Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 41: The End of the Life

Aqing was in a low mood and spoke out of turn, accidentally revealing her family's past, but fortunately, after spending some time together, she has come to regard Yuanye as half her own family member, and her degree of closeness is second only to A-man - Yuanye is "kind and generous" by nature. He is willing to sell medicine at a loss in order to save poor villagers, and he did not humiliate her even after winning her head. He would remember whether she had eaten or not, and would worry that she was too bored and was willing to spend time teaching her to read. He is really a very kind and gentle person.

Since Yuanye was a kind and good person in her eyes, it didn't matter even if they revealed their true colors. In the future, they would even take him with them to beg for food. He would know these things sooner or later, so it didn't seem to matter to tell him about it now.

She hesitated for a moment before speaking softly, telling the truth, "Yang Technique is 'the technique of being exposed to the sun'. My grandfather said that Sister A-Man's Seven Directions, Insight and Strange Language Techniques only need to accumulate more skills before she can become a master, and her Five Vehicles and Five Desires Technique is also close to being a minor success."

"Techniques exposed to sunlight?" Yuan Ye didn't quite understand and asked curiously, "What do these seven-way entry and hope detection mean?"

Since it has been said, A Qing does not mind to explain it in more detail, and whispered: "The Seven Directions refer to the seven ways of disguise and infiltration. Sister Aman can pretend to be a monkey musician, a field musician, a monk of nothingness, a master of letting go, a blind wizard, a puppeteer, and a common form (referring to ordinary people). No matter what profession or person, she can play it vividly, passing through the streets and passing through checkpoints, and traveling around without being suspected."

It turned out to be a spy disguise technique. Why was it given such a strange name? Yuan Ye understood and then asked, "How can you see through it?"

"For most people, Sister Aman can guess their identities and origins with just a glance, even if they are disguised. She can tell where the ancestors of samurai and nobles in the Tōkaidō area lived, who else is in their family, and how strong they are, just by looking at them." A Qing said softly, "My grandfather said that in Tōkaidō, Sister Aman is not much worse than him in terms of 'looking through', but she is not as good as him in other aspects. Sister Aman was very dissatisfied and had a big quarrel with grandfather."

In addition to being a spy technique, it is also a bit like a counter-espionage technique, specifically used to deal with colleagues. It turns out that no matter what era, colleagues are enemies.

Yuanye pondered in his mind and continued to ask: "What is that strange language technique..."

"Sister Aman can speak dozens of dialects, and can also speak the secret language used by bandits, river pirates, monks, and guilds. There are many times when I can't understand what she says to others. Sister Aman can also speak in her stomach and communicate with animals. Once a dog chased us, she barked at the dog twice, and the dog was stunned for a while and then ran away."

Yuanye nodded slightly. Aman's talent for languages was indeed good. After hanging out with him for a short time, he had already learned most of his accent and a lot of new words. He probably mistook his accent for the Saikaido dialect and planned to use it to fool others in the future.

Looking at it this way, Aman is indeed very smart, and it is not an exaggeration to call him a genius. After all, if you want to pretend to be a monkey musician, you have to be able to imitate the dances of various animals. If you have no practice and no talent, you will look like a fool.

To play the role of the Void Monk, one must be able to play the Shakuhachi, have some knowledge of Buddhist teachings, and even be able to preach in public;

To play the role of a field musician, one must be able to sing various folk tunes, and one's voice must not be too bad, otherwise it is easy to make mistakes;

To play the role of a master, you must be able to perform magic tricks and have two unique skills to prove your identity;

To play the role of a puppeteer, you need to be able to perform puppetry and be proficient in gunpowder, and you need to be able to look presentable;

To play the role of a blind wizard, you need to be able to play the Japanese biwa, and also be able to pretend to be blind so as not to arouse suspicion;
To play common roles, such as hostess, village girl, and maid in daily life, it probably requires a lot of life experience to avoid revealing any flaws.

At least you can say she is "multi-talented" without any problem, not to mention that her "seeing through things at a glance" probably requires her to remember the history of each family, family crests, in-laws, etc., which definitely requires a lot of brain capacity. It can only be said that she is really smart and has excellent talent.

Yuanye thought for a moment and asked again, "What about the Five Vehicles and Five Desires Technique? What is that?"

Ah Qing thought for a moment and answered softly, "I'm not too sure about the art of the five vehicles and five desires. It probably refers to the art of the happy vehicle, the art of the angry vehicle, the art of the sad vehicle, and the five desires of sex, food, and fun. By observing the five vehicles and five desires of the target, you can manipulate the target and establish a corresponding relationship, right? You can use it to get information or take something. My grandfather said that Sister Aman has also practiced this technique to a small level, but it's just this level, it can't be perfect."

