Sensing the Wind, Returning to Qingning

"This is rouge money. Keep it safe."

Pang Long tossed over a brocade pouch.

"Pang..."

Li Xian still wanted to ask, but Pang Long let out a heavy sigh and had already turned to enter the manor.

As far as the eye could see, heaven and earth were swallowed by darkness.

Buying rouge was no different from a fool dreaming in broad daylight—harder than climbing to the heavens.

One Accord Manor lay more than thirty li from Qingning County. Though it was not a mountain road, the official road was paved with fine pebbles and gravel.

Yet such heavy snow had long since buried the road.

Unable to feel out the path, he would undoubtedly lose his bearings once he went outside.

Li Xian sorted through the intricacies of it and gently exhaled.

Forcing himself to calm down, he began considering a solution.

"I'm still at the manor gate now, with landmarks around me. I know which way is east, south, west, and north. But once I enter the wind and snow, there will be no landmarks left."

No matter what, he first put on the beast-fur cloak to preserve as much body heat as possible.

"This brocade pouch feels icy and soft. It should belong to the lady."

He opened the pouch and found three taels of silver inside.

Though the world was in chaos, rouge and cosmetics were extremely expensive. Three to five taels of silver could buy rouge, but not truly fine rouge.

"Looks like the old drunkard's heart is not in the wine."

Li Xian put away the pouch. Seeing the manor gates tightly shut, he knew there was no use lingering any longer. Carrying his oil lamp, he first followed the courtyard wall.

After walking more than a li, he reached a corner. Li Xian knew that if he continued following the wall, he would merely circle around the manor.

He would never reach Qingning County.

"How do I break this deadlock?" Li Xian emptied his mind and flattened his thoughts...

Then inspiration suddenly struck.

In this kind of environment, his eyes were useless.

What was truly useful was his skin—his sense of feeling.

"If I travel east, I can reach Qingning County. The difficulty is how to keep traveling east without going the wrong way."

"Eyes are useless, ears are useless... The only things that matter are 'memory' and 'feeling'!"

Li Xian spread his arms and felt the direction of the wind.

At that moment, he had not yet lost his bearings and knew where east, west, south, and north lay.

There was a faint resistance ahead of him. The wind blowing against him was an east wind. After a while, the wind shifted and became a south wind...

The wind direction changed constantly.

"Fortunately, I learned the Four Directions Fist. Applying its fist principles here is exactly enough to break this deadlock."

"I'll use myself as a banner, feel the gales from all four sides, and treat the wind as enemies attacking from every direction."

"First remember the original wind direction. Then, based on the changes in its angle, I can infer what wind is blowing at every moment. Using the wind direction as a landmark, I can determine east, south, west, and north."

"As long as I keep track of the wind direction, I won't lose myself in the blizzard."

Put plainly, heaven and earth held nothing but pitch-black darkness, and only the wind could serve as a landmark.

But the wind changed every instant. Once he entered the wind and snow, he would not even be able to tell east from south, west from north—so how could he tell what wind was blowing?

And the wind would blow his footsteps crooked, making him turn without realizing it.

Trying to keep walking east was easier said than done.

He could only cling desperately to the initial wind direction, then use his senses in the wind to infer each new direction in real time.

Within the vast, boundless wind and snow, he had to find this sole moving landmark.

Li Xian took a deep breath.

He soothed his thoughts and stopped thinking of anything else. Then he took one step forward and entered the wind and snow.

The wind suddenly shifted, blowing in from the southwest.

"It's a southwest wind!"

Taking the wind as his measuring rod, he determined where east lay and headed that way.

"It changed... It's a southeast wind now..."

He adjusted his direction again.

The hardest part of this method lay in "memory" and "confidence."

Even if the method worked, walking alone through such an environment would inevitably breed doubt and leave one's mind adrift.

Any mistake, omission, or lapse in concentration along the way could throw the entire judgment into disarray. Without realizing it, one would begin circling around and become completely lost.

Li Xian closed his eyes, shutting out sight and sound as he steeled his resolve.

He turned the wind that muddled his direction into a marker that locked it in place instead.

Step by step, he walked for who knew how long.

"This is..."

When he opened his eyes again, Qingning County's towering city gate was already standing before him.

"I made it!"

Li Xian was overjoyed, no different from having escaped death. Supporting himself against the city wall, he walked along it and soon spotted a dog hole.

