Lecher, don't even think about it!

"An iron saber, a soul-chasing whip, thirty-odd taels of loose silver... what's this?"

Li Yu searched Cui Jingui's body and found a yellowed old book that looked very much like a martial arts manual. He opened it, immediately felt somewhat disappointed, then read another few dozen pages before casually tossing it beside the fire.

"Nothing special. Only the ancients would treasure this."

The night wind blew into the temple, turning its pages one by one. In the flickering firelight, the figures in that erotic picture book were strikingly lifelike. The people fighting, moving from left to right, sprang from the pages with every move and stance, as though they had come alive.

"Did he do that on purpose?"

The woman in black gauze lay at an angle on the ground, her gaze landing squarely on it. Her face instantly flushed as though scorched by fire.

"He definitely did that on purpose!"

"Here's the antidote."

When Li Yu turned around with the little blue bottle, the woman in black gauze had her eyes squeezed shut, overcome with shame and indignation. He took out a dagger and cut the ox-tendon cord binding her hands. His gaze fell between her bamboo hat and veil, on what seemed like a streak of clear, pale moonlight.

Beneath that moonlight, eyelashes trembled faintly.

"If you intend to lift my veil, kill me first. Otherwise, I will definitely..."

"You can talk?" Li Yu's outstretched hand stopped in midair.

The woman in black gauze opened her eyes, as cold as the moon. "I'm not mute. Besides... the tongue is soft to begin with."

"Understood."

Setting the little blue bottle on the ground, Li Yu stepped back twice.

"Thank you."

The woman raised her right hand, picked up the bottle without the slightest difficulty, pushed out the wooden stopper, and swallowed the antidote.

Needless to say, hands were soft too.

She'd clearly already forced open the acupoints in her right arm sealed by the drug. But wary of facing two opponents, with Guo Yanzhi an old hand in the martial world, she couldn't kill two birds with one arrow, so she'd held off.

Li Yu shook his head slightly, thinking to himself.

She's no lamp that saves oil either.

A moment later.

The woman in black gauze slowly rose and sat cross-legged, her hands pressed together against her dantian. She began circulating Qi through her meridians. The antidote was only a catalyst; completely purging the poison of the Ten Fragrances Tendon-Softening Powder would still take time.

Li Yu dragged the two corpses behind the temple, returned to the fire, put away his spoils, and added more wood. The night stretched on amid wind and rain. The dry rations had been all but ruined, and his wine gourd was nearly empty too.

"Only a few taels left."

He shook the yellow-skinned gourd, his face full of heartache.

"Fifty taels of silver. Half a year's salary."

Only fine wine that had been properly sealed and stored for years without losing a trace of its bouquet could count as an "aged vintage." Otherwise, it was merely old wine.

Western Xia was barren and impoverished, with enemies on three sides. Its people were rash and reckless, and struggles at court were especially fierce. Even the ruler and his ministers could scarcely preserve their wealth and rank, and had grown accustomed to getting drunk today while there was wine today. This gourd of aged wine called "Bow Moon" had been far from easy to obtain.

"In both my lives, wine and I have been bound by fate."

"But compared with my last life, when I had no choice but to gulp it down like an ox and swill it like the sea, ruining my health and life, in this life I've truly tasted its flavor."

Li Yu pulled out the wooden stopper, raised the gourd, and took a small half-sip.

The wine entered his throat and gut, transformed into Qi, and was absorbed by the eight extraordinary meridians before finally gathering three inches below his navel.

"Gurgle~"

His abdomen stirred faintly.

He slowly closed his eyes and focused his mind on visualization. His heart was an unopened purple lotus bud, his lungs like two leaves mottled red and white, and his kidneys two symmetrical segments of white jade lotus root. Farther down lay a spring pool...

Only a very few accomplished Daoists and eminent Buddhists could behold their inner landscape. More remarkable still, a tiny red worm was lying in his dantian, three inches below his navel.

"Surely it can't be a roundworm."

