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Capítulo 2

"Young master, you mustn't! Riding like that will only exhaust the horse." Not far away, another boy of about his age came running after him, panting and looking anxious.

The young man on horseback angrily lashed out with his whip. The horse, already struggling with the rugged mountain path, suddenly neighed and charged forward with a wild roar. Seeing the horse charging like a madman, Yue Ruzheng quickly dodged to the side, but fearing it would plunge off the mountain path, she leaped forward, gripped the reins tightly, and pulled with all her might. The horse went berserk again, but Yue Ruzheng lowered her weight and used her arms to pull it back, managing to drag it a few steps just as it was about to break off the path.

The boy behind him caught up and threw himself onto the horse, his face pale. He stamped his feet and cried, "Young Master! You scared me to death! If it weren't for this lady's help, you probably would have fallen off the mountain!"

The young man in brocade robes on horseback, though pale-faced, raised an eyebrow and forced his head to say, "Hmph, do you think I wouldn't jump down myself? I was just testing my courage; who asked her to do anything unnecessary!"

Yue Ruzheng's palms were raw from the reins. Hearing his words, she couldn't help but sneer, loosened her grip, and said, "Young Master, you're really bold. In that case, why don't you try jumping off the cliff and see if you die?"

The boy glared at her awkwardly and said, "Do you think I'm stupid?" He looked her up and down, frowning, and asked, "Who are you? What are you doing loitering outside our manor?"

Yue Ruzheng was taken aback, and another young man hurriedly said, "This one is from Tingyu Manor..."

"My name is Wei Heng. I am Wei Qingcang's son," the young man in brocade robes said crisply before he could finish speaking.

Yue Ruzheng was already dissatisfied with his arrogant attitude, and now that she heard that he was the young master of Tingyu Manor, she was even more indignant, thinking that Tingyu Manor was nothing special.

Wei Heng had always believed that simply stating his name would intimidate most people, but to his surprise, the woman before him not only failed to be respectful but also showed disdain. He snorted and said to the young man behind him, "Qi Yun, our manor needs to strengthen its defenses; we can't let any unauthorized personnel sneak in."

Qi Yun exclaimed "Ah!" before he could even understand what she meant, when Yue Ruzheng suddenly slammed her palm heavily on the horse's back. The horse neighed in pain and lurched forward again. However, having exerted too much force earlier, it had slowed down, though it was still galloping. Qi Yun desperately tried to catch up, gripping the reins tightly. Wei Heng gritted his teeth, frantically pulling on the reins while constantly looking back.

"You brat, don't let me see you again!" Wei Heng's voice, filled with gritted teeth, echoed from around the corner.

Yue Ruzheng gave a cold laugh, turned around without looking back, and headed down the mountain.

Chapter Two: Intending to Make This Message in the Martial World

The mountain night wind was particularly cold. Yue Ruzheng hurried down the mountain, completely abandoning the idea of visiting Wei Qingcang. She made up her mind not to ask anyone else for help and went to Yandang Mountain alone.

Two days later, she was nearing the border between Anhui and Zhejiang provinces. Since arriving in Luzhou as a child, Yue Ruzheng had never traveled far from home. She hesitated at the crossroads, unsure which road to take. Just then, she heard the sound of copper bells behind her. A horse-drawn cart carrying firewood slowly approached, and an old man wearing a straw hat was whipping the horse, urging it to head south along a small path.

Yue Ruzheng hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Grandpa, I need to go to Yandang Mountain, but I don't know which road to take?"

The old man squinted at her and said, "What a coincidence, I'm going to Quzhou anyway, I can give you a ride along the way."

Overjoyed, Yue Ruzheng climbed onto the cart. Seeing the stacks of firewood piled high, she huddled down and sat on the edge. The old man drove the cart southwards. Yue Ruzheng sat in the back, gazing at the receding mountains and fields, thinking of Yinxi Cottage and her master. She had been away from her master for many days. What if Mo Li of Bliss Valley broke his promise and sent men to Luzhou to make things difficult for her master before she returned? In Yue Ruzheng's heart, her master was like a mother and a sister, a closest relative. She didn't want her master to bow down to Mo Li for her sake…

Just as she was feeling uneasy, she suddenly smelled a faint, fishy stench in the wind. She gradually felt dizzy and her vision blurred. Yue Ruzheng was startled and quickly held her breath. She forced herself to look up and saw that the old man had already jumped off the carriage. He had a rope in his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the rope flew towards her and was about to be wrapped around her waist.

