Snow sealed the mountain, killing intent had arrived

The lamplight glowed, illuminating Lian Youming's face as it shifted constantly with shock and alarm.

What he saw completely overturned everything he knew.

He saw the clear water in the vat actually begin to rotate. More than that, as though anchored to the old man's right hand, the water rose higher and higher, until almost all of it had left the vat, suspended in midair yet still swirling.

"Remember the movement of my muscles and sinews. Whether you learn it or practice it, keep it firmly in your heart. This is one of the true teachings of our Taiji Gate. Even if you can't comprehend it now, one day you will."

As the Mountain-Guarding Old Man spoke and breathed, Lian Youming watched those quivering muscles alternately tighten and contract. When they tightened, each strand expanded outward; when they contracted, they rippled like waves.

Was this even a human body?

It could actually go this far.

And all these extraordinary changes revolved around the old man's spine.

"The spine is a great dragon lying dormant within the human body. It is also the bridge between heaven and earth, connecting the head to the body and bearing a martial artist's aspiration to stand tall between heaven and earth. It is not only the body's central pillar, but also the pillar of the spirit. It is because of this great dragon that humans can walk upright and breathe freely."

The Mountain-Guarding Old Man explained patiently, swaying his waist. At once, the segments of his spine emerged beneath his taut skin and flesh. The vertebrae, originally fitted tightly together, actually loosened and tightened with his long breaths, as though they had come alive.

It was incredible.

Lian Youming had long imagined how formidable martial arts might be, but he had never imagined anything so extraordinary.

"Looking alone won't do. Put your hand on me and feel."

"Huh?" Lian Youming let out a startled cry. "Isn't that a little inappropriate?"

The Mountain-Guarding Old Man had little patience and immediately cursed, "You ungrateful little bastard. On the martial path, especially with internal martial arts, the true essence often can't be described in writing. Aside from spoken instruction, you have to put your hands on it yourself and feel the changes inside. You really think you can learn it just from watching me demonstrate once? If that were true, the Japanese wouldn't have stood a chance back then. I'd have fucking fought my way to Tokyo already."

Lian Youming pursed his lips, bewilderment stirring within him. Did this old man want to help him or kill him? His attitude changed every day, smiling one moment and cursing the next. He was harder to please than an old wife.

He said nothing more, simply reaching out his right hand cautiously.

Before he had even fully lowered it, the Mountain-Guarding Old Man's sinister voice sounded again. "Press down properly, damn you."

Lian Youming hurriedly pressed down with all five fingers.

But once he truly pressed down, his expression changed again.

"Hmm?"

Lian Youming felt as though surging waves were flowing through this seemingly lean body. His right hand was pushed along like a floating boat, carried toward the right shoulder.

The force was heading precisely toward the right hand.

So this was how the muscles and sinews moved and changed?

Astonished, Lian Youming became absorbed in watching. He simply stopped letting his thoughts wander and closed his eyes, carefully feeling that extraordinary force.

He discovered that every breath the man took tugged at his spine. As the spine trembled, the muscles on either side immediately seemed to come alive, moving from within outward and extending all the way into his arms and legs.

And whenever the Mountain-Guarding Old Man stirred the clear water in the vat, those muscles swimming like fish instantly tightened, like a tortoise and snake coiling together. They were tightening to release force, and the spine likewise locked tightly together, like a steel whip, or as though it had truly become a great dragon.

So that was it.

The many doubts in Lian Youming's mind cleared in an instant, as though the fog before his eyes had been swept away, the clouds parting to reveal the blue sky.

Was this the secret of internal martial arts?

He was almost completely immersed in it, immersed in these unimaginably subtle patterns of movement.

More than two full hours passed. Not only had Lian Youming felt every segment of the spine thoroughly, but his understanding of how those muscles channeled force and how they contracted and relaxed also deepened through feeling them over and over.

Meanwhile, the Mountain-Guarding Old Man's body grew hotter and hotter, as though a fierce fire were burning within him.

At last, Lian Youming withdrew his right hand.

The old man suddenly exhaled. His lips parted, and a stream of white breath shot straight out like an arrow loosed from a bow, traveling five or six meters before splashing against the constantly billowing window paper.

Lian Youming neither spoke nor opened his eyes. Instead, he sat down where he stood, his mind filled with those endlessly changing muscular movements, as though they concealed some mystery of heaven and earth that kept him from returning to his senses for a long time.

Nearly another hour passed before he slowly opened his eyes.

The Mountain-Guarding Old Man sat cross-legged and motionless on a rush cushion, wrapped in his padded jacket, so black that even its stitching was invisible.

Lian Youming stared dumbfounded. Remembering scenes from martial arts stories, he suddenly extended his index finger and slowly held it beneath the old man's nostrils.

"Good, still breathing."

The Mountain-Guarding Old Man lifted his eyelids and stared straight at him, saying succinctly, "Scram!"

Lian Youming gave an awkward smile. Without wasting any words, he turned, pushed the door open, and left.