He threw two punches. Inner Qi trembled, blasting away the snow blocking the dog hole.

He crawled through and successfully entered the city.

"Why did that lady deliberately send me to buy rouge?"

"Does she want to kill me to silence me? Or does she have some other purpose?"

Li Xian spotted a stable and activated Treading Snow, lightly vaulting over the wall. He took a good rest in the shelter of the stable.

On a day of raging wind and snow, all of Qingning County had shut its doors.

"Why not use this chance to run away? I'd be free from now on. I could go somewhere else and seek another way to survive."

A powerful thought suddenly surged up within Li Xian.

Just then, he sensed something, as though a gaze had fallen upon him.

He looked around, but there was no one in sight.

"No..." Li Xian silently warned himself. "Sending me to buy rouge in a snowstorm must have some other purpose. If I run away now, perhaps... that would be what truly brings a killing calamity upon me!"

He gathered himself a little.

Inner Qi circulated through his body, restoring warmth to his frozen, stiff hands and feet.

"If I didn't have Inner Qi, I would have frozen to death long ago."

Li Xian muttered to himself. Since he was here anyway, he decided to take a walk through Leaking Bottle Alley.

The houses were dilapidated, their thatched roofs scattered by the fierce wind. Fortunately, his younger brother had already left and did not have to suffer the cold here.

The roof of Auntie Liu's home next door had been reinforced, plastered with mud, and covered with extra wood.

It could barely withstand the gale.

A fire glowed inside, and the family of three huddled together on the heated kang bed.

Li Xian felt much better. Leaving Leaking Bottle Alley, he felt his way along by following the houses.

"This oil lamp is quite remarkable. Even such a gale can't put it out."

Though it illuminated the area around him, it was not enough to keep him warm.

There were many houses in the county and plenty of landmarks, so he would not be blown off course. Li Xian used several tall buildings to identify the names of the streets and alleys.

"Water Gauze Alley..."

"This is it!"

If one asked where in Qingning County rouge and cosmetics were sold, it would be Water Gauze Alley beside Red Candle Alley.

Red Candle Alley was a place of nightly revelry, a haunt of courtesans and romantic indulgence. Water Gauze Alley, meanwhile, was a street where silk, satin, rouge, cosmetics, ornaments, and curios were sold.

It was utterly different from Leaking Bottle Alley.

The ground was paved with blue bricks. When it was lively, the lamps blazed all night, and delicacies from mountain and sea were so plentiful that leftovers were simply dumped onto the ground.

Yet they would not give any of it to beggars.

Every pavilion had hired quite a few thugs.

Whoever dared pick up leftover food would be beaten. They simply would not let you eat it—what could you do about it?

But now the snow lay like a blanket, and even the blue bricks could no longer be seen.

"Dream Immortal Pavilion."

"I'll buy it here."

Li Xian knocked on the door, but received no answer, so he immediately knocked again with force.

Bang, bang—

Only after quite a while did someone respond.

"Scram, scram, scram! If you want to freeze to death, freeze somewhere else! You think this old lady will collect your corpses? Dream on!"

The voice was exceedingly sharp and mean.

"Open the door. I'm here to do business."

Li Xian circulated Inner Qi and shouted with full-throated force.

After quite a while, the door opened a crack, and one eye filled the gap. "Sir, in the middle of winter like this, you haven't come to the wrong place, have you?"

The voice had become much gentler.

Li Xian said in a low voice, "This is the place. I'm buying rouge."

"You really are buying rouge?" the woman asked.

"What else would I be doing?" Li Xian brushed the accumulated snow from his body.

"Then all right, come in." The woman opened a gap. Li Xian squeezed inside, then shut the door behind him.

The room was very warm.

Several braziers were burning. Li Xian untied his cloak, shook the snow from his hair, and only then began sizing up the other party.

She was a middle-aged woman in her forties, quite plump, holding a red-and-green handkerchief. A strong scent of perfume clung to her.

"My, my, my, a young master."

Once she saw Li Xian clearly, the middle-aged woman relaxed considerably.

So he was only a fledgling.

"What kinds of rouge and cosmetics do you have? Introduce them to me." Li Xian stretched out his hands and held them by the brazier to warm them.

"Rouge and cosmetics? We have plenty of those." The woman chuckled. "Young master, come with me."