Chapter 85: Mountain Living

His mind was sometimes clear, sometimes confused, in the darkness.

Vaguely, it seemed Lu Hongti was carrying him, rushing through the forest. He felt a soft touch.

"How did you find me...?"

"How do you think I found your home? I put a powder on you, and my Little Qing can track you. If you had betrayed me... but this time you went too far..."

"If I had known, I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard..."

"What?"

A fire burned, casting yellow light on the cluttered surroundings. Above them, roof tiles were broken, and a crumbling, peeling statue of a deity stood. Lu Hongti squatted nearby, swiftly untying the bandage on his left hand. She then took out medicine and a water gourd, quickly treating the burn on his left arm, the light illuminating her concentrated profile.

"I... I need brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone... to write a letter... please help send it to Jiangning City, to my family... otherwise they'll start looking, it's better if they don't."

"You're thinking about this now?"

"I have a friend named Nie Yunzhu, who lives... there's a two-story building over there, she lives there with her maid... please check on her, make sure she's alright."

"Understood."

"There are two people, two people to kill... in a courtyard near Xinlinpu, one is called Xiao Si..."

"Good people or bad people?"

"They tried to abduct my friend..."

"You have so many demands."

His consciousness faded again. When he next awoke, Lu Hongti had brought some writing tools, and his left hand was already bandaged. She didn't seem to want to wake him, but seeing he was awake, she helped him sit up and placed a brush in his right hand.

"Can you still write?"

"Barely... but I can."

"I truly underestimated you before..."

"I just had to do it... Is my left hand crippled?"

"If you hadn't met me, it would be."

"Oh, thank you..."

"What exactly did you do before...?"

"...Met a psychopath."

"Sleep now, wait for me to return."

Her figure darted away.

What happened for the rest of that night was unclear. Having unburdened himself of the things weighing on his mind, exhaustion then swept over him like a tidal wave, overwhelming everything.

He woke up the next morning, still aching and too exhausted to get up. Birds chirped, and the morning light streamed diagonally through a broken section of the roof.

Eventually, he struggled to rise. His chest, shoulders, and left hand were now covered with fresh bandages, and his clothes had been changed. The shirt he was wearing had been found in a boathouse; it had no bloodstains but was much too large for him. This was a dilapidated temple in the mountains. As he stepped out, Lu Hongti was practicing martial arts in the woods ahead. Dressed in a black gown, her sleeves fluttered in the morning light, but every strike was imbued with the iron will and ferocity of a battlefield. It was a beautiful display of strength and grace, with the whistling of her fists and palms. This was clearly not an ordinary martial arts technique, but a combat skill forged in the crucible of battle. The morning light also slanted through the forest.

Ning Yi sat quietly on the steps in front of the temple, watching. After a while, Lu Hongti stood still, collecting her breath, and her gaze turned towards him, studying him for a long moment.

"Alright, I've changed my mind."

"Oh?"

"It seems you do have situations where martial arts would be useful, and your disposition is strong enough."

"Ha." Ning Yi chuckled, "That's the best news I've heard in days."

"I have a set of techniques you can practice. You won't become a top-tier master, but reaching second-tier will be enough for self-preservation. I interrogated Xiao Si and his accomplices, then followed the path you took..." She shook her head, a smile appearing, "It gave me quite a fright."

"A cornered rabbit will bite, that's all."

"Everything you asked for has been handled. Your family was very anxious last night; that little maid was jumping with worry. But she's good; she didn't cry even when worried, just instructed the house servants to do things, to look for someone. I secretly placed the note where she would see it; she grabbed it and immediately burst into tears, then ran while crying to tell your wife you were safe, even tripping once. Miss Nie Yunzhu is also fine; she was sleeping when I went there."

Ning Yi had written on the note that he was away for a few days due to a friend's matter. With the note delivered, he assumed Xiaochuan and the others wouldn't be too worried. It was good that Nie Yunzhu was safe. As for what happened to Xiao San and Xiao Si, he didn't care to ask. The two sat on the steps for a while, then Lu Hongti said, "I'll go cook some porridge for you."

Lu Hongti had likely stayed in this dilapidated temple for some time before; there was a broken pot, and now she had an extra baggage parcel, which she must have stored somewhere in Jiangning and brought out this time. The two finished breakfast in the temple. During the meal, Lu Hongti said, "Once you truly learn martial arts, sometimes you can't help but use them to solve problems. When it becomes a go-to solution, you unconsciously develop an aggressive temperament. On our side, we have no choice but to be this way, but you are different. Unless you encounter an enemy, it's always better not to resort to violence if you can avoid it. You are learned, and your character is resilient. I need you to promise me you'll understand when it's truly necessary to strike."

Ning Yi thought for a moment: "I strongly dislike solving problems through personal violence. I promise you that."

Lu Hongti nodded, "That's good. I'll start teaching you shortly."

Ning Yi raised his left hand, "I can learn like this? And I have no strength in my whole body right now, I'm seriously injured."

Lu Hongti chuckled, "I'll teach you some basics first; you can memorize them. If you have the strength, you can write them down. Either way, you won't be able to start practicing until you've returned home."

"Do I need to kowtow and acknowledge you as my master?"