By the time he returned to the dormitory, everyone else was asleep.

Lian Youming stuffed some firewood into the kang's firebox and lit it before burrowing into bedding as cold as an ice cave.

Feeling the warmth gradually rising beneath him, he found that the more he thought about it, the less it made sense.

Had he guessed wrong before?

At first, he had thought the other man wanted to use him. But now he had suddenly gone to great lengths to teach him such an extraordinary skill. What exactly was he after?

Had his conscience awakened?

Or was he missing a few screws?

Why was this man so conflicted?

Wrapped in his bedding, Lian Youming listened to Yu Wen and Yu Wu grinding their teeth and Wu Kui snoring, then closed his eyes and sank into sleep, still bewildered.

Over the next few days, he continued hunting in the mountains each morning as usual and chopping firewood at the logging camp at noon.

By now, almost all the timber at the logging camp had been moved. Aside from stockpiling food for winter, all that remained was storing firewood for everyday heating, cooking, and boiling water.

The female educated youths also had time on their hands now and enthusiastically prepared the performances they were rehearsing.

Taking advantage of owning an accordion, Wu Kui went over to the girls every day, making Yu Wen and Yu Wu green-eyed with envy.

But unlike everyone else's laughter and cheer, the sense of danger in Lian Youming's heart grew heavier and heavier.

Logically, this matter hardly had anything to do with him. If he pretended to know nothing, could he stay out of it?

No.

Lian Youming immediately banished the thought.

Although he knew nothing about the grudges between Third Brother Xie and the Mountain-Guarding Old Man, much less what extraordinary thing was buried here, he could still distinguish good from bad.

At least the man on the mountain would not slaughter innocents indiscriminately. Not only that, he had saved both him and Liu Dabiao.

The one down the mountain, however, was another matter.

"If I die, I die. I can't face trouble completely unprepared."

With his mind made up, Lian Youming went into the mountains even more often. Despite the weather growing colder and harsher, he instead ran all over the mountains and fields, hissing and huffing from the cold every day. Eventually, even Third Brother Xie could no longer be bothered to follow him.

This continued until late November.

An indescribable white blizzard swept into Tahe River County, the wind carrying flecks of frost, cold as blades as it whirled and howled.

Where the wind and frost passed, the sky and earth darkened, and dripping water froze to ice. Even the Tahe below the mountain froze over.

All the educated youths at the logging camp hid in their dormitories. Even Platoon Leader Yang and his men were no exception.

Yet even so, Lian Youming braved the cold wind and circled the logging camp several times before returning to the dormitory.

"Holy fuck, it's way too cold out there. I took a piss in the latrine, and it froze before it even hit the ground."

His nose running, Yu Wen slipped into the dormitory as though fleeing for his life, then burrowed beneath his bedding. He was still shivering a long while later.

The kang beds were packed with educated youths, all gathered around Liu Dabiao. The young man from Tianjin really did have a gift for talking. After performing clapper tales during the day, he had started telling Water Margin. He had just finished the part where Wu Song killed Ximen Qing in a rage and was now drinking brown-sugar water contributed by his listeners.

Seeing Lian Youming return covered in frost, someone immediately exclaimed in amazement, "If there's anyone in this whole logging camp I truly admire, it's our captain. It's more than thirty below outside, and our captain still goes hunting in the mountains to get us some meat... good grief, if it weren't so cramped in here, I'd definitely kowtow to him."

They were all young at heart, and with time on their hands, their lively natures had come out.

As for the title of captain, someone had started calling Lian Youming that after he saved Liu Dabiao.

As time passed, nobody called him by his name anymore. They all called him captain.

Lian Youming took off his military overcoat and, playing along, pulled half a bag of pine nuts from inside his clothes and tossed it to them. "Your reward."

Liu Dabiao immediately showed off, drawing out his words as he shouted, "Thank you for your generosity, sir!"

The others grinned from ear to ear and followed his lead, filling the room with a tremendous racket.

Lian Youming laughed along, listening as Liu Dabiao continued his storytelling while he sat at the edge of the bed and cleaned the rifle in his hands.

Something was unusual today.

He had not seen Third Brother Xie on the mountain.

Looking again at the frost swirling across the sky outside the window, it seemed they were preparing to act.

At that thought, Lian Youming instead breathed a sigh of relief.

Sometimes, constant vigilance wore more heavily on the mind than facing danger head-on.

Had he gone down the mountain?

Now, Lian Youming was no longer nervous. He simply waited quietly for nightfall.

Looking again at these educated youths, who had noticed nothing at all, he could not help reflecting.

Had he not accidentally glimpsed that world ordinary people could scarcely reach, perhaps he too would still be utterly unaware, just another one of them.

Many things were plainly right before people's eyes, yet because everyone's understanding differed, they saw them as commonplace and perceived nothing.

Lian Youming suddenly remembered something Third Brother Xie had said.

Everyone said there were no true Buddhas in this world, but even if a true Buddha stood before them, how could mortal eyes of flesh see him?

They could not see because they could not distinguish.

