Two months later.
It was the height of summer. The blazing sun hung over Qingzhou City like a giant furnace, baking the streets below.
Waves of heat shimmered in the air as Su Yueli followed the flow of people into the massive city.
Compared to Fengling City, Qingzhou City was a slumbering behemoth sprawled across the plains.
The interior was even more bustling. Taverns and teahouses lined the streets, carriages and pedestrians thronged the roads, and the banners of shops on both sides practically blotted out the sun.
Looking at the lively scene, Su Yueli felt a sudden chill in her heart. There were actually cultivators in this city.
Occasionally, she saw cultivators in various colored Daoist robes walking down the street. The mortals would quickly bow their heads and step aside, their eyes filled with deep reverence.
Every now and then, looking up, she could even see a streak of light flash across the sky as someone flew past on a sword.
Cultivators did not seem to be a rare sight in Qingzhou City; they were genuinely integrated into the fabric of the mortal world here.
Su Yueli watched these immortals, then looked down at herself.
To ordinary mortals, a Third Realm martial artist was already a powerhouse. But to cultivators who could split mountains and block rivers, she was still nothing more than a slightly larger ant.
“Miss! Beautiful young lady, wait a moment!”
Beside the road, at a stall selling cosmetics and hairpins, the sharp-eyed middle-aged female vendor called out to Su Yueli with warm enthusiasm.
“It's a scorching day, miss! Why don't you take a look at these fine jade hairpins and this Hundred Flowers Rouge? With your celestial features, if you dressed up even a little, the young masters of Qingzhou City would break down your door trying to woo you!”
Su Yueli paused and glanced at the dazzling array of women's accessories on the stall.
Under the bright sunlight, the beaded flower hairpins glittered brilliantly.
Shaking her head, she said, “No, thank you.”
Her voice was cold and flat, completely devoid of emotion.
For one, she had a male soul in a female body, so she had absolutely no interest in makeup, powder, or hair accessories.
In the past twenty-odd years, she had never once dressed herself up.
Secondly, she was genuinely broke. Her pockets were cleaner than her face.
While staying in the isolated Black Wind Ridge, she had done nothing but practice her fists and dig graves. Where would she have earned any money?
The last of her silver coins had been spent buying strong liquor over the past two months.
In this bustling mortal world, she couldn't take a single step without money.
“Ma'am, I would like to ask you about someone.”
Su Yueli adopted a slightly more polite tone. “Is there a senior named Tie Tu in the city? Do you know where he is?”
The woman had been a bit disappointed that the sale had fallen through, but her eyes lit up the moment she heard the name.
“Tie Tu? You're asking about Hall Master Tie, miss?”
She pointed toward the eastern part of the city. “Just follow this main street all the way to the end. Cross the stone bridge, and the largest estate there is the Iron Bone Dojo. It's the most famous martial arts school in Qingzhou City. You can't miss it.”
“Thank you.”
Su Yueli nodded, turned, and blended back into the crowd.
Only after Su Yueli's figure vanished into the crowd did the vendor snap out of her daze, smacking her lips as she stared in the direction she had gone.
“My goodness... When did Qingzhou City get such a gorgeous beauty?”
The woman was filled with wonder.
Having been so close, she had seen her clearly. The girl's clothes were practically rags, she didn't even have a wooden hairpin in her hair, and her face was completely bare of makeup.
Yet that face and that ethereal, jade-like complexion made her look a hundred times more radiant than the most meticulously made-up courtesans in Yihong Courtyard.
“What a pity. Dressed so poorly, she must have a hard life.” The woman shook her head and went back to calling out to customers.
Su Yueli made her way down the long street.
Half an hour later, after crossing an arched bridge, a grand estate appeared at the end of her view.
Hanging above the main gate was a black plaque with gold lettering: Iron Bone Dojo.
Two majestic stone lions stood guard at the entrance, and the rhythmic, unified shouts of training could be faintly heard from behind the high walls.
Standing at the entrance, Su Yueli raised an eyebrow, a flicker of surprise passing through her clear eyes.
She had assumed that anyone who was a life-and-death friend of her master—a martial artist who had fought his way out of piles of corpses—would likely be a solitary eccentric living in some deep forest.
She had not expected him to be a martial artist running a dojo and taking in numerous disciples in a bustling metropolis.
The contrast was indeed quite stark.
Su Yueli walked up the steps and crossed the threshold.
What greeted her eyes was a spacious, open-air training field.
Under the blazing sun, over thirty men of various ages stood on the field. They ranged from muscular men in their thirties and forties to teenagers of fourteen or fifteen, all building their physical strength and dripping with sweat.
Some were lifting stone locks weighing hundreds of pounds, while others punched wooden posts, their rhythmic grunts deafening.
A pungent smell of sweat and masculine energy wafted over her.
Standing in the shadows, Su Yueli swept her gaze over them, easily seeing through their capabilities.
Out of these thirty-odd people, the vast majority had not even touched the threshold of the First Realm, Skin Tempering; they were merely training basic, raw physical strength.
The few who had managed to enter the First Realm, Skin Tempering, had unstable and shallow breathing.
As for the Second Realm, Bone Forging, only the two instructors leading the exercises at the front had barely reached it.
Furthermore, the fist techniques they practiced looked like child's play to Su Yueli.
The moves were broad and sweeping, appearing powerful but actually riddled with openings. They were highly performative and lacked any real killing intent.
What was taught in mundane dojos was, in the end, just worldly techniques meant for physical fitness and street brawls.
This was worlds apart from the killing techniques Lu Chen had taught her—techniques that abandoned all defense, aiming for mutual destruction solely to tear the enemy apart.
“Hu—ha!”
Just then, a young disciple resting nearby caught sight of Su Yueli out of the corner of his eye.
The water ladle in his hand dropped to the ground with a clatter. He froze on the spot as if he had seen a ghost, his eyes locking onto her.
This sudden noise immediately drew the attention of those around him.
Following his gaze, the noisy training field seemed to hit a pause button.
The grunts and shouts ground to a halt.
The burly man holding a stone lock forgot to put it down, and the youth striking the wooden post froze mid-punch.
Dozens of eyes stared in unison at the young woman at the entrance.
Though dressed in simple hemp robes, her tall, graceful figure could not be hidden.
Her peerless, frost-cold face seemed to emit a faint, chilly glow under the hot sun. The tear mole at the corner of her eye added an air of distant, breathtaking beauty.
In this Iron Bone Dojo filled with sweaty, burly men, the sudden arrival of such an untainted, peerless fairy was like throwing a massive boulder into a tranquil lake.
After a brief, dead silence, the training field erupted.
Gulp...
Someone swallowed hard, the sound incredibly loud.
“Is... is this some noble family's young lady who took a wrong turn?”
“Are you stupid? Would a noble lady wear clothes like that?”
“Good lord, she's gorgeous! Even the City Lord's daughter can't be this stunning!”
“What are you looking at! Hurry up and put your shirts on! Don't offend the lady!”
Several shirtless men panicked, scrambling to find their shirts. These normally rough-and-tumble martial artists actually blushed, suddenly feeling incredibly self-conscious.
Watching this comical scene, Su Yueli couldn't help but feel a bit amused.
Just as she was about to ask for Tie Tu, the curtain to the inner hall was lifted, and a young girl in a pale yellow dress quickly ran out.
“What's all the racket! We're testing your stance work today! Anyone caught slacking off... Huh?”
Before the girl could finish, she noticed Su Yueli standing at the entrance.
Su Yueli observed her.
The girl was about sixteen or seventeen years old, with her hair styled in two playful buns. With a round face and almond eyes, she was a lively and adorable young girl.
She blinked her large eyes and curiously approached, looking Su Yueli up and down.
“Sister, you are so beautiful!”
The girl was quite friendly, her eyes sparkling. “Are you here to join our dojo and learn martial arts? But we've only ever accepted male disciples.”
Su Yueli shook her head. “I am not here to learn martial arts.”
She clasped her hands, offering a standard martial artist's greeting of equal standing.
“As the disciple of an old friend, I have come to find Senior Tie Tu. Is he in the dojo?”
“Looking for my father?”
Hearing this, the girl gasped in surprise, covering her mouth before laughing, revealing a pair of cute little canine teeth.
“So you're the disciple of my father's old friend! My name is Tie Ling'er. Follow me, Sister. My father is currently enjoying some tea in the backyard.”
Tie Ling'er turned around. As she led the way, she glanced back and shouted at the men on the training field who were still peeking:
“What are you looking at! Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out! Get back to training!”
Shouted at by this little terror, the men shrunk their necks and hurriedly resumed their loud training.
However, their eyes still drifted toward the direction where Su Yueli had gone from time to time.
Su Yueli followed Tie Ling'er toward the quiet backyard.
Listening to the girl's lively chattering along the way, Su Yueli lowered her gaze.
With a stable livelihood running a dojo and a lovely daughter to bring him joy.
This Tie Tu lived a much more fulfilling, human life compared to her own master, who had grown old and died in isolation deep in the mountains.
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