Chapter 804: Breathing Underwater (1/2, Begging for Subscriptions)

A cut was sliced open on his arm. Though it hurt, Jing Yan obediently complied, figuring his life came first.

Fresh blood streamed down the cut onto the deck.

Soon, the bright red liquid gradually thickened, becoming viscous like mucus, faintly merging with the deck as one.

Jing Yan only felt something inside his body gurgling out through the wound.

The sensation was mysterious, yet undeniably real.

At that moment, Jing Yan could no longer feel his own existence. He felt he was the river, he was Hushui! Merging as one with this colossal Han Jiang giant ship.

Just then, Qingchen snatched up a high-temperature wooden plank and used the heat to sever the blood-bonded section between Jing Yan and the deck.

Jing Yan jolted, snapping back to his senses with a sharp start, gasping for breath, his mind somewhat dazed.

"How do you feel?"

Hearing Qingchen's words, Jing Yan finally noticed the situation around him, his consciousness gradually clearing.

"N-no, I'm not sure…"

Before Jing Yan could finish speaking, his eyes suddenly went wide, and he looked toward the spot on the deck where the liquid had bonded.

He saw blood-colored eyes slowly emerging one after another on that section of deck, densely packed.

But soon, as if encountering something, those blood-colored eyes melted away one by one, merging into the deck, showing no further reaction.

The others naturally saw this scene as well.

"It works!" Fang Yue affirmed.

Whether it was an illusion or self-comfort, seeing this scene made Jing Yan suddenly feel considerably more at ease.

"Qingchen, keep going, drive all the blood-colored eyes inside me out onto the deck!"

"No problem!"

For this sort of thing, Qingchen was even more interested than Jing Yan himself.

Seeing progress, Fang Yue took Tian Ruichi aside.

"Does the Helmsman have any weaknesses? Among us, you're the closest to him. Think of a way to probe a little. Remember, don't reveal your intentions. After all, we're still on his ship—if he wants to kick us off, it wouldn't be hard. So this has to be done covertly."

"…I'll try tomorrow, see if I can squeeze out some information."

Jingcheng—Tian Ruichi had to go back, no question.

On this point, everyone was in agreement.

But besides the urgency of heading to the capital, an even more important reason was that no one knew what the situation was with the Blazing Flame Sect.

Once in Jingcheng, it was, after all, right beneath the Emperor's feet—on the surface, everyone had to play by the rules.

But in a place like the Blazing Flame Sect's territory, things would be far less certain.

Fang Yue thought of Lord 789's letter regarding the Blazing Flame Sect. If they truly ended up opposing the Blazing Flame Sect, that letter might come in handy for some probing.

Although the Han Jiang giant ship had deviated from its course, it had only just begun to stray. Since Jingcheng and the Blazing Flame Sect weren't far apart—just a few days' journey—and starting from Hanjiang Wharf, the two general directions were the same.

Moreover, it would take another day or two before any major deviation occurred, and that would be when they'd need to spend a great deal of time making up for the lost time.

Therefore, they still had time.

Seeing how exhausted Tian Ruichi looked, Fang Yue told him to go rest first and they'd discuss the matter in detail the next morning.

When he returned to Jing Yan's side, Jing Yan was already sprawled out on the deck, fast asleep.

"What's the situation?"

"Blood deficiency, so we fed him more medicine. Don't worry, Ye Ge—everything's under control."

Qingchen being so capable only made Fang Yue look somewhat idle.

After some thought, he left the matter entirely in Qingchen's hands and went back to his room to pop pills and heal his injuries.

One night passed quickly.

When the next morning's sun rose, Fang Yue stood at the bow watching.

The magnificent, resplendent morning sun rose slowly from the horizon. The sight stirred Fang Yue's emotions, moving him deeply. That surging aura of the rising sun ignited a strong impulse within him to do something.

So, he yawned.

"…" Tian Ruichi, who witnessed all this from behind, was at a loss for words.

Fang Yue, however, after yawning, stretched lazily and headed back to the cabin.

All night, Fang Yue had been popping pills nonstop, not treating himself like a person at all—purely using himself as a medicine jar.

Only after all this did he barely manage to recover seventy to eighty percent of his injuries. Once the Night Breath took effect in the evening, with a little more treatment, he'd be fully restored to peak condition.

Next, what Fang Yue had to do was study the other two great inheritances Lord Han had left—the sword art and the footwork.

The Frozen Heart Method, Fang Yue had already mastered. From here on, it was just continuous cultivation to raise its level.

As for the sword art and footwork, they were the other two of the three core arts within Lord Han's inheritance. Only with all three could one be considered a true inheritor of Lord Han's legacy—and only then could one's strength rise to the next level!

Strength, strength, strength!

For Fang Yue, who was about to enter the capital, strength was simply too important.

To rescue An Dong'er and Captain Wu required strength; to annihilate the Phoenix Organization required strength. Too many things required strength as a prerequisite. Yet in a place like Jingcheng, his current strength—nowhere near Cloud-tier—was far from sufficient.

Therefore, he had to seize every second to improve his own strength.

Of course, getting the Helmsman to correct the course was also a matter that needed consideration—it's just that, for now, someone else could handle the thinking on that front.

After all, that wasn't his area of expertise.

Thinking of this, Fang Yue headed toward a certain part of the cabin.

And over there, someone's voice had just rung out.

"It's done!"

Qingchen, sporting dark circles under his eyes, slammed his hand down excitedly and declared.

And beneath his feet lay section after section of blood-colored deck.

These decks were all stained red by the blood Jing Yan had sprayed out.

But unlike the real world, in the game they had medicines that could directly replenish fresh blood, so losing a little blood was nothing at all.

Under Qingchen's two-pronged operation, Jing Yan indeed turned out just as Qingchen had predicted — cutting expenses and increasing income, ultimately transitioning safely until almost all the blood-colored eyes had left his body and smuggled themselves onto the blood-red deck on the ground.

On top of that, Jing Yan had been burned and beaten half to death by the fire-wielding staff, and the blood-colored eyes inside his body had already mostly died or fled, with basically no blood-colored eyes remaining.

In other words, Jing Yan was safe.

Of course, the price was also terribly brutal — his entire body was covered in all sorts of torture-like burn marks; if someone who didn't know the situation saw him, they'd probably think he was some important criminal of the imperial court.

"Qingchen… are you really sure I'm fine now?"

"Certain!"

On this point, Qingchen was still quite confident, so she answered very loudly.

"…Then can you tell me why there are still two fish-gill-like things on either side of my cheeks?"

"This is a fact already caused by the curse. What I did was only clear the curse to prevent your subsequent death. As for how to resolve what has already happened, there's still no good approach yet. And besides, I discovered… your fish gills are actually very similar to those of fish, which means… through being cursed by the red-eyed monster fish, you've gained the ability to breathe underwater!"

(End of this chapter)