A young servant of Haitang Jian Pai delivered a pack of food to Jinshui while it was still dark outside. The package was slowly lowered down to the cave through a 12-inch holes using a rope.
"Do you have wine?" Jinshui yelled at the servant, but there was no answer as usual. "Please ask the respectable Yuan Zhangmen, does she have a plan to let me out of this little hell?"
There was no one answering from above, but there was a pebble aimed at Jinshui, almost hitting his head. Jinshui took the pebble and flicked it back. There was no scream, meaning it didn't hit any target. Jinshui knew the little servant won't stay for long, he then brought the food to Xu Qiao who sat by the fireplace, opened the package, and took out the rice and vegetables.
"Look, they send me more food," he said in a hurry. "How'd they know there's an additional person here?"
Xu Qiao played a wooden branch with her hand before adding it to the fireplace, she didn't listen to him at all. She was trapped in this cave for three days already, and she was getting bored. Jinshui liked to tell her interesting stories but she wanted to go out.
"Ah, it's just some plain vegetables again," Jinshui put the food aside, he just lost appetite. He came closer to Xu Qiao. "It's been eight months of unappetizing food like those. I swear if I can get out of this place, I will go to a famous restaurant, order all food in the menu, and drink ten jars of wine."
"I believe you can go out anytime you want, but why don't you? You have that poison in your body, but I believe you have the ability to steal the antidote from Haitang Jian Pai," Xu Qiao asked him all a sudden. "I can get in here, meaning you can go out. You have exceptional ability, you can easily go up there. And I'm sure sneaking to Haitang Jian Pai's headquarter is easy for you."
Jinshui was quiet. Everything Xu Qiao said was right.
"Unless you prefer to stay here, consider this place safer, or you are avoiding someone just like me staying away from Bao Xinfei?"
"Who is Bao Xinfei?" Jinshui was avoiding her question. He asked about Bao Xinfei to her before.
"Bao Xinfei is my father's second wife," Xu Qiao finally mentioned Bao Xinfei's status in her family. "My father married her a few months ago and I don't like her."
"Your father is even older than Menggui Shishu, why did he marry a second wife?" Jinshui asked.
"He wants to have a son," replied Xu Qiao. "I have four older sisters but no brother."
"What about your mother?"
"My mother gave birth to five daughters, that's enough."
Jinshui smiled at her. "It's very common for a man to have three or four wives, it's also very normal to want a son. You dislike your stepmother and run away from home to avoid her, I find it overreacting."
Xu Qiao hit his arm with a stick. She was upset, partially due to the boredom to stuck in that cave. "I'm not overreacting," she said fiercely. "My father married another wife is his business, I dislike Bao Xinfei is my business."
Jinshui stared at her and needed two seconds to process her words. "So you weren't just sulking?" he asked after.
"My father married her anyway, no one can make him get rid of that woman from our home," said Xu Qiao. "Also, that woman masters great martial skills, I cannot kill her even if I want to. Since I don't like to stay under the same roof with her, it will be better if I just leave."
"You want to kill your stepmother?" Jinshui was surprised. A daughter of a conservative family should not kill her father's new bride just because of a dislike.
"I will if I can."
"I cannot believe the fifth daughter of Xu Family has a similar evil character as our Yumen Sect," Jinshui said. "Killing anyone we don't like. Xiaoguniang, I guess we are similar after all."
"I don't think so," Xu Qiao strongly disagreed.
"Then, are you not going to back home forever?" Jinshui asked again.
"I…." Xu Qiao was still too young. She didn't really think about the consequences of running away from home just to avoid a stepmother.
"You will have to come home one day," Jinshui talked again. "Since you cannot make her not exist, you would have to like her a bit. I don't know who this Bao Xinfei is, but I'm sure she wouldn't dare to have a problem with you."
"She wouldn't dare?" repeated Xu Qiao. "I told you she masters a great martial skill."
"What clan she was from again?" asked Jinshui.
"Yuan Zhangmen, the one locked you here, she's her master," said Xu Qiao.
