Mage's Cultivation Journey 23

Walking away in a slow, unhurried pace after taking down my two attackers had been enough to scare the rest, a fact I was intensely grateful for. Inside, I was sweating bullets.

I didn’t expect to be attacked by Skin Refinement martial artists, something I was not ready to face with my fragmented understanding of martial arts. Their inexperience was the only reason I had managed to touch them directly without being smashed into pieces, with the first one telegraphing his attack with a degree of overconfidence that surprised me, and the second one freezing in fear.

Even better, the rest had been sufficiently intimidated by the achievement, believing that I was a master martial artist. I couldn’t blame them. It was a more reasonable guess than facing a displaced mage with only a trick in his bag.

Still, a victory was a victory, no matter its circumstances.

Only after we passed the bridge, weathered by time and half-overgrown with moss, I spoke. “Finally,” I said, relaxing. “That was close. Lucky that they bought it.”

“Yes, it was,” Yu Xing responded. Su Mi looked between us, unsure about the sudden shift.

I sent her a faint shake of my head. “The situation is a bit more complicated than we had mentioned. Don’t worry about it too much. We’ll explain once we reach somewhere safe,” I said, then glanced at our destination, deep in the mountains. “Well, safeish,” I corrected.

She nodded silently, quick to adapt to the new information, which further fed into my theory that she was not a merchant’s daughter like she claimed.

We walked in that leisurely, slow pace even after passing the bridge, moving in silence, aware that we could be seen. Only when we arrived at the forest, I decide to change it. “Let’s pick up the pace, in case they change their mind,” I said. That didn’t help Su Mi’s curious suspicion, but I didn’t bother explaining.

She looked at Yu Xing, who just shrugged, more focused on finding the path. Thanks to my advances, I was able to keep pace, but Su Mi started to get exhausted. “Carry her,” I told Yu Xing. “We can’t afford to slow down.”

“I… Maybe… Could we…” both of them stammered at the same time, their shyness obvious. Their reaction was not a surprise. Two good-looking young people at the cusp of adulthood, facing a dangerous situation together, unable to trust anyone else…

“Do it,” I said. As much as I didn’t want to feed their obvious crushes any more than necessary, it would be far more preferable to actual death.

We moved nonstop all day and a nice portion of the night. A grueling pace, yet one came with an unexpected benefit.

For the first time, I had used internal energy openly, without fear.

While I had been experimenting with it for the whole week, those experiments had been restricted to internal processes, trying to understand the nature of the energy. I didn’t dare to use it externally, afraid of alerting the spies about the nature of our grift.

The first thing I tried was to strengthen my muscles. I would have called it muscle reinforcement, but it was clearly different from what they called Muscle Reinforcement in the martial arts texts, at least as far as I could decipher.

It was more like giving an extra source of power to the muscles. It was more similar to the general improvement of the Initiate stage, but with one glaring difference. Ordinarily, it was a passive process for Initiates, their accumulated internal energy dispersing back to their bodies to strengthen their muscles.

A side effect of their lack of control, more than an actual benefit, at least that had been the case for every single Initiate I was able to watch from a distance.

But, as the travel time continued, and my body started to accumulate small problems, like aches from overuse to occasional blisters, I discovered the benefit.

Internal energy hastened the recovery. It was trickier than empowerment, but not particularly so. At least, not when the injury in question was a simple blister. I just needed to ‘soften’ the internal energy even more, and the damaged tissues absorbed the internal energy greedily.

The result wasn’t as dramatic as a healing spell, where a half-decent expert could heal anything short of death with a gesture. A blister disappearing after five minutes wasn’t exactly a miracle.

But, it was a start.

The fact that internal energy could be used as an aid for healing was a valuable detail, especially if it could be targeted. Enhancing survivability was valuable, especially since I no longer had my tower where I controlled every inch of the place. And, things would be much safer if I could cure Yu Xing’s injury.

As night fell, I even discovered a way to turn internal energy into a kind of energy burst, helping to combat exhaustion. Well, the only physical portion, but that was enough. As a mage, it took far more than a long trek while I juggled with internal energy to exhaust me.

The temptation to experiment more was there, but I held myself back. An impatient mage was a dead mage.

One step at a time.

A week ago, internal energy was an alien concept, something that the dimensional natives used to punch harder. A week later, it was a tool under my control, primitive as it might be.

No need to risk accidental death … or worse.

“It’s a good place to stop, master,” the kid called. I thought about correcting, but decided against it. It was clear that locals used it as some kind of catch-all title, from superiors to actual teachers. And, I was definitely a teacher for the kid, so it was pointless to argue.

“Explain why?” I asked instead.

“We have already entered the territory of the savage beasts. If we go any deeper, we risk getting targeted by beasts that hunt at night.”

“Good reason. Let’s look for a good place to camp, then,” I replied. Ideally, somewhere concealed, where we can stop for a few days. I have some ideas about your injury that I want to test.”

“Injury?” Su Mi interrupted, her concern genuine. “You’re injured?”

Yu Xing scratched his head. “Sorry. We had to keep it a secret with all the spies watching us. But now that we’re here...” But, rather than immediately explaining the situation, he turned to look at me, asking for permission.

I nodded at him. I could have told the story myself, but it would be better to be told by Yu Xing. Not only would the girl find it more trustworthy, but it would also allow me to watch her reaction, and see where she was having trouble believing.

She clearly knew more about the world than the kid, and it would help me to fix some of the kinks in my story.

I split my attention between meditating — to further understand the internal energy primed for healing — and listening to their talk, observing their body language. I made no attempt to silence the kid, because he was not a proficient liar. It would have shown.

Yu Xing told the story, truthful about everything, but with one critical omission. He just mentioned that he found me unconscious, with no mention of the light show that preceded it. Smart move, I had to admit.

Though, once he finished it, Su Mi turned to me, shocked. “Wait, you don’t know how to read?” she asked.

“Only the local language,” I clarified. I expected that to limit her shock, so I was surprised to notice her body going stiff for a fraction of a second. It was subtle enough to confirm she had been trained to hide her reactions.

Too bad I was the better liar. She might have been trained, but it was equally clear that it was mostly theoretical, with little practical experience. I had lived through the intrigue.

“That’s surprising,” she said. “You must come from a long way away,” she said, her tone just pointed enough. It further confirmed her inexperience. She had no reason to challenge me on my story, but I let it slide.

“Must have,” I said. “Maybe far enough for your merchant house to send a caravan or two,” I responded, putting a stiff emphasis on the merchant house to warn her that I didn’t buy her story. Her eyes widened in panic. I smiled pointedly. “We can discuss it whenever you want, girl,” I told her, signaling her that as long as she didn’t bother me about my story, I wouldn’t bother her about hers.

“M-maybe later,” she responded, quickly abandoning the tracks. “We can use our time better if I focus on teaching you the local language, right?”

As far as peace offerings went, that one was an amazing one. Listening to their lessons had taught me quite a bit, but ultimately, it wasn’t direct teaching.

Yu Xing, more interested in the perimeter of our camp, missed the whole subtext, which was not a surprise. The kid was sharp, but it didn’t help when one didn’t know where to look.

“After I examine Yu Xing about his injury,” I replied.

We would be much safer if the kid could perform properly. I doubted my tricks would work against a prepared enemy … or worse, a savage beast.