Mage's Cultivation Journey 16

“Welcome, young master,” I said, which made the girl tense suddenly, while Yu Xing sent me a surprised look. His reaction was about my sudden change. Our initial plan required me to play a more respectful servant, but that was before he created a commotion that brought some unexpected attention to us. “I see that we have a guest instead of the challenge you have been assigned. Should I send a message to the master that his chosen candidate is too useless to complete one small task?”

He looked hesitant on how to answer, caught flat-footed at my move, until I nodded toward the side, where a group of people were watching our camp, trying to be subtle, but failing spectacularly. “No, steward,” he answered, remembering our plans. “She will be teaching me how to read.”

I turned to her. “You can write and read?” I asked, my tone needlessly antagonistic, which seemed to annoy the kid. Good, as that was the point.

She turned to Yu Xing hesitantly. “Maybe I should leave. I don’t want to cause even more trouble—”

“Nonsense,” Yu Xing cut her off, but not before catching my gaze, and receiving a subtle signal from me to confirm that, yes, we were still playing our roles. “It’s my challenge, and I have the right to fulfill how I want.”

“Tell me who you are?” I asked.

“I … My name is Su Mi,” she said hesitantly. “I’m the third daughter of my family.”

Unless I was horribly failing to read her, she was telling the truth. “And, what does your family do that they had gone the trouble to teach their third daughter how to read and write?”

Her eyes widened at my words. Not too much, just slightly before she managed to control her expression. She realized she made a mistake. “I come from a family of merchants. I helped my family with the books,” she said. “But, we got separated when our family was attacked by the beasts.”

“A merchant’s daughter. Alright,” I said, putting as much disdain as I could manage in my tone, the local social perception of the merchants giving me the excuse I needed to act distant. Yu Xing seemed unhappy about my tone, but the girl lost some of her tenseness. Her attitude, I understood.

After all, she believed that she had just lied to me successfully. She was no merchant’s daughter.

“I won’t disappoint you, sir,” she said.

“Start teaching him. We will stay here for a month. If he makes enough progress, you can ask a minor favor from me.”

She nodded, her eyes widening slightly at the mention of a minor favor, but she kept herself from mentioning it. She clearly had a story, but I decided not to ask her about it. While her presence was not ideal, Yu Xing already made a choice, at this point, sending her away would reflect on us badly, ruining the situation.

I knew that, despite my warning about keeping it to himself, the martial artist I was scared would tell his bosses about me. I knew that when I let him go. Otherwise, I would have blocked his internal energy a breath later, once it was fully converted, followed by an attack to kill him.

While I didn’t enjoy killing, my hands were far from clean. Killing one more to send a message would hardly ruin my sleep.

I acted like I was focused on cooking while the girl started to teach, using a stick while they sat next to a sandy patch, using rocks as chairs. Naturally, I was close enough to devour every single detail.

It didn’t take long for Yu Xing to watch what she was doing with deep confusion. He was a sharp kid, but without a proper education, it was challenging.

“No,” she corrected when Yu Xing tried to draw the same symbol she had just shown. “You need to put more curve here, or it won’t mean water, but indigestion.”

I couldn’t blame the kid. The writing language was proving to be maddeningly complicated. To start, the written language had next to nothing with the spoken one. No phonetic components or convenient letters, were replaced by complicated symbols with dozens of intricate lines.

That much was troubling enough, but the symbols might also have different meanings based on their position in the sentence. Depending on the surrounding letters, the same symbol might be read as water, prosperity, flood, or even death. All either without a pattern, or with a pattern I couldn’t recognize.

I had been hoping for a simpler script, so that I could figure out the rest myself after learning the basics. Now, it seems that, without several books to help me, it might not be possible. I would still try once I got my hand on some books, but there was no guarantee I would succeed.

I wouldn’t have found it annoying f it wasn’t for some very practical needs driving me forward, but the situation prevented me from treating it as a fun puzzle that would keep me occupied for a month or two.

Yu Xing sat opposite her, his brow furrowed in focused confusion while he tried to process the information.

I took my usual position at the corner, sipping a weak tea the color of moss water and pretending not to listen. But in truth, I was absorbing every detail. This world’s script was maddeningly elegant, a tangle of flowing strokes that held more meaning in the shape of the brush than the sound of the word.

“I don’t get it,” Yu Xing muttered. “Previously, you said this one means mountain.”

“Yes, but not when paired with this symbol. Next to it, it means indomitable. The meaning changes depending on the placement, pairing, even the pressure put by the brush while being written, focusing on a certain aspect,” she said. “Some words only exist when paired with others. Some meanings are hidden unless you know the full idiom.”

“That’s … complicated. Is it really useful,” he asked.

“Yes. How can you really improve as a martial artist if you can’t delve deeper into the mantras and discover the deeper meanings.”

His eyes widened in shock. He wasn’t the only one who had that reaction but I hid mine better. “Really?” he asked, which I echoed internally. That little nugget had many implications, especially since I was still trying to understand why mantras were a part of the martial arts.

“I heard from some of the caravan escorts, so it must be true,” she added, but there was a certain haste in her tone, making it clear that she was trying to cover up something.

Another sign of her extraordinary identity. Once again, I let that go uncommented. Confronting her at this exact point had no value.

She continued her teaching. I split my attention between my own chores and her teaching. The more I learned, the easier it would be to identify the material that would help me progress more once the opportunity arrived.

However, soon, my attention was stolen by another detail. A figure near the edge of the crowd, with his shadow beneath a hood, his clothes ripped to mix in with the crowd. Yet, he failed. His attitude was one reason, but the clear feeling of internal energy was an even bigger clue.

He was here to check on us. That, I was clear, because his internal energy was in an active state, circling, ready to be converted. That helped me to catch him even faster.

I couldn’t identify his stage immediately, but I could sense that, currently, he had almost triple the energy Wang Bi had during the confrontation. So, he was either at the Peak of the Initiate stage, or actually at the Muscle Reinforcement Stage.

Either way, he was a dangerous foe.

So, I caught his gaze, and once he flinched in shock, I waved at him with a casual move. He took it just as I hoped he would, and blanched in fear before turning back and retreating.

It was a bluff, but not a baseless one. The stronger the martial artist, the sharper their senses. And, since I could identify him from such a great distance, it stood to reason that I was far stronger.

That wasn’t the truth, but I couldn’t blame him. How could he guess that he was dealing with a dimensionally displaced mage who would be entirely helpless if he actually tried to attack me? All he needed to do was to prevent me from touching him, and he would win.

However, while the brief bloodless victory tasted sweet, I knew that, sooner or later, someone would push me. All it would take was a reckless idiot ignoring my carefully created picture and attacking recklessly. I needed to learn more.

I turned back to my two campmates, Yu Xing fumbling for another symbol while she corrected. I realized there would be another way she would be helpful. An excuse for a ‘master’ like me to try purchasing new martial arts manuals. “Girl, you don’t know martial arts, do you?” I asked.

“N-no, I don’t, exalted master,” she replied, her tone more bitter than I expected.

“Would you like to learn?” I asked.

Her eyes widened while her lips locked in shock. But, I didn’t need her words to understand her answer.

Perfect.