The full-month banquet of the young master of the Wei family was not a martial arts competition, nor anything similar, so there were no extra gift-giving events aside from the customary congratulations and the meal. It was too cold out to allow the baby to attend, so most of the guests who had finished their lunch and dinner left one after the other.

Of course, if one wanted to have some fun in Desheng Prefecture, whether it was at a restaurant, brothel, or memorial archway,¹ all expenses would be covered by the Wei family. Even among the best shops in the city, aside from gambling houses or brothels, quite a few were Wei family businesses.

Du Heng and his two cousins exited the inn arranged by the Wei family early the next morning, ready to head to the stable and get their horses. However, they didn’t expect there to be a stablehand waiting for them.

When the skinny stablehand, wrapped in a thick cotton-padded jacket, saw Du Heng with his missing arm leading people out of the back door of the inn, his eyes lit up and he rushed out of the stable.

“Are you Mr. Du?”

Du Heng was a little surprised. Usually, he deposited a ticket number with the inn and asked the stablehand to take care of the horses and lead them out to him when the time came for him to leave. However, the stablehand shouldn’t know him on-sight, right?

The stablehand rubbed his hands together and exhaled to warm them, then quickly stretched out his hand to lead the way to the stable on the right.

“You must be. The master of the house informed me that the horses you brought here were accidentally led out to the wrong people, so he specially compensated you with a few more horses. There are also carriages over there. If you want to head to other counties and towns in Desheng Prefecture, I can also drive you there. In this cold weather, a carriage is more comfortable!”

In the stable on the right were three strong chestnut horses. Judging from their shiny coats, without a single blemish, their bright eyes, their well well-proportioned muscles and fat, and tall bodies, these were definitely three good horses — or at least, they were definitely better than the three horses the Du family previously had.

“Hey, Young Master Du, these three chestnut horses were given to you as compensation by the owner. They have good stamina and are quick to gather their strength. Their tempers are docile towards their owners, but they can kill a wolf with one kick. The only downside is that they require a lot of food.”

The stablehand rubbed his hands together again and pointed to the carriage next to him.

“The interior of this carriage is covered with fur, and there is a heater. It’s comfortable and warm to sit in. You won’t feel tired, even after traveling two or three hundred li. Haha, Young Master Du, would you like me to drive the carriage for you?”

Du Heng frowned and looked at the shrewd stablehand. He suddenly realized that although the stablehand was of small stature and his fingers were red from the cold, his knuckles were thick, and his hands were hooked like claws. He was obviously a skilled martial artist.

“Patriarch Wei knows where I’m going?”

“Haha, those are just your words, not mine, how could Patriarch Wei know? He just thought you might be able to use it!”

The two Du family members behind Du Heng had long since been gazing at the chestnut horses, eyes shining.

Just like how men loved cars in Ji Yuan’s previous life, the men here, especially those in the martial arts world, all loved horses, particularly good horses like these chestnut steeds.

“Many thanks to the Wei family for their kindness. We can go there on horseback, we don’t need a carriage!”

Du Heng was really not used to having an outsider handling the carriage for them. Based on the expressions of his two cousins behind them, he could tell that they, too, were eager to ride the horses.

“Okay, I’ll saddle them for you…”

Everything was ready. The three chestnut horses had been led out of the stable, and Du Heng and the other two were ready to mount and leave. At this moment, the stablehand rubbed his hands together and spoke with a grin, looking very much like his boss, Wei Wuwei.

“Oh, Young Master Du, the head of the family also mentioned something briefly. He said that if you are going to Ning’an County…”

Du Heng’s eyes narrowed. This guy really did know.

The stablehand continued talking to himself as if he hadn’t noticed Du Heng’s sharpened gaze.

“Well, the patriarch said that the jujube tree in his yard has some red fruits this year, and that they still haven’t fallen. The young man who looks after the yard neither picks them nor sells them… Since Young Master Du is an old acquaintance of Mr. Ji’s, the young man may give away a few fruits, haha… The family head said that the Wei family is willing to pay a large sum of money to purchase a few fruits from you.”

He wanted to buy jujubes?

Du Heng was greatly surprised. With the financial resources of the Wei family, how could they not be able to procure jujubes whenever they wanted to eat them? Was there something special about the jujube tree in Mr. Ji’s courtyard?

“We can discuss this when I return. I will take my leave first. Please thank Patriarch Wei on my behalf!”

Du Heng said goodbye. The two members of the Du family beside him also bowed on his behalf, and the stablehand hurriedly returned the bow.

