By the shores of the Little Immortal Lake.

Little Six and Little Nine were crouched at the water’s edge, fishing, chatting away softly between themselves.

The rest of the bandits lounged as listlessly as ever — some flat on their backs, some seated, doing various nothing in particular.

Cheng Wujie looked at Li Chi — looked at him with great care and scrutiny — unable to bring himself to believe that the young silk-clad gentleman before him was Prince Ning.

By now, no one inside or outside Jizhou was unaware that Li Chi was Prince Ning. The good days the people of Jizhou enjoyed — all of them owed to Prince Ning. Dongguo County was far from a stranger to that name, so Cheng Wujie’s astonishment was understandable.

It was perhaps that in his heart, he simply could not accept that Prince Ning was someone this young. Shouldn’t Prince Ning be a distinguished, venerable middle-aged man? And if not middle-aged, at least a distinguished, venerable fat man? Not even a fat man — so what kind of Prince Ning is this?!

And at first glance, the man didn’t even seem to have any great abilities. He wasn’t like the other white-faced young man he’d just fought — that one he at least respected somewhat, in the way of warriors recognizing one another. But this Li Chi — apart from being handsome, what did he have?

“Are you… really Prince Ning?”

Cheng Wujie blinked at him and asked.

Li Chi could see not only bewilderment in that gaze, but open contempt.

Li Chi thought: *ah… to be undermined once again by my own good looks.*

People were still in the habit of judging by appearances — seeing a fine exterior and assuming the interior couldn’t be anything special.

“Is that hammer of yours really eighty-eight *jin*?”

Li Chi didn’t answer, and instead turned the question around.

Cheng Wujie puffed out his chest and said: “Of course! Not a pair of eighty-eight, but a single one of eighty-eight!”

Li Chi nodded: “Impressive.”

Cheng Wujie said: “Goes without saying. My ancestor was an undefeated great general — how could I be any lesser?”

Li Chi looked at Cheng Wujie and asked curiously: “Your ancestor was?”

Cheng Wujie said: “My ancestor you need not ask about. You only need know that he was an undefeated great general.”

At this moment, Li Chi still had no idea what the words “undefeated” meant in practice for this ancestor, which was: *never having fought a single battle — and therefore never having been defeated.*

Dantai Yajing looked at the hammers lying on the ground and couldn’t help asking: “Isn’t your right hammer superior to your left?”

Cheng Wujie immediately said: “Not at all — my left and right hands are equally strong.”

Little Six and Little Nine, still fishing, turned to look back at him at the same moment. Their expressions were complicated.

Li Chi saw the look on those two youngsters’ faces and thought — things might not be as straightforward as they appeared.

Dantai Yajing said: “When you came at me, your right hammer moved with extraordinary speed. An eighty-eight *jin* object, and yet in your hands it was like nothing at all. But your left hammer was slower when it came out. So I suspect your right side is stronger.”

Cheng Wujie said: “You… if you want to put it that way, then yes, I suppose.”

Li Chi bent down to pick up one of the hammers. Cheng Wujie was just about to stop him — but Li Chi had already lifted it.

Cheng Wujie noticed Li Chi had taken the left hammer, and let out a quiet breath of relief. He put on a casual expression and said: “Your Highness, do be careful — each of my hammers weighs eighty-eight *jin*. If you can’t hold it and drop it on your foot—”

The words weren’t out of his mouth before Li Chi was already casually tossing the thing up and catching it, tossing and catching.

At that, not only was Cheng Wujie stunned — every one of his bandits was equally stunned.

Li Chi tossed the heavy hammer several times, then set it down casually and reached for the other one.

“Don’t!”

Cheng Wujie let out a shout — he wanted to stop it, but it was too late.

Li Chi had committed his strength to lifting that second hammer — and very nearly wrenched his own arm off.

The right hammer was as light as air. Far from eighty-eight *jin* — it wasn’t even eight *jin*. Its actual weight, if you were estimating, was perhaps three *jin* and eight *liang*.

Li Chi was astonished.

Dantai Yajing had guessed from Li Chi’s reaction what was happening, and was equally astonished. Then — realization.

Cheng Wujie said, deeply embarrassed: “I did just say — one of them weighs eighty-eight *jin*, and the other doesn’t—”

Dantai Yajing thought: *no wonder the right hammer moved so fast. It’s fake.*

Li Chi looked at the hammer, then looked at Cheng Wujie.

Cheng Wujie, past all ability to disguise his embarrassment, raised a hand and scratched the back of his head: “There’s an explanation. It can be explained.”

He took the hammer back and looked ready to crawl into a crack in the ground and disappear.

“First — my right hand is actually the weaker one. I’m left-handed.”

“Second — within my village… no, within our entire county, all the iron I could find, once smelted, only produced enough for the one hammer. There simply wasn’t enough iron to cast another.”

Li Chi’s eyes narrowed. He was curious about the fake hammer itself — but even more curious about the man who had taught Cheng Wujie.

