The brocade-clad young man studied Li Chi carefully. He was certain this person was no ordinary sort. The reason was his old yellow horse had made way for him.

He could see clearly enough that the draft horse pulling the carriage was cheap and inferior. The driver was nothing more than a capable fighter at best.

Whatever the old yellow horse had made way for, it was neither the draft horse nor the driver — it could only be this youth who looked, from outward appearances, entirely harmless.

The brocade youth thought: if this person had a stomach full of scheming, very few people would ever see it. Because this person’s face was simply too guileless. Even on first meeting, he gave off the impression of someone wholly uncomplicated.

Uncomplicated to the point that whatever he said, people would believe. If they ever had doubts, those doubts would only come after being deceived — and they’d be left wondering if they’d gone blind.

“Who are you?”

The brocade youth asked again.

He’d asked before, and Li Chi’s answer had been… a traveler on the road.

The brocade youth found that answer somewhat charming and somewhat amusing, but it was also complete nonsense.

“Why do you need to know who I am?”

Li Chi replied with a question rather than an answer.

The brocade youth said: “Because my old yellow horse looked at you.”

Li Chi smiled inwardly. What sort of reasoning is that?

The brocade youth, apparently reading Li Chi’s bewilderment, explained very seriously: “This old horse of mine has a habit — he never makes way for anyone. Not just people; he simply doesn’t make way. Perhaps because he feels there is nothing in this world worth making way for. That everything is beneath him. Or perhaps they’re all too low in his eyes.”

Li Chi said: “Thank your old horse for the high regard. But we need to be moving on.”

The brocade youth smiled: “Those scouts ahead — are they your men?”

Li Chi’s brow arched, and his eyes sharpened in an instant.

The brocade youth noticed Li Chi’s expression and gave a nod: “As I thought. Not an ordinary person.”

Tang Pidi moved up from behind — his eyes going first not to the brocade youth but to the weapon hanging at the horse’s flank: long, wrapped in cloth, the shape clearly that of a long lance.

Tang Pidi stepped up beside Li Chi and said: “You have an injury. Let me handle this.”

Li Chi made a sound of agreement.

Hearing these words, the brocade youth immediately broke into a smile. He felt that after seventeen hundred li on the road with nothing but boredom, he had finally encountered some interesting people.

He looked at Tang Pidi from horseback: “Can you fight?”

Tang Pidi nodded: “I can fight.”

The brocade youth asked: “How so?”

Tang Pidi answered: “By pressing you flat.”

The brocade youth laughed and swung off the horse. He patted the old yellow horse: “Go eat some grass.”

The old horse gave him what might have been a sideways look, then sauntered off to graze with great indifference.

The brocade youth gave Tang Pidi a salute: “Dantai Yajing of Liangzhou.”

Tang Pidi returned the salute: “Tang Pidi of Jizhou.”

Dantai Yajing gestured: “After you.”

Tang Pidi shook his head: “You’ve traveled far. You are the guest.”

Yu Jiuling felt that this brocade youth was pushing the theatrics far too hard. He thought to himself: what kind of monster is this, rolling in from who knows where, putting on airs just like Old Tang? Were there this many people in the world capable of performing at Old Tang’s level?

He couldn’t stand it any longer and rushed straight in.

He aimed a fist squarely at the brocade youth’s nose: “He’s being polite. I’m not!”

Dantai Yajing didn’t move. As Yu Jiuling’s fist was about to land, he finally raised his hand — striking faster than Yu Jiuling by no small margin. Yu Jiuling’s fist was still a full fist’s distance from Dantai Yajing’s nose when Dantai Yajing’s fist had already arrived at Yu Jiuling’s nose.

*Whoosh!*

In the instant before that fist shattered Yu Jiuling’s nose, Tang Pidi grabbed Yu Jiuling’s collar and flung him backward.

Dantai Yajing saw Tang Pidi’s move, and his eyes lit up.

He smiled and said: “That piece of trash just now isn’t even third-rate. If a martial artist can be ranked in ten tiers, he’s no more than the third tier. Third tier — in my eyes, equivalent to crippled.”

He made the gesture again: “You’re not bad. Come.”

Tang Pidi still didn’t make a move. He asked first: “Are the scouts we had posted at the front of the column still alive?”

Dantai Yajing understood immediately what Tang Pidi meant. If the scouts were alive, Tang Pidi might hold something back. If the scouts were dead, he would kill.

He had simply come across those scouts, found them somewhat curious — trained soldiers of the kind hardened by a hundred battles, hidden out here in the remote wilds — and felt a flicker of interest. So he’d walked the positions where each one was concealed, and tested each one with a single move. None could take one strike. They were all probably unconscious for a while, but none of them could possibly die — he’d used only two parts of his strength.

But his answer was: “Dead.”

And so Tang Pidi nodded.

His punch appeared no different from Yu Jiuling’s — a straight fist aimed at the brocade youth’s nose. But this time Dantai Yajing showed no trace of casual dismissal. A punch that looked perfectly ordinary — his entire bearing and reaction were completely different.

He raised his left hand horizontally to deflect Tang Pidi’s fist, while his right fist shot out toward Tang Pidi’s throat — only to find Tang Pidi’s left hand already positioned in front of his right fist.

The two moved at extraordinary speed, fast as lightning, four fists forming something almost like afterimages — and yet no sound of any contact was made.

Within a span of mere breaths, the two had exchanged no fewer than a hundred blows, and not one had landed. This kind of precision, this kind of anticipation, this kind of reaction — left both of them increasingly astonished.

Their opponent’s ability was fully matched with their own. For Dantai Yajing, this was something he had never encountered. Tang Pidi’s heart held the same thought.

