Early the next morning, Chen Xiuyuan was carrying his bowl of medicine toward the meat shed when Elder Shi called him back just as he crossed the threshold.
"Forgot what I said yesterday after one night's sleep?"
"I'm going to tell them I can't do heavy work for the next few days."
Only then did Elder Shi step aside, but he pointed at the medicine bowl and told him to finish it first.
The meat shed was as busy as ever. When Chen Xiuyuan arrived, Shi Yuan was dividing a whole side of beast meat with two others. Seeing him approach, he first kicked a low stool beside him onto a dry patch.
"Sit. Auntie Sang told us all about what happened to you yesterday."
Chen Xiuyuan listed the work he could do over the next few days: cutting meat into small pieces, sorting medicinal herbs, and identifying portions could all be done sitting down. After listening, Shi Yuan did not immediately agree to give him more rations. Instead, he fetched the wooden work tally and pointed to the saber-shaped marks beside his name.
"There's still a little you haven't collected from the last few days. Enough to eat for now. We'll add more according to how much work you do later."
"Can I exchange it for medicinal food?"
"If the shed has it. If it doesn't, asking me won't help."
Shi Yuan separated the meat he could collect from the portions recorded separately, so he would not take everything at once. Chen Xiuyuan did the sums. If he focused only on saber practice, his little stockpile would not last long. He agreed with Shi Yuan that he would keep coming to work once his injured leg recovered, reserving only the early mornings and the time after work.
Back in the house, he told Elder Shi about the arrangements. Only after hearing that he had not taken on any meat-carrying work did the old man hand him yesterday's saber and have him sit down to repair its edge.
The nicks in the edge were shallow; there was no need to grind away a large section. Following the old man's instructions, Chen Xiuyuan slowly smoothed them out, tested for blunt spots, then wiped the blade dry and returned it with both hands.
Elder Shi took the saber, pressed his thumb against its old sheath, and hung it back on the wall.
Chen Xiuyuan's waist suddenly felt empty.
That saber had followed him here from the hunting shed. When he borrowed it, he had thought only of staying alive; now that he had actually returned it, he felt a little unaccustomed to its absence. He glanced at it, then looked away and asked what he needed to prepare for proper saber training.
"Get that leg steady first," Elder Shi said. "Shi Lei has gone out to check again. I'll speak to him when he comes back."
Chen Xiuyuan sat down to practice his breathing.
There was no shortage of things he could do while resting. During the day, he sat and portioned meat; after returning, he helped Elder Shi sort the medicinal roots he already recognized. In the early mornings and evenings, he went back over the parts of the Savage Elephant Art that did not strain his injured leg. The faint warmth in his chest and abdomen could now linger a little longer, and his first-meridian accumulation had risen from three to five.
He looked only once before dismissing the panel and returning his attention to his breathing.
On the fourth day after his return, Elder Shi examined his leg and had him walk back and forth across the courtyard twice before finally nodding.
"You can practice slow moves. Stop if it hurts. Don't hide it."
Shi Lei brought a whittled wooden saber when he came.
The arrow graze on the back of his hand had already scabbed over, though he still habitually turned that side away when he sat down to drink water. Chen Xiuyuan asked about Broken Stream. Shi Lei said someone had indeed tampered with the bridgehead, and they had recovered the old basket, but the rain had ruined the footprints, and they had found no further trace of that group nearby.
"We've sent the arrow to ask the arrow makers about it. I'll tell you when there's an answer."
With that, he handed over the wooden saber and picked up a short wooden stick himself.
"Elder Shi said you wanted to learn. First, let me see what you know."
Chen Xiuyuan gripped the wooden saber and steadied his feet in the stance he had previously used to practice the Savage Elephant Art. Remembering how Shi Duo had guarded against people at the gully entrance, he held the saber across his front, protecting his chest and abdomen as best he could.
Shi Lei used no force, merely extending the stick toward the back of his hand.