"Oh," Jinshui made no comment. "Eh, do you know that Yuan Wancui that old widow, rumored to be the girlfriend of the owner of Wansui Gu, Lao Duxie (The Old Scorpion) Zeng Baifeng?"
"That's not possible," replied Xu Qiao, "the leader of Haitang Jian Pai since the first generation shouldn't be married, including Yuan Zhangmen. Also, the owner of Wansui Gu is an old poisonous snake, there's no way he can attract anyone from Haitang Jian Pai."
"I didn't say they got married," replied Jinshui. "Yuan Wancui married someone else for all I heard, they had a son, and then she regretted it and now she's the leader of Haitang Jian Pai."
"There's no such story," said Xu Qiao, "and you are the only one to call her old widow."
"Chailang Shishu told his disciple Huang Yu, and I didn't hear it on purpose, "said Jinshui. "Chailang Shishu is the second guardian in our Yumen, he knew a lot about the figures in the martial world, and no one can have better knowledge than him."
"You said that Yuan Zhangmen was an acquaintance of the owner of Wansui Gu, do you think she has the antidote for zixie poison?" asked Xu Qiao.
"There's a medicine room in Haitang Jian Pai," Jinshui said, "the antidote might be kept in there."
Xu Qiao stood up and pulled his hand. "I already have this poison for nearly ten days. Are you going to wait for the poison to react or do you want to help me out of here and go to that room to take the antidote?"
"I...." Jinshui had his own reason. "The sun rises now, I cannot go out there."
--
Xu Qiao woke up all sudden. She had a nightmare a second ago, she saw a man in a hooded cloak slashing his large sword, his victims didn't have a chance to put up a fight, and their bodies immediately collapsed, covered in blood. The servants screamed in pain, not a single life escaped. It was a horrible deadly scene, and it felt real. She trembled for a while, and tried to return to reality.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her handkerchief. A handkerchief embroidered with peonies, was given to her by her first sister. She shook her head, trying to push the dream out of her mind, it lingered in her brain.
"What did I eat wrong?" she asked herself. "Why did I sleep like this?"
She remembered, that she slept when it was still midday, hoping that she could stay awake at night. She knew Jinshui could come out of the cave only at night, and she wanted to get out of this underground cave. This thought immediately helped her get rid of the terrifying scene that had just been present in her dream.
Xu Qiao quickly climbed down from the boulder she was lying on, looking for Jinshui on another side of the cave. She briefly looked out through the hole up there, discovering that the sky was already dark.
"Jinshui Gege. Jinshui Gege," she called.
Jinshui was in another room of the cave, sitting cross-legged in a slightly elevated part of the cave, his eyes tightly closed. Xu Qiao didn't care what he was doing. She sat beside that new friend.
"Jinshui Gege, you promised to take me out, let's take a short walk, then come back here before sunrise and you can still continue to pretend to be a prisoner here, I can also still avoid Bao Xinfei," she spoke excitedly. "Now that the sky is dark, there is no need to be afraid of the poison in your body. I want you to accompany me until morning."
She was about to pull Jinshui's arm, but just as she touched the cloth, her hands were electrocuted, her body was immediately pushed back, and she lost her balance and fell to the slippery cave floor.
"Jinshui Gege...." She immediately realized that Jinshui was practicing some sort of internal energy, his bluish-black face turned reddish, and sweat the size of soybean grains dripped on his forehead. Xu Qiao got up quickly, watching closely. Soon, the reddish face began to turn white, the bluish-black color slowly disappearing. Jinshui was apparently using his internal energy to control the poison in his body.
Xu Qiao sat on the round stone in front of him, watching until Jinshui's facial skin color recovered to what it was before. Jinshui took a deep breath, stretching out both arms, three seconds later he opened his eyes slowly. Xu Qiao stood up and approached him.
"Jinshui Gege, have you managed to drive out all the poison?" she asked.
"Wansui Gu's poison is so powerful, I can only hold it with my inner energy," Jinshui said. "It won't be dangerous for a while, but if we don't get the antidote soon, it might attack the heart. At that time, even gods won't be able to help."
"What about sunlight?" asked Xu Qiao again.
