Weiyuan Escort Agency's black-and-gold lacquered signboard glinted in the midday sun.
The two stone lions at the entrance still looked as imposing as ever, but today the place was far busier than it had been the last time Chen Ping visited.
Chen Ping carried two jars of Drunken Immortal Brew in one hand and a paper-wrapped parcel in the other. Inside was a freshly cooked braised pork knuckle, its fragrant, savory aroma seeping through the paper.
He stood at the corner of the street, not in a hurry to go in, and narrowed his eyes as he took in the scene.
The Borderlands were troubled, and the trade routes dangerous. Business at the escort agency had boomed as a result, especially the hiring of temporary guards willing to risk their lives for money.
Chen Ping looked down at what he was wearing. His clothes were still coarse, but clean and neatly washed, and he no longer kept his back deliberately hunched as he had at Lin Manor.
He hefted the food and wine and stepped over the tall threshold.
Dust swirled across the training yard. Dozens of brawny men grunted as they worked on their strength, the stench of sweat mingling with horse manure and rushing straight up Chen Ping's nose.
At the center of the crowd, an old man in a half-worn escort uniform was holding forth, spittle flying.
"Back in my day, I followed Chief Escort out west. The bandit chief at Black Wind Stronghold had a ghost-head saber that weighed over a hundred pounds! I didn't even blink. One Lazy Donkey Rolling—cough, one Earth Dragon Somersault—and I was through the flowers without a leaf clinging to me!"
It was his uncle, Liu Sanjin.
The old man was flushed with excitement as he spun his tale. A few newcomers around him listened, wide-eyed and spellbound.
Chen Ping didn't say a word. He simply waited outside the circle.
Only after Liu Sanjin had talked himself hoarse and picked up his tea mug to wet his throat did he look up and spot Chen Ping.
"Well, if it isn't Brother Ping!"
Liu Sanjin thumped his mug onto the ground. His once animated face fell, and he put on the air of an elder about to lecture a younger relative.
With his hands behind his back, he sauntered over, gave the food and wine in Chen Ping's hands a sideways glance, and snorted.
"What's this? Got sick of being a servant in the lap of luxury at the Lin Family? Come here to breathe in the stench of sweat?"
The men around them burst into laughter, most of them looking at Chen Ping with contempt.
In their eyes, a delicate young book servant like him was fit only to empty the chamber pots in some wealthy household.
"Uncle, you're joking."
Chen Ping wore a mild smile, neither annoyed nor embarrassed. "I missed you, so I brought you some good wine and food."
"Brought me a gift?"
Liu Sanjin scoffed and reached for one of the wine jars.
"I say you're a weasel bringing New Year's greetings to a chicken. That lousy book I gave you last time—did you get anything out of it? Don't tell me you failed to train your body and ended up training your brain into mush instead. Now you want to come here and scrounge for a meal?"
His hand had barely reached out when it closed on empty air.
Chen Ping casually shifted aside and set the food and wine on a nearby rack of stone locks.
A row of stone locks rested on the rack, weighing anywhere from thirty to a hundred pounds.
The spot where Chen Ping put down the food happened to be right beside the blue-gray stone lock marked "80 pounds."
"Uncle, I really did come to look for work."
As he spoke, Chen Ping reached out with his right hand, curled his five fingers around the handle of the eighty-pound stone lock, and lifted.
Liu Sanjin was about to blow up and scold him for not knowing his place, when he saw Chen Ping's arm tremble slightly.
The eighty-pound stone lock rose in Chen Ping's hand as lightly as a bundle of cotton.
He even gave it a flick of the wrist, making it spin through a neat circle in the air before setting it back on the rack with perfect steadiness.
"Thud!"
The muffled impact struck the rack—and Liu Sanjin right in the heart.
The men who had been laughing fell abruptly silent. Not a peep remained.
Liu Sanjin's cloudy old eyes bulged. His long-stemmed pipe slipped from his mouth and clattered to the ground. Sparks scattered across his shoes, but he didn't even notice.
Lifting an eighty-pound stone lock with one hand wasn't unusual in an escort agency. Any regular escort could do it.
But someone like Chen Ping, who could do it without even changing expression or losing his breath—and make a show of it besides—was a real martial artist!
And just a few months ago, the boy had been a sickly weakling who might have toppled in a gust of wind!
"You... you..."
Liu Sanjin stammered for a while. His arrogance vanished, replaced by an astonishment as if he'd seen a ghost. Then, in the blink of an eye, his old eyes filled with shrewd, ingratiating warmth.
"Good heavens, Brother Ping! So this is what you've been hiding! A True Person doesn't show his true colors!"
Liu Sanjin's expression changed faster than a page turning. He grabbed Chen Ping's hand, suddenly as affectionate as he had been scornful just moments before.
"Come, come! There are too many eyes here. Let's go have tea in the back and talk!"
In a quiet spot in the back courtyard, Liu Sanjin sent everyone else away and eagerly asked, "Brother Ping, tell your uncle the truth. Where did you learn those skills?"
Chen Ping had prepared his story long ago.
