Chapter 930: Basking the Salted Fish

This ship was a new one purchased by He Lingchuan; from the timber to the craftsmanship, it was impeccable, but whether it could withstand the furious Yin-serpents? No one was optimistic.

With the sun hanging high, the Yin-serpents dared not board the ship to attack, so they tried to bore through the hull to drag everyone into the water.

The water was their primary battlefield.

He Lingchuan patted the deck hard: "Come out quickly, you are the hope of everyone on this ship!"

Min Tianxi subconsciously looked toward the narrow hatch, only to see a pair of thick, fuzzy chelicerae emerge from the darkness, prying at the door panel to squeeze out.

He was closest to the hatch and jumped away two steps upon seeing this. No matter what monster was inside, he did not want to block its path.

Immediately after, something black and red, round, and covered in sharp spikes squeezed out! The next moment, it stretched its body, expanding as if being inflated; only then did Min Tianxi realize this was a giant spider, nearly a zhang tall! The Yin-serpents were ferocious, but this big fellow was no less so.

"This!" He looked at the giant spider, then at the hatch he himself had to bow and bend to pass through.

With such a plump physique, how did it squeeze out of such a small opening?

Had this great demon been hiding in the cabin the whole time? No wonder the ship sat so low in the water!

He had said so himself, how could a mere twenty people's weight account for this ship's speed? He even heard He Lingchuan complaining to the giant spider: "Auntie, these ghosts are boring into the ship from underwater."

"I heard you," the giant spider's muffled voice sounded. "Leave it to me. Tell your men to row faster."

Having said that, it strode past the crowd toward the bow.

No matter how the ship swayed, it walked as if on flat ground, its speed undiminished.

Without He Lingchuan needing to give another order, everyone grabbed the oars and adjusted the sails, using every ounce of their strength.

Zhu Xiuer crawled to the bow, aimed her large, protruding abdomen at the water below the prow, and sprayed out bundle after bundle of red spider silk.

These silk threads formed a web, floating on the surface of the water.

As the ship sailed over the web, it drifted underneath the hull.

She wove layer after layer until four or five layers of webbing were spread across the bottom of the ship; only then did Zhu Xiuer stop.

Midway, two Yin-serpents leaped out of the water, trying to ambush her.

Zhu Xiuer was completely unfazed.

Her entire body was covered in sharp spikes; let alone four hands, even fourteen hands of a Yin-serpent couldn't drag her into the water—it was too prickly.

It was like a person bare-handedly squeezing a thorny durian... tsk, quite a kick.

Furthermore, given Zhu Xiuer's size and tonnage, it was difficult for the Yin-serpents to shake her.

There was also one unlucky fellow who jumped poorly and landed right in front of Zhu Xiuer, only to be grabbed by her giant chelicerae and hauled onto the ship.

The scorching sunlight was a public execution; the Yin-serpent's snake-like body writhed in agony on the deck, and everyone smelled a pungent, charred stench.

In just a dozen breaths, the Yin-serpent stopped moving, looking like a piece of charred charcoal.

Everyone pushed it off the ship.

By now, the scratching and clawing sounds under the hull had diminished, but the ship's swaying became even more violent, as if several large creatures were thrashing about underneath.

"Hold on tight! Don't fall into the sea!"

Only then did Zhu Xiuer leisurely begin to retrieve her nets.

The movements were mechanical yet agile, filled with the aesthetic of slaughter.

The struggling coming from the nets grew increasingly intense. If anyone else were controlling the nets, they might not have been able to hold onto them.

Each time she dragged one up, Zhu Xiuer flung it back onto the deck; the motion was no different from a fisherman catching fish and hauling in the nets.

Cave spiders loved eating fish and caught them this way in the Demon Nest Swamp.

These Yin-serpents were all causing trouble under the ship or circling around it, only to be stuck by the spider silk drifting with the current, unable to escape.

The spider silk was light enough to float with the current, but its durability was beyond doubt.

The Yin-serpents were accustomed to running rampant in the waters near Dragon Spine Island and had never imagined encountering such an opponent—one that didn't even need to engage them head-on to drag them out from the bottom of the sea.

As for the rest of the work, leave it to the sun.

The Yin-serpents wanted to flee the deck and return to the sea, but Zhu Xiuer's nets were not so easily escaped. Before long, they were roasted to a crisp by the sun.

Every time she roasted one to death, Zhu Xiuer pushed it back into the sea to avoid weighing down the ship.

Soon, another Yin-serpent was dragged onto the ship.

Then a third, a fourth...

Five in a row, all dealt with in the same manner.

During this process, the ship barely slowed down.

Min Tianxi worked while stealing glances at the spider demon.

Just looking at her attack methods, he knew that Fishbone Reef, where He Lingchuan was to meet the pirates, was particularly suited for the spider demon to display her prowess!

It was surrounded by the sea on all sides with a long, narrow terrain; the pirates would all be standing together, perfect for Zhu Xiuer to capture them all in one net.

Yet He Lingchuan insisted on keeping her on the ship while he took his men to face the pirates with blades!

This was to force them into submission through sheer martial might.

Min Tianxi swallowed hard.

Every so often, the netting process had to be repeated; the number of Yin-serpents caught by Zhu Xiuer and roasted to death reached over thirty, ranging in size, with a total weight already exceeding that of the ship itself.

This achievement truly exceeded everyone's expectations, including He Lingchuan's, showing that the Yin-serpent leader had long been wary of him and had sent Yin-serpents into the water to lurk in advance to prevent him from causing trouble again.

