Word came from the South City Prefectural Office that he could return to duty. Perhaps they thought the fuss had blown over and nothing more was stirring?
It was still the same routine Yamen Constable work, except Hou Niao became more low-key and pragmatic. He knew some of his ideas were beyond his present abilities. Following his whims would only bring trouble upon himself and make things unpleasant for others.
People had limits to their tolerance-Commandant Li, for instance, and perhaps all the other cultivators, great and small, in Jincheng. He must never assume he was in the clear. Others were merely waiting quietly on the sidelines for him to expose a weakness.
In the cultivation world, what mattered was who could travel farther down the long river of time, not who kept trying to shine whether there was occasion for it or not.
Bored out of his mind in the Roll-Call Office, he took out the escape-art manuals he had bought in Liuyang, and the six Yamen Constables began studying them closely.
Cultivation methods and techniques were nothing rare in a mature cultivation world. There was no such thing as becoming invincible beneath heaven and outclassing every rival merely by practicing one. Such methods and techniques were openly available, and there were always opportunities to obtain them. The difference was that even after mastering the same technique, the results varied from person to person.
With the same flame technique, for example, one person could produce flames the size of a millstone, while another could only manage something the size of a fist. With the same sword technique, Hou Niao unleashed incomparable ferocity, while Wang Mian's performance was barely satisfactory.
Escape arts were no different. There was no need for secrecy. If they could be bought at a market, what