I'm ill

Clean water washed away all the ointment inside. Min Ming hurriedly took her medicine. Having recovered a little strength, she leaned against the bed and slowly stood, looking as though she might collapse at any moment.

After washing his hands with water from the vat, Chen Yi lifted the curtain and entered the bedroom.

At the sight of his handsome face, Min Ming's pretty, powdered face grew even paler.

Chen Yi's expression turned cold as he stared straight at her.

"You wanted to be my bedchamber attendant, yet you put poison there. What games are you playing with me?"

Hearing those words, Min Ming went weak and fell back onto the bed.

The bedboards trembled slightly.

He found out. He found out everything... It's over...

"No, please, don't. I beg you, spare me. The Do Not Use Tower made me do it. It was the Do Not Use Tower. Please spare me. Please leave me a way to live."

Min Ming's eyes were red, like a startled fawn's.

"Spare you? You poisoned me and nearly killed me. Is it all the Do Not Use Tower's fault, and none of yours?"

As Chen Yi spoke, he slowly approached. Min Ming did her best to avoid his gaze, her hands and feet trembling faintly.

"Thousand Household... I, I was wrong. The Do Not Use Tower forced me. I didn't want to either... But I was still wrong. Sob... I was supposed to become your bedchamber attendant, and you agreed not to touch Min Ning, but, but... Thousand Household, I was wrong..."

Tears already streaked Min Ming's entire face.

Chen Yi pressed closer step by step, coldly savoring her panic, and reached out to tilt her face up.

"You should have agreed to those things in the first place."

Suddenly, as though trying to seize the initiative and establish some kind of protection, Min Ming actually moved toward him of her own accord.

Trembling, she took the initiative to embrace him, pressing her soft body straight into his arms.

"I agree. I was wrong. I shouldn't have-but I had no choice either. I didn't want to. It wasn't what I wanted to do. Sob... I... I'll buy my own freedom and become your bedchamber attendant, your maid, all right? All right? Sob... Thousand Household, I was wrong..."

Her voice tearful and pleading, she pressed tightly into his embrace. Rather than ignorantly throwing herself into his arms, she was relying on a voluntary admission of guilt to win a sliver of leniency for herself. Her initiative abruptly reminded Chen Yi of the tongue Min Ning had actively extended when they kissed.

The sisters had utterly different temperaments, yet they were truly alike.

Chen Yi felt her tears strike his chest.

She had succeeded.

Chen Yi's heart softened. He held her shaking shoulders as gently as possible, wanting to say something, but finding it somewhat difficult to back down. Moreover, thinking that this scheming untouched courtesan might exploit any lenient words he offered, he pondered in silence.

Min Ming felt only the terrifying silence.

"I... I'll make it up to you. Thousand Household, take me, take my... vir..."

The untouched courtesan's voice faltered, her face unbearably red, her shame beyond her control. For a long time, she could not utter those two words, words that any untouched courtesan would find difficult to voice. Yet she gritted her teeth and finally said them.

"Take my virginity!"

Chen Yi immediately suppressed the pity in his eyes, his gaze growing colder.

Whatever the case...

She ought to suffer a little and learn her lesson...

"Master..."

A voice came from somewhere.

Chen Yi started sharply and looked toward the bed.

Yin Tingxue clutched the covers, looking straight at him as she spoke in a voice as faint as a thread.

"...I'm ill."

There was a slight tremor in her murmur.

Chen Yi froze for a moment.

Her "I'm ill" was not a reminder that she was sick, but a reason, a shield to protect a woman she had never met. Perhaps it came from a trace of kindness, or perhaps from sympathy between women sharing the same plight, or perhaps both.

Chen Yi understood that if he insisted, Yin Tingxue could not stop him.

But even so...

Forget it.

Chen Yi sighed softly and felt Yin Tingxue's forehead, then swept a cold glance over Min Ming and unexpectedly kissed her on the lips.

A light touch, then a swift separation, like a dragonfly skimming water. Rather than a rebuke, it seemed more like teasing born of a faint stirring of the heartstrings.

Min Ming's ears remained red. Dazed, she looked at Chen Yi in disbelief.

After everything she had done, she could not understand how the punishment she received could be so light.

"Go back and rest properly. Don't make Min Ning worry."

Chen Yi spoke gently, then could not help adding:

"This... I won't take it to heart."

The next morning arrived with the second crowing of the rooster.

The events of last night vanished like the wind.

Looking at the Cangshan Fist, Chen Yi drew a deep breath.

After repeated consideration, Chen Yi still decided to invest true qi in it.

With some unarmed fighting skills, he could face an enemy even without a weapon in hand.

And even when armed, an unarmed fighting art could still help. After all, a long saber was difficult to wield at extremely close quarters.

