There was a girl (part one)

"What do you mean?"

"I'll be frank. There's an internal martial arts manual hidden in Langhuan Jade Grotto that can restore my original appearance. Apart from Madam, only the young miss knows the way into the grotto. Are you going to stand in my way even over this?"

"You could go and beg Madam."

Yan Ruhua's face suddenly darkened. She sneered, "You think Madam has forgotten what happened seventeen years ago? You think she trusts me and gives me important duties? It's all a sham. I know her mind better than anyone!"

Chen Ping saw the venomous resentment buried deep in her eyes and shook her head slightly. "The young miss has already gone."

"Dead?"

Yan Ruhua smiled like an old cat toying with a mouse. "When did that happen?"

"The young miss went to Madam's quarters. You're a step too late. The Wind and Thunder Grannies just took her away."

"My dear sister, do I look like a fool to you?"

Yan Ruhua raised her head and stared at Chen Ping. The woman was nine years older than her, yet looked like a still-alluring matron, retaining something of her former beauty. Was that fucking fair? It wasn't fair at all!

"What would I gain by lying to you?"

Holding her steel spade, Chen Ping moved half a step aside, revealing the door of the little building behind her.

"There's no one inside. If you don't believe me, go and look for yourself."

Of course Yan Ruhua would not fall for that. "Why don't you understand? Madam has never cared about anyone but herself. Even the young miss is just a pawn she can discard when danger comes. Hahaha..."

With that cold laugh, she tightened her grip on her iron staff and stamped it against the ground. Driving through both feet, she sprang two zhang forward. Her right arm swept through a semicircle, and the iron staff whistled as it smashed down toward Chen Ping's forehead.

"Waves Beat the Cloud Cliff!"

Chen Ping was already prepared. Holding the steel spade cross-handed, she thrust its crescent blade upward like a streak of cold light. This move, Iron Chain Crosses the River, caught the snake staff precisely seven inches from its head. With its force distributed between the two ends, that spot was left weak, caught between high and low.

"Kill!"

Ignoring the numbness in her palms, she shouted furiously and strained to follow with Snow Drifts for a Thousand Li. Her legs raced forward, her wrists turned, and the crescent blade faced ahead, scraping a long trail of sparks beneath the snake staff as it slashed swiftly toward Yan Ruhua.

"Very good! Sister Chen, you're still the one most practiced in this Twenty-Eight-Move River-Intercepting Staff Technique."

To evade Drifting Snow for a Thousand Li, she would have to abandon her solid iron snake staff.

"Hmph!"

Yan Ruhua waited until the crescent blade was close, then rolled to the ground. Using both hands and feet, she spun like a top, circling from one side to the other. The steel spade brushed past her and smashed several blue bricks. As she turned, she caught the falling solid iron snake staff, swung it left, and struck hard.

Bang!

Chen Ping clutched her steel spade, the webbing between thumb and forefinger throbbing with pain. Her legs went weak, and she retreated all the way to the steps of the little building.

"So formidable!"

She knew her internal strength was inferior, but she was more proficient with the River-Intercepting Staff Technique and had hoped to win through that advantage. Who could have expected her opponent to have practiced another sophisticated martial art, nimble and compact, that perfectly filled the gaps in her broad, sweeping staff technique?

"What movement technique is that?"

"Sister Chen, you've watched over the young miss for so many years that your hair has turned white. How have you failed to gain even a little knowledge? I mastered everything you know long ago, yet you don't even recognize what I know."

Yan Ruhua gave a cold smile, raised her iron staff, and pressed forward, followed by four sturdy women of considerable skill.

"She's using Pearls Roll and Jade Falls, the twenty-third form of the Pearls and Jade Fill the Platter Art from the Red Cinnabar Great Stronghold in Guizhou. It excels at turning an opponent's strength against them and attacking their lower body. Nanny Chen, you can very well win using only the River-Intercepting Staff Technique."

Just then, a girl's clear, melodious voice came from the little building, full of concern and urgency. Yet when she spoke of martial arts, it carried an innate poise and ease, the bearing of a great master, that inspired instinctive trust.

"Young miss!"

Chen Ping hurriedly glanced back.

"Whatever you do, don't come out. I'll hold her off a little longer. Sun, Moon, Wind and Thunder will be here soon."

"Hehe, what insight you have, young miss. You even know these paltry tricks this old servant has practiced."

