SS CH6

Wanghai Chao—the “Watching Tide” cliff—truly lived up to its name.

As the river surface rushed closer, Ye Fusheng gathered Xie Li tightly into his arms and struck a palm downward at the water. He intended to kick up a waterspout, using the counterforce to break their fall. However, his palm strike disappeared into the river like a clay ox into the sea—without a single sound. Realizing things had gone awry, he only had time to tell Xie Li to hold his breath before the two of them plunged into the water.

Currents surged from all directions, far from the tranquility the surface had presented; they bore an unstoppable, destructive force. To make matters worse, a powerful suction lurked beneath the water, nearly turning the undercurrents into a whirlpool. Ye Fusheng protected Xie Li firmly as they were dragged down by the darkness. After being violently battered and disoriented for an unknown length of time, his back finally slammed against a rock, bursting with agonizing pain.

The water pressure around them suddenly eased. Relying on his keen night vision, Ye Fusheng could barely make out that they were in an underwater cave. The interior twisted and turned in eighteen bends, with hidden channels siphoning off the rushing water, finally granting them a chance to catch their breath. As for that reckless brute from before, he had likely become fish food.

His injured leg flared with a piercing, bone-deep agony after enduring such torment, yet Ye Fusheng didn’t even knit his brows. He patted his pocket to ensure his silk pouch was still there, then glanced at Xie Li, who was struggling to lift his head from his chest. Only then did he heave a sigh of relief.

The little brat had choked on some water and was now sitting beside him, clutching the Duanshui Manor Saber. He was as quiet and docile as a porcupine stripped of its quills. Unable to resist, Ye Fusheng pinched the boy’s cheek and sighed, “I’ve seen people rushing to the market, but never someone rushing to reincarnate. May I ask, Young Master, were you trying to emulate the Buddha by sacrificing your flesh to feed the fish? Or have you read too many cheap novels, thinking you’d definitely survive a deadly fall and conveniently stumble upon a supreme martial arts manual? Is a blade really more important than your life?”

Xie Li clutched the Duanshui Manor Saber tightly and whispered, “Yes.”

Ye Fusheng shook his head. “Just like your father. Stubborn as a mule.”

Hearing this, Xie Li glared at him. “Who gave you the audacity to carelessly judge the Manor Lord?”

“A life-saving grace should be repaid with a gushing spring. Let alone cursing your dad a few times, it wouldn’t even be too much to make you call me ‘Father’, you little brat!” Ye Fusheng shook his head and sighed. “If I had a son like you, beating you three meals a day wouldn’t be enough. Of all things to seek out, you just had to seek death!”

Xie Li turned into a muted gourd, refusing to utter another word. Ye Fusheng supported himself against the wall and stood up, looking around. The dimness of the cave was actually advantageous to him. A cold, damp breeze blew from an unknown source. He held his breath, listened for a moment, and said, “The sound of the wind is coming from over there. Let’s go.”

Xie Li sneezed, shivering from the cold as he hugged the blade. Ye Fusheng rolled his eyes at the ceiling, reached into his robes, and pulled out a waterlogged packet of ginger candy. He offered it earnestly, “Can we just make do with this?”

Xie Li: “…No, thank you.”

Dragging his stiff right leg, Ye Fusheng led Xie Li by the hand as they trudged through the water cave. Arriving before a tunnel entrance, Ye Fusheng crouched down, touched the moss on the ground, and praised, “Manor Lord Xie truly has excellent Qinggong.”

Xie Li didn’t understand. Ye Fusheng pointed to the thick layer of moss and said, “Look closely at this.”

Lush moss grew from the entrance inward—soft, an inch long, and slippery to the touch. Beneath the moss lay a swamp-like wetland; even a dropped pebble would instantly sink. Yet, upon this moss lay a row of shallow footprints. They appeared to belong to a man, the edges of the depressions neat and unskeewed. It seemed someone had traveled through here regularly over a long period, stepping perfectly in the exact same spots every time, thus forming these prints over the years.

Who could possibly frequent the forbidden grounds of the Duanshui Manor?

“The footprints only point inward, which means if we go this way, there must be a way out.” Ye Fusheng crouched down. “Get on.”

