Terror aboard the ship

Li Yu walked along the second-floor deck. Every guard he saw along the way was a woman, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, as burly as tigers and bears. Dressed in long robes, with camellias painted between their brows, they stood solemnly with sabers in hand, their eyes fixed straight ahead like so many wooden puppets.

"Young Master Carp, this way, please."

The green-robed maid walked lightly ahead, frequently looking back with a smile, finding him too slow.

"Miss Abi, who exactly wants to see me?"

"I already told you-the owner of this ship. Who do you think that is?"

Madam Wang?

Li Yu kept feeling that things were not so simple.

Could my identity as a Western Xia Yipintang spy really have been exposed?

"We're here."

She stopped seven or eight paces away and pointed a slender finger at the bedchamber around the corner ahead.

The door stood half-open, red gauze brushing the floor.

"Go in by yourself."

Abi smiled sweetly, clearly having no intention of accompanying him. At this point, she was going to return the way she had come. As they passed each other, her smile remained unchanged, but she lowered her voice and spoke rapidly.

"No matter how good she makes it sound, don't agree to anything!"

Li Yu was slightly taken aback and wanted to ask more, but a faint, elegant fragrance drifted around the corner, and she was already gone.

A portrait of a lady hung in the center of the bedchamber. Gracefully poised, delicate and lovely, she was a typical woman of Jiangnan, with eight parts beauty and ten parts refined elegance. The painting's surface had yellowed with age; it had to be quite old.

On the wooden table below, red camellias grew in a flowerpot.

"The painting's an old thing, nothing worth looking at. The camellias are new, though. If you like them, I can give them to you..."

The voice was low and hoarse, and very close.

After entering the room, Li Yu had unconsciously been drawn to the old painting. Hearing the voice now gave him a slight start.

The original owner of his body had been trained by Yipintang since childhood, and his keen perception was no weaker than that of a top third-rate expert. Although the liquor worm had now swallowed some of his internal power, his senses remained just as sharp, yet he had not noticed the other person approaching at all.

Li Yu turned around, only to see an iron staff with a snake's head, gleaming coldly, moving toward him.

His gaze shifted downward.

The other end of the iron staff was stuck in... held in a "great ball of flesh" of a hand.

Was Mantuo Manor established specifically to keep ugly women...?

Li Yu thought of the "camellia ladies" standing guard outside. They were as thickset as men, but at least they still looked human. The old woman before him was so fat that her features were almost impossible to make out, like a bamboo chopstick stuck into a steamed bun.

His gaze remained calm, his expression composed.

Ugly, misshapen people with narrow minds always resented unusual looks from others. This woman possessed formidable martial arts; whatever she intended, there was no need to offend her first.

"My surname is Yan. I manage the fertilizer house at Mantuo Manor. I was the one who ordered Abi to invite you aboard, young master."

Fertilizer!

Li Yu was secretly startled.

Rumors had long circulated in the martial world that the mistress of Mantuo Manor maintained her own punishment hall and liked chopping people up for flower fertilizer.

"My respects, Senior Yan."

"Senior? Don't be so formal. I'm actually not much older than you... What's your name?"

Yan Ruhua smiled and slowly walked toward him. With her short arms and legs, she seemed to glide over the floor.

"My surname is Li."

"Li? Your accent doesn't sound like you're from Gusu. Where do you come from, Young Master Li?"

"I've wandered the martial world since childhood, traveling north and south, roaming east and west. I only recently came to settle in this fine place."

Yan Ruhua raised her head and scrutinized Li Yu's face. Her two little eyes, wedged between folds of flesh, gleamed with an unusual light. "I saw you practicing your swordplay at the bow. To have attained such proficiency with the sword at your age is rare indeed."

Secretly on his guard, Li Yu took the initiative to ask, "Senior Yan, may I ask what advice you have for me, having summoned me aboard?"

Yan Ruhua withdrew her gaze and smiled. "There has been much trouble lately, with scoundrels repeatedly spying on us. The manor is short of guards. With your abilities, you're more than qualified to become a guest retainer. Would you be interested, Young Master Li?"

