Feng Yu Jiu Tian - Volume 14 - Chapter 2

FENG YU JIU TIAN VOLUME 14 CHAPTER 2

Steep cliffs and waves crash against the shores.

Zi Yan was like a withered statue under rain and wind for hundreds of years and still standing quietly on the cliff facing the sea.

He has been standing there for more than three hours, even his little finger did not make any slight movements. After a long and harsh training, he had developed a habit of surveying the enemies’ movements while standing stiff in the mountains.

The sea was calm, but Zi Yan’s focused eyes could see the distant place offshore. He was fully aware that his dangerous enemy was lurking beyond that area.

The pirates along the Dan Lin Strait are brutal and violent, the whole world trembled in fear of them. They hid in the dark like invisible swords underneath the deep waters; sharp and cold like icicles, occupying the entire main area of the sea. No matter if it’s a merchant ship, fishing boats or a royal fleet, if they were to enter this sea, it’ will be no different than swimming within the pirates’ palm. Whether you get ambushed or not will only depend on God’s blessing or the pirates’ mood.

Because of this, the high profit obtained by delivering the luminescent sand has always brought a touch of fear in others, which makes it hard to force them into danger, thus, the price of the luminescent sand has always skyrocketed.

Under these conditions, opening a safe water route to transport the sand from Dan Lin to the mainland is an easy thing to say, but hard to accomplish. The problem the Holy Master Xiao gave Duke Ming to solve is a very difficult one indeed.

Before leaving Feng Ming, Zi Yan had made a suggestion. He would head to Tong Kingdom and complete two things for Feng Ming. The first one was to investigate the current situation in Tong Kingdom so that Feng Ming, Rong Hu and the others wouldn’t continue heading there blindly without prior knowledge. The second thing was to solve the luminescent sand water route issue.

No one clearly understands how terrifying the pirates are than he did.

The time he served the Great King and was put on secret order to train in this area, he had encountered no fewer than twenty big and small pirate battles. But what made him understand the frightful truth of the pirates was that surprise night attack.

That beautiful peaceful night, the sea was calmer than any other nights, when the hideous, fearsome men boarded the ship from different sides. Zi Yan was calm and fearless in nature, but for the first time when those slender narrowed eagle eyes stared at him, his heart was a bit in shock.

Those times when Zi Yan repeatedly battled with the pirates, he had several victories and thought he somewhat understood the strength and tactics of the pirates in Dan Lin. However, after that surprised attack where he narrowly escaped, he finally understood that those past encounters with the pirates were just the insignificant small predators of Dan Lin Strait.

Silently stalking, quietly ambushing without their target’s knowledge, and using the seawater and wind as their advantage, they were able to attack the boat in the darkness under their leader’s command. It was orderly and everyone’s roles were divided up clearly. These pirates’ attack was at the highest level of efficiency, merciless and evil, which are the powerful forces within these raging waters.

Dan Lin – He Di, this man with many different identities. Not only is he a royalty of Dan Lin, but he is also a pirate. Even though he is considered a ruthless bandit, he is also a calculating individual who is deeply admired for his insightfulness, one of his most impressive traits.

If the strait of Dan Lin didn’t have frightening pirates, the plentiful luminescent sand along the coast of Dan Lin would not become a valuable treasure that everyone in the world would pay any amount of gold and silver to buy.

The price of the sand skyrocketed, making the Dan Lin Royalties the richest in the world. Separated by a strait, they can rely on the strait and the pirates as shields while sitting on the sideline, watching the other nations kill each other on the mainland. Not only that, they are also enjoying the extravagant gifts double handed to them for the luminescent sand.

Zi Yan finally came down from the cliff and headed back to where the Xiao Family’s convoy was waiting.

ZY: Each ship departs separately in four different directions.

Zi Yan reached inside his chest pocket to pull out a sea map, spreading it out and pointing at the network of lines he drew onto the map.

ZY: Unload everything except for a small amount of water and food, leave behind two boxes of gold and silver.

One elder sailor looked at the map, anxiously replying, “These ships of ours are not used to undergo rough seas, the fresh water and food are not enough. Not just that, these waters are filled with pirates, even if there are no wind or waves, to cross the Dan Lin Strait is not an easy task, not to mention separating the ships…”

ZY: The ships are not heading to Dan Lin. You are to depart into four different directions. When sailing off, scatter the gold and silver in each cabin. Once you discover the presence of pirates, there’s no need to battle them, immediately abandon the ship and use a small boat to escape. But the most important thing is that you must keep in mind the time and location of the ambush and report it back to me.

The subordinates in charge of the convoy for the Xiao Family who had experienced many years at sea, immediately understood as their faces slightly changed. Someone whispered, “The pirates are not to be trifled with, this is not a small matter. Should we wait until Young Lord comes to Tong Kingdom to decide this?”

