Chapter 29: Meeting a Villager in the Mountains

Among the woods beside the small town.

Chu Tianshu held the single-tube telescope taken from the eunuch’s residence, observing the town’s situation.

“Uncle Ma, just as you said—he took the steps quickly. Looks like the county magistrate’s crew are already weeping for the old master.”

Chu Tianshu retracted the telescope and sighed, “But I didn’t expect this guy to wear heavy armor—truly imposing.”

“If I’d had decent arm guards back then, my arms wouldn’t still be this sore.”

Zhong Jinqiu leaned against a pine tree, stretched his neck, and gestured: “Give me another one.”

Chu Tianshu fished a dried radish slice from his waist pouch and placed it between his lips.

Compared to Chu Tianshu, whose arms only retained mild soreness, Zhong Jinqiu’s arms still had silver needles embedded.

Uncle Ma took the telescope: “The long-range glass I used in my youth wasn’t this clear or this far—feels even better than my sparrow.”

Zhong Jinqiu chewed the dried radish and said, “This thing only works from above. For tracking or infiltration, you still need spells.”

Uncle Ma sighed, “Hard to say. In Tang and Song times, only thunder magicians used gunpowder. Later, all sorts of gunpowder weapons popped up.”

“These machines might one day be more convenient than my spells everywhere.”

Chu Tianshu grew curious—he wanted to hear how magicians of this era imagined future technological devices based on their guesses.

Uncle Ma was happy to talk about it.

“For example, now cars burn oil, trains burn coal—too bulky. Will there someday be a stone the size of a palm that burns for ages?”

“Even if the power’s weak, make the whole thing smaller—like a skateboard.”

“A person stands on it, and it runs by itself—oh, needs a handle to steer, like the legendary Divine Travel Armor, swift and effortless…”

The three walked deeper into the woods as they chatted.

Their disappearance was an implicit deterrent to Deputy Officer Zhou.

But the original town was no longer safe to return to.

Zhong Jinqiu knew the way; they carried food and silver dollars, planning to walk over a hundred li to another town for temporary lodging.

The mountain paths were treacherous; some places had no path at all.

Zhong Jinqiu was fine—his hands were impaired, but his legs still moved swiftly.

Uncle Ma’s body was sturdy, but he wasn’t an Opened Meridian boxer, so he struggled.

Chu Tianshu carried the pack and helped support Uncle Ma, while Uncle Ma held the umbrella for him.

They walked like this until evening.

Zhong Jinqiu led them to an abandoned tea pavilion.

Bamboo and wood frame, thatched roof.

The tables and benches inside were overturned or broken-legged, covered in thick dust.

One corner’s earthen stove had collapsed halfway.

“When I returned home to sweep ancestral graves, I sometimes rested here.”

Zhong Jinqiu said, “No one knows when this pavilion was abandoned. This roof? I repaired it myself two years ago.”

“We’ll sleep here tonight. We’ll hit the road at dawn.”

Uncle Ma plopped onto the bench without wiping it, panting: “Do we really have to go that far? Aren’t there any other villages nearby we can stay in?”

Zhong Jinqiu replied, “Little Chu is still growing his skill—he needs enough meat. Would a regular village feed him?”

“A prosperous town? You said not too close to Yuannan City. We have to go there for now.”

Chu Tianshu strongly agreed.

Without enough food, he dared not train fully.

He estimated he’d need to complete Dragon-Wrapping Body and Food-as-Immortal before his fist progress surges past spirit-channeling mastery—only then will his training pace stop being this explosive.

Plus, those who truly achieve “Food-as-Immortal” have more harmonious internal organs—they extract more nutrition from ordinary portions.

His food demand will then decrease.

“Even if I can’t train fully, getting familiar with the fist manual helps.”

Chu Tianshu said, “Uncle Zhong, the sun hasn’t set yet—no need to sleep so early. Tell me the rest of your fist manual.”

Zhong Jinqiu rested a moment, then nodded: “Alright.”

Zhong Jinqiu practiced Tai Chi, but not the lineage famous today—passed from Chenjiagou to Yang Luchan, who made it renowned in Jingcheng.

His style came from Wudang’s Golden Toad Sect, where ancient recluses pondered the Dao through moon-gazing and listening to toads.

The Chenjiagou lineage blended battlefield and peasant life—thicker, heavier, more blunt.