"No need. Anyway, I'm only teaching you second-rate skills." Lu Hongti thought for a moment. "In the afternoon, let's continue with 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils'. It would be best if we could finish it during this time."

"Heh, alright."

In the following days, the two settled into the dilapidated temple.

In the mornings, Lu Hongti would explain the cultivation methods for the second-tier martial arts, occasionally demonstrating moves and describing various scenarios. In the afternoons and evenings, Ning Yi would recount "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils" or they would simply chat about various random topics. It was almost time for the "three dog days" of summer, making both days and nights hot with many mosquitoes. In the evenings, Lu Hongti would use some strange leaves to ward off insects in the temple, chasing Ning Yi around with her playful scolding.

To put it somewhat ambiguously, they felt like an impoverished young couple who had made their home in this broken temple. They had very few possessions; the old pot was used for cooking rice, vegetables, and boiling water. Fortunately, Lu Hongti went out once the next day and returned with more pots and bowls, but other than a single parcel of belongings, they had nothing else. In the evenings, Lu Hongti would slowly apply medicine to Ning Yi's injuries, including those on his left hand. Ning Yi couldn't reach his chest and shoulder injuries with one hand, but Lu Hongti didn't mind.

"I've seen all the men in the mountains; you're not particularly handsome, just a bit sturdier than an average scholar." She always wore a look of disdain.

Ning Yi had exercised for a year, making himself a bit sturdier, but he still lacked significant muscle definition and naturally couldn't compare to men forged in battle. Still, he felt quite well-proportioned. He almost asked if she meant she had seen all of them, perhaps even intimately, but given the different era, such a joke would be out of place; he'd likely be beaten. He could only inwardly acknowledge the other party's extensive experience, which always seemed to make her a little awkward.

Tending to wounds on the battlefield was probably quite different from doing so in this situation. However, Ning Yi quickly dismissed such thoughts whenever they arose.

Not far behind the dilapidated temple was a mountain spring, from which they would fetch fresh water during the day using a gourd or bamboo tube. Lu Hongti had a small green bird that liked a fruit with a distinctive scent. Lu Hongti would grind this fruit into a powder and sprinkle it on someone, and its scent would linger for several days. Without it, she wouldn't have been able to track him outside the city that night.

On the third day, a thunderstorm broke out. The small, dilapidated temple felt like a sinking boat in the torrential rain. Lu Hongti gathered thick branches and leaves to reinforce the roof of the temple. Afterwards, she and Ning Yi sat in the temple's only dry corner, chatting. As Ning Yi told stories, it felt as though they were the last two people guarding a world on the brink of collapse.

Occasionally, Lu Hongti would speak to Ning Yi about Lüliang Mountain. She didn't complain, but Ning Yi could infer how difficult life must have been during the Liao army's incursions. Lu Hongti was currently leading one of the Lüliang bandit groups, likely not a very large one. Her own master was also a woman, very intelligent, but she risked her life to assassinate a Liao general. After succeeding, she was surrounded and fought until exhaustion, then committed suicide to avoid capture. This was likely why Lu Hongti was cautious about indiscriminately teaching martial arts.

"My master was both clever and formidable. If her martial arts hadn't been so powerful, she probably wouldn't have considered assassination. If she had used strategy, she might still have killed him, or even if not, she wouldn't have died. If Master hadn't died, and had continued to lead us, more of us would probably have survived... So, you shouldn't blindly believe in martial arts. You talk about 'investigating things' to understand them, and that's enough. Smart people... shouldn't put themselves in danger. Staying alive is more useful..."

Those who have come back from the brink of death value life even more. Perhaps it was also because after her master's death, the burden fell upon her shoulders, and she felt the weight of it. To lead a small group, courage alone was not enough. The difficulties of organization and coordination are often felt most keenly by insightful individuals. Although Lu Hongti was uneducated, she was intelligent, and her master might have spoken to her about these things, so it was not surprising that she would voice such thoughts now.

By the seventh day, Lu Hongti had likely finished explaining the martial arts cultivation. Ning Yi, however, had not yet finished "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils." When she complained, Ning Yi finally said, "I also want to teach you some things; perhaps they will be useful to you. I originally wanted to trade these for your martial arts."

"Oh?" Lu Hongti's eyes lit up. "Are they those strange and peculiar methods again?"

Although she had previously dismissed Ning Yi's ideas as unorthodox, she knew his character and that he could be reliable in certain aspects. Since he presented this with such confidence, she figured it must be useful to her. Ning Yi nodded, "Perhaps some of them are. They're many and varied. I wasn't entirely clear on your situation before, and I haven't fully systematized them, so I don't know if you can use them. First off, I also know a few martial arts techniques; you might want to take a look."

Lu Hongti frowned, thinking he was joking. Ning Yi smiled, "It doesn't hurt to look, does it? Perhaps another's stone can polish one's own jade. You can decide if they're useful. Some things, like vital points and joint locks, should be quite systematic."

Lu Hongti sighed, "...I don't even know what you're talking about."

However, she was used to it by now. Like the bizarre talk of molecules, atoms, chemistry, and physics, she often didn't understand what he was rambling about. And now he wanted to teach her martial arts... evidently, that was also the case...