Chapter 416: One Sword

Fan Li pulled the cart.

Madam Sun, Chen Daole’s elderly mother, sat on it with the Sword Maid, while Chen Daole walked alongside with his book servant.

Beside them was another man carrying a straw pole covered with candied hawthorns.

The Sword Maid liked candied hawthorns, but if too many were bought all at once, they lost their charm. So Fan Li had simply tied up a middle-aged candied-hawthorn seller and brought him along with the group. Whenever the Sword Maid wanted one, she took out a few copper coins and bought a skewer from him.

Chen Daole’s book servant also wandered over from time to time to spend a little money and satisfy his craving.

Fan Li pulled the cart with remarkable steadiness. Madam Sun lay beneath a quilt and had already fallen asleep.

The Sword Maid, meanwhile, was somewhat bored. She held a skewer of candied hawthorns in one hand while the other stroked the treasured sword beside her—the one Zhang Yiqing had originally given Chen Daole and which she had now claimed as her own.

She asked:

“You had an official post waiting for you, but instead you insist on following us to Snow Sea Pass. What are you after?”

Chen Daole did not act restrained. Strictly speaking, he was a prisoner just like the middle-aged candied-hawthorn seller, but he still smiled as he answered:

“If I stayed in Yingdu, I could only become some clerk handling endless copying and paperwork. Following you instead may actually give me a greater future.

“Besides, you are Count Pingye’s people. No matter how I calculate it, following you back means I am the one benefiting.”

“Heh. Interesting.” The Sword Maid spat out a fruit pit, licked her lips, and said, “You’re really vulgar.”

“How am I vulgar?”

“I can’t explain it. You just are.”

“Because I’m from Jin?”

“That’s part of it.”

“People still have to eat. Once you decide to sit down at a table, naturally you choose whichever table has the better dishes.”

“That Zheng fellow’s rice isn’t so easy to eat.”

“Eating has always depended on one’s own ability.”

The Sword Maid rolled her eyes.

She had genuinely meant to warn this scholar, who could also be considered someone who had saved her life. But since he insisted on going, she no longer cared.

The Sword Maid possessed one particular talent. Despite her young age, she was exceptionally perceptive and could almost see through what people were thinking simply by watching them.

Chen Daole’s concealment probably seemed quite convincing to himself. It fit his image, and the explanation he had given could certainly stand on its own.

But whether he was truly nothing more than a scholar, whether reality had actually worn away the sharp edges in his heart, and whether his earlier journey to Yingdu—and now this trip to Snow Sea Pass—was really only for the sake of earning a living, the Sword Maid could see clues.

Still, even the King of Hell could not save a ghost determined to die. If he wanted to go, then let him.

Did he really think Snow Sea Pass was that easy a place to muddle through?

Once that Blind Man casually sifted him once, did he really think the man would fail to see what sort of material he was made of just because he was blind?

The group traveled during the day and slept in the open at night. They did not deliberately seek out nearby villages, fortified estates, or inns.

They pitched two tents, one large and one small. Chen Daole’s mother slept in the large tent, while the Sword Maid used the smaller one.

The other four men simply slept on the ground.

That evening’s meal consisted of flatbread and vegetable soup. The greens were wild plants gathered along the road, while the flatbread had been purchased long ago and had gone so hard it might as well have been a club.

The Sword Maid sat nearby eating candied hawthorns.

Madam Sun ate a little flatbread, drank a bowl of soup, then returned to the tent to sleep. The old woman’s body was weak. Even though she spent most of the journey sitting on the cart, the travel still exhausted her.

“Tomorrow, when we pass through the woods, I’ll gather some fruit,” the middle-aged candied-hawthorn seller said. “At night I can boil more sugar syrup, and the pole will be full again.”

His surname was He, given name Chunlai.

In earlier years, He Chunlai had worked as a laborer in Yupan City. When the savages and Chu people came, he fled with the refugees toward Yingdu, then changed professions and began selling candied hawthorns.

