The guardians left their disciples and Qingyi on the ship, then they headed to a building complex situated by the lakeside. Jinshui could see a series of dim lights in the complex, brightening it just enough. The complex was extensive, contained a number of individual beautifully designed villas, and were neatly lined. Jinshui thought it was a palace.
Moying and his fellow guardians left the lake and headed to the far side of the complex, met an old maid there who escorted them to a garden. Many kinds of orchid flowers could be found in that garden. Menggui stopped for a while to look around, thinking. This place is a beautiful imperial garden, she must be very happy now.
It was midnight. The lights in the garden were dimmed, only some part of the garden showed its beauty. Other than the flower plants, there was a large pond as the habitat of some colorful fish in that garden. A series of buildings were designed neatly and beautifully. There was no luxury there, but it certainly was a pleasant place to live in.
The maid accompanied them to a hall facing the garden, the guests could see several soldiers guarding around. Inside the hall, stood a woman dressed as a noble lady with no jewelry. She looked as young as an early twentieth woman, but she actually was the same age as Menggui. She looked lovely and grace, everyone knew she wasn't a regular noble lady. They recognized her.
"Jiejie," Shuiyao, the noble lady, approached Menggui and hugged her tight for a moment. They were like sisters in the past. They had different fates, but they still loved each other.
"Meimei, did he treat you well?" asked Menggui in a slightly trembling voice.
"He treated me well, really," Shuiyao calmly answered. "You can see that he did invite those five people as I asked, and they do come here with their son and daughter as we need them."
"Except for the old man Lin," said Xiezhang while laughing, "I borrowed his precious son for two years already and I have no plan to return him for now."
"You do turn the old man Lin's son into a bad boy, no wonder that boy is so annoying," said Huling. "He bullied my Baique, I haven't given him a lesson. I will kick him later."
"Lin Jixuan was very naughty since he was a toddler," replied Xiezhang. "It wasn't easy for me to teach him. Sometimes, I have no choice but to keep up with him."
"We Yumen guardians were indeed misguided people, our students are no different," said Ducao. "That old man Lin was really mean to our brothers and sisters. Turning his son into a bad boy to make him turn against his own father is a great idea. Xiezhang brother, I agree with you."
"We take children as our descendants are actually useless. They are just children after all, how do we expect them to do the job as we want them to?" Baigu asked. "Do you think we need to kill their families in the future and blame it on our enemies, give those children a reason to take revenge and create chaos in this world?"
"That's a great idea," replied Chailang. "Five of these children come from reputable families. They don't need our help to gain their own reputation and make themselves known to the world. We just need to make sure they will fight for our Yumen."
"We cannot do that," said Shuiyao disagree. "The people of our sect cannot keep slaughtering people for the sake of these children. Otherwise in the future, they will have the same fate as our late brothers and sisters, and everything we do in these three years of running will be all useless."
"I also disagree," said Moying, "you know who Jinshui is. I believe he's ready."
"Our leader gave the order to choose eight children," Chailang reminded him. "They will have to work together."
" Our leader gave the order to choose eight children for a reason," Shuiyao said. "Yumen headquarter had been destroyed, our brothers and sisters were killed, and their families were being hunted. We eight guardians must run and hide. I believe our leader had thought about this before he gave us the order to select eight children as descendants."
"That's right. It's been three years we had to live as fugitives, being some kind of cowards, cannot do any help when we see our brothers and sisters being slaughtered. I cannot live like this any longer," Xiezhang said. "If it's not for the direct order from our leader, I'd already killed all those people. They call themselves the hero, but they do worse than us, the one they called from the demonic sect."
"If it's not for the direct order from our leader, I cannot stand these three years," Ducao continued, "the people in the martial world know exactly that Yumen has eight guardians, but none of us appears until now. We were not in the headquarter three years ago, and no one had claimed to have killed any of us ever since. Rumors have spread, they will come to us soon or later."
"I cannot stand it and breaking orders for a couple of times, I find those people and look for troubles," Huling admitted, "they know we are still alive and they hunt us. I really want to fight back. Even if we have to die, I will not die as a coward fox."
