The only thing remotely panda-like about Anji the next morning when she appeared for class were the dark circles around her eyes. Mingfeng had no idea what kept his daughter up all night. However, it would make sense, seeing how she slept for two days straight. Her body might need time to adjust to its regular sleep cycle.
"If you’re not feeling well, we could always postpone the lesson," Mingfeng eyed his grumpy daughter carefully.
Stubbornly, Anji shook her head. She couldn’t believe how she spent the whole night learning how to tumble without success. Was she really unable to accomplish anything without an adult’s guidance? Grandpa Jin would have mocked her if he weren’t busy napping all the time. Thankfully, she used the energy recovery meditation method he taught in the last thirty minutes before Lizi came to wake her up for lessons. Although Anji’s arms and head were still slightly sore from tumbling the wrong way on and off the bed, it was bearable.
Originally, Mingfeng designed an exercise circuit that would work on Anji’s strength, stamina and balance. However, training under sleep deprivation could do more harm than good. Hence, he changed the concept. They would go on a field trip on foot.
"It’s been a while since I saw Grandpa and Grandma Wang," he started. "How about we take a leisure stroll to the village for chilli dumpling noodles for today instead of a lesson?"
Chilli dumpling noodles? Anji remembered the elderly couple who refused to charge the market price for their delicious noodles. The last time they went, Yan Ping won the billing argument. This time, would her father win against the old stubborn couple?
"What about training?" she asked. "Will we postpone it to the afternoon?"
Shaking his head, Mingfeng grinned. "This is training," he told her. "We will be taking the stairs today. Just you and I."
Taking the stairs? To where? It took Anji a few moments before she understood what her father meant.
"Are we really taking the stairs to the foot of the mountain today?" she perked up. "All the way down? No carriages or piggybacks?"
Nodding, Mingfeng quickly put a finger to his lips. "But you cannot tell your mother that. Gu Ying and Lizi will not accompany us because they need to appear to still be at the study so that nobody else is suspicious."
Agreeing quickly, Anji nodded excitedly. She would have to change her clothes and shoes first. Lizi quickly went to fetch the new clothes and an extra coat with a jade token for Anji’s excursion.
While the maid was gone, Mingfeng started breaking down the rules of their excursion lesson.
"Firstly, you will attempt to meditate while walking down the stairs. Similar to what you did in the indoor training hall, I want you to become accustomed to circulating your qi to only specific points in your body to strengthen them and increase the recovery speed of muscles in those areas." Thɪs chapter is updated by ɴovelfire.net
Walking down the stairs would mean Anji should start circulating energy into her legs to prepare them for the long climb. Thankfully, it was going down the mountain and not up. Working with gravity was always easier than working against it.
After Lizi helped Anji to change into clothing suitable for long-distance travelling, Mingfeng wrapped a cloak around her. The cloak was woven with a special material that decreased the chance of someone recognising them while they were travelling incognito. Anji liked the cloak a lot and wondered when her father had created one that fit her size.
Ready to descend the mountain on foot for the first time, Anji held onto her father’s hands tightly as he led the way. The guards on duty did not raise a brow at their leader’s appearance with Anji as they left the sect. They only bowed in recognition at the entry jade token and let them pass.
After they crossed the main gates, Anji inhaled deeply the scent of the forest and relished the feeling of freedom. The stairs closer to the top of the sect were relatively well maintained. Anji had no problem climbing down the stairs that had been swept. Although there were a few stray fallen leaves occasionally in the way, they were stable and not slippery.
However, after making several turns, Anji realised the path started to become more slippery and uneven. The stone stairs were covered in many fallen leaves, soil and moss. Some stairs were cracked, and Mingfeng helped his daughter to get around them. The trees around the stairs have started to establish their dominance in the natural habitat, growing into some of the pathways and blocking the original route. A lot of maintenance work was required, but the descent down the Celestial Dragon Sect was a long one.
After thirty minutes of climbing down the stairs, Anji could barely feel her toes anymore. She was sweating buckets and panting despite circulating the energy into her feet. The pathways of an Initial Core cultivator were still relatively narrow. Even if Anji had better control than most cultivators at her level, it was a difference she could not bridge between those of a higher cultivation base.
"Father, can we rest for a while?" Anji eventually asked when she could not catch her breath.
The girl lasted nearly one and a half hours of climbing down the steps. It was quite an accomplishment, in his opinion. Mingfeng travelled at Anji’s pace, and while they weren’t even a tenth of the distance down the mountain, his daughter was doing better than she had been previously.
Retrieving a water canteen from the travel bag, Mingfeng set up a small sitting area so Anji would not dirty her clothes too much while sitting on the mossy rock. As she drank, he also observed how she was trying to actively speed up her recovery internally. Anji was still not very proficient in using her energy to increase her strength or stamina. However, she was skilful at recovery techniques. It was probably something his youngest daughter learned from her shifu and the physician she spent so much time with. It did not matter what other people thought. Becoming an herbalist was a great fit for Anji, in Mingfeng’s opinion.
Twenty minutes later, Anji looked fresh, as if she had just woken up. The dark eye circles around her eyes disappeared as well, and she circulated the energy twenty times around her body to revitalise her exhaustion. The only drawback was how hungry she would become after using this recovery technique.
With an angry stomach protesting, Anji quickly urged her father to continue with their long climb down the mountain. They started in the early morning, and the sun was getting higher. If she wanted to have lunch on time, she had to pick up the pace.
"Come on, father! Let’s go!"
Impressed by how quickly his daughter bounced back, Mingfeng agreed.