Then the three men of the Du family rode their horses out of the back of the inn.

The chestnut horses were indeed an excellent breed, fast and obedient. The feel of galloping brought joy to the three Du family sons, particularly since, after leaving the city, they no longer needed to worry about pedestrians. They felt as if they were galloping at the speed of lightning.

However, this joy only lasted for about half an hour, before it was quickly carried away by the cold wind that blew in their faces.

The faster the horses ran, the faster their bodies would lose heat. Even with their martial arts skills, the three of them were still freezing, particularly since the temperature in Jizhou had dropped even lower in the past two days.

The straight-line distance between Desheng Prefecture’s capital and Ning’an County was about 150 li, but the winding road covered nearly 300 li. They stayed in local houses or inns along the way, and finally arrived in Ning’an County on the third day of travel.

“Oh… If only I had known… I would have taken that carriage…”

One of the Du family members sat on horseback, holding the reins and rubbing his hands for warmth. The white fog of condensation that the horse under him breathed out was over a foot long.

“Okay, stop complaining. When we get back, I’ll go shamelessly borrow a copper pot from Patriarch Wei and we can eat that hot pot again.”

“Ah, Brother Heng, that’s a promise!”

“Yes, don’t regret it!”

The three of them led their tall horses into Ning’an County’s capital, attracting the attention of some of the people around them. Not many outsiders came to Ning’an County at this time of year.

After a couple inquiries, they found the location of Mr. Ji’s residence. After all, only Lu Chengfeng had ever been to that small pavilion when they were last in town, and the only only knew the name and its approximate location.

The townspeople was very friendly, and simply showed Du Heng the way without charging him any money. When they reached the small pavilion in the depths of Tian Niu Lane, the man, who was also a neighbor on Tian Niu Lane, pointed up to where they could see branches and green leaves, with a little spot of red.

“That’s Ju’an Pavilion. Mr. Ji used to live there. You can go there yourselves.”

After expressing their gratitude, Du Heng and the others led their horses towards the small courtyard.

As they were walking here, they had head the man say that this jujube tree was peculiar. Now, in the height of the freezing season, the tree was still emerald green, and the scattered red dots between the leaves were as dazzling as flowers in full bloom. It was difficult to imagine that this scene took place in the middle of a severe winter.

Both the front gate and back door to the property were open. Through the back door, they could see a young man setting up a rack to dry quilts in the open space behind the courtyard. These quilts were those left by Mr. Ji, and also some belonging to the Yin family. This young man was Yin Qing.

Hearing the sound of horse hooves and footsteps, Yin Qing turned around to look out the front gate, only to see three strangers. The empty sleeve of Du Heng’s missing arm stunned him for a moment. Then he saw that they were all wearing swords; they must be people from the martial arts world.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Du Heng quickly replied.

“My name is Du Heng. I am an old acquaintance of Mr. Ji’s. I passed Ning’an County and came by to visit.”

“Du Heng?”

Yin Qing looked at him. Combined with the missing hand, he suddenly thought of something.

“Ah! I remember you now. You are one of the tiger-fighting warriors. Mr. Ji mentioned you! Come in, come in!”

Du Heng’s missing arm was very recognizable. Yin Qing put down what he was doing, and rushed from the wild brush in the backyard to the small front courtyard. He welcomed the three individuals into the property. He was also very curious about the three chestnut horses.

Quickly took out a few more cups from the small pavilion’s kitchen, then poured water from the kettle that was already on the stone table.

“Drink water, it’s still hot. There aren’t any tea leaves left; you came at an unfortunate time. The owner of the house hasn’t come back since he left on his trip. While he’s away, my family helps him look after the yard. Now, my father has gone to take the imperial examination, so I’m the only one taking care of it. There were a lot of jujubes in the garden a few months ago, but there are fewer now…”

Yin Qing chattered incessantly with excitement, then asked Du Heng how the nine young warriors had fought the tiger.

In truth, the whole process of the so-called tiger-fight was purely one-sided abuse from the tiger monster. Du Heng couldn’t say anything at all. He could only try to talk about the preparations and simple fight strategies, then used the concept of a siege to cover it up, but Yin Qing still listened with relish.

After Du Heng finished his tale, he also took the opportunity to ask Yin Qing about Ji Yuan. The villager who had shown him the way here had mentioned that that Mr. Ji was an odd man, but it would be more appropriate to ask the Yin family about the real situation.