"I know we cannot run any longer," Menggui said, "Shuiyao, did you send the purple orchid and the secret sign of our sect to ask us all to come here to solve this issue?"
"Do we have a new order?" asked Baigu.
"I have analyzed that we cannot run any longer," replied Shuiyao. "It's time to fight those people, die in honor. The children are ready, they can continue all this on their own, they don't need us anymore."
"Jinshui is still too young, he's not strong enough, he's simple-hearted and naïve, how can he be ready?" asked Chailang.
"These children are far from ready," said Menggui, "if we leave them now, they would not be able to do any responsibilities in the future, they cannot fulfill our leader's order."
"We can make them ready," replied Shuiyao. "We divided the manual into eight parts, and they already memorized their own part. Our next step is to make them memorize all."
"Only Jinshui should memorize all the manual," said Moying, "we are not sure what the other children will become in the future."
The others nod their head in agreement.
"I have one idea, but it will require your sacrifice, will you all agree?" asked Shuiyao.
"What idea?" asked Xiezhang. "You know I the bloody palm can agree to do anything for Yumen."
"Our inner energy," replied Shuiyao. "We were tasked to collect eight talented children. But now these children cannot protect themselves and we have no choice but to leave them on their own. The only way to protect them, to enable them to master everything we teach, and to make them feel responsible, is to give them all our inner energy to them."
Everyone was quiet and exchanged looks for a few minutes, pondering. It seemed that there is no other way and it is time for them to appear and make sacrifices. The eight guardians might be destroyed, but they were not willing to perish silently. The order from their leader to restore the sect cannot be violated.
"Are you saying, we should create eight junior guardians?" asked Chailang. "No one knows the existence of eight young guardians, no one will hunt them down. In the future, the responsibility to restore our sect lay in their hand."
"That's right," replied Shuiyao.
"Without the inner energy, I cannot beat those self-called good people," said Huling, "but there will be a young fox to avenge it, I guess I can rest in peace."
"But how can we make these eight young guardians understand everything and continue our fight?" asked Ducao.
"We are the only ones remaining in our sect, but there's still someone, the great master," Menggui reminded them.
"She never leaves her place, how can she find our young guardians?" asked Baigu.
"One of us has to stay alive," replied Chailang, "to guide our young guardians in the future. We have to complete this mission, we cannot let everything perish without any trace."
"We have to perish, but we must plan everything carefully. We have to stay alive as long as we can as we have to pass down everything we know to those children, make sure they will be ready before we leave them," said Moying. "I will tell Jinshui everything he needs to know."
--
Qingyi stayed in the lower cabin of the ship and changed her clothes there since she made them wet when she plunged into the lake. Her mother Menggui had no drying ability using inner energy as Moying. Certainly, this young girl Qingyi cared a lot about her physical appearance.
Jinshui paid attention to the other children on the ship. He acknowledged their names when his master introduced them, yet he didn't know where they come from and who their parents were. He didn't know much about the martial world and those well-known families, and he saw them merely as children.
He didn't understand why his life changed so promptly. He was born in a village and raised by his grandfather, an old carpenter. His youth was peaceful and serene, and he and his grandfather lived in a distant forest far away from violence and cruelty. When Moying came for the first time, the old man taught him a bunch of fighting techniques, Jinshui happily learned it with no intention to use it fighting anyone for real.
This child was young and naïve. His grandfather never explained anything about the world outside their peaceful forest and the small village they visit regularly, and he never asked. When Moying came for the first time and asked him not to tell his grandfather, Jinshui made a promise and he kept it. He didn't know if the other children here had the same story as his.
No, they are different, he said to himself, these children have parents, or at least they know who their parents are, while he doesn't.
While he was pensive, something happened on that ship. It was unclear to anyone, but Qin Liangjie and Lin Jixuan had engaged in a fight. Qin Liangjie pushed Lin Jixuan hard, but the naughty boy somehow had a strong stance, he fought back and pushed his opponent who had a bigger body.
Qingyi was still in the cabin, Zhu Baique had gained consciousness. Huang Yu half lay at the edge while playing his black and white chess pieces. Li Qian wanted to break up the two fighting boys, but Liao Xian held him back.
