Chapter 64: Chapter 64
“What is it?”
Deng Shan hurried inside, his voice low and grave:
“Word from the family!”
“The merchant convoy ran into trouble over near the prefectural city. Patrol Envoy Zheng, who was posted at Nanxiang Commandery to escort the young ladies, has been pulled off by the family on emergency orders to deal with the situation there.”
He paused, his expression turning solemn as he looked at Shen Xiuhan:
“The Garrison Commander has orders!”
“The young ladies will soon be finishing their term. Patrol Envoy Shen is to pick a reliable man, set out first thing tomorrow, and proceed to Nanxiang Commandery. He is to see the young ladies at ‘Wuji Academy’ safely back to Changyun County — without fail!”
Shen Xiuhan’s brows drew together.
This bolt from the blue had thrown every one of his plans into disarray.
Yet a Patrol Envoy’s duty was, at its heart, the safeguarding of the Ji clan’s fleet, goods, and people.
That this task should fall on his shoulders was entirely reasonable.
What was more, in all his days on the island, he had done nothing beyond routine patrols and shutting himself away to train.
Drawing eight taels a month from the Ji clan, plus pills, meat, and all manner of provision — it was only right that he should pull his weight for the family.
“Understood.”
Shen Xiuhan gave a slow nod:
“Escorting them is no trouble. But once I leave, what happens to the patrol duty?”
“The Patrol Envoy needn’t worry — the Garrison Commander has it arranged. For the days you’re away, Deng Shan and Qi Hu will cover Squad C’s gap.”
Deng Shan thumped his chest in guarantee.
Qi Hu — also called Qi the Tiger.
Like Deng Shan, he was one of Ji Ning’s most trusted men, and another of the four Shen Xiuhan had seen in the pavilion on the day he arrived.
Ji Ning, in pulling a man from Squad C to go to Nanxiang Commandery, would naturally see the shift-work sorted first.
“Very well…”
Shen Xiuhan looked up at Deng Shan, his tone level: “I’ll set out first thing tomorrow morning.”
After that, Deng Shan went over the checkpoints and relay stations along the route in detail.
At the end, he made a point of noting that Geng Weizhi had once traveled with the previous Squad A Patrol Envoy Zheng Bao to Nanxiang Commandery, and was familiar with both the roads and the ins and outs of the prefectural city — worth bringing along.
That said, Deng Shan departed in haste.
The bamboo house settled back into quiet.
The candle flame wavered.
Beyond the window, the sound of lake water lapping at the island’s rocky shore sent up a fine spray.
Shen Xiuhan stood in the room with his hands behind his back, his eyes gleaming in the dancing candlelight.
“I was just about to go back to Changyun County to seclude myself for the Bone Tempering breakthrough, and now this crops up out of nowhere…”
Shen Xiuhan murmured, his brow creasing into a deep furrow.
The road to Nanxiang Commandery was long — over a hundred li of water and land intertwined.
It would mean crossing wild forests, passing desolate ridges, and finally taking the waterway back to Changyun County.
In times as unsettled as these, who could say he wouldn’t run into a desperado on the road?
With nothing more than Blood Tempering cultivation, if he came up against some hardened killer, the odds would be stacked firmly against him.
Shen Xiuhan’s gaze sharpened. He turned, strode to the sleeping platform, and sat down cross-legged, spine straight as a pine.
“No more waiting.”
Shen Xiuhan drew a deep breath; his chest rose and fell slowly. He pressed the churning thoughts down into his core.
“Since I set out tomorrow, I break through to Bone Tempering tonight. That — and only that — gives me the best chance of keeping myself safe!”
With that, he drew the small porcelain bottle from his robe, tipped out one 『Jade Blood Pill』, and, without a heartbeat’s hesitation, tossed it back.
The pill dissolved the instant it touched his tongue — as though he had swallowed a lump of red-hot charcoal.
The next moment, colossal medicinal force erupted in his belly!
Boom!
Shen Xiuhan gave a muffled grunt.
The brimming qi-blood inside him, ignited by the pill’s force, roared to life like a barrel of lit gunpowder — boiling in an instant!
Searing qi-blood crashed like the waves of a furious sea, scouring every limb and bone, coursing through his meridians in a surging torrent, gradually building into a vast, self-renewing, ceaselessly circling grand cycle.
