Friendless and Foe-Free Wu Clan Stronghold

"Settle accounts with Commander Xu?"

Cai Shanjun sighed with a smile. "I'm afraid that before I can even cross the river and rally my trusted followers, I'll first have to test myself against Commander Xu's defenses at the riverside ferry crossing."

The sigh stirred his heart and lungs again, and he coughed without stopping.

Now that Chu Tianshu knew Cai Shanjun was someone who deserved treatment, he hesitated no longer. He took a silver needle between his fingers and infused it with psychic power.

A faint layer of vapor rose from the silver needle, sterilizing and disinfecting it.

With that first needle, he pierced straight through Cai Shanjun's wrist.

Chu Tianshu looked as though he were drawing a bow across the strings of a fiddle. He twisted and pushed the needle several times, giving the onlookers a twinge of phantom pain, before he began inserting the second needle.

By the time he worked his way up to the throat, everyone noticed that Cai Shanjun, whose whole body had been shaking from his cough, was no longer trembling.

The sickle-bearing man was overjoyed and slapped his companion on the shoulder. "The governor's divination was right after all."

Chu Tianshu raised an eyebrow. "Divination?"

That was right. There had been something odd about this earlier.

If they really had been three villagers, and one of them was gravely ill, they might have tried anything as a last resort.

But since the patient was Cai Shanjun, why would his guards so readily trust three people they had met in the wilderness and invite one of them to treat the governor?

The man in straw sandals smiled. "Our governor has always been uncannily accurate. A few days ago, he divined that if we came this way, we'd meet a benefactor."

Shopkeeper Ma actually held the grand governor in great esteem himself, but when the matter touched on his own profession, he couldn't help questioning it.

"People think divination can foretell the future, but as far as I know, at the very most, it can only reveal things one has not witnessed personally but that have already happened or are happening now."

"From there, one sorts out how things connect and makes guesses about the future. One can't know future events out of thin air."

"The grand governor and Little Chu should never have met, and there was no connection between you. Yet you could divine this opportunity several days in advance. May I ask which Dharma Lineage your method came from?"

If divination really were that convenient, able to point out the road ahead, more than ninety-nine percent of the practitioners in the world ought to study it.

Those who claimed divination was that powerful were usually not immortals, but swindlers.

"It's merely a divination method a Rogue Person from the mountains puzzled out for himself."

Cai Shanjun felt that his coughing and wheezing had eased somewhat, and his expression grew much calmer. In a hoarse voice, he said, "The truth is, I had reckoned that without some other opportunity, the poison would take full effect in the next couple of days. Even if it didn't kill me, my cultivation would be utterly ruined."

"I was truly at the end of my rope, so I cast the divination. Since it showed that I would meet a benefactor if I came this way, I thought I might as well try."

He smiled slowly. "Divination is a fifty-fifty affair to begin with. If it works, I've made an uncanny prediction. If it doesn't..."

Chu Tianshu finished for him. "If it doesn't, it's feudal superstition?"

Cai Shanjun said warmly, "If it doesn't, then heaven has led me astray!"

Lesson learned. That's how a professional 'expert' puts it.

Chu Tianshu said no more and concentrated on inserting the needles.

In truth, Chu Tianshu did not know the precise origin or name of the poison in Cai Shanjun.

But from his diagnosis, he knew how the poison ravaged the body.

He worked backward from the mechanism by which the toxin took effect, seeking a way to counter its potency.

The process was extraordinarily draining, no less so than a major operation such as reattaching a severed limb or transplanting a heart.

But this was no fully equipped operating room, and he absolutely could not let the needling take as long as a major operation.

That placed an even greater demand on the physician's stamina.

The Chu Tianshu of the past, even if he had known where to place the needles, would not have had the physical strength to complete the treatment.

The Chu Tianshu of today, however, was naturally on an entirely different level physically.

A boxer's Aperture Opening permanently tempered and strengthened the body.

Thus, truly formidable boxers, even when not in the state of a boxer's Aperture Opening, were ordinarily far stronger than common people.

With his current stamina, Chu Tianshu maintained the state of Spirit Communication Aperture Opening.

For the first quarter of an hour, not a bead of sweat appeared on his face.

After a quarter of an hour, white vapor visible to the naked eye began rising from his hair.

It was the sweat in his hair, vaporized by his current body temperature against the chill of the mountains.

After three quarters of an hour, Chu Tianshu's face had turned noticeably red as a ripe jujube, and white vapor was rising even from his cheeks.

At that point, he placed the final needle, stepped aside, and let out a heavy breath.

The two men in rain capes watched Cai Shanjun anxiously.

Cai Shanjun tentatively reached up and touched the silver needle still lodged in his throat. "Much better," he said softly. "I feel like once the needles come out, I'll be able to walk and jump again."

The men in rain capes looked at Chu Tianshu, their faces full of gratitude.

"Don't thank me just yet!"

Chu Tianshu raised a hand to stop them. Breathing deeply, he waited for the flush on his face to fade a little before saying, "The poison you've been given is truly formidable."

"With acupuncture, the most I can do is suppress it and ease your symptoms. You said the poison would have taken full effect in the next couple of days, leaving you dead or crippled."

"With my acupuncture, you'll at least be able to move about like an ordinary person for the next month."

The sickle-bearing man asked urgently, "Is there really no other way?"

"I can also write him a prescription, but many of the precious medicinal ingredients in it would be hard to find even in Yuannan City, let alone here in the mountains."

Chu Tianshu accepted a cup of water from Uncle Ma and gulped it down, then looked at Cai Shanjun with bright, intent eyes.

"So you must cross the river, rally your trusted followers, and regain power within a month. Only then might you be able to gather all the ingredients."

