Wuhua

People of this era still did not understand the true weight of a T0-tier fighter in aquatic combat.

Take the simplest example.

The original novel mentioned that, under normal circumstances, Chu Liuxiang could not withstand seven moves from Demoness of the Emerald Sea.

Yet when he fought the Demoness of the Emerald Sea underwater, he managed to cling to her relentlessly, forcing her to the brink of defeat through suffocation. Of course, that battle also involved deeper layers of environmental and psychological warfare; he had maxed out every advantage available to him.

And that battle truly cemented Chu Liuxiang's title as the invincible king of the seas!

What was now quite clear was that, while fighting on land, Chu Liuxiang had still been deliberating over how to subdue One Red Dot without letting the man injure him.

After luring him into the lake, however, a subtle little combination was all it took to seal his acupoints and toss him onto the shore, as easily as catching a chick.

Now, he also needed to turn his attention to the zither player.

Meanwhile, although he was not present, Little Fang had been busy fluttering his little butterfly wings, causing a massive deviation in this part of the plot!

Originally, Chu Liuxiang had considered Wuhua's arrival a mere coincidence. Even when the tune he played drove One Red Dot mad, Chu Liuxiang attributed it to anguish in Wuhua's heart and took the initiative to ask whether he had recently encountered some insurmountable trouble.

As one of the two supreme show-offs of the age, Wuhua had calmly brushed the subject aside and teased Chu Liuxiang about being soaking wet every time they met.

With that change of subject, Chu Liuxiang had stopped focusing on the tune and begun asking whether Wuhua had seen One Red Dot and a powerful fighter who used Ninjutsu.

At that point, Wuhua's eyes had visibly lit up, because his chance to show off had arrived!

He had promptly sunk his seven-stringed zither into the water, declaring that, upon hearing One Red Dot's name, the instrument had been tainted with the stench of blood and could no longer produce ethereal music.

After speaking, he had washed his hands in the lake, taken out a silk handkerchief as white as snow, and dried off the droplets.

But showing off before another supreme show-off was not so easy. Chu Liuxiang had smoothly remarked that the lake water was not necessarily clean either; there might be all sorts of strange things in it.

Ordinarily, faced with a contrarian who pulled the rug out from under them like that, most people would struggle to keep the conversation going.

But a supreme show-off lived up to his title. Wuhua had immediately produced a passage of Zen wisdom.

[Man may soil water, but water does not soil man. Flowing ever onward, its essence remains free of dust.]

Even Chu Liuxiang had been thoroughly stunned by those words. Truly, beyond every king stood a greater king. To preserve his own elegance, he could hardly keep arguing, and the conversation had shifted to the second mysterious man who used Ninjutsu.

Even then, Chu Liuxiang had not suspected Wuhua in the slightest, still believing his presence there to be a coincidence.

Much less had he considered that Wuhua himself might be the master proficient in Japanese Ninja Arts.

Wuhua had then seized the opportunity to spout a stream of nonsense, steering the relevant clues toward figures in the martial world of Southern Fujian, because twenty years earlier, an Iga Ninja had crossed the sea and lived in that region for three years.

That had cut off Chu Liuxiang's lead completely. Only after returning to Pleasure Hall had he learned from Leng Qiuhun of Heavenly Eagle's sudden appearance. Heavenly Eagle's senior brother, Spirit Vulture, was also one of the four floating sea corpses apart from the Divine Water Palace Disciple.

That had allowed him to pick up the severed trail concerning the letters.

Now, however, Fang Yunhua's seemingly joking reminder, coupled with Su Rongrong's careful analysis concluding that Wuhua possessed every prerequisite for committing the crimes, had changed things.

No matter how much Chu Liuxiang professed to trust his friends, he had begun to harbor deeper suspicions about Wuhua's conveniently timed appearance here.

The seed of suspicion in his heart had begun to sprout, leaving the dashing Chu staring silently at Wuhua after reaching his little boat.

Wuhua had already noticed Chu Liuxiang's arrival, but his silence made Wuhua feel that events were slipping out of control. After all, from what he knew of Chu Liuxiang, their meeting should have been warm and enthusiastic, given that they were close friends who understood each other.

Yet Chu Liuxiang merely stared at him thoughtfully, making Wuhua break into a cold sweat even as he continued playing with feigned composure.

Now, he could no longer show off as he had in the original plot by disdaining One Red Dot for polluting his zither.

When the tune ended, he feigned surprise, as though he had only just noticed Chu Liuxiang, then broke into a smile and said:

"Brother Chu, must you be soaking wet every time you meet this humble monk?"

"I have you to thank for that, Master."

There was an unmistakably sarcastic edge to those words.

Faced with Wuhua's puzzled gaze, Chu Liuxiang showed no intention of explaining further.

He suspected Wuhua because his appearance this time was far too convenient-whether he had prompted One Red Dot to kill him, was himself the man skilled in Japanese Ninja Arts, or was an accomplice intercepting him to allow that man to escape.

There was no escaping that suspicion now.

There was only one thing he still could not understand: Wuhua's motive. Why steal the Heavenly One Divine Water, and why murder those four renowned figures of the martial world who seemingly had nothing to do with him?

And Wuhua's appearance was far too deceptive.

Especially beneath the mingled light of the stars and moon, his eyes shone like brilliant stars, his lips were red and his teeth white, and his face was as fair and lovely as a young maiden's. Yet no woman in the world could rival the refinement of his manner or the effortless grace of his bearing.

He appeared utterly untouched by dust from head to toe, as though he had just descended on a cloud from the highest heavens. Even if the Tang Monk returned to the world, if Xuanzang himself were reborn, he could scarcely have been more impressive.

How could such a man have committed the evil deed of deceiving an innocent disciple of the Divine Water Palace and getting her pregnant merely to make her help him steal the Heavenly One Divine Water? Worse still, he had then brainwashed her into dying along with the child she carried.

Chu Liuxiang could not make sense of it.

And he had always adhered to one principle: he would rather be deceived ten thousand times than falsely accuse one innocent person.

Until he had uncovered the motive behind all this, Wuhua remained merely a suspect.

Wuhua, meanwhile, was even more bewildered. Was the man giving him that sarcastic answer really the Chu Liuxiang he knew?

"Have I spoiled some pleasant affair of yours, Brother Chu?"

Wuhua looked at Chu Liuxiang with a distinctly innocent expression. Chu Liuxiang took a deep breath, knew this was not the time to rustle the grass and startle the snake, and shook his head.

"My apologies. I ran into a little trouble just now and lost control of my emotions. You merely caught the spillover, Master."

"I see."

To maintain his lofty image and the air of transcendence he always displayed in public, Wuhua could hardly indulge in curious questioning, especially after seeing that Chu Liuxiang had no intention of continuing the topic.

Chu Liuxiang was already inclined to leave.

Because once he truly began to suspect Wuhua, he realized just how terrifying the man was. Obtaining clues from him was fundamentally impossible. In that case, he might as well return to Leng Qiuhun and look for another way forward.

But Wuhua was unwilling to let him leave just then.

Some of Chu Liuxiang's unusual behavior, especially that recent rumor circulating in the martial world, had filled him with suspicion.

And just before Chu Liuxiang could take his leave, Wuhua spoke first.

"Brother Chu, surely the rumor that you went to Mount Hua to steal a treasure and exchanged blows with the Amorous Young Master cannot be true?"