"It shouldn't be a problem for now. " Jinshui stood up, pulling Xu Qiao's hand without much thought. "Come with me, we're going somewhere," he invited.
Jinshui didn't wait for her answer, immediately pulling her into another room of the cave at a half run. Xu Qiao saw a large hole in the roof of the cave, the light of the stars broke through quite a lot, and the surrounding vines were not thick enough to block it. On the floor of the cave, there was a lot of dry grass and twigs.
"That time I fell here, did I?" Xu Qiao asked.
"This hole is located in the forest, no one will find it," Jinshui said. "When I found you here, I also just found out that there is a hole big enough for the human body to pass through. You wait here for a while."
Jinshui took a leap first. He mastered a good qinggong, he could reach outside the cave in one leap. He helped Xu Qiao up with the long vine roots, and the two of them had no trouble exiting the cave.
This hole was quite hidden and covered with vines and branches. Xu Qiao's body was small and skinny, that was why she could slip and fell here that day.
"Jinshui Gege, where are we going?" the girl asked.
"Come with me," said Jinshui.
The two left the small forest. The Haitang Jian Pai headquarters building came into view. It was almost midnight, and there was no one guarding it. Jinshui took Xu Qiao to the back of the building, through a part that did not receive much attention. They entered through the roof, briefly inside a training room that seemed to have fallen into disuse.
"Jinshui Gege, what is this place?" Xu Qiao asked.
"It must be stored here. I had seen a secret passage down there a few months ago, but I didn't have time to find it before Yuan Wancui that rotten lady caught me."
"Find what?" asked Xu Qiao again. "What stored here?"
"Xuanlong jian (Black Dragon Sword)."
"Xuanlong jian?"
Jinshui walked over to a row of weapons in one part of the room. Three spears were propped up against the wall, another lying on the floor unceremoniously. Several rusty swords and spears were placed in the corner of the room, one of which was already broken. Jinshui put away the three spears leaning against the wall, then searched behind it for a secret key. He found a candlestick and rotated it once. A hole in the floor of the room opened up, beneath which appeared to be a series of stairs heading to the dark basement.
"Jinshui Gege, it's very dark inside," Xu Qiao said.
Jinshui took a candle and lit it, then led Xu Qiao inside. The small stairs led the two to an even more unkempt underground room. Xu Qiao looked around. This underground room was apparently a storage place for weapons that were no longer in use. The swords and bladed around them were in the same state as those in the upper room, most of them were rusted.
"Only the unused weapons are likely to be placed here." Xu Qiao said.
"Xuanlong jian is one of Yumen's heirlooms, but to Yuan Wancui it's nothing more than a piece of trash that should be destroyed," Jinshui said. "But this sword is made from pure metal forged in a special way, even Yuan Wancui wouldn't be able to deal with it. If it's combined with wuqing xue, then it will generate tremendous power."
JinShui found a shabby cloth bundle among the dead weapons mixed with soil, he knew it was the item he was looking for. The bundle that used to always hang on Moying's back. He immediately handed the candle to Xu Qiao, then started digging.
"What do you want with an heirloom sword from a demonic sect?" Xu Qiao still had time to ask. "Isn't it dangerous?"
"Xuanlong jian can't just be left in a place like this," Jinshui said. "Moying Shifu asked me to take care of it, so I should at least find a suitable place for it."
Xu Qiao felt a strange chill on her body, she didn't know if what she felt had anything to do with the sword. The bundle of cloth was already in Jinshui's hands. He opened it, and inside was a sword with a pitch-black scabbard and a beautifully carved dragon.
"Jinshui Gege, why has this place turned so cold?" Xu Qiao whispered.
"I don't feel it." Jinshui's attention was mostly on the sword in his hand. He fingered the scabbard and felt a warmth that traveled straight into the cells of his body. When Moying handed him this sword, Jinshui had never even opened the wrapping cloth. He had only seen the true form of the sword once.
"Xuanlong jian is indeed a precious sword. If it falls into the wrong hands, who knows what will happen," Jinshui was still admiring the sword.
"Jinshui Gege...."
