The three boys walked through Fengliang, making a beeline for the docks. In order to reach Zaotong they would first need to cross the river and arrive on the south bank.

Although in Ji Kang’s opinion the term ‘south bank’ was being used a bit liberally in this instance. The river in question generally flowed from west to east, but it made countless twists and turns. The town of Fengliang and the Azure Grove Sect’s mountain were within one of those turns, and the direction they would actually be moving in while crossing the river would be west.

The dock was busy this morning, packed with dock workers unloading crates and bales from two riverboats that were docked at the two largest piers.

“Ji Kang, find someone to take us across.” Lu Wu nodded proudly, as if by delegating this task he had taken care of it.

Ji Kang looked around the dock. He immediately ruled out the two riverboats that were currently unloading. They would be busy for the next few hours and afterwards they were still unlikely to be willing to humor the three boys’ request to cross the river.

He spotted one promising option, a rowboat with a middle aged fisherman sitting in it, and approached him.

“Excuse me sir, we three are disciples of the Azure Grove Sect and we need passage across the river. I wonder if you would be willing to ferry us across?” Ji Kang asked while presenting his identification token.

The fisherman looked up from the basket trap he was mending and squinted at Ji Kang before looking back down.

“Sure.” The man paused for so long Ji Kang thought he had finished, and was about to turn away when the fisherman continued, “It’ll be a tight fit with those bags. I’m leaving soon, if you ain’t on the boat when I do, then you ain’t coming.”

The man spoke in a barely intelligible drawl, but Ji Kang had experience with understanding unusual accents and this man’s accent wasn’t too far off the proverbial beaten track.

“Thank you sir, it’s appreciated.” Ji Kang cupped his fists and beckoned Lu Wu and Yu Shuren over and onto the boat.

Soon the fisherman finished mending his trap and they pushed off from the dock.

“Y’all are too heavy for me to do all the rowing.” Saying this, the fisherman handed the oars in his hands to Ji Kang and pulled out a second pair from under his bench to give to Yu Shuren. “Mind ye don’t row us in circles now.”

With the two of them rowing together, crossing the river went quickly. There was still plenty of time before noon when they reached the other side, disembarked, and thanked the fisherman again for the ride, before heading off.

Examining the map that the sect had provided them with, Lu Wu felt certain he knew where they were and so they set off through the forest towards the road to Zaotong.

None of the three boys had any experience traveling on foot through the wilderness, so once they got deeper into the forest they lost their bearings several times. Everytime they realized Lu Wu, who had designated himself navigator and was hogging the map, felt uncertain they would send Ji Kang up a tree and regain their bearings.

The fifth time climbing a tree Ji Kang was seriously reconsidering his life choices. He had left his pack on the ground, a lesson he had learned trying to climb a tree the first time, and was making good progress, about to clear the canopy and orient himself.

He understood the logic behind sending him every time, since obviously Lu Wu wouldn’t do it while Yu Shuren weighed almost twice as much and would need a much larger tree to climb high enough without it breaking.

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Even though he knew that and had seen the logic of it very clearly when they first discussed it, five trees in and he was considering telling Yu Shuren the next time was on him. It wasn’t Ji Kang’s problem if Yu Shuren broke a branch, what kind of cultivator would Yu Shuren be if he didn’t learn to be able to stand and move on tree branches after all?

By standing on the thicket branch at the top of the tree, Ji Kang was easily able to clear the canopy and gain a panoramic view.

“I see the sect mountain. That way is the way we want to go!” Ji Kang yelled down while pointing south.

“Okay, come down so we can get going.” Lu Wu shouted.

Ji Kang had a much easier time descending, even able to utilize his movement technique to leap down from branch to branch in a controlled fall. Once at the bottom he had a suggestion.

“I think it’s time for us to make camp. It will only be about another hour before dusk.”

“Hmm, okay, let’s go back to that stream we crossed and set up camp there. That way we’ll have access to fresh water for the night and we can refill our gourds.” Lu Wu decided. “Make sure you remember your bearings for when we get ready to depart in the morning Ji Kang, I don’t want to have to watch you climb another tree again in my life.”

“Yes, Young Master.” Ji Kang cupped his fists and bowed as if he had been entrusted with an important command, despite being inwardly exasperated. It wasn’t his fault Lu Wu couldn’t figure out how to chart a straight course.

They quickly backtracked and found the small stream they had passed and made camp. Yu Shuren put up the three small tents while Ji Kang gathered firewood and started cooking.

Ji Kang hung a cauldron half-filled with water over the flames, put in some of the jerky they had bought for rations, and crushed a hard biscuit into crumbs which he then added to the pot.

This three day walk to Zaotong was the only leg of the journey they would be doing on foot so they had only packed five days worth of provisions. Two extra days of provisions would account for any delays and if the riverboat they ended up catching from Zaotong didn’t offer meals as part of the passage, they could restock on supplies in the town before leaving.

As the meat softened it let out a delicate and mouthwatering fragrance. The three boys were all exhausted and gathered around the fire to wait for dinner to be ready.

When the meat had softened sufficiently Lu Wu, Yu Shuren, and Ji Kang dug in and filled their growling stomachs. The meal was delicious, though simple, and Ji Kang was highly satisfied with this minor foray into culinary efforts.

All in all, the first day had passed with only moderate difficulty, and no danger aside from navigational ones. If this first day was the low point in this trip he would be relieved. Even as that thought occurred to him he didn’t believe it.

“Young Master, we should sleep in shifts for safety.” Ji Kang suggested.

“Even if you didn’t mention it I would have. We are in the wilderness now, there’s no telling what kind of dangers we might attract, best to keep a lookout.” Lu Wu gazed into the dark forest around their fire with a wary expression. “Yu Shuren, you take first watch. Wake up Ji Kang for second watch when the moon reaches this position. Ji Kang, your watch will end when the moon reaches this position, wake me then. I will handle the last watch before morning and we will depart shortly after dawn.”

Lu Wu taught Yu Shuren and Ji Kang how to vaguely tell time during the night, ensuring they had memorized the positions he pointed out before he entered his tent to sleep.

“Well Brother Yu, I’ll get what sleep I can. Be careful, our fire might attract worse things than wild animals.” Ji Kang patted Yu Shuren’s shoulder and made his way into his own tent.

Having been assigned the middle shift Ji Kang would get two short chances to sleep rather than one relatively longer chance like the other two, but since they had made camp just before dusk and it was only now fully dark he would actually get about as much sleep as he usually got in a night.

One unfortunate aspect of Yin-Yang Nourishing was that it required two equally sized meditation sessions, one during the day, one at night. Ji Kang hadn’t been able to do his noon meditation, so now he was unable to do his midnight meditation unless he was willing to create an internal qi imbalance.

Though perhaps it was for the best, when he was supposed to be on watch he wouldn’t be able to focus entirely on meditation. Attempting to stay alert while he meditated would have been a difficult challenge at this point in his cultivation, and not remaining alert would be incredibly reckless.

With these thoughts floating around in his head, Ji Kang’s eyes grew heavy and he was ready to rest, but he didn’t forget to halfheartedly curse Geng Yazhu for forcing them to take this mission before he allowed himself to sleep.