SS CH6

“Wanghaichao” lived up to its reputation.

Seeing the surface of the river drawing closer, Ye Fusheng gathered Xie Li into his arms and struck outward with his palm, attempting to force up a column of water to cushion their downward momentum. Yet his internal energy vanished into the roaring river like a clay ox sinking into the sea. Sensing the immediate danger, he only had enough time to urge Xie Li to hold his breath before they both plunged into the water.

Surging from all directions, the underwater currents bore a destructive force far removed from the river’s calm surface. Worse still, a powerful suction pulled at them from below, twisting the dark currents into a violent whirlpool. Ye Fusheng shielded Xie Li tightly as the current swept them under. After a chaotic Series of impacts that left him battered and dizzy, he crashed heavily against a submerged rock, sending a sharp, agonizing pain through his back.

As the surrounding water pressure eased, Ye Fusheng relied on his night-vision to discern that they had entered an underwater cave. The interior twisted through nine bends and eighteen turns, with underground channels diverting the flow and finally offering them a chance to catch their breath. As for that reckless thief, he had likely gone to feed the fish.

His injured leg flared with excruciating pain from the ordeal, but Ye Fusheng did not so much as knit his brows. He reached into his pocket to confirm his pouch was intact, then looked down to see Xie Li struggling to lift his head from his chest, finally letting out a breath of relief.

The little brat had swallowed a few gulps of water and now sat beside him clutching the Duanshui blade, looking as submissive as a peeled hedgehog. Ye Fusheng impulsively pinched the boy’s cheek and sighed, “I’ve seen people rush to market, but I’ve never seen anyone rush to be reincarnated. May I ask, Young Manor Lord—were you trying to emulate the Buddha by offering your body to the fish, or have you read too many storybooks and assumed falling off a cliff guarantees a secret manual and an ancient master? Is a single blade truly worth more than your life?”

Xie Li refused to let go of the Duanshui blade, muttering softly, “Yes.”

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

At those words, Xie Li glared up at him. “Who gave you the audacity to speak ill of the Manor Lord?”

“A life-saving favor should be repaid with boundless gratitude. Forget criticizing your father—even if I made you call me father right now, it wouldn’t be excessive, you little brat!” Ye Fusheng shook his head in exasperation. “If I had a son like you, beating you three times a day wouldn’t be enough! Of all things to seek out, you just had to seek out death!”

Xie Li clammed up like a silent gourd. Ye Fusheng supported himself against the wall to stand up and looked around. The dim interior of the cave proved advantageous for his eyes. A cold, damp draft blew from an unknown direction. He held his breath to listen for a moment, then pointed: “The sound of the wind is coming from over there. Let’s go.”

Xie Li sneezed, shivering from the cold while holding the Duanshui blade. Ye Fusheng rolled his eyes, fumbled inside his robes, and produced a waterlogged packet of ginger candy, offering it sincerely: “Care to make do with this?”

Xie Li: “…No, thank you.”

Dragging his lame right leg, Ye Fusheng led Xie Li by the hand as they waded through the flooded cavern. Arriving before a cave entrance, Ye Fusheng squatted to touch the moss on the ground and praised, “Manor Lord Xie’s qinggong is truly exceptional.”

Xie Li looked bewildered. Ye Fusheng pointed at the thick layer of moss. “Look closely at this.”

Stretching inward from the cave mouth was a lush carpet of moss, soft, an inch deep, and slick to the touch. Beneath the moss lay a swampy wetland; even a pebble thrown onto it would sink instantly. Yet across this moss ran a line of faint footprints left by a man. The clean, unslanted edges suggested someone had traveled this path over a long period, treading precisely upon the exact same spots every single time until the marks were pressed into permanence.

What kind of person could enter and leave Duanshui Manor’s forbidden grounds so frequently?

“The footprints point in one direction—inward. That means going in from here will definitely lead to an exit.” Ye Fusheng crouched down. “Get on.”

