Chapter 215 - 213: A Night of Fish and Dragon Dance (Part 6)

Chapter 215: Chapter 213: A Night of Fish and Dragon Dance (Part 6)

Fu Juemin glanced at the woman before him, then at the Jianghu Wanderers blocking his path. He suddenly smiled. Ignoring everyone present, he kicked his horse’s flanks hard and charged forward.

The moment he moved, everyone else sprang into action.

Tang Jing was the closest. The instant Fu Juemin spurred his horse, her twin sabers became like two crescent moons, tearing through the air as they slashed upward with a bone-chilling cold, aimed straight for Fu Juemin’s midsection.

The Saber Momentum was ferocious, as if brimming with resentment.

As if he had anticipated her move, Fu Juemin ducked low, exposing Li Huaisuang in his embrace to Tang Jing’s twin sabers.

Tang Jing’s expression twisted with shock and fury. She had anticipated all of Fu Juemin’s possible reactions, even bracing herself to receive one of his thunderous attacks. But she had never, ever imagined he could be so shameless as to use their protected target as a human shield—and against the blade of an ally, of all things!

"You?!"

Tang Jing wrenched her ferocious twin sabers off course mid-slash, the blades grazing past Li Huaisuang’s shoulder.

As horse and rider shot past, a bewildered Li Huaisuang still had no idea what had just happened. Ahead, under the cover of darkness, several figures leaped high into the air like night owls. Backlit by the cold moon, their eyes flashed with a hunter’s glint as they swooped down to seize her!

BANG!—

BANG! BANG!

Gunfire erupted almost simultaneously, shattering the silence beside the river.

It was the armed Revolutionaries behind Tang Jing who were firing. Their bullets struck precisely at the feet and in front of the airborne Jianghu Wanderers, forcing them to twist their bodies and land awkwardly back on the ground. Their attack was momentarily halted.

All of it—from the charge of the horse to the flash of sabers and the crack of gunfire—happened in the space of a single breath.

In that brief, initial clash, the fine steed—its potential once again forcibly ignited by Fu Juemin’s Vitality—had already carried the two riders through the breach in the encirclement like a phantom.

Seeing their target escape, the Jianghu Wanderers by the old bridge showed no interest in a prolonged fight. They all executed their Body Techniques and gave chase, quickly vanishing one by one into the vast darkness.

"Bastard!"

Holding her twin sabers, Tang Jing watched the rider and horse rapidly disappear around a bend in the river, her face livid and her chest heaving.

"Tang Jing, put aside your personal grudge."

A man holding a gun strode up, his tone stern. "Our primary mission right now is to protect Huaisuang!"

Tang Jing gritted her teeth and, without another word, gave chase.

.....

GASP... GASP...

Heavy, labored breaths, like the pumping of a bellows, echoed along the silent riverbank.

A magnificent, jet-black steed lay collapsed on the cold flagstone path. Thick, viscous white foam, laced with blood, frothed from its mouth and nostrils. Its entire body convulsed violently with every breath.

It had clearly exhausted its last ounce of strength and Vitality.

Fu Juemin crouched, his expression calm as he gently stroked the horse’s sweat-drenched, fever-hot neck.

Only when the violent gasps ceased did he stand. He looked over at Li Huaisuang, whose face was pale and whose eyes betrayed her pity, and said softly, "Let’s go."

Li Huaisuang lowered her gaze and murmured a soft "en." She reached out and timidly clutched the corner of Fu Juemin’s suit jacket. Leaving the dead steed behind, the two continued further down the river path.

Beside them, the inky water of the Su River rushed by. The moonlight stretched the shadows of the large and small figures across the flagstones.

"Are we... going to die?"

Li Huaisuang suddenly spoke.

Fu Juemin didn’t break his stride. "Why do you ask?" he said casually.

"Because so many people have already died."

Li Huaisuang kept her head low, her voice saturated with an inexplicable sadness. "Master He Er, Uncle Jin, Boss Liu... We all came back together on the White Dragon. They said they were going to do so, so many things... but they didn’t get to do a single one. They all died because of me."

Her voice trembled slightly. "I really didn’t want this. No one told me it would be like this... If I’d known, I would’ve rather stayed away forever. I would’ve never come back..."

Fu Juemin listened in silence.

In the moonlight, the lines of his profile looked cold and hard. He was silent for a moment, then, instead of directly answering her question about life and death, he changed the subject. "Your father, Li Mingyi. What kind of man is he?"

Li Huaisuang shook her head, the movement slight. "I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in many years. But... everyone says he’s a remarkable man."

"He is."

Fu Juemin’s voice was detached, as if he were stating a fact that had nothing to do with him. "So you don’t need to carry the burden of their deaths. They died for your ’remarkable’ father, not for you."

"Then what about you?"

Li Huaisuang looked up, moonlight reflecting in her misty eyes. "Are you protecting me for him, too?"

