In the inner room.
Dou Xiaowen puffed on his pipe, the lamplight falling on his chiseled face.
Listening to the dense patter of rain outside, he shook his head.
"Each autumn rain brings another chill. It's getting colder and colder... Young master, what were you asking just now?
Calamity Artifacts? What book did you read that in this time?"
Lu Sui sat opposite him, with a low, square table between them.
He lifted the warmed wine with both hands and filled Dou Xiaowen's cup.
"I can't remember the title. It was just a collection of miscellaneous tales from the countryside. I read it for fun.
Uncle Wen, who in the Lu household doesn't know you have the broadest experience? You ventured into Shaqing Pass alone, awed everyone around you, and made your name throughout the martial world..."
Dou Xiaowen knew perfectly well that the young master was flattering him, but hearing it felt wonderfully satisfying. A smile crept into the corners of his eyes.
"Young master, take my advice. The Land Beyond the Pass suffers many calamities, but as long as you aren't down on your luck and don't meddle in other people's business... you might never encounter one."
"Sometimes, the more you know, the more likely you are to draw those things to you."
But I've heard the best way to overcome fear is to face it head-on, then blast it apart!
Lu Sui grumbled inwardly, but offered an entirely different argument aloud.
"Uncle Wen, sooner or later, I'll have to take over from Father. Have you ever seen a proprietor who spends all day eating, drinking, and enjoying himself, just waiting for his share of the profits?
Father hired twelve resident advisers and put eight head shopkeepers in charge of the shops, but doesn't he still have to go out himself on holidays to meet the major clients from Yongning Prefecture?
When the year draws to a close, he has to treat all the estate overseers, work-gang bosses, hunting chiefs, fishing households, and pearl-diving households under him to a hearty feast and chat with them, so they can settle the coming year's yield."
"Can you guarantee I'll never run into 'those things' in my entire life? We should take precautions before trouble strikes, Uncle Wen!"
Dou Xiaowen sipped the piping-hot wine. It went down like a thread of fire, scorching his throat and spreading warmth through his organs.
He let the burning sensation subside, then shook his head.
"Young master, you have a silver tongue. I can't outargue you."
Quick to read the situation, Lu Sui hurriedly opened an oiled-paper parcel and pushed it beside Dou Xiaowen's hand.
Inside were snacks to go with the wine: salt-roasted peanuts, thinly sliced beef, tofu skin, and the like.
Then he assumed the posture of an attentive listener, waiting for Dou Xiaowen to clear up his doubts.
"All right, then. I'll tell you a little about it, young master."
Dou Xiaowen pinched up two peanuts and popped them into his mouth. After chewing a few times, he took a small sip of warm wine, a look of pleasure appearing on his face.
As the saying went, a mouth fed by another could hardly speak harshly of him.
The young master had shown him plenty of respect; he could hardly fail to appreciate it. He began unhurriedly.
"The Land Beyond the Pass suffers calamity after calamity. Sometimes drought, sometimes flooding, sometimes flash floods..."
"My hometown is on Dragon's Mouth Plain. A story passed down through our ancestors tells of a great drought when no rain fell for three years.
The fields were so barren they couldn't produce a single grain of rice. Starving villagers gnawed tree bark and ate white clay. It was wretched!"
Three straight years of drought?
That weather was far too abnormal!
Lu Sui was slightly shaken.
How could farmers who depended on the heavens for their food survive three years without rain?
"My great-grandfather's generation fled the famine and worked as farmhands for wealthy households. That was how they secured something to eat. Later, they ventured through Guandong and saved some money before returning to Dragon's Mouth Plain, like fallen leaves returning to their roots."
"According to the elders, those three years of drought happened because a badger occupied the Dragon King temple where people prayed for favorable weather. It fed on the incense offerings, developed an evil nature, became a demon, and worked mischief in secret... That's what the older generation said. It's hard to tell whether it's true."