“It’s already winter,” the Sword Maid asked. “Where are you going to find fresh fruit?”

He Chunlai shook his head.

“Frozen fruit tastes good too.”

“Oh.”

The Sword Maid nodded.

Chen Daole gnawed at a flatbread as he said:

“The farther east we travel, the fewer people there seem to be.”

“Once we reach Snow Sea Pass, it’ll be lively,” the Sword Maid replied.

Chen Daole nodded.

“Yes. That is why I have always admired Count Pingye.

“A thousand-li lightning raid to descend upon the snowfields, closing the gate to beat the dogs and burying more than a hundred thousand savage beasts in one campaign—that is truly the deed of a great man!”

“Don’t imagine too much,” the Sword Maid said. “Once you meet the real person, you’ll be disappointed.”

“No, no. I’m not flattering him.

“To judge a person, you do not look at what he says or what he appears to be.

“You look at what he has actually done.”

Fan Li gave a quiet chuckle.

Chen Daole continued:

“The great trend beneath Heaven today is clear. Yan is powerful, so Qian and Chu can only join forces to resist Yan’s southward advance.

“But their greatest advantage is also Yan’s greatest problem.

“Qian and Chu are both great states, while Yan has only just annexed the lands of the Three Jin. In the short term, Yan simply does not possess the strength to digest all of it.

“If the board is spread too wide, one wrong move can lose the entire game.”

The Sword Maid yawned.

She had no interest in listening to this scholar show off his grand strategic vision in front of her.

Better to go sleep.

Fan Li continued eating his flatbread in silence.

Unlike the night he had forcibly ordered Chen Daole to save the Sword Maid, Fan Li had spoken very little during the days since leaving Yingdu.

The wind was strong that night.

But louder than the wind were footsteps.

Fan Li stuffed the final piece of flatbread into his mouth, then silently picked up the axe beside him.

Normally the axe remained wrapped in cloth.

He rarely uncovered it.

Seeing this, Chen Daole froze for an instant, then immediately shook himself out of his wandering thoughts. He instinctively searched for a weapon, only to remember that the sword Zhang Yiqing had given him was inside the Sword Maid’s tent.

With no other choice, Chen Daole picked up a stone and gripped it in his hand.

He Chunlai saw what was happening.

He did not ask any questions, but instinct told him something was wrong.

Silently he raised the straw pole from which he sold candied hawthorns.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

The footsteps were now very clear.

The newcomers did not seem interested in concealing themselves.

Perhaps, at such close range, they already believed the matter settled.

*Hummm!*

A black-clothed man burst from the forest and landed before the campfire.

He shouted:

“Hahaha! Yan dog! Do you know who your grandfather is?!”

*Bang!*

Fan Li’s axe swept out.

It moved absurdly fast.

A massive battle-axe became as light as a feather in his hands.

The black-clothed man’s head was sheared clean from his shoulders.

His headless body remained standing there for an instant, blood jetting from the stump of his neck.

Only after killing him did Fan Li seem to remember the question.

He asked:

“Who?”

Unfortunately the black-clothed man could no longer answer.

Perhaps the axe strike had simply been too clean.

Perhaps the decapitated man had been the leader.

Whatever the reason, the seven or eight black-clothed men who emerged afterward did not charge forward.

They stared at their leader’s headless corpse standing beside the fire then began backing away without even realizing it.

One man finally turned and ran.

The others immediately followed.

Just like that they fled.

They had arrived suddenly.

They left just as suddenly.

Fan Li set his axe back down.

He patted his knees and said:

“Sleep.”

He had no interest in who those men had been.

A raiding party secretly dispatched by some nearby fortified estate?

Jin restorationists?

Spies planted in Jin territory by some other state?

Fan Li could not be bothered finding out.

The campfire continued burning.

Fan Li lay down beside it.

His left arm went under his head as a pillow.

His right hand rested on his chest.

Before long snoring began.

Chen Daole and He Chunlai looked at one another.

A trace of wariness appeared in both men’s eyes.

Chen Daole still got up and cleared away the head and corpse, afraid his elderly mother would be frightened when she woke the next morning.

The rest of the night passed in complete peace.

...

At dawn, everyone rose.

The Sword Maid came out of her tent, crouched nearby, dipped a toothbrush in green salt, and began cleaning her teeth.

Deep down, she still regarded killing Zheng Fan after she grew up as one of her life’s great goals.

That did not prevent her from liking the little refinements and cleanliness Zheng Fan had introduced into daily life.

Breakfast was flatbread again.

Monotonous enough to numb the senses.

Then the group continued onward.

Fan Li simply pulled the cart.

He did not ask a single question about what had happened the previous night.

Today, Chen Daole and He Chunlai were both noticeably quieter as well.

Sitting on the cart, the Sword Maid played cat’s cradle with Chen Daole’s elderly mother.

The old woman was slightly better at it than she was.

The old and the young played until they repeatedly burst into giggles.

As they traveled, Chen Daole and He Chunlai occasionally stole glances at Fan Li.

They were deeply unaccustomed to the absolute silence and calm he displayed.

If it had been anyone else, the man would probably have spent the entire day nervously discussing what had happened the previous night.

He might even have sounded them out or suspected the two of them.

Fan Li did not.

Because once strength reached a certain level the poetry was beneath your feet.

Not somewhere in the distance.

Chen Daole could not help looking several more times toward the Sword Maid.

At her age, ordinary practitioners would still be laying foundations.

Even after adulthood, they would need to grind forward one step at a time.

Yet this girl’s foundation had been so outrageously deep that she had been forced to advance a Grade simply to relieve the pressure.

Most terrifying of all after advancing she had cried tears of regret.

Fan Li and the Sword Maid had told Chen Daole only that they were going to Snow Sea Pass and served Count Pingye.

As for anything else, the Sword Maid deliberately refused to explain.

Fan Li simply could not be bothered.

Winter had already arrived.

That evening, the group prepared to camp inside a patch of forest.

He Chunlai took brown sugar from his pack, lit the campfire, set up the pot, then stood.

He was going into the woods to find fruit.

Candied hawthorns had never been limited to a single recipe.

There were plenty of things one could use.

The Sword Maid asked curiously:

“Who are you going to ask for fruit?”

He Chunlai smiled.

“People aren’t the only ones who know how to hide fruit.”

He was gone for more than two hours.

Fan Li stopped waiting for him to return before making the sugar glaze.

Instead, he began cooking the vegetable soup and propped the flatbread near the fire to toast.

By the time the soup was ready, the flatbread had crisped slightly at the edges.

The Sword Maid took one from Fan Li but had little appetite.

“I miss the steamed buns back at the residence.”

The steamed buns at Count Pingye Residence came with fillings.

Shredded radish.

Red bean paste.

Pickled greens.

Chinese cabbage.

Three buns could serve as both meal and vegetables.

Fan Li nodded.

“Next time I go out, I’ll carry more.”

In winter, steamed buns kept for a long time and did not spoil easily.

“Mm.”

Even if she did not want to eat she still had to.

Because the Sword Maid had discovered that ever since advancing to Ninth Grade that night her appetite had increased.

She disliked that very much.

Not because she was afraid of becoming fat.

In this age, excessively thin women were often less desirable. The old saying that broad hips made childbirth easier ultimately came from the era’s poor medical conditions: a woman too small and frail faced greater risk during labor.

What bothered the Sword Maid was different.

She thought her former self had been very easy to feed.

Back when she followed her previous master, Yuan Zhenxing, master and disciple often went hungry in the capital. Half a steamed bun had been enough to fill her stomach.

Even during a terrible famine, she had been difficult to starve to death.

Now she was beginning to panic.

Childhood experiences truly did leave shadows.

Faced with her suddenly growing appetite, the Sword Maid could not help wondering:

*After I kill Zheng Fan in the future—*

*who the hell will still be able to afford feeding me?*

At last, He Chunlai returned.

He carried a bundle in his left hand.

Blood stained his body.

When he opened the bundle, it was full of frozen fruit of various kinds.

But the blood on him had clearly not come from some wild animal even though wolves probably did live nearby.

Chen Daole wanted to ask about the blood.

He did not.

Fan Li and the Sword Maid simply continued eating.

The book servant was too frightened to look.

Madam Sun’s eyesight was poor. After eating, she had already returned to the tent to sleep.

He Chunlai drank the final bowl of vegetable soup.

Set it down.

Then smiled.

The expression held a little freedom.

And a little relief.

“I went and killed some people.

“Those bastards still wouldn’t let go.”

“Oh.”

The Sword Maid answered once and returned to her tent.

“Oh.”

Fan Li answered too.

He still had not eaten enough, so he took another flatbread and began warming it over the fire.

There were not many left.

Fortunately, Snow Sea Pass was already close.

He Chunlai felt as though he had punched a fist into cotton.

Extremely uncomfortable.

“I know how to make candied hawthorns.

“But I wasn’t actually a laborer before.”

“Mm.”

Fan Li continued to toast the flatbread.

He Chunlai bit his lip.

Then looked toward Chen Daole.

Chen Daole lowered his head.

Neither man was accustomed to this atmosphere.

It was not quite confession.

Not quite revelation.

Not quite confrontation.

It felt more like having a swarm of lice crawling over your body and scratching at you.

Not painful enough to make you scream but irritating enough that you could not sit still.

Fan Li took the toasted flatbread from the fire.

He broke it in half.

Then handed one half to He Chunlai, who had only drunk soup earlier.

He Chunlai had completely lost his temper.

He accepted it.

Then—

“Hiss! Hot!”

The bread had just come from the fire.

It was scorching.

Fan Li did not care.

He continued eating in huge bites.

His physique was fundamentally different from an ordinary person’s.

As Xue San had once put it if A’Li became hungry enough, he could swallow glass like malted-milk chocolate balls.

In the end, He Chunlai never managed to say what he had intended to say.

That night, after Fan Li ate his fill and lay down to sleep, He Chunlai used their only cooking pot to simmer sugar syrup.

Then he poured it over the frozen fruit.

By morning the straw pole that had been empty the night before was once again covered in candied fruit skewers.

The group set out again.

That afternoon they spotted a cavalry patrol ahead.

Snow Sea Pass scouts.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, another detachment arrived to receive them.

The Sword Maid climbed down from the cart.

Fan Li tied the padded seat back onto his shoulder, then lifted the Sword Maid and seated her there.

Then, Fan Li started running.

Straight toward Snow Sea Pass.

The others would be escorted onward by Snow Sea Pass scouts.

Just after nightfall, Fan Li ran through Snow Sea Pass’s southern gate.

He did not stop.

He continued straight toward Count Pingye Residence.

At the entrance the Sword Maid jumped down from his shoulder.

She did not enter the Count’s residence.

Instead, she went next door to her master.

Fan Li scratched his head and went inside.

After wandering through the residence once, however, he discovered no one was there.

He found a servant and asked.

Only then did he learn that Master and the others had taken the Commandery Princess to Fengxin City and had not yet returned.

...

Outside the small courtyard beside Count Pingye Residence the Sword Maid knocked on the door.

Liu Dahu opened it.

The instant he saw her his face turned red.

Among children their age, especially inside the Charitable School, Zheng Man—the wolf cub they had picked up in the desert long ago—was the little tyrant of the school.

The Sword Maid, meanwhile was the dream girl in the hearts of the boys.

