Volume 4: The Perils of the Jianghu
One Wave After Another
Su Yi sneered, “Young Master Feng, you went to all this trouble just to lure me here?”
Su Yi was already in his hands, just like all the others who had died at his hands before. Soon, she would be going to hell.
The feeling of absolute control was immensely pleasing to Feng Lin. He grinned. “That’s right.”
As if admiring a great masterpiece, he gazed, enraptured, at the towering inferno in the distance, seemingly deaf to the agonized screams from within. “The sounds of struggle from the depths of hell are the most beautiful sounds. The moment of having absolute control over another’s life and death is the most thrilling moment of all.”
He looked at Miss Su, a mocking smile on his face. “Of course, you would never understand such joy. You’re too weak, so sickly that even a tiny flying insect could take your life. You’re completely incapable of something like this.”
Su Yi completely ignored his taunts and said coldly, “Are you insulting me, or yourself?”
“What do you mean—” Feng Lin glared at her viciously. Before she could say another word, he suddenly composed himself and said with a smile, “Are you trying to provoke me to find a way to escape? I won’t waste any more words on you. You’re a dead woman. Once I capture you and hand you over to Xuanji Tower, someone like you will disappear very quickly.”
He took a step forward. Su Yi stood her ground, cold and motionless, watching him describe with intoxicated glee the tortures she might suffer after being sent to Xuanji Tower.
“They’ll whip you with rattan canes, and they’ll feed you poison… Hahaha, you’ll be in so much pain you’ll be rolling on the ground, and in the end, you’ll bleed from all seven orifices and die with a hideous expression. How about it, Miss Su? Do you like the gift I’ve prepared for you?”
Su Yi looked at him as if he were filth. “Worse than a pig or a dog.”
To capture her, he had sacrificed so many people, yet he wore a gleeful expression as he admired his handiwork, without a shred of remorse.
A person like this didn’t deserve to be called human.
Even calling him a beast would be an insult to the word itself.
“Were the bodies in the forest outside the Kun Gate of Changsheng Valley also your masterpiece?”
“Yes, yes.” Feng Lin smiled at her smugly. “There were many people who, before they died, were just as cold and calm as you are now. So fake and pretentious, it’s disgusting. But it’s fine. You’ll soon be just like them.”
Su Yi sneered but didn’t reply. Yan Can and Gancao shielded her. “Don’t you dare touch our young miss!”
Feng Lin gave a faint smile. Two assassins from Xuanji Tower immediately stepped out from behind him, moved forward, and knocked the two maids unconscious.
Just as they were about to deliver a killing blow, a sword flashed with a cold light, forcing them back.
Thinking it was Ji Qingchi, Su Yi turned her head in pleasant surprise, only to see Yue Ling.
She was astonished. “General Lin, what are you doing here?”
Yue Ling had originally gone to fetch water. Carrying two buckets back, she vaguely heard the loud voices of Su Yi’s maids shouting things like “Don’t you dare harm our young miss.” Without a second thought, she dropped the buckets and followed the sound. Thankfully, she had made it in time.
“If you want to touch her, you’ll have to get through me first.”
Yue Ling didn’t answer Su Yi. She drew her precious sword and charged forward to fight the two assassins. Feng Lin hadn’t expected someone to pop out of nowhere and ruin his plans. Furious, he took out several kinds of Gu. “Since you all have a death wish, I’ll grant it.”
The Gu were bizarre, some shaped like insects, others resembling the Five Poisons1 like scorpions and snakes. Afraid that Yue Ling would be at a disadvantage, Su Yi quickly poured the Valley Master’s Gu King out of the glass bottle.
As soon as the toad with the red dot appeared and smelled the other Gu in the air, its spirits soared. Su Yi felt like the red dot on its head had become several shades more vibrant.
With a flick of its tongue, it devoured all of Feng Lin’s Gu in one clean sweep.
Feng Lin was stunned, then enraged. “This Gu… You stole my mother’s King Gu?”
