Chapter 614: Take the Island

This was an island isolated in the sea, deep in the ocean; as far as the eye could see, only scattered reefs surrounded it, and to build such a town, its timber, stone, tiles, and bricks all had to be transported from outside.

Each and every one of these required immense manpower and resources.

And manpower and resources were all piled up with money.

Li Wenying: "No wonder so many people, even if they had to pretend to be Japanese pirates and renounce their ancestors, became sea bandits."

The martial artists had already charged ahead, and cries of battle erupted.

The Japanese pirates on the island were not unprepared; though they hadn't expected Great Ming forces to reach here, they had been ready for an enemy attack on Wangyue Island.

This battle was extremely grueling—they landed at dawn, and by the time they stopped, it was already evening; most were exhausted, and few could stand without swaying.

What Li Wenying hadn't expected was that Xue Shao could still stand.

He couldn't help but scan him up and down, seeing that though his clothes were soaked in blood, he had only a bandage wrapped around his arm.

He stepped forward two paces, grabbed his wrist, pressed his fingers to the pulse, then silently let go: "Whose internal cultivation method did you learn?"

Xue Shao calmly pulled down his sleeve and smiled: "A method given to me by an uncle-ancestor in my family."

Li Wenying's gaze turned complex: "Is it Xue Tai Xu?"

Xue Shao said nothing.

Li Wenying looked at him now as if a hungry wolf had spotted fresh meat, wishing to stare right through him: "What's the point of being an official? Crawling after petty gains, chasing nothing but empty fame. With your talent, you should join my Daoist sect."

Xue Shao smiled: "Cultivating the Dao is about the heart—no matter where you are or what you do, you can cultivate. Why be bound by form?"

Li Wenying disagreed: "No matter how talented a person is, their energy is limited. If you're stuck in the bureaucracy, how much time can you possibly spend each day, month, or year cultivating Daoist arts and exploring heaven and earth? Isn't that wasting your talent?"

Xue Shao didn't refute his point, but said directly: "I have no intention of joining Long Hushan."

Li Wenying: "You don't have to join Long Hushan—other Daoist sects are fine too..."

"Like Mount Sanqing?" Pan Yun popped up from the side and chimed in.

"Go away, go away," Li Wenying waved him off: "Why are you always everywhere?"

Pan Yun: "I came to report. We found a lot of gold, silver, and treasures—do you want to hear about it, or not?"

"Wait—where's the loot?"

Pan Yun pointed, where a crowd had already gathered.

It was what Pan Yun's group had ransacked from every corner of the town.

The finest mansion in town had been turned upside down by the martial artists, and they'd indeed found a fair amount of wealth—but it didn't match its grandeur.

The gold and silver found in other grand houses in town were even more, which was highly unusual.

The martial artists skilled in mechanisms had searched for hours without finding anything, until finally Pan Yun dragged out a captured Japanese pirate, pounded him a few times, and forced a confession: before they arrived, the pirates had just sent a ship back to their homeland with some of the loot.

The martial artists were furious and shouted: "Let's chase them right now!"

"It's already a day late—they're nearly in Japan. What's the point of chasing now?"

"Of course there's a point! This money belongs to Great Ming's people, and we've suffered so many casualties in this campaign—what about compensation for our dead and wounded?"

Everyone's eyes fell on the pile of gold and silver in the center, their gazes filled with sorrow.

Though arrangements had been made, the assault on Wangyue Island had still caused heavy casualties.

The wounded needed treatment; the dead needed to be cremated and taken home. You couldn't just send a jar of ashes to their parents, wives, and children. Even if you couldn't do it perfectly, at least you should provide something—pensions for aging parents, support for widows and orphans?

But this pile of gold and jewels, though large, couldn't possibly cover the number of dead and wounded.

Someone suddenly remembered and cried out: "Where's Chen's Second Young Master? His family promised a hundred taels of silver to every fallen martial artist!"

The martial artists immediately began searching for Chen's Second Young Master.

Pan Yun and Li Wenying exchanged glances—Li Wenying smiled, while Pan Yun quietly stepped back two paces.

Li Wenying stepped forward: "I sent Chen's Second Young Master to inventory the medicine—let's use what we have on hand to treat the wounded first. Rest for now; tomorrow we'll tally the spoils and return."

"Return? We're going back already? Didn't we come to hunt down and kill the Japanese pirates who massacred the village?"

"We already found them," a martial artist pushed forward three men: "The rest died at the hands of my Jin Sha Gang."

"Hmph, you're full of yourself—wasn't that man captured by Sanzhu Daochang? And those you claimed to have killed? They were already mortally wounded by Sanzhu Daochang and her disciples before you finished them off—you rushed in like they'd die if you waited a second!"

"Don't slander me—I never said I killed them alone. This was a joint effort between Jin Sha Gang and Mount Sanqing. Even Sanzhu Daochang didn't object—why are you arguing?"

"Jin Nan Huan, I've tolerated you long enough. On the ship, you loved stealing corpses—I had several gravely wounded men you finished off, and that blind fool Bai Shi Tong counted them as your achievements."

Similar disputes were numerous; martial artists voiced their grievances, and the scene erupted into chaos.

They'd started arguing without me needing to divert their attention.

Li Wenying opened his mouth, but couldn't speak for a long while.

Pan Yun had already slipped away.

She went to see Chen Han.

After Wangyue Island was fully captured, Chen Han had been placed under guard by Li Wenying's men.

He now sat on a large rock by the sea, head bowed, silent. Xue Shao was nearby, flipping fish.

Pan Yun walked up and watched him quietly.

Xue Shao lifted a fish and tossed it onto the sand; it thrashed weakly as it landed.

Pan Yun widened her eyes: "Not dead?"

Xue Shao nodded: "Not dead. The tide just brought in many fish and shrimp. Since the maritime ban, we've rarely been able to buy sea fish. This island, out in the ocean, never expected the tide to leave so many behind."

Pan Yun became interested too, rolled up her sleeves, and joined him in rummaging through the wet, muddy sand—sure enough, they found fish and shrimp buried beneath the sand.

In a little while, they'd suffocate.

Some had already suffocated.

But Pan Yun didn't mind—she picked out the largest, freshest ones.

Just dead, yet far fresher than the sea fish of her past life.

This one can be deep-fried; this one's still alive—best to steam it, the most primitive method.

Sea fish — the flesh is tender and delicious, simply steaming it is already wonderful to eat.

The two of them were having so much fun that Chen Han, sitting on the rock, couldn't help glancing over at them again and again.

When Pan Yun dug a big shrimp out of the sand and shrieked that she was going to eat lobster for dinner, he finally couldn't help but speak up: "Aren't you here to interrogate me?"

Pan Yun turned her head with a smile: "How could Second Young Master Chen think such a thing? We're still allies right now, and the knights-errant are still waiting for the Chen family to pay out compensation — how could we possibly interrogate you?" (End of chapter)