This sounds a bit like "spy psychology", using bribery, playing pitiful, angering the other party, and playing to their favor, etc., to obtain intelligence or steal items without knowing it? Yuanye thought about it in his heart, and asked curiously: "Why can she only practice this technique to a small degree? Is there any difficulty?"

Ah Qing hesitated for a moment, but didn't hide anything from him. She lowered her eyelids and whispered, "My grandfather said that the art of lust requires a good temperament and good looks, but Sister Ah Man... Grandpa wanted to shave her eyebrows and let them grow again, or let her just draw them herself, but she refused. At that time, she got angry and said that she should not expect to practice to perfection in this life."

Yuanye suddenly understood and couldn't help but nod slightly in agreement.

A-man does look quite funny, and her temperament... is a little hard to describe. Anyway, she doesn't look like a beauty, so it's normal that she can't learn those weird ways, but even so, she is already very strong.

He understood the origin of Yang Art and said with approval, "Amazing! This Yang Art is something that most people can't really master."

Ah Qing has always admired Ah Man and nodded gently: "Yes, among us, only Sister Ah Man can practice. When our grandfather passes away, she will be our new leader."

Their grandfather traveled around the world to sixty-six countries and picked up Aman after careful selection. He wanted to train her to be a true successor and carry forward the life-saving style. However, he did not expect that Aman would become more and more crooked as she grew up. Although she was smart, she had great character flaws and her martial arts were poor. So she began to sigh and complain all day long and felt that the life-saving style was doomed. However, there was no need to explain all this to Yuanye.

Well, the name "Huomingliu" doesn't mean to pray for life, it's because their grandfather felt that if he died in the future and the second generation A-man took over, it would be a success for their group to survive under the leadership of this unreliable girl, so they sighed and gave it such a depressing name.

"The new leader!" Yuanye didn't expect that by just asking casually, he would discover Aman's little secret. This street urchin who likes gambling, is greedy, lazy, cunning, and starts thinking about lunch after breakfast, actually has great abilities and is even the future leader of the Koga Life-saving School.

It's a bit unexpected!
However, there seems to be no record of her in later generations. Perhaps no matter how good she was as a spy, she could not be in the spotlight? Or she lived in the shadows all her life, so she simply remained unknown? Or even died early and didn't survive?

Yuanye thought for a while, then turned his gaze to A-Qing and asked with concern: "A-Man practices Yang techniques, so what techniques do you practice? Yin techniques?"

Ah Qing was stunned, a slightly sad look on his face, he lowered his eyelids and shook his head gently: "No, I... I can't practice Yin arts with my talent. Yin arts are practiced by Ah Qian and Ah Yu. Yin arts specialize in various invisibility techniques and escape techniques. To be able to get to a certain place without being noticed, one needs to be short and flexible, but my grandfather said... my grandfather said that I will grow very tall in the future, and practicing Yin arts will be ineffective, so... he let me practice Yamafushu instead."

Yamabushi is a type of ascetic monk who practices in the mountains. Because they have been using their individual strength to fight against the harsh natural environment and ferocious wild beasts for many years, their bodies are extremely flexible, their reactions are extremely sharp, their ability to endure pain is extremely strong, and they are very good at close combat and risking their lives. Over time, this has become a form of martial arts that kills people.

Ah Qing is a little dumb. He can only fart after being hit three times by a stick against a stranger. He can't practice Yang arts. He is getting taller and taller. When he is the same age as Ah Man, he is already a head taller than her. He will probably be even taller in the future. Therefore, it is difficult for him to climb walls, dig holes, hide and lurk. He can't practice Yin arts either, so he has to focus on martial arts.

In this regard, she still has a little inferiority complex, and feels that she is useless. In their line of work, they need to avoid direct conflicts with others as much as possible, and fighting is a forced choice when it is unavoidable. She doesn't have many opportunities to contribute, and most of the time she just follows Aman to help her, almost eating for free.

Now, she had the worst talent among those who were good at survival. When she was learning to read, she found that she was still the worst. Her mood inevitably became more depressed. She realized that she was not good at anything and eating was the most important thing. She had to work harder and harder to change this situation.

She felt that she was useless except for being strong, which was very difficult for her self-esteem to accept. If it wasn't Yuanye who was asking, she would have probably given him a cold look and ignored him, and would not have talked about these embarrassing past events at all. If she was asked urgently, she might even hit him on the head with a stick - she was actually not a kind child, and she wanted to cut Yuanye's neck when they first met!
Yuanye felt that their grandfather was able to teach students in accordance with their aptitude. He must be an experienced man, a master among the people. He wanted to make friends with him in the future. Just as he was about to inquire about their grandfather's situation, he suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps.

He stepped out of the shed and saw a large group of people carrying a bloody guy and rushing towards his "black clinic". They were all very anxious. It seemed that someone was injured, and seriously!
For a moment, he didn't have time to continue chatting with A Qing and hurried to meet him.

(End of this chapter)