Two days later.
The sky was a dusky yellow. Withered trees, old crows, and wisps of cooking smoke rising in the distance...
The jianghu had been turbulent recently.
The news that the Five Great Sword Sects had ambushed the Demonic Cult at Damaoling on Mount Heng and severed one of Dongfang Bubai's fingers gradually spread. The Righteous Path's momentum soared. The alliance of the Five Great Sword Sects led by Zuo Lengchan had become the Righteous Path's third pillar alongside Shaolin and Wudang.
Meanwhile, in Pingyang City on the Shanxi-Hebei border, two mid-sized gangs had fallen into a fierce struggle because of this.
The Wild Wolf Gang was on friendly terms with the Sun Moon Divine Cult.
The Dragon Scale Society had thrown its lot in with the Mount Song Sect.
Originally, the Wild Wolf Gang had been beating down the Dragon Scale Society. But when news of the Demonic Cult's crushing defeat at the foot of Mount Heng spread, the Dragon Scale Society's morale soared. It secretly invited seven or eight experts from the Righteous Path and destroyed the Wild Wolf Gang's headquarters in one fell swoop.
The Wild Wolf Gang's surviving forces scattered like stars, guarding the border between the two provinces and robbing merchant caravans and travelers around Pingyang City at will.
"Ho!"
In these chaotic times, with the world boiling like soup and bandits rising everywhere, the escort agencies' businesses had improved.
Several escort caravans traveled along the road beneath colorful flags. Smiles lit the escorts' faces as they journeyed back and forth between Shanxi and Hebei. The ringing of iron bells drifted in the wind, and cries of "Ho!" rang out without pause.
From time to time, lone martial artists also galloped past, swords strapped to their backs and sabers at their waists.
A young man and woman walked along the roadside. From afar, they seemed to lean upon one another.
The young man stood eight chi tall and wore a somewhat-worn gray cloth robe, but it could not conceal his handsome features. A long sword hung at his waist, adding three parts heroic bearing.
"So this counts as a hero saving a beauty, right?"
"No!"
"Am I not a hero? Or are you not a beauty?"
Yue Lingshan raised her hands, which were still tied with a cow-tendon cord, and glared angrily. "Do you think this is something a hero should do?"
Zhang Yu smiled. "Setting this rope aside, I still saved you. Shouldn't I at least get a thank-you?"
Yue Lingshan gave a soft snort. She felt that the person before her was not entirely loathsome. What he said was true. At Guanyin Nunnery, if he had not intervened in time, she would have been doomed. At least his humanity had not entirely vanished, and his conscience was not completely dead.
This little thief fell in with the Demonic Cult, yet he has such a handsome face. His phoenix eyes are narrow and deep-set, with slightly raised corners, like a phoenix spreading its wings. His eyes sparkle when he speaks, and a person like him... judging by appearance alone, perhaps only Senior Brother could compare with him.
She could not help taking a few more glances at him.
At Guanyin Nunnery, if things had truly reached the point of no return, I would rather have been...
At that thought, Yue Lingshan's heart jolted. She hurriedly shook her head, casting the damned idea to the back of her mind. Yue Lingshan, Yue Lingshan, you truly wasted your study of the Admonitions for Women. If Father and Mother found out, how heartbroken would they be...
Zhang Yu held the Azure Water Sword in his arms, a foxtail grass stem clenched between his teeth. "Are you ill? Your face keeps turning red and white. Out here in the wilderness, I can't find a physician."
Yue Lingshan shot him a sideways glance. "Why do you care? If not for you, I would have stabbed dozens of holes through those two dog thieves by now."
Zhang Yu shook his head. "If I had known Heroine Yue would be so ungrateful, I should have stayed outside Guanyin Nunnery a while longer before going in. I might even have seen some... unusual scenery."
Yue Lingshan muttered, "I knew you had bad intentions. You still expect people to thank you? Shameless scoundrel!"
"I had bad intentions? Heaven knows, at Damaoling, Sect Leader Yue nearly killed me. After leaving Mount Heng, I ran into you, Heroine Yue, and almost lost my life again. Yet this shameless scoundrel still put the past behind him and rescued your chastity from the hands of two righteous gentlemen of the Mount Song Sect."
Yue Lingshan knew she was in the wrong and could only lower her head and hurry onward.
Night fell, and the two found a wind-sheltered grove and lit a fire.
Two hard, dry sesame cakes were propped over the flames to roast.
Zhang Yu took out the booklet hidden against his chest and repeatedly studied it by the firelight.
"Clouds scatter and gather, flowing without form. Soft and yielding like water, yet giving rise to changes of wind and thunder, concealing the workings of the sea of qi..."
The inner cultivation manual in the first volume of the Flying Cloud Divine Skill contained a full five thousand eight hundred characters. As a university student majoring in Chinese language and literature, aided by the Green Jade Thumb Ring's enhancement of his six senses, he had memorized it in two days and two nights.
"I want to eat a sesame cake."
Zhang Yu immediately removed the roasted cake and held it to her mouth.
