Practice

Chapter 147: Practice

"E-eat… eat… eat…"

Li Huowang watched with a sinking feeling as Gao Zhijian stood before him, stuttering endlessly, unable to force out the words he needed. With a sigh of defeat, he reached out and took the two books back from the big man's trembling hands.

"Alright, I don't need you anymore. You can go."

Gao Zhijian shuffled out, looking wronged. Li Huowang's gaze dropped back to the books in his hands.

One was an ordinary paper book. The other was completely sealed in translucent wax.

The wax-sealed book was the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments that Jiang Yingzi had given him, along with her handwritten translation beside it.

The True Sutra of the Fire Vestments was a good thing. Never mind that the healing process was agonizing—if he ever ran into some kind of external injury on the road, this thing could save his life.

It would be a terrible waste not to learn how to use such a valuable item.

But right now, Li Huowang was as close to illiterate as a man could get. Forget the strange script on the sutra itself—he couldn't even read the translation Jiang Yingzi had written.

This isn't going to work. I can't stay illiterate forever. I have to learn to read again.

With a helpless grimace, he tucked the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments into his robe.

It was easier said than done. Starting from scratch to learn an entire writing system took years.

Even if he found someone to translate for him, word by word, it would take months. He didn't have that kind of time now.

And teaching himself with the village fool, who barely managed two coherent sentences in ten minutes, was a recipe for getting nowhere.

Li Huowang stubbornly opened the translation again. "Wood… mouth… person…"

The page was full of square characters. He could only recognize the very simplest ones.

Heh. This is what they mean by giving back everything the teacher ever taught you, he mocked himself silently.

He had assumed that after Danyangzi died, the knowledge he'd lost would come back to him. But clearly, that wasn't how it worked.

Knock, knock.

A sudden rap on the wooden door. "Brother Li, are you in? I've found that sword manual you asked for."

Li Huowang's spirits lifted. He stood up, crossed the room, and opened the door.

The Fire Vestments Sutra could wait. He'd been waiting here this long for this very thing—the sword technique.

Soon, the manual Zhao Qin had brought was in Li Huowang's hands.

The cover bore four large characters. Li Huowang couldn't read a single one.

"I noticed Brother Li's sword is a three-foot blade," Zhao Qin said, "so I specifically picked out this Duan Family Sword Technique to match it. It should suit you well."

"This technique was created by a prodigy named Duan Si. It's different from other sword arts—no softness, no tricky moves. It's all about grand, sweeping motions."

"Duan Family Sword Technique?" Li Huowang murmured, flipping open the cover. When he saw that most of the pages were illustrations with only scattered text, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's fine. I can have Chief Zhao teach me the parts I need, then just memorize them by rote."

With that in mind, Li Huowang turned to Zhao Qin. "Chief Zhao, I've never studied swordsmanship before. Could you give me some pointers on where to start?"

"Oh? You don't use a sword? Not even the basics?" Zhao Qin looked at the two swords strapped to Li Huowang's back, a little confused.

But a former escort captain's mind worked fast. He immediately placed his right hand on Li Huowang's shoulder and started leading him outside. "No matter, no matter. Sword and saber share the same roots. I'm no master, but I can be Brother Li's entry teacher for a few days."

As soon as they reached the training ground, Li Huowang spotted Chun Xiaoman practicing with Gouwa and the others in the distance. He called out to her directly: "Xiaoman! You come too!"

Hearing this, Zhao Qin nodded approvingly. "Not bad. Brother Li's thinking is thorough. It's best to practice sword techniques with a partner. Otherwise, you'll have no one to spar with."

Chun Xiaoman, gripping her longsword, was visibly excited. She clearly understood why Li Huowang had called her over.

And so, for the next stretch of days, Li Huowang's life at the escort agency was consumed by sword practice.

With the experienced Chief Zhao leading the way—one teacher putting his heart into it, two students doing the same—Li Huowang and Chun Xiaoman picked up the basics quickly.

Clang!

Sparks burst in the air as Li Huowang and Chun Xiaoman each retreated three steps.

Chun Xiaoman raised her sword in her right hand, stepped forward with her left foot, and charged again.

Li Huowang sidestepped. The moment her wooden sword stabbed into empty air, he turned defense into offense, unleashing a move: "Wind Returns, Falling Geese."

The rapid sequence shattered Chun Xiaoman's rhythm instantly. One wrong step led to another. Before long, her sword was knocked flying, and she conceded defeat, earning a round of applause from the onlookers.

Zhao Qin walked up to Li Huowang with an expression of genuine astonishment.

"Brother Li, you have incredible talent! To go from a complete novice to this level in just fifteen days—you're a martial prodigy!"

It wasn't flattery. As the chief escort, he'd seen plenty of promising recruits, but someone like Li Huowang was rare.

"You flatter me. I still have a long way to go," Li Huowang said modestly.

But he understood why he was learning so much faster than Chun Xiaoman.

Bashe's gaze didn't just heighten his perception of pain—it sharpened all his other senses too.

These heightened perceptions let him get twice the result with half the effort. Whether it would bring other trouble later was a problem for another day. At least in this matter, it worked in his favor.

He handed his bamboo sword to Sun Baolu beside him, then turned to Zhao Qin. "Chief Zhao, I've troubled you these past few days. I can't afford to dawdle any longer. It's time for me to set out. I hope we'll meet again someday."

The master could only show the way; the rest was up to the disciple.

Now that he had the basics down, there was no point in staying here any longer. Besides, Zhao Qin was a saber user—there wasn't much more he could teach.

"Fair enough! Brother Li, follow me. I'll get you what you asked for."

In Zhao Qin's study, brush, ink, paper, and inkstone were laid out.

Scritch, scritch, scritch.

Zhao Qin gripped the wolf-hair brush, his strokes sweeping like a dragon in flight. He blew on the finished page to dry the ink, then slipped it into an envelope.

"This is my letter of recommendation. I still have a bit of standing in the escort trade. If Brother Li ever needs work at any escort agency in the future, this letter will be enough to get you a contract."

Li Huowang accepted it with both hands and clasped his fists. "Thank you, Chief Zhao, for all your teachings these past days."

He'd thought it over for a long time, and in the end, he'd decided that being an escort was a decent trade.

Gouwa was right. He had to travel anyway—why not kill two birds with one stone and earn money along the way?

"Brother Li is too polite. This is nothing. You recognized me for who I was when my wife couldn't—you're my benefactor!"

"I won't ask where you're going or what you're doing. But if fate brings you back to this town someday, you must stop by for a visit."