Knowing things were going badly, Yue Ruzheng braced herself against the cart floor with her right hand, leaping up and aiming her sword at the old man's brow. The rope in the old man's hand whooshed back, infused with internal force, as hard as a steel whip, passing by her sword and sending a gust of wind through the air. Yue Ruzheng pressed her attack relentlessly, her moves graceful and ingenious, the faint pink hue on the blade of her Lonely Fragrance Sword becoming increasingly prominent, like the delicate blossoms of a palace plum. After more than a dozen moves, although the old man's attacks were fierce, Yue Ruzheng skillfully used the power of her wrist to deflect each of his attacks.

Seeing that Yue Ruzheng, though poisoned, still maintained a strong defense through sheer willpower, the old man stepped forward. The rope spun in several arcs, loop after loop, sweeping towards Yue Ruzheng's left arm. Yue Ruzheng touched the ground with her foot and leaped forward, swinging her sword to strike the rope around her arm. Unexpectedly, her sidestep revealed an opening behind her. Before the old man could retract the rope, he flicked his left wrist, silently shooting a silver dart from his sleeve towards Yue Ruzheng's toes.

Yue Ruzheng was in mid-air, her breath shallow. She forced herself to sink down, and as soon as she landed, she felt a chill on her ankle—she had been struck by a silver dart. She staggered backward, when suddenly something hard struck her waist, causing her to lose her balance. The old man seized the opportunity to pounce forward, grab her arm, and bind her tightly with ropes, pushing her down onto the carriage.

Yue Ruzheng endured the pain and realized that several people had been hiding in the firewood all along. It was one of them who had struck her in the waist with the hilt of his bronze sword. The men leaped onto the carriage and quickly buried her with the scattered firewood. She was struggling to breathe and couldn't speak. At the old man's command, the men stood guard around the firewood, and the carriage sped south.

The carriage jolted along, and Yue Ruzheng felt a piercing pain in her ankle and waves of nausea in her chest. She wanted to breathe deeply, but she was suffocated by the thick pile of straw. Before long, she lost consciousness and fainted.

The old man then removed his disguise, revealing his true appearance. He was about thirty years old, with a sallow complexion and deep, knife-like nasolabial folds, giving him a fierce look. A short man guarding the haystack said, "Protector Su, if the Valley Master wants to capture this girl, why wait until we're here?"

As the man drove the carriage, he said, "Do you intend to ambush her near Tingyu Manor? I've been watching her for a while, waiting for her to travel alone before you come looking for her."

Another person said, "Isn't this the girl who injured Third and Fourth Junior Brothers last month? We'll teach her a lesson later!"

"Don't do anything rash," the man frowned. "The Valley Master captured her to use as leverage against Jiang Shuying. Once we bring her back to Bliss Valley, Jiang Shuying, who loves her disciple dearly, will certainly not stand idly by."

"What is it about Jiang Shuying that makes the Valley Master go to such lengths..." The group discussed amongst themselves, and soon the conversation turned to rumors and anecdotes about Jiang Shuying in the martial arts world.

The man surnamed Su was none other than Su Muchen, the protector of Bliss Valley. He had been following Yue Ruzheng all along, waiting for her to leave the sphere of influence of Yinxi Xiaozhu and Tingyu Manor before attempting to capture her. Seeing that his plan had gone smoothly, he spurred his horse and galloped south.

Yue Ruzheng was left lying in the straw, drifting in and out of consciousness. She didn't know how much time had passed before she slowly awoke. Opening her eyes, she saw only scattered straw before her, and it was pitch black outside; it was already late at night. The sound of flowing water continued to the west; the carriage seemed to have stopped somewhere by a river. Yue Ruzheng gently brushed aside the straw in front of her and, through a gap, saw a campfire flickering in the distance. Several men in grey robes were sitting around the fire, talking quietly. Another man sat alone behind them; judging from his clothing, he was the one who had driven the carriage that day.

Yue Ruzheng closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The poison in her body was slowly dissipating, and her mind was gradually clearing. However, the silver dart in her ankle was still stuck in the wound, causing her excruciating pain. She listened intently, and vaguely heard the people talking about the Valley Master. She realized that she had indeed been captured by the people of Bliss Valley. She guessed that they must be taking her back to Bliss Valley as a hostage, and she was filled with regret. However, due to her injured foot, she could not fight them head-on.

Just then, the sound of oars striking the water came from not far away. Judging from the heavy and orderly sound, a convoy fully loaded with goods must be passing by. Yue Ruzheng thought to herself, rather than waiting to die, she might as well try her luck and see if fate would lend her a hand. With that thought, she grabbed the Lonely Fragrance Sword with her backhand, and with a sudden twist of her body, she rolled off the carriage.