"I want that one too!"
He had no choice but to go hungry and hand over the only remaining roasted cake as well.
"I want water."
Zhang Yu opened the waterskin. Yue Lingshan deliberately drank half and spilled the other half, wasting all the water inside.
Zhang Yu said coldly, "Does Heroine Yue have any other requests?"
"Wipe my mouth, massage my legs, and swat the mosquitoes."
Unable to endure it any longer, he drew the Azure Water Sword.
Yue Lingshan muttered, "Who told you to tie my hands?"
Zhang Yu held up his sleeve and wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth. He smiled. "Teacher Yue, can we start class now?"
For the past two days, he had brought up every acupoint, meridian, and term in the Flying Cloud Divine Skill to ask her about them.
What surprised Yue Lingshan was that this little Demonic Cult thief had excellent comprehension. He never forgot anything he heard, and his learning efficiency was astonishingly high. Things she had spent several months being struck on the palm to learn at Mount Hua, he had mastered in two hours.
"He has no sense of respecting his teacher at all."
Under Yue Buqun's leadership, the Mount Hua Sect had strict rules, with an especially strong emphasis on loyalty, filial piety, and etiquette.
As the Sect Leader's daughter, she was also the youngest disciple. She could not neglect a single rule she was supposed to follow. When dining at the same table, for instance, she could not pick up her chopsticks until she had served rice to all her senior brothers.
If even the Sect Leader's daughter could behave this way, was it not only natural for the other disciples to devote themselves to their master, Yue Buqun?
It was rare to have the chance to teach others, and Yue Lingshan was rather pleased with herself.
"When cultivating inner power, the first priority is opening the Dantian. Dantians are divided into upper, middle, and lower grades..."
"In the relatively plain terminology of the Jiazi Pavilion Qi Cultivation Record, the three types of Dantian are called 'Copper Kettle,' 'Silver Furnace,' and 'Golden Pool.'"
"Actually, the classics also record a top-grade Dantian called the 'Purple Mansion.' However, it has never appeared in the jianghu in the present age. Most people believe the author made it up, so just listen and forget it."
Zhang Yu asked, "The quality of one's Dantian is the same as their martial arts aptitude?"
Yue Lingshan nodded. "The quality of one's Dantian does indeed affect how far one can go on the martial path. But nothing is absolute! Master Fangzheng of Shaolin Temple has a 'Copper Kettle' Dantian."
"There are also peerless talents who open a 'Golden Pool' Dantian, only to die partway through, or to have things go too smoothly early on, leaving them unable to withstand setbacks and causing them to suffer qi deviation."
Zhang Yu asked curiously, "Then what quality is your Dantian?"
The corners of Yue Lingshan's lips curved upward. "A middle-grade Dantian—the Silver Furnace."
Zhang Yu said, "Silver Furnace? That sounds pretty ordinary."
"Do you think it is merely a furnace sold on the street? Leaving aside the vast majority of people in the world who lack the aptitude to cultivate inner power, even among those who possess it, ninety percent have a 'Copper Kettle.'"
Yue Lingshan said proudly, "From the age of eight, I spent seven years using the Divine Bodyguard Scripture to calm my mind and condense my qi, bathe in medicinal preparations, take pills, and lay a solid foundation. After building up strength over time, I was able to open a Silver Furnace Dantian in one stroke half a year ago."
Zhang Yu smiled. "So, your innate aptitude was actually nothing special. You relied entirely on acquired improvement. Most people in the world do not have a family like yours, so naturally they cannot cultivate inner power."
Yue Lingshan was so furious that she laughed. "Naturally, I cannot compare with my Senior Brother, whose bones are exceptionally gifted. But I am still a level above someone without the slightest inner power!"
"Linghu Chong? He should have a Golden Pool Dantian, right?"
"Of course. Among the younger generation under thirty in the Central Plains jianghu, only two people are known to have opened Golden Pool Dantians."
"Besides your exceptionally gifted Senior Brother, who is the other?"
"You really are ignorant. Leaving aside the Central Plains jianghu, anyone involved in the jianghu of the northern desert, the Western Regions, or Japan should know about Wudang's Junior Martial Uncle. You have never even heard of him?"
"The Smiling, Proud Wanderer doesn't have such a person?" Zhang Yu searched through his memories. He truly had never heard of this person.
But The Smiling, Proud Wanderer's timeline began with the Fuwei Escort Agency, which was three years later. Perhaps something had happened during that time, and this Junior Martial Uncle of Wudang had died partway through?
"What do you mean, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer? Not to mention the Central Plains jianghu, even the jianghu of the northern desert, the Western Regions, and Japan should know about Wudang's Junior Martial Uncle, more or less. Do you think he is some nameless nobody like you?"
Zhang Yu laughed. "Wudang's Junior Martial Uncle? That title is quite a mouthful."
Yue Lingshan laughed. "Jealous, are you?"
Zhang Yu stroked the Green Jade Thumb Ring on his left hand and smiled. "No one has been worth my jealousy yet."
"All you know how to do is brag!"
Before you continue