Xie Li hesitated for a second, then strapped the blade to his back and firmly wrapped his arms around Ye Fusheng’s neck. Ye Fusheng visually measured the stretch of moss, the corner of his lips curling up. Xie Li only felt his vision blur, and the next moment, his forehead smacked into a stalactite.

An insincere apology drifted over. “My bad. I forgot I had a person on my back.”

Xie Li: “…”

He blinked, holding back his tears, and then felt his momentum halt. Ye Fusheng had already carried him past the mossy expanse, landing steadily on solid ground.

The next moment, Ye Fusheng’s right leg gave out. He tilted to the right and collapsed to his knees. Xie Li hurriedly hopped off his back. Unable to see clearly in the pitch black, he asked in a panic, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. You’re just too heavy, and my knees couldn’t bear it.”

Xie Li: “…”

The agony in his right leg grew increasingly intense. His knee and ankle joints began to flush with heat and swell, nearly sapping the last of his strength to walk. Ye Fusheng tossed the remaining ginger candies into his mouth whole, reached out to tap several of his own acupoints, and massaged his meridians a few times before grabbing Xie Li’s hand again.

Xie Li held his palm, which was covered in cold sweat. Seeing nothing in the absolute dark, he could only grip his hand tightly and follow closely, step for step.

Ye Fusheng sat down on the ground and looked around. This was a spacious stone chamber. All four walls were made of smoothly polished bluestone slabs, yet they were mottled with deep gouges. And directly ahead…

“Young Master, take five steps to the left. There’s a large boulder. Step onto it, and you’ll be able to reach an oil lamp.”

Xie Li followed the instructions. Inside the lamp was congealed frozen oil. Unfortunately, neither of them carried a fire-starter, and even if they did, it would be useless after such a watery ordeal.

“What do you need this for?” Xie Li yanked at it a few times but failed to pull it off.

Ye Fusheng instructed, “Lift the base of the lamp upwards.”

Click. Accompanied by the sound of a triggered mechanism, Xie Li suddenly felt the wall he was leaning against flip. He was instantly pushed inside. The next moment, the wall sealed shut, as if nothing had ever happened.

After all, he was still young. Suddenly thrust into a pitch-black, unfamiliar place, with the only person he knew blocked by a stone door, he panicked. He slapped the wall repeatedly, shouting, “What’s going on! You—”

His shouts failed to penetrate the wall that weighed over a thousand catties. Ye Fusheng planted a hand on the ground and slowly stood up, his gaze piercing the darkness to land on the wall dead ahead. From over there came the rattling clank of chains—someone had stood up.

A woman. An incredibly disheveled woman.

Her wrists were locked in long shackles that clanked as she walked. Her long hair was a tangled mess like straw, and she was wrapped in a tattered robe, emaciated almost beyond recognition.

Ye Fusheng sighed, “You were a beauty, why must…”

Clang! His hand caught an incoming chain whipping at his face. Who would have guessed that this skeletal woman possessed such terrifying strength? He was literally swung off his feet and hurled heavily toward the wall!

Like a loach, Ye Fusheng slipped his hand out of the chain loop, kicked off the wall with his left foot, and used the momentum to leap behind her, reaching straight for the back of her neck. The woman leaned her upper body forward and threw a back kick, but Ye Fusheng caught her leg squarely. With a lift and a twist, he tossed the woman over ten feet away.

With a crisp crack, the woman stomped her dislocated ankle back into place. The two iron chains shook and whipped toward him, striking like thunder and as swift as a gale, arriving before Ye Fusheng in the blink of an eye.

It was too dark, yet she could flawlessly pinpoint Ye Fusheng’s exact location. Either she possessed the same strange visual condition as he did, or… she had grown entirely too accustomed to this place.

A fierce wind blasted his face. Ye Fusheng’s hands shot out like lightning, grabbing both chains and flipping himself up. The woman was dragged two steps forward, but with a twist of her waist, she yanked the chains free from his grip. They whirled like a blooming lotus, filling his vision with afterimages. Ye Fusheng narrowed his eyes and actually thrust his hand directly into the afterimages. Hooking and pulling, he seized one of the chains, formed a knife-hand with his right palm, and slashed diagonally against the links. A metallic clank rang out.

The woman barked a loud laugh. Shackles forged from refined iron were hard to sever even with swords and sabers, let alone a flesh-and-blood palm!

However, the chain snapped cleanly under Ye Fusheng’s palm.

