Li City

Liu Qiaolian had once been a traveling merchant and often journeyed between the northern and southern regions.

In the days that followed, with Liu Qiaolian leading the way and keeping him company, Xia Daoming no longer needed to worry about which road to take, nor did he have to endure wind and meals in the open.

Every day, Liu Qiaolian arranged the itinerary flawlessly.

Whether it was places to eat or places to sleep, and even their means of travel, had Xia Daoming not objected, their two fine horses would have been replaced by a carriage.

Riding a horse with a beauty attending to his every need at his side, Xia Daoming felt like some young master out sightseeing among mountains and rivers.

What was more, Liu Qiaolian, with her lush and graceful figure, was unlike Ji Wenyue, who was still young and inexperienced. She possessed a captivating mature charm and did not shy away from Xia Daoming's seasoned gaze. On the contrary, she generously rewarded him with alluring smiles and displayed her lovely curves, looking utterly tempting, as if inviting him to pluck her at will.

Yet toward any other men they encountered along the way, she was cold as frost and showed not the slightest warmth, as though they were already dead.

A lone man and woman spent seven days and seven nights together. On a stormy night, after drinking a little wine, Xia Daoming finally could not resist his nature as a man. He stripped the willingly throwing-herself-into-his-arms Liu Qiaolian bare and played poker with her.

The next day, Liu Qiaolian behaved as though nothing had happened and continued carrying out her duties as a maid. Only, her gait was somewhat awkward, and whenever she occasionally looked at Xia Daoming's retreating figure, there was an indescribable tenderness hidden deep in her eyes.

As for Xia Daoming, having only slept with her the previous night—especially after seeing Liu Qiaolian solemnly cut out and preserve the bloodstain on the bedding—he felt terribly guilty.

Seeing that she dressed like a married woman, he had assumed she was either a widow or had suffered something in the past. Thus, when Liu Qiaolian threw herself at him the night before, he had felt no psychological burden and had simply gone with the flow to play a round of poker with her.

Yet it turned out she was still an untouched maiden. This had become a far bigger mess than he had expected!

If he said he would take responsibility, he was currently like duckweed without roots and had no plans to start a family or establish a career. Besides, he and Liu Qiaolian had only known each other for a few days; there was no real affection between them as a man and woman. At most, he just coveted her body.

But if he refused to take responsibility, that would make him seem like complete scum.

Therefore, with no idea yet how to clean up the aftermath, Xia Daoming could only try his best to show Liu Qiaolian kindness and take the initiative to do things for her. At the very least, he could not let her think he was the sort of scumbag who turned his face and denied everything the moment he put his pants back on.

Yet Liu Qiaolian did not appreciate it in the slightest. She still performed her duties as a maid with meticulous seriousness, nothing like the seductive tenderness she had shown while playing poker the night before.

Once, Xia Daoming had been a little too enthusiastic in helping her, and she actually knelt down in tears, insisting that the distinction between master and servant could not be thrown into disorder.

This left Xia Daoming in a rather subtle mood. It was as if he had become the kind of scumbag who could not handle a one-night stand—who had agreed that they would go their separate ways afterward, only to keep pestering the other person once it was over.

A few days later, another stormy night arrived.

Perhaps Xia Daoming's gaze during the day had been too seasoned, or perhaps Liu Qiaolian, having tasted the forbidden fruit for the first time, had thoughts of her own. After the lamp was blown out, she took the initiative to slip into his bedding.

The next day, Xia Daoming still felt guilty and wanted to offer some compensation.

Yet she would rather die than accept it.

Gradually, Xia Daoming slowly grew accustomed to Liu Qiaolian's dual role as both maid and bedchamber servant.

Every few days, the two would play a round of poker, making Xia Daoming's journey an altogether more fragrant and romantic one.

The mountain roads twisted and turned, and they had to avoid checkpoints and crossings guarded by bandits. More than ten days passed before the two finally arrived at Li City.

Li City lay in a plain basin amid the mountains. Its city walls were towering and imposing, far beyond anything Black Stone City could compare with.

