Chapter 132: Master Lin of Quiet River Town
My Dao to Eternity — Chapter 132
Chapter 132: Master Lin of Quiet River Town
Li Fan did not fly.
The temptation existed, in the days after Crow's Throat, exactly as often as the ache in his shoulder reminded him how much faster the air would carry him than his own two legs. He set the thought aside each time it rose. A cultivator moving through open sky left a wake behind him, however faint, and after three separate encounters in as many stretches of road, he had learned better than to trust any distance he hadn't earned on foot.
He kept to riverbeds where the water had receded low enough to leave a hard clay bank instead of mud that would hold a print. He crossed barren hills rather than the easier valley roads, where a lone traveler stood out clearly against open ground. He doubled back twice through terrain he'd already crossed, watching from cover to see whether anything followed the trail he'd left, and both times found nothing behind him but wind moving through grass that had already forgotten his passing.
His shoulder healed slowly, the lightning's residue taking the better part of a week to fully clear from his meridians even with careful circulation each night. He rationed his remaining pills with the same discipline he'd once rationed fasting powder in a dead alchemist's cave, treating each dose as though it might need to last considerably longer than he hoped it would.