Volume 11.5 Chapter 01

Without the ravenous mist, the rudely-paved wall under a bold golden lamp would be a joy to see, but the clouds sat upon the earth as if they decided the heavens were down here instead, banning the sun from visiting the earth. The meandering wind created a distorted view of the cliff markings as the faint golden rays curved and undulated.

Wu Gorge’s charm wasn’t limited to the two stone towers rising to salute the sun in every season. The forests peeking over the ledges resembled red sunset rays on the sweeping mist and pristine water that whispered sweet notes in cascading water-strings. A poet once wrote, “The blue sea makes all other waters unworthy of the name. After Wu Mountains, all other clouds are mere puffballs above,” to illustrate the second gorge of Three Gorges system on the Yangtze River.

Moments ago, following a ray of light hitting the rocky faces, the clouds drew filaments of light further down, melding the blackness with the water.

“This is almost torrential rain.” The maiden wearing turquoise garments gazed up to see silver droplets belting down onto her ship with a fraction of a second in between beats.

“Miss, the ship is leaving; please board.”

“Understood.” The maiden kept her head down when boarding to avoid interactions with anyone.

Su Li had yet to board when she heard monkey eeks from afar, halting her in her tracks. She had heard the poetic lines, “Among Three Gorges of Badong County, Wu Gorge is the longest. One cannot help but shed tears once they hear three ape eeks,” but she didn’t expect to experience it for herself. Nevertheless, she persuaded herself not to dwell and boarded the ship.

The ship made its way through the water screen to Yanlin Crossing, one of the three crossings among Three Gorges, at a reasonable pace.

Yanlin Crossing was often busy receiving and seeing off visitors purely because it was an ordinary landing zone. Due to the danger of traversing Wu Gorge, travellers crossing it prepared to forfeit their lives. From a third-person perspective, apes that gathered there, which was a lot, often cried out, contrasting the tension of travellers with their mournful tones. The tears shed were not tears of sympathy but tears shed out of fear for one’s life. Bandits specialising in warfare on water lied in ambush along the three water routes to unlawfully take goods from travellers.

Top constable Yan Shisan - who referred to himself as “I’m the imperial court’s brick. Where’s the gap? I’ll fill it.” - established seventy-five branches of Liu Shan Men in the nine provinces, setting him apart from every other armed department. His thirteen elite direct subordinates were notorious for gambling, dining, drinking, and romping and dashing on hookers, but nobody could stop the mad dogs who never stopped hounding their prey.

The thirteen constables were nothing short of a hurricane that cleared out underground factions. The only real major case involving the martial arts community in years was the young mistress of Mount Lu Sword Sanctuary losing her undergarment.

Yan Shisan’s sixth rank subordinate, the three water routes’ top constable - Boundless - acted as Three Gorges manager. Boundless was the sort of man to make stepping on dog faeces sound as if Armageddon was descending upon mankind, and he loved to pad his resume. He was the bane of illegal guilds in the area owing to him squeezing everything he could out of them. Hence, they’d think twice about trying anything under his watch.

Su Li chose Yanlin Crossing as her destination precisely because Liu Shan Men guarded it. In addition, she could travel incognito, as well as minimise interactions with people in the pugilistic world.

I hope we can reach our destination safely.

Watching the rain fall, Su Li lost herself in her thoughts until a man’s heaving echoed in her ears as if he was a wounded beast howling in a muffled voice. When she escaped the discomfort of the realm, though, she discovered she was still sitting at a dining table.

“What is on your mind, Miss?” The tall and lean young man sharing the table looked straight at Su Li despite her visibly flush cheeks. The upward curve on his lips matched the confidence he held his gaze with.

The fourteen year old maiden’s most charming feature was her prim demeanour that manifested in all of her behaviours that contrasted her hearty personality. She was oblivious to how enthralling her body lines were since she was occupied with brooding. Had the youth in his twenties not called out to her, she would still be dwelling in her thoughts.

