Willing to hold the whip and tend the stirrups for Brother Li!

Rain was plentiful in Jiangnan, and the moss-stained tiles were green, matching the color of the young girl's clothes perfectly. Abi propped up her pointed chin and gazed toward the octagonal pavilion. "Drinking before the flowers, killing amid laughter-there can't be many figures like that in the martial world."

The woman in pale clothing nodded. "He does have something of a hero's bearing. If he escapes this predicament today, Gang Leader Li should undergo a transformation from fish to dragon. Perhaps we could introduce him to the young master."

"The young master is traveling the martial world with Third Brother Bao and Fourth Brother Feng. I wonder when he'll return? His last letter was three months ago. He said he'd reached Henan and tested his finger strength against experts of Chai Huangcheng's family, winning three bouts and drawing two. The Chai family's inherited Soul-Losing Finger has some remarkable qualities, only... Sister..."

Mentioning the young master, Abi had begun speaking with enthusiasm, only to see the woman raise her eyes toward the west, in the direction of Lake Tai.

"Has the young master returned?"

She hurriedly raised her head. Waves stirred on the lake as more than thirty fishing boats cut through white spray and raced toward them.

Five or six men in short fighting clothes stood aboard each boat, carrying sabers, swords, fishing spears, short bows, and other weapons. They soon reached the manor's wharf.

"Charge!"

Before he even landed, Lin Mang flung out his iron chain. With a thud, a charging Black Flood Dragon Gang member fell headfirst into slumber.

An exceptionally fierce, short, brawny man leaped from a bow, brandishing a two-pronged refined-steel fishing spear and tossing a man off his feet.

The remaining seven or eight guards failed to escape in time. The tide of men quickly swallowed them, leaving their corpses sprawled on the spot.

Fu Rong held the Black Slaughter Saber against one man and demanded information.

"The guards all... all went to support the central courtyard. There's fighting out front..."

"Move!"

Meeting almost no resistance along the way, the two hundred men drove smoothly into the heart of the manor like a great saber. Leading the Fish-Dragon Gang members and the Seventy-Two Peaks, Fu Rong and Lin Mang soon charged up to the Flower Reverence Pavilion and surrounded the entire central courtyard from outside.

"Gang Leader, are you all right?"

"Brother Li, we're here!"

Fu Rong and Lin Mang rushed beneath the covered walkway, both looking astonished. Li Yu sat alone in the flower pavilion, bathed in blood. His front was entirely unscathed, but his back was badly wounded, clearly from being surrounded and attacked. Seven or eight corpses lay around him amid a forest of blades. A hundred or so burly men hung back, not daring to advance, and now looked even more terrified.

Every guest at the banquet changed expression.

"Men from the Seventy-Two Peaks of Lake Tai..."

Third Master Wen folded away his orchid-finger gesture and raised his thumb. "What courage. Taking such a risk, and winning so beautifully."

Old Kuai shook his head and sighed. "The martial world of Gusu won't be peaceful now."

Third Master Wen smiled. "With the Murong Clan keeping things in check, he can stir up storms in South Canal at most. He won't shake Gusu City..."

Li Yu's might alone had already reached such a degree.

Now a large force had arrived as well. Though these were the fishing folk of the "Seventy-Two Peaks" whom they normally disdained, they had become the final straw that broke the camel's back. The Black Flood Dragon Gang's morale sank to its lowest ebb.

"Attack! Get in there! Kill him, now!"

Supporting Zhang Hengye, Zhu Tuo looked around in shock and fear, harshly urging the gang members on.

"Kill him, and the Seventy-Two Peaks won't dare bare their teeth!"

"Enough!"

A sudden flush rose to Zhang Hengye's face. The sword wound in his right chest had pierced his lung. Had he immediately rested quietly and slowly sought medical treatment, he might still have survived. Now his internal force ran wild and his Qi and blood flowed backward. Nothing could save him.

"Put down your weapons."

Zhu Tuo gaped in disbelief. "Big Brother?"

"By the rules I set, victory and defeat have been decided. The Black Flood Dragon Gang must submit to the Fish-Dragon Gang's disposal."

"All of you stay here. Don't move. Cough..."