Who could have imagined that in a place like this, a middle-aged mountain hunter and an unremarkable old man would be supreme masters of the martial world, unrivaled fighters?

Who could have known that right beneath their noses, murderous intent was quietly brewing, and grudges of the martial world awaited settlement?

Outside the window, the white blizzard howled until noon. The already dim sky vanished completely, and snowflakes as large as goose feathers fell from above, mingling with clumps of frost in the whirling gale as they swept across the entire logging camp.

Within a few breaths, heaven and earth had turned entirely silver-white.

In just an hour or two, a row of icicles formed beneath the previously bare eaves, growing longer and longer.

Outside the window, the snow piled up visibly, from inches to feet.

In the end, aside from places like the dormitories, the deepest snow was almost waist-high.

Lian Youming drew a deep breath at the sight.

No wonder the Mountain-Guarding Old Man had forbidden him from telling Platoon Leader Yang.

In conditions like these, even walking through it was extremely difficult. How could they launch an attack?

Even with guns, how many bullets could they fire?

Never mind whether they could hit anything. Once they worked up a hot sweat and the cold wind struck them, it would immediately turn to frost, sure to leave them half-frozen to death.

Lian Youming understood now.

This was a battlefield those extraordinary individuals had chosen themselves, precisely to guard against ordinary people like them.

This time, nobody went to the dining hall. Platoon Leader Yang had already had people make plenty of cornmeal flatbreads and portion out cooked meat. When they were hungry, they could warm the food against the heated kang and eat it. Even the water buckets were filled with cooled boiled water.

Could they be waiting until dark to act? Everyone would be asleep then, and they could do it without a soul knowing.

Looking at the vast whiteness outside, Lian Youming reckoned the timing in his mind and took two bites of the flatbread in his hand.

The flatbread was warm on the outside, but its center was cold and hard as stone.

The others ladled water into porcelain bowls, then chopped up their flatbreads and meat and soaked everything in it.

Lian Youming found that too troublesome, however, and it could easily give him diarrhea. He ate only a few cornmeal flatbreads.

But as he sat there, a sudden, inexplicable drowsiness made his eyes widen.

Looking at the others on the kang, he saw that every one of them was now sound asleep, completely still.

His mind swimming, Lian Youming struggled to stand, only to discover that his limbs were weak and limp. He could not muster the slightest strength.

Had he been drugged?

He suddenly remembered something: a Neijia master was also hidden among the educated youths. Could that person be hiding among the girls who cooked?

I'm done for.

That was the only thought his mind had time to form before Lian Youming collapsed onto the kang.

He had no idea how much time passed.

In his daze, Lian Youming suddenly smelled a pungent stench. It was so foul that words truly could not describe it, shooting straight to the crown of his head.

Opening his eyes, Lian Youming saw a figure swiftly slip out of the dormitory.

It seemed to be that Shuang'er.

So she knew martial arts too.

With some difficulty, Lian Youming propped himself up and shook his muddled head. Only after his awareness had recovered somewhat did he get up and walk outside.

Amid the white expanse of heaven and earth, that strange howling wind was gone. Heavy snow swirled in the wind, vast and boundless.

Feeling the bone-piercing cold strike his face, Lian Youming came fully awake, then shuddered.

Cold. Cold that crept into every opening.

But just as Lian Youming steadied his breathing and moved his limbs, his pupils suddenly contracted, as though he had seen something extraordinary.

Against that dazzling white snow, several figures approached from the distance. Some sprinted, others kicked off branches and stepped on trees, leaping and tumbling through the forest and moving over the snow as though it were level ground, their advance ferocious.

At first, they were still tiny, but they closed the distance at a terrifying speed.

An invisible, towering tide of murderous intent seemed to arrive on the wind, slamming into Lian Youming's chest and making his breathing falter, draining every trace of color from his face.

So Third Brother Xie really did have helpers-and not just one or two, but four.

Without thinking, he hurriedly dropped flat, then retreated into the dormitory inch by inch.

Good grief. Things really are getting exciting now.

Lian Youming's expression shifted uncertainly for a moment. Then he nimbly climbed onto the bed, closed his eyes, and simply pretended to sleep.

As he waited with his heart pounding in alarm, before long, a different sound came through the wind swirling outside the window.

They were here.

"Heh heh, after all these years, I've finally set foot on this mountain for real... Old Yang, today we'll settle all our grudges, old and new."

It was Third Brother Xie's voice.

But what frightened Lian Youming was that Third Brother Xie said something else.

"Go and see whether anyone still has their eyes open. If they do, kill them."

Almost immediately afterward, Lian Youming felt a gust of cold wind squeeze into the dormitory. With it came an icy gaze that cut across his face as though gouging out flesh.

That familiar killing intent.

Third Brother Xie.

I took readers' suggestions and adjusted the plot a little. A lot of places really were somewhat rushed, so I made some revisions. Not many, starting from Chapter 5. You can go back and take a look. The plot is actually much the same; the changes are mainly to details and characterization.

(End of chapter)