“I apologise for concerning you, Young Master Fei. This is my first time leaving home for months and travelling so far. I worry about the long commute back to Suzhou.”

“I see you are afraid of those harbouring ill intent. These are peaceful times. Moreover, Liu Shan Men’s competent constables are managing the martial arts communities effectively. Although there is a risk when travelling across water ways, it is not common to run into pirates. Even the ones who show themselves are but petty thieves, like,” Young Master Fei looked down to a beggar, “this kid.”

The kid couldn’t understand how he ended up grabbing a shoe when he tried to pinch food from the table whilst they were focused on conversing.

Impressed with Young Master Fei’s ability to stealthily swap the items out of the child’s hands without anyone at the table noticing, Su Li’s attendant saluted him. “With you accompanying us, we feel safe. Why does my foot feel cold? Who’s the scoundrel who stole this old one’s shoe?!”

Su Li gently cleared her throat. “Uncle Fu.”

“Ah…” Uncle Fu, embarrassed, aggressively snatched his shoe back and shooed the kid off. Alas, it wasn’t the right place for him to wear his shoe back on; he set his foot atop it and coughed loudly to drive off the awkward atmosphere.

Su Li conveyed, “Young Master Fei, your martial prowess is worthy of praise.”

Young Master Fei responded, “It is only a trifling trick. Nonetheless, it is enough to get rid of petty thieves. As I am accompanying you, I shall not allow any misfortune to befall you. Do you feel you can dine comfortably now?”

“I shall graciously accept your kind offer.”

Su Li’s group was only acquainted with Young Master Fei prior to boarding the ship, so, besides knowing he was from a clan in Beiping, they only had his appearance to work off. They decided to board together as they were headed in the same direction, but Su Li sought his companionship because he appeared to be trained, too.

“You need not stand on ceremony. Our meeting is the will of fate. It is only right that I take care of you.”

Su Li expressed gratitude with a polite smile, ending the conversation. She knew well that he harboured special feelings for her when she was the only person he would spare a smile and be so proactive with. She had been wooed enough times ever since she hit puberty at twelve years of age back home in Suzhou. Howbeit, she was always cognisant of the fact that they weren’t lolicons but people after her clan’s resources. Like fine wine, with age, her beauty enamoured more and more men. She thought things might be different all the way out here, but it wasn’t the case, apparently,

Men…

Time crawled at a snail’s pace after dinner since there was nothing to do until they arrived tomorrow morning. Perhaps it was their boredom that inclined them to tune in to their surroundings, drawing to their attention the voice of a rotund elder telling a story at the platform in the centre. His accent didn’t take away from his clear and sonorous voice in the slightest.In addition, his varying tempo to emphasise parts or otherwise indicated that he was an experienced storyteller on the ship, not the sort of sham artist looking to earn a buck down at the local teahouse.

“The blue sea makes all other waters unworthy of the name. After Wu Mountains, all other clouds are mere puffballs above. Wu Mountains’ clouds and rain is in a league of its own.”

A passenger: “Haha, if that’s true, what’s that liquid in the bowl on your table? Urine?”

Having come across similar passengers plenty of times already, the elder brushed off the mockery and laughter with a chortle. “This old one is ignorant unlike all of you. He has never crossed the ocean. Therefore, the water he has seen is still water. In saying that, his recollections of Wu Mountains are true. You can find proof right outside.”

Nobody could say otherwise when they had seen the scenery for themselves.

Typically, storytellers preferred to recount past events or fables passed down from generation to generation. This elder, on the other hand, was fond of sharing rumours in the pugilistic world or peculiar things. Donations to compliment his content and delivery were always abundant, nevertheless.

Following an impromptu comical interlude, the elder resumed his story. “Last time, we stopped at renowned Constable Yan when we were talking about prominent names in the martial arts community. This time, we are going to talk about someone that people would feel their mouth is filthy after mentioning, the womaniser, Lord Wu - Hua Feihua!”

