On Severed Dragon Ridge

[You left the city and found a sunny hillside, where you dug a hole with your hands. Your fingers split open, blood mixing with dirt, but you felt no pain.]

[You laid Nanny inside, covered her with earth, and built a small burial mound.]

[You knelt before her grave and kowtowed three times.]

[The month you were forcibly kept at the Green Bamboo Sect made you miss your chance to save Nanny. Now that you have buried her, what should you do next?

1. Fight your way back to the Marquis's Household. They caused Nanny's death, and you will make them pay blood for blood!

2. Fight your way back to the Green Bamboo Sect. If the Green Bamboo Sect had not delayed you, you absolutely could have made it back to save Nanny. You will make them pay blood for blood!

3. For a gentleman seeking revenge, even ten years is not too late. Without strength, how can you speak of revenge? Cultivate diligently, and one day stand before them and make them kneel before Nanny's grave, kowtowing and confessing their sins.]

[You chose 3.]

[You could take revenge, but not now. If you went back now, even if you were lucky enough to kill a few of them, what then?]

[You would be wanted, hunted, fleeing for your life to the ends of the earth.]

[Nanny traded her life for your freedom, even for your life, and you would squander it like this? You slowly stood, wiped the tears from your face, and took one last look at that small burial mound. Then you turned and strode away.]

[You returned to the capital once and treated the beggar who had told you Nanny's last words to a hearty meal.]

[In this life, grudges must be avenged and kindness repaid.]

[Only after watching the beggar finish the food did you leave the capital.]

[Though opportunities lay everywhere in the capital, there was no place for you there, nor could it give you the strength you needed for revenge. You headed north, traveling for over three months before reaching Gathered Worthies Manor.]

[This time, you were no longer that sixty-seven-year-old woman.]

[You were twenty-eight, at the Houtian Fourth Stage, with a spiritual root and a foundation laid by the Azure Wood Art and the Green Bamboo Formula! Though the Green Bamboo Sect's intentions had been impure, the cultivation was real, as were those days and nights of bitter training.]

[Gathered Worthies Manor was still the same Gathered Worthies Manor. People set up roadside stalls, peddled their wares in teahouses, and posted notices on inn walls. Some even squatted outside the latrines, asking everyone they saw, "Fellow Daoist, want a cultivation method? Cheap."]

[This time, instead of buying those junk cultivation methods, you went to Gathered Worthies Manor's Gathering Worthies Hall.]

[The Gathering Worthies Hall was the largest power in all of Gathered Worthies Manor. Though called a "hall," it was more like a martial artists' guild. Posting missions, exchanging cultivation methods, buying and selling information, forming teams to hunt demonic beasts-it all happened here.]

[Practicing martial arts always cost money, and this world was no exception.]

[To break through to the next stage, you needed an internal cultivation method to draw in spiritual energy and external exercises to temper your body over and over. For the former, spirit stones could improve efficiency; for the latter, medicinal baths could speed up your body's recovery.]

[And both required silver!]

[You pushed open the door and entered, and a wave of heat hit you in the face. The main hall teemed with people. Martial artists in all manner of clothing gathered in twos and threes, some laughing and talking loudly, others plotting in low voices, and still others trading something in the corners.]

[You squeezed your way to the counter. A languid old man sat behind it and asked without even raising his eyelids, "Taking a mission or posting one?"]

["Taking one," you said.]

[The old man tossed you a wooden token. "New here? Register first. Name, cultivation stage, specialty."]

["Rong Mi." You used that false name. "Houtian Fourth Stage. I specialize in fist techniques."]

[Only then did the old man raise his eyelids and glance at you, a trace of surprise in his gaze. A rogue cultivator at the Houtian Fourth Stage ranked among the middling fighters even in Gathered Worthies Manor.]

["Fist techniques?" He tapped the counter. "Just right. There's a beast-hunting job lately that needs someone who can fight. The quarry is an Ironback Bear at the Houtian Fourth Stage. Its hide is valuable, and its gallbladder even more so. In a team, split three ways, each person could get around four hundred taels. Interested?"]

[You had absolutely no reason to refuse!]

[The old man shouted behind him, "Old Zhou! Got a newcomer here. Take her to meet the team!"]

[You followed Old Zhou and met the other two members of the team.]

[One was a burly man, the other a stooped old woman. Like you, the man was at the Houtian Fourth Stage, and like you, he specialized in fist techniques. You sized each other up, and his eyes plainly said, "Oh, here's someone coming to steal my rice bowl."]

[The other was a stooped old woman, her graying hair looking as though frost had settled over it, yet she was the fleetest of the three of you.]

[She was the team's scout. This was the first time you had heard that an eighty-year-old woman could fill that role. Only later did you understand what it meant not to judge by appearances: when the old woman ran, she could leave both you and the man two li behind.]

[You chatted with them for a while and learned the basic procedure for hunting demonic beasts: find a beast, run if you could not beat it, and die if you could not outrun it.]

[The procedure was simple. The difficult part was "don't die."]

[Three hundred li farther north of Gathered Worthies Manor lay a sprawling mountain range the locals called "Severed Dragon Ridge." Supposedly, a true dragon had fallen here in ancient times. Its spine became the mountains, and its blood soaked the soil, which was why demonic beasts here were more numerous and fiercer than elsewhere.]

[Of course, that was only a legend. But Severed Dragon Ridge really did have demonic beasts.]

[Ironback Bears, Gale Wolves, and occasionally even creatures of the Xiantian Realm appeared there. Every year, if not a hundred rogue cultivators died within, then at least eighty did.]

[But you did not care about these rumors at all.]

[If you survived, you could earn silver to buy cultivation resources and advance your cultivation stage. If you did not, at least you would gain experience hunting demonic beasts. If you were still short of silver in the next simulation, you would no longer be a novice at beast hunting!]

[Perhaps because your attitude was good enough, or perhaps because the old woman was so experienced, this expedition went extremely smoothly.]

[Though inexperienced, you followed instructions, were willing to put in the effort, and had plenty of courage. You had virtually no shortcomings. The burly man and the old woman invited you to hunt with them again next time, and you agreed.]

[For five full years, with your Changfeng Fist and fists as big as sandbags, you relied on one winning trick to conquer all comers! Alongside Old Li and the old woman, you made a name for yourself in the Gathering Worthies Hall.]