Li Yu wondered inwardly whether this was what Abi had told him he must never agree to. Yet using the opportunity to enter Mantuo Manor and investigate Langhuan Jade Cave would be a rare chance.

He hesitated for a moment. He had only met both of them today and did not know whom he should believe.

"Suzhou is the richest place in the southeast, and the Wang family is the richest in Gusu. What are stipends of gold, silver, fields, and houses to us?"

"Mantuo Manor has deep foundations and a renowned name. It will give you considerable prestige as you travel the martial world."

"Although we cannot let you read every martial arts manual in the manor's collection, even the second-best among them would stir up a rain of blood and a reeking wind if they found their way outside..."

Hearing so many benefits instead helped Li Yu make up his mind. He cupped his hands. "Thank you for your kind intentions, Senior. I'm merely an unaffiliated wanderer, accustomed to drifting through the martial world. I'm not fit for such a fine position at your esteemed manor."

Yan Ruhua tightened her grip on the iron staff, her gaze turning fierce. "What did that little girl say to you?"

She did not believe an ordinary martial artist could remain unmoved in the face of such temptation.

Seeing this, Li Yu became even more certain that something was amiss. He turned slightly sideways, blocking the doorway, his right hand closing around his sword hilt and his left hidden in his sleeve. He said coldly, "I don't know that young lady, but in the end, things in this world should be a matter of mutual consent."

"Hmph, what if I force you?"

Yan Ruhua sneered and sprang into the air, raising her iron staff in a sweeping blow. Its dark gleam rushed straight at his face like a python. Before it even reached him, he heard the sharp rush of wind. This snake staff was cast from solid iron and weighed some forty jin. Driven by internal power, it could snap timber and split stone.

"You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit! Let's see how hard your skull is..."

"What an unreasonable, ugly woman!"

The instant his tempered-steel sword left its sheath, Li Yu moved away from the doorway. The cold light reflected from the blade fell squarely across Nanny Yan's eyes. He bent slightly to the left at the waist, dodging the solid-iron snake staff, and thrust his sword out with the motion. Three sword shadows appeared in succession, like willow branches swaying in the wind, light as drifting catkins.

"Hmph, paltry tricks!"

Yan Ruhua frowned slightly, her eyeballs instantly retreating into the folds of flesh, leaving her little affected. This natural advantage thwarted more than half of Li Yu's painstaking calculations. After her iron staff struck empty air, she immediately drew it back to defend.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without exception, all three thrusts struck the iron staff, sounding like muffled drumbeats.

Such powerful internal strength...

Li Yu's right hand went numb from the impact, and the web between his thumb and forefinger nearly split. His swordsmanship was exquisite, but he fell short in internal power.

Facing a second-rate expert head-on, even if he exhausted every scheme, his chances of victory were slim.

He raised his sword and retreated. A thought flashed through his mind, and he suddenly rushed left, the blade's cold gleam slashing toward the unrelated old painting and plum vase.

"You're courting death!"

Yan Ruhua's face reddened, her eyes widening as though they might split. She thrust her iron staff out with all her might to save them, yet feared damaging the old painting. Caught between advancing and retreating, afraid to strike the rat lest she break the vase, she could use only five or six parts of her full strength.

"Hmph!"

Li Yu smiled and drew back his sword, twisting into a diagonal thrust. With an exquisite Parting Flowers and Brushing Willows, he used deft leverage to knock the iron staff aside.

"Ah-!"

Yan Ruhua lost her balance and stumbled forward. Alarm crossed her face as she realized she had still fallen for his scheme. She rolled on the spot to keep him from attacking her exposed back.

"You ugly old thing, I won't keep you company any longer!"

Li Yu seized the opening and slipped out through the doorway. His gaze sharpened as he saw two steel sabers slashing straight at him.

Two "fierce camellia women," who had arrived at some unknown point, guarded the entrance. Their waists were like barrels, their legs as thick as elephants'. With their heavy brows raised, they wielded their sabers like axes, extraordinarily fierce.

This is bad!

Li Yu was in midair, with almost nothing to push against. In such cramped quarters, no matter how he dodged, he could not avoid taking a saber blow.