Cultivation

At this moment, in the Marshal's Residence within Green Mountain Pass, Marshal Hong sat alone in a broad wooden chair at the head of the vast hall. Leaning against its back, he gazed up at the ceiling, his round eyes constantly shifting as one hand stroked his chin in deep thought.

"The guards over there reported that Li Yan was summoned indoors by Ji Wenhe this morning. He must have formally taken him as his master. The next step should be for him to begin cultivation." A voice came from one corner of the hall. There stood an unusually solid, burly man beside one of the four pillars thick enough for a man to wrap his arms around. His body partly overlapped with the pillar's shadow. He was not tall, and clad in a black robe, he seemed piled there like the thick base of that massive pillar.

"I was already surprised that he did not make the boy formally acknowledge him as master last night. With his body seemingly growing weaker by the day, I never expected him to remain so unhurried." Marshal Hong did not look his way, still staring at the ceiling as he spoke.

"Senior Brother, can you tell whether he truly can no longer suppress the poison within his body, or whether he is merely putting on an act?" the black-robed man asked.

"There is an eighty or ninety percent chance it is real. Whether from the usual reports of the guards over there, or from his ceaseless search for disciples over the past few years, none of it seems false. But even so, if we resort to force, our chances of victory are still slim. Even if the two of us joined forces, his martial arts would remain beyond us, even in his present condition."

"Senior Brother, do not exaggerate. Though his martial arts have reached the realm of perfection, first, the poison in his body requires a considerable portion of his internal energy to suppress, and second, we martial brothers have remained among the pinnacle experts for more than ten years. We are only one step away from that realm of perfection. With the combined strength of the two of us, we may not necessarily be unable to capture him," the black-robed man said in a deep, muffled voice.

"Junior Brother, that is the final choice. What I am considering now is how to begin with that boy. His previous disciple never emerged from the Strategist's Residence after entering it, making him difficult to approach. In barely more than a month, he died an unnatural death. What I am wondering now is whether he truly cultivated improperly, or whether, as he himself claimed, his cultivation method truly cannot be practiced by anyone without a special constitution. If it is the latter, then would all our painstaking efforts not be wasted in the end?" Marshal Hong continued staring at the ceiling, his brows tightly furrowed.

"Senior Brother, there is no cultivation method in the martial world that cannot be practiced. Even poison arts and evil arts can be cultivated by their possessors. It is only a matter of suitability or unsuitability, not whether one can cultivate them at all. I have never heard of internal arts having any requirements for a person's constitution. Take the mental techniques of our own sect, from the low-grade ones to the profound ones. If they were given to disciples of the sect, which one could not cultivate them? The only difference would be the speed of their progress."

"What you have said is precisely why I am unwilling to give up. Even if they are martial arts of the martial world's evil sects, if we wish to cultivate them, nothing is impossible. It is merely a question of whether it is worth it."

"His excuse is likely only because he is unwilling to pass it on to others. But what exactly is so special about Li Yan and that previous disciple? Yesterday at the training ground, I tested the boy's meridians with internal energy. They were utterly ordinary, even inferior to those of many young men in the army. Yet he searched through hundreds of thousands of people for several years before choosing him. That is what I cannot understand, no matter how I ponder it." The hall once more fell into silence.

After a moment, he turned to the black-robed man and said, "Junior Brother, regardless of what basis he uses to accept disciples, and regardless of why he takes them as disciples, he must ultimately teach some methods to those he accepts. What we need to do is find every possible chance to approach Li Yan, then obtain those methods from him. With the discernment of you and me, we will surely be able to see some clues from them. Then we can make further plans."

After a period of silence in the corner of the hall, footsteps gradually sounded, slowly fading into the distance. Marshal Hong remained seated silently in the broad chair. The hall was utterly still; one could have heard a needle drop.

Toward evening, at Great Green Mountain's Li Family Village, Uncle Chang and his son Li Wei returned from the fields as usual. Though the harvest in the fields had already been decided after the locust plague, some grain had still been preserved. Farmers' feelings toward food were like those of a loving mother toward a wandering child: every grain came from bitter toil, something those lofty gentlemen could never understand. Every household in the village still went to its own fields each day to tend and protect what little remained.

Uncle Chang always returned before evening, while the sky was still bright. By the time he got home, his old wife and fourth daughter had long prepared their simple supper. They had to finish eating before dark, lest they need to keep the oil lamp burning for too long after nightfall. Life had not been easy these past few years, and even lamp oil had to be saved.

Ever since Li Yan left yesterday, the atmosphere in the house had remained oppressive.

"His father, the village chief should be back today, right?" Li Yan's mother watched the others pick listlessly at the sweet potatoes in their bowls, while she herself had not touched her chopsticks. Her face filled with misery, she asked her husband.

"Why are you being so nagging? Since noon yesterday, you have kept asking this and asking that. How many times have I told you? A round trip takes at least two days, and that is only if everything goes smoothly. Just eat your meal in peace." Li Yan's father raised his head, his face also full of irritation and vexation. He tapped the edge of his bowl with his chopsticks, making it ring, "Ding, ding."

