Chapter Ninety-Two: The Inner Breath Art

With due respect, thirty taels."

"I... have no money. But I can kill for you."

"Then you'll have to wait until your wounds heal."

Lu Jiuniang had never imagined that Zhao Hengyi would use such a method to bring her out of Jiangling City.

She had thought she might be hidden in a crate of goods, or in a secret compartment beneath a wagon, or even in a coffin among a funeral procession. She had never imagined she could simply walk out in broad daylight, with hundreds and thousands of onlookers packed around her, escorted from Jiangling City by the very soldiers and clerks charged with guarding the gates.

"I had thought you would mix me in with those women and children."

"That would have been a good plan too. Only, those people in the human market are all kept together and know one another very well. Your bearing is different from theirs. It still looks more natural to dress you as a guard."

"It wouldn't have been easy to spot me anyway. Sitting on the wagon with a small child in my arms, no one would have paid attention."

"I forgot your acting was not bad either. That night at Moon-Gazing Tower, the maid you played was very convincing."

"How did you find me that night?"

"A secret."

"Oh."

When Lu Jiuniang was not out fighting for her life, she was a cool, quiet girl, much like those clean and proper junior girls in a later age who kept just the right distance from everyone and preferred to read and study alone. If you did not speak to her first, she would remain silent forever.

Of course, if you did speak first, she would respond at once.

This Lu Jiuniang carried many secrets. The guards, especially the old soldiers who had come through battle, had replayed the slaughter on Ever Prosper Street from that night after hearing Wang Erhu's account.

The conclusion they reached was chilling: even in open combat, even if no one used hand crossbows, they still could not guarantee the master's safety in front of Lu Jiuniang!

Though Zhao Hengyi was not pleased that everyone used him as an example, he now had a vivid understanding of just how formidable the girl he had rescued truly was.

Women are naturally weaker than men in physical strength. Even among the exceptionally gifted, it was difficult to be as fierce and valiant as Lu Jiuniang. What's more, she was indeed as the rumors said: handsome enough, graceful in figure, and by no means some seven-foot-tall prodigy with a waist the same size.

In Zhao Hengyi's eyes, she even seemed a little too thin. If she were under his roof, he would have to fatten her up.

For a girl so slender and graceful, why did her body contain such terrifying strength?

"Inner Breathing Art."

While eating dried rations, Lu Jiuniang gave a muffled explanation. "I am not the same as the martial artists you speak of. We do train our strength and practice techniques for fighting people, but in the most fundamental sense, it is a different path."

So it truly was the Inner Breathing Art.

The guards had previously guessed that Lu Jiuniang might be a wandering expert who knew the Inner Breathing Art, and now she had admitted it herself.

"With Inner Breathing Art, can you jump very high?"

At once, Zhao Hengyi's mind filled with scenes from martial films, with great heroes flying through the air.

"Not that high. At most you can jump over someone's head, and you still need to gather your strength in advance for quite a while."

Lu Jiuniang stuffed the remaining half of a steamed bun into her mouth all at once, her cheeks puffing out like a squirrel full of pine seeds.

Zhao Hengyi's fantasies about the martial world and its heroes shattered.

The guards had only heard of the Inner Breathing Art; none had ever seen it with their own eyes, not even among the border troops in Everlasting Fortress.

In fact, everyone had always thought that masters who could use the Inner Breathing Art were nothing more than rumors, stories fabricated by storytellers.

So no one knew what sort of state a master of the Inner Breathing Art truly was in. That Zhao Hengyi imagined such masters could fly to heaven and burrow through the earth was not surprising.

Still, it made sense. If Lu Jiuniang truly could fly about like the heroes in the films, with powers akin to sorcery, she would not have been locked in fierce combat for so long on Ever Prosper Street, nor could Su Shenchang still be alive today.

"You're too old to practice the Inner Breathing Art. There's no way for you to learn it. But I can leave a copy for you to teach the children."

Having eaten her ration clean, Lu Jiuniang said quite casually, "But you must choose those with the right aptitude. Otherwise the child may become crippled and never grow up."

These slightly cruel words came from Lu Jiuniang's lips with such calmness, as if she were discussing whether the ration she had just eaten was tasty.

"Isn't this sort of thing supposed to be a closely guarded secret? The kind only one person in a sect is allowed to learn?"

Even as he chatted with Lu Jiuniang, Zhao Hengyi was also calculating how best to settle the women and children he had bought once he returned.

"You want to give this to me because you wish to repay my saving your life? There's no need to make such a fuss. You only hired a wagon to haul cargo."

"It's not exactly a secret that must never be passed on. It's just that very few people in this world can train in it, and fewer still can persist."

Lu Jiuniang's expression remained calm, even faintly cool, yet she patiently explained it to Zhao Hengyi. "The reason I don't want the Inner Breathing Art spreading outside is only because I fear someone might use it for evil. You won't."

Zhao Hengyi was stunned. Was that a good-person card she had just handed him?

After a brief rest, the group continued onward. Though the convoy had never really stopped, it did not travel fast. If they rested too long, they would not reach the limestone cave to spend the night.

When Zhao Hengyi and the others had come, they had ridden horses and sat in wagons, but they had not galloped all the way. After spending one night in the cave, they reached Jiangling City by noon the next day.

But on the return trip, with nearly four hundred women and children in tow, they did not reach the cave until dusk was falling.

Outside the cave mouth, Wang Erhu and a band of guards, who had ridden ahead early, had already lit a bonfire. Upon the fire sat a huge iron pot in which thick porridge was simmering.

Even more pleasantly, Wang Erhu had discovered traces of wild boar while drawing water. One large boar and eight piglets had all failed to escape his pursuit; the whole family had been neatly turned into part of supper.

To Zhao Hengyi, wild boar did not taste very good. Without enough seasoning to suppress its distinctive gamey odor, it was not exactly hard to swallow, but it was only fit to fill the stomach.

Yet for the women and children who had just left the human market, being able to eat meat, to taste anything rich and savory at all, was an almost unimaginable blessing.

Many of them ate until their bellies were so full they could hardly walk before they finally stopped.

"You don't seem to like meat? No, that's not it. You think this meat isn't tasty. At noon you kept turning your ration over and over too."

Holding a bone gnawed clean, Lu Jiuniang tilted her head and looked at Zhao Hengyi, who was forcing himself to eat meat.

"It doesn't quite suit my taste... Is the place where you usually stay very short of grain?"

"Short. Terribly short. In the Taihang Mountains, there is no year without people starving to death."