Chapter 254: Heart-Stirring (Makeup Update 4)

Those chosen to come along on the warship for the ambush were no weaklings in martial skill—even Qu Le, who wasn't the sharpest, was a third-rate expert, the sort who could go a few rounds with Hu Jing and Su Ying.

Besides, he'd come with the idea of making a name for himself, so he was more eager than anyone. The ship hadn't even drawn close yet, and he, looking at the stretch of sea in the middle, figured he could fly across it, and so leaped over right then and there.

Master Xuanmiao and Tao Ji were a step slower than him.

The two flew across and landed right behind the Japanese pirates. Master Xuanmiao turned, swept her long sword in a wide arc, and the three Japanese pirates charging up from behind had their throats slit clean across in one stroke; eyes wide with unwillingness, they fell.

Tao Ji simply hooked a blade up with the tip of her foot and plunged into the fray as well.

Once all the jianghu people had flown aboard, the two ships slowly drew closer. The soldiers quickly laid down the gangplanks and hurried across with blades in hand.

Xue Shao said to Xi Jin, "Stay here. Be careful."

Xi Jin, unwilling to let Xue Shao go alone, hurriedly said, "Young Master, I'll go over and protect you."

Xue Shao had already leapt onto the gangplank, tapping lightly with the tips of his toes, and in two or three bounds was across. He found a moment to toss back, "It'd be enough if you don't make me protect you."

The moment he landed, a Japanese pirate came slashing down with a blade. Xue Shao sidestepped, formed his fingers into a claw, swiftly seized the man's wrist and twisted. The pirate's grip loosened, the blade fell, and Xue Shao caught it from below with his left hand, stabbed it backhanded into the man, and was gone in a flash.

Blood sprayed out, but barely soiled him. Xue Shao saw a blade hacking toward a soldier's head, immediately shifted the blade in his left hand to his right, raised it, and parried the strike…

The soldier killed the Japanese pirate in front of him, turned his head, saw it was Xue Shao who'd saved his life, and immediately stepped forward to help.

As the fighting went on, Xue Shao fell in with a group of soldiers and they pushed forward as a team, their coordination fairly smooth.

The soldiers present could also tell—this young knight, who didn't look like a jianghu man, didn't favor those jianghu moves; he seemed more like one of their own from the army. Many of his moves were the kind commonly used in the military.

Because the jianghu people were involved, though they didn't obey commands in battle, they killed fast.

So long as the Japanese pirates weren't allowed to mass together, using army-style tactics—one-on-one, or one-on-three—these jianghu people crushed the enemy outright.

So the sweep was quick.

The soldiers immediately steered the ship toward the other Japanese pirate vessel, but the jianghu knights flew over first again.

Those whose skill wasn't enough to make the leap in one bound skimmed across the water; those who couldn't even manage that went clatter-clatter-clatter, hurling things from the pirate ship into the sea, and while those things still floated on the surface, went tip-tap-tip across them to fly over.

The soldiers, seeing them all fly off, finally got on with steering the ship, turning the rudder to intercept the other vessel.

The other soldiers made use of the time to tidy the battlefield—either swapping themselves a better blade, or picking up a few extra arrows.

Of course, if they could fish out a string of coins from the bodies of the Japanese pirates on the ship, that was the happiest find of all.

The young soldier Xue Shao had saved fished a string of copper coins out of a corpse half-sprawled over the ship's rail.

He was so delighted he wanted to split half with Xue Shao.

Xue Shao smiled and refused. "Keep it yourself. Hide it well—best at your waist or against your chest. Be careful not to drop it."

The young soldier happily tucked it into his waist sash. It dug into his flesh there, but it let him feel the coins' presence at every moment.

A veteran nearby said gruffly, "Once we're back at camp, remember to hand over half."

The young soldier went "Oh," but was still overjoyed.

The veteran then asked Xue Shao, who was still standing there without moving, "Young hero, why aren't you flying over?"

Xue Shao shook his head. "I'm not skilled at lightness skill. I'll cross on the gangplank with you all. Otherwise, if I fall into the sea, I'd only be making trouble for everyone."