Xie Li hesitated for a moment before slinging the Duanshui blade over his back and firmly wrapping his arms around Ye Fusheng’s neck. Ye Fusheng gauged the span of the moss with his eyes, the corner of his mouth curving upward. Xie Li felt a blur before his vision, and in the next instant, his forehead slammed straight into an overhanging rock.

An insincere apology followed: “Apologies, I forgot I had a kid on my back.”

Xie Li: “…”

Blinking back his tears, the boy felt the movement under him settle as Ye Fusheng cleared the mossy span, landing steadily on solid ground.

A moment later, Ye Fusheng’s right leg buckled, causing him to collapse to his knees on his right side. Xie Li scrambled off his back in a panic, asking urgently in the pitch darkness, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. You’re just too heavy for my knee to handle.”

Xie Li: “…”

The pain in Ye Fusheng’s right leg grew increasingly severe, his knee and ankle joints swelling with burning agony that nearly stripped away his strength to walk. He shoved the remaining ginger candy whole into his mouth, reached out to tap a few acupoints, and massaged his meridians twice before extending his hand to grasp Xie Li again.

Xie Li took his palm, which was drenched in cold sweat. Unable to see anything in the darkness, the boy gripped his hand tightly, following his every step.

Ye Fusheng sat down on the ground to survey his surroundings. It was a spacious stone chamber with smooth, polished slabs of blue stone on all four sides, though marred by deep, weathered scuffs. Directly ahead…

“Young Manor Lord, walk five paces to the left. You’ll find a stone block. Step on it, and you’ll be able to reach a lamp.”

Xie Li followed the instructions. The lamp reservoir contained congealed fat oil, but neither of them carried a fire-striker—and even if they had, it would have been useless after their soak in the river.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Xie Li pulled at the lamp stand, unable to remove it.

Ye Fusheng instructed, “Lift the lamp base upward.”

With a sharp click of a hidden mechanism shifting, Xie Li felt the wall he was leaning against suddenly rotate, sweeping him inside. A second later, the wall snapped shut as if nothing had ever happened.

Young as he was, being abruptly thrust into a pitch-black, unfamiliar space while separated from the only person he knew sent him into an instant panic. He pounded frantically on the wall, shouting, “What’s happening? You—”

His cries failed to penetrate the stone wall weighing over a thousand catties. Supporting himself with one hand on the floor, Ye Fusheng slowly stood up. His gaze pierced the dark, falling on the far wall as the heavy clatter of iron chains echoed—someone had stood up.

A woman. A thoroughly disheveled woman.

Her wrists were bound by long iron manacles that rattled as she walked. Her long hair was tangled like dried straw, wrapped in a tattered robe, and her body was so emaciated she seemed almost skeletal.

Ye Fusheng sighed softly, “Such a fine lady, yet reduced to…”

With a metallic rush, his hand caught a chain whipped directly at his face. Unexpectedly, this bone-thin woman possessed staggering strength; using her momentum, she swung him straight toward the wall!

Slipping his hand out of the chain loop like an eel, Ye Fusheng kicked off the stone wall with his left foot, using the recoil to vault behind the woman and reach directly for the back of her neck. The woman leaned her upper torso forward and lashed out with a backward kick, only for Ye Fusheng to catch her leg mid-air. With a swift twist and lift, he hurled her ten feet away.

With a sharp crack, the woman popped her dislocated ankle back into place. She snapped two iron chains toward him with thunderous force and swiftness, bringing them before Ye Fusheng’s face in the blink of an eye.

Though it was pitch black, she accurately located Ye Fusheng every single time—either she suffered from an eye condition similar to his, or… she was simply far too accustomed to this place.

As fierce winds buffeted his face, Ye Fusheng moved like lightning, grabbing both chains with his hands and flipping backward. The woman was dragged forward two paces before twisting her waist; the chains tore free from Ye Fusheng’s grip, whirling into an intricate flower of shadows. Ye Fusheng narrowed his eyes and reached directly into the blurring shadows, snapping his fingers around one of the chains. Bringing his right palm down like a blade, he struck the iron link sideways with a heavy clanging echo.

The woman burst into a raspy laugh. The chains were forged of refined iron that even steel blades struggled to sever—what could a flesh-and-blood palm accomplish?

