Chapter 107: Chapter 107
The dying sun sank westward, dyeing Yunyi Island’s western dock a piercing, bloody red.
CLANG!
Ji Ning flicked the last few drops of blood from his blade and sheathed the sword in a single motion.
He had shattered the Hidden Strength barrier and, the moment he emerged from seclusion, had crushed Tang Jin across a full realm gap — even severing the man’s arm.
Yet Ji Ning’s expression was unchanged. Not a trace of self-satisfaction. As though he had done nothing of note.
He stood in silence, watching the Patrol Envoys and guards run down the stragglers.
Amid flashing steel, the screams of fleeing bandits rose one after another.
Most of the water bandits were cut down. Only a few dozen managed to scramble aboard their boats, oars slapping the water in a panic as they fled.
Moments later, the dock fell quiet once more.
Ji Ning turned. His gaze settled on Shen Xiuhan.
“Patrol Envoy Shen… have you broken through to Sinew Tempering?”
“I have.”
Shen Xiuhan acknowledged it with clasped fists.
He had been hidden in the bamboo grove the entire time Shen Xiuhan killed Tu Xiaotian, watching everything unfold.
Without a Sinew Tempering breakthrough, overpowering that vicious bandit would have been impossible.
“Impressive… you did extremely well.”
Ji Ning’s voice carried a note of genuine admiration.
“When I received the signal and came out of seclusion, I found Chen Xin had already killed Deng Shan and three others. He was ransacking the bamboo building for valuables when I caught him red-handed.”
“After I crippled his limbs and interrogated him, I learned of the Chenjian Wu assault. I concealed my presence in the bamboo grove to maximize the damage — cripple as many as possible.”
“I’d expected to seriously wound one or two at best, and would have counted that a great victory…”
Here Ji Ning looked at Shen Xiuhan, something bright and unexpected flickering in his gaze.
“What I didn’t foresee was that you’d single-handedly kill Tu Xiaotian, driving Tang Jin and Pang Yi into a blind rage — and giving me the opening I needed.”
“Not only did we capture Pang Yi, we dealt Tang Jin a crippling blow… This is a great triumph, and the lion’s share of the credit belongs to you.”
Shen Xiuhan’s face was calm. He clasped his fists. “The garrison commander flatters me. It was luck, nothing more.”
“Luck… very well, very well.”
Ji Ning shook his head with a rueful laugh. His gaze drifted to Shen Xiuhan’s waist, and through the fabric, he seemed to sense something. One brow rose.
“Just now… did you use the Four Seas Heart-Link Disc to locate me?”
“I did.”
Shen Xiuhan answered openly.
“Today, out on the lake, I met a man named Xiao Wu. He gave me this treasure and told me that in an emergency, I could use it to reach you…”
“Xiao Wu…”
Hearing the name, Ji Ning’s face showed no surprise — only a hint of helpless amusement.
“Of course it was Brother Xiao. He loves making friends, yet his standards are sky-high. If he gave you a daughter disc, it means you’ve earned his respect.”
“Good. A friend of Brother Xiao’s is a friend of mine. Let’s drop the formalities from now on — call me brother.”
“Well…”
Shen Xiuhan hesitated for only a moment, then clasped his fists without reservation.
“Brother Ji!”
“Ha ha ha! Good!”
Ji Ning laughed openly.
He seemed to share a close bond with Xiao Wu. Learning that Xiao Wu had given Shen Xiuhan a daughter disc warmed his manner considerably.
After a brief exchange, Ji Ning’s expression turned solemn again.
“This time, Chenjian Wu lost Pang Yi, Chen Xin, and Tu Xiaotian — three chiefs. Tang Jin was badly wounded on top of that. We’ve made bitter enemies of them.”
“To guard against a desperate retaliation, I’ll send word to the family tonight and have more fighters dispatched. Once we hold out through the end of this month, we’ll go ashore together and return to the city to report and collect our rewards.”
Shen Xiuhan gave a small nod. His voice was level.
“That’s the right course.”
He understood perfectly well: crushing Chenjian Wu’s chiefs was deeply satisfying, but winning one battle was no cause for complacency.