“Young Master Feng, you shouldn’t slander people,” Su Yi said with a slight smile. “You’re allowed to have a King Gu, but we’re not allowed to have a Queen Gu, or perhaps a Princess Gu?”
Feng Lin’s face turned livid with anger. Meanwhile, the three combatants fought with increasing intensity. The sword qi sweeping out from their battle was exceptionally sharp. Standing too close, Feng Lin was caught by a stray wave of qi, which slashed a cut across his face. Thick green blood gushed out.
Feng Lin clutched his face and screamed, “My face! My looks! Ahhh, I’ll kill you… Ah—!”
He didn’t finish his sentence before letting out a blood-curdling shriek.
It turned out that after eating all the other Gu, the Gu King was still not satisfied. It had smelled the scent in Feng Lin’s blood and sensed that it was something even more delicious than ordinary Gu. It leaped up, and in just a few hops, landed on the bloody gash on Feng Lin’s face and began to suck his blood.
“Get off! Get off! You beast!” Feng Lin was beside himself with fury, yelling and flailing his arms wildly in an attempt to drive it away.
His frantic movements only made his blood circulate faster, and more of it surged from the wound on his face.
The toad clung tightly to his face like a dog-skin plaster2, and not only could he not shake it off, but the toxins also began to spread throughout his body from the wound. He felt his face stiffen, and gradually, his limbs stopped obeying his commands.
“How… How can this be…”
After muttering these words, his entire body deflated like a punctured ball. In just a few short minutes, he was reduced to nothing but a sheet of skin, which fluttered lightly to the ground.
Su Yi frowned and took two steps back. The scene before her was so shocking it made her heart pound with an inexplicable fear.
So this was a Gu King.
In such a short time, it had sucked a person dry, leaving only their skin.
It was too powerful, too terrifying.
After eating so many Gu and a person, the toad had become plump and pudgy, the color on its forehead growing even more vivid. It licked its long tongue twice, feeling full, and hopped contentedly to Su Yi’s feet.
Su Yi jumped in fright and instinctively moved to dodge it, but she saw that the creature didn’t try to harm her. It merely hopped in a circle around her, occasionally jumping left and right in front of her to make its presence known, as if it were urging her to do something.
If she ignored the fact that it had just eaten a person, it looked rather cute, like a little hopping frog.
Su Yi looked at the glass bottle in her hand, hesitated for a moment, then slowly crouched down and placed it on the ground.
The moment it saw the glass bottle, the fat toad automatically tried to crawl inside. It was so fat now that it got stuck in the mouth of the bottle, its two legs kicking and flailing. After a good while of struggling, Su Yi had to take out her handkerchief and, through several layers of cloth, give it a push.
Once it was completely inside the bottle, the toad was satisfied. It flicked its tongue at Su Yi twice, then lay motionless at the bottom of the bottle, seemingly asleep.
Su Yi threw away the handkerchief and held the glass bottle as if it were a hot potato3, not knowing what to do.
By now, the three people fighting had also noticed the commotion over here. Staring at the thin sheet of skin on the ground, they were no less shocked than Su Yi.
Yue Ling was skilled, and the two assassins were getting no advantage. They exchanged a look and nodded. One of them leaped out of the fight, took out a sleeve arrow4 from his robes, and pulled the string. With a swoosh, dozens more assassins arrived. Like silent phantoms in the dark night, they appeared without a sound and began to swarm Yue Ling.
The Valley Master, having lost her Gu King, was in a towering rage. She had sent her disciples to search, but they had found nothing. She was in her bamboo house, scolding her useless disciples, when a servant came to report that a fire had broken out in the valley. She casually waved her hand and told Feng Zhu to take some people to handle it, showing no intention of going to look herself.
After scolding her disciples until they were drenched in dog’s blood5, the Valley Master’s anger finally subsided a little. She sat down to drink some water and soothe her parched throat.
Halfway through her drink, her heart suddenly skipped a beat. A bond connected by blood made her feel a sense of unease. After asking several servants, none had seen where Feng Lin had gone. After a moment’s thought, she gave up on scolding her disciples and went out to find her son.
