The blade landed on the vine and slipped.
Chen Xiuyuan's right hand plunged, nearly knocking the short knife into his own knee. He stopped it in time, but his palm was already numb from the jolt.
"Don't bend your wrist!"
The old man's voice came from below. He held his wooden staff across the mouth of the gully, while the gray wolf prowled around the slope, refusing to leave.
"Are you trying to cut it or dust it off?"
Chen Xiuyuan drew back the knife tip that had nearly struck the rock face. The whitish vine was only a finger thick, entwined between two old, dark brown vines. It looked no harder to cut than a shoulder strap, yet his blade had bounced off it.
He tried a different angle.
"Slowly. Press it against the vine first, then pull," the old man said. "Don't swing your arm. Set the edge against it."
Chen Xiuyuan worked the blade into the gap between the bundled vines.
The rough bark scraped the back of his hand bloody. Bracing his left hand firmly against the stone ledge, he drew his right hand back slightly. At last, a thin cut opened beneath the blade.
"That's it. Don't grip so tightly, and tuck your thumb in. If it does slip, don't cut your own fingers first."
This short knife was much heavier than that scrap of metal, and its handle had been worn smooth. Chen Xiuyuan loosened his stiff fingers, steadied his grip again, and drew the blade back along the thin cut.
A strand of white fiber curled up.
He pulled again.
On the third pull, the blade bit too deep and stuck in the vine. Instinctively, he tried to wrench it free, then suddenly remembered the old man's words. He lowered the spine of the blade a little before withdrawing it along the same path.
The knife did not spring toward the old vine beside it that supported his body.
The old man called across the gully, "Yes, withdraw it just like that. Keep cutting."
The split in the white vine widened little by little. Each time he withdrew the blade, he could follow the existing cut back in. Though his hand grew increasingly sore, the edge no longer slipped toward the old vines on either side.
The gray wolf suddenly charged the mouth of the gully.
The old man planted his wooden staff against the ground and flicked a loose stone up with its tip, striking beside the wolf's mouth. The instant the beast turned its head aside, the staff swept across and struck its outstretched foreleg squarely.
The gray wolf yelped and retreated half a step.
The old man stepped forward after it, but his right leg suddenly buckled. He caught himself against a rock in time, the end of his staff scoring a long mark across the ground.
Chen Xiuyuan's heart sank. The gray wolf had already backed away several steps, avoiding the staff as it circled toward the old man's unsteady right side.
"How much left?"
"Half."
Chen Xiuyuan did not look down again. He pressed his left elbow against the ledge, freeing his left hand to pull the white vine taut, and slipped the knife in his right hand into the cut he had already made.
The fibers snapped apart one by one.
The white vine suddenly sprang outward, revealing a hollow in the rock behind it, hidden beneath vine leaves.
There was another below it.
They really were stone steps.
"Sheathe the knife first, then come down!"
The old man shouted. Chen Xiuyuan pushed the short knife back into its sheath, clenched the thin sheath strap between his teeth, gripped the old vines on either side with both hands, and reached his toes into the first hollow.
He lowered his center of gravity and waited until his foot was firmly planted before moving farther down.
The wound on his right leg throbbed in waves. Partway down, one stone step was covered in mud and sand. His foot caught only its edge, and his body lurched outward, his left hand nearly losing its grip.
The old man at the bottom of the gully raised his staff and braced it against his waist.
"Left foot, pull it in!"
Chen Xiuyuan obeyed, and the sole of his shoe finally touched the rock face. He clung there until his heartbeat slowed a little, then continued down.
When he reached the ground, his legs were so weak that he nearly dropped to his knees.
The old man seized his collar and hauled him behind him.
At the mouth of the gully, the gray wolf crouched low, fresh blood staining its muzzle.
The wooden staff rose again.
This time, it did not pounce. Instead, it backed into the grass and limped around onto the slope. Only as Chen Xiuyuan listened to the rustling recede through the grass did he realize he had been biting the sheath strap all this time.
He took the knife from his mouth, which was filled with the taste of old leather.
"Thank you."
The old man wiped the sweat from his face and glanced at his leg.
"Can you still walk?"
"Yes."
"Then let's go. Fang Wolves remember the scent of blood. Rest too long, and it'll come back."
The old man shouldered his herb basket, but after only two steps, his right leg weakened again. Chen Xiuyuan reached out to support him and took the herb basket with his other hand.
"I'll carry this."
"Don't let it press on your wound." The old man shifted the strap away from the scrape on his shoulder before letting go.