[Upon first encountering the "Cangshan Fist," you knew it was an extremely profound martial art, so you mustered all your spirit and vowed to train it to great accomplishment.]

[After studying for about two years, you failed.]

Chen Yi froze briefly.

Failure... This was the first time such a thing had happened.

This Fist Manual was truly no simple thing.

[You spent five years repeatedly practicing moving stances and punches, trying to make the fist principles in the manual permeate your body. You racked your brains, yet achieved very little.]

[After ten years of arduous cultivation, you knew the Cangshan Fist backward and forward. Perhaps Heaven rewarded diligence: you gained a slight understanding of some of its subtleties. While trying to practice moving stances and punches, you inadvertently grasped a trace of its fist principles.]

[In the twentieth year, you stopped practicing moving stances and punches and instead tried to grasp your insights. This contemplation continued for decades as though they were a single day.]

[After forty-nine years, you finally grasped the essence of its fist principles. You tried throwing a punch, and faint tremors could vaguely be heard all around.]

[Cangshan Fist (beginner)]

Although he had expected it, Chen Yi's jaw still nearly dropped.

Forty-nine years of true qi would have brought other arts, such as the Jiao-Slaying Saber Technique and the Eagle-Fall Art, to consummate perfection, and they would already have been combined into a new martial art. Yet the Cangshan Fist was still only at the beginner stage.

But surprise aside, what followed still gave Chen Yi a measure of consolation.

Chen Yi raised both arms, moving through stances and holding them, and a vast fist intent surged forth.

The fist intent washed through his entire body, as though cleansing his sinews and marrow.

Chen Yi's mind was filled with fist principles, and his breathing grew longer and calmer.

Gradually, the texture of the skin on his hands seemed to grow finer, while his qi and blood gathered into a seamless whole.

Lowering his fighting stance, Chen Yi took a deep breath and smiled.

"Not bad."

"This punch holds forty-nine years of training."

Come to think of it, what grade of martial artist was he now?

In Beyond the Heavens, the world's martial artists were divided into nine grades. Those outside the nine grades were what people commonly called unranked.

There were further divisions within the nine grades. Those whose qi circulated throughout their bodies and connected their meridians, allowing them to defeat ten men head-on, belonged to the lower third grades. Those who infused true qi into their martial arts, rivaled armored soldiers, and pierced armor with their weapons belonged to the middle third grades.

As for the upper third grades, those at the third grade had crossed the threshold into mastery, perfected their martial arts, and possessed abundant true qi. They could be called lesser grandmasters. The second and first grades were collectively called grandmasters. At the second grade, their meridians held an inner cosmos, forming a blessed domain of their own. The first grade was the pinnacle of martial arts, with distinctions between true and false, greater and lesser; the highest were true, and the lowest were false.

By Chen Yi's estimate, he was probably within the middle third grades.

As for his precise grade, after learning the Cangshan Fist, he should have entered the sixth grade. Against a fifth-grade expert, such as Huang Liuqing of the White Willow Sect, whose reputation had recently soared, he could not face them head-on, but he could grease his soles and make a clean getaway.

As for martial artists below the fifth grade, handling them would not be a problem.

After preparing lunch for Yin Tingxue, Chen Yi pushed open the door and headed not toward the Western Depot, but toward the Eastern Depot.

Although he still wore a Western Depot thousand household's waist token, how could he simply show up without first saying hello?

It would be best to pay a visit first and let them get familiar with his face.

The Eastern Depot was neither near nor far from the Western Depot. Before long, Chen Yi arrived at its headquarters.

As soon as the guard on duty outside saw Chen Yi, he greeted him eagerly.

"Morning, Thousand Household Chen."

After returning the greeting, Chen Yi said:

"I came to say hello to the brothers in the Eastern Depot and let everyone get familiar with me."

The guard turned and called loudly:

"Thousand Household Chen is here!"

The drill ground at the Eastern Depot headquarters seemed to grow somewhat quieter at once.

Chen Yi stepped over the threshold and slowly entered.

Several Eastern Depot agents saw Chen Yi and cupped their fists in greeting.

Chen Yi's performance in the Eastern Depot's main hall that day had earned him the goodwill of quite a few agents. He thought that, apart from members of the Ding'an faction, probably no one would think of tripping him up.

Before an enormous wooden post, Wang Gu, a thousand household of the Eastern Depot who had been striking it, suddenly stopped and gave Chen Yi a look that flickered between light and shadow.

And when Chen Yi noticed his gaze and turned to look,

Wang Gu plastered on a smile and came forward to greet him.

"Thousand Household, this way, please. Allow me to show you around the Eastern Depot."

Chen Yi glanced sideways, reflecting inwardly,

Such attentiveness without a reason.