ZY: I have the Xiao Family’s plate from Duke Ming and thus, I’m entitled to mobilize the fleet. You just need to act according to that order.

He was adamant about his decision, making the crowd of men answer in agreement.

Knowing that they will meet pirates, the ones chosen for the task were highly skilled and unafraid of death. The Xiao Family men headed out according to Zi Yan’s direction. Once they discovered the presence of pirates, they immediately abandoned the ship, looked up to the sky and used astronomical observation to determine their location.

As for those ships, they were lost in the palm of the pirates. Luckily, the Xiao Family’s fortune is large and Zi Yan will take on all the responsibility so none of them were worried.

Zi Yan prepared brush and ink, jolting down one record for each person who came back. He wrote down the size of the pirate vessel, their speed, the number of pirates, whether the matter was big or small, he asked each person with utmost carefulness.

The fours ships were not attacked at the same time, thus the small boats came back at different times. After questioning one boat, another would return. Just like that, he was busy questioning and only when the sun was at its peak did he stopped writing.

The person in charge of the Xiao’s convey was Ran Hu, who is related to one of Feng Ming’s ten Xiao family bodyguards – Ran Qing – as uncle and nephew. Even though his name means “tiger”, he is an easy-ongoing and cautious person. After meeting Zi Yan who presented himself with the Xiao Family’s plate from Feng Ming, they had been getting along well.

Zi Yan and Ran Hu finished all the necessary records together. Seeing Zi Yan marking the map of Dan Lin Strait, he stated, “You seem very familiar with the Dan Lin Strait.”

ZY: The pirates along the Dan Lin Strait appear seemingly everywhere and roam around in rampant. If you encountered them, they might attack immediately, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Take a look.

Zi Yan placed his brush down, he drew a curved line connected into an arc based on the records he collected regarding the location of the attacks.

ZY: Outside of this arc, the vessel should be safe, but once any ships enter this line, it will disturb the pirates.

Ran Hu quickly understood, “This area of the sea must have lots of pirates to survey whenever a vessel appears.”

Zi Yan nodded his head. The order to send the ships in four directions along the sea was not random. Since coming to the coast, he tried to recall the original scene he had fought with the pirates. His intuition told him that the pirates may seem scattered with a leader for each group, but they are all internally related. Using the abandoned ships of the Xiao Family as sacrifices to investigate a few places just prove his speculation.

Now that his guesses are right, the situation seems more serious.

Ran Hu saw Zi Yan’s face taut upright, he smiled and patted the young general who was about the same age as his nephew and advised, “Don’t worry too much. The pirates of Dan Lin are notorious for being difficult to deal with. Their habits of running amok at sea is because they rely on their viciousness and familiarity of the sea conditions. Next time, the Xiao family will travel by large ships loaded with highly skilled men. Even if we encounter the pirates, we can still fight back. The sea is boundlessly wide, if we meet them, it’ll only be a matter of who’s stronger. These pirates have small and big ones, we won’t necessary meet the big ones.”

His words did not have any effect. After listening to him, Zi Yan was still staring at the map more carefully.

ZY: Take a look at this area.

Taking his brush, he made a dot near the edge of Dan Lin and the arc. After finishing, he looked up to see Ran Hu’s response.

RH: An island?

ZY: (nodded his head) These small islands are scattered along the Dan Lin’s coast and Dan Lin Strait. Among them, there are two that appear on every sea map, everyone knows this. As for the others, I’ve found them that one year I was on duty. Ran Zongguan, based on the time and location the four ships were attacked, take a look once more and tell me what you see.

Hearing him speak cautiously, Ran Hu became attentive. He picked up the map Zi Yan had recorded on and looked at it with careful eyes.

Even though Ran Hu was old, he had qualifications, but still he cannot compare to the main zongguan (*caretaker) Luo Deng.

That year when Xiao Zong left to battle the pirates, he returned alone and defeated. Because of Xiao Zong’s order, Luo Deng was silent on the matter and certainly would not tell any other fleet who were not involved, like Ran Hu. Not just that, Ran Hu’s convoy mainly come in contact within the vicinity of Bo Jian’s coastal border, therefore, their understanding of the pirates in Dan Lin is not as knowledgeable as Zi Yan.

After a long moment, he put down the map. Although his face was not pale, his eyes were slightly different than before.

Zi Yan did not wait for him to speak, he marked three spots on the map, “That year, these three areas I’ve investigated has rapid whirlpools. Those undercurrents change according to the seasons. Ships that have no understanding of the situation would likely meet with misfortune.”

Ran Hu’s eyes flickered, staring at the modified map, his voice lowered, “This would hinder our ships, along with the tight knitted islands and the undercurrent as a natural barrier, traveling southeast would be difficult to cross the Dan Sea. It seems that this sea is entirely controlled by the pirates. Also…they are not acting randomly on their own, but taking orders from one leader?”

