Although Liu Yuanlu had the thousand-mile ring given by Li Fuyao, when he rowed to Green Lake, he was still scared. The peaceful Green Lake looked pleasant, but at the thought of the water demon in the lake water, Liu Yuanlu’s arms and legs trembled involuntarily.
Meanwhile, Li Fuyao, this teenage boy who brought a broken machete sat on the bow quietly after going board and tried to gather his vital energy in his heart, without revealing it. He didn’t know which stage the water demon was at, but as long as it hadn’t entered the fourth stage, the Fundamental Stage, he could probably fight against it. Not to mention who would win, at least he wouldn’t be swallowed by the demon as soon as he saw it.
The boat moved for fifteen minutes. They still couldn’t see the foot of Menchen Mountain, but as they didn’t see the water demon on the way, Liu Yuanlu got relieved.
He wiped the sweat on his forehead and asked, “Mr. Li, did this water demon leave to find another treasure place because it found that it could eat nobody here?”
Li Fuyao’s expression didn’t change and he said as if it was a pity, “I hope that it would come out. Otherwise I will have to give the thousand-mile ring to you later.”
Liu Yuanlu was rendered speechless, thinking, “You gave me a bank note of fifty taels of silver and didn’t feel sad, but you just talk about this little ring for a long time.”
Li Fuyao touched the broken machete next to him and counted how many times he had used it all the way. When they met the female ghost in red in Zhuyu Town, he used it once, but at that time, he had just entered the first stage and was no match for that female ghost. He couldn’t resist after several rounds. If Qing Huai hadn’t stayed there in the neighborhood earlier, his trip might have ended. Then they left Zhuyu Town and went to Shaoliang City. When he confronted Xie Ying’s father, Xie Wuyi, he couldn’t say that he used swordsmanship. No matter how powerful such a warrior was, he didn’t have the strength to fight back when he met a cultivator who was even at the first stage. Moreover, Xie Wuyi’s martial skills were far from the extreme, so he naturally couldn’t fight back in front of Li Fuyao. After they left Shaoliang City, it came to the battle by the Luosang River. By that river, Li Fuyao almost finished the first step and entered the second stage of swordsmen, the Focus Stage, but in the end, he was still close to it and stopped. When he was in the tavern at the north border of Yanling, Li Fuyao had planned to take Liang Shu as a stepping-stone, but before he took actions, that guy was killed by the old Confucian scholar. After his desire came to nothing, Li Fuyao just wanted to use this water demon to promote his stage.
The first stage and second stage of swordsmen had great differences. Now he wanted to climb Sword Mountain, and the trip must be not smooth, so it would be better if he was at a higher stage.
When the boat finished half of the way and came to the deepest part of the lake, Liu Yuanlu rowed much faster obviously. He didn’t know where the water demon was, but he was clear that the deep water was more dangerous.
Moreover, as he rowed, he felt more terrified.
His fear was based upon those rumors in the beginning.
Li Fuyao sat on the bow from beginning to end and looked at the lake surface calmly, without saying anything.
The boat moved quickly, but the lake surface was as peaceful as a mirror all the time. It didn’t look like there was a water demon lurking.
At the bottom of the lake, there was a mansion made of stone standing quietly under the water. Some white bone fragments were around the mansion, and they must be the bones of the swordsmen and boatmen who had been swallowed by the water demon.
A couple walked on a path which was made intentionally, and they looked calm. The man was the boatman who rowed for Li Fuyao and the others, and the woman was the one who cooked fish soup at the stern.
While walking, the woman stated with a smile, “This little tortoise did many evil things in the past few years, and you didn’t come to discipline it. Now you see that it doesn’t dare to offend that guy, but you still try to push it out to court death?”
The man replied peacefully, “It did something evil, and it would have to pay for it. But that bloke wants to break through, so I will give this little tortoise to him as his stepping-stone and seize the chance to help him. The old master won’t care about our intentional move, but he would keep it in mind. It’s good to do this bloke a favor, but we can’t reveal that we have done it. It’s so annoying.”
When the man said the word “annoying”, the corners of his mouth twitched.
