At the first light of dawn, amid the late-summer cicadas, Ma Sheng, a protector of the Huaiyou Alliance, set off again with his daughter Ma Ping'er.
"Keep the fire steel and flint tucked away. Don't let the rain dampen them."
Ma Sheng looked at his daughter, dressed in men's clothes, and reminded her quietly, "There's no dew today, and it's terribly muggy. I'm afraid it'll rain again. Once it rains, you can go without food, but not without these..."
"I know!" Ma Ping'er, barely into her twenties, answered impatiently. Still, she first wrapped a longsword carefully in silk before inspecting the miscellaneous things in her cloth bag. She even took out a comb to run through her somewhat greasy hair, then produced a sheet of oiled paper and wiped her face.
Seeing this, Ma Sheng was about to say something more.
But Ma Ping'er had anticipated him. Before her father could speak, she shot back, "Blades still matter most... Father, just look at the mess the world's in. Bandits and gangs everywhere, even the estates have turned crooked. And the government's men are worse bandits than the bandits! Without a blade, you really could die!"
As though blades were all she had taken care of.
"True enough, but you don't have the Heaven-Reliant Sword's cultivation," Ma Sheng sighed. "When your abilities fall short, rules, face, personal ties, and goodwill still matter most out in the martial world... We have important business. A little dirt won't hurt... Remember, we're Tide Traders from Sishui. We heard the news about the Xu family and had no choice but to come deliver a visiting card to the Wang Family. Don't go forcing yourself into the limelight."
Ma Ping'er knew her father was right, more or less. Besides, she had only cultivated eight orthodox meridians