Chapter 76: Cannons Split the Sky

Through the telescope.

Lin Qian watched the Tanka boat glide through the mist and come to a stop about a hundred paces from the ship-fortress.

The crew slipped into the water like fish, their splashes and sounds barely perceptible.

After a moment, the crew surfaced slowly beside Li Kuiqi's flagship, hooked on grappling claws, and climbed aboard with light, careful steps before slipping into the hold.

By now the Santa Ana had turned broadside, all her port gunports thrown open, dark cannon muzzles thrust out, trained on the ship-fortress.

Time passed slowly, and still no sound came from Li Kuiqi's flagship.

The men on the stern deck could not help but grow tense.

The sun rose over the eastern sea, and the morning mist gradually dispersed.

Lin Qian's hand gripping the telescope was beginning to sweat.

More and more pirates on the ship-fortress were getting up to relieve themselves.

A few pirates, after finishing their business, gathered together and loudly bragged about their exploits the night before.

"That one of yours is no good... this one's the top act..."

"Too bad... came early, otherwise..."

Fragments of conversation drifted over.

After a long while, Chen Hong said worriedly, "Helmsman, could something have gone wrong?"

Lin Qian shook his head slightly without answering.

Seeing more and more pirates waking up, and knowing that if they didn't act soon they would lose the initiative, Chen Hong said to Lin Qian, "Helmsman, open fire!"

"Wait a little longer." Lin Qian said calmly.

Bai Qing and her brother, along with the crew they'd taken, were all highly skilled—even if they'd walked into an ambush, they couldn't have gone completely silent.

Most likely they'd run into some kind of trouble and couldn't break free for the moment.

Lin Qian still decided to hold his position.

Suddenly, movement came from Li Kuiqi's flagship in the distance—several figures surged onto the deck.

Lin Qian looked through the telescope and saw that it was Bai Qing and her people, all of them streaked with blood. In the midst of the crew's escort, he could also make out the figures of Scholar Zhou and José.

Behind the crew, a dozen or so pirates with blades charged onto the deck, shouting, "Damn it all, robbing your grandpa's house, are you? Kill them!"

The pirates surged forward but were driven back by Bailangzai's sweeping, wide-arc wakizashi strikes.

"Sis, take Second Brother and the others and go first!" Bailangzai shouted.

Bai Qing kicked Scholar Zhou and José over the side, then pointed toward the galleon and yelled, "Swim that way!"

Then she spun around quickly and stood shoulder to shoulder with her brother, the rest of the crew forming up around them.

More and more pirates flooded onto the deck, and the situation was growing desperate.

Lin Qian said at once, "Open fire!"

Chen Hong shouted with all his strength, relaying the order down to the gun deck.

Moments later, the cannons roared one after another, the hull shuddering, the acrid stench of gunpowder filling the air as smoke billowed.

Fourteen solid iron shot arced across the sky and slammed into the ship-fortress, and in an instant blood and dust and smoke churned everywhere.

Women's screams and wails, pirates' curses and oaths, rose up all at once.

In that moment, the ship-fortress dissolved into chaos.

Amid the turmoil, a towering figure strode out from the flagship—a man of immense build gripping a nine-ring ghost-head saber. It was Li Kuiqi.

Li Kuiqi sneered at Bai Qing: "I've shown Lin Qian forbearance a hundred times over, and this is how your master repays me?"

Two loops of gauze were wrapped around his neck, blood still seeping faintly through—the wound Bai Qing had inflicted while he slept. Had he not reacted quickly and turned his head in time, he would already be a corpse.

Li Kuiqi advanced step by step, radiating crushing pressure; with every pace forward, the crew fell back a step.

A man of his build would rank among the finest warriors even in Liaodong—ordinary men wouldn't dare face him in combat.

Seeing this, Bailangzai suddenly lunged forward with a great stride and swung his blade in a cutting arc.

Li Kuiqi casually knocked it aside with his ghost-head saber, and Bailangzai felt a tremendous force travel up through the blade—he nearly lost his grip on the wakizashi.

