Subduing the Waves

Liu Zhijian looked gloomy.

How had his own sect become a demonic faction that stopped at nothing?!

Liu Zhijian glanced at Deng Gang and asked, feigning casual skepticism, "Could it be a rumor?! How come I heard that Supreme Mystery Mountain had a good reputation and was a sect that followed the righteous path?"

"Hah, I saw it with my own eyes and lived through it myself. How could it be false?"

Deng Gang looked indignant as he went on to recount the Supreme Mystery Demon Sect's many evil deeds. There were enough to exhaust every bamboo strip in the land.

Liu Zhijian listened in silence, his face growing uglier by the moment. Even the grilled fish had lost its savor and tasted like wax.

Just then, a large boat came upstream and stopped in the middle of the river.

Someone stood on the deck and waved.

"They're here!"

Deng Gang finally stopped recounting the Supreme Mystery Demon Sect's evil deeds. He rose and said, "Brother Liu, let's go!"

Liu Zhijian secretly breathed a sigh of relief, put out the fire, gathered his fishing gear, and followed.

A small boat came ashore and took Liu Zhijian and Deng Gang aboard the large vessel.

A frail-looking youth greeted them with cupped hands. "Brother Liu, Brother Deng, sorry for the wait!"

"Gang Leader Zhao, you're too courteous."

Seeing that Deng Gang was keeping up his aloof silence, Liu Zhijian hurriedly said with a smile, "Brother Deng and I are just ordinary fishermen. We don't deserve such a reception."

The youth was named Zhao Changfan, and he was the leader of the Wave-Subduing Gang.

As for the Wave-Subduing Gang, it had once been a prominent jianghu force on the White Dragon River beneath them.

Earlier, the White Dragon River had flowed backward and dried up, exposing its bed.

The Wave-Subduing Gang had been caught off guard, and many of its arrangements had been rendered useless. Its enemies had attacked its headquarters and slaughtered the gang.

The young gang leader, Zhao Changfan, had narrowly escaped disaster.

Now he was rallying the old members, recruiting talented people far and wide, and swearing to take revenge!

Liu Zhijian and Deng Gang were two of the jianghu eccentrics Zhao Changfan had recruited.

"Say no more, you two. Please go inside and rest."

Zhao Changfan offered no further explanation, only a confident smile. "I'll explain the reason shortly. If you truly don't wish to get tangled up in this affair, you may leave. I certainly won't stop you."

Deng Gang kept up his cold-faced act as an expert, nodding before entering the cabin.

Liu Zhijian didn't feel strongly either way.

The Wave-Subduing Gang was a jianghu force.

Zhao Changfan himself was merely a mortal who knew only some rudimentary fighting techniques.

Oh, well.

Since I'm here, I might as well make myself comfortable.

Roaming the jianghu with a sword at my side would fulfill a childhood dream, in a way.

After a moment's thought, Liu Zhijian followed him inside, squeezing the finger-length staff. Unfortunately, I don't have a sword in my hand, only a wooden stick.

Several jianghu eccentrics were already in the cabin.

They all looked over when Liu Zhijian and Deng Gang entered.

Deng Gang gave a cold laugh and walked straight on, finding himself a seat.

Liu Zhijian, on the other hand, was friendly by nature. He smiled and nodded in greeting, though his heart was secretly beating like a drum.

The cabin was full of extraordinary people.

The gazes of a few of them even made Liu Zhijian feel as if needles were pricking his back.

At least the Great Accomplishment of Meridian Opening, perhaps even the Embryonic Breathing realm!

This little cabin really has crouching tigers and hidden dragons!

Liu Zhijian was apprehensive, but he didn't let it show on his face.

He sat down next to Deng Gang and chatted casually with the people around him, thinking to himself, I'm mainly here to broaden my horizons. I should keep a low profile and not fight or compete for anything.

Together, Brother Deng and I should at least have no trouble protecting ourselves.

A moment later, Zhao Changfan came out under the protection of a hunchbacked old servant. He coughed twice and said, "Everyone, I, Zhao Changfan of the Wave-Subduing Gang, am blessed across three lifetimes to have you all here as guests."

"I'll speak plainly. Besides making friends, I've arranged this banquet today to find righteous heroes to lend me their strength and help me exact revenge..."

Liu Zhijian found it all rather novel.

It even felt unreal.

It was as if he had transmigrated into a wuxia television drama.

Before Zhao Changfan could finish, someone interrupted impatiently. "Gang Leader Zhao, why not get straight to the point? Who's the enemy, and what's the price?!"

