Chapter 98: Warm Sunshine

"Huh?"

Yuan Fang sprang back to his feet, baffled.

"Oh!"

Then he reacted and hurried off. Before long, he came running back with a clay jar in both hands. He wanted to feed Niu Youdao himself, but Yuan Gang refused to let him.

Yuan Gang snatched the jar away, carefully brought its mouth to Niu Youdao's lips, and slowly poured in the water a little at a time. After gradually swallowing a good amount, Niu Youdao closed his mouth. Only then did Yuan Gang lower the jar. He stared at Niu Youdao with a grave expression. Niu Youdao spoke weakly again.

"A little hungry. Make me some porridge."

Yuan Gang immediately turned his head.

Yuan Fang instinctively jumped backward and hurriedly said, "I'll go make it!"

Then he fled like a streak of smoke. Yuan Gang kept his eyes on Niu Youdao. His voice was heavy.

"Master Dao, how did you end up like this?"

Niu Youdao said, "It's fine. This is normal. I should recover in about a month, but I can't move around much yet. I'll probably need to stay here quietly for another three days and wait for the meridians to stabilize before I can leave."

Yuan Gang asked, "Does everyone who breaks through this realm end up like this?"

Niu Youdao said, "More or less, I think. The ones with proper conditions have pills to help repair the damaged meridians, so they recover faster. In my case, I was being watched too closely before and couldn't conveniently interact with the outside world. I also didn't want to draw the Tianyu Sect's attention, so I had no choice but to make my body endure it directly."

Looking at his miserable condition, Yuan Gang's cheek tightened hard.

"The Shangqing Sect deserves to die. Sooner or later, I'll raze the Shangqing Sect to the ground!"

Niu Youdao smiled weakly. He knew Yuan Gang blamed the Shangqing Sect's heartlessness for forcing him to rely on his own body to survive the breakthrough.

"With just you? Can you beat them?"

Yuan Gang said, "Did you forget there's sulfur here?"

Niu Youdao froze. The word explosives flashed through his mind. Then he remembered Monkey's background. Monkey was an expert in the use of weapons and military ordnance. Mixing up some crude explosives by traditional methods would hardly be difficult for him.

Imagining the Shangqing Sect collapsing beneath an explosion, Niu Youdao had to admit that Monkey might genuinely be capable of doing something like that. He was rendered somewhat speechless.

"You... The matter with the Shangqing Sect is already over. As long as they don't come looking for trouble again, I don't want any more entanglement with them either. In the end, they don't truly owe me anything. And the reason I've been able to progress this quickly in cultivation is because I benefited from Dong Guo Haoran. Dong Guo Haoran was, after all, a disciple of the Shangqing Sect. The Shangqing Sect may treat me without benevolence, and I may answer without righteousness, but I cannot keep clutching at them forever. Ride the jianghu road; wind or rain, take either as it comes. As long as they don't go too far again, let the matter end here. This is my jianghu. Don't act recklessly."

He spoke at length despite his weakness.

Yuan Gang said, "I understand. Stop talking and rest."

He turned and adjusted the wick of the oil lamp, making the flame burn a little brighter. A weak, slow strain of Peking opera drifted through the cave.

"I was once a carefree man of Wolong Ridge,
With yin and yang in my palm, I steadied Heaven and Earth..."

Yuan Gang abruptly turned. Niu Youdao was still sitting cross-legged, head lowered, softly humming the tune. Yuan Gang watched him for a while. Then he slowly sat down on the stone steps.

The broken fragments of the melody drifted past his ears while his eyes settled on the dim yellow lamplight.

He fell silent...

At the entrance to Prince Ning's mountain estate in Canglu County, the man who had knelt there through wind, sun, and rain until he barely looked human finally toppled sideways onto the ground. The movement immediately stirred the guards at the gate. Men came out one after another and gathered around him.

"Looks like he's dead?"

"Let me check... No breathing. No pulse."

"He actually knelt himself to death."

"Easy for you to say. Forget kneeling that many days. You couldn't stand one. He hasn't had a drop of water or a grain of rice all this time!"

"Is there something wrong with his head?"

