‘‘You seem unaware of basic etiquette, junior brother.‘‘

Zhang Cai watched Li Bo close the door and rest on a comfortable chair. It had fangs carved on both armrests, the material itself akin to Xian teeth like the rest of the furniture.

How big a Xian must be to make a bed frame out of its fangs?

He would know, some day.

‘‘I am not exactly from a good family.‘‘

‘‘That is not a nice joke, since I know your circumstance.‘‘

‘‘Even more reason to laugh...right?‘‘

Li Bo smiled, expression still, and the man did not drop his smile at the remark. Zhang Cai had never seen him without it, even if he was worried or frowning or glaring, which reassured his image of a kind older brother.

He seemed like he would be the brother of anyone, from any background, from any age. The kind of vision he had of Li Bo was not complete, but this initial shape, his first thoughts and interactions kept the positive mindset upright and uptight. Or uptight and upright.

These kind of words, Zhang Cai never stopped learning. In time he would grasp a finer speech, he hoped, and would be able to express himself in his entirety.

‘‘Though down here it is manageable, and until we reach our family irrelevant, after our journey I do worry of what troubles it might bring to you.‘‘

‘‘Don‘t, don‘t. Trouble never goes away anyway. Worrying won‘t help much.‘‘

‘‘Indeed...if we instill them now, there should not be any need for it.‘‘

‘‘Now...?‘‘

‘‘Being the playmate of my genius dear junior sister is no simple job. How could we hold our heads up in the Li Family if the second and third heirs journey with a bumpking who knows no word or etiquette?‘‘

‘‘That...is true...but what is bumpking?‘‘

‘‘It is to lift your spirits. A word play.‘‘

‘‘Ah, because I always bump into trouble?‘‘

‘‘Into rocks, of course.‘‘

Zhang Cai glanced at Li Bo. He gazed at him hard, stern, even almost glaring. ‘‘I...see.‘‘

‘‘My jokes do not seem to faze you, so I will cease them here. But etiquette, you will learn. And after you can do heavy-lifting, you need to help the establishment on the first floor to learn better speech. And the second-‘‘

‘‘Wait wait wait wait, what do you mean second? When are we leaving?‘‘

‘‘When you make a full recovery.‘‘

‘‘But that will be too late!‘‘

‘‘Any earlier will be your death.‘‘

Silence came down to them. And dread. The smile of Li Bo shirked down, snuffed to a simple smirk of some sorts, but Zhang Cai was aware he did not aim it at him. It seemed down-trodden.

‘‘I can speak to you all day long about the dangers of the frontier, man and Xian alike, and the dangers of the Great Forest of Il-ich, but you have gone through ordeals of similar difficulty in that wasteland. I do ask you to understand it, however, that we can travel the distance lost in time with your condition.‘‘

‘‘But...‘‘ Zhang Cai shut his mouth. He thought before retorting. Empty rebuttals that did not contain any thought would not help him solve anything. He was presented with a semi-question semi-statement sentence, and all he needed here was to solve the conundrum.

They were three cultivators. Lowest of them both fourth stage Glassmade, and the highest of them at least Second stage Rocksmote. They could get plenty of quality supplies, climbing gear, diving sets, camping tools, warding salts and dust from this frontier. And with their cultivation they did not really have the need to sleep more than an hour or two for a week. But that kind of travel speed needed a healthy body and a healthy Qi dantian to preserve.

If he went out as he was now, or with his state a week after, they would be slowed down greatly. Indeed, if he recovered fully, that would make the journey smoother.

‘‘I understand...‘‘ He said. But the mention of death, he did not outright ask. The way he told it, Zhang Cai knew enough to not say. Li Bo‘s other intention was for him to learn the dangers by himself, by working in a place full of people.

Brothels, no matter the civilization, was a treasure trove of knowledge. Most of them throughout the continent also dealt in information selling and nurturing young assassins.

This arrangement would satisfy his needs.

‘‘And the rest of what I was about to say...hm.‘‘ Li Bo nodded to himself. ‘‘After the second week, if your dantian is fine and meridians are resilient enough, I will help you refine control. The last week will consist of heavy training and real sword practice.‘‘

Zhang Cai nodded and nodded, then cocked his head at the last statement.

‘‘How can I even fight with a weapon? And you want to use real weapons? I don‘t even know how to use one!‘‘

It came out a bit too passionate, but Zhang Cai did not hold back. Sweat trickled down his palms, reminiscing at the sensation of a hard texture hilt.