The veteran wanted to say he wouldn't be making trouble—during a battle, at most they'd glance over, they wouldn't save him.

If he was still alive once the fighting was done, saving him then wouldn't really count as trouble.

But looking at Xue Shao's young face, the veteran swallowed the words.

The helmsman quickly brought the ship alongside their other vessel. On it, comrades were already locked in furious combat.

Seeing their side's casualties were a bit heavy, the soldiers wasted no time—laid down a gangplank at once, blades in hand, and charged across.

Xue Shao also raised his blade and charged forward.

The moment they joined in, the fighting reached a stalemate. A qi-wei burst out from the cabin, and only then did everyone realize this was the Japanese pirates' flagship—no wonder it was so hard to take.

Xue Shao immediately turned and shouted toward the other ship, "Master Xuanmiao, this is the flagship—come reinforce us, quick!"

It happened that Master Xuanmiao's side of the ship had nearly finished the killing.

The moment she heard, she said to the knights, "Go reinforce them!"

The knights glanced at the distance between the two ships—and, with the waves, the gap growing ever wider—and fell silent.

Forget flying across—even if you threw something, you couldn't throw it that far. The gap was the sort where even if you laid three planks end to end, you still couldn't make it across.

Qu Le turned back to a soldier and said, "Quick, sail the ship over."

The soldier: "The wind's against us. We've got to change the sail."

"Then how long will that take?" Master Xuanmiao grabbed Tao Ji in one hand and said, "I'll lend you a hand."

Saying so, she hurled Tao Ji outward; the long sword in her hand flew out, whoosh, and slid right under Tao Ji's feet.

Tao Ji stretched out a foot and stepped on it. At the same moment, Master Xuanmiao stepped on two planks and kicked them hard. The planks shot out like arrows loosed from the bow, flew past Tao Ji, and with two thuds landed on the sea.

The flagship was only about thirty meters away—fifteen meters or so.

Everyone watched as the flying sword carried Tao Ji most of the way. Tao Ji then leapt off, moving at great speed, stepped on the first plank, tapped the air a few times, stepped down once more on the second plank, spun in midair, and flew onto the flagship.

And the flying sword, incredibly, could turn in midair—whoosh—and flew back again.

Master Xuanmiao reached out and caught the sword. "Who's next?"

Qu Le's eyes were bright, shining as he stared at the long sword in Master Xuanmiao's hand. He stepped forward. "I'll go!"

Master Xuanmiao used the same method, sending him across on the flying sword.

Qu Le wasn't practiced at it—when he leapt off the flying sword, he nearly plunged into the sea. Luckily, he'd kept the key points in mind, held his breath and didn't dare let it go, kept his belly tightly tucked in, and with both feet on that flimsy plank, the feel of lightness skill returned. Though a bit of a sorry sight, he still managed to ride the plank and fly up onto the flagship's deck.

Master Xuanmiao's gaze swept across the assembled jianghu knights, and they all stepped back in unison.

If even Qu Le had looked that wretched, they might not manage it.

Master Xuanmiao, too lazy to waste words with them, directly pointed out two knights with fairly good skill and said, "I'll take you two across."

Saying so, with a look of utter disdain she grabbed them by the arms. The flying sword shot out; she leapt onto it, and the sword went whoosh, flying off at tremendous speed.

At least ten times faster than when she'd carried Qu Le—everyone felt only a blur before their eyes, and Master Xuanmiao was already nearing the flagship.

She didn't land on the planks. Instead, she kicked the flying sword hard; the sword went whoosh and shot forward even faster, while she tapped the air twice in succession and landed on the ship with the two of them.

At the same time, her flying sword came alive, slicing cleanly through three Japanese pirates' necks in quick succession, then circled halfway around the ship before returning to Master Xuanmiao's hand.

Master Xuanmiao gripped the long sword and charged into the crowd of Japanese pirates.

This sight stunned everyone; even the soldiers struggling to adjust the sails froze on the spot, and only after a long while murmured, "It's like an immortal."

!. Read

"Isn't he just an immortal? Sometimes I really envy these Daoist Priests — they're people who can truly become immortals."

