Chapter 5

The famed “Wanghai Tide” truly lived up to its reputation.

As the river’s surface drew closer, Ye Fusheng pulled Xie Li into his arms. He struck toward the water with his palm, hoping to use the recoil from the water jet to alter their downward trajectory. But his strength vanished into the depths like mud into the sea. This is bad, he thought. He barely had time to tell Xie Li to hold his breath before the two of them plunged into the river.

Water surged from all directions, far from the tranquil surface they had seen earlier. It crashed with a force strong enough to destroy all in its path. Worse still, a powerful undertow churned beneath, turning the current into a vortex. Ye Fusheng held Xie Li close as they were dragged under. Tumbling in the chaos, he didn’t know how long they were swept along until his back slammed into a rock, sending pain shooting through his spine.

The pressure around them eased. Using his night vision, Ye Fusheng made out the outline of an underwater cave. It twisted and turned in countless directions, with hidden channels diverting the flow and giving them a brief respite. As for that burly fellow from earlier he was likely fish food by now.

His injured leg throbbed with searing pain, but Ye Fusheng didn’t so much as furrow his brow. He checked his pocket and felt the brocade pouch still there. Then he looked down to see Xie Li struggling to lift his head from his embrace. Only then did he finally exhale in relief.

The little brat had swallowed some water and now sat beside him clutching the Broken Water Blade, looking as obedient as a hedgehog stripped of its quills. Unable to resist, Ye Fusheng pinched his cheek and sighed.

“I’ve seen folks rushing to the market, but never someone in such a hurry to reincarnate. Tell me, Young Master Xie, are you trying to emulate the Buddha and offer yourself to the fish, or have you read too many novels and thought you’d miraculously find a hidden master and a secret manual at death’s door? Is a sword really worth more than your life?”

Still gripping the blade tightly, Xie Li murmured, “Yes.”

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

Xie Li glared. “How dare you speak of my father so rudely?”

“A life-saving favor deserves repayment tenfold. Forget scolding your father calling me ‘Father’ wouldn’t even be an overreach, you ungrateful brat!” Ye Fusheng sighed dramatically.

“If I had a son like you, beating him three times a day wouldn’t be enough. Of all the things to cherish, you choose death!”

Xie Li fell silent, sulking like a gourd with its mouth sealed. Ye Fusheng used the wall to stand, scanning the dimly lit cave. The darkness suited him just fine. A damp, cold wind blew from somewhere. Holding his breath, he listened closely.

“The wind’s coming from that direction. Let’s go.”

Xie Li sneezed, shivering as he hugged the blade. Ye Fusheng rolled his eyes, then pulled a soggy packet of ginger candies from his chest.

“Here, make do with this, will you?”

“…No, thank you,” Xie Li muttered.

Dragging his less-than-cooperative right leg, Ye Fusheng took Xie Li’s hand and trudged deeper into the waterlogged cave. At a cave mouth, Ye Fusheng crouched to examine the moss.

“The Young Master has impressive lightness skill,” he remarked.

Xie Li looked confused. Ye Fusheng pointed to the thick, soft moss stretching into the cave. “Take a closer look.”

The moss extended from the entrance inward, lush and slippery. Beneath it lay a swampy marsh where even a pebble would sink immediately. Yet a line of shallow footprints likely from a man ran across the moss, each step precisely placed as if someone had walked the same path countless times.

Who would frequent the forbidden grounds of Duanshui Manor?

“The prints go only one way inside. That means there’s definitely a way out.” Ye Fusheng crouched again.

“Climb on.”

Xie Li hesitated, then slung the Broken Water Blade over his back and wrapped his arms around Ye Fusheng’s neck. With a crooked smile, Ye Fusheng gauged the moss’s reach and sprang forward.

A moment later, Xie Li’s forehead slammed into a protruding rock.

“Oops,” came Ye Fusheng’s unapologetic voice. “Forgot I had someone on my back.”

“…”

Tears welled in Xie Li’s eyes, but he forced them back. Just then, he felt a shift Ye Fusheng had stepped past the moss onto solid ground.

But his right leg gave out, and he dropped to one knee. Xie Li scrambled off his back, squinting into the darkness.

“What happened?!”

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

“…”

The pain in Ye Fusheng’s right leg worsened, spreading to his knee and ankle, swelling and burning. He stuffed the remaining ginger candies into his mouth, quickly pressed a few acupoints, and massaged his meridians before grabbing Xie Li’s hand.

Their hands were slick with cold sweat, invisible in the darkness, but Xie Li clung to him tightly and followed step by step.

