The mountain road twisted with eighteen bends, growing narrower as they went. Li Le abandoned the carriage, picked up two of the children, and used his lightness technique to leap into the trees. He swung back and forth through the forest like a monkey, scaring the two kids so much they burst into loud wails.
Lin Yue led the donkey, while on its back, the little girl held onto the smaller child. The donkey sauntered along at a leisurely pace.
The journey was long. Traversing mountains and ridges, wading through streams and rivers, and passing through mountain villages, it took them a month to finally emerge from the mountains. As they walked along a yellow dirt road, rain suddenly began to fall.
The group sheltered under a tree to escape the rain. Cursing his bad luck, Li Le pulled out an oilcloth to cover the luggage. The old beggar was named Huang, so they called him Old Huang. Old Huang stepped up to help as well. Lin Yue retrieved a large piece of oiled paper to cover the children, handed Old Huang an umbrella, and scooped up Chen Zhiyi while holding another umbrella over them.
When Li Le finished and looked up, the others were sheltered from the rain, quietly blinking as they watched him work. Only Old Huang walked over holding an umbrella and held it above Li Le's head. What an ungrateful bunch of brats! Li Le took a deep breath, reminding himself that he was the sect master. He led the horse over, while the donkey trotted up on its own.
Only then did he hear their belated expressions of concern.
"Come under the tree and take shelter from the rain," Lin Yue said.
"Sect Master, come shelter from the rain," the three children called out.
Li Le was speechless. All along the way, he was the one who hunted game, Old Huang gathered the firewood, and he fetched the water before cleaning the game. He got whatever food and drink were left over, he scouted the path, he carried the kids, he led the horse, and he fought off bandits. Meanwhile, she had it easy—sitting on the donkey with the kids to admire the scenery, dismounting to stroll around when she got tired of sitting, letting Old Huang ride for a bit, as if she were on a picnic.
A sect master, the top martial artist of the martial realm, reduced to running around like a nagging old woman!
"Can you actually do something useful?"
"I'm watching the kids."
"Next time, I'll watch the kids while you go get food. We take turns!"
"Fine."
When the rain stopped, Lin Yue put the children down and packed away the oiled paper. Once he placed the kids back on the donkey, she led the horse forward. As dusk approached, they stopped by a stream. She went out to hunt while Old Huang led the three children in clearing a patch of open ground, gathering firewood, and boiling water. Li Le kept an eye on the luggage, the old man, and the children, catching some fish on the side.
Before long, a fire was lit. Even before the water finished boiling, Lin Yue returned from hunting with three fat rabbits, a pheasant, seven or eight large bird eggs, a handful of wild fruits, and even a hundred-year purple lingzhi. Li Le's mouth twitched. Was she hunting or gathering mountain produce?
Old Huang picked mugwort leaves to wrap the bird eggs, then bound them in other leaves, coated them in yellow mud, and placed them in the fire pit to roast. Lin Yue peeled off the intact rabbit skins and handed them to Old Huang for smoking. After cleaning the internal organs and rubbing them with herbs, she set them over the fire to roast alongside the fish, filling the air with a rich aroma.
Once the food was roasted, they tucked in. Just two of the children could devour an entire wild rabbit between them, and the group cleared out all the food completely. While the children were full, the adults were only six or seven tenths satisfied. Old Huang picked a few handfuls of wild greens and boiled a broth to reduce heatiness, thus making do for dinner. That night, Li Le took the night watch.
When Old Huang woke up the next morning, he saw a giant python over a zhang long and weighing over forty jin lying on the grass pile, already dressed and waiting to be roasted. The youth was squatting by the river holding a dagger, skinning a small wild deer with its hide kept perfectly intact, nearly finished with the task.
The sect master's face was flushed red, likely from drinking deer blood. He stood nearby watching with the kids, pointing and explaining to them how to skin an animal. The smaller one had clear, innocent eyes, while the older ones looked earnest.
Lin Yue had encountered this python and small deer while out hunting. At the time, the python had already constricted the deer to death and was preparing to swallow it whole when Lin Yue caught it red-handed.