‘‘It does not matter. Bare handed cultivators exist everywhere, whose fists and kicks are a weapon on their own. But you will learn one, still. Explaining here does not help anything.‘‘

Li Bo stood up and dusted his knees. He had none though. ‘‘Rest for today. Beginning from tomorrow, a courtesan will teach you the right manner for a cultivator to have.‘‘

As if stuck in a time-loop, Zhang Cai nodded again. How many times he nodded he did not count. They bade farewell to each other and Zhang Cai put his head back onto the bed.

Thrice, he whispered.

‘‘I hit my head thrice to this bed.‘‘

He sneaked a peek at the door, and no courtesan was there.

He breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

*********

And time passed. In that brothel room, always warm and comfortable with his back against pillows and on his chest blankets, Zhang Cai labeled the first week there the best week of his life. He cultivated all he wanted. He ate pork chops and pork soup and quality rice without worms, and drank plum and fruit juice of other kinds, and at the same time was taught by a beautiful courtesan the etiquette among cultivators. And it had not been much, nor any scary.

Clasp your hands when greeting, bow to seniors, pat the juniors, nod to bystanders. Address friends as siblings, those above you senior, those below you junior; and call your spouse and berothred martial siblings...

Oh, he exclaimed. And laughed. But the courtesan did not understand, yet smiled with him, and she kept her modest, prim aura with her all the time. And came the second week, so Zhang Cai went down to help at the lounge. He was taught to keep books, since he learned writing from his master, but he did it hectic and slowly as he had no proficiency. So he was sent to the upper rooms, to bring refreshments and ointments and oils to the clients and the courtesans working. And all the while he went down to a few establishments down the street to buy supplies.

The talk he heard there assured some things Li Bo said, and revealed some he had not said. Talks of cultivators murdered outright on the road was one thing. But the Xian still lingering there, though no surprise, frightened him when they were told of Rocksmote stage. And also demonic and devilish cultivators from unorthodox and secret schools and sects that preyed on the wanderers for their own cultivation.

In one ale-stinking wine shop, from a drunken adventurer of the north he heard a count of three hundred mortals disappearing at once. At their chase many went, yet all who came back were few and frightened. And more accounts of more bizarre events, yet all left to their own devices...

This kind of blind...blindness to obvious evil scared him. Disregard of open threat. He couldn’t wrap his head around no matter what. After all, human life was precious, was it not? Be it a cultivator or a mortal, were they not humans alike? If not even for the people, why did no one try to solve it for themselves?

But he found no answer to that from mere inn and shop talk. He thought about it as he worked, and when he went in and out of the kitchen too many times he glimpsed a beauty working in there. Most of his idle time, he remained there to learn cooking from her, and she seemed more than happy to accommodate. After a few days he felt weird at heart when he met her, but happy.

On one night he was to deliver the oils and ointments, the door he came to revealed her. In one of the upper rooms. And he peeked into the room, noticing a naked customer drained of energy—full of sweat, smelling foul, and white stains on the bed. She just smiled and took the plate from him, and the door shut to his face. That queer feeling went away from his heart.

The third week came, work still being delivered to him, and Li Huan back from wherever she was much less energetic. They both trained under Li Bo. Other than physical exercises, Li Bo taught them proper forms of sword and had them repeat hundreds and thousands of times in a day. When they rested between sets of hundreds they cultivated, and when they did Li Bo guided them gently to a precise point of control where Zhang Cai managed to use less than a Pull of Qi by himself.

This kind of work, train, cultivate routine tired Zhang Cai, but he also felt fulfilled. This kind of stable regime, an orderly way of living, seemed to his taste. But the matter of his master bearing on his shoulders every night, he could not sleep well. Most of the time he went around with dark circles under his eyes.

The fourth week arrived not much sooner. Zhang Cai found himself paired up with Li Huan, in their hands a real, metallic sword of black color bearing a sharp edge and a curved tip. The hilt felt too comfortable to his palms.

Behind the brothel, upon the empty ground covered by walls and fences of iron, Li Bo continued to face them. He carried his smile, and also a longsword of the same color, bearing no cross-guard above its hilt. Throughout the whole week he had them attack him.

It took three strikes from Li Huan for Zhang Cai to accept the circumstance. He did not dare to hurt a savior of his, even if it was accidental. But when he saw how Li Bo sent his sister flying away with faint strikes, and how she struck and slashed without rest at her brother, Zhang Cai had no choice but to join. This kind of determination was easy to absorb.

