There was a girl (part two)

"Nanny Chen, be very careful. All her followers are gone now. She's about to use something vicious."

The girl's voice came from the building again. Although she knew the martial arts of a hundred schools, she had no power to foresee the future. She merely guessed that Nanny Yan, vicious and ruthless as she was, must have something to rely on if she still refused to flee despite being thoroughly outmatched. She could not help worrying.

"Good. Very good!"

Yan Ruhua stared at the little building, a piercing chill gleaming in her eyes. Someone as sinister as her hated nothing more than being seen through. Even if it concerned only her martial techniques, it still felt as agonizing as having a layer of skin peeled away.

Once I find the Langhuan Jade Grotto, I'll bite off your tongue first, then slowly ruin that pretty face of yours...

She thought viciously, then looked back at Chen Ping, who stood before the little building like a tiger blocking the road.

"Older sister, did you know? Beyond the Twenty-Eight-Move River-Intercepting Staff Technique, there's one more ultimate move. It had been lost, but I was lucky enough to find it. It seems Heaven ordained that I use it today, to bear witness to our sisterly bond..."

Another ultimate move?

Chen Ping was inwardly alarmed. The young miss had been right after all. What worried her was that she had already exhausted seventy or eighty percent of her internal power. Now that the critical moment had arrived, she gripped her steel shovel tightly in both hands, ready to respond with care.

"Great River..."

Yan Ruhua pushed off with her short legs, the fat on her belly jiggling downward as she abruptly sprang up. Three feet above the ground, she hooked her iron staff beneath the armpit of the burly, bearded woman who had been dead for a while, then flung her out.

"Great River Flows North!"

Two hundred pounds spun toward her like a wheel, with the momentum to sweep everything aside.

"This is bad!"

Chen Ping had to guard the entrance, leaving her less freedom of movement than Yan Ruhua, who was attacking. She frantically summoned her remaining internal power, poured it into both arms, raised her steel shovel high, and struck forward with all her strength.

"One Staff Strike Splits the River!"

Within the dark building, a pair of phoenix eyes shone like stars, watching the corpse pass through the hazy moonlight, drawing nearer and nearer... Turmoil suddenly stirred in those eyes-terror, regret, sorrow-until at last it became a startled cry that already knew the outcome.

"Get out of the way!"

She always heeded the young miss's words, but it was already too late.

The steel shovel tilted slightly and severed an arm. Green blood instantly shot out, striking her squarely in the right side of the chest like an arrow. At once, she felt as though millions of ants were crawling into her chest cavity, soon spreading throughout her body.

The steel shovel fell to the ground.

Chen Ping collapsed on the steps, a green tinge instantly surging up to her neck.

"Nanny Chen..."

White robes fluttered as the girl raced out of the building beneath the moon.

Her skin was like ice and snow, her black hair like a waterfall, falling to the middle of her back and gathered with a silver silk ribbon. Untouched by worldly dust, possessed of peerless beauty, she seemed no mortal woman but someone among the immortals. Even the radiance of heaven and earth could not dim her splendor in the slightest.

Never mind Li Yu-even Mu Wanqing was briefly entranced.

Wang Yuyan bent down to examine her and reached out a fair hand, two trails of clear tears slipping down her cheeks.

"She's covered in poisonous Qi. Unless you want to die, you'd best not touch her!"

Yan Ruhua planted her iron staff on the ground and spoke coldly from behind them.

Chen Ping struggled to smile. "She's right. Cough... I'm about to die. After I'm gone, don't stubbornly resist. No martial arts manual is worth more than your life..."

Filled with self-reproach, Wang Yuyan sobbed, "Nanny Chen, it's all my fault. I didn't notice sooner..."

Chen Ping smiled. "Young miss, don't grieve. The treachery of the human heart can sometimes surpass martial arts. You're a girl who has never left her secluded chambers. How could you know it all...? Cough, cough... Life and death are decreed by fate. Though I've had no children of my own in this life, being able to watch over you as you grew up leaves me with no regrets... Cough, cough... In any case... in my heart, I've always regarded you as my own child, so... there's something I must say."

