On the Road

After the mule cart passed Li Family Village and traveled another seven or eight li, they saw several white-walled, blue-tiled houses beneath a great locust tree by the roadside. A large banner bearing the character for wine fluttered before the building.

It was already past noon. The rain had stopped, though the clouds had yet to disperse, and the sky had grown much brighter.

"Old Niu, stop at the inn ahead. Let's rest for a while," Third Master said, lifting the curtain and speaking to the driver.

"Right away." Old Niu flicked his whip, and the mule cart turned onto a side road. Before long, it stopped before the inn with the hanging banner.

This was an inn at the edge of the village, serving passing merchants and travelers who wished to rest and eat. A broad courtyard lay before it, paved with gravel and furnished with several stone tables and stools along the sides.

As Liu Yuanzhou helped Third Master down from the cart, he saw several vehicles already parked in the courtyard: Mule Carts, horse carriages, and ox carts.

Seeing that the stone tables were all occupied by travelers, Liu Yuanzhou asked Third Master, "Shall we go inside and eat?"

Third Master stretched languidly and said wearily, "No need to waste money. We brought dry provisions, so let's just make do under the tree. Once we're done eating, we'll get back on the road."

The three went to a dry patch beneath the tree. Liu Yuanzhou opened their bundle and handed out the dry provisions to Third Master and Old Niu. Third Master then told Liu Yuanzhou to fetch some hot water from the inn.

Liu Yuanzhou took a jar inside to ask for hot water. The innkeeper proved warmhearted and did not care whether he was spending money there. Smiling, he filled half the jar with boiling water, more than enough for the three of them.

Liu Yuanzhou hurriedly thanked him.

The three ate their provisions with the hot water. Liu Yuanzhou then felt the call of nature and asked Old Niu where he could relieve himself.

Old Niu often traveled the route between Crouching Tiger Slope and Yan Province City, and he was practically a regular here. Pointing toward a grove to the east, he said, "For the big business, go deal with it in that distant grove. For the little business, turn your back by the roadside. No one's watching." He laughed as he spoke. Knowing that young men like Liu Yuanzhou were thin-skinned, he deliberately teased him.

Liu Yuanzhou's face reddened slightly, and he ran swiftly toward the distant grove. No matter how thick-skinned he was, he could not bring himself to relieve himself in public.

The grove looked close, but it was still quite a distance away, nearly two li. Liu Yuanzhou entered the woods and walked deeper inside before loosening his clothes and finally relieving himself in comfort.

After tightening his belt and straightening his clothes, Liu Yuanzhou was about to return when hurried footsteps suddenly sounded from his front right. He turned instinctively and saw several figures darting between the trees at astonishing speed, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Vaguely, he made out a woman in white in front, pursued by three men in gray. Clearly, all of them possessed martial arts.

Liu Yuanzhou found it rather amusing. He had run into people who knew martial arts just from coming to use the latrine. Then he thought again, What does that have to do with me? He strode quickly toward the edge of the woods.

Before he had taken more than a few steps, Liu Yuanzhou stopped again. Those figures had returned and were charging straight toward him.

Liu Yuanzhou hurriedly sidestepped to the right. To his surprise, the leading woman changed direction with him and arrived before him in the blink of an eye, about to crash headlong into him.

In that urgent moment, Liu Yuanzhou performed an iron bridge, arching backward. The woman stepped right over him, and the hem of her skirt even brushed his nose.

His feet rooted to the ground, his palms pressed backward against the earth, and with a thrust of his waist, Liu Yuanzhou sprang upright in a straight line. He stood firmly in place without moving either foot.

"Fine skill!" the woman praised. She stopped, turned to look at Liu Yuanzhou, and quietly caught her breath.

The three men in gray stopped as well, their expressions shifting between light and shadow.

Liu Yuanzhou felt utterly vexed. Someone had stepped over his head, and that someone had been a woman. What rotten luck.

"Robbers?" Liu Yuanzhou wondered. Yet he was not particularly afraid, for he could tell that although the four possessed martial arts, they had not reached the level of martial artists. Even their movement techniques while running were far inferior to his own.

Turning his body sideways and facing the woman, Liu Yuanzhou said angrily, "Hey, why were you trying to run into me?"

The woman blinked at Liu Yuanzhou, then snorted coldly. "I ought to ask why you were blocking my way. You're with them, aren't you? If you want the item, step over my corpse first." As she spoke, she tightened her hold on the bundle tucked beneath her left arm, retreated two steps, and raised her right hand into an attacking stance.

The woman carried an exceedingly important item. She had already exhausted her strength and knew she could not escape this forest, so she had changed direction and rushed toward Liu Yuanzhou, intending to hide the item on him. She had believed that, with her martial arts, doing so would be easy.

Who could have expected that this ordinary-looking youth she had picked out was also a trained fighter, and one whose skills did not seem weak?

Liu Yuanzhou hastily shook his head. "Uh, don't talk nonsense. I don't know those three at all. Fine, I won't hold this against you. I'm leaving first." With that, he quickly backed away.

He understood now. These people belonged to two opposing sides, and the men in gray were after an important item on the woman in white. He had no desire to get tangled up in this, so he only wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

The men in gray were also unsure whether Liu Yuanzhou was allied with the woman, so they merely watched the two in silence, tensing themselves and ready to strike at any moment. When they saw Liu Yuanzhou preparing to leave, they did not stop him.

A trace of anxiety flashed through the woman's eyes. Seeing Liu Yuanzhou retreat more than ten zhang away, she gritted her teeth, swung her left hand, and hurled the bundle in her arms at him. She shouted, "We'll split up and leave. Meet at the old place!" Then she turned and ran.

