At the first gray light of dawn, amid the cicadas' cries in late summer, Ma Sheng, a protector of the Huaiyou Alliance, set off again with his daughter, Ma Ping'er.
"Put the fire steel and flint away properly. Don't let the rain get them damp."
Looking at his daughter in her men's clothes, Ma Sheng reminded her quietly, "There's no dew today, and it's terribly muggy. I'm afraid it's going to rain again. Once it rains, you can go without food, but not these things..."
"I know!" Ma Ping'er, who was probably only in her early twenties, answered impatiently. Even so, she first carefully wrapped a longsword in silk before checking the jumble of things in her cloth bag. She did not forget to take out a comb and comb her somewhat greasy hair, then pull out a sheet of oiled paper to wipe her face.
Seeing this, Ma Sheng was about to say something else.
But Ma Ping'er had anticipated him. Before her father could speak, she immediately shot back, "Blades are still the most important things... Father, just look at the mess the world's in. Bandits and gangs everywhere, even the estates have turned rotten, and then there are the court's men, who are worse bandits than the bandits. Without a blade, you really will die!"
As though her weapons were all she had taken care of.
"That may be, but you don't have the Heaven-Reliant Sword's cultivation," Ma Sheng sighed. "When your abilities fall short, what matters most out in the world is still rules, face, personal ties, and giving people their cut... We have important business. A little dirt won't hurt... Remember, we're Tide Traders coming up from Sishui, Tide Traders who heard the news about the Xu Family and had no choice but to come