Chapter 69 - 41 Life-saving Style Takes the Date Pill

Chapter 69: Chapter 41 Life-saving Style Takes the Date PillAh Qing was feeling down, and in a moment of slip, accidentally let out her own secrets. But luckily, after spending this period together, she already considered Harano half a confidant—second only to Ah Man. Harano was "kind and compassionate" by nature, willing to lose money selling medicine to save poor villagers, and even after winning against her, didn’t humiliate her. He would remember if she’d eaten, worry if she was too bored, and was willing to spend time teaching her how to read—truly a very kind and gentle person. Since Harano was, in her mind, such a good person, even if they exposed some of their background, it didn’t matter. In fact, in the future, they’d have to take him with them to beg for food, so he’d find out sooner or later. Chatting with him about it now didn’t seem to be a problem. She hesitated slightly, then spoke softly and honestly, "The Yang Technique is a ’technique exposed under sunlight’. According to my grandpa, Ah Man’s Sevenfold Infiltration, Observation Technique, and Odd Speech Technique just need to be honed a bit more before she graduates; she’s also close to mastering the Five Vehicles of Five Desires Technique." "A technique exposed under sunlight?" Harano didn’t quite understand, and asked curiously, "These Sevenfold Infiltration, Observation Technique—what do they mean?" Since she’d already mentioned it, Ah Qing didn’t mind being more detailed, and explained softly: "Sevenfold Infiltration refers to seven types of disguise and infiltration methods. Ah Man can pretend to be a Monkey Musician, Farmer Musician, Void Monk, Street Performer, Blind Mage, Puppet Master, and Ordinary Form (meaning normal people). No matter what profession or person, she can play the part vividly, slipping through streets and checkpoints, traveling all over without ever arousing suspicion." So it was spy disguise skills—Harano understood, but wondered why they were given such odd names. He then asked, "Then what about the Observation Technique?" "Most people, Ah Man only needs a glance to guess their identity and background with eighty or ninety percent accuracy—even if they’re disguised, they can’t fool her. If she takes a look at Samurai and Courtiers from the East Sea Road, she can know where their ancestors lived, who’s in their family, and their strength." Ah Qing spoke quietly, "My grandpa says that, just considering ’Observation Technique’ within the East Sea Road region, Ah Man is almost as good as him, but elsewhere she’s still not as skilled. Ah Man is very unwilling to accept this and even had a big argument with grandpa over it." Turns out, these were also spy skills—kind of like counterintelligence techniques, used specifically to deal with other spies. Sure enough, no matter the era, people in the same trade are always enemies. Harano considered this, then continued to ask, "What about the Odd Speech Technique..." "Ah Man can speak dozens of local dialects, as well as thieves’ and monks’ cants and guild slangs from all over. A lot of the time when she talks to others, I can’t understand a word. What’s more, she can even speak from her belly—can even communicate with animals. Once a dog chased us, and she barked twice at it; the dog just stood there dazed for a while and went away." Harano nodded lightly. Ah Man’s talent for languages really was impressive. After hanging out with him for a bit, she’d almost completely picked up his accent and learned a bunch of new words. She probably took his accent for a West Sea Road dialect, preparing to fool others with it in the future. Looking at it this way, Ah Man was definitely clever—calling her a genius wouldn’t be overpraise. After all, if you want to pose as a Monkey Musician, you need to imitate all kinds of animals dancing; if you lack training and talent, you’ll just look like a fool. To play the Void Monk, you need to know how to play the shakuhachi flute, understand Buddhist doctrines, and even be able to preach in public. To pose as a Farmer Musician, you need to know all kinds of folk tunes and be able to sing—not having a decent voice will easily give you away. To pretend to be a Street Performer, you need to know magic tricks—some unique stunts to prove your identity. To be a Puppet Master, you need to be able to perform puppet shows and be adept with gunpowder, enough to make it convincing. To act as a Blind Mage, you need to play the Japanese Koto and convincingly pretend to be blind—otherwise, you’ll arouse suspicion. To take on Ordinary Form—that is, roles like Hostess, village girl, little Maid in daily life—you’d also need extensive real-life experience not to give yourself away. At the very least, calling her "multi-talented" is no exaggeration. And as for her Observation Technique, it probably requires remembering each family’s history, family crest, marriage ties, and such—a huge mental workload—so it’s clear her brain really does work well, and her talent is outstanding. Harano thought for a moment, then asked, "What about the Five Vehicles of Five Desires Technique—what’s that?" Ah Qing recalled for a moment, and answered softly, "I’m not entirely sure about the Five Vehicles of Five Desires Technique. I think it refers to the five vehicles: Joyful Chariot Technique, Anger Chariot Technique, Lamenting Chariot Technique, etc., and the five desires: desire, appetite, curiosity, and so on. By observing a target’s five chariots and five desires, you can manipulate them and establish certain relationships, maybe to gather intelligence or obtain things. My grandpa says that Ah Man has already reached a competent level with this too, but that’s about it—perfection isn’t possible." That sounded a lot like "spy psychology"—using bribery, playing the victim, provoking the other party, catering to their likes, and so on, gradually fishing out information or stealing things? Harano pondered this and then asked, "Why can she only reach competence with this technique? Is there some difficulty?" Ah Qing hesitated for a moment, but didn’t hide much from him, lowering her gaze and answering quietly, "According to my grandpa, the Desire Technique requires good looks and a certain charm, but Ah Man... Granddad wanted to shave off her eyebrows so they’d regrow, or have her paint them on herself, but she refused. Back then she got so mad, he said she’d never perfect this art in her life." Harano suddenly understood, nodding lightly in recognition. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ah Man really did look kind of comical, and her aura...well, let’s just say it defies description. She’s definitely not beauty-pageant material—not being able to master these dubious arts is normal, but even so, she’s already very capable. Now that he understood the essence of the Yang Technique, he remarked approvingly, "Impressive! Not just anyone can pull off this ’Yang Technique’." Ah Qing was also always very impressed by Ah Man, and nodded gently, "Yes, of all of us, only Ah Man can train it. After our grandpa passes, she’ll be our new leader." Their grandpa had traveled the Sixty-six Countries of the World, going through great pains just to find someone like Ah Man, wanting to raise her to be a true successor and spread the Life-saving Style far and wide. He just hadn’t expected Ah Man to turn out more and more eccentric—a good brain, yes, but severe personality flaws and very lacking in Martial Arts. So now he just sighs all day, thinking the Life-saving Style is destined for disaster. Of course, none of this needs to be brought up with Harano. Yeah, the name "Life-saving Style" isn’t about praying for survival. Their grandpa figured that if he died, and Ah Man, as the second generation, took over, if the gang could survive under her not-quite-reliable leadership, that would count as success. So he gave it such a pessimistic name, sighing the whole way. "A new leader, huh!" Harano hadn’t expected that a casual question would reveal Ah Man’s little secret: this gamble-loving, greedy, lazy, slippery street urchin who thinks about lunch right after breakfast actually has serious skills—and is even the future head of the Koka Life-saving Style. Quite a surprise! Yet, as far as he knew, there were no historical records of her. Maybe no matter how talented a spy, they’ll never be remembered? Or maybe she just lived her whole life unseen, silently in the shadows? Or maybe died young, and the Life-saving Style never survived? Harano pondered for a while, then looked at Ah Qing with concern, asking, "Ah Man trains in the Yang Technique—what technique do you practice? Is it the Yin Technique?" Ah Qing paused, a hint of sadness on her little face as she lowered her gaze and shook her head. "No, I... I’m not talented enough to learn the Yin Technique. That’s what Ah Qian and Ah Yu are studying. The Yin Technique is all about various Invisibility Techniques and Escape Techniques—to sneak somewhere without anyone noticing. You have to be small and nimble. But grandpa says...he says I’ll grow very tall. If I train the Yin Technique, it’ll just be twice the effort for half the results, so...he switched me to Mountain Concealment Technique." The mountain hermit is a kind of ascetic who trains in the mountains, relying on individual strength to endure harsh natural environments and fierce beasts. Their bodies are extremely agile, their reactions sharp, their pain tolerance immense, and they’re especially good at close-quarter fighting and survival life-or-death struggles. Over time, it turns into a kind of lethal combat technique. Ah Qing was a bit slow-witted, and would clam up like a block of wood with strangers. She couldn’t learn the Yang Technique, and as she got taller—she was already a head taller than Ah Man at the same age, probably would get taller yet—she found it hard to climb walls, crawl through holes, hide or sneak around, so the Yin Technique wasn’t for her either. In the end, she had no choice but to focus on martial combat. She actually felt a little inferior about this, thinking she was pretty useless. In their line, you’re supposed to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible—fighting is a last resort. So her time to shine was rare; most of the time, she was just following Ah Man and carrying her bags, basically eating for free. By this point, she was already the least talented in the Life-saving Style. Discovering she was also the worst at learning to read just made her feel even lower—like she just wasn’t good at anything except eating, so she put in even more effort, hoping desperately to change her situation. She felt that aside from being strong, she was useless in every other way—her self-esteem found this hard to stomach. If it hadn’t been Harano asking, she would have shot him a cold look and ignored him completely, never sharing these embarrassing stories. If she was really pressed, she might have even whacked him over the head—she wasn’t all that nice a kid, after all. When they first met, she’d even wanted to slit Harano’s throat! Harano, on the other hand, felt that their grandpa’s talent for teaching according to ability spoke of experience and wisdom—a real master from the wilds. He even wanted to befriend him someday and was about to ask more, when suddenly, a chaotic clatter of footsteps rang out. He stepped out of the hut to see a huge crowd rushing toward his "Black Clinic," carrying a bloodied, mangled figure. Everyone was in a panic—someone was hurt, and it looked serious! In that moment, he couldn’t be bothered to keep chit-chatting with Ah Qing—he rushed out to meet them at once.