Cao Wufang laughed silently. "Do you know why Young Master Tang was captured? I told him, 'That child was supposed to be dead.' Guess what he said? He said he would kill everyone who knew 'that child was supposed to be dead.' If they were all dead, then no one would know the child was supposed to be dead—as if killing everyone would somehow make your child not dead. Hahaha... But then I told him you already knew the child was fake..."
Young Master Tang wore a proud expression, though in truth, he was deeply shaken. A-Shui could easily guess what had happened and gave a bitter smile. "So he lost the fight?"
"Not exactly," Cao Wufang chuckled. "Instead, he surrendered willingly and was locked in an iron cage."
A-Shui laughed along. This was the hypocritical, arrogant Young Master Tang—pretending to be righteous while full of deceit. She took a deep breath and quickened her pace, walking ahead. Fengfeng had been wailing loudly but suddenly stopped mid-cry. A-Shui released Fengfeng, setting him down on the ground, and gently patted his head.
From a distance, Xie Yaohuang, his head splitting with pain, asked coldly, "Are we there yet? If you're lying, I'll kill you on the spot."
"We're here," A-Shui replied, lifting her head and speeding up as she approached the cliffside waterfall.
Cao Wufang was in high spirits, while Xie Yaohuang was plagued by a throbbing headache and irritation. Both assumed she was merely revisiting a familiar place to scout the path and didn’t pay attention when she got too close.
Suddenly, without warning, A-Shui leaped off the waterfall.
The move was abrupt. Cao Wuhang was still lost in thoughts about "Tang Lianci's hypocrisy and arrogance," while Xie Yaohuang watched coldly from the sidelines—allowing A-Shui to jump unimpeded.
Her leap was resolute. As her sleeves fluttered in the air, both Cao Wufang and Xie Yaohuang caught a glimpse of something flashing from her pocket.
It was a red-bound book. Their vision was sharp enough to even make out the three characters on the cover: Ning Buyi .
Both men lunged forward simultaneously, reaching out to grab A-Shui mid-air.
Neither had fully processed why A-Shui had jumped, nor why Ning Buyi was in her possession. But they both instinctively believed that carrying a legendary martial arts manual made far more sense than throwing it into a waterfall years ago. The opportunity was fleeting—if A-Shui took the fragmented manual into the waterfall, her death wouldn’t matter, but the book would be destroyed!
Though Yujing Mountain wasn’t particularly high, the waterfall was deep, cascading straight into the gorge, filling half the mountain with mist.
A-Shui remained fully conscious as she watched the two men lunge toward her.
The yellow-robed man known as Qingshan held significant influence in Tianqing Temple. She thought rationally—Cao Wufang was inconsequential.
Xie Yaohuang, far more skilled in martial arts than Cao Wufang, jumped earlier and managed to grab A-Shui first.
But by then, A-Shui had already descended halfway down the mountain, disappearing into the gorge. The Yujing Mountain waterfall crashed against multiple cliffs, and the mist below was thick. Xie Yaohuang seized A-Shui just as he, too, plunged into the fog.
The moment he entered the mist, everything turned gray—he saw nothing.
And in that very instant—something invaded his eyes from within the mist. A sharp pain shot through them. Xie Yaohuang let out a piercing scream as he and A-Shui plummeted through the air, crashing heavily into the pool at the base of the cliff.With a thunderous roar, the water surged high into the sky. Cao Wufang was a step too slow, watching helplessly as the mist halfway up the mountain turned from pale gray to a bloody crimson. He plunged into the scarlet mist, covering his face with his sleeves, and forcibly landed on a rocky ledge halfway up the mountain before scrambling back to the earthen hut.