Quite a few people in the cabin voiced their agreement.

Zhao Changfan's expression didn't change. He said slowly, "The ones who killed my parents and destroyed my gang were from the Danzhou City Lord's Manor!"

Several people's expressions changed at once.

Most, however, remained calm.

Those who mastered martial arts used them to defy the law.

Apart from a few swindlers, the people sitting here all had skills of their own and wouldn't be frightened by the City Lord's Manor.

"So it's just a little City Lord's Manor!"

A fierce-looking man immediately slammed the table and stood up. "Pay me enough, and even if it's a prince or an imperial kinsman, I, Wu Laosan, will kill them for you to see!"

It was hard to tell whether he had been planted there.

Several others chimed in, making quite a show of it.

"Hah, a bunch of fools."

A young man who had been drinking tea with his head lowered gave a disdainful sneer. He raised his head and said indifferently, "I heard that although the lord of Danzhou City is a formidable martial artist, he's afraid of his wife."

"The city lord's wife is kindhearted and highly skilled in medicine. I believe... her surname is Hua?"

Wu Laosan and his companions were nothing but a group of ruthless bandits who had crowned themselves kings of a mountain, and they were baffled. "What's wrong with the surname Hua?! Even the imperial surname Chu wouldn't scare us!"

"Haha, Chief Wu of Wild Goose Pond Mountain is as bold as they say!"

A tall, thin, middle-aged swordsman with a gloomy face clapped his hands in approval, then put on a puzzled expression. "The surname Hua is rather uncommon. I seem to have heard it somewhere before?!"

"I remember now!"

"I believe the human Martial Saint and grandmaster known as Unrivaled in Poison and Medicine, from the martial world's holy land of Rejuvenation Valley, has the surname Hua."

Wu Laosan's face went deathly pale, and he froze for a moment. Leaving only the words, "I just remembered my seventeenth concubine is about to give birth at our stronghold. I must go back and see her," he hurried away with his men.

Some of the people in the cabin also realized they had wandered into a high-stakes game and tactfully followed them out.

Zhao Changfan didn't stop them and even gave them some gold and silver.

"Ahem, ahem..."

A white-haired old woman coughed repeatedly, then said in a distant voice, "I heard there was internal strife in Rejuvenation Valley a few days ago, and they fought a bloody battle through the night."

"The Hua Household suffered a terrible blow, and no one knows where that old poisoner is."

"I imagine he wouldn't care whether a daughter born to a concubine in Danzhou City lived or died."

A blind old Daoist holding a cloth banner spoke in a raspy voice. "Granny Jiu, your news is terribly out of date."

"Rejuvenation Valley was taken over by a group of outside cultivators long ago!"

"That old poisoner ran off to the Supreme Mystery Demon Sect to seek protection!"

An uproar broke out in the cabin.

Some were startled by such frightening words as "cultivators" and "Supreme Mystery Demon Sect."

Others were shocked to learn that such a story lay behind the destruction of the martial world's holy land.

Liu Zhijian was shocked too.

It seemed the Supreme Mystery Demon Sect wasn't just Deng Gang's version of things; it was common knowledge!

Many more people slipped quietly out of the cabin.

All at once, it seemed rather empty.

Zhao Changfan looked around carefully and nodded slightly.

Those who could stay were all formidable people.

At the very least, they knew something about cultivation and weren't even afraid of the methods any cultivators in the City Lord's Manor might have.

Though everyone was chatting animatedly, however, they were ignoring Zhao Changfan, whether deliberately or not.

They were waiting for Zhao Changfan to name his price.

"Everyone..."

Zhang Changfan slowly stood up and solemnly took a jade box from the old servant. After opening it, he carefully took something out.

The cabin immediately fell silent.

Everyone quietly watched what Zhao Changfan held in his hand.

Some gazed at it in fascination.

Others frowned in thought.

Liu Zhijian's heart shook violently. It took all his strength to forcibly suppress the stirrings in his meridians.

In particular, the drop of Meridian-Opening Spirit Water he had condensed trembled incessantly, nearly bursting out of his body.

That thing was most likely a Kan Water spiritual object.

It was perfectly suited to him!

At last, someone asked in a trembling voice, "Gang Leader Zhao, what treasure is that?!"

Zhao Changfan let out a long breath and said solemnly, "This is the Zhao Household's inherited supreme treasure, the Wave-Subduing Flood Dragon Pearl!"