"Something major?"
Zhou Qingmei frowned slightly.
"What major matter could the Black Fiend Cult have? Kill me, and it can prevent trouble from arising—how was I supposed to know I was so important?
"And the one who wants to kill me is their Young Cult Master? Could the lecher from Guangning City that night be this so-called Young Cult Master?
"What exactly was so special about that night?"
Fang Shuwen glanced at her, saying nothing.
After his thoughts churned for a moment, he gently shook his head.
"Maybe we can find clues in Guangning City. Don't think about it for now."
"Fine then."
Zhou Qingmei looked at the rain outside.
"Rest a while longer. I'll keep watch."
"It's about time for the shift change. Go to sleep."
Fang Shuwen stood up and sat cross-legged at the cave entrance.
"I can meditate right here."
Zhou Qingmei did not insist. After everything they had been through on this journey, she was indeed tired. She had originally wanted to emulate Fang Shuwen and meditate, but her head nodded and nodded, her body tilted, and she curled up and fell asleep.
After that, the night passed without a word. On the morning of the second day, the rain had stopped.
When Zhou Qingmei opened her eyes, there was no trace of Fang Shuwen.
Her heart gave a sudden thump. She sat up in one motion, grabbed her sword, and rushed out of the cave.
As soon as she emerged, she saw Fang Shuwen walking toward her carrying a large armful of wild fruit.
They locked eyes, and Fang Shuwen chuckled.
"You wouldn't be... needing to relieve yourself, would you?"
Zhou Qingmei's face turned red. She was about to tell him he was talking nonsense—she was clearly worried about his safety, so how had it become needing to relieve herself?
But she had just woken up. She had eaten and drunk yesterday, and had not used the latrine all night, so she really was rather urgent.
She shot him a fierce sideways glance with her lovely eyes.
"I'll go and be right back..."
"Don't run too far. If anything happens, call out and I'll be there right away."
Hearing Fang Shuwen's words of caution, Zhou Qingmei's face grew even redder, and she ran faster.
After Zhou Qingmei finished taking care of her business and returned, she saw Fang Shuwen eating fruit.
Seeing her come back, he tossed her several pieces.
"Sweet as can be."
She bit into one doubtfully, and her eyes lit up slightly.
"They really are sweet. Where did you pick them?"
"A whole patch in the woods over there." Fang Shuwen casually pointed.
"Grab a bite in the morning, and later on the road, if you run into people, give them some silver coins, and you'll be able to get a hot meal."
Zhou Qingmei nodded. Although she was the eldest daughter of the Zhou family, raised in silks and fine food, after traveling the jianghu for a while, she was no delicate flower unable to endure hardship.
Once they had eaten their fill, they continued on their journey.
The road they had chosen—accurately speaking, there was no road at all. All the way, they had traversed towering mountains and rugged ridges, a place rarely visited by people.
The upside was the peace and quiet. Even bandits wouldn't bother with such a place.
Occasionally, they encountered wild beasts in the forest, but with their martial arts, these beasts caused no trouble; instead, they provided an opportunity to add meat to their meals. Paired with wild fruit from the forest, meat and vegetables complemented each other, and the nutrition was quite balanced.
The downside was that they had been eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew the whole way, with not a single roof tile to shelter them.
Fortunately, their internal skills were profound, so insects did not bother them. Otherwise, resting at night would truly be a torment.
As they traveled, Zhou Qingmei taught Fang Shuwen the palm technique according to their prior agreement.
This palm technique was called the Mahakala Palm.
Judging by the name alone, Fang Shuwen had initially thought this martial art had something to do with the Black Deity, and with the Black Fiend Cult eyeing them like a tiger watching its prey, he felt it was hardly an orthodox path.
But after practicing it, he finally understood that this martial art spoke throughout of just five characters: "One force subdues ten skills!"
There were not many moves—eight palms in total.
But these moves differed from the Four Seas Dragon Fist; they contained infinite variations.
Although it was "one force subdues ten skills," from the first move, Vajra Throws the Pagoda, to the eighth move, Majestic Virtue Subdues Demons, every move was great skill appearing as clumsiness, with inexhaustible power.
Fang Shuwen asked Zhou Qingmei about it and only then learned that the three words "Mahakala" were not, as the saying went, the "Mahakala" of "broad daylight," but rather the Mahakala Deity.
It referred to the wrathful manifestation of Vairocana Buddha in Esoteric Buddhism.
The Mahakala Palm should thus be a palm technique of Esoteric Buddhism.
However, Esoteric Buddhism was all in the Far North, and their traces were rarely seen in the jianghu.
He did not know why such a set of palm techniques had been passed down in that cave.
Zhou Qingmei told him not to worry that practicing this set of palm techniques would earn them enmity from Esoteric Buddhism. First, no successors of Esoteric Buddhism had appeared in the jianghu for decades, so as long as Fang Shuwen did not go to challenge them and use this Mahakala Palm to topple the Vairocana Buddha dharma image, Esoteric Buddhism would not target him.
Second, many things had been passed down from Esoteric Buddhism. Some martial arts that were common as dirt in the jianghu had countless connections to Buddhist and Daoist sects. If one investigated them all, one would probably have to kill more than half of the jianghu. So regarding such matters, those people took it in stride.
Hearing her say this, Fang Shuwen finally put his mind at ease and carefully studied it along the way.
As a result, Zhou Qingmei's eyes were opened wide.
She found that Fang Shuwen's comprehension was astonishingly good, and his aptitude and physique were far beyond ordinary people.
When she had memorized this palm technique, she had relied entirely on rote memorization, and had never studied it afterward.
After Fang Shuwen heard it once, he remembered it all. In the span of three or five days, he could perform the entire set of palm techniques without a single error.
This sounded unremarkable, but it was actually extremely difficult.
For such a set of palm techniques—never mind three or five days; even giving it to an ordinary person to practice, three or five months might not achieve this level.
One could see how high Fang Shuwen's aptitude and comprehension were. No wonder that at such a young age, he possessed such profound internal skill.
Zhou Qingmei did not know that Fang Shuwen was cheating.
On one hand, his comprehension was naturally good, and his physical shortcomings were made up by the Yijin Jing divine skill. On top of that, the twofold boost to aptitude and comprehension meant he naturally learned anything quickly.
After several more days, the power of this palm technique in Fang Shuwen's hands was beginning to show.
Along the way, he casually slapped out, and a large tree three zhang away exploded with a boom, leaving a deep palm print three cun deep.
On the road, they encountered a brown bear blocking their path. Zhou Qingmei's treasured sword at her waist had not even left its sheath before Fang Shuwen had already slapped out at it.
The brown bear, not knowing what was good for it, wanted to compare palm strength with him. As a result, Fang Shuwen relieved the bear of one paw.
Finally, when his Mahakala Palm had achieved minor success, they walked out of this stretch of deep mountains and old forests.
They walked for another half day, and before dusk, they came upon a household with signs of human habitation.
The two exchanged a glance, both feeling a sense of having survived a calamity.
They hurried forward and knocked on the door. With a squeak, the door opened, and a boy of sixteen or seventeen, looking at Fang Shuwen and Zhou Qingmei standing at the door, had excitement flickering in his eyes:
"Father, Father, we have guests!!"
Chapter 13