“I am a man who commands troops.”

Ding Shengjia looked at Li Chi with great sincerity. “So I cannot accustom myself to backing down.”

Li Chi nodded. “I don’t command troops, but I don’t back down either.”

Ding Shengjia asked: “A soldier fights for victory. What do you fight for?”

Li Chi said: “A clear conscience.”

Ding Shengjia frowned. “A clear conscience?”

Li Chi also rose, and gestured toward the door. “This is my home. You came here. Your merchants used their money to bully the local merchants, and I have more money than your merchants — so naturally I bully back.”

He said evenly: “There’s an old saying among common people: when the sky falls, there’s always someone tall enough to hold it up. In Jizhou’s medicinal trade, I am that tall person.”

“I see.”

Ding Shengjia said: “We are only here under orders to escort a merchant convoy purchasing medicinal herbs. Such a small matter — it was not mine to manage.”

Li Chi looked at him, only looked at him.

Ding Shengjia knew his own words carried little persuasive weight.

“But that said — I am a soldier, and soldiers do not back down. However, I can make you this promise: if you beat me…”

Ding Shengjia held Li Chi’s eyes. “I will take my men and leave Jizhou immediately, and I will never come here again.”

He asked Li Chi: “And if you lose?”

Li Chi shook his head. “I’ve never once considered what happens if I lose.”

Ding Shengjia laughed. “A man like you ought to be commanding troops.”

He stepped outside, stood in the pouring rain.

Li Chi followed him to the door, glanced at Ding Shengjia’s blade — a standard-issue Dachu horizontal saber.

A general’s saber was naturally not the same as a common soldier’s, even if the pattern appeared the same. In terms of actual quality, they were worlds apart. Of all the horizontal sabers Dachu had ever forged that could truly be called hundred-temperings blades, probably only those of company-grade officers and above would receive one.

Ding Shengjia asked: “Where is your weapon?”

Li Chi pointed at the saber in Ding Shengjia’s hand.

Far from being offended, Ding Shengjia’s admiration only deepened, and he repeated what he had just said.

“A man like you truly should be commanding troops.”

With that, he drew his blade. As it cleared the sheath, the rain tapped lightly against the flat of the steel.

In so heavy a rain, only two drops needed to fall on the blade before the blade was already at Li Chi’s chest.

Li Chi bent backward at the waist while simultaneously sweeping a kick at Ding Shengjia’s wrist. Ding Shengjia’s blade trajectory shifted, and he brought the hilt driving downward toward Li Chi’s ankle.

Li Chi planted one arm on the ground, and his body spun horizontally in a full circle, passing beneath the descending hilt.

Li Chi’s kick, however, did not miss — it caught the back of Ding Shengjia’s hand.

The blow knocked the blade’s angle askew. Li Chi used the momentum to spring up and step forward, driving his elbow into Ding Shengjia’s chest.

Ding Shengjia had no time to swing the blade, and could only bring it up flat across his chest as a guard.

A ringing clang.

Li Chi’s elbow struck the flat of the blade, and Ding Shengjia’s feet slid back through the wet stone, carrying him nearly a full zhang.

That single blow had pushed Ding Shengjia back nearly ten feet.

Rain beat down so hard it stung the eyes to open them, yet Ding Shengjia’s gaze only grew brighter.

“Fine technique!”

Ding Shengjia let out a shout of praise and cleaved through the curtain of rain with a single stroke.

Li Chi shifted to the side — the blade scraped past his shoulder and fell.

In that exact moment, a bolt of lightning exploded overhead.

The blade’s surface caught the electric light — as though the sword itself had flared.

The stroke fell, Li Chi dodged, and behind him the wooden inn door was split cleanly down the middle. Ding Shengjia swung a horizontal slash; Li Chi dodged again, and the blade swept through the hitching post at the door, leaving half of it to topple away afterward.

Li Chi slowly exhaled, the rain streaming off his lips as he blew it clear.

Shattering Formation Fist.

This was the fist art created in his time by Xu Qulu, Dachu’s foremost general — the most explosively powerful fist technique in the world.

Heavy rain pouring down, the fist strike equally unrelenting.

Pressed into close quarters, Ding Shengjia clearly began to lose control. With Li Chi inside his reach, his blade could not be brought to bear, leaving him only defense.

Amid the roar of the rain, the sound of Li Chi’s fists striking the flat of the horizontal blade rang out in clear metallic bursts, louder than the thunder.