The disturbance at the gate drew the attention of the cultivators taking their turn on guard inside the estate. Before long, Bai Yao was alerted. By the time he came outside, the guards had already lifted Wei Duo from the ground.

Bai Yao said coldly, "What are you doing? Who told you to move him?"

One of the guards carrying Wei Duo replied, "Cultivator, he's dead. He just collapsed. He's knelt himself to death. We were taking him away to bury him."

Knelt himself to death?

Bai Yao's brows twitched. The look he gave Wei Duo was full of emotion. He had never imagined that anyone beneath Heaven could be this foolish, stubborn enough to literally kneel himself to death. What kind of perseverance and determination did that require? He quickly stepped forward and checked the man himself. There was still the faintest trace of a pulse. It was so weak it was almost nonexistent. An ordinary person would never have detected it.

"Bring water!"

Bai Yao barked. Someone immediately ran to obey. Bai Yao swiftly took a tiny wax-sealed pellet from his belt.

He cracked the shell, removed a small medicinal pill, pried open Wei Duo's mouth, crushed the pill beneath his fingers, and fed the powder inside. Then he gathered qi and pressed one palm over Wei Duo's heart.

When the water arrived, he instructed, "Feed it to him slowly."

Seeing the situation, everyone roughly understood that the man was not actually dead. Someone immediately raised Wei Duo's head and began carefully giving him water. Only after quite some time did Bai Yao withdraw his hand. He ordered two men to carry Wei Duo into the estate... Three days later, Niu Youdao was carried out of his cave as well.

He was seated in the same simple carrying chair that had previously taken Shang Shuqing down the mountain. Yuan Fang had borrowed it. Meng Shanming, Shang Shuqing, and Luo An were all waiting below.

When they saw Niu Youdao pass before them encased in a crust of dried blood, all three were horrified. Shang Shuqing even covered her mouth in shock. Not one of them managed to say a word. They simply watched as he was carried away.

Back at the quiet little courtyard prepared for him, Niu Youdao was stripped naked. Yuan Fang used spiritual power to shake the crust of dried blood from his body. Afterward, Niu Youdao was lowered into a tub of heated water. Yuan Gang stood beside the bath and carefully helped wash him, not daring to use too much force. Several days later, Niu Youdao finally stepped outside. He could walk around slowly on his own now. He looked relaxed and comfortable.

Yuan Gang stayed almost constantly at his side. Yuan Fang, meanwhile, was sent running errands whenever something needed doing.

Early the next morning, Niu Youdao sat before the dressing table with an expression somewhere between laughter and helplessness. Shang Shuqing was once again combing his hair. She meant well. She stubbornly treated him like an invalid who needed care. He had refused. The refusal had not worked. And he could hardly speak too bluntly about it. So here they were again. The days that followed were unusually leisurely for Niu Youdao. He did not cultivate. For the moment, cultivating was unsuitable anyway.

He spent his time walking outside, dozing in a lounge chair a carpenter had specially made for him, and studying the markings on the bronze mirror. The sunlight was warm. Niu Youdao lay in the lounge chair basking beneath it. Nearby, Yuan Fang stood beside a stone mill grinding soybeans with a miserable look on his face. He had no idea where Yuan Gang had gotten the beans from somewhere in the village. Apparently they intended to make something to eat.

Niu Youdao had casually given a few instructions, then had Yuan Fang borrow a stone mill from a neighboring household. The soybeans were soaked and ground again and again until they produced a pale white slurry. Yuan Gang, following Niu Youdao's instructions, had also obtained a jar of coarse, large-grained salt from another household. He washed the salt with water and extracted a dark, murky liquid. Yuan Fang had no idea what that was for either.

"Old Bear, stop sighing. Aren't you vegetarian? Later you'll be thanking Monkey."

Niu Youdao, squinting in the sunshine, pointed lazily at the thoroughly bored Yuan Fang. Once both preparations were finished, Niu Youdao finally rose. The three carried everything into the kitchen. The ground soybean mixture went into a pot to boil, then was filtered through cloth. Afterward, Niu Youdao personally measured some of the dark liquid and sprinkled it into the pot. By the time they ladled the contents out again, the mixture had become white, tender, and silky. Yuan Fang stared, blinking repeatedly.

