Han Li seized the rope of the wooden bucket and flung it into the pool below. One draw back, one lift up, and the bucket came up brimming with spring water. Hoisting it without the least effort above his head, he bent his wrist and, with a rush of water, poured a bucketful of cold springwater from crown of head to sole of foot.
"Ha, how refreshing!" "Ha, how good it feels!" cried Han Li and another lad together in a pleasant shiver. Small wonder—for it was the very height of summer, when the heat was as oppressive as could be, and both had bared their backs; to be doused at the head with this icy mountain spring was comfort to every inch of the body.
"Heh heh! Junior Brother Han, thou art truly good at finding choice places. This hidden little pool—how didst thou ever track it down?" spoke, of a sudden, one of the youths, a lad with a cold, hard face.
"That is nothing. Harder places than this to find, I have located not a few; only the water of none of them runs so cool as this." Another lad took the other's compliment in full without the least shyness. This lad was none other than Han Li; the other was Li Feiyu, come to fetch medicine.
Ever since Li Feiyu, on his first visit, had taken from Han Li's hand the pain-medicine and tried it upon his return—and found it wondrously effective, easing the torment of the Marrow-Draining Pill by no small degree—he had been unable to break free of it. From that time on, without Han Li's medicine-powder, he could no longer endure the agony the pill brought on, and so the store that would have served a whole year was, in the space of a few short months, drained dry by Li Feiyu himself.
Tortured to the uttermost by this inhuman pain, Li Feiyu had no choice but to swallow his pride and come of his own accord to Han Li to beg for the medicine. And Han Li, who at that very time was casting about to strengthen his own puissance, upon learning that the other had entered the Seven-Absolutes Hall, straightway put forward the demand that in exchange he be taught the peerless arts of that hall.
Li Feiyu, who had but a few years left to him at best, agreed to this with marvellous readiness, and gave his word with hearty whole-heartedness. And Han Li, to keep their secret from prying eyes, found certain most hidden retreats among the dozen-li-long Caixia Mountain Range, where the two might complete their dealings.
At set intervals the two would steal a meeting in secret; Han Li would hand over the medicine, and the other would teach him some of the martial skill he had learned in the Seven-Absolutes Hall. In this fashion both were well content with the exchange, and so it continued for the better part of a year.
Over these half-year months of dealings, Li Feiyu and Han Li each came to find the other a worthy fellow, and before they knew it they had truly become fast friends who kept nothing from one another. Li Feiyu was very well pleased with the places Han Li had found for them, and above all with this one holding the little pool—for all around it rose sheer cliff-faces, walling in a small basin of ground, and the only way in was a hidden, narrow cavern through which one must crawl upon hands and knees. Strangest of all, the cavern's mouth opened right within the hollow of an ancient locust tree that clung close to the cliff-face. And what mattered most, in this stifling weather here was a pool so cool and pleasant.
After limbering up their bones and sinews, to douse themselves here with a few buckets of cold water was bliss beyond compare.
Having sluiced himself dry, Han Li glanced at the sun's height and asked: "That Frenzied Python Force thou taught me last time is too fierce and headstrong. I think it fits me not. Hast thou some art more light and gentle?"
"Junior Brother Han, dost thou truly think the Seven-Absolutes Hall is mine alone, that I may learn whatever art I please? I too may choose but a small portion of it to study. My own arts lean to the sun-bright and the headstrong, so naturally I must learn its fiercest and most strenuous arts." Li Feiyu shot Han Li a sidelong glare and answered him in no good humor.
"Senior Brother Li, but see who thou art," returned Han Li with a sheepish, apologetic little laugh, seeing the other a touch annoyed, and hastened to add a flattering word or two. "Thou art the very foremost of all our disciples. How couldst thou be measured against an ordinary member of the Seven-Absolutes Hall?"
"How rare a thing!" teased Li Feiyu with a smile that was no smile. "To win a compliment from our great genius Han!"
"Genius?" Han Li laughed. "Am I not every time knocked down by a move or two of thine?"
"Pah! That is because I called upon true qi, and broke thy subtlety with my sheer bluntness. That is no great skill. Were I to forgo true qi, I warrant not within a hundred moves could I lay a finger upon thee."
"But who ever goes to a duel and forgoes true qi? Senior Brother Li doth carry his modesty too far."
"Modesty? Not an ounce of it. Never before hast thou learned any martial art, nor ever fought with any man; the only thing thou ever studied was that worthless broken heart-method of thine, of no consequence at all. And yet in so short a time thou canst grasp the very heart of swordsmanship so thoroughly. If thou art not a genius, what art thou? By the by, that formula of thine has not an ounce of power in it. Why dost thou still drudge at it day after day?"
Han Li gave a bitter, silent smile and thought to himself: "Thou thinkest I do it of my own will? I am a tiger bestrode and cannot dismount—learn it I must, or not at all."
"Junior Brother Han, I am no long-winded schoolmaster," Li Feiyu went on, counseling him once more with earnest gravity. "But with the gift thou hast shown in this half-year of learning the martial arts, fling that broken formula away as soon as may be, and learn from me some real skill in earnest. I dare swear that in no more than two years thou wilt stand out from the crowd and cut a fine figure; and then the two of us shall rule the Sect of Seven Mysteries between us. Would that not be a pleasure beyond compare?"
Han Li's heart was touched, for although the other had said this very thing many times over until it wearied him a little, he could truly perceive the man's whole-hearted sincerity. Yet he shook his head gently in refusal, and turned the talk aside: "Within the Seven-Absolutes Hall, is there not some martial art that can overcome the foe without the use of true qi?"
Seeing Han Li shift the subject, and being himself loath to press an old question further, Li Feiyu pressed no more, knowing that like himself the other must have some secret grief he could not bring himself to speak of. He bowed his head and pondered a while, then lifted it and said: "There is in truth just such a strange sword art, that needs no true qi to perform it. Only ..."
"Only what?" Han Li, hearing that there truly was an art to suit him, was seized with delight and pressed him eagerly. "Only that this sword art has lain within the Seven-Absolutes Hall above a hundred years, and in all that time no man has ever trained it to success. It is even told that the elder who first devised it passed away without ever mastering it. And strangest of all is its name—the Blink Sword Style. Now tell me, is that not a wonder of a name?" So Li Feiyu spoke, marveling again and again over this strange art.