An Unexpected Incident

Afterward, Li Qi and A'Du talked for a while longer. Once the two merchant caravans had set off and seemed to have gone far enough, they followed them onto the road.

During that time, A'Du did indeed teach Li Qi a way to stir up his vitality and unleash greater vigor.

It was a song, very short, with only sixteen characters.

"Brilliant Seven Luminaries, shining above; valiant warriors, how mighty, how grand!"

Though it had few words, it contained several different syllables. Actually singing it was far from easy—the melody shifted constantly, and one had to coordinate it with his breathing. Though it looked like a short single line, Li Qi spent an entire Chen repeating it, trying and training, before he barely managed to sing it.

Still, he was not discouraged, because he could clearly see his own improvement through the progress bar. Moreover, if something was wrong, the progress would fall back.

That made it easy for him to quickly grasp the trick, and his improvement was remarkably fast.

Before long, his learning progress bar was full.

Once it was full, he could feel that although he had only grasped it clumsily before, he suddenly understood every bit of the song's profound meaning!

This confirmed it for him once more: as long as the learning progress bar was full, he seemed to be able to directly master whatever he had learned, rather than remain awkwardly unfamiliar with it.

This thing could not let him learn something outright, but once he had learned it, it could immediately make him an old hand at it, sparing him the need to practice little by little.

As for that song, after singing it in full, Li Qi distinctly felt his blood suddenly begin to race!

It was as though a ball of fire were burning in his chest, coursing through his organs, nearly bursting from his mouth.

His face flushed red, his body temperature rose, and even his body became much lighter. His feet, somewhat frozen stiff by the winter cold, rapidly warmed, and his whole body felt as if he had run five kilometers around a track.

Yet there was only boiling blood and Qi, none of the usual fatigue.

It was an exceedingly wondrous sensation.

He could even feel the steam billowing fiercely from his forehead, driving away the cold around him.

"This really is... remarkably effective." Feeling the heat radiating from his body, Li Qi looked at A'Du in surprise.

A'Du, however, looked even more surprised.

"Brother Li, you really are clever. Back then, I took two or three Chen to learn it. Some duller people need a whole day! Yet you learned it in such a short time, and you sang it so well!" A'Du looked Li Qi up and down, seemingly unable to believe that he had mastered the song so well in such little time.

"Maybe I really am smarter than most." Li Qi smiled.

A'Du was only surprised for a moment and did not dwell on it. He promptly began explaining, "This song can stir the Three Innate Treasures and make Essence, Qi, and Spirit active. Then Yang Energy burns like fire, and Mountain Spirits and Wild Monsters will not dare approach. No one knows where it came from anymore, but do not use it too often. It consumes a great deal of strength. Out in the wilderness, with no village ahead and no inn behind, lacking strength is more frightening than Mountain Spirits and Wild Monsters. You might slip with one foot and fall."

As they walked, A'Du explained it to Li Qi.

As long as one kept singing the song, it would keep taking effect. But if one stopped, the effect would end immediately. It was very convenient.

According to A'Du, when they had traveled as merchants in the past, even if a dozen or so people encountered Mountain Spirits and Wild Monsters, as long as they gathered together and loudly sang this song, the Mountain Spirits and Wild Monsters would generally retreat.

While they chatted, they had already been on the road for more than a Chen, and the sky was about to grow dark.

Earlier, Li Qi had been somewhat puzzled and asked why A'Du insisted on drinking tea until evening before setting out, rather than traveling in the day and finding somewhere to rest at night.

A'Du answered, "This time, the one about to cultivate into an Essence is said to be a Wild Dog. It most likely rises with the sun and rests at sunset. Going during the day would make it easier to run into it. If we go at night while it is asleep, we might be lucky enough to slip right past. Look, weren't those two merchant caravans ahead of us also drinking tea all day before setting out close to dusk?"

There was nothing wrong with that reasoning. In fact, those two merchant caravans had indeed done exactly that.

Once he understood the reason, Li Qi could not help sighing. As expected, merchants had well-informed news and abundant experience. If he had followed his own schedule of traveling by day and resting at night, he truly might have run into that monster rumored to be a Wild Dog.

Oh, it was not yet a monster. It was merely about to become an Essence.

But it was already formidable enough—at least, it was formidable to an ordinary person like Li Qi.

Li Qi waited for the effect of the nameless song to fade. He had only sung it once, and though his blood felt aflame, his body did not feel tired. That was good enough.

As the two discussed the specifics, the sky gradually darkened.

Their road also gradually narrowed. They had already walked twenty or thirty li; farther ahead lay the mountains, with only narrow dead-end paths winding through them, and slopes that had to be climbed often. It was extremely dangerous even in daylight, and now that night had fallen, it was even more terrifying. One misstep, and they might fall straight down.

Fortunately, A'Du was well prepared. Unlike Li Qi, who had only one bundle containing money and food, A'Du had abundant wilderness experience. He immediately took a torch from his back basket, poured fire oil over it, and struck flint to light it, so they would not have to grope their way through the night.

Li Qi felt somewhat ashamed. He had killed someone and fled for his life, leaving in too much of a hurry. No one in the Wave-Pushing Gang had experience with long journeys either, so he had prepared nothing at all. If not for A'Du, it seemed this journey of his... really had been rather risky.

But his luck had been good. Meeting A'Du and traveling together meant they could make up for each other's shortcomings.

After all, if something truly happened, he was definitely the better fighter.

Of course, it would be best if they did not have to fight.

The two walked through the mountains. Though it was a dark moon and a wind-whistling night, the torch lit their way, and aside from the annoying moths, nothing happened along the road.

But halfway there, both of them suddenly shuddered, pricked up their ears, and looked ahead.

Up ahead were around a dozen merchants.

They were, astonishingly, the merchant caravan from the tea stall earlier—the very one that had even risen to intimidate Li Qi.

The torchlight lit the surroundings brightly. The dozen or so men each held a woodcutter's blade, striking them against one another while shouting incomprehensible tones.

More than a dozen woodcutter's blades actually rang out in a continuous clash of weapons, as though they were on a battlefield.

The sound of weapons echoed through the night sky, joined by the cries of those merchants, as if they were fighting a battle. Only, their enemy lurked somewhere in the darkness, nowhere to be seen.

Li Qi's eyes were opened wide as he stared at the merchants. It seemed that in this world, every group truly had its own special skill. The Wave-Pushing Gang had Wave-Pushing Strength, and these merchants were no exception.

He could clearly see the progress bars emerging from the merchants' bodies, marked: "Barrier Protection, 25%."

It seemed that they really had encountered something and were relying on that string of clashing weapons to hold it back.

Just as he was still observing, however, he felt a gust of cold wind that made him shiver involuntarily.