Beneath the pool, waves churned violently. Cao Wufang lowered his sleeves in horror—his sleeves had already been corroded to tatters by the poison in the water. Rusting upon contact—what kind of toxin could be so potent? He crawled out and looked toward the waterfall below. The pool at the base of the mountain had turned a deep crimson. Xie Yaohuang and A Shui were clinging to a large rock in the pool, their clothes tattered and corroded. This scarlet powder was the same poison Liu Yan had once used—the red serpent patterns on Shen Langhun’s face had been painted with it. As Liu Yan’s maidservant, A Shui had handled countless poisons, and she had kept one or two for herself. Xie Yaohuang’s eyes were blinded, blood streaming endlessly—clearly, he hadn’t closed them when passing through the mist. He, too, had been startled, falling without defense and suffering severe injuries. A Shui had also crashed into the pool, grievously wounded, yet she immediately struggled to her feet.
Xie Yaohuang had broken his right leg and left hand, and his eyes were blinded—but these were only external wounds. His fury burned—how—how could he have been bested by a mere maidservant who knew no martial arts? How dare that lowly wretch!
He was the spirit of the late emperor!
He was destined to be emperor, to restore the Great Zhou, to claim the world, to lay the foundation for ten thousand generations!
How dare a mere commoner woman raise a hand against him!
She was nothing but a lowly commoner!
Tang Lici’s maidservant! A withered flower, a broken willow! An ignorant wretch!
How could she be worthy…
A Shui had also injured both legs in the fall. Her hands were unbroken, her eyes still intact, but her face had been corroded beyond recognition by the red mist, revealing raw, crimson flesh. Using her hands as feet, she crawled forward and seized Xie Yaohuang’s saber. Amid the deafening roar of the waterfall, Xie Yaohuang was paralyzed with terror, unaware until A Shui grabbed his blade. He jerked back in shock.
The saber slid free in her grip.
A Shui fixed her gaze on him—this man was the evil mastermind behind Fengliudian.
Within Fengliudian… those who had lost all humanity, unchecked in their virtue and vice… those white-robed and red-robed maidservants who had gradually lost themselves… those soul-snaring Nine Hearts Pills…
She raised the saber and drove it with all her strength toward Xie Yaohuang’s chest.
Amid the thunderous waterfall, Xie Yaohuang strained to track her movements by sound. Though his external injuries were severe, his internal wounds were light. Hearing A Shui’s heavy breath as she thrust the blade downward, he struck out with a palm toward her chest.
Had this been any other skilled fighter, they would have dodged—Xie Yaohuang’s martial arts were formidable, his palm strikes devastating. Few could withstand such a blow.
But A Shui knew no martial arts.
She lunged through the spray of water, meeting Xie Yaohuang’s palm head-on. The strike left a blackened imprint on her chest, nearly shattering her organs.
But so what?
A Shui still surged forward, driving the blade down.
Xie Yaohuang’s saber, too, was a renowned weapon of its time—this blade was named "Tengshe."
Tengshe, the winged serpent, adept in water and flight, cultivating for millennia to become a dragon.
But Xie Yaohuang was now pinned to the mountain rock by his own blade, blood pouring from his wounds, with no hope of escape. His throat gurgled in disbelief. Blind, he pointed vaguely at A Shui. "You… you… how dare you kill me?"Who released the "Soaring Serpent" and let out a loud cry, vomiting a great deal of blood. Clutching her chest, she looked up toward the mountaintop where Fengfeng stood, then collapsed backward. As she fell, she faintly heard Fengfeng's heart-wrenching sobs.
With a "plop," Who sank into the deep pool, leaving behind a faint whirlpool on the surface.
Cao Wufang had watched the entire scene from halfway up the mountain—how Who released poison midair, how she counter-killed Xie Yaohuang, and how she vanished beneath the water. He drew a sharp breath, asking himself whether he could ever be so ruthless if placed in her position.
He waited in terror for a long while, until the crimson in the misty water dispersed. By then, Who had long disappeared without a trace. Only then did he slowly climb down and carry Xie Yaohuang, who had been pinned to the rocks by a blade, on his back.
Xie Yaohuang was a master of his time—even a blade through his chest might not necessarily kill him.
But as Cao Wufang listened to his frantic heartbeat and saw the sheer terror on his face, he feared Xie Yaohuang would find it hard to survive even if he wished to.
He carried Xie Yaohuang away, leaving Fengfeng behind.
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