It was just that Zhu Xiuer's techniques were agile and happened to counter the Yin-serpents' maneuvers; otherwise, things would have been dire.

Seeing that the number of Yin-serpents chasing the ship was dwindling, He Lingchuan ordered the ship to turn back.

He had now calculated that the range of the Great Square Pot's absorption of Yin-evil was about thirty miles. Returning to Dragon Spine Island, they could drain the Yin-evil on the island until almost nothing remained! Min Tianxi thought for a moment and suddenly understood: "The Yin-evil earth vein erupts every seven days. Wait, it just erupted last night!"

"Indeed, it won't erupt again for another six days," He Lingchuan smiled. "Last time we came at an unfortunate time; although we drained the island's Yin-evil, the earth vein erupted that very night, allowing the strong Yin-serpents to survive."

This time, he wanted to see which Yin-serpents could survive for six days in a state without evil energy. That was like a fish out of water for six days; except for some special varieties, the others would likely not be spared.

Sure enough, during the return to Dragon Spine Island, the number of attacks on the ship decreased, occurring only twice, involving a total of six Yin-serpents.

Most of the Yin-serpents on Dragon Spine Island lived on the island, blocked by the sunlight, and even fewer patrolled the sea. Now, after forty were lured and killed by Zhu Xiuer, the entire sea area was quiet.

However, after multiple rounds of attacks, it was impossible for the humans to remain unscathed. One pirate was killed, Min Tianxi himself was injured, and two Rong Mountain disciples were wounded.

Yin-serpents harming people had been a constant since ancient times in Blade Harbor. Through years of practice, fishermen and pirates had figured out a method of treatment.

It actually required two main ingredients: the White Flame Grass, an herb with extremely intense Yang energy, and the Black-Domain Bug, unique to the archipelago.

This bug was similar in shape and size to a beetle, but the patterns on its back looked like human eyes, and it had wings to fly. It lived specifically in places with Yin-evil; He Lingchuan had seen them on Dragon Spine Island, and Ling Guang had even caught many of them.

Interestingly, the White Flame Grass also grew on Dragon Spine Island, where Yin-evil was thick, but only in places where sunlight could reach.

It would extract the essence of the scorching sun.

Growing the most Yang-aligned herb in the most Yin-aligned place—this was very scientific.

Crushing and mixing these two things together and applying them to the wound was the local specialty medicine for countering Yin-serpent venom.

The gentle Yang energy of the White Flame Grass could neutralize the Yin-evil, while the flesh and blood of the Black-Domain Bug would attract the serpent venom from the wound, preventing it from spreading throughout the body.

But both of these things grew in places where Yin-evil was prevalent, making them somewhat difficult to harvest on the island, and thus quite expensive.

After emergency treatment, everyone's condition eased.

The hull had also sustained damage.

After all, having endured the attacks of dozens of Yin-serpents, there was a limit to how sturdy it could be.

Lu Qiuwei discovered three holes in the bottom of the ship, with seawater gushing in and bubbling.

At this rate of flooding, the ship would sink before it could sail back to Fishbone Reef.

Fortunately, they were well-prepared for this trip and had brought sandbags and wooden planks. Min Tianxi directed a few subordinates to go into the hold for emergency repairs.

They were used to making a living on the sea, so this bit of patching was a piece of cake.

The trouble with plugging the leaks was that the seawater kept rushing in, hindering the work. Upon hearing this, Zhu Xiuer squeezed into the cabin and hissed, spraying several spider webs at the holes in the hull.

This time, they weren't red, but thick, sticky white webs with extremely fine and small meshes. Although they weren't waterproof, the speed at which seawater rushed into the cabin slowed down immediately, and it helped the wooden planks to be quickly fixed and nailed down.

In no time, the bottom of the ship was patched, and everyone scooped out the remaining seawater.

After bustling about for a while, the ship returned to the coastline of Dragon Spine Island.

From beginning to end, He Lingchuan's "human-shaped black hole" function had never been turned off. In any area he passed through, the Yin-evil would rush out from its hiding place, hurling itself at him without hesitation until it was purified by the sunlight.

Dragon Spine Island was no exception.

This scene played out again after a fifteen-day interval.

It was just that the earth vein would not erupt again tonight; the Yin-serpents would have to endure for six days before they could wait for the next earth-evil.

Deep within the island, the loud, high-pitched roar of the Yin-serpent King came again.

He Lingchuan took the Heaven-Revering Gold Scroll in his hand and, as expected, immediately discerned its anger and anxiety.

It was asking him why he wanted to exterminate the Yin-serpent clan, what deep hatred he had for them? A thousand words boiled down to one sentence—

"Are you sick?!"

This creature was so angry it had resorted to crude insults.

Hearing the creature's impatient mood, He Lingchuan was once worried that it might disregard everything and rush out from the surface to find trouble for the humans.

After all, no one knew if such an ancient monster had any temporary ways to resist sunlight.

He also instructed Zhu Xiuer to be prepared.

Fortunately, this situation never occurred. It seemed that although the Yin-serpent King was angry, it hadn't lost its mind.

However, how could he establish contact with this fellow? Following Min Tianxi's guidance, He Lingchuan used the gold scroll to reflect sunlight into a crevice of a large mountain on the island.

The mountain terrain there was peculiar, with a concave area near the middle-bottom. Even when the noon sun shone directly on the ground, it couldn't reach inside.

The light reflected by the gold scroll actually cast a dazzling seven-colored rainbow on this dark mountain wall.

After repeating this a few times, the Yin-serpent King's roaring stopped.

(End of chapter)