The man toyed with them, and while he did so kept whispering the flaws of their forms and the shape of their strikes. Had they been too fast, too wide, too narrow, too lax, too strong; he listed them again and again at each of their strike, and for each mistake he sent them blown away to swallow dirt for meters.

If they spent an hour like this, then they spent another doing exercises with their body weight. Pull-ups and push-ups were the main course, and Li Bo tied around the duo’s limbs strange apparitions shaped like silver bells of the monasteries. Each one weighed tens of kilograms.

And an hour’s rest, a lavish meal of delish, and repeat until the night, when he would cultivate his master’s Inner Qi arts.

The week was long gone by that, and then on the last day Li Bo let them do their own thing, going away for the preparations.

’’Come with me, Caicai.’’ Li Huan told him. Zhang Cai accepted. He had nothing in his mind that he could do. She led him inside the brothel, where he saw many of the people he worked with once more, the courtesan who cried with him on the first day, the managed man that sent him away for his lack of speed, the kitchen girl, the older courtesan that taught him etiquette, the mule-man who helped him carry the goods...

’’They were all very friendly to me.’’ He said to Li huan. ’’Is it because of...experience?’’

’’No.’’ She replied. ’’Because they are all kind people.’’

Zhang Cai felt his heart warm up at that answer.

So it wasn’t false...

One latent fear he did not know existed faded from him, and he walked with lighter steps. In his head, he felt like he found the key to the next stage. He had enough Qi, enough training, and somehow he was in the right state of mind.

All he had left for him to advance was an experience.

He kept his foot working meanwhile, and they left the building soon to leap through the buildings. This kind of freedom to navigate through large landscapes at ease, to leap and tackle through obstacles having no difficulty, made him giddy. Days of walking and hiking he did enjoy to some extent, to see the world, but more than that he swore at his master and himself for taking a quest that required him to do those kinds of things.

How wonderful the world would be if he had no such responsibility. The regret of this kind hit him more often as he stayed with the Li Siblings. But when he delved a little deeper into that matter, he knew for a fact that he could experience everything he did because of his master. If not for his master, he would still be a beggar begging or worse. If they found out, a prisoner for years, or a slave to be sold off to a noble.

The gruesome image of the bleeding duo struck at him, Zhang Cai shut it down from his mind.

’’Where are we going?’’

He needed some distraction.

’’To my friend’s house. Senior Brother said I couldn’t go alone...y’know!’’ She winked at him.

Was he to be a caretaker, then, already? He didn’t mind it much, but he did tell her to not speak like him. It wouldn’t fare well with Li Bo if he got the sound of it.

’’You are being unjust, Caicai.’’

’’Do call me senior brother, will you?’’

’’Senior brother Caicai.’’

’’Okay. Zishishishuanshen.’’

’’What are you calling me? That is not a pretty name.’’

Zhang Cai refused to answer. In a few moments they descended into a large clearing beside another two-story manor. Like all others it was make-shift from furniture bricks and fangs, though its entrance seemed more like a ceremonial gate than a proper door.

’’Zishen!’’ A sound called from beyond the door.

’’Hey! I have arrived!’’ Li Huan stepped inside lightning quick and threw herself into the arms of a woman much older. She had white streaks of hair running down the ink-black strands. Most likely older than 70 years old, if he read her Rocksmote cultivation correct.

’’Is this your caretaker? The hired playmate?’’ she asked.

Zhang Cai clasped his fists and gave a curt bow. ’’I am named Zhang Cai, senior. It is an honor meeting you.’’

An honor for the seniors. A pleasure for the equals. A joy for the juniors. These were the quick ways to greet strangers.

’’I see, I see. Come, Zishen, let me show you the paintings I made yesterday. Have you brought your own?’’

’’I did!’’ she said and waved her hand. The pouch tied to her waist opened up and spit out several scrolls of unknown skin, but green in color. ’’Zhang Cai, hold them for me.’’

’’Of co-as you wish.’’ He almost slipped up there. He gathered them and followed the duo towards the inner courtyard, where he watched them laugh and point at each other’s amateur paintings and calligraphy. At the end of the day, where they left and the elder women rained kisses upon Li Huan and bid her safe farewells, Zhang Cai had one thought in his mind.

How is it like to have a friend?

Well, he sighed, seems like I have two of those.