Qin Liangjie pulled a short spear hung on his back, then jumped and attached Lin Jixuan with scattered movements. Jinshui recognized the techniques as zui feng she yang (chase the wind while aiming the sun), it was really similar to the one Moying once taught him.
Lin Jixuan evaded using jin fu hu shui (golden bat dives into the lake). Jinshui found out that these children had the same martial arts techniques as his. He had not mastered those techniques yet, now he paid attention to every move they made.
"You have to apologize to the young lady," Qin Liangjie asked the Lin boy while rotating his spear, now playing a move Jinshui never saw before.
"I won't," Lin Jixuan evading him again nimbly, his tiny body rolled to Qin Liangjie's side and caught his spear before that student of Menggui could catch up with him. Qin Liangjie was actually strong enough to keep his spear, but he felt a sting at the very moment as a chess piece hit his hand, forcing him to release the spear.
But Lin Jixuan got no chance to seize the spear as Jinshui already caught it and hold it tight. Moying did not force Jinshui to train hard for no reason, as the boy diligently learned everything, and spent hours each day using the tree branches in the forest. His muscles were stronger, his every move was more agile compared to the small boy Lin Jixuan.
At the same time, Li Qian pulled Qin Liangjie, and Liao Xian took Lin Jixuan to the edge, separating them distinctly. Qin Liangjie was the taller one, but Li Qian was stronger, knocking him easily. Li Jixuan didn't really like to fight, he was grinning.
"You have to apologize to her," said Qin Liangjie again. He heard how Huling mentioned his student was scared by Lin Jixuan being half dead, he didn't happy about it and asked Lin Jixuan to say sorry once his master left.
"I didn't do anything to her, why should I?" Lin Jixuan tongued him, "Can you tell me what I did?"
Qin Liangjie didn't really know what happen to Baique, he could not reply, stomping his feet angrily.
"Did he do something bad to you?" Jinshui asked Zhu Baique. The girl looked confused. Looked like she didn't know what happened to her, her master knew everything better.
"I… I just remember I saw a snake climb my back," she said slowly, "I don't know how, I hate snakes."
"It was just a little accident, we don't have to fight about it," Huang Yu suddenly stood up and came closer. His mysterious motion silent everyone, even Qin Liangjie stopped struggling and Li Qian could let him go. "Our masters left us here to make friends, not enemies."
"Why are you fighting?"
This last voice belonged to a little girl. They all turned their head and saw a very young girl dressed in red appeared on the dock, followed by an old ugly maid. The little girl was smaller than Zhu Baique, she was just around seven years old. Her eyes were black and bright, her smile was really attractive, and her face was cheerful with her two pinky round cheeks. Her voice was cute and calming.
Everyone stared at this little girl, including Jinshui. Lin Jixuan, the one who famously disliked girls, now had no intention to do any harm, instead, he asked hesitantly, "Who are you?"
"My name is Liuxin," said the little girl.
"You are the disciple of Shuiyao Shishu?" asked Huang Yu.
The little girl nodded once before she clapped her tiny hands. A while after, a bunch of young men dressed as soldiers came up to the dock, and brought two wooden tables and some chairs. They were followed by a group of six young women dressed as palace maids, bringing trays and putting them on the tables, which contained several kinds of snacks. Lastly, two men came bringing teapots and cups.
The dish was prepared by Liuxin since she was the inviter. The snacks were mostly in appealing shapes and tastes, specially made for children. Since the young were not supposed to drink wine, the tea was prepared as well.
Jinshui took only a cup of tea, then sat on the corner of the dock to drink alone. He never saw so many snacks, and while the others were very excited, he backed up and stayed away.
Liuxin came to him, brought with her some cakes put on a clean white handkerchief. She smiled at Jinshui and handed him the cakes.
"You must be Hua Gege," she said, "my master told me who you are."
"Who am I?" asked Jinshui. He didn't know the answer to his own question for sure.
"You are just you," the little girl smiled, "who do you think then?"
Eight young descendants were all there. There was no more fighting that night. When Moying and the others returned, the children were already playing together, eating, and laughing. While Qingyi kept hiding in the cabin, knowing she wasn't part of them.