“The internal organs are tied to emotions. To achieve peak effect in organ-training fist arts, you must master the emotional essence.”

“When I was young, I thought all Tai Chi schools followed ‘highest good is like water, soft overcoming hard.’ My Golden Toad Tai Chi was purer—surely deeper than Chenjiagou’s.”

“Now that I’m older, I’ve reconsidered—I regret not going to Jingcheng to see that lineage.”

“Soldiers and peasants—those moods are easy to learn. You’ll find peasants anywhere. But recluses? Extremely hard to emulate.”

Zhong Jinqiu let out a long sigh.

Living in the mountains doesn’t make you a recluse—cut off from people, you might just be a wild man.

True recluses aren’t necessarily carefree, but they’ve forgotten cares—having experienced the world, they’ve stepped free.

This is exceedingly hard—perhaps even requiring innate talent.

Zhong Jinqiu had known ups and downs; he admitted he still couldn’t reach that state of mind.

“You don’t seem like a recluse either. The Lingyang Gall’s power is nearly spent. Training my Golden Toad Tai Chi will take you a long time to master.”

Chu Tianshu listened carefully, smiling faintly.

He wasn’t a recluse—but once he used the token to refine and reconstruct the fist, the result might no longer follow the recluse’s path.

【Red-Tailed Swallow: Blade of Cruel Punishment, Accumulated Crimson Rust, Metal Blood and Resentment, Forged into Poison, Fluttering Blade, Choosing Victims to Devour.】

【Characteristics: Blade slices through iron, rust-poison corrodes bone, retracts upon contact with crystal; through secret method, inhaled and exhaled through lungs, it becomes its master’s.】

【Golden Beast Mask (Five Demon Split Spirit): Buying Fate with Fortune, Mocking Human Souls, Rituals Properly Conducted, Can Delight the Gods.】

A sliver of the Five Demon Spirits descends, imprisoning essence and transforming into an invisible body armor.

【Characteristics: Traps essence, hard as metal.】

After smashing the jade coffin, he gained nothing—it likely hadn’t reached the “possessing spirit” standard.

But the eunuch’s golden body armor was a pleasant surprise.

It wasn’t the rumored kind—directly stealing essence from others via dark arts to form armor.

Its key lay in a sliver of the Five Demon Spirits.

Chu Tianshu had been slightly startled upon first reading the token’s annotation.

But after the eunuch died, the sliver merely took damage—killed outright, yet the Five Demons showed no reaction. Clearly, even called “gods,” they had limits—no need for alarm.

With this sliver and the Red-Tailed Swallow, he now had enough for one refinement.

After Zhong Jinqiu recited the entire fist manual, Chu Tianshu recalled it, asking repeatedly about unclear parts.

The token duly displayed new cultivation material.

Chu Tianshu selected “Golden Beast Mask” as the core trait and began refinement.

【...Refinement complete.】

《Toad Palm Thunder》: Intent erupts from five viscera, swift as thunder; the toad’s first cry of the four seasons.

This fist art’s essence is like deep mineral veins, a mythical beast hibernating, waiting for cosmic timing. Upon mastery, the five viscera and six bowels retain essence, thick and full.

Even when exerting internal force at maximum speed, not a single part is damaged. After a hundred heart-lung bursts, a slight breath restores vitality endlessly.

Like thunder cracking, startling the toad’s cry, then spring’s vast energy surges forth.】

Chu Tianshu closed his eyes, feeling the fist manual in his mind, a smile tugging at his lips.

When Uncle Zhong’s hands heal, I’ll find an excuse to tell him some of the improvements.

Night had fallen, yet strange sounds echoed through the mountains.

Chu Tianshu opened his eyes, puzzled.

Uncle Ma looked up, muttering: “Where’s that donkey braying from?”

It was a donkey.

Chu Tianshu recalled hearing donkey brays in town—but the ones heard up close differed greatly from those echoing through the mountains.

The forest’s drizzle had ceased, but the soil remained muddy and slippery.

Two men in straw capes, wearing patched cotton clothes, rolled-up pant legs, and straw sandals, walked through the woods—one with a sickle at his waist.

The donkey was led by them.

Sitting atop the donkey was a man with a conical hat, sallow face, hunched and listless.

They looked like three villagers—yet why were they still in the mountains after dark?

(End of Chapter)