Elder Fu grabbed Su Li’s hands as she instinctively went to look up, forcing her to bite her lips and keep her head down.

“Wu Feihua started off last year by massacring the entire affluent family of forty-nine people at De’an Manor, then conflagrated it. Save for Demon Sect, he has to be the craziest fellow in years.”

The passenger who tried to slight the storyteller before asked, “Do you know the reason he murdered the family?”

“He is surly by nature. Purportedly, he assumed the merchant family’s daughter, Miss Xu, fell for him just because they made eye contact once on the street, so he went to their door with all the fanfare to propose. Understandably, the merchant rejected him. Taking offence to something said to him, Hua Feihua stomped off. When night fell, he sneaked into their manor. Prior to committing the act of atrocity, he raped Miss Xu in front of their family and then slit her throat. The government couldn’t clean the smell of blood even after ten days of cleaning.”

Equipped with qinggong and combat prowess that stood out, Hua Feihua always made his escape before Liu Shan Men’s constables arrived on the scene for the last year of criminality.

“The degenerate rapes every woman he fancies once he enters someone’s doors. Lucky maidens would only have to shed tears. If they weren’t so lucky, they could at least hang themselves. If they were unlucky, they would bleed with their family. What ignites a flame more than anything is that, before he commits his crimes, he tosses down a sheet of paper with a line from a poem.”

“Fleeting like a dream, like clouds coming and going,” was a line from Bai Juyi’s poem “A Flower as Not a Flower”. The omitted phrases in front were, “A flower is not a flower. Mist is not mist; it comes at night, only to part by daylight.” Add Hua Feihua’s ability to come and go without a trace and you had “Lord Wu”, where “Wu” derived from “mist”.

Su Li called on all her willpower to not let her unsettled emotions show, but her face was still blanched.

“The freakiest thing, though, is that every orthodox sect member who ever crossed paths with him is dead… all of them.”

“All of them?!”

“Indeed. Think about the severity of his crimes. Would the people going after him be ordinary warriors? Yet, not a single one returned alive. If their corpses weren’t mangled, there wasn’t a single trace of them to be found. The government has continued to raise the bounty for him. At this rate, he’s going to be worth the same as Demon Sect’s big wigs. Most importantly…”

“Is?”

“Is…”

“Is…”

“Hehe, the story is over. Please be generous with your rewards.”

“… You want a beating, instead?! You scared the piss out of me!”

“Don’t tell horror stories in the middle of the night, you stooge!”

Accompanying the loud complaints were the sounds of cutlery falling to the floor, yet the elder could still find it him to jovially laugh. Whether he was trying to be friendly, amused, willing to endure or if he was that amiable, they donated despite their verbal abuse.

Stashing away his earnings, the elder continued, “He’s vicious notwithstanding him only being approximately twenty years old. It’d be hard to imagine him as a person who’d kill people in cold blood if you were to see him. He’s… hehe, he looks like the young master there.”

When the finger was pointed to him, Young Master Fei flinched, then tried to pretend nothing was wrong with a stiff smile.

“Actually, he supposedly dresses in a similar fashion. He likes a groomed and polished appearance, embellished with a fan.”

Young Master Fei ignored the inquisitive gazes on him, maintaining a smile. “Really? What a coincidence.”

“It is, hahaha. You even have similar physiques.”

“Are you implying that I am Hua Feihua?”

Su Li turned her pallor face Young Master Fei’s direction. “Y-Young Master Fei?”

The enunciation of his surname was nearly enough for everyone to bolt for the closest weapon.

“… I-I heard Hua Feihua’s last crime was committed at Mount Qingcheng. That being the case, he should be trying to leave the province. I don’t know if he is travelling on foot or by ferry… If he is travelling across the water, he would have to leave near Three Gorges.”

Su Li accidentally knocked her teacup over when her body jolted.