Zhang Hengye smiled bleakly. The flush faded from his face, leaving it pale as paper. He pushed Zhu Tuo away and, beneath everyone's gaze, staggered into the octagonal pavilion. Slowly sitting down before the stone table, he looked at the pot of camellias.

"Do you know how great a price I paid for these flowers?"

Li Yu was also looking at the red camellias.

"I know."

"How could you know..."

Zhang Hengye raised his eyes to Li Yu and suddenly understood. He asked tentatively.

"Then you..."

Before he finished his question, Li Yu swept up the sword on the table. Cold light flashed across and down, cutting the camellias and their pot into four pieces.

"Good!"

Zhang Hengye froze for a moment, then burst into laughter. He felt an incomparable release in his chest. Even the sword wound on his right side no longer hurt.

"Hahaha... Had we met earlier, perhaps we could have become friends? At least we could have sat down and enjoyed a few drinks..."

"Perhaps."

"They were only following orders. Please don't implicate Zhu Tuo or the other brothers of the Black Flood Dragon Gang."

Li Yu nodded. "The past will remain in the past."

Zhang Hengye said, "Two months ago, when I led my men in a surprise attack on the Fish-Dragon Gang, it began with a letter from a mysterious man in black, saying there had been an upheaval within the Fish-Dragon Gang... The Black Flood Dragon Gang's treasury is hidden beneath the training ground beside the wharf in the manor's inlet..."

Li Yu cupped his hands. "Thank you."

Zhang Hengye laughed one last time. "I don't regret being your enemy, and I was fortunate to have you as an enemy. The martial world is so vast. You're more qualified than I am to see its heights. The Gusu Murong Clan, Mantuo Manor-fuck them... Hahaha..."

Compared with Mantuo Manor and the Murong Family, the ceiling for heroes of humble origins had already been sealed.

They were destined never to become flood dragons at the very top.

Only after struggling half their lives and paying with their lives and dignity might they have a chance to become fierce tigers in the middle ranks.

A rosy sheen gradually spread over Zhang Hengye's pale face. He slowly rose and walked out of the pavilion. His gaze swept over the crowd, and he cupped his hands, speaking faster.

"Sorry for troubling you friends to come from so far away. Because of my own selfish desires, this banquet was no kind feast. Please forgive me."

"Gang Leader Li of the Fish-Dragon Gang is truly a hero of the very highest caliber beneath heaven. I, Zhang Hengye, accept my defeat wholeheartedly!"

"Second Brother, come here."

"Big Brother!" Zhu Tuo stepped forward with his saber.

Zhang Hengye smiled. "Gang Leader Li has promised to leave the past in the past. He absolutely won't make things difficult for you."

"Big Brother..."

Seeing his elder brother, once so assured and indomitable, publicly utter such dispirited words of surrender and defeat, seeing their enterprise, once blazing like oil over a roaring fire, suffer such a crushing end, Zhu Tuo felt utterly desolate. His eyes reddened, and tears fell like rain.

"Remember, I died to the martial world, not at Li Yu's hands..."

Zhang Hengye smiled as he finished his final sentence, toppled backward, and died on the spot.

"Big Brother..."

Zhu Tuo's eyes stretched almost to splitting. He rushed forward, held the corpse, and wailed like a small child who had lost his father.

After a while, he slowly picked up his steel saber and gently wiped its edge. Turning his hideously ugly face, he glanced sidelong at the Black Flood Dragon Gang members and the guests at the forty or fifty tables. Finally, he looked toward the blue-robed man who sat alone in the pavilion, a single man against a hundred, like a god of slaughter.

"All of you watch! The Black Flood Dragon Gang isn't without brave men!"

Pfft!

Like tearing a length of rotten cloth, the long-handled steel saber plunged through his chest and out his back. Black Softshell Turtle Head slowly drooped, his gaze scattering. The two men's blood flowed together, bringing this bond of brotherhood to its fulfillment.

A moment later.

Li Yu rose with the blood-soaked blue-steel sword in hand, his five fingers trembling slightly. He paused, steadied his grip on the sword, and slowly walked out of the flower pavilion. Looking around on three sides, he faced the four or five hundred people present in utter silence and said only softly, "Put down your weapons. Surrender, and you'll be spared!"

Clang.

After that first sound.