Sixteen consecutive blows — Ding Shengjia was driven back four or five zhang. Yet no matter how far he retreated, the distance between Li Chi and him never changed.

Ding Shengjia suddenly bellowed and flung his arm outward — his hundred-temperings blade flew free and buried itself in the ground at an angle with a ringing clang.

He met fist with fist.

And so Li Chi found himself holding a measure of respect for this man.

Even before, when Ding Shengjia had been fighting with his blade, he hadn’t used his full strength. A man who had a sword in hand — how could he possibly be that afraid of another man’s bare fists?

He simply wanted to win with honor.

Now that the blade had fallen aside, Ding Shengjia’s fist art and Li Chi’s clashed through the rain curtain like forces splitting mountains and breaching seas.

After a time, the two men drew back simultaneously.

Li Chi’s chest ached — he had taken four punches.

Ding Shengjia’s chest ached too — he had taken four of Li Chi’s as well.

Ding Shengjia called out: “A man like you — why are you running a business!”

Li Chi called back: “Are men like me so rare? Are there many men like me in your army?”

This question stopped Ding Shengjia cold.

Dachu was vast. How many who could be called men of exceptional talent were there? Too many to count. Yet of those who were truly brilliant, how many had actually been put to use by the court?

Ding Shengjia nodded. “You’re right.”

He didn’t argue at all — he surged forward in long strides, and the two of them were at it again.

Their movements grew faster and faster. In such heavy rain, the curtain of rain already obscured the sight lines; with their speed added on top, they became like two dark shadows threading through the downpour.

Li Chi threw a hooking punch that came up short, yet when the swing passed close enough to graze Ding Shengjia’s face, the water flung from the fist struck Ding Shengjia’s cheek — and stung.

Ding Shengjia retreated sharply, and Li Chi threw another punch.

Ding Shengjia shifted sideways to clear it — and directly behind him was one of the pillars outside the inn’s door.

Bang!

Li Chi’s fist struck the pillar. A column thicker than a man’s thigh snapped and broke.

Ding Shengjia seized the moment and launched a punch. Li Chi shot his left hand forward, caught Ding Shengjia’s wrist, and with a wrench of force sent him off-course.

Ding Shengjia had been surging forward with his full momentum; the sudden pull dragged him off his line, and the ground was thoroughly slick with rain — so he planted a foot and stamped down hard…

The stone flagging shattered.

Ding Shengjia’s body came to a dead stop. He turned to look at Li Chi.

“I can’t beat you.”

Ding Shengjia said: “But you can’t beat me either.”

Li Chi asked: “Then what do we do?”

Ding Shengjia said: “Food. I’m hungry. After we eat, we continue.”

Li Chi nodded. “Then we eat.”

The two men returned to the inn’s sitting room, sat down facing each other, and Ding Shengjia said: “Whatever you have to eat here — I’ll pay for it myself.”

Li Chi said: “Has the general forgotten? Shen Medical Hall does not lack for money.”

He turned and called back: “Jiuling — what are we having tonight?”

Yu Jiuling replied: “I was worried something might happen today, so I kept it simple. Steamed meat buns, sitting in the pot.”

Li Chi said: “Bring them out.”

Yu Jiuling asked: “How many?”

Li Chi replied: “Bring out the whole pot.”

Yu Jiuling turned and headed for the kitchen. He was about to take the steaming rack through — the tiers were scalding hot, but they had handles on the sides.

He found two cloths to use as grip-padding, lifted it, and was just about to walk out when Master Ye said: “Allow me.”

Master Ye looked at the three tiers of the steaming rack, billowing with steam. Each tier was loaded with several dozen large fist-sized meat buns — three tiers together, a considerable weight.

He hoisted the entire steaming rack single-handed from below, and stepped out.

This sight left Yu Jiuling thunderstruck. On a scale of nine levels of thunderstruck, Yu Jiuling had been struck to level eight and a half.

The rack was scalding hot, and Master Ye had simply held it one-handed and walked out with it.

When he reached the front sitting room, Master Ye set the three-tier rack on the table with one hand, turned, and left without a single word.

Ding Shengjia looked at the steaming rack, then looked at Master Ye, and his face showed open astonishment.

Even packed full, three tiers of this steaming rack was nothing by the standards of martial practitioners when it came to weight.

But the heat was another matter.