Chen Xiuyuan immediately raised his saber to block. Before the stick touched the blade, however, it turned and lightly tapped the crook of his elbow from below.
"Again."
This time, Chen Xiuyuan watched the stick without moving first, waiting until it came close before deflecting it sideways. The stick shifted half an inch and landed on his shoulder.
The third time, he tried to take the initiative and pin down the stick, chopping hard and fast with his wooden saber. Shi Lei sidestepped and drew it aside with a turn of his hand. Unable to pull his saber back, Chen Xiuyuan followed it a step forward.
He felt a tightness beneath him and stopped at once.
Shi Lei withdrew the stick without pursuing him.
"Know where you fall short?"
"I can cover this stretch in front of me, but not what comes after."
"What else?"
Chen Xiuyuan looked at his outstretched hand. Had that slash actually landed, it might have severed a branch. But once his opponent moved aside, he did not even have time to withdraw his saber and protect himself.
"I thought cutting fast was enough."
Shi Lei took the wooden saber and assumed the same stance, then lowered the edge a little and tucked his elbow closer in.
"When you cut meat, the meat won't circle behind you. When you stretch your hand out, it won't go looking for your elbow either."
He had Chen Xiuyuan strike at him with the stick. Chen Xiuyuan aimed at the same places where he had just been hit, only to have the wooden saber deflect it. Before he had decided where the next strike should go, the wooden edge had already stopped just outside his wrist.
Shi Lei did not try to knock the stick from his hand. He merely diverted the incoming strike, allowing his own saber to return immediately afterward.
"This is what you need to learn. It has to come back after going out. Only when you block here can you follow through there."
Elder Shi sat down by the wall, his wooden staff across his knees.
"Teach him the whole thing. Explain clearly which parts he can't do yet, too. Don't let him mistake one move for the entire saber technique."
Shi Lei straightened the wooden saber in his palm and walked to the center of the courtyard.
"The Bloodstone Saber Technique. Most of the tribe's saber practitioners start with it. So did I."
He demonstrated the entire sequence first.
The saber's paths were not showy. As he advanced, his steps skimmed the ground; after a diagonal slash, the blade withdrew with the motion. When meeting an attack from the side, his waist and hips turned first, followed by his feet changing position. One retreating sequence looked like evasion, yet the edge remained wherever an opponent could advance.
Chen Xiuyuan watched intently. He could just about remember the first half, but toward the end, the earlier sequence began to blur. He wanted to ask, but Shi Lei had already stopped and returned to his starting position.
"It's normal not to remember after seeing it once. First understand what the whole technique covers, then start practicing from the opening."
Shi Lei broke down the opening stance, advances and retreats, blocks, and blade withdrawals one by one. Wherever a movement required channeling strength through Qi and blood, he explained it in slow motion first rather than letting Chen Xiuyuan try to learn speed through brute force. He also positioned his hands and feet together in several places where they were most likely to clash, letting Chen Xiuyuan try for himself. Why one step came first and one slash needed to draw back slightly became immediately apparent.
When they reached a turning sequence, Elder Shi touched the tip of his staff to the ground and told Shi Lei to slow down further.
"This is his injured leg. Don't use it as the pivot for sharp turns yet."
Chen Xiuyuan practiced only his upper-body movements and advances and retreats within a single step, committing the parts he could not yet connect to memory. After his first attempt at following the complete sequence, he returned to the opening position, and a new line finally appeared before his eyes.
[Bloodstone Saber Technique: Awaiting Initiation, 0%]
The Savage Elephant Great Strength Art remained above it, and his Initiation attainment was still there. The two arts stood side by side, neither taking any progress away from the other.
Chen Xiuyuan did not stare. He steadied his grip on the wooden saber and first performed the block Shi Lei had just taught him.
He raised the saber too high, and Shi Lei pressed it down with the stick and had him start again. On his second attempt, he held it too low, making it awkward to draw his elbow back. Chen Xiuyuan tried again until the wooden edge deflected the incoming strike to his side while he remained standing in place. Only then did he find that effort-saving angle.