Seeing the woman throw out the bundle, the men in gray no longer hesitated. All three attacked at once, charging toward Liu Yuanzhou.

Liu Yuanzhou cursed inwardly, I've fallen for that woman's scheme. He wanted to explain, but the men in gray were already upon him with fists and kicks, leaving him no choice but to fend them off first.

The leading man in gray had the highest martial arts. His pair of iron fists were the first to smash toward Liu Yuanzhou's chest.

Liu Yuanzhou met the incoming fists with a faint excitement and not a trace of fear. Raising both arms, he used Iron Chain Across the River. Bang! Their four arms collided, and the leading man felt a tremendous force surge into him. He staggered back several steps, his arms feeling as though they had struck iron rods, pain boring straight into his heart.

After Liu Yuanzhou drove back the leading man, the other two men in gray reached him as well. He delivered a side kick with his left leg while chopping downward with his right hand. The man on the left was struck in the chest and sent flying to the ground, while the man on the right rolled his eyes and fainted outright, Liu Yuanzhou's hand chop having landed first on the back of his neck.

Thus, in a single exchange, two of the three men in gray had lost their fighting strength.

The leading man stared at Liu Yuanzhou in terror. For an instant, the urge to retreat arose in him, but when he thought of that crucial item, he knew it absolutely could not fall into an outsider's hands.

His heart hardened. Ignoring the pain in both arms, he roared and charged at Liu Yuanzhou. Then he lifted a leg and swept it toward Liu Yuanzhou's waist with a Tiger Tail Whip. This was his concealed ultimate technique, martial arts he had secretly trained to turn the tables.

Having easily repelled the three men in gray, Liu Yuanzhou grew somewhat pleased with himself and began to underestimate them.

When the leading man in gray attacked again, he still intended to hold back some strength and exchange a few more rounds to gain practical combat experience.

Liu Yuanzhou leaped upward, and the leading man's whip kick cut through empty air. The man immediately twisted his waist, sending his other leg flying at Liu Yuanzhou's face. Its speed had more than doubled.

Suspended in midair with nowhere to borrow force, Liu Yuanzhou could only shield his head with both hands. The next instant, smack! The whip kick struck his shoulder. Liu Yuanzhou was sent flying into a tree trunk, both arms going numb and temporarily unable to rise, while a fierce pain tore through his chest.

Before Liu Yuanzhou could catch more than a few breaths, he saw the leading man's whip kick coming again. He hurriedly dodged, darted seven or eight steps away, then turned to face the leading man with a wary expression.

The leading man's eyes suddenly turned bloodshot. He roared again and charged toward Liu Yuanzhou, repeating the same move with another whip kick. The bundle happened to lie directly at Liu Yuanzhou's feet.

Seeing the leading man kick again, Liu Yuanzhou dared not underestimate him. He channeled strength into both fists and used the killing move of the Plum Blossom Fist, Twin Flower Kill. Striking after yet arriving first, his fists hit the leading man's sole. This time, he used all his strength. The man flew backward and crashed down with a thud, his back slamming heavily against the ground. For the moment, he could not struggle to his feet.

Liu Yuanzhou also took two steps back before dissipating the recoil. Leaning against the tree trunk, he gulped down breaths.

It sounded like a long tale, but the four had exchanged blows for no more than half an incense stick's time. Liu Yuanzhou now felt short of breath and weak in the limbs. Though violent exertion played a part, it was also because of his excitement and nervousness. After all, this was his first real battle against martial artists since he began training.

Once his breathing steadied, Liu Yuanzhou bent down, picked up the bundle, and without even looking at it, tossed it to the leading man. Brushing off his hands, he said in a deep voice, "You attacked me first. I was forced to fight back. And I truly have nothing to do with that woman. I don't want to know anything about your affairs either. Farewell." With that, he turned and left.

The leading man sat up. He was not seriously injured, though one leg had temporarily gone numb. He grabbed the bundle and opened it, only to find a pile of miscellaneous women's belongings. There was no sign of the thing they sought.

"Damn it, she tricked us!" he roared furiously, flinging the bundle away.

The leading man limped over and helped up his subordinates. The one who had fainted had also awakened and asked, "Brother Ma, we lost the item. What should we do?"

Brother Ma pondered for a moment, then sighed. "We can only hurry back and report to the young master, then get ahead of them and erase the clues."

Liu Yuanzhou ran back to the inn courtyard and found Third Master waiting beside the mule cart. He hurriedly apologized, "Sorry to have kept you waiting so long."

When Liu Yuanzhou had failed to return for so long, Third Master had truly worried that something might have happened. After all, Liu Yuanzhou had been brought out by him, and he bore the responsibility of seeing him safely through. Now that he saw him back, he relaxed, though he reproached him aloud, "What happened? Why are your clothes soaking wet?"

Only then did Liu Yuanzhou realize that, after the battle in the woods, his clothes had been drenched by the rainwater. He scratched his head and hurriedly ducked into the mule cart to change.

In the inn courtyard, inside a horse carriage not far from Liu Yuanzhou's mule cart, two women were speaking quietly.

One of them was the woman in white who had fled earlier. Yet she had now changed into a maid's outfit, redone her hair and makeup, and revealed a lovely face. Without looking closely, one truly would not recognize her.

She suddenly gave a soft cry of surprise. "He's here too?" Through the gauze window of the carriage, she looked at Liu Yuanzhou, who was speaking with Third Master.

"Who?" asked the woman seated opposite her.

"Captain, he's the man we encountered in the woods just now," said the woman dressed as a maid.

"Oh, good." The woman's expression was cool. She merely glanced casually out the window without paying much attention, then said, "This time, you needn't feel guilty. He came out on his own."

"Yes." The maid-dressed woman nodded, feeling a wave of relief in her heart.