A cloth was spread inside a bamboo steaming basket. The soft white curds were poured in. The cloth was folded over them. Then a clean stone was placed on top as a weight.

Once everything was arranged, Niu Youdao washed his hands and said to Yuan Gang, "It'll be ready in a quarter of an hour. Understand the process?"

Yuan Gang nodded. He looked toward the bundle beneath the weighted stone. An uncommon warmth appeared in his eyes.

"Got it. It's simple enough."

Some of the soft white curds remained in the pot. Yuan Gang scooped a bowlful, sprinkled in a little powdered sugar, stirred it, and carried it over to Niu Youdao. Niu Youdao shook his head.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he walked outside and lay down in the courtyard to continue basking in the sun. Before long, Yuan Gang came out as well. Yuan Fang followed him, holding an empty bowl to his mouth and licking it with his broad tongue. He chuckled.

"Master Yuan, let's make some more."

Yuan Gang said, "There isn't any."

Yuan Fang complained, "I'm not full yet."

Yuan Gang could not be bothered with him. He left. Quite some time later, he returned carrying a freshly cleaned fish. Before long, an enticing fragrance drifted from the kitchen. By coincidence, Shang Shuqing arrived around then. Seeing Niu Youdao dozing, she followed the smell toward the kitchen. At noon, Shang Shuqing stayed instead of leaving. The group gathered around a table and ate fresh fish stewed with tofu.

Watching everyone else eat happily, Yuan Fang looked down at the soybean pulp in his own bowl, then toward the fragrant stew everyone else was reaching into with their chopsticks. His eyes turned faintly pitiful.

In the end, he pressed his palms together, muttered scriptures beneath his breath, and resisted breaking his vegetarian precepts.

After the meal, Shang Shuqing set down her chopsticks and asked a little shyly, "This tofu is delicious. Is it truly made from soybeans?"

Yuan Fang immediately nodded again and again.

"Commandery Princess, absolutely! I've never heard of anything like it, let alone seen it. And the tofu pudding is even better with powdered sugar. If you don't believe me, ask Master Dao to make another pot. Leave all the hard work at the stone mill to me!"

He patted his chest. Shang Shuqing looked toward Niu Youdao and tested the waters.

"If tofu could be transported out and sold, it would surely become a substantial source of income."

Niu Youdao smiled faintly.

"I'm not interested in that. If the Commandery Princess wants to learn, ask Monkey. He can teach you."

He knew this woman was not someone who had never seen money. Most likely, she was already calculating military expenses again. As for Niu Youdao, he genuinely had no interest in this business opportunity.

Without enough strength to protect it, such a profitable trade could not be held in an age this chaotic. The rarer and more lucrative the business, the more trouble it would attract. Besides, tofu itself was not difficult to make. The method would be copied easily enough... By mid-afternoon, Yuan Gang returned from outside carrying a bundle of wooden staffs over one shoulder. He called to Yuan Fang.

"Close the gate."

Yuan Fang ran over and shut the courtyard gate.

Then he came back to where Yuan Gang was arranging the pile of wooden staffs and asked curiously, "Master Yuan, is this something else we're going to eat?"

Yuan Gang lifted one staff and held it out in front of his mouth.

"You want to eat it?"

Yuan Fang gently pushed it aside and chuckled.

"Master Yuan certainly knows how to joke."

Yuan Gang did not look as though he were joking.

Expressionless, he stared at him and asked, "I beat you pretty often. Do you hate me for it?"

Yuan Fang waved both hands.

"Nothing of the sort."

Yuan Gang said, "I'm giving you a chance to take revenge. Want it?"

"That's all in the past. We're our own people. A little fighting among ourselves doesn't damage the friendship. Why talk about revenge?"

Yuan Fang suddenly sensed something was wrong. He tossed out the words, turned, and tried to leave. Yuan Gang swept the staff sideways and blocked his path.

"Today I'm giving you one chance to hit me. I won't fight back. I won't dodge. And I won't take revenge afterward!"

[End of Chapter 98]