In the afternoon sunlight, Dan Tonghai, dressed in casual brocade clothes, held his riding whip in both hands and stepped onto the river ice, feeling his way forward one step at a time. After twenty or thirty paces, he suddenly stumbled, and the ice collapsed beneath his feet.
But a surge of white, gold-edged true qi immediately rose beneath Dan Dalang's feet-unmistakably authentic River-Cutting True Qi.
Only, River-Cutting True Qi had earned its name by cutting rivers, and was exceptionally sharp. As his true qi pressed downward, it sliced the ice below into fragments, then continued cutting into the water. Fortunately, Dan Tonghai controlled his true qi with ease. He promptly changed its shape, smoothing away its sharp edges, and successfully borrowed enough purchase to leap backward out of the collapsed section.
Yet when he landed on the ice behind him, it collapsed again. The burly Chief Dan had no choice but to leap backward several more times before finally reaching the riverbank.
Needless to say, his movements were agile. Cheng Dalang, watching from the bank, knew that the other man's cultivation had already reached a considerable level, perhaps even equaling his own, and could not help narrowing his eyes slightly.
But another mishap followed. Once on the southern bank of the Wen River, Chief Dan withdrew his true qi and turned toward Cheng Dalang, smiling as he started up the slope to speak. Who could have imagined that, just as he opened his mouth, before a sound emerged, his foot would slip on the mud beneath the loose snow on the shaded side of the riverbank? Caught completely off guard, he had to brace himself with one hand, smearing an entire sleeve with mud.
Cheng Dalang burst out laughing, swung down from his horse, and went to help him