Young Master Fei still remained unfettered. “You said he burnt down the manor after he murdered the family. How, then, would the smell of blood remain for ten days? It sounds like someone may have mistaken the smell of smoke for blood. This is a crucial piece of information. One is raw. One is cooked. Grilled chicken wings and raw duck are two very different things.”

It took a moment for the passengers to realise that Young Master Fei had a solid argument. Their laughter dissipated the ominous ambience that permeated the ship.

“Man, you clown. As if the young gentleman is a rapist. Where can he indulge in carnal pleasure on this shabby ship of yours?”

While Young Master Fei seemed unnerved, Su Li couldn’t forget the poem she received whilst lodging at an inn some time before. The poem was practically an announcement that the grim reaper was coming for her. She had been living as though she was on the run ever since.

“Man, not only do you tell incomplete stories but even made-up stories.” The man with the deep voice and accent not heard in the Central Plain was lying on the ground instead of sitting at a table. He had his arms across his chest and shirt covering his face as though he was sleeping.

“M-may this old one ask what he got wrong?”

“Hmph, when over ten praiseworthy warriors encountered him at Dongting Lake, they attempted to surround and conquer, but he fled whilst killing them. Although blood was spilt and severe injuries were suffered, someone made it out alive unlike what you claimed.”

“How do you know that? Did Hua Feihua personally tell you?”

“Though I can’t speak on other matters, but I know about that. Hua Feihua didn’t tell me, but I participated in the battle. I’m still breathing right now. What happened to your ‘everybody died’?”

Several people gasped in awe. One rather brave passenger queried, “Y-you are?”

“The name is Wei Changfeng. My mentor is Kongtong Sect’s Deity Muyu.”

Kongtong Sect’s fame never dwindled in spite of them not producing any stand-out talent in the last two generations. Hence, false alarm or not, security on board felt guaranteed when Wei Changfeng announced his affiliation. Likewise, Su Li was glad to learn that the youth she suspected was innocent.

Wei Changfeng shifted his gaze over to Young Master Fei. “If it’s not you, don’t confuse people. Careful not to fall prey to someone else.”

“It is unfortunate I cannot change the appearance I was born with.”

“Oh, what a close call.” The elder patted down his moist forehead. “This old one merely relayed the hearsay he heard, so he cannot guarantee accuracy of his information. Furthermore, due to Hua Feihua’s enigmatic character, this old one had to make some blind guesses. Please beg his pardon, Young Master.”

Young Master Fei smiled to convey he didn’t mind.

“Hua Feihua’s background isn’t complex at all.” The tall and lanky middle-aged man sitting to the right of the long study table wasn’t gifted with an eye-catching appearance. His most defining feature, though, was his moustache and thick ‘beardstache’. “His hometown is Yangzhou. He was orphaned as a kid. His estranged cousins, who run a noodle eatery in Yangzhou, lost contact with him long ago. After learning under the tutelage of Beiping’s notorious thief, Lou Louzi, he debuted as Hua Feihua at fifteen years of age. It’s rumoured that he wanted to be a hero from a young age. Unfortunately, he would use chivalry as a guise to commit acts of petty theft. It was only subsequent to Xu Family’s massacre did he gain notoriety and the moniker Lord Wu.”

“… I apologise if this is rude, but may I ask if you know him?” A passenger vocalised.

“No.” The middle-aged man rolled up his bag, unveiling his broadsword sheath strapped to his sheath. “Three months ago, I was assigned to the operation team charged with capturing him. My name is Ma Hanshan, subordinate of Constable Xin. I was assigned to the squad after he raped the daughter of Hero Mo in Langzhong, then took the lives of all twenty-five family members. Ever since then, we took an oath to make sure we apprehended him if it is the last thing we do. Brother Wei and I shall ensure you all reach your destination safely.”

Ma Hanshan was a famous hero of sorts around the area; his promise left no room for doubt.

Subsequent to everyone heading off to their rooms, Su Li moon gazed through a window, instead, still unable to sleep owing to her recent tense period.

