Life on the northern steppe had a way of grinding people rough, and for men like Chedi and his group — who had long swaggered through those lands doing as they pleased — it had ground them not just rough but brutal.

They had never given any value to human life. In their reckoning, a life might be worth less than a wild fruit on a branch — because sometimes killing a man brought you nothing at all, whereas picking a fruit at least put something in your belly.

Out on the steppe wilderness, you could kill a man and leave the body where it lay. The wild animals would strip it clean before long. In that kind of place, if a man disappeared, his family could spend a lifetime searching and never find a trace.

Coming across a skeleton in the open wilds was not an unusual thing at all.

After entering the Central Plains, Chedi had at least reined himself in somewhat, because their eldest senior brother Qingtian had warned each of them: before they reached Longhu Mountain, they were not to cause unnecessary trouble.

But now, quite suddenly, a person had appeared directly in front of Chedi — and this back alley had only the two of them in it.

So Chedi’s first instinct was to seize the man and question him about the layout of the medical hall. In a situation like this, violence was simply the most natural response.

When that thought crossed his mind, his eyes shifted. When his eyes shifted, the middle-aged man studying him became puzzled.

Having decided to act, Chedi moved immediately — a palm strike chopped toward the middle-aged man’s neck.

Just before the blow landed, the look in the middle-aged man’s eyes said: this ugly fellow really does seem to want to hit me.

And when the blow landed, his expression said: this ugly fellow is indeed hitting me.

At the same moment, Que Nan — who hadn’t trusted second senior brother to go alone, or more precisely, hadn’t trusted him not to cause trouble — had circled around to the mouth of this alley.

She entered the alley just in time to see her second senior brother’s palm strike chop toward the middle-aged man’s neck.

She had no impulse to call out and stop him. For one thing, there was no time. For another, she didn’t feel it much mattered. A man with no connection to them — if the strike didn’t kill him, they’d haul him back and question him. If it did kill him, so be it.

But the next instant, Que Nan’s eyes flew wide open.

The palm had clearly connected with the man’s neck — and yet the man blinked away, vanishing.

An instant later, he reappeared behind Chedi.

Chedi seemed to sense something was wrong. His instinct was to lunge forward rather than spin around. He took several steps forward before turning back — and found the middle-aged man standing there, perfectly still.

“Excuse me — why did you strike me?”

The middle-aged man asked, quite seriously, with the words *excuse me* prepended, as if still making some effort at courtesy.

If Chedi had felt the urge to retreat at this point, things might have gone differently. He did not. He saw Que Nan appear, and the sight steadied him again.

So he drove a fist toward the middle-aged man’s neck — no longer looking to restrain him, this blow was thrown with killing force.

The middle-aged man’s brow creased slightly.

Chedi’s fist was fast as thunder.

The middle-aged man turned sideways as the fist closed in. The blow skimmed past his neck, nearly grazing it.

Then one palm was placed against Chedi’s chest. Lightly — as if it had simply been set there without any force at all.

Chedi looked down. The hand was resting on his chest. He had time for a flicker of bewilderment — why hadn’t this man pushed yet?

Then the middle-aged man’s single palm drove forward.

A sound like rushing wind.

Chedi’s body flew backward as if blasted by a cannon. There seemed to be an illusion at his chest — as if a pocket of air had detonated there.

*Boom.*

Chedi’s back crashed into the courtyard wall. The solid wall buckled inward at the point of impact, a massive gap torn out of it.

He flew through into the courtyard. The shattered bricks flew even further.

In that instant, Que Nan — who had already broken into a run — stared with wide-open eyes.

Then she cried out and launched herself into the air, both feet driving at the middle-aged man’s chest.

The man was the same as before — unhurried, yet exactly precise. He raised his hands in front of his chest.

Palms facing outward. Both feet struck his palms.

And Que Nan flew — launched forward, she was sent back the same way she had come.

She landed and stumbled back four or five paces, then cried out in pain.

She looked down at her feet. Both shoes had shattered. The soles were nowhere to be found; only the shaft of each shoe remained, hanging at her ankles.

As she looked down, blood was already spreading across the soles of her feet.

The middle-aged man glanced at her, his brow creasing. “A woman?”

Then he turned to look at the man in the courtyard — the one struggling to his feet, spitting blood, trying to flee.

“Who are you?”

He asked Que Nan.

Que Nan’s voice trembled slightly. “And who are you?”

The middle-aged man replied: “Azure Formation, Ye Zhangzhu.”

Que Nan didn’t know the name. But she knew she couldn’t beat him. This was the first time since entering the Central Plains that a Central Plains fighter had made her feel so completely powerless. The kind of powerlessness where she knew — even if she spent every ounce of strength she had, even at the cost of her life — that she would still not win.

So without any hesitation, she turned and ran.

Both feet bleeding at the soles, she left a long trail of red footprints behind her as she went.

Because she was a woman, Master Ye chose not to give chase. He turned, walked into the courtyard, and moved toward the stumbling, faltering figure trying to escape.

—

Half an hour later, inside a ruined Confucian temple.

Que Nan had stripped off her outer robe and torn it in two to wrap around her feet. The single palm strike had left countless splits across the soles of both feet, and the long run had made them worse. The pain was bone-deep.

She was fortunate enough to have emergency medicine on her. After bandaging up, she caught her breath and thought: if that man had followed the blood trail, she might not be able to outrun him.