Yet, the iron chain snapped beneath Ye Fusheng’s strike.

Holding half of the severed chain, Ye Fusheng slid forward like a fish through water. In a split second, he brushed past the woman, looping the broken chain around her throat to force her head back in pain.

The throat was a lethal point, but Ye Fusheng had no interest in cruel violence. He tapped two major acupoints on her body, flicked the chain, and sent her tumbling across the floor.

The pain in his right leg made it impossible to stand steadily, so Ye Fusheng sat cross-legged on the ground. “Madam, we’ve broken the ice through fighting. Can we have a peaceful conversation now?”

“Get out!” The woman pushed herself up by her upper body, but despite her efforts, she failed to stand, coughing violently while clutching her mouth.

She raised her head, her features still showing traces of a refined, elegant beauty. Yet after spending an unknown amount of time in this sunless place, she had been reduced to something neither human nor ghost, stripping away every bit of her former grace. No matter what kind of beauty she once was, nothing of it remained.

“Did Xie Wuyi die, or was Duanshui Manor wiped out, for an outsider like you to intrude into Wanghaichao?” The woman stared at Ye Fusheng with dark, hawkish eyes full of malice and suspicion.

Ye Fusheng rarely scrutinized a woman so impolitely—examining her from head to toe, down to every fold of her clothing—before finally fixing his gaze on her hands. Her left hand had only four fingers; the pinky had been severed at the root, the old wound jagged and uneven, as if torn off by a wild beast.

From their brief exchange, it was clear this woman was exceptionally skilled with whip-like weapons. Had her movements not been restricted by chains and her body severely weakened, taking her down would not have been easy.

Nine fingers, a whip master, connected to Duanshui Manor… In the Jianghu, only one woman fit this description.

“It is rumored that the wife of Duanshui Manor’s Lord passed away from illness two years ago, leaving an envied couple reduced to a grieving widower and an orphan in an empty manor—a truly tragic tale. However…” Ye Fusheng walked toward her. “Why is the supposedly deceased Madam Xie sitting right here?”

Stepping closer made every trace of emotion on her face clear. Her eyes twitched imperceptibly as what little color remained drained from her face. A flash of sharp agony flickered across her eyes, making Ye Fusheng think she was on the verge of tears, though she slowly regained her composure.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who hit the jackpot with their eyes closed, and those who choke on plain water.

Whether it was the young manor lord of Duanshui Manor or anyone else, they were no different from roadside weeds in Chu Xiwei’s eyes. He hadn’t jumped down to save anyone, but simply because that little brat was still clutching the Duanshui blade… only to be intercepted halfway down.

That person possessed extraordinary light-body movement, far outmatching his own. Chu Xiwei had intended to catch a glimpse of him to settle the score later, but before he could even blink, the intruder and the child had vanished beneath the water.

The great river was treacherous and filled with dark currents. After a moment’s hesitation, Chu Xiwei channeled internal energy to protect his body, switching his breathing to internal circulation as he let the current carry him into an underwater cave.

The mud inside the cavern was slick and damp, yet there was only one set of tiny footprints left on the ground, clearly belonging to a child. Judging from the remaining traces inside the cave, that unknown master was safe, and the child was likely unharmed as well. At that thought, Chu Xiwei’s tight frown finally relaxed.

Moving without a sound, as ghostly as a shadow, he crossed the dangerous patch of moss using light-body movement without leaving a trace. Entering a pitch-black corridor, he pressed his ear against the wall to listen, catching the faint sounds of a struggle nearby.

Decisive as ever, Chu Xiwei raised his foot to move forward, only for a loud crash to erupt from the left rock wall. The entire underwater cavern shook violently, sending loose stones tumbling down. Stunned for a moment, he reached out to press an opening mechanism, flattening his body against the upper dead angle of the corridor like a sheet of paper.

The strange vibration ended as quickly as it began. Chu Xiwei darted out like a ghost. The wall on the left had partially collapsed, leaving a gap a foot wide, through which he slipped inside.