After skinning it, Lin Yue began cleaning the internal organs. The two large antlers were troublesome to process and inconvenient to carry, so she discarded them. Once done, she chopped the venison into blocks, taking a few pieces to roast while preserving the rest by smoking. Venison was far more nourishing than snake meat and shouldn't be consumed in excess, especially given the children's weak constitutions. They would eat the snake meat, with just a small taste of venison to sample the flavor.
Lin Yue took a bite. The venison was lean, fine-textured, and tender, richer in flavor than mutton, closer to beef but tenderer.
By the time the simple processing of the venison was completed, full daylight had broken, and the group resumed their journey. Looking ahead, there were no figures in sight, though houses were dimly visible along the road—a good opportunity to replenish their food supply. Leaving this task to the sect master was out of the question, so Lin Yue took some venison and brought Old Huang along to trade for grain. In no time at all, they were surrounded by villagers who snapped up every last piece.
Old Huang followed Lin Yue carrying half a small bag of rice and flour. Behind him was an ox cart board; after fitting the cart board onto the horse, the group set off. After traveling for over an hour, a figure slowly appeared ahead. Standing right in the middle of the road was the back of a young man carrying a long sword, holding his hands behind his back. His posture was ramrod straight, and he was gazing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle.
As the clatter of horse hooves ceased, the young man turned around, swinging his high ponytail. He wore a small bamboo-leaf crown, textured parted bangs, and a white satin robe, with a plum-red cord tied around his waist. A smile curled his lips as he tilted his head slightly, his eyes sparkling with three parts amusement and seven parts arrogance.
He was around the same age as Li Le, and his words were just as insufferably punchable.
"You're Li Le, right? I heard you're pretty arrogant, so I came specifically to meet you."
"Now that I see you..." He scanned Li Le, who was acting as the cart driver, up and down. "...you fall a bit short compared to me."
How could Li Le tolerate anyone acting arrogant over his head? He immediately scoffed, "To come right up to your Big Brother and ape your Big Brother's tone—are you deliberately trying to get the attention of me, the top martial artist under heaven, the number one in the world, the master of the Guiwu Sect?"
The other party let out a low chuckle. "Slick tongue."
Li Le snorted. "Young man, you'd better learn some restraint. Go practice for a few more years before coming back. Now hurry up and move aside—don't block the road."
"You wish to be the number one under heaven? As it happens, I have sought guidance from many senior experts and learned a thing or two from them. Everything has its strengths and weaknesses, and since my training is quite varied, I don't know if I've truly mastered the core principles. Today, I specifically made the trip to seek a lesson from you."
The young man extended his hand and said, "Please grant me your guidance."
With a push of his toes, he lunged forward. The two engaged right beside the carriage, moving far and near, scaring the three children into huddling together while Old Huang froze in terror, not daring to move a muscle.
"Hey! You two go fight somewhere else! Don't spook the horse, there are children in the cart!"
Lin Yue lifted Chen Zhiyi down from the donkey and handed him to Old Huang, then hurried to pull the horse aside. She watched them fight from the middle of the road all the way into the woods. The young man's moves were varied and unpredictable; he frequently took risks to strike, yet managed to cleverly slip out of danger, maintaining a steady performance.
In contrast, Li Le appeared passive, showing subtle signs of being led by the nose.
"As expected, true masters dwell among the common folk."
Lin Yue murmured to herself. Seeing them fight deeper into the woods until their figures disappeared among the trees, she turned around, climbed onto the carriage, and continued forward along the road.
Half an hour later, they encountered another challenger blocking the road with a sword in his arms. Just as he opened his mouth to announce his name, Lin Yue kindly gave him directions—the guy was fighting over there right now, so it would probably take a while before his turn came. Might as well eat first, no rush.
When Li Le was recruiting disciples, he had openly announced his sect's location, and he had departed in a high-profile manner. Consequently, many who wished to challenge the number one in the martial realm flocked to him in succession.
There is no absolute first in literature, but no second in martial arts. Those with high martial skills often consider themselves peerless and matchless. Many martial artists among the common folk took defeating ranked figures as their pursuit and joy while wandering the jianghu, using it to showcase their strength.
Even if they couldn't win, it didn't matter—after all, they had once sparred with the number one of the martial realm.
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