“Is something on your mind, Miss?” Young Master Fei led the boy who tried to pinch their food over.

Judging from the fact that the boy had a mantou in a hand, Su Li assumed he stole food again. Young Master Fei awkwardly released his hold on the boy’s free hand and let him go. “He, uh, he’s quite the pitiful boy, having to pinch to survive. I lectured him, but I let him have a mantou since he was so hungry.”

Su Li’s eyes on Young Master Fei couldn’t stay still. No matter what she thought of his attraction to her, she didn’t want to harm the man she still suspected was the infamous Hua Feihua. “I beg your pardon for not understanding your kindness.”

Young Master Fei sneered. “What mistake is there to pardon? You have yet to answer this one’s question: is something on your mind?”

“… Uhm.” Su Li turned back to watching rainfall. A while later, she subtly curved the corners of her lips up. “I’ve been living in fear, unsure when my predator in the shadows will harm me and when my family will be next. I’m scared, but… nobody will lend an ear.”

“Is that because you received the poem’s lines, too?”

Su Li shuddered. “… Please do not do anything silly for my sake.”

Young Master Fei performed a light nasal laugh. “If this one cannot be silly, there is nothing left for him.”

Su Li’s lips stretched further toward her ears.

“Please do not worry. Should any trouble visit, this one will be there to protect you.”

Su Li bashfully titled her head down. “Thank you.”

“Oh, there is one more request this one has for you.”

H-here it comes.

Even though Su Li knew Young Master Fei harboured romantic feelings for her, butterflies still visited her stomach.

“Please feel free to speak.”

“Please do not look down on the boy who stole food.”

Su Li inwardly repeated Young Master Fei’s words multiple times, then blurted, “Huh?”

“Yes, this one would like to ask you not to look down on the boy.”

“That… is your request?”

“Yes.” Young Master Fei looked as serious as a judge.

“Why?” Su Li’s lips turned into a slight pout.

“He stole because he is starving, not because he is bad by nature. He was hungry… too hungry, hungry to the point that he had to forfeit his pride. There are people in this world who are truly challenged.”

Though Su Li couldn’t possibly recall the boy’s features accurately, she was not about to give an insincere response, not when Young Master Fei appeared genuinely invested. “I understand. I shall not judge his character based off this incident.”

Once she responded, Su Li felt glad she replied so for she saw Young Master Fei at his happiest ever. She would even go as far to say that it was her fast time seeing a smile from the bottom of his heart.

While the two chatted away, a girl skipped into the cabin, only to slip over due to the wet floor. Owing to the size of the cabin and voices of so many passengers, the girl’s parents didn’t hear their daughter crying right away. Su Li was going to help the girl up when Young Master Fei picked her up first.

“Come on. Stand up. Here’s a cake for you.” Young Master Fei patted the girls head and, smiling dotingly, questioned, “Am I handsome?”

A smile bloomed on the girl’s lips. “You’re ugly.”

Su Li giggled. “You sure are modest, Young Master.”

***

Only an hour ago, the passengers were struggling to hear each other over their own voices. Now, the dry thunderclap couldn’t even wake them from their slumber.

Young Master Fei watched Su Li sleeping up close for a while before pulling up her thin blanket, then made his way to the opposite end of the cabin. He caught someone’s hand in the dark to put into a lock. “Why are you pinching food again?!”

The young boy didn’t fall victim to the sleep-inducing gas since he sneaked on board, therefore couldn’t sleep in the cabin.

“Why are you here now?!” Young Master Fei pushed the boy away, planning to shoo him onto the deck.

“Nice hand locking skills, but laying your hands on a beggar is a new kind of low.” A man came out swinging, stiffing the boy’s head straight into the floor.

“He’s innocent! Why did you have to be so ruthless! I can’t believe you call yourself an orthodox faction associate!” Young Master Fei brayed.

“But I am,” replied Wei Changfeng, sneering. “Compared to your blem