"I can also escort you, but in that case, once we cross the river, my payment must rise with the tide."

Cai Shanjun asked, "What payment do you want?"

"First, in the future, you must bring these two uncles of mine to Kunming to live out their old age and provide them with a home."

"Second," Chu Tianshu said, "I want ten large gold bars, the best boxing art in the Yi Province Military Academy's entire collection, and its best manual of spell techniques."

There was no need to elaborate on the use of the two manuals.

As for the ten gold bars, Chu Tianshu mainly wanted to test whether he could take such things with him if he returned to his hometown.

"Saving my life and escorting me as well? That payment would be far too good a bargain for me."

Cai Shanjun studied Chu Tianshu for a while, then looked at Zhong Jinqiu and Shopkeeper Ma. His wise gaze seemed to discern many things, bringing a wistful smile to his face.

"Doctor Chu's treatment just now was already well worth that payment. But if I refused any further help and died on the road, those empty promises would be worth nothing."

"So let's do this. Before we make plans to cross the river, the three of you should come with me to another place."

Chu Tianshu asked curiously, "What place? Can you find more reinforcements there?"

"I can't find more reinforcements on such short notice."

Cai Shanjun explained, "I once had some admiration for the president, but during my two years in the capital, I saw him repeatedly rely on foreigners, assassinate civil and military officials at will, and tolerate not the slightest dissent. I fear he will bring endless calamity in the future."

"If such a man is not opposed soon, I fear the day will come when the whole nation is laid waste and the heavens themselves collapse beyond repair."

"So I devised a plan to go overseas, then made my way back through Jiaozhi. But I was repeatedly ambushed and pursued along the way, and the people accompanying me scattered like shooting stars and drifting clouds. Only Old Yu and Little Huo remain."

"If I can't cross the river in time, I won't be able to find any other reinforcements."

Shopkeeper Ma also asked, "Then where are you taking us?"

"It's a stronghold, a very beautiful stronghold."

Cai Shanjun spoke leisurely. "There will be no reinforcements there, but no mortal enemies either."

"But if we can successfully borrow something from there, the danger of crossing the river this time can be reduced by more than half."

Even more curious, Chu Tianshu readily agreed. "All right, then I'd like to see it for myself."

Since he had already struck the deal, Zhong Jinqiu and Shopkeeper Ma naturally had no reason to refuse either.

To have such an unexpected encounter in their old age had already set both their hearts surging.

Zhong Jinqiu felt the warmth in his heart somehow spreading to his eyes. In a low voice, he said, "Little Chu, he really is..."

"All right, a grown man only needs to understand it in his heart."

Shopkeeper Ma patted his shoulder. "Don't go squeezing out a couple of drops of cat piss and making things awkward."

Zhong Jinqiu gave his old friend a sidelong glance. "Hmph!"

Chu Tianshu glanced at them and found himself grinning from ear to ear.

"After being busy all this time, I'm hungry too!"

Chu Tianshu sat down on a bench and patted the tabletop.

"You two uncles over there, and you two brothers here, what food has everyone got?"

"Let's put it all together for a meal and sample each other's provisions!"

As it turned out, the suggestion to share a meal was a wise one.

Old Yu and Little Huo really did have plenty of good things hidden beneath their rain capes.

There were large bags of dried beef and candied fruit, all foods rich in sugar and fat.

Though they weren't very friendly to Uncle Ma's teeth, the martial artists had no trouble chewing them.

For people who practiced martial arts, gnawing on this sort of food made it easier to regain their strength.

By comparison, Chu Tianshu didn't eat a single one of the dry ration cakes Uncle Ma had brought, leaving them for the men with bad teeth to chew slowly.

They pushed the tables together for beds, slept in their clothes, and used the rain capes as blankets. After a night's rest, they set out again at the first hint of dawn.

This time, Old Yu and Little Huo went ahead, hacking through vines and pushing leaves aside, while Cai Shanjun rode the donkey and showed the way.

Chu Tianshu followed behind with Zhong Jinqiu and Shopkeeper Ma, chatting as they went.

The route grew more and more remote. After noon, even Zhong Jinqiu, who was relatively fond of roaming the outside world, no longer knew where they were.

But Cai Shanjun looked at the mountains, the water, and the trees, occasionally even having someone cut down a small tree so he could examine its growth rings closely. He seemed to know exactly where he was going.

Strangely enough, after traveling like this for a whole day, they scarcely felt as though they had climbed another slope.

It was as though every path happened to wind through a mountain hollow. Aside from the troublesome vines and the streams of uncertain depth they had to cross, the way was practically level.

Three days later, they pushed through another dense grove of banana trees, parting the broad, dark-green leaves.

The space ahead suddenly opened up. Daylight shone brightly, and the landscape became open and clear.

Waterfalls cascaded down the distant mountains, while green waters wound nearby.

A mountain stronghold built against the slopes beside the water stood amid the beautiful scenery.

Hundreds of stilt houses, large and small, primitive yet exquisite, seemed to give off the fragrance of wood in the evening glow.

Chu Tianshu walked up beside the donkey and gazed at the beautiful sight ahead in some surprise, feeling as though even his eyes had grown relaxed and comfortable.

Cai Shanjun, still riding the donkey, was rubbing his face to remove his disguise.

A bamboo raft drifted on the river.

The Miao girl propelling it with a bamboo pole spotted the people on the bank and stared without blinking, as though she had seen some extraordinary rare beast.

"Grandpa!!"

The girl suddenly shouted, her sweet, clear voice ringing through the mountains.

"Grandpa, Grandpa, Cave God Lady's husband is back!"