"Of course not."

Fu Juemin let out a soft laugh and shook his head, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather. "I’m protecting you because I want to help someone important to me.

It has nothing to do with you, and it has nothing to do with your father."

"And you don’t need to worry about me dying."

He paused, then turned slightly and gently ruffled Li Huaisuang’s hair. "Because," he said softly, "if I feel I’m in any danger, I will abandon you in a heartbeat, without a moment’s hesitation."

Speaking the most brutally pragmatic words in the gentlest of tones.

Li Huaisuang froze, staring blankly at Fu Juemin.

His answer was utterly different from those of everyone she had met before, all of whom had sworn to protect her to the death.

The fledgling sense of reliance and attachment she had begun to feel for Fu Juemin, forged in their shared life-and-death ordeal this night, shattered in an instant.

She immediately became docile, silently releasing her grip on his jacket. She lowered her head and followed half a step behind him without a word, no longer attempting to close the distance.

"Oh, right."

But Fu Juemin acted as if nothing had happened. "I keep forgetting to ask," he said.

"You keep saying you want to catch up to the Fish Demon to help it. When you do, what exactly is your plan?"

Fu Juemin’s gaze fell on the Fishbone Chain on Li Huaisuang’s wrist. Pointing at the glowing bracelet, he asked, "With this?"

Li Huaisuang pressed her lips together and refused to look at him. Her voice was muffled and clearly distant. "When the time comes... you’ll see."

Fu Juemin just smiled, unbothered by her sudden coldness. He looked away and continued his unhurried pace.

The next stretch of their journey was surprisingly peaceful. The various factions that had been ambushing and pursuing them seemed to have been swallowed whole by the night, never to reappear. Only the sound of the rushing river accompanied their footsteps.

After walking for about five or six minutes, they reached the end of the path.

A relatively open and flat stone embankment stretched out ahead, connecting to a pitch-black, dilapidated old-style warehouse.

Farther ahead, the river abruptly widened, the current growing deeper and more rapid. A sluice gate spanned the channel, its gate raised, letting the river water thunder downstream.

What drew the eye was a massive, derelict official ship floating half-submerged on the river, not far from the sluice gate. Its hull was bizarrely wedged against part of the gate’s structure, looking like a beached metal behemoth casting a menacing shadow in the moonlight.

What truly brought them to a halt, however, was the magnificent and bizarre spectacle unfolding on the river’s surface—

A massive whirlpool, over a hundred feet in diameter, was spinning madly in the heart of the river! Its center was a bottomless abyss, its edges churning with high, white-capped waves. Countless schools of fish, flashing silver, were swept into its vortex, spinning helplessly with the current.

SPLASH—

With a tremendous roar, a pillar of water shot skyward! The enormous Fish Demon, the one they had glimpsed fleetingly in the river before, abruptly burst halfway out of the whirlpool’s center. Its blue-black scales reflected a cold gleam in the moonlight before it crashed back down, throwing up an even greater surge of waves.

The Fish Demon was now dozens of meters from the sluice gate, spinning ceaselessly. It seemed to be trying to fight the immense force of the river pulling it downstream.

"Little Fish..."

Standing on the bank, Li Huaisuang stared at the colossal, struggling figure in the whirlpool, her expression instantly shifting to one of immense worry and excitement.

She couldn’t stop herself from running forward a few steps and shouting toward the heart of the river, "Little Fish! Little Fish—!"

A series of low moans, like the sounding of an underwater horn, echoed from the river—an apparent response from the Fish Demon to Li Huaisuang’s call.

While Li Huaisuang’s entire being was focused on the Fish Demon in the river, Fu Juemin’s attention was drawn as if by a magnet, locked firmly onto the massive derelict ship beside the sluice gate.

Within his body, several of his major Demon Soul Seeds grew restless. The rhythmic, bizarre croaking of a frog echoed endlessly in his ears.

He pushed his [Yao Ling] Perception to its absolute limit, sending it out like countless invisible tendrils, silently piercing the rotten hull, seeping into the gloomy cabins, and probing the unfathomable depths beneath the ship...

Gradually, a scene formed in Fu Juemin’s mind—

In the rushing currents beneath the surface, inside a ’cage’ formed by three sides of black iron bars with the fourth side open, lay a gigantic toad the size of a water buffalo. Its enormous eyes glowed like Luminous Pearls, emitting a faint blue light as it rhythmically puffed out its cheeks.

With each pulsation, an intangible yet incredibly powerful ripple seemed to spread, carried far away by the current...

Under the moonlight, Fu Juemin’s eyes slowly began to glow.

’Found it.’

’Tonight’s whole ordeal wasn’t a waste of time after all.’

’But the problem is—’

’The Toad Demon is hidden underwater... How am I supposed to get down there?’

Fu Juemin pondered.