Chapter 89.2: Cultivating Intent (II)

Ding, ding, ding!

Just as Lu Changsheng was pondering about Intent in his cabin, the sharp sound of alarm bells tore through the air, interrupting his train of thought. Frowning, he rose to his feet and stepped outside.

The moment he reached the deck, he saw five massive pirate ships cutting through the waves straight toward them.

“Hurry! Change course, there are pirates!” the captain shouted.

On the open sea, sailors feared two things above all else: storms and pirates. They had barely survived a violent storm the day before, and now another disaster was upon them. The captain barked orders relentlessly as the crew scrambled to turn the ship. Unfortunately, the winds were not on their side, and worse still, their ship was simply too large to make quick turns. At this rate, they would not be able to escape the pirates.

At that moment, Sophie rushed up to the captain. “Captain, can we give them some silver and send them away?” she asked, her voice tight with anxiety.

The captain, a burly man with a thick beard, stared at the five approaching ships and shook his head grimly. “Miss Sophie, if they were ordinary pirates, perhaps. But look at their flags. These are Taotie[1] pirates. They have never spared anyone for silver. They drag ships back to their lair. If we stop, we’re done for.”

Hearing that, all color drained from Sophie’s face. She could only watch the pirate ships draw closer and closer.

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

The pirates started shooting arrows at the ship.

“Everyone back to your cabins!” the captain roared.

Arrows rained down across the deck. Panic spread instantly; people ran in all directions, but many were too slow. Screams rang out as bodies fell, pierced before they could reach cover. Only a handful managed to protect themselves using martial arts. Among them were Lu Changsheng and Yun Haitang.

Yun Haitang snapped her soft whip through the air, its movements swift and precise. The whip formed a tight barrier around her, knocking arrows aside before they could come close.

Lu Changsheng’s response was even simpler. He raised his hand, and blood qi formed around him like a wall. Arrow after arrow struck the barrier, only to rebound and clatter uselessly onto the deck.

Yun Haitang did not miss that. The way Lu Changsheng used his blood qi caught her attention.

To maintain such defenses requires an enormous amount of blood qi, the kind that would drain most martial artists dry, how could he afford to waste it like this?

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

While the arrows continued raining down, thick ropes shot through the air as the pirates hurled grappling hooks toward the ship. One after another, the hooks bit into the hull and railings, locking tight.

“Cut them off! Hurry, cut the hooks!” the captain screamed.

He sent his guards rushing forward, but the moment they stepped onto the deck, arrows tore through them. The captain could only watch as more grappling hooks latched on to his ship.

“It’s over… We’re done…” He sank to the deck, his voice cracking, his eyes hollow. “Once they take us to their lair, we’ll all be slaves. Worked like cattle until we drop…” His hands trembled. If that was their fate, he would rather die here than live to see it.

At the same time, the pirates began to shout from their ships.

“Everyone aboard, listen carefully!” a voice bellowed across the water. “From this moment on, you belong to the Taotie pirates. Get back into your cabins. Do not move without permission. Anyone who stays on deck, or dares to resist, will be killed on the spot.”

Slowly, the ship of the Far Ocean Merchant Guild began to move, dragged toward the pirates’ lair. Faces drained of color across the deck. Fear spread silently, heavy and suffocating, leaving everyone feeling helpless and trapped.

Even Yun Haitang frowned deeply. She was an Organ Refinement martial artist, strong by any ordinary standard, but she was still only one person. Against so many pirates, she would not come out victorious.

She bit her lip, still wanting to do something because once they reached the lair, there would truly be no turning back. More importantly, she still had matters to settle on Fire Dragon Island. She could not accept ending her journey as a pirate’s slave.

Once they were at the lair, there would be little that could be done. Yun Haitan bit her lip. She still had important things to do on Fire Dragon Island, and she could not accept ending up as a slave for the pirates.

She turned to Lu Changsheng. “Brother Dao, do you have any way to escape?”

When she first laid eyes on him, she had already sensed that Dao Shier was a man with extraordinary talent, and the blood qi barrier he raised earlier had proven he was stronger than she was. In this open sea, surrounded by enemies, she could only hope he saw a path she could not.

Lu Changsheng looked toward the distant pirate ships, his expression cold. If they were dragged away like this, he would never return to Zhanhai City. He would not allow for that to happen.

“I don’t know how we can escape, but dealing with these pirates should be easy enough.”

“Easy?”

Yun Haitang’s eyes darted across the five pirate ships in disbelief. There had to be thousands of pirates aboard them; some of them were surely Organ Refinement martial artists. No matter how strong Dao Shier was, how could he possibly face all of them alone?

Lu Changsheng offered no explanation. Instead, he walked toward the edge of the ship and stepped onto one of the grappling hooks. With another light jump, he landed on the thick rope connecting them to a pirate ship and slowly made his way to the pirates.

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

The pirates immediately fired a volley of arrows at Lu Changsheng, but they were all blocked by his blood qi barrier and fell harmlessly into the sea.

Moments later, Lu Changsheng landed on the deck of one of the pirate ships. The sight left everyone frozen in shock.

“Is Mr. Dao planning to deal with the pirates by himself?” Sophie asked, her eyes wide.

On the pirate ship, Lu Changsheng was quickly surrounded, but with the blood qi barrier shielding him, he was not concerned at all. Truth be told, he had no interest in fighting them. In fact, there was simply no need to. Out here on the open sea, the simplest way to deal with pirates was not to fight them, but to sink their ships. These pirate vessels were sturdy, built from reinforced materials. Minor damage would never be enough to bring one down.

Of course, the damage Lu Changsheng was about to inflict would not be minor. He raised his fist and slammed it into the deck.

Boom!

Lu Changsheng unleashed the Third Dragon Transformation with this strike. A hundred and eighty cauldrons of strength erupted from his body, layered with shock force. The power surged through the deck and straight through the hull.

Crack!

A massive hole tore open at the bottom of the ship. Seawater burst inward, and the ship started to sink. Instantly, panic exploded across the deck.

“What just happened?”

“The hull is breached! The ship is sinking!”

“Run!”

The pirates scattered in terror, their faces pale as they stared at Lu Changsheng. Who was this man, capable of smashing through a ship of this size with a single blow?

Lu Changsheng paid no attention to them and moved on to the next pirate ship. He delivered the same strike to each of the remaining pirate vessels, and when he was done, he calmly returned to the deck of the merchant ship.

“Captain,” he said calmly, “cut the grappling hooks. The pirates are already fish food.”

Silence fell over the merchant ship as everyone stared at the sinking pirate vessels. Five ships had been destroyed in mere seconds, and thousands of pirates were being swallowed by the sea. No one could believe that everything had ended so quickly.

Everyone was in awe of Lu Changsheng, but Long Sha, in particular, felt a chill crawl up his spine. He lowered his head, wishing desperately that Dao Shier would not notice him.

What was I thinking before? He shook his head, staring at the floor. He could not believe he had dared to offend someone like this, or even imagined teaching him a lesson.

Yun Haitang, on the other hand, could not tear her gaze away from Lu Changsheng. Divine Strength Realm… Only a Divine Strength expert could sink five pirate ships so easily.

1. The Taotie is one of the Four Perils of Chinese mythology. It is usually depicted as a monster with a massive head and a giant mouth, but no body. Legend says it was so greedy that it ate everything in sight, and eventually, it even ate its own body, leaving only its head. So unlike “normal” pirates who might accept gold or silver to let them go, the Taotie Pirates act like the mythological monster. ☜

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep