After hosting a meal to celebrate with the others, their conversation naturally turned to their future plans. The Wu siblings prepared to return home; they had only come out to broaden their horizons and had no intention of pursuing the martial path.
"Brother Wu, what are your plans for the future?" Fang Heng raised his glass toward Wu Yan.
Wu Yan set down his chopsticks, picked up his wine cup to clink it against Fang Heng's, took a sip, and said, "Return home to prepare for the imperial examinations."
"My brother passed the xiucai examination this year as the top candidate!"
Wu Nian's childish tone made everyone laugh. Wu Yan felt a bit embarrassed and said, "Pure luck, pure luck."
"Congratulations!" Lin Yue raised her cup and offered.
"Come! Here's to Brother Wu making the golden list!" Fang Heng raised his wine cup again.
"Not bad, kid!" Hong Ying raised an eyebrow.
"May you take first place in one fell swoop!"
"Thank you, everyone!"
Everyone raised their cups and drank heartedly.
Fang Heng patted his shoulder. "Not bad! A hidden gem, aren't you?"
"That's right!" Fang Yu giggled and nudged Wu Nian, tilting her head. "If my brother took the test, he wouldn't even pass the first round. He falls asleep the moment he looks at a book. Otherwise, I'd be the sister of Scholar Fang by now!"
Wu Nian covered her mouth with a giggle.
"Look who's talking! You go take it then if it's so easy," Fang Heng glared at her and snorted. "Always exposing your brother's flaws."
"If it weren't for the body searches at the imperial exams, I would've taken it for you," Fang Yu mused with a sigh. "Back in the day, I wasn't just the prettiest girl in town—I was also the most knowledgeable in the martial arts academy! Even Master praised me as a genius. If I had studied at an academy, a tongsheng title would've been a piece of cake, to say the least!"
"Haha, Sister Fang is something else!" Hong Ying said.
"Sister Fang Yu is amazing!" Wu Nian chimed in.
"Of course!" Fang Yu beamed with pride.
"Keep bragging!"
"I'm not bragging! Master really praised me! She said I was more talented than her son."
Fang Heng raised an eyebrow. "How come you never told me?"
"Master said a person should be humble, especially girls."
"You're not being humble at all."
"Oh, it was a minor detail, so I forgot."
Wu Yan interjected, "Although women cannot become civil officials, military official posts are still open to them."
Fang Yu sighed. "Military official positions have pretty high requirements. My innate talent isn't great, and I don't have any special skills."
She smiled again. "Besides, we're used to the freedom of traveling the jianghu. Unfettered as we are, we couldn't handle those restrictions. My brother and I plan to head west to the border of Youzhou to see the boundless grasslands."
"Sigh, I'd love to see it too, but I haven't been back in a long time. I need to go home and check on things."
"Lin Yue, what about you? Since you made it into the top one hundred at the Martial Arts Convention, you should have opportunities open to you," Fang Yu said.
Lin Yue also smiled. "I'm used to being free as well. My father never returned to his sect, so I ought to make the trip for him."
She intended to keep practicing this technique. No matter what, she was the one benefiting the most from it. Having received its grace and bounty, she might as well take this opportunity to settle the matter.
"Ah."
"Wu Nian, what about you?"
"Me?" Wu Nian paused, then lowered her head slightly, her face flushing as she toyed with her clothes.
"My sister is engaged," Wu Yan said. "She'll be getting married late next year."
"So soon?" Fang Yu widened her eyes. "What's he like? Have you met him?"
Wu Nian gave a small nod, and Wu Yan answered for her, "The legitimate son of the Sun family in the prefectural capital. They were childhood playmates, and he passed the xiucai examination this year as well."
"Oho~" Fang Yu nodded. "Childhood sweethearts, then."
Lin Yue glanced at Wu Nian and asked, "How is his temperament?"
"Brother Sun is quick-witted, fond of learning, and gentle by nature. He treats my sister very well."
Lin Yue nodded. "Congratulations."
"Sister Lin, Sister Hong Ying, Sister Fang Yu, Brother Fang Heng... will you come next year in the eleventh month?"
"It takes over a month to reach the sect from here, so I probably won't be able to make it. Let me wish you happiness and joy in advance." Lin Yue raised her cup and drained it in one gulp.
"Well... as wanderers of the jianghu with no fixed abode, we might not return. We wish you a harmonious marriage and an everlasting union."
"Indeed, the paths of the jianghu are long, and nothing is certain."
The two raised their cups in a toast.
"Sister Wu, it takes over half a year for me to travel back, so I won't be able to come either. I wish you both complete devotion to one another and a blessed match."
"Alright." Wu Nian nodded, feeling a little regretful. Still, it was expected—all good things must come to an end.