He asked: “The teacher who guided your martial arts and taught you to make this fake hammer — do you know his name?”

Li Chi was thinking that if such a man could be invited to his side, it would be a fine thing. Jizhou was gradually growing stable, Li Chi’s forces were expanding continuously, and capable hands were always stretched thin. From what Cheng Wujie described, this man clearly had considerable martial ability and knew all manner of curious skills — he had to be a man of broad and eclectic learning.

Cheng Wujie shook his head: “I don’t know his name. When I asked, he only said his surname was Xuanyuan.”

“Xuanyuan?”

Li Chi searched his memory carefully and came up empty — no impression of anyone by that name.

Cheng Wujie said: “He was a truly extraordinary man — he knew everything, he’d seen everything. He taught me my three unbeatable moves. My nature is slow-witted, I couldn’t learn more — he stayed three days intending to teach me a full set of martial techniques, but I could only retain three moves. Learn the later ones, and the earlier ones slipped away.”

Li Chi thought: *that really is something remarkable. Just three moves — can’t hold more than that?*

That brain of Cheng Wujie’s — was it perhaps walnut-sized? Hold so much and no more — take on extra and it just pushes the rest out.

Cheng Wujie gave a slightly abashed smile: “It’s not that I couldn’t remember them — I could remember them, but once I tried to use them all, they jumbled together. My mind and my hands didn’t cooperate well. So that Master Xuanyuan said — just practice these three moves. At least that way there’s an element of surprise.”

Li Chi asked: “Do you know where Master Xuanyuan went? I’d like to invite him to come to Jizhou to help me.”

Cheng Wujie shook his head: “He’s a figure like a divine immortal. He stayed with us a few days not because he meant to teach me, but because he liked eating the golden-thread fish from the Little Immortal Lake.”

Cheng Wujie said: “He stayed three days and then left. He left riding a pig. Would you say that’s remarkable or not?”

Cheng Wujie’s voice was full of admiration: “In my whole life I never imagined there’d be a carefree recluse from beyond this world who would ride a pig. I never imagined anyone could ride a pig and still look so graceful and debonair.”

Li Chi’s eyes went wide.

*Of course,* he thought. *Who else in this world would live so freely?*

As for Cheng Wujie saying the man’s surname was Xuanyuan — that wasn’t worth paying attention to. Old Master Li had used many surnames before. A man that untethered could have gone through any number of them.

“Was it a large wild boar?”

“Yes! How did Your Highness know? You saw him too?!”

“Was it followed by a herd of other boars?”

“Yes!”

Cheng Wujie said: “How did Your Highness know? Have you also met Master Xuanyuan?”

Li Chi said: “I calculated it on my fingers.”

Cheng Wujie was immediately filled with admiration: “Master Xuanyuan is a divine person, and Prince Ning is also a divine person.”

Li Chi laughed and shook his head. With any other man of such talent, he would try every means to bring him into service. But Old Master Li — forget it. Invitations wouldn’t move him. Old Master Li had said more than once that he had no interest in any of this — he just wanted to find a quiet place to live undisturbed. If he could have been persuaded, Li Chi would have tried everything on that visit to Cloud-Hidden Mountain.

“I was joking.”

Li Chi said to Cheng Wujie: “I am Master Xuanyuan’s disciple. I once studied under him. So when you mentioned it, I recognized him.”

Cheng Wujie’s eyes went wide as eggs.

“Master Xuanyuan — a true divine person!”

Cheng Wujie said with excitement: “Before Master Xuanyuan left, he told me — one day, his disciple might come looking for me. He said if such a person appeared, I should lend that person my service.”

Li Chi was genuinely startled this time.

This really did seem uncanny.

How had Old Master Li calculated that he would come?

Old Master Li had ridden his pig to Cloud-Hidden Mountain years ago, when Li Chi had still been just the proprietor of a carriage-and-horse company. Had Old Master Li even then already seen that Li Chi would one day contend for the realm? And seen that Li Chi would be hungry for talent, and so come to find Cheng Wujie?

He turned it around and around in his mind for a long while.

And then — it came to him. This was no supernatural foresight at all.

It was a casual shot in the dark. A verbal wager.

Old Master Li had said it offhandedly. If it came true, it came true. If it didn’t, he didn’t care. And he had used the phrase “might come” — not “will certainly come.”

This kind of technique was exactly what Changmei had often used during their years of wandering the world together — the standard language of practitioners who relied on speech.

The whole art of it was: you could be right or wrong either way, and always have something to say.

Li Chi let out a long slow breath. Even if it wasn’t Old Master Li’s supernatural foresight, it still had to be fate.

Right is divine foresight. Wrong is the Dao without fixed path.

He looked at Cheng Wujie and asked: “So are you willing to come with me?”

Cheng Wujie nodded immediately: “Willing! Trust in Master Xuanyuan, and you can’t go wrong!”

Li Chi: “…”

Cheng Wujie suddenly thought of something and asked Li Chi: “Your Highness… does that make me your martial uncle?”