If anything, this was the most dangerous stretch of all. They had to tighten their guard against a revenge assault born of humiliation and fury.
With that settled, Ji Ning moved with swift decisiveness.
He ordered the Patrol Envoys to lead their men in scrubbing down the dock and clearing the battlefield. Enemy corpses were stacked and burned.
Then he had the cooks slaughter pigs and goats, setting up great cauldrons in the rear camp to boil meat — a lavish feast of reward for every squad.
For a time, cooking smoke and the lingering tang of blood rose together from Yunyi Island, curling into the sky.
…
Dongyi Island. Deep in its interior.
Within a sprawling compound built like a fortress.
Fire-baskets flickered deep inside the main hall, stretching every shadow into twisted shapes.
In the left-hand grand chair, a mountain of flesh sat sprawled in the posture of a man who owned the world.
A monk.
Six coin-sized ordination scars were branded on his scalp, arranged in a plum-blossom pattern.
One hand clutched half a roasted haunch of some beast, grease sizzling, which he tore into with great, ripping bites.
The other hand held a wine jar aloft. He tipped his head back and guzzled, throat bobbing, liquor spilling over and soaking the hair on his chest.
Pinned in his arms was a woman in palace finery — seized from who knew where.
Her cloud-coiled hair had come undone, a gold hairpin askew, robes half-fallen. She trembled like a bird caught in the claws of a demon — pitiable, lovely, and utterly terrified. Tear-tracks lined her cheeks, though she dared not make a sound.
This monk was none other than Chenjian Wu’s Second Chief.
The Blood Ascetic!
Across from him sat two more men.
One stood ramrod straight — martial attire, leather belt, spine like a spear — radiating the sharp, contained menace of a born general.
The other was a plump, middle-aged man draped in luxurious brocade.
His ten stubby fingers worked a pair of jade walnuts. His round face wore a genial smile — the very picture of warmth — yet behind those crescent-moon eyes, flickers of cold, calculating cunning surfaced and vanished.
These two were Chenjian Wu’s Third Chief, “Spear General” Lu Juncheng, and the Fourth Chief, “Fat Merchant” Jia Pingxiu.
Both men had their eyes on the center of the hall.
There, a man knelt — face chalk-white, clothes soaked through with blood.
His right shoulder was wrapped in white cloth where the arm had been. Blood still seeped through, dripping along the bindings to pool in a dark-red stain on the floor.
Tang Jin. Fled back in disgrace.
And the direction Tang Jin knelt toward was, of course, the seat of honor.
That seat was draped with the pelt of a white-striped great tiger.
The tiger’s head hung over the chair’s arm, fangs bared, eyes wide — still carrying the ferocity of its living days.
A middle-aged man in splendid brocade reclined within, his bearing absolutely imperial.
His left elbow rested on a rosewood table. A broad palm propped his jaw. His right hand toyed with a mutton-fat jade cup, swirling it gently, the wine inside tracing fine ripples.
This man was no one else.
He was the lord of Yunshui Lake, the name that made countless merchant ships tremble with dread — Chenjian Wu’s Great Chief.
Duan Xiao.
Duan Xiao gazed down at the kneeling Tang Jin. His deep voice rolled through the hall.
“So… this Ji boy turns out to be quite something.”
He set down the cup. The jade kissed the table with a soft click. A cold gleam passed through his narrow eyes.
“Freshly broken into Hidden Strength, his realm not even stabilized, and already he can project a sword gleam powerful enough to cripple you… Heh. That kind of talent outstrips even the Ji Guannan of those days.”
BANG!
The Blood Ascetic hurled his wine jar to the floor. Dregs splashed. The woman in his arms flinched, her whole body jolting.
The demonic monk showed no tenderness. One hand plunged into her robes, heedless of the pain that twisted her lovely face. He bared his teeth in a hideous grin.
“Who cares what genius he is!”
“Back then, Ji Guannan was the Ji clan’s eldest legitimate son — their future head — and we still killed him and boiled him down into a blood pill, didn’t we?”
“What’s a Ji Ning? Some slave-dog’s whelp who got lucky enough to be given the Ji surname — so what?”