like a tired beast. I limped to the well to draw water. Eyes slid over me. Some lingered, curious; most didn't care. Trash isn't a person; it's a warning written in flesh.
Zhu Hao was at the well, his bucket half-filled, his smile rabbit-bright. He owed me a few trips, the ledger said. A favor he promised when I covered his missed chore. He had a handsome face that would probably sour as he aged into the kind of man who says he's cursed when the truth is he spent every coin twice.
"Ren Yi?" He blinked, surprised I'd reported to work. "You look like you got sat on by a beast."
"You owe me three water runs," I said, adjusting my grip on the rope. I kept my tone even. "Repay now. I'll mark it."
His lips parted. Then he saw something. Maybe he felt the pull of the string, or maybe the universe is kinder than I give it credit for. He nodded, quick. "Fine, fine. I'll do your runs for three days."
"Three runs," I corrected. "Today."
He frowned. "Ren Yi, are you trying to get me in trouble? I have lessons."
"Three runs," I said. "You said the words. They count."
The ledger inked the air.
Micro-Collection Available: Zhu Hao
Fulfillment Mode: Physical Labor (measured by completed draw-and-deliver cycles)
Reward: +1% chance to find Impurity Nodes during Body Tempering OR 1 Spirit Herb Leaf (low-grade)
"Help me with the rope," Zhu Hao sighed, and set his bucket aside. He started pulling, arms straining. After the third run, he collapsed next to the well and waved a hand. "Done. Mark it."
Minor Favor Debt Settled: Zhu Hao
Choose Reward:
[ ] +1% Impurity Node Sense
[ ] 1 Herb Leaf (low-grade)
I chose the sense. Herb leaves were perishable. The sense stuck.
It slid into me like a whisper. Not a new organ, not a tingling magic, just a quiet change in how my attention wanted to move. If I concentrated, I could feel faint heaviness in my forearms, a sludge in the muscles—the impurities Body Tempering tried to drive out. It would help me direct breath and effort more precisely. Margins, built small, could carry giants when stacked.
By the time the fifth bell hummed across the compound, I had done enough work to earn the right to ache. I returned to the barracks to change my damp robe before the chores roster check. Bao Lei wasn't there.
Sixth bell. Seventh.
At the eighth bell, the barracks shifted. Footsteps outside—heavier, practiced, unhurried. Ma Long stepped in like he owned the doorway. The room straightened around him. He had the sort of face that's handsome but tired of it, as if beauty were a bowl he'd grown bored of filling with other people's envy. His eyes were the color of storm-churned tea.
Behind him, two juniors carried a ledger, the physical kind—bamboo-bound, dotted with names.
"Rent," Ma Long said, voice carrying a lazy threat. "Outer disciples who wish to continue enjoying Azure Cloud's generosity will present four low-grade stones or two Body Tempering pills per month. This is a sect contribution toward the greater excellence of the inner mountain."
People moved. Stones changed hands. The poor efficiently paying to keep their poverty organized.
The Heavenly Ledger flared so bright I almost winced.
Alert: Systemic Extraction Detected.
Debtor Network Node: Ma Long
Karmic Exchange Ratio: Unbalanced (1:5)
Special Collection Path Unlocked: Proxy Petition — Collect via exposed unfair practice. Requirements: Gather 3 testimonies acknowledging rent as coercive AND secure an Elder's witness.
Reward (First Success): Heavenly Bailiff's Seal (Fragment) x1
Bao Lei slipped into the room then, damp hair slicked to his skull, eyes darting. He saw Ma Long, saw me, and hesitated like a man between two creditors.
The ninth bell tolled.
I stepped forward before my courage realized it was standing. My back protested. My legs shook. But the ledger's presence steadied me—a promise written not in ink but in attention. Debts wanted to be collected like a river wanted to run downhill.
"Senior Brother Bao," I said, loud enough that heads turned. "About our matter."
Ma Long's gaze flicked to me. The room's noise fell by a third. Not silence. Just expectation.
Bao Lei's face went through three expressions in one breath—defiance, calculation, and something like nausea. The red string between us thrummed. He licked his lips. And then, in a voice that scraped as if pulled across rough stone, he said, "I apologize."
Air left the room in a collective inhale.
"I lent knowing the tonic was fake," he said, each word a coin he hated parting with. "I squeezed. I shouldn't have."
The ledger stamped.
Minor Karmic Debt Settled: Bao Lei (First Collection)
Choose Reward:
[ ] Silent Step (Basic)
[ ] Low-Grade Spirit Stone x1
[ ] +2% Body Tempering Efficiency for 3 days
Ma Long's eyes sharpened. "Interesting," he murmured.
I didn't look away from Bao Lei. "Apology accepted," I said. "We're clear."
I chose Silent Step.
It unfolded inside me like a path revealed by a receding tide—foot placement that negated creaking boards, breath that slipped through the body's noise, weight angled so shadows welcomed rather than accused. My feet, when they touched the floor, felt kinder to it.
Ma Long took a half-step closer. "Outer disciple," he said, and I felt the weight of inner mountain politics balance on that simple label. "What's your name?"
"Ren Yi," I said.
"Ren Yi." He tasted it. "You like apologies?"
"I like debts settled."
His smile was not kind. "Then you'll enjoy our sect. It is a mountain of accounts."
The ledger's glow dimmed to a watchful simmer.
Outside, the ninth bell's echo dissolved. Somewhere, a hawk cried.
Ma Long gestured to his juniors. "Continue."
He looked at me one heartbeat longer, a small frown pondering a nail that might someday be a spike. Then he turned away.
The red threads in the room brightened in my eyes until I had to blink away the afterimages. I felt at once small as a mote of dust in a temple beam and enormous as a ledger that had found a hand.
System Notice:
Quest Unlocked — Bailiff in the Barracks
Gather: 3 testimonies acknowledging coercive "rent"
Secure: 1 Elder witness (Elder He acceptable)
Time Limit: 7 days
Reward: Heavenly Bailiff's Seal (Fragment) x1, +5% Collection Success vs. Higher Realm Targets (3 days)
Failure: None. Consequence: Status Quo persists.
I breathed out through my teeth. Somewhere far below, a river moved among stones. Somewhere above, clouds gathered. And between those, in a barracks that smelled like damp straw and bruised pride, a debt collector learned to see the lines tying people to their promises.
Author's Note
If you enjoyed Chapter 1, tap "collect" and drop a comment to boost visibility. Want a daily or 2x daily release? Tell me your preference.Quick poll: Male-lead is set; do you want harem elements later (yes/no)? Prefer darker antihero or righteous? More sect politics or secret realm adventures?