Steadying himself, he saw that the wakizashi had been chipped with a huge notch, cracks running all the way to the spine. The blade was ruined.

Bailangzai's face showed shock. In all his years roaming the jianghu, he had never come off worse in a fight.

He had thought that even if he couldn't beat Li Kuiqi, he could at least hold him off for a while—who would have guessed he couldn't even survive a single exchange.

Truly, there is always someone stronger, and always a sky beyond the sky.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Another volley of cannon fire rang out from the Santa Ana.

Massive solid iron shot came down like boiling water poured on snow, punching straight through the ship-fortress's planking, sending wood splinters flying in every direction.

The deck was like a rainstorm of wood shavings.

A lantern was knocked over by the concussion of the guns, and flames soon broke out within the ship-fortress.

Seizing the moment, Bai Qing shouted, "Go!" and grabbed Bailangzai, leaping into the sea.

The rest of the crew jumped into the water after them.

They had all been pearl divers before, superb swimmers—the moment they hit the water, they dove deep.

Li Kuiqi strode after them to the ship's rail and stared at the sea surface, where not even a bubble rose. In a rage, he chopped a chunk off the railing with one swing of his saber.

At that moment, a burst of gunfire sounded from the Santa Ana, and in an instant wood splinters sprayed across the deck of Li Kuiqi's flagship.

Firearms?

Li Kuiqi's gaze sharpened. He quickly checked himself for wounds, found none, and only then relaxed.

He turned around and saw one of his men clutching his chest, slowly collapsing, blood gushing from his mouth—clearly not long for this world.

"Chief, the government troops' firearms are fierce. Maybe... maybe we should retreat?"

Hearing the other pirates' screams and watching the flames on the ship-city, all his men felt fear in their hearts.

Watching a large warship bombard them relentlessly, it was hard for the men not to think of government troops suppressing bandits.

Li Kuiqi roared angrily: "What government troops! That's a greenhorn who just entered the trade! A few cannon blasts scared the guts out of you—look at the lot of you, what a pathetic showing!"

The men exchanged glances, none daring to believe it, and none daring to talk back.

In the men's view, sea bandits should sail on sea-going junks, at most on Fujian junks—who ever heard of bandits sailing a warship?

Such a large warship—never mind sea bandits, even the imperial navy didn't have one.

Li Kuiqi's gaze was fixed dead on the Santa Ana.

He couldn't figure it out—his informants had reported everything normal on Nan'ao Island.

The ship-city's location was extremely hidden; no one knew of it.

The area was surrounded by coral reefs and hidden shoals, with only one narrow waterway wide enough for large ships to pass.

How in the hell did that bastard Lin Qian appear here out of thin air?

But no matter—it didn't matter anymore.

Li Kuiqi said to himself: "I, Li Kuiqi, am no waste like those guard station fools! Lin Qian, since you dare to come, then die here!"

With that thought, Li Kuiqi revealed a cold smile: "We have cannons too. Pass the order—haul out all the cannons and fire at them!"

His men had fought on the seas for years and were used to life and death; they had now calmed themselves and relayed the order in response.

Li Kuiqi added: "Pass my command—break apart the ship-city and assemble the ships to the southeast!"

"Orders received!"

The Santa Ana's bombardment continued unabated; after several rounds of live-fire practice, the gunners were now quite skilled at handling the cannons.

Their rate of fire was much faster than during the attack on Naozhou Island last time.

After two quarters of an hour of relentless bombardment, most of the ship-city had been destroyed, with some areas engulfed in a sea of flames.

But Li Kuiqi's band of pirates had far stronger morale than the navy, and showed not the slightest sign of collapse.

On the contrary, under the organization of the various minor leaders, they gradually steadied themselves and began dismantling the wooden planks connecting the ships of the ship-city.

Some of the outermost large ships had already been separated from the ship-city and, under unified command, were gathering toward the southeast corner of the ship-city.

Just as Lin Qian was about to lower his telescope,

he suddenly saw a flash of fire on the ship-city, followed by the thunderous roar of cannons.

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen