Chapter 25
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Sea and the Teacher (2)
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Yuyeon and the Teacher set out along the main road as the sun dipped below the mountaintops that day, arriving at a walled city around nightfall. Judging by the walls, it was clearly a major city.
People usually think only of the city inside such walls, but of course, those huddled within needed suppliers for all sorts of resources.
Especially food, which was indispensable.
So as soon as you approached a walled provincial capital, you started seeing villages, rice paddies, and farmhouses everywhere, giving the place a real lived-in charm.
And if the edges of your Divine Sense began picking up stables, that meant the city walls were soon within range.
Yuyeon figured they'd reached some city beyond Yongning Province. Nothing special about the reason—just a subtle difference in clothing and daily life that screamed cultural shift.
Unfortunately, her mental map had a blank spot on where exactly Yongning Province sat in Northern Sea Province and what cities lay north or south, so from here on out, she'd have to scout it herself.
For reference, cities usually closed their main gates at night and restricted passage, but Yuyeon had already scaled the walls—or rather, the city battlements—back in Xifeng County, so it wasn't hard.
Having Divine Sense made it even tougher to get caught by guards. And back when it only spanned one zhang, it had been easy; now at sixteen zhang with the Concealing Form Formation on top, it was like lying in bed eating porridge handed to her by the Shrine Maiden at mealtime.
If hands were the best part of the body for channeling inner power, feet came next, naturally. Yuyeon kicked off the city wall, sticking to it with her inner power as she dashed straight up vertically.
Once she stood atop a watchtower roof, the city streets didn't come into clear view. Yuyeon was blind, after all. But long-range scanning was no longer a problem, so she tasked her Teacher with it.
"Teacher, if you would."
「Of course.」
The Teacher focused silently for a moment before delivering the results.
「Looks like it's the city you were hoping for. Not huge, but it has a dock for crossing rivers or following waterways downstream. There are boats for that, and even some merchant vessels, though nothing massive.」
Yuyeon was starting to worry if her luck had turned too good lately. Everything was going so smoothly that she almost wished for some incident to shake things up—it'd feel more comfortable that way.
Or maybe it was just mental trauma from her first brutal fight five days ago. Either way, she thought crashing in a soft bed under a proper roof and then hopping on a boat sounded perfect.
One problem, though: Would any unscrupulous innkeeper take in an eight-year-old girl traveling alone?
***
Yuyeon had underestimated this era's merchants and their love of gold. They figured she had some unusual backstory but never pried or pulled anything shady. They just fleeced the rich little kid for all she was worth.
With her Divine Sense, Yuyeon saw them trying to charge her a handful of copper coins for a perfectly fine room for the night. But when she handed over a single silver fragment, they tried to pocket it without change.
For reference, silver fragments were just broken-off bits of silver, not standardized currency, so weighing it and giving change was the norm.
This wasn't some bookish knowledge Yuyeon had picked up—it was just standard ladylike life skill in this era.
After all, young ladies got pocket money to blow at teahouses as their daily pastime.
Earning money might be for the blind (figuratively speaking), but spending it? Expert level. Of course, young masters did it too. Yuyeon knew because she was one.
She felt a bit miffed and considered teaching them a lesson, but wrote it off as hush money. She'd given the smallest fragment to avoid getting ripped off worse.
In return, the innkeeper must've had some sense, because warm bathwater arrived. Warm water had tons of uses and required splitting firewood, so it all cost money—but a full bath was pure luxury. If you were broke, cold water worked fine.
This wasn't even the standard wipe-down with a ladle of warm water on a cloth; it came with flower petals floating in the tub. A generous bonus indeed.
Yuyeon hadn't had a proper hot soak since leaving Namgung Manor—morning and evening baths had been routine there—and with her Pure White Body or not, it felt amazing after half a month.
Slipping into fresh linen undergarments as sleepwear for the first time in ages felt utterly refreshing. No matter how spotless her clothes stayed thanks to the Pure White Body, prolonged wear caused friction and wear where fabric touched skin or each other.
Had she walked a bit too long? Nearly nonstop for days, her outfits had endured a full year's worth of wear and tear. Plus all the intense movement from combat. Anyway, a year's worth.
As a young master used to crisp, new clothes daily, this had been the cleanest she'd ever worn her old ones.
And thinking about it, running away while still wearing the same house-leaving outfit was downright uncouth for someone on the lam.
Moreover, Yuyeon favored distinctive outfits no girl would wear, so she really ought to change.
With all these excuses lined up—you've probably guessed it—she just didn't feel like layering her old outer robes over the fresh new ones underneath.
So she sent the inn's errand boy to a fancy clothing shop still open late, hawking its wares by lantern light, and had him buy a set of schoolboy's light robes and formal outer robes. For reference, boy's sizes—Yuyeon was a young master, after all.
Once the spending floodgates opened, the Teacher considered reining her in but then thought better of it. He'd lived nearly a century in a mountain village where frugality was life itself, so he figured this was normal for her and let it slide. To the Teacher, Yuyeon was a wondrous Ghost Dao cultivator, not some shrewd young lady.
Since she was indulging at night anyway, Yuyeon ordered dinner too—greasy, stir-fried extravagance instead of Jang Jina's healthy mountain village porridge for once.
Her mouth was small anyway, so she told the chef to take extra pay and bring small portions of a variety of dishes.
The night passed, the sun rose, and after about two shichen of sleep, Yuyeon got up and donned her new light robes and outer robes.
Her wind-and-dust traveling coat was a bit ragged now, but with no time or money for a new one, she threw it on anyway and headed out. Or tried to.
"Namgung Young Lady. We've come to escort you."
「See? Told you your runaway act was confirmed, Yuyeon.」
"Run!"
Yuyeon now understood why the world had suddenly turned friendly. She wasn't a divine spirit anymore.
Having left the mountains for civilization, she was no longer the mountain sprite Mengshan Immortal—she was Namgung Manor's fifth young lady, Namgung Yuyeon.
Whether she wanted that name or not.
"Seize her! A thousand silver nyang to whoever does! We split it and buy ourselves a mansion!"
***
Let's backtrack to the untold story of Namgung Manor. The time: the morning Yuyeon ran away.
'I am leaving to find my own place in the world.'
—Namgung Yuyeon, Compensation Enclosed
Manor Lord Namgung Humyeong fainted upon reading the letter. Not the wet nurse, not the first or second wife—the master of Namgung Manor himself collapsed.
Luckily, his vitality was strong, and he woke after an shichen. But for that hour, the manor might as well have been abandoned.
Incidents during that time: the first and second wives brawling; the third and fourth daughters caught swiping jewelry from Yuyeon's room and fighting over it; the youngest young master righteously claiming the daily snacks his father always bought for his big sister. You know, that sort of chaos.
Namgung Humyeong rose immediately, restored order, and proclaimed his recovery.
Then he gathered all the servants and retainers to discuss the matter.
To him, Yuyeon hadn't been kidnapped—call it a hunch, but it was spot-on. She'd run away. A true runaway veteran, expert-level instinct.
Those around him thought otherwise.
Most assumed nighttime disappearance meant kidnapping nine times out of ten.
One in ten was elopement with some beggar; the remaining point-five was actual runaway. Why would a rich clan's daughter bolt out of the blue?
Of course, it wasn't unheard of.
Namgung Humyeong himself knew from his martial world days: daughters of wealthy sects often pulled "jianghu tours" (read: runaways) for life experience. They were the point-five culprits.
But Yuyeon was unusual, never trained in martial arts and hardly fit for it.
Rumors floated about special blind-friendly techniques, but Yuyeon practicing one? Possible, maybe.
Everyone in Xifeng knew her uniqueness; manor folk, living with it daily, even whispered if she was really blind.
Still, those present ruled out one thing: love-elopement with some young master. They knew how much she despised suitors fawning over her. She'd scold them: "That's no gentleman's behavior."
So if elopement, it'd be one-sided.
Suspicion leaned toward kidnapping.
It made sense: a studious blind girl leaving such elegant handwriting? Most figured kidnappers wrote it as bait to sow confusion.
Conversely, martial artists' handwriting revealed their style and identity like a calling card.
So they started investigating perverts among martial folk with that script who might target a young blind girl. Especially with its flowing, cloud-like flair—hypocritical "righteous" sect lurkers fit the bill.
As massive investigations and pleas for aid spread, ambitious jianghu youths dreamed of currying favor with the manor lord for promotion; opportunists sought coin; madmen lusted after the famously beautiful daughter. Chaos engulfed the southern continent's martial world.
Meanwhile, Yuyeon played joyful Immortal cultivator games with a tiger and a shaman.
As an aside, only two people knew a lofty young man from Windpeak Hollow met privately with the manor lord amid the uproar.
***
One thing Yuyeon overlooked: she'd read tales of runaways in baoguan novels but only up to the serialization hiatus points.
This era seemed administratively backward at first glance, but with all its martial eccentrics, even the mundane world outpaced its historical norms—not that it was Immortal realm stuff.
Especially couriers: major cities had rapid methods, the most famous being martial artists.
No point sending letters by pigeon with normals. While Yuyeon dawdled and marched day and night, relays of martial couriers sprinted nonstop across Fu Nation.
Thanks to beggars' clans and underworld networks, folks went red-eyed: grab any blindfolded girl on sight.
The news hit Jiangyang City's streets too, spreading like wildfire the moment Yuyeon checked into the inn.
She had closed eyes (expected), wads of cash, obvious beauty, and under her described wind-and-dust coat, schoolboy light robes— the whole city knew.
'This is the real deal.'
While she bathed, shopped, snacked, and slept, local powers and thugs eyed the inn, jockeying for position.
Some secured it first—just as Yuyeon woke.
But their efforts went to waste. Panicking at the encirclement, she unleashed "Lightfoot over Emptiness" (as they called it), soaring away—then vanished midair.
Witnesses spread the tale, birthing a baoguan novel serial:
'The blind girl who found peerless secret arts in the manor basement unites north and south, supreme expert #1.'
#2 never published.