What followed sounded like beans popping in a pan. Amid a clattering din, sabers, spears, swords, and halberds fell all over the central courtyard. Nearly a hundred Black Flood Dragon Gang members dropped to one knee and clasped their fists. "We are willing to hold the whip and tend the stirrups for Brother Li!"

"We are willing to hold the whip and tend the stirrups for Brother Li!"

Thirty Fish-Dragon Gang members joined in, followed by the men of Lake Tai's "Seventy-Two Peaks." Their voices rang beneath the covered walkways on all sides, seething like water boiling in a cauldron. Men of the martial world respected the strong, and reputations were forged through fighting. Such a scene was hardly surprising.

"Do we have to shout too?"

The guests at the forty or fifty tables trembled, some hesitating over whether to join in.

Standing outside the pavilion, Li Yu swept his gaze across them.

"Pretty Spider" Fu Rong, and thirty Fish-Dragon Gang members.

"Water Salamander" Lin Mang, Nine-Tailed Turtle Tao Zongwang, and two hundred fishermen of the "Seventy-Two Peaks."

The nearly hundred Black Flood Dragon Gang members kneeling in the courtyard were superior to both groups above in the quality of their fighting men alone.

The overall outcome was settled.

The transformation from fish to dragon was complete.

"From today onward, the Fish-Dragon Gang will become the Divine Dragon Cult!"

"Fu Rong will be the Fish-Dragon Envoy, commanding the former Fish-Dragon and Black Flood Dragon Gang members."

"Lin Mang will be the White Dragon Envoy, and Tao Zongwang his deputy. Each will command his existing men and remain stationed on White Sand Island and Turtle Back Island..."

The banquet ended, the guests dispersed; blood dyed the flowers a deeper red.

How many branches would autumn leave? The manor remained, its people changed.

Following the stream of people out through the manor gates, Third Master Wen glanced at the sun slanting westward, then saw the willows beside the lake swaying in the breeze. He raised his orchid-finger gesture and felt the part of himself above his neck.

"That was close. Still there."

Through clash after clash of blades, through open spears and hidden arrows, heroes had fallen and mighty men had met disaster. Yet a small figure like him, living on the border between the martial world and the streets, had survived.

Wen San stood beneath a willow outside the manor, wondering what to eat for supper.

After the slaughter, the feast had continued, only with a different host.

He had not been in such fine spirits. He had forced down a few cups of wine but could not swallow a single piece of meat. His stomach was still empty.

Before long, Tyrant Tiger Gang disciples carried a stretcher covered in white cloth northward, looking as though they had lost their parents.

A while later, Red Flower Society leader Yang Le and Zhou Xiao of the Iron Wolf Gang emerged one after the other. The moment they crossed the threshold, the smiles vanished from their faces, leaving only wariness.

Their heads are only being stored on their necks for now.

Wen San had read little, but this sentence suddenly sprang into his mind.

He waited about a quarter of an hour.

Old Kuai slowly strolled out of the gates with his hands behind his back and a smile on his face.

Third Master Wen hurriedly asked, "What were you doing? Did Cult Leader Li keep you behind for a private drink?"

Old Kuai smiled. "How did you know?"

"No way!"

Wen San shrank his neck, his face full of surprise.

"You really managed to get a word with him?"

Old Kuai gave a mysterious smile and said nothing more.

"Fine, don't tell me. Afraid I'll bask in your reflected glory? Some friend you are. Some friend..."

Third Master Wen grumbled, but inwardly admired Old Kuai's insight. He could not resist asking.

"What exactly is the purpose of changing the Fish-Dragon Gang into the Divine Dragon Cult?"

Old Kuai coughed twice and reached toward his waist. On his left was a copper tobacco pipe; on his right, a copper spoon. The two objects looked much alike, yet their uses were as far apart as heaven and earth.

"The Fish-Dragon Gang was too small."

He blew his fire striker alight, leisurely exhaled a white ring, and spoke his next words.

"It couldn't hold the Seventy-Two Peaks of Lake Tai..."

Third Master Wen started slightly and remained silent for a long time before turning toward the manor gates. The lake breeze drifted gently, and green willows grew everywhere, just as before. Yet he felt that, from this day onward, a true flood dragon lay coiled beside the lake.