0033 Robbery

The next day, aside from A’zi cheekily stopping by for two meals, the two spent the rest of the time practicing their internal arts. While recovering from his injuries, Jiang Mingzhe managed to open four more acupoints, all of the metal element. In total, he had now opened twelve, surpassing A’zi in the number of open points.

On the third day, before the sky had even brightened, Jiang Mingzhe washed, dressed, and quietly slipped out. This had been agreed upon the day before; they were taking Little Ginger with them, and fearing that they might run into other disciples who would notice something amiss, they preferred to move under the cover of darkness.

Jiang Mingzhe had modified his wicker basket, adding two hemp ropes as shoulder straps and creating a hidden compartment at the bottom lined with clothes to conceal Little Ginger. Above this, he packed flour, salt, a water gourd, a hoe, a fire starter, and a tent. Fearing wild beasts, he had even specifically brought a hunting spear.

A’zi had packed a bundle and carried a sharp sword on her back. She was already waiting at the crossroads. Seeing the faint silhouette of Jiang Mingzhe emerging, she struck a flint to create a spark, circling it in the air so he could spot her. Without a word or any sign of reunion, A’zi took the lead, and Jiang Mingzhe followed at a distance. This was because A’zi was carrying the Six-Winged Iron Centipede. According to Ding Chunqiu, Little Ginger would shriek if it came within ten feet of the creature, so they dared not get too close.

They kept this distance for over ten miles. As the sky gradually lightened, they finally converged. Sure enough, Little Ginger reacted violently, shrieking incessantly from the hidden compartment. Jiang Mingzhe tried to feed it a centipede, but Little Ginger ignored it entirely, reaching a tiny hand out through the gap in the basket toward A’zi.

Unable to bear the creature's pitiful cries, Jiang Mingzhe asked, "Why don't we just feed it that centipede? If it keeps screeching like this, it’ll drive us mad, and it’ll exhaust itself to death."

A’zi’s eyes widened in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how rare a Six-Winged Iron Centipede is? I’m telling you, unless Master gives us the Sacred Wood Cauldron, you’ll likely never catch another venomous creature like this in your entire life! You, you, you—you actually want to feed it to a monkey? You’re so bad at calculating; how will you ever survive?"

Jiang Mingzhe scratched his head. Among the young people of the modern era who relied on credit cards and digital loans to survive, he was already quite frugal due to his impoverished background, but he hadn't expected to be lectured by a young girl.

After scolding "Big Ginger," A’zi turned to lecture Little Ginger. "Little Ginger, you’re picking up bad habits too. Do you think you’ll get a bite just by screeching? Take this!"

At the words "take this," Little Ginger’s cries stopped abruptly. Jiang Mingzhe was startled and hurriedly turned back. "What did you do to it?"

A’zi replied triumphantly, "What? Are you afraid I slaughtered it? If I killed it, how would I answer to Master? Hmph, I used 'Fairy’s Drunkenness.' Even an immortal would sleep for three days after taking it. Let it sleep for now."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Mingzhe realized it was a sedative and couldn't help but laugh. "If you had such a method, Sister, we could have just drugged it before we left. Why did we have to sneak around so early?"

A’zi blinked blankly, then punched Jiang Mingzhe. "It’s all your fault, you Big Ginger! Why didn’t you remind me earlier?"

Jiang Mingzhe couldn't be bothered to argue. He asked again, "Don't we still need it to catch venomous insects? How will it catch them if it’s asleep?"

A’zi scoffed, "It smells the Six-Winged Iron Centipede and won't even eat what's delivered to its mouth; do you really expect it to hunt? Now that it’s asleep, you should first dissolve the poison of the Six-Winged Iron Centipede. As for the carcass, we’ll see if Little Ginger wants to eat it when it wakes up."

Jiang Mingzhe nodded and moved to sit cross-legged, but A’zi grabbed him. "What are you doing?"

Jiang Mingzhe looked puzzled. "Aren't you having me dissolve the poison?"

A’zi laughed, "Are you planning to let the centipede bite you directly and then try to dissolve the poison? Ha! The *Scripture of Overcoming Tribulation* only records the method for channeling poison into the acupoints. If anyone were to attempt to dissolve it that way, they would surely turn into a hideous monster. Master intentionally left out the details because if the manual were ever stolen, anyone who followed those steps would become a freak, and he would know immediately who the thief was."

Jiang Mingzhe was shocked. He hadn't expected Ding Chunqiu to be so meticulous. He immediately thought of *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*, where Yin Li practiced the Thousand Spiders and Ten Thousand Poisons Hand by letting spiders bite her fingers, becoming uglier the deeper her cultivation went. He had previously wondered why Ming Zhuzi, who also practiced the technique, was ugly in a way that seemed natural rather than acquired. He had assumed it was because Ming Zhuzi’s skills were shallow, but now he realized the Starry Constellation Sect had a safer method for dissolving poison that was deliberately omitted from the manual.

He humbly asked A’zi, "Then what should I do?"

A’zi looked around at the vast, empty landscape and said, "What’s the rush? Follow me."

She led Jiang Mingzhe southeast. After walking for half a day—at least forty or fifty miles—they crested a low slope, and a road suddenly appeared before them, stretching from north to south. The surface was flat and wide enough for carriages to travel side by side.

Jiang Mingzhe felt a tremor in his heart. He recognized this as the ancient Tang-Tibet road, which started in Chang'an and ended at the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, spanning six thousand miles. He recalled that when he had traveled toward the source of the Yellow River, his tour guide had pointed out the history of this very road. He had never expected that after the sudden twist of fate that brought him to this world, the ancient road would be right before his eyes, while the modern highway he had once traveled was nowhere to be found. Gazing out, he saw only endless wild grass and a vast, sweeping wind.

He couldn't help but think: *As the poem goes, "The people of today do not see the moon of the past, yet this moon once shone upon the ancients." I can see the moon of the past every night, but in this life, I fear I will never again be bathed in the moonlight that once belonged to my own time...*

A wave of homesickness became impossible to suppress, and his eyes grew slightly red. Fearing A’zi might notice, he turned his head and pretended to look at the scenery. Just then, he saw a carriage slowly approaching from the north, escorted by seven or eight people on horseback. Dressed in red robes and hats, they were a group of lamas.

A’zi cheered, "Great! Heaven knows you need to dissolve poison, so it’s sending living people right to you!"

Jiang Mingzhe was shocked. "What? Why do you need living people?"

But A’zi had already dropped her bundle and darted out. By the time she was running, she had already drawn her sword, blocking the path. She shouted nonsensically, "This road is mine, I planted these trees; it’s a robbery! Don’t you dare run, let this young lady pull off a heist!"

The lamas were startled at first, but upon closer inspection, they saw only a young man and a young girl, and they all burst into laughter. One of them wore a tall, pointed hat with flaps hanging down like a shawl, clearly the leader of the group. He shouted a few words in an strange, unrecognizable tongue.

A’zi yelled, "I don’t understand, I don’t understand! Leave one person behind, and I’ll let the rest of you go!"

The leader spoke to his companions, then switched to stiff Chinese. "Little girl, playing at highway robbery? You’ll be beaten to death sooner or later. You’re quite pretty—why not come home with me and be my son’s wife?"

A’zi understood him, and her face flushed with fury. "I only wanted to keep one, but now I’ve changed my mind. I want every single one of you dead!"

The men laughed in unison. The leader whispered something, and a younger lama nodded, grinning as he dismounted. He unhooked a long-handled great axe from his saddle, swung it a few times, and slurred, "Little doll, surrender, or with one swing of my axe, you’ll be chopped to nothing!"

Seeing the man’s heavy weapon and the fierce way he wielded it, Jiang Mingzhe feared A’zi might be overwhelmed. He hurriedly unslung his basket, set it down, and rushed forward with his hunting spear in hand.