His ability was genuinely unfathomable. She thought of her senior sister, or eldest senior brother — in a one-on-one match, either of them might just barely fight him to a draw.

Of the six of them, the strongest were eldest senior brother and senior sister. The two had sparred many times over the years and always ended up even.

It was precisely because of her senior sister’s formidable skills that second senior brother Chedi didn’t dare harbor any improper thoughts toward her. Chedi understood clearly: harassing Que Nan would get him yelled at. Harassing *that* woman would get him torn to shreds and fed to wolves as a broth.

At that thought, Que Nan rose and slipped out through the temple’s back window, keeping to deserted paths. She knew Chedi had certainly fallen into that man’s hands, but she had no power to rescue him — and no particular desire to try.

She walked and hid her way along, ducking into a shop to steal a few sets of clothes, stealing shoes as well, then finding another hiding spot to change. Somehow, before nightfall, she managed to slip out of the city.

—

Just as Que Nan was sheltering in the temple, Master Ye arrived at the horse-and-carriage depot with the man he’d captured.

Li Chi listened to Master Ye’s account and felt genuinely puzzled. Two people from the northern steppe, inexplicably attacking Master Ye without provocation.

They clearly had no knowledge of Shen Medical Hall — no knowledge of the connection between the Hall and the depot, and no knowledge of Master Ye himself.

So this was no premeditated strike. Anyone coming with specific targets would never have chosen to attack Master Ye of all people.

Even if they’d been looking for trouble at random, they shouldn’t have picked Master Ye — the odds of that ending badly for them were simply too high.

“Truly baffling,” Master Ye said. “Two people attacked me — one of them a woman, who left injured. I had simply gone to pick up medicine from the Hall. I didn’t want to go through the front entrance and cut the queue — even though I did have an appointment, arranged well in advance, to collect the medicine today.”

Li Chi asked: “Master Ye, is something the matter with you?”

Master Ye shook his head. “Nothing serious — just an old injury from my younger days of training. When the rain and cold come, my joints give me a bit of trouble. I went to see Shen Medical Hall about it. They prepared a medicinal plaster for me, told me to come today, and since the front hall would be crowded, to come through the rear courtyard and collect it directly.”

He looked at the still-unconscious steppe man and smiled faintly. “I thought at first he was trying to rob my plaster.”

Li Chi burst out laughing.

At that moment Yu Jiuling came sprinting in from outside, his face urgent. He rushed in the door and shouted at Li Chi: “Chief, let’s go — I just got beaten up. Two on one, and one of them was a woman.”

Li Chi’s expression sharpened.

Just now Master Ye had been set upon by a man and a woman. Now Yu Jiuling had also been attacked by what sounded like the same combination.

This couldn’t be a coincidence. Someone had made a sudden move against the depot.

“Where?” Li Chi rose and moved toward the door. “You said a man and a woman?”

“Two on one,” Yu Jiuling said. “Making me pay money. One was a woman. The other one, I’m still not sure about.”

Li Chi thought: what do you mean you’re not sure — was the other one masked?

Master Ye rose as well and followed them out.

Li Chi asked for the details. Yu Jiuling explained: “I was heading out to run an errand and turned around to say something to the others, nearly walked into a passerby. She cursed me out. I knew it was my fault and apologized right away — but she kept at it, demanding compensation, saying if I didn’t pay she’d make trouble until the depot closed down.”

Li Chi thought: this sounds premeditated. His earlier assessment had been wrong. If there’d been no design behind it, the timing wouldn’t be this coincidental.

They rushed out to the main gate. Li Chi stepped out and immediately stopped. One corner of his mouth twitched. He turned to look at Yu Jiuling.

Yu Jiuling stammered: “It really was… two on one…”

Standing by the gate was a heavily pregnant woman. By the look of her, she was seven or eight months along — standing there rubbing her belly and glaring at Yu Jiuling.

Li Chi thought: you were right, two on one — one woman, one unknown… and if she’s carrying twins, that’s three on one.

Li Chi hurried forward to apologize. The woman visibly softened at the sight of Li Chi. She explained that Yu Jiuling had nearly run into her, and though he had apologized, he’d kept giving her shifty looks.

Li Chi thought: Madam, you’ve genuinely misunderstood — that’s just how Yu Jiuling looks…

He made a full apology, offered to send her to Shen Medical Hall to be looked over, and the woman said she was fine — she’d just wanted to teach this reckless young man a lesson. She gave Yu Jiuling one last ferocious glare and left.

Li Chi turned back to Yu Jiuling, who was cowering behind Master Ye with a pitiful look. “She was going to hit me, so that counts as a gang beating. And I couldn’t fight back. I could only run…”

Li Chi thought: the fool has one redeeming quality — he at least knew not to hit back.

Back inside the depot, after a brief conversation, Ruan Mu returned with a group of men. He’d followed the blood trail a long way before losing it at the Confucian temple. There was no trace of the woman after that.

Li Chi nodded. Master Ye agreed that the woman’s skills were likely above the man’s, and Jizhou City was large — if she’d gone to ground, finding her would be difficult. If she’d already left the city, it would be even less likely.

“She’ll come back.”

Master Ye said suddenly.

Li Chi asked: “Why do you say that?”

“She is a woman, that much is true,” Master Ye said. “But in her eyes I saw a ferocity I’ve never seen in a woman before — like a wild animal. She may not come back to rescue that man. But she will come back for vengeance.”

He paused.

“I wounded her. She will come back.”

—