Ji Kang saw Yu Shuren heading over and knew it was time to get back to the exhausting but crucial work of cultivating good relationships with useful people.

He left the handling of the crewmate’s body to the man’s friends among the crew who had also come over, while Ji Kang went to speak with Yu Shuren.

“Hahaha, Brother Yu, truly my horizons have been widened after seeing you make a move, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting but it certainly did the trick!” Ji Kang reached up to pat Yu Shuren’s shoulder.

“Brother Ji you mock me, how could my flaming spear measure up to your landmine? I have to take this opportunity to thank you. Without your help we might not have been able to make it to the boat so far ahead of our enemies.” Yu Shuren rubbed his nose abashedly.

“Put it out of your mind, of course I had to exert my full effort in such a dire situation. You don’t need to be so humble, you declawed that archer quite nicely. If you hadn’t done that, who knows what might have happened.”

Ji Kang’s words were pleasing to the ear. The real reason they were both being so modest was because both sides wanted to cooperate with each other. These two had always felt a fragile bond of two people in similar circumstances working together for both parties' interests, but having fought together and proved to themselves and the other one that they were both capable in a tight spot had strengthened their affinity and determination to work closely together.

Looking into Yu Shuren’s eyes and sensing a common unspoken understanding, Ji Kang seriously considered including Yu Shuren in his plans.

They had all seen Lu Wu’s impressive abilities with a sword, and it had not gone unnoticed by Ji Kang or Yu Shuren. When the time came, all of Ji Kang’s scheming might be for naught if he found he couldn’t engineer Lu Wu’s death because Lu Wu was too good at fighting. Having more fighting power at his disposal certainly couldn’t hurt.

From Yu Shuren’s perspective it was much the same, all along he had been clear that Ji Kang would be plotting against Lu Wu. Yu Shuren had even already helped Ji Kang’s plots by assisting him in instigating Lu Wu against Xiang Chang.

“I’m afraid we haven’t been properly introduced, my name is Jin Xun.” Jin Xun approached the two of them and introduced himself.

“What a happy coincidence! My name is Ji Kang and we came to Zaotong to rendezvous with you before heading to Anwon.” Ji Kang cupped his fists in greeting.

“I am Yu Shuren, nice to meet you.” Yu Shuren followed his example.

“Hahaha, I thought that might be the case but I wasn’t certain. I was also in Zaotong to meet you three, but I hadn’t been given detailed descriptions of you, just a password to verify.” Jin Xun narrowed his eyes and appraised them before continuing. “The messenger carries a letter…”

“...But his words are backed by gold.” Ji Kang finished the recognition passphrase they had been given for this mission.

With this final confirmation the tension melted out of Jin Xun’s bearing and he spoke much more warmly with them. They discussed their mission, but none of them mentioned their secret objective out loud.

“Young Master Lu Wu should be finished negotiating our passage to Anwon soon. He is the leader among the three of us, so if there’s any fine details you need to discuss, you may wish to wait until he can join us.” Yu Shuren expressed his and Ji Kang’s stance, letting Jin Xun know that the three of them would advance or retreat together.

A glint of light shone in Jin Xun’s eyes and he nodded in understanding of Yu Shuren’s meaning. He had sensed something of the power dynamic between the three already, but having it confirmed was helpful.

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Ji Kang, Yu Shuren and Jin Xun then started bandaging each other’s wounds from the fight. Though none of them had received any major wounds, none of them lacked a smattering of minor cuts and bruises.

The Tiger Ridge Gang had been wielding real weapons after all, if slightly dull, and they had also been fairly near the landmine explosion. Although none of them had been staggered by it they had all been peppered by the very edge of stone shard shrapnel burst.

Jin Xun had also been given a beating inside the inn before the others had arrived to intervene.

Lu Wu eventually joined them on the deck and told them the results of the negotiation with the captain. They would get two cabins to stay in for the duration of the trip and the price of their fare was easily covered by the travel expenses fund they had received from the sect.

It was decided that Lu Wu and Jin Xun would share one room and Ji kang and Yu Shuren would share the other.

After they had tended to all of their wounds, Ji Kang excused himself to go to his room and replenish his depleted qi reserves.

In his new quarters, Ji Kang mentally reviewed the fight, examining his performance and considering what he did well and areas where he could improve. He understood that the best way to build on his skills was to constantly review and revise his tactics, as well as seeking a clear understanding of his strengths and weaknesses and then working to shore up those weaknesses.

His clearest takeaway from this was that fights with the two fighters’ lives on the line were blisteringly fast. It was so different from the careful probing of a duel or the well worn familiarity of a regular sparring partner. There had been almost no possibility to probe the opponent’s skill at all, both sides immediately struck with their fullest strength at the first moment in every clash.

Comparing his swordsmanship with Lu Wu, he still had a long way to go. If he had Lu Wu’s skill with the sword, their situation would have been much less desperate. They still would have needed to do a fighting retreat, but they might have been able to inflict enough casualties to gain the upper hand.

There were around thirty members of the Tiger Ridge Gang at the start of the fight. Lu Wu killed the burly ‘Third Leader’ at the start; Ji Kang killed his opponent in the brief five on four confrontation and severely wounded the bandit who stepped on the landmine; Yu Shuren was able to disable two of the bandits, including his own opponent in the five on four brawl; and finally Jin Xun had killed his individual opponent.

All together they had killed or disabled six of the bandits, roughly one fifth of the entire gang. Not a bad result all things considered. Half of those casualties were a direct result of the effective use of Ji Kang’s spell.

Even though spells were incredibly costly for a Qi Condensation cultivator to cast, when used correctly they could be pivotal to achieving victory even against long odds.

It was late evening by this point and Ji Kang hadn’t had the opportunity to do his noon yang meditation session, so he only took in qi to replenish his reserves and stopped before reaching the point where it would change to cultivation. His last cultivation session had been a yin session so if he meditated right now and did another yin session his delicate internal balance would be thrown into disarray.

Ji Kang was starting to notice what a large disadvantage this was in his cultivation journey. Although Yin-Yang Nourishing produced great effects in cultivation speed while in a peaceful environment like the sect mountain, the need to balance his two meditation sessions while on the road was instead leading to him being unable to seize the infrequent opportunities to cultivate.

The Yin-Yang Nourishing manual actually had a solution for this situation, it was just that Ji Kang hadn’t been able to acquire the materials to implement it. With sufficient sources of yin aspected and yang aspected qi, Ji Kang could use those sources of qi to draw in that specific type of energy regardless of what time it was.

Spirit stones could serve the purpose, but so could other valuable cultivation materials of the correct natures. But Ji Kang had only had four opportunities to collect his monthly stipend before being sent on this mission. He had three spirit stones that were sufficiently yin aspected but only one that had a strong enough yang nature.

Just one spirit stone would be nowhere near enough qi to sustain a cultivation session.

Ji Kang decided to keep an eye out for any strongly yin or yang aspected treasures in the wilderness or in any cultivator markets he attended. Delaying his cultivation because he only had free time at specific times of day was a harsh lesson for him, he needed to ameliorate this shortcoming as soon as possible.

After reviewing the fight, replenishing his usable qi reserves and doing some stretches in an attempt to preempt soreness in the morning, Ji Kang went to sleep. Hopefully being on a boat for the next week would allow him enough free time to resume a proper cultivation schedule, at least until they reached Anwon.