Having lost most of our belongings and the horses in the last fight meant we had to forage and hunt for food as we moved south through the Yu province. We had decided against going back to the Ji river, in case our pursuers had posted sentries to look for us, so we used the sun and stars to guide our way forward.
It took us a whole week to get to a town where we haggled with the locals to exchange our meager belongings for two horses and pointers for the city closest to the Western border.
We also found another way to make money: betting on fights. We could get one or two gold teals by fighting in a clandestine ring against some crooks. Min was all for it and I too participated, although I avoided using any form of chi magic, to keep my identity a secret.
Winning the fights wasn’t all that difficult. What was difficult was getting our money from the mobsters who ran the rings. Apparently, they weren’t used to (or happy) strangers winning the normally rigged fights.