Over the next few days, Lin Yue helped recruit disciples. Many people turned up, but Li Le was so picky that hardly anyone was left. Upon hearing that the sect was far away, took a long time to show results, and was located deep in the mountains, even the remaining few walked off.
If these parents placed their children in major sects, their kids would be inner disciples or personal disciples, destined to become future elders or sect masters; there was no need to send them into a remote corner of the mountains to suffer.
"Why are you city folks so pragmatic?"
Li Le complained. He was the champion of the Martial Arts Convention! The number one in the world, hey! How dare they look down on him...
Lin Yue didn't answer. Instead, she took him to a den of beggars. Upon hearing that a shelter was recruiting people, the beggars swarmed around them like bees.
Li Le started being picky again. Old, ugly, disabled, or too young—rejected. That left only a few children, but after checking their innate talent: poor, rejected.
Lin Yue was speechless. Passing down the technique was what mattered most; if he kept being this picky, the sect would disband before it even started.
Yet the sect master declared, "Better to go without than accept poor quality."
Lin Yue felt it was more that he couldn't swallow his pride.
A few days later, when the Wu siblings were about to leave, Lin Yue went to see them off and gave Wu Nian her last portion of hundred-year lingzhi as a wedding gift.
Before leaving, the female master even asked Lin Yue if she wanted to join her as a disciple, but Lin Yue declined.
Li Le took a wide lap through the beggars' dens in the capital. In the end, out of over a hundred children, he selected two—a boy and a girl—with decent talent. The children walked with a slight limp, but after examining them, Lin Yue deemed it easily curable. She paid money to negotiate with the beggar chief before taking them away.
One day, when Lin Yue returned to the courtyard, she saw Ren Siyan chatting with Hong Ying. Seeing her approach, Ren Siyan asked about Chen Zhiyi.
Lin Yue recounted the story again, and Ren Siyan agreed, saying, "It really is best for a child to stay with their relatives."
Lin Yue asked Ren Siyan for advice on how to raise and teach orphans. Ren Siyan shared a great deal, covering everything from entry into the sect to promotions to elder status, with rewards for good performance and penalties for poor performance.
"In fact, martial artists themselves don't need to focus too much on literary knowledge. You only need to teach them literacy, martial arts, and basic moral principles. In a place like our Huajian Sect, where there are many children, masters can't attend to everyone. With so few children in your recruitments, you can care for each one individually. Coupled with superior techniques, things won't turn out badly no matter what."
Lin Yue took mental notes. With another sect's experience to draw upon, she gained a clearer idea in her mind.
The next day, when Lin Yue went out to recruit disciples, she spotted a familiar little girl's figure.
Chen Zhiyi's expressionless face finally found focus upon seeing Lin Yue. With a hint of aggrieved emotion, he called out, "Brother."
He still remembered that when wearing female clothing, he was supposed to call her "Brother."
"You know each other?" Li Le raised an eyebrow.
"Why is he here?" Lin Yue countered instead of answering.
"He's my newly recruited sect disciple..."
Li Le recounted what had happened. Just as dusk was settling, a woman leading a little girl came to find him. She asked him to teach the little girl martial arts and shared a bit about the child's background.
The child was the offspring of a military official. Because the family had offended some people, the mother was dead, and the father was away, she couldn't keep the child with her and asked him to take the child in as a disciple to instruct...
"I didn't take him in out of pity," Li Le said nonchalantly. "I only reluctantly accepted him because his innate talent seemed decent."
Hearing this, Lin Yue knew the aunt was unreliable as well. What kind of person handed her elder brother's child over to a complete stranger?
Lin Yue revealed the truth. In reality, she didn't particularly want to take on this trouble again. She hadn't expected the young man to slam his hand on the table and point at her indignantly, exclaiming, "You chickened out just because you were afraid of getting dragged into it?"
"How can anyone stand by with folded arms when encountering something like this?! What kind of scoundrels target a child? How can we let evil people walk free while good people end up with their family lines cut off? Is that fair..."
Lin Yue interrupted him, "What she said might not even be true."
"Whether it's true or not is their business! Why meddle so much? All we have to do is teach the child well and let him grow up to be an upright person."
Perhaps only someone with righteousness in his heart could say such things. Moreover, he was penniless and unburdened, so he had no worries to begin with. Thus, Lin Yue agreed to let Chen Zhiyi stay, handing him over to the two newly recruited beggar children to care for.
Ren Siyan was preparing to leave. She mentioned that returning with her sect required passing through Wangsu Stream, and the sect had decided to escort a merchant caravan of several dozen people along the way to earn extra money, bringing their total numbers close to a hundred.
"I plan to cross Wangsu Stream together with Ren Siyan and the others," Hong Ying said. "We'll set out early tomorrow morning."
Living expenses near the capital were high, so Hong Ying was leaving alongside Ren Siyan and her sect.
