By the time Chen Xiuyuan reached the meat shed, the basin of beast blood had already been portioned out.
Shi Yuan pushed the last clay jar toward the person collecting it, then turned and heard him out. Rather than tell him to wait and try his luck, he brought over the wooden work tally.
"You want to exchange your existing share?"
"I need my existing share for meals. I wanted to ask what other work there is."
Shi Yuan looked at his leg.
"Has your injury healed?"
"Elder Shi said I can carry small loads slowly. Whole sides of meat are still beyond me."
People outside the shed were discussing the shortage of border patrol hands, and Chen Xiuyuan heard them too. That work offered more blood food than odd jobs at the meat shed, but he looked at the scarred bows beside the door and swallowed the question he had been about to ask.
At Broken Stream, Shi Lei had held just such a bow when he brought their group back.
Seeing that he had not gone over to join them, Shi Yuan pointed at the empty baskets piled inside the gate.
"When the hunting party returns, someone has to clear the baskets and help sort and carry the loads. We also need someone inside the gate to keep track of things-which household gets them first, where they need to be delivered. Someone has to watch over it so everyone doesn't swarm in and block the road."
"I've kept work tallies before."
"Being able to read the writing doesn't mean you can carry the loads. Try it first. Whatever you can manage will count."
Chen Xiuyuan agreed, then asked whether this work would count separately from his duties at the meat shed. Shi Yuan shook his head: his original share would remain unchanged, and the additional work would be recorded separately. Once he completed the agreed amount, a portion of the next available batch of beast blood would be set aside for him.
"The injured get their portions first, and I can't take what's already been promised to others. If you need it tonight, I can't do that."
"As long as it's agreed that I can collect it, I can wait."
Only then did Shi Yuan hand him the wooden tally and have him learn the marks for the different households first.
The work inside the gate was more fiddly than Chen Xiuyuan had expected, but it did not all depend on strength. He sorted the empty baskets by destination, putting those bound for the medicine shed farther inside, so there would be no need to ask about every basket from scratch when the hunting party returned. When someone handed him the wrong one, he showed them the wooden tally and confirmed it before moving anything.
Two people still carried the heavy baskets. He only took the smaller baskets after the loads had been divided, resting after every few trips to avoid injuring the leg he had finally managed to nurse back into shape.
Toward evening, someone outside the gate waved him over to help carry a beast carcass elsewhere.
Chen Xiuyuan was about to agree when he saw the warrior guarding the gate heading outside, leaving the narrow path beside him empty. Shi Yuan had told him that morning that he was responsible for the work inside the gate. If something came up, he was to call the patrol first, not abandon the goods and follow someone outside.
"I have to hand things over here before I can go."
The man found that too much trouble, waved him off, and called another sturdy young man. Chen Xiuyuan watched them leave, carried two baskets he had already recorded into the shed, and waited for his replacement before leaving the gate.
When work ended, Shi Yuan asked whether he was tired.
"It's harder on my leg than trimming meat."
"Then carry one less load tomorrow and spend more time keeping records. If you ruin your leg, all the work we saved earlier will have been for nothing."
Chen Xiuyuan explained the tasks he had done. Shi Yuan checked them one by one and added marks to the wooden tally, without deducting anything because he had not followed that man outside.
Several days later, when he came to collect his beast blood, a boy beside him who was also waiting to exchange his work for blood food glanced behind him.
"You didn't go out with the hunting party, did you?"
"I worked inside the gate."
The boy looked toward Shi Yuan, clearly thinking that the portion given to Chen Xiuyuan should originally have been his. Shi Yuan did not get angry. He simply laid out both their tallies and pushed over another jar that had already been set aside.
"His is counted separately. Yours is here. Nothing's missing."
The boy hefted the jar and said no more. Chen Xiuyuan secured the clay lid, confirmed that the portion inside belonged to him, and only then took it to Elder Shi.
Elder Shi first inspected the beast blood's quality, then asked where it had come from and told him not to rush to drink it all at once. Given his condition and his current medicinal meals, he needed to use it in portions and still eat his regular meals.
"This supplements what you've been lacking these past days. You still need to do your morning and evening practice."
Chen Xiuyuan nodded and placed the little jar beside the stove.
"Could other blood food make up for it?"
"Yes. The difference lies in how much and how you nourish yourself. What you've received is suitable for you now. Don't think you can only keep training if you cling to this one jar."
After checking it, Elder Shi took out the portion to be used and stored the rest separately. Watching the stove fire, Chen Xiuyuan rearranged his work and practice for the coming days, no longer trying to cram every moment full as he had last time.
After eating his nourishing meal, he rested until his body had recovered before unfolding the Savage Elephant Art again.
His accumulation toward the first Heavenly Meridians had slowly risen from forty-eight to fifty-seven.
Carrying baskets and collecting blood food during the day had not made the number jump. Only after he took his stance and mobilized his Qi and blood using the method he had learned did warmth gradually spread through his chest and abdomen, pressing toward the Heavenly Meridians that had yet to open.
This time, he did not rush to drive it forward.
Elder Shi stood beside him and told him to follow the familiar route as usual. The warmth of his Qi and blood was more plentiful than before, and even at the point where it used to disperse, it could continue for another stretch. Chen Xiuyuan waited for it to stabilize, then slowly gathered it according to the diagram. His whole body gradually warmed, from his shoulders and back to the soles of his feet.
After he stopped, his stomach did not immediately develop that frighteningly hollow feeling, and his progress toward the first meridian had advanced another stretch.