Li Yu had no idea what it was either, but it had transmigrated into this body along with him. For now, he called it the "Wine Worm."

"Gurgle, gurgle~"

The Wine Worm curled into a ball, giving off a faint red glow like a gemstone the size of a quail egg. A closer look revealed all its facial features, even whiskers and hair. Though its eyes were tightly shut as if asleep, its little round mouth remained open, swallowing Wine Qi.

"Inhale~"

"Exhale~"

A stream of pure internal power gushed out...

At eighteen, the body's original owner had already opened his Heart Meridian of Hand-Shaoyin, entering the ranks of near-third-rate experts. But after this Wine Worm entered his dantian, the internal power he had accumulated over several years was soon devoured completely.

Only after he drank could the Wine Worm briefly release internal power.

The more people drank, the muddleheaded they became. The worm was precisely the opposite.

Nourished by half a gourd of "Bow Moon," the Wine Worm had gone from barely clinging to life to being noticeably more vigorous.

"If I can find another kind of 'ten-year vintage,' it might wake up. Then I won't have to keep filling this bottomless pit."

Li Yu replaced the wooden stopper, leaving the final tael of wine for an emergency. He took out the sword manual he carried with him. With no room for progress in internal power for the moment, he could only hone his martial skills.

Half an hour later.

"Thank you for saving my life, young master."

The woman in black gauze finished circulating her Qi, stood up, and walked over.

A veiled bamboo hat, black gauze, black robes-not a hint of any other color. She was rather tall, her figure slightly full, just full enough to keep her attire from looking overly plain. Her legs were long and slender, her build plainly that of a martial artist.

She studied Li Yu across the firelight, somewhat surprised.

In her travels through the martial world, she had seen all sorts: either slick-haired, powdered-faced men or muscular brutes, with unremarkable ordinary people making up the majority. Someone this handsome without losing his heroic bearing was rare.

Though she harbored doubts about his identity, she would not go so far as to mistake him for the master of Swallow Bastion.

"No need for that."

Watching the dancing fire, Li Yu said, "You saw it too. They wanted to kill me. I was merely returning the courtesy."

"Returning the courtesy?"

The woman in black gauze smiled, finding his words rather interesting. People of the martial world had little use for empty pleasantries anyway. She sat down before the fire and introduced herself. "My surname is Qin. My given name is Xiu."

"Li Yu."

Qin Xiu nodded and looked at him. "Unless I'm mistaken, what you used just now was Flame Blade, a supreme martial art of the Western Regions, rarely seen in the Central Plains. May I ask which master taught you?"

"Probing my background?"

Li Yu glanced sideways at her and smiled as he swung the yellow-skinned gourd in his hand, feeling a little regretful that he had indulged too much just now.

She immediately said, "Then I won't ask."

The two sat facing the fire like that, seemingly with nothing more to say.

A long while passed.

Qin Xiu spoke again. "That scoundrel Guo struck me with his soul-chasing whip. I'll need at least half a month to recuperate before I can hope to recover. My enemies have already caught wind of my arrival. They'll most likely pursue me along the way."

"What enemies?"

"Not the Funiu Sect. As for the specifics... you're better off not knowing. If my whereabouts are exposed, it won't have anything to do with you."

"Sounds like you have quite a few enemies."

"Words of thanks aren't enough for a great kindness. If you're willing to help me, I'll certainly repay you once my injuries heal."

Qin Xiu pursed her lips and watched the dancing flames. She had lived secluded in a mountain valley since childhood, aloof by nature and unfamiliar with worldly ways. Even when asking for help, her tone sounded stiff. If he refused, she would never pester him.

Li Yu looked at her with a smile. "Repay me how?"

Just then, another cool breeze blew into the temple. The fire danced wildly, and, like potstickers being flipped in a pan, the erotic book, which had already reached its end, began turning back from right to left, revealing yet another set of positions.

As ill luck would have it, both their gazes landed right in the middle.

Qin Xiu's eyes flew wide, crimson spreading at their corners as she shouted furiously, "Lecher, don't even think about it!"