Misty rain stretched over the river, and fog locked the mountains away.
The large ferry moored by the river resembled a lone island in the clouds. Countless Jianghu foot soldiers walked down its gangplank in the rain, gazing with fascination at the Cloud River Marshland before them and the fluttering beauties holding umbrellas, their long, pale legs exposed. They whispered among themselves:
"Are these the women of the Hehuan Sect?"
"Tender as tofu. You can tell they've had plenty of nourishing. Must be them. Speaking of which, which tradition does the Hehuan Sect belong to?"
"Their founding patriarch studied dual-cultivation techniques from the Immortal, Buddhist, Martial, Shaman, and Demon traditions and created a school of his own. But its ceiling is low, and nobody's established a teaching and proclaimed themselves its patriarch. It's a fly-by-night sect..."
"They certainly look wild. I heard you can chat them up and get a free ride. They don't charge silver?"
"You think they're running a charity? If they don't want money, they definitely want something else. See that martial artist with the dark circles and trembling legs? Three days at most, and that's what you'll look like..."
"That just means they treat you right. Not like the hometown chicks, charging a fortune and barely trying..."
The Jianghu foot soldiers looked around as they walked. In the middle of their conversation, they suddenly noticed another group standing on the docks.
More than a dozen people wore matching leather armor and black capes, with Ghost-Face Masks beneath their ink-black bamboo hats. They stood motionless in the curtain of rain. The blades at their waists remained sheathed, yet they radiated a chilling menace. One glance was enough to tell they were ruthless Jianghu figures who had killed countless times.
A carved palanquin had even been set