Elder Shi had him describe precisely what he had felt. Only after confirming that he had not merely pushed forward with all his strength did he put away the beast hide.
"That's enough for today. Leave the rest for tomorrow."
Chen Xiuyuan agreed more readily than before. Back in his room, he moved the little jar of beast blood somewhere cool. There was still some left at the bottom, enough to keep using it as the old man had instructed. He had earned those things through trip after trip of work over the past few days. He used them carefully, but no longer begrudged himself eating them.
Over the days that followed, he continued working inside the gate and kept up his early-morning practice. His accumulation toward the first meridian passed sixty percent, then gradually approached seventy. Meanwhile, the Bloodstone Saber Technique advanced through daily sparring, each of the two progress lines recording its own results.
One day, after they had practiced into the afternoon, the rain came again.
Chen Xiuyuan was finishing his saber practice in the courtyard when the first burst of heavy rain soaked the yellow earth. His foot slipped, and he stopped in time rather than force himself through the last half-move. Shi Lei called him into the shed and shifted the empty baskets beside the door aside, clearing a space where they could stand.
The shed was narrower than the courtyard, with a pillar blocking the left side and several bundles of dry firewood stacked behind them.
Chen Xiuyuan stepped back with his usual stride, and the spine of his wooden saber struck the pillar. He immediately stopped, surveyed his surroundings, and turned to face another direction.
"It stops flowing smoothly here."
"First see how many steps you have room for," Shi Lei said. "If there isn't enough space, don't force the whole sequence into it."
Following the original method, Chen Xiuyuan separated out the portions he could practice and began with blocks and recoveries that required no more than a single step. He slowed his movements and kept the blade clear of the pillar. The angles he had already mastered remained; changing locations had not made him forget how to hold a saber.
Once Shi Lei saw that he had found his position, he took a wooden strip and tested him.
The first strike came from beside the door, and Chen Xiuyuan blocked it. The second shifted toward the woodpile. He drew his foot back to its original position instead of retreating farther. The wooden strip stopped before his chest, and Shi Lei told him to look at the distance between them.
"In the courtyard, you can take another step back. Here, you can't. You need to catch this strike sooner. Don't wait until it's right against your body."
Chen Xiuyuan tried again, using the block he already knew a little earlier, and the incoming strike veered toward the door. Shi Lei stopped and had him repeat it. There was no new move, only the same saber technique finally beginning to connect with the space before him.
Later in their practice, someone passed outside the shed carrying a basket. Hearing the footsteps, Chen Xiuyuan drew back his saber and waited for the person to pass. Shi Lei took the opportunity to thrust the wooden strip inward, testing whether he had merely stopped his hands and forgotten to protect himself.
Chen Xiuyuan turned the saber's hilt and blocked the wooden strip outside his guard. He remained in front of the pillar without bumping into the person carrying the load.
Shi Lei smiled and withdrew the wooden strip.
"This time, you remembered what was behind you."
Chen Xiuyuan looked outside. Rainwater streamed in an unbroken line from the shed's eaves, and the footprints in the courtyard had long since been washed flat. He lowered his head, and the wooden saber in his grip still rested steadily where it felt most natural.
After returning, he did not mark the saber technique as mastered simply because he had successfully blocked that attack. The panel's Initiation accumulation had only increased a little; there was still some way to go before the next stage. In a blank space in his herb identification booklet, he sketched a few lines of the cramped spot beneath the shed where turning was difficult, noted that he should first pay attention to what was behind him, then closed the booklet.
On the twenty-third day after his return, Elder Shi examined his leg again. The spot that had repeatedly pulled painfully no longer hindered normal walking, and he could practice slowly and carry loads inside the gate as usual.
The little jar of beast blood had emptied and been refilled once. Every time he collected some, he had Elder Shi inspect it first. Chen Xiuyuan did not exchange all his remaining rations at once, lest he make up what his practice needed only to leave himself without enough for his everyday meals.
That evening, Shi Lei came to return the wooden strip he had borrowed. Seeing that Chen Xiuyuan had already tidied the courtyard ground, he asked whether they would practice saber again the next morning.
"Cultivation first. I'll move saber practice a little later."
"Is it getting too much for you again?"
"No. Those Heavenly Meridians are almost ready to connect."
Shi Lei turned to Elder Shi. The old man did not confirm Chen Xiuyuan's words outright, instead telling him to finish that evening's practice first.
Chen Xiuyuan returned to his spot, just as he had every evening over these past days. His Qi and blood gathered from their familiar starting point. When they reached the section that had yet to open, he could now discern a clear path where there had once been only vague warmth.
When he finished his final breathing cycle, the writing quietly appeared.
[First Heavenly Meridians accumulation: 97%] [Savage Elephant Great Strength Art: Initiation, 53%] [Bloodstone Saber Technique: Initiation, 38%]
That last missing bit remained, neither suddenly vanishing nor being blocked by some other condition. Chen Xiuyuan compared what he had felt with the final section of the diagram once more and knew he still needed to complete this round tomorrow morning.
He dismissed the writing and asked Elder Shi, "Will you be here tomorrow morning?"
"Yes."
"I'd like you to watch over me. Once I've accumulated enough, I'll attempt the first Heavenly Meridians."
Elder Shi looked at the beast hide he had put away, then at his two feet planted steadily on the ground.
"All right. Get a full night's sleep, and come after you've eaten tomorrow morning."