"But most calamities do indeed show traces of demons or evil entities. Either a creature becomes a powerful demon, or an evil object gains sentience and brings disaster."
As Dou Xiaowen explained, Lu Sui's thoughts turned.
There seems to be a difference between demonic calamities and evil calamities. The former involve living creatures becoming demons, while the latter seem to be dead objects gaining... consciousness?
Dou Xiaowen said calmly,
"Of course, most 'calamities' don't last very long, only ten days or a fortnight.
If you're lucky and encounter a capable insider who traces it to its source and roots it out, removing the calamity, you can treat it as a false alarm, a bad dream.
Calamity Qi gets used up, too. Unless it can keep growing stronger, it's like a light rain that eventually stops falling."
Lu Sui pondered this. Compared with the natural phenomena Uncle Wen had mentioned, such as wind, rain, and snow, Calamity Qi seemed more like some kind of "virus."
More precisely, influenza!
If its source wasn't snuffed out early, it could keep infecting, spreading, and growing in scale.
"I can't explain calamities all that clearly myself. I'm only half an insider, and my attainment is still shallow.
The Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains are dangerous, but they're also where great figures gather. To learn the skills of those masters, you need 'Root and Nature.'"
Dou Xiaowen looked wistful as he continued,
"Just as martial practitioners prefer apprentices with good physiques,
the seniors within the fold only favor those with sufficient Root and Nature."
Lu Sui couldn't help growing curious. A few pinches could tell someone whether a physique was good or bad.
But how does one judge the quality of Root and Nature?
Dou Xiaowen sighed and steered the conversation back.
"The 'Calamity Artifacts' you mentioned, young master, are a feature of 'evil calamities.'
The source of a demonic calamity needs little explanation: a powerful great demon. They speak in human tongues and drink in the moon's radiance. They're formidable indeed.
But dealing with them is straightforward. Find the demon chief and kill it."
"Evil calamities are trickier. You have to find the 'object' emitting Calamity Qi, then either destroy or suppress it. There's a whole set of rules for that."
The more Lu Sui listened, the more he felt that the Qiao household massacre thirty years earlier might well have happened because either Di Ao or Qiao Nansheng had obtained some Calamity Artifact.
Zhou Qing possesses a 'Calamity Artifact,' and he's showing faint signs of becoming corrupted... Did he approach Deng Yun to spread Calamity Qi?
A chill rose in Lu Sui's heart. If things were allowed to continue, the consequences could be very serious!
He looked at Dou Xiaowen and asked,
"Uncle Wen, the Land Beyond the Pass suffers so many calamities, but in all my years in Changle County, I've only heard of droughts, floods, and locusts. I've never seen demons or evil entities..."
Dou Xiaowen tipped his head back and drained the strong wine in his cup, then smiled.
"The prefectural cities and major counties beyond the pass usually procure a 'warding object,' so demons and evil entities find it hard to approach.
The Five Great Trades of Changle County spent a hundred thousand taels of gleaming silver to procure a 'Shi Gandang' from the Nine Ridges and Ten Mountains. They take turns enshrining it.
Have you forgotten, young master? You even touched it when you were seven or eight. It was that lion-headed stone carving."
Lu Sui frowned and searched his memory. Sure enough, a few fragmented images surfaced.
A majestic, solemn lion's head with glaring eyes, fangs bared, and an upturned mouth!
"Shi Gandang? Which family is enshrining it now?"
Lu Sui asked.
"The brokerage trade. The Zhou Family."
Dou Xiaowen replied.
The rear courtyard of the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School.
It was the third day since Lu Sui had hung his door curtain.
He saw Tan Jingzong again.
According to Liang Bao, Master Tan wouldn't teach a new disciple any real skills hands-on. Instead, he would first give them a martial arts manual to study on their own.
This served as a "test" to judge their comprehension and aptitude.