But Yu Jiuling, watching from the side, couldn’t make any sense of it. He felt the two were playing house — neither one landing a hit, moving all fast and showy. What was the point of all that flourish?

What Yu Jiuling couldn’t see was that each of those lightning-fast blows, had any one of them landed, would have been immediately decisive. That was precisely why not one had landed — because each punch, no matter how swift, was neutralized by the other in an instant.

Fail to neutralize it, and you lose.

After twenty breaths, both took one step back.

Dantai Yajing asked Tang Pidi: “So you’re the leader of this column?”

Tang Pidi shook his head: “I’m not.”

Dantai Yajing looked at Li Chi again: “You are?”

Li Chi didn’t answer — just watched him.

Dantai Yajing was quiet a moment, then asked very earnestly: “Would you be interested in becoming my subordinates?”

Yu Jiuling: “Get out of here!”

Dantai Yajing said: “Not you. You’re too weak.”

Yu Jiuling: “Oh, come on—!”

He moved to go forward again. Seeing no one pull him back, he stopped himself.

Li Chi asked: “My men — they’re not dead, are they.”

Dantai Yajing nodded: “Not dead.”

Yu Jiuling asked: “Then what kind of contemptible move was that, saying you killed our men?”

Dantai Yajing said: “You, be quiet — or I’ll tear your mouth off.”

Yu Jiuling: “Oh come on…”

Dantai Yajing asked Tang Pidi: “Men of your caliber in Jizhou — are there many?”

Tang Pidi said: “Only this one.”

Dantai Yajing smiled: “Good. Then I’ll follow you.”

Tang Pidi frowned: “Why?”

Dantai Yajing said: “Because I’m not confident I can beat you. When you struck just now, you looked as though you’d given everything — but it was only seven parts. You’d already determined that what I said was a lie, so you held back. With seven parts of your strength, I still couldn’t defeat you. I find that interesting.”

He continued: “I have walked here from Liangzhou, looking only to encounter one person I couldn’t defeat. Now I’ve found him. So I’ll follow you. When I can finally beat you, I’ll go on my own way.”

Yu Jiuling said: “This is freeloading, isn’t it.”

Dantai Yajing narrowed his eyes at him. Yu Jiuling reflexively stepped back.

He smiled and said: “I told my father I was already unrivaled under heaven. My father said I was a frog in a well. He told me to walk three thousand li — if I met no equal in three thousand li, I could come home. I won’t ask you to cover my food or lodging. I’ll just travel alongside you. Once I’ve beaten you, I’ll move on to find the next one.”

Tang Pidi said: “As you like.”

Dantai Yajing said: “Where are you headed?”

Tang Pidi answered: “Northwest.”

Dantai Yajing thought about this and asked again: “Roughly how far?”

Tang Pidi answered: “A thousand li.”

Dantai Yajing thought very carefully about this and said: “Then my silver is probably not enough. I only have the few dozen taels I just took, and I like to eat well. So go on ahead — I’ll catch up.”

After saying this, he looked toward the old yellow horse: “Come here. Let’s go have a bit of fun.”

The old yellow horse came over with great reluctance. Dantai Yajing mounted up, turned back in the direction he’d come from, and left. The old yellow horse was every bit as languid and unhurried as ever — it walked a few steps, then turned to look back. The look was probably aimed at Li Chi.

This strange character departed just like that, leaving the whole column in a state of mild bewilderment.

“Liangzhou. The Dantai clan.”

Tang Pidi looked at Li Chi: “Did you think of it?”

Li Chi made a sound of agreement: “Years ago, when General Xu Qulu led the army on campaign against the western territories, enemies were also pressing from the northwest. General Xu Qulu immediately dispatched his subordinate, General Dantai Huan, to intercept them with three thousand troops. Dantai Huan with three thousand hardened soldiers broke an enemy force of sixty thousand, and then simply never left Liangzhou. The Dantai family has guarded Dachu’s northwestern frontier for generations — well over a hundred years now.”

He continued: “With the Dantai family in Liangzhou, the powerful forces beyond the western frontier don’t dare approach. Every year they send envoys with lavish gifts, praying only that the Dantai family never gets it into their heads to go and attack them. Even now, with Dachu in such disarray, not a single one of the dozens of tribes and small kingdoms beyond Liangzhou in the northwest has dared to send hostile forces across the border.”

Tang Pidi made a sound of agreement: “So this person is almost certainly from the Dantai family of Liangzhou. Remarkable, as expected.”

He paused and smiled: “Walking three thousand li… this is an interesting person.”

The column resumed its march. When they reached the foot of Xianzong Mountain ahead, it wasn’t long before they found the scouts Dantai Yajing had knocked unconscious. They revived the men and asked them — and learned that the man hadn’t ambushed anyone.

One scout had been concealed in hiding, keeping watch, when he suddenly realized someone was standing at his side. The person made no move and said nothing, simply stood there and watched.

The scout struck first, and was dropped with a single counter.

They located the men, but saw no trace of the one called Dantai Yajing. Li Chi and Tang Pidi consulted briefly, decided not to stop and linger, and pressed on.

After passing Xianzong Mountain they traveled another thirty li or so, before the sound of hoofbeats came from behind. Li Chi and the others looked back — and there was Dantai Yajing on his old yellow horse, as languid and unhurried as ever, already pulling up at the rear of the column.

The old yellow horse was the same as always. Dantai Yajing was the same as always.

From one side of the old yellow horse hung the long lance; from the other hung a large, bulging bundle.

Dantai Yajing was feeling faintly dissatisfied. A mountain stronghold up on Xianzong Mountain, a gang of three or four hundred people, and they had this little in the way of worldly goods. It left him wondering whether over a thousand li of road ahead, he ought to be a bit careful with his spending — though if he couldn’t eat well, that would genuinely be difficult to bear.