The candle in Xu Qiao's hand fell over. Jinshui was just about to take the sword out of its sheath, almost realizing too late that Xu Qiao's condition was not very good. The young girl had already drooped to the floor and looked extremely cold. Jinshui hurried over.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked.
"So cold...." she trembled.
Jinshui remembered one thing. "Wretched! That poison."
The zixie du inside Xu Qiao's body was already ten days old, already starting to react as Zhou Sangong had warned her. Jinshui immediately picked her up, carried the xuanlong jian, and left the place. The most important thing to him was to get Xu Qiao to a safe place first, and then think about how to deal with the poison.
The two of them had just left the back of the headquarters when they heard the sound of an alarm bell in the distance. Jinshui didn't want to pay any attention to it and continued to run carrying the increasingly weak Xu Qiao. He had not yet reached the small forest when he heard people shouting in pursuit. Apparently, the intruders' arrival in the weapons room had already been noticed by the residents of Haitang Jian Pai headquarters, and they quickly moved to search every direction. Jinshui continued to run.
"Jinshui Gege, it hurts," he heard Xu Qiao's voice in his ear. "It feels like there are thousands of caterpillars inside my skin...."
"Don't be afraid, I can definitely help you."
The edge of the forest was in front of them. Jinshui's steps halted. In front of him are not the pursuing Haitang Jian Pai disciples, but a young girl dressed in all white, holding a long bamboo flute in her hand. Jinshui cannot see her face clearly, but he seems to have seen her long bamboo flute.
"Who...." He hadn't had time to ask, the white-clothed girl didn't say a word, directly initiating an attack on Jinshui with the flute in her hand. Jinshui was still holding Xu Qiao, his movements were not very free, he could only parry with the sword in his hand carelessly. The girl tried to rush toward Xu Qiao while Jinshui tried to protect her.
Their movements were both fast and powerful, Jinshui slowly realized that the opponent's movement base was the same as his own.
"Wuqing xue," he mentioned the basic style used by the opponent. The young girl jumped back, not attacking again. Jinshui recognized her vaguely. "Apparently one of the Yumen descendants."
"Hua Jinshui, the descendant of Moying Shibo," the girl said to him. "The last time we met was when I was ten years old."
"You are... Huling Shishu's descendant?" Jinshui asked.
"That's right. I am Baique, Huling Shifu's disciple," said the girl.
"How did you get here?" asked Jinshui again.
"My mother gave me to Haitang Jian Pai when I was young, and they let me become a servant here," the girl said bitterly.
"Yeah, I remember that," Jinshui recognized the girl's face as the little lady who didn't talk much, having hesitated when Huling named her as one of the descendants. The little girl is now a beautiful teenage girl, but her face and appearance have not changed much.
"Bayinxiao (eight-tone flute)," Jinshui called out the name of the bamboo flute in the girl's hand.
"Has the Chailang's descendant come to find you?" the girl asked again. "It's been over six years, Huling Shifu passed away, but he still hasn't come yet. Will he come or won't he come?"
"He will definitely come, it's just that...." Jinshui didn't know either. "In the meantime, you should stay in Haitang Jian Pai. In time, you will leave this place to reunite with others."
"I'm afraid they suspect me," Baique expressed her predicament. "Until now I could only secretly practice wuqing xue. The opportunities are getting fewer and fewer. Yuan Zhangmen already deduces that there are eight living Yumen descendants in the world. If she were to discover that I am one of them, then I'm afraid there will be no way to live here anymore."
"He clearly knew my identity but still let me live for eight months," Jinshui said matter-of-factly, "I'm sure she would prefer to collect all eight descendants alive."
In the distance, there was a commotion. Baique tried to remain calm, but her face inevitably paled as well. "Someone broke into the headquarter just now," she told Jinshui, "I don't know who rang the bell, but someone will be here soon. I was just looking for an opportunity to practice wuqing xue, and saw you guys."
"Jinshui Gege...." Xu Qiao cooed weakly next to Jinshui's ear. Jinshui knew this young girl was already in a bad condition, she might be dead if he didn't do anything soon.
"Human life is more important, I will help this girl first," said Jinshui.
"Who is this girl?" asked Baique.