Feng Lin carried Gu on him, and the best way to find him was with a flying insect-shaped, scent-tracking Gu.
The Valley Master followed the flying insect all the way to Su Yi and the others. But she did not see her beloved son, only the horrifying human skin on the ground.
“Ah—!” The Valley Master shrieked. In a daze, she saw again the scene of her lover dying before her eyes. The pain felt as if it could tear her apart, leaving her no way to escape.
She staggered twice. When she saw clearly what was in the glass bottle in Su Yi’s hand, she instantly knew who the culprit was.
Tears of blood streamed from her eyes. The force of her glare at Su Yi was enough to skin her alive and tear her bones apart. “You… It was you! You stole my King Gu, and you harmed my son!”
Su Yi raised an eyebrow. “Valley Master, you shouldn’t speak so carelessly. It was clearly Young Master Feng who tried to harm me first. How can you say I harmed him? He brought this upon himself.”
The Valley Master could no longer hear what she was saying. Her mind was solely focused on avenging her son.
In a fit of uncontrollable rage, she released all the Gu she carried with her. A dense swarm of them rushed toward Su Yi.
Su Yi took a step back and quickly poured out the Gu King from the glass bottle.
“Perfect timing!” The Valley Master had used her Gu not only to ensure Su Yi died without a complete corpse but also to lure out the Gu King. Seeing her plan succeed, her face lit up with joy. She took out the bone flute she usually used to train her Gu and began to play, commanding the Gu King, “Bite her to death!”
The toad’s belly was still bulging, jiggling as it hopped. It was already full, but it didn’t mind eating a little more.
With a flick of its tongue, all the Gu rushing toward Su Yi ended up in its stomach.
“You damned beast! You don’t understand human speech!” Seeing this, the Valley Master cursed furiously and blew on the bone flute even louder.
Hearing the familiar sound, the fat toad suddenly leaped up, landing directly in front of her. With a flick of its tongue, it swallowed both her hands, along with the bone flute.
It hated this sound the most. Every time it rang out, it either had to go hungry or eat until it was about to burst.
“Ah—!” The Valley Master screamed. Her hands were reduced to white bones, gruesomely separated from the skin of her wrists. She fainted dead away.
The toad seemed oblivious to what it had done. It was full and had no interest in the creature trembling in pain before it. It hopped back to Su Yi’s side in a few steps, crawled into the glass bottle, and went back to sleep.
The assassins on the other side saw this and were terrified. Their movements slowed for a fraction of a second. Yue Ling seized the opening, injuring several of the men surrounding her with a few stabs, and flew to Su Yi’s side. “Miss Su, let’s go!”
Without another word, she dragged her and ran.
Yue Ling half-carried, half-dragged her in a mad dash. Su Yi felt uncomfortable being manhandled like this. In the past, when she had to run, she was always carried in Ji Qingchi’s arms. Truly, there was no harm without comparison.
Just as they were getting closer to the fire, a flash of sword qi appeared before them, carving a deep trench in the ground. Dirt flew everywhere, blocking their path. “Trying to run? Not so easy.”
Yue Ling was forced back several steps by the sword qi. Su Yi looked up and saw a middle-aged man standing before them.
The man was dressed in plain cloth clothes and held a longsword. He had long brows, small eyes, a hooked nose, and eyes like a hawk—the very picture of a vicious man.
Yue Ling frowned. “Who are you?”
“Wushang said he couldn’t handle you. This old man was wondering what kind of formidable figures you were, but it turns out you’re just a few mere girls6.” The middle-aged man sneered and spun the sword in his hand. “Come on, let this old man see what you’re really made of.”
Hearing him mention Hua Wushang, the two immediately understood that this was the Xuanji Tower Master.
Yue Ling set Su Yi down. “Miss Su, stay close to me and be careful not to get hurt.”
With that, she charged forward to fight the Xuanji Tower Master with all her might.