Watching Master Ye walk away perfectly unaffected, Ding Shengjia couldn’t help shaking his head. “The people of Shen Medical Hall give me a new perspective.”

Master Ye returned to the back. Yu Jiuling grabbed Master Ye’s hand and asked: “Surely the rack wasn’t actually hot to you, Master?”

Master Ye looked at him, exhaled slowly, and sighed: “It was hot.”

He pulled his hand back, clasped both hands behind him, and walked away, saying as he went: “Now do you understand why so few people can actually carry off a performance?”

Yu Jiuling instinctively looked down at his own hands, then back at the stove, thinking to himself: don’t be an idiot, don’t be an idiot…

Then he went and tried to hoist that rack one-handed anyway. His hand shot back the moment it made contact — scalded.

At the back door, Master Ye stood at the entrance, hands clasped behind his back. Seen from the back, he was tall and straight, his white robe clean as snow.

The posture of a man watching the rain — truly something out of the ordinary.

Seen from the front, Master Ye had one hand extended out the door…

—

Back in the sitting room, Li Chi separated the three tiers of the steaming rack, pushed one toward Ding Shengjia, and kept one for himself.

The tiers were large — thirty to forty buns per tier, warm and soft, and the moment the cover came off, the meat fragrance hit you full in the face.

“Please.”

Li Chi said the single word, and then he ate — quickly, but without any appearance of coarseness or discourtesy.

Ding Shengjia was hungry too. He grabbed a meat bun and ate.

Incredibly, the two men kept pace with each other. And Ding Shengjia’s appetite turned out to be rather formidable as well.

One full tier of buns — the two of them finished it one after the other.

One tier remained. Li Chi picked it up and set it between them. “Split it evenly.”

Ding Shengjia looked at Li Chi, then shook his head. “I’m done.”

He sighed and said: “The first time I’ve ever lost to someone in the matter of appetite. I suppose that counts as a loss too.”

He rose. “I will take my troops and leave. I won’t come back.”

Li Chi took a bun and ate it in three or four bites, then rose as well. “Now that’s a loss.”

Ding Shengjia’s eyes lit up. “You have style.”

He turned to go.

Li Chi looked at his retreating back and said: “If my Shen Medical Hall ever opens a branch in Anyang City, general, you’re welcome to come challenge me again.”

Ding Shengjia’s steps halted. He looked back at Li Chi. “You truly intend to open Shen Medical Hall in Anyang City?”

Li Chi said: “Shen Medical Hall’s branches stretch from Liangzhou in the west to Youzhou in the north — seventy-two locations in all. Opening one in Anyang City wouldn’t be anything remarkable.”

Ding Shengjia was silent for a moment, then asked: “You’re buying up medicinal herbs — it’s to open a branch in Anyang City?”

Li Chi shook his head. “That wasn’t the original plan. But now I’m thinking about paying it a visit.”

Ding Shengjia said: “If you bring your medicinal herbs to Anyang City, I guarantee not a single person will dare trouble you.”

He asked: “I still don’t know your name.”

Li Chi replied: “Li Duidui.”

Ding Shengjia paused. “What?”

Li Chi said: “Dui — the character for ‘oppose’ on top, ‘heart’ on the bottom.”

Ding Shengjia said: “That name… is excellent.”

Li Chi smiled: “Naturally it’s excellent. What the heart holds to be right, that’s what gets opposed — how else would you earn the right to push back?”

Ding Shengjia clasped his hands in salute. “Thank you for the buns. Bring your medicinal herbs to Anyang City, and I will personally meet you at the city gate — and I’ll pay you thirty percent above market rate.”

Li Chi said: “You know…”

Ding Shengjia laughed. “Shen Medical Hall does not lack for money.”

He left, laughing.

—

On the second floor, leaning against the railing, Shen Rujian watched Li Chi with a faint smile in her eyes.

She murmured softly: “Who could have guessed — perhaps one day Shen Medical Hall will become famous across the world. Not for the excellence of its medicine, not for the lives it has saved…”

Lu Qingluan, standing behind her, smiled and said: “But because… Shen Medical Hall… does not lack for money.”

Shen Rujian exhaled slowly and turned to leave.

Lu Qingluan followed for a few steps, but Shen Rujian suddenly stopped and looked back down at the sitting room below — the buns on the table, still giving off wisps of steam.

She smiled. “Bring a few up. I suddenly feel like trying one.”

—