Scooping up the broken half of the chain, Ye Fusheng slid forward like a fish gliding through water. In a mere instant, he brushed past the woman, looping the broken chain around her neck and forcing her head to tilt backward in agony.

The throat was a vital spot, but Ye Fusheng had no penchant for ruthlessly destroying beauties. He tapped two major acupoints on her body with one hand, gave the chain a shake, and sent the woman crashing away.

His right leg hurt so much he could barely stand. Ye Fusheng sat directly on the ground. “Madam, out of an exchange of blows grows friendship. Can we sit down and have a calm chat now?”

“Get lost!” The woman propped up her upper body, but despite her struggles, she couldn’t manage to stand. She covered her mouth and coughed endlessly.

She lifted her head, her features vaguely retaining a dignified beauty. Unfortunately, no one knew how long she had been trapped in this sunless purgatory, turning her into something neither human nor ghost. Her original allure had been completely stripped away. No matter what kind of beauty she used to be, she was no longer pretty now.

“Is Xie Wuyi dead, or has the Duanshui Manor been wiped out? To let an outsider like you trespass into Wanghai Chao?” The woman’s eyes resembled a falcon’s, staring darkly and warily at Ye Fusheng.

It was rare for Ye Fusheng to examine a woman so rudely, scrutinizing her from head to toe, not missing a single crease in her clothing. Finally, his gaze fell on her hand—her left hand. It only had four fingers. The pinky had been severed at the base. The wound was old and jagged, as if torn off alive by some wild beast.

From their brief clash, he could tell this woman specialized in whip-like weapons and was highly proficient. Had she not been shackled and severely weakened physically, it wouldn’t have been easy for Ye Fusheng to take her down.

Nine fingers, adept at the whip, Duanshui Manor… There was only one woman in the Jianghu who fit all these criteria.

“Rumor has it that the Madam of the Duanshui Manor passed away from illness two years ago. The immortal couple that everyone envied eventually left behind only a widower and an orphan in an empty manor. What a pity, no? However…” Ye Fusheng walked toward her. “Why is Madam Xie, who supposedly died, down here?”

Getting closer, he could see every shift in the woman’s expression. Her eyes and brows were trembling imperceptibly. What little color she had left swiftly drained from her face, and agony flashed in her eyes. For a moment, Ye Fusheng thought she was about to burst into tears, but eventually, she slowly calmed down.

There are two kinds of people in this world: the kind who can stumble into dumb luck with their eyes closed, and the kind who would choke just drinking cold water.

Whether it was the Young Master of the Duanshui Manor or anyone else, in Chu Xiwei’s eyes, they were no different from weeds on the roadside. The reason he leaped down so recklessly wasn’t to save anyone, but simply because the little brat was still hugging the Duanshui Manor Saber… Alas, someone beat him to the punch mid-air.

That person’s movement technique was bizarrely fast, his Qinggong more than a cut above his own. Chu Xiwei had half a mind to cast a glance at him to settle the score at a later date, but before he could even blink, the man had vanished beneath the water’s surface alongside the brat.

The great river was ever-changing, teeming with violent undercurrents. Chu Xiwei hesitated for only a second before deciding to protect his body with his internal energy. He switched to internal breathing and moved with the river’s undercurrent, quickly being swept into an underwater cave.

The dirt in the water cave was damp and slippery, but there was only one set of footprints on the ground—small ones, clearly belonging to a child. Judging from the lingering traces in the cave, the unknown expert was evidently still alive, and the brat was likely unharmed as well. At this thought, Chu Xiwei’s tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed a bit.

His movements were entirely silent, drifting like a ghost. Treading across the treacherous mossy ground without leaving a trace, he entered a pitch-black corridor. He pressed his ear against the wall and listened for a moment, detecting the sounds of a struggle not far ahead.

Chu Xiwei made a prompt decision and stepped forward to investigate. Unexpectedly, a deafening crash erupted from the rock wall to his left. The entire cave shuddered violently, sending stalactites crashing down in a hail of debris. He paused, pushed open a stone brick above him, and his body suddenly deflated, plastering itself into the blind spot of the corridor’s ceiling like a piece of paper.

The bizarre tremor vanished as quickly as it came. Chu Xiwei darted out like a phantom. The wall on the left had partially collapsed, revealing a gap roughly a foot wide. He squeezed his way in through there.

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