Eventually, Ye Fusheng sat down in a wide stone chamber, its walls neatly paved with bluish stone slabs, though deeply scarred. Directly ahead…

“Young Master, five paces to your left is a large stone. Step on it, and you’ll find a lamp holder.”

Xie Li obeyed. The lamp was filled with congealed oil, but they had no fire starter, and even if they had, it would’ve been soaked.

“What’s the point?” Xie Li asked, tugging at it.

“Lift the base upward,” Ye Fusheng instructed.

Click. With a mechanical clunk, the wall behind Xie Li swung open. He stumbled in as the wall shut behind him, seamless as before.

In pitch blackness, alone in unfamiliar surroundings, the boy panicked and beat on the wall. “What’s going on? You-!”

His voice couldn’t pierce the massive stone. Meanwhile, Ye Fusheng, bracing himself with one hand, turned toward the wall where a faint rattling of chains rang out someone had stood.

A woman. A very disheveled woman.

Her hands were shackled with long chains that clinked with every step. Her matted hair resembled a bird’s nest, her robe tattered, her body skeletal.

Ye Fusheng sighed. “Once a beauty… alas…”

Clang! She swung a chain at him. He caught it, only to be thrown against the wall with astonishing force.

Like an eel, he slipped free and leapt behind her, reaching for her neck. She twisted, launching a backward kick, but he caught her leg, twisted, and flung her a full ten feet.

Crack. She popped her dislocated ankle back in place and lashed out with her chains. Lightning-fast, the iron links streaked toward Ye Fusheng.

Too dark to see, yet she never missed. Either she shared Ye Fusheng’s condition or had long since adapted to the darkness.

A gust blew past. Ye Fusheng caught both chains, flipped midair, and yanked. She staggered. Twisting, she slipped free, her chains spinning like a blooming lotus, leaving only afterimages.

Ye Fusheng squinted, then reached into the blur and hooked one chain. His palm struck down like a blade clang! cleaving it.

She laughed. Forged from refined iron, the chain should’ve resisted even steel, let alone flesh.

But it snapped.

He slid forward like a fish, the broken chain wrapping around her neck. Pain contorted her face as her head was yanked back.

Yet Ye Fusheng didn’t finish the blow. Instead, he sealed two of her pressure points and flung her aside.

His leg throbbed, forcing him to sit.

“Madam, since we’ve exchanged blows, perhaps now we can talk calmly?”

“Get lost!” she rasped, unable to stand as she coughed violently.

Even now, her elegant features faintly shone through the grime. But after so long in this hellish place, all traces of her former beauty had faded.

“Is Xie Wuyi dead? Has Duanshui Manor fallen, for an outsider like you to enter Wanghai Tide?” she asked, eyes sharp as hawks.

Ye Fusheng stared impolitely, from head to toe. His gaze settled on her left hand only four fingers. The pinky was bitten off long ago, jagged and crude.

Judging by her chain technique and expertise with flexible weapons, it wasn’t easy taking her down. Not with her injuries and restraints.

Four-fingered woman, whip master, Duanshui Manor…

There was only one possible identity.

“Rumor had it the Lady of Duanshui Manor passed away two years ago. People once envied her perfect marriage, now reduced to a widower and a child how tragic. But…” Ye Fusheng stepped forward.

“Why is the supposedly dead Madam Xie here?”

Up close, every flicker of expression on her face was visible. Her eyes trembled, color draining from her cheeks, pain flashing within. For a moment, Ye Fusheng thought she might cry but she composed herself.

---

There are two types of people in the world: the lucky who fall into fortune, and the cursed who choke on water.

Whether it was the Young Master or anyone else, to Chu Xiwei, they were all weeds by the roadside. He hadn’t jumped in to save a life just to recover the Broken Water Blade.

Unfortunately, someone beat him to it.

That man was faster, more skilled. Chu Xiwei barely had time to mark him before both vanished beneath the waves.

The river was treacherous. Chu Xiwei activated inner breath and let the current guide him into a submerged cave.

The muddy floor was slick, but only one set of small footprints marked the path clearly a child’s. From the traces, that unknown master must still be alive, and the kid likely unharmed. Chu Xiwei’s furrowed brows finally relaxed.

Silent as a ghost, he passed the treacherous moss without a trace, entering a dark corridor. Pressing his ear to the wall, he heard fighting not far ahead.

Just as he moved, a loud crash echoed from the left. The tunnel quaked, stones raining down. Chu Xiwei paused, then activated a mechanism, his body flattening into a dead zone on the ceiling like a paper shadow.

The tremor passed. Slipping through a crack in the collapsed wall, he entered the unknown.