Wind Rises on Level Ground

Li Banfeng had sweet dreams all night. In his sleep, a goose feather seemed to tickle his ear the entire time. Stepping out of the Portable Abode, he found it was already noon again. Li Banfeng realized he desperately needed a timepiece. Once he was back in Yuezhou, none of this would be an issue; a single phone could take care of it all. The hour was getting late, and he wasn't sure if he could still get a train ticket. Li Banfeng strode out of the Portable Abode. After walking several hundred meters down the street, he suddenly sensed a strange reaction in his body. Exactly what sort of reaction it was, Li Banfeng couldn't say. He searched around the street for a ride—a carriage or a rickshaw, anything with wheels would do. As he glanced about, he noticed pedestrians throwing glances his way from time to time. What are they looking at me for? Suit, leather shoes, topped with a fedora—I'm dressed quite respectably today! The pedestrians bore no ill will; they were merely curious. Strange. How do I know they bear no ill will? Why am I having so many strange reactions today? The pedestrians truly harbored no malice. They weren't looking at his clothes, but at Li Banfeng's extraordinary speed. He wasn't running, only walking, hands tucked in his pockets as he strolled casually down the street. Yet his feet moved along a trajectory beyond ordinary comprehension, propelling his body forward at high speed. By the time Li Banfeng noticed the anomaly, he had already reached the end of the street. I didn't mean to walk this fast... Watching the houses flanking the street zip backward, Li Banfeng tried desperately to rein in his steps. He truly hadn't exerted force deliberately, nor did he feel the slightest bit fatigued. Yet his legs seemed fitted with a motor; without hitting the brakes, he couldn't stop at all. Even braking was hard to control. Li Banfeng could stand perfectly still on the spot, but the moment he took a step forward, he seemed to surge ahead at twenty miles an hour. This isn't good. How did I forget how to walk normally? Was this caused by the toxic fog of Bitter Mist Mountain? Is this a temporary symptom, or irreversible damage? Though he exerted all his restraint, Li Banfeng still reached the edge of Ligou in no time at all. He had wanted to find a quiet spot to get his legs and feet under control, but as he passed a large banyan tree, a rickshaw beneath its branches caught his eye. Take a rickshaw to the train station first. Buy a ticket, board the train, go inside the Portable Abode, and train my feet and legs then. Lost in thought, his legs didn't stop, carrying him another few dozen meters before he retraced his steps backward. Arriving before the rickshaw puller, he brought his feet to a hard halt and asked, "How much to the train station?" The puller took a drag from his dry pipe, lifted his head, looked at Li Banfeng, and chuckled. "Someone like you needs a ride to the station?" Li Banfeng stared at the puller for a moment. He recognized this man. Monkey Qiu had hired him before—the rickshaw puller with the fire wheels. It was he who had pulled Li Banfeng from the station to the peddler's location, and Monkey Qiu had paid a hefty five hundred dollars for the fare. What the puller said was true. The station wasn't far from Ligou; at Li Banfeng's current speed, he could get there in the blink of an eye. The problem was, Li Banfeng didn't know the way. The puller rose and pointed at the dirt road before them. "Follow this road north for three and a half li, turn east for two li, then head north for less than a li to a fork. Walk another two li from there, and you're at the train station." Li Banfeng shook his head. "Too much trouble. I'd rather take a ride." With his smoke dangling from his lips, the puller said, "What's so troublesome about it? You've reached the first tier of a journey cultivator; how could you get lost?" So that was it. This bizarre speed hadn't been caused by the toxic fog of Bitter Mist Mountain. It was the result of advancing a tier in journey cultivation. Why had he advanced in journey cultivation? Because Li Banfeng had spent a full day and night in a perilous place. Back on Bitter Mist Mountain, choked dizzy by the poison mist, Li Banfeng had forgotten the peddler's warning. Spend a day and a night in a perilous place, and a journey cultivator would advance a tier. Bitter Mist Mountain was a perilous place, which meant Li Banfeng had passed the journey cultivator's test and become a first-tier cultivator. Advancing a tier in journey cultivation was a good thing. Yet it couldn't advance too quickly, or he would suffer a backlash from his Dwelling Cultivator path. Still, there was nothing he could do about it. The Portable Abode hadn't birthed a dwelling spirit, so his Dwelling Cultivator tier couldn't advance. For the foreseeable future, Dwelling Cultivation was bound to be suppressed by journey cultivation. All Li Banfeng could do was keep the gap between them in check. "Why wasn't there any sensation yesterday?" Li Banfeng murmured to himself. The puller asked, "When did you pass the trial for the first tier?" "The day before yesterday, on Bitter Mist Mountain," Li Banfeng answered truthfully. The puller laughed. "Passed the trial the day before yesterday and advanced today? That's on the faster side. Most folks have to wait three to five days. Little brother, you've got good fortune. Hurry along to the station." Li Banfeng said to him, "I can't be bothered to walk. You pull a rickshaw for a living, so why turn down business?" The puller paused for a moment. "You insist on taking my cart? Do you know my rate? Anyone else would charge eight dollars; I'd have to charge you two hundred." "Two hundred, deal!" Li Banfeng pulled out two hundred dollars in cash and handed it over. From this puller, Li Banfeng sensed a certain familiarity and warmth. He firmly believed spending this two hundred dollars was the right call. The puller rubbed the