Dark brown, mottled stains of dried blood marked the massive wall stones, silently telling of the city's weathered history.

Fully armed soldiers patrolled back and forth atop the city walls.

After Xia Daoming and Liu Qiaolian paid the entrance fee, they entered Li City.

The main street connected to the city gate was broader, livelier, and more prosperous than those of Black Stone City.

Men and women in all manner of dress brushed shoulders and heels in the crowd. Taverns and teahouses, brothels and gambling houses, medicine shops and rice stores—shops of every kind lined both sides of the street, while countless vendors had set up stalls along the road.

The cries of hawkers and the weaving streams of people almost made Xia Daoming think, at first glance, that he had somehow traveled into a flourishing golden age.

But once Xia Daoming truly merged into the crowd and walked the streets, he discovered that beneath the surface of prosperity and bustle lay misery and desolation everywhere.

There were ragged beggars starving until they were little more than skin stretched over bones; people selling their sons and daughters; people selling themselves to bury their fathers; corpses tossed onto flat carts like dead dogs and hauled out beyond the city gates...

The alleys branching off the main street were dark, narrow, and choked with filth.

In one small alley, people in the uniform garb of a gang were hacking at someone with blades. Yet the endless crowd on the main street acted as though this were an everyday sight, and no one spared it a second glance.

A wry smile tugged at Xia Daoming's lips.

Mang Province was a frontier land of exile, where bandits ran rampant and starving corpses lay everywhere. How could it possibly be any flourishing golden age?

Led by Liu Qiaolian, the two soon arrived at a street that seemed fairly clean and had no beggars or displaced refugees in sight.

Most of the houses on both sides were neither new nor old. Though there were no grand residences, most had their own small courtyards, far better than the shabby single-story dwellings Xia Daoming had seen in the narrow alleys along the way.

This should be Li City's equivalent of a middle-class residential district, Xia Daoming thought to himself.

"Sui Mian Alley is one of the two streets under the jurisdiction of the Flowing Cloud Workshop. The Flowing Cloud Workshop is territory controlled by the Situ Family," Liu Qiaolian introduced as they walked.

"The Situ Family that young man at the entrance to Crimson Flame Valley mentioned?" Xia Daoming asked in surprise.

"That's right, that very Situ Family. The Xu Family is Li City's only Martial Dao Grandmaster clan, and Xu Shixiong is widely acknowledged as the Xu Family's most promising outstanding descendant, with the potential to become a grandmaster. He is also a Seventh-Rank Great Martial Master himself, so naturally he can afford to disregard the Situ Family.

"But in truth, Situ Zhongliang, the Situ Family's head, is a Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master. He is already considered a formidable figure in Li City. Moreover, the Situ Family has deep ties with the Ji Family of neighboring Yongqing Ward, and they have always advanced and retreated together.

"With the Situ Family stationed in this Flowing Cloud Workshop, ordinary gangs and factions would not dare cause trouble here. I sought peace and quiet, so when I fled to Li City six years ago, I bought a residence here to settle down," Liu Qiaolian said.

"The Ji Family? Could it be the Ji Family of Evergreen Hall?" Xia Daoming's expression turned subtle.

"So Master has heard of the Ji Family of Evergreen Hall as well!" A trace of surprise appeared on Liu Qiaolian's face.

Damn, what a coincidence! Xia Daoming muttered inwardly, then nodded. "I've only heard of them. I don't know the details."

"In terms of resources, manpower, and connections, the Ji Family is considerably stronger than the Situ Family. The old master of the Ji Family is even a Seventh-Rank Great Martial Master. Unfortunately, he is already advanced in years, and none of his descendants are particularly outstanding. The strongest among them has only reached the Fifth-Rank Great Martial Master level, and to date, not one Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master has emerged.

"However, the Ji Family is a major medicinal-herb merchant with abundant resources. They have used silver to recruit and cultivate quite a few capable fighters, and have even brought in three Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master-level Attendants. They are considered a force with considerable deterrence in Li City," Liu Qiaolian explained in broad terms.

As they spoke, the two arrived before a residence with two large locks hanging from its gate.