"You'd best save your breath. I still have proper business to attend to."

Yan Ruhua stood where she was with her staff in hand, listening coldly, but did not move to snuff out Chen Ping's life. Perhaps she retained some feeling for their friendship of years past; perhaps she did not want to offend Wang Yuyan completely.

"She was right about one thing. Madam... cough, cough... The martial world is treacherous, and human hearts are hard to fathom. Even your closest kin may not always be someone you can rely on. Young miss, with looks like yours, yet no advanced martial arts to protect yourself, in the future... in the future... I truly worry so much..."

Chen Ping knew she had only moments to live, yet not a word she spoke concerned herself. Every word was for the pitiful girl before her, who had lost her father in childhood.

"Nanny Chen..."

Wang Yuyan wept, tasting the anguish of parting in life and death for the first time. She was about to say something when she saw Chen Ping look toward a certain spot, her eyes shining brightly. Then a rosy flush spread across her green-tinged face.

"Gods passing by, hear my prayer. Protect our young miss, grant her peace and joy throughout this life..."

Chen Ping mustered her remaining strength to finish those words, then her head tipped backward. Just as the light was about to fade from her eyes completely, a little black pill was pushed into her mouth, followed by a handful of yellow powder slapped onto the wound on her chest...

"How vicious!"

In the western side room, Mu Wanqing inwardly clicked her tongue. Using a human corpse as a vessel for poison, then throwing it as a hidden weapon-she seemed to have heard of such sinister martial arts, but could not recall them just then.

"Those last few words seemed to be meant for us."

Li Yu suddenly spoke.

A moment earlier, his eyes had met those of the woman wielding the steel shovel through an extremely narrow crack in the door. It was pitch-black inside; by rights, she should not have been able to see anything...

Perhaps those on the verge of death could unleash some extraordinary powers of perception.

Mu Wanqing looked toward the courtyard. "When someone is about to die, their words are sorrowful. But... perhaps it was only a coincidence?"

"No matter what, we can't let Old Woman Yan enter the Langhuan Jade Grotto!"

Recalling that pot of red camellias, Li Yu felt his scalp prickle. Whatever misery the old woman had suffered before, what she was doing now was no different from stuffing others into sacks and throwing them into the river because she herself had once been caught in the rain.

Mu Wanqing asked, "Do you have a grudge against her?"

Li Yu hesitated briefly, then gave her a short account of what had happened. He intended to seize this chance to pull out the thorn lodged in his heart. At the very least, he could not let that thorn have another chance to grow. Besides... this was the Langhuan Jade Grotto.

How did that saying go? Refuse what Heaven bestows, and suffer the consequences instead!

"Serves you right..."

Mu Wanqing chuckled and raised her head to look at him. She knew what kind of face lay beneath that hat's green gauze, a face that could drive women mad with infatuation. No wonder Nanny Yan had taken a fancy to him and nearly forced him to become her kept man.

"Though I'm injured, I can still help you with hidden weapons. But you... you mustn't take off that green-gauze hat!"

"Why?" Li Yu was baffled.

Mu Wanqing said solemnly, "Think about it. Yan Ruhua certainly isn't the only ugly old woman in Mantuo Manor with formidable martial arts and a bad temper. If some other... old woman takes a fancy to you, wouldn't that mean endless trouble all over again?"

Li Yu froze, then nodded emphatically. "Miss Mu, you're absolutely right to remind me!"

Beneath the black gauze, a sly smile appeared in her cold, moonlike eyes. Then she looked toward the courtyard bathed in pure moonlight, a little worried once more.

Fool...

Mu Wanqing spoke inwardly. She reached up and gently brushed the black gauze hanging over her chest, then looked at the man's retreating back, a faint trace of melancholy flickering in her eyes.