"That's just to fool you lot. I've been roaming the jianghu for so many years, never heard of anyone actually becoming an immortal. Still, Daoist Priests who cultivate the Dao really are a bit more formidable than the likes of us — not only do they live longer, they fight well too."

"Not all Daoist Priests are like that either. Someone like Master Xuanmiao is a Daoist Priest who can cultivate primordial force; most are just like us, only able to practice internal force their whole lives."

"Envious. Want to cultivate."

"Then work hard at cultivation. Maybe one day we can enter the Dao through martial arts. Once you reach the super-first-class level, you'll have touched the knack of converting internal force into primordial force — then we could too."

"Enter the Dao through martial arts?"

"That's right, enter the Dao through martial arts."

At this moment, watching all this, Qu Le's heart was also burning with excitement, but his thoughts were different from the other knights-errant.

He wasn't thinking of entering the Dao through martial arts — what he thought was, "I want to be a Daoist Priest!"

When the fighting ended, Qu Le ran up to Master Xuanmiao, dropped to his knees with a thud, and bowed low: "Master!"

Master Xuanmiao glanced down at him coldly, then turned and walked away.

Tao Ji followed behind her, paused as he passed Qu Le, lowered his head and said: "Idiot!"

Qu Le looked up and glared at him, then shouted at Master Xuanmiao's retreating back: "Master, I will take you as my master, I will!"

The rear fleet, escorting prisoners and spoils of war back, happened to rendezvous with them.

The Wu Lin Alliance's Lin Mengzhu on the ship had his face go dark, and couldn't help cursing, "Idiot!"

No matter how stupid, he was still his own nephew — Lin Mengzhu had to put up with it himself.

Once the rear fleet arrived, clearing the battlefield went much faster.

Apart from one Japanese pirate ship that had been smashed to pieces and was already taking on water, the other ships could all be sailed back.

The soldiers salvaged from the sea whatever could be salvaged, especially the bodies of their own men.

For those they truly could not find, they could only leave quickly.

This place was a bit far from the coast, where giant fish like sharks might appear, and the soldiers didn't want to clash with them.

So they only salvaged to the best of their ability; what couldn't be recovered, they let go, and immediately left these waters.

And at this moment, Pan Yun and the others had finally left that small path and were standing by the sea.

After their back-and-forth probing, observation, and scouting, they confirmed there were no more Japanese pirate reinforcements on the coast.

Pan Yun didn't want to stay with a pile of graves any longer, so she brought the caravan and people to the seaside.

This was the first time she had seen the sea in this world.

The seawater was very clear, perfectly reflecting the azure of the sky, so looking out, the sea was also blue, and shimmering with light, giving the feeling of being inlaid with crushed diamonds.

Pan Yun stood on the beach and gazed for a very long time.

Pan Xiaohei had come to her side at some unknown moment, squatting at her feet with both front paws planted, watching this still-unpolluted sea together with her.

After a long while, Pan Yun murmured, "This sea is really beautiful — even more beautiful than the sea after the spiritual energy revival in my previous life."

There were documentaries at the National Academy — they said that before the spiritual energy revival, the seawater was murky, the beaches dirty, very ugly;

but after the spiritual energy revival, many creatures in the sea reverted to ancient forms, and even creatures that had only appeared in ancient records showed up.

Spiritual energy exploded in the sea, and sea creatures evolved far faster than humans.

Then the number of people going to the sea decreased, and at one point was even completely cut off.

With fewer humans — that scourge — going to stir up trouble in the sea, and with the spiritual energy revival, the sea recovered at an extremely fast pace.

The elders older than Pan Yun all said that they lived in a very good era — the great wars had ended, and even the ecological environment had improved; they could see the azure sea again.

Pan Yun had never been able to grasp their feelings before, but now, looking at the sea more beautiful than ever, she vaguely understood.

So the sea could be this beautiful — and it could be even more beautiful.

Just as she was sighing in wonder, Zhang Ning shouted, "Ships! So many ships!"

Pan Yun looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, at what seemed to be the place where sky met sea, ships had appeared one after another.

Her eyesight was excellent, and before long she saw the Great Ming banners flying on the ships. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly as she said: "They're our Great Ming ships."

Good night

(End of this chapter)