He put on an inscrutable expression and lowered his voice.
"I was lucky, that's all. A while back, I was running an errand for my master at the mass grave outside the city when I met a mad, wandering Daoist. I felt sorry for him and gave him half a steamed bun. He gave me a black pill and taught me a few lines of a mantra."
"I took the pill and practiced the mantra. Somehow, I started getting stronger."
Stories of such "fortuitous encounters" had been written to death in martial-world tales, but the more outlandish they were, the more people tended to believe them.
Liu Sanjin listened, dumbfounded, and eyed Chen Ping suspiciously from head to toe.
He might only half believe the story, but there was no faking Chen Ping's strength.
Since the boy had the ability, what did it matter whether that Daoist had really taught him?
"Tsk, tsk. Looks like you met a true master."
Liu Sanjin didn't press him further. He simply rolled his eyes and asked, "So what brings you here today? You want to..."
"I want to take on some private jobs."
Chen Ping got straight to the point. "I can't show my face on the Lin Family's behalf, so I'd like to use the escort agency's connections to take some short-distance escort work that won't put me in the public eye. I want to earn a little hard money and buy some medicinal herbs to build up my health."
Liu Sanjin was delighted.
The escort agency was short of hands these days, and men like this "off-the-books" fellow—somewhat skilled but not looking for trouble—were especially useful.
"That'll be easy!"
Liu Sanjin thumped his chest. His wrinkled face spread into a grin.
"I've got a few jobs delivering medicinal herbs to a neighboring county. It's not far, but the roads aren't safe. With your strength, you're in."
He paused, then held up three fingers and waggled them, a shrewd merchant's slyness appearing on his face.
"But business is business, even between brothers. The escort agency has its rules. We take a thirty-percent cut as a middleman's fee."
Thirty percent—that was highway robbery.
But Chen Ping nodded readily, without hesitation. "Fine. We'll do it your way, Uncle."
What he lacked now was a way in, not a few taels of silver.
Once he had a foot in the door, he'd have plenty of chances to earn it back with interest.
With the deal settled, Liu Sanjin was in high spirits and tried to drag Chen Ping off to drink.
Chen Ping excused himself, saying he wanted to watch the escorts train, and returned to the edge of the training yard alone.
He squatted in an inconspicuous corner, pretending to be lost in thought, while his sharp gaze stayed fixed on a few escorts practicing their saber forms.
They were practicing the escort agency's most common style, the Five Tiger Severing Gate Saber. Its moves were fierce and powerful, broad and sweeping.
To an ordinary onlooker, they were nothing but flashy flourishes.
But as the blades flashed before Chen Ping's eyes, the bamboo slip in the depths of his mind slowly unfurled once more.
[Observing saber techniques...] [Heaven Rewards Diligence judgment activated.] [Basic saber forms detected: chop, slash, lift, hook.] [Skill acquired: Five Tiger Severing Gate Saber (uninitiated 1/100)] [Skill acquired: Plum Blossom Step (uninitiated 1/100)]
A wealth of unfamiliar memories appeared in Chen Ping's mind, as if he had practiced alongside those men for a long time.
Though he had only just begun, now that he had this "seed," even the most common, shoddy techniques could become peerless martial arts in his hands.
That was the terrifying power of Heaven Rewards Diligence.
One glance was all it took to learn; once he had learned, he could grind away; and once he had put in the work, he could grow stronger.
The corners of Chen Ping's mouth lifted. He could barely contain his delight.
Just as he was watching with rapt attention, the voices of two resting escorts chatting nearby drifted into his ears.
"Hey, have you heard? The Imperial Court posted a notice. The fighting in the Borderlands is getting worse, so they're expanding this year's Imperial Military Examination."
"What good will that do? Could people like us, born in the mud, really become Military Champions?"
"You never know! I heard they're not asking about your background this time. Anyone with ability can turn their fortunes around, even the son of a disgraced official! Get yourself an official post, and you'll bring honor to your ancestors!"
The Imperial Military Examination!
Chen Ping whipped his head around to look at the two escorts, his eyes blazing with a brilliance unlike any he had shown before.
In this rigidly stratified world, there was only one way to escape servitude and take control of his own fate besides rebellion.
And now, that chance had come.
Chen Ping drew a breath and forced down the excitement surging in his heart.
The sun was already sinking in the west when Liu Sanjin came over, swaying with a wine jar in hand, hoping to get Chen Ping to stay for dinner.
"Brother Ping, don't go! I'm in a good mood today. Let's drink until we're both dead drunk!"
"Uncle, I'll pass on the wine."
Chen Ping stood and brushed the dust from his backside, his tone resolute. "The Lin Family has strict rules. If I get back late, I'll be beaten. Besides, I need to go home and practice the mantra that Daoist taught me."
Hearing that, Liu Sanjin knew better than to press him. He clicked his tongue in regret. "All right, all right. You're such a workhorse. Remember to come by first thing tomorrow morning to pick up a job!"
Chen Ping cupped his hands, turned, and strode out of the escort agency.
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