"You went to the fields early in the morning and only came back after a whole day. How have I been constantly asking this and that?" Li Yan's mother muttered softly.

Li Wei glanced at Li Xiaozhu, who happened to be looking at him as well. At first, both wanted to ask a few questions too, but seeing this, they did not dare say more. In truth, they knew that even if they asked, their father would know nothing either. Still, it felt as if saying more of these fruitless words might somehow make their hearts feel better.

Just then, a burst of footsteps sounded outside, followed by a booming voice. "Uncle Chang, I'm back! I'm back! Hahaha!" The moment they heard it, everyone in the room perked up. It was Li Guoxin's voice. At once, tables, chairs, benches, bowls, and chopsticks clattered as several people rushed out of the house.

Looking at the overturned stools and chairs, the chopsticks scattered across the table, and the sweet potatoes that had only been bitten a few times and still lay in their bowls, Li Yan's mother watched the three figures acting as if they had gone mad. She spat, "Damn things. Weren't you saying you weren't anxious? You're rushing like you're hurrying off to be reborn." Then she too hurriedly rose and headed outside.

Outside, Li Guoxin was walking toward Li Yan's house, followed by a group of village children and several villagers. Before he even reached the entrance, three figures flew out from inside like the wind. Looking closely, they were Uncle Chang and his two children, with Li Yan's mother hurrying after them.

When Uncle Chang saw Li Guoxin, he quickly steadied himself. Li Wei and Li Xiaozhu crowded forward as well. Uncle Chang drew a breath, then forced a smile and said, "Guoxin, you're back! Come in and have some water. We can talk slowly."

Li Guoxin looked at Uncle Chang's face, which was trying hard to remain calm even as his eyes brimmed with anxiety, and burst out laughing again. "Hahaha, Uncle Chang, I won't go in. The carriage I just brought into the village is still tied up ahead. I haven't gone to Li Yu's or Li Shan's homes yet. I came to yours first. After telling you, I still need to bring them the news."

Upon hearing that, Uncle Chang nodded repeatedly. "That'll do, that'll do." Then he, Li Wei, and the other two looked at Li Guoxin with expectant faces.

Li Guoxin was lightly patting several village children who were circling around him and playing. "Go on, go on. Hurry home and tell the adults to come to my house later and collect the things each family asked for." The children happily ran off with cries of "Oh! Oh!" Some headed home, while several ran toward the villagers who had arrived with them. These villagers, who had met him at the village entrance, stood nearby with folded arms or lightly smacked their own children on the head, listening with great interest to the news their village chief had brought back from the city.

Only after the children had moved away did Li Guoxin turn toward Li Yan's family, who were forcing smiles yet could not bring themselves to urge him on. His expression turned solemn. "Uncle Chang, I came to your house before the other two because I have earth-shakingly good news to tell you."

"Uncle Guoxin, what good news?" Li Wei interjected. The other three also stared at Li Guoxin with tense anticipation. Several villagers nearby made their children stop playing and stepped closer, forming a small circle.

Seeing this, Li Guoxin stopped keeping them in suspense. "Uncle Chang, it seems your ancestral graves have extraordinarily good feng shui. Li Yan entered the city this time to enlist in the Near Guard Army, but who could have known—"

Li Guoxin then recounted everything that had happened in the city, adding descriptions of Strategist Ji's achievements and background along the way, lest they fail to understand just what sort of person Li Yan had taken as his master.

As he spoke, more and more villagers arrived. At first, everyone was so stunned that they did not know what to make of it. Then, with a boom, the crowd erupted like a pot boiling over, voices rising in endless discussion.

Uncle Chang's family stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe it. Li Yan had actually become the disciple of someone whose reputation surpassed even Marshal Hong's. Could Strategist Ji truly possess such ability? But seeing Li Guoxin's utterly certain expression, everyone chose to believe him. Mountain folk had seen little of the world; the village chief was already the greatest official they knew. When a minor official occasionally came from town, he seemed like the Emperor himself. Yet mountain folk were also simple and honest, and they had always trusted the village chief's words.

"Heavens... my heavens... heavens..." Li Yan's mother stood amid the crowd, murmuring as if she had fallen into a dream. After standing there in a daze, two streams of old tears spilled from Uncle Chang's eyes.

At the Strategist's Residence, Li Yan's door had remained shut since he finished lunch at noon. A small black wooden plaque hung from the handle outside.

After lunch, Li Yan had not chosen the empty room next door as a cultivation chamber. He felt his own room was perfectly fine. Hanging up the black wooden plaque and closing the door, he pulled out a chair and sat at the table.

He picked up the little wooden figure and carefully considered the circulation route of the "Breath-Guiding Technique," then meticulously confirmed the direction of those routes against the wooden figure. At the same time, he reviewed the mental art's mnemonic verses in his mind once more. He did not want to end up like that senior brother.

After about the time it took an incense stick to burn, he set down the little wooden figure, sat cross-legged on the wooden bed, and began cultivating according to the mnemonic verses. However, he had already decided that if he detected anything amiss, he would immediately stop cultivating.

What he did not know was that the cultivation he began this day would change the course of his life. From then on, he would embark upon that long road of seeking.