The woman giggled and didn’t say more.
They came to the stone mansion and stopped. The woman tut-tutted. “This little tortoise lives a good life.”
The man frowned. “It lives a better life than me, and I can’t stand it anymore.”
The woman just nodded with a smile and didn’t retort him when her husband was angry.
The man breathed out a foul smell and stood in front of the stone mansion, saying, “I have come. Why don’t you get out now?”
This man who always showed up as a boatman on the river had awe-inspiring power and seemed to be a different person after he spoke.
In fact, he deserved to be the top one among the demonic cultivators in the nearby rivers. If he didn’t focus on cultivating, these demonic cultivators around might have been driven away by him. But in the past when he hadn’t become like a person, he often listened to a scholar reading at a ferry and heard some reasons of sages. Then after he was enlightened, he often had compassion, and it seemed that his beast nature didn’t exist anymore. But now when he thought it over, he felt that he was lucky as he could hear that scholar reading at the ferry for a few years in Dayu where there were few scholars.
Soon after he finished his words, a tortoise crawled out of the stone mansion, but it was not even close to a little tortoise as the woman mentioned before. This tortoise was huge and almost equal to a huge bear in mountains. The shell was full of green alga, and its mouth was filled with sharp teeth.
It stared at the man with its big eyes and said in a low voice, “River King, you have come. I am sorry that I didn’t welcome you earlier.”
It spoke like a person.
This man was at a high stage and could be called as River King.
The man expressed calmly, “I don’t like anybody to look at me in this way. You’d better not do so.”
The huge tortoise turned around after hearing that, and it didn’t dare to stare at the top one in the nearby rivers.
The man didn’t say anything useless but asked, “Today some people are crossing the lake, but why don’t you take actions?”
The huge tortoise replied respectfully, “One of them is a swordsman. Although his vital energy is weak, he has taken the road of cultivating anyway. Now he is going to Sword Mountain, and he might be from that mountain. We haven’t seen a swordsman come down from that mountain in the past thirty years, but nobody knows well about those swordsmen, so I don’t dare to offend them.”
The man sneered. “You are wrong. That bloke is a swordsman indeed, but he is not from the Sword Mountain. You just take actions and after you eat his blood and flesh, you can promote your cultivation for at least half a stage. What do you think? Then you will be close to transformation, and this is a good buy.”
The huge tortoise asked in surprise, “River King, why did you tell me this?”
It was cautious obviously.
The man was not in the mood to find excuses and lie to this huge tortoise which hadn’t become like a person after cultivating for almost sixty years. He just turned to the woman.
She understood and chuckled. “If you don’t take actions, we will eat tortoise meat tonight. A little tortoise at the age of sixty must taste good after we boil the soup.”
The huge tortoise was absolutely terrified and begged for mercy at once. “King, I naturally listen to you and don’t dare to disobey your order.”
The man turned away and sneered. “Oh? Then what do you wait for?”
The huge tortoise trembled and then swam upstream. It soon disappeared. After it was out of their sight, the man said helplessly, “If we don’t need to keep it for that bloke as his stepping-stone, I just want to punch such a stupid tortoise to death.”
The woman glanced at him and laughed. “If it weren’t for that bloke, you probably wouldn’t come to this lake to see it till death.”
The man furrowed his brows and remained silent.
Suddenly he thought that it was improper if he did something too much.
…
More than half of Li Fuyao’s boat trip on the lake surface almost finished, and he could reach Menchen Mountain soon. Liu Yuanlu who rowed the boat was not as scared as before and looked relieved. Thinking that he could see that girl after going back, he was excited.
While Li Fuyao felt heartbroken as he thought that he would give out a thousand-mile ring.
But in a short while, the lake surface became unstable all of a sudden.
The boat swayed wildly.
Li Fuyao stood up and grasped the broken machete.
In the lake, a huge tortoise broke the water and showed up, causing countless waves.
The huge tortoise opened its big bloody mouth.
The sharp teeth in its mouth could be seen clearly.
Liu Yuanlu was dumbfounded.
Before Liu Yuanlu reacted, Li Fuyao who stood on the bow waved his “sword”.