"That's right," Shi Lei said. "Don't rush into a second strike. First remember exactly how that connected."
Chen Xiuyuan slowly reset the movement and performed it again. This time, the stick was deflected less, but his blade withdrew faster, without exposing half his arm as before.
[Bloodstone Saber Technique: Awaiting Initiation, 6%]
As he settled back into his stance, the corners of his mouth involuntarily relaxed.
That progress had started from zero, yet it felt more solid than being given a string of numbers out of thin air. With the wooden saber in hand, he could feel which step he had done wrong and which he had already mastered.
Seeing him try to link his moves again, Shi Lei sent the stick forward a little faster. Chen Xiuyuan grew hurried. His block was still correct, but he rushed the withdrawal, and the hilt caught beside his elbow.
The stick stopped at his waist.
"See? Your hands have learned it, but you still can't use it steadily against someone."
Chen Xiuyuan stepped back and practiced connecting the block to the withdrawal. Shi Lei fed him strikes over and over, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, occasionally stopping halfway to force him to see clearly before moving.
Near noon, Shi Lei called a halt. Chen Xiuyuan was just beginning to feel he had found a thread and was reluctant to put the saber down, so Shi Lei reached out, pinched the back of the wooden blade, and told him to try pulling it back.
The moment he exerted his wrist, it actually trembled slightly.
"Keep practicing, and all you'll remember is how to force your way through."
Chen Xiuyuan released the wooden saber and laughed himself.
Over the meal, Elder Shi asked how much he remembered from the morning. Chen Xiuyuan named several points and wanted to demonstrate the saber sequence he had learned, only for the old man to tap the rim of his bowl with his chopsticks.
"Finish eating before you demonstrate."
He obediently finished his meal, took a midday nap, then went to the meat shed and spent another half day working seated. Once his wrist no longer ached, Shi Lei returned too and tossed him the wooden saber again.
Chen Xiuyuan caught it and stood on the same patch of open ground as that morning.
That first block had not grown unfamiliar. As the stick pressed toward him, he deflected it at the familiar angle and followed through with the withdrawal. Even Shi Lei gave him another look before attacking from a different direction.
This time, it did not go so smoothly.
Chen Xiuyuan simply slowed down, first practicing the side he was still unsure of before connecting it to the parts he already knew. The little skill he had acquired before noon remained with him. He did not have to rediscover how to grip and withdraw the saber from the very beginning each time.
As the sky darkened, the Bloodstone Saber Technique's Awaiting Initiation progress reached twenty-three.
He did not take twenty-three for any remarkable attainment. He could manage a few exchanges only because Shi Lei was willing to feed him strikes slowly. Against those two real sabers by the gully again, he would still be thrown into confusion in an instant.
But at least, when the stick came at him from the front again, he now knew where to look first.
Shi Lei put away the short stick, but Chen Xiuyuan pointed to the two rows of footprints beside his feet and asked whether he could try once more.
"Not fast this time. Come at me from here."
Shi Lei understood his gesture and attacked accordingly. As Chen Xiuyuan raised his saber, his foot had already shifted toward his habitual side. His body turned sideways, taking a little weight off his injured leg.
The stick landed lightly on the other side he had left open.
Shi Lei did not withdraw it. Instead, he pointed it toward the ground. "You noticed it yourself?"
In the yellow earth, the footprints on one side were deep and disorderly, while the other side held only a few shallow impressions of the balls of his feet.
Chen Xiuyuan nodded.
He was always afraid his injured leg would hurt again. Before his saber even met the attack, his body was already dodging toward his good leg. The stick needed only a slight change of direction to force him to keep retreating, leaving him unable to fully use even the withdrawal he had learned.
"Then we'll start correcting that tomorrow," Shi Lei said.
Holding the wooden saber, Chen Xiuyuan tried to plant both feet flat again.