Yan Ruhua's anticipation grew, but then she saw hesitation on the faces of the four women beside her. She sneered, "Once we enter Langhuan Jade Grotto and master superior martial arts, where in this vast world couldn't we go? Splendor and riches, handsome men and young lads-all ours for the taking! Why spend our whole lives cooped up in this damned manor, worked like oxen and horses?"

The four remained silent. They were accustomed to comfortable lives, after all. The young miss was right there in the building. Once they attacked her, they would be cutting themselves off from Mantuo Manor. The Wang Clan's authority had accumulated over many years; betraying it was no easy matter...

Yan Ruhua's gaze turned vicious. Suddenly, she raised her left hand, half palm, half claw. "Am I wrong?"

Remembering that suffering worse than death, the four felt their scalps prickle and answered in unison, "Your words make perfect sense, Nanny!"

"If you won't act now, what are you waiting for?" Yan Ruhua shouted.

The four obeyed and leaped out. Cold light flashed as they took the east, south, west, and north. Their steel sabers were like scales, the iron staff like a head, forming what looked like an evil dragon coiling upon the ground, tearing and snapping at Chen Ping as she guarded the door alone.

Facing five people at once, she fell badly behind, peril crowding in on every side.

The girl's voice from the building grew urgent.

"Nanny Chen, quickly mix the River-Intercepting Staff Technique with the Demon-Subduing Saber Technique... use Sweep Away the Demons first, then Fish for the Moon by the River..."

The four sturdy women blocked her openings and pressed her hard. Without hesitation, Chen Ping slid her hands to a point two-thirds along the shaft and swept the blade around her body. Bang, bang, bang, bang! She knocked all four steel sabers aside.

Then, without warning, she flipped into the air, gripping the end of the eight-foot steel spade in reverse and reaching downward with it, the force of its passage howling.

"Fish for the Moon by the River."

The sixteenth form of the River-Intercepting Staff Technique.

"Fuck your mother!"

Yan Ruhua was furious. Relying on the Pearls and Jade Fill the Platter Art, she had circled behind Chen Ping and rushed in to attack. Her snake staff had thrust to within a finger's breadth of Chen Ping's back, only to brush past her clothes and miss. She could only watch as the steel spade hung over her head. In an instant, the situation had reversed, and she was the one threatened by Chen Ping.

"Pull back your sabers! Pull them back..."

She had committed everything to her previous strike, thinking only of advancing. Now the steel spade loomed over her forehead, and it was far too late to retreat. She could only keep moving forward, but the four steel sabers Chen Ping had knocked aside were slashing back at that very moment.

Pursuers behind, no way out ahead...

"Giant Waves Surge!"

In that instant.

Yan Ruhua made her decision. She hurled her snake staff eastward with all her strength. The bearded sturdy woman took a blow to the belly and staggered back, vomiting blood. Yan Ruhua seized the opening and threw herself into it, hitting the ground face-first in utter disgrace. By the narrowest of margins, she finally escaped the steel spade overhead and the encircling three steel sabers.

"Useless! Fucking useless!"

Clutching her snake-headed iron staff, Yan Ruhua scrambled up and stamped her feet as she cursed. She knew the four sturdy women were not to blame, but she had just escaped death and needed an outlet for her fury.

"What use are you? Just here to make me fight five people by myself, is that it?"

With the girl in the building guiding her, the steel spade in Chen Ping's hands grew ever fiercer. Like a curve of cold moonlight, it darted left and right, shielding her whole body. The five formed a battle formation, but every move was blocked with perfect timing, and they repeatedly suffered counterattacks.

"Oh no, the spade got me!"

"Ow, my kneecap..."

After another sixty-odd exchanges, the four sturdy women were felled by the spade one after another, their bones cracked and tendons torn. They lay on the ground wailing ceaselessly. Only Chen Ping and Yan Ruhua remained standing, staring into each other's eyes, both panting hard, their internal strength greatly depleted.

In the west wing.

"Marvelous!"

Li Yu watched this life-and-death struggle as though savoring fine wine. The leather flask at his waist was already one-third empty.

The girl's voice from the building, offering perfectly judged guidance, was like celestial music.

Mu Wanqing now also knew that Mantuo Manor harbored crouching tigers and hidden dragons. Breaking in alone had been a truly extreme risk.

She knitted her brows. "That person clearly understands the strengths and weaknesses of every school's martial arts. With a few casual pointers, she can anticipate the enemy and reverse the balance of strength. Isn't Old Yan courting death by coming here to capture her?"

I'm adjusting the update time. Updates will be at noon.