So it seems that in order to battle head on with the pirates, one has to become a powerful naval captain.

RH: If that is the case, even with a large fleet with highly skilled Xiao men, encountering the pirates might not end in good result. I thought that this route should be the easiest to break through if there is enough manpower and a vast fleet, along with plenty of water, food, weapons, and a slow response surveillance by the pirates in which we could capture them, but now I know that I’ve been wrong. As soon as the pirates sense something is wrong, they can send a signal to the nearest island and if they immediately send for reinforcement, we will be caught in a dangerous position. The only route of escape would be northeast, but what would be waiting for us would be a terrible whirlpool engulfing a whole ship…How hateful! When did these pirates create a tight surveillance line like this?

ZY: Talking about the surveillance line, it was not perfected before, leaving a few flaws. I have marked several routes that I had successfully broken through and reached Dan Lin’s coast. However, after several investigations, those flaws were discovered by the pirates and mended.

RH: I still can’t quite believe it. The pirates of Dan Sea had been fighting for centuries, there has to be at least four or five different groups of pirates. I have never heard any of them taking orders from anyone. Could it be that there was someone with great skill who subdue all of them? After forcing them to pledge allegiance, the secret was not declared. So who exactly is this greatly skilled person?

Who could it be….

A pair of sharp eyes instantly flashed inside Zi Yan’s mind.

The man’s eyes made him extremely uncomfortable, whenever he recalled of it, a slight tug was felt without warning, something hard to ignore.

According to Zi Yan’s intuition, those pair of cold eyes, he was sure that this person who is not quite known among the eleven kingdoms was still a powerful figure. If Zi Yan cannot get rid of this person, Duke Ming will have no other way to open up a sea route to transport the luminescent sand and complete the task Holy Master Xiao Zong gave him.

Moreover, how could the kind and gentle Duke Ming deal with this person?

RH: First, we must report this situation to the Young Lord and see what his plan would be. Right now, we shouldn’t act recklessly since we already lost four ships and didn’t result in anything worth mentioning.

ZY: We’ve lost four ships, but if we didn’t do it then there won’t be any progress.

Ran Hu was slightly shocked while looking at Zi Yan, he silently thought, no wonder this person is Xi Lei King’s subordinate, his courage is comparable to Xiao Family’s league of assassination. He asked, “Do you have a plan?”

ZY: The pirates have been against the regime for centuries, they’ve been accustomed to a carefree life, but after encountering a force more powerful than theirs, they were forced to yield allegiance. Once that unified leader disappears, those once integrated pirates would be in chaos, torn apart. At that time, the tight surveillance line would no longer exist, we can use that opportunity to defeat each one and open the sea route. We must shoot the horse before the person, capture the king before defeating the enemy, this strategy can be applied to the current situation.

RH: Shoot the horse before the person, capture the king before defeating the enemy? Great! This statement is indeed brilliant.

ZY: These words were from Duke Ming. Next time when Ran Zongguan meet the Young Lord, you will hear more incisive words from him.

RH: Ah? Hearing you say that, I am eager to meet the Young Lord. Ha, who would have thought that the world famous Duke Ming is the Old Master’s son?

After chuckling, Ran Hu returned to the topic, “But this is something easier said than done. First of all, we don’t know who is the leader of the pirates. Second, even if we do know, how do we get rid of him?”

“I have a plan.”

“Oh?”

Zi Yan pulled out a letter and handed to Ran Hu, “Ran Zongguan, please request someone to send this letter out as soon as possible. Hopefully before Duke Ming catches up to us, this matter will be solved.”

Ran Hu received the letter, seeing a few words written on it, “To Dan Lin Second Prince, He Di,” he asked in surprise, “How is this matter related to the Prince of Dan Lin?”

ZY: Ran Zongguan don’t need to ask much, just have this letter sent. Even though the pirates are ruthless, but towards a fishing boat who has paid enough money for permission of sea usage, they will give clearance. As long as enough gold and silver is received, they would agree to send a message for those borrowing route to Dan Lin.

After finishing, Zi Yan finally revealed a slight smile.

He knew what kind of consequence this letter may bring. It’s very strange, although he only met this person once, it seems that he understood him very well.

Proud, overbearing, unscrupulous, intolerable of belittlement by others, not only that – grievances must be avenged. He can’t forget how he stabbed that man’s right shoulder. No matter what, Zi Yan was never afraid.

Despite the consequences, he was not worried. He is aware of the importance of opening this route. The one year time limit will pass very fast. According to his understanding, Holy Master Xiao is a heartless person and he knows that His Majesty will not allow Holy Master Xiao to touch a single hair of Duke Ming.

In addition to that, this is the time that His Majesty requires support from the Xiao Family’s fortune. He has to use the fastest and most direct method to create a safe water route. No matter how stupid and unimaginable that method is, even if there is only a small chance of success, he is willing to pay the price, no matter how big that price is.

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