textured patterns on the banknotes and chuckled. "Fine. But let me warn you beforehand: my cart arrives in the blink of an eye." "Can you go slower?" Li Banfeng made what seemed an entirely unreasonable request. The puller understood what he meant. "I can go slower, but the slower I go, the higher the price. Five hundred dollars for two marks. Agree?" "Two marks" referred to two numbers on a clock face—meaning a ten-minute ride. Li Banfeng nodded. "Agreed." The puller sighed. "Fat meat delivered straight to my mouth—it'd be a crime not to eat it. Get in." Li Banfeng climbed into the rickshaw. The puller took up the handles and strolled casually northward. Li Banfeng asked, "What tier of journey cultivator are you?" He could tell the puller was a journey cultivator. The first time he rode his cart, the puller had already shown the abilities of one; Li Banfeng just hadn't understood the concept of journey cultivation back then. The puller didn't answer. "Five hundred dollars, and you want to pry into my cultivation level? Think that's fair? Two marks pass quickly. Ask about something else." "Do journey cultivators usually walk this fast?" "Do I look fast to you?" As he spoke, the puller took step after measured step, moving at the exact pace of an ordinary person. "Then why do I walk so fast?" The puller explained, "That way you were walking just now is called Wind Rises on Level Ground. It's a first-tier journey cultivator technique. A journey cultivator who just advanced doesn't know how to rein in the force in their feet. It takes days of practice before you can reel it in and release it at will." "How should I practice?" The puller pointed at a hand pump well by the roadside. "Ever used a hand water pump? Walking before was like pumping with all your might, churning up gushes of water. Now, you have to restrain the force so the stream trickling out is thinner than a hemp rope. Only then can you walk like normal folks." Thinner than a hemp rope? "That's not easy to gauge." "There's a trick to it. First, rein in the first layer of force from your hips, inching forward bit by bit. Then rein in the second layer at the kneecaps, probing forward in step with the hips. Next comes the ankles, and below that, the toes. Tier by tier, rein it down. As long as your comprehension is sharp enough, a single day will give you a rough grasp." Li Banfeng smiled wryly. "Advance a tier, and I have to learn to walk all over again?" "Don't go grumbling about the trouble. At first, it won't go smoothly, and you'll take plenty of tumbles. But once you master the knack, covering sixty or seventy li an hour is child's play." With that kind of speed, the basic daily cultivation of twenty li wouldn't even take half an hour. The problem was... "For a first-tier journey cultivator, is walking twenty li a day enough?" "Not by a long shot!" The puller shook his head repeatedly. "If you're walking through ordinary places, at least fifty li a day." Fifty li? Still manageable. "What counts as an ordinary place?" "Streets and alleyways—those are all ordinary places." "And what counts as an extraordinary place?" "Climbing mountains—the steeper, the better. Or diving into water—the deeper, the better. Lanqing Stronghold has a muddy bog; if you can walk two li through that, you've fulfilled your daily cultivation. Yangcha Mountain has Blade Ghost Ridge; walk one li along that ridge, and not only do you meet your cultivation quota, you even bank a whole day of time. The essence of journey cultivation lies in peril and ruggedness. The more treacherous the terrain, the faster your cultivation grows." Li Banfeng said with deep feeling, "On Bitter Mist Mountain, cultivation must advance very quickly too, right?" The puller glanced back over his shoulder. "You've been to Bitter Mist Mountain? Went to pick snake-spot chrysanthemums, did you?" Li Banfeng didn't deny it. The puller shook his head. "I advise you to stay away from that place. Going up and coming down, day in and day out, you have no idea how many people lose their lives on that mountain. Coming back alive was pure good luck on your part. And you really are blessed—even surviving after being bathed in Heavenly Light! When you're blessed with such good fortune, you ought to cherish your life. Throwing away such a good life for a bit of coin isn't worth it." "Going up Bitter Mist Mountain was to make money. Money is never easy to come by," Li Banfeng remarked with heartfelt conviction. The puller shook his head with a laugh. "There are plenty of lines of work that make easy money. Pulling a rickshaw isn't bad at all. Last time, taking on that rush job with you, I made five hundred in one trip. Today, picking up another fare with you, that's another five hundred. I hear the big medicine firms are buying snake-spot chrysanthemums for only twenty-five dollars a stalk this year. You tell me: whose money is easier to earn?" Put that way, pulling a rickshaw was indeed much easier money. The puller chuckled. "You folks look down on this trade, thinking pulling a cart is disgraceful. Well, I look down on you daredevils risking your necks, thinking your lives are dirt cheap." Li Banfeng didn't argue the merits of their professions any further, asking instead, "How should I look for suitable cultivation grounds? Places that are somewhat perilous, but not excessively so?" The puller answered succinctly, "With perilous places, act according to your ability. With perilous people, keep a respectful distance. Bitter Mist Mountain is both a perilous place and full of perilous people—a place like that, you shouldn't have set foot in at all!" "How do I identify perilous places and perilous people?" "Journey cultivators can sense danger. It's called seeking good fortune and avoiding calamity. That's another technique exclusive to first-tier journey cultivators. Not only can you spot perilous places, you can also spot perilous people." Li Banfeng's eyes lit up. "A first-tier journey cultivator gets two techniques?"