Chapter 78: The Island's Eerie Mystery

Another ten days passed. The tiger bones had fully replaced the human bones, and when Kou Li rose or sat, he exuded a fierce, commanding presence. His joints were visibly larger, his teeth whiter and more closely set—for the teeth are the tips of the bones, and such transformation was only natural.

Day after day, Kou Li practiced his boxing in the deep water. Watching him, Young Mistress Huang was at once full of admiration and exasperation. “How can you still care about training at a time like this?” she sighed.

Lin Su’e gazed at his distant silhouette, her eyes soft, her smile gentle.

“Do you like her?” Young Mistress Huang’s eyes sparkled with mischief as she whispered, “If you really do, I have a way to help.”

Before Lin Su’e could respond, Kou Li approached and said, “Today I need to go to the center of the island. I may not return tonight. Be careful, both of you. In particular, watch for pirate ships along the shore.”

“I want to go to the center!” Young Mistress Huang said excitedly, and Lin Su’e’s expression showed she, too, was eager to go.

Their reason was simple—bathing.

A woman’s love of cleanliness knows no boundaries. At first, they managed with seawater, but after a few days, they realized that washing in the brine made their skin peel. The shock left them terrified.

The dew they collected morning and night was barely enough to drink—let alone for such luxuries as bathing.

“The center of the island is strange,” Kou Li warned, frowning. “I can’t protect both of you at once.”

“Let me go first,” Young Mistress Huang volunteered. “I’ll scout ahead for Sister Su’e. Next time, you can go.” Lin Su’e was gentle by nature and offered no objection. After a little preparation, the two women set out with him.

The island where the three of them were stranded wasn’t large—about six miles across. Kou Li had once circled its perimeter but had never dared explore the interior. Now, with his martial skills at their peak, he felt it was time to investigate.

The island’s peculiarity was not the work of gods, but of demons and spirits.

They walked five or six miles. The forest grew more perilous and overgrown, wild beasts more numerous. In the gloom, green eyes flashed—man-eating apes, savage stags with murderous eyes, wild boars bristling with fangs.

“This place is so strange,” said Young Mistress Huang, fear creeping into her voice. “Even if an island has rare beasts, there should only be one or two, not monsters everywhere.”

“If you’re scared, don’t come,” Kou Li shot her a sidelong glance.

“I’m not afraid!” she protested.

“Fear isn’t something you choose. You couldn’t even protect yourself back on the gambling ship.”

“I came here to reclaim my destiny!” Young Mistress Huang retorted, her anger flaring.

“Right now, your fate is in my hands. Keep quiet!” Kou Li yanked her behind a tree, avoiding a pack of mutant wildcats—each larger than a leopard.

“We’re almost there.”

Young Mistress Huang took a deep breath and dared not utter another word. They followed Kou Li another hundred yards, when he suddenly grabbed her arm and signaled her to stop. In the angle of three great stones, a stream cascaded down, frothing with clean, sparkling bubbles.

“Ah!” Young Mistress Huang exclaimed. Even the famed hot springs of the Imperial Pools paled in comparison to the allure of this water.

“I must bathe!” she declared with fierce resolve, ready to fight for it if necessary.

“You have half an incense stick’s time,” Kou Li said.

“You’re not allowed to peek. Stay a hundred feet away, and make sure I’m safe,” she demanded, then added, “I’ve read the Essentials of Boxing, the palace’s treasured edition. Don’t you want to know its secrets?”

“Deal.”

Yet, even as she spoke, Young Mistress Huang slipped into the water clothes and all. Only behind the rocks did she hang her outer and undergarments to dry, and the gentle sound of splashing drifted over.

Kou Li felt a heat stir within him, but forced himself to breathe deeply and head downstream. He was no saint, but he kept his word.

He noticed now that the stream ran between groves of redwood fruit trees. Their trunks shone blood-red and exuded a strange, subtle fragrance. On their branches grew clusters of odd, blue-skinned, peach-shaped fruit. Among dozens of trees, only four fruits were fully ripe—and from them issued the unmistakable aroma of flesh.

A flash of insight struck Kou Li as he connected these strange fruits to the island’s mysteries. Wonders of heaven and earth, rare fruits—his heart raced with excitement.

Wrapping his hand in cloth, he reached for one. The instant his fingers touched the skin, a searing heat surged up as if the scorch of summer sun had invaded his body. Fortunately, the Icy Soul Pearl at his neck countered with its chill, the two forces neutralizing each other.

He seized the moment and pulled—but the fruit would not budge.