Tan Chuanjie had failed that test, which was why he hadn't been able to learn the Seven-Transformation Shadowless Legs that Tan Jingzong regarded as his life's work.
Liang Bao himself had studied alone for a full fortnight before getting to see Tan Jingzong a second time.
"Zhan'ao, I never imagined you had such gifts."
Delighted surprise flashed through Tan Jingzong's eyes. The Hundred Victories Martial Arts School ranked among Changle County's four great schools, and few of his disciples came from poor families.
After all, how could those at the bottom, who could barely keep themselves fed and clothed, achieve anything in martial arts?
But young masters and young ladies from wealthy families often lacked perseverance and resolve, finding it hard to endure the dull, monotonous hardships of martial training.
Most learned a few flashy routines before slacking off and going out to amuse themselves.
Thus, among the four types of martial methods, there was a special category of "performance" methods, used for appearing onstage and serving wealthy, powerful families.
"I have Junior Brother Liang and Junior Brother Deng to thank for sparring with me and helping me improve."
Lu Sui put on a show of offering gracious words.
"Remarkable. Truly remarkable."
A little more appreciation entered Tan Jingzong's voice.
"To grasp the key principles of the Cicada-Chasing Steps so quickly-Zhan'ao, your talent is exceptional! I've found an uncut jade for the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School!"
In Tan Jingzong's eyes, very few of the inner-courtyard disciples had the potential to amount to anything.
Only his eldest disciple, Zheng Rong, was worth cultivating.
His own son, Tan Chuanjie, had mediocre talent, distinguished only by his diligence. He had some hope of reaching Force Tempering.
As for Liang Bao, Deng Yun, Wei Erhe, and the others, unless they put in grueling effort or encountered an opportunity, complete mastery of Strengthening Qi and Blood was the most they could hope for.
The martial trade was that cruel.
Without outstanding talent, a superior physique, and first-rate martial arts, rising above the crowd was extremely difficult.
It was like thousands of soldiers and horses trying to cross a single log bridge!
Tan Jingzong continued,
"Chuanjie told me about your sparring with Liang Bao and Deng Yun that day. You were born for martial arts! Many people know only how to practice, not how to fight. Once they enter the ring, their true colors show."
It seemed the martial trade had no shortage of those classic cases who were godlike in sparring but went weak in the knees at major competitions.
Lu Sui wholeheartedly agreed. Mental fortitude and the ability to react on the spot truly mattered.
In many bouts, victory and defeat were decided in a single instant.
"You're a promising talent who instinctively knows how to fight."
Tan Jingzong pondered, seemingly hesitant, but finally asked,
"Generally speaking, those with an aptitude for fighting methods also pick up killing methods easily.
Zhan'ao, why don't you go back and ask Master Lu whether he's willing to let you learn killing methods from me?"
Killing methods?
Lu Sui's eyes lit up. He could hardly keep himself from rubbing his hands together and nodding furiously.
Nurturing methods trained muscle and flesh, fighting methods focused on Strengthening Qi and Blood, and performance methods fooled outsiders.
Killing methods, however, were often the core of a lineage's inheritance and were never taught lightly.
Lu Sui reckoned that, in the entire Hundred Victories Martial Arts School, only Zheng Rong and Tan Chuanjie had received instruction in them.
"Master Tan, of course I'm willing to learn..."
Lu Sui opened his mouth to agree, but Tan Jingzong raised a hand to stop him.
"Zhan'ao, the foundation of killing methods lies in wearing down the body's vital Qi to forge deadly techniques for taking lives.
You're the Lu Family's young master. Never mind killing a person-you probably haven't even slaughtered a chicken.
Besides, killing someone is different from slaughtering a chicken. You need bold enough, strong enough courage before you can let your hands go."
"So before you learn killing moves, you must first train your courage! That's where the old martial saying comes from: 'First courage, second strength, third skill!'
For a martial artist learning skills to take lives, courage comes first!"