Liu Qiaolian took out a key and unlocked them.

Creak!

The gate was pushed open.

The first thing before them was a courtyard, most of whose ground was paved with bricks and stone. Several stone locks, iron rods, sandbags, and other martial training equipment lay within it.

There was a side room on each side of the courtyard. Directly opposite the gate stood three main rooms and two smaller annex rooms.

Liu Qiaolian had clearly been away from home for quite some time. Weeds had sprouted between the bricks and stones and in the corners of the courtyard, while a layer of dust covered the doors and windows inside the rooms.

The familiar sights entering her eyes caused memories that Liu Qiaolian had deliberately sealed away all this time to surge into her heart.

Before her eyes, it seemed as though a young woman in emerald-green clothes appeared, watching with gratified eyes as a youth, drenched in sweat, repeatedly swung and lifted stone locks.

But in the blink of an eye, that youth became a vicious, pockmarked face that shoved her toward a Blood Feather Eagle. Then the scene changed again, and that familiar pockmarked face pushed her toward a man with a face full of flesh, leering obscenely.

Without her realizing it, tears rolled down from the corners of Liu Qiaolian's eyes.

"Let's stay at an inn tonight. Tomorrow, we'll go buy a new house. We can find time to sort through the things inside this house, then sell it," Xia Daoming said as he stepped forward, gently drawing Liu Qiaolian into his arms.

"Thank you, Master. I'm fine now. I'll go inside and gather some clothes, then accompany Master to the inn for the time being." Liu Qiaolian wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes and smiled brightly at Xia Daoming.

Several days later.

Taiwu Ward, Hidden Dragon Martial Arts School.

Dressed in a fitted blue martial outfit, Xia Daoming followed a burly, bearded man across the broad outer-courtyard training ground. They passed through an arched gate, walked along a covered corridor, and arrived at an inner-courtyard training ground surrounded by green shade and waves of cool air.

Compared with the magnificent, bustling training scene in the outer courtyard, the inner-courtyard training ground was remarkably quiet.

Only one man, who appeared even younger than Xia Daoming, sat cross-legged in the shade beside the training ground, circulating his blood and vital force.

On a slightly raised patch of ground south of the training field stood a pavilion.

Behind the pavilion grew a great tree with a canopy like clouds, its shade completely covering the structure.

Within the pavilion, an imposing man in his sixties, his silver hair standing like halberds, sat with his eyes closed in quiet rest.

Hearing the footsteps, he slowly opened his eyes and looked toward Xia Daoming.

His gaze was stern and sharp. Xia Daoming's heart tightened as he realized that this man was Liang Jingtang, master of the Hidden Dragon Martial Arts School and a Sixth-Rank Great Martial Master.

The young man circulating his blood and vital force also noticed the stranger's arrival. He opened his eyes and gave Xia Daoming a cold glance, then quickly shut them again and resumed circulating his blood and vital force.

"Master, I've brought him," Yuchi Xiao said with a bow upon reaching the pavilion.

Liang Jingtang gave Yuchi Xiao a slight nod, then looked past him at Xia Daoming.

"This junior, Xia Daoming, greets Master Liang." Xia Daoming hurried forward, bowed, and cupped his hands in salute.

"I heard your martial arts were inherited from Qiu Zhiheng?" Liang Jingtang asked. A trace of age-worn melancholy and remembrance surfaced deep in his eyes.

"In reply to Master Liang, I began training in martial arts under Master Qiu when I was twelve," Xia Daoming replied with a bow.

Upon hearing that Xia Daoming had begun training under Qiu Zhiheng at the age of twelve, Liang Jingtang's gaze toward him gained a touch of an elder's kindness.

"I was three years older than your Master Qiu. Back then, we trained together, played together, and carried out missions together. Our friendship ran deep. Unfortunately, his talent was limited, and he offended a direct descendant of the Shi Family, leaving him no choice but to flee to the northern lands thirty years ago.

"After that, I never saw him again. I never expected that today I would meet the disciple he taught! How has he been in recent years?" Liang Jingtang asked.

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