Su Yi didn’t know martial arts and could only see the blurred shadows of the sword. The chaotic flashes of blades made her extremely anxious. She had no choice but to release the toad from the glass bottle, hoping it would deal this mysterious Xuanji Tower Master a heavy blow, just as it had done to the Valley Master.
Who would have thought that the toad, so lively just a moment ago, would simply sniff the air after hopping out and refuse to move? Su Yi couldn’t help but try to gesture with her hands, urging it to go forward and bite the Xuanji Tower Master to death, but it ignored her completely and crawled back into the bottle.
Helpless, Su Yi decided to go and alert Ji Qingchi. She had just turned around when Hua Wushang and several assassins blocked her path.
Playing with his fan, he smiled faintly. “Miss Su, long time no see. Where might you be going?”
Su Yi took two steps back and ignored him, but he continued to speak to himself with a smile, “Is Miss Su wondering why your Gu has stopped moving?”
Su Yi thought of the items Hua Wuying had once given them to repel Gu and frowned. “You’re carrying something to repel Gu?”
“Correct. Miss Su is as sharp and clever as the legends say.” Hua Wushang tapped his fan against his palm. “That’s right. My father is carrying Gu-repelling powder. We originally just wanted to test if this stuff could really repel Gu, and it turns out the effect is quite good.”
If these people had Gu-repelling powder, why didn’t they use it when the Valley Master was being injured? It seemed their relationship with the Valley Master wasn’t that deep… No, wait!
“How do you have Gu-repelling powder?” The items Hua Wuying had given them could only repel ordinary Gu; the Gu King shouldn’t be afraid of such things.
She didn’t believe that in such a short time, Xuanji Tower or the Valley Master’s Feng Lin could have developed Gu-repelling powder.
Right now, only Feng Qing had successfully created it!
“Miss Su is truly perceptive.” Hua Wushang smiled and took out a familiar glass bottle. “The Hundred Herbs Elder truly lives up to her name. The medicine she concocts is indeed very useful.”
Su Yi knew where they had gotten it from.
“Ye Shui stole it and gave it to you?”
“That is no concern of Miss Su’s. Men, seize her!”
Ji Qingchi was highly skilled in martial arts, and with Yue Ling and numerous guards by her side, the people of Xuanji Tower feared they wouldn’t be able to capture them, so they had prepared many traps.
They had even brought out the Tower Master, who had long been in seclusion in Xuanji Tower.
The Xuanji Tower Master, Hua Bao7, had decades of martial arts experience and was well-versed in some unorthodox arts8. Yue Ling was no match for him at all. She was quickly defeated, sent flying by a palm strike. She landed on the ground, spat out a mouthful of blood with a pfft, and passed out.
“General Lin!”
Su Yi struggled, trying to check on her condition. Hua Wushang commanded the assassins behind him, “What are you waiting for? Seize them!”
“Yes!”
Ignoring their struggles, the assassins quickly tied both of them up tightly and gagged them to stop them from shouting.
After everything was done, the middle-aged man walked over with a cold face, his hands behind his back. Hua Wushang hurriedly tried to curry favor. “Father, should we kill these two?”
“Keep them. They might be useful later,” Hua Bao said indifferently. With his hands clasped behind him, he started walking toward the center of the fire.
Hua Wushang quickly chased after him. “Father, you’ve already exerted yourself. Let me take the field now.”
“You? Hmph!” Others might not know what his son was made of, but Hua Bao knew perfectly well. His son’s offer to fight wasn’t to capture anyone, but because he was afraid of hurting that little wench named Ji Qingchi!
He wanted to see for himself just what that wench looked like to have so thoroughly enchanted his son!
“You, put these two in a carriage and transport them back to Xuanji Tower first. Have them heavily guarded. You are not to participate in what comes next.”
After giving his orders and ignoring his son’s ashen face, he used the Art of Shape-Shifting and Shadow-Swapping9, arriving at the center of the inferno in just a few steps.
LP: I like this frog! On the other hand, Ye Shui, wtf?!
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