Suddenly, a wind howled. From trunk and branches emerged faces, black and hollow, jaws gaping as if to bite. Kou Li’s body snapped backward, leaping ten feet away as a black wind swept through.

This wind felt less like air than blades stabbing his organs, twisting inside him, a pain that pierced to the marrow. His vision blurred—he seemed to see demons clawing at his belly, gnawing at his flesh.

As the chill wind passed, the agony faded.

Panting, Kou Li cast a long, searching look at the monstrous trees, then turned and left without hesitation.

He had found the root of the island’s strangeness.

But by now, the time he’d promised had long passed. No sound came from the stream. Young Mistress Huang knew his temper well.

Kou Li’s eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, he plunged into the water, circled behind the rocks, and saw a woman’s naked form floating on the surface—skin like creamy jade, her chest exposed, long hair fanned out in the water, and a beautiful face shadowed by a wisp of black mist.

No time to check if she lived or died—at that moment, a violent rustling in the undergrowth reached his ears, accompanied by a suffocating sense of oppression, as if something slick were crawling over his body.

Where there were monstrous fruits, there would be demons.

He pulled some clothing on her, enough to cover her modesty, then scooped her up and dove beneath the water.

The pressure vanished instantly.

Moments after they left, the commotion in the wild grew louder—trees uprooted, tangled undergrowth parted. And there, emerging from the grass, was Young Mistress Huang’s slyly grinning face.

Who knew how long passed before the stream grew shallow, the vines and brush thickened. With a splash, Kou Li surfaced.

The woman in his arms, her clothing soaked and clinging, her shoulders bare, her curves revealed, presented an alluring sight—but Kou Li had no mind for such things. He waded ashore, laid her down—her skin ice-cold, her breathing faint, the black mist on her face deepening.

Her condition was surely connected to the supernatural changes in the forest.

After a moment’s hesitation, Kou Li opened her mouth and breathed life into her, pounding her back and chest. At last, water trickled from her lips and he relaxed a little.

This enigmatic Young Mistress Huang—alive, she was trouble; dead, even more so.

Given her strange state, Kou Li dared not attempt further remedies. Through the night, he rushed back, hoping that Lin Su’e, skilled physician though she was, might somehow work a miracle on this barren, medicine-starved island.

…

Lin Su’e checked the pulse, examined her eyes, pricked her finger for blood, and mixed the drops with sap from unknown plants. Before their eyes, the blood turned black, then yellow, and gave off a foul, fetid odor.

“It’s poison—a powerful one at that,” Lin Su’e said, her brow furrowed.

“Is she saveable?” Kou Li asked at once.

“I’ve never seen a poison like this, nor does the island have the herbs to make an antidote. I can only suppress it, using one toxin to check another.” Lin Su’e’s hands moved swiftly, her composure returning.

“I need five leaves of this shape, and these, and these…”

Kou Li memorized them all and returned to the woods to gather herbs. From deep within, the sounds of savage creatures echoed. It seemed that after that night, the island’s beasts had all gone mad.

…

Meanwhile, a hundred miles out to sea, a pirate ship built of cherrywood sailed with the current. On deck sat a delicate young girl, her face cold yet charming, clad in the ironwood demon armor unique to the Land of the Wa, a long, slender blade in her right hand.

Behind her stood at least a hundred black-clad, masked ninja assassins.

“In this world, noble girls are all called princesses. I am Princess Sakura of the Shin’in Clan, but she is the Phoenix Princess of a great nation. If I slay her, there will be none nobler than I. She must die!”

Behind her, screams echoed. The Xu retainers’ fingers, toes, waists, and bellies were all clamped in torture devices, their bones wrenched and twisted.

At last, one servant could bear it no more and wailed, “Enough! Please, master, I’ll talk—my lord once told the young master, near this shipping route lies an unexplored island. If she’s alive, that’s where you’ll find her!”

“Stop!” snapped a middle-aged man, clearly distinct from the other assassins by his scarred face and eyes as deep as the sea.

“Miss Sakura, after we search this island and take the enemy’s head, will you finally return home?”

“You talk too much, Grandmaster Shinobi. My father sent you to protect me, not to command me. Would you have me break my word?”

“I dare not,” the shinobi master replied, bowing.

“These are days when the low surpass the high. My father compromises too much with the Southern Court—such weakness! I will see the princess of the Southern Court kneel at my feet!”

“Bring my wine, quickly! I wish to drink with the boundless ocean!”

The shinobi master’s mouth twitched. In a flash of smoke, he vanished.