Everyone thought she was beautiful.

“Where’s your father?” the Sword Maid asked.

“Dad!” Liu Dahu shouted.

The Sword Saint walked over.

He patted Liu Dahu’s head, then stepped outside.

Liu Dahu instinctively wanted to follow.

The Sword Maid glared at him once.

He immediately retreated.

The Sword Saint walked in front.

The Sword Maid followed behind.

The Sword Saint said:

“Dahu is an honest child.”

The Sword Maid replied:

“Master, I really don’t like your son that way.

“Stop trying to arrange a marriage.”

“That isn’t what your master meant.”

“Then don’t mean it in the future either.”

The Sword Saint smiled.

“Master.

“I advanced.”

“I can see that.”

The Sword Maid told him everything that had happened to her on the return journey.

The Sword Saint frowned slightly.

He had originally assumed the girl had simply been unable to restrain herself and had secretly advanced a Grade.

He had not expected this.

By rights, it should not have happened.

The Sword Saint understood the Sword Maid’s physical condition.

If he had believed something like this could happen, he never would have agreed to let Fan Li take her to Yanjing.

Originally he had thought a swordsman’s eyes should not contain only the sword.

They should also hold the breadth of mountains and rivers.

But now, even he broke out in cold sweat.

If something had genuinely happened to this disciple of his if she had died he would have regretted it for the rest of his life.

“Why did it become like this?

“Did you eat something unusual?”

“Ah.

“Before we left, the Sixth Prince asked us to bring some gifts back for Count Zheng.

“There was some lingzhi, Heavenly Sweetgrass, things like that.

“I had Big Guy cook them into our vegetable soup along the way.”

The Sword Saint understood.

That was the problem.

“You over-supplemented.”

“Huh?”

The Sword Maid had never imagined *that* would be the reason.

In truth, her first menstruation had only been the trigger.

The real cause was that she had eaten too many powerful medicinal treasures at once.

Her qi and blood became excessively active, then clogged and stagnated.

The Sword Maid looked utterly aggrieved.

“Master.

“I lost out so badly.”

“Lost what?”

“I originally planned that once I grew up and went to kill Zheng Fan, I’d advance one Grade with every step.

“Then, on the final step, I’d imitate you outside the city and forcibly open Second Grade—and take Zheng Fan’s dog head.

“Now it’s ruined.

“My dream is gone.”

“Of all the people you could imitate—why imitate Zheng Fan?”

“I’m not, Master.”

“You are.”

“I’m not!”

The Sword Maid became angry.

“Fine.

“You’re not.”

“But Master—will advancing early this time affect my cultivation later?”

The Sword Saint nodded.

Then, shook his head.

“Master, what does that mean?”

“It will affect you.

“But it also can be made not to.

“Your road cannot be rushed.

“You need to walk more steadily.

“The sword’s nature is speed.

“But very often—only greater stability allows greater speed.”

“Then what do I do, Master?”

“Easy.”

The Sword Saint placed his index finger between the Sword Maid’s brows.

His back had been slightly hunched while walking, and his steps somewhat weak.

At this moment, his spine straightened.

His finger moved away.

Immediately a thread of sword qi was drawn directly out of the Sword Maid’s body.

It vanished into the empty air ahead.

The Sword Maid suddenly felt all strength leave her body.

*Thump.*

She dropped to her knees.

At this moment, not a trace of sword qi remained circulating inside her.

Her Ninth Grade cultivation from the previous days felt as though it had been nothing more than a dream.

But almost immediately the Sword Maid seemed to realize something.

She raised her head.

Shock filled her face as she stared at her master.

The Sword Saint’s back hunched again.

His steps once more became weak and floating.

He even coughed twice, perhaps because the night wind was strong.

Once again he looked like a sick man.

“Master...

“Master, you...”

The Sword Saint interrupted her.

“Your dream—has come back.”

————

[End of Chapter 416]