Aside from certain matters involving ghosts and gods, as well as the incident with Mr. Wei Wuwei’s blue jade, which he was warned not to tell people about, Yin Qing spoke about everything else with enthusiasm, from saving the fox and releasing it back into the wilds, to seeing Mr. Ji’s sword dance with the flowers and leaves taking the form of a dragon, to the miraculous incident of the jujube tree bearing fruit overnight in honor of the master setting off on his long journey.

Even Du Heng was amazed when he heard these tales. The two cousins didn’t believe him, thinking that it was just a child’s bragging.

However, Yin Qing did not notice the two Du family members’ frowns. Instead, he grew even more excited the more he spoke.

“Ah, that’s right! Wait for me, I’ll go home and come back, I have something to show you!”

Yin Qing ran out of the yard and headed towards his house as soon as he spoke, leaving the three of them in the yard looking at each other in bewilderment.

“These dates are as red as fire. I wonder what they taste like. Brother Heng, shall we pick two and try them?”

“Don’t move!”

Du Heng glared at his cousin.

After a while, Yin Qing came back excitedly with a book.

“I’m back~!”

Yin Qing entered the yard and put the book down on the stone table, slightly out of breath. Because his hands were dry from the cold, it was difficult to turn the pages, so he licked his fingers and turned to the middle section.

“Ah, I wrote this myself. I sometimes wrote down some interesting things Mr. Ji told me, because I was afraid of forgetting them.”

Yin Qing turned to a certain page. On it was Du Heng’s name and a brief introduction, as well as some other unfamiliar people and things listed. Although Yin Qing was very young, his handwriting was very neat.

“Hey, look, Mr. Ji only told me about two one-armed warriors; one is you, and the other is this guy named Yang Guo!”²

“Yang Guo? Who is this?”

“You don’t know? Right, well, he’s not from Dazhen, um, rather, he’s not from this era. He’s probably from very ancient times. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, he’s very powerful. Even Mr. Ji said he’s super powerful!”

Yin Qing flipped through the book and showed Du Heng some of the incomplete contents of his descriptions.

Living under someone else’s roof since childhood, being bullied and looked down upon, having his arm chopped off by one of his uncle’s children, escaping alone, being poisoned and humiliated…

The content in the book made Du Heng and his two cousins numb. How was this man still alive? How could he still have the will to fight?³

Later on, it seemed that he trained hard for decades, with a condor as his only friend. Even more rare was the fact that he always had an open mind and never lost his righteous heart, despite his skill at martial arts. He was known as Yang Guo, the Condor Hero.

Taking into account Yin Qing’s youth, Ji Yuan had lightened some of the adult love elements when telling this story, thus highlighting Yang Guo’s martial arts journey and the justice of his world.

“Did such a person really exist? Could it be that Mr. Ji made it up?”

Yin Qing was very unhappy at the Du family member’s words.

“Made it up? Do you think Mr. Ji is a storyteller? Is there any need for Mr. Ji to make up stories? Did you know that even…”⁴

As soon as he said this, Yin Qing immediately covered his mouth. He almost let the secret slip!

“Anyway, this must definitely be true. You can believe whatever you want!”

After he finished his sentence, Yin Qing turned to Du Heng excitedly.

“Master Du, Mr. Ji only told me about two one-armed warriors. The first one was extremely powerful, and you are the second one!”

The sentence “You are the second one” stunned Du Heng for a long time. He was speechless. Then he laughed, a little amused.

“By the way, since Mr. Du is here, I’ll pick a few of these fire jujubes for you. The jujube tree will definitely agree, and then I can also have a taste again, hahahaha!”

Yin Qing grew excited once more, then ran towards the jujube tree.

The jujube tree would agree?

This was yet another sentence that puzzled Du Heng and his companions. However, they did not think too deeply about it, and merely watched Yin Qing climb up the tree with a couple movements.

1. A paifang – gate dividing the neighborhood (remember that discussion about the word “Fang” = Lane/Neighborhood/District I had back in the early chapters)
2. Yang Guo is the protagonist of the 1959 wuxia action/romance novel “The Return of the Condor Heroes” and one of its most powerful martial artists
3. T/n: Ah, the wonders of classic wuxia tropes. I also find it hysterical that a modern wuxia novel is going to be interpreted as JY actually having witnessed these events
4. The last 2 characters of this cut-off line are 连 (lián): to link/to join/to connect, 城 (chéng): city. Presumably he was about to say something about JY meeting the City God.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read