A film of crimson flushed his skin; wisps of white vapor steamed from his body.
They rose and curled, thin as silk threads.
“Refine!”
Shen Xiuhan sprang to his feet and assumed the opening posture of Dark Eagle Stance.
Claw-winds lashed in waves, each one driving forward without pause!
His form whipped and turned within the tight confines of the room, fast enough to trail afterimages.
The stance’s frame guided the blazing qi-blood inch by inch, breaching the barrier of skin and flesh, boring and probing deeper — into the bones themselves.
Hot current crept along the periosteum. With every fraction it advanced, it seared as if a branding iron had been pressed down.
And in that very instant — as qi-blood seeped into the periosteum, fusing and washing through the marrow — a tingling, aching itch, as of ten thousand ants gnawing at the heart, struck all at once!
“Crack! Pop-pop-pop!”
Inside the bamboo house, a sudden cascade of crisp, dense bone-cracking rang out — like beans popping in a hot wok.
The great vertebra at the nape led the change!
Under the thousand-fold hammering of qi-blood, bone shed its impurities at speed, growing ever more dense, ever heavier — like steel tempered a hundred times over.
In a blinding instant, the barrier shattered!
Shen Xiuhan’s eyes flew open. A flash of keen light blazed within them, and his presence climbed a palpable step.
He slowly raised a hand and clenched it into a fist; a deep, creaking groan sounded from between his knuckles.
Shen Xiuhan could feel it clearly: beneath skin and flesh, his bones were now as hard as iron and stone.
Add to that his Perfection-grade Iron Bone Art, and his physical defense was nothing short of terrifying.
Bone Tempering — achieved!
…
The thirty-second day after Gao Nian of the Golden Dragon Gang fell.
Full daylight.
On the southern waterway of Yunshui Lake, a light skiff cut through the thin fog, running with the current, heading steadily south.
Green hills on either bank loomed like ink-washes; now and then a white egret skimmed the water and rose, tracing an arc over the bow before vanishing again into the reeds along the shore.
Shen Xiuhan stood at the prow, his robes snapping in the river wind.
Following Deng Shan’s recommendation, he had brought Geng Weizhi along.
Geng Weizhi had gone on this same errand the year before with the previous Squad A Patrol Envoy, Zheng Bao — likewise traveling to the prefectural city to escort the Ji clan’s young ladies home to Changyun County.
So he knew the waterway junctions along the route, and the rules and ways of the prefectural city, inside and out. Taking him along would save a good deal of trouble.
The prow parted the waves; spray churned.
Geng Weizhi, in his straw cloak, stood at the stern. Working the sculling oar with one hand, he used the other to lay out the situation in Nanxiang Commandery for Shen Xiuhan.
“Patrol Envoy, the family’s two young ladies are currently training at ‘Wuji Academy,’ a branch school under ‘Zhaixing Sect’ in the prefectural city…”
“Branch school?”
Shen Xiuhan was a touch curious.
He had never in his life set foot beyond Changyun County; of Nanxiang Commandery’s prefectural city — a hundred li distant, where powers were tangled root and branch — he knew next to nothing.
“That’s right — a branch school.”
Geng Weizhi’s oar kept turning. With a grin, he explained:
“A branch school, put plainly, is a hall Zhaixing Sect set up in the prefectural city to rake in coin and, while they’re at it, sift for martial talent.”
“Zhaixing Sect has a full eight branch schools. Each one’s presiding master is a sect elder in residence; the instructors who teach stance arts and martial technique are mostly outer-gate disciples of considerable strength.”
At this point Geng Weizhi dropped his voice a shade, smacking his lips with feeling:
“Mind you, getting a scion into a branch school for training costs a fortune!”
“By my master’s word, tuition alone runs at least five taels of fine silver a head each month. Over a year, that’s sixty taels on tuition alone!”
Sixty taels a year!
Shen Xiuhan’s heart gave a jolt.
An ordinary household, working a whole year to the bone, would count itself well-off to put away two or three taels of silver.
A single person training at Wuji Academy for one year came to sixty taels in tuition…
Across all eight branch schools, how many students must there be?!
Shen Xiuhan marveled inwardly — this was nothing less than a gold-devouring pit!
At that price for tuition.
Only the rich and powerful clans, one supposed, could afford to put their sons and daughters through it.