Hearing the commotion, the group rushed over. Yue Ruzheng fell to the ground, and beside her was a slope. Below the slope, a surging river flowed southward, with several large boats sailing downstream at great speed. With her hands bound, Yue Ruzheng heard shouts behind her. She gritted her teeth, rolled over, and fell into the river.

Su Muchen and the others chased her to the shore, only to see water splashing in the darkness, but Yue Ruzheng was nowhere to be seen. The short man stamped his foot and said, "Is this girl trying to kill herself?"

Enraged, Su Muchen turned around and slapped several men across the face, saying, "So many of you can't even keep an eye on a tied-up girl!"

Those people covered their faces and cursed inwardly, but dared not defend themselves.

Looking at the surging Qujiang River, Su Muchen quickly said, "A few of you search along the river. I'll go downstream and see if we can find her. We need to find her alive or dead!"

Having said that, he quickly mounted his horse and galloped away.

The waves of the Qujiang River surged, and the cargo ships sailed downstream, soon reaching the Jinhua River. Su Muchen rushed to Jinhua that very night and saw the fleet enter the harbor. He lay prostrate on the shore for a long time, but Yue Ruzheng was nowhere to be seen. He interrogated a porter who had disembarked to unload cargo, but failed to rescue anyone. Frustrated, Su Muchen had no choice but to turn back. He encountered his men halfway back, but they had all found nothing. Su Muchen was furious and had to pause for a while to devise a plan.

As they regrouped and set off again in Jinhua, Yue Ruzheng had already quietly left.

That night, when she leaped into the Qujiang River, she had already used her internal energy to break free of the ropes. Seeing the boat passing by, she used the tip of her sword to pierce the hull and took the opportunity to hide on the side of the boat, making her way to Jinhua. She knew that the people of the Bliss Valley would definitely be waiting for her in Jinhua, so when she was almost at the port, she used the hull of the boat as cover to quietly paddle ashore.

Although Yue Ruzheng had escaped the first hurdle, the wounds on her feet had become festering from the long swim. Leaning on her Lonely Fragrance Sword, she staggered along the shore to a secluded spot. Rolling up her trouser leg, she saw that her wounds were covered in foul blood, and her skin was pale. The silver dart, which had originally been half outside, was now broken off at some point, leaving only half embedded in her ankle, impossible to remove.

Yue Ruzheng lay helplessly on the shore. Only after her clothes had dried slightly in the wind did she grit her teeth and stand up, struggling forward. She had to constantly ask for directions and carefully avoid the people of the Blissful Valley, making her journey extremely arduous. What troubled her even more was that as she approached Wenzhou Prefecture, the locals' language became increasingly difficult to understand, often requiring her to rack her brains for a long time before she could barely grasp their meaning.

After several arduous days of travel, they finally arrived in Wenzhou Prefecture. Yue Ruzheng had only known that Yandang Mountain was nearby, but once inside the city, she had no idea where to go. She asked several people, but their dialect was difficult to understand, and they kept pointing south and then north, leaving her completely confused. By the time she reached the outskirts of Wenzhou, her legs were weak. She saw a local farmer carrying firewood and hurriedly asked him. The man spoke for a while, pointing south repeatedly, until Yue Ruzheng finally understood the words "Pingyang." She thanked him and followed the direction he pointed.

So she inquired about Pingyang along the way, and finally arrived at her destination as dusk approached. The air here was damp, and most of the people were dressed as fishermen, though occasionally she saw women of other ethnicities wearing blue and green clothing and colorful woolen headbands. Following the directions of the locals, Yue Ruzheng headed west, gradually entering the mountains.

It was already late, and there were few pedestrians on the road. The mountains on both sides rose and fell, not towering into the clouds, but with rugged peaks and crisscrossing streams. Sometimes the forests were deep and secluded, sometimes the cliffs and caves suddenly appeared, shrouded in mist and with winding springs. It was a southern mountain landscape that Yue Ruzheng had never seen before.

But Yue Ruzheng had no mind to appreciate the beautiful scenery; she only wanted to find her senior brother and senior sister as soon as possible and return to Luzhou. Leaning on her long sword, she staggered forward, but when she was halfway there, a light rain began to fall. The raindrops drifted and swirled, like a layer of transparent mist all around.

Yue Ruzheng was already injured in the foot, and the slippery mountain path made it even harder for her to walk steadily. She leaned on her sword with one hand and held onto the moss-covered stone wall with the other. She walked for a long time, but still couldn't find the legendary Longqiu Waterfall. She knew that her master's other name was Longqiu Sanren, and that he had built a hermitage beside the Dalongqiu Waterfall in Yandang Mountain. But now she had gone deep into the mountains, and although there were waterfalls here and there, they were not as magnificent and beautiful as her master had described to her.