The herb basket was heavier than it looked. Wet soil still clung to the roots inside, and its weight bore down on Chen Xiuyuan's shoulders, making even the wound on his lower leg hurt badly. He lifted the bottom of the basket a little and supported the old man as they followed the gully out.
Neither of them could walk fast.
Along the way, he found a chance to glance up the slope. His reporting bag was still near the crevice, torn almost beyond recognition.
"Yours?" the old man asked.
Chen Xiuyuan nodded.
"Anything important inside?"
"A few things."
The old man looked around, picked up a dead branch, and listened for a moment in the direction the gray wolf had retreated.
"I'll keep watch. Be quick."
The bag lay low enough that he did not need to climb back onto the ledge. Enduring the pain, Chen Xiuyuan circled over and gathered up the notebook, broken camera, and bag scattered beside the rocks. His phone was still in the inner compartment. Its screen was cracked, but when he pressed it, a faint light still appeared.
He tied the broken shoulder strap back onto the side of the bag, turned off the screen, and hurried back to the old man.
By the time they passed through the gully, the sky had darkened. The trees in the forest were tall enough to block the last of the daylight, and the roots protruding beneath his feet nearly tripped him several times.
A low stone shelter appeared ahead.
The shelter had been built against a large boulder. Its wooden doorposts were rough and blackened, with an old beam laid across them. The old man reached up to feel the vine rope hanging beside the beam, then tapped the stone slab by the entrance with his staff before letting Chen Xiuyuan enter.
"An old hunting shelter. We'll stay here tonight."
Inside was a pile of dry firewood, with old animal hides spread along the wall. A narrow slit had been left in the shelter's rear wall. Wind seeped through it, gently tumbling the dead leaves in the corner.
Chen Xiuyuan set down the herb basket and turned to help the old man sit before tying the short knife's sheath strap around his waist.
"Is your leg badly injured?"
"An old ailment. Ran too hard today, and it flared up."
The old man placed his staff within reach and motioned for him to take the flint out of the herb basket.
Chen Xiuyuan crouched and gathered dry grass where the old man pointed. It took several attempts before he caught a spark. When a small flame leaped from the grass, the old man reached out and handed him some thin twigs.
"What's your name?"
"Chen Xiuyuan. Chen written with an ear radical and dong, Xiu as in cultivation, and Yuan as in far and near."
"Chen Xiuyuan," the old man repeated. "My surname is Shi. Everyone in the tribe calls me Elder Shi. You can call me that too."
"Elder Shi."
The old man answered and tore off a piece of dried meat for him.
The meat was too tough to bite through. Chen Xiuyuan drew the short knife again and, using the grip he had learned that afternoon, braced the meat against a piece of wood and slowly sliced off a piece. Its edge was a little thick, so he tried trimming it thinner.
Chen Xiuyuan handed the thin slice to Elder Shi. The old man accepted it, looking first at the meat, then at his hand.
"You really never used a knife like this before?"
"I've chopped vegetables. Never used this kind."
"Still remember what I taught you earlier?"
Chen Xiuyuan cut a second slice, almost the same thickness as the first.
He looked at the knife in his hand and slowly nodded.
"I remember."
He turned the meat over and tried cutting along the grain on the other side. The thin parts were easy to cut through, but tough sinews ran through the thicker parts. The moment his grip loosened, the blade veered aside. He braced the meat against the wood, adjusted his grip again, and cut off slice after slice.
Only after he finished cutting the meat did Chen Xiuyuan have time to recall the strange line of text on the ledge. As soon as he focused his attention, it appeared again, with several lines of smaller text beneath it.
[Cultivation methods, martial arts, cultivation skills: attainment never regresses; sufficient accumulation guarantees advancement.] [Beyond Great Perfection, accumulation can break limits.]
He read the words "sufficient accumulation guarantees advancement" twice. He had never learned a cultivation method, and those few cuts at the vine that afternoon hardly counted as martial arts. Right now, he did not even have a single training record.
If he could find a real cultivation method, would he have a way out of this wilderness?
"Rest if your hand's sore," Elder Shi said.
Chen Xiuyuan laid the short knife across his knees and tried dismissing the words before his eyes. They vanished as expected; with another thought, they appeared again.
He dismissed the text and added a thin stick to the fire.
Elder Shi set the thicker slices of meat beside the fire to warm.
"Don't cut the rest. Eat, then rest your hands. We have more traveling to do tomorrow morning."
Outside the shelter, a dry leaf suddenly crunched underfoot.
The old man's hand stopped in midair, still holding the meat.
Then Chen Xiuyuan heard a slow scraping beside the entrance.
Something dragged an injured forepaw across the stone slab.