Lin Yue cupped her hands. "Until we meet again."
The two also cupped their hands. "Until we meet again!"
After staying in the capital for half a month, right around the end of the month, the Fang siblings were ready to depart. In such a prosperous place, they couldn't recruit anyone willing to move to the countryside; perhaps they would find more people along the way.
Since their initial direction was the same, the group set off together. Because the two children had trouble walking, Li Le planned to buy a carriage and suggested that Lin Yue slaughter her slow donkey to have a feast of donkey meat before leaving. Lin Yue refused—the donkey had accompanied her for several years and recognized its master. She told him to take the two kids and go ahead first.
In the end, they rented a carriage. He drove it while riding Lin Yue's horse, while Lin Yue rode her donkey.
Just as they left the capital, several wealthy-looking lords surrounded Li Le, wanting to invite him to stay as their retainer. The generous compensation made the three onlookers' hearts leap, but with Li Le's proud nature, how could he willingly serve under someone else? He refused them outright with an attitude so arrogant that the lords turned pale with rage and flicked their sleeves as they stormed off.
The others urged him to exercise restraint, pointing out that in a place like the capital, a glance across the crowd revealed nothing but officials or children of officials, perhaps even hidden princes or noble heirs. Acting like that made it easy to get stabbed.
Yet Li Le refused to listen and even lashed out at them. "You care about this, you care about that! People should just live happily! Why bother worrying about so much?"
Unable to beat him in a fight, the three could only silently look forward to the day he finally ran into a brick wall.
Leaving the capital behind, they headed west. The donkey's hooves clattered lightly along the dirt road, while fine horses galloped past beside them, kicking up clouds of yellow dust as they sped away.
The donkey maintained its leisurely pace, walking without any rush.
"Hurry up, you guys! Stop dawdling!"
Driving the carriage, Li Le urged Lin Yue to move faster. Lin Yue waved her hand, telling him to go ahead. Li Le wasn't the patient type to wait around, so he snorted, turned away, and drove off. Yet after Lin Yue and the Fang siblings traveled ahead a bit, they saw him squatting by the roadside, nibbling on wild grass alongside the horse while glaring at them in dissatisfaction.
There was a somewhat wild air to him, leaving the three watching in silence. Fang Yu quietly leaned in to whisper a suggestion: "Don't let the kids turn out like him. Even if they eat grass, they should at least eat it like human beings."
Lin Yue nodded, accepting the advice.
Along the way, Li Le continued trying to recruit disciples. Since no one was willing to sell their children to him, he could only seek out parentless orphans and beggars. After picking and choosing, he managed to get just one, tricking and coaxing him along.
An old beggar in his fifties saw this and hurriedly ran over, falling to his knees to beg Li Le to take him in. He could do odd jobs, fetch water, cook, and care for the children. Having drifted around for most of his old age, he only wished for a stable place to stay and a bite to eat, satisfied as long as someone would bury his corpse when he died instead of leaving it exposed in the wilderness.
Li Le rejected him for being too old, complaining that if he got any older, no one would know who was taking care of whom.
The old beggar wept bitterly, promising repeatedly that once he became too old to work, he would take care of his own end; they would only need to help bury him.
"Please take me in, Your Excellency! Take me in..."
The old man clung to Li Le's clothes, pleading for a long time, and the Fang siblings also chimed in, saying that with more children, someone would be needed to care for them.
Annoyed by the fuss, Li Le called on Lin Yue, who had been silent the whole time, to give her opinion.
"You're the sect master. It's your call," Lin Yue ignored the drama and tossed the question right back to him.
In the end, he took the old beggar in anyway.
As they traveled down the road, a horse galloped up from behind. With a loud "Whoa!", its front hooves reared up, and it clattered to a stop in front of the carriage.
"Are you the martial arts champion, Li Le?" the person demanded.
"Yeah, that's me! What of it?"
"I challenge you!"
With that, the man drew his sword and charged. Li Le hastily leaped off the carriage, and the two began fighting in the middle of the road.
After that, someone came to challenge him every few days, annoying him so much that he ended up pointing directions for them.
Whenever he encountered bullies or villains along the road, Li Le insisted on stepping in. His method was simple and brutal: mocking them with his arrogance, giving them a beatdown, forcing them to admit their faults and pay compensation, uttering a threat, and then swaggering away. When the victims chased after him with generous gifts to express their gratitude, he turned them down, refusing to spare them a second glance.
Setting aside his arrogant nature, judging solely by his actions, he truly shared a few similarities with Song Jiqing.
Every meeting ends in parting. After traveling together for nearly half a month, Lin Yue bid farewell to the Fang siblings. They continued west along the main dirt road, while Lin Yue and her group took a fork in the path, heading northwest.
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