Yang Xue is our fellow prison buddy in another parallel universe. :D
And we share rat snacks and imperial polices limbs.
... and trade kung fu technics.
Exactly, how can we not trust the guy and take him up on his offer?
But on a more serious note, I fail to see why we're not capitalizing on this opportunity. Yes, we'll lose an arm and one or two strength points, but we gain more than what we lose:
Blind-fighting. The darkness doesn't seem to bother the old man any, he's obviously using some kind of technique to perceive without his senses, which is extremely important to us with one eye gone.
Neiggong training, the man is a walking reservoir and he knows how to use what he has. With our neiggong not tied to our END stat, we can really develop it under his tutelage.
Combat techniques. There is no doubt that whatever this dude has is a terror in combat and his strength back in the heydays was immense. We trained one technique to level 5 in just a week of sparring to him. Another month or two with him, and that arm we'll pay for the instruction won't matter at all. treave confirmed that we can adapt his spear techniques to be used with one arm, and Jing already had practice fighting with just one arm against Yunzi and more after the Minamoto Island, and we won and lived. Basically, we'll make up what we lose with the arm in leg strength and deadly finesse with our Shouwang and Bat Claws.
Obviously, paying an arm for the training is unpleasant, it won't let us do some things we could have done before (like dual wielding swords, Skyrim style), but what we gain by training under Yang Xue, the most hardass military fighter in recent Chinese history, and what we can learn from him about the jianghu's past* and the current Greats' involvement in the overall plot.
On another front, A2 pretty much guarantees Qilin's safety and doesn't have us wrestling with YX for the dwindling supply of rats, aimlessly wandering around the caves in search of an exit that is probably not there. The only viable alternative here is B2, take a dive and hope our skills are good enough to make it through.
*He referenced the Orthodox Sects with his vengeance against them before, I think there's a big backstory we're missing out on from the past:
“Is that all you have left, General?” you ask, challenging the old man. “Just the desire to eat? What about your vengeance?”
He begins shaking violently. It takes a while for you to realize that Yang Xue is giggling silently. “Of course… not. I would rain down a storm of blood on the pugilistic world, if I could!
Obviously, they're somehow involved in the whole plot. Li Ming apparently was making him do some shady and treasonous stuff back in the day:
I will curse his name for every day I live. He considered me a traitor when I fled from the massacre he bid me commit, but I can not be loyal to such a man. I have found that the Tujue have proven to be more honourable than my people ever were.
***
I was told that it was for the good of the country. That the flow of the ley lines needed to be disturbed by a terrible calamity to bring about fortune and prosperity. I was willing to take on that role. But not like this.
I think this is all related to the Tujue War and his apparent "betrayal."
I'm still going to go with B1 because I think we should focus on getting food and having Qilin recover from her injuries. Once she's in a better condition, she can help. Besides, Yang Xue seems content to let us be for now, so we've got time, and if we don't prioritize food, this is going to suck.
Actually, Qilin has made a full recovery already and we're wrestling with the old man for the food and losing.:
In the span of a week she has recovered on schedule, but the both of you were facing another problem. Yang Xue had been coming by and slaughtering the rats for his own consumption. He had made no moves to eat you or Qilin for now, apparently having forgotten his own words, but you were forced to fight him